Fossil mycorrhizae: a case for symbiosis

Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae are significant in the physiology and ecology of extant vascular plants, and they may also have played a major role in the origin of the vascular land flora. The case for fossil vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae rests upon hyphae and chlamydospore-like bodies in several Paleozoic taxa, but fossil arbuscles are unknown to date. Specimens from the Triassic of Antarctica represent the first known occurrence of arbuscles in the fossil record.     

An Early Cretaceous tribosphenic mammal and metatherian evolution

Derived features of a new boreosphenidan mammal from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China suggest that it has a closer relationship to metatherians (including extant marsupials) than to eutherians (including extant placentals). This fossil dates to 125 million years ago and extends the record of marsupial relatives with skeletal remains by 50 million years. It also has many foot structures known only from climbing and tree-living extant mammals, suggesting that early crown therians exploited diverse niches. New data from this fossil support the view that Asia was likely the center for the diversification of the earliest metatherians and eutherians during the Early Cretaceous.     

广东地质发展简史及植物区系溯源

广东植物区系的发展由来已久，现代的广东植物是晚白垩世或早第三世的孑遗物，地层中存在磊量的古植物化石。如本内苏铁，银杏，苏铁等极为丰富，种子特别是大羽羊齿尤为突出，而且在白垩纪晚期至第三纪的广东地层中，存在着丰富的现代植物的化石或化石孢粉组合，如朴树，桦木、鹅耳枥及松、冷杉、雪松等，还有其它阔叶树和针叶树，所有这些都与广东复杂的地质发展史密切相关，它预示着广东植物区系可能起源于亚带山地，而且广东无颖     

Natural product terpenoids in Eocene and Miocene conifer fossils

Numerous saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons, but not polar compounds, originating from plants and microorganisms (biomarkers) have been reported in sediments, coals, and petroleum. Here we describe natural product terpenoids found in two fossil conifers, Taxodium balticum (Eocene) and Glyptostrobus oregonensis (Miocene). A similar terpenoid pattern is also observed in extant Taxodium distichum. The preservation of characteristic terpenoids (unaltered natural products) in the fossil conifers supports their systematic assignment to the Cypress family (Cupressaceae sensu lato). The results also show that fossil conifers can contain polar terpenoids, which are valuable markers for (paleo)chemosystematics and phylogeny.     

Lignin-like compounds and sporopollenin coleochaete, an algal model for land plant ancestry

Unusual cell wall structure and resistance to microbial degradation led to an investigation of resistant biopolymers in Coleochaete (Chlorophyta, class Charophyceae), a green alga on the evolutionary lineage that led to land plants. In Coleochaete that are undergoing sexual reproduction, vegetative cell walls contain material similar to lignin, a substance generally thought absent from green algae, and the zygote wall includes sporopollenin. Knowledge of chemically resistant compounds in Coleochaete may facilitate interpretation of the fossil record. Placental transfer cells in Coleochaete orbicularis and in the hornwort Anthoceros survive acetolysis and contain lignin-like compounds, implying a close relation between these taxa.     

Eocene angiosperm flowers

Collections of well-preserved angiosperm flowers from the Middle Eocene of southeastern North America include a variety of morphological types. The first of these specimens to be studied extensively, a catkin, has yielded a great deal of structural information. Floral morphology, pollen morphology, and the nature of the peltate scales suggest that this catkin is allied with extant genera of the Juglandaceae. This confirms the antiquity of some of the diagnostic floral and pollen features found in extant genera of the Juglandaceae and the importance of structural information available from fossil angiosperm flowers.     

Toward a systems approach to understanding plant cell walls

One of the defining features of plants is a body plan based on the physical properties of cell walls. Structural analyses of the polysaccharide components, combined with high-resolution imaging, have provided the basis for much of the current understanding of cell walls. The application of genetic methods has begun to provide new insights into how walls are made, how they are controlled, and how they function. However, progress in integrating biophysical, developmental, and genetic information into a useful model will require a system-based approach.     

Winteraceous pollen in the lower cretaceous of Israel: early evidence of a magnolialean angiosperm family

Pollen of the primitive angiosperm family Winteraceae has been discovered in the Aptian-Albian of Israel, extending the fossil record of this phylogenetically important family of flowering plants from the uppermost Upper Cretaceous back some 40 million years to the upper Lower Cretaceous. This appears to represent the earliest known record of a magnolialean angiosperm family and is convincing evidence for the existence in the Early Cretaceous of an extant family of angiosperms.     

