Genetic Capacities Research Articles

Les communautés végétales sont biochimiquement organisées

The biochemical analysis of 100 Phanerogames (five vegetal community from fresh water to Mediterranean matorral) permits to see 1/a general gradient from mineral pool (metals and metalloids) to organic pool (micromolecules; phenols, tanins; macromolecules: lignin, cellulose), mainly based on C content of the photosynthetic apparatus. Synthetic expression is given by the C/N ratio. 2/a contrast between phytocenoses with high (sub-alpine and mattoral) or low (meso-hygrophilic prairie, fresh—water communities) C content. The determinism is both endogenous (genetic and systematic capacities) and exogenous (mesological constraints). Lignosity, evergreeness and sclerophyllia connect leaf biochemical composition and mesological constraints (climate, grazers). The C/N ratio also supports the previous concept of « phytochemical tactics for deterring herbivores », based on the allocation of resources between plants rich in tanins (therefore in C) against those rich in alkaloids (therefore in N). This phytochemical organization illustrate evolutive competition between woody and herbaceous habitus, and is part of the more general concept of adaptative strategies. Far from being due to chance, vegetal communities are subject to an organizing logic expressed on a biochemical level, to be compared with their conventional botanical structure.

Modernidade, disciplina e futebol: uma análise sociológica da produção social do jogador de futebol no Brasil

O trabalho investiga a relação entre modernidade, disciplina e formação do jogador de futebol profissional. Discute o futebol moderno como instituição disciplinadora, dotada de regras, normas e princípios científicos (positividades), tendo como objetivo produzir, manipular, individualizar, adestrar e aperfeiçoar o corpo do indivíduo, tornar o jogador dócil e utilitário. A modernidade, caracterizada pela secularização, subjetivação, triunfo da racionalidade instrumental, domínio da natureza e o surgimento do indivíduo moderno, transforma o ser humano em objeto de conhecimento. O campo empírico da investigação é formado pelas categorias de base do Internacional (RS). A pesquisa constata que a produção social do jogador de futebol consiste num processo de disciplinamento, adaptação, socialização, adestramento, desenvolvimento e aperfeiçoamento das potencialidades físicas e técnicas do atleta, além da administração do seu potencial genético. Trata-se de um processo disciplinador, pedagógico e civilizatório, caracterizado pela regulamentação, controle, institucionalização e racionalização. O jogador de futebol é uma força de trabalho, produto do disciplinamento, treinamentos físicos, técnicos e táticos e do desenvolvimento de suas capacidades genéticas.

Indigenous soil bacteria and low moisture may limit but allow faecal bacteria to multiply and become a minor population in tropical soils

The soil environment in Hawaii is generally characterised as sub-optimal but permissive to support the in situ growth of E. coli and enterococci. However, soil desiccation and competition for nutrients by major indigenous soil microflora have been identified as potential factors that could limit a rapid and continual growth of faecal indicator bacteria in this soil environment. Despite these limitations, the genetic capacities of E. coli and enterococci are robust enough to enable these bacteria to become established as minor populations of Hawaii's soil microflora. Although the concentrations of E. coli and enterococci may have represented a fraction of the total soil microbiota, their presence in this habitat was very significant, for two important reasons: (a) soil was a major environmental source of E. coli and enterococci, and (b) the elevated counts of these bacteria in streams that routinely exceeded the EPA standards were due to run-off from soil. As a result, E. coli and enterococci were inadequate indicators to measure the degree of faecal contamination and potential presence of sewage-borne pathogens in Hawaiian streams.

Exploiting the genetic and biochemical capacities of bacteria for the remediation of heavy metal pollution.

