Survival,recovery and microcystin release of Microcystis aeruginosa in cold or dark condition

Microcystis often dominates phytoplankton in eutrophic lakes and must survive a long period of cold or dark conditions.However,the survival strategies of Microcystis to withstand cold or dark stress are less well known.In this study,we conducted experiments on the responses of two toxic Microcystis aeruginosa strains(FACHB-905 and FACHB-915) and their microcystin release in conditions of low temperature(15℃ or 4℃,with illumination) or darkness,and subsequent recovery in standard conditions(25℃ with illumination).On exposure to 15℃,a small decrease in cell viability was observed,but the cell number increased gradually,suggesting that M.aeruginosa FACHB-905 and FACHB-915 cells seem in general tolerant in 15℃.Interestingly,our results show that a higher carotenoid content and microcystin release potentially enhance the fitness of surviving cells at 15℃.M.aeruginosa cells exposed to lower temperature light stress(4℃) did not completely lose viability and retained the ability to reinitiate growth.In darkness,the maximum quantum yield(F_v/F_m) and the maximum electron transport rate(ETR_(max)) values and cell viability of M.aeruginosa cells gradually decreased with time.During the recovery period,the photosynthetic efficiency of M.aeruginosa reverted to the normal level.Additionally,M.aeruginosa FACHB-905 and FACHB-915 exposed to low temperature had increased caspase-3-like activity and DNA fragmentation,which suggests the occurrence of a type of cell death in M.aeruginosa cells under cold stress similar to programmed cell death.Overall,our findings could confer certain advantages on the Microcystis for surviving cold or dark conditions encountered in the annual cycle,and help explain its repeated occurrence in water blooms in large and shallow lakes.

Accurate quantification of astaxanthin from Haematococcus crude extract spectrophotometrically

The influence of alkali on astaxanthin and the optimal working wave length for measurement of astaxanthin from Haematococcus crude extract were investigated, and a spectrophotometric method for precise quantification of the astaxanthin based on the method of Boussiba et al. was established. According to Boussiba's method, alkali treatment destroys chlorophyll. However, we found that: 1) carotenoid content declined for about 25% in Haematococcus fresh cysts and up to 30% in dry powder of Haematococcus broken cysts after alkali treatment; and 2) dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-extracted chlorophyll of green Haematococcus bares little absorption at 520-550 nm. Interestingly, a good linear relationship existed between absorbance at 530 nm and astaxanthin content, while an unknown interference at 540-550 nm was detected in our study. Therefore, with 530 nm as working wavelength, the alkali treatment to destroy chlorophyll was not necessary and the influence of chlorophyll, other carotenoids, and the unknown interference could be avoided. The astaxanthin contents of two samples were measured at 492 nm and 530 nm; the measured values at 530 nm were 2.617 g/100 g and 1.811 g/100 g. When compared with the measured values at 492 nm, the measured values at 530 nm decreased by 6.93% and 11.96%, respectively. The measured values at 530 nm are closer to the true astaxanthin contents in the samples. The data show that 530 nm is the most suitable wave length for spectrophotometric determination to the astaxanthin in Haematococcus crude extract.

Whole Genome Duplication of Intra- and Inter-chromosomes in the Tomato Genome

Whole genome duplication （WGD） events have been proven to occur in the evolutionary history of most angiosperms. Tomato is considered a model species of the Solanaceae family. In this study, we describe the details of the evolutionary process of the tomato genome by detecting collinearity blocks and dating the WGD events on the tree of life by combining two different methods： synonymous substitution rates （Ks） and phylogenetic trees. In total, 593 collinearity blocks were discovered out of 12 pseudo-chromosomes con- structed. It was evident that chromosome 2 had experienced an intra-chromosomat duplication event. Major inter-chromosomal dupli- cation occurred among all the pseudo-chromosome. We calculated the Ks value of these collinearity blocks. Two peaks of Ks distribution were found, corresponding to two WGD events occurring approximately 36-82 million years ago （MYA） and 148--205 MYA. Additionally, the results of phylogenetic trees suggested that the more recent WGD event may have occurred after the divergence of the rosidasterid clade, but before the major diversification in Solanaceae. The older WGD event was shown to have occurred before the divergence of the rosid-asterid clade and after the divergence of rice-Arabidopsis （monocot-dicot）.

Population transcriptomics reveals a potentially positive role of expression diversity in adaptation

While it is widely accepted that genetic diversity determines the potential of adaptation,the role that gene expression variation plays in adaptation remains poorly known.Here we show that gene expression diversity could have played a positive role in the adaptation of Miscanthus lutarioriparius.RNA-seq was conducted for 80 individuals of the species,with half planted in the energy crop domestication site and the other half planted in the control site near native habitats.A leaf reference transcriptome consisting of 18,503 high-quality transcripts was obtained using a pipeline developed for de novo assembling with population RNA-seq data.The population structure and genetic diversity of M.lutarioriparius were estimated based on 30,609 genic single nucleotide polymorphisms.Population expression（Ep） and expression diversity（Ed）were defined to measure the average level and the magnitude of variation of a gene expression in the population,respectively.It was found that expression diversity increased while genetic Resediversity decreased after the species was transplanted from the native habitats to the harsh domestication site,especially for genes involved in abiotic stress resistance,histone methylation,and biomass synthesis under water limitation.The increased expression diversity could have enriched phenotypic variation directly subject to selections in the new environment.