[1] Mesoscale eddy properties in the northwestern subtropical Pacific Ocean are investigated by analyzing 22,567 cyclonic eddies (CEs) and 26,365 anticyclonic eddies (AEs) detected from 19 year altimetric sea level records. Eddy occurrence frequency and kinetic energy are prevailingly high in the Subtropical Countercurrent zonal band between 19 N and 26 N and further elevated near the Luzon-Taiwan coast. A general superiority of AEs is observed at most latitudes except between 19 N and 22 N, where the CE number is larger. The modal radius and mean lifespan of the CEs (AEs) are 134 km and 11.2 weeks (121 km and 10.9 weeks), respectively. After generation, most eddies propagate westward with a mean speed of 7.2 cm s À1 and deflect northward following the Kuroshio along the Luzon-Taiwan coast. Three-dimensional eddy structures are further explored with composite eddy images in five subregions constructed by surfacing Argo temperature/salinity data into altimeter-detected eddy areas. Due to the existence of mode waters in the main thermocline, eddy-induced temperature anomaly exhibits a double-core vertical structure which is especially evident in CE images. Because of the vertical water mass distribution, salinity anomaly features a sandwich-like pattern which is more evident in AE images. Also revealed is the significant structure difference in these five subregions. Eddies are greatly intensified as they approach the western boundary, inducing larger temperature and salinity anomalies and influencing deeper ocean. Along the Luzon-Taiwan coast, AEs are preferentially strengthened by the northward background flow.

Colobines are a unique group of Old World monkeys that principally eat leaves and seeds rather than fruits and insects. We report the sequencing at 146× coverage, de novo assembly and analyses of the genome of a male golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) and resequencing at 30× coverage of three related species (Rhinopithecus bieti, Rhinopithecus brelichi and Rhinopithecus strykeri). Comparative analyses showed that Asian colobines have an enhanced ability to derive energy from fatty acids and to degrade xenobiotics. We found evidence for functional evolution in the colobine RNASE1 gene, encoding a key secretory RNase that digests the high concentrations of bacterial RNA derived from symbiotic microflora. Demographic reconstructions indicated that the profile of ancient effective population sizes for R. roxellana more closely resembles that of giant panda rather than its congeners. These findings offer new insights into the dietary adaptations and evolutionary history of colobine primates.Knowledge of the patterns and processes underlying the evolution of alternative dietary strategies in nonhuman primates is critical to understanding hominin evolution, nutritional ecology and applications in biomedicine 1 . Colobines, a group of Old World monkeys, serve as an important model organism for studying the evolution of the primate diet because of their adaptation to folivory: they primarily eat leaves and seeds rather than fruits and insects as their major food source. In their specialized and compartmentalized stomachs, colobines allow symbiotic bacteria in the foregut to ferment structural carbohydrates and then recover nutrients by digesting the bacteria 2 . This strategy is similar to that used by other foregut fermenters found in an evolutionarily distantly related group of mammals (for example, artiodactyls). Although a number of primate genomes have been sequenced thus far, high-quality genome sequence information is absent for Asian and African colobines, a key group for elucidating the evolution and adaptation of primates as a whole. Snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus species) are a group of endangered colobines, which were once widely distributed in Asia but are now limited to mountain forests in China and Vietnam 3 (Supplementary Fig. 1).The golden snub-nosed monkey (GSM, R. roxellana) is recognized as an iconic endangered species in China for its golden coat, blue facial coloration, snub nose and specialized life history. Among its congeners, the black-white snub-nosed monkey (R. bieti), endemic to the Tibetan plateau, has the highest altitudinal distribution (>4,000 m above sea level) of any nonhuman primate. Given the above features and the fact that Rhinopithecus species consume difficult-to-digest foods that contain tannins (for example, leaves and pine seeds), we expected to identify genetic adaptations that enhance the breakdown of toxins, improve the regulation of energy metabolism and facilitate the digestion of symbiotic microbacteria. RESULTS Genomic sequences and the accumulation of...

The complete, 19226 nt sequence of the RNA genome from VT, a seedling yellows strain of citrus tristeza virus (CTV), was determined and found to have a genome organization identical with that of the previously determined CTV-T36 isolate, except that ORF 1 of CTV-VT was 70 nt shorter due to two widely separated 18 nt deletions. Sequence comparison of CTV-VT and CTV-T36 revealed approximately 89% identity throughout the ten 3' ORFs, but only 60-70% identitythroughout ORF 1. The 5' nontranslated regions were only 60% identical whereas the 3' nontranslated regions were 97% identical. The transition between regions of similarity and deviation was gradual, suggesting that the sequence similarities and differences compared to CTV-T36 were unlikely to have arisen from a recent recombination event between a close T36 relative and a distantly related CTV isolate. This is the first attempt to compare in detail the variation between the genomes of two strains of a member of the closterovirus group. The observed deviation between the large RNA genomes of the two CTV strains is greater than that among different viruses of most other groups, raising the question of how to define the taxonomy of these viruses.