| 1. |
- Boberg, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Nitrogen and Carbon Reallocation in Fungal Mycelia during Decomposition of Boreal Forest Litter
- 2014
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science. - 1932-6203. ; 9:3, s. e92897-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Boreal forests are characterized by spatially heterogeneous soils with low N availability. The decomposition of coniferous litter in these systems is primarily performed by basidiomycete fungi, which often form large mycelia with a well-developed capacity to reallocate resources spatially-an advantageous trait in heterogeneous environments. In axenic microcosm systems we tested whether fungi increase their biomass production by reallocating N between Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) needles at different stages of decomposition. We estimated fungal biomass production by analysing the accumulation of the fungal cell wall compound chitin. Monospecific systems were compared with systems with interspecific interactions. We found that the fungi reallocated assimilated N and mycelial growth away from well-degraded litter towards fresh litter components. This redistribution was accompanied by reduced decomposition of older litter. Interconnection of substrates increased over-all fungal C use efficiency (i.e. the allocation of assimilated C to biomass rather than respiration), presumably by enabling fungal translocation of growth-limiting N to litter with higher C quality. Fungal connection between different substrates also restricted N-mineralization and production of dissolved organic N, suggesting that litter saprotrophs in boreal forest ecosystems primarily act to redistribute rather than release N. This spatial integration of different resource qualities was hindered by interspecific interactions, in which litters of contrasting quality were colonised by two different basidiomycete species. The experiments provide a detailed picture of how resource reallocation in two decomposer fungi leads to a more efficient utilisation of spatially separated resources under N-limitation. From an ecosystem point of view, such economic fungal behaviour could potentially contribute to organic matter accumulation in the litter layers of boreal forests.
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| 2. |
- Mikusinska, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Quantifying landscape change during the last two centuries in Bialowieza Primeval Forest
- 2013
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Ingår i: Applied Vegetation Science. - 1402-2001 .- 1654-109X. ; 16:2, s. 217-226
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- QuestionWhat changes in character and extent of land use have occurred during the last 200yr in the Biaowiea Primeval Forest (BPF)? Are the landscape transformations described from the multi-temporal analysis of historical maps coherent with vegetation changes expressed by the previous palynological analyses?LocationBiaowiea Primeval Forest, PolishBelarusian border. MethodsWe used five historical maps (from 1793 to 1936) and one digital land-use map (19992000) to quantify the landscape changes. Land-use types according to historical maps were digitized and georeferenced. The maps were then used for both comparing the extent of cover types in each time step and analysing the nature of change through transition matrices. The sequence of changes concerning the proportion of land-use types was then compared with classes of pollen, which were assumed to represent corresponding vegetation types. ResultsMost of the area (>70%) has been continuously covered with forest. In the period between 1793 and 1830, the forest declined, being the main donor to agricultural land and villages. In the 20th century, the trend was reversed. We found a significant correlation between the percentage of the main vegetation types derived from historical maps and the corresponding vegetation types, as indicated by pollen, with a mean time lag of 20yr. ConclusionThe BPF landscape has been quite stable throughout the last 200yr, mainly due to the high continuity of forest cover. The results obtained from landscape analysis based on maps are coherent with pollen data collected in the same area.
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| 3. |
- Zhao, Tao, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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Fungal associates of the tree-killing bark beetle, Ips typographus, vary in virulence, ability to degrade conifer phenolics and influence bark beetle tunning behavior
- 2019
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Ingår i: Fungal ecology. - Amsteradam : Elsevier. - 1754-5048 .- 1878-0083. ; 38, s. 71-79
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The bark beetle Ips typographus carries numerous fungi that could be assisting the beetle in colonizing live Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees. Phenolic defenses in spruce phloem are degraded by the beetle's major tree-killing fungus Endoconidiophora polonica, but it is unknown if other beetle associates can also catabolize these compounds. We compared the ability of five fungi commonly associated with I. typographus to degrade phenolic compounds in Norway spruce phloem. Grosmannia penicillata and Grosmannia europhioides were able to degrade stilbenes and flavonoids faster than E. polonica and grow on minimal growth medium with spruce bark constituents as the only nutrients. Furthermore, beetles avoided medium amended with phenolics but marginally preferred medium colonized by fungi. Taken together our results show that different bark beetle-associated fungi have complementary roles in degrading host metabolites and thus might improve this insect's persistence in well defended host tissues.
