The cerebro-hepato-renal (Zellweger) syndrome: Prenatal detection based on impaired biosynthesis of plasmalogens

Prenatal diagnosis of the cerebro-hepato-renal (Zellweger) syndrome has been performed in 10 pregnancies at risk by measuring both the activity of acyl CoA: dihydroxyacetonephosphate acyltransferase (DHAP-AT) and the de novo plasmalogen biosynthesis, either in cultured amniotic fluid cells or in fibroblasts cultured from a chorionic villus biopsy. In 7 of the pregnancies both tests indicated no abnormality. All 7 continued to term and normal infants were delivered. However, in amniotic fluid cells from 2 fetuses affected by Zellweger syndrome unequivocal differences from control values were found. The activity of DHAP-AT was clearly deficient and the de novo plasmalogen biosynthesis was impaired. In one pregnancy at risk prenatal diagnosis was performed during the first trimester by measuring both the DHAP-AT activity and the de novo plasmalogen biosynthesis in fibroblasts cultured from a chorionic villi biopsy. From the deficient DHAP-AT activity and the impaired de novo plasmalogen biosynthesis it was concluded that the fetus was affected. This was confirmed biochemically after induced abortion. It can be concluded that measurement of the DHAP-AT activity and the de novo plasmalogen biosynthesis provides convenient methods for the early prenatal detection of Zellweger syndrome.     

The functionality of female reciprocal calls in the Iberian midwife toad (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Alytes cisternasii</Emphasis>): female-female acoustic competition?

Female midwife toads (genus Alytes) emit highly variable reciprocal calls of unclear function prior to and during courtship. In some species, female-female competition, expressed as physical fighting, has been reported. Males of Majorcan midwife toads (Alytes muletensis) show phonotactic response to female calls, and females of Iberian midwife toads (Alytes cisternasii) respond differently according to the male call characteristics. In this study, I test the hypothesis of female-female acoustic competition as an additional function of female reciprocal calls. Playback tests indicate that female calls are not clearly involved in female acoustic competition in the Iberian midwife toad, therefore female calls could be directed at males rather than towards competitive females.     

Acoustic underwater signals with a probable function during competitive feeding in a tadpole

Acoustic communication is widespread among adult stages of terrestrial animals and fish and has also been observed in insect larvae. We report underwater acoustic communication in the larvae of a frog, Gephyromantis azzurrae, from Isalo, a sandstone massif in western Madagascar. According to our field data, these tadpoles live in streams and prefer habitats characterized by comparatively low temperatures, shallow water depth, and a relatively fast current. Feeding experiments indicated that the tadpoles are carnivorous and macrophagous. They consumed insect larvae and, to a lesser extent, small shrimps, and conspecific as well as heterospecific tadpoles. Calls of these tadpoles consisted either of single click notes or of irregular series of various clicks. Some complex calls have a pulsed structure with three to nine indistinct energy pulses. Production of the pulses coincided with rapid closure of the jaw sheaths and often with an upward movement of the body. Calls were emitted while attacking prey and occurred significantly more often when attacking conspecifics. Tadpoles that had not been fed for some time emitted sounds more frequently than those that had been regularly fed. The spectral frequency of the calls differed in tadpole groups of different size and was higher in groups of smaller tadpoles, suggesting that spectral frequency carries some information about tadpole size which might be important during competitive feeding to assess size and strength of competitors. This report differs from those for the larvae of South American horned frogs, Ceratophrys ornata. These are the only other tadpoles for which sound production has reliably been reported but the calls of Ceratophrys tadpoles occur mainly in a defensive context.     

Assisting Australian indigenous resource management and sustainable utilization of species through the use of GIS and environmental modeling techniques

Information on distribution and relative abundance of species is integral to sustainable management, especially if they are to be harvested for subsistence or commerce. In northern Australia, natural landscapes are vast, centers of population few, access is difficult, and Aboriginal resource centers and communities have limited funds and infrastructure. Consequently defining distribution and relative abundance by comprehensive ground survey is difficult and expensive. This highlights the need for simple, cheap, automated methodologies to predict the distribution of species in use, or having potential for use, in commercial enterprise. The technique applied here uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) to make predictions of probability of occurrence using an inductive modeling technique based on Bayes' theorem. The study area is in the Maningrida region, central Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, Australia. The species examined, Cycas arnhemica and Brachychiton diversifolius, are currently being 'wild harvested' in commercial trials, involving sale of decorative plants and use as carving wood, respectively. This study involved limited and relatively simple ground surveys requiring approximately 7 days of effort for each species. The overall model performance was evaluated using Cohen's kappa statistics. The predictive ability of the model for C. arnhemica was classified as moderate and for B. diversifolius as fair. The difference in model performance can be attributed to the pattern of distribution of these species. C. arnhemica tends to occur in a clumped distribution due to relatively short distance dispersal of its large seeds and vegetative growth from long-lived rhizomes, while B. diversifolius seeds are smaller and more widely dispersed across the landscape. The output from analysis predicts trends in species distribution that are consistent with independent on-site sampling for each species and therefore should prove useful in gauging the extent of resource availability. However, some caution needs to be applied as the models tend to over predict presence which is a function of distribution patterns and of other variables operating in the landscape such as fire histories which were not included in the model due to limited availability of data.     

