基因工程途径改良水稻品质与营养价值

水稻是全球近一半人口赖以生存的基本食粮。随着人们生活水平的提高 ,人们对稻米品质的要求越来越高 ,水稻生产需要改善稻米的品质 ,才能适应人们的需求变化。世界上超过 40 %的人们在受到微量营养不良的折磨 ,特别是在许多发展中国家 ,这个百分比还在增加。因此 ,提高水稻微量营养物质含量对于改善人们微量营养缺乏状况很有必要。同时 ,利用转基因技术生产具有药用价值的水稻越来越受到重视 ,应用前景十分诱人。就近十年来国内外的研究进展作一综述。     

萌发中食松幼苗淀粉合酶同工酶与淀粉成分的关系

利用14C－ADPG标定法测定可溶性及与淀粉粒结合的淀粉合酶活性,采用过氯酸抽提、DMSO玻璃纤维纸层析、硫酸水解法定量测定各类淀粉成分,探讨了食松（PinusedulisEngelm）幼苗生长过程中淀粉合酶与淀粉成分间的关系。结果表明,在胚根出现以后,淀粉含量迅速增加,伴随着淀粉颗粒数目和质量的增加,两类淀粉合酶活性的增加以及淀粉合酶免疫印迹图谱的变化。支链淀粉是食松淀粉的主要成分,占总淀粉的84％。可溶性淀粉合酶峰值比淀粉粒结合的淀粉合酶活性峰值高1．3倍,与支链淀粉和直链淀粉的比例相对应。结果支持食松可溶性淀粉合酶是负责支链淀粉合成的主要酶的假说,同时表明淀粉粒结合的淀粉合酶在支链淀粉的合成中也有作用。     

胚乳中淀粉的合成

禾本科植物胚乳内所含有的淀粉根据其结构、组成可以分为两类：直链淀粉（由α-1,4糖苷键连接的多聚D-葡萄糖）和支链淀粉（在以α-1,4糖苷键连接的主链上通过形成α-1,6糖苷键引入支链的多聚D-葡萄糖）。前者是以一种线性无序状态存在,而支链淀粉则是构成淀粉半晶体结构的主要成分。其中,除了负责合成作为糖基直接供体的ADP—Glc的酶AGPase外,直链淀粉中链的延伸反应由GBSSI完成,而支链淀粉的合成则相对复杂,需要SS、SBE、DBE、SP等一些酶的协同调控来共同完成。本文综述了胚乳中淀粉合成过程中所涉及的一些关键酶的研究进展,并对此研究领域进行了展望。     

植物体内淀粉磷酸化的生物学研究进展

植物中淀粉是主要储存碳水化合物形式,是食品和工业应用中最重要的植物原材料之一。而植物淀粉中惟一的取代是磷酸化作用,更体现了淀粉的独特性能。淀粉的品质和理化性质影响其应用。因此对淀粉的研究是有重要意义的。主要介绍了淀粉磷酸化作用机制,概述GWD功能与磷酸化作用和淀粉代谢的关系的生物学研究进展,并在此基础上讨论利用基因工程改良淀粉品质的可能途径以及今后的研究任务。     

基因工程改良棉花纤维品质研究进展

棉花作为世界上重要的经济作物,其纤维品质是衡量棉花品质的重要指标.优良的纤维品质是国内外棉花育种的主要目标之一,面临常规育种改良品质的瓶颈,通过转基因技术改良棉花纤维品质是棉花遗传育种致力研究的重要领域.介绍棉纤维发育相关分子机理研究、棉纤维品质改良功能基因的发掘以及利用基因工程技术改良棉花纤维品质的最新进展,并对今后的研究进行展望.     

利用基因工程的手段提高植物中淀粉含量

利用基因工程的手段提高植物中淀粉含量李枞,宋艳茹（中国科学院植物研究所,北京１０００４４）ＩＮＣＲＥＡＳＩＮＧＳＴＡＲＣＨＱＵＡＮＴＩＴＹＩＮＰＬＡＮＴＢＹＧＥＮＥＴＩＣＥＮＧＩＮＥＥＲＩＮＧ￥ＬｉＣｏｎｇ;Ｓｏｎｇｙａｎ－ｒｕ（Ｉｎｓｔｉｔｕｔｅｏ...     

