Suppression of Calcium Transport to Shoots by Root Restriction in Tomato Plants

Restriction of tomato roots by growth in small containers stronglysuppressed transport of ⁴⁵Ca²⁺ ions to new leaves and apices.Water transport, expressed on a leaf area basis, was marginallyreduced by root restriction, an indication that calcium transportwas more severely limited than water transport. (Received October 11, 1996; Accepted January 27, 1997)     

EMF genes regulate Arabidopsis inflorescence development.

Mutations in EMBRYONIC FLOWER (EMF) genes EMF1 and EMF2 abolish rosette development, and the mutants produce either a much reduced inflorescence or a transformed flower. These mutant characteristics suggest a repressive effect of EMF activities on reproductive development. To investigate the role of EMF genes in regulating reproductive development, we studied the relationship between EMF genes and the genes regulating inflorescence and flower development. We found that APETALA1 and AGAMOUS promoters were activated in germinating emf seedlings, suggesting that these genes may normally be suppressed in wild-type seedlings in which EMF activities are high. The phenotype of double mutants combining emf1-2 and apetala1, apetala2, leafy1, apetala1 cauliflower, and terminal flower1 showed that emf1-2 is epistatic in all cases, suggesting that EMF genes act downstream from these genes in mediating the inflorescence-to-flower transition. Constitutive expression of LEAFY in weak emf1, but not emf2, mutants increased the severity of the emf phenotype, indicating an inhibition of EMF activity by LEAFY, as was deduced from double mutant analysis. These results suggest that a mechanism involving a reciprocal negative regulation between the EMF genes and the floral genes regulates Arabidopsis inflorescence development.     

Biosorption of Cr, Cu and Al bySargassum biomass

The biosorption and desorption of Cr, Cu and Al were carried out using brown marine algaeSargassum fluitans biomass, known as the good biosorbent of heavy metals. The content of alginate bound to light metals could be changed by physical and chemical pretreatment. The maximum uptake of Cr, Cu and Al was independent of the alginate content. The maximum uptake of Al was two times(mole basis) than those of Cu and Cr. The aluminum-alginate complex was found in the sorption solution of raw and protonated biomass. Most of Cu, Al and light metals sorbed in the biomass were eluted at pH 1.1. However, only 5 to 10% of Cr sorbed was eluted at pH 1.1. The stoichometric ion exchange between Cu and Ca ion was observed on Cu biosorption with Ca-loaded biomass. A part of Cr ion was bound to biomass as Cr(OH)₂ ⁺ or Cr(OH)²⁺. Al was also bound to biomass as multi-valence ion and interfered with the desorbed Ca ion. The behavior of rawS. fluitans in ten consecutive sorption-desorption cycles has been investigated in a packed bed flow-through-column during a continuous removal of copper from a 35 mg/L aqueous solution at pH 5. The eluant used was a 1%(w/v) CaCl/HCl solution at pH3.     

Allelopathic suppression of wheat and mustard byRumex dentatus ssp.klotzschianus

Laboratory studies were conducted to see the allelopathic suppression of wheat and mustard byRumex dentatus ssp.klotzschianus (Meissn) Rech. It was observed that aqueous extracts, rain leachates and litter from dried and fresh shoot and roots invariably inhibited the germination and seedling growth of both the crop species. Soil collected from beneathRumex dentatus also proved harmful for the germination and seedling growth. It is suggested thatRumex dentatus ssp.klotzschianus exhibits allelopathy against wheat and mustard.     

Cloning of an aminoalcoholphosphotransferase cDNA from chinese cabbage roots

Aminoalcoholphosphotransferase is the enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine from diacylglycerol using CDP-aminoalcohol such as CDP-choline and CDP-ethanolamine. To determine its cDNA structure from roots of Chinese cabbage,Brassica campestris L. ssp.pekinensis, degenerate primers were designed from the regions showing high amino acid homology between yeastCPT1 and soybeanAAPT1 and used for PCR amplification of Chinese cabbage DNA. Chinese cabbage aminoalcoholphosphotransferase cDNA (AAPT) contains an open reading frame of 1,167 bp coding for a protein of 389 amino acids. It shared 81% identity and 94% similarity with soybeanAAPT1 at the predicted amino acid level. Hydropathy profile analysis suggested that the predicted protein structure of Chinese cabbage aminoalcoholphosphotransferase was very similar to the soybean enzyme, showing an overall hydrophobicity and having the same number of predicted transmembrane domains. Southern analysis indicated that there might be close isoforms of the enzyme.AAPT was expressed equally well in young shoots and roots.     

Solution structure of p21(Waf1/Cip1/Sdi1) C-terminal domain bound to Cdk4.

Cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) inhibitor p21(Waf1/Cip1/Sdi1), a multifunctional protein, has a major role as tumor suppressor, mediating G1/S arrest through inhibition of Cdks. Recent biological studies of Cyclin D1/Cdk4 have proposed that p21 C-terminal domain (p21(CT)) plays a key role as a potent Cdk4 inhibitor. We report here solution structures of p21(CT) for both the free and Cdk4-bound forms using 2D transferred NOE spectroscopy and dynamical simulated annealing calculations. Even though p21(CT) peptide is very flexible in the free state, when it bound to Cdk4, the structure becomes well structured in the binding domain. Therefore we propose that p21(CT) experiences an extensive conformational change upon Cdk4 binding. This structural change of p21(CT) may suggest the molecular mechanism of p21 for specificity and inhibition mode to assemble different cyclin-Cdk complexes. Especially, our data suggests that the D(149)FYHSKRR(156) region of p21 is critical for Cdk4 binding, indicating that the major driving force for complex originates from hydrophobic interaction between p21 and Cdk4.     

CERAMIUM INKYUII SP. NOV. (CERAMIACEAE,RHODOPHYTA) FROM KOREA: A NEW SPECIES BASED ON MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR EVIDENCE1

Ceramium inkyuii sp. nov. is newly described based on samples collected from the east coast of Korea and compared with similar species such as C. paniculatum and C. tenerrimum. The new species is characterized by pseudo‐dichotomously branched thalli with a twist in the upper part, a single row of spines on the abaxial side, strongly inrolled apices, and the presence of gland cells. In contrast, C. paniculatum has alternate branches and lacks gland cells, and C. tenerrimum is spineless and also lacks gland cells. Ceramium inkyuii was observed to be an annual species producing tetrasporangia in the spring to summer and cystocarps in the fall. Plastid‐encoded rbcL and nuclear small subunit (SSU) rDNA sequences were determined in four samples of C. inkyuii from different locations and six samples of four putative relatives. All four C. inkyuii replicates from three different locations had identical sequences of each gene, and the interspecific sequence divergences were enough to warrant its natural entity. The phylogenies of the rbcL and SSU rDNA sequences also indicate the monophyly of C. inkyuii. The spinous C. inkyuii was more closely related to the spineless C. tenerrimum than to the spinous C. paniculatum.     

Peroxynitrite activates NF-E2-related factor 2/antioxidant response element through the pathway of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase: the role of nitric oxide synthase in rat glutathione S-transferase A2 induction.

The protective adaptive response to electrophiles and reactive oxygen species is mediated by the induction of phase II detoxifying genes through antioxidant response elements (AREs). Our previous study showed that sulfur amino acid deprivation (SAAD) produces peroxides and induces rat glutathione S-transferase A2 (rGSTA2) through NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/ARE activation via the pathway of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase). The current study was designed to investigate the role of peroxynitrite in Nrf2/ARE activation and rGSTA2 induction. L-Arginine deficiency or N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) reduced peroxide production induced by SAAD in H4IIE cells. Northern and Western blot analyses revealed that the levels of rGSTA2 mRNA and protein were significantly increased 24h after incubation of the cells in SAAD medium, which was inhibited by L-arginine deficiency or L-NAME. Subcellular fractionation and gel shift analyses revealed that SAAD increased the level of nuclear Nrf2 and activated ARE, which were also blocked by L-arginine deficiency or L-NAME. Whereas the exogenous NO donor S-nitroso-N-acetyl-penicillamine (SNAP) alone failed to significantly induce rGSTA2, SNAP enhanced SAAD-inducible rGSTA2 expression, verifying the notion that peroxynitrite derived from NO contributes to rGSTA2 induction. 3-Morpholinosydnonimine (SIN-1), which decomposes and yields peroxynitrite, increased the rGSTA2 mRNA and protein levels in a dose-dependent manner. SIN-1 increased the level of nuclear Nrf2 and activated Nrf2/ARE, which was supershifted by anti-Nrf2 and anti-Maf antibodies. SIN-1 increased the activity of PI3-kinase, as monitored by phosphorylation of Akt. SIN-1-inducible rGSTA2 expression was inhibited by PI3-kinase inhibitors. These results provide evidence that peroxynitrite plays an essential role in nuclear translocation of Nrf2 and ARE activation through the pathway of PI3-kinase and that nitric oxide synthase is involved in the induction of rGSTA2.     

RIBRA--an error-tolerant algorithm for the NMR backbone assignment problem.

We develop an iterative relaxation algorithm called RIBRA for NMR protein backbone assignment. RIBRA applies nearest neighbor and weighted maximum independent set algorithms to solve the problem. To deal with noisy NMR spectral data, RIBRA is executed in an iterative fashion based on the quality of spectral peaks. We first produce spin system pairs using the spectral data without missing peaks, then the data group with one missing peak, and finally, the data group with two missing peaks. We test RIBRA on two real NMR datasets, hbSBD and hbLBD, and perfect BMRB data (with 902 proteins) and four synthetic BMRB data which simulate four kinds of errors. The accuracy of RIBRA on hbSBD and hbLBD are 91.4% and 83.6%, respectively. The average accuracy of RIBRA on perfect BMRB datasets is 98.28%, and 98.28%, 95.61%, 98.16%, and 96.28% on four kinds of synthetic datasets, respectively.