Physical Mapping of the Sequences Homologous to Disease Resistance Genes myb1 and NDR1 in Maize

Using fluorescence in situ hybridization, the authors investigated the homology between three plant species, maize (Zea mays L.) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), maize and Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. at cytogenetic level using two probes corresponding to functional disease resistance genes myb1 and NDR1 in Arabidopsis and tobacco respectively. The hybridization signals of the tested probes were detected in maize chromosomes 8 and 5 respectively, and the single location of each of the two probes showed only single copy of them in maize genome. The results provided a valuable insight into searching for genes associated with programmed cell death in plants using heterologous probe with comparative genetic approach. In addition, the improvements of FISH technique using heterologous probes were discussed.

Effect of anti-sense oligodeoxynucleotides homeobox B2 on the proliferation and expression of primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells

Objective: To explore the effect of homeobox B2 (HOXB2) antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (asodn) on the proliferation and expression of primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Methods: Various concentrations of HOXB2 asodn modified by thiophosphate transfected the induction of liposome into HUVECs. MTT and RT-PCR methods were employed to determine the effect of different concentrations of asodn on the endothelial proliferation and the expression level of HOXB2 mRNA. Results: After the transfection of HOXB2 asodn, the endothelial proliferation was inhibited in a dose-dependent fashion. Simultaneously, the expression of HOXB2 mRNA decreased significantly. Conclusions: HOXB2 plays an important role in the proliferation of endothelia.