Mapping and characterization of major QTL for spike traits in common wheat

Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants - The spike traits of wheat can directly affect yield. F2 and F2:3 lines derived from the cross of the multi-spikelet female 10-A and the uni-spikelet...     

河北平山发现锈胸蓝姬鹟

正2015年6月22日,在河北省平山县驼梁国家级自然保护区驼峰附近的华北落叶松林内(113°49′33″E,38°44′59″N,海拔2 056 m)观察到1雌1雄2只鹟科鸟类。雌鸟上体橄榄褐色,两翼各具1道棕白色的翼斑;喉部、胸部浅褐色,并略带皮黄;尾上覆羽沾棕色;眼周白色,嘴黑褐色。雄鸟上体暗蓝灰色,喉、上胸、两胁橙红色,腹部颜色逐渐变白,尾近黑色。发现时,雌鸟往返飞行于落叶松枝和地面进行觅食;雄鸟在落叶松上部的树枝上频繁地鸣唱。经查阅文献(约翰·马敬能等2000,曲利明2014,Clement et al.2016),确定该鸟种为锈胸蓝姬鹟(Ficedula hodgsonii)(图1)。     

丛枝菌根网络介导的植物间信号交流研究进展及展望

丛枝菌根(arbuscular mycorrhizal, AM)真菌是一类能够与绝大多数陆地植物形成共生关系的土壤真菌, 其根外菌丝可以侵染不同植物根系且可以进行菌丝融合, 从而形成丛枝菌根网络(arbuscular mycorrhizal networks, AMNs)。AMNs可以在植物之间转运水分及营养元素如碳(C)、氮(N)、磷(P)等, 最近研究表明AMNs还可以在植物遭受环境胁迫时向邻近植物传递防御信号, 对周围植物起到“预警”作用。目前, 关于环境胁迫条件下AMNs介导的信号物质传递研究仍处于起步阶段, 许多问题亟待回答。该文首先回顾了目前有关AMNs介导的信号物质传递研究进展, 继而梳理了这一研究领域值得进一步探究的科学问题, 包括AMNs在植物间传递防御信号的可能途径及相关机制, AMNs介导的信号传递对菌根共生体系的可能影响, 以及AMNs研究中常用的技术及其发展, 最后讨论了AMNs介导的信号物质传递在作物保护等方面的可能应用。     

Expression of 1N3R-Tau Isoform Inhibits Cell Proliferation by Inducing S Phase Arrest in N2a Cells

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein implicated in neurodegenerative tauopathies. Six tau isoforms are generated from a single gene through alternative splicing of exons 2, 3 and 10 in human brain. Differential expression of tau isoforms has been detected in different brain areas, during neurodevelopment and in neurodegenerative disorders. However, the biological significance of different tau isoforms is not clear. Here, we investigated the individual effect of six different isoforms of tau on cell proliferation and the possible mechanisms by transient expression of eGFP-labeled tau isoform plasmid in N2a cells. Our study showed the transfection efficiency was comparable between different isoforms of tau by examining GFP expression. Compared with other isoforms, we found expression of 1N3R-tau significantly inhibited cell proliferation by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and BrdU incorporation. Flow cytometry analysis further showed expression of 1N3R-tau induced S phase arrest. Compared with the longest isoform of tau, expression of 1N3R-tau induced cyclin E translocation from the nuclei to cytoplasm, while it did not change the level of cell cycle checkpoint proteins. These data indicate that 1N3R-tau inhibits cell proliferation through inducing S phase arrest.     

组蛋白甲基化及其与肿瘤间的关系

组蛋白甲基化修饰是表观遗传学的重要研究领域之一,主要可分为精氨酸甲基化和赖氨酸甲基化两种。越来越多的证据表明组蛋白甲基化功能异常与肿瘤的发生发展密切相关,而且这种甲基化修饰过程是可逆的。对组蛋白甲基化的进一步研究,不仅有助于深入了解基因表达、调控、遗传等生理机制,而且对于肿瘤等重大疾病的诊断、防治和预后判断有重要意义。本文对组蛋白甲基转移酶、去甲基化酶及其与肿瘤发生发展的关系予以综述。     

Pseudomonas nitritireducens sp. nov., a nitrite reduction bacterium isolated from wheat soil

A Gram-negative, non-mobile, polar single flagellum, rod-shaped bacterium WZBFD3-5A2^T was isolated from a wheat soil subjected to herbicides for several years. Cells of strain WZBFD3-5A2^T grow optimally on Luria-Bertani agar medium at 30?°C in the presence of 0–4.0?% (w/v) NaCl and pH 8.0. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain WZBFD3-5A2^T belongs to the genus Pseudomonas. Physiological and biochemical tests supported the phylogenetic affiliation. Strain WZBFD3-5A2^T is closely related to Pseudomonas nitroreducens IAM1439^T, sharing 99.7?% sequence similarity. DNA–DNA hybridization experiments between the two strains showed only moderate reassociation similarity (33.92?±?1.0?%). The DNA G+C content is 62.0?mol%. The predominant respiratory quinine is Q-9. The major cellular fatty acids present are C_16:0 (28.55?%), C_16:1ω6c or C_16:1ω7c (20.94?%), C_18:1ω7c (17.21?%) and C_18:0 (13.73?%). The isolate is distinguishable from other related members of the genus Pseudomonas on the basis of phenotypic and biochemical characteristics. From the genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic data, it is evident that strain WZBFD3-5A2^T represents a novel species of the genus Pseudomonas, for which the name Pseudomonas nitritereducens sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WZBFD3-5A2^T (=CGMCC 1.10702^T?=?LMG 25966^T).     

