利用巴西橡胶树寡核苷酸芯片筛选死皮相关基因

以健康和死皮巴西橡胶树品系热研7．33—97树皮为实验材料,利用定制橡胶树寡核苷酸芯片筛选橡胶树死皮相关基因。在橡胶树寡核苷酸芯片包含的566个基因中,死皮与健康树树皮差异表达倍数在2倍或2倍以上的有56个,占筛选转录本总数的9．9％。在56个死皮相关基因中,死皮树中上调表达基因有3个,下调表达基因有53个。这些死皮相关基因共涉及8个功能分类,“抗性及防御反应”所占比例最高,接下来是“蛋白质合成、加工及转运”和“代谢和能量”,以上三类功能基因占66．07％。此外,死皮相关基因还涉及“细胞结构、生长及分化”、“细胞信号转导”、“转录相关”、“橡胶生物合成”和“未知功能”。为验证芯片结果的可信性,随机选取18个基因进行RT-PCR分析,结果表明被检测基因表达模式均与芯片结果完全一致。本研究鉴定并分析了死皮相关基因,为进一步揭示橡胶树死皮发生机制奠定了基础。     

死皮对橡胶树树皮线粒体超微结构及活性氧代谢的影响

为了解析橡胶树（Hevea brasiliensis）死皮的发生机制,有效进行死皮防治,以健康、轻度死皮、重度死皮橡胶树树皮为材料,研究死皮发生过程中树皮线粒体超微结构变化规律及活性氧（ROS）相关基因的表达模式变化。结果表明：死皮树线粒体超微结构发生不规则形变,膜内基质溶解,嵴消失,内腔空泡化等,且严重程度与死皮严重程度成正比。荧光定量PCR结果表明,过氧化物酶基因HbPOD2和HbPOD3在死皮树中的表达量高于健康树,可作为监测割胶强度、刺激强度和死皮发生的“标志”基因。植物细胞重要ROS清除酶过氧化氢酶基因HbCAT在死皮树中也下调表达,预示ROS产生与清除之间的平衡是影响橡胶树死皮发生的关键因素。橡胶树中重要抗氧化代谢物基因表达结果表明,HbGST1、HbGST2和HbPPO在死皮树中的表达量均高于健康树,可能与死皮发生过程胶乳原位凝固相关。本研究通过揭示死皮发生过程树皮超微结构和ROS相关基因表达模式变化,为阐明橡胶树死皮发生机制提供新观点,同时为进一步开发监测割胶强度、刺激强度和死皮发生的基因“标志”提供理论基础。     

Unique features of the rice blast resistance <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pish</Emphasis> locus revealed by large scale retrotransposon-tagging

Background  

R gene-mediated resistance is one of the most effective mechanisms of immunity against pathogens in plants. To date some components that regulate the primary steps of plant immunity have been isolated, however, the molecular dissection of defense signaling downstream of the R proteins remains to be completed. In addition, R genes are known to be highly variable, however, the molecular mechanisms responsible for this variability remain obscure.     

Functional bias in molecular evolution rate of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Arabidopsis thaliana</Emphasis>

Background  

Characteristics derived from mutation and other mechanisms that are advantageous for survival are often preserved during evolution by natural selection. Some genes are conserved in many organisms because they are responsible for fundamental biological function, others are conserved for their unique functional characteristics. Therefore one would expect the rate of molecular evolution for individual genes to be dependent on their biological function. Whether this expectation holds for genes duplicated by whole genome duplication is not known.     

Computational annotation of genes differentially expressed along olive fruit development

Background  

Olea europaea L. is a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean basin with a worldwide economical high impact. Differently from other fruit tree species, little is known about the physiological and molecular basis of the olive fruit development and a few sequences of genes and gene products are available for olive in public databases. This study deals with the identification of large sets of differentially expressed genes in developing olive fruits and the subsequent computational annotation by means of different software.     

Identification of genes involved in the mutualistic colonization of the nematode <Emphasis Type="Italic">Heterorhabditis bacteriophora</Emphasis> by the bacterium <Emphasis Type="Italic">Photorhabdus luminescens</Emphasis>

Background  

Photorhabdus are Gram negative entomopathogenic bacteria that also have a mutualistic association with nematodes from the family Heterorhabditis. An essential part of this symbiosis is the ability of the bacterium to colonize the gut of the freeliving form of the nematode called the infective juvenile (IJ). Although the colonization process (also called transmission) has been described phenomonologically very little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms. Therefore, in this study, we were interested in identifying genes in Photorhabdus that are important for IJ colonization.     

