What are the closest relatives of the hot-spring snakes (Colubridae, Thermophis), the relict species endemic to the Tibetan Plateau?

We conducted phylogenetic analyses to identify the closest related living relatives of the Xizang and Sichuan hot-spring snakes (T baileyi and T. zhaoermii) endemic to the Tibetan Plateau, using mitochondrial DNA sequences (cyt b, ND4) from eight specimen

Structure-property relationship of phenoxynaphthacenequinones and their relatives

Like 6-phenoxy-5,12-naphthacenequinone (1), 6-[4-(2-( 8-hydroxyphenyl) isopropyl)phenoxy]-5, 12-naphthacenequinone (2) and 6-naphthyloxynaphthacenequinone (6) showed normal photochromism, The relative initial rates of trans to ana photoconversion were in the order: 1, 100; 2, 37; 6, 21, 6-[4-(Phenylazo)phenoxyl-5,12-naphthacenequinone (3), 6-[4-(p-ethoxyphenylazo) phenoxy]-5,12-naphthacenequinone (4), 6-[4-(p-nitrophenylazo)phenoxy]-5,12-naph cenequinone (5) had only slight W-induced photochromism for the phenoxynaphthacenequinone photochrome. 6-(2-Nitrosonaphthyloxy)-5,12-naphthacenequinone (7) exhibited no photochromism and underwent irreversible photoreaction.

Evolutionary trends of the mitochondrial lineage differentiation in species of genera Martes and Mustela

We compared partial sequences (402 bp) of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene in 68 individuals of martens (Martes), weasels (Mustela) and their relatives from the Northern Hemisphere to identify the modes of geographic differentiation in each species. We then compared complete sequences (1140 bp) of the gene in 17 species of the family Mustelidae to know the spatial and temporal modes of speciation, constructing linearized trees with transversional substitutions for deeper lineage divergences and with transversions and transitions for younger lineages. Our data suggested that these lineages of Martes and Mustela differentiated in a stepwise fashion with five radiation stages from the generic divergences (stage I) to the intraspecific divergences (stage V), during the last 10 or 20 million years as the fossil evidence suggests. In the lineage of Martes, the first offshoots are of Martes flavigula, M. pennanti, and Gulo gulo (stage II), the second is M. foina (stage III), and the third are M. americana, M. martes, M. melampus, and M. zibellina (stage IV). The divergence of the lineages of Mustela is likely to have taken place concurrently with the radiations of the Martes. These divergence processes are attributable in part to the geographic allocation along the two continents, North America and Eurasia, as well as among peripheral insular domains, such as Taiwan and the Japanese Islands. In addition, the Eurasian continent itself was shown to have been involved in the species diversification in the martens and weasels.

The Acquisition of an Inheritable 50-bp Deletion in the Human mtDNA Control Region Does Not Affect the mtDNA Copy Number in Peripheral Blood Cells

The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region is believed to play an important biological role in mtDNA replication. Large deletions in this region are rarely found, but when they do occur they might be expected to interfere with the replication of the molecule, thus leading to a reduction of mtDNA copy number. During a survey for mtDNA sequence variations in 5,559 individuals from the general Chinese population and 2,538 individuals with medical disorders, we identified a 50-bp deletion (m.298_347del50) in the mtDNA control region in a member of a healthy Han Chinese family belonging to haplogroup B4c1b2, as suggested by complete mtDNA genome sequencing. This deletion removes the conserved sequence block II (CSBII; region 299-315) and the replication primer location (region 317-321). However, quantification of the mtDNA copy number in this subject showed a value within a range that was observed in 20 healthy subjects without the deletion. The deletion was detected in the hair samples of the maternal relatives of the subject and exhibited variable heteroplasmy. Our current observation, together with a recent report for a benign 154-bp deletion in the mtDNA control region, suggests that the control of mtDNA replication may be more complex than we had thought. Hum Mutat 31:538-543, 2010. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Response Specificity to Advertisement Vocalization in the Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis)

