bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Arsenic cycling in freshwater phytoplankton and zooplankton cultures
Authors: Caumette G. , Koch I. , House K. , Reimer K. J.
Published: October 2014

Environmental context
Understanding how arsenic is changed from toxic to non-toxic chemical forms in lakes and rivers is important in understanding the overall risk from arsenic. Freshwater plankton exposed in laboratory cultures to different sources of toxic inorganic arsenate formed arsenosugars, but at higher exposure levels, in water and through contaminated sediment, inorganic arsenate remained unchanged. In arsenic-contaminated freshwater bodies, plankton may provide a source of toxic inorganic arsenic to consumers.

Abstract
Freshwater phytoplankton (Chlamydomonas) and zooplankton (Daphnia pulex) were exposed to arsenic to trace the arsenic transformations and the formation of organoarsenic compounds at the base of the freshwater food chain. Plankton were cultured in artificial lake water, and exposed to arsenic through several pathways, hypothesised to be the main exposure sources: through water, food and contaminated sediments. High performance liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry and X-ray absorption spectroscopy were used to determine arsenic speciation in the studied organisms, and X-ray fluorescence mapping was used to locate the arsenic in a single Daphnia specimen. The results show that the formation of methylated arsenic compounds and arsenosugars by the zooplankton organisms was independent of the exposure route, but instead dependent on arsenic concentration in the environment. Specifically, organoarsenic compounds were dominant in extracts of Daphnia organisms exposed to low arsenic concentrations through water at 10µgL–1 (67%), and through contaminated food (75%), but inorganic arsenic was dominant in Daphnia exposed to high arsenic concentrations, including contaminated sediments. Phytoplankton cultures contained variable amounts of arsenosugars, but on average the dominant compound in phytoplankton was inorganic arsenic. The main implications of the present study for understanding arsenic cycling in the freshwater plankton community are that arsenosugars are formed at possibly both the phytoplankton and zooplankton trophic levels; and that higher arsenic loads in plankton correspond to higher inorganic arsenic concentrations, which could indicate a saturation of the arsenic methylation process by plankton organisms.
The salinity responses of tropical estuaries to changes in freshwater discharge, tidal mixing and geomorphology: case study of the man-affected Senegal River Estuary (West Africa)
Authors: Chevalier C. , Pagano M. , Corbin D. , Arfi R.
Published: October 2014

Salinity in estuaries is influenced by a variety of processes including tidal advection and diffusion and river discharge. The effect of hydrodynamic features on salinity was studied in the Senegal River Estuary (SRE). This estuary is of strategic importance for large populations, but it has been greatly affected by human action (regulation of the freshwater inflow, change in the location of the river mouth ...), which has caused major changes in salinity and ecological functioning. To analyse the impacts of these changes and to determine the spatial and temporal variations in salinity in the SRE, we used a combination of three-dimensional modelling and field measurements. The overall salinity depends on freshwater inflow and tidal fluctuations. Salinity variation is mainly driven by ebb and flood near the mouth and by fortnightly cycles upstream. The enlargement of the mouth increases salinity, whereas its shifting location changes the location of the salinity front and creates a slack water zone downstream. Connection and disconnection of the tributaries also affects the salinity. The present study explains how the recent modifications have increased spatial variation and reduced seasonal differences of salinity and provides a tool for managing the water in the estuary.
SPX1 is a phosphate-dependent inhibitor of PHOSPHATE STARVATION RESPONSE 1 in
Arabidopsis
Authors: Puga María Isabel , Mateos Isabel , Charukesi Rajulu , Wang Zhiye , Franco-Zorrilla José M. , de Lorenzo Laura , Irigoyen María L. , Masiero Simona , Bustos Regla , Rodríguez José , Leyva Antonio , Rubio Vicente , Sommer Hans , Paz-Ares Javier
Published: October 2014

Significance

When P levels are low, plants activate an array of adaptive responses to increase efficient acquisition and use of phosphate (Pi), the form in which P is preferentially absorbed, and to protect themselves from Pi starvation stress. Considerable progress has been made recently in dissecting the plant Pi starvation signaling pathway. Nonetheless, little is known as to how Pi levels are perceived by plants. Here, we identify the nuclear protein SPX1 as a Pi-dependent inhibitor of DNA binding by PHOSPHATE STARVATION RESPONSE 1 (PHR1), a master regulator of Pi starvation responses. We show that the Pi dependence of SPX1 inhibition of PHR1 activity can be recreated in vitro using purified proteins, which indicates that the SPX1/PHR1 module links Pi sensing and signaling.
Seriniquinone, a selective anticancer agent, induces cell death by autophagocytosis, targeting the cancer-protective protein dermcidin
Authors: Trzoss Lynnie , Fukuda Takashi , Costa-Lotufo Letícia V. , Jimenez Paula , La Clair James J. , Fenical William
Published: October 2014

