Study on the Homologous Sequences of copia-like Retrotransposons in a Twin ovary Mutant of Rice

A twin ovary mutant derived from the doubled haploid (DH) progeny of a cross,02428/Gui 630, was presumably related to the transposition of some transposable elements. Up to date, all reported the active transposable elements in rice (Oryza sativa L.) are copia like retrotransposons. In the present study, the reverse transcriptase domains of copia like retrotransposons were amplified from the total DNA isolated from the mutant plants with the degenerated oligonucleotide primers for the domain. Three cloned insert DNAs, R33 1, R33 4 and R33 8, representing putative different copia like retrotransposons were screened out. Two of them displayed high polymorphism between “Zhaiyeqing 8” and “Jingxi 17”. Nine of the polymorphic bands were mapped on seven rice chromosomes. Sequencing analysis revealed that stop codons frequently occur in the sequence of R33 8, while both R33 1 and R33 4 contain a continuous coding region for 81 putative amino acid residues. No significant variation in hybridization patterns was found between indica and japonica rice or among 26 varieties of indica rice when R33 1 was used as a probe. Nevertheless, when R33 4 was used as a probe, high polymorphisms were detected both between indica and japonica rice and among 26 indica varieties, implying that this element might still be active in rice genomes.

Research Advance on Molecular Mechanism of Abiotic and Biotic Stress Resistance in Sweet Potato

Sweet potato（Ipomoea batatas） is not only an important food crop, but also an important economic crop and energy crop. In recent years, as the develop- ment of molecular biology techniques, more and more abiotic and biotic stress-related genes were discovered in sweet potato. These genes can be divided into two categories： the regulatory genes and the functional genes, according to their different roles in stress pathways. This paper reviews the abiotic and biotic stress-related genes cloning, functional analysis and exogenous genes application in sweet potato, and makes expectation for stress resistance research of sweet potato in the future.

Screening an Na^+/H^+ Antiporter Gene from the Halophiles Colonizing in the Dagong Ancient Brine Well of Zigong City,China

[Objective] This study aimed to screen an Na＋/H＋ antiporter gene from the halophiles colonizing in the Dagong Ancient Brine Well in Zigong City, China, and then analyze the gene structure and properties of the protein encoded by this gene. [Method] Metagenomic DNA libraries of halophiles from the Dagong Ancient Brine Well were used for screening genes with Na＋/H＋ antiporter activity in antiporter-defi- cient E. coil KNabc strain by functional complementation. Then the start codon, stop codon, ORF, -35 region, -10 region and SD sequence of Na~/H＋ antiporter gene, as well as the molecular weight, isoelectric point, hydrophobic region, transmembrane domain, phyletic evolution and salt resistance of protein encoded by the gene were investigated. [Result] A new Na＋/H＋ antiporter gene m-nha was obtained, which ,ren- dered the antiporter-negative mutant E. coil KNabc cells with both the resistance to Na＋ and the ability to grow under alkaline conditions. [Conclusion] The structure and amino acid sequence of M-Nha was different from the previously reported Na＋/H~ antiporters, and the m-nha gene disclosed from the Dagong Ancient Brine Well was identified as a novel Na＋/H＋ antiporter gene. This study was significant not only in helping us understand the salt tolerance of halophiles in ancient brine wells and develop and utilize the genes resource, but also in exploring new salt-tolerant genes.

