Corrigendum to ‘Nanopore-based Fourth-generation DNA Sequencing Technology' [GPB 144(2015)–GPB 13/1(4–16)]

<正>The authors regret that there were typos in the online version of Figure 4 published in Issue 1,2015.In the figure legend boxes of panels F and G,‘‘Ni’’should be corrected to‘‘N’’for the labeling of the green curves.The figure in the printed version has been corrected.The correct Figure 4 is shown below.The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.     

Litterfall Production Along Successional and Altitudinal Gradients of Subtropical Monsoon Evergreen Broadleaved Forests in Guangdong, China

Evaluation of litterfall production is important for understanding nutrient cycling, forest growth, successional pathways, and interactions with environmental variables in forest ecosystems. Litterfall was intensively studied during the period of 1982–2001 in two subtropical monsoon vegetation gradients in the Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve, Guangdong Province, China. The two gradients include: (1) a successional gradient composed of pine forest (PF), mixed pine and broadleaved forest (MF) and monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest (BF), and (2) an altitudinal gradient composed of Baiyunci ravine rain forest (BRF), Qingyunci ravine rain forest (QRF), BF and mountainous evergreen broadleaved forest (MMF). Mean annual litterfall production was 356, 861 and 849 g m⁻² for PF, MF and BF of the successional gradient, and 1016, 1061, 849 and 489 g m⁻² for BRF, QRF, BF and MMF of the altitudinal gradient, respectively. As expected, mean annual litterfall of the pioneer forest PF was the lowest, but rapidly increased over the observation period while those in other forests were relatively stable, confirming that forest litterfall production is closely related to successional stages and growth patterns. Leaf proportions of total litterfall in PF, MF, BF, BRF, QRF and MMF were 76.4%, 68.4%, 56.8%, 55.7%, 57.6% and 69.2%, respectively, which were consistent with the results from studies in other evergreen broadleaved forests. Our analysis on litterfall monthly distributions indicated that litterfall production was much higher during the period of April to September compared to other months for all studied forest types. Although there were significant impacts of some climate variables (maximum and effective temperatures) on litterfall production in some of the studied forests, the mechanisms of how climate factors (temperature and rainfall) interactively affect litterfall await further study.     

Development and Application of Microsatellites in Candidate Genes Related to Wood Properties in the Chinese White Poplar (Populus tomentosa Carr.)

Gene-derived simple sequence repeats (genic SSRs), also known as functional markers, are often preferred over random genomic markers because they represent variation in gene coding and/or regulatory regions. We characterized 544 genic SSR loci derived from 138 candidate genes involved in wood formation, distributed throughout the genome of Populus tomentosa, a key ecological and cultivated wood production species. Of these SSRs, three-quarters were located in the promoter or intron regions, and dinucleotide (59.7%) and trinucleotide repeat motifs (26.5%) predominated. By screening 15 wild P. tomentosa ecotypes, we identified 188 polymorphic genic SSRs with 861 alleles, 2–7 alleles for each marker. Transferability analysis of 30 random genic SSRs, testing whether these SSRs work in 26 genotypes of five genus Populus sections (outgroup, Salix matsudana), showed that 72% of the SSRs could be amplified in Turanga and 100% could be amplified in Leuce. Based on genotyping of these 26 genotypes, a neighbour-joining analysis showed the expected six phylogenetic groupings. In silico analysis of SSR variation in 220 sequences that are homologous between P. tomentosa and Populus trichocarpa suggested that genic SSR variations between relatives were predominantly affected by repeat motif variations or flanking sequence mutations. Inheritance tests and single-marker associations demonstrated the power of genic SSRs in family-based linkage mapping and candidate gene-based association studies, as well as marker-assisted selection and comparative genomic studies of P. tomentosa and related species.     

Polyclonal Antibodies in Microplates to Predict the Maximum Adsorption Activities of Enzyme/Mutants from Cell Lysates

With microplate-immobilized polyclonal antibodies against a starting enzyme or its active mutant bearing consistent accessible epitopes, the maximum activity of an adsorbed enzyme/mutant (Vs) was predicted for comparison to recognize weakly-positive mutants. Rabbit antisera against Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase (ECAP) were fractionated with 33% ammonium sulfate to yield crude polyclonal antibodies for conventional immobilization in 96-well microplates. The response curve of the activities of ECAP/mutant adsorbed by the immobilized polyclonal antibodies to protein quantities from a cell lysate was fit to an approximation model to predict Vs. With 0.4 μg crude polyclonal antibody for immobilization, Vs was consistent for ECAP in cell lysates bearing fourfold differences in its apparent specific activities when its abundance was greater than 0.9%. The ratio of Vs of the mutant R168K to that of ECAP was 1.5?±?0.1 (n?=?2), consistent with that of their specific activities after affinity purification. Unfortunately, the prediction of Vs with polyclonal antibodies that saturated microplate wells was ineffective to Pseudomonas aeruginosa arylsulfatase bearing less than 2% specific activity of ECAP. Therefore, with microplate-immobilized polyclonal antibodies to adsorb enzyme/mutants from cell lysates, high-throughput prediction of Vs was practical to recognize weakly-positive mutants of starting enzymes bearing fairly-high activities.     

