The construction of a cDNA library enriched for immune genes and the analysis of 7535 ESTs from Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis

Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis is one of the most important aquaculture crustacean species in China. A cDNA library was constructed from hemocytes of E. sinensis challenged with the mixture of Listonella anguillarum and Staphylococcus aureus, and randomly sequenced to collect genomic information and identify genes involved in immune defense response. Single-pass 5' sequencing of 10368 clones yielded 7535 high quality ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) and these ESTs were assembled into 2943 unigenes. BLAST analysis revealed that 1706 unigenes (58.0% of the total) or 4593 ESTs (61.0% of the total) were novel genes that had no significant matches to any protein sequences in the public databases. The rest 1237 unigenes; (42.0% of the total) were closely matched to the known genes or sequences deposited in public databases, which could be classed into 20 or 23 classifications according to "molecular function" or "biological process" respectively based on the Gene Ontology (GO). And 221 unigenes (7.5% of all 2943 unigenes, 17.9% of matched unigenes) or 969 ESTs (12.9% of all 7535 ESTs, 32.9% of matched ESTs) were identified to be immune genes. The relative higher proportion of immune-related genes in the present cDNA library than that in the normal library of E. sinensis and other crustaceans libraries, and the differences and changes in percentage and quantity of some key immune-related genes especially the immune inducible genes between two E. sinensis cDNA libraries may derive from the bacteria challenge to the Chinese mitten crab. The results provided a well-characterized EST resource for the genomics community, gene discovery especially for the identification of host-defense genes and pathways in crabs as well as other crustaceans. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Discovery of immune related factors in Fenneropenaeus chinensis by annotation of ESTs

A total of 10446 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are obtained by a large-scale sequencing of a cDNA library from cephalothorax of adult Fenneropenaeus chinensis. An EST analysis platform was built up based on local computers and bioinformatic techniques were used to annotate these ESTs in order to promptly find possible functional genes, especially for immune related factors. About 4% of the ESTs show similarity to the coding sequences of such factors, including lectin, serine protease, serpin, lysozyme, etc. These ESTs provide a partial profile of the immune system in F. chinensis and useful information for further study on these genes.

Discovery of genes involved in defense/immunity functions in a haemocytes cDNA library from Fenneropenaeus chinensis by ESTs annotation

Crustacean haemocytes play important roles in the host immune response including recognition, phagocytosis, melanization, cytotoxicity and inter-cellular signal communication. Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) analysis is proved to be an efficient approach not only for gene discovery, but also for gene expression profiles performance. In order to further understand the innate immune system and defense mechanisms of Chinese shrimp at molecular level, complementary DNA library is constructed from the haemocyte tissue of Fenneropenaeus chinensis. A total of 2371 cDNA clones are successfully sequenced and the average sequence length is 460 bp. About 50% are identified as orthologs of known genes from other organisms by BLASTx and BLASTn program. By sequences comparability and analysis, 34 important genes including 177 ESTs are identified that may be involved in defense or immune functions in shrimp based on the known knowledge. These genes are categorized into five categories according to their putative functions in shrimp immune system: 13 genes are different types of antimicrobial peptides (AMP, penaeidin, antilipopolysaccharide factor, etc.), and their proportion is about 3 8%; 11 genes belong to prophenoloxidase system (prophenoloxidase, serine proteinase, serine proteinase inhibitor, etc.), and their proportion is about 32%; five genes have high homology with clotting protein (lectin, transglutaminase, etc), and their proportion is about 15%; three genes may be involved in inter-cell signal communication (peroxinectin, integrin), and their proportion is about 9%; two genes have been identified to be chaperone proteins (Hsc70, thioredoxin peroxidase), and their proportion is about 6%. These EST sequences enrich our understanding of the immune genes of F chinensis and will help farther experimental research into immune factors and improve our knowledge of the immune mechanisms of shrimp. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Origin and evolution of new exons in rodents

Gene number difference among organisms demonstrates that new gene origination is a fundamental biological process in evolution. Exon shuffling has been universally observed in the formation of new genes. Yet to be learned are the ways new exons originate and evolve, and how often new exons appear. To address these questions, we identified 2695 newly evolved exons in the mouse and rat by comparing the expressed sequences of 12,419 orthologous genes between human and mouse, using 743,856 pig ESTs as the outgroup. The new exon origination rate is about 2.71 x 10(-3) per gene per million years. These new exons have markedly accelerated rates both of nonsynonymous substitutions and of insertions/ deletions (indels). A much higher proportion of new exons have Kappa(a)/Kappa(s) ratios > 1 (where K-a is the nonsynonymous substitution rate and K-s is the synonymous substitution rate) than K do the old exons shared by human and mouse, implying a role of positive selection in the rapid evolution. The majority of these new exons have sequences unique in the genome, suggesting that most new exons might originate through "exonization" of intronic sequences. Most of the new exons appear to be alternative exons that are expressed at low levels.

