小苍兰种质遗传多样性的ISSR分析

利用ISSR(Inter Simple Sequence Repeat)分子标记对12份小苍兰(Freesia refracta)种质进行了遗传多样性分析研究。从34条ISSR引物中筛选出了12条适宜的引物。这12条引物中每条引物可扩增出5~11条DNA片段,共扩增了96个条带,其中多态性片段62条,平均每条引物可产生5.2条多态性片段,多态性条带比率(PPB)为64.6%。经NTSYS-pc分析,12份小苍兰种质间的遗传距离(GD)的变化范围为0.123~0.907,平均为0.442。根据Nei’s相似系数建立了UPGMA聚类图,在相似系数为0.56时,可将紫色花系的小苍兰种质与其它种质分开,形成两个组。结果表明,ISSR分子标记可有效地分析小苍兰种质资源的遗传多样性和亲缘关系,为小苍兰的杂交育种和新品种保护提供理论基础。     

Expression of a polyubiquitin promoter isolated from Gladiolus

A polyubiquitin promoter (GUBQ1) including its 5′UTR and intron was isolated from the floral monocot Gladiolus because high levels of expression could not be obtained using publicly available promoters isolated from either cereals or dicots. Sequencing of the promoter revealed highly conserved 5′ and 3′ intron splicing sites for the 1.234 kb intron. The coding sequence of the first two ubiquitin genes showed the highest homology (87 and 86%, respectively) to the ubiquitin genes of Nicotiana tabacum and Oryza sativa RUBQ2. Transient expression following gene gun bombardment showed that relative levels of GUS activity with the GUBQ1 promoter were comparable to the CaMV 35S promoter in gladiolus, tobacco, rose, rice, and the floral monocot freesia. The highest levels of GUS expression with GUBQ1 were attained with Gladiolus. The full-length GUBQ1 promoter including 5′UTR and intron were necessary for maximum GUS expression in Gladiolus. The relative GUS activity for the promoter only was 9%, and the activity for the promoter with 5′UTR and 399 bp of the full-length 1.234 kb intron was 41%. Arabidopsis plants transformed with uidA under GUBQ1 showed moderate GUS expression throughout young leaves and in the vasculature of older leaves. The highest levels of transient GUS expression in Gladiolus have been achieved using the GUBQ1 promoter. This promoter should be useful for genetic engineering of disease resistance in Gladiolus, rose, and freesia, where high levels of gene expression are important.     

Successful expression in pollen of various plant species of in vitro synthesized mRNA introduced by particle bombardment

Gold particles coated with -glucuronidase (GUS) mRNA with a 5 cap structure that had been synthesized in vitro were introduced, by use of a pneumatic particle gun, into pollen grains of lily (Lilium longiflorum), freesia (Freesia refracta) and tulip (Tulipa gesneriana). A fluorometric assay for the GUS activity indicated that in vitro synthesized GUS mRNA introduced into these pollen cells by particle bombardment was successfully expressed. GUS activity in extracts of the bombarded lily pollen became detectable fluorometrically within 30 min after bombardment, peaked at 6 h, then gradually decreased. This activity changed as a function of the developmental stage of the pollen cell of lily.     

Purification and Characterization of a Cysteine Protease from Corms of Freesia,Freesia reflacta

A protease (freesia protease B) has been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity from corms of freesia, Freesia reflacta by five steps of chromatography. Its M_r was estimated to be about 26,000 by SDS–PAGE. The optimum pH of the enzyme was 6.0–7.0 at 30°C using casein as a substrate. The enzyme was strongly inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoic acid but not by phenylmethanesulphonylfluoride and EDTA. These results indicate that freesia protease B is a cysteine protease. Nine sites of oxidized insulin B-chain were cleaved by freesia protease B in 24 h of hydrolysis. The four cleavage sites among them resembled those of papain. From the digestion of five peptidyl substrates the specificity of freesia protease B was found to be approximately broad, but the preferential cleavage sites were negatively charged residues at positions. Freesia protease B preferred also the large hydrophobic amino acid residues at the P₂ position, in a similar manner to papain. The amino terminal sequence of freesia protease B was identical with those of papain in regard to the conservative residues of cysteine protease.     

Isolation and Characterization of a Cysteine Protease of Freesia Corms

A protease, freesia protease (FP)-A, was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity from regular freesia (Freesia reflacta) corms in harvest time. The M _r of FP-A was estimated to be 24 k by SDS-PAGE. The optimum pH of the enzyme was 8.0 using a casein substrate. These enzymes were strongly inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoic acid but not by phenylmethane-sulfonylfluoride and EDTA. These results indicate that FP-A belongs to the cysteine proteases. The amino terminal sequence of FP-A was similar to that of papain, and the sequences was regarded to the conservative residues of cysteine protease. From the hydrolysis of peptidyl-pNAs, the specificity of FP-A was found to be broad. It was thought that FP-A was a new protease from freesia corms.     