Studies on the Proton Pumping Activity of H^+-ATPase in Tonoplast Vesicles of Populus euphratica

Tonoplast-enriched vesicles were prepared from suspension-cultured Populus euphratica Oliv. cells by differential centrifugation and discontinuous sucrose density gradient centrifugation. The properties of the proton pumping activity of H+-ATPases in tonoplast vesicles were studied by acridine orange fluorescent quenching measured at 22 degreesC. The proton pumping activity of ATPase was ATP-dependent with apparent Michaelis-Menten Constant (K-m) for ATP about 0.65 mmol/L. The optimal pH for H+-ATPases activity was 7.5. The proton pumping activity of H+-ATPase could be initiated by some divalent cations, Mg2+ being highly efficient, much more than Fe2+; and Ca2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ were inefficient under the experimental condition. The proton translocation could be stimulated by halide anions, with potencies decreasing in the order Cl- > Br- > I- > F-. The proton pumping activity was greatly inhibited by N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), N, N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD), NO3- and Bafilomycin A(1), but not by orthovanadate and azide. These results demonstrated that the H+-ATPase in the tonoplast of Populus euphratica belonged to vacuolar type ATPase. This work was the first time that tonoplast-enriched vesicles were isolated from Populus euphratica cells.

Cloning and Identification of A New Na^+/H^+ Antiporter Gene ZmSOS1 in Maize(Zea mays L.)

[ Objective] The study aimed to clone and identify Na^＋/H^＋ antiporter genes in maize, and provided the information for characterizing the function of such genes in abiotic stress tolerance of maize. Method The in silico cloning, RT-PCR, and bioinformatics analysis were used in this study. Result By in sifico cloning, a plasma membrane Na^＋/H^＋ antiporter gene, named as ZmSOS1 （EMBL accession No. BN001309）, was cloned from maize （ Zea mays L. ）. ZmSOS1 has an open reading frame （ORF） of 3 411 bp which encoded a protein of 1 136 amino acids. By multiple sequence alignment analysis, it showed the predicated peptide of ZmSOS1 were 61% and 82% identities in amino acids to the plasma membrane Na^＋/H^＋ antiporter AtSOS1 and OsSOS1, respectively. The RT-PCR analysis revealed that ZmSOS1 could be significantly up-regulated by salt stress, which indicated ZmSOS1 might play a role in salt tolerance of maize. Conclusion ZmSOS1 is a putative plasma membrane Na^＋/H^＋ antiporter gene and may play a role in abiotic stress tolerance of maize.

The stability problem of reverse time migration for viscoacoustic VTI media

In real strata anisotropy and viscosity extensively exists. They degraded waveforms in amplitude, resulting in which reducing of image resolution. To obtain high-precision imaging of deep reservoirs, we extended the separated viscous and anisotropic reverse time migration （RTM） to a stable viscoacoustic anisotropic RTM for vertical transverse isotropic （VTI） media, based on single generalized standard and linear solid （GSLS） media theory.. We used a pseudo-spectral method to develop the numerical simulation. By introducing a regularization operator to eliminate the high-frequency instability problem, we built a stable inverse propagator and achieved viscoacoustic VTI media RTM. High-resolution imaging results were obtained after correcting for the effects of anisotropy and viscosity. Synthetic tests verify the validity and accuracy of algorithm.

Nanocomposites of Polydiacetylene and Rare Earth Ions with Reversible Thermochromism

We report a facile approach to water-dispersible polydiacetylene/rare earth ions nanocomposites with reversible thermochromism. The nanocomposites were prepared by doping rare earth ions Dy^3＋ or Sin^3＋ into layer-structured 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid （PCDA） nanopar- ticles to obtain PCDA/rare earth ions nanocomposites （PCDA-RE） and subsequently annealing PCDA-RE at the temperature slightly higher than the melting point of pure PCDA crystals, followed by topochemically polymerizing the annealed PCDA-RE. The polymerized PCDA-RE, i.e. poly（10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid）/rare earth ions nanocomposites （PDARE： PDA-Dy or PDA-Sm）, are largely reversible （PDA-Sm） or even completely reversible （PDA-Dy） in the thermochromism, while, without the doping, pure PDA is completely irreversible. It is confirmed that, PDA-RE are also layer-structured with a d-spacing of 5.4 nm, higher than the d-spacing of pure PDA （4.7 nm）. In PDA-RE, the rare earth ions form a layer in-between and interact strongly with the PDA bilayers, being responsible for the high degree or even the complete reversibility. This is the first example to make PDA completely reversible through the doping of rare earth ions; the annealing process is essential for the complete reversibility since it removes any defects in the structure.

