Interactions between plants and soil microbial communities underpin processes forest ecosystem function, but the links tree diversity are poorly characterized. Differences in both taxonomic functional of trees microbes can shape nutrient status carbon storage, stoichiometry nutrients also influences resource availability to plant communities. Given key role plant–soil interactions, we hypothesi...

Proteins are synthesized in the cell as sequential strings of amino acids. However, ribosome-emerging polypeptide chains are not active and they have to fold into a usually unique three-dimensional (3D) structure to become functional. Many proteins have been shown to attain spontaneously in vitro their native state from an initially complex ensemble of unfolded conformations in the absence of t...

Traditional models of chemostat systems looking at interactions between predator, prey and nutrients have used only a single currency, such as energy or nitrogen. In reality, growth of autotrophs and heterotrophs may be limited by various elements, e.g. carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous or iron. In this study we develop a dynamic energy budget model chemostat which has both carbon and nitrogen as c...

We examined the relationship between growth rate, C:N:P stoichiometry, and nucleic acid content in Drosophila melanogaster. The "Growth Rate Hypothesis" predicts that N and P contents per unit body mass will be high during ontogenetic stages characterized by rapid growth, reflecting the large requirement for P-rich ribosomal RNA during these periods. The ratio of RNA:DNA also is predicted to ch...

By using 1-methyl-4-(carbomethoxy)pyridinium (MCMP+) as counterions, two iodoargentate hybrids, 1D [MCMP][AgI2] (1) and 3D [MCMP][Ag3I4] (2) have been synthesized and they exhibit rare electron transfer photochromism with a fast response rate, a wide response range and a long-lived charge-separated state in iodometallate systems. Noteworthily, the marked differences in the structure and photoch...

Plant residue decomposition and the nutrient release to the soil play a major role in global carbon and nutrient cycling. Although decomposition rates vary strongly with climate, nitrogen immobilization into litter and its release in mineral forms are mainly controlled by the initial chemical composition of the residues. We used a data set of approximately 2800 observations to show that these g...

The competitive exclusion principle (CEP) states that no equilibrium is possible if n species exploit fewer than n resources. This principle does not appear to hold in nature, where high biodiversity is commonly observed, even in seemingly homogenous habitats. Although various mechanisms, such as spatial heterogeneity or chaotic fluctuations, have been proposed to explain this coexistence, none...

Shaker potassium channels from Drosophila are composed of four identical subunits. The contribution of a single subunit to the inactivation gating transition was investigated. Channels carrying a specific mutation in a single subunit can be labeled in a heterogeneous population and studied quantitatively with scorpion toxin sensitivity as a selection tag. Linkage within a single subunit of a mu...