Rust secreted protein Ps87 is conserved in diverse fungal pathogens and contains a RXLR-like motif sufficient for translocation into plant cells

Background

Effector proteins of biotrophic plant pathogenic fungi and oomycetes are delivered into host cells and play important roles in both disease development and disease resistance response. How obligate fungal pathogen effectors enter host cells is poorly understood. The Ps87 gene of Puccinia striiformis encodes a protein that is conserved in diverse fungal pathogens. Ps87 homologs from a clade containing rust fungi are predicted to be secreted. The aim of this study is to test whether Ps87 may act as an effector during Puccinia striiformis infection.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Yeast signal sequence trap assay showed that the rust protein Ps87 could be secreted from yeast cells, but a homolog from Magnaporthe oryzae that was not predicted to be secreted, could not. Cell re-entry and protein uptake assays showed that a region of Ps87 containing a conserved RXLR-like motif [K/R]RLTG was confirmed to be capable of delivering oomycete effector Avr1b into soybean leaf cells and carrying GFP into soybean root cells. Mutations in the Ps87 motif (KRLTG) abolished the protein translocation ability.

Conclusions/Significance

The results suggest that Ps87 and its secreted homologs could utilize similar protein translocation machinery as those of oomycete and other fungal pathogens. Ps87 did not show direct suppression activity on plant defense responses. These results suggest Ps87 may represent an “emerging effector” that has recently acquired the ability to enter plant cells but has not yet acquired the ability to alter host physiology.     

Le 斑马鱼nanos1基因在配子发生中的原位杂交研究

利用组织原位杂交技术,以地高辛标记的反义RNA为探针,检测了斑马鱼(Danio rerio) nanos1基因在卵子发生及精子发生中的表达分布特点,初步探讨了该基因在斑马鱼配子发生中可能的功能。结果表明：在斑马鱼卵子发生中,nanos1 mRNA均匀分布于卵原细胞和各时期卵母细胞的胞质中;在卵原细胞和Ⅰ、Ⅱ期卵母细胞中,nanos1 mRNA的杂交信号十分强烈,而较晚期卵母细胞中信号明显减弱。在斑马鱼精子发生中, nanos1 mRNA可在精原细胞和初级精母细胞中检测到。nanos1 mRNA的阳性信号在精原细胞中极为强烈,在初级精母细胞中较为微弱,而精子细胞中没有阳性信号。本研究结果初步表明,斑马鱼nanos1基因对生殖干细胞-卵原细胞和精原细胞的维持和正常功能可能起着重要作用。     

紫雪花的组织培养与快速繁殖

1植物名称紫雪花(Plumbago indica). 2材料类别叶片. 3培养条件(1)愈伤组织诱导培养基:MS 6-BA1 mg·L-1(单位下同) IBA 1;(2)增殖培养基:MS 6-BA3 IBA 0.1;(3)生根培养基:改良的White(1/2硝酸钙) IBA 0.1.以上培养基均加入30 g·L-1蔗糖和6 g·L-1琼脂,pH 5.8～6.0.培养温度26～28℃,环境湿度70%～80%,光照度1 200～1 500 lx,光照时间8 h·d-1.     

抗冻蛋白结构与抗冻机制

抗冻蛋白(amifreeze proteins,AFPs)是20世纪60年代从极地鱼血淋巴中分离的一种大分子抗冻剂,迄今为止科学工作者已从陆地昆虫、植物、细菌和真菌等各类生物中分离到多种抗冻蛋白,并测得了它们的基因序列及一些晶体结构,近些年的工作主要集中在该类蛋白质抗冻机制的研究上。抗冻蛋白具有广泛的应用前景,它不但可以应用于食物的冷鲜贮存及移植器官的低温保存,还可通过转基因提高经济作物的抗冻能力。     