不同类型玉米发育籽粒中淀粉合成及相关酶活性比较

以普通玉米、爆裂玉米、甜玉米和糯玉米为试材,分析和比较不同类型的玉米品种之间籽粒发育过程中淀粉合成及相关酶活性的变化。结果表明,淀粉合成速率和蔗糖合成酶(SS)、可溶性淀粉合成酶(SSS)、束缚态淀粉合成酶(GBSS)、淀粉分支酶(SBE)、去分支酶(DBE)活性都呈单峰曲线变化。30～40 DAP,普通玉米的SS活性显著高于其他3种类型;类型间平均和最大SSS活性水平的顺序为普通玉米>糯玉米>爆裂玉米>甜玉米;30～40 DAP,普通玉米GBSS活性最高,糯玉米GBSS活性最低;20～40 DAP,糯玉米SBE活性最高;甜玉米的DBE活性很低,并且在40 DAP完全丧失。淀粉合成速率与SS、SSS、GBSS和SBE活性相关程度比较高,与腺苷二磷酸葡萄糖焦磷酸化酶(AGP酶)和DBE活性相关不显著。推测AGP酶虽然为淀粉合成提供直接前体ADPG,但可能SS活性过低致使其限速作用比AGP酶的还强,AGP酶潜在的限速作用无法表现,SS成为玉米籽粒淀粉合成的限速因子。GBSS对直链淀粉积累起重要的促进作用;SSS和SBE对支链淀粉积累起重要的促进作用。     

糯性和非糯性小麦灌浆期胚乳直/支链淀粉积累及其相关酶活性研究

选用3份糯性和2份非糯性小麦材料,通过田间试验在灌浆过程中分别检测了各材料的籽粒直链和支链淀粉积累量、淀粉积累速率及淀粉合成关键酶活性的动态变化过程,探讨籽粒淀粉累积与相关酶活性的关系.结果表明:(1)非糯小麦在花后7 d前均未检测到直链淀粉存在,而此时已经检测到支链淀粉含量,并且糯小麦仅含有支链淀粉,支链淀粉早于直链淀粉合成.(2)糯性和非糯性小麦灌浆期籽粒的直、支链淀粉积累速率均呈先增加后降低的趋势,且直、支链淀粉最终积累量取决于最大积累速率和平均积累速率的大小,而积累活跃期的调节作用较小;糯性和非糯性小麦在淀粉合成过程中的腺苷二磷酸葡萄糖焦磷酸化酶(AGPP)、可溶性淀粉合成酶(SSS)、颗粒结合型淀粉合成酶(GBSS)和淀粉分支酶(SEB)活性均呈单峰曲线变化,活性峰值基本上都出现在花后20～25 d左右.(3)直链淀粉积累速率与AGPP、SSS、GBSS和SBE活性变化显著或极显著正相关,而支链淀粉积累速率仅与SSS活性变化极显著正相关,总淀粉积累速率与AGPP和SSS活性变化显著或极显著正相关.     

碘使淀粉液变色的原理是什么？

答：淀粉以淀粉粒的形式储存在植物的根、茎、种子和果实等器官中。在酸的作用下淀粉的最终水解产物是葡萄糖。用热水溶解淀粉时,可溶的部分为直链淀粉,不溶的部分为支链淀粉。不同植物淀粉中直链淀粉和支链淀粉所含比例不同,如玉米淀粉中含直链淀粉的比例为27％,土豆淀粉中直链淀粉的含量为30％：豆类淀粉全为直链淀粉,糯米淀粉则全为支链淀粉。     

提高马铃薯淀粉含量的基因工程

一、高淀粉马铃薯研究的战略意义马铃薯(SalanumtuberosumL。)是重要的粮食作物和蔬菜作物,在世界范围广泛种植,常年种植面积在3亿亩以上。我国约有4500～5000万亩,世界排名第二位。主产区在东北、内蒙、陕西、甘肃、四川等地,长江流域、两广、云贵高原都有种植。     

Relationship Between Isozymes of Starch Synthases and Starch Composition in Germination Pinyon Seedlings

The relation between starch synthases and starch composition in the germinating pinyon ( Pinus edulis Engelm) seedlings was studied. Using the method of 14C-glucose transferred from 14C-ADPG in the assay of starch synthases activity. Starch was extracted with 32% HC1O4, separated on glass fiber with DMSO, and assayed with the sulfuric acid-phenol method. After the emergence of radicle, starch content increased rapidly accompanied with the increase of starch grains in number and size, the increase of both soluble and granulebound starch synthase activity and the change of the pattern of Western-blot. Amylopectin was the major composition in pinyon starch, accounted for 84% of the total starch. The activity of soluble starch synthase was 1.3 times higher than that of the granule-bound starch synthase, corresponding to the ratio of amylopectin to amylose. This result supports the conventional theory that soluble starch synthase is the major enzyme responsive for the synthesis of amylopectin, and also supports that granule-bound starch synthase is functional in the synthesis of amylopectin.     

