Profiling the Expression of Genes Controlling Rice Grain Quality

Rice provides a staple source of energy, protein and other nutrients to half of the world population. Over 90 of the rice seeds consists of starch and protein by dry weight. The quantity and property of starch and protein thus play a dominant role in the yield and quality of rice. The amylase content of starch is a determining factor in the eating and cooking quality while the amount and essential amino acids balance of storage proteins affect the nutritional quality of rice. In China, the super-hybrid rice currently under the last phase of development has a 35 yield advantage over the best inbred rice varieties. However, its grain quality needs further improvement. This study reported the expression patterns of 44 genes participating in starch, storage protein, and lysine synthesis in the developing rice grain. Field grown rice cultivar 9311, the paternal line of an elite super-hybrid rice LYP9with its draft genomic sequence released, was used as plant material. Results revealed diverse yet coordinated expression profiles of the genes involved in the three pathways which lead to the final composition and property of starch, protein and lysine that determine the quality of rice, providing useful information for rice quality improvement.     

JCI评审下的医院质量监控指标体系构建及运作

对JCI评审模式下的医院质量监控指标体系及运作构架进行了探索,采用委员会—工作小组—质量管理办公室-指标负责科室四级指标管理组织架构,明确权责分工,建立多部门沟通协作的工作模式,利用质量管理办公室质量内审的角色,能够有效推动监控指标持续改进,提升医院质量。     

Light Quality and Vernalization Interact in Controlling Late Flowering in Arabidopsis Ecotypes and Mutants

The late flowering ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana L. (Heyn.)Eifel, Pitztal and Innsbruck responded to 10 d vernalization(cold treatment) by flowering earlier with less with less thanhalf the number of leaves of non-induced plants. The vernalizationresponse was cumulative: increased numbers of days of vernalizationinduced earlier flowering up to an apparent saturation in responseafter 30 to 40 d. The ratio of red:far-red (R:FR) light alsoaffected non-vernalized time-to-flower. When grown under fluorescentplus incandescent lamps (R:FR = 1·0), time-to-flowerwas approximately half that required by plants grown under fluorescentlamps (R:FR = 5·8) at the same photon flux density andphotoperiod. Leaf production rate was unaffected by either vernalizationor light quality changes and time-to-flower and leaf numberwere highly correlated (r² = 0·973). The late flowering mutants of Landsberg erecta were grown underlighting which displayed a gradient of R:FR. Some mutants likeco, flowered at the same time in all R:FR treatment, while otherlike fca took nearly twice as long to flower, with double thenumber of leaves at R:FR ratio of 5·8 compared with theR:FR = 1 treatment. The ranking of the response from least tomost responsive was co, fe, gi, WT, fd, fwa, ft, fha, fpa, fy,fve and fca. Vernalization of these Landsberg mutants always resulted inearlier flowering, although only fca, fve, fy and fpa were significantlymore sensitive to thermoinduction than the wild type parent.There was a high correlation (r² = 0·89 between the responseto thermoinduction and to R:FR ratio. Vernalization of fca for24 d largely eliminated the R:FR time-to-flower response. Vernalizationand photoinduction similarly affect late flowering and can substitutefor each another.Copyright 1993, 1999 Academic Press Light quality, vernalization, flowering, Arabidopsis thaliana, phytochrome, thermoinduction, photoperiod, photoinduction, growth conditions, photon flux density, daylength, spectral quality, far-red light     

Controlling chirality

New strategies are continually being developed for using enzymes to efficiently catalyse the enantioselective synthesis of chiral non-racemic compounds. Alternatives to asymmetric synthesis or kinetic resolution include dynamic kinetic resolution, deracemisation and enantioconvergent transformations. Moreover, a much greater understanding is being developed of the parameters that can affect the stereochemical outcome of the reaction (e.g. solvent, substrate design, immobilization and directed evolution).     

Controlling cell length

Control of cell dimensions is an important but poorly understood aspect of morphogenesis. In this review, our primary focus is on control of cell length in different types of cells and cytoskeletal regulation of this parameter. Cell length is not a constant characteristic of certain cell type but of cells of fibroblastic morphology. Since cytoskeleton organization can change during different processes of morphogenesis changes in length control during cell spreading, epithelio-mesenchymal transformation and also in neoplastic transformation are discussed.     

Controlling calcium entry

Ca(2+) enters cells through an assortment of Ca(2+)-permeable channels that respond to different stimuli and couple to different cellular responses. Several different Ca(2+) entry pathways can be activated by receptors that stimulate phospholipase C (PLC). Both limbs of this signaling pathway (IP(3) and diacylglycerol), PLC itself, and its substrate (PIP(2)) contribute to the coordinate regulation of these Ca(2+) entry pathways.