白僵菌超低容量油剂林间应用对生物多样性的影响

2001～2003年在福建省云霄县进行了白僵菌超低容量油剂林间防治马尾松毛虫后对生物多样性的影响研究(包括使用前后的物种丰富度S、个体数N、多样性指数H'、均匀度指数R和优势度指数D等).结果表明,未防治区和白僵菌油剂防治区的物种数分别为473种和392种,而化学防治区的物种数只有266种;白僵菌油剂防治区天敌和害虫个体数与未防治区的比例相近,分别为0.1049:1和0.1051:1,明显高于化学防治区(0.0558:1);化学防治和白僵菌油剂防治均降低了物种的丰富度和多样性,同时也增强了物种的优势度,但化学防治区与未防区的差异显著,白僵菌油剂防治区与未防区的差异不显著,尤其对天敌和非目标昆虫无显著影响.     

拮抗植物病原真菌链霉菌菌株ZH-356的鉴定及其生防评价

[目的]对实验室分离到的菌株ZH-356进行鉴定并评价其对植物病原真菌的生物防治效果,为研发针对植物真菌病害的生防菌剂提供理论指导。[方法]通过平板对峙法确定菌株ZH-356抗菌谱,并通过16S rRNA基因序列分析确定其种属,利用离体枝条的苹果树腐烂病菌感染预防试验和患腐烂病苹果树的防治试验评价其生防效果。[结果]菌株ZH-356鉴定为链霉菌属,与直丝紫链霉菌(Streptomyces rectiviolaceus)相似性最高,为99.71%。抗菌谱试验表明,菌株ZH-356对苹果树腐烂病菌、小麦赤霉病菌、小麦根腐病菌和番茄早疫病菌等多种植物病原真菌均具有较强的抑制作用,这种抑制作用可导致苹果树腐烂病菌菌丝变粗、交叉扭曲、分支变少且容易断裂。此外,ZH-356产生的抑菌活性物质对温度和酸碱度具有高度稳定性,并且该活性物质只存在于其胞内,只有当ZH-356遇到植物病原真菌时才会被分泌出来以抑制它们的生长。在离体枝条的苹果树腐烂病菌感染预防试验中,ZH-356对苹果树腐烂病防效可达94%以上,而在患腐烂病苹果树的防治试验中,ZH-356菌制剂对苹果树腐烂病的防效高达100%。[结论]链霉菌ZH-356抑菌谱广,对多种植物病原真菌均具有良好的拮抗活性,可作为防治植物真菌病害的生防菌株,为基于ZH-356菌株的生防菌剂的开发和防治苹果树腐烂病等植物真菌病害奠定了基础。     

铜绿假单胞菌群体感应信号分子PQS的功能多样性研究进展

铜绿假单胞菌(Pseudomonas aeruginosa)是一种革兰氏阴性条件致病菌,可对免疫功能低下或损伤的患者造成持续性感染。铜绿假单胞菌能成功感染离不开其自身产生的毒力因子,而这些毒力因子大多数都受群体感应系统(quorum sensing,QS)调控。铜绿假单胞菌有4个QS系统,分别为las系统、rhl系统、pqs系统和iqs系统。2-庚基-3-羟基-4-喹诺酮(Pseudomonas quinolone signal,PQS)作为铜绿假单胞菌pqs系统的信号分子,不仅能够调控许多毒力因子的表达,也能够影响一些微生物和宿主的多种生理过程。本文总结了PQS多种生物学功能,如介导QS系统、调控生物被膜形成、介导外膜囊泡产生及铁摄取、调节宿主免疫活性、介导细胞毒性作用,以及提供种群保护等。本文旨在突出铜绿假单胞菌PQS的功能多样性,并为PQS新功能研究和抗菌药物的研发提供指导。     

A new animal bioreactor for producing pharmaceutical proteins

Current biotechnology industry is experiencing an extremely low manufacturing efficiency for recombinant therapeutic proteins [1], especially for proteins with post-translational modifications, such as acetylation [2]. Thus, there is an urgent need to improve the pre-existing recombinant protein expres- sion technologies or to develop new protein expression systems to overcome this bottleneck.     

Changes in bacterial CO2 fixation with depth in agricultural soils

Soils were incubated continuously in an atmosphere of ¹⁴CO₂ and the distribution of labeled C into soil organic carbon (¹⁴C-SOC) was determined at 0–1, 1–5, and 5–17 cm down the profile. Significant amounts of ¹⁴C-SOC were measured in paddy soils with a mean of 1,180.6?±?105.2 mg kg^–1 at 0–1 cm and 135.3?±?47.1 mg kg^?1 at 1–5 cm. This accounted for 5.9?±?0.7 % and 0.7?±?0.2 %, respectively, of the total soil organic carbon at these depths. In the upland soils, the mean ¹⁴C-SOC concentrations were 43 times (0–1 cm) and 11 times (1–5 cm) lower, respectively, than those in the paddy soils. The amounts of ¹⁴C incorporated into the microbial biomass (MBC) were also much lower in upland soils (5.0?±?3.6 % and 2.9?±?1.9 % at 0–1 and 1–5 cm, respectively) than in paddy soils (34.1?±?12.4 % and 10.2?±?2.1 % at 0–1 and 1–5 cm, respectively). Similarly, the amount of ¹⁴C incorporated into the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was considerably higher in paddy soils (26.1?±?6.9 % and 6.9?±?1.3 % at 0–1 and 1–5 cm, respectively) than in upland soils (6.0?±?2.7 % and 4.3?±?2.2 %, respectively). The observation that the majority of the fixed ¹⁴C-SOC, RubisCO activity and cbbL gene abundance were concentrated at 0–1 cm depth and the fact that light is restricted to the top few millimeters of the soil profiles highlighted the importance of phototrophs in CO₂ fixation in surface soils. Phylogenetic analysis of the cbbL genes showed that the potential for CO₂ fixation was evident throughout the profile and distributed between both photoautotrophic and chemoautotrophic bacteria such as Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, Rubrivivax gelatinosus and Ralstonia eutropha.     