On inferring population trends of mobile waterbirds from aerial transect surveys in variable environments

Environmental and Ecological Statistics - Monitoring waterbird populations in Australia is challenging for reasons of counting logistics, and because population aggregation and dispersion can shift...     

Distribution,habitat preferences and behaviour of the critically endangered Maltese top-shell <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gibbula nivosa</Emphasis> (Gastropoda: Trochidae)

The Maltese top-shell, Gibbula nivosa Adams 1851, is a critically endangered marine trochid gastropod endemic to the Maltese Islands (central Mediterranean). Previously unrecorded live since 1981, rediscovery of this species in 2006 has enabled the collection of basic biological data for the first time, based on a population in Sliema Creek. The field distribution and habitat preferences of G. nivosa were investigated via stratified random sampling, while aspects of its behaviour were studied through laboratory experiments. Gibbula nivosa occurred primarily in near-homogeneous or homogeneous infralittoral cobble/pebble beds, at an overall density of 17.6 ± 25.0 SD individuals m⁻²; however, large spatial and temporal variations in abundance were recorded. The snails did not exhibit gregarious behaviour and the slightly clumped dispersion pattern noted in the field appeared to result from patchiness of the habitat. Recruitment was observed in post-summer months, which, together with data on shell-size distributions, suggests that G. nivosa spawns in early summer and attains adult size (maximum shell width ~9 mm) in less than 1 year. Gibbula nivosa showed a circadian activity pattern with nocturnal foraging involving indiscriminate ingestion of particles browsed off the substratum; observations on responses to four potential predators suggest that nocturnal activity may have evolved in response to diurnal predation. Historical records of snail occurrence and the present study suggest that population declines of G. nivosa in the past were probably related to habitat alteration as a result of anthropogenic pressure.     

Distribution of the cladoceran Podon polyphemoides in the Chesapeake Bay

The distribution of the cladoceran Podon polyphemoides (Leuckart) in the Chesapeake Bay (USA) estuarine system was determined by a quantitative pump sampling method, and the patterns of abundance were correlated with temperature and salinity distributions. The species was seasonally recurrent, with distinct population maxima in the central portion of the bay. Population densities in excess of 60,000 podonids/m³ have been recorded. The podonids first appeared in the spring in the shallow tributaries, when water temperatures near the bottom reached 6°C. The vernal populations disappeared when summer temperatures exceeded 27°C, but reappeared in the fall as the water cooled. The species was euryhaline and eurythermal in its distribution, but the greatest concentrations were attained within relatively narrow zones of temperatures between 11^o and 26°C, and salinities between 8 and 18. The production of males, sexual females and sexual eggs occurred both in the spring and the fall between the thermal limits of 11^o and 17°C.     

成都平原蔬菜生产中灌溉水对农药渗漏的影响研究

针对成都平原蔬菜生产中大量施用农药、大量灌水的特点,首次在国内应用欧洲官方成熟的农药评估模型——PEARL模型,研究评估了成都平原当前蔬菜生产中的灌溉方式对两种不同特性农药的渗漏的影响。杀毒矾(土壤吸附力(KOM)为0 L/kg,半衰期(DT50)为80 d)在没有灌溉条件下,其渗出土体时的最大质量浓度是190μg.L-1,而有灌溉条件下其渗出质量浓度则可达523μg.L-1,是没有灌溉条件下的2.75倍。三唑磷(KOM为200 L.kg-1,DT50为60 d)在没有灌溉条件下,其渗出土体时的最大质量浓度是0.025μg.L-1,而有灌溉条件下其渗出质量浓度为0.13μg.L-1,比没有灌溉时提高了4.2倍。不管有没有灌溉三唑磷在该地区对地下水的污染风险都很小,而杀毒矾的风险则很高。因此,农药的化学特性是影响农药渗漏的最重要的因子。在蔬菜生产中应尽量选用被土壤吸附力强、半衰期短的农药,例如:三唑磷;农药在土壤中的移动载体是土壤水,不合理的灌溉会大大地加大农药淋溶,应当多使用微喷、滴灌等节水灌溉措施,减少使用漫灌等耗水多的原始灌溉方式。