一种改良的植物DNA提取方法

植物组织中含有大量多糖、多酚、酯类等次生代谢产物, 要从中提取高质量的DNA比较困难。针对这一情况, 该文提出一种改良CTAB植物DNA提取方法(mCTAB), 并以10种常见植物为实验材料, 与4种常用的植物DNA提取试剂盒作对比。结果表明, mCTAB法提取的DNA产率高且质量好, PCR扩增成功率也较高, 而提取成本显著低于DNA提取试剂盒, 可有效用于植物DNA条形码等研究的植物DNA提取。     

植物地上部信息化合物在植物一害虫一天敌关系中的生态学功能及在害虫治理中的应用前景

本文综述了近年来有关地上部植物信息化合物在植物一害虫一天敌三营养级关系中的信息联系,分析地上部植物信息化合物在植物一害虫、植物一天敌、植物个体内和个体间信号传递的生态学功能,阐明地上部植物信息化合物在害虫治理中的应用潜力,包括害虫诱捕和诱杀、昆虫种群监测、植物拒避剂、干扰害虫对寄主搜索、“推一拉”策略和植物内源激发子的应用等,讨论了地上部植物信息化合物与其他控害手段的协同作用,以及在生产实践中可能存在的相关问题,旨在为地上部植物信息化合物在害虫持续治理中的应用提供科学指导。     

水杨酸与植物抗逆性的关系

水杨酸(SA)是植物体内的一种新型激素,它不仅能调节植物的一些生长发育过程,还在植物抗生物胁迫和非生物胁迫中发挥着重要作用。重金属、热、盐等逆境能诱导植物体内SA的合成,缓解逆境对植物造成的伤害,增强植物的抗逆性能力。     

植物GH3 基因家族的功能研究概况

植物GH3基因是一种典型的植物生长素原初反应基因, 此类基因与植物的生长发育密切相关。GH3基因在植物生长素信号途径、光信号途径以及植物的防卫反应中起着重要作用。植物GH3蛋白具有植物生长素氨基酸化合成酶活性, 这有助 于维持植物生长素的动态平衡。该文介绍拟南芥等植物中GH3基因的生物学功能研究概况和最新进展, 为植物GH3基因家族的进一步研究提供参考。     

植物重金属胁迫耐受机制

重金属是一类会对植物产生毒害作用的污染物,植物在长期进化过程中演变出耐受重金属胁迫的相关机制。以植物重金属耐受性为基础,对近几年来国内外植物响应重金属胁迫的耐受机制研究作一简要综述。主要概述了重金属对植物的胁迫影响及植物抗氧化系统,脯氨酸、可溶性糖、可溶性蛋白等渗透调节物质和不同类型基因家族等方面对植物耐受重金属胁迫机制的研究进展。以期为提高植物耐重金属胁迫能力及研究植物修复重金属污染土壤的应用奠定一定的基础。     

植物GH3基因家族的功能研究概况

植物GH3基因是一种典型的植物生长素原初反应基因,此类基因与植物的生长发育密切相关。GH3基因在植物生长素信号途径、光信号途径以及植物的防卫反应中起着重要作用。植物GH3蛋白具有植物生长素氨基酸化合成酶活性,这有助于维持植物生长素的动态平衡。该文介绍拟南芥等植物中GH3基因的生物学功能研究概况和最新进展,为植物GH3基因家族的进一步研究提供参考。     

500种野菜野外识别速查图鉴

正化学工业出版社出版本书收录了野外较常见的植物500种,主要包括有文献记载可食用的植物、据研究证实有毒的植物、常用于中药的植物等。每一种植物均配有突出植物识别特征的彩色图片,并对植物的识别特征、分布、药用、食用、毒性等信息进行了简要的文字描述。本书内容按照野外观察植物的感官认识     

植物表皮蜡质生物合成及调控

植物表皮蜡质,是覆盖在陆地植物地上部分表面的一层疏水性脂类物质,是植物应对外界环境变化的第一道屏障,在抑制植物水分非气孔散失及保护植物免受病虫害入侵、紫外线辐射等方面起着重要作用。综述了近年来表皮蜡质在生物合成及调控等方面的研究进展,并对研究中存在的问题及研究前景进行了展望。     

内生菌对提高植物抗盐碱性的研究进展

土壤盐碱化是制约我国农作物产量的主要因素之一。如何增强农作物的抗盐碱特性,已成为我国农业持续高效发展的重大课题。植物内生菌存在于植物内部,在增强植物抗病、抗虫、抗旱等胁迫能力方面具有一定作用。内生菌与植物共生关系对植物的显著影响这一现象引起了国内外学者的广泛关注。主要综述植物内生菌的多样性,并从植物的ROS清除系统、细胞中渗透调节物质、矿质元素吸收以及光合作用等方面来说明内生菌对植物耐盐碱能力的影响。     