Stringency in the identification of conspecific call properties is essential among sympatric species to ensure conspecific mating, as the risk of improper recognition and heterospecific mating is high. In this study we investigated the basic signal structure required for intraspecies communication in the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis), a species that has no relatives living in sympatry, by playback of signals modified in the temporal (truncating original bellows with first 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or last 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 portion) or frequency domain (with low- or high-pass filters at frequencies 100, 250, 500 and 1000 Hz), or by reversal of natural bellows. The playback experiments revealed that relatively large modifications in bellow temporal or frequency structure failed to impair Chinese alligators' bellowing behavior; even reversed bellows effectively evoked a positive response. In general, the first half of the bellow in temporal domain and frequencies below 500 Hz were critical for behavioral induction, while the last half of the bellow in temporal domain and frequencies above 500 Hz failed to produce a single positive response, implying a potential functional signal redundancy. The observed high tolerance to bellow variations in Chinese alligators may be an evolutionary adaptation to (1) the acoustic constraints of propagation imposed by dense vegetative habitats; or (2) a lack of selection pressure due to the low risk of incorrect conspecific recognition and heterospecific mating.

Phylogenetic relationships of Danio within the order cypriniformes: A framework for comparative and evolutionary studies of a model species

The evolutionary relationships of species of Danio and the monophyly and phylogenetic placement of the genus within the family Cyprinidae and subfamily Rasborinae provide fundamentally important phyloinformatics necessary for direct evaluations of an array of pertinent questions in modern comparative biology. Although the genus Danio is not one of the most diverse within the family, Danio rerio is one of the most important model species in biology. Many investigations have used this species or presumed close relatives to address specific questions that have lasting impact on the hypothesis and theory of development in vertebrates. Largely lacking from this approach has been a holistic picture of the exact phylogenetic or evolutionary relationships of this species and its close relatives. One thing that has been learned over the previous century is that many organismal attributes (e.g., developmental pathways, ecologies, behaviors, speciation) are historically constrained and their origins and functions are best explained via a phylogenetic approach. Herein, we provide a molecular evaluation of the phylogenetic placement of the model species Danio rerio within the genus Danio and among hypothesized closely related species and genera. Our analysis is derived from data using two nuclear genes (RAG1, rhodopsin) and five mitochondrial genes (ND4, ND4L, ND5, COI, cyt b) evaluated using parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian analyses. The family Cyprinidae is resolved as monophyletic but the subfamily Rasborinae (priority over Danioinae) is an unnatural assemblage. Danio is identified as a monophyletic group sister to a clade inclusive of the genera Chela, Microrasbora, Devario, and Inlecypris, not Devario nor Esomus as hypothesized in previous studies. Danio rerio is sister to D. kyathit among the species of Danio evaluated in this analysis. Microrasbora and Rasbora are non-monophyletic assemblages; however, Boraras is monophyletic.

