稃的有无对大赖草种子扩散与萌发特性的影响

对大赖草[Leymus racemosus（Lam．）Tzvel．]带稃种子和去稃种子的扩散性、萌发率、活力及吸水性和失水性的差异进行了比较。结果表明：在静止空气中带稃种子的降落速度显著小于去稃种子,分别为3．96和4．81m·s-1;而在风速1和4m·s-1的水平气流中带稃种子的扩散距离（15．26和11．86cm）均显著大于去稃种子（27．80和21．60cm）。培养20d后,带稃种子和去稃种子的萌发率分别为99％和97％,差异不显著;在自然条件及60℃高温条件下,带稃种子和去稃种子的活力无显著差异。带稃种子的吸水饱和时间和吸水量均显著大于去稃种子,而其失水速率小于后者但二者差异不显著。研究结果显示：稃对大赖草种子萌发和活力均无显著影响,但可增加种子的风媒扩散能力、有效保持种子含水量并能降低种子失水速率,对大赖草适应干旱的沙漠环境具有重要作用。     

Characteristics of photosynthetic carbon metabolism of spikelets in rice

In lemmas and paleae of rice, the amount of pyruvate, Pi dikinase (PPDK) protein increased dramatically 6 d after anthesis and this change was consistent with that in the activity of PPDK. Since lemmas and paleae at this stage also showed high activities of the other marker enzymes of C4 pathway including phosphot enolpyruvate carboxylase (Imaizumi et al. (1990) Plant Cell Physiol 31: 835–843), photosynthetic carbon metabolism with lemmas at this stage were characterized. In a 14C pulse-12C chase study by photosynthetic CO2 fixation, about 35% and 25% of 14C fixed in lemmas were incorporated initially into 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PGA) and C4 acids, respectively. This suggests that lemmas participate mainly in C3-type photosynthetic metabolism, but that lemmas may also participate in the metabolism of C4 acids to some extent. To clarify this possibility, large amounts of 14C-labeled C4 acids were synthesized in vivo by a light-enhanced dark CO2 fixation (LED) method and the fate of 14C in C4 acids in the light was investigated. The percentage distribution of 14C in C-4 position of malate was about 90% and 83% after 10 s of photosynthetic 14CO2 fixation and 110 s of LED, respectively. Some of the 14C incorporated into C4 acids was transferred into 3-PGA and sugar phosphates. The possibility of direct fixation of CO2 by phosphot enolpyruvate carboxylase and metabolic pathway of CO2 released by decarboxylation of malate produced were discussed.     

中国看麦娘属植物颖片与外稃微形态研究

通过扫描电子显微镜对中国看麦娘属7种植物的颖片和外稃微形态进行观察,以明确颖片和外稃微形态特征的系统分类学意义。结果显示:(1)看麦娘属颖片的长细胞为长筒状,细胞壁多为波状弯曲;短细胞为近圆形或肾形;气孔器常见或缺如或稀少;冠细胞密布或者稀少;刺细胞常见或少见;硅细胞的形状多为椭圆形或者近圆形。颖片的不同主要体现在冠细胞和气孔器的有、无及刺细胞的分布。(2)看麦娘属外稃的长细胞长筒状或短筒状,细胞壁波状弯曲;短细胞椭圆形或近圆形或近长方形;气孔器常见或无;刺细胞均常见;硅细胞多椭圆形或近圆形或长方形;冠细胞偶见或密布。外稃的不同主要体现在短细胞和气孔器的分布或缺如及硅细胞的不同形状。(3)对看麦娘属的颖片和外稃微形态特征进行聚类分析,看麦娘属植物分成了2个分支,分支Ⅰ由看麦娘、长芒看麦娘和日本看麦娘组成,分支Ⅱ包括苇状看麦娘、大看麦娘、短穗看麦娘和大穗看麦娘;7种植物的颖片和外稃微形态分类检索表依次列出。研究表明,颖片和外稃微形态特征都可以作为看麦娘属植物种间的分类依据,除短穗看麦娘外,颖片和外稃聚类分析的结果与看麦娘属内划分的组一致,颖片和外稃微形态支持短穗看麦娘划入sect.Alopecurus。     

Crinkly4 receptor-like kinase is required to maintain the interlocking of the palea and lemma, and fertility in rice, by promoting epidermal cell differentiation

The palea and lemma are unique organs in grass plants that form a protective barrier around the floral organs and developing kernel. The interlocking of the palea and lemma is critical for maintaining fertility and seed yield in rice; however, the molecules that control the interlocking structure remain largely unknown. Here, we showed that when OsCR4 mRNA expression was knocked down in rice by RNA interference, the palea and lemma separated at later spikelet stages and gradually turned brown after heading, resulting in the severe interruption of pistil pollination and damage to the development of embryo and endosperm, with defects in aleurone. The irregular architecture of the palea and lemma was caused by tumour-like cell growth in the outer epidermis and wart-like cell masses in the inner epidermis. These abnormal cells showed discontinuous cuticles and uneven cell walls, leading to organ self-fusion that distorted the interlocking structures. Additionally, the faster leakage of chlorophyll, reduced silica content and elevated accumulation of anthocyanin in the palea and lemma indicated a lesion in the protective barrier, which also impaired seed quality. OsCR4 is an active receptor-like kinase associated with the membrane fraction. An analysis of promoter::GUS reporter plants showed that OsCR4 is specifically expressed in the epidermal cells of paleas and lemmas. Together, these results suggest that OsCR4 plays an essential role in maintaining the interlocking of the palea and lemma by promoting epidermal cell differentiation.     

