The Vascular System of Maize Stems Revisited: Implications for Water Transport and Xylem Safety

The plexus of vascular bundles in the nodes of grasses is notoriouslycomplex, where long axial bundles pass through a network oftransverse bundles. The xylem pathways for water in maize stemshave been investigated anatomically and with dye and particulatetracers, revealing some of the details of this complexity. Onlyapprox. 3% of axial vessels pass through nodes without beinginterrupted by end walls. Axial bundles at nodes differ fromthose in internodes in having the metaxylem and protoxylem vesselsconnected by small tracheary elements. So it is only at nodesthat exchange of sap occurs between the large vessels withina bundle. End walls, acting as filters for particles and gasbubbles, always separate axial vessels from vessels in transversebundles. The high redundancy of bundle connections in the nodalplexus is interpreted as providing alternative water pathwaysto bypass embolisms and damaged or diseased sections of thexylem. The pores in the filters at the base of nodes and betweenaxial and transverse vessels within nodes are <20 nm in diameter.Where axial vessels connect to transverse vessels, a varietyof unusual shapes of vessel elements mediate two- and three-wayconnections within the plexus.Copyright 2000 Annals of BotanyCompany Zea mays, cryoSEM, maize, node, pits, pit membranes, vessel ends, vessels, xylem embolism, xylem pathogens     

Evidence for a proteolytic modification of liver pyruvate kinase in fasted rats.

Liver pyruvate kinase was purified to homogeneity from rats fed a high carbohydrate, low protein diet (LPK-C) and from rats fasted for 84 h (LPK-F). Although the enzymes have similar electrophoretic mobilities in 7% polyacrylamide disc gels, the specific activity of LPK-C was two to three times the value of the specific activity of LPK-F. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of LPK-C yields a single protein band of 56,000 daltons. In contrast, LPK-F yields two bands of protein. Approximately one-third of the LPK-F has an electrophoretic mobility similar to the 56,000-dalton LPK-C peptide. The remaining two-thirds of the LPK-F protein migrates as a 51,000-dalton peptide. Cyanogen bromide was used to cleave LPK-C and LPK-F. Similar peptide patterns were obtained from LPK-C and LPK-F when the cyanogen bromide fragments were resolved by 12% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in 7.5 m urea containing 6 mm Triton X-100 and 5% acetic acid. Separation of the two peptides from LPK-F was accomplished by selective immunologie absorption of the 56,000-dalton peptide with anti-LPK-C gammaglobulin immobilized on Sepharose 4B. Tryptic digests of LPK-C, LPK-F and the 51,000-dalton peptide yield similar peptide patterns when analyzed via sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis. These results suggest that the 51,000-dalton peptide could be derived by a proteolytic cleavage or limited digestion of the 56,000-dalton subunit. Phosphorylation of LPK-C and LPK-F by [γ-³²P]ATP in vitro with cyclic AMP-activated protein kinase results in covalent incorporation of ${}^{32}$P into only the 56,000-dalton subunit. These results suggest that anin vivo proteolytic modification that yields the 51,000-dalton subunit.     

蚕豆叶片发育与衰老过程中超氧物歧化酶活性与丙二醛含量变化

蚕豆植株叶片随茎节自上而下表现出明显的发育与衰老顺序,可作为衰老特征的是叶绿素和蛋白质含量明显下降。蚕豆叶中SOD活性主要定位于12 000× g离心后所得的上清液和叶绿体组分。衰老叶片的SOD总活性和叶绿体组分的相对活性都有所下降,SOD同工酶谱也发生了改变。O_2~ 产生速率随叶龄增大而稍上升;而MDA含量在叶片外观表现枯黄衰老征兆前就急剧上升。可能因为衰老叶片过氧化氢酶活性大幅度下降与SOD之间的不平衡,致使O_2~ 代谢中间产物累积而引起膜的损伤.     

Contributions of the surface of the root tip to the growth of Zea roots in soil

The development of the epidermal layer of roots of Zea is traced from the quiescent centre to the zone where root hairs develop. In the zone of cell division a three layered coat forms on the outside of the epidermal cells consisting of the outer epidermal walls, overlaid by a two-layered pellicle composed of a thick fibrillar inner layer of polysaccharide, and a thin fibrillar outer layer of protein. The epidermal cells divide several times in the same longitudinal file but rarely across a radius to give a new longitudinal file. Thus, the radial walls become much thicker than all but the original transverse walls, and packets of up to 32 daughter cells derived from a single initial may be distinguished. The pellicle develops during these divisions as a continuum over the outer walls of the daughter cells. It is proposed that the pellicle provides a stiffening to the forward end of the root which permits it to penetrate soil without bending. Support for this hypothesis is shown by the Zea mays mutant Ageotropic in which the pellicle is absent, the epidermal surface is disorganized, and which grows crookedly through soil. In the zone of extension growth of normal roots of two Zea species the pellicle thins and disappears. Circumferential strips of the pellicle were peeled off the young epidermal cells and could be stretched to twice their length. This deformation is partly the result of the pellicle stretching and breaking above the attachments of the radial walls. After normal thinning of the pellicle, detachment of the radial walls at their outer ends produces a corrugated surface in the proximal zone of the root tips. In dicotyledons (e.g., soybean), there is no similar pellicle, but a stiff root tip is produced by a long multi-layered root cap, the proximal portion of which covers the elongating epidermal surface.     

