The essential effector SCRE1 in Ustilaginoidea virens suppresses rice immunity via a small peptide region

The biotrophic fungal pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens causes rice false smut, a newly emerging plant disease that has become epidemic worldwide in recent years. The U. virens genome encodes many putative effector proteins that, based on the study of other pathosystems, could play an essential role in fungal virulence. However, few studies have been reported on virulence functions of individual U. virens effectors. Here, we report our identification and characterization of the secreted cysteine-rich protein SCRE1, which is an essential virulence effector in U. virens. When SCRE1 was heterologously expressed in Magnaporthe oryzae, the protein was secreted and translocated into plant cells during infection. SCRE1 suppresses the immunity-associated hypersensitive response in the nonhost plant Nicotiana benthamiana. Induced expression of SCRE1 in rice also inhibits pattern-triggered immunity and enhances disease susceptibility to rice bacterial and fungal pathogens. The immunosuppressive activity is localized to a small peptide region that contains an important ‘cysteine-proline-alanine-arginine-serine’ motif. Furthermore, the scre1 knockout mutant generated using the CRISPR/Cas9 system is attenuated in U. virens virulence to rice, which is greatly complemented by the full-length SCRE1 gene. Collectively, this study indicates that the effector SCRE1 is able to inhibit host immunity and is required for full virulence of U. virens.     

Allelopathic Potential of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Koelreuteria bipinnata</Emphasis> var. <Emphasis Type="Italic">integrifoliola</Emphasis> on Germination of Three Turf Grasses

Allelopathy is very important for the scientific disposition of garden plants. To understand the allelopathic potential of Koelreuteria bipinnata Franch. var. integrifoliola, the germination of Agrostis tenuis Sibth., Festuca arundinacea Schreb. and Lolium perenne L. were determined under laboratory conditions. The results showed that root, stem and leaf aqueous extracts of K. bipinnata var. integrifoliola had allelopathic effects on all three turf grasses, and the allelopathic activity varied according to extract concentrations, test species, and extract sources. Lower extract concentrations did not affect or promoted the germination and initial seedling growth of turf grasses, but the highest concentrations almost had inhibitory effect. The order of allelopathic potentials of the three organs on germination of these receptors was root < stem < leaf. And at the highest concentration of leaf extract, the most strongly inhibition was found in A. tenuis, followed by F. arundinaces and then L. perenne. In addition, according to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis, the allelopathic potential compounds and their abundance in root, stem and leaf were obviously different. Therefore, the allelopathic compounds may responsible for allelopathy of K. bipinnata var. integrifoliola. These findings suggested that more attention should be paid to the leaf of K. bipinnata var. integrifoliola for the relative higher allelopathic effects.     

Characterization of the temporal and spatial expression of wheat (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum aestivum</Emphasis> L.) plant height at the QTL level and their influence on yield-related traits

Key message

The temporal and spatial expression patterns of stable QTL for plant height and their influences on yield were characterized.

Abstract

Plant height (PH) is a complex trait in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) that includes the spike length (SL) and the internode lengths from the first to the fifth internode, which are counted from the top and abbreviated as FIRITL, SECITL, THIITL, FOUITL, and FIFITL, respectively. This study identified eight putative additive quantitative trait loci (QTL) for PH. In addition, unconditional and conditional QTL mapping were used to analyze the temporal and spatial expression patterns of five stable QTL for PH. qPh-3A mainly regulated SL, FIRITL, and FIFITL to affect PH during the booting–heading stage (BS–HS); qPh-3D regulated all internode lengths to affect PH, especially during the BS–HS; before HS, qPh-4B mainly affected FIRITL, SECITL, THIITL, and FOUITL and qPh-5A.1 mainly affected SECITL, THIITL, and FOUITL to regulate PH; and qPh-6B mainly regulated FIRITL to affect the PH after the booting stage (BS). qPhdv-4B, a QTL for the response of PH to nitrogen stress, was stable and co-localized with qPh-4B. All five stable QTL, except for qPh-3A, were related to the 1000 kernel weight and yield per plant. Regions of qPh-3A, qPh-3D, qPh-4B, qPh-5A.1, and qPh-6B showed synteny to parts of rice chromosomes 1, 1, 3, 9, and 2, respectively. Based on comparative genomics analysis, Rht-B1b was cloned and mapped in the CI of qPh-4B. This report provides useful information for fine mapping of the stable QTL for PH and the genetic improvement of wheat plant type.

