Effects of gibberellin A(3) on growth and microcystin production in Microcystis aeruginosa (cyanophyta)

Environmental. factors that affect the growth and microcystin production of microcystis have received worldwide attention because of the hazards microcystin poses to environmental safety and public health. Nevertheless, the effects of organic anthropogenic pollution on microcystis are rarely discussed. Gibberellin A(3) (GA(3)) is a vegetable hormone widely used in agriculture and horticulture that can contaminate water as an anthropogenic pollutant. Because of its common occurrence, we studied the effects of GA3 on growth and microcystin production of Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa) PCC7806 with different concentrations (0.001-25mg/L) in batch culture. The control was obtained without gibberellin under the same culture conditions. Growth, estimated by dry weight and cell number, increased after the GA3 treatment. GA3 increased the amounts of chlorophyll a, phycocyanin and cellular-soluble protein in the cells of M. aeruginosa PCC7806, but decreased the accumulation of water-soluble carbohydrates. In addition, GA3 was observed to affect nitrogen absorption of the test algae, but to have no effect on the absorption of phosphorus. The amount of microcystin measured by enzyme-Linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) increased in GA3 treatment groups, but the stimulatory effects were different in different culture phases. It is suggested that GA3 increases M. aeruginosa growth by stimulating its absorbance of nitrogen and increasing its ability to use carbohydrates, accordingly increasing cellular pigments and thus finally inducing accumulation of protein and microcystin. (C) 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

拟南芥有性生殖模式和叶片特性对大气CO2浓度变化的响应

预计到本世纪末，大气CO2浓度将会增加到540～970ppm，大气CO2浓度升高所引起的全球气候变化已经受到广泛的关注。植物生长依赖CO2，并且对大气CO2浓度升高在结构和生理上产生响应。目前已有大量报道，从生态系统、群落、种群、个体、器官、组织、生理以及生化等水平上研究高浓度CO2所对植物产生的影响。但是有关高浓度CO2对植物有性生殖影响的报道却很少，同时多数实验均建立在短期的生殖响应，忽视了植物在长期高CO2浓度下具有的反馈作用和CO2浓度变化对植物的驯化作用。植物有性生殖与其生态适应性和农作物籽粒产量的关系极为密切;同时，植物有性生殖特性的变化，也可作为预测植物对全球气候变化响应的重要指标之一。为此，利用高浓度CO2对植物进行长期选择实验将很有必要。研究结果将为预测未来大气CO2浓度增加的条件下陆地生态系统的演变趋势、全球变化对植物有性生殖响应的方式和机制提供新的思路和有效方法。 　　在本研究中，我们以模式植物拟南芥(Arabidopsis thaliana)作为实验材料，利用370和700ppm CO2对其进行连续8个世代处理，首先研究高浓度CO2对每一个世代的拟南芥有性生殖特性的影响，然后比较各个世代中各种生殖特性指标变化的规律，从细胞、组织和个体尺度上揭示拟南芥有性生殖对全球变化的响应模式。此外，在700ppm CO2处理下，我们对拟南芥叶片生理、生化以及结构的变化进行了相关研究。两部分研究结果及主要结论如下： 　　首先，在每一个世代中，与370ppm CO2相比较，700ppm CO2处理显著促进了拟南芥开花，缩短生长周期，增加花、角果及种子等生殖的产量，降低种子N含量，提高种子C/N比、种子千粒重以及生殖生物量所占总生物量的比例等，而对种子萌发率、角果所含种子数目以及角果长度则无显著影响。但是， 通过对相同CO2浓度处理条件下，不同世代之间的研究结果比较发现，不同世代之间相关的生殖生物学指标并无显著差异。 　　其次，高浓度CO2显著降低叶片气孔密度、气孔指数、气孔导度以及蒸腾速率。在高浓度CO2处理下，叶肉细胞中叶绿体数目、叶绿体宽度和表观面积、淀粉粒大小和数量、叶片和细胞壁厚度等都显著增加，但是基粒内囊体膜的数量却显著下降。叶片中碳水化合物如可溶性总糖、淀粉以及纤维素含量在高浓度CO2下分别显著增加71.9%、78.7% 和 22.3%。此外，在高浓度CO2处理下，叶片中多数激素如如吲哚乙酸(indole-3-acetic acid, IAA)、赤霉素(gibberellin, GA)、玉米素核苷(zeatin riboside, ZR)、二氢玉米素核苷(dihydrozeatin riboside, DHZR)和异戊烯基腺苷(isopentenyl adenosine, iPA)均都显著地增加，而脱落酸(abscisic acid, ABA)含量却有所下降。最后，叶片中各种矿物质元素含量如N、P、K、Ca和Mg等含量在高浓度CO2处理下也都显著下降，而C/N比增加24.8％。 　　以上结果表明： 　　(1) 在每一个世代中，700ppm CO2处理对拟南芥各种有性生殖特性具有显著的影响，但是高浓度CO2处理对植物所引起的效应在多个世代以内并不能够传递给后代，所以在多个有性生殖世代内，高浓度CO2处理对植物生长、生殖没有驯化作用。 　　(2) 在高浓度CO2处理下，拟南芥叶片中叶绿体超微结构的变化，可能主要是由于叶绿体中淀粉粒数量和体积大小显著增加而引起。 　　(3) 在高浓度CO2处理下，由于拟南芥叶片内与促进细胞分裂与伸长的激素含量显著增加，从而对拟南芥植株生长发育速率的提高起了重要的作用。 　　(4) 拟南芥生长在高浓度CO2条件下，其叶片中各种矿质元素含量（如N、P、K、Ca和Mg）均显著降低，究其原因可能是，第一由于叶片中碳水化合物含量的显著增加而对矿物质元素具有稀释作用;第二由于蒸腾速率下降，引起矿质元素从根部随着蒸腾流运输到地上部分的含量相应减少。 　　

