UV-B辐射对植物影响的分子水平研究进展

大气平流层中的臭氧层被破坏,导致到达地球表面太阳的UV-B辐射增强,对植物产生了多方面影响,其中包括对DNA、抗氧化酶系统、光系统Ⅱ（PSⅡ）的作用以及植物体内类黄酮等保护物质的生物合成等。UV-B辐射也是环境中重要的非生物因子,植物在长期的进化演替过程中,形成了对它的适应机制,可能被作为一种环境信号调节植物体内一系列的基因表达过程。本文论述了近些年来在分子水平上UV-B辐射对植物DNA损伤的修复、抗氧化酶和光系统Ⅱ的基因表达影响,以及有关UV-B信号传导,并对UV-B辐射的植物分子生物学研究作了展望。     

植物对增强UV-B辐射的防御机制研究进展

由于大气同温层的臭氧层逐渐被破坏变薄,增加了太阳UV-B辐射抵达地球表面的强度,对植物产生不同程度的影响.本文综述了近年来有关植物对增强UV-B辐射的防御机制,包括植物在生长、繁育与次生代谢过程中存在的防御机制、植物体内生物大分子对于UV-B辐射增强的防御和不同植物对于UV-B辐射增强的防御能力的差异,以及如何有效地利用该机制;同时提出了今后研究的方向和重点.     

大气臭氧层减薄、地表紫外辐射增强与植物的响应

臭氧层减薄、温室效应和酸雨是人类面临的全球性环境问题 ,并受到了广泛的重视。本文主要论述大气臭氧层减薄引起的地表紫外辐射增强 ,以及对植物的影响。1 　大气臭氧层减薄与地表紫外辐射增强大气臭氧层能吸收强烈的太阳紫外辐射 ,使地球生物得以正常生长 ,从而成为地球生命的有效保护层。二十多年前 ,人们注意到平流层臭氧衰减 〔1〕,近十年全球臭氧层平均减少了 2 %～ 3% ,并且还在加剧。臭氧层快速减薄已经通过卫星得到证实 ,最明显的减薄发生在南极大陆上空 ,在春季 ,衰减率高达71 % 〔2〕。过去十年我国北京香河和昆明两个监测站的监…     

保护大气臭氧层

在地球上空 2 5km左右的高空中 ,有一层臭氧浓度相对较高的大气层 ,保护着地球的生存环境免受过量太阳紫外线的直接袭击 ,这就是臭氧层。臭氧层中臭氧的浓度很低 ,总共只有 30亿 t,占大气的几百万分之一 ,但它的作用却不可低估。如果没有臭氧层的保护 ,地面上的紫外线辐射就会达到使人致死的程度 ,整个地球生命就会象失去空气和水一样而遭到毁灭。而近来的研究结果表明 ,人类的活动正在干扰和破坏着大气上层臭氧的平衡 ,造成一种潜在的全球性的危机。因此 ,必须从保护全球的大气环境出发 ,控制破坏臭氧层物质的生产 ,保护臭氧层。1　臭氧层…     

植物——大自然和人类社会的基石

<正>自38亿年前植物在地球上出现后,地球才有了一丝绿色和生命的气息。随着植物的不断发展、壮大,大气中的氧浓度不断发生着变化,并在高空逐渐形成了臭氧层,阻挡住了紫外线的直射,地球表面的环境也不断得到改善,这才为其他生物和人类的出现创造了条件。植物与人类植物的数量尽管不到生物总量的十分之一,但它却为人类的生存和发展提供了最基本的物质基础和外部环境条件。     

杀虫不用药物理方法好

在农作物生产和采后处理中经常使用的董蒸剂一澳代甲烷既有毒又易挥发，近来研究表明不仅破坏大气臭氧层，也影响使用者的健康，可能引起癌症出现。据（加州农业）报道，为保护大气臭氧层，减少空气污染，美国科学家们正在研究使用电磁能以替代化学药剂。目前，一支由化学家、植物病理学家和昆虫学家组成的研究小组已开发出三种行式的电磁能在三种不同场合使用：射频法用于温室土壤消毒；微波用于大面积田间处理，杀死土壤害虫；紫外光用于农作物采后害虫防治。射频法和紫外光法已获成功，微波法正在试验用于大田播前处理，这三种方法都能杀…     