Nested Bethe Ansatz for Spin Ladder Model with Open Boundary Conditions

The nested Bethe ansatz (BA) method is applied to find the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors of the transfer matrix for spin-ladder model with open boundary conditions. Based on the reflection equation, we find the general diagonal solution, which determines the generalboundary interaction in the Hamiltonian. We introduce the spin-ladder model with open boundary conditions. By finding the solution K± of the reflection equation which determines the nontrivial boundary terms in the Hamiltonian, we diagonalize the transfer matrix of the spin-ladder model with open boundary conditions in the framework of nested BA.

Salvianolate inhibits cytokine gene expression in small intestine of cirrhotic rats

AIM:To study the effect of salvianolate on expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 mRNA in small intestine of cirrhotic rats. METHODS:Cirrhosis in rats was induced using CCl4 (0.3 mL/kg). Rats were randomly divided into non-treatment group,low-dose salvianolate (12 mg/kg) treatment group,medium-dose salvianolate (24 mg/kg) treatment group,and high-dose salvianolate (48 mg/kg) treatment group,and treated for 2 wk. Another 10 healthy rats served as a normal control group. Mortality of cirrhotic rats in each group was evaluated after treatment with salvianolate. Serum samples were taken from portal vein for the detection of endotoxin. Morphological changes in tissue samples from the ileocecum were observed under a light microscope. Expression of TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA in the small intestine of rats was analyzed by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS:The mortality of cirrhotic rats in the nontreatment group was 37.5%. No cirrhotic rat died in the high-dose salvianolate treatment group. The serum endotoxin level was significantly higher in the non-treatment group than in the salvianolate treatment and normal control groups. The intestinal mucosal and villous atrophy,necrosis and shedding of the intestinal mucosal epithelium,observed in the non-treatment group,were reversed in different salvianolate treatment groups. The TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA expression levels in small intestine were significantly lower in different salvianolate treatment groups than in the non-treatment group. CONCLUSION:Salvianolate can reduce the endotoxin level,ameliorate the injury of intestinal mucosa,and inhibit the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA in small intestine of cirrhotic rats.

Fabrication of Melamine/Tb^3+-Intercalated Polydiacetylene Nanosheets and Their Thermochromic Reversibility

Polydiacetylene(PDA)is one kind of the conjugated polymer with layered structure,which can serve as a host to accommodate the guest components through intercalation.In these intercalated PDAs,some of them were reported to have a nearly perfect organized structure and perform completely reversible thermochromism.Till now,these reported intercalated PDAs were made by only introducing a single component for intercalation.Here,we chose 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid(PCDA)as the monomer,of which the carboxyl-terminal groups can interact with either Tb^3+ ions or melamines(MAs).When the feeding molar ratio of PCDA,MA,and Tb^3+ ion was 3:267:1,only Tb^3+ ions were intercalated though excess MAs existed.Such Tb^3+- intercalated poly-PCDA exhibited completely reversible thermochromism,where almost all the carboxyl groups interacted with Tb^3+ ions to form the nearly perfect structure.When the feeding molar ratio of PCDA,MA,and Tb^3+ ion was 3:267:0.6,both Tb^3+ ions and MAs were intercalated.There existed some defects in the imperfect MA-intercalated domains and at the domain boundaries.The MA/Tb^3+- intercalated poly-PCDA exhibits partially reversible thermochromism,where the backbones near the defects are hard to return the initial conformation,while the rest,those at nearly perfect organized domains,are still able to restore the initial conformation.