Significance

The advance of new clinical treatment options for cancer relies heavily on the discovery of chemotherapeutic agents with new modes of action. In this paper, we describe the discovery of a potent melanoma-selective agent, seriniquinone, and elucidate its targeting of dermcidin and dermcidin-conjugated proteins within tumor cells. Early evidence indicates a direct correlation between seriniquinone activity and the levels of dermcidin within an ascribed tumor cell line, therein suggesting not only a unique target and avenue for further therapeutic exploration but also, and perhaps more importantly, revealing that dermcidin that may play a dual role as a diagnostic patient preselection biomarker and a drug target.
Human DNA tumor viruses generate alternative reading frame proteins through repeat sequence recoding
Authors: Kwun Hyun Jin , Toptan Tuna , Ramos da Silva Suzane , Atkins John F. , Moore Patrick S. , Chang Yuan
Published: October 2014

Significance

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus and Epstein–Barr virus latent antigens, latency-associated nuclear antigen 1 (LANA1) and Epstein–Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1), are multifunctional proteins involved in the maintenance of episome, latency, regulation of transcription, cell cycle, and immune surveillance. These latent antigens generate +1/−2 frameshifted alternative reading frame (ARF) isoforms by programmed ribosomal frameshifting. EBNA1 recoding generates a LANA1-like glutamine- and glutamic acid-rich EBNA1
ARF
, implicating a crucial role for these sequences in both viruses, whereas high recoding ability of LANA1 generates a serine/arginine-rich repeat sequence protein similar to those found in neurodegenerative disorders. Here we show that repeat recoding in oncogenic human herpesviruses increases the genetic coding capacity of their latent viral proteins. Repetitive elements may be an unexpected source for human and virus protein expression diversity.
Species formation by host shifting in avian malaria parasites
Authors: Ricklefs Robert E. , Outlaw Diana C. , Svensson-Coelho Maria , Medeiros Matthew C. I. , Ellis Vincenzo A. , Latta Steven
Published: October 2014

Significance

Emerging infectious diseases pose threats to humans and livestock, but little is known about the general propensity of parasitic organisms to shift between hosts or the role of host shifting in the diversification of parasite lineages. The malaria parasites of contemporary vertebrate species descended from a common ancestor, likely after the diversification of their major host taxa, requiring rapid speciation and shifting between hosts across large host–taxonomic distances. Examination of sister lineages of avian malaria parasites in the New World suggests that such host shifting is common and often leads to the origin of new evolutionary lineages of parasites.
MAGI-2 scaffold protein is critical for kidney barrier function
Authors: Balbas Minna D. , Burgess Michael R. , Murali Rajmohan , Wongvipat John , Skaggs Brian J. , Mundel Peter , Weins Astrid , Sawyers Charles L.
Published: October 2014

Significance

MAGUK Inverted 2 (MAGI-2) is a scaffold protein with a putative tumor-suppressor role and also interacts with nephrin in the glomerular slit diaphragm protein complex. To gain insight into its function, we generated
Magi-2
–KO mice and found that loss of MAGI-2 expression leads to slit diaphragm disruption, podocyte foot process effacement, and severe podocyte loss.
Magi-2
–null mice develop rapidly progressive glomerular disease and renal failure. Our findings suggest that MAGI-2 is essential for kidney filter function and podocyte survival, thereby providing insights into the pathogenesis of proteinuric kidney disease. Moreover,
Magi-2
–null mice can serve as an excellent model system for studying glomerular disease progression and identification of new treatment targets for the difficult-to-treat spectrum of primary podocytopathies.
Frames of Understanding in Text and Discourse
Authors: Ziem Alexander
Published: October 2014

How do words mean? What is the nature of meaning? How can we grasp a word’s meaning? The frame-semantic approach developed in this book offers some well-founded answers to such long-standing, but still controversial issues. Following Charles Fillmore’s definition of frames as both organizers of experience and tools for understanding, the monograph attempts to examine one of the most important concepts of Cognitive Linguistics in more detail. The point of departure is Fillmore’s conception of “frames of understanding” – an approach to (cognitive) semantics that Fillmore developed from 1975 to 1985. The envisaged Understanding Semantics (“U-Semantics”) is a semantic theory sui generis whose significance for linguistic research cannot be overestimated. In addition to its crucial role in the development of the theoretical foundations of U-semantics, corpus-based frame semantics can be applied fruitfully in the investigation of knowledge-building processes in text and discourse.
On the relation between double clausal negation and negative concord
Authors: Van Alsenoy Lauren , van der Auwera Johan
Published: October 2014

Negative concord and double clausal negation are separate phenomena, which show some striking similarities, the main similarity being the fact that negation is formally expressed more than once, but semantically only once. These similarities have led scholars to hypothesize on whether and how these two are related. In this chapter some issues in the diachrony of both processes are discussed. On the basis of a survey of 103 non-European languages it is concluded that NC cannot be considered to be a necessary condition for DN nor for preverbal negation, thus refuting claims that have been proposed in the literature. The peculiar constellation found in French, in which a new negator grew out of NC concord, was not found in any other language of the sample, not even Ewe and Karok, the two other languages that have both NC and DN. It is further suggested that DN may be more frequent than NC and it is argued, against other claims in the literature, that the strategy of expressing clausal negation with only negative pronouns or adverbs is not only typical for Europe but also for the Americas and that it is also found in verb-initial languages.
Taiwanese Southern Min V2 negation
Authors: Yang Hui-Ling
Published: October 2014

