Table of Content

15 June 2007, Volume 9 Issue 3

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Building up Modern Agriculture to Enhance Agricultural Science and |Technology Innovation and System Reformation

LU Liang-shu

2007, 9(3):  1-3. 

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Agricultural science and technology plays a key role in the construction of modem agriculture. The connotations and main characters of modem agriculture in the 21st century were introduced in this paper. The author brought forward that the agricultural science and technology innovation was one of the strongest supporters to the agricultural development. It is necessary for the agricultural development and for the service of ＂San Nong＂ that the agricultural science and technology system should be reformed.

From Lab to Field： The Development and Impact of Agricultural |Biotechnology in China

Valerie J. Karplus, Xingwang Deng

2007, 9(3):  4-8. 

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Over the past three decades, researchers in China＇s agricultural biotechnology laboratories have developed hundreds of novel crop varieties suited to China＇s growing conditions and agricultural challenges. Among them are varieties designed to more effectively resist pest and disease outbreaks, requiire less water or fertilizer, and supply higher nutritional value than their predecessors. Many of these crops have been developed using transgenic techniques, which allow for highly specific transfer of genetic material through methods other than conventional cross-breeding. These techniques have generated controversies in some parts of the world. Despite their widespread application in China＇s laboratories, only one transgenic crop, insect-resistant cotton, is widely planted on farms. In a new book entitled Agricultural Biotechnology： Origins and Prospects, the origins of China＇s emerging agricultural biotechnology research system are introduced. How the impact of China＇s investment, both locally and globally, depends on factors beyond the laboratory are explained： the funding and performance of both biotechnology and conventional agricultural research, the strength of China＇s biosafety oversight, the effectiveness of seed delivery channels, and public acceptance of the technology in China and abroad.

Promoting Industrialization of Genetically Modified Organisms for |Development of Modern Agriculture

HUANG Da-fang

2007, 9(3):  9-12. 

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Biotechnology in conjunction with the traditional technology and promoting industrialization of GMO will play an important role in developing modem agriculture in China. The progress and achievements of transgenic crop breeding home and abroad were reviewed. The active policy for industrialization of GMO and correct understanding of biosafety were suggested. The basic and innovation research should be further enhanced.

Impacts of GM Rice on Rice Farmers

HUANG Ji-kun, HU Rui-fa

2007, 9(3):  13-17. 

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The overall goal of this paper is to analyze the impacts of genetically modified （GM） rice in rice production in farmers＇ field. Based on 320 households in 17 GM rice pre-production villages in 2002-2004, insecticide application model and yield equation are estimated. The results showed that when compared with non-GM rice, GM rice reduces insecticide use by more than 60%, significantly increases rice yield, and prevents farmers from insecticide related illness.

Progress of MicroRNA in Plants

WANG Lei, FAN Yun-liu

2007, 9(3):  18-23. 

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Non-coding RNAs are abundant in eukaryotic cells, of which small RNAs constitute a family of regulatory RNAs of -22nt in length, siRNA and miRNA are the two major types, both of which are produced by RNase Ⅲ-like enzymes called Dicer in plants. They are incorporated into silencing complexes to guide repression of target genes. miRNAs are chemically and functionally similar to siRNAs but are derived from local stem-loop structures in the genome. miRNAs have recently been shown to play critical roles at each major stage of plant development, regulating a number of key pathways. They typically act at the core of a gene regulatory network, mostly targeting transcription factors and regulatory proteins that are involved in organ morphogenesis and plant development.

Characteristics of Magnetotactic Bacteria and Biosynthesis Conditions of |Nano-magnetosomes

JIANG Wei, TIAN Jie-sheng, LI Ying, LI Ji-lun

2007, 9(3):  24-31. 