水稻同源四倍体三系法杂种优势利用研究

水稻是重要的粮食作物，其产量的增加和品质的改良都是关系国计民生的大事。就我国现阶段的国情而言，水稻产量在现有水平上稳步提升仍是未来十几年甚至几十年农业生产最重要的目标之一。尽管根据“超级杂交水稻育种”的战略设想和水稻育种实践，通过不断地改进育种技术可望在更高的产量水平上进行水稻杂种优势利用，在稻属植物内还具有很大的产量潜力可以挖掘。然而，仅仅从现有的种质基础出发，要更大幅度提高水稻单产，实现“超级杂交稻”的目标也存在一些困难：现有的推广品种是二倍体，尽管种类众多，但是其基因组的来源相对单一；同时，水稻基因组DNA含量也是作物中最少的，基因组内寻求开发潜力有一定困难；水稻作为C3植物，光合利用效率不高也是制约水稻产量提高的因素之一。因此，寻求常规手段以外的技术突破或者方法创新，是实现“超级杂交稻”的目标的迫切需求。本研究利用秋水仙素能抑制细胞分裂中纺锤丝的收缩、使细胞染色体加倍的作用，对水稻幼穗诱导的愈伤组织细胞进行加倍，并分化出再生植株；创制出水稻同源四倍体新的种质材料，在此基础上选育水稻同源四倍体雄性不育三系材料，并实现水稻同源四倍体的三系配套，开展水稻同源四倍体杂种优势利用和四倍体杂交水稻选育研究，建立水稻同源四倍体杂种优势利用的新技术体系。这不仅有助于倍性水平杂种优势的开拓和利用，同时也将为我国新世纪“超级稻”育种研究开辟一条新的技术途径。 水稻幼穗诱导愈伤组织并分化成苗是一项成熟、简单的组织培养技术。本研究以普通二倍体水稻亲本为材料，用秋水仙素进行水稻的多倍体化诱导，创制同源四倍体水稻三系亲本材料并对其进行鉴定。多倍体化以秋水仙素诱导的愈伤组织培养为基础，研究不同秋水仙素浓度梯度和愈伤组织诱导培养基组合对诱导四倍体植株的影响。结果表明在MS+2,4 D 1.0mg/L+ KT0.2mg/L+ IAA0.2mg/L 和500mg/L的秋水仙素处理下，水稻愈伤组织染色体加倍（有最高的效率）效果较好，平均加倍频率可达25.26%，其中，材料CDR22和IR26诱导较易成功，加倍频率分别达到75%和26.5%；相对材料94109 1.3%加倍频率和冈46B 10.8%加倍频率，诱导率差异极显著。 对水稻四倍体材料进行了形态学鉴定结果表明，与二倍体水稻对照相比其株高、穗长、花粉育性等主要农艺性状，确定四倍体材料在穗长和千粒重两方面极显著提高，种子的长度和宽度也显著增长。对花粉育性鉴定，确认水稻四倍体不育系材料仍为不育，保持系材料自交和杂交可育，恢复系材料自交和杂交可育。对四倍体材料进行细胞形态、染色体数目等方面进行细胞学鉴定，经核型分析表明水稻四倍体材料具有48条染色体，是二倍体水稻的两倍。水稻四倍体材料根尖分生组织细胞与二倍体的根尖分生组织细胞相比，细胞体积、细胞核和核仁显著增大。四倍体三系材料在细胞有丝分裂中期均可规则排列在赤道板，并能均等地移向两极；后期观察中没有发现染色体分离滞后现象，分裂末期细胞能够形成大小相对均一的子细胞。水稻同源四倍体三系材料细胞分裂未见异常，植株生长发育正常。 从1996年至2006年，针对结实率、有效分蘖、着粒数和穗长等主要农艺性状，通过系谱选育的方法，对培育的同源四倍体水稻亲本材料进行了连续选择和改良，取得较好成效。表现为结实率的改良效果极佳，所有改良材料的平均结实率均呈上升趋势，如D237（29.70％→72.70％）、DTB（19.55％→53.21％）等。有效分蘖总体呈现上升趋势，但在不同的年份，如1998和2002存在较大的负向波动。部分材料改良效果明显，如D19B（5.87→13.50）、D什香 (7.00→12.00)等；同时一些材料如DTB和D明恢63虽然总体略有提高，但在不同的年份波动很大，因此存在较大改良阻力，原因还有待进一步研究。着粒数的改良上升趋势比较显著，除保持系的DTB之外，其余材料的平均着粒数有显著提高。穗长的改良阻力较大，虽然不同材料总体上有所提高，但效果并不显著，并且不同年份有较大负向波动（2001）。此外还对株高、剑叶长等性状也进行了选择，但效果不显著，原因有待进一步提高。同源四倍体材料产量相关性状遗传改良幅度不一致，保持系和恢复系间的遗传改良效果也存在差异。这为同源四倍体水稻的进一步利用打下了良好的基础。 籼稻和粳稻亚种间杂交及杂种优势利用的主要障碍就是其低的结实率。而同源四倍体杂交水稻的研究为提高杂交水稻的杂种优势利用创造了新的途径。本研究通过随机区组设计方案，挑选性状优良的二倍体水稻材料，包括雄性不育系，保持系和恢复系进行秋水仙素诱导加倍，从而获得同源四倍体水稻对应的三系材料。利用选育的优良水稻同源四倍体三系材料，配制7个杂交组合，杂交F1代与其恢复系亲本进行比较，用于计算超亲优势（HB）；而杂交F1代与生产上大面积推广的二倍体杂交品种汕优63进行比较，用于计算杂种优势。结果显示，同源四倍体杂交水稻的超亲优势表现为：每株有效穗变化幅度为1.4%至105.9%，总粒数为0.5%至74.3%，每穗实粒数为17.6%至255.7%，结实率为9.6%至130.4%。这些农艺性状的改良使得这7个杂种F1的理论产量的超亲优势高达64.8%至672.7%。小区试验中四倍体杂交水稻组合T461A/T4002和T461A/T4193分别比二倍体对照汕优63提高46.3%和38.3%以上，除一个品种以外所有品种产量均接近或高于汕优63的产量。同源四倍体水稻强大的杂种优势表明，亚种间杂交育性低的问题可通过四倍体化及强化选择来解决。此外，同源四倍体杂交水稻器官的巨大性也是其产量提高的有利因素，水稻同源四倍体三系杂种优势利用研究具有一定的理论价值和商业生产潜力。 Rice is one of the major food crops, the improvement of the production and quality of it is an important thing related to the people's livelihood. On China's current national conditions, steadily increase of the rice yield based on the current level is still one of the most important goals in the next decade or even decades of agricultural production. According to the "super hybrid rice breeding" the strategic and rice breeding practice, improvement of the use of hybrid rice heterosis through continuous improvements in breeding technology is expected to get a higher level of rice yield, there are also a great yield potential can be exploited. However, there are also some difficulties to increase rice yield obviously and implement the goal of "super hybrid