Mechanisms of resistance to spinosad in the western flower thrip, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae)

Cross‐resistance, resistance mechanisms, and mode of inheritance of spinosad resistance were studied in the western flower thrip, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande). Spinosad (naturalyte insecticide) showed low cross‐resistance to prothiophos (organophosphorus insecticide) and chlorphenapyr (respiratory inhibitor) showed some cross‐resistance to thiocyclam (nereistoxin). The synergists PBO (piperonyl butoxide), DEM (diethyl maleate), and DEF (s, s, s‐tributyl phosphorotrithioate) did not show any synergism on the toxicity of spinosad in the resistant strain (ICS), indicating that metabolic‐mediated detoxification was not responsible for the spinosad resistance, suggesting that spinosad may reduce sensitivity of the target site: the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and GABA receptor. Following reciprocal crosses, dose‐response lines and dominance ratios indicated that spinosad resistance was incompletely dominant and there were no maternal effects. The results of backcross showed that spinosad resistance did not fit a single‐gene hypothesis, suggesting that resistance was influenced by several genes.     

alpha-Amylase is not required for breakdown of transitory starch in Arabidopsis leaves

The Arabidopsis thaliana genome encodes three alpha-amylase-like proteins (AtAMY1, AtAMY2, and AtAMY3). Only AtAMY3 has a predicted N-terminal transit peptide for plastidial localization. AtAMY3 is an unusually large alpha-amylase (93.5 kDa) with the C-terminal half showing similarity to other known alpha-amylases. When expressed in Escherichia coli, both the whole AtAMY3 protein and the C-terminal half alone show alpha-amylase activity. We show that AtAMY3 is localized in chloroplasts. The starch-excess mutant of Arabidopsis sex4, previously shown to have reduced plastidial alpha-amylase activity, is deficient in AtAMY3 protein. Unexpectedly, T-DNA knock-out mutants of AtAMY3 have the same diurnal pattern of transitory starch metabolism as the wild type. These results show that AtAMY3 is not required for transitory starch breakdown and that the starch-excess phenotype of the sex4 mutant is not caused simply by deficiency of AtAMY3 protein. Knock-out mutants in the predicted non-plastidial alpha-amylases AtAMY1 and AtAMY2 were also isolated, and these displayed normal starch breakdown in the dark as expected for extraplastidial amylases. Furthermore, all three AtAMY double knock-out mutant combinations and the triple knock-out degraded their leaf starch normally. We conclude that alpha-amylase is not necessary for transitory starch breakdown in Arabidopsis leaves.     

Melatonin ameliorates carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic fibrogenesis in rats via inhibition of oxidative stress

Melatonin is reported to exhibit a wide variety of biological effects, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Evidence shows the important role of oxidative stress in the etiopathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of administration of melatonin in rats with carbon tetrachloride-induced fibrosis for 6 weeks. Hepatic fibrotic changes were evaluated biochemically by measuring tissue hydroxyproline levels and histopathogical examinations. Malondialdehyde (MDA), an end product of lipid peroxidation, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-px) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were evaluated in tissue homogenates by spectrophotometry. The nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in liver tissue was examined by immunohistochemistry. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) concentrations in Kupffer cells (KCs) culture supernatants were measured with ELISA. The rats injected subcutaneously with CCl4 for 6 weeks resulted in hepatic fibrotic changes increased hydroxyproline and MDA levels, and decreased GSH-px and SOD levels, whereas melatonin reversed these effects. Furthermore, melatonin inhibited the expression of NF-kappaB in liver tissue and decreasing production of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha and IL-1beta from KCs in fibrotic rats. These present results suggest that melatonin ameliorates carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic fibrogenesis in rats via inhibition of oxidative stress and proinflammatory cytokines production.     