     

Analysis of Variations in the Glutamate Receptor,N-Methyl D-Aspartate 2A (GRIN2A) Gene Reveals Their Relative Importance as Genetic Susceptibility Factors for Heroin Addiction

The glutamate receptor, N-methyl D-aspartate 2A (GRIN2A) gene that encodes the 2A subunit of the N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor was recently shown to be involved in the development of opiate addiction. Genetic polymorphisms in GRIN2A have a plausible role in modulating the risk of heroin addiction. An association of GRIN2A single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with heroin addiction was found earlier in African Americans. To identify markers that contribute to the genetic susceptibility to heroin addiction, we examined the potential association between heroin addiction and forty polymorphisms of the GRIN2A gene using the MassARRAY system and GeneScan in this study. The frequency of the (GT)26 repeats (rs3219790) in the heroin addiction group was significantly higher than that in the control group (χ² = 5.360, P = 0.021). The allele frequencies of three polymorphisms (rs1102972, rs1650420, and rs3104703 in intron 3) were strongly associated with heroin addiction (P<0.001, 0.0002, and <0.001, after Bonferroni correction). Three additional SNPs from the same intron (rs1071502, rs6497730, and rs1070487) had nominally significant P values for association (P<0.05), but did not pass the threshold value. Haplotype analysis revealed that the G-C-T-C-C-T-A (block 6) and T-T (block 10) haplotypes of the GRIN2A gene displayed a protective effect (P = <0.001 and 0.003). These findings point to a role for GRIN2A polymorphisms in heroin addiction among the Han Chinese from Shaanxi province, and may be informative for future genetic or neurobiological studies on heroin addiction.     

Diterpenoids from Wedelia prostrata and Their Derivatives and Cytotoxic Activities

One new ent‐kaurane diterpenoid, 11β,16α‐dihydroxy‐ent‐kauran‐19‐oic acid ( 1 ), together with eight known analogues 2 – 9 were isolated from the aerial parts of Wedelia prostrata. One of the acidic diterpenoids, kaurenoic acid ( 3 ), was converted to seven derivatives, 10 – 16 . All compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity in vitro against human leukemia (K562), liver (HepG‐2), and stomach (SGC‐7901) cancer cell lines. Only four kaurenoic acid derivatives, 13 – 16 , with 15‐keto and substitutions at C(19) position, exhibited notable cytotoxic activities on these tumor cell lines with IC₅₀ value ranging from 0.05 to 3.71 μm . Compounds 10 – 12 , with oxime on C(15) showed moderate inhibitory effects and compounds 1 – 9 showed no cytotoxicities on them. Structure–activity relationships were also discussed based on the experimental data obtained. The known derivative, 15‐oxokaurenoic acid 4‐piperdin‐1‐ylbutyl ester ( 17 ), induced typical apoptotic cell death in colon SW480 cells upon evaluation of the apoptosis‐inducing activity by flow‐cytometric analysis.     

1991-2017年叶尔羌河流域冰川景观格局时空演变

冰川景观变化是全球环境和气候变化的共同"指示器"。随着全球气候变化加剧,干旱和半干旱地区的冰川景观将进一步变化。科学评估冰川景观格局时空演变特征,为应对冰川景观变化及其影响提供科学参考。基于1991-2017年Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI遥感影像,采用监督分类方法获取叶尔羌河流域冰川景观时空格局及变化数据,利用景观格局指数、质心迁移模型、分形维数等方法分析近26年叶尔羌河流域冰川景观格局时空演变特征。结果表明：（1）1991-2017年叶尔羌河流域冰川斑块面积呈消减趋势,但有所减缓,共减少799.50 km²（-13.09%）。冰川斑块面积消减主要集中在海拔5400-5800 m之间,相较之下,海拔4400 m以下的区域冰川斑块面积消减率最高,达63.68%;不同坡度冰川景观消减率存在差异,陡坡冰川斑块面积消减率最高（15.98%）,急陡坡消减率最低（2.87%）;阴阳两坡冰川景观均呈消减趋势,阳坡冰川斑块面积消减速率显著高于阴坡。（2）近26年来,叶尔羌河流域冰川斑块数量、最大斑块指数均减小,而平均形状指数、平均周长面积比、分裂指数均增加,表明冰川景观不断消减,破碎化程度增加。（3）研究期间,叶尔羌河流域冰川景观质心发生迁移,整体呈现东北偏移趋势。（4）通过分形理论对叶尔羌河流域冰川景观空间结构特征进行分析表明,该流域冰川景观消减率略微降低,但仍然处于持续消融状态。     

Esub8: A novel tool to predict protein subcellular localizations in eukaryotic organisms

Background

Subcellular localization of a new protein sequence is very important and fruitful for understanding its function. As the number of new genomes has dramatically increased over recent years, a reliable and efficient system to predict protein subcellular location is urgently needed.