植物光破坏防御机制研究进展

光破坏防御机制是植物为应对复杂多变的自然环境而产生的保护措施,这些措施从形态、生理和生化等方面反映了植物对环境的适应能力。本文根据光抑制的机理,对近年来植物的光破坏防御机制以及高等植物叶黄素循环机制的研究现状进行综述,认为叶黄素循环防御机制是植物光保护作用的重要措施之一。     

增强的UV-B辐射和其它因子的相互作用对植物的影响

全球变化中的平流层臭氧层耗损引起到达地球表面的紫外线-B(280～320 nm)辐射的增强,给人类健康,动物、植物、微生物的生命活动,生物地化循环,材料及大气质量等带来重大影响[1]。因此,近30年来,平流层臭氧层减薄和UV-B辐射增强对植物影响的问题引起人们的关注,并进行了大量的研究[1～4]。我国在这方面的研究刚刚起步[5]。但是,针对UV-B辐射增强和其它非生物因子如CO2浓度升高、全球变暖、干旱、矿质营养亏缺和空气污染物等的复合作用对植物生长、发育、繁殖及生态系统影响的研究较少[1～3]。在自然界,各种环境因子常常是相互作用共同影响植物及生态系统,因此,仅研究单因子的作用很难正确评估由于全球变化而产生的种种生物学和生态学效应[1,2]。本文就近年来关于UV-B辐射增强和其它非生物因子的复合作用对植物影响的研究进展作一介绍,并对其发展前景作了展望。1 UV-B辐射与矿质营养     

环境激素对动物生存的威胁

日前,一份"尽快立项开展我国有毒化学品污染及环境安全问题研究"的建议书被送到朱镕基总理手中,魏复盛院士、徐晓白院士等19位学者就化学制剂对中国环境安全造成的威胁提出了警告,其中环境激素的污染问题成为最重要的内容之一.无论是人类还是动物,几乎都生活在"环境激素的海洋"之中,环境激素污染问题已同温室效应、臭氧层破坏等问题一样,严惩威胁着全球环境和人类健康.     

种子植物对中波紫外辐射胁迫的响应研究进展

臭氧层的破坏导致到达地表的中波紫外辐射(UV-B)增加。增强的UV-B对植物产生不同程度的胁迫作用。综合论述了近些年来有关种子植物对UV-B胁迫响应的研究进展。对UV-B敏感的种子植物经UV-B处理,外部形态表现为植物变矮、叶面积减小、茎缩短等;内部结构表现为叶绿体结构失去完整性、叶肉面积减小等。种子植物受UV-B影响的主要部位包括光合器官、遗传物质、蛋白质等。为了减轻UV-B的伤害,种子植物形成了一系列的保护机制,包括表皮结构对UV-B的散射、反射,叶片厚度的增加、UV-B吸收物质的积累、受损DNA的修复、自由基的去除。此外,UV-B与干旱、增强C02具有互作效应。增强的UV-B对木本植物、生态系统等方面的影响研究应加以重视。     

How far does ozone penetrate into the pulmonary air/tissue boundary before it reacts?