基于高密度SNP标记的肉牛人工选择痕迹筛查

近年来随着遗传改良工作的实施,人工选择大大提高了肉牛的生产性能并使其遗传基础发生巨大改变。文章基于Illumina BovineSNP50(54K)和BovineHD(770K)两款芯片数据,采用FST检验方法分析牛群的遗传分化,并筛查人工选择在牛的基因组留下的印记。通过全基因组范围内的扫描,共发现47 104个"离群"位点和3064个群体特异的人工选择"候选基因",如CLIC5、TG、CACNA2D1、FSHR等。通过基因注释对基因的生物学过程和分子功能进行富集分析。文章构建了我国肉牛的全基因组的选择信号图谱,为深入研究人工选择和理解生物进化提供线索,且研究结果也显示人工选择对基因组的影响在牛品种遗传改良中发挥了重要作用。     

Bioassay of Mildiomycin and a Rapid, Cost-Effective Agar Plug Method for Screening High-yielding Mutants of Mildiomycin

Summary A simple, reliable and low-cost agar diffusion bioassay for quantitative determination of mildiomycin was developed using a strain of Rhodotorula rubra AS 2.166 as the indicator organism and potato dextrose agar at pH 7.0 as the test medium. With equivalent precision and accuracy to HPLC analysis, this method was applied to analyse mildiomycin in complex culture broth during the fermentation process. A modified agar plug method based on the bioassay was constructed for rapid and efficient screening of high-yielding mutants of mildiomycin. Within four weeks, a high production strain, the mildiomycin productivity of which was 75.5% higher than the parent strain, was obtained from 15,000 mutants.     

Aminoacylation and translational quality control strategy employed by leucyl-tRNA synthetase from a human pathogen with genetic code ambiguity

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases should ensure high accuracy in tRNA aminoacylation. However, the absence of significant structural differences between amino acids always poses a direct challenge for some aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, such as leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS), which require editing function to remove mis-activated amino acids. In the cytoplasm of the human pathogen Candida albicans, the CUG codon is translated as both Ser and Leu by a uniquely evolved CatRNA^Ser(CAG). Its cytoplasmic LeuRS (CaLeuRS) is a crucial component for CUG codon ambiguity and harbors only one CUG codon at position 919. Comparison of the activity of CaLeuRS-Ser⁹¹⁹ and CaLeuRS-Leu⁹¹⁹ revealed yeast LeuRSs have a relaxed tRNA recognition capacity. We also studied the mis-activation and editing of non-cognate amino acids by CaLeuRS. Interestingly, we found that CaLeuRS is naturally deficient in tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing for non-cognate norvaline while displaying a weak tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing capacity for non-cognate α-amino butyric acid. We also demonstrated that post-transfer editing of CaLeuRS is not tRNA^Leu species-specific. In addition, other eukaryotic but not archaeal or bacterial LeuRSs were found to recognize CatRNA^Ser(CAG). Overall, we systematically studied the aminoacylation and editing properties of CaLeuRS and established a characteristic LeuRS model with naturally deficient tRNA-dependent pre-transfer editing, which increases LeuRS types with unique editing patterns.     

The GDF11-FTO-PPARγ axis controls the shift of osteoporotic MSC fate to adipocyte and inhibits bone formation during osteoporosis

During osteoporosis, the shift of bone mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) lineage commitment to adipocyte leads to the imbalance between bone mass and fat, which increases the risk of fracture. The mechanism underlying this process is not fully understood. Fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) is an RNA demethylase that demethylates various methylated nucleic acids and participates in various physiological and pathological processes. Here we identified FTO as a regulator for BMSC fate determination during osteoporosis. FTO was up-regulated in bone marrow during aging or osteoporosis in human and mice in a GDF11(growth differentiation factor 11)-C/EBPα-dependent mechanism. The expression of FTO was also up-regulated during adipocyte differentiation of BMSCs whereas its expression was down-regulated during osteoblast differentiation. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function experiments showed that FTO favored the BMSCs to differentiate to adipocytes rather than osteoblasts. Further mechanism study demonstrated that FTO bound and demethylated the mRNA of the Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (Pparg), leading to the increase in the expression of Pparg mRNA. Reversely, Pparg knockdown blocked the function of GDF11-FTO during osteoblast differentiation of BMSCs. Furthermore, conditionally genetic knockout of Fto in osteoblasts inhibited the development of osteopenia in mice. Collectively, our findings demonstrated that GDF11-FTO-Pparg axis promoted the shift of osteoporotic BMSC fate to adipocyte and inhibited bone formation during osteoporosis.