rice" based on the existing germplasm: Rice varieties in promotion are diploid, although there are many varieties, but their genome are from a comparatively single source; Meanwhile, the rice genome DNA are the least among the crops, it is difficult to exploit the development potential within the genome; Rice as C3 plants, photosynthetic efficiency is not high, it is one of the factors constraint rice yield. Therefore, seeking technological breakthroughs or innovative methods different from conventional means is the urgent needs to reach the target of "super hybrid rice". Using colchicine inhibit spindle contraction during cell division, double the cell chromosome, we induced callus cells from rice panicle to be doubled, and differentiated regeneration; we created a new autotetraploid rice germplasm material, and on that basis we bred male sterility three line autotetraploid rice materials, and the achieved the three line rice autotetraploid matchmaking, researched in autotetraploid rice heterosis usage and tetraploid hybrid rice breeding, constituted a new technology system of autotetraploid hybrid rice heterosis utilization. This not only helps the tetraploid rice heterosis exploration and use, but also inaugurates a new technical means for China in the new century "super rice" breeding research. We chose ordinary diploid rice as materials, using colchicine to induce the polyploidization, created the autotetraploid rice three-line materials and identified them. The polyploidization was based on the colchicine-induced callus tissue culture, and we experimented different colchicine concentrations and culture mediums to induce tetraploid plants, confirmed that the optimal concentration for inducement was 500 mg/L, the average induce rate was 25.26 %. Among all the materials, CDR22 and IR26 had higher induced rate; in contrary, 94109 and GANG46B had lower induced rate, the difference was significant. Autotetraploid materials was identified of both morphological and cytological, compared plant height, length of pollen sterility, and other major agronomic traits with a diploid rice as the control plant, identified that the autotetraploid materials had very significant advantages in ear length and thousand-grain weight, as well as the size of the seeds. Cytology identification included observation of the cell morphology, the number of chromosomes, and karyotype analysis on the autotetraploid materials confirmed that their chromosome number was 48, twice of the diploid rice. Mitoses in the three lines were common: chromosomes arrayed normally in metaphase and separated balanced into the two poles, chromosome moved without lagging in anaphase and daughter cells normally formed in telophase except one. It has been proved that tetraploid rice has normal meiosis as their diploid relatives, which usually including series of sub-phases as interphase, prophase I (five sub-phases), prophase II, metaphase I, II, anaphase I, II and telophase I, II. However, abnormal phenomena, such as formation of tetravalent, trivalent and univalent, chromosome lagging and so on, which would finally block