Cucumber Mosaic Virus Movement Protein Severs Actin Filaments to Increase the Plasmodesmal Size Exclusion Limit in Tobacco

Plant viral movement proteins (MPs) enable viruses to pass through cell walls by increasing the size exclusion limit (SEL) of plasmodesmata (PD). Here, we report that the ability of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) MP to increase the SEL of the PD could be inhibited by treatment with the actin filament (F-actin)–stabilizing agent phalloidin but not by treatment with the F-actin–destabilizing agent latrunculin A. In vitro studies showed that CMV MP bound globular and F-actin, inhibited actin polymerization, severed F-actin, and participated in plus end capping of F-actin. Analyses of two CMV MP mutants, one with and one without F-actin severing activities, demonstrated that the F-actin severing ability was required to increase the PD SEL. Furthermore, the Tobacco mosaic virus MP also exhibited F-actin severing activity, and its ability to increase the PD SEL was inhibited by treatment with phalloidin. Our data provide evidence to support the hypothesis that F-actin severing is required for MP-induced increase in the SEL of PD. This may have broad implications in the study of the mechanisms of actin dynamics that regulate cell-to-cell transport of viral and endogenous proteins.     

The dynamic changes of tonoplasts in guard cells are important for stomatal movement in Vicia faba

Stomatal movement is important for plants to exchange gas with environment. The regulation of stomatal movement allows optimizing photosynthesis and transpiration. Changes in vacuolar volume in guard cells are known to participate in this regulation. However, little has been known about the mechanism underlying the regulation of rapid changes in guard cell vacuolar volume. Here, we report that dynamic changes in the complex vacuolar membrane system play a role in the rapid changes of vacuolar volume in Vicia faba guard cells. The guard cells contained a great number of small vacuoles and various vacuolar membrane structures when stomata closed. The small vacuoles and complex membrane systems fused with each other or with the bigger vacuoles to generate large vacuoles during stomatal opening. Conversely, the large vacuoles split into smaller vacuoles and generated many complex membrane structures in the closing stomata. Vacuole fusion inhibitor, (2s,3s)-trans-epoxy-succinyl-l-leucylamido-3-methylbutane ethyl ester, inhibited stomatal opening significantly. Furthermore, an Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutation of the SGR3 gene, which has a defect in vacuolar fusion, also led to retardation of stomatal opening. All these results suggest that the dynamic changes of the tonoplast are essential for enhancing stomatal movement.     

Effect of Extracellular Calmodulin on the Cytosolic Ca2+ Concentration in Lily Pollen Grains

Using Lilium davidii Duchartre pollen as material, the calcium ion-fluorescence indicator fluo-3AM was loaded successfully into the pollen grains by low temperature loading method. Laser confocal scanning microscopy was used to study the effect of extracellular calmodulin on intracellular calcium. It is found that the purified exogenous calmodulin could elevate the intracellular calcium ion concentration, and the effect was correlated with the concentration of exogenous calmodulin to a certain extent. Cell membrane nonpermeable inhibitor of calmodulin, W 7-agarose, and the anti-serum of calmodulin could decrease the cytosolic calcium level. The results show that the endogenous extracellular calmodulin may play an important role in maintaining and increasing the cytosolic calcium level in pollen grain cell.     

拟南芥PKA催化亚基基因的克隆、原核表达及其催化活性的鉴定

蛋白质的磷酸化与脱磷酸化是生物体内存在的一种普遍的调节方式,几乎参与所有的生命活动过程.利用Blast 2.0分析拟南芥基因组序列发现存在一个与动物蛋白激酶cDNA同源性的序列,在GenBank中比较发现它与动物的依赖cAMP的蛋白激酶(PKA)的催化亚基(C亚基)有相似的特征序列.提取拟南芥(Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh.)的总RNA,通过RT-PCR克隆得到这一cDNA片段,经序列测定证实它具有完整的阅读框架,将其克隆至pET30a原核表达载体,结果表明在大肠杆菌(E. coli) BL21 (DE3)中该表达质粒在IPTG诱导下表达产生大量带寡聚组氨酸标记的重组蛋白, 该蛋白在37 ℃表达时主要以包含体形式存在, 而在22 ℃表达时主要以可溶性蛋白形式存在.经过与组氨酸结合金属螯合树脂亲和柱层析纯化后, 得到纯化的目的蛋白, 其纯度达到87%以上.活性鉴定表明其具有依赖于cAMP的蛋白激酶活性,而加入PKA的抑制剂(H-8)后,其活性显著下降.从而证实它确实是拟南芥的PKA催化亚基.Western blot结果显示它几乎不受ABA、NaCl等逆境的诱导.     

