病毒诱导番茄的基因沉默

该实验通过RT-PCR获得了番茄八氢番茄红素脱氢酶(Phytoene desaturase,PDS)基因的部分序列,双酶切PDS片段和烟草脆裂病毒载体(pTV00),构建重组载体pTV00-PDS,经农杆菌GV3101介导侵染番茄叶片并观察植株表型变化.结果显示,被侵染的番茄表现出明显的光漂白现象.半定量RT-PCR检测表明,PDS的mRNA被显著降解.该沉默体系的建立为下一步大规模验证番茄基因功能奠定了基础.     

人促红细胞生成素基因在番茄中的表达

通过子叶与农杆菌（ＡｇｒｏｂａｃｔｅｒｉｕｍｔｕｍｅｆａｃｉｅｎｓＡＧＬ１）共培养,将表达载体ｐＨＬＰＥ中的人促红细胞生成素（ｈＥＰＯ,一种人来源的典型糖蛋白）基因（ｅｐｏ）导入番茄,然后用卡那霉素进行筛选,获得了抗性植株。经点杂交和Ｓｏｕｔｈｅｒｎ印迹分析,证明部分抗性植株中整合了ｅｐｏ基因。通过对转基因番茄植株叶片的粗提蛋白进行ＥＰＯＥＬＩＳＡ检测,结果表明,ｈＥＰＯ在番茄中的表达量为约４００ｐｇ／ｇ叶片。经用转基因植株叶片粗提蛋白饲喂依赖于ＥＰＯ的ＴＦ１细胞,表明番茄ＥＰＯ具有体外（ｉｎｖｉｔｒｏ）生物活性,这暗示用植物生产的ＥＰＯ可作为体外药物加以应用。     

人工转录因子研究进展

转录因子是真核表达调控中非常重要的一类反式作用因子,通常由DNA结合结构域与效应结构域两部分组成,研究发现这两个结构域可以各自独立发生作用。基于转录因子的这种结构特点,可以人为地选择针对特定序列的DNA结合结构域与具有特定作用的效应结构域构建人工转录因子。目前人工转录因子的DNA结合结构域多为C₂H₂ 型锌指结构,每一个锌指单元由大约30个氨基酸组成,识别DNA双螺旋大沟中相连的3bp序列,并可通过氢键作用与相应的碱基结合;多个锌指可以串联成簇,从而识别并结合较长的DNA序列区域。常见的人工转录因子的效应结构域有激活结构域以及抑制结构域,不同的效应结构域赋予人工转录因子不同的功能。目前人工转录因子已经在基础研究、药物设计以及基因治疗等领域得到了广泛的应用。     

番茄脂氧合酶基因的表达和酶活性分析

将番茄脂氧合酶基因Tom loxD克隆至酵母表达载体pPIC9K中,转化毕赤酵母GS115菌株,构建组成型表达Tom loxD的酵母工程菌株。SDS-PAGE和W estern blot分析表明,经甲醇诱导,Tom loxD蛋白在酵母中得到表达,表达的融合蛋白分子量约为103.56 kD,与预测的分子量一致。酶活性分析表明,酵母中表达的Tom loxD蛋白具有脂氧合酶活性。半定量RT-PCR分析表明,Tom loxD基因在番茄中表达受机械损伤的诱导,损伤处理的番茄叶片中脂氧合酶的活性明显增高。说明Tom loxD基因在番茄防御信号中发挥作用。     

Changes in Gene Expression during Tomato Fruit Ripening

Total proteins from pericarp tissue of different chronological ages from normally ripening tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv Rutgers) fruits and from fruits of the isogenic ripening-impaired mutants rin, nor, and Nr were extracted and separated by sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Analysis of the stained bands revealed increases in 5 polypeptides (94, 44, 34, 20, and 12 kilodaltons), decreases in 12 polypeptides (106, 98, 88, 76, 64, 52, 48, 45, 36, 28, 25, and 15 kilodaltons), and fluctuations in 5 polypeptides (85, 60, 26, 21, and 16 kilodaltons) as normal ripening proceeded. Several polypeptides present in ripening normal pericarp exhibited very low or undetectable levels in developing mutant pericarp. Total RNAs extracted from various stages of Rutgers pericarp and from 60 to 65 days old rin, nor, and Nr pericarp were fractionated into poly(A)⁺ and poly(A)⁻ RNAs. Peak levels of total RNA, poly(A)⁺ RNA, and poly(A)⁺ RNA as percent of total RNA occurred between the mature green to breaker stages of normal pericarp. In vitro translation of poly(A)⁺ RNAs from normal pericarp in rabbit reticulocyte lysates revealed increases in mRNAs for 9 polypeptides (116, 89, 70, 42, 38, 33, 31, 29, and 26 kilodaltons), decreases in mRNAs for 2 polypeptides (41 and 35 kilodaltons), and fluctuations in mRNAs for 5 polypeptides (156, 53, 39, 30, and 14 kilodaltons) during normal ripening. Analysis of two-dimensional separation of in vitro translated polypeptides from poly(A)⁺ RNAs isolated from different developmental stages revealed even more extensive changes in mRNA populations during ripening. In addition, a polygalacturonase precursor (54 kilodaltons) was immunoprecipitated from breaker, turning, red ripe, and 65 days old Nr in vitro translation products.     