meiosis. Configurations of chromosome in metaphaseⅠwere versatile in structure and form accept the bivalent. That condition varied in different strain, suggesting more complex paring configurations and more versatile genetic characters in tetraploid rice. All these abnormalities in meiosis contributed to low fertility of gamete and might consequently resulted in low seed setting. Successive selection and improvement on seed set, productive tiller per plant, total grains per panicle, panicle length and so on had been carried out from 1996 to 2006. The raise of seed sets was significant in both restorers and maintainers. Seed sets of some strains were improved more significantly than others, for example D237（29.70％→72.70％）、DTB（19.55％→53.21％）and et al.. Productive tiller per plant was improved to some extant. The tendency of improvement was rising on the whole but changed in some years such as 1998 and 2002. Part of the stains increased greatly, such as D19B（5.87→13.50）、Dshixiang (7.00→12.00) and so on, but some strains including DTB and Dminghui63 only increased little and decreased in some years by unknown reason. Total grains per panicle increased significantly and all strains except DTB increased. Improvement of panicle length termed to be hard. Different strains showed different capacities for improvement and floating existed in different years for example 2001. It has been proved that other agronomical traits including plant length, flag leaf length and so on could be improved but not significantly by selection also. In a word, agronomical traits could be raised by successive selection that is prerequisite for further utility of autotetraploid rice. Poor fertility is the main barrier for utilizing heterosis between the two rice (Oryza stiva L.) sub-species, indica and japonica. Recently, the development of autotetraploid hybrids (2n=4x=48) has been suggested as a new method for increasing heterosis in hybrid rice. Using standard experimental protocols, the elite diploid rice male sterile, maintainer, and restorer lines were colchine-doubled and autotetraploid counterparts were obtained. Seven resulting hybrids were analyzed for heterobeltiosis (HB), where the F1 was compared to the male parent, and the degree of heterosis, where the F1 was compared to the diploid commercial hybrid, Shanyou 63. The HB among the autotetraploid hybrids ranged from 1.4 to 105.9% for the productive panicles per plant, 0.5 to 74.3% for total kernels per panicle, 17.6 to 255.7% for filled kernels per panicle, and 9.6 to 130.4% for seed set. Improvements in these yield components resulted in the HB for kernel yield ranging from 64.8 to 672.7% among the seven hybrids. Hybrids T461A/T4002 and T461A/T4193 yielded 46.3 and 38.3% more, respectively than Shanyou 63, and all other hybrids but one yielded the same or more than Shanyou 63. The high heterosis for yield suggests that hybrid sterility between two rice sub-species may be overcome by using tetraploid lines followed by intensive selection. Also, the gigantic features of the autotetraploid hybrids may establish a plant structure able to support the higher yield.

