The primary structure of the human pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor: Amino acid sequence of the reduced S-aminoethylated protein

The amino acid sequence of human pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor [Pubols, M. H., Bartelt, D. C., and Greene, L. J. (1974) J. Biol. Chem., 249, 2235–2242] was determined by a combination of selective trypsin and chymotrypsin hydrolysis reactions on the S-2-aminoethylcysteinyl inhibitor and conventional methods (subtractive Edman degradation and exopeptidase hydrolysis) for sequence determination of small peptides. The peptides were ordered on the basis of the identification of the amino- and carboxyterminal residues of the products at each stage of the degradation procedure. The sequence determination was carried out on a mixture of chromatographic forms present in both tissue and pancreatic juice which are identical in amino acid composition, aminoterminal residues, molecular weight, and specific activity, but differ only in asparagine content and susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis. The amino acid sequence of the human inhibitor corresponding to chromatographic form A₃ has been shown to be NH₂

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Biological Control of the Shore Fly (Scatella tenuicosta) with Steinernematid Nematodes and Bacillus thuringiensis var. thuringiensis in Peat and Rockwool

Steinernema feltiae Filipjev and S. carpocapsae Weiser (Nematoda: Steinernematidae) at rates of 1, 5 and 20 million m^-2 in peat pots and at rates of 1, 2.5 and 5 million m^-2 in rockwool cubes were tested against the shore fly Scatella tenuicosta Collin (Diptera: Ephydridae) by applying the nematodes either preventatively 2 days before or curatively 9 days after, or both 2 days before and 9 days after exposing the pots and cubes to flies. Based on cumulative fly numbers that emerged from peat pots sampled weekly for 3 weeks, all application strategies with 5 or 20 million nematodes net-m^-2, irrespective of species, reduced fly numbers by 61-96% as compared to untreated controls. High temperatures in 1 week reduced control efficacy to 30-35% in some treatments. In rockwool, maximum control efficacies of 83-84% were achieved by both species in the second week in treatments that had received two applications at the rate of 5 million m^-2, but these did not differ significantly from the 69-75% efficacies achieved with 2.5 million nematodes m^-2. The cumulative control efficacy over 4 weeks was only 46% at maximum. The lower control efficacy in rockwool compared to peat was due to rapid disappearance of nematodes from rockwool.     

低植酸作物突变体研究进展

植酸是玉米(Zea mays)、小麦(Triticum aestivum)、大麦(Hordeum vulgare)、水稻(Oryza sativa)和大豆(Glvcine max)等籽粒中广泛存在的一种有机酸(6-肌醇磷酸),其与K 、Ca2 、Mg2 和Fe3 等金属离子形成的植酸盐是微量营养元素的重要贮存形式.植酸及植酸盐不能被人和非反刍动物所吸收利用;植酸摄入体内后还会和其他来源的微量营养元素结合形成植酸盐,造成这些营养元素的生物有效性下降,从而造成微量元素缺乏症.此外,大量的植酸及植酸盐随粪便排出,造成严重的环境污染,尤其是水体富营养化.由于土壤中缺乏分解微生物,即使畜禽粪便作有机肥还田仍不能被作物吸收利用.近年来,利用理化诱变与转基因技术已成功地获得了玉米、大麦、水稻和大豆等作物的低植酸突变体.本文对植酸的生物合成过程、低植酸突变体的诱发与研究、低植酸突变体的遗传特征与可能机理及营养评价进行了综述,并对低植酸作物的应用前景进行了简要分析.     

Negative effect of discharging vinification lees on soils

In this work, vinification lees from Galicia (Spain) were chemically analysed and compared with the composition of vinification lees from other regions and residues. Moreover, vinification lees were submitted to biological test employing cress, spring barley and ryegrass seeds. The evaluated vinification lees were rich in nutrients that are essential for plants, like P (2520 mg kg⁻¹), K (36,738 mg kg⁻¹) and Mg (462 mg kg⁻¹), but have low pH (3.9) and high C/N ratio. However, when vinification lees were submitted to biological tests, no germination was observed for garden cress and ryegrass seeds and almost no germination for spring barley seeds, showing the negative effect of discharging lees on crop fields.     

Using seed purity data to estimate an average pollen mediated gene flow from crops to wild relatives

Gene flow from crops to wild related species has been recently under focus in risk-assessment studies of the ecological consequences of growing transgenic crops. However, experimental studies addressing this question are usually temporally or spatially limited. Indirect population-structure approaches can provide more global estimates of gene flow, but their assumptions appear inappropriate in an agricultural context. In an attempt to help the committees providing advice on the release of transgenic crops, we present a new method to estimate the quantity of genes migrating from crops to populations of related wild plants by way of pollen dispersal. This method provides an average estimate at a landscape level. Its originality is based on the measure of the inverse gene flow, i.e. gene flow from the wild plants to the crop. Such gene flow results in an observed level of impurities from wild plants in crop seeds. This level of impurity is usually known by the seed producers and, in any case, its measure is easier than a direct screen of wild populations because crop seeds are abundant and their genetic profile is known. By assuming that wild and cultivated plants have a similar individual pollen dispersal function, we infer the level of pollen-mediated gene flow from a crop to the surrounding wild populations from this observed level of impurity. We present an example for sugar beet data. Results suggest that under conditions of seed production in France (isolation distance of 1,000 m) wild beets produce high numbers of seeds fathered by cultivated plants. Received: 5 February 2001 / Accepted: 26 March 2001     