Coalescent approximation for structured populations in a stationary random environment

We establish convergence to the Kingman coalescent for the genealogy of a geographically-or otherwise-structured version of the Wright-Fisher population model with fast migration. The new feature is that migration probabilities may change in a random fashion. This brings a novel formula for the coalescent effective population size (EPS). We call it a quenched EPS to emphasize the key feature of our model — random environment. The quenched EPS is compared with an annealed (mean-field) EPS which describes the case of constant migration probabilities obtained by averaging the random migration probabilities over possible environments.     

Effect of Heat Stress During Grain Filling on Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase and Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase Activities of Various Green Organs in Winter Wheat

In two winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars differing in their response to high temperature, JD8 (tolerant) and J411 (sensitive) we studied the effect of heat stress on the activities of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBPC) in green organs during grain-filling. There were significantly higher PEPC activities and lower RuBPC activities in each of the non-leaf organs (awn, glume, lemma, peduncle, and sheath) than in the flag leaf blade. Under heat stress for 12 d, the activity of RuBPC quickly declined and the activity of PEPC first increased and later declined in all organs, resulting in a great increase of the PEPC/RuBPC ratios in the organs, particularly in non-leaf organs which had a higher PEPC/RuBPC than the flag leaf blade in all times. The PEPC activity and PEPC/RuBPC ratio in every organ of JD8 were higher than those in the same organ of J411. Thus the differences in PEPC activities and PEPC/RuBPC may be associated with the differences in photosynthetic heat tolerance among the organs of the same plant or between the two cultivars.     

Dynamics of an HIV-1 therapy model of fighting a virus with another virus

In this paper, we rigorously analyse an ordinary differential equation system that models fighting the HIV-1 virus with a genetically modified virus. We show that when the basic reproduction ratio ?₀<1, then the infection-free equilibrium E ₀ is globally asymptotically stable; when ?₀>1, E ₀ loses its stability and there is the single-infection equilibrium E _s. If ?₀∈(1, 1+δ) where δ is a positive constant explicitly depending on system parameters, then the single-infection equilibrium E _s that is globally asymptotically stable, while when ?₀>1+δ, E _s becomes unstable and the double-infection equilibrium E _d comes into existence. When ?₀ is slightly larger than 1+δ, E _d is stable and it loses its stability via Hopf bifurcation when ?₀ is further increased in some ways. Through a numerical example and by applying a normal form theory, we demonstrate how to determine the bifurcation direction and stability, as well as the estimates of the amplitudes and the periods of the bifurcated periodic solutions. We also perform numerical simulations which agree with the theoretical results. The approaches we use here are a combination of analysis of characteristic equations, fluctuation lemma, Lyapunov function and normal form theory.     

菰属系统与演化研究——孕花外稃表皮微形态

应用扫描电子显微镜对禾本科菰属及其有关9属14种3变种1变型的孕花外稃顶端及其芒基部的表皮微形态进行观察比较研究。研究结果基本符合E.E.Terrell与W.P.Wergin的研究报道,但我们不仅种类收集齐全而且增加研究了与菰属有关的属种,及菰属下的一些变种及混淆种,更有利于探讨菰属的系统位置及其演化关系。菰属以其稻型的双胞微毛与硅质体应隶属于稻族。又根据它们所具硅质体形状及硅质乳突的数量,除揭示它为单性花一支与稻属、假稻属、水禾属等两性花一支在稻族中存在平行演化现象外,也揭示了在菰属中共有4种、2亚种,其中以菰最为原始。     

Effect of Husk morphology on grain development and topography in rice

Kernels grown within loosened glumes in three varieties of paddy were darker in color and had a smoother surface than those grown under normal conditions. The thickness of the pericarp plus seed coat layers was 33.6 ±2.8 µm, and the thickness of the aleurone layers was 21.7 ± 2.5 µm in grains of the first type, while in the normal grains, these dimensions were 13.0 ± 1.4 and 26.9 ± 2.9 µm respectively. The kernels which developed within loosened glumes tended to taper towards the distal end. They were lighter in weight than normal grains by 32 to 67 percent, the weight loss being less in the bolder variety. The lemma-palea interlocking depth was positively correlated with the groove depth on the kernel and with the clearance between husk and kernel. All three parameters showed a positive correlation with grain breadth. A low lemma-palea interlocking depth and a smaller clearance between husk and kernel are technologically desirable characteristics in rice. The reclasping of the two glume components after pollination was essential for the normal development of the rice grain.