一氧化氮在大鼠肢体缺血再灌注后肺损伤中的作用

在大鼠肢体缺血再灌注（LIR）损伤模型上,观察应用一氧化氮合酶（NOS）抑制剂氨基胍（AG）及一氧化氮（NO）合成前体物质L－精氨酸（L－Arg)对大鼠骨骼肌和肺组织的NOS活性、NO含量、丙二醛（MDA）、髓过氧化物酶（MPO）和湿／干重（W／D）值的影响以及肺磷脂酰胆碱（PC）的改变,并观察了肺组织在光镜下形态学的变化。结果显示,与对照组比较,LIR组骨骼肌和肺组织NOS活性均增强,MDA值、MPO活性增加,W／D值增大,肺PC含量降低;光镜下,肺间质多形核粒细胞（PMN）聚集和浸润,肺间隔面密度值增加。给予AG后,与LIR组相比NOS活性降低,NO产生下降,而MPO活性、W／D比值增加,肺PC含量进一步降低;镜下PMN聚集和浸润增加,肺间隔面密度值增大。而给予L－Arg后能 减轻LIR引起的上述变化。上述结果提示,LIR后2h时,骨骼肌和肺组织NOS活性增加,NO产生增多;内源性NO可能在LIR所诱发的早期急性肺损伤中起保护作用。     

Outer membrane permeability of Escherichia coli K12: isolation, cloning and mapping of suppressors of a defined antibiotic-hypersensitive mutant

Summary We have previously described defined mutants of the TraT protein, an outer membrane lipoprotein specified by F-like plasmids, which sensitize Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium to antibiotics that are normally excluded from the cell. In this paper, the isolation, characterization and molecular cloning of suppressors of one such mutant (pDOC40) is reported. The suppressors, which were isolated by selection for vancomycin-resistant revertants, also restored resistance to several hydrophobic antibiotics although there were no detectable changes in lipopolysaccharides (LPS), phospholipids or outer membrane proteins. Three suppressor loci, provisionally designated sip, for suppression of increased permeability, were cloned in cosmids and mapped by a novel approach involving random sequencing of cloned DNA to identify flanking genes with known map positions. Our results indicate that the sipB locus is located in the 11 min region (485–510 kb) whereas sipC and sipD both map to 82 min (3850–3885 kb). Additionally, the previously sequenced nlpA gene was also mapped to the 82 min region. The cloned suppressor loci were specific for the permeability phenotype caused by the mutant R6-5 TraT protein and had no effect on the permeability phenotype caused by a related TraT mutant of S. typhimurium.     

MK801对大鼠肢体缺血/再灌注致脑组织发生细胞凋亡的影响

目的:探讨肢体缺血/再灌注(LI/R)后,脑组织损伤的发生及MK801的影响。方法:采用文献[4]方法复制大鼠肢体缺血再灌损伤模型,给予MK801处理,观察各组动物脑组织中丙二醛(MDA)含量的变化,TUNEL法检测细胞凋亡情况,免疫组化和Western印迹法检测凋亡相关因子Bcl-2、细胞色素C(cytoC)、Caspase-3表达的变化。结果:大鼠LI/R后,脑组织中MDA含量升高,中脑红核区有大量胞浆呈棕色的Bcl-2、cytoC、Caspase-3蛋白阳性细胞分布,且细胞凋亡明显增加。MK801干预组与LI/R组相比MDA含量显著下降,Bcl-2、cytoC、Caspase-3蛋白表达降低,差异显著,且细胞凋亡相应降低。结论:凋亡相关因素Bcl-2、cytoC、Caspase-3变化介导的细胞凋亡参与大鼠LI/R后所致脑损伤过程。减弱谷氨酸兴奋性毒性作用及氧自由基损伤、影响凋亡相关基因表达可能是MK801脑保护的机制之一。     