小麦抗禾谷孢囊线虫（ Heterodera avenae）相关基因的研究

禾谷孢囊线虫严重影响禾谷类作物的产量，在小麦中由禾谷孢囊线虫引起的产量损失可达30-100%。尤其在澳大利亚、欧洲、印度和中东危害严重，目前禾谷孢囊线虫已成为危害我国作物的主要病源。控制禾谷孢囊线虫的方法主要有：作物轮作、杀线虫剂、寄主抗性等等，其中基因工程方法培育抗线虫小麦品种被认为是最经济有效的方法。分离抗禾谷类孢囊线虫基因对揭示抗性基因结构与功能及其表达调控具有重要意义。 尽管小麦是重要的粮食作物，在小麦中已发现的抗禾谷孢囊线虫的基因很少，而比其近缘属如节节麦、易变山羊草、偏凸山羊草中含有丰富的抗源。目前已鉴定出禾谷孢囊线虫抗性位点Cre，并发现了9个禾谷孢囊线虫抗性基因(Cre1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and R) ，其中只有Cre1和Cre8直接从普通小麦中获得。从节节麦中获得的Cre3基因能最有效的控制线虫数量，其次是Cre1和Cre8。这些基因的克隆对于了解禾谷孢囊线虫抗性机制及进一步的育种应用都是非常关键的。然而，目前为止仅有Cre3基因通过图位克隆的方法从节节麦中被分离得到。该基因已被克隆得到的多数线虫抗性基因一样均属于核苷酸结合位点区（NBS）－亮氨酸重复序列区（LRR）基因家族。目前，已有很多抗性基因被分离，这些已知的NBS-LRR类抗性基因的保守序列为应用PCR的方法克隆新的抗性基因提供了可能。 因此本课题的目的是采用保守区同源克隆、3′RACE 和5′RACE 等方法从抗禾谷孢囊线虫小麦-易变山羊草小片段易位系E10 中克隆小麦抗禾谷孢囊线虫基因全序列，进而通过半定量PCR 和荧光定量PCR 研究该基因的表达模式。同时通过mRNA 差别显示技术和任意引物PCR（RAP-PCR）技术分离克隆植物禾谷孢囊线虫抗性基因及其相关基因，为阐明植物抗病性分子机制以及改良作物抗病性和作物育种提供基础，为通过分子标记辅助育种和基因工程方法实现高效、定向转移抗病基因到优良小麦品种奠定了重要的理论和物质基础。主要研究结果： 1． 本实验根据此前从抗禾谷孢囊线虫材料E-10 扩增得到的与来自节节麦的抗禾谷孢囊线虫Cre3 基因及其他的NBS-LRR 类抗性基因的NBS 和LRR 保守区序列设计了两对特异性引物，从E10 中扩增到532bp 和1175bp 的两个目标条带，它们有一个32bp 的共同序列，连接构成总长为1675bp 的NBS-LRR 编码区（命名为RCCN）。根据RCCN设计引物，利用NBS-LRR区序列设计引物，通过5′RACE 和3′RACE 技术采用3′-Full RACE Core Set(TaKaRa)和5'-Full RACE Kit (TaKaRa)试剂盒，反转录后通过嵌套引物GSP1 和GSP2 分别进行两轮基因特异性扩增，分别将NBS_LRR 区向5′端和3′端延伸了1173bp 和449bp，并包含了起始密码子和终止密码子。根据拼接的得到的序列重新设计引物扩增进行全基因扩增的结果与上面获得的一致。拼接后得到全长2775 bp 的基因序列（记作CreZ, GenBank 号：EU327996）。CreZ 基因包括完整的开放阅读框，全长2775 bp，编码924个氨基酸。序列分析表明它与已知的禾谷孢囊线虫抗性基因Cre3的一致性很高，并且它与已经报到的NBS-LRR 类疾病抗性基因有着相同的保守结构域。推测CreZ基因可能是一个新的NBS-LRR 类禾谷孢囊线虫抗性基因，该基因的获得为通过基因工程途径培育抗禾谷孢囊线虫小麦新品种奠定了基础，并为抗禾谷孢囊线虫基因的调控表达研究提供了参考。 2． 通过半定量PCR和SYBR Green荧光定量PCR技术对CreZ基因的相对表达模式进行了研究。以α-tubulin 2作为参照，采用半定量PCR 分析CreZ 基因在不同接种时期1d, 5d, 10, 15d 的E-10的根和叶的的表达情况。在内参扩增一致的条件下，CreZ 在E-10的根部随着侵染时间的增加表达量有明显的增加，在没有侵染的E-10的根部其表达量没有明显变化，而在叶中没有检测表达，说明该基因只在抗性材料的根部表达。SYBR Green定量PCR分析接种前后E10根部基因CreZ基因的表达水平为检测CreZ基因的表达建立了一套灵敏、可靠的SYBRGreen I 荧光定量PCR 检测方法。接种禾谷孢囊线虫后E10根内CreZ基因的相对表达水平显著高于接种前。随接种时间的延长持续增加，最终CreZ基因的相对表达量达到未接种的对照植株的10.95倍。小麦禾谷孢囊线虫抗性基因CreZ的表达量与胁迫呈正相关，表明其与小麦的的禾谷孢囊线虫抗性密切相关，推测CreZ基因可能是一个新的禾谷孢囊线虫候选抗性基因。 3． 针对小麦基因组庞大、重复序列较多，禾谷孢囊线虫抗性基因及其相关基因的片断难以有效克隆的问题，通过mRNA 差别显示技术及RAP-PCR 技术分离克隆植物禾谷孢囊线虫抗性及其相关基因。试验最终得到154 条差异表达条带，将回收得到的差异条带的二次PCR 扩增产物经纯化后点到带正电的尼龙膜上，进行反向Northern 杂交筛选，最终筛选得到102 个阳性差异点。将其中81 个进行测序，并将序列提交到Genbank 中的dbEST 数据库，分别获得登录号(FE192210 -FE192265，FE193048- FE193074 )。序列比对分析发现，其中26 个序列与已知功能的基因序列同源；有28 条EST 序列在已有核酸数据库中未找到同源已知基因和EST，属新的ESTs 序列；另外27 个EST 序列与已知核酸数据库中的ESTs 具有一定相似性，但功能未知。其所得ESTs 序列补充了Genbank ESTs 数据库，为今后进一步开展抗禾谷类孢囊线虫基因研究工作打下了基础。结合本试验功能基因的相关信息，对小麦接种禾谷孢囊线虫后产生的抗性机制进行了探讨。接种禾谷孢囊线虫后植物在mRNA 水平上的应答是相当复杂的，同时植物的抗病机制是一个复杂的过程，涉及到多个代谢途径的相互作用。 The cereal cyst nematode (CCN), Heterodera avenae Woll, causes severe yieldreductions in cereal crops. The losses caused by CCN can be up to 30-100% in somewheat fields. At present, cereal cyst nematode has become the major disease sourcein China and it also damaged heavily in Australia, Europe, India and Middle East.The damage caused by CCN can be mitigated through several methods, includingcrop rotation, nematicide application, cultural practice, host resistance, and others.Of these methods, incorporating resistance genes into wheat cultivars and breedingresistant lines is considered to be the most cost-effective control measure forreducing nematode populations. Although wheat is an economically important crop around the world, far fewergenes resistant to CCN were found in wheat than were detected in its relatives, suchas Aegilops taucchi, Aegilops variabilis and Aegilops ventricosa. Cloning these genesis essential for understanding the mechanism of this resistance and for furtherapplication in breeding. Because of the huge genome and high repeat sequencescontent, the efficient methods to clone genes from cereal crops, are still lacking. A resistance locus, Cre, has been identified and 9 genes resistant to CCN (designatedCre1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and R) have been described, in which Cre1 and Cre8 werederived directly from common