基因沉默

基因沉默 (ｇｅｎｅｓｉｌｅｎｃｉｎｇ)是指生物体中特定基因由于种种原因不表达。一方面 ,基因沉默是遗传修饰生物 (ｇｅｎｅｔｉｃａｌｌｙｍｏｄｉｆｉｅｄｏｒｇａｎｉｓｍｓ)实用化和商品化的巨大障碍 ,另一方面 ,基因沉默是植物抗病毒的一个本能反应 ,为用抗病毒基因植物工程育种提供了具有较大潜在实用价值的策略———ＲＮＡ介导的病毒抗性 (ＲＮＡ ｍｅｄｉａｔｅｄｖｉｒｕｓｒｅｓｉｓｔａｎｃｅ ,ＲＭＶＲ) [1～ 3] 。基因沉默现象首先在转基因植物中发现 ,接着在线虫、真菌、昆虫、原生动物以及老鼠中陆续发现。大量的研究表…     

Tomato Fruit Development and Ripening Are Altered by the Silencing of LeEIN2 Gene

Loss-of-function ethylene insensitive 2 （EIN2） mutations showed ethylene insensitivity in Arabidopsis, which indicated an essential role of EIN2 in ethylene signaling. However, the function of EIN2 in fruit ripening has not been investigated. To gain a better understanding of EIN2, the temporal regulation of LeEIN2 expres- sion during tomato fruit development was analyzed. The expression of LeEIN2 was constant at different stages of fruit development, and was not regulated by ethylene. Moreover, LeEIN2-silenced tomato fruits were developed using a virus-induced gene silencing fruit system to study the role of LeEIN2 in tomato fruit ripening. Silenced fruits had a delay in fruit development and ripening, related to greatly descended expression of ethylene-related and ripening-related genes in comparison with those of control fruits. These results suggested LeEIN2 positively mediated ethylene signals during tomato development. In addition, there were fewer seeds and Iocules in the silenced fruit than those in the control fruit, like the phenotype of parthenocarpic tomato fruit. The content of auxin and the expression of auxin-regulated gene were declined in silenced fruit, which indicated that EIN2 might be important for crosstalk between ethylene and auxin hormones.     

Silencing of the MADS-Box Gene SlMADS83 Enhances Adventitious Root Formation in Tomato Plants

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Adventitious roots (ARs) are important for the growth of plants and the improvement in their stress resistance and survival capacity. Although many genes have...     

The Expression of CAT Gene in Transgenic Tomato Plant

Bacterial CAT gene .with the 35S promoter of CaMV was transferred into leaf discs of cultivar Lycopersicon esculentum 462 with the help of Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium turnefaciens. These leaf discs were placed on MS salt and B5 vitamine medium containing kanamycin and carbenicillin. Several kinds of phytohormones were chosen in the medium, and it was found that zeatin and NAA have great effects on shooting and rooting. Transgenic tomato plants showed their normal flowering and fruiting. Leaves of these transgenic tomato plants were used for assaying the gene expression. Resuits of Southern Blot showed that the CAT gene was stably integrated into the genome of transgenic plants, The bacterial CAT, proteins were also detected, in transgenic tomato leaves with immunoreaction of CAT antibody. The methods presented here for culturing transformed tomato ceils will be a great help for transfering economically important genes into cultivars of tomato plants in China.     

基因沉默与生长发育

基因沉默是基因表达调控的一种重要机制,在各种生物中普遍存在。本文论述了基因沉默相关基因、机制及其与生长发育联系的最新研究进展。     

Agrobacterium-Mediated Transient Gene Expression and Silencing: A Rapid Tool for Functional Gene Assay in Potato

Potato is the third most important food crop worldwide. However, genetic and genomic research of potato has lagged behind other major crops due to the autopolyploidy and highly heterozygous nature associated with the potato genome. Reliable and technically undemanding techniques are not available for functional gene assays in potato. Here we report the development of a transient gene expression and silencing system in potato. Gene expression or RNAi-based gene silencing constructs were delivered into potato leaf cells using Agrobacterium-mediated infiltration. Agroinfiltration of various gene constructs consistently resulted in potato cell transformation and spread of the transgenic cells around infiltration zones. The efficiency of agroinfiltration was affected by potato genotypes, concentration of Agrobacterium, and plant growth conditions. We demonstrated that the agroinfiltration-based transient gene expression can be used to detect potato proteins in sub-cellular compartments in living cells. We established a double agroinfiltration procedure that allows to test whether a specific gene is associated with potato late blight resistance pathway mediated by the resistance gene RB. This procedure provides a powerful approach for high throughput functional assay for a large number of candidate genes in potato late blight resistance.     

Silencing of HIV-1 Gene Expression by Sirnas in Transduced Cells

The RNA interference (RNAi) phenomenon is a recently observed process in which the introduction of a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) into cells causes the specific degradation of an mRNA containing the same sequence. To study dsRNA-mediated gene interference targeted to the env gene (NL4-3: 7490-7508) in HIV-1 infected cells, we constructed tandem-type and hairpin-type siRNA expression vectors, which were under the control of two U6 promoters. We also constructed lentiviral-based siRNA expression vectors for further assessment of their antiviral activity in transduced cells. At both the transient plasmid and lentiviral-mediated RNA expression levels, the siRNA encoding the env fragment exhibited sequence-specific suppression of target gene expression and strongly inhibited (≥90%) HIV-1 infection in the cells, as compared to the antisense RNA expression vector. Targeting the HIV-1 env gene with siRNAs encoding the env gene fragment (7490–7508) might be an effective strategy for gene therapy applications in HIV-1/AIDS treatment and management.