ALBERT

Notes: SUMMARY. The growth and recession of macrophytes on a shaded section of the R. Lambourn were documented by a mapping procedure. With the exception of Ranunculus spp., the changes in total cover did not indicate directly the pattern of growth and recession of the macrophyles. Analysis of gross changes, expressed as gains and losses on cover, indicated that colonization of gravel and silt by the dominant macrophyte, Berula erecta, did not vary seasonally. Colonization was at a constant rate of about 8% of the site each month throughout the year and this accounted for 50% of the total number of gains by Berula. Gains of Berula from Ranunculus showed an annual cycle with a maximum during the summer when Ranunculus was in recession. Gains of Berula from Callitriche spp. also varied annually but the maximum was during the autumn. Total losses of Berula were at a constant rate throughout the year but were to gravel and silt during the winter, to Ranunculus in spring and early summer and to Callitriche in late summer and autumn. Analysis of loss of Berula with time indicated that the position of the Berula carpet was constantly changing. The growth and recession of Berula could not be linked in a meaningful way to environmental variables. Callitriche and Ranunculus both showed an annual pattern of growth and recession. There was temporal separation of the two macrophytes with Ranunculus growing mainly in spring and early summer and Callitriche showing maximum growth in late summer and autumn, and some evidence of spatial separation. The observed differences between years in the growth of Callitriche could not be attributed to any of the environmental variables measured.Discharge was thought to be an important variable controlling the growth of Ranunculus since increase of Ranunculus in the spring was positively correlated with the mean discharge at that time. In years when discharge was low, the growth of Rununculus appeared to be restricted by shading from epiphytic algae which accumulated on the plant surfaces under these conditions.

Notes: Abstract. Stomatal conductance and needle water potential of P. radiata clones were measured after 2, 5 and 8 months on plants grown in controlled environment rooms with markedly different water vapour saturation deficits (D). Conductance was significantly lower at high D, but water potential differences between treatments were not significant. When trees were moved between treatments most of the changes in conductances occurred within 2 h, with residual changes after 24 h. Water potentials were not different 24 h after the trees were moved. The effects were completely reversible.Transpiration rates of individual trees were highest in the high D treatment and lowest in the low D treatment. They were not linearly related to D because of decreasing conductance with increasing D.Height growth, diameter growth and foliage areas were not significantly different between treatments. Tracheid lumen diameters tended to be larger in trees grown at higher D although treatment differences were not significant.There were significant clonal differences in shoot conductance and tracheid dimensions.

Notes: SYNOPSIS. Paramecium multimicronucleatum has been cultured for 20 years on a medium of salts, vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, ribosides, and stigmasterol plus a little nondialyzable fraction (NDF) of baker's yeast. Fractionations of NDF identified 2 essentials: (a) in a fraction 〈 100,000 daltons which contained much protein and replaceable by ovalbumin and (b) in a fraction of 〈 300,000 daltons; this fraction contained much polysaccharide, replaceable by glycogen, which is 〉 300,000 daltons. For 2 years now P. multimicronucleatum has grown well with ovalbumin and glycogen replacing NDF. Besides ovalbumin, concanavalin A satisfies the protein requirement; this lectin attaches to sugar residues in glycogen. Studies with a fluorescent dye, PGA-1A, a stilbene derivative, provides further evidence for the polysaccharide requirement. This dye attaches to polysaccharides; when added to glycogen, and this in turn is added to a culture containing ovalbumin, fluorescent blue vacuoles appear within 2–3 h. When dye + glycogen were added to a culture without ovalbumin, no fluorescent vacuoles were found. A protein appears involved in formation of food vacuoles; this fits the pattern for endocytosis described in recent reviews. Besides glycogen, mannan gave good growth. Dextrin and amylopectin gave only fair growth through 7 serial transfers; glucose, maltose and amylose did not sustain growth. Strain 51 of P. tetratrelia, which grows well in NDF medium, grows well when NDF is replaced with ovalbumin and glycogen.

Notes: Soybeans, Glycine max (L.) Merr., from ureides for transport of nitrogen from the root nodule to the shoot. The most direct routes for ureide utilization include the degradation of ureide-derived urea to NH3 and CO2. Ureolytic activity was found in leaf disks of soybean and exhbited optimal activity at pH 7 in the presence of a high concentration of urea (250 mM). In vitro studies showed neither urea amidolyase nor urea dehydrogenase activity in soybean leaves and the ureolytic activity was characterized as urease. Several biochemical properties of soybean leaf urease were determined and compared to seed urease properties. Soybean leaf urease differed from that of seed in five ways: pH optima (5.25 and 8.75), apparent Km (0.8 mM), no inhibition by hydroxyurea, faster electrophoretic mobility and no cross-reactivity with soybean seed urease antibodies. The data suggest that urease is the primary urea metabolizing enzyme present in soybean leaves. The properties of soybean leaf urease support the conclusion that a unique isozyme of urease is present in leaf tissue.