Epinephrine-stimulated phosphorylation of pyruvate kinase in hepatocytes

Incubation of rat liver parenchymal cells with 10^?5m epinephrine or norepinephrine resulted in a rapid incorporation of ³²P into pyruvate kinase. Inclusion of α-adrenergic blocking agents (phenoxybenzamine or phentolamine) in the hepatocyte incubation medium prior to addition of epinephrine suppressed the subsequent phosphorylation of pyruvate kinase. On the other hand, inclusion of the β-adrenergic antagonist, propranolol, in the hepatocyte incubation medium prior to addition of epinephrine did not suppress the epinephrine-elicited phosphorylation of pyruvate kinase. Exogenous addition of either cyclic AMP or cyclic GMP to the hepatocyte incubation medium also resulted in increased phosphorylation of pyruvate kinase. To investigate whether the same amino acid residue(s) of liver pyruvate kinase was being phosphorylated in each instance, ³²P-labeled pyruvate kinase was isolated from hepatocytes after incubation in the presence or absence of either glucagon or epinephrine. In addition, purified liver pyruvate kinase was phosphorylated in vitro with a rat liver cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase. Each ³²P-labeled pyruvate kinase was then subjected to tryptic digestion, two-dimensional thin-layer peptide mapping, and autoradiography. Each ³²P-labeled pyruvate kinase sample yielded 44 to 48 tryptic peptides upon staining with ninhydrin and 4 peptides that contain ³²P as detected by autoradiography. Furthermore, the same 4 peptides of pyruvate kinase were radiolabeled in each instance. Thus phosphorylation of pyruvate kinase in vitro with [γ-³²P]ATP or upon addition of either glucagon or epinephrine to hepatocytes incubated with ³²P_i resulted in phosphorylation of the same amino acid residues.     

Biosynthesis of lysosomal hydrolases: their synthesis in bound polysomes and the role of co- and post-translational processing in determining their subcellular distribution

By in vitro translation of mRNA’s isolated from free and membrane-bound polysomes, direct evidence was obtained for the synthesis of two lysosomal hydrolases, β-glucuronidase of the rat preputial gland and cathespin D of mouse spleen, on polysomes bound to rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes. When the mRNA’s for these two proteins were translated in the presence of microsomal membranes, the in vitro synthesized polypeptides were cotranslationally glycosylated and transferred into the microsomal lumen. Polypeptides synthesized in the absence of microsomal membranes were approximately 2,000 daltons larger than the respective unglycosylated microsomal polypeptides found after short times of labeling in cultured rat liver cells treated with tunicamycin. This strongly suggests that nascent chains of the lysosomal enzymes bear transient amino terminal signals which determine synthesis on bound polysomes and are removed during the cotranslational insertion of the polypeptides into the ER membranes. In the line of cultured rat liver cells used for this work, newly synthesized lysosomal hydrolases showed a dual destination; approximately 60 percent of the microsomal polypeptides detected after short times of labeling were subsequently processed proteolytically to lower molecular weight forms characteristic of the mature enzymes. The remainder was secreted from the cells without further proteolytic processing. As previously observed by other investigations in cultured fibroblasts (A. Gonzalez-Noriega, J.H. Grubbs, V. Talkad, and W.S. Sly, 1980, J Cell Biol. 85: 839-852; A. Hasilik and E.F. Neufeld, 1980, J. Biol. Chem., 255:4937-4945.) the lysosomotropic amine chloroquine prevented the proteolytic maturation of newly synthesized hydrolases and enhanced their section. In addition, unglycosylated hydrolases synthesized in cells treated with tunicamycin were exclusively exported from the cells without undergoing proteolytic processing. These results support the notions that modified sugar residues serve as sorting out signals which address the hydrolases to their lysosomal destination and that final proteolytic cleavage of hydrolase precursors take place within lysosome itself. Structural differences in the carbohydrate chains of intracellular and secreted precursors of cathespin D were detected from their differential sensitivity to digestion with endoglycosidases H and D. These observations suggest that the hydrolases exported into the medium follow the normal secretory route and that some of their oligosaccharides are subject to modifications known to affect many secretory glycoproteins during their passage through the Golgi apparatus.     

Fucose in the surface deposits of axenic and field grown roots ofZea mays L.

Summary The location of materials containing terminal fucose residues on the surface of axenic and field grown roots of corn has been determined.Binding patterns of FITC-labelled,Lotus purpureus Moench lectin indicate the presence of the fucose residues in the cell walls and mucilage of the peripheral region of the root cap. During development, fucose residues also appear in the outer periclinal walls and overlying mucilage of columnar epidermal cells. Surface material rich in these residues persists between the mature root hairs but is not found on their surface. Fucose-rich mucilage is present on the exposed surface of aerial roots and at the point where they enter the soil. No lectin binding residues are indicated elsewhere in the roots.