丹参谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶的生物信息学分析

谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶(glutathione peroxidase, GPX)是动植物体内一种重要的抗氧化酶,它能够清除机体逆境胁迫而产生的过氧化氢和脂质过氧化物,使机体进行正常生长发育,因此解析丹参GPX的氨基酸序列,并与其它植物进行比较,为丹参GPX基因的后续研究提供重要参考。采用生物信息学的方法,在丹参基因组库中找到8个GPX基因,并对其进行生物信息学分析。8个GPX基因有不同的等电点和相对分子量,而二级结构存在相似特征;序列比对与系统发生分析表明,8个基因都具有3个保守结构域以及3个保守的催化残基;除Sm GPX4、At GPX4和Zm GPX02,Sm GPX8与At GPX8处于系统进化树的同一分支外,其它基因与玉米和拟南芥GPX基因的亲缘关系较远;Sm GPX1-2、Sm GPX6-1、Sm GPX6-2、Sm GPX8主要在叶片中表达,而Sm GPX1-1主要在花中表达,具有组织特异性。本研究为进一步了解丹参谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶的基本功能奠定了基础,为开展植物抵御氧化胁迫研究提供了理论依据。     

Autotetraploid plants from colchicine-treated bud culture ofSalvia miltiorrhiza Bge

The root ofSalvia miltiorrhiza is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant used as an important drug to cure cardiovascular diseases. Research on the technology of induction, identification and chemical analysis of polypoid plants is reported. The obtained results indicated that basal MS media plus 10 ppm colchicine can induce polyploid mutants effectively. Tetraploid plants were transferred to the fields so that comparative experiment for further identification, observation and screening of 15 agronomic characteristics could be made. The major chemical compounds, tanshinones, in two tetraploid plants were higher than that in the control. An excellent plant 61-2-22 may develop into a new variety for large scale production.     

Conserved Region Amplification Polymorphism (CoRAP), a Novel Marker Technique for Plant Genotyping in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Salvia miltiorrhiza</Emphasis>

Salvia miltiorrhiza (SM), a widely popular Chinese herb, is grown in various regions in China. Identifying SMs grown in different provinces of China is difficult, and therefore genotyping these collections would be highly valuable. Based on the techniques of sequence-related amplified polymorphism and target region amplified polymorphism, a novel PCR-based molecular marker technique called conserved region amplification polymorphism (CoRAP) is reported in this study to genotype SMs. The CoRAP technique is based on the use of two primers: fixed and arbitrary primers. The former is derived from target EST sequences deposited in Genbank; while, the core sequence (CACGC) of the latter is a conserved region found in most introns. In the present study, we utilized CoRAP to genotype SMs from different geographical origins. PCR amplification is performed for 30 cycles at an annealing temperature of 52°C. Each PCR reaction has generated as many as 30–50 fragments of 50 to 1,000 bp in size. The successful DNA genotyping of SMs by CoRAP was achieved. This new genotyping method is rapid, efficient, and reproducible.     

Plant extract contact toxicities to various developmental stages of Colorado potato beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

The contact toxicities of methanol extracts from the nine plant species Hedera helix, Artemisia vulgaris, Xanthium strumarium, Humulus lupulus, Sambucus nigra, Chenopodium album, Salvia officinalis, Lolium temulentum and Verbascum songaricum were tested on the developmental stages of Colorado potato beetle (CPB) (Leptinotarsa decemlineata). About 2 mL of plant extract, 40% (w/w), was applied to the first instar to fourth instar larvae and adult beetles using a Potter spray tower. Most of the tested plant extracts caused relatively low mortality in all the beetle instars. Among the plant extracts, H. lupulus extract was the most toxic to all stages of the insect, except for the adult beetles. Larval mortality ranged from 40% in the fourth instars to 84% in the third instars. In a second series of experiments, dose–response bioassays using H. lupulus extract produced lethal concentration 50 (LC₅₀) values ranging from 10%, 12%, 17% to 46% (w/w) active ingredient (plant material) for instars 1–4, respectively. This increasing mortality trend, however, did not extend to the adult stage where even the maximum dose of 40% plant material did not provide sufficient mortality to allow estimation of a LC₅₀. These results demonstrated that the extract from H. lupulus has potential as an active ingredient in biological pesticides developed to manage larval instars of the CPB. The potential uses of this plant extract may be in conventional and organic pest management or as part of a mixture of plant extracts or conventional insecticides. Before extracts can be considered as biological control agents, their impact on natural enemies should be assessed.     

刺山柑70 kD热休克蛋白基因克隆及原核表达

以干旱区特有的抗逆性植物刺山柑为材料,利用RT-PCR结合cDNA末端快速扩增(rapid amplification of cDNA ends,RACE)方法,克隆了一个HSP70基因,将该基因进行原核表达,通过对大肠杆菌进行温度胁迫实验,并计算存活率来验证该基因对细胞的保护作用.结果表明:该基因全长2 202 bp,开放阅读框共1 950 bp,编码649个氨基酸,表达产物分子量为71.044 6 kD;序列分析表明,该基因属于HSP70基因家族,将该基因命名为CsHSP70,并提交到GenBank,登录号为EU574936.构建了CsHSP70基因的原核表达载体,并使重组质粒pGEX-4T-2-CsHSP70在大肠杆菌中异源表达,对大肠杆菌进行温度胁迫实验结果显示,在高温(50℃)和低温(4℃)条件下,转重组质粒的大肠杆菌在两种胁迫下存活率均高于对照,说明在温度胁迫下CsHSP70对大肠杆菌细胞具有保护作用.     

