大田小麦旗叶衰老过程中的光合作用及其抗氧化代谢研究

小麦是我国的重要粮食作物，小麦籽粒产量的形成主要来自小麦旗叶的光合同化产物，但是，小麦籽粒的灌浆时期正好伴随着旗叶的衰老过程，因此，研究小麦旗叶在衰老期间的光合作用有着重要意义。同时，光合器官也是产生活性氧的重要部位，如何消除衰老叶片中的活性氧，保证衰老旗叶光合作用的进行也有着重要意义。本文对衰老旗叶在衰老过程中的光合作用和抗氧化代谢进行了较为全面的研究。结果如下： 1．在大田小麦衰老旗叶中叶绿素含量，光合速率和RuBPCase活性随着衰老的进程而逐渐降低。但是在衰老过程中光系统II最大光化学效率（Fv/Fm），实际光系统II量子效率，光化学焠灭以及开放的光系统II激发能的利用效率在衰老初期和中期几乎不变，而到衰老晚期急剧下降。非光化学焠灭在衰老初期和中期也是几乎没有明显变化，到衰老晚期迅速上升。光系统II捕光色素复合体在衰老叶片中的下降要慢于光系统II核心和光系统I的下降。这些结果说明衰老叶片中，光系统II在叶绿素含量和光合速率和RuBPCase活性降低的情况下依然保持着完整的功能，而实际光系统II量子效率的下降是由于光系统II反应中心的关闭和光能热耗散的提高引起的。 2．叶黄素循环库随着衰老进程逐渐增加，叶黄素循环的脱环氧化状态也是逐渐增加。由于叶黄素循环在光能热耗散中有着重要贡献，这表明在衰老叶片中光能热耗散的提高与叶黄素循环在衰老叶片中的提高有关。 3．在衰老过程中，小麦旗叶的MDA，抗坏血酸含量以及其与脱氢抗坏血酸比值逐渐增加，谷胱甘肽含量逐渐降低，这说明在衰老叶片中，主要是抗坏血酸作为活性氧清除剂。 4． 分别以不同单位表示抗氧化代谢中各种酶的活性，这些酶包括：脱氢抗坏血酸还原酶，单脱氢抗坏血酸还原酶，抗坏血酸过氧化酶，谷胱甘肽还原酶，过氧化氢酶和超氧化物岐化酶。结果表明：以每克鲜重为单位表示的酶活随着衰老逐渐降低，而以每毫克蛋白表示的酶活都随着衰老逐渐升高，表现趋势为衰老初期小幅度变化，衰老晚期大幅度变化。同时，测定结果表明小麦旗叶衰老过程中的蛋白含量降低。这些说明在衰老过程中抗氧化酶的降解速度可能慢于其他蛋白的降解速度，相对提高了消除活性氧的能力。 5．对大田小麦开花期，衰老中期，衰老晚期的旗叶光合作用日变化作了较为系统的研究。结果表明，在小麦旗叶衰老的三个时期，叶绿素含量和Chl a/b比值以及叶黄素循环库在一天中变化不明显。光合速率随着光强增大而提高，在中午表现出明显的光抑制。光系统II最大光化学效率，实际光系统II量子效率，光化学焠灭和开放的光系统II激发能的利用效率在中午强光下较明显的降低，非光化学焠灭在中午强光下升高。它们的变化幅度都是在开花期和衰老中期较小或者几乎没有变化，而在衰老晚期旗叶中变化幅度明显增大。叶黄素脱环氧化状态随一天中光强的增大而增大，且在衰老晚期叶片中变化幅度最大。这说明在强光条件下，衰老叶片中光系统II仍然维持着完整的功能，这种功能的维持可能与高光强下光系统II的关闭和叶黄素循环参与的光能热耗散的增加有关。 6．对开花期，衰老中期，衰老晚期的旗叶抗氧化物日变化的研究发现：抗坏血酸含量和ASC/DASC都是在衰老晚期中午强光条件下有较明显的升高，在早晨和傍晚弱光条件下其值较低。脱氢抗坏血酸含量和ASC+DASC含量在一天中未表现出明显的变化规律。GSH＋GSSG，GSH和GSH/GSSG有相似的变化规律，即在衰老的三个时期都表现出在一天的中午强光下的值比早晨和傍晚弱光条件下要高。GSSG在一天几乎不变。对开花期，衰老中期，衰老晚期旗叶的抗氧化酶日变化的研究发现：在开花期和衰老中期，DHAR活性一天中变化不大;在衰老晚期，其活性在中午强光条件下显著上升，而早晨和下午光强较弱的条件下，活性相对较低。ASPX, MDHAR, CAT和GR活性变化与DHAR类似。SOD活性在一天中变化不明显。结果表明，强光促进了抗氧化代谢中抗坏血酸的再生，特别在严重衰老叶片中与抗坏血酸再生有关的酶都在中午强光下有显著提高。严重衰老叶片中其他抗氧化酶在强光下，也表现出显著的提高，在衰老叶片中抗氧化系统提高了消除活性氧的能力，特别是在强光下，抗氧化系统有着重要的作用。

