Conservation of plant cytoplasmic tRNA structure. Nucleotide sequence of rape tRNAPhe

The primary structure of rape seeds tRNAPhe has been determined. It is identical to that of wheat germ, pea and barley tRNAsPhe, and of the minor tRNAPhe species of yellow lupin seeds.     

Relationships between host blood factors and proteases in Glossina morsitans subspecies infected with Trypanosoma congolense

Abstract. Host blood effects on Trypanosoma congolense establishment in Glossina morsitans morsitans and Glossina morsitans centralis were investigated using goat, rabbit, cow and rhinoceros blood. Meals containing goat erythrocytes facilitated infection in G. m. morsitans , whereas meals containing goat plasma facilitated infection in G. m. centralis. Goat blood effects were not observed in the presence of complementary rabbit blood components. N-acetyl-glucosamine (a midguMectin inhibitor) increased infection rates in some, but not all, blood manipulations. Cholesterol increased infection rates in G. m. centralis only. Both compounds together added to cow blood produced superinfection in G. m. centralis , but not in G. m. morsitans. Midgut protease levels did not differ 6 days post-infection in flies maintaining infections versus flies clearing infections. Protease levels were weakly correlated with patterns of infection, but only in G. m. morsitans. These results suggest that physiological mechanisms responsible for variation in infection rates are only superficially similar in these closely-related tsetse.     

Intrinsic water use efficiency controls the adaptation to high salinity in a semi-arid adapted plant,henna (Lawsonia inermis L.)

Adaptation to salinity of a semi-arid inhabitant plant, henna, is studied. The salt tolerance mechanisms are evaluated in the belief that gas exchange (water vapor and CO₂) should play a key role on its adaptation to salt stress because of the strong evaporation conditions and soil water deficit in its natural area of distribution. We grow henna plants hydroponically under controlled climate conditions and expose them to control (0 mM NaCl), and two levels of salinity; medium (75 mM NaCl) and high (150 mM NaCl). Relative growth rate (RGR), biomass production, whole plant and leaf structure and ultrastructure adaptation, gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, nutrients location in leaf tissue and its balance in the plant are studied. RGR and total biomass decreased as NaCl concentration increased in the nutrient solution. At 75 mM NaCl root biomass was not affected by salinity and RGR reached similar values to control plants at the end of the experiment. At this salinity level henna plant responded to salinity decreasing shoot to root ratio, increasing leaf specific mass (LSM) and intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE), and accumulating high concentrations of Na⁺ and Cl⁻ in leaves and root. At 150 mM NaCl growth was severely reduced but plants reached the reproductive phase. At this salinity level, no further decrease in shoot to root ratio or increase in LSM was observed, but plants increased iWUE, maintaining water status and leaf and root Na⁺ and Cl⁻ concentrations were lower than expected. Moreover, plants at 150 mM NaCl reallocated carbon to the root at the expense of the shoot. The effective PSII quantum yield [Y(II)] and the quantum yield of non-regulated energy dissipation [Y(NO)] were recovered over time of exposure to salinity. Overall, iWUE seems to be determinant in the adaptation of henna plant to high salinity level, when morphological adaptation fails.     

Aberrant cytoplasm localization and protein stability of SIRT1 is regulated by PI3K/IGF-1R signaling in human cancer cells

SIRT1, an NAD-dependent histone/protein deacetylase, has classically been thought of as a nuclear protein. In this study, we demonstrate that SIRT1 is mainly localized in the nucleus of normal cells, but is predominantly localized in the cytoplasm of the cancer / transformed cells we tested. We found this predominant cytoplasmic localization of SIRT1 is regulated by elevated mitotic activity and PI3K/IGF-1R signaling in cancer cells. We show that aberrant cytoplasmic localization of SIRT1 is due to increased protein stability and is regulated by PI3K/IGF-1R signaling. In addition, we determined that SIRT1 is required for PI3K-mediated cancer cell growth. Our study represents the first identification that aberrant cytoplasm localization is one of the specific alternations to SIRT1 that occur in cancer cells, and PI3K/IGF-1R signaling plays an important role in the regulation of cytoplasmic SIRT1 stability. Our findings suggest that the over-expressed cytoplasmic SIRT1 in cancer cells may greatly contribute to its cancer-specific function by working downstream of the PI3K/IGF-1R signaling pathway.     