This study provides a historical account for several issues not yet fully addressed in the Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) V bo XP construction, one of which is an ambiguity over two interpretations, and another of which involves an absence or a presence of negation in the post-verbal order. Many of these analyses might be attributable to the historical development of Chinese negation. The term V2 negation is used in this current paper to describe the topic under investigation. Assuming that the diachrony of bo is parallel to that of Mandarin mei, I analyze Southern Min negative bo as originated in the V and reanalyzed as an aspect marker in V bo XP. Other than the diachrony of Chinese negation, previous treatments of one particular V2 negation are also reviewed. Contra Huang (2009), who analyzes the semantics of bo in V bo DP as lexically determined in the abstractness of the nominal phrase following bo, I argue that this bo occupies two positions: while the aspectual head bo yields an episodic interpretation in the nominal argument, bo in a higher head gives rise to genericity. Verb inner aspect is adopted as the major theoretical framework.
Berber negation in diachrony
Authors: Brugnatelli Vermondo
Published: October 2014

The morphosyntax of negation in Berber is rich and complex, and appears to be the outcome of multiple processes that have taken place over different time-periods from prehistory to the present day. The most noteworthy issue is the tendency towards a redundant marking of negation, not only by means of discontinuous morphemes (circumfixes) but also through the use of special “negative verb stems” – a feature that is attested in nearly all of the Berber-speaking area, regardless of the type of negative affixes in use. In this paper, I attempt to single out the main processes that have led to the present stage, taking into account the etymologies of prefixal and suffixal negative morphemes, the origin of negative stems and the role of the so-called Jespersen’s cycle in the evolution of Berber negation.
The grammaticalization of negative indefinites
Authors: Mosegaard Hansen Maj-Britt
Published: October 2014

This chapter traces the diachronic evolution in Medieval French of two temporal/aspectual n-words of adverbial origin, the markers mais (< Lat. MAGIS ‘more, to a greater degree’) and plus (< Lat. PLUS ‘more’), equivalent to English no more/no longer, anymore/any longer, with a view to addressing two theoretical issues: (i) whether the evolution of indefinites is unidirectional, as claimed by Haspelmath (1997), or rather subject to a “random diachronic walk”, as suggested by Jäger (2010); (ii) whether the evolution of the French n-words can be described in terms of a general cyclical development parallel to that of the standard clause negator (commonly known as Jespersen’s Cycle). It is argued that, like those reported in Hansen (2012), the results of this study support the random walk hypothesis, and weakens the case for a quantifier cycle in French. Moreover, the results of the two studies suggest that functional categories, or paradigms, are pragmatic, rather than linguistic, entities.
Evolution of wild barley at Evolution Canyon: adaptation, speciation, pre-agricultural collection, and barley improvement
Authors: Nevo Eviatar
Published: October 2014

The present paper reviews the state of cultivated barley,Hordeum vulgare, in Old World agriculture and its domestication through its progenitor, wild barley,Hordeum spontaneum. It focuses on the adaptation, incipient sympatric speciation, and domestication ofH. spontaneumin the “Evolution Canyon” model. The “Evolution Canyon,” at lower Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, Israel, revealsevolution in actionat a microsite caused by interslope microclimatic divergence across life from viruses and bacteria through fungi, plants, and animals including mammals. The interslope adaptive complexes ofH. spontaneumat “Evolution Canyon” include genetic diversity, drought resistance bydehydrin I, rhizosphere bacteria, andEibi Igene promoter.Isadefense locus and vitamin E components also diverge between the opposite tropical and temperate abutting slopes. A highly likely pre-agricultural collection site ofH. spontaneumis described on the Natufian cemetery of the Oren and Um Usba caves in “Evolution Canyon”. Finally, the paper briefly reviews the remarkable interslope incipient sympatric speciation ofH. spontaneumat “Evolution Canyon”, as is true for other organisms such as bacteria,Drosophila, and spiny mice,Acomys. Sympatric ecological speciation is still controversial and “Evolution Canyon” provides an appropriate site to explore it inH. spontaneumand other organisms across life.
Semantic Transparency in Free Stems: The Effect of Orthography-Semantics Consistency on Word Recognition
Authors: Marelli Marco , Amenta Simona , Crepaldi Davide
Published: October 2014

A largely overlooked side effect in most studies of morphological priming is a consistent main effect of semantic transparency across priming conditions. That is, participants are faster at recognizing stems from transparent sets (e.g., farm) in comparison to stems from opaque sets (e.g., fruit), regardless of the preceding primes. This suggests that semantic transparency may also be consistently associated with some property of the stem word. We propose that this property might be traced back to the consistency, throughout the lexicon, between the orthographic form of a word and its meaning, here named Orthography-Semantics Consistency (OSC), and that an imbalance in OSC scores might explain the “stem transparency” effect. We exploited distributional semantic models to quantitatively characterize OSC, and tested its effect on visual word identification relying on large-scale data taken from the British Lexicon Project (BLP). Results indicated that (a) the “stem transparency” effect is solid and reliable, insofar as it holds in BLP lexical decision times (Experiment 1); (b) an imbalance in terms of OSC can account for it (Experiment 2); and (c) more generally, OSC explains variance in a large item sample from the BLP, proving to be an effective predictor in visual word access (Experiment 3).
Divergence in right-angled Coxeter groups
Authors: Dani Pallavi , Thomas Anne
Published: October 2014