Effects of resistin-like molecule β over-expression on gastric cancer cells in vitro

AIM: To investigate the effects of resistin-like molecule β (RELMβ) over-expression on the invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis of gastric cancer cells. METHODS: Human RELMβ encoding expression vec tor was constructed and transfected into the RELMβ lowly-expressed gastric cancer cell lines SGC7901 and MKN-45. Gene expression was measured by Western blotting, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time quantitative PCR. Cell proliferation was measured by 2-(4,5-dimethyltriazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide colorimetry, colony formation and 5-ethynyl-20-deoxyuridine incorporation assays. The in vitro migration, invasion and metastasis of cancer cells were measured by cell adhesion assay, scratch assay and matrigel invasion assay. The angiogenic capabilities of cancer cells were measured by tube formation of endothelial cells. RESULTS: Transfection of RELMβ vector into SGC-7901 and MKN-45 cells resulted in over-expression of RELMβ, which did not infl uence the cellular proliferation. However, over-expression of RELMβ suppressed the in vitro adhesion, invasion and metastasis of cancer cells, accompanied by decreased expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9. Moreover, transfection of RELMβ attenuated the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and in vitro angiogenic capabilities of cancer cells. CONCLUSION: Over-expression of RELMβ abolishes the invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis of gastric cancer cells in vitro, suggesting its potentials as a novel therapeutic target for gastric cancer.

Generalized regular points of a C^1 map between Banach spaces

Let f be a C^1 map between two Banach spaces E and F. It has been proved that the concept of generalized regular points of f, which is a generalization of the notion of regular points of f, has some crucial applications in nonlinearity and global analysis. We characterize the generalized regular points of f using the three integer-valued （or infinite） indices M（x0）, Mc（x0） and Mr（x0） at x0 ∈ E generated by f and by analyzing generalized inverses of bounded linear operators on Banach spaces, that is, iff ＇（x0） has a generalized inverse in the Banach space B（E, F） of all bounded linear operators on E into F and at least one of the indices M（x0）, Mc（x0） and Mr（x0） is finite, then xo is a generalized regular point off if and only if the multi-index （M（x）, Me（x）, Mr（x）） is continuous at X0.

Research of AtNHX1 Gene Transformation in Brassica napus L. by Agrobacterium tumefaciens

[Objective] The aim was to investigate AtNHX1 gene transformation in Brassica napus L. mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. [Method] By using Agrobacterium-mediated method and cre/lox plant expression vector,the transformation of AtNHX1 gene of Na＋/H＋ antiporter in Brassica napus was studied. [Result] The regeneration rate of cotyledon with petiole was much higher than that of hypocotyl,thus,the cotyledon with petiole was selected as the recipient for transformation. After the cotyledon with petiole was soaked in bacterial solution （OD600=0.4） for 8-10 min,kanamycin-resistant green seeding percentage could reach 3.75%. [Conclusion] The PCR detection of kanamycin-resistant plants proved that NHX1 gene had been inserted into Brassica napus genome. And this research could provide a new way to improve the salt tolerance of Brassica napus.

Protease-activated receptor(PAR)1, PAR2 and PAR4 expressions in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Here,we used reverse transcription-PCR(RT-PCR) and western blot to detect protease-activated receptor(PAR) 1,PAR 2 and PAR 4 expression in cancer tissues and cell lines of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma,and investigated the co-relationship between PAR expression and clinic-pathological data for esophageal cancer.The methylation of PAR4 gene promoter involved in esophageal carcinoma was also analyzed.By comparing the mRNA expressions of normal esophageal tissue and human esophageal epithelial cells(HEEpiC),we found that among the 28 cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma,PAR1(60%) and PAR2(71%) were elevated in 17 and 20 cases,respectively,and PAR4(68%) expression was lowered in 19 cases.Whereas,in human esophageal squamous cells(TE-1 and TE-10),PAR1 and PAR2 expression was increased but PAR4 was decreased.Combined with clinical data,the expression of PAR1 in poorly differentiated(P=0.016) and middle and lower parts of the esophagus(P=0.016) was higher; expression of PAR4 in poorly differentiated carcinoma was lower(P=0.049).Regarding TE-1 and TE-10 protein expression,we found that in randomized esophageal carcinoma,PAR1(P=0.027) and PAR2(P=0.039) expressions were increased,but lowered for PAR4(P=0.0001).In HEEpiC,TE-1,TE-10,esophageal and normal esophagus tissue samples(case No.7),the frequency of methylation at the 19 CpG loci of PAR4 was 35.4%,95.2%,83.8%,62.6% and 48.2%,respectively.Our results indicate that the expression of PAR1 and PAR2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is increased but PAR4 is decreased.Hypermethylation of the promoter of the PAR4 gene may contribute to reduced expression of PAR4 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Comment on Revision of Kaup-Newell's Works on IST for DNLS Equation