Substance P stimulates the recovery of bone marrow after the irradiation

The therapeutic use of ionizing radiation (e.g., X-rays and γ-rays) needs to inflict minimal damage on non-target tissue. Recent studies have shown that substance P (SP) mediates multiple activities in various cell types, including cell proliferation, anti-apoptotic responses, and inflammatory processes. The present study investigated the effects of SP on γ-irradiated bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs). In mouse bone marrow extracts, SP prolonged activation of Erk1/2 and enhanced Bcl-2 expression, but attenuated the activation of apoptotic molecules (e.g., p38 and cleaved caspase-3) and down-regulated Bax. We also observed that SP-decreased apoptotic cell death and stimulated cell proliferation in γ-irradiated mouse bone marrow tissues through TUNEL assay and PCNA analysis. To determine how SP affects bone marrow stem cell populations, mouse bone marrow cells were isolated and colony-forming unit (CFU) of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) was estimated. SP-pretreated ones showed higher CFUs of MSC and HSC than untreated ones. Furthermore, when SP was pretreated in cultured human MSC, it significantly decreased apoptotic cells at 48 and 72 h after γ-irradiation. Compared with untreated cells, SP-treated human MSCs showed reduced cleavage of apoptotic molecules such as caspase-8, -9, -3, and poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP). Thus, our results suggest that SP alleviates γ-radiation-induced damage to mouse BMSCs and human MSCs via regulation of the apoptotic pathway.     

Prediction of N-myristoylation modification of proteins by SVM

Attachment of a myristoyl group to NH(2)-terminus of a nascent protein among protein post-translational modification (PTM) is called myristoylation. The myristate moiety of proteins plays an important role for their biological functions, such as regulation of membrane binding (HIV-1 Gag) and enzyme activity (AMPK). Several predictors based on protein sequences alone are hitherto proposed. However, they produce a great number of false positive and false negative predictions; or they cannot be used for general purpose (i.e., taxon-specific); or threshold values of the decision rule of predictors need to be selected with cautiousness. Here, we present novel and taxon-free predictors based on protein primary structure. To identify myristoylated proteins accurately, we employ a widely used machinelearning algorithm, support vector machine (SVM). A series of SVM predictors are developed in the present study where various scales representing physicochemical and biological properties of amino acids (from the AAindex database) are used for numerical transformation of protein sequences. Of the predictors, the top ten achieve accuracies of >98% (the average value is 98.34%), and also the area under the ROC curve (AUC) values of >0.98. Compared with those of previous studies, the prediction accuracies are improved by about 3 to 4%.     

额济纳绿洲胡杨林更新及群落生物多样性动态

研究额济纳绿洲胡杨群落演替中的生物多样性指数与胡杨林年龄、密度、地下水埋深、地表土壤含水量的相互关系,及胡杨更新中的根蘖株数、实生株数与胡杨林年龄、密度相互关系。结果表明:胡杨种群在更新过程中根蘖株数与胡杨年龄、密度相关显著,根蘖性随胡杨年龄增长而加强,随密度增大而减弱,实生株的分布与胡杨年龄相关显著,而与密度、遮萌度相关不显著,实生苗只出现在中龄林中,而在老龄胡杨林和幼龄胡杨林中均无胡杨实生苗;胡杨群落演替过程中生物多样性与群落的土壤含水量、地下水埋深和林冠遮萌度相关不显著,而与胡杨的年龄、密度相关显著,胡杨群落在演替过程中生物多样性和均匀度增高,个体数量却减少,胡杨在种群发育过程不仅表现出自疏现象,并在群落演替过程中表现明显的排斥异种现象。一个观点:逆境生存的建群植物种个体繁殖的最大收益性导致群落演替出现间断现象。由于极端环境胁迫下,胡杨在繁殖对策选择上,在胡杨林内胡杨种群更新选择以无性繁殖为主,而在胡杨林外的其它生境中胡杨种群更新以有性繁殖为主。针对上述观点,胡杨保护和更新在不同的生境中以不同的更新方式进行。