农作物对Cd毒害的耐性机理探讨

对生长在Ｃｄ污染条件下的８种作物体内Ｃｄ的存在形态分析表明,作物的耐Ｃｄ性与Ｃｄ的形态分布密切相关,在耐性作物体内,蛋白质（多肽）结合Ｃｄ量的比例低于非耐性作物;有机酸盐和一代磷酸盐态Ｃｄ的比例增加;分离得到Ｃｄ诱导蛋白?其中束缚了一定量的Ｃｄ,限制了Ｃｄ以自由态存在,耐性较低的作物本内,大分子量的蛋白质中富Ｃｄ量较高。     

施用硫肥对几种作物与牧草产量和硫素含量的影响

为了研究不同作物的需S状况。对我国北方3种主要农作物(小麦、玉米、油菜)和牧草(苜蓿)进行了5个施硫水平(0、5、10、20和40mg·kg^-1)的盆栽试验．结果表明。增施一定量的硫肥可以提高作物生物量和产量．4种作物生物量增加5％～32％．小麦和油菜籽粒产量增加3％～20％．同时。增施硫肥可以使作物体内S素增加,但不同作物含硫量明显不同,油菜含硫量最高(0．479％～1．228％)。玉米含硫量最低(0．043％～0．091％)．同一作物不同部位含硫量不同。但同一作物不同部位含硫量呈显著的线性正相关．如油菜I、油菜Ⅱ和小麦植株与其种子含硫量的相关性都达极显著水平,R2值分别为0．399、0．654和0．547(n=15)．作物生物量、产量与施硫量相关性除苜蓿外．都达显著或极显著水平;作物生物量、产量与作物体内硫素含量除苜蓿外也显著或极显著相关;作物从土壤中吸收的S开始时随土壤的有效硫增加而增加,但达到一定程度时。随着有效硫的增加吸收的S略有下降．     

Particle bombardment and the genetic enhancement of crops: myths and realities

DNA transfer by particle bombardment makes use of physical processes to achieve the transformation of crop plants. There is no dependence on bacteria, so the limitations inherent in organisms such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens do not apply. The absence of biological constraints, at least until DNA has entered the plant cell, means that particle bombardment is a versatile and effective transformation method, not limited by cell type, species or genotype. There are no intrinsic vector requirements so transgenes of any size and arrangement can be introduced, and multiple gene cotransformation is straightforward. The perceived disadvantages of particle bombardment compared to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, i.e. the tendency to generate large transgene arrays containing rearranged and broken transgene copies, are not borne out by the recent detailed structural analysis of transgene loci produced by each of the methods. There is also little evidence for major differences in the levels of transgene instability and silencing when these transformation methods are compared in agriculturally important cereals and legumes, and other non-model systems. Indeed, a major advantage of particle bombardment is that the delivered DNA can be manipulated to influence the quality and structure of the resultant transgene loci. This has been demonstrated in recently reported strategies that favor the recovery of transgenic plants containing intact, single-copy integration events, and demonstrating high-level transgene expression. At the current time, particle bombardment is the most efficient way to achieve plastid transformation in plants and is the only method so far used to achieve mitochondrial transformation. In this review, we discuss recent data highlighting the positive impact of particle bombardment on the genetic transformation of plants, focusing on the fate of exogenous DNA, its organization and its expression in the plant cell. We also discuss some of the most important applications of this technology including the deployment of transgenic plants under field conditions.     

中国作物野生近缘植物资源

中国地域辽阔,气候多样,地形复杂,土壤类型繁多,加之农业历史悠久,不仅作物种类众多,而且很多作物都有其野生近缘种,从而使得中国成为世界作物的重要起源中心之一。本文在介绍中国作物种类的同时,列出了各类作物的野生近缘植物资源,为进一步深入研究和开发利用这些资源,以及国家制定野生植物保护有关政策提供基础数据和信息。     

Linkages between forest growth,climate, and agricultural production are revealed through analysis of seasonally-partitioned longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) tree rings

We established a five-century long tree-ring chronology partitioned between earlywood and latewood growth to examine intra-annual climate response and attempt to establish linkages to agricultural production. Longleaf pine earlywood and latewood width chronologies spanned the period 1491–2017 (527 years) and constitute one of the longest records achieved for this species. High monthly correlations were found between latewood growth and summer-fall Palmer Drought Z-Index. Correlations were consistently significantly positive for June through October. Intra-annual growth of earlywood and latewood were positively correlated for the full period of record, but exhibited variability in correlation strength through time. Conversely, earlywood and prior-year latewood were also frequently correlated, but correlations were found to switch between positive and negative association, possibly in response to Atlantic Ocean temperatures. Annual yields of major crops are coupled with latewood growth, representing a new and potentially valuable proxy for linking agricultural yields to climate proxies over multiple centuries.