Let

W
W

be a

2
2

-dimensional right-angled Coxeter group. We characterise such

W
W

with linear and quadratic divergence, and construct right-angled Coxeter groups with divergence polynomial of arbitrary degree. Our proofs use the structure of walls in the Davis complex.
Fixed-point-free elements of iterated monodromy groups
Authors: Jones Rafe
Published: October 2014

The iterated monodromy group of a post-critically finite complex polynomial of degreed≥2d \geq 2acts naturally on the completedd-ary rooted treeTTof preimages of a generic point. This group, as well as its profinite completion, acts on the boundary ofTT, which is given by extending the branches to their “ends” at infinity. We show that, in most cases, elements that have fixed points on the boundary are rare, in that they belong to a set of Haar measure00. The exceptions are those polynomials linearly conjugate to multiples of Chebyshev polynomials and a case that remains unresolved, where the polynomial has a non-critical fixed point with many critical preimages. The proof involves a study of the finite automaton giving generators of the iterated monodromy group, and an application of a martingale convergence theorem. Our result is motivated in part by applications to arithmetic dynamics, where iterated monodromy groups furnish the “geometric part” of certain Galois extensions encoding information about densities of dynamically interesting sets of prime ideals.
Implications of Health Care Reform for Farm Businesses and Families
Authors: Ahearn Mary Clare , Williamson James M. , Black Nyesha
Published: October 2014

The Affordable Care Act has implications for the source of health insurance for farm households and potentially how much of their time they allocate to off‐farm jobs and even the rate at which new operators enter farming. The Act will likely have impacts for the 1% of farms defined to be large employers, which are required to provide coverage for their workers or pay a penalty. While a very small share of all farms, they account for upward of 40% of the production for some commodities. How they adjust their use of farm labor in response to the Affordable Care Act has implications for farm structure.
Selenium‐Enriched Breads and Their Benefits in Human Nutrition and Health as Affected by Agronomic, Milling, and Baking Factors
Authors: Lazo‐Vélez Marco A. , Chávez‐Santoscoy Alejandra , Serna‐Saldivar Sergio O.
Published: October 2014

Bread is among the three top foods that provide most of the dietary selenium (Se) for most of the world population. Selenomethionine present  in flour and bread is the major organic moiety (>65%). The Se concentration assayed in wheat kernels is mainly affected by agronomic factors such as soil fertility. The dry milling of wheat to produce refined flour and the technology to produce leavened breads also greatly affect Se concentration and bioavailability. The supranutritional intakes of inorganic and mainly organic Se have long been linked to the prevention of cancer, oxidative stress, and cardiovascular diseases. This review provides an overview of the different Se sources and agronomic, milling, and processing factors that affect Se concentration and bioavailability in yeast‐leavened and sourdough breads and the nutritional and health implications that have been documented by food, medical, and nutrition scientists.
Development of Weather- and Airborne Inoculum-Based Models to Describe Disease Severity of Wheat Powdery Mildew
Authors: Cao Xueren , Yao Dongming , Xu Xiangming , Zhou Yilin , Ding Kejian , Duan Xiayu , Fan Jieru , Luo Yong
Published: October 2014

Disease severity of wheat powdery mildew, caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, was recorded weekly in fungicide-free field plots for three successive seasons from 2009 to 2012 in Langfang City, Hebei Province, China. Airborne conidia of B. graminis f. sp. tritici were trapped using a volumetric spore sampler, and meteorological data were collected using an automatic weather station. Cumulative logit models were used to relate the development of wheat powdery mildew to weather variables and airborne conidia density. Density of airborne conidia was the most important variate; further addition of weather variables, although statistically significant, increased model performance only slightly. A model based on variables derived from temperature and humidity had a generalized R2 of 72.4%. Although there were significant differences in model parameters among seasons, fine adjustment did not increase model performance significantly.
A Mineral Seed Coating for Control of Seedling Diseases of Alfalfa Suitable for Organic Production Systems
Authors: Samac Deborah A. , Schraber Samuel , Barclay Stuart
Published: October 2014

Most alfalfa seed is treated with the fungicide mefenoxam (Apron XL) for control of soilborne seedling diseases caused by Phytophthora medicaginis and Pythium spp. However, Apron XL is not active against Aphanomyces euteiches, the causal agent of Aphanomyces root rot (ARR), an important component of the alfalfa seedling root rot complex. Moreover, Apron XL-treated seed cannot be used in organic production systems. A seed coating using aluminosilicate (natural zeolite) at a rate of 0.33 g of zeolite per gram of alfalfa seed was tested as an alfalfa seed treatment. Inoculated growth chamber trials were conducted to determine the percentage of seedlings protected from Phytophthora root rot (PRR) and ARR. The mineral seed coating resulted in significantly greater control of PRR, with a mean of 89% healthy seedlings (disease score of 1 or 2 on a 1-to-5 scale) compared with the Apron XL treatment, with a mean of 38% healthy seedlings, or the control treatment, with 15% healthy seedlings. The mineral seed coating also resulted in significantly greater protection against ARR, with 67% healthy seedlings compared with 3 and 2% healthy seedlings with the Apron XL and control treatments, respectively. The coated seed were used for in vitro assays with Pythium ultimum and P. paroecandrum to test for protection from seed rot and damping off. The mineral seed coating resulted in a significantly greater percentage of healthy seedlings compared with the Apron XL and control treatments. In growth chamber assays with naturally infested field soils with a range of disease pressure, the mineral seed coating resulted in a similar or greater percentage of healthy plants than the Apron XL treatment. The mineral coating had no effect on in vitro growth of Sinorhizobium meliloti, and nodule numbers were similar on roots from mineral-coated and untreated seed. These experiments indicate that the zeolite seed coating is a promising means of controlling seedling diseases in alfalfa production systems.
Bacterial Canker of Tomato: Current Knowledge of Detection, Management, Resistance, and Interactions
Authors: Sen Yusuf , van der Wolf Jan , Visser Richard G. F. , van Heusden Sjaak
Published: October 2014

Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis is the causal agent of bacterial canker of tomato. The disease was first described in 1910 in Michigan, USA. C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (from now on called clavibacter) was initially thought to be a phloem parasite, but was later found to be a xylem-invading bacterium. The host range comprises mainly solanaceous crops such as tomato, pepper, and eggplant. Strains show great variability in virulence and are usually described as being hypervirulent, hypovirulent, or nonvirulent. Clavibacter lacks a type III secretion system, and only a few virulence factors have been experimentally determined from the many putative virulence factors. As the molecular mode of infection by clavibacter is unknown, researchers have avoided intensive work on this organism. Genetic plant mechanisms conferring resistance to clavibacter are apparently complex, and breeders have yet to develop disease-resistant cultivars.
First Report of Tomato zonate spot virus in Iris tectorum in China
Authors: Liu Y. , Huang C. J. , Tao X. R. , Yu H. Q.
Published: October 2014

Iris tectorum Maxim, a very popular Chinese traditional medicinal perennial herb belonging to the Iridaceae family, is widely grown as a year-round ornamental in China. During May to August 2014, as part of a survey for tospoviruses (family Bunyaviridae) in flue-cured tobacco, symptoms suspected to be caused by tospoviruses were observed on I. tectorum around farmers' fields in Kunming, Yunnan province. Symptoms were chlorotic spots on younger leaves and necrosis on older leaves. Since Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) and Tomato zonate spot virus (TZSV) are two common tospoviruses in flue-cured tobacco fields in Yunnan, ELISA with monoclonal TSWV antibody (provided by J. X. Wu, Zhejiang University, China) and polyclonal TZSV antiserum (provided by J. H. Dong, Yunnan Academy of Agriculture Science, China) was performed to identify the presence of virus. Positive extinction values (ODλ405nm 0.835 ± 0.121 and 1.024 ± 0.193, as compared with the negative 0.153 ± 0.076 and the positive control 0.510 ± 0.109 at a confidence interval of P ≤ 0.05) were obtained from two symptomatic samples with TZSV antibody but not with TSWV. The absence of TSWV was confirmed with a commercially available immune-strip (Agdia, Elkhart, IN), following the manufacturer's instructions. To further verify the causal agent of these symptoms, total RNA was isolated from two symptomatic and one asymptomatic samples and reverse transcribed using degenerate primer J13 (1). These cDNAs were then used as a template in a universal PCR assay using specific primers TZSVNF (5′-ATGTCTAACGTCCGGAGTTTAACAC-3′) and TZSVNR (5′-TTAAAAAGACAGATCATTGCTG-3′), which amplify the complete nucleocapsid (N) protein. The PCR was carried out for denaturation at 94°C for 3 min, and subsequently 30 cycles were carried out, with each cycle consisting of 94°C for 45 s, 55°C for 45 s, and 72°C for 1 min, followed by a final extension step at 72°C for 10 min. An 0.8-Kb DNA fragment was amplified from symptomatic samples and cloned into a pGEM-T Easy (Promega, Madison, WI) vector. Three clones of each sample were selected and sequenced. BLAST analysis of the obtained sequences (Accession Nos. KM452916 and KM452917) revealed that the N sequences of these isolates have 96 to 99% nucleotide identity and 99 to 100% amino acid identity with the deposit TZSV sequence in NCBI from Yunnan (JN116580 to JN116583 and EF552433) (2). These combined results provide further confirmation of TZSV infection. It is known that perennial herb or ornamental plants may act as reservoirs for tospoviruses that can infect cultivated crops because tospoviruses have a very broad host range. Therefore, elaborate inspections for tospoviruses and appropriate management strategies to limit virus spread are necessary for production of crops. To our knowledge, this is the first report of TZSV in I. tectorum Maxim.

References: (1) I. Cortez et al. Arch Virol. 146:265, 2001. (2) J. Dong et al. Arch Virol. 153:855, 2008.
First evidence of fish larvae producing sounds
Authors: Staaterman Erica , Paris Claire B. , Kough Andrew S.
Published: October 2014

The acoustic ecology of marine fishes has traditionally focused on adults, while overlooking the early life-history stages. Here, we document the first acoustic recordings of pre-settlement stage grey snapper larvae (Lutjanus griseus). Through a combination ofin situand unprovoked laboratory recordings, we found thatL. griseuslarvae are acoustically active during the night, producing ‘knock’ and ‘growl’ sounds that are spectrally and temporally similar to those of adults. While the exact function and physiological mechanisms of sound production in fish larvae are unknown, we suggest that these sounds may enable snapper larvae to maintain group cohesion at night when visual cues are reduced.
Photosymbiotic giant clams are transformers of solar flux
Authors: Holt Amanda L. , Vahidinia Sanaz , Gagnon Yakir Luc , Morse Daniel E. , Sweeney Alison M.
Published: October 2014