Functions of the Clostridium acetobutylicium FabF and FabZ proteins in unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis

Background  

The original anaerobic unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis pathway proposed by Goldfine and Bloch was based on in vivo labeling studies in Clostridium butyricum ATCC 6015 (now C. beijerinckii) but to date no dedicated unsaturated fatty acid biosynthetic enzyme has been identified in Clostridia. C. acetobutylicium synthesizes the same species of unsaturated fatty acids as E. coli, but lacks all of the known unsaturated fatty acid synthetic genes identified in E. coli and other bacteria. A possible explanation was that two enzymes of saturated fatty acid synthesis of C. acetobutylicium, FabZ and FabF might also function in the unsaturated arm of the pathway (a FabZ homologue is known to be an unsaturated fatty acid synthetic enzyme in enterococci).     

Impact of Long-Term Fertilization on the Composition of Denitrifier Communities Based on Nitrite Reductase Analyses in a Paddy Soil

The effect of long-term fertilization on soil-denitrifying communities was determined by measuring the abundance and diversity of the nitrite reductase genes nirK and nirS. Soil samples were collected from plots of a long-term fertilization experiment started in 1990, located in Taoyuan (110°72″ E, 28°52″ N), China. The treatments were no fertilizer (NF), urea (UR), balanced mineral fertilizers (BM), and BM combined with rice straw (BMR). The abundance, diversity, and composition of the soil-denitrifying bacteria were determined by using real-time quantitative PCR, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), and cloning and sequencing of nirK and nirS genes. There was a pronounced difference in the community composition and diversity of nirK-containing denitrifiers responding to the long-term fertilization regimes; however, less variation was observed in communities of nirS-containing denitrifiers, indicating that denitrifiers possessing nirK were more sensitive to the fertilization practices than those with nirS. In contrast, fertilization regimes had similar effects on the copy numbers of nirK and nirS genes. The BMR treatment had the highest copy numbers of nirK and nirS, followed by the two mineral fertilization regimes (UR and BM), and the lowest was in the NF treatment. Of the measured soil parameters, the differences in the community composition of nirK and the abundance of nir denitrifiers were highly correlated with the soil carbon content. Therefore, long-term fertilization resulted in a strong impact on the community structure of nirK populations only, and total organic carbon was the dominant factor in relation to the variations of nir community sizes.     

Identification of polysaccharides from pericarp tissues of litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) fruit in relation to their antioxidant activities

A large number of polysaccharides are present in the pericarp tissues of harvested litchi fruits. A DEAE Sepharose fast-flow anion-exchange column and a Sephadex G-50 gel-permeation column were used to isolate and purify the major polysaccharides from litchi fruit pericarp tissues. Antioxidant activities of these major polysaccharide components were also evaluated. An aqueous extract of the polysaccharides from litchi fruit pericarp tissues was chromatographed on a DEAE anion-exchange column to yield two fractions. The largest amount of the polysaccharide fraction was subjected to further purification by gel filtration on Sephadex G-50. The purified product was a neutral polysaccharide, with a molecular weight of 14 kDa, comprised mainly of 65.6% mannose, 33.0% galactose and 1.4% arabinose. Analysis by Smith degradation indicated that there were 8.7% of (1-->2)-glycosidic linkages, 83.3% of (1-->3)-glycosidic linkages and 8.0% of (1-->6)-glycosidic linkages in the polysaccharide. Furthermore, different polysaccharide fractions extracted and purified from litchi fruit pericarp tissues exhibited strong antioxidant activities. Among these fractions, the purified polysaccharide had the highest antioxidant activity and should be explored as a novel potential antioxidant.     

Cloning, characterization and tissue-specific expression of a cDNA encoding a novel EMBRYONIC FLOWER 2 gene (OsEMF2) in Oryza sativa.

EMBRYONIC FLOWER 2 (EMF2) gene plays a major role in maintain vegetative development and repress flower development. Here, we present the cloning, characterization and tissue-specific expression of a putative EMF2 (OsEMF2) gene in Oryza sativa. The full-length cDNA of OsEMF2 was 1899 bp and contained an 1872 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 624 amino acid protein. Homologous analysis showed that OsEMF2 contain a single conserved C2H2-type zinc finger motif. Sequence alignment shows that there is a homology between the deduced amino acid sequence of OsEMF2 and EMF2 in Zea mays (55%). Moreover, pI of OsEMF2 are predicted. The tissue-specific expression pattern of OsEMF2 reveals that it is abundant in shoot apical meristem and inflorescence meristem, while its expression level is much lower in leaf, root, immature seed and callus.