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Characteristics of magnetotactic bacteria and magnetosomes were summarized in this paper. Conditions and affecting factors for magnetosomes formation were reviewed. Problems for mass culture of magnetotactic bacteria and enhancement of magnetosomes yields were indicated. Methods to resolve these problems were proposed. A hypothesis involved in mechanism and physiological function of magnetosomes formation was suggested. Ferrous irons were transported into magnetotactic bacteria cells resulted in ferric iron transportation through membranes as electron acceptors under stresses of low oxygen levels. It is to avoid cytotoxicity of ferrous iron and further transform to Fe3O4 on surface of inner membrane the reason of magnetosome formation.

Plant ABC Transporters and Their Roles in the Transmembrane |Transport of Secondary Metabolites

JIN Hong-bin, LIU Dong-hui, ZUO Kai-jing, MIAO Zhi-qi, CHEN Yu-hui, SUN Xiao-fen

2007, 9(3):  32-37. 

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ABC （ATP-Binding Cassette） transporters constitute the largest protein family with the most variety of functions. Most of them are involved in transporting many kinds of substrates in living organisms. Because they are closely related to some important biological processes, such as multidrug resistance （MDR） and etc, ABC transporters have attracted more and more researchers＇ attention. ABC transporters are most abundant in Arabidopsis and rice among current sequenced organisms, leading to the hypothesis that plant ABC transporters largely contribute to membrane transport of endogenous secondary metabolites in the plants. Plants produce a large number of secondary metabolites, such as alkaloids, terpenoids and phenols, which can protect plants from being harmed by biotic and abiotic stresses. The accumulation and secretion of these metabolites are highly regulated and ABC transporters play a significant role in the process. In this review, we summarize the related background information and the advances of plant ABC transporters involving in the accumulation and the transmembrane transport of plant secondary metabolites.

Safety Assessment and Commercialization of Transgenic Crops

CHEN Jie-jun, WANG Jin, WAN Yu-song, JIN Wu-jun

2007, 9(3):  38-43. 

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Bio-safety evaluation is important for transgenic crop research and an indispensable step in transgenic crops commercialization. This paper is to analyze trends of transgenic crops development based on data of genes, improved traits, transformation methods and pre-commercialization areas of transgenic crops used in transgenic crops safety evaluations in the past 10 years. These data include those retrieved from web （ArgBioworld） and unpublished data from Chinese government.

Myxobacterial Secondary Metabolites and Their Potential |Applications in Agriculture

LIU Xin-li, LI Yue-zhong

2007, 9(3):  44-51. 

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Myxobacteria are fascinating and unique bacteria with uncommon morphogenetic behavior and extraordinary capacity to produce biological secondary metabolites with various mechanisms. The action spectrum of myxobacterial secondary metabolites are mainly in eukaryotic cells, normally with novel mechanisms. Myxobacteria and their natural products are in great potentiality to be developed as new antifungal agents for agrochemical uses. In this paper, we summarized myxobacterial secondary metabolites of their structural characteristics and action mechanisms. Some antifungal metabolites and their potential agricultural applications are discussed in details.

Main Factors Affecting Rice Anther Culture

CHEN Hong,QIN Rui-zhen

2007, 9(3):  52-56. 

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Rice anther culture is widely used as an important technique in rice breeding. The progress of the main factors affecting the culture efficiency, such as genotype and physical-chemical factors, are reviewed in this paper. It is mentioned that optimizing the methods in different stages of the culture and the appropriate combination of the optimization on the whole could be an effective way to enhance the efficiency of anther culture. The existing problems and prospects of rice anther culture are also explored and discussed.

Relationship between Structure and Function in Cold-adapted Enzymes

CHEN Xiu-lan, ZHANG Yu-zhong

2007, 9(3):  57-60. 

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Cold-adapted enzymes are the enzymes which are thermolabile and have high catalytic efficiency at low temperatures. In the past 20 years, cold-adapted enzymes have been extensively studied. Because of the uniqueness of their structure and function, they become good materials to study protein structure and function. And studies on the structure and function of cold-adapted enzymes are becoming more and more detailed with time. In this review, characte ristics of the enzymatics, dynatics and thermodynatics of cold-adapted enzymes, the relationship between their structure and activity and the relationship between their stability and flexibility were analyzed.