‘Giant’ tridacnid clams have evolved a three-dimensional, spatially efficient, photodamage-preventing system for photosymbiosis. We discovered that the mantle tissue of giant clams, which harbours symbiotic nutrition-providing microalgae, contains a layer of iridescent cells called iridocytes that serve to distribute photosynthetically productive wavelengths by lateral and forward-scattering of light into the tissue while back-reflecting non-productive wavelengths with a Bragg mirror. The wavelength- and angle-dependent scattering from the iridocytes is geometrically coupled to the vertically pillared microalgae, resulting in an even re-distribution of the incoming light along the sides of the pillars, thus enabling photosynthesis deep in the tissue. There is a physical analogy between the evolved function of the clam system and an electric transformer, which changes energy flux per area in a system while conserving total energy. At incident light levels found on shallow coral reefs, this arrangement may allow algae within the clam system to both efficiently use all incident solar energy and avoid the photodamage and efficiency losses due to non-photochemical quenching that occur in the reef-building coral photosymbiosis. Both intra-tissue radiometry and multiscale optical modelling support our interpretation of the system's photophysics. This highly evolved ‘three-dimensional’ biophotonic system suggests a strategy for more efficient, damage-resistant photovoltaic materials and more spatially efficient solar production of algal biofuels, foods and chemicals.
Universals versus historical contingencies in lexical evolution
Authors: Bochkarev V. , Solovyev V. , Wichmann S.
Published: October 2014

The frequency with which we use different words changes all the time, and every so often, a new lexical item is invented or another one ceases to be used. Beyond a small sample of lexical items whose properties are well studied, little is known about the dynamics of lexical evolution. How do the lexical inventories of languages, viewed as entire systems, evolve? Is the rate of evolution of the lexicon contingent upon historical factors or is it driven by regularities, perhaps to do with universals of cognition and social interaction? We address these questions using the Google Books N-Gram Corpus as a source of data and relative entropy as a measure of changes in the frequency distributions of words. It turns out that there are both universals and historical contingencies at work. Across several languages, we observe similar rates of change, but only at timescales of at least around five decades. At shorter timescales, the rate of change is highly variable and differs between languages. Major societal transformations as well as catastrophic events such as wars lead to increased change in frequency distributions, whereas stability in society has a dampening effect on lexical evolution.
Escape from extreme specialization: passionflowers, bats and the sword-billed hummingbird
Authors: Abrahamczyk S. , Souto-Vilarós D. , Renner S. S.
Published: October 2014

A striking example of plant/pollinator trait matching is found between Andean species of
Passiflora
with 6–14-cm-long nectar tubes and the sword-billed hummingbird,
Ensifera ensifera
, with up to 11-cm-long bills. Because of the position of their anthers and stigmas, and self-incompatibility, these passionflower species depend on
E. ensifera
for pollination. Field observations show that the bird and plant distribution match completely and that scarcity of
Ensifera
results in reduced passionflower seed set. We here use nuclear and plastid DNA sequences to investigate how often and when these mutualisms evolved and under which conditions, if ever, they were lost. The phylogeny includes 26 (70%) of the 37 extremely long-tubed species, 13 (68%) of the 19 species with tubes too short for
Ensifera
and four of the seven bat-pollinated species for a total of 43 (69%) of all species in
Passiflora
supersection
Tacsonia
(plus 11 outgroups). We time-calibrated the phylogeny to infer the speed of any pollinator switching. Results show that
Tacsonia
is monophyletic and that its stem group dates to 10.7 Ma, matching the divergence at 11.6 Ma of
E. ensifera
from its short-billed sister species. Whether pollination by short-billed hummingbirds or by
Ensifera
is the ancestral condition cannot be securely inferred, but extremely long-tubed flowers exclusively pollinated by
Ensifera
evolved early during the radiation of the
Tacsonia
clade. There is also evidence of several losses of
Ensifera
dependence, involving shifts to bat pollination and shorter billed birds. Besides being extremely asymmetric—a single bird species coevolving with a speciose plant clade—the
Ensifera
/
Passiflora
system is a prime example of a specialized pollinator not driving plant speciation, but instead being the precondition for the maintenance of isolated populations (through reliable seed set) that then underwent allopatric speciation.
Intraspecific divergence and convergence of floral tube length in specialized pollination interactions
Authors: Anderson B. , Ros P. , Wiese T. J. , Ellis A. G.
Published: October 2014