A simple method is suggested for calculating the time it takes ozone to traverse a biological region, such as a bilayer or a cell, and comparing this time to the halflife of ozone within that region. For a bilayer the calculations suggest that most of the ozone reacts within a bilayer, but a fraction may exit unreacted. For the lung lining fluid layer (LLFL), the calculations show that ozone cannot cross this layer without reacting where the LLFL is thicker than about 0.1 microns. However, since the LLFL varies from 20 to 0.1 microns in thickness with patchy areas in the lower airways that are virtually uncovered, some ozone could reach underlying cells, particularly in the lower airways. For cells (such as alveolar type I epithelial cells), the calculations show that ozone reacts within the cell too rapidly to pass through and exit unreacted from the other side. These calculations have implications for ozone toxicity. In vivo, the toxicity of ozone is suggested to result from the effects of a cascade of products that are produced in the reactions of ozone with primary target molecules that lie close to the air/tissue boundary. These products, which have a lower reactivity and longer lifetime than ozone itself, can transmit the effects of ozone beyond the air/tissue interface. The variation in thickness of the LLFL may modulate the species causing damage to the cells below it. In the lower airways, where the LLFL is thin and patchy, more cellular damage may be caused by ozone itself; in the upper airways where the LLFL is thicker, secondary products (such as aldehydes and hydrogen peroxide) may cause most of the damage. In vitro studies must be designed in an attempt to model the lung physiology. For example, if cells in culture are studied, and if the cells are exposed to ozone while under a supporting medium solution that contains ozone-reactive substances, then the cells may be damaged by products that are formed in the reactions of ozone with the cell medium rather than by ozone itself.     

The significance of the study about the biological effects of solar ultraviolet radiation using the Exposed Facility on the International Space Station.

It is believed that ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun participated in events related to the chemical evolution and birth of life on the primitive Earth. Although UV radiation would be also a driving force for the biological evolution of life on Earth, life space of the primitive living organisms would be limited in the UV-shielded place such as in the water at an early stage of the evolution of life. After the formation of stratospheric ozone layer through the production of oxygen by photoautotroph, living organisms were able to expand their domain from water to land. As a result, now, many kinds of living organisms containing human beings are flourishing on the ground. In the near future, increased transmission of harmful solar UV radiation may reach the Earth's surface due to stratospheric ozone layer depletion. In order to learn more about the biological effects of solar UV radiation with or without interruption by the ozone layer, the utilization of an Exposed Facility on the International Space Station is required. Experiments proposed for this facility would provide a tool for the scientific investigation of processes involved in the birth and evolution of life on Earth, and could also demonstrate the importance of protecting the Earth's future environment from future ozone layer depletion.     

The effects of ultraviolet-B radiation on plant competition in terrestrial ecosystems

Evidence regarding the interaction of ultraviolet-B (UV-B, 280-320 nm) radiation and plant competition in terrestrial ecosystems is examined. The competitive interactions of some species pairs were affected even by ambient solar UV-B radiation (as exists without ozone depletion), when compared to control pairs grown without UV-B. Also, the total shoot biomass of these species pairs was depressed under ambient UV-B. Relatively large increases in UV-B radiation (approximating a 40% ozone layer reduction when weighted with the generalized plant action spectrum) altered the competitive interactions of some species pairs grown in pots under field conditions, but did not affect the total shoot biomass production of those pairs. Recent field experiments have examined the competitive interactions of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L. cv. Bannock) and wild oat ( Avena fatua L.) under a simulated increased UV-B regime resulting from a 16% ozone layer reduction when weighted with the generalized plant action spectrum. This increase in UV-B altered the competitive interactions of these two species without affecting the total shoot biomass production of the species pair. The manner in which increased UV-B affected the relative competitive abilities of the two species was highly dependent upon the environmental conditions during the early life stages of the plants. The implications of these results for both agricultural and natural plant communities are discussed.     