低温处理对冬、春小麦细胞Ca^2＋时空变化的影响

用Fluo-3/AM染色,通过激光扫描共聚焦显微镜（LSCM）方法,对静息态及连续降温条件下不同抗寒性小麦（Triticum aestivum L.）叶肉细胞原生质体[Ca^2 ]cyt（the free Ca^2 concentration in the cytoplasm）的时空变化进行了比较。结果表明,静息态下小麦原生质体整体荧光强度基本不变,暗示[Ca^2 ]cyt能维持在一稳定水平;同时,不同品种小麦间也显示了[Ca^2 ]cyt水平荧光强度的不同。温度由15℃连续降至约2℃时,抗寒冬小麦[Ca^2 ]cyt出现升高后的回复,2℃之后逐渐升高;冷敏感春小麦则无此回复过程,而是一直升高到最大值。推测这一不同的动态变化最终决定了植物在低温下产生冷适应的不同能力。这进一步为“Ca^2 是低温下生理信号的传导”这一假说提供了新的证据。     

The Existence of Expansin and Its Properties in the Hypocotyls of Soybean Seedlings

Expansins, a newly discovered class of cell wall proteins, were the only proteins that, to date, have been shown to have the ability to restore the "acid growth" response of the heat-inactivated cell wall in an in vitro assay. In order to characterize these proteins, an automatic extensometer had been previously constructed by modification of an equal-arm mechanical balance with a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) and with some easily available laboratory equipment. The objective of this study was to confirm and complement the work on expansin in cucumber ( Cucumis sativus L. ) seedlings carried out in the expansin-discoverers' laboratory and in addition, to further examination of the extensometer built in the authors' laboratory. It was reported that, firstly, expansin activity was maximal in cell wall from the growing region of soybean (Glycine max L. ) hypocotyls but was negligible or lacking in that from mature, basal regions and cotyledons. Corre- spondingly, walls from the growing tissue had a strong susceptibility to the action of expansin, whereas the nongrowing tissues became insensitive to the expansin action. It was concluded that the growth of soybean hypocotyl was associated with an increase in both expansin activity and wall susceptibility to the expansin action. Secondly, the heat-inactivated wall extension could be induced by cross reconstitution with crude expansin extract between soybean and cucumber species. Thirdly, once the heat-inactivated wall has been pretreated with the exogenous expansin, the reconstituted wall required no further expansin for extension indicating that exogenous expansin could specifically bind to cell wall and be enough to repeatedly exert its action without releasing from the cell wall into the external solution, i.e., a single expansin molecule could gradually break a series of load-bearing bonds one by one while moving along the cell wall, and thereby permitting the wall to extend. Fourthly, reconstitution of the wall extension activity was evidently dependent on the expansin concentration and the pH of the bathing solution, which was consistent with the catalytic characteristics of classical enzymes. Finally, endogenous and reconstituted wall extension could be significantly induced in 50 mmoL/L sodium acetate at pH 4.5 and completely inhibited in 50 mmol/L Hepes at pH 6.8, especially these phenomena could continuously be caused by switching incubation buffer from one to the other alternately, suggesting that change in pH of bathing solution could only affect the conformation of expansin (thus leading to denaturation or renaturation of it) but not the affinity of it for cell wall. In summary, these observations lend further support to the fact that expansin could mediate the acid-induced extension of the isolated wall, probably through a biochemical or enzymatic process exerting directly to the cell wall. This protein may play an essential role in the control of plant cell growth in vivo.     

微管骨架的动态特性及其调控

微管骨架是细胞骨架系统的主要组成成员,大多数微管的一个显著特征便是具有能够不断解聚、聚合的动态特性,这是微管骨架完成诸多生理功能的重要保证。本文着重介绍了有关微管的动态模型及其体内、体外组装的不同特点,并进一步探讨了生物体在各层次、各水平上对细胞内微管行为的调控。     

The Construction of γ-TIP Prokaryotic Expression Vector and Preparation of the γ- TIP Antibody

A prokaryotic expression vector, pGEX-TIP, was constructed from Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. Employing PCR, 205 bp fragment near 3' end of γ-TIP cDNA, which has specific aquaporin activity, was amplified and cloned into pGEX-KG. Restriction endonuclease analysis and sequencing confirmed the correct construction, and 0.4 mmoL/L IPTC can induce high expression of GST-TIP fused protein which was about 50% in total of E. coli proteins. The IPTG induced E. coli was collected and ]ysed by supersonic treatment. The fusion protein was mainly recovered as an inclusion body. The expressed GST-TIP was purified by SDS-PAGE according to their molecular weight, which was about 32 kD. The purified protein was used to immune rabbits directly or was electrophoretically eluted before it was used for immunization. The highly qualified antibody for GST-TIP was obtained, which provides a very useful protein probe for the research on localization and function of aquaporins.