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| 4. |
- Comstedt, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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Autotrophic and heterotrophic soil respiration in a Norway spruce forest : estimating the root decomposition and soil moisture effects in a trenching experiment
- 2011
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Ingår i: Biogeochemistry. - : Springer. - 0168-2563 .- 1573-515X. ; 104:1-3, s. 121-132
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The two components of soil respiration, autotrophic respiration (from roots, mycorrhizal hyphae and associated microbes) and heterotrophic respiration (from decomposers), was separated in a root trenching experiment in a Norway spruce forest. In June 2003, cylinders (29.7 cm diameter) were inserted to 50 cm soil depth and respiration was measured both outside (control) and inside the trenched areas. The potential problems associated with the trenching treatment, increased decomposition of roots and ectomycorrhizal mycelia and changed soil moisture conditions, were handled by empirical modelling. The model was calibrated with respiration, moisture and temperature data of 2004 from the trenched plots as a training set. We estimate that over the first 5 months after the trenching, 45% of respiration from the trenched plots was an artefact of the treatment. Of this, 29% was a water difference effect and 16% resulted from root and mycelia decomposition. Autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration contributed to about 50% each of total soil respiration in the control plots averaged over the two growing seasons. We show that the potential problems with the trenching, decomposing roots and mycelia and soil moisture effects, can be handled by a modelling approach, which is an alternative to the sequential root harvesting technique.
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| 5. |
- Högberg, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Factors determining the 13C abundance of soil-respired CO2 in Boreal forests
- 2005
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Ingår i: Stable isotopes and biosphere-atmosphere interactions. - : Elsevier. - 9780120884476 ; , s. 47-68
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Analysis of the isotopic composition of the CO2 respired from soils may reveal information about the important component of the ecosystem C balance. This is crucial, since a large terrestrial sink for atmospheric CO2 has been located in the northern hemisphere, and the vast boreal forests may be largely responsible. At the same time, boreal and arctic ecosystems have large amounts of C stored in the soil, and could potentially become a source of CO2 in a warmer climate promoting more rapid decomposition of soil organic matter. Furthermore, the northern hemisphere has complex dynamics in terms of annual fluctuations in both the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and its δl3C. It is of utmost importance to understand the causes of this variability, since it interferes with the partitioning between the ocean and the terrestrial contributions in global models. This chapter aims to provide an update on the reviews by Flanagan and Ehleringer and Ehleringer et al. on the causation of the δ13C of the soil CO2 efflux and, in doing this, focuses on the boreal forests.
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| 6. |
- Berg, Håkan, et al.
(författare)
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Characterization of antibodies for quantitative determination of spiggin protein levels in male and female three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
- 2009
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Ingår i: Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1477-7827. ; 7:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spiggin is an adhesive glycoprotein produced in the kidney of sticklebacks during the breeding season and is subsequently secreted into the urinary bladder from where it is employed for nest building. Since the production of the protein has been shown to be under androgenic control, spiggin has been suggested to be a useful biomarker for androgenic substances in the environment. In this study, two polyclonal spiggin antibodies based on synthetic peptides and one polyclonal antibody directed against native spiggin have been characterized. The antibodies ability to identify spiggin was investigated by quantitative immunoassay. For both peptide antibodies the quantification range was determined to be between 1 and 80 ng spiggin and determination of renal spiggin levels from immature and mature males displayed a 15-fold increase in total spiggin content of the kidney resulting in a 6-fold increase in male kidney weight due to hypertrophy. The kidney somatic index (KSI) was found to correlate well with the total renal spiggin content and therefore it appears that KSI in sticklebacks could be used as an initial method to identify substances displaying androgenic effects. Furthermore, western blot analysis revealed that the polyclonal antibodies recognize different spiggin isoforms and that spiggin can be detected in the urinary bladder and kidney of both males and female sticklebacks. In order to develop a quantitative detection method for native spiggin it is necessary to produce a standard that can be used in a bioassay. Due to the adhesive and polymerization characteristics of spiggin the protein is difficult to use as a standard in bioassays. So far spiggin has been shown to exist in at least 14 isoforms, all of which contain polymerization domains. To overcome the solubility problem we have produced recombinant spiggin gamma, with only one polymerization domain, that can be expressed in E. coli. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the polyclonal antibodies were able to detect recombinant spiggin gamma protein in bacterial cell lysate, suggesting that it may be developed into a useful source of standard spiggin to be used for quantitative determination of androgen induced spiggin production in sticklebacks.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Hossain, Mohammad Sorowar, et al.