Seasonal diet preferences of black rhinoceros in three arid South African National Parks

Black rhinoceros diet and browse availability was investigated in Augrabies Falls (AFNP), Karoo (KRNP) and Vaalbos National Parks (VNP) in South Africa. Rhino tracks were followed and 18,804 standard bite volumes recorded. Browse availability of each plant species was recorded by measuring 14,800 plants and calculating reachable browse volume. The diet comprised 51, 53 and 41 plant species in AFNP, KRNP and VNP, respectively, but three species accounted for more than 65% of the diet in each park, making diet less diverse than available browse in AFNP and KRNP. Browse availability explained 14%, 15% and 52% of diet selection in AFNP, KRNP and VNP, with consumption of most plant species significantly different from availability. A few plant species were so highly preferred that browsing intensities were unsustainable, while some common species were totally rejected. Pressure on the eaten browse averaged 4.4%, 14.5% and 1.3% annually of the volume in AFNP, KRNP and VNP. In the dry season, there was a two to sevenfold increase in browsing pressure on species with actively photosynthesizing tissues. A few key species, including Monechma and Zygophyllum species, were identified as potential early warning indicators of black rhino browsing impact.     

Subequatorial cytoplasm plays an important role in ectoderm patterning in the sea urchin embryo

To gain information on the process of ectoderm patterning, the animal halves of sea urchin embryos were isolated at various stages, and their morphology was examined when control embryos developed into pluteus larvae. The animal halves separated at the 8-cell stage developed into 'dauerblastula', without showing any conspicuous ectoderm differentiation. In contrast, some of the animal halves isolated at the 60-cell stage (after the sixth cleavage) formed a ciliated band and oral opening, suggesting that some patterning signal was transmitted from the vegetal to animal hemisphere during early cleavage. Further patterning of the animal hemisphere did not seem to occur until hatching, since both the animal halves isolated at the 60-cell stage and hatching stage showed the same degree of ectoderm patterning. After hatching, the later animal halves were isolated, the more patterned ectoderm they formed. The animal halves isolated just prior to gastrulation differentiated well-patterned ectoderm. It is of note, however, that the level of separation was a more crucial factor than the timing of separation; even the animal fragments of newly hatched embryos differentiated well-patterned ectoderm if they had been separated at a subequatorial level. This suggests that the signal for ectoderm patterning is transmitted over the equator after hatching, and once the cells in the supra-equatorial region receive the signal, they, in turn, can transmit the signal upwardly. Interestingly, if the third cleavage plane was shifted toward the vegetal pole, the isolated animal pole-side fragments developed into 'embryoids' with fully patterned ectoderm. These results indicate that not the micromere descendants but the subequatorial cytoplasm plays an important role in ectoderm patterning.     

Quantification of fluorescence in thick specimens, with an application to cyclin B-GFP expression in starfish oocytes

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Fluorescence imaging of living cells is widely used in cell biology. It is now being extended to thick specimens such as large cells or tissues where it is important to establish methods for obtaining quantitative fluorescence data due to the increasing importance of computational and systems biology approaches. RESULTS: Fluorescent solutions were used as a calibration standard for determining cellular fluorescence concentrations from z series image sequences. The accuracy of the measurements was evaluated using quantitatively injected cells. Different fluorescence attenuation rates of the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm were documented, and autofluorescence levels were determined. This method was used to characterize the effect of cyclin B overexpression on cell-cycle timing in starfish oocytes. The time interval between application of maturation hormone and germinal vesicle breakdown decreased with increasing cyclin B-GFP (green fluorescent protein) concentration to a level of 100-300 nM, beyond which there was no effect. CONCLUSIONS: Conditions for determining fluorescent probe concentrations in large cells or multicellular tissues were established, which will facilitate the collection of data for quantitative studies. This method was used to characterize the effect of cyclin B-GFP expression levels on cell-cycle timing in starfish oocytes.     

