Representation of fish communities by scale sub-fossils in shallow lakes: implications for inferring percid–cyprinid shifts

The palaeoecological potential of fish scales was assessed by comparing contemporary population data with scale remains obtained from littoral (n = 10) and open water (n = 10) surface sediment samples in two English shallow lakes, Selbrigg Pond and Cockshoot Broad. Scales and/or scale fragments were present, in low numbers (<20 per 100 cm³ wet sediment) in 34 of 40 sediment samples. In accordance with fish population data, higher densities of scale remains were found in Selbrigg compared to Cockshoot, and in littoral compared to open water samples. Taxonomic difficulties, exacerbated by scale fragmentation, made it impossible to assign the majority of remains to individual species. Most remains could, however, be placed into one of two groups: (i) percids – represented by both scales and scale fragments; and (ii) cyprinids – largely represented by scale fragments. To allow comparison of fish population and sedimentary scale data, both were converted to percentages of the aggregate percid–cyprinid total. Whole scales recovered were almost exclusively percid (45 of 48), thus bore little resemblance to the contemporary fish data. Nevertheless, percentages of scale fragments (Selbrigg: 34 and 66%; Cockshoot: 13 and 87% percid and cyprinid, respectively) and of whole scales and fragments combined (Selbrigg: 54 and 46%; Cockshoot: 46 and 54% percid and cyprinid, respectively) reflected the presence of the numerically dominant fish groups and the broad inter-site differences in their relative abundance (Selbrigg: 36 and 64%; Cockshoot: 10 and 90% percid and cyprinid, respectively). A running mean of scales per sediment volume indicated that some 400 cm³ of sediment was required to accurately characterise the remains present. This study suggests that, with the appropriate methodological considerations (e.g., collection of large sediment samples), fish scale remains may be used to determine the past presence–absence and relative abundance of percid and cyprinid species. As such, this technique may be a valuable supplementary tool for establishing longer-term changes in the fish communities of shallow lakes.     

一株大口黑鲈(Micropterus salmoides)虹彩病毒(Iridoviridae)的分离及鉴定

2018年7月,浙江省某大口黑鲈(Micropterus salmoides)养殖场暴发疑似病毒引起的疾病。现场采样发现,病鱼体长约15—20cm,鱼体于水面下暗游,反应迟钝,体表有出血点或溃疡症状。本研究通过采用鲤鱼上皮瘤细胞(epithelioma papulosum cyprinid, EPC)培养、超薄切片透射电镜观察、病毒主要衣壳蛋白(majorcapsidprotein,MCP)克隆与测序分析等方法,从患病大口黑鲈中分离得到一株病毒,鉴定其属于虹彩病毒科蛙病毒属,命名为大口黑鲈虹彩病毒宁波分离株(LMBIV-NB001)。EPC经患病鱼组织匀浆液接种后出现细胞圆缩、死亡、脱落等典型的细胞病变症状。将感染后的EPC细胞制作超薄切片,通过电镜观察发现,EPC细胞质中存在大量直径约120nm具囊膜的正六边形成熟病毒粒子,形态与虹彩病毒相似。根据虹彩病毒MCP基因保守区域序列设计特异性引物对病鱼组织样本进行PCR扩增,获得了1029bp的目的基因片段。将该扩增片段连入pMD19-T simple质粒后测序,经BLAST比对分析显示,其与GenBank中已报道的鳜鱼蛙病毒NH-1609、大口黑鲈溃疡综合征病毒BG/TH/CU3、EPC060608-08的MCP基因同源性最高,相似度均达到99.13%。构建系统进化树分析表明,本研究分离的LMBIV-NB001株与NC_038508、GU256635、MG941005等虹彩病毒科蛙病毒属毒株聚成一簇。本论文研究结果为不同地区蛙病毒属成员的起源和分化等相关研究等提供了基础材料。