Evidence of paleozoic chromosomes from lycopod microgametophytes

A Pennsylvanian arborescent lycopod cone, Lepidostrobus schopfii, has microspores that have been found to have intracellular features that are interpreted as nuclei and mitotic chromosomes. The cellularized gametophytes conform to the early stages of growth that occur in modern Selaginella microgametophytes. Since the megagametophyte of L. schopfii is similar in development to extant species of Isoetes, the fossil now is known to have portions of its life cycle in common with both Selaginella and Isoetes.     

An ostracode crustacean with soft parts from the Lower Silurian

An exceptionally well-preserved ostracode from the Silurian of Herefordshire, United Kingdom, provides a rare view of the fossilized soft-part anatomy of this important group of living crustaceans and confirms that Ostracoda were extant in the Paleozoic. The fossil has striking similarity to the extant myodocopid family Cylindroleberididae, to which it is assigned, and demonstrates remarkable evolutionary stasis over 425 million years. The fossil is identified as a male on the basis of its copulatory organ.     

不同年限设施菜地番茄细胞壁果胶Cd累积的研究

为探讨不同种植年限和设施菜地番茄细胞壁果胶Cd累积的关系,以种植年限为2年和14年设施菜地番茄为研究对象,测定了不同种植年限下番茄茎、叶细胞壁果胶含量,并对细胞壁果胶含量、果胶甲酯酶(PME)活性与种植年限及Cd累积量之间的相关性进行了分析。结果表明,随着种植年限的增加,番茄植株各器官Cd累积量均有所增加;种植14年设施菜地番茄茎中Cd累积量比种植2年的增加了24.55%,叶片中Cd累积量增加了45.96%;种植14年设施菜地番茄茎细胞壁Cd累积量增加了61.86%,叶片细胞壁Cd累积量增加了57.46%;不同种植年限设施菜地番茄茎和叶细胞壁果胶Cd含量也存在极显著差异(P0.05)。另外,随着种植年限的增加,番茄茎、叶细胞壁果胶含量和PME活性随之升高:与种植2年相比,种植14年设施菜地番茄茎中果胶含量提高了104.51%,叶片果胶含量提高了127.45%;种植14年设施菜地番茄茎中PME活性提高了10.56%,叶片PME活性提高了9.39%。果胶含量及PME活性和细胞壁Cd累积量呈正相关。研究发现不同年限设施菜地土壤全Cd和有效Cd含量有所不同,影响着番茄不同器官果胶含量及PME活性,说明细胞壁果胶在缓解番茄Cd毒害中起着一定的作用。     

Cell walls of crown-gall tumors and embryonic plant tissues lack agrobacterium adherence sites

Crown-gall tumor initiation by Agrobacterium tumefaciens is inhibited by cell walls from normal dicotyledonous plants but not by cell walls from crown-gall tumors apparently because of bacterial adherence or nonadherence, respectively, to the different cell walls. Cell walls from normal and tumor tissues in culture also show this difference, indicating that the two types of tissue stably maintain this difference under these conditions. Habituated tissue cultures, which resemble crown-gall tumor cultures, however, form cell walls that are inhibitory like those of the normal cultures from which they are derived. Monocotyledonous plants do not act as hosts for Agrobacterium and bacteria-specific inhibition is not shown by cell walls from several species of grass, a monocot family. Cell wallsfrom "embryonic" tissues (dicot seedlings less than 2 centimeters long), unlike those from older seedlings, are non-inhibitory. Crown-gall tumors thus resemble embryonic tissues in this respect.     

A fossil grass (gramineae: chloridoideae) from the miocene with kranz anatomy

A fossil leaf fragment collected from the Ogallala Formation of northwestern Kansas exhibits features found in taxa of the modern grass subfamily Chloridoideae. These include bullet-shaped, bicellular microhairs, dumbbell-shaped silica bodies, cross-shaped suberin cells, papillae, stomata with low dome- to triangular-shaped subsidiary cells, and Kranz leaf anatomy. The leaf fragment extends the fossil record of plants that show both anatomical and external micromorphological features indicating C(4) photo-synthesis back to the Miocene. On the basis of associated mammals, the leaf fragment is assigned a Hemphillian age (7 to 5 million years ago).     