Notes: Abstract. Several factors affecting the potency of Yersinia ruckeri bacterins were evaluated by vaccinating rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri Richardson, with various bacterins using the immersion method and determining the level of protective immunity after a virulent challenge. The potency of bacterins prepared with tryptic soya broth at room temperature was not affected by growth at pH from 6.5 to 7.7 or by a culture age from 9 to 96 h. Chloroform and formalin inactivated (0.3%) bacterins gave comparable results and no enhancement of potency occurred by prior extraction of bacterial cells with either butanol or phenol. Cell lysis, as measured by reduced optical density, occurred when cells were held at pH 9–8 for 60 to 120 min. Bacterins prepared from pH-lysed cells resulted in a significant increase in protective immunity. Bacterins prepared at pH 7.2 for 48 h, pH-lysed and inactivated with 0.3 % formalin could be diluted up to 1:100 without loss of efficacy when applied to rainbow trout by a single 20 s immersion. However, with bacterin diluted 1:10 loss of potency occurred after 20 consecutive immersions (100 kg of fish) in the same bacterin at a rate of 0.5 kg/1 of diluted bacterin for each immersion. Factors affecting optimum duration of immunity are discussed.

Notes: Abstract. A bacterium resembling Aeromonas salmonicida and determined to be the aetiologic agent of a cutaneous ulcerative disease in goldfish Carassius auratus (L.) was further characterized in this study.Forty-five isolates of the bacterium (43 from the United States and one each position (moles % guanine plus cytosine) and DNA homology. The bacteriological atypical A. salmonicida previously described. Several important biochemical characteristics distinguished the goldfish isolates from typical A. salmanicida, but the DNA binding experiments indicated a high degree of relatedness between the goldfish isolates and typical A. salmonicida strains.

Notes: The genetic basis of the restriction imposed on T cell mediating acquired antimicrobial resistance and delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) to Listeria in the rat was investigated. Sharing of MHC-coded genes between donors of sensitized T cells and antigen-stimulated recipients was both necessary and sufficient for efficient transfer of both resistance and DTH. Evidence to support this assumption was derived from experiments involving allogeneic transfers within major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-compatible strains and across MHC-barriers. Further support came from linkage studies with backcrossed rats and with the progeny of F1 rats mated with an unrelated strain. An unexpected difference in the compatibility requirements for effective transfer of DTH and resistance was noted in experiments involving the BI strain (formerly called B3). Thus, while B-region compatibility was obligatory for expression of DTH in recipients of sensitized T cells, considerable levels of protection could be transferred to either A-region or B-region compatible hosts.

Notes: SUMMARY. The distribution of Austropotamobius pallipes, the only freshwater crayfish indigenous to the British Isles, is examined using over 300 records collected since 1970. The majority of records are for England where crayfish are found in areas associated with base-rich easily weathered substrata. Waters containing crayfish tend to be in the pH range 7–9, with calcium levels above 5 mg l−1. Crayfish are found in a wide variety of habitats ranging from deep water-filled quarries with a soft substratum to shallow fast-flowing streams.

Notes: SUMMARY. 1. Macro-invertebrate species lists were obtained for 268 sites on forty-one river systems throughout Great Britain by qualitative sampling in spring, summer and autumn. Information on twenty-eight environmental variables was also collated for each site. The sites were ordinated on the basis of their species content using detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and classified by two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN). Correlation coefficients between ordination scores and single environmental variables indicated that Axis 1 distinguished between types of rivers and Axis 2 reflected variation along the length of rivers. A preliminary classification of sites into sixteen groups has been proposed, together with a key which allows new sites to be classified. Information on the species and environmental features which characterize each group is also presented.2. Multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) was employed to predict the group membership of the 268 sites using the twenty-eight environmental variables. 76.1% of sites were classified correctly. An independent assessment of predictive ability using forty test sites yielded a 50% success rate. Predictive ability was higher for the classification presented in this paper than in fifteen additional classifications produced using data from single seasons and/or different taxonomic treatments.3. TWINSPAN and MDA were found to be useful approaches to the classification of running-water sites by their macro-invertebrate fauna and the prediction of community type (as indicated by the occurrence of species in the sites comprising the group) using environmental variables. Extension of the scope of the classification, coupled with the use of additional environmental variables to increase predictive ability, is now in progress.

Notes: SUMMARY. 1. Macro-invertebrate samples were collected from 268 running-water sites in Great Britain in each of three seasons (spring, summer and autumn). A combined seasons’treatment was generated by amalgamating the individual seasons’data. These four seasonal options were each subjected to four distinct taxonomic analyses differing in level of identification and whether the data were quantitative or qualitative. Thus sixteen data-sets were available for analysis. Environmental data on physical and chemical variables, macrophyte cover and date of sampling were also recorded for each site.2. All sixteen data-sets were ordinated by detrended correspondence analysis and classified by two-way indicator species analysis. There were strong correlations between the sixteen ordinations and significant concordance between classifications.3. The relationships between ordination scores and single environmental variables were investigated. Muhiple discriminant analysis was used to fit environmental data to eight selected classifications covering the full range of seasonal and taxonomic treatments. The environmental variables most useful in distinguishing between rivers were substratum characteristics, alkalinity and total oxidized nitrogen. Within-river differences were often highly correlated with discharge, distance from source, width and depth. Slope and altitude contributed strongly to both between-river and within-river distinctions.4. Between-site variation (beta diversity), eigenvalues of ordination, the reliability of classifications, the proportion of sites correctly assigned to their biological group using environmental data and the standardized similarity between observed and predicted fauna were all higher when identifications were taken to species level, rather than one of three family treatments. Qualitative data on a reduced list of families gave comparable or better results than more detailed family treatments.5. Combined seasons’data enabled better categorization and prediction than single season's.6. The values of the Czekanowski Index of Similarity between the observed and predicted fauna of test sites were close to realistic maximum values.7. Recommendations are made concerning potential usages of the various classifications. The species level classification has uses in the field of conservation and in the prediction of biological response to environmental change. The family level classifications have value in developing local site inventories and in the interpretation of pollution surveillance programmes.