一种比格犬雌二醇β受体剪切异构体的克隆和序列分析

目的分析比格犬下丘脑-垂体-性腺轴,雌二醇β受体剪切异构体的存在情况。方法根据NCBI数据库上的比格犬雌二醇受体的基因序列,设计两对特异性引物,以比格犬的卵巢、子宫、下丘脑和垂体的总RNA为模板进行反转录,并利用两对特异性引物扩增比格犬雌二醇受体的基因,对其中的主要条带进行克隆测序。结果获得了比格犬雌二醇受体的全长cDNA序列,对主要条带进行克隆测序的结果表明,该序列是一种比格犬雌二醇受体的剪切异构体。结论比格犬雌二醇β受体剪切异构体与小鼠和人的组成有较大的不同,需要进一步系统研究。     

A meta-analysis on morphological,physiological and biochemical responses of plants with PGPR inoculation under drought stress

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can help plants to resist drought stress. However, the mechanisms of how PGPR inoculation affect plant status under drought remain incompletely understood. We performed a meta-analysis of plant response to PGPR inoculation by compiling data from 57 PGPR-inoculation studies, including 2, 387 paired observations on morphological, physiological and biochemical parameters under drought and well-watered conditions. We compare the PGPR effect on plants performances among different groups of controls and treatments. Our results reveal that PGPR enables plants to restore themselves from drought-stressed to near a well-watered state, and that C4 plants recover better from drought stress than C3 plants. Furthermore, PGPR is more effective underdrought than well-watered conditions in increasing plant biomass, enhancing photosynthesis and inhibiting oxidant damage, and the responses of C4 plants to the PGPR effect was stronger than that of C3 plants under drought conditions. Additionally, PGPR belonging to different taxa and PGPR with different functional traits have varying degrees of drought-resistance effects on plants. These results are important to improve our understanding of the PGPR beneficial effects on enhanced drought-resistance of plants.     

鼎湖山季风常绿阔叶林凋落物层化学性质的研究

研究了鼎湖山自然保护区内季风常绿阔叶林林下凋落物层现存量及其化学性质,研究结果表明：１）林下凋落物现存量与年凋落物总量相当,分别为８．７４和８．８４（７～１１）ｔｈｍ－２,系统养分循环速率参数为０．９９,循环强度强烈,说明枯枝落叶分解快,养分周转快;２）营养元素在凋落物层中的含量分布格局为：Ｎ、Ｃａ、Ｍｇ、Ｍｎ元素未分解层（Ｌ层）＞半分解层（Ｆ层）＞已分解层（Ｙ层）,Ｐ、Ｋ、Ｆｅ则是Ｙ层＞Ｆ层＞Ｌ层;３）元素贮量（ｋｇｈｍ－２）,Ｎ１０２．０８,Ｐ４．３３,Ｋ４８．９４,Ｃａ１７．３８,Ｍｇ１０．４３,Ｆｅ５４．８７,Ｍｎ１．８０,在各亚层中的分布有Ｌ层＞Ｆ层＞Ｙ层（Ｎ、Ｐ、Ｃａ、Ｍｇ、Ｍｎ）,Ｙ层＞Ｆ层＞Ｌ层（Ｋ、Ｆｅ）;４）有机物质含量和贮量均为Ｌ层＞Ｆ层＞Ｙ层;５）林下凋落物的分解过程是一个养分释放过程,这一过程和营养元素及有机物质在各亚层的分布格局对林木生长极为有利。体现了作为顶极群落的季风常绿阔叶林生态系统本身在养分循环和利用效率的优越性。     

Maize uroporphyrinogen III methyltransferase: overexpression of the functional gene fragments in Escherichia coli and one-step purification

S-Adenosyl-L-methionine: uroporphyrinogen III methyltransferase (SUMT), a key regulatory enzyme, converts uroporphyrinogen III to precorrin-2 in the porphinoids biosynthesis. In this study, the mature SUMT was signified that the maize SUMT precursor encoded by the open reading frame of maize SUMT cDNA was deleted the first 91 amino acids constituting the postulated signal peptide. Several mature SUMT fusion and deletion mutants were conducted. It actively expressed in Escherichia coli that the mature SUMT, or the truncated one deleting the C-terminal extra 52 amino acids based on SUMT sequence comparisons. On the contrary, it expressed as an inclusion body in E. coli that the mature SUMT fusion mutant, the SUMT precursor, or the mature SUMT deleting the N-terminal 36 amino acids including glycine-rich region involved directly in SAM binding. The purified His6-tagged mature SUMT was homodimer with a molecular weight of 34 kDa, as shown by SDS-PAGE, 52 kDa using gel-filtration chromatography, and 79 kDa by dynamic light scattering assay. Red fluorescent compounds were associated with the recombinant mature SUMT which were identified as sirohydrochlorin and trimethylpyrrocorphin by spectroscopic analysis. This association slightly altered the protein secondary structure confirmed by circular dichroism assay.