甲型流感病毒PB1-PA蛋白作用位点的发现与分析

基于共进化理论,探究了甲型流感病毒PB1蛋白与PA蛋白上具有共同进化可能性的保守九聚片段(C9MP)。结构信息显示PB1蛋白的第1-15位氨基酸与PA蛋白的第239-716位氨基酸具有相互作用域;对该区域变异分布的分析发现,PA蛋白第670位氨基酸Q所在的C9MP与PB1蛋白的第9位氨基酸F、第12位氨基酸V和第13位氨基酸P所在的C9MP在PB1MP1相互作用面上具有最低的共进化值。结合DSSP程序的分析表明,由PA蛋白第670位氨基酸Q与PB1蛋白的第9位氨基酸F、第12位氨基酸V与第13位氨基酸P构成的区域可能成为潜在的相互作用位点。

A Theoretical Analysis of Interactive Coercing Effects Between Urbanization and Eco-environment

Objectively, a complex interactive coercing relationship exists between urbanization and eco-environment, and the research of this relationship is primarily divided into three schools, i.e., interactive coercion theory, interactive promotion theory and coupling symbiosis theory. Harmonizing the relationship between urbanization and eco-environment is not only an important proposition for the national development plan but also the only way to promote healthy urbanization. Based on an analysis of urbanization process and its relationship with the eco-environment, this article analyzes interactive coercing effects between urbanization and eco-environment from three perspectives of population urbanization, economic urbanization and spatial urbanization, respectively, and analyzes risk effects of the interactive coercion. Further, it shows six basic laws followed by interactive coercion between urbanization and eco-environment, namely, coupling fission law, dynamic hierarchy law, stochastic fluctuation law, non-linear synergetic law, threshold value law and forewarning law, and divides the interactive coercing process into five stages, namely, low-level coordinate, antagonistic, break-in, ameliorative and high-grade coordinate. Based on the geometric derivation, the interactive coercing relationship between urbanization and eco-environment is judged to be non-linear and it can be explained by a double-exponential function formed by the combination of power and exponential functions. Then, the evolutionary types of the interactive coercing relationship are divided into nine ones: rudimentary coordinating, ecology-dominated, synchronal coordinating, urbanization lagging, stepwise break-in, exorbitant urbanization, fragile ecology, rudimentary break-in and unsustainable types. Finally, based on an interactive coercion model, the degree of interactive coercion can be examined, and then, an evolutionary cycle can be divided into four phases, namely rudimentary symbiosis, harmonious development, utmost increasing and spiral type rising. The study results offer a scientific decision-making of healthy urbanization for achieving the goal of eco-environment protection and promoting urbanization.

A coevolutionary framework based on temporal and spatial ecology of host-parasite interactions:A missing link in studies of brood parasitism

A central tenet of coevolutionary theory,including theory of the coevolutionary relationship between brood parasites and their hosts,is that temporal and spatial patterns may reveal important information about ecological and evolutionary dynamics.For instance,level of genetic structure of populations provides important information about the role of genetics and gene ow in determining local patterns of selection on hosts due to parasitism(i.e.,egg rejection) and on parasites due to selection by hosts(i.e.,egg mimicry).Furthermore,abiotic(i.e.,climatic conditions) and biotic(phenotypic characteristics of animals) factors that also vary spatially may directly or indirectly a ect populations of hosts and brood parasites and,therefore,their interaction.By reviewing the literature,we found considerable evidence for an e ect of the spatially and temporally structured abiotic environment on the phenotype of both parasite and host eggs and the degree of mimicry.Moreover,we found examples suggesting that speci c life history characteristics of hosts that vary geographically and/or temporally may a ect the probability of initial colonization of a new host species and the direction and the speed of coevolution.We provide an exhaustive review of studies investigating temporal and spatial patterns of the interaction between brood parasites and their hosts.Such temporal and spatial trends in parasite and host traits are,together with genetic information on rejection and signi cant e ects of gene ow,consistent with coevolutionary dynamics.However,gene ow and changes in the temporal and spatial patterns of abundance of both parasites and hosts may result in frequent cases of counter-intuitive relationships between the phenotype of the parasite and that of the host(i.e.,poor or no mimicry),which may suggest limits to the degree of adaptation.We provide a list of scienti c questions in need of further investigation,concluding that studies of brood parasites and their hosts may play a central role in testing the geographic theory of coevolution and several alternative hypotheses.