Phylogenetic relationships among two species of golden monkey and three species of leaf monkey inferred from rDNA variation

Restriction maps of rDNA repeats of five species of Colobinae and three outgroup taxa, Hylobates leucogenys, Macaca mulatta, and Macaca irus, were constructed using 15 restriction endonucleases and cloned 18S and 28S rRNA gene probes. The site variation between Rhinopithecus roxellana and Rhinopithecus bieti is comparable to that between Presbytis francoisi and Presbytis phayrei, implying that R. bieti is a valid species rather than a subspecies of R. roxellana. Phylogenetic analysis on the 47 informative sites supports the case for Rhinopithecus being an independent genus and closely related to Presbytis. Furthermore, branch lengths of the tree seem to support the hypothesis that the leaf monkeys share some ancestral traits as well as some automorphic characters.

A phylogeny of Chinese leaf monkeys using mitochondrial ND3-ND4 gene sequences

The phylogeny of Chinese leaf monkeys, especially the snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus), has not been thoroughly investigated using molecular sequence data, perhaps due to their rarity in the wild and their poor representation in institutional collections. Despite several proposed classifications, systematic relationships of these species remain poorly defined and this has hindered their conservation. To clarify the phylogenetic relationships of the leaf monkey clade in China, we sequenced the mitochondrial ND3, ND4L, ND4, tRNA(Arg), tRNA(His), tRNA(Ser), and tRNA(Leu) genes for Rhinopithecus bieti, R. roxellana, Trachypithecus francoisi, T. f. leucocephalus, and T. phayrei as well as Pygathrix nemaeus and Colobus guereza. We included a rotal of 2252 characters for each individual, excluding gaps in primary sequences. Our interpretation of the results from character- and distance-based phylogenetic analyses suggest that (1) Pygathrix nemaeus is sister to Rhinopithecus rather than to Trachypithecus though it is quite divergent from the former; (2) the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey, Rhinopithecus bieti, represents a valid species; (3) the white-headed leaf monkey is not a distinct species, but instead is a subspecies of Trachypithecus francoisi (T. f. leucocephalus), though it should still be considered a separate evolutionarily significant unit (ESU); and (4) because two individuals of the Phayrei's leaf monkey, T. phayrei, are genetically distinct from one another, a more extensive revision of the taxonomy of this putative species in China is needed. These results, plus ongoing work on the molecular systematics of the entire Asian leaf monkey radiation, can provide a sound basis for identifying the appropriate units of conservation for this endangered group of primates.

Adaptive evolution of a duplicated pancreatic ribonuclease gene in a leaf-eating monkey

Although the complete genome sequences of over 50 representative species have revealed the many duplicated genes in all three domains of life(1-4), the roles of gene duplication in organismal adaptation and biodiversity are poorly understood. In addition,

Pseudogenization of the tumor-growth promoter angiogenin in a leaf-eating monkey

Physiological functions of human genes may be studied by gene-knockout experiments in model organisms such as the mouse. This strategy relies on the existence of one-to-one gene orthology between the human and mouse. When lineage-specific gene duplication occurs and paralogous genes share a certain degree of functional redundancy, knockout mice may not provide accurate functional information on human genes. Angiogenin is a small protein that stimulates blood-vessel growth and promotes tumor development. Humans and related primates only have one angiogenin gene, while mice have three paralogous genes. This makes it difficult to generate angiogenin-knockout mice and even more difficult to interpret the genotype-phenotype relation from such animals should they be generated. We here show that in the douc langur (Pygathrix nemaeus), an Asian leaf-eating colobine monkey, the single-copy angiogenin gene has a one-nucleotide deletion in the sixth codon of the mature peptide, generating a premature stop codon. This nucleotide deletion is found in five unrelated individuals sequenced, and therefore is likely to have been fixed in the species. Five colobine species that are closely related to the douc langur have intact angiogenin genes, suggesting that the pseudogenization event was recent and unique to the douc langur lineage. This natural knockout experiment suggests that primate angiogenin is dispensable even in the wild. Further physiological studies of douc largurs may offer additional information on the role of this cancer-related gene in normal physiology of primates, including humans. Our findings also provide a strong case for the importance of evolutionary analysis in biomedical studies of gene functions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Phylogenetic incongruence between nuclear and mitochondrial markers in the Asian colobines and the evolution of the langurs and leaf monkeys

Evidence of incongruence between mitochondrial and nuclear gene trees is now becoming documented with increasing frequency. Among the Old World monkeys, this discordance has been well demonstrated in the Cercopithecinae, but has not yet been investigated