Results

Esub8 was developed to predict protein subcellular localizations for eukaryotic proteins based on amino acid composition. In this research, the proteins are classified into the following eight groups: chloroplast, cytoplasm, extracellular, Golgi apparatus, lysosome, mitochondria, nucleus and peroxisome. We know subcellular localization is a typical classification problem; consequently, a one-against-one (1-v-1) multi-class support vector machine was introduced to construct the classifier. Unlike previous methods, ours considers the order information of protein sequences by a different method. Our method is tested in three subcellular localization predictions for prokaryotic proteins and four subcellular localization predictions for eukaryotic proteins on Reinhardt's dataset. The results are then compared to several other methods. The total prediction accuracies of two tests are both 100% by a self-consistency test, and are 92.9% and 84.14% by the jackknife test, respectively. Esub8 also provides excellent results: the total prediction accuracies are 100% by a self-consistency test and 87% by the jackknife test.

Conclusions

Our method represents a different approach for predicting protein subcellular localization and achieved a satisfactory result; furthermore, we believe Esub8 will be a useful tool for predicting protein subcellular localizations in eukaryotic organisms.

     

EST分子标记开发及在比较基因组学中的应用

数量迅速增加的EST(expressed sequence tags)为分子标记的开发提供了宝贵的资源。与来自于基因组DNA开发的传统标记相比,以EST为基础的分子标记是一种新型分子标记,具有其显著的优势,如开发简便、信息量高和通用性好等,在多方面都有重要的利用价值。本文详细地介绍了目前基于EST开发的5类分子标记以及基于生物信息学方法的开发策略,这些标记包括EST-PCR、EST-SSR、EST-SNP、EST-RFLP和EST-AFLP。此外,对这些标记在比较基因组学研究中的应用进行了评述,包括比较作图、遗传多样性评价及系统发育研究等。     

猪乳铁蛋白在4种重组乳杆菌中的表达及抑菌活性比较

为了获得优化的猪乳铁蛋白乳杆菌表达系统,并比较重组猪乳铁蛋白的抑菌活性,根据乳杆菌使用密码子的偏嗜性优化合成猪乳铁蛋白成熟肽编码序列,将其克隆到乳杆菌表达载体pPG612.1的XhoⅠ/BamHⅠ位点,获得了plf乳杆菌表达载体质粒pPG612.1-plf。将获得的重组质粒分别电转化入干酪乳杆菌ATCC393、戊糖乳杆菌KLDS1.0413、植物乳杆菌KLDS1.0344和副干酪乳杆菌KLDS1.0652细胞内,获得4种表达猪乳铁蛋白的重组乳杆菌。经木糖诱导,通过Western blotting和激光共聚焦检测重组猪乳铁蛋白的表达,用ELISA方法检测和比较4种重组菌上清中表达猪乳铁蛋白的量,并用琼脂孔穴扩散抑菌法检测4种重组乳杆菌表达乳铁蛋白的抑菌活性。结果表明,乳铁蛋白在4种重组乳杆菌中均得到正确表达,其产物分子量约73 kDa,重组干酪乳杆菌、重组戊糖乳杆菌、重组植物乳杆菌和重组副干酪乳杆菌的重组猪乳铁蛋白表达量分别为9.6μg/mL、10.8μg/mL、12.5μg/mL、9.9μg/mL。重组猪乳铁蛋白对大肠杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、鼠伤寒沙门氏菌、巴氏杆菌和李氏杆菌均有一定的抑菌作用,对金黄色葡萄球菌的抑菌作用最强,且4种重组乳杆菌中重组植物乳杆菌表达产物的抑菌效果优于其他重组菌的表达产物。结果表明在4种乳杆菌中重组猪乳铁蛋白的最佳表达系统为植物乳杆菌,该结果为猪乳铁蛋白的乳杆菌表达系统进一步开发与应用奠定了基础。     

茶尺蠖人工饲料的研究

本报道饲养茶尺蠖(Ectropis obliqua hypulina Wehrli)的5种人工饲料及其饲养方法．5种人工饲料均可用于大规模饲养一代幼虫．其中62号配方可用于续代饲养,在实验室内饲养5代的结果表明。效果良好．在饲料成分的加工．配制及饲养方法等方面．较前人有相当大的改进,因而叶因子用量减少,幼虫历期缩短．用人工饲料饲养的幼虫历期为13-20天。基本接近以茶叶饲养的对照(11—18天)．实验结果还表明饲料含水量．饲养方法．饲养密度和添加饲料的次数不同,对茶尺蠖的生长发育有明显的影响．初龄幼虫用平面培养基倒置饲养和高龄幼虫用片状饲料正置饲养为最佳方法．