Floral tubes are often thought to be a consequence of adaptive specialization towards pollinator morphology. We explore floral tube length evolution withinTritoniopsis revoluta(Iridaceae), a species with considerable geographical tube length variation. We ask whether tube lengths ofT. revolutapopulations are associated with pollinator proboscis lengths, whether floral divergence occurs in the presence of different pollinators and whether floral convergence occurs between distantly related populations pollinated by the same pollinator. Finally, we ask whether tube length evolution is directional. Shifts between morphologically different pollinators were always associated with shifts in floral morphology, even when populations were very closely related. Distantly related populations had similar tube lengths when they were pollinated by the same pollinator. Shifts in tube length tended to be from short to long, although reversals were not infrequent. After correcting for the population-level phylogeny, there was a strong positive, linear relationship between floral tube length and pollinator proboscis length, suggesting that plants are functionally specialized on different pollinators at different sites. However, because tube length evolution in this system can be a bidirectional process, specialization to the local pollinator fauna is unlikely to result in evolutionary or ecological dead-ends such as canalization or range limitation.
What is the primary function of the early teleost gill? Evidence for Na+/NH+4exchange in developing rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Authors: Zimmer Alex M. , Wright Patricia A. , Wood Chris M.
Published: October 2014

Post-hatch fishes lack a functional gill and use cutaneous surfaces for exchange with the surrounding environment. The ionoregulatory hypothesis posits that ionoregulation is the first physiological process to be limited by cutaneous exchange, necessitating its shift to the gills. We hypothesized that the ontogeny of branchial ammonia excretion (Jamm) is coupled to Na+uptake () in accordance with the current model forexchange in freshwater. Using divided chambers, branchial and cutaneousJamm,and oxygen consumption (MO2) by larval rainbow trout were assessed. Following hatch, the skin accounted for 97% and 86% of totalJammand, respectively.Jammandshifted to the gills simultaneously at 15 days post-hatch (dph) and were highly correlated (R2= 0.951) at the gills, but not the skin, over development. Contrastingly, MO2shifted significantly later at 27 dph, in agreement with the ionoregulatory hypothesis. Moreover, the mRNA expression and/or enzymatic activity of Rhesus proteins, Na+/H+-exchanger, H+-ATPase, Na+/K+-ATPase and carbonic anhydrase, all key components of the-exchange system, increased in the gills over larval development. We propose that the ontogeny of branchialoccurs asexchange and provide evidence for a novel element to the ionoregulatory hypothesis, the excretion of potentially lethal metabolic ammonia.
Listening to the environment: hearing differences from an epigenetic effect in solitarious and gregarious locusts
Authors: Gordon Shira D. , Jackson Joseph C. , Rogers Stephen M. , Windmill James F. C.
Published: October 2014

Locusts display a striking form of phenotypic plasticity, developing into either a lone-living solitarious phase or a swarming gregarious phase depending on population density. The two phases differ extensively in appearance, behaviour and physiology. We found that solitarious and gregarious locusts have clear differences in their hearing, both in their tympanal and neuronal responses. We identified significant differences in the shape of the tympana that may be responsible for the variations in hearing between locust phases. We measured the nanometre mechanical responses of the ear's tympanal membrane to sound, finding that solitarious animals exhibit greater displacement. Finally, neural experiments signified that solitarious locusts have a relatively stronger response to high frequencies. The enhanced response to high-frequency sounds in the nocturnally flying solitarious locusts suggests greater investment in detecting the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats, to which they are more vulnerable than diurnally active gregarious locusts. This study highlights the importance of epigenetic effects set forth during development and begins to identify how animals are equipped to match their immediate environmental needs.
Real-time modulation of perceptual eye dominance in humans
Authors: Zhou Jiawei , Reynaud Alexandre , Hess Robert F.
Published: October 2014

Ocular dominance (OD) has long served as the model for neural plasticity. The shift of OD has been demonstrated by monocular deprivation in animals only during early visual development. Here, for the first time, we show that perceptual eye dominance can be modulated in real time in normal human adults by varying the spatial image content of movies seen dichoptically by the two eyes over a period as short as 2.5 h. Unlike OD shifts seen in early visual development, this modulation in human eye dominance is not simply a consequence of reduced interocular correlation (e.g. synchronicity) or overall contrast energy, but due to the amplitude reductions of specific image components in one eye's view. The spatial properties driving this eye dominance change suggest that the underlying mechanism is binocular but not orientationally selective, therefore uniquely locating it to layer 4 B of area V1.
Fatal attraction: vegetation responses to nutrient inputs attract herbivores to infectious anthrax carcass sites
Authors: Turner Wendy C. , Kausrud Kyrre L. , Krishnappa Yathin S. , Cromsigt Joris P. G. M. , Ganz Holly H. , Mapaure Isaac , Cloete Claudine C. , Havarua Zepee , Küsters Martina , Getz Wayne M. , Stenseth Nils Chr.
Published: October 2014

Parasites can shape the foraging behaviour of their hosts through cues indicating risk of infection. When cues for risk co-occur with desired traits such as forage quality, individuals face a trade-off between nutrient acquisition and parasite exposure. We evaluated how this trade-off may influence disease transmission in a 3-year experimental study of anthrax in a guild of mammalian herbivores in Etosha National Park, Namibia. At plains zebra (
Equus quagga
) carcass sites we assessed (i) carcass nutrient effects on soils and grasses, (ii) concentrations of
Bacillus anthracis
(BA) on grasses and in soils, and (iii) herbivore grazing behaviour, compared with control sites, using motion-sensing camera traps. We found that carcass-mediated nutrient pulses improved soil and vegetation, and that BA is found on grasses up to 2 years after death. Host foraging responses to carcass sites shifted from avoidance to attraction, and ultimately to no preference, with the strength and duration of these behavioural responses varying among herbivore species. Our results demonstrate that animal carcasses alter the environment and attract grazing hosts to parasite aggregations. This attraction may enhance transmission rates, suggesting that hosts are limited in their ability to trade off nutrient intake with parasite avoidance when relying on indirect cues.
Novel staphylococcal species that form part of a Staphylococcus aureus-related complex: the non-pigmented Staphylococcus argenteus sp. nov. and the non-human primate-associated Staphylococcus schweitzeri sp. nov.
Authors: Tong Steven Y. C. , Schaumburg Frieder , Ellington Matthew J. , Corander Jukka , Pichon Bruno , Leendertz Fabian , Bentley Stephen D. , Parkhill Julian , Holt Deborah C. , Peters Georg , Giffard Philip M.
Published: October 2014