Genome-wide identification and characterization of cytochrome P450 monooxygenase genes in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila

Background: Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases play key roles in the metabolism of a wide variety of substrates and they are closely associated with endocellular physiological processes or detoxification metabolism under environmental exposure. To date, however, none has been systematically characterized in the phylum Ciliophora. T. thermophila possess many advantages as a eukaryotic model organism and it exhibits rapid and sensitive responses to xenobiotics, making it an ideal model system to study the evolutionary and functional diversity of the P450 monooxygenase gene family. Results: A total of 44 putative functional cytochrome P450 genes were identified and could be classified into 13 families and 21 sub-families according to standard nomenclature. The characteristics of both the conserved intron-exon organization and scaffold localization of tandem repeats within each P450 family clade suggested that the enlargement of T. thermophila P450 families probably resulted from recent separate small duplication events. Gene expression patterns of all T. thermophila P450s during three important cell physiological stages (vegetative growth, starvation and conjugation) were analyzed based on EST and microarray data, and three main categories of expression patterns were postulated. Evolutionary analysis including codon usage preference, sit-especific selection and gene-expression evolution patterns were investigated and the results indicated remarkable divergences among the T. thermophila P450 genes. Conclusion: The characterization, expression and evolutionary analysis of T. thermophila P450 monooxygenase genes in the current study provides useful information for understanding the characteristics and diversities of the P450 genes in the Ciliophora, and provides the baseline for functional analyses of individual P450 isoforms in this model ciliate species.

Identification of differentially expressed genes from the cross-subfamily cloned embryos derived from zebrafish nuclei and rare minnow enucleated eggs

Cross-species nuclear transfer (NT) has been used to retain the genetic viability of a species near extinction. However, unlike intra-species NT, most embryos produced by cross-species NT were unable to develop to later stages due to incompatible nucleocytoplasmic interactions between the donor nuclei and the recipient cytoplasm from different species. To study the early nucleocytoplasmic interaction in cross-species NT, two laboratory fish species (zebrafish and rare minnow) from different subfamilies were used to generate cross-subfamily NT embryos in the present study. Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) was performed to screen out differentially expressed genes from the forward and reverse subtractive cDNA libraries. After dot blot and real-time PCR analysis, 80 of 500 randomly selective sequences were proven to be differentially expressed in the cloned embryos. Among them, 45 sequences shared high homology with 28 zebrafish known genes, and 35 sequences were corresponding to 22 novel expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Based on functional clustering and literature mining analysis, up-and down-regulated genes in the cross-subfamily cloned embryos were mostly relevant to transcription and translation initiation, cell cycle regulation, protein binding, etc. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the determination of genes involved in the early development of cross-species NT embryos of fish. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of novel EST-SSR markers in common carp by data mining from public EST sequences

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are a source for microsatellite development. In the present study, EST-derived microsatelltes (EST-SSRs) were generated and characterized in the common carp (Cyprinus carpio) by data mining from updated public EST databases and by subsequent testing for polymorphism. About 5.5% (555) of 10,088 ESTs contain repeat motifs of various types and lengths with CA being the most abundant dinucleotide one. Out of the 60 EST-SSRs for which PCR primers were designed, 25 loci showed polymorphism in a common carp population with the alleles per locus ranging from 3 to 17 (mean 7). The observed (H-O) and expected (HE) heterozygosities of these EST-SSRs were 0.13-1.00 and 0.12-0.91, respectively. Six EST-SSR loci significantly deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) expectation, and the remaining 19 loci were in HWE. Of the 60 primer sets, the rates of polymorphic EST-SSRs were 42% in common carp, 17% in crucian carp (Carassius auratus), and 5% in silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), respectively. These new EST-SSR markers would provide sufficient polymorphism for population genetic studies and genome mapping of the common carp and its closely related fishes. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Development of EST-SSRs by an efficient FIASCO-based strategy: A case study in rare minnow (Gobiocyrpis rarus)

Type I markers are useful for comparative mapping and other genetic analyses, but relatively difficult to develop. In the present study a microsatellite (SSR)-enriched cDNA library was constructed for the first time using the fast isolation by AFLP of sequences containing repeats (FIASCO) method in a small fish, Chinese rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus). A total of 97.4% of the expressed sequence tags (ESTs) contained targeted CA-repeats, in which 29 unique EST-SSRs were identified. Ten out of the 28 loci for which primer pairs were designed were polymorphic with alleles ranging from three to seven (mean 4.50). Some of these EST-SSRs can be amplified in other species. These results proved that cDNA-FIASCO is an efficient way to isolate novel EST-SSRs in a fish.

