HLA typing of amniotic fluid cells has been used for the prenatal diagnosis of the HLA linked diseases congenital adrenal hyperplasia (21-OH-deficiency (21-OH-def) type) and complement C4 deficiency and it has also been used for the prenatal de termination of paternity. There are, however, technical difficulties in this test associated with the weak expression of some B locus antigens on amniotic fluid cells, and theoretical difficulties related to associations between particular HLA antigens and the 21-OH-def allele. Since certain HLA-B locus antigens are found in significantly increased frequencies among patients with 21-OH-def, there is a relatively high incidence of HLA-B homozygosity among the patients and over 40 percent of the parents of these patients share one or more HLA-B locus antigens. Results of some prenatal HLA typing tests may thus be difficult to interpret, and supplementary tests should be used whenever possible. HLA typing of amniotic cells is, however, the only available procedure for prenatal diagnosis of C4 deficiency and it is the best available procedure for prenatal determination of paternity. A modification of our original procedure allows HLA typing to be performed with increased numbers of HLA typing sera, and sera with optimum reactivity for amniotic fluid cells have now been selected for the definition of most of the more commonly expressed HLA antigens. Although amniotic fluid cells do not express DR antigens, amniotic fluid cells can be typed for the HLA-linked marker glyoxalase I (GLO) and this may be the informative for prenatal diagnosis in some cases. 相似文献
Several social mammals, including elephants and some primates, whales and bats, live in multilevel societies that form temporary subgroups. Despite these fission–fusion dynamics, group members often maintain long-term bonds. However, it is unclear whether such individual links and the resulting stable social subunits continue to exist after a complete reorganisation of a society, e.g. following a population crash. Here, we employed a weighted network analysis on 7,109 individual roosting records collected over 4 years in a wild Bechstein’s bat colony. We show that, in response to a strong population decline, the colony’s two stable social subunits fused into a non-modular social network. Nevertheless, in the first year after the crash, long-term bonds were still detectable, suggesting that the bats remembered previous individual relationships. Our findings are important for understanding the flexibility of animal societies in the face of dramatic changes and for the conservation of social mammals with declining populations.
The structure of a benthic microbial food web and its seasonal changes were studied in the shallow brackish waters of the
island of Hiddensee, northeastern Germany, at two sites in close proximity by monthly or bimonthly sampling from July 1995
to June 1996. Abundance and biomass of phototrophic and non-phototrophic bacteria, heterotrophic flagellates (HF) and ciliates
as well as the biomass of microphytobenthos were determined in the upper 0.3 cm sediment layer. Abundance of organisms showed
strong positive correlation with water temperature, with the exception of the bacteria. Non-phototrophic bacterial numbers
ranged from 7 × 108 to 6.7 × 109 cells cm−3 and phototrophic bacterial abundance from 4 × 107 to 2.7 × 108. Heterotrophic protist abundance ranged from 8 × 103 to 104 × 103 ind cm−3 for HF and from 39 to 747 ind cm−3 for ciliates. The biomass partitioning demonstrated the primary importance of non-phototrophic bacteria (min. 0.83, max.
84.87 μg C cm−3), followed by the microphytobenthos (min. 1.32, max. 50.93 μg C cm−3). The heterotrophic protists contributed roughly the same fraction to the total microbial biomass, with the biomass of the
HF being slightly higher (HF 0.23 to 1.76 μg C cm−3, ciliates 0.04 to 1.17 μg C cm−3). Taxonomic classification of the benthic HF revealed the euglenids to be the most important group in terms of abundance
and biomass, followed by thaumatomastigids and kinetoplastids. Other important groups were apusomonads, cercomonads, pedinellids
and cryptomonads. The structure of the HF assemblage showed strong seasonal changes with euglenids being the most abundant
taxa in summer, while apusomonads and thaumatomastigids were predominant in winter. Similar to the pelagic microbial food
web, benthic picophototrophic bacteria were occasionally abundant, and the feeding modes of heterotrophic protists exhibited
a great variety (predominantly omnivores, bacterivores, herbivores or predators). Filter-feeding HF were of little importance.
Contrary to the pelagic environment, a top-down control on total benthic bacterial numbers by HF seemed unlikely at the studied
stations which were characterised by muddy sand.
Received: 6 January 1999 / Accepted: 21 October 1999 相似文献
Four groups of bands showing esterase activity were found after electrophoretic separation of extracts of Balanus balanoides (L.) prosoma on polyacrylamide gels. Each group was distinguishable from other groups by mobility, reaction with specific substrates, and susceptibility to various inhibitors. Groups designated BbEII and BbEIII showed cholinesterase activity, BbEIV showed carboxylesterase activity, and BbEI possible arylesterase activity. Polymorphisms were found within Groups BbEIII and BbEI. The frequency distribution of BbEIV polymorphs in a sample from the Menai Straits, UK, fitted the Hardy-Weinberg predicted values for 4 co-dominant alleles. A sample from St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, however, did not fit the Hardy-Weinberg prediction. No variation between individuals was found when malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isozymes were examined. Hence, these systems are unsuitable for testing racial differences. The results for the cholinesterase and arylesterase isozymes substantiate the view, originally based on differences in reproductive phenology and egg size, that genetically separate races exist on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. 相似文献