Minor Outer Capsid Protein P9 of Rice Dwarf Virus Shows |Transcriptional Activation in vivo

YIN Zhe, JI Xu, WU Yun-feng, LI Yi

2007, 9(3):  61-65. 

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The RDV gene segment S9 was cloned into yeast expression vector pGBKT7 for growth test assay, pGBK-S9 plasmid was transformed into host strain AH109, and could grow on synthetic medium lacking tryptophan, histidine, and adenine （SD/-Trp/-His/-Ade）. Results showed that RDV P9 performed the transcriptional activation in yeast. To further examine transcriptional activation of P9 in yeast, o-nitrophenyl β-D-galactopyanoside （ONPG） was used as a substrate for quantitative assay. Based on the growth ability test, the quantitative analysis strongly supported that RDV P9 showed transcriptional activation in yeast. To verify the transcriptional activation of P9 in plants, the transiently expressed system was conducted by using β-glucuronidase （GUS） as a reporter. The results indicated that strong GUS activities were visible in tissues. Western blotting analysis proved the expression of P9 in yeast and N. benthamiana plants. These results suggested that RDV P9 might play an important role in regulation of virus and genome transcription for the benefit of virus infection.

Isolation and Functional Analysis of Rice Acetolactate-synthase （ALS）

SONG Gui-sheng, FENG De-jiang, WEI Xiao-li, TANG Jia-bin, ZHU Zhen

2007, 9(3):  66-72. 

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Acetolactate-synthase （ALS） is a key enzyme in biosynthetic pathway for valine, leucine, and isoleucine in plant and microorganism. It is important for plant insect-resistant genetic engineering. The cDNA sequence and genome DNA sequence of ALS gene were isolated. Sequence analysis indicated that ALS gene has no introns and its GC base content is asymmetrical. Software analysis result speculated that ALS has one copy locating on chromosome 4, which was confirrned by southern blotting. ALS plant expression vectors have been constructed in tobacco and transgenetic tobacco was confirmed by PCR southern blotting. EXACT-RT-PCR indicated rice ALS can be transcribed both tobacco leaves and roots. Data for bioassay of Sulfometuron-methyl showed that transgenetic tobacco displayed notably resistance to herbicide compared with wild plant, with highest content of 50 mg/L.

Construction and Functional Analysis of Phytochrome Gene Disruptant |of Deinococcus radiodurans

FAN Lu, XU Zhen-jian, TIAN Bing, HUA Yue-jin

2007, 9(3):  73-78. 

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With the method of polymerase chain reaction and homologous genetic recombination in vivo, the gene encoding bacterial phytochrome in the non-photosynthetic and extremely radioresistant bacterium D.radiodurans was deleted from the genome. Survival rates of the mutant strain bphP^- obtained and wild type strain were investigated under different doses of T-radiation and hydrogen peroxide. The results indicated that the bphF strain were much more sensitive to hydrogen peroxide treatment comparing to that of wild type R1, while radioresistant activities of the mutant and the R1 strain exhibited at the same level. Experiments of D.radiodurans R1 strain to different light radiation revealed that intense white light radiation remarkably inhibited both the colony growth of wild-type and the phytochrome function-deficient mutant of D. radiodurans with no significant difference, while the growth of Escherichia coli K 12 was not affected under the same light condition. No remarkable effects of red and blue light on the growth of D.radiodurans strain were shown. Based on these results, phytochrome in D.radiodurans might primarily act as a signal transferrer and regulator of oxidant pressure.

he Comparison of Soil Fertility Among Severely Eroded Red Soils |Regenerated with Different Vegetation Types

DENG Huan, ZHANG Bin, WANG Hui-li, YIN Rui

2007, 9(3):  79-85. 