Starch branching enzyme IIb in wheat is expressed at low levels in the endosperm compared to other cereals and encoded at a non-syntenic locus

Studies of maize starch branching enzyme mutants suggest that the amylose extender high amylose starch phenotype is a consequence of the lack of expression of the predominant starch branching enzyme II isoform expressed in the endosperm, SBEIIb. However, in wheat, the ratio of SBEIIb and SBEIIa expression are inversely related to the expression levels observed in maize and rice. Analysis of RNA at 15 days post anthesis suggests that there are about 4-fold more RNA for SBE IIa than for SBE IIb. The genes for SBE IIa and SBE IIb from wheat are distinguished in the size of the first three exons, allowing isoform-specific antibodies to be produced. These antibodies were used to demonstrate that in the soluble fraction, the amount of SBE IIa protein is two to three fold higher than SBIIb, whereas in the starch granule, there is two to three fold more SBE IIb protein amount than SBE IIa. In a further difference to maize and rice, the genes for SBE IIa and SBE IIb are both located on the long arm of chromosome 2 in wheat, in a position not expected from rice–maize–wheat synteny.     

Genetic elimination of a starch granule protein, SGP-1, of wheat generates an altered starch with apparent high amylose

A starch granule protein, SGP-1, is a starch synthase bound to starch granules in wheat endosperm. A wheat lacking SGP-1 was produced by crossing three variants each deficient in one of three SGP-1 classes, namely SGP-A1, -B1 or -D1. This deficient wheat (SGP–1 null wheat) showed some alterations in endosperm starch, meaning that SGP-1 is involved in starch synthesis. Electrophoretic experiments revealed that the levels of two starch granule proteins, SGP-2 and -3, decreased considerably in the SGP-1 null wheat though that of the waxy protein (granule-bound starch syn- thase I) did not. The A-type starch granules were deformed. Apparent high amylose level (30.8–37.4%) was indicated by colorimetric measurement, amperometric titration, and the concanavalin A method. The altered structure of amylopectin was detected by both high- performance size-exclusion chromatography and high-performance anion exchange chromatography. Levels of amylopectin chains with degrees of polymerization (DP) 6–10 increased, while DP 11–25 chains decreased. A low starch crystallinity was shown by both X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses because major peaks were absent. Abnormal crystallinity was also suggested by the lack of a polarized cross in SGP-1 null starch. The above results suggest that SGP-1 is responsible for amylopectin synthesis. Since the SGP-1 null wheat produced novel starch which has not been described before, it can be used to expand variation in wheat starch. Received: 30 April 1999 / Accepted: 9 November 1999     

Damaged starch characterisation by ultracentrifugation

The relative molecular size distributions of a selection of starches (waxy maize, pea and maize) that had received differing amounts of damage from ball milling (as quantified by susceptibility to alpha-amylase) were compared using analytical ultracentrifugation. Starch samples were solubilised in 90% dimethyl sulfoxide, and relative size distributions were determined in terms of the apparent distribution of sedimentation coefficients g*(s) versus s(20,w). For comparison purposes, the sedimentation coefficients were normalised to standard conditions of density and viscosity of water at 20 degrees C, and measurements were made with a standard starch loading concentration of 8 mg/mL. The modal molecular size of the native unmilled alpha-glucans were found to be approximately 50S, 51S and 79S for the waxy maize, pea and maize amylopectin molecules, respectively, whilst the pea and maize amylose modal molecular sizes were approximately 14S and approximately 12S, respectively. As the amount of damaged starch increased, the amylopectin molecules were eventually fragmented, and several components appeared, with the smallest fractions approaching the sedimentation coefficient values of amylose. For the waxy maize starch, the 50S material (amylopectin) was gradually converted to 14S, and the degradation process included the appearance of 24S material. For the pea starch, the situation was more complicated than the waxy maize due to the presence of amylose. As the amylopectin molecules (51S) were depolymerised by damage within this starch, low-molecular-weight fragments added to the proportion of the amylose fraction (14S)--although tending towards the high-molecular-weight region of this fraction. As normal maize starch was progressively damaged, a greater number of fragments appeared to be generated compared to the other two starches. Here, the 79S amylopectin peak (native starch) was gradually converted into 61 and 46S material and eventually to 11S material with a molecular size comparable to amylose. Amylose did not appear to be degraded, implying that all the damage was focused on the amylopectin fraction in all three cases. Specific differences in the damage profiles for the pea and maize starches may reflect the effect of lipid-complexed amylose in the maize starch.     

