Restoration by the rac locus of recombinant forming ability in recB? and recC? merozygotes of Escherichia coli K-12

Summary The recombinant forming ability of recB ^– or recC ^– strains of E. coli K12 is almost totally recovered in merozygotes which are heterozygous for a genetic locus denoted rac which is located five minutes clockwise from trp on the genetic map. This transient recovery phenomenon only occurs when the donor strain is rac ⁺ (wild type) and the recipient strain is rac ^-. The recombinants derived from such crosses all have the normal phenotype characteristic of recB ^– (or recC ^–) strains, and they are almost always rac ^-. The results imply that the rac ⁺ locus (or loci) is zygotically expressed and excised from the chromosome in a manner which is analogous to the zygotic induction of a prophage.     

Expression of the plasmid pKM101-determined DNA repair system in recA? and lex? strains of Escherichia coli

Summary pKM101, a plasmid R factor of the N compatibility group increases methylmethane sulfonate mutagenesis and diminishes UV-killing in recA ⁺ lex ⁺ and recA ⁺ lex ^– strains, but not in recA ^– lex ⁺ strains. The induction of a reclex dependent colicin is not present in lex ^– strains carrying the pKM101 factor. These facts indicate that pKM101 acts through an error-prone DNA repair system, which is recA ⁺ dependent, but not lex ⁺ dependent.This paper is published on the occasion of Dr. C. Callerio's seventy-fifth birthday     

Ethanol-hypersensitive and ethanol-dependent cdc? mutants in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Ethanol-hypersensitive strains (ets mutants), unable to grow on media containing 6% ethanol, were isolated from a sample of mutagenized Schizosaccharomyces pombe wild-type cells. Genetic analysis of these ets strains demonstrated that the ets phenotype is associated with mutations in a large set of genes, including cell division cycle (cdc) genes, largely non-overlapping with the set represented by the temperature conditional method; accordingly, we isolated some ets non-ts cdc ^– mutants, which may identify novel essential genes required for regulation of the S. pombe cell cycle. Conversely, seven well characterized ts cdc ^– mutants were tested for their ethanol sensitivity; among them, cdc1–7 and cdc13–117 exhibited a tight ets phenotype. Ethanol sensitivity was also tested in strains bearing different alleles of the cdc2 gene, and we found that some of them were ets, but others were non-ets; thus, ethanol hypersensitivity is an allele-specific phenotype. Based on the single base changes found in each particular allele of the cdc2 gene, it is shown that a single amino acid substitution in the p34^cdc2 gene product can produce this ets phenotype, and that ethanol hypersensitivity is probably due to the influence of this alcohol on the secondary and/or tertiary structure of the target protein. Ethanol-dependent (etd) mutants were also identified as mutants that can only be propagated on ethanol-containing media. This novel type of conditional phenotype also covers many unrelated genes. One of these etd mutants, etd1-1, was further characterized because of the lethal cdc ^– phenotype of the mutant cells under restrictive conditions (absence of ethanol). The isolation of extragenic suppressors of etd1-1, and the complementation cloning of a DNA fragment encompassing the etd1 ⁺ wild-type gene (or an extragenic multicopy suppressor) demonstrate that current genetic techniques may be applied to mutants isolated by using ethanol as a selective agent.     

Tissue specific expression of an α-skeletal actin-lacZ fusion gene during development in transgenic mice

Transgenic mice carrying a chimaeric transgene containing 730 bp of the 5-flanking sequences and the entire first intron of the rat -skeletal actin gene fused to thelacZ reporter gene have been produced by microinjection. ThelacZ reporter gene was used to verify the suitability of using the rat -actin promoter elements to target expression of genes of agricultural and therapeutic value exclusively to skeletal and heart muscle cells and fibres of transgenic mice. Expression of the transgene indicates a tightly regulated developmental and muscle specific control of the rat -skeletal actin gene, making it a useful promoter for gene targeting to muscle tissues. The cells destined to form muscle tissues in these transgenic mice are readily visualized in intact embryos by staining for -galactosidase activity, making them a suitable animal model for studying the origin and development of skeletal and cardiac muscle tissues.     

Construction of a fusion gene comprising the Taka-amylase A promoter and the Escherichia coli β-glucuronidase gene and analysis of its expression in Aspergillus oryzae

Summary Northern blot analysis of glucose-grown and starch-grown mycelia of Aspergillus oryzae R11340 was conducted using the cloned Taka-amylase A (TAA) gene as a probe. The amount of mRNA homologous to the TAA gene was increased when this fungus was grown with starch as a sole carbon source. In order to analyze the induction mechanism, we inserted the Escherichia coli uidA gene encoding -glucuronidase (GUS) downstream of the TAA promoter and introduced the resultant fusion gene into the A. oryzae genome. Production of a functional GUS protein was induced by starch, but not by glucose. When the effects of various sugars on expression of the fusion gene were examined, the results suggested that the expression of the fusion gene was under control of the TAA gene promoter.     

Sequence heterogeneity and differential expression of the α-Amy2 gene family in wheat

Summary Within plasmid pUB110 we have identified a 1.2 kb segment necessary and sufficient for driving autonomous replication in Rec⁺ cells at a wild-type copy number. This region can be divided into three functionally discrete segments: a 24 base pair (bp) region that acts as an origin, a 949 bp determinant of an essential replication protein, repU, and a 358 bp incompatibility region, incA, overlapping with the repU gene. The synthesis of the IncA determinant/s proceeds in the direction opposite to that of RepU. The positively (RepU) and negatively (IncA) trans-acting products seem to be involved in the control of plasmid replication. The RepU product has an M_r of 39 kDa, could be overproduced in Escherichia coli, and binds to the pUB110 origin region. Outside the minimal replicon a cis-acting, orientation dependent, 516 bp determinant is required (i) to compete with a coexisting incompatible plasmid and (ii) for segregational stability.     

