The Potential Effects of Social Interactions on Reproductive Efficiency of Stallions

The reproductive efficiency of stabled domestic stallions is often lower than what could be expected from observations in feral herds. In the wild, stallions typically live with mares in harem bands, with other stallions in bachelor bands, or occasionally in mixed-sex transitional bands. We, therefore, argue that permanent contact with mares may increase reproductive efficiency of stallions suffering from low libido and/or fertility. We also provide a summary of our present knowledge of natural conditions, management, and husbandry of domestic stallions, and of intra- and intersexual behavioral interactions in horses.     

The emerging significance of bioacoustics in animal species conservation

This review reports on the effects of human activities on animal acoustic signals published in the literature from 1970 to 2009. Almost 5% of the studies on variation in animal communication tested or hypothesised on human impacts, and showed that habitat fragmentation, direct human disturbance, introduced diseases, urbanization, hunting, chemical and noise pollution may challenge animal acoustic behaviour. Although acoustic adaptations to anthropogenic habitats have been documented, human impacts have most often generated neutral variation or potential maladaptive responses. Negative impacts have been postulated in the sexual signals of fishes, amphibians, birds, and mammals; these are concerning as any maladaptive alteration of sexual behaviour may have direct bearings on breeding success and ultimately population growth rate. Acoustic communication also facilitates other vital behaviours influenced by human-driven perturbations. Bat and cetacean echolocation, for instance, is disrupted by noise pollution, whereas bird and mammal alarming is also affected by introduced diseases and hunting. Mammal social signals are sensitive to noise pollution and hunting, and birds selecting habitats by means of acoustic cues are especially vulnerable to habitat loss. Anthropogenic intervention in these cases may have a negative impact on individual survival, recruitment and group cohesion, limiting rescue-effects and triggering Allee effects. Published evidence shows that acoustic variation may be used as an early-warning indicator of perturbations even when not directly affecting individual fitness. Acoustic signalling can be studied in a broad range of ecosystems, can be recorded, analyzed, synthesised and played back with relative ease and limited economic budget, and is sensitive to many types of impacts, thus can have great conservation significance.     

国内儿童性早熟研究的文献计量分析

采用文献计量学方法对1979-2010年国内儿童性早熟研究文献的地区分布、单位分布、作者分布、研究方向分布以及作者合作度与合作率进行了分析,为我国儿童新早熟研究者提供参考。     

Production of two mandarin × trifoliate orange hybrid populations via embryo rescue with verification by SSR analysis

Intergeneric sexual hybridizations were conducted between two genera of Rutaceae, with Satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc) and Red tangerine (C. reticulata Blanco) as maternal parents, and Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf as the paternal parent, in an effort to generate hybrid populations for both molecular mapping and rootstock breeding. Embryo rescue is important for citrus sexual breeding because polyembryony can interfere with hybrid embryo recovery. Immature embryos of 80, 85, 90 days after pollination (DAP) from the Satsuma mandarin (S) × trifoliate orange (P) cross, 80 and 85 DAP from the Red tangerine (R) × trifoliate orange (P) cross, were cultured on MG1.0 medium consisting of MT basal medium supplemented with 1.0 mg l⁻¹ GA₃ and 4% sucrose. The results showed that 80 DAP was the optimal time for embryo rescue of the tested crosses, as evidenced by embryos at this stage exhibiting high germination rates, 37.3% for S × P and 51.3% for R × P. Among the eight tested media, MT medium supplemented with 0.5 mg l⁻¹ GA₃ was the best one for Satsuma mandarin, and MT plus 1.0 mg l⁻¹ GA₃ for Red tangerine. A total of 85 plants were obtained from S × P, and 340 from R × P. Out of them, 44 progenies from S × P and 111 from R × P were sufficiently confirmed to be hybrids by morphological characterization and SSR analysis. In addition, two hybrid callus lines were obtained from S × P and R × P respectively.     

恶疫霉有性生殖交配行为的研究

 对同宗配合疫霉种——恶疫霉(Phytophthora cactorum Schroter)抗甲霜灵突变株和抗地茂散突变株的抗药性在游动孢子和卵孢子后代的遗传分析,筛选到抗性分别由细胞核纯合显性单基因控制的抗甲霜灵突变株和由细胞质可稳定遗传的线粒体基因控制的抗地茂散突变株。将携带抗甲霜灵对地茂散敏感(即Mt^rCn^s)标记的亲本与携带抗地茂散对甲霜灵敏感(即Mt^sCn^r)标记的亲本共同培养,在200个有性生殖单卵孢后代中检测到携带3种不同抗药性标记的单孢株,其中32株携带Mt^rCn^s标记,165株携带Mt^sCn^r标记,另有3株同时携带双亲的标记性状即MtrCnr。结果表明:恶疫霉种内不同菌株共同培养时,有性生殖以配对亲本的各自自交为主,同时配对亲本间也可发生一定频率的杂交。     

天麻质量与有性杂交态势关系的研究

通过对不同质量的麻种进行栽培，对其株数、茎粗、株穗长、有效开花数、株有效数和成果率进行观察统计，并通过方差分析和通径分析，结果表明，不同天麻质量对有性杂交态势存在着极显著的影响。有性杂交态势性状对成果率的影响差异明显。选择质量好的母麻种是天麻进行有性杂交的关键。     

放牧对冷蒿繁殖特性的影响

重度放牧对冷蒿(Artemisia frigida)的有性生殖具有严重的阻碍作用,严重影响其有性生殖;冷蒿生殖枝分化率、生殖枝花序数、种子产量、种子成熟度和发芽率之间在同一牧压下表现并不一致,在不同牧压下存在一定的平衡关系;放牧强度起调节作用是冷蒿对放牧的适应机制.     

‘正午’牡丹有性生殖败育的形态学观察

 采用光镜和杂交等方法对牡丹远缘杂交一代品种‘正午’有性生殖败育进行系统形态学观察发现: (1) 雄蕊较雌蕊先成熟, 初花期即散粉, 正常2 - 细胞花粉仅占2.41% , 且花粉在多种培养液中、在自身和其它两种柱头上均不萌发; 柱头在谢花期大量分泌粘液, 进入最佳授粉状态; (2) 同一胚珠中多个大孢子母细胞减数分裂高度不同步, 胚囊发育与受精延迟, 部分胚乳游离核在细胞化时期分裂异常;(3) 自花及品种内异花授粉不结实, 天然授粉结实率为0.053‰～0.130‰。认为‘正午’牡丹有性生殖败育的主要原因是不能形成足够多的有生活力的配子和缺乏有效授粉。     

不同放牧制度大针茅草原植物种群有性繁殖能力研究

放牧制度对锡林郭勒大针茅草原植物种群有性繁殖能力有一定影响,对适口性不同的植物其影响结果不同.大针茅草原适度放牧利用能显著降低植物种群单位面积生殖枝数、种子数及其萌发力.划区轮牧与连续放牧相比,划区轮牧有利于提高适口性好的糙隐子草种群结实生殖枝数、种子雨和种子萌发力;连续放牧有利于提高适口性差的大针茅种群结实生殖枝数、种子雨及其萌发力.     

羊栖菜的研究述评

分布于太平洋西北部的大型褐藻羊栖菜具有较高的营养和药用价值，在过去十几年中，羊栖菜自然资源遭到了过度开发而破坏，由于对该藻还缺乏足够了解，全人工资源目前还没有很好的解决，为促进该生物资源的合理开发利用，本文结合作者研究工作的进展，对国内外在羊栖菜生物学和药学方面的研究、目前开发和利用现状进行了全面概述，并提出了存在的问题，对下一步发展趋势做了分析和展望。