CYTONUCLEAR INTERACTIONS CAN FAVOR THE EVOLUTION OF GENOMIC IMPRINTING

Interactions between cytoplasmic (generally organelle) and nuclear genomes may be relatively common and could potentially have major fitness consequences. As in the case of within-genome epistasis, this cytonuclear epistasis can favor the evolutionary coadaptation of high-fitness combinations of nuclear and cytoplasmic alleles. Because cytoplasmic factors are generally uniparentally inherited, the cytoplasmic genome is inherited along with only one of the nuclear haplotypes, and therefore, coadaptation is expected to evolve through the interaction of these coinherited (usually maternally inherited) genomes. Here I show that, as a result of this coinheritance of the two genomes, cytonuclear epistasis can favor the evolution of genomic imprinting such that, when the cytoplasmic factor is maternally inherited, selection favors maternal expression of the nuclear locus and when the factor is paternally inherited selection favors paternal expression. Genomic imprinting evolves in this model because it leads to a pattern of gene expression in the nuclear haplotype that is coadapted with (i.e., adaptively coordinated with) gene expression in the coinherited cytoplasmic genome.     

Hybrid breeding of rice via genomic selection

Hybrid breeding is the main strategy for improving productivity in many crops, especially in rice and maize. Genomic hybrid breeding is a technology that uses whole‐genome markers to predict future hybrids. Predicted superior hybrids are then field evaluated and released as new hybrid cultivars after their superior performances are confirmed. This will increase the opportunity of selecting true superior hybrids with minimum costs. Here, we used genomic best linear unbiased prediction to perform hybrid performance prediction using an existing rice population of 1495 hybrids. Replicated 10‐fold cross‐validations showed that the prediction abilities on ten agronomic traits ranged from 0.35 to 0.92. Using the 1495 rice hybrids as a training sample, we predicted six agronomic traits of 100 hybrids derived from half diallel crosses involving 21 parents that are different from the parents of the hybrids in the training sample. The prediction abilities were relatively high, varying from 0.54 (yield) to 0.92 (grain length). We concluded that the current population of 1495 hybrids can be used to predict hybrids from seemingly unrelated parents. Eventually, we used this training population to predict all potential hybrids of cytoplasm male sterile lines from 3000 rice varieties from the 3K Rice Genome Project. Using a breeding index combining 10 traits, we identified the top and bottom 200 predicted hybrids. SNP genotypes of the training population and parameters estimated from this training population are available for general uses and further validation in genomic hybrid prediction of all potential hybrids generated from all varieties of rice.     

Comparison on the genotoxic effects of nuclear vs cytoplasmic irradiation from the alteration of CD59 gene locus

Using microbeam to irradiate human-hamster hybrid AL cells withdefined number of a particles in a highly localized spatial region, this paper showed that cytoplasmic irradiation induced very little toxicity. For example, the cell killing by 4 a particle traversal through the cytoplasm was about 10%, and about 70% cells survived after their cytoplasm was irradiated with 32 a particles. In contrast, the survival fractions for nuclear irradiation at the same doses were 35% and less than 1% respectively. Mutation induction showed that while nuclear irradiation induced 3-4-fold more CD59- mutants than cytoplasmic irradiation at equivalent particle traversal, at an equitoxic dose level of 90% survival, the latter exposure mode induced 3.3-fold more mutants than nuclear irradia-tion. Moreover, using multiplex PCR to analyze five marker genes on chromosome 11 (WT, CAT, PTH, APO-A1 and RAS), the results showed that the majority of mutants induced by cytoplasmic irradiation had retained all of the marker genes analyzed. By comparison, the proportion of mutants suffering loss of additional chromosomal markers increased with increasing number of particle traversal through nuclei.