Insect-resistant transgenic cabbage plants and their progenies

An insecticidal crystal protein gene of Bacillus thuringiensis was transferred into cabbage genome with the method of Agrobacterium infection. Cotyledons with petioles as explants were cocultivated with Agrobacterial suspension. Calli generated at the basis of petiole were subjected to selection on the MS medium containing 15-30 mg/L kanamycin (Km). About 5% explants produced calli growing continuously on the selective medium. Green shoots appeared on these calli when they were transplanted onto medium with Km and 6-BA for plant differentiation. The shoots were separated and cultivated on medium with kanamycin. About 80% shoots were rooted. Non-transformed control calli could not give normal shoots and roots and brownized and died gradually. Larvae of Pieris rapae showed poisonous symptoms: growth inhibition and mortality when fed with the leaf of the transgenic plants. About 80% of regenerated plants showed positive hybridization bands when their DNA were probed with crystal protein sequence of Bacillu     

中国短痣蚜科新属新种记述（同翅目：蚜总科）

本文记述了短痣蚜科１新属——环短痣蚜属ＫｒｉｋｏａｎｏｅｃｉａＺｈａｎｇｅｔＱｉａｏ,ｇｅｎ．ｎ．及１新种——环短痣蚜ＫｒｉｋｏａｎｏｅｃｉａｃｉｒｃｕｌａＱｉａｏｅｔＺｈａｎｇ,ｓｐ．ｎ．,并探讨了该属的分类地位。模式标本存于中国科学院动物研究所昆虫标本馆内。环短痣蚜ＫｒｉｋｏａｎｏｅｃｉａＺｈａｎｇｅｔＱｉａｏ,新属模式种：环短痣蚜ＫｒｉｋｏａｎｏｅｃｉａｃｉｒｃｕｌａＱｉａｏｅｔＺｈａｎｇ,ｓｐ．ｎ．根据环短痣蚜新属腹部有缘瘤,有翅蚜前翅中脉分岔一次等特征,该新属应归于短痣蚜亚科内,与伪短痣蚜属ＡｉｃｅｏｎａＴａｋａｈａｓｈｉ,１９２１明显不同,而与短痣蚜属ＡｎｏｅｃｉａＫｏｃｈ,１７７５有较近的亲缘关系,不同则在于：新属次生感觉圈环形（后者卵圆形或椭圆形）;原生感觉圈有睫（无睫）;体背毛少（体背毛多）;体背无大型褐色斑纹（有）;前翅翅痣狭长,近长平行四边形（近三角形或椭圆形）。就次生感觉圈的形状,原生感觉圈有无睫,跗节Ｉ毛数的进化方向（Ｓｈａｐｏｓｈｎｉｋｏｖ,１９８１）,认为新属较短痣蚜属更为进化。分布：甘肃岷县（西寨２３００ｍ）。正模：有翅孤雌蚜Ｎｏ．８７３３－２－１－１,甘肃岷县（西寨２３００     

Influence of root density on the critical soil water potential

Estimation of root water uptake in crops is important for making many other agricultural predictions. This estimation often involves two assumptions: (1) that a critical soil water potential exists which is constant for a given combination of soil and crop and which does not depend on root length density, and (2) that the local root water uptake at given soil water potential is proportional to root length density. Recent results of both mathematical modeling and computer tomography show that these assumptions may not be valid when the soil water potential is averaged over a volume of soil containing roots. We tested these assumptions for plants with distinctly different root systems. Root water uptake rates and the critical soil water potential values were determined in several adjacent soil layers for horse bean (Vicia faba) and oat (Avena sativa) grown in lysimeters, and for field-grown cotton (Gossypium L.), maize (Zea mays) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) crops. Root water uptake was calculated from the water balance of each layer in lysimeters. Water uptake rate was proportional to root length density at high soil water potentials, for both horse bean and oat plants, but root water uptake did not depend on root density for horse bean at potentials lower than −25 kPa. We observed a linear dependency of a critical soil water potential on the logarithm of root length density for all plants studied. Soil texture modified the critical water potential values, but not the linearity of the relationship. B E Clothier Section editor     