The azidation of starch

Starch is an inexpensive commodity that has been used for non-food purposes for many years. Some of these uses include cross-linked starches that are synthesized with a variety of multifunctional reagents. One unexplored possibility is the use of azides for cross-linking. To this end, azide derivatives of different starches have been synthesized, including the first reported synthesis of 6-deoxy-6-azido-amylopectin. Lithium salts, which were found to not be essential for the dissolution of starch in the reaction, were replaced with sodium azide. The time for this derivatization reaction to reach completion was determined to be 1 h. N,N-dimethylacetamide was also found to be a suitable solvent. Initial experiments suggest that the azide derivative does cross-link starch when activated by heat.     

Starch biosynthesis: the primer nonreducing-end mechanism versus the nonprimer reducing-end two-site insertion mechanism

Two mechanisms are recognized for polysaccharide chain elongation: (a) the nonreducing-end, primer-dependent mechanism and (b) the reducing-end, two-site insertion mechanism. We recently demonstrated the latter mechanism for starch biosynthesis by pulsing starch granules with ADP-[14C]Glc and chasing with ADPGlc for eight varieties of starch granules. Others have reported the addition of glucose from ADPGlc to the nonreducing ends of maltose, maltotriose, and maltopentaose and a branched maltopentasaccharide. It was concluded that starch chains are biosynthesized by the addition of glucose to the nonreducing ends of maltodextrin primers. In this study, we reinvestigated the maltodextrin reactions by reacting three kinds of starch granules from maize, wheat, and rice with ADP-[14C]Glc in the absence and presence of maltose (G2), maltotriose (G3), and maltodextrin (d.p.12) and found that they inhibited starch biosynthesis rather than stimulating it, as would be expected for primers. The major product in the presence of G2 was G3 with decreasing amounts of G4-G9 and the major products in the presence of G3 was G4 and G5, with decreasing amounts of G6-G9. It was concluded that maltodextrins are acceptors rather than primers. This was confirmed by pulsing the starch granules with ADP-[14C]Glc and chasing with G2, G3, and G6, which gave release of 14C-label from the pulsed granules in the absence of ADPGlc, further demonstrating that maltodextrins are acceptors that inhibit starch biosynthesis by releasing glucose from starch synthase, rather than acting as primers and stimulating biosynthesis.     

Quantification of total iodine in intact granular starches of different botanical origin exposed to iodine vapor at various water activities

Iodine has been used as an effective tool for studying both the structure and composition of dispersed starch and starch granules. In addition to being employed to assess relative amylose contents for starch samples, it has been used to look at the molecular mobility of the glucose polymers within intact starch granules based on exposure to iodine vapor equilibrated at different water activities. Starches of different botanical origin including corn, high amylose corn, waxy corn, potato, waxy potato, tapioca, wheat, rice, waxy rice, chick pea and mung bean were equilibrated to 0.33, 0.75, 0.97 water activities, exposed to iodine vapor and then absorbance spectra and LAB color were determined. In addition, a new iodine quantification method sensitive to <0.1% iodine (w/w) was employed to measure bound iodine within intact granular starch. Amylose content, particle size distribution of granules, and the density of the starch were also determined to explore whether high levels of long linear glucose chains and the surface area-to-volume ratio were important factors relating to the granular iodine binding. Results showed, in all cases, starches complexed more iodine as water content increased and waxy starches bound less iodine than their normal starch counterparts. However, much more bound iodine could be measured chemically with waxy starches than was expected based on colorimetric determination. Surface area appeared to be a factor as smaller rice and waxy rice starch granules complexed more iodine, while the larger potato and waxy potato granules complexed less than would be expected based on measured amylose contents. Corn, high amylose corn, and wheat, known to have starch granules with extensive surface pores, bound higher levels of iodine suggesting pores and channels may be an important factor giving iodine vapor greater access to bind within the granules. Exposing iodine vapor to moisture-equilibrated native starches is an effective tool to explore starch granule architecture.     

小豆种质资源子粒淀粉和支链淀粉含量分析

对小豆主产区的325份种质资源的子粒总淀粉和支链淀粉相对含量进行了鉴定评价.结果表明:小豆子粒中总淀粉含量为44.79%～67.44%,平均为57.06%;支链淀粉相对含量为62.61%～98.94%,平均为82.24%;品种间差异均达极显著.筛选出总淀粉高于62.64%和支链淀粉相对含量高于93.57%的种质资源各16份、直链淀粉相对含量高于29.14%的种质资源13份.