人类驱动结合蛋白及其与某些疾病的相关性

驱动结合蛋白（Kinectin）是真核细胞内生物进化上的保守蛋白质,已发现的功能有（1）与驱动蛋白（Kinesin）相连参与细胞胞吐、胞质运输和有丝分裂等活动;（2）是RhoG蛋白依赖微管的细胞内活动的效应物;（3）是整合素依赖的黏附分子复合体的重要组分;（4）转录延长因子-I通过与驱动结合蛋白结合锚着于内质网,发挥相应的生物学作用。随着研究的深入,发现人类驱动结合蛋白与某些疾病如甲状腺癌、白塞病、再生障碍性贫血、肝细胞癌有一定的相关性。     

烟粉虱内共生菌 Rickettsia 在植物体内的分布及转移效率初探

【目的】检测 Q 型烟粉虱 Bemisia tabaci （Gennadius）体内 Rickettsia 的感染情况,研究分析Rickettsia 共生菌经烟粉虱传入豇豆植物后的分布、转移效率等。【方法】以 Q 型烟粉虱为实验材料,利用常规 PCR 及荧光原位杂交技术(FISH),检测了烟粉虱体内 Rickettsia 的感染率,以及 Rickettsia 传入豇豆植物体内后的存留情况。【结果】 Q 型烟粉虱可以通过取食将 Rickettsia 传至豇豆植株内;接虫数量与 Rickettsia传入效率及其在取食部位相邻的下部叶片中检测到的起始时间呈负相关;Rickettsia 经烟粉虱取食传入豇豆叶片后,集中分布在叶片的韧皮部筛管中;基于16S rRNA 的系统发育分析结果表明,Q 型烟粉虱体内的Rickettsia 与经取食传入豇豆叶片的 Rickettsia 高度同源。【结论】 Rickettsia 可以通过烟粉虱的取食传入植物体内,并且可以在相邻叶片之间转移传播,Rickettsia 在由寄主昆虫向植株传播过程中高度保守。     

调控铝诱导根尖有机酸分泌的分子机制

铝诱导根尖有机酸分泌是大多数植物最主要的耐铝机制。本文主要综述了有机酸分泌过程中所涉及的包括有机酸转运蛋白、转运蛋白基因上游序列调节因子、基因拷贝数、转录因子、蛋白可逆磷酸化、有机酸合成与能量代谢等调控进程方面的研究进展,并对未来的研究前景进行了展望。     

Inactivation of Wolbachia Reveals Its Biological Roles in Whitefly Host

Background

The whitefly Bemisia tabaci is cryptic species complex composed of numerous species. Individual species from the complex harbor a diversity of bacterial endosymbionts including Wolbachia. However, while Wolbachia is known to have a number of different roles, its role in B. tabaci is unclear. Here, the antibiotic rifampicin is used to selectively eliminate Wolbachia from B. tabaci so as to enable its roles in whitefly development and reproduction to be explored. The indirect effects of Wolbachia elimination on the biology of Encarsia bimaculata, a dominant parasitoid of B. tabaci in South China, were also investigated.

Methodology/Principal Finding

qRT-PCR and FISH were used to show that after 48 h exposure to 1.0 mg/ml rifampicin, Wolbachia was completely inactivated from B. tabaci Mediterranean (MED) without any significant impact on either the primary symbiont, Portiera aleyrodidarum or any of the other secondary endosymbionts present. For B. tabaci MED, Wolbachia was shown to be associated with decreased juvenile development time, increased likelihood that nymphs completed development, increased adult life span and increased percentage of female progeny. Inactivation was associated with a significant decrease in the body size of the 4^th instar which leads us to speculate as to whether Wolbachia may have a nutrient supplementation role. The reduction in nymph body size has consequences for its parasitoid, E. bimaculata. The elimination of Wolbachia lead to a marked increase in the proportion of parasitoid eggs that completed their development, but the reduced size of the whitefly host was also associated with a significant reduction in the size of the emerging parasitoid adult and this was in turn associated with a marked reduction in adult parasitoid longevity.

Conclusions/Significance

Wolbachia increases the fitness of the whitefly host and provides some protection against parasitization. These observations add to our understanding of the roles played by bacterial endosymbionts.     

Iron Deficiency-induced Increase of Root Branching Contributes to the Enhanced Root Ferric Chelate Reductase Activity

In various plant species, Fe deficiency increases lateral root branching. However, whether this morphological alteration contributes to the Fe deficiency-induced physiological responses still remains to be demonstrated. In the present research, we demonstrated that the lateral root development of red clover (Trifolium pretense L.) was significantly enhanced by Fe deficient treatment, and the total lateral root number correlated well with the Fe deficiency-induced ferric chelate reductase (FCR) activity. By analyzing the results from Dasgan et al. (2002), we also found that although the two tomato genotypes line227/1 (P1) and Roza (P2) and their reciprocal F1 hybrid lines ("P1 × P2" and "P2 × P1 ") were cultured under two different lower Fe conditions (10-6 and 10-7 M FeEDDHA), their FCR activities are significantly correlated with the lateral root number. More interestingly, the -Fe chlorosis tolerant ability of these four tomato lines displays similar trends with the lateral root density. Taking these results together, it was proposed that the Fe deficiency-induced increases of the lateral root should play an important role in resistance to Fe deficiency, which may act as harnesses of a useful trait for the selection and breeding of more Fe-efficiant crops among the genotypes that have evolved a Fe deficiency-induced Fe uptake system.     