Different techniques reveal the difference of community structure and function of fungi from root and rhizosphere of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge

• Fungi have essential functions in plant health and performance. However, the plant-associated functions of many cultured fungi have not been established in detail.
• Here, the fungal species diversity in Salvia miltiorrhiza roots and rhizosphere was assessed for the first time using culturomics and high-throughput sequencing. We present a comprehensive functional metagenomic analysis of these fungi and verified activity of cellulase and chitinase predicted in the metagenomic analysis.
• We first collected and cultured fungi from the root and rhizosphere of S. miltiorrhiza. We found 92 species across 37 families and five phyla, with Ascomycota being dominant. Many rDNA internal transcribed spacer sequences could not be assigned to lower taxonomic levels. There were 19 genera of endophytic fungi and 37 genera of rhizosphere fungi. The culturomics approach had lower taxonomic diversity than high-throughput sequencing, but some fungi were only found in cultures. Structural analyses indicated that the dominant species differed in cultured and non-cultured samples at other levels, apart from the phylum level. Functional analysis mapped 223 carbohydrate enzyme families and 393 pathways in the CAZy and KEGG databases, respectively. The most abundant families were glycoside hydrolases and those involved in carbohydrate metabolism. As predicted by metagenomics, we experimentally verified cellulase and chitinase activity for 29 and 74 fungi, respectively.
• We provide the first evidence of biomass recycling by fungi that are associated with plants. Culturing is essential to reveal the hidden microbial community and critical functions in plant–microbe interactions.

     

Wind pollination in high-mountain populations of Hormathophylla spinosa (Cruciferae)

In this paper we study aspects of the breeding system of Hormathophylla spinosa (Crucifcrae) to identify the factors responsible for seed production in the absence of insect pollinators. The pollinator-exclusion experiments show that H. spinosa, under natural conditions, does not produce seed by apomixis or spontaneous autogamy. H. spinosa appears to be self-incompatible but slightly geitonogamous. Thus, this plant species needs pollen vectors for reproduction. The results of the wind-exclusion experiments performed during two different years in two populations of H. spinosa support the hypothesis that the wind acts as a pollen vector; flowers excluded from the wind had a lower fruit set and female fertility than flowers excluded from all pollinator insects (winged and wingless). This generalist pollination system (insects and wind) permits this species to colonize and sustain viable populations in high mountains, where this species is the only woody shrub living above 3000 m above sea level in the Sierra Nevada.     

Kinetics of cell growth and secondary metabolism of a high-tanshinone-producing line of the Ti transformed Salvia miltiorrhiza cells in suspension culture

When cultivated in 6,7-V medium in suspension culture, Salvia miltiorrhiza, transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58, grew rapidly, reaching about 9.7 g l^–1 dry wt after 12 days. The cell line produced tanshinones: 150 mg cryptotanshinone, 20 mg tanshinone I and 50 mg tanshinone IIA/l and phenolic acids: 530 mg rosmarinic acid and 216 mg lithospermic acid B/l. The phenolic acids were intracellular while about 1/3 of the tanshinones were extracellular. This is the first report of simultaneous production of both phenolic acids and tanshinones in a single culture system.     

Production of lithospermic acid B and rosmarinic acid in hairy root cultures of Salvia miltiorrhiza

Hairy root cultures of Salvia miltiorrhiza were established by infecting sterile plantlets with Agrobacterium rhizogenes ATCC 15834, and the transformation was proved by direct detection of the inserted T-DNA by the polymerase chain reaction. As determined by HPLC, these hairy root cultures had the ability to produce lithospermic acid B (LAB), rosmarinic acid (RA) and other related phenolic compounds, the water-soluble active components of the plant. The effect of five different basal media, MS, MS-NH<INF>4</INF> (MS without ammonium nitrate), B5, WPM and 6,7-V on the root growth and phenolic compound production was studied. It was found that MS-NH<INF>4</INF> and 6,7-V media were superior to MS, B5 and WPM media in terms of both root growth and phenolic compound production. The time course of biomass accumulation and phenolic compound formation was also examined in the culture using MS-NH<INF>4</INF>medium. During cultivation, the content of RA in the roots was stable being approximately 0.48% of dry weight while the content of LAB fluctuated between 0.73% and 1.61% of dry weight, and decreased gradually at the stationary phase of growth. The highest production of LAB and RA was about 64 mg L⁻¹ and 23 mg L⁻¹, respectively. Received 05 November 1998/ Accepted in revised form 06 February 1999     

Honeybees are poor pollinators — why?

Contrary to most other bee species honeybees are highly eusocial and hold extremely long-lived societies. Their all-season activities force them to use whatever plants available and prevent any specific adaptations — in the flowers, in honeybees, and in all competing bees. This flexible behaviour in flowers has been a precondition for perennial colony life. But as bees evade becoming contaminated by pollen their visits often do not result in pollination. Honeybee monocultures thus must be avoided by all means.