Phosphorus in suspended matter and sediments of a hypertrophic lake. A case study: Lake Dianchi, China

From June 2004 to December 2004, Lake Dianchi, which had large scale of cyanobacterial blooms was investigated in order to study P-fractionation in the suspended matter and the sediment. The investigation improves our understanding of phosphorus in Lake Dianchi and the relationship between phosphorus and cyanobacterial blooms. It contributes to the available literature on the behavior of P in hypertrophic lakes. The distribution of P-fractions in Lake Dianchi was not uniform from northwest to south, but was closely related to the trophic status of the whole lake. The concentrations of total phosphorus, labile P (NH4Cl-P), Organic P (NaOH-NRP) and loss on ignition in suspended matter were positively correlated with the strength of cyanobacterial blooms. Total phosphorus in suspended matter was relatively stable for almost half an year and closely related to Chl. a concentration. The main content of organic phosphorus is in the cyanobacterial blooms. The concentrations of phosphorus bound to metal oxides and carbonates (NaOH-SRP and HCl-P) in sediment were similar to NaOH-SRP and HCl-P in the corresponding suspended matter. The latter two forms of P in suspended matter were not affected by cyanobacterial blooms, indicating that the inorganic phosphorus is derived from the sediment after resuspension from the sediment due to wind and wave action. The contribution of the different P-fractions to TP in sediment and in suspended matter indicates that NH4Cl-P in the suspended matter is an important buffer for maintaining dissolved phosphorus in water.

The onset of foreign gene transcription in nuclear-transferred embryos of fish

The transcriptional onset of hGH-transgene in fish was studied in the following three cases: the first is in MThGH-transgenic F-4 common carp (Cyprinus carpio) embryos, the second is in nuclear-transferred embryos supported by the transgenic F-4 embryonic nuclei, and the third is in nuclear-transferred embryos supported by the transgenic F-4 tail-fin nuclei. RT-PCR results show that the hGH-transgene initiates its transcriptional activity from early-gastrula stage, the early blastula stage and even 16-cell stage in the first, second and third cases, respectively. it looks like that fish egg cytoplasm could just offer a very restricted reprogramming on transcriptional activity of specific gene in differentiated cell nuclei by nuclear transplantation.