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Re-vegetation is a major way in restoration of eroded land and in promotion of soil quality. Different vegetation types have different effects on eroded soil restoration. It is very important to evaluate their effects for rapid regeneration of eroded lands. Field plots had been established to restore the severely eroded red soil with different vegetation types at Red Soil Ecological Experimental Station of CAS, Yingtan, Jiangxi Province in 1989. Three typical forest restoration types were selected, i.e, Pinus massoniana, Cinnamomum camphora and Lespedeza bicolor, to detect the nutrients content and enzyme activities in different soil layers. The objective was to appraise their effectiveness in eroded red soil restoration. The results showed that re-vegetation markedly increased soil nutrient contents and enzyme activities for all the three vegetation types. The nutrient content in soil of Lespedez a bicolor field was significantly higher than those of Pinus massoniana and Cinnamomum camphora fields. IFI values of soils of Pinus massoniana and Lespedeza bicolor fields were significantly higher than that of Cinnamomum camphora field. It was also shown that both top-layer and sub-layer of soil profile was the thickest in Lespedeza bicolor field. So it was concluded that Lespedeza bicolor is most effective in restoration of severely eroded red soil among the three vegetation types.

Anti-irradiation Bacteria Identification and Sensitivity Study in |Irradiated Bread

FAN Ping, QIAN Ping, HE Jin-feng, CHEN Fang, HU Xiao-song

2007, 9(3):  86-92. 

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Classical isolation methods were used to isolate bacteria strains in irradiated bread. Biochemical characteristics and using of carbohydrate in API identification system were used to determine the two anti-irradiation bacteria. The sensitivity of two anti-irradiation bacteria was studied by infection experiment. Results showed that Bacillus subtilis and Kocuria kristinae were the two anti-irradiation bacteria in irradiated bread. Irradiated dosage is in linear relationship with the number of live bacteria. On account of different concentration, the value of D10 of Bacillus subtilis were 0.758 kGy, 0.87 l kGy, and value of D10 of Kocuria kristinae were 0.720kGy, 0.823kGy respectively.

Study on Indica-japonica Character of Non-AA Wild Rice Chloroplast DNA

ZHANG Wu-han, DENG Hua-feng, CHEN Liang-bi, HE Qiang, SHU Fu,CHEN Jue-liang, YUA

2007, 9(3):  93-97. 

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Differentiation of indica-japonica character in O. sativa commonly exists. A great deal of research showed the chloroplast DNA of O. rufipogon also exhibit diversity of indica-japonica character. In order to prove whether the chloroplast DNA of non-AA wild rice shows differentiation of indica-japonicacharacter, this study analyzed the chloroplast DNA of non-AA wild rice using molecular markers for separating indicaojaponica traits. The chloroplast DNA of non-AA wild rice was japonica-type using two length diversity markers （ORF100 and ORF29-TrnCGCA）. Utilizing four sequence markers exited in intrron of rpsl6 gene and TmT^UGU-TmL^UAA spacer, the result of three markers showed that the chloroplast DNA of non-AA wild rice were japonica-type and the result of one marker showed that they were indica-type. It also showed that differentiation existed between the sequence of tested material and the markers, and some mutation has happened. The result show japonicaotype may be the original type of rice chloroplast DNA.

Germination Condition Optimization of Bacillus thuringiensis HD-73 and |Effect of Plasmid pHT73 on Germination

WU Yan-yan, SUN Chang-po, GAO Ji-guo, ZHANG Jie, HUANG Da-fang, SONG Fu-ping

2007, 9(3):  98-103. 

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The germination of dormant spores of Bacillus species is the first crucial step in the return of spores to vegetative growth. Some members of Bacillus species cause serious diseases in livestock and humans. Elucidation of the germination process is essential to understand their pathogenesis and life cycle. To determine the role of plasmid pHT73 in nutrient-induced germination, the conditions for germination of Bacillus thuringiensis HD-73 was optimized. The optimum germination buffer was NaH2PO4 （10 mmol·L^-1） and NaC1 （100 mmol·L^-1） and pH 7.2. The optimum temperature was 37℃. Comparing the germination rate between HD-73 strain and HD-73- mutant spores, which was based on the optimum germination conditions, germination rate of HD-73- spores was twice of that of HD-73 in the pathways of inosine （1 mmol·L^-1） / Asp （100 mmol·L^-1） and inosine （1 mmol·L^-1） / Glu （100 mmol·L^-1））. This result supported that the plasmid pHT73 contained the germination genes which partly blocked those two pathways, because HD-73- was cured of plasmid pHT73 which contained crylAC gene.