对植物血红蛋白功能的新发现——调节NO的生物活性

血红蛋白在植物中广泛存在,对其功能的研究也不断深入。最新研究发现植物血红蛋白除具有运载氧、感应氧等生理功能外,还对植物诸多代谢活动发挥重要的调控作用,而这一作用主要通过调节信号分子NO的生物活性来实现。综述了在正常生长及胁迫条件下,植物血红蛋白对NO生物活性的调节作用,着重阐述缺氧条件下植物血红蛋白在解除NO毒害,再生NAD(P) 及维持能量水平等方面的功能及其机制。植物血红蛋白功能的这一新发现对研究不同条件下NO信号转导途径的调节机制具重要意义。     

Familial true hermaphroditism: paternal and maternal transmission of true hermaphroditism (46,XX) and XX maleness in the absence of Y-chromosomal sequences

We report on 46,XX true hermaphroditism and 46,XX maleness coexisting in the same pedigree, with maternal as well as paternal transmission of the disorder. Molecular genetic analysis showed that both hermaphrodites as well as the 46,XX male were negative for Y-chromosomal sequences. Thus, this pedigree is highly informative and allows the following conclusions: first, the maternal as well as paternal transmission of the disorder allows the possibility of an autosomal dominant as well as an X-chromosomal dominant mode of inheritance; second, testicular determination in the absence of Y-specific sequences in familial 46,XX true hermaphrodites as well as in 46,XX males seems to be due to the varying expression of the same genetic defect; and third, there is incomplete penetrance of the defect.     

Ethnobotany of Ghalegay, District Swat, Pakistan

Ethnobotanical study of plants revealed that the local community of Ghalegy, District Swat, invariably uses 126 species of 59 families for various purposes. Based on their traditional local uses, fifty-seven species （45.2%） were classifted as medicinal, forty-seven as fire wood （37.3 % ）, forty-five as forage （35.7 % ）, twenty-eight as honey bee species （22.2%）, twenty-seven as vegetable species （21.4%）, 25 as edible fruits （14 wild and llcultivated）, thirteen as timberwood （10.3%）, twelve as ornamental （9.5%）, eleven as furniture wood, ten as shelter and thatch makers （7.9%）, ten as fencing （7.9%）, five as poisonous （4%）, four as religious/superstitious species, three species used in making hand sticks and wooden tools （2.4%）, three as utensil cleaner species （2.4%）, three as evil repellent and one as fish poisoning species. The area is in plant resources and traditional knowledge but it needs ecological management for its sustainability.     

Ethnobotany of Ghalegay,District Swat,Pakistan*

Ethnobotanical study of plants revealed that the local community of Ghalegy, District Swat, invariably uses 126 species of 59 families for various purposes. Based on their traditional local uses, fifty- seven species ( 4512%) were classified as medicinal, forty-seven as fire wood ( 3713%) , forty- five as forage ( 3517%) , twenty- eight as honey bee species ( 2212%) , twenty- seven as vegetable species ( 2114%) , 25 as edible fruits ( 14 wild and 11cultivated) , thirteen as timber wood ( 1013%) , twelve as ornamental ( 91 5%) , eleven as furniture wood, ten as shelter and thatch makers ( 719%) , ten as fencing ( 719%) , five as poisonous ( 4%) , four as religiousPsuperstitious species, three species used in making hand sticks and wooden tools ( 21 4%) , three as utensil cleaner species ( 214%) , three as evil repellent and one as fish poisoning species. The area is in plant resources and traditional knowledge but it needs ecological management for its sustainability.     

An Improved Computational Prediction Model for Lysine Succinylation Sites Mapping on Homo sapiens by Fusing Three Sequence Encoding Schemes with the Random Forest Classifier

Background Lysine succinylation is one of the reversible protein post-translational modifications (PTMs), which regulate the structure and function of proteins. It plays a significant role in various cellular physiologies including some diseases of human as well as many other organisms. The accurate identification of succinylation site is essential to understand the various biological functions and drug development.Methods In this study, we developed an improved method to predict lysine succinylation sites mapping on Homo sapiens by the fusion of three encoding schemes such as binary, the composition of k-spaced amino acid pairs (CKSAAP) and amino acid composition (AAC) with the random forest (RF) classifier. The prediction performance of the proposed random forest (RF) based on the fusion model in a comparison of other candidates was investigated by using 20-fold cross-validation (CV) and two independent test datasets were collected from two different sources.Results The CV results showed that the proposed predictor achieves the highest scores of sensitivity (SN) as 0.800, specificity (SP) as 0.902, accuracy (ACC) as 0.919, Mathew correlation coefficient (MCC) as 0.766 and partial AUC (pAUC) as 0.163 at a false-positive rate (FPR) = 0.10 and area under the ROC curve (AUC) as 0.958. It achieved the highest performance scores of SN as 0.811, SP as 0.902, ACC as 0.891, MCC as 0.629 and pAUC as 0.139 and AUC as 0.921 for the independent test protein set-1 and SN as 0.772, SP as 0.901, ACC as 0.836, MCC as 0.677 and pAUC as 0.141 at FPR = 0.10 and AUC as 0.923 for the independent test protein set-2. It also outperformed all the other existing prediction models.Conclusion The prediction performances as discussed in this article recommend that the proposed method might be a useful and encouraging computational resource for lysine succinylation site prediction in the case of human population.     

