桃小食心虫生物学的研究——果实对幼虫蛀果、成活、生长发育及滞育的影响

桃小食心虫(Carposina niponensis Wals)是我国苹果、梨上的重要害虫,初孵幼虫在果面爬行片刻,即蛀入果内。幼虫能否入果,除受捕食性天敌和风雨等外界条件影响之外,与果实表皮组织有关系,蛀入果内幼虫的成活数量和生长情况亦受果肉组织及果实内含物的直接影响。因此,研究食料条件与桃小食心虫发生数量的关系,对提高该虫现有     

中国的散白蚁属及新亚属新种

散白蚁(Reticulitermes)的名称,来源于浙江东阳一部分以防治白蚁为专业的农民,他们根据实践经验,积累了丰富的生态和防治知识,知道这类白蚁,缺乏大型巢窟,常集较小群体,散居于有树根和腐木的地下,一般危害房屋下部。在全世界来说,广布于温带及亚热带地区。本文对我国散白蚁属进行了系统的整理,把本属分设两个新亚属:额白蚁亚属(Frontotermes)和平额白蚁亚属(Planifrontotermes),前者分布偏于南方,后者偏于北方。记载4个新种,并分别订正长期存在着争论的4个老种。 散白蚁属与其近缘属——异白蚁属[Heterotermes Froggatt,1896(=Leucotermes Silvestri,1901)]极相似,但散白蚁属成虫有单眼,翅面脉网较显著,毛被稀少,兵蚁上唇舌形,有时尖锐,分布偏于北方。而异白蚁属成虫一般缺单眼,翅面脉网微弱,毛被较密而显著,兵蚁上唇尖锐,分布偏于热带,两者可以区别。     

斜纹夜蛾核多角体病毒病的研究

本文报道斜纹夜蛾核多角体病毒病的实验室和田间试验结果。 多角体形状不规则,直径平均1.9微米。病毒粒子杆状,单个或成束存在。单个粒子大小为335×90毫微米,病毒束的直径140毫微米。生物测定结果表明,幼虫死亡率依多角体浓度和虫龄而变化,在25℃条件下,3龄幼虫的致死中浓度为1×10^5.3多角体/毫升。龄期相同时,幼虫死亡速度依多角体浓度和环境温度而变化。多角体喷洒到植物叶面后,数日内可以损失大部分感染力,损失的速度与阳光照射的时间长短以及多角体浓度有关。感染力的损失主要是由于紫外光的灭菌作用。病毒与苏云金杆菌同时感染没有增效作用。斜纹夜蛾核多角体病毒对小地老虎、黄地老虎、粘虫和家蚕无感染力。田间初步试验表明,应用病毒防治斜纹夜蛾是可能的。     

Antifungal effect of CopA3 monomer peptide via membrane-active mechanism and stability to proteolysis of enantiomeric d-CopA3

In our previous study, coprisin, a 43-mer defensin-like peptide, was derived from the dung beetle, Copris tripartitus, and a 9-mer CopA3 (monomer), truncated coprisin analog peptide, was designed. However, the antifungal effects of CopA3 are not known yet. In this study, the antifungal activity and mechanism of CopA3 were investigated and to develop a more effective antimicrobial peptide under physiological conditions, the enantiomeric d-CopA3 was designed. l- and d-CopA3 had a similar antifungal activity without chiral selectivity, and their activity was more potent than that of melittin used as a positive control. Furthermore, l- and d-CopA3 did not even show any hemolysis against human erythrocytes. Membrane studies using propidium iodide and bis-(1,3-dibutylbarbituric acid) trimethine oxonol [DiBAC₄(3)], suggested that the antifungal effect of l- and d-CopA3 was due to the membrane-active mechanism, by contrast with coprisin possessing apoptotic mechanism without membrane permeabilization. Finally, the proteolytic resistance and antifungal activity of l- and d-CopA3 against trypsin was analyzed by HPLC and colony count assay. The results showed that only d-CopA3 maintained a potent antifungal activity despite the proteolytic condition. Therefore, this study suggests that d-CopA3 has potential as a novel antimicrobial agent.     