The threat of heavy metal pollution to public health and wildlife has led to an increased interest in developing systems that can remove or neutralise its toxic effects in soil, sediments and wastewater. Unlike organic contaminants, which can be degraded to harmless chemical species, heavy metals cannot be destroyed. Remediating the pollution they cause can therefore only be envisioned as their immobilisation in a non-bioavailable form, or their re-speciation into less toxic forms. While these approaches do not solve the problem altogether, they do help to protect afflicted sites from noxious effects and isolate the contaminants as a contained and sometimes recyclable residue. This review outlines the most important bacterial phenotypes and properties that are (or could be) instrumental in heavy metal bioremediation, along with what is known of their genetic and biochemical background. A variety of instances are discussed in which valuable properties already present in certain strains can be combined or improved through state-of-the-art genetic engineering. In other cases, knowledge of metal-related reactions catalysed by some bacteria allows optimisation of the desired process by altering the physicochemical conditions of the contaminated area. The combination of genetic engineering of the bacterial catalysts with judicious eco-engineering of the polluted sites will be of paramount importance in future bioremediation strategies.

Eugenics and the Misuse of Genetic Information to Restrict Reproductive Freedom: Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics

Eugenics and the Misuse of Genetic Information to Restrict Reproductive Freedom: Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics

Race, Gender and IQ: the social consequence of a pseudo‐scientific discourse[1

Issues of differential intelligence among racial and gendered groups in society seem still to capture the popular imagination even now, 150 years since the rise of social Darwinism. Press reports of black people as less intelligent have been aroused recently in the UK by the publication of The Bell Curve in the USA. Similarly, reports that girls may be outperforming boys in examination results have invoked much media attention, reviving issues of differential genetic capacities between the sexes. This article aims to ask: Why does IQ, as an explanation for differential educational performance between the races and sexes, remain so popular? Despite its controversial empiricism, suspect methodology and inconclusive claims, the appeal of this pseudo‐scientific discourse remains intact. Its logical presentation of facts' and simple causal explanations heralds a ‘new post‐biological discourse’ on ‘difference’. At the end of the twentieth century ideas about innate, genetic, scientifically provable difference are still at the heart of our thinking about race and gender. [1] This paper is the 1997 Lister Lecture, presented at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual Festival of Science, University of Leeds, 10 September 1997.

The occupational brain: A theory of human nature

Abstract This paper, which was presented at the18th Federal and inaugral Pacific Rim Conference in Hobart, Tasmania July 1995, proposes a theory of human nature based on the idea that humans are occupational beings and that indeed the human brain can be described as an occupational brain. Based on the idea that the brain is primarily concerned with healthy survival, it argues that there is a three way link between survival, health and occupation, in that occupation provides the mechanism for people to fulfil basic human needs essential for survival, to adapt to environmental changes, and to develop and exercise genetic capacities according to social and cultural values in order to maintain health.

Influence of dietary intake and genetic capacity for wool growth on the composition of mid-trunk skin of Merino sheep

Some nitrogenous constituents in the skin were examined in sheep from two flocks with different genetic capacities for wool growth and in sheep consuming different diets. In the first comparison, in which the sheep consumed a maintenance (1 x M) ration, the average water, lipid and nitrogen contents of skin were similar for the two flocks. The collagen content of skin from sheep with low wool growth (Fl-) was greater than that in skin of high producers (I?]+)-0.40 v. 0.36 g g-1 dry defatted skin (P < 0.05). The F1+ sheep also maintained lower concentrations of non-peptide cystine in plasma (51 v. 68 8mol L-l: P < 0.05) and in skin (1.1 v. 1.9 8mol g-l dry defatted skin: P < 0.05). In a second experiment, sheep bred from the two flocks (Fl+ and F1-), consumed rations providing either 0.8 x M or 2 x M (the latter diet containing 12.5% formaldehyde treated casein). Trephine-sampled skin from the high producing sheep and from the sheep with greater intake had lower concentrations of collagen per unit mass of skin (P < 0.05), but similar collagen per unit area of skin. Both diet and flock influenced the weight of skin sampled by trephine. The distribution ratios of non-peptide a-amino nitrogen and of cystine between skin and plasma were significantly greater in the F1+ derived sheep: 4.35 v. 3.1 L plasma kg-1 skin for cystine. In a third comparison, skin was sampled from sheep of an unselected flock (n = 50) after each received one of four dietary treatments ranging from 0.7 x M to 2.6 x M (ad lib.) for 60 days. As the dietary allowance increased, the weight of skin per unit area of skin increased, the quantities of total protein and of saponifiable lipid per unit mass of dry skin remained constant, but the content of hydroxyproline significantly decreased from 0.20 to 0.13 mmol g-l dry skin (P < 0.05). The quantities of non-collagenous protein solubilized by first sodium chloride (0.5 mol L-l) and then tartaric acid (0.1 mol L-l) per unit mass of collagen increased significantly with increased intake of feed.