Does landscape structure contribute to the long-term maintenance of generalized parasitism in cowbirds?

Unlike most brood parasites, several species of cowbird (Molothrus) are generalists that parasitize multiple host species across their range and within the same communities; likewise, there is little evidence that individuals within a population specialize on host species. This situation has variously been attributed to the recency of cowbird evolution (the 'evolutionary lag' hypothesis) or to hidden costs of rejection by hosts (the 'equilibrium' hypothesis). Both hypotheses have some support as cowbirds are indeed a relatively young clade compared with more specialized cuckoos and cowbirds are capable of sophisticated behaviors such as retaliation against rejection ('mafia' behaviors) that would select for acceptance of cowbird eggs. Nevertheless, many species in the Americas have evolved specialized defenses against cowbird parasitism, almost all of which live in more open habitats (e. g., grasslands, shrublands, riparian strips), which indicates that coevolutionary processes can operate in ways that select for host defenses in spite of cowbird counterdefenses. We propose that the structure of landscapes in North America may explain why forest-nesting birds lack defenses against parasitism and reinforce the long-term maintenance of generalized brood parasitism in cowbirds. Because cowbirds require open habitats in which to feed, they are rare or absent in large forest tracts, which dominate much of the forest cover of the Americas. These tracts act as 'source habitats' that produce surplus young that recolonize populations in smaller, fragmented forest patches in which rates of both cowbird parasitism and nest predation are very high ('sink' habitats). Evolution of antiparasite adaptations would be very slow in this situation because most hosts are produced in areas where there is little or no cowbird parasitism. In addition, the interplay of host breeding dispersal, source-sink metapopulation dynamics, and fragmented forest habitat could further deter the evolution of host defenses against parasitism. Therefore, as long as large forest tracts remain widespread in North America, most forest birds will likely continue to lack defenses against cowbird parasitism, guaranteeing a steady supply of na ve hosts in forest habitats, even in fragmented landscapes. This situation will, in turn, favor host generalist cowbirds that actively avoid more open habitats in favor of parasitizing forest bird communities. These forest communities may also act as source populations for cowbirds, which might pump surplus generalist cowbirds into more open habitats further slowing the coevolutionary process. As long as large forest tracts are a common part of the landscape, generalist parasitism may persist indefinitely.

A theoretical exploration of the origin and early evolution of a pandemic

A virus that can cause a global pandemic must be highly adaptive to human conditions.Such adaptation is not likely to have emerged suddenly but,instead,may have evolved step by step with each step favored by natural selection.It is thus necessary to develop a theory about the origin in order to guide the search.Here,we propose such a model whereby evolution occurs in both the virus and the hosts(where the evolution is somatic;i.e.,in the immune system).The hosts comprise three groups–the wild animal hosts,the nearby human population,and farther-away human populations.The theory suggests that the conditions under which the pandemic has initially evolved are:(i)an abundance of wild animals in the place of origin(PL_(0));(ii)a nearby human population of low density;(iii)frequent and long-term animal-human contacts to permit step-by-step evolution;and(iv)a level of herd immunity in the animal and human hosts.In this model,the evolving virus may have regularly spread out of PL_(0) although such invasions often fail,leaving sporadic cases of early infections.The place of the first epidemic(PL_(1)),where humans are immunologically naïve to the virus,is likely a distance away from PL_(0).Finally,this current model is only a first attempt and more theoretical models can be expected to guide the search for the origin of SARS-CoV-2.