Stratospheric ozone depletion

Solar ultraviolet radiation creates an ozone layer in the atmosphere which in turn completely absorbs the most energetic fraction of this radiation. This process both warms the air, creating the stratosphere between 15 and 50 km altitude, and protects the biological activities at the Earth's surface from this damaging radiation. In the last half-century, the chemical mechanisms operating within the ozone layer have been shown to include very efficient catalytic chain reactions involving the chemical species HO, HO2, NO, NO2, Cl and ClO. The NOX and ClOX chains involve the emission at Earth's surface of stable molecules in very low concentration (N2O, CCl2F2, CCl3F, etc.) which wander in the atmosphere for as long as a century before absorbing ultraviolet radiation and decomposing to create NO and Cl in the middle of the stratospheric ozone layer. The growing emissions of synthetic chlorofluorocarbon molecules cause a significant diminution in the ozone content of the stratosphere, with the result that more solar ultraviolet-B radiation (290-320 nm wavelength) reaches the surface. This ozone loss occurs in the temperate zone latitudes in all seasons, and especially drastically since the early 1980s in the south polar springtime-the 'Antarctic ozone hole'. The chemical reactions causing this ozone depletion are primarily based on atomic Cl and ClO, the product of its reaction with ozone. The further manufacture of chlorofluorocarbons has been banned by the 1992 revisions of the 1987 Montreal Protocol of the United Nations. Atmospheric measurements have confirmed that the Protocol has been very successful in reducing further emissions of these molecules. Recovery of the stratosphere to the ozone conditions of the 1950s will occur slowly over the rest of the twenty-first century because of the long lifetime of the precursor molecules.     

Gas-discharge method for improving the environmental characteristics of the atmosphere (In memory of G.A. Askar'yan)

The possibility of improving the environmental characteristics of the atmosphere with the help of freely localized microwave discharges is analyzed. Theoretical and experimental studies devoted to cleaning the troposphere of ozone-destroying pollutants and creating an artificial ozone layer in the stratosphere are reviewed. Results from the studies of the possibility of the plasmochemical utilization of the accumulated chlorofluorocarbons, capable of depleting the ozone layer, are presented. The results of theoretical and experimental modeling are used to predict the plasmochemical consequences of creating artificial ionized regions in the atmosphere for the purpose of long-range radio and TV communication.     

Ozone concentration in leaf intercellular air spaces is close to zero

Transpiration and ozone uptake rates were measured simultaneously in sunflower leaves at different stomatal openings and various ozone concentrations. Ozone uptake rates were proportional to the ozone concentration up to 1500 nanoliters per liter. The leaf gas phase diffusion resistance (stomatal plus boundary layer) to water vapor was calculated and converted to the resistance to ozone multiplying it by the theoretical ratio of diffusion coefficients for water vapor and ozone in air (1.67). The ozone concentration in intercellular air spaces calculated from the ozone uptake rate and diffusion resistance to ozone scattered around zero. The ozone concentration in intercellular air spaces was measured directly by supplying ozone to the leaf from one side and measuring the equilibrium concentration above the other side, and it was found to be zero. The total leaf resistance to ozone was proportional to the gas phase resistance to water vapor with a coefficient of 1.68. It is concluded that ozone enters the leaf by diffusion through the stomata, and is rapidly decomposed in cell walls and plasmalemma.     

冬麦田臭氧干沉降过程的观测

地表臭氧作为近地层最主要的大气污染物之一,其不断上升的浓度及其对粮食作物的影响受到越来越多的关注.本研究利用微气象学观测方法,探明自然条件下冬麦田的臭氧沉降过程,分析了影响臭氧沉降过程的环境因子.结果表明: 观测期内(小麦生长旺期)臭氧通量均值为-0.35 μg·m^-2·s^-1(负号表示沉降方向指向地面),臭氧沉降平均速率为0.55 cm·s^-1,空气动力学阻力均值为30 s·m^-1,粘性副层阻力均值为257 s·m^-1,冠层阻力均值为163 s·m^-1,且均存在明显的日变化趋势.臭氧沉降阻力大小受摩擦速度、太阳辐射强度、温度和相对湿度等因素的影响.     

Changes in tropospheric composition and air quality due to stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change.

