In silico Analysis of Sequential,Structural and Functional Diversity of Wheat Cystatins and Its Implication in Plant Defense

Phytocystatins constitute a multigene family that regulates the activity of endogenous and/or exogenous cysteine proteinases.Cereal crops like wheat are continuously threatened by a multitude of pathogens,therefore cystatins offer to play a pivotal role in deciding the plant response.In order to study the need of having diverse specificities and activities of various cystatins,we conducted comparative analysis of six wheat cystatins(WCs) with twelve rice,seven barley,one sorghum and ten corn cystatin sequences employing different bioinformatics tools.The obtained results identified highly conserved signature sequences in all the cystatins considered.Several other motifs were also identified,based on which the sequences could be categorized into groups in congruence with the phylogenetic clustering.Homology modeling of WCs revealed 3D structural topology so well shared by other cystatins.Protein-protein interaction of WCs with papain supported the notion that functional diversity is a consequence of existing differences in amino acid residues in highly conserved as well as relatively less conserved motifs.Thus there is a significant conservation at the sequential and structural levels;however,concomitant variations maintain the functional diversity in this protein family,which constantly modulates itself to reciprocate the diversity while counteracting the cysteine proteinases.     

Identification and characterization of an epididymis-specific gene,Ces7

Carboxylesterases （CEs） represent a multigene family of serine-dependent enzymes. Male-dependent CEs are over-expressed in the male reproductive tract of different animal species （bivalve mollusks, fruit-flies, and mammals）. Here, a novel rat epididymis-specific gene named Ces7 was cloned and characterized. It was a novel member of CE family, which was mainly expressed and secreted to the lumens of the corpus and cauda epididymis. CES7 protein was highly glycosylated as other mammalian CEs. Furthermore, Ces7 increased with age growth until sex maturation and then maintained at high level. CES7 might be one of the major CEs in male reproductive tract and contribute to the sperm fertilization.     

利用RNAi技术抑制拟南芥NHX1基因家族的表达

采用RNAi抑制NHX1基因家族的表达,并观察其对拟南芥耐盐性和耐旱性的影响.根据从拟南芥(Ara-bidopsis thaliana)cDNA中扩增出编码Na /H 反向转运蛋白基因AtNHX1长度为210 bp高度保守序列作为RNAi的靶标区,并正反2个方向插入载体pHANNIBAL中,2个片段用intron连接;将RNAi表达框连入具有NPTⅡ筛选标记基因的表达载体pART27中,构建以拟南芥NHX1基因家族为靶标的RNAi载体.采用农杆菌介导的真空渗透法转化拟南芥,得到T0代转基因拟南芥种子.对转基因阳性植株进行RT-PCR检测以及耐盐性和耐旱性分析.结果表明,利用本实验构建的NHX1基因家族RNAi载体,拟南芥NHX1基因家族表达被成功地抑制;耐盐和耐旱分析表明RNAi技术对基因表达沉默是有效的.     

白芷全基因组测序分析及BGLU基因家族分析

白芷为常用的药食同源物种,既是临床常用中药,又是香料,用途十分广泛。为获取白芷全基因组序列信息,该研究首次以杭白芷叶片DNA为材料,采用Nanopore测序技术构建杭白芷全基因组数据库,并利用生物信息学方法对获得的核苷酸序列进行组装、功能注释以及进化分析研究。结果表明：(1)原始测序数据过滤后获得662 Gb三代数据,Read N50约为32 932 bp,经过组装得到杭白芷基因组大小为5.6 Gb, Contig N50约为806 638 bp。(2)组装后的序列通过与KOG、GO、KEGG等功能数据库比对,得到了功能注释的基因占66.47%,KOG功能注释结果表明杭白芷的蛋白功能主要集中在一般功能预测、翻译后修饰、蛋白质转换、伴侣以及信号转导机制;GO功能分类表明杭白芷的基因集中在生物学过程及细胞组分;KEGG通路注释表明参与代谢途径的基因占主要地位。(3)杭白芷中鉴定到45个BGLU家族基因。该研究首次利用第三代测序技术对杭白芷全基因组进行解析,为杭白芷的系统生物学研究和BGLU在杭白芷生长发育中的后续功能研究提供了重要的理论参考。