Sexual differentiation of the adolescent rodent brain: Hormonal influences and developmental mechanisms

This article is part of a Special Issue “Puberty and Adolescence”.     

Establishment of Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated genetic transformation in Dunaliella bardawil

Dunaliella bardawil, a unicellular microalga, grows in relatively high concentrations of salt and has so far been refractory to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. An inverse relationship between salt concentration and hygromycin resistance was observed. Co-cultivation at 0.2?M NaCl allowed growth of both D. bardawil and A. tumefaciens. Lowering salt concentrations also enabled the use of lower concentrations of hygromycin, the selection agent. Cells resistant to 100?mg?l^?1 hygromycin were selected and growth of Agrobacterium was completely eliminated in these cells using cefotaxime/potassium clavulanate. The concentration of sodium chloride was gradually increased to 1.0?M with simultaneous reduction of hygromycin concentration for better growth of D. bardawil. Agrobacterium was unable to survive in the growth medium used for Dunaliella. Expression of β-glucuronidase (uidA), green fluorescent protein (GFP) and hygromycin phosphotransferase (hpt) in the hygromycin-resistant culture was detected using X-gluc as substrate and Western blotting using GFP antibodies and RT-PCR respectively. Cells growing in 1.0?M NaCl (in the absence of hygromycin) retained their ability to grow in hygromycin even after 18 months of cultivation. These cells expressed GFP and PCR for hpt gene was positive. The stability of the integrated transgene and resistance to hygromycin in three different transformation events were ascertained periodically. Southern blotting of DNA extracted from hygromycin resistant cells (HRC) that were 15–18 months old established the presence of the integrated transgene in the DNA of D. bardawil. Results of the present study substantiate A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation of the unicellular marine alga D. bardawil. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transgene integration along with the massive outdoor cultivation methods used for D. bardawil may allow the commercial synthesis of secondary metabolites and heterologous proteins.     

Band 3 tyr-phosphorylation in normal and glucose-6-phospate dehydrogenase-deficient human erythrocytes

Artificial transformation of Escherichia coli with plasmid DNA in presence of CaCl₂ is a widely used technique in recombinant DNA technology. However, exact mechanism of DNA transfer across cell membranes is largely obscure. In this study, measurements of both steady state and time-resolved anisotropies of fluorescent dye trimethyl ammonium diphenyl hexatriene (TMA-DPH), bound to cellular outer membrane, indicated heat-pulse (0°C→42°C) step of the standard transformation procedure had lowered considerably outer membrane fluidity of cells. The decrease in fluidity was caused by release of lipids from cell surface to extra-cellular medium. A subsequent cold-shock (42°C→0°C) to the cells raised the fluidity further to its original value and this was caused by release of membrane proteins to extra-cellular medium. When the cycle of heat-pulse and cold-shock steps was repeated, more release of lipids and proteins respectively had taken place, which ultimately enhanced transformation efficiency gradually up to third cycle. Study of competent cell surface by atomic force microscope showed release of lipids had formed pores on cell surface. Moreover, the heat-pulse step almost depolarized cellular inner membrane. In this communication, we propose heat-pulse step had two important roles on DNA entry: (a) Release of lipids and consequent formation of pores on cell surface, which helped DNA to cross outer membrane barrier, and (b) lowering of membrane potential, which facilitated DNA to cross inner membrane of E. coli.     

蓖麻毒蛋白A链基因RNAi转化研究

通过基因沉默技术调控蓖麻毒蛋白A链基因的表达,以期获得低毒蓖麻新材料.利用基因克隆技术获得蓖麻毒蛋白A链基因762 bp片段,命名为RTA基因.进一步利用该基因构建了植物RNAi表达载体pBI-RTA-S-AS,通过农杆菌介导法转化蓖麻子叶节,用卡那抗性筛选转化再生植株,PCR进一步鉴定转基因植株.结果表明:克隆得到目的基因长762 bp,与预期结果一致;卡那抗性筛选和PCR鉴定结果显示,获得了3株转基因阳性植株.     

Role of mitochondrial quality control in exercise-induced health adaptation

Long-term endurance training or physical activity has been confirmed not only to improve physical performance, but to bring about an obvious beneficial effect on human health; however, the mechanism of this effect is not clear. The most studied health adaptations in skeletal muscle response to endurance exercise are increased muscle glycogen level and insulin sensitivity, fiber type transformation toward oxi- dative myofibers, and increased mitochondrial content/function. Mitochondria are dynamic organelles in eukaryotic cells critical in physical performance and disease occurrence. The mitochondrial life cycle spans biogenesis, maintenance, and clearance. Exercise training may promote each of these processes and confer positive impacts on skeletal muscle contractile and metabolic functions. This review focused on the regula- tion of these processes by endurance exercise and discussed its potential benefits in health and disease. We presented evidence suggesting that exercise training potentiates not only the biogenesis of mitochondria but also the removal of old and unhealthy mitochondria through mitochondrial quality control.     

Studies on the Flavor of Green Tea

With an assumption that the laver-like odor of green tea is due to dimethyl sulfide, an attempt to isolate dimethyl sulfide from commercial green tea was made, and the identification of dimethyl sulfide was successful by making the co-ordinated compound with mercuric chloride, 2 (CH₃) ₂S·3HgCl₂. In addition, the presence of methylmethionine sulfonium salt in tea extract as a precursor of dimethyl sulfide was examined.     

Chemical and Physicochemical Properties of Phytase from Aspergillus terreus

Some chemical and physicochemical properties of the purified phytase preparation produced by Asp. terreus were investigated. From the results of the examination of amino acid analysis, it was suggested that there existed some components other than amino acids in the purified enzyme. Examination of the neutral sugar analysis, therefore, was made by gaschromatography, and it was found that the purified enzyme preparation contained mannose, galactose and a small amount of inositol.

The molecular weight of the enzyme was found to be 214,000 by the Archibald method, and 2.2~2.3×10⁵ by gel-filtration on a Sephadex G–200 column. It was found that by guanidine hydrochloride or by urea, the purified enzyme preparation was dissociated into only one kind of subunit. The native enzyme was supposed to be a homohexamer of the subunits whose molecular weight is 37,000.     

Development of a Gene Transfer System for the Mycelia of Flammulina velutipes Fv-1 Strain

To develop a gene transformation method for Flammulina velutipes, we constructed a vector with hph gene under control of the trp1 gene promoter. The vector was integrated into protoplast derived from mycelia by the calcium-polyethylene glycol method, as it has not been reported for F. velutipes. Transformation efficiency was much improved when transformation was performed by the restriction enzyme mediated integration method.     

An Acid- and Heat-stable β-Fructofuranosidase from Corticium rolfsii

We reported previously that an ndhB gene disruptant, ΔndhB, had the same phenotype as wild-type tobacco plants under normal growth conditions. Two other groups have reported conflicting phenotypes with each other for ndhCKJ operon disruptants. Here, we generated two transformants in which the ndhCKJ operon was disrupted, and found that new transformants had the same phenotype as ΔndhB. After illumination with visible light, all ndh disruptants had higher levels of steady-state fluorescence than wild-type controls when measured under weak light, suggesting that reduction of the plastoquinone pool in ndh disruptants was greater than that in wild-type controls. The weak light itself could not reduce the plastoquinone much, so the reduction in the plastoquinone in the mutant was due to electron donation from stromal reductants generated during illumination with the strong light. These results supported the hypothesis that NAD(P)H dehydrogenase prevents overreduction in chloroplasts and suggested that chlororespiratory oxidase did not function under low light or in the dark.