A molecular phylogeny for bats illuminates biogeography and the fossil record

Bats make up more than 20% of extant mammals, yet their evolutionary history is largely unknown because of a limited fossil record and conflicting or incomplete phylogenies. Here, we present a highly resolved molecular phylogeny for all extant bat families. Our results support the hypothesis that megabats are nested among four major microbat lineages, which originated in the early Eocene [52 to 50 million years ago (Mya)], coincident with a significant global rise in temperature, increase in plant diversity and abundance, and the zenith of Tertiary insect diversity. Our data suggest that bats originated in Laurasia, possibly in North America, and that three of the major microbat lineages are Laurasian in origin, whereas the fourth is Gondwanan. Combining principles of ghost lineage analysis with molecular divergence dates, we estimate that the bat fossil record underestimates (unrepresented basal branch length, UBBL) first occurrences by, on average, 73% and that the sum of missing fossil history is 61%.     

Climate-driven range expansion and morphological evolution in a marine gastropod

Little is known about the phenotypic consequences of global climate change, despite the excellent Pleistocene fossil record of many taxa. We used morphological measurements from extant and Pleistocene populations of a marine gastropod (Acanthinucella spirata) in conjunction with mitochondrial DNA sequence variation from living populations to determine how populations responded phenotypically to Pleistocene climatic changes. Northern populations show little sequence variation as compared to southern populations, a pattern consistent with a recent northward range expansion. These recently recolonized northern populations also contain shell morphologies that are absent in extant southern populations and throughout the Pleistocene fossil record. Thus, contrary to traditional expectations that morphological evolution should occur largely within Pleistocene refugia, our data show that geographical range shifts in response to climatic change can lead to significant morphological evolution.     

Early hominid humerus from East Rudolf, Kenya

A fossil hominid humerus discovered in 1970 by the expedition to East Rudolf, Kenya, led by R. E. F. Leakey is examined in comparison with a large series of extant hominoids. This comparison as well as a multiple discriminant analysis shows the uniqueness of the fossil among the hominoids.     

Ancient bisexual flowers

Fossil flowers discovered in 94-million-year-old clays of the Dakota Formation in Nebraska are among the earliest known demonstrably bisexual flowers. The flowers are of medium size and have pentamerous whorls of clearly differentiated floral parts, petals alternate with the sepals, short stamens are borne opposite the petals, the carpels are fused, and a receptacular disk is present. The pollen is small and tricolporate. These flowers appear to be well adapted to insect pollination. The numerous floral features and pollen characters provide sufficient diagnostic data to assess its systematic position. No extant order accommodates the features of this flower and it shares some features of various extant orders. The classification of flowering plants and our understanding of their evolution must be influenced by the fossilized remains of ancient flowers.     

Fossil evidence for evolution of the shape and color of penguin feathers

Penguin feathers are highly modified in form and function, but there have been no fossils to inform their evolution. A giant penguin with feathers was recovered from the late Eocene (~36 million years ago) of Peru. The fossil reveals that key feathering features, including undifferentiated primary wing feathers and broad body contour feather shafts, evolved early in the penguin lineage. Analyses of fossilized color-imparting melanosomes reveal that their dimensions were similar to those of non-penguin avian taxa and that the feathering may have been predominantly gray and reddish-brown. In contrast, the dark black-brown color of extant penguin feathers is generated by large, ellipsoidal melanosomes previously unknown for birds. The nanostructure of penguin feathers was thus modified after earlier macrostructural modifications of feather shape linked to aquatic flight.     

Hydroxyproline heterooligosaccharides in Chlamydomonas

Most of the hydroxyproline in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is glycosidically linked to oligosaccharides and a monosaccharide that are different from the arabinosides found in hydroxyproline-containing plant cell walls previously examined. Of particular interest is the presence of hydroxyproline-O-galactose. These differences may be common to the volvocalean green algae and may be related to lower tensile strength of the cell walls of this group of plants.     

Zn对水稻吸收转运Cd的影响

通过探究锌(Zn)对水稻吸收、积累镉(Cd)的影响,为揭示水稻体内Zn、Cd互作机制提供理论依据。通过水培实验,研究Cd胁迫下施加Zn对水稻生物量、Cd含量、Cd积累量、根表铁膜成分、细胞壁组分及吸附解析动力学特征的影响。结果表明:与单Cd处理相比,Cd+Zn处理地上部生物量显著下降;根及地上部Cd含量、积累量显著提高;根表铁膜中Fe含量及Cd含量分别提高18.70%和29.99%;比较单Cd与Cd+Zn的细胞壁组分发现,Zn显著降低了水稻根细胞壁中的果胶及半纤维素1(HCl)成分,导致Cd+Zn处理细胞壁吸附能力下降而解吸能力增强。研究表明,Zn促进Cd在根表铁膜中Cd积累量,降低细胞壁的阻隔作用,进而促进水稻对Cd的吸收及转运。