水稻OsPR10A的表达特征及其在干旱胁迫应答过程中的功能

利用免疫印迹(WB)分析了水稻(Oryza sativa) OsPR10A在其不同生长时期、不同组织部位及多种非生物逆境胁迫下的表达特征, 发现OsPR10A在干旱、盐胁迫以及茉莉酸甲酯(MeJA)和脱落酸(ABA)诱导下表达量明显升高, 表明该蛋白可能在干旱和盐胁迫应答过程中发挥作用。为证明这一推测, 我们构建了OsPR10A超表达载体, 经农杆菌介导转化水稻, 获得超表达OsPR10A的纯合株系。田间表型观察表明, 转基因株系株高变矮、穗长变短、结实率降低。用20% PEG6000在水稻种子萌发过程中进行干旱处理, 结果显示, OsPR10A超表达株系的根长和芽长均显著高于野生型, 证明超表达OsPR10A可增强水稻萌发期耐旱性。该研究有助于增进人们对水稻OsPR10A功能的了解。     

溶液流动对等电溶菌酶晶体生长的影响

本文对等温自由生长和强制性溶液生长的等电溶菌酶的晶体形态进行了研究,发现这些形态变化与溶液相的流动密切相关,指出生物晶体生长停止是由于生长晶体周围的溶质贫乏造成的;通过某些手段减薄或消除这一溶质贫乏区,就可以保证晶体的持续生长。本文的研究对改善大尺寸晶体的生长提供了一条途径。     

无机营养对春小麦抗旱适应性的影响

本文研究了无机营养对春小麦一些抗旱适应性的影响,主要包括:渗透调节的大小和变化过程、可溶性糖的积累、脯氨酸的积累、叶片导度的变化、离体叶片的失水速率、叶面积和耗水量的变化、根系生长和根/植冠值,并且分析了各个处理植株的水分利用效率(WUE)和产量的变异。认为,在干旱条件下,无机营养对于春小麦不同器官、不同生理功能,并不都具有一致的作用。有的利于提高植株的抗旱性,有的可以改变一些适应性产生的时间和发展过程,有的则不利于植株的抗旱性。通过综合分析,提出旱地施肥使作物增产的主要原因是,营养元素满足了作物生长所需,促进了根系发育,利于吸收水分、维持水分平衡和正常生理功能,但对作物自身的耐旱性并没有产生显著影响。     

High-mobility group and other nonhistone substrates for nuclear histoneN-acetyltransferase

A variety of nonhistone proteins and polyamines has been studied for their substrate activity for nuclear histone N-acetyltransferase. Nonhistone chromatin high-mobility group (HMG) proteins are found to be as good a substrate for the enzyme as histones. The enzyme also acetylates spermidine and spermine. However, protamine, bovine serum albumin, and ubiquitin are not substrates. Chymotryptic peptides of histone and HMGs retained about 64% of the substrate activity, but trypsin treatment reduced the substrate activity by more than 85%. Both N-acetyltransferase activities for HMGs and histones are copurified through salt extraction, polyethylene glycol fractionation, and chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, phosphocellulose columns, and a HPLC anionic-exchange column. The highly purified nuclear histone acetyltransferase shows similar optimal pH and ping-pong kinetics for both HMGs and histones. The Km for HMG is 0.25 mg/ml. HMGs are able to accept the acetyl group from isolated acetyl-enzyme intermediate. Denatured gel analysis shows that HMG 1 and HMG 2 are the major proteins acetylated. High salt concentrations, mononucleotides, and DNA, which inhibit histone substrate activity of the enzyme, also inhibit HMG substrate activity. These observations suggest that there is a major nuclear N-acetyltransferase which is responsible for the acetylation of both histones and HMGs and perhaps also of spermine and spermidine. Thus the regulation of the structure and function of chromatin through postsynthetic acetylation can be achieved by a single nuclear N-acetyltransferase.     

The Unique GGA Clathrin Adaptor of Drosophila melanogaster Is Not Essential

The Golgi-localized, γ-ear-containing, ARF binding proteins (GGAs) are a highly conserved family of monomeric clathrin adaptor proteins implicated in clathrin-mediated protein sorting between the trans-Golgi network and endosomes. GGA RNAi knockdowns in Drosophila have resulted in conflicting data concerning whether the Drosophila GGA (dGGA) is essential. The goal of this study was to define the null phenotype for the unique Drosophila GGA. We describe two independently derived dGGA mutations. Neither allele expresses detectable dGGA protein. Homozygous and hemizygous flies with each allele are viable and fertile. In contrast to a previous report using RNAi knockdown, GGA mutant flies show no evidence of age-dependent retinal degeneration or cathepsin missorting. Our results demonstrate that several of the previous RNAi knockdown phenotypes were the result of off-target effects. However, GGA null flies are hypersensitive to dietary chloroquine and to starvation, implicating GGA in lysosomal function and autophagy.     

