K+(Rb+) and Ca2+ fluxes in young winter wheat plants exposed to sub-zero temperatures

Ice crystal formation temperature was determined in the region of the crown in one group of 7-day-old intact unhardened high-salt plants of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Weibulls Starke II) with TA (Thermal Analysis) and DTA (Differential Thermal Analysis) methods. After exposure of another group of plants, grown for the first 7 days in the same way as the first group, to various sub-zero temperatures (-1 to 5°C), influx in roots of Rb⁺(⁸⁶Rb⁺) and Ca²⁺(⁴⁵Ca²⁺) and contents of K⁺ and Ca²⁺ were determined at intervals during 7 days of recovery. Ice crystal formation in the crown tissue was probably extracellular and took place at about -4°C. There was a large loss of K⁺ from the roots after treatment at sub-zero temperatures. This loss increased as the temperature of the sub-zero treatment decreased. During recovery, roots of plants exposed to -1, -2 and -3°C gradually reabsorbed K⁺. Reabsorption of K⁺ in roots of plants exposed to -4°C was greatly impaired. Rb⁺ influx decreased and Ca²⁺ influx increased after sub-zero temperature treatments of the plants. Active Rb⁺ influx mechanisms and active extrusion of Ca²⁺ were impaired or irreversibly damaged by the exposure. While Rb⁺ influx mechanisms were apparently repaired during recovery in plants exposed to temperatures down to -3°C, Ca²⁺ extrusion mechanisms were not. The temperature for ice crystal formation in the region of the crown tissue coincides with the temperature at which the plants lost the ability to reabsorb K⁺ and to repair Rb⁺ influx mechanisms during the recovery period. Plants were lethally damaged at temperatures below ?4°C.     

Cross-linking of DNA in liver and testes of rats fed 1,3-propanediol

1,3-Propanediol (PAD) was fed to rats for 15 weeks, and its effects on hepatic and testicular DNA were studied. The control rats were fed a casein-based diet that contained 10% tocopherol-stripped corn oil with 30 IU of d,l-α-tocopherol acetate/kg; the experimental rats were fed the same diet with 500 ppm of PAD. Homogenates prepared from the livers of each group of rats converted 1,3-propanediol to malondialdehyde (MDA) with equal efficacy, but homogenates of testes did not catalyze this conversion. After 10–15 weeks of feeding the diets, the hepatic DNA of the rats fed PAD had less template activity, more bound tryptophan and more DNA-protein and interstrand DNA cross-links than that of the control rats. As measured by template activity and bound tryptophan, testicular DNA of the experimental rats was not different from that of the control rats; however, there was slightly more cross-linking in the testicular DNA of experimental rats than in that of control rats. Testes of the experimental rats contained more lipid-soluble fluorophores than did those of the control rats. The results are consistent with the conclusion that PAD was converted to MDA in vivo and that MDA is the reactive species that caused the observed biological damage.     

Tissue-Characteristic Expression of Mouse Proteome

The mouse is a valuable model organism for biomedical research. Here, we established a comprehensive spectral library and the data-independent acquisition–based quantitative proteome maps for 41 mouse organs, including some rarely reported organs such as the cornea, retina, and nine paired organs. The mouse spectral library contained 178,304 peptides from 12,320 proteins, including 1678 proteins not reported in previous mouse spectral libraries. Our data suggested that organs from the nervous system and immune system expressed the most distinct proteome compared with other organs. We also found characteristic protein expression of immune-privileged organs, which may help understanding possible immune rejection after organ transplantation. Each tissue type expressed characteristic high-abundance proteins related to its physiological functions. We also uncovered some tissue-specific proteins which have not been reported previously. The testis expressed highest number of tissue-specific proteins. By comparison of nine paired organs including kidneys, testes, and adrenal glands, we found left organs exhibited higher levels of antioxidant enzymes. We also observed expression asymmetry for proteins related to the apoptotic process, tumor suppression, and organ functions between the left and right sides. This study provides a comprehensive spectral library and a quantitative proteome resource for mouse studies.     

人工微生物混菌系统机制解析中的组学应用及进展

人工微生物混菌系统的生物工程应用价值日益受到重视,使得对于混菌系统中成员菌间的相互作用机制研究也成为近年来的一个热点。其研究结果一方面可以为现有人工混菌系统的进一步优化提供理论依据,另一方面也为全新混菌系统的人工构建提供新的思路和策略,进而促进人工微生物混菌系统未来规模化应用。基因组学、转录组学、蛋白质组学和代谢组学等研究方法能够高通量分析各种生物分子、提供大量的数据与信息,多组学分析可以获得混菌系统中细胞的“全景”,在揭示人工微生物混菌系统中各个成员间的相互作用的研究中有着特殊的意义。文中综述了近年来多种组学技术在人工微生物混菌系统机制解析中的应用及研究进展,从代谢网络、能量代谢、信号转导、膜转运、胁迫响应、混菌系统的稳定性以及结构合理性等方面探讨混菌系统机制解析的最新进展,以期为利用合成生物学、基因组编辑等新兴生物技术改造微生物混菌系统实现其工程化应用提供理论依据。     

SOUND PRODUCTION IN THE LARVAE OF GEOTRUPES SPINIGER (MARSHAM) (COLEOPTERA: GEOTRUPIDAE)

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on sound production in the larvae of Geotrupes spiniger (Marsham) (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae). A single stridulatory apparatus was identified and then analysed from a structural point of view. Sound was studied using spectography and results included a quantitative analysis with characterizing physical parameters. Results highlight the need to study stridulation in Geotrupidae more in detail, to improve our understanding of its evolutionary and biological meaning.     

Two oligosaccharides from Marsdenia roylei

Phytochemical analysis of dried twigs of Marsdenia roylei (family Asclepiadaceae) has resulted in the isolation of a trisaccharide, maryal, and a diglycoside, rolinose. Their structures were determined as O-beta-D-oleandropyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-beta-D-digitoxopyranosyl++ +-(1-->4)-D- cymaral and ethyl O-beta-D-oleandropyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-3-O-methyl-6-deoxy-beta-D- allopyranoside, respectively, by chemical degradation and spectroscopic methods.     

Singular value decomposition analysis of protein sequence alignment score data.

One of the standard tools for the analysis of data arranged in matrix form is singular value decomposition (SVD). Few applications to genomic data have been reported to date mainly for the analysis of gene expression microarray data. We review SVD properties, examine mathematical terms and assumptions implicit in the SVD formalism, and show that SVD can be applied to the analysis of matrices representing pairwise alignment scores between large sets of protein sequences. In particular, we illustrate SVD capabilities for data dimension reduction and for clustering protein sequences. A comparison is performed between SVD-generated clusters of proteins and annotation reported in the SWISS-PROT Database for a set of protein sequences forming the calycin superfamily, entailing all entries corresponding to the lipocalin, cytosolic fatty acid-binding protein, and avidin-streptavidin Prosite patterns.