wheat. The Cre3 locus, which was derived from Ae.tauschii, has the greatest impact on reducing the number of female cysts, followed byCre1 and Cre8. Cloning these genes is essential for understanding the mechanism ofthis resistance and for further application in breeding. However, to this point, only Cre3, a NBS-LRR disease resistance gene, has been obtained through mappingcloning in Ae. tauschii. The majority of nematode resistance genes cloned so far belong to a super familywhich contains highly conserved nucleotide-binding sites (NBS) and leucine-richrepeat (LRR) domains. To date, many NBS-LRR resistance genes have been isolated.The conserved sequences of these recognized NBS-LRR resistance genes provide thepossibility to isolate novel resistance genes using a PCR-based strategy. The aim of the present study was to clone the resistance gene of CCN fromWheat/Aegilops variabilis small fragment chromosome translocation line E10 whichis resistant to CCN and investigate the espression profiles of this gene withsemi-quantitative PCR and real-time PCR. Another purpose of this study is cloningthe relational resistance gene for CCN by mRNA differential display PCR andRAP-PCR. These works will offer a foundation for disease defence of crop andbreeding and directional transferring resistance gene into wheat with geneengineering. Primary results as following: 1．According to the conversed motif of NBS and LRR region of cereal cystnematode resistance gene Cre3 from wild wheat (Triticum tauschlii) and the knownNBS-LRR group resistance genes, we designed two pairs of specific primers for NBSand LRR region respectively. One band of approximately 530bp was amplified usingthe specific primers for conversed NBS region and one band of approximately 1175bpwas amplified with the specific primers for conversed LRR region. After sequencing,we found that these two sequences included 32bp common nucleotide having 1675bpin total, which was registered as RCCN in the Genbank. Based on the conservedregions of known resistance genes, a NBS-LRR type CCN resistance gene analog wasisolated from the CCN resistant line E-10 of the wheat near isogenic lines (NILs), by5′RACE and 3′ RACE.designated as CreZ (GenBank accession number: EU327996) .It contained a comlete ORF of 2775 bp and encoded 924 amino acids. Sequencecomparison indicated that it shared 92% nucleotide and 87% amino acid identitieswith those of the known CCN-resistance gene Cre3 and it had the same characteristic of the conserved motifs as other established NBS-LRR disease resistance genes. 2． Usingα-tubulin 2 as exoteric reference, semi-quantitative PCR and real-timePCR analysis were conducted. The expression profiling of CreZ indicated that it wasspecifically expressed in the roots of resistant plants and its relative expression levelincreased sharply when the plants were inoculated with cereal cyst nematodes. therelative expression level of the 15days-infected E10 is the 10.95 times as that ofuninfected E10,ultimately. It was inferred that the CreZ gene be a novel potentialresistance gene to CCN. 3．We cloned the relational resistance gene for CCN by mRNA differentialdisplay PCR and arbitrarily primed PCR fingerprinting of RNA from wheat whichpossess huge and high repeat sequence content genomes. Total 154 differentialexpression bands were separated and second amplified by PCR. The products werenylon membrane. The 102 positive clones were filtrated by reverse northern dot blotand 81 of those were sent to sequence. The EST sequences were submitted toGenbank (Genbank accession: FE192210 - FE192265, FE193048 - FE193074). Thesequences alignment analysis indicated 26 of them were identical with known genes;28 were not found identical sequence in nucleic acid database; another 27 ests wereidentical with some known ests, but their functions were not clear. These ESTsenriched Genbank ESTs database and offered foundation for further research ofresistance gene of CCN.