Molecular phylogeny of three ambiguous ciliate genera: Kentrophoros,Trachelolophos and Trachelotractus (Alveolata,Ciliophora)

Gao, S., Strüder‐Kypke, M.C., Al‐Rasheid, K.A.S., Lin, X. & Song, W. (2010). Molecular phylogeny of three ambiguous ciliate genera: Kentrophoros, Trachelolophos and Trachelotractus (Alveolata, Ciliophora).—Zoologica Scripta, 39, 305–313. Very few molecular studies on the phylogeny of the karyorelictean ciliates have been carried out because data of this highly ambiguous group are extremely scarce. In the present study, we sequenced the small subunit ribosomal RNA genes of three morphospecies representing two karyorelictean genera, Kentrophoros, Trachelolophos, and one haptorid, Trachelotractus, isolated from the South and East China Seas. The phylogenetic trees constructed using Bayesian inference, maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony and neighbor‐joining methods yielded essentially similar topologies. The class Karyorelictea is depicted as a monophyletic clade, closely related to the class Heterotrichea. The generic concept of the family Trachelocercidae is confirmed by the clustering of Trachelolophos and Tracheloraphis with high bootstrap support; nevertheless, the order Loxodida is paraphyletic. The transfer of the morphotype Trachelocerca entzi Kahl, 1927 to the class Litostomatea and into the new haptorid genus Trachelotractus, as suggested by previous researchers based on morphological studies, is consistently supported by our molecular analyses. In addition, the poorly known species Parduczia orbis occupies a well‐supported position basal to the Geleia clade, justifying the separation of these genera from one another.     

天麻栽培用蜜环菌的遗传多样性、生长和水解酶

蜜环菌Armillaria是一种广泛分布的担子菌,是栽培中药天麻所必须的共生菌。为揭示我国天麻栽培用和鄂西地区部分野生蜜环菌资源的遗传多样性和生物学特性,本文收集了9个省市EF-1-α的19个蜜环菌商品菌株和鄂西地区20株野生蜜环菌菌株,以IGS、ITS和elongation factor-1-alpha（EF-1-α）为分子标记对这些菌株进行系统发育与遗传多样性分析,并对影响与天麻共生的生物学特性（菌索发育和胞外水解酶活性）进行对比研究。结果表明,这19株蜜环菌商品菌株分别归属于2个clade。其中,有18个菌株聚在cladeⅢ,说明不同来源的蜜环菌商品菌株之间系统发育关系很近;通过对蜜环菌的系统发育、菌索生长以及胞外水解酶活性的研究,总体上商品种优于鄂西的野生蜜环菌生物种。从鄂西野生蜜环菌中筛选出4个具有潜在栽培价值的菌株。本研究为天麻栽培生产中蜜环菌菌种的选择提供参考。     

Tillering and small grain 1 dominates the tryptophan aminotransferase family required for local auxin biosynthesis in rice

Auxin is a crucial phytohormone, controlling multiple aspects of plant growth and responses to the changing environment. However, the role of local auxin biosynthesis in specific developmental programs remains unknown in crops. This study characterized the rice tillering and small grain 1 (tsg1) mutant, which has more tillers but a smaller panicle and grain size resulting from a reduction in endogenous auxin. TSG1 encodes a tryptophan aminotransferase that is allelic to the FISH BONE (FIB) gene. The tsg1 mutant showed hypersensitivity to indole‐3‐acetic acid and the competitive inhibitor of aminotransferase, L‐kynurenine. TSG1 knockout resulted in an increased tiller number but reduction in grain number and size, and decrease in height. Meanwhile, deletion of the TSG1 homologs OsTAR1, OsTARL1, and OsTARL2 caused no obvious changes, although the phenotype of the TSG1/OsTAR1 double mutant was intensified and infertile, suggesting gene redundancy in the rice tryptophan aminotransferase family. Interestingly, TSG1 and OsTAR1, but not OsTARL1 and OsTARL2, displayed marked aminotransferase activity. Meanwhile, subcellular localization was identified as the endoplasmic reticulum, while phylogenetic analysis revealed functional divergence of TSG1 and OsTAR1 from OsTARL1 and OsTARL2. These findings suggest that TSG1 dominates the tryptophan aminotransferase family, playing a prominent role in local auxin biosynthesis in rice.