Diversity of halophilic microorganisms: Environments,phylogeny, physiology,and applications

The phylogenetic diversity of microorganisms living at high salt concentrations is surprising. Halophiles are found in each of the three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. The metabolic diversity of halophiles is great as well: they include oxygenic and anoxygenic phototrophs, aerobic heterotrophs, fermenters, denitrifiers, sulfate reducers, and methanogens. The diversity of metabolic types encountered decreases with salinity. The upper salinity limit at which each dissimilatory process takes place is correlated with the amount of energy generated and the energetic cost of osmotic adaptation. Our understanding of the biodiversity in salt-saturated environments has increased greatly in recent years. Using a combination of culture techniques, molecular biological methods, and chemotaxonomic studies, we have obtained information on the nature of the halophilic Archaea as well as the halophilic Bacteria that inhabit saltern crystallizer ponds. Several halophilic microorganisms are being exploited in biotechnology. In some cases, such as the production of ectoine, the product is directly related to the halophilic behavior of the producing microorganism. In other cases, such as the extraction of β-carotene from Dunaliella or the potential use of Haloferax species for the production of poly-β-hydroxyalkanoate or extracellular polysaccharides, similar products can be obtained from non-halophiles, but halophilic microorganisms may present advantages over the use of non-halophilic counterparts. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2002) 28, 56–63 DOI: 10.1038/sj/jim/7000176 Received 20 May 2001/ Accepted in revised form 20 June 2001     

皖南尖吻蝮蛇毒出血毒素Ⅳ的纯化与初步鉴定

从皖南尖吻蝮蛇（Ａｇｋｉｓｔｒｏｄｏｎａｃｕｔｕｓ）毒液中经ＤＥＡＥ－Ｓｅｐｈａｒｏｓｅ和ＳｅｐｈａｃｒｙｌＳ－２００两步凝胶柱层析首次纯化出一种中分子量出血毒素（简称ＡａＨⅣ）．经ＳＤＳ－ＰＡＧＥ和等电聚焦凝胶电泳测定其分子量为４４ｋＤ,等电点为ｐＨ５．０．从５００ｍｇ粗毒中可获得２０ｍｇＡａＨⅣ纯品．ＡａＨⅣ有较强的出血活性,最小出血剂量（ＭＨＤ）为０．４μｇ．     

上海市首例输入性甲型H1N1流行性感冒报道

甲型H1N1流行性感冒(简称流感)是由一种新型流感病毒引起的急性呼吸道传染性疾病。临床主要表现为流感样症状,包括发热、流涕、咽痛、咳嗽、头痛、腹泻等。奥司他韦和扎那米韦治疗甲型H1N1流感有效。本文报道上海市首例输入性甲型H1N1流感病例,以提高临床医生对这种新发流感的认识。     

Diverse origins of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of chloroplast peptidoglycan

Chloroplasts are believed to be descendants of ancestral cyanobacteria that had peptidoglycan layer between the outer and the inner membranes. Historically, the glaucophyte Cyanophora paradoxa and the rhizopod Paulinella chromatophora were believed to harbor symbiotic cyanobacteria having peptidoglycan, which were conventionally named “cyanelles”. In addition, the complete set of genes involved in the synthesis of peptidoglycan has been found in the moss Physcomitrella patens and some plants and algae. The presence of peptidoglycan-like structures was demonstrated by a new metabolic labeling technique in P. patens. However, many green algae and all known red algae lack peptidoglycan-related genes. That is the reason why we questioned the origin of peptidoglycan-synthesizing enzymes in the chloroplasts of the green algae and plants. We performed phylogenetic analysis of ten enzymes involved in the synthesis of peptidoglycan exploiting the Gclust homolog clusters and additional genomic data. As expected, all the identified genes encoded in the chromatophore genome of P. chromatophora were closely related to cyanobacterial homologs. In the green algae and plants, only two genes, murA and mraY, were found to be closely related to cyanobacterial homologs. The origins of all other genes were diverse. Unfortunately, the origins of C. paradoxa genes were not clearly determined because of incompleteness of published genomic data. We discuss on the probable evolutionary scenarios to explain the mostly non-cyanobacterial origins of the biosynthetic enzymes of chloroplast peptidoglycan: A plausible one includes extensive multiple horizontal gene transfers during the early evolution of Viridiplantae.     

Iron supplementation promotes in vitro shoot induction and multiplication of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Baptisia australis</Emphasis>

C₄ plants can efficiently accumulate CO₂ in leaves and thus reduce wasteful oxygen fixation by the RuBisCO enzyme. Three C₄ enzymes, namely carbonic anhydrase (CA), phosphoenol pyruvate (PEPC) and pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase (PPDK), were over expressed in Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica var. Khitish under the control of green tissue specific promoters PD_54o, PEPC and PPDK, respectively. Integration of these genes was confirmed by Southern hybridization. The relative expression of PEPC, CA and PPDK were, respectively, 6.75, 6.57 and 3.6-fold higher in transgenic plants compared to wild type plants (control). Photosynthetic efficiency of the transgenic plants increased significantly along with a 12?% increase in grain yield compared to wild type plants. Compared to control plants, transgenic plants also showed phenotypic changes such as increased leaf blade size, root biomass, and plant height and anatomical changes such as greater leaf vein number, bundle sheath cells, and bulliform cells. Our findings indicate that the combined over expression of these three enzymes is an efficient strategy for incorporating beneficial physiological and anatomical features that will enable subsequent yield enhancement in C₃ rice plants.     

籼粳亚种间杂交稻米脂肪含量的遗传分析

用包括基因型×环境互作效应的种子性状遗传模型,研究了籼粳亚种间杂交稻米脂肪含量的遗传特性,结果表明：在籼粳杂种中,脂肪含量的遗传表达主要受控于种子直接加性效应和母体加性效应,以前者为主．基因型X环境互作主要表现为显性（包括直接显性和母体显性）X环境以及细胞质X环境工作．直接近传率和母体遗传率都极显著．此外,根据遗传效应预测值对供试条本的利用价值作了评价．