Phylogenetic studies on two strains of Antarctic ice algae based on morphological and molecular characteristics

The taxonomic characterization of two strains of Antarctic ice algae, Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L and Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-W, were analyzed on the basis of morphological and molecular traits. The results indicate that they are the same species and belong to Chlamydomonas (Chlorophyta). According to I SS rDNA and ITS-I sequences they are very close relatives of Chlamydomonas sp. Antarctic 2E9, if not identified as such. They belong to the 'monadina clade', Cd. monadina and Cm. subdivisa as the sister group, on the basis of 18S rDNA sequence. They occur in 'Chlamydomonas clade' according to rbcL sequencing and are close relatives of Cd. kuwadae. The ITS sequences of ICE-L and ICE-W are 1302 base pairs and 1300 base pairs in length, the longest Volvocales ITS sequences ever reported.

Phylogenetic origins of the Himalayan endemic Dolomiaea, Diplazoptilon and Xanthopappus (Asteraceae : Cardueae) based on three DNA regions

Background and Aims It is an enduring question as to the mechanisms leading to the high diversity and the processes producing endemics with unusual morphologies in the Himalayan alpine region. In the present study, the phylogenetic relationships and origins of three such endemic genera were analysed, Dolomiaea, Diplazoptilon and Xanthopappus, all in the tribe Cardueae of Asteraceae.Methods The nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and plastid trnL-F and psbA-trnH regions of these three genera were sequenced. The same regions for other related genera in Cardueae were also sequenced or downloaded from GenBank. Phylogenetic trees were constructed from individual and combined data sets of the three types of sequences using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses.Key Results The phylogenetic tree obtained allowed earlier hypotheses concerning the relationships of these three endemic genera based on gross morphology to be rejected. Frolovia and Saussurea costus were deeply nested within Dolomiaea, and the strong statistical support for the Dolomiaea-Frolovia clade suggested that circumscription of Dolomiaea should be more broadly redefined. Diplazoptilon was resolved as sister to Himalaiella, and these two together are sister to Lipschitziella. The clade comprising these three genera is sister to Jurinea, and together these four genera are sister to the Dolomiaea-Frolovia clade. Xanthopappus, previously hypothesized to be closely related to Carduus, was found to be nested within a well-supported but not fully resolved Onopordum group with Alfredia, Ancathia, Lamyropappus, Olgaea, Synurus and Syreitschikovia, rather than the Cardinis group. The crude dating based on ITS sequence divergence revealed that the divergence time of Dolomiaea-Frolovia from its sister group probably occurred 13.6-12.2 million years ago (Ma), and the divergence times of the other two genera, Xanthopappus and Diplazoptilon, from their close relatives around 5.7-4.7 Ma and 2.0-1.6 Ma, respectively.Conclusions The findings provide an improved understanding of the intergeneric relationships in Cardueae. The crude calibration of lineages indicates that the uplifts of the Qiinghai -Tibetan Plateau since the Miocene might have served as a continuous stimulus for the production of these morphologically aberrant endemic elements of the Himalayan flora.