Protecting Cell Walls from Binding Aluminum by Organic Acids Contributes to Aluminum Resistance

Aluminum-induced secretion of organic acids from the root apex has been demonstrated to be one major AI resistance mechanism in plants. However, whether the organic acid concentration is high enough to detoxify AI in the growth medium is frequently questioned. The genotypes of Al-resistant wheat, Cassia tora L. and buckwheat secrete malate, citrate and oxalate, respectively. In the present study we found that at a 35% inhibition of root elongation, the AI activities in the solution were 10, 20, and 50 μM with the corresponding malate, citrate, and oxalate exudation at the rates of 15, 20 and 21 nmol/cm2 per 12 h, respectively, for the above three plant species. When exogenous organic acids were added to ameliorate Al toxicity, twofold and eightfold higher oxalate and malate concentrations were required to produce the equal effect by citrate. After the root apical cell walls were isolated and preincubated in 1 mM malate, oxalate or citrate solution overnight, the total amount of AI adsorbed to the cell walls all decreased significantly to a similar level, implying that these organic acids own an equal ability to protect the cell walls from binding AI. These findings suggest that protection of cell walls from binding Al by organic acids may contribute significantly to AI resistance.     

Protein Changes in Response to Pyrene Stress in Maize （Zea mays L.） Leaves

Phytoremedlation is a relatively new approach to remove polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons （PAHs） from the environment. When plants are grown under pyrene treatment, they respond by synthesizing a set of protective proteins. To learn more about protein changes in response to pyrene treatment, we extracted total proteins from the leaves of maize （Zea mays L.） 1 week after pyrene treatment. The proteins extracted were separated with twodimensional gel electrophoresis. In total, approximately 54 protein spots were found by comparing gels from treated and control groups. According to the Isoelectric point, molecular weight, and abundance of these protein spots, 20 pyrene-lnduced proteins were found to have changed abundance. Of these, 15 protein spots were Increased and five protein spots were newly appeared in pyrene-treated plant leaves. Six model upregulated protein spots of different molecular weights were excised from the gels and subjected to trypsin digestion followed by peptide separation using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Peptlde masses were used to search the matrix-science database for protein Identification. Two of the proteins were Identified on the basis of the homology of their peptide profiles with existing protein sequences as pyruvate orthophosphate diklnase and the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunlt. These proteins are Involved in the regulation of carbohydrate and energy metabolism. The present study gives new Insights into the pyrene stress response In maize leaves and demonstrates the power of the proteomlc approach in phytoremedlation of PAHs.     

Root and shoot jasmonic acid induced plants differently affect the performance of Bemisia tabaci and its parasitoid Encarsia formosa

Plants employ both direct and indirect defenses to protect themselves from attacks by herbivores and pathogens. To date most aboveground and belowground interaction studies have focused on interactions between plants and leaf-chewing herbivores, while the plant defence on the performance of phloem-feeding insects, induced by above- and belowground interaction, has been less explored. Here, jasmonic acid (JA) was used to mimic herbivore-induced responses in Chinese broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra) roots (RJA) and shoots (SJA). The effects of JA-induced plant defenses on the performance of the phloem-feeding whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, and its aphelinid parasitoid Encarsia formosa were investigated. The results indicated that SJA induction has a much larger negative effect on B. tabaci than RJA: nymphs develop slower and have a lower survivorship. Also, females live shorter and have a lower fecundity on SJA plants compared to those on RJA and untreated control (CON) plants. The intrinsic rate of increase (r_m) of B. tabaci on SJA plants was 0.089, which was significantly lower than those on CON and RJA plants (0.115 and 0.104, respectively). The parasitoid E. formosa, on the other hand, shows a significantly faster development when parasitizing whitefly hosts feeding on SJA plants, whereas parasitism rate, longevity and fecundity were similar to those on RJA and CON plants. The current study reveals that plants induced with exogenous JA vary in both their resistance to whitefly and suitability for parasitoids, depending on the organ to which the JA was applied. Root and shoot JA applications also have contrasting effects on the phloem-feeding insect B. tabaci and its parasitoid, that is, SJA induction leads to more negative effects on whitefly performance than RJA induction, but its parasitoid performs better on hosts reared on SJA plants. These results show that top-down and bottom-up processes governing herbivore populations on Chinese broccoli are working in concert to increase plant resistance when plants are induced by SJA application.