A comparative investigation of the volumes of plasma and extracellular fluids and the renal clearances of urea and creatinine in Merino sheep from flocks with different genetic capacities for wool growth

Adult castrate male Merino sheep (n = 24; average liveweight 47 kg), from two flocks, differing in their genetic capacity for wool growth as a result of selective breeding for clean fleece weight, consumed one of two diets, differing in both quality (i.e. digestibility and nitrogen content) and quantity, termed L and H. The L (low) and H (high) diets supplied 0.42 and 0.81 kg digestible dry matter day-' and 9.5 and 26.0 g nitrogen day-I respectively. We compared the volumes of plasma and extracellular fluids, as well as the concentration of urea in plasma and the rate of clearance of urea by the kidneys of sheep from these two genetic groups, consuming the different diets. The average plasma volume of these sheep, estimated from the dilution of Evan's Blue in plasma, was 2.24 L (s.e. 0.08). The average volume of extracellular fluid, estimated from the dilution of 35S-sulfate, was 10.3 L (s.e. 0.4). These distributional volumes were similar in sheep from the two genetic groups and were not influenced by the dietary treatments. The sheep consuming the H diet maintained significantly greater concentrations of urea-nitrogen in their plasma (7.2 v. 2.8 mmol L-1: s.e. 0.3) and cleared both urea (37.1 v. 16.1 mL min-I : s.e. 5.3) and creatinine (87 v. 49 mL min-1 : s.e. 11) at significantly greater rates from the plasma. The sheep from the two genetic groups had similar average values for these three traits.

Comparative growth ecology of Ascophyllum nodosum from Norway (lat. 63°N) and Wales (LAT. 53°N)

Two populations of Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jol., one from Menai Bridge, Wales, other from Trondheim, Norway, were grown in Trondheim under identical conditions. The two populations showed an equal growth response to light (saturation at 100 Wm −2 at a day-length > 18 h). Temperature optima were 17–18°C and 16°C for the Menai Bridge and Trondheim populations, respectively. In Menai Bridge, local apical growth during April–August was about twice that in Trondheim. When the two populations were exposed to identical conditions (natural light, variable irradiances, different daylengths, different temperatures), the Menai Bridge population had about a 40% better growth rate than the Trondheim population, irrespective of treatment. It is concluded that the differences in local growth rates are partly due to environmental conditions and partly to different genetic growth capacities.

Environmental resistance and the ecology of coexisting hermit crabs: Thermal tolerance

Tolerance to increased water temperatures was determined for four, coexisting species of intertidal hermit crabs, Pagurus samuelis (Stimpson), P. hirsutiusculus venturensis (Coffin), P. granosimanus (Stimpson), and P. hemphilli (Benedict), of central California. All species showed significantly different median survival temperatures after acclimation to both 12 and 20°C. The tolerances corresponded with the intertidal zonation of the species. There was a significant increase in tolerance with an increased acclimation temperature in all species. Size had no effect on the tolerance of P. samuelis. The results support the hypothesis that differential genetic capacities of tolerance are important in influencing distributions. These findings and behavioral observations indicate that thermal conditions comparable with those created by the effluent of electricity generating facilities can cause considerable mortality to hermit crab populations on a local level.