(författare)
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Zebrafish androgen receptor : isolation, molecular, and biochemical characterization
- 2008
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Ingår i: Biology of Reproduction. - Champaign, Ill. : Society for the Study of Reproduction. - 0006-3363 .- 1529-7268. ; 78:2, s. 361-369
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Androgens play an important role in male sexual differentiation and development. They exert their function by binding to and activating the androgen receptor (Ar), a member of the steroid hormone receptor superfamily. Here, we report on the isolation and characterization of zebrafish Ar. The complete transcript of zebrafish ar is 5.3 kb long encoding a putative polypeptide of 868 amino acids. Our experimental and bioinformatic analysis has found a single ar locus in zebrafish. Phylogenetic analysis using the ligand-binding domain showed that the zebrafish Ar clustered with its cyprinid orthologs to form a separate group, which was closer to the beta clade than to the alpha clade. Tissue-specific expression analysis revealed that the ar mRNA was expressed ubiquitously in all adult tissues tested, with sexually dimorphic expression in the gonad and muscle. While the ar transcript was maternally deposited into the embryo, signs of zygotic expression could be detected as early as 24 h after fertilization, and the expression level increased substantially afterwards. When analyzed during gonad development, the expression level of ar mRNA at 4 wk after fertilization was similar in both developing gonads but later became higher in the transforming testis, suggesting a potential role during male gonad differentiation. We also combined theoretical modeling with in vitro experiments to show that the zebrafish Ar is preferentially activated by 11-ketotestosterone.
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| 10. |
- Khalaf, Hazem
(författare)
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Characterization and environmental influences on inflammatory and physiological responses
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Pharmaceuticals are regularly released into the environment, in particular nonsteroidalanti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and antibiotics. The measuredconcentrations are relatively low and have therefore been considered to be harmless.However, several pharmaceuticals, including naproxen and atenolol, are stable for upto 1 year in the environment, which increases the risk for accumulation. Evaluation ofthe effects of pharmaceuticals on induced inflammatory responses is thereforenecessary for the assessment of potential risks. Since NF-κB and MAPK are the mainpathways known to be critical regulators of inflammatory responses, intracellularsignalling and effects on these systems were examined in vitro using human cell-lines.NSAIDs were shown to significantly reduce NF-κB activity at environmentallyrelevant concentrations. Suppression of immune responses may lead to progressiveinfections since inflammatory responses are controlled by a cooperative activity ofAP-1 and NF-κB. Alterations in the activity of transcription factors and proinflammatorycytokine and chemokine levels such as TNF, IL-6 and CXCL8 areassociated with several human diseases including cystic fibrosis and AIDS. PMAexposure resulted in a rapid NF-κB activation, while extended treatment suppressedNF-κB and activated AP-1. Suppression of NF-κB activity may be due to PKCdependentBcl10 degradation, which decreased in response to PMA and correlatedwith the NF-κB activity. Regulation of cytokine expression revealed that NF-κB wasessential for IL-6 but not CXCL8 expression following specific inhibition of NF-κB,without affecting AP-1 activity. Furthermore, several reports have indicated theimportance of a functional NF-κB complex in zebrafish embryogenesis, whereblockage of NF-κB activation resulted in a deformation of the tail. Our results indicatea suppression of apoptotic pathways following activation of inflammatory mediatorsin response to HK E. coli treatment. These signals acted to direct zebrafish sexdifferentiation towards feminization. NF-κB was shown to regulate zp2 geneexpression, an indicator of oocyte development. Zebrafish sex determination was alsoshown to start early, prior to 16 days post fertilization. The results support thetransition through a juvenile ovary stage and suggests that steriodogenesis is aconsequence of sex differentiation rather than a regulatory mechanism.Control of prescription, use and disposal of pharmaceuticals is therefore importantto preserve human health, biotic processes and to avoid developmental alterations inaquatic organisms. The complexity of regulatory systems involved in inflammationsuggest that there is a need to further evaluate the signalling pathways involved inorder to provide a better understanding of cellular responses to manmade substances,but also to offer an insight into possible development of alternative treatments forhuman diseases with elevated cytokine/chemokine levels.
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