Age-dependent and jasmonic acid-induced laticifer-cell differentiation in anther callus cultures of rubber tree

Main conclusion

Callus cultures of rubber tree may serve as an efficient model to screen and study environmental factors and phytohormones that stimulate laticifer cell differentiation and improve latex yield. The number of laticifer cells in bark is one of the most important factors determining the biosynthesis and economic value of rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis). The differentiation of laticifer cells in planta has been characterized, whereas laticifer-cell differentiation in callus cultures in vitro is largely unknown. In this study, we present molecular and physiological evidences for laticifer-cell differentiation in calli derived from rubber tree anthers. RT-PCR analysis showed that three key genes rubber elongation factor (REF), small rubber particle protein (SRPP), and cis-prenyl transferase (CPT) that are essential in latex biosynthesis in rubber tree bark also were transcribed in anther calli. Laticifer cell development in callus cultures was age-dependent; the cells began to appear at 58 days after initiation of culture, and the percentage of laticifer cells increased steadily with increasing callus age. Addition of 0–2 mg/L jasmonic acid (JA) to the media significantly promoted the differentiation of laticifer cells in callus cultures. However, JA concentrations higher than 3 mg/L were not optimum for laticifer cells differentiation; this result was not observed in previous in planta studies. Laticifer cells differentiated on media with pH 5.8–7.0, with an optimum of pH 6.2, whereas a higher pH inhibited differentiation. These results indicate that the anther-derived rubber tree callus may serve as a new and more efficient model to study environmental factors that influence laticifer cell differentiation, and may be useful for research on new technologies to improve latex yield, and to screen for commercially useful phytohormones.     

Molecular phylogeny and evolution of alcohol dehydrogenase (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Adh</Emphasis>) genes in legumes

Background  

Nuclear genes determine the vast range of phenotypes that are responsible for the adaptive abilities of organisms in nature. Nevertheless, the evolutionary processes that generate the structures and functions of nuclear genes are only now be coming understood. The aim of our study is to isolate the alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) genes in two distantly related legumes, and use these sequences to examine the molecular evolutionary history of this nuclear gene.     

Development, characterization, genetic diversity and cross-species/genera transferability of ILP markers in rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis)

To construct a linkage map enriched with tapping panel dryness (TPD)-related markers, we firstly utilized rubber tree ESTs associated with TPD to develop intron length polymorphism (ILP) markers. In this study, 52 new ILP markers were further developed. Together with the ILP markers previously reported, 102 ILP markers developed from TPD-related ESTs were analyzed within 39 Hevea germplasm in detail. The PCR success rate and polymorphism rate of ILP markers was 97.06 and 61.62 %, respectively. The results based on PCR amplification and sequence analyses provided the evidences on cross-species/genera transferability of rubber tree ILP markers. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) values of 39 Hevea germplasm were about 0.1719, indicating that the genetic base of Hevea germplasm selected in this study was very narrow. Among 39 Hevea germplasm, the PIC value of wild rubber tree accessions was the highest, followed by Hevea species and cultivated rubber tree clones. Based on the similarity coefficient of ILP markers, 39 Hevea germplasm were divided into three groups including cultivated clones, wild accessions and Hevea species, suggesting that the classification was generally related to the characterization of Hevea germplasm. The ILP markers developed in this study further enriches the number of molecular marker in rubber tree, and the ILP markers will have a wide application in DNA fingerprinting, genetic diversity, marker-assisted selection and genetic mapping, etc. Moreover, the ILP markers transferred cross-euphorbiaceae family might be utilized in cassava, castor bean and physic nut.     

Differential genome-wide gene expression profiling of bovine largest and second-largest follicles: identification of genes associated with growth of dominant follicles

Background  

Bovine follicular development is regulated by numerous molecular mechanisms and biological pathways. In this study, we tried to identify differentially expressed genes between largest (F1) and second-largest follicles (F2), and classify them by global gene expression profiling using a combination of microarray and quantitative real-time PCR (QPCR) analysis. The follicular status of F1 and F2 were further evaluated in terms of healthy and atretic conditions by investigating mRNA localization of identified genes.