EST-based identification of genes expressed in the hypothalamus of male orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides)

The orange-spotted grouper, Epinephelus coioides, is an important marine aquaculture fish, but its large-scale aquaculture has been hindered by the rarity of natural males because it is a protogynous hermaphroditic fish. Hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad is an important endocrine axis in regulating reproduction and sex differentiation. To reveal the molecular mechanism of hypothalamic physiological functions, we performed he studies on identification of genes expressed in the hypothalamus of male orange-spotted grouper using EST and RT-PCR strategy. A total of 1006 ESTs were sequenced, and 402 (39.96%) clones were identified as known genes and 604 (60.04%) as unknown genes. The 402 clones of known gene products represent transcripts of 18 1 genes. Moreover, the expression patterns of 26 unknown genes were analyzed in various tissues, such as liver, kidney, spleen, fat, heart, muscle, pituitary, hypothalamus, telencephalon, cerebellum, midbrain, medulla oblongata, ovary and testes. Five different categories of expression patterns were observed from them. Several unknown ESTs, such as DN551996, DN551998, DN552082, and DN552070, were detected to be hypothalamus-specific, brains-specific, or hypothalamus and gonad-specific genes. Interestingly, DN551996, not only exhibiting expression differences between ovary and testis, but also showing sex-dependent differences in hypothalamus of grouper, might play significant role in grouper reproduction or sex inversion. Further functional studies on these genes will provide more information on molecule regulation mechanism of sex inversion in groupers. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V All fights reserved.

Development of polymorphic EST markers in Penaeus monodon: applications in penaeid genetics

The objective of this study was to develop type I markers for genome mapping and other genetic studies of Penaeus monodon. Primers were designed based on expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a P monodon cephalothorax cDNA library to amplify 100-300 bp products. 34 of the primer pairs successfully amplified PCR products from genomic DNA. Single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis showed that similar to 30% of the ESTs tested exhibit polymorphism in a test panel of P monodon individuals. Mendelian inheritance of the EST-derived markers has been established in two international reference mapping families of P monodon, and mapping of these markers is in progress. Some ESTs were successfully amplified from other Penaeus species (P. chinensis, P japonicus and P vannamei), indicating that the markers are applicable in cross-species comparison. Two populations of P. japonicus could be differentiated using one of the ESTS. In conclusion, the polymorphic EST markers developed in this study are applicable in genome mapping and population genetic studies of penaeid shrimp. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

新外显子的起源与功能及短同源序列介导转录滑动产生嵌合RNA 的研究

新外显子的起源是一种重要的增加转录组和蛋白质组多样性的分子机制。 对于新外显子及其父本基因的进化和功能特征方面还有很多重要的问题有待于 解决。本研究首先在全基因组水平上鉴定在人和小鼠中产生的新外显子，随后 对这些外显子及其父本基因作进化和功能上的分析。我们发现新外显子倾向于 位于基因的UTR 区域，尤其是5’ UTR 区域，这表明可能有些新外显子的出现 与基因的表达调控相关。我们还发现，产生新外显子的基因具有较高的组织表 达特异性，其基因功能倾向于细胞调控和与外界环境相互作用。通过对外群中 直系同源基因的分析，我们的结果表明进化速率较高的基因更容易获得新的外 显子，纠正了先前认为的获得新外显子会加速基因进化速率的看法。 我们对哺乳类CDYL 基因家族中产生的新外显子进行了具体的进化分析和 功能研究。我们的结果表明CDYL 基因在哺乳类分化前在原先的基因上游区域 获得了一个新的启动子和三个新的外显子。随后在哺乳动物各个支系的分化中， CDYL 基因在小鼠，狗和人中分别独立的进化出一个新的外显子。同源比对的 结果表明，这些新外显子是通过内含子序列的外显子化这一分子机制产生。近 缘物种间的进化速率的计算结果表明这些新产生的外显子具有快速进化的模 式，并且其快速进化可能是由正选择所驱动。在人中，多种突变包括新外显子 的获得，启动子的改变，选择性剪切的发生使得人的CDYL 基因获得了一种新 的编码更长蛋白质的剪切体。在人Hela 细胞系中的实验表明，新产生的蛋白质 与原有的蛋白质相比都具有显著的转录抑制活性，但新的蛋白质的转录抑制活 性较弱，且两者之间存在相互干扰的关系。这一结果表明通过新外显子的获得 产生的新的蛋白质可以丰富原有的基因表达调控体系，使得生物体的调控网络 更加精确。 嵌合RNA 通常认为是由来源于不同的pre-mRNA 的外显子通过反式剪切连 接在一起形成的。这一现象在包括多种动物和植物中被广泛的报道。我们的研 究首先通过大规模表达序列（ESTs）的搜索，在酵母，果蝇，小鼠和人中鉴定 到了大量的嵌合RNA。这一结果表明形成嵌合RNA 在真核生物中是一种普遍 的生物学过程，是一种重要的增加转录组和蛋白质组的多样性的分子机制。对 嵌合RNA 的序列分析表明，仅有<20%的嵌合RNA 在接合处可以找到典型的剪切位点 GU-AG，可以用经典的反式剪切模型来解释其产生机制。然而有意思的 是，我们在大约一半的嵌合RNA 的供体基因之间找到了短的同源序列，这一发 现使我们提出了一种新的分子机制来解释这些嵌合RNA 的形成，我们称之为 “转录滑动”模型。在酵母我们，我们用实验的方法验证了短同源序列对形成嵌 合RNA 的必要性，有力地支持了我们这一模型。

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.

The involvement of HSP22 from bay scallop Argopecten irradians in response to heavy metal stress

Heat shock protein 22 (HSP22) is an important member of small heat shock protein (sHSP) subfamily which plays a key role in the process of protecting cells, facilitating the folding of nascent peptides, and responding to stress. In the present study, the cDNA of HSP22 was cloned from Argopecten irradians (designated as AiHSP22) by rapid amplification cDNA end (RACE) based on the expressed sequence tags (ESTs). The full-length cDNA of AiHSP22 was of 1,112 bp, with an open reading frame of 588 bp encoding a polypeptide of 195 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence of AiHSP22 showed high similarity to previously identified HSP22s. The expression patterns of AiHSP22 mRNA in different tissues and in haemocytes of scallops exposed to Cd2+, Pb2+ or Cu2+ were investigated by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The mRNA of AiHSP22 was constitutively expressed in all examined tissues, including haemocyte, muscle, kidney, gonad, gill and heart. The expression level in heart and muscle was higher than that in other tissues. The mRNA level of AiHSP22 in haemocytes was up-regulated after a 10 days exposure of scallops to Cu2+, Pb2+ and Cd2+. However, the expression of AiHSP22 did not increase linearly along with the rise of heavy metal concentration. Different concentrations of the same metal resulted in different effects on AiHSP22 expression. The sensitive response of AiHSP22 to Cu2+, Pb2+ and Cd2+ stress indicated that it could be developed as an indicator of exposure to heavy metals for the pollution monitoring programs in aquatic environment.

Generation and analysis of 5318 expressed sequence tags from the filamentous sporophyte of Porphyra haitanensis (Rhodophyta)

Porphyra haitanensis T. J. Chang et B. F. Zheng (Bangiales, Rhodophyta) is cultivated in China and widely consumed in Asia. To gain more insight into its physiological and biochemical properties, we generated 5318 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from the sporophyte of P. haitanensis, and upon assembling into a nonredundant set, 2535 sequences were obtained, among which only 32.2% (816) shared certain similarity with published sequences (Nr and KOG). Functional classification of such ESTs revealed that most of the transcripts were related to its conservative biological metabolism, and P. haitanensis most likely possesses cyanide-resistant respiration and a C4-like carbon-fixation pathway, both of which have never been reported in a rhodophyte before. Twenty-eight percent of the nonredundant gene clusters exhibited significant similarity to those from P. yezoensis Ueda sporophytes, and 16 genes up-regulated in P. yezoensis sporophytes were also expressed abundantly in P. haitanensis. Codon usage analysis indicated that exposure to high GC pressure might occur during evolution of P. haitanensis. These findings represent the most extensive collection of ESTs from P. haitanensis to date, and all the ESTs in this study have been submitted to GenBank (accession nos. DN604790-DN608469, EG016226-EG018540).

cDNA cloning and gene expression pattern following bacterial challenge of peroxinectin in Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis

Peroxinectin, a cell-adhesive hemoperoxidase that binds superoxide dismutase and mediates blood cells adhesion and migration in invertebrate, is believed to play an important role in cellular immune reaction. In this study, we reported a new peroxinectin gene homologue from Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis. Based on expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of haemocyte cDNA library, we cloned a 2,611 bps full-length cDNA of peroxinectin gene homologue encoded 801 amino acids. Motif scanning of the predicted polypeptide revealed a peroxidase domain and an integrin binding motif (Lys-Gly-Asp, KGD). Peroxinectin gene expressed constitutively in haemocyte as determined by quantitative real-time RT-PCR, the expression level varied following bacterial challenge. These findings suggested that peroxinectin expression is susceptible to exterior stimulus and maintains at a high expression level during bacterial infection.