In this note, it is shown that the revision of the Kaup-Newell＇s works on 1ST for DNLS equation is only available in the ease of solving the bright one-soliton solution to the equation. An example is taken to illustrate our point of view.

Squeezed State Caused by Inverse of Photon Creation Operator

Using the photon creation operator＇s eigenstate theory we derive the normally ordered expansion of inverse of the squeezed creation operator. It turns out that using this operator a kind of excitation on the squeezed vacuum states can be formed.

Strong Converse Inequalities for Szasz-Mirakjan Operators with Weights

In this paper, we give the strong converse inequalities of type B with the new K-functional Kλα(f,t2)w(0 ≤λ≤ 1, 0 < α < 2) on weighted approximation for Sz′asz-Mirakjan operators, which extend the previous results.

Reversible Measurement on Quantum States of Trapped-Ion Qubits

We consider reversible quantum measurement process with ultracold trapped ions. Two schemes will be proposed based on currently available experimental techniques. We also study the measurement process with electronic shelving amplification.

From the Gla domain to a novel small-molecule detector of apoptosis

Apoptosis plays a pivotal role in the etiology or pathogenesis of numerous medical disorders, and thus, target- ing of apoptotic cells may substantially advance patient care. In our quest for novel low-molecular-weight probes for apoptosis, we focused on the uncommon amino acid T-carboxyglutamic acid （Gla）, which plays a vital role in the binding of clotting factors to negatively charged phospholipid surfaces. Based on the alkyl-malonic acid motif of Gla, we have developed and now present ML-10 （2-（5-fluoro-pentyl）-2-methyl-malonic acid, MW=206 Da）, the pro- totypical member of a novel family of small-molecule detectors of apoptosis. ML-10 was found to perform selective uptake and accumulation in apoptotic cells, while being excluded from either viable or necrotic cells. ML-10 uptake correlates with the apoptotic hallmarks of caspase activation, Annexin-V binding and disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential. The malonate moiety was found to be crucial for ML-10 function in apoptosis detection. ML- 10 responds to a unique complex of features of the cell in early apoptosis, comprising irreversible loss of membrane potential, permanent acidification of cell membrane and cytoplasm, and preservation of membrane integrity. ML-10 is therefore the most compact apoptosis probe known to date. Due to its fluorine atom, ML-10 is amenable to radio- labeling with the lSF isotope, towards its potential future use for clinical positron emission tomography imaging of apoptosis.

Two Sequences of Operator Monotone Functions and Strictly Chaotic Order

In this paper we introduce two sequences of operator functions and their dualfunctions： fk（t） = （flogt）k-（t-1）k/log^k＋2t （k = 1,2,...）, gk（t） = （t-1）k-logkt /log^k＋1t （k = 1,2,...） and fk（t）tklog^k＋1t/（tlogt）k-（t-1）^k（k=1,2…）,gk（t）=t^klog^k＋1t/（t-1）^k-log^kt（k=1,2…）defined onWe find that they are all operator monotone functions with respect to the strictly chaoticorder and some ordinary orders among positive invertible operators. Indeed, we extend theresults of the operator monotone function tlogt-t＋1/log^2t which is widely used in the theory of heat transfer of the heat engineering and fluid mechanics[1].