Identification of the Rice Vacuolar ATPase B Subunit Gene and Its Expression Pattern Analysis Under Phosphorus Deficiency

A vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase.) B subunit gene has been cloned and characterized front a phosphorus starvation induced rice root subtractive cDNA library by suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) method and RT-PCR amplification. This gene encodes a polypeptide of 487 amino acid residues, containing a conservative ATP binding site and with a molecular weight of 54.06 kD and an isoelectric point of 4.99, southern analysis of the. genomic DNA indicates that V-ATPase B subunit is encoded by a single gene in rice genome. The amino acid homologies of V-ATPase B subunits among different organisms range from 76% to 97% and reveals that the evolution of V-ATPase B subunit is accompanied with the biological evolution. Expression pattern analysis indicated that the maximal expression of V-ATPase B subunit gene occurred at an early stage (6 - 12 h) after phosphorus starvation in roots, and lately stage (24 - 48 It) in leaves. Under phosphorus deficiency, the up-regulated expression of V-ATPase gene was presumed to strengthen the proton transport and provide the required energy to maintain an electrochemical gradient across the tonoplast to facilitate Phosphorus transport.

Diagnosis of iridovirus in large yellow croaker by PCR

A rapid and sensitive PCR-based method for the detection of the large yellow croaker iridovirus (LYCIV) is described, which involves the amplification of a 295 bp fragment of the LYCIV ATPase gene from DNA isolated from naturally infected fish spleen. Sequencing of LYCIV ATPase gene fragment showed it shared 100% nucleotide sequence homology with the corresponding region of the ATPase gene of red sea bream iridovirus (RSIV) and sea bass iridovirus (SBIV), suggesting that LYCIV was homologous with RSIV and SBIV at least in part of the gemone. The specificity and sensitivity of the PCR procedure were tested on the iridovirus-infected fishes, the expected fragment was detected from spleen DNA samples of infected fishes, whereas no fragments were amplified from healthy fish spleen DNA, white spot syndrome baculoviruses (WSBV) DNA and pseudorabies virus (PRV) DNA. Detection limit of this method was 10(-7) ng positive plasmid DNA containing target sequence, equal to about 100 virions. In the infected experiment, first positive detection (1/4) appeared at Day 3 post-infection, all fish (4/4) tested positive at Day 7, however obvious symptoms were observed at Day 8, so LYCIV infection could be detected prior to the appearance of obvious symptoms. These results indicate that this PCR method could be used for early, rapid and specific detection of LYCIV infection.