We define two novel species of the genus

Staphylococcus

that are phenotypically similar to and have near identical 16S rRNA gene sequences to

Staphylococcus aureus

. However, compared to

S. aureus

and each other, the two species, Staphylococcus argenteus sp. nov. (type strain MSHR1132T = DSM 28299T = SSI 89.005T) and Staphylococcus schweitzeri sp. nov. (type strain FSA084T = DSM 28300T = SSI 89.004T), demonstrate: 1) at a whole-genome level considerable phylogenetic distance, lack of admixture, average nucleotide identity <95 %, and inferred DNA–DNA hybridization <70 %; 2) different profiles as determined by MALDI-TOF MS; 3) a non-pigmented phenotype for S. argenteus sp. nov.; 4) S. schweitzeri sp. nov. is not detected by standard nucA PCR; 5) distinct peptidoglycan types compared to

S. aureus

; 6) a separate ecological niche for S. schweitzeri sp. nov.; and 7) a distinct clinical disease profile for S. argenteus sp. nov. compared to

S. aureus

.
Maribacter thermophilus sp. nov., isolated from an algal bloom in an intertidal zone, and emended description of the genus Maribacter
Authors: Hu Jing , Yang Qi-Qi , Ren Yi , Zhang Wen-Wu , Zheng Gang , Sun Cong , Pan Jie , Zhu Xu-Fen , Zhang Xin-Qi , Wu Min
Published: October 2014

A novel facultatively anaerobic, Gram-stain-negative bacterium, designated strain HT7-2T, was isolated from Ulva prolifera collected from the intertidal zone of Qingdao sea area, China, during its bloom. Cells were rod-shaped (1.9–3.5×0.4–0.6 µm), non-sporulating and motile by gliding. Strain HT7-2T was able to grow at 4–50 °C (optimum 40–42 °C), pH 5.5–8.5 (optimum pH 7.0), 0–8 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 2–3 %) and 0.5–10 % (w/v) sea salts (optimum 2.5 %). The genomic DNA G+C content was 38.8 mol%. The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain HT7-2T belonged to the genus

Maribacter

with sequence similarity values of 94.5–96.6 %, and was most closely related to

Maribacter aestuarii

GY20T (96.6 %). Chemotaxonomic analysis showed that the main isoprenoid quinone was MK-6 and the major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 and unknown equivalent chain-length 13.565. The polar lipids of strain HT7-2T consisted of one phosphatidylethanolamine, four unidentified lipids and one unidentified aminolipid. On the basis of the phenotypic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain HT7-2T ( = CGMCC 1.12207T = JCM 18466T) is concluded to represent a novel species of the genus

Maribacter

, for which the name Maribacter thermophilus sp. nov. is proposed. An emended description of the genus

Maribacter

is also proposed.
The role of standing variation in geographic convergent adaptation
Authors: Ralph Peter L. , Coop Graham
Published: October 2014

The extent to which populations experiencing shared selective pressures adapt through a shared genetic response is relevant to many questions in evolutionary biology. In a number of well studied traits and species, it appears that convergent evolution within species is common. In this paper, we explore how standing, genetic variation contributes to convergent genetic responses in a geographically spread population, extending our previous work on the topic. Geographically limited dispersal slows the spread of each selected allele, hence allowing other alleles – newly arisen mutants or present as standing variation – to spread before any one comes to dominate the population. When such alleles meet, their progress is substantially slowed – if the alleles are selectively equivalent, they mix slowly, dividing the species range into a random tessellation, which can be well understood by analogy to a Poisson process model of crystallization. In this framework, we derive the geographic scale over which a typical allele is expected to dominate, the time it takes the species to adapt as a whole, and the proportion of adaptive alleles that arise from standing variation. Finally, we explore how negative pleiotropic effects of alleles before an environment change can bias the subset of alleles that contribute to the species’ adaptive response. We apply the results to the many geographically localized G6PD deficiency alleles thought to confer resistance to malaria, where the large mutational target size makes it a likely candidate for adaptation from standing variation, despite the selective cost of G6PD deficiency alleles in the absence of malaria. We find the numbers and geographic spread of these alleles matches our predictions reasonably well, consistent with the view that they arose from a combination of standing variation and new mutations since the advent of malaria. Our results suggest that much of adaptation may be geographically local even when selection pressures are homogeneous. Therefore, we argue that caution must be exercised when arguing that strongly geographically restricted alleles are necessarily the outcome of local adaptation. We close by discussing the implications of these results for ideas of species coherence and the nature of divergence between species.