Arabidopsis ROP‐interactive CRIB motif‐containing protein 1 (RIC1) positively regulates auxin signalling and negatively regulates abscisic acid (ABA) signalling during root development

Auxin and abscisic acid (ABA) modulate numerous aspects of plant development together, mostly in opposite directions, suggesting that extensive crosstalk occurs between the signalling pathways of the two hormones. However, little is known about the nature of this crosstalk. We demonstrate that ROP‐interactive CRIB motif‐containing protein 1 (RIC1) is involved in the interaction between auxin‐ and ABA‐regulated root growth and lateral root formation. RIC1 expression is highly induced by both hormones, and expressed in the roots of young seedlings. Whereas auxin‐responsive gene induction and the effect of auxin on root growth and lateral root formation were suppressed in the ric1 knockout, ABA‐responsive gene induction and the effect of ABA on seed germination, root growth and lateral root formation were potentiated. Thus, RIC1 positively regulates auxin responses, but negatively regulates ABA responses. Together, our results suggest that RIC1 is a component of the intricate signalling network that underlies auxin and ABA crosstalk.     

Fine Structural Analysis of the Central Nervous System in the Spider, Achaearanea tepidariorum (Theridiidae: Araneae)

ABSTRACT Central nervous system (CNS) of arachnids is still mysterious and has a rich unexplored field compare to what is known in insects or crustaceans. The CNS of the spider, Achaearanea tepidariorum, consists of a dorsal brain or supraesophageal ganglion and circumesophageal connectives joining it to the subesophageal mass. As the segmentation of the arachnid brain is still under discussion, we classify the brain as a protocerebral and tritocerebral ganglion depending on the evidences which generally accepted. The subesophageal nerve mass underneath the brain is the foremost part of the ventral nerve cord. All of this nerve mass is totally fused together, and forming subesophageal ganglia in this spider. In the brain, the nerve cells are packed in the frontal, dorsal and lateral areas, but are not absent from the posterior and ventral regions. In addition, the nerve cells of the subesophageal and abdominal ganglia are only restricted to the ventral and ventolateral regions. The CNS of the spider, Achaearanea tepidariorum is similar in feature to the Family Araneidae.     

Microarray expression profiling of Spodoptera litura in response to oxidative stress

To examine the expression profile of oxidative stress responsive genes in Spodoptera litura, we constructed a cDNA library from S. litura injected with hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)). Using a microarray chip composed of 2,964 cDNAs, we screened gene expression at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 h post H(2)O(2) injection. Data were clustered into 15 groups of genes that behave similarly across each time course. Seventy-three genes were identified as being at least twofold up- or downregulated after treatment with H(2)O(2) in S. litura. We constructed expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for genes that changed at least twofold after treatment with H(2)O(2) . The functional classification of these ESTs based on Gene Ontology showed that the ESTs are rich in genes involved in oxidoreductase activity (5.7%), defense (14.3%), cellular process (22.9%), and development (17.1%).     

Identification of the unfolded protein response (UPR)-related genes from Bombyx mori cell lines by a subtractive hybridization approach

The baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS) is one of the powerful insect cell systems for heterologous protein expression. However, over-expression of heterologous proteins in this system sometimes results in protein misfolding and aggregation because of insufficient levels of folding catalysts. In previous study using the differential screening (DS) method, we isolated only 40 differentially expressed genes after treatment with tunicamycin, an unfolded protein response (UPR) inducer. To isolate more protein folding catalysts from insect, we performed suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) with untreated and tunicamycin-treated Bm5 cell lines in this study. We could isolate 366 differentially expressed clones by SSH method and produced expressed sequence tags (ESTs). ESTs included the UPR pathway-related genes involved in protein folding, including heat shock proteins, molecular chaperones, foldases, as well as glycosylation and secretory pathway related genes. Identification of the tunicamycin responsive genes using SSH provides more information about the UPR-related genes in insect cells, and will facilitate modifications of the protein folding pathway in the ER to improve heterologous protein expression.