Acetate accumulation through alternative metabolic pathways in ackA?pta?poxB? triple mutant in E. coli B (BL21)

Individual deletions of acs and aceA genes in E. coli B (BL21) showed little difference in the metabolite accumulation patterns but deletion of the ackA gene alone or together with pta showed acetic acid gradually accumulated to 3.1 and 1.7 g/l, respectively, with a minimal extended lag in bacterial growth and a higher pyruvate formation. Single poxB deletion in E. coli B (BL21) or additional poxB deletion in the ackA-pta mutants did not change the acetate accumulation pattern. When the acetate production genes (ackA-pta-poxB) were deleted in E. coli B (BL21) acetate still accumulated. This may be an indication that perhaps acetate is not only a by-product of carbon metabolism; it is possible that acetate plays also a role in other cellular metabolite pathways. It is likely that there are alternative acetate production pathways.     

Red-mediated recombination of phage lambda in a recA? recB?host

Summary The lambda Red recombination system works poorly among unreplicated gam ⁺ lambda chromosomes in recA ^- cells compared to recA ⁺ cells. Recombination is not enhanced in recA ^- recB^-cells. Thus, the inability of Red to promote recombination in recA ^- replication-blocked cross is not due to the hypothetical destruction of recombination intermediates by the recB nuclease. This conclusion strengthens previous proposals that the products of the red genes can operate upon recombinational intermediates which require recA activity for their formation.     

Overexpression of Arabidopsis thaliana Na+/H+ antiporter gene enhanced salt resistance in transgenic poplar (Populus?×?euramericana ‘Neva’)

Salinity is a major abiotic stress factor limiting plant growth and productivity. One possible method to enhance plant salt-resistance is to compartmentalize sodium ions away from the cytosol. In the present work, a vacuolar Na⁺/H⁺ antiporter gene AtNHX1 from Arabidopsis thaliana, was transferred into Populus × euramericana ‘Neva’ by Agrobacterium tumefaciens in order to enhance poplar salt-resistance. The results showed that the transgenic poplar were more resistant to NaCl than the wild-type (WT) in greenhouse condition. Compared with the WT, plant growth and photosynthetic capacity of the transgenic plants were enhanced, and the transgenic plants accumulated more Na⁺ and K⁺ in roots and leaves under the same NaCl condition, whereas malondialdehyde and relative electrical conductivity were lower. All of these properties of the transgenic poplar were likely to be a consequence of the overexpression of AtNHX1 caused Na⁺ sequestration in the vacuoles and improved K⁺ absorption, thus reducing their toxic effects. These results indicated overexpression of the AtNHX1 enhanced salt-resistance of poplar, and AtNHX1 played an important role in the compartmentation of Na⁺ into the vacuoles. Therefore, this study provides an effective way for improving salt resistance in trees.     

Construction of an 800-kb contig in the near-centromeric region of the rice blast resistance gene Pi-ta? 2 using a highly representative rice BAC library

We constructed a rice Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) library from green leaf protoplasts of the cultivar Shimokita harboring the rice blast resistance gene Pi-ta. The average insert size of 155 kb and the library size of seven genome equivalents make it one of the most comprehensive BAC libraries available, and larger than many plant YAC libraries. The library clones were plated on seven high density membranes of microplate size, enabling efficient colony identification in colony hybridization experiments. Seven percent of clones carried chloroplast DNA. By probing with markers close to the blast resistance genes Pi-ta ² (closely linked to Pi-ta) and Pi-b, respectively located in the centromeric region of chromosome 12 and near the telomeric end of chromosome 2, on average 2.2 ± 1.3 and 8.0 ± 2.6 BAC clones/marker were isolated. Differences in chromosomal structures may contribute to this wide variation in yield. A contig of about 800 kb, consisting of 19 clones, was constructed in the Pi-ta ² region. This region had a high frequency of repetitive sequences. To circumvent this difficulty, we devised a “two-step walking” method. The contig spanned a 300 kb region between markers located at 0 cM and 0.3 cM from Pi-ta ² . The ratio of physical to genetic distances (> 1,000 kb/cM) was more than three times larger than the average of rice (300 kb/cM). The low recombination rate and high frequency of repetitive sequences may also be related to the near centromeric character of this region. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) with a BAC clone from the Pi-b region yielded very clear signals on the long arm of chromosome 2, while a clone from the Pi-ta ² region showed various cross-hybridizing signals near the centromeric regions of all chromosomes. Received: 14 August 1996 / Accepted: 2 December 1996     

Molecular cloning,characterization and expression of an elongation factor 1α gene in maize

A cDNA (zmEF1A) and the corresponding genomic clone (zmgEF1A) of a member of the gene family encoding the subunit of translation elongation factor 1 (EF-1) have been isolated from maize. The deduced amino acid sequence is 447 residues long interrupted by one intron. Southern blot analysis reveals that the cloned EF-1 gene is one member out of a family consisting of at least six genes. As shown by northern hybridizations in leaves the mRNA level increases at low temperature whereas time-course experiments over 24 h at 5°C show that in roots the overall mRNA level of EF-1 is transiently decreased. These results indicate that the expression of EF-1 is differently regulated in leaves and roots under cold stress.