The development of cysteine proteases in freesia corms during responses to chilling

Freesia protease (FP)-A has been found in regular freesia corms (Kaneda et al., Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 61 (1997) 1554). New corms were generated from original corms that were kept for several months at 4°C. In this study, two proteases (FP-B and FP-C) have been found to new corms kept for 6 months at 4°C, and have increased during new corms enlargement.

 FPs were purified from the extracts of new corms, and the M_r of those were 24k (A), 25k (B), and 24.5k (C) by SDS-PAGE, respectively.

 The N-terminal sequences of FPs were identical to those of papain with respect to the conservative residues of cysteine protease. The sequence of FP-A was identical with those of FP-B within 20 residues of its N-terminal. It may be possible that FP-B was produced by some post-translational modifications from FP-A during the chilling. On the other hand, N-terminal sequence of FP-C was different from those of FP-A and FP-B. It was explained that FP-C was a new protease of freesia corm.     

Changes in abscisic acid levels during dormancy release in freesia corms

A high level of free-abscisic acid (ABA) was detected when corms were still in deep dormancy. The level of free-ABA decreased as the corm dormancy disappeared and increased temporarily after complete release from dormancy. A gradual slight increase of bound-ABA was observed during dormancy release.Treatment of dormant corms with benzyladenine (BA) increased sprouting but the sprouts did not show normal growth. Ethylene treatment induced complete sprouting and subsequent normal growth. Changes in ABA levels and ethylene production are discussed in relation to dormancy release in freesia corms.     

香雪兰的直接与间接体细胞胚胎发生

香雪兰的体细胞胚胎发生可通过两种途径进行,即直接发生与间接发生。在直接发生方式中,体细胞胚直接来源于尚未完全分化的外植体表皮细胞;体细胞胚与母体组织以一种类似胚柄的结构相联系。间接发生方式中,体细胞胚的形成要经过一个愈伤组织阶段。以是否能形成体细胞胚分类,可将愈伤组织分为胚性和非胚性愈伤组织。以间接方式形成的体细胞胚是由胚性愈伤组织中的一种决定细胞发育来的。这种体细胞胚不具有类似胚柄的结构,而与母体组织共同形成一个复合体。体细胞胚具有自己独立的维管束系统,在脱离母体组织后能够独立发育成株。     

香雪兰外植体形态学极性决定的体细胞胚胎发生

在含有２ｍｇ／ＬＩＡＡ和３ｍｇ／ＬＢＡＰ的改良Ｎ６培养基上,香雪兰（ＦｒｅｓｉａｒｅｆｒａｃｔａＫｌａｔ）花序外植体经直接体细胞胚胎发生途径再生出新的植株。在这一形态发生过程中,一个引人注意的现象是,所有的体细胞胚都出现在花序轴切段的原形态学下端（称为胚发生端,ＥＥ）,而在形态学上端（称为非胚胎发生端,ＮＥＥ）无体细胞胚形成。这一形态发生的极性与地心引力的方向和外植体在培养基上的放置位置无关。在培养的早期,仅于胚发生端观察到了起始细胞的分裂。ＳＤＳ聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳结果表明,在培养了１ｄ的外植体的胚发生端出现了两个特殊的多肽成分,而在非胚发生端则未检测到这两种多肽。高效液相色谱分析表明,培养前外植体切段两端的内源激素（ＩＡＡ）的含量无显著差别。但经过一段时间的培养,胚发生端的ＩＡＡ含量明显高于非胚发生端的ＩＡＡ含量,表明内源激素在体细胞胚胎发生的诱导过程中起着关键的作用。在香雪兰体细胞胚胎发生诱导的过程中,由于花序轴切段两端在分子水平和生理水平上均存在差异,使这一系统有可能成为研究体细胞胚胎发生机理的有用实验材料。     

利用正交设计优化小苍兰ISSR-PCR反应体系

通过L₁₆(4⁵)正交试验，研究了镁离子浓度、dNTP浓度、模板DNA浓度、Taq DNA聚合酶浓度、引物浓度这5个因素在4个水平上对ISSR-PCR的影响，建立了适合于小苍兰ISSR-PCR的反应体系。优化体系为：25 μL PCR反应体系中含有1×Taq酶缓冲液(10 mmol·L^-1 KCl，8 mmol·L^-1(NH₄)₂SO₄，10 mmol·L^-1 Tris·HCl，pH 9.0，0.05% NP-40)，2 mmol·L^-1 MgCl₂，0.06 U·μL^-1 Taq酶，0.4 μmol·L^-1引物，4.0 ng·μL^-1模板DNA，dATP、dCTP、dGTP、dTTP各0.6 mmol·L^-1。利用温度梯度PCR，确定了最适宜的退火温度为51.5℃。该优化体系的建立为下一步对小苍兰进行ISSR分子标记奠定了基础。