基于磁珠富集法开发并筛选西川红景天的微卫星标记

利用FIASCO磁珠富集法,开发和筛选青藏高原特有珍贵植物西川红景天(Rhodiola alsia)多态性微卫星标记。结果表明:用(AG)15和(AC)15两种微卫星标记探针构建富集文库,共获得阳性克隆约2500个;从中随机挑取1200检测,发现具有多态性的阳性克隆达400个;随机挑取200多态性的阳性克隆进行测序,从中获得105个SSR位点,用在线软件primer3-2.3.4成功设计得SSR引物105对;其中45对可以成功扩增,而13对所扩增的片段在相距较远的4个自然居群的24个个体中显示较高的遗传多态性。用4个居群的80个个体检测这13对引物发现,平均等位基因数(A)约为9.192,观测杂合度(Ho)和期望杂合度(He)均值分别约为0.712和0.734,如此高的多态性已经满足后期研究的需要;数个位点在某些居群中显著偏离哈迪温伯格平衡(P0.01),这可能是实际研究的居群并不能达到哈迪—温伯格定律所假设的无限大等理想状态所致。结合此前基于表达序列标签(Expressed Sequence Tag,EST)序列开发的SSR多态性位点,该研究结果为今后利用SSR位点开展西川红景天的居群遗传结构分析和其他研究提供了一组有效工具。     

三个东方百合品种在滇中鳞茎繁育中的光合特性

对西伯利亚、索尔邦、蒂伯3个东方百合品种(Lilium“Oriental Hybrids”)鳞茎繁育过程中植株的气体交换、叶氮含量、叶绿素含量等进行了测定,试图了解东方百合在滇中低纬高原地区的生理生态适应性。3个品种中,蒂伯的光合能力最强,西伯利亚最弱,其光合速率与羧化效率、比叶重及叶氮含量相关,说明其光合能力主要受Rubisco的活性和/或数量影响。3个品种的光补偿点和光饱和点较低,且在高光下没有明显的光抑制现象,对光强表现出宽广的适应性。不同品种的光合最适温度不同,西伯利亚较高(25.5～34.9℃),适宜种植于较温暖的地区;索尔邦较低(19.3～25.6℃),适宜种植于冷凉地区;蒂伯对温度较不敏感,在滇中低纬高原的气候条件下有更广的种植区域。     

Identify submitochondria and subchloroplast locations with pseudo amino acid composition: Approach from the strategy of discrete wavelet transform feature extraction

It is very challenging and complicated to predict protein locations at the sub-subcellular level. The key to enhancing the prediction quality for protein sub-subcellular locations is to grasp the core features of a protein that can discriminate among proteins with different subcompartment locations. In this study, a different formulation of pseudoamino acid composition by the approach of discrete wavelet transform feature extraction was developed to predict submitochondria and subchloroplast locations. As a result of jackknife cross-validation, with our method, it can efficiently distinguish mitochondrial proteins from chloroplast proteins with total accuracy of 98.8% and obtained a promising total accuracy of 93.38% for predicting submitochondria locations. Especially the predictive accuracy for mitochondrial outer membrane and chloroplast thylakoid lumen were 82.93% and 82.22%, respectively, showing an improvement of 4.88% and 27.22% when other existing methods were compared. The results indicated that the proposed method might be employed as a useful assistant technique for identifying sub-subcellular locations. We have implemented our algorithm as an online service called SubIdent (http://bioinfo.ncu.edu.cn/services.aspx).     

温度对铁皮石斛生长及生理特性的影响

通过不同温度下的控制实验,研究了铁皮石斛光合作用与生长对温度的响应,以期为铁皮石斛的栽培提供理论依据。温度对铁皮石斛的光合速率（Pn）有明显影响,30℃处理的植株具有最高的饱和光合速率（Pmax）,其较高的光合速率与RuBP电子传递速率与羧化速率间相对平衡有关。温度对铁皮石斛茎的生长及多糖含量有明显影响,20℃处理的石斛多糖含量显著性的高于其他两个处理,而茎长、茎节数、茎鲜重等则是在30℃下最高。结果表明,30℃的温度对铁皮石斛的光合作用较为适宜,但在20℃条件下植株具有更高的多糖含量。