A 2015-ös év algája szavazás jelöltjei = The Algae of the Year 2015 – Candidates of the election

Míg a szabad szemmel látható állat-, illetve növényvilággal kapcsolatos ismeretterjesztés széleskörűvé vált, addig a mikroszkopikus világ tudományos igényű ismeretterjesztő bemutatására kevés példát találni. Hagyományteremtő céllal 2015-ben első alkalommal hirdette meg az Algológus Fórum az „Év Algája” internetes szavazást. A végső szavazásra javasolt három algafaj a Didymosphenia geminata, Haematococcus pluvialis és Prymnesium parvum voltak, melyek közül a Haematococcus pluvialis fajra érkezett a szavazatok döntő többsége. A három faj ökológiai és gazdasági vonatkozásainak, valamint hazai elterjedésük bemutatásán keresztül kívánjuk megmutatni, hogy a mikroszkopikus világ képviselői is kellően színesek és érdekesek lehetnek ahhoz, hogy nagyobb teret kapjanak a tudományos ismeretterjesztésben. Tanulmányunk felhívja a figyelmet az algák vízi ökoszisztémákban betöltött alapvető szerepére, esetleges gazdasági jelentőségükre, valamint a földi élet fenntartásában nélkülözhetetlen szerepükre.</jats:p

Enhanced ecological indication based on combined planktic and benthic functional approaches in large river phytoplankton ecology

The occurrence of benthic diatoms in large river plankton is considered to be highly stochastic. Accordingly, the widely-applied phytoplankton functional group concept sensu Reynolds (FG) classifies all benthic diatom taxa together. Based on data of a high frequency 1-year long phytoplankton survey of the Pearl River (China), we tested whether the combination of the FG system with various trait-based classifications of benthic diatoms enhances our ability in predicting the community composition from the local environment. Using the Self Organizing Map approach, we identified characteristic community compositions based on (i) taxonomic data, (ii) the FG approach, and (iii) the FG system combined with trait-based functional approaches of benthic diatoms: size structure, ecological guilds, and eco-morphological groups. All combined functional approaches enabled better predictions for the community composition than the taxonomic data or the FG system alone. The most reliable approach was the combination of the FG system with ecological guilds of benthic diatoms. Therefore, the occurrence of benthic diatoms in large river phytoplankton can be assessed ecologically in a meaningful way based on combined planktic and benthic functional classifications. The application of such an approach seems to be highly relevant in large river phytoplankton ecology, ecological modelling, or ecological status indication

Nuclear actin: ancient clue to evolution in eukaryotes?

Until recently it was widely accepted that the dynamic cytoskeletal matrix is exclusive to the cytoplasm of eukaryotes, evolving before the emergence of the cell nucleus to enable phagocytosis, cell motility and the sophisticated functioning of the endomembrane system within the cytosol. The discovery of the existence of a prokaryotic cytoskeleton has changed this picture significantly. As a result, the idea has taken shape that the appearance of actin occurred in the very first cell; therefore, the emergence of microfilaments precedes that of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. The discovery of nuclear actin opened new perspective on the field, suggesting that the nuclear activities of actin reflect the functions of primordial actin-like proteins. In this paper, we review the recent literature to explore the evolutionary origin of nuclear actin. We conclude that both ancient and eukaryotic features of the actin world can be detected in the nucleus today, which supports the idea that the cytoskeleton attained significant eukaryotic innovations before the tandem evolution of the cytoskeleton and nucleus occurred