Study on Telomerase Activity in the Bovine Adult Tissues

YUE Yong-li, WU Xia, BOU Shorgan, YU Hai-quan

2007, 9(3):  104-107. 

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Telomerase is a nucleotide-protein complex enzyme mainly composed of the telomerase RNA component （TERC） and the telomerase reverse transcriptase （TERT）, which catalyzes the addition of repeat sequence to telomeric DNA with its RNA component as template. To study the relationship between the different expression of telomerase components and the activity of telomerase, the transcription of two main components of telomerase and the activity status of telomerase in adult bovine tissues were examined. RT-PCR was used to detect the transcription of TERC gene and TERT gene in the heart, kidney, liverand testis of adult cattle and the telomerase activity was determined by Telomeric Repeat Amplification Protocols （TRAP） with silver staining, The TERC mRNA was detected in all of the tissues above, with level increasing. The TERT mRNA was only detected in the testis, not in other tissues. The activity of telomerase was also only detected in the testis. These results demonstrate that testis has high activity of telomerase, which is repressed in most of bovine somatic tissues. The transcription of two components of telomerase is independent, and the TERT is the key component of bovine telomerase.

Synchronous Production of Conidial Powder of Several Fungal Biocontrol |Agents in an Upright Multi-tray Conidiation Chamber

CHEN Chun, FENG Ming-guang

2007, 9(3):  108-111. 

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A self-developed upright multi-tray conidiation chamber was used to synchronously produce high-quality conidial powder of fungal biocontrol candidates including two strains of Metarhizium anisopliae, one strain of M. anisopliae var. anisopliae and two strains of Beauveria bassiana. Six kilograms of steamed rice （dry weight） was inoculated with liquid cultures of each fungal strain and then equally allocated to three trays of the chamber for six-day growth and conidiation at 25℃. Among the five strains tested, the strain B. bassiana 2860 had a maximal yield of 2.2×10^12 conidia per kg rice and could be potential for development into commercial formulations against insect pests.

Preliminary Study on One Novel Protein Involved in Abscisic |Acid （ABA） Signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana

QIN Xiao-ke, HUANG Yue, YANG Xiao-yang, JIANG Yan, LI Xu-feng, Erwin Grill, YANG

2007, 9(3):  112-117. 

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By using yeast two-hybrid system, we identified one novel protein which interacted with ABI2 in Arabidopsis cDNA library. The further investigation in yeast system revealed that AC interacted with both ABI1 and ABI2 and the interactions depended on the PP2C activity of ABI1 and ABI2. Expression and purification of AC in E. coli demonstrated that the molecular weight of AC was as same as prediction. Subsequently, we established the stable expression lines in Arabidopsis. The physiological analysis of transgenic plants indicated that the overexpression of AC in plant reduced the sensitivity of plant to ABA, suggesting that AC acted as a new signal factor in ABA signal transduction pathway.

Preliminary Study on Differential Expression of Wheat Leaf Rust |Resistance Gene Lr38

YAN Hong-fei, YANG Wen-xiang, ZHANG Wei-hong, LIU Da-qun

2007, 9(3):  118-120. 

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Leaf rust is one of the most important diseases in wheat throughout the world. The use of resistant cultivars is the most economical, effective and safest method in leaf rust disease control. Up to date now, 55 leaf rust resistance genes have been formally named, but most of them have lost resistance against leaf rust. The resistance gene Lr38 derived from Agropyron intermedium, expressed high resistant levels for leaf rust disease. The study analyzed the differentially expressed bands between the leaf rust resistance gene Lr38 and Thatcher. A 425 bp band had been found by cloning and sequencing, which maybe related with the leaf rust resistance gene.