中国苏铁属花粉形态研究

对中国苏铁属花粉进行了光镜和扫描电镜观察。花粉中等大,极轴长２６．５－３５．７μｍ,赤道轴长２０．６－２６．４μｍ;极面观椭圆形至近圆形,赤道面观船形或肾形,具远极单沟,达两端,其开闭和形状随花粉干燥或潮湿而变化,内部具多种不规则突起,两端具皱纹;远极面外壁光滑或稀具微突起,近极面具穿孔,孔穴或蜂窝状纹饰。     

Screening of glucose isomerase-producing microorganisms

The ability to convert D-glucose into D-fructose was found in 14 out of 74 species of actinomycetes and bacteria tested. High intracellular glucose isomerase activity was displayed by Arthrobacter sp. and actinomycetes Streptomyces viridobrunneus, Streptomyces sp. 1 and Streptomyces sp. 32. The first showed maximal glucose-converting potential when cultured in both glucose and xylose media, while glucose isomerase activity of Streptomyces species could be found solely in medium supplemented with xylose. The ketose enzymatically formed from D-glucose was identified as D-fructose.     

EB病毒BNLF-1基因的分子生物学研究进展

位于EB病毒基因组U₅-TR区内的BNLF-1基因,其转译产物为潜伏膜蛋白(latent membrane protein1, LMP-1),由于LMP-1可以导致细胞转化并在EB病毒致癌过程中具有重要作用,因而成为近年来EB病毒分子生物学及相关肿瘤如人鼻咽癌、伯基特淋巴瘤、何杰金氏病等疾病病因发病学研究的热点,并取得了一批有重要意义的成果,文章从BNLF-1的基因结构及表达调控, LMP蛋白的结构及生化功能, LMP-1的生物学功能和LMP-1研究进行评述.     

Expression of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase gene and salinity tolerance in rice transgenic plants

Betaine as one of osmolytes plays an important role in osmoregulation of most high plants. Betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase C BADH) is the second enzyme involved in betaine biosynthesis. The BADH gene from a halophite, Atriplex hortensis, was transformed into rice cultivars by bombarment method. Totally 192 transgenic rice plants were obtained and most of them had higher salt tolerance than controls. Among transgenic plants transplanted in the saline pool containing 0.5% NaCl in a greenhouse, 22 survived, 13 of which set seeds, and the frequency of seed setting was very low, only 10% . But the controls could not grow under the same condition. The results of BADH ac-tivity assay and Northern blot showed that the BADH gene was integrated into chromosomes of transgenic plants and expressed.     

Wiener analysis of spike transmission by identified molluscan neurons

A mathematical model of spike train transmission by identified molluscan neurons was obtained by Wiener analysis. Poisson-distributed sequences of near-threshold stimuli were used as input trains for model construction and testing. Assuming that the error of describing responses of the synapse-neuron system purely by mean outflow frequency is 100%, addition of a linear component to the equation of the model reduces this error to 25%, and addition of a term allowing for nonlinear properties of the system reduces it to 16%. Comparison of the standard error of predicted responses of the model to testing stimulus trains and of responses of a real neuron to these same trains showed that the prediction error with allowance for nonlinear properties does not exceed 21%. Choice of adequate criteria for comparing model and experimental results is discussed.A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 49–54, January–February, 1984.     

Conducting pathways of the rabbit lumbar sympathetic ganglia

Conducting pathways of ganglia from the lumbar portion (L₃–L₅) of the sympathetic trunk in rabbits were studied by recording action potentials from nerves of the ganglia evoked by stimulation of other nerves of these ganglia, and by intracellular recording from single neurons. Besides the well-known system of descending preganglionic fibers, which enter the trunk through white rami communicantes and, as they pass through the ganglia, form synapses on ganglionic neurons, some preganglionic fibers were shown to enter the sympathetic chain through gray rami communicantes and to run in both ascending and descending directions, forming synaptic connections with neurons of the lumbar ganglia.A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 247–254, March–April, 1984.