It is well-understood that reductions in air quality play a significant role in both environmental and human health. Interactions between ozone depletion and global climate change will significantly alter atmospheric chemistry which, in turn, will cause changes in concentrations of natural and human-made gases and aerosols. Models predict that tropospheric ozone near the surface will increase globally by up to 10 to 30 ppbv (33 to 100% increase) during the period 2000 to 2100. With the increase in the amount of the stratospheric ozone, increased transport from the stratosphere to the troposphere will result in different responses in polluted and unpolluted areas. In contrast, global changes in tropospheric hydroxyl radical (OH) are not predicted to be large, except where influenced by the presence of oxidizable organic matter, such as from large-scale forest fires. Recent measurements in a relatively clean location over 5 years showed that OH concentrations can be predicted by the intensity of solar ultraviolet radiation. If this relationship is confirmed by further observations, this approach could be used to simplify assessments of air quality. Analysis of surface-level ozone observations in Antarctica suggests that there has been a significant change in the chemistry of the boundary layer of the atmosphere in this region as a result of stratospheric ozone depletion. The oxidation potential of the Antarctic boundary layer is estimated to be greater now than before the development of the ozone hole. Recent modeling studies have suggested that iodine and iodine-containing substances from natural sources, such as the ocean, may increase stratospheric ozone depletion significantly in polar regions during spring. Given the uncertainty of the fate of iodine in the stratosphere, the results may also be relevant for stratospheric ozone depletion and measurements of the influence of these substances on ozone depletion should be considered in the future. In agreement with known usage and atmospheric loss processes, tropospheric concentrations of HFC-134a, the main human-made source of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), is increasing rapidly. As HFC-134a is a potent greenhouse gas, this increasing concentration has implications for climate change. However, the risks to humans and the environment from substances, such as TFA, produced by atmospheric degradation of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are considered minimal. Perfluoropolyethers, commonly used as industrial heat transfer fluids and proposed as chlorohydrofluorocarbon (CHFC) substitutes, show great stability to chemical degradation in the atmosphere. These substances have been suggested as substitutes for CHFCs but, as they are very persistent in the atmosphere, they may be important contributors to global warming. It is not known whether these substances will contribute significantly to global warming and its interaction with ozone depletion but they should be considered for further evaluation.     

Hydrogen peroxide production driven by UV-B in planktonic microorganisms: a photocatalytic factor in sea warming and ice melting in regions with ozone depletion?

UV-B radiation activates the synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from water and oxygen in many protein kinds, which having been discovered initially in antibodies, has been so far applied to explore new mechanisms in relation to immune defence. As shown here, the natural association of this common photocatalysis and catalase transforms UV-B photons into heat in a cyclic reaction that represents in biology a basic defence mechanism against UV-B radiation and cold, the activity of which drives the buoyancy and production of planktonic microorganisms in cold oceans. Moreover, given that UV-B radiation reaching the Earth’s surface depends mainly on changes in the ozone layer, that defence mechanism over-activated by ozone depletion in microorganisms gathered at the top layer of the water column during seasonal production could result in accelerated sea ice melting, surface warming and ecosystem changes, such as is happening at high latitudes. Thus, one concludes that UV-B-driven photoproduction and decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in plankton can be a new, hidden biogeochemical process under control of the ozone layer with important effects on the ecosystem and climate.     

Implications of the kynurenine pathway and quinolinic acid in Alzheimer's disease

Summary

Ozone, though not a free radical species, mediates its toxic effects through free radical reactions as a consequence of its high redox potential. Upon inspiration the first physical interface encountered by ozone is a thin layer of aqueous material, the epithelium lining fluid (ELF) which overlays, and is partially derived from, the underlying pulmonary epithelium. ELF is the first physical interface encountered by ozone and the majority of its primary actions are confined to this compartment. ELF contains a range of antioxidants, including the small molecular weight antioxidants: uric acid (UA), ascorbic acid (AH₂) and reduced glutathione (GSH). These compounds are present in large quantities and display high intrinsic reactivities toward ozone, consistent with their role as sacrificial substrates in this setting. In this paper we examine the concept that antioxidants, in ELF, represent the first tier of defence against the oxidizing effects of ozone. Since the concentration of these antioxidants appears to differ between individuals, we propose that these protective substances may dictate, in part, an individual's sensitivity to oxidizing air pollutants such as ozone.