New challenges and opportunities for industrial biotechnology

ABSTRACT: Industrial biotechnology has not developed as fast as expected due to some challenges including the emergences of alternative energy sources, especially shale gas, natural gas hydrate (or gas hydrate) and sand oil et al. The weaknesses of microbial or enzymatic processes compared with the chemical processing also make industrial biotech products less competitive with the chemical ones. However, many opportunities are still there if industrial biotech processes can be as similar as the chemical ones. Taking advantages of the molecular biology and synthetic biology methods as well as changing process patterns, we can develop bioprocesses as competitive as chemical ones, these including the minimized cells, open and continuous fermentation processes et al.     

Purkyn? cells and Betz cells

J.E. Purkyn? was the first to discover, by achromatic microscopy of stained and fixed as well as of fresh material, that animal tissues in general, and those of the central nervous system in particular, are made up of cells, as are those of plants. His discoveries laid the foundations of modern research on the ultrastructure and biophysies of the cerebellar neurons which bear his name, as well as on other types of neurons, in vitro as well as in vivo.     

Prion protein modifies TGF-beta induced signal transduction

Members of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily regulate a multitude of cellular processes as well as the expression of various proteins such as, e.g., matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). These endopeptidases selectively degrade components of the extracellular matrix as well as non-matrix substrates like growth factors and cell surface receptors. MMPs are activated during embryonic development, morphogenesis, and tissue resorption/remodeling as well as in pathological conditions such as deranged wound healing and cancer metastasis. In this report we demonstrate that over-expression of cellular prion protein in mouse mammary gland epithelial cells is able to modulate TGF-beta induced signal transduction leading to a synergistic increase of secreted MMP-2 activity. This correlates with elevated substrate detachment of cells grown as an epithelial monolayer as well as interfering with morphogenesis of cells cultured in a three-dimensional collagen type I matrix.     

The role of germacrene D as a precursor in sesquiterpene biosynthesis: investigations of acid catalyzed, photochemically and thermally induced rearrangements

Germacrene D is considered as a precursor of many sesquiterpene hydrocarbons. We have investigated the acid catalyzed as well as the photochemically and thermally induced rearrangement processes of germacrene D isolated from several Solidago species, which contain both enantiomers of germacrene D. Enantiomeric mixtures of sesquiterpenes of the cadinane, eudesmane (selinane), oppositane, axane, isodaucane, and bourbonane group as well as isogermacrene D were identified as main products and made available as reference compounds for structure investigations and stereochemical assignments of plant constituents. Delta-amorphene, one of the rearrangement products, was identified as a natural product for the first time. The absolute configuration of gamma-amorphene was revised by correlation with the absolute configuration of germacrene D. The mechanisms of the rearrangement reactions are discussed.     

A set of modular binary vectors for transformation of cereals

Genetic transformation of crop plants offers the possibility of testing hypotheses about the function of individual genes as well as the exploitation of transgenes for targeted trait improvement. However, in most cereals, this option has long been compromised by tedious and low-efficiency transformation protocols, as well as by the lack of versatile vector systems. After having adopted and further improved the protocols for Agrobacterium-mediated stable transformation of barley (Hordeum vulgare) and wheat (Triticum aestivum), we now present a versatile set of binary vectors for transgene overexpression, as well as for gene silencing by double-stranded RNA interference. The vector set is offered with a series of functionally validated promoters and allows for rapid integration of the desired genes or gene fragments by GATEWAY-based recombination. Additional in-built flexibility lies in the choice of plant selectable markers, cassette orientation, and simple integration of further promoters to drive specific expression of genes of interest. Functionality of the cereal vector set has been demonstrated by transient as well as stable transformation experiments for transgene overexpression, as well as for targeted gene silencing in barley.     

Biotechnological uses of cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are 0₂-evolving photosynthesizing prokaryotes that have an extensive history of use as a human food source and as a fertilizer in rice fields. They have also been recognized as an excellent source of vitamins and proteins and as such are found in health food stores in North America and elsewhere. Cyanobacteria have a great deal of potential as a source of fine chemicals, as a biofertilizer and as a source of renewable fuel. This potential is being realized as data from research in the areas of the physiology and chemistry of these organisms are gathered and as the knowledge of cyanobacterial genetics and genetic engineering increases. We review, here, the present (and possible future) uses of cyanobacteria and assess the state of the art with respect to the genetic manipulation of cyanobacteria.