扫描电子显微镜下的子房外生胚珠

众所周知,被子植物的胚珠都包被于子房之内,这也是被子植物区别于裸子植物最重要的特征,但在某些杂种后代中却出现了异常现象。图中的子房外生胚珠是在北京卧佛寺的一株小叶杨和青杨的杂交植株上发现的。杨树通常是雌雄异株,柔荑花序,花序轴每节     

啤酒酵母——分子生物学研究的热门材料

酵母菌是酿造业、面包发酵业的主要菌种,也是许多生化试剂,如酶制剂等的主要生产菌。目前,在遗传工程上酵母菌又作为高等生物名贵基因产物的加工厂,生产蛋白激素、蛋白酶及其它的蛋白质制品。而石油酵母又是环境污染的清道夫。为了改善食品工业,提取昂贵的生化试剂,自古以来人们就对酵母进行了大量的研究,积累了丰富的资料,为现代酵母分子生物学研究打下了厚实的基础。酵母菌作为一种简单的真核微生物,在分子生物学领域中具有得天独厚的优点。其研究的深度,系统性和全面性仅次于原核生物中的     

观察细菌的形态和运动的好材料——螺旋菌

细菌基本形态的观察是原中学植物学实验必作内容之一。螺旋菌具鞭毛,运动快速,且形态较大,用它作为细菌运动性及鞭毛的观察材料比用杆菌好,还可用于细菌三型的观察,而且螺旋菌的取材方便,不必事先配制培养基培养。具体方法如下。 1.取材取厕所中表面呈白膜状的陈尿,其中含有大量的螺旋菌杆菌和少量球菌。 2.染色液的配制     

果蝇唾液腺染色体的制片、染色和封固

在制备果蝇唾液腺染色体的过程中,我们吸取前人经验,在制片方法上加以改进并采用复合染料染色,结果染色体分散,横纹清楚,可长期保存,为学生提供了理想的教学切片。现将方法介绍如下: 取材取体型大、行动缓慢,爬在培养瓶壁上的三     

“鸟类的多样性和鸟类的迁徙”的探索法教学

(一)目的通过观察、记录、分析、讨论和教师的必要说明,使学生了解:(1)鸟类的多样性;(2)鸟类的形态结构和生活习性(包括食性)各异,这都是同其适应性相联系的;(3)关于鸟类中的留鸟、候鸟和迁徙的知识。 (二)过程 1.准备尽可能多准备一些形态不同的活鸟和鸟类剥制标本。 (1)鸟类标本室:备有家鸽、鹦鹉、鹌鹑、黑尾蜡嘴雀、锡嘴雀、燕雀、麻雀、蒙古百灵,太平鸟、黄胸鹀、三道眉草鹀、大山雀、朱顶雀、黄     

小鼠腹腔巨噬细胞制片法

巨噬细胞是机体保卫系统的细胞,当外界异物入侵以后它可向异物集中进行吞噬活动。在小鼠腹腔内塞入异物(圆形盖片)后可见巨噬细胞集中爬满盖片上,再注入墨汁。巨噬细胞即吞噬炭末微粒,其形态更为清晰可辨。本方法可作为教学示范或课外活动用以启发学生理解机体的保卫反应。其方法步骤如下: (1)将小白鼠放入瓶内用乙醚麻醉(勿麻醉致死)后取出小鼠使仰位,四肢用绳子固定于解剖板上。     

Effect of a broad-host range plasmid on growth dynamics of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas putida

Host-plasmid interactions were studied for the broad-host range plasmid, pTJS26, a derivative of RK2. To isolate host and plasmid contributions to the growth dynamics and plasmid stability, separate experiments were performed with host and recombinant cells for two different gram-negative hosts, Pseudomonas putida and Escherichia coli, at two different temperatures, 30 and 37 degrees C. At the lower temperature (30 degrees C) the growth kinetics were not affected by the plasmid, but plasmid instability was observed. At the higher temperature (37 degrees C) growth rates and yields were lower than that for the hosts, but the plasmid was stable. This behavior can be explained by a combination of two phenomena. First, the copy number control mechanism may be temperature sensitive and, second, plasmid segregation may be inefficient. For both E. coli and P. putida the growth dynamics of the recombinant system was dictated by the presence of the plasmid.     

Production of ethanol by immobilized Saccharomyces bayanus in an extractive fermentation system

An extractive fermentation system using immobilized yeast cells was developed to study the ethanol production at high sugar concentrations. Organic acids were used as extracting solvents of ethanol and their toxicity was tested in free and k-carrageenan entrapped cell preparations. Immobilization seems to protect cells against solvent toxicity, when long-chain organic acids, e.g., oleic acid, were used, probably due to steric and diffusional limitations, the free cells not being viable at high oleic acid concentrations. The entrapped cells also present a higher metabolic activity than their free counterparts at high glucose concentrations. A solution of 300 g/L of glucose was totally fermented by the immobilized yeast cells, which when free cannot normally convert more than 200 g/L. In situ recovery of ethanol by oleic acid in a batch immobilized cell system led to higher ethanol productivities and to the fermentation of 400 g/L, when an oleic acid/medium ratio of 5 was used.     

Economic assessment of plant cell culture for the production of ajmalicine

Cost estimates have been prepared for commercial-scale production of ajmalicine-rich Catnaranthus roseus biomass using plant cell culture. At the current state of the technology the cost would be approximately $7.30/lb dry biomass ($3215/kg ajmalicine). Naturally-grown C. roseus roots have a 50% lower ajmalicine concentration but would cost only ca. $0.70/lb ($619/kg ajmalicine). The principal reason for the high cost of the plant cell culture route is not the slow specific growth rate (0.35 day(-1)), but rather the slow specific product accumulation rate (0.26 mg/g day). This rate will have to be increased by a factor of 40 to make the process competitive.     

Growth dynamics of a methylotroph (Methylomonas L3) in continuous cultures. II. Growth inhibition and comparison against an unstructured model

High methanol concentrations have a negative effect on the growth rate and the biomass yield of growth transients induced by methanol pulses in continuous cultures of Methylomonas L3. The physiological basis of this effect is investigated by measuring the effect of the methanol pulse on the cell energy charge (EC) and ATP, ADP, and AMP concentrations, and by comparing the results of the pulse transients against an unstructured model. The methanol pulse is shown to lead to increased values of the cell EC and ATP concentration, and thus, inhibition and reduced availability of biosynthetic energy are excluded as causes of inhibition. When the biomass and methanol profiles of the transient experiments are compared in phase-plane diagrams against computer simulations based on the model, satisfactory agreement between experimental data and model predictions is found in single-substrate, high-dilution-rate experiments. Conversely, poor agreement between experimental data and simulation results indicates a more severe growth inhibition than the model predicts at low dilution rates and a less severe one in mixed-substrate experiments. Based on these findings and other relevant physiological information, we propose that the large variations in the negative effect of methanol on growth result from the fact that cells accumulate methanol to widely different concentrations depending on their physiological state. In their effort to detoxify from the high intracellular methanol and formaldehyde concentrations, cells oxidize considerably more methanol than they can incorporate into biomass. This leads to a useless ATP surplus, which the cells must hydrolyze without doing any useful biosynthetic work, and this results in lower biomass yields.