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Regional variation in nitrogen (N) deposition increases plant productivity and decreases species diversity, but landscape- or local -scale influences on N deposition are less well-known. Using ion-exchange resin, we measured variation of N deposition and soil N availability within Elk Island National Park in the ecotone between grassland and boreal forest in western Canada. The park receives regionally high amounts of atmospheric N deposition (22 kg ha(-1) yr(- 1)). N deposition was on average higher ton clay-rich luvisols than on brunisols, and areas burned 1-15 years previously received more atmospheric N than unburned sites. We suggest that the effects of previous fires and soil type on deposition rate act through differences in canopy structure. The magnitude of these effects varied with the presence of ungulate grazers (bison, moose, elk) and vegetation type (forest, shrubland, grassland). Available soil N (ammonium and nitrate) was higher in burned than unburned sites in the absence of grazing, suggesting an effect of deposition. On grazed sites, differences between fire treatments were small, presumably because the removal of biomass by grazers reduced the effect of fire. Aspen invades native grassland in this region, and our results suggest that fire without grazing might reinforce the expansion of forest into grassland facilitated by N deposition
Investigation of the ectoparasitic fauna (Siphonaptera: Ischnopsyllidae; Diptera: Nycteribiidae) on bats in Brandenburg, Germany. During the investigation of bats in hibernation places four species of fleas (Ischnopsyllus hexactenus (Kolenati, 1856) on Myotis myotis and Myotis nattereri, Nycteridopsylla pentactena (Kolenati, 1856)on Myotis daubentoni, Ischnopsyllus elongatus (Curtis, 1832) and Nycteridopsylla eusarca Dampf, 1908 on Nyctalus noctula) and one bat fly (Nycteribia kolenatii Theodor and Moscona, 1954 on Myotis daubentoni, Myotis natereri and Plecotus auritus were found. For the first time specimens of Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus were investigated separately in summer quarters to reveal differences in the parasitic flea fauna. Ischnopsyllus octactenus (Kolenati, 1856) was present on both bat species. The host-parasite relationship of autochthonous flea species in Brandenburg is discussed.
TPK1 ( formerly KCO1) is the founding member of the family of two-pore domain K 1 channels in Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana), which originally was described following expression in Sf9 insect cells as a Ca2(+)- and voltage- dependent outwardly rectifying plasma membrane K 1 channel. In plants, this channel has been shown by green fluorescent protein fusion to localize to the vacuolar membrane, which led to speculations that the TPK1 gene product would be a component of the nonselective, Ca2+ and voltage- dependent slow-vacuolar (SV) cation channel found in many plants species. Using yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as an expression system for TPK1, we show functional expression of the channel in the vacuolar membrane. In isolated vacuoles of yeast yvc1 disruption mutants, the TPK1 gene product shows ion channel activity with some characteristics very similar to the SV-type channel. The open channel conductance of TPK1 in symmetrically 100mM KCl is slightly asymmetric with roughly 40 pS at positive membrane voltages and 75 pS at negative voltages. Similar to the SV-type channel, TPK1 is activated by cytosolic Ca2+, requiring micromolar concentration for activation. However, in contrast to the SV- type channel, TPK1 exhibits strong selectivity for K+ over Na+, and its activity turned out to be independent of the membrane voltage over the range of +/- 80mV. Our data clearly demonstrate that TPK1 is a voltage- independent, Ca2+- activated, K+- selective ion channel in the vacuolar membrane that does not mediate SV- type ionic currents
We tested whether neighborhood density affects the clonal life history of the stoloniferous plant Ranunculus reptans through selection and genetic drift. After three generations of sexual reproduction of 16 low- and 16 high- density lines, we studied traits related to growth form and reproduction in a common competition free environment. A 7.7% lower branching frequency and slightly longer internodes indicated an evolutionary shift towards a less compact growth form under high neighborhood density, but because stolons grew also more vertically, horizontal spread per ramet was slightly decreased. Neighborhood density had no directional effects on the evolution of allocation to sexual and vegetative reproduction in R. reptans. Variation among replicated high-density lines was significantly lower than among replicated low-density lines in both growth form and reproductive characteristics, indicating less pronounced genetic drift under high neighborhood density. This study demonstrates that a clonal plant can respond to selection imposed by neighborhood density. Moreover, it shows that the effect of random genetic drift increases with decreasing neighborhood density. In a declining species, such as R. reptans in central Europe, this may lower the potential for adaptive evolutionary change and increase extinction risk
Electrochemical investigations of the blood oxygen carrier protein include both mediated and direct electron transfer. The reaction of haemoglobin (Hb) with typical mediators, e.g., ferricyanide, can be quantified by measuring the produced ferrocyanide which is equivalent to the Hb concentration. Immobilization of the mediator within the electrode body allows reagentless electrochemical measuring of Hb. On the other hand, entrapment of the protein within layers of polyclectrolytes, lipids, nanoparticles of clay or gold leads to a fast heterogeneous electron exchange of the partially denatured Hb. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
The thermal unfolding of the wild-type lambda Cro repressor and of two designed variants, Cro K56-[DGEVK] and Cro K56-[DGEVK] Q16L, was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. The engineered Cro K56-[DGEVK] monomer has five additional amino acids inserted after position 56 of the wild-type sequence, while the K56-[DGEVK] Q16L variant differs only in one position (Gln-16 to Leu substitution) from the Cro K56-[DGEVK] sequence. The temperature dependence of selected protein backbone infrared `marker' bands revealed that Cro K56- [DGEVK] is slightly more stable than the wild-type protein, while the replacement of Gln-16 by Leu increases the thermal transition temperature by similar to 20 degrees C. Moreover, thermal unfolding of the two Cro variants was found to proceed through equilibrium unfolding intermediates and to involve the formation of oligomers. The first thermal transition of Cro K56-[DGEVK] involves the melting of major parts of its native secondary structure and is accompanied by the formation of dinners and non-native beta-sheet structures. These structures unfold during a second transition at higher temperatures, accompanied by the dissociation of the dimers. In contrast to the Cro K56-[DGEVK] protein, the intermediate state of the Cro K56-[DGEVK] Q16L variant is less well defined, and involves the formation of oligomers of different size. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved