Establishment of a normal medakafish spermatogonial cell line capable of sperm production in vitro

Spermatogonia are the male germ stem cells that continuously produce sperm for the next generation. Spermatogenesis is a complicated process that proceeds through mitotic phase of stem cell renewal and differentiation, meiotic phase, and postmeiotic phase of spermiogenesis. Full recapitulation of spermatogenesis in vitro has been impossible, as generation of normal spermatogonial stem cell lines without immortalization and production of motile sperm from these cells after long-term culture have not been achieved. Here we report the derivation of a normal spermatogonial cell line from a mature medakafish testis without immortalization. After 140 passages during 2 years of culture, this cell line retains stable but growth factor-dependent proliferation, a diploid karyotype, and the phenotype and gene expression pattern of spermatogonial stem cells. Furthermore, we show that this cell line can undergo meiosis and spermiogenesis to generate motile sperm. Therefore, the ability of continuous proliferation and sperm production in culture is an intrinsic property of medaka spermatogonial stem cells, and immortalization apparently is not necessary to derive male germ cell cultures. Our findings and cell line will offer a unique opportunity to study and recapitulate spermatogenesis in vitro and to develop approaches for germ-line transmission.

Fish ES cells and applications to biotechnology

ES cells provide a promising tool for the generation of transgenic animals with site-directed mutations. When ES cells colonize germ cells in chimeras, transgenic animals with modified phenotypes are generated and used either for functional genomics studies or for improving productivity in commercial settings. Althought the ES cell approach has been limited to, mice, there is strong interest for developing the technology in fish.. We describe the step-by-step procedure for developing ES cells in fish. Key aspects include avoiding cell differentiation, specific in vitro traits of pluripotency, and, most importantly, testing for production of chimeric animals as the main evidence of pluripotency. The entire process focuses on two model species, zebrafish and medaka, in which most work has been done. The achievements attained in these species, as well as their applicability to other commercial fish, are discussed. Because of the difficulties relating to germ line competence, mostly of long-term fish ES cells, alternative cell-based approaches such as primordial germ cells and nuclear transfer need to be considered. Although progress to date has been slow, there are promising achievements in homologous recombination and alternative avenues yet to be explored that can bring ES technology in fish to fruition.

Integration of double-fluorescence expression vectors into zebrafish genome for the selection of site-directed knockout/knockin

Production of zebrafish by modifying endogenous growth hormone (GH) gene through homologous recombination is described here. We first constructed the targeting vectors pGHT1.7k and pGHT2.8k, which were used for the knockout/knockin of the endogenous GH gene of zebrafish, and injected these two vectors into the embryos of zebrafish. Overall, the rate of targeted integration with the characteristic of germ line transmission in zebrafish was 1.7x10(-6). In one experimental patch, the integrating efficiency of pGHT2.8k was higher than that of pGHT1.7k, but the lethal effect of pGHT2.8k was stronger than that of pGHT1.7k. The clones with the correct integration of target genes were identified by a simple screening procedure based on green fluorescent protein (GFP) and RFP dual selection, which corresponded to homologous recombination and random insertion, respectively. The potential homologous recombination zebrafish was further bred to produce a heterozygous F-1 generation, selected based on the presence of GFP. The potential targeted integration of exogenous GH genes into a zebrafish genome at the P-0 generation was further verified by polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot analysis. Approximately 2.5% of potential founder knockout and knockin zebrafish had the characteristic of germ line transmission. In this study, we developed an efficient method for producing the targeted gene modification in zebrafish for future studies on genetic modifications and gene functions using this model organism.

水稻同源四倍体高代自交系农艺性状分析及遗传差异研究

课题组在不断地创制新的同源四倍体材料的同时，连续多年以提高结实率为目的培育、筛选自交系材料，已获得自交繁殖十二年的高代自交系材料。相对于诱导创制初期，材料表现出的结实率低，同种系单株间的差异较大；高代材料已表现出较显著的结实率提升和较一致的农艺性状表型。 本实验选取课题组多年培育的同源四倍体水稻高代自交系材料，通过形态学、农艺性状和细胞遗传学比较，研究水稻同源四倍体与二倍体之间的异同。结果显示，所有同源四倍体材料的染色体组成均为2N=4X=48，花粉母细胞(PMC)减数分裂行为较正常，99%以上的染色体都能在减数分裂中期I（MI）发生联会、配对，形成四价体和二价体，这与理论染色体组构成相符。在减数分裂过程中，结实率较高的材料染色体异常现象较少而结实率较低的材料染色体异常现象较严重。统计分析表明，二价体和四价体的比例对结实率没有显著影响，但是三价体的数目对结实率有一定影响。这一结果表明了结实率和细胞减数分裂行为可能存在相关性，同源四倍体的减数分裂行为为筛选高结实率的同源四倍体种系提供了依据。 然后，对同源四倍体水稻高代自交系材料进行农艺性状和品质性状的统计与分析。主要针对结实率、每穗实粒数、有效分蘖和穗长等主要农艺性状，以及直链淀粉含量这一重要的品质性状进行统计。将统计结果与1996年诱导加倍的初代材料的数据相对比分析，结果显示所有材料经过多代选育培养，其农艺性状已经有了较显著的提高，同时同源四倍体材料的农艺性状稳定性也有了较显著的提升。如结实率的提高幅度较大，所有材料的平均结实率均显著高于加倍初代，而同种材料不同单株间的结实率差异也显著地减少，变异系数（CV）的平均值由1996年的41.15%减少到了2008年的28.81%。其他重要农艺性状也有不同程度的改良，种内变异系数也相应地降低。此外，实验测量了同源四倍体材料和来源二倍体材料的直链淀粉含量。分析结果显示，部分材料的直链淀粉含量与二倍体亲本产生了较显著的差异，这可能是诱导加倍过程中的遗传变异造成的；同源四倍体材料的种内变异系数（CV）平均值由1996年的6%下降到了2008年的3.88%，显示出在品质性状方面，同源四倍体材料的遗传稳定性也有较显著的增加。同源四倍体材料农艺性状经过多年的选育，表现出一定的提升，同时，经过多年自交纯化，所有材料种系内的性状差异逐渐缩小，说明同源四倍体水稻的遗传稳定性随着自交纯化而增强，这为同源四倍体水稻的进一步选育打下了良好的基础。 最后，通过测量连续两年的自交系材料的遗传多态性，分析材料间遗传差异和种群遗传结构，深入研究连续两代材料间的遗传差异，研究同源四倍体水稻与二倍体材料遗传稳定性之间的差异。实验采用18对SSR微卫星标记对连续两代15个材料，共94份样本进行差异分析。通过扩增条带长度多态性分析，计算不同材料以及同种材料不同世代间的遗传距离，构建同源四倍体和二倍体水稻的分子指纹库，并绘制聚类图。结果显示，同源四倍体和二倍体不同材料间的遗传差异比较大，遗传距离处于0.4757至0.2816之间；而相同品种不同世代材料间的遗传差异较小，但也表现出一定的遗传差异。同种同源四倍体材料不同世代间的遗传差异比二倍体材料更大，两代四倍体材料间遗传距离处于0.1359至0.0485之间；而两代二倍体材料间的遗传距离处于均小于0.0388。结果表明，同源四倍体水稻高代材料具有一定的遗传稳定性，但与来源二倍体材料相比，其世代间的遗传变异性仍然较强。这种结果说明，经过多代的自交纯化培育，同源四倍体水稻材料能够建立起相对稳定的遗传结构，同时，其强于二倍体亲本的变异性有能够为新品种的选育，农艺性状、品质性状的改良提供一定的遗传基础。此外，分析结果表明通过分子标记辅助检验，水稻材料间的遗传多态性能够有效地区分不同的品种，这为水稻品种的分子鉴定提供了一定的依据。 本研究从细胞学鉴定，农艺性状统计分析以及分子标记辅助聚类分析多方面地对同源四倍体水稻高代系进行了研究，对探究同源四倍体水稻的遗传规律，进一步揭示其遗传特性、农艺性状的遗传构成，为进一步选育优质的多倍体水稻提供了一定的理论依据。 This group insists on creating new Autotetraploid Rice (Oryza sativa L.) materials, while improving the seed-setting of them for many years, cultivated and selected the inbred line materials, has obtained the high generation inbred lines after twelve years cultivation. Compared to the early induced materials, which shown the low seed setting, and the large difference between the different plants in the same germ-line; the high generation materials have shown significant improvement in seed setting and more uniform phenotype agronomic traits. The autotetraploid rice high generation inbred lines material, which has been cultivated for more than 12 years, was chose in this experiment. The similarities and differences between autotetraploid and diploid rice was studied through morphological, agronomic and cytogenetic ways. The results showed that all the chromosome of autotetraploid materials are composed of 2N=4X=48, the pollen mother cells (PMC) meiosis behavior is normal, more than 99% chromosomes in metaphase I(MI) were federated and paired to form tetravalents or bivalents, which constitutes a consistent theory of genome. In the meiosis process, the material with a higher seed setting showed less chromosome abnormal than the material whose seed setting is lower. However, statistical analysis showed that the bivalent and tetravalent rate had no significant impact on seed setting, but the number of trivalent had a certain impact on seed setting. The result shows that the seed setting may be related to the meiosis behavior, which provides a basis to cultivate new autotetraploid germ line with high seed setting through the meiotic behavior. Furthermore, the agronomic and quality traits of autotetraploid rice high generation inbred material were statistically analyzed. The statistically analysis was focused on major agronomic traits such as: seed setting, grains per panicle, effective tillers and panicle length, as well as the important quality trait amylose content. The statistic data was compared with the data in 1996, when the first induced generation of autotetraploid material, and the result shows that after a multi-generation breeding, the agronomic traits has been significantly improved in all the materials, while the stability of agronomic traits also significant upgraded. For instant, the seed setting increased significantly, the average seed setting of all materials was significantly higher than the first induced generation, and the differences between different plants in the same species also significantly reduced, the average of the coefficient of variation (CV) was reduced from 41.15% in 1996 to 28.81% in 2008. Other important agronomic traits had improved in different degrees; the coefficient of variation within species is also reduced accordingly. In addition, the amylose content of autotetraploid and diploid materials was measured in this experiment. The results shows that the amylose content of some of the material differed from diploid parents significantly, it may caused by the genetic change during the inducing, autotetraploid materials intra-specific coefficient of variation (CV) average reduced from 6% in 1996 to 3.88% in 2008, shows that this is a significant increase of quality traits stability in autotetraploid rice. Agronomic traits of autotetraploid material shows some improvement after years of breeding, at the same time, after years of purification, all material within the germ-line gradually narrow the differences in traits indicates that autotetraploid rice genetic stability was enhanced, which laid a good foundation for the further autotetraploid rice breeding. Finally, this experiment studied the genetic differences between materials of two generations and researched the difference of genetic stability between diploid and autotetraploid rice materials through investigating the genetic polymorphism, genetic differences between materials and population genetic structure of inbred line materials of two consecutive years.18 pairs of SSR microsatellite markers for 15 materials of two generations were used in this experiment, and the total of 94 samples were analyzed. Through the amplification length polymorphism analysis of different materials and materials in different generations, the genetic distance between materials and generations was analyzed, a diploid and autotetraploid rice molecular fingerprint database and map rendering cluster were constructed. The result shows that the genetic distance is between 0.4757 to 0.2816 among different autotetraploid and diploid materials; the genetic distance between different generations of same species was less, but also shows a certain degree of genetic differences. The inter-generational genetic differences of autotetraploid materials were greater than of the diploid materials, which are 0.1359 to 0.0485 as the genetic distance; comparing with the 0.0388 of diploid materials. The result shows that high generation inbred autotetraploid rice material has a certain genetic stability, but the genetic variation between generations is still strong comparing with the source diploid materials. It indicates that, after many generations of purification cultivation, autotetraploid rice materials established a relatively stable genetic structure, at the same time, stronger variability than its diploid parents are useful in the breeding of new varieties, provides a genetic foundation to the agronomic and quality traits improvement. In addition, the analysis result shows that the through the molecular marker-assisted testing, rice genetic polymorphism between materials can effectively distinguish different species, provides a certain basis for molecular identification of varieties of rice. A series of investigation such as cytological identification, statistical analysis of agronomic traits, molecular marker-assisted cluster analysis was applied in this experiment to research genetic pattern of autotetraploid rice high generation inbred lines, revealed the genetic characteristics and the genetic composition of agronomic traits, provides a theoretical basis for the further selection of high quality autotetraploid rice.

Theoretical analysis and experimental study of Fourier transformation of Franz-Keldysh oscillations in GaAs

Fourier transformation (FT) has been used in the theoretical line shape analysis of Franz-Keldysh oscillations (FKOs) in detail by numerical simulations. FKOs from the surface-intrinsic-n(+) GaAs structure were obtained in photoreflectance (PR) measurements with various modulation light intensities and with different strengths of bias light illumination, which were used to change the static electric field in the intrinsic layer of the sample. The FT spectra of the PR spectra, including the real part, imaginary part, and the modulus, were very consistent with the theoretical line shapes. The ratio of the square root of the reduced mass (root mu (L)/root mu (H)) and the ratio of transition strength of the electron heavy hole to the electron light hole were obtained from the PT spectra. In addition, the electric field in the intrinsic layer of the sample without and with bias illumination and the modulation field induced by photomodulation were also obtained. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)02123-X].

Deformation, Phase Transformation and Recrystallization in the Shear Bands Induced by High-Strain Rate Loading in Titanium and its Alloys

alpha-titanium and its alloys with a dual-phase structure (alpha+beta) were deformed dynamically under strain rate of about 10(4) s(-1). The formation and microstructural evolution of the localized shear bands were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results reveal that both the strain and strain rate should be considered simultaneously as the mechanical conditions for shear band formation, and twinning is an important mode of deformation. Both experimental and calculation show that the materials within the bands underwent a superhigh strain rate (9 x 10(5) s(-1)) deformation, which is two magnitudes of that of average strain rate required for shear band formation; the dislocations in the bands can be constricted and developed into cell structures; the phase transformation from alpha to alpha(2) within the bands was observed, and the transformation products (alpha(2)) had a certain crystallographic orientation relationship with their parent; the equiaxed grains with an average size of 10 mu m in diameter observed within the bands are proposed to be the results of recrystallization.

A Quantitative Analysis of the Effect of Laser Transformation Hardening on Crack Driving Force in Steels

A mechanical model of a laser transformation hardening specimen with a crack in the middle of the hardened layer is developed to quantify the effects of the residual stress and hardness gradient on crack driving force in terms of J-integral. It is assumed

Martensitic transformation under impact with high strain rate

This paper deals with the quantitative prediction of the volume fraction of martensitic transformation in a austenitic steel that undergoes impact with high strain rate. The coupling relations between strain, stress, strain rate, transformation rate and transformed fraction were derived from the OTC model and modified Bodner-Partom equations, where the impact process was considered as an adiabatic and no entropy-increased process (pressure less than or equal to 20GPa). The one-dimensional results were found to model and predict various experimental results obtained on 304 stainless steel under impact with high strain rate.

Gamma -> Epsilon Martensite Transformation and Twinning Deformation in fcc Cobalt During Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment

The deformation microstructure of face-centered cubic cobalt subjected to surface mechanical attrition treatment was studied as a function of strain levels. Strain-induced gamma --> epsilon transformation and twinning deformation were evidenced by transmission electron microscopy and were found to progress continuously in ultrafine and nanocrystalline grains as the strain increased.

A Thermodynamic Constitutive Model for Stress Induced Phase Transformation in Shape Memory Alloys

In this paper a thermodynamic constitutive model is developed for stress induced phase transformation in single crystalline and polycrystalline shape memory alloys (SMAs). Volume fractions of different martensite variants are chosen as internal variables to describe the evolution of microstructure state in the material. This model is then used in prediction the transformation behavior of a SMA (Cu-Al-Zn-Mn) under complex thermomechanical load (including complete and incomplete transformation in mechanical cycling, and proportional/non-proportional loading). (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Numerical Investigation on Laser Transformation Hardening with Different Temporal Pulse Shapes

A 3-D numerical model for pulsed laser transformation hardening (LTH) is developed using the finite element method. In this model, laser spatial and temporal intensity distribution, temperature-dependent thermophysical properties of material, and multi-phase transformations are considered. The influence of laser temporal pulse shape on connectivity of hardened zone, maximum surface temperature of material and hardening depth is numerically investigated at different pulse energy levels. Results indicate that these hardening parameters are strongly dependent on the temporal pulse shape. For the rectangular temporal pulse shape, the temperature field obtained from this model is in excellent agreement with analytical solution, and the predicted hardening depth is favorably compared with experimental one. It should be pointed out that appropriate temporal pulse shape should be selected according to pulse energy level in order to achieve desirable hardening quality under certain laser spatial intensity distribution.