植物激素对土壤污染早期诊断研究

通过菲污染诱导动态响应预实验确定了小麦为供试植物，赤霉素(GA3)、细胞分裂素的玉米素和玉米素核苷总含量(Z&ZR)以及脱落酸(ABA)为植物激素供试指标，并且确定试验终点为小麦生长14d。在预实验的基础上，以草甸棕壤为供试土壤，采用室内培养箱盆栽方法，进行多环芳烃菲、芘、荧蒽和苯并(a)芘单一，两-两复合以及三-三复合与3种植物激素的剂量-效应关系研究；3种植物激素对土壤重金属镉、铅、铜和锌单一污染诱导的响应关系研究。并以多环芳烃类的菲和重金属类的镉为代表污染物，进行小麦芽期生长指标及植物激素测定，研究植物激素与生长指标对污染物的响应及敏感性比较。 多环芳烃单一及复合污染诱导实验结果表明：ABA对菲、芘、荧蒽、苯并(a)芘单一及复合污染诱导的响应趋势一致，即随着污染诱导浓度增加，ABA含量显著增加；GA3与四种多环芳烃单一及复合污染诱导存在一定的响应关系，但响应趋势呈多样性变化；对于多环芳烃单一及复合污染诱导，随着污染物浓度增加，Z&ZR含量出现了先增加后减少的趋势，表现为显著的污染诱导抑制效应。ABA和Z&ZR对多环芳烃污染诱导响应敏感，这为其成为土壤污染诊断指标提供了可能性。 在不同的镉、铅、铜、锌污染处理中，小麦体内ABA含量均出现明显增加趋势，与多环芳烃污染胁迫响应一致；GA3含量对镉、铅、铜、锌四种重金属污染胁迫响应趋势相同，均为先增加后减少。对于土壤镉和铅污染胁迫Z&ZR表现为先增加后减少的响应趋势，而对于铜和锌污染胁迫，Z&ZR含量变化与镉、铅胁迫时不同。 植物激素与生长指标对污染胁迫的响应及敏感性比较研究表明，对多环芳烃菲污染诱导，植物激素含量同生长指标相比具有显著的敏感性。对重金属镉污染诱导，内源激素含量和生长指标敏感性都显著，小麦根和芽中ABA含量显著增加，进一步证明了其在植物污染抗逆中的作用机理。

簇毛麦（ Dasypyrum villosum）矮秆突变体的研究

株高是农作物的重要农艺性状之一，适度矮化有利于农作物的耐肥、抗倒、高产等。20世纪50年代，以日本的赤小麦为矮源的半矮秆小麦的培育和推广，使得世界粮食产量显著增长，被誉为“绿色革命”。迄今为止，已报到的麦类矮秆、半矮秆基因已达70多个，但由于某些矮源极度矮化或者矮化的同时伴随不利的农艺性状，使得真正运用于育种实践的矮源较少。因此，发掘和鉴定新的控制麦类作物株高的基因，开展株高基因定位、克隆及作用机理等方面的研究，对实现麦类作物株高的定向改良，具有重要的理论意义和应用价值。簇毛麦(Dasypyrum villosum，2n＝14，VV)是禾本科簇毛麦属一年生二倍体异花授粉植物，为栽培小麦的近缘属。本课题组在不同来源的簇毛麦杂交后代中发现了一株自然突变产生的矮秆突变体。观察分析了该突变体的生物学特性，对矮秆性状进行了遗传分析，对茎节细胞长度、花粉的活力进行了细胞学观察，考察了该突变体内源赤霉素含量及不同浓度外施赤霉素对突变体的作用，分析了赤霉素生物合成途径中的内根贝壳杉烯氧化酶（KO）和赤霉素20氧化酶(GA20ox)的转录水平，对赤霉素20氧化酶和赤霉素3-β羟化酶(GA3ox)进行了克隆和序列分析，并对GA20ox进行了原核表达和表达的组织特异性研究。主要研究结果如下：1. 该突变体与对照植株在苗期无差异，在拔节后期才表现出植株矮小，相对对照植株，节间伸长明显受到抑制，叶鞘长度基本不变。在成熟期，对照植株的平均株高为110cm，而突变株的平均株高为32cm，仅为对照植株的1/3 左右。除了株高变矮以外，在成熟后期，突变株还表现一定程度的早衰和雄性不育。I2-KI染色法观察花粉活力结果表明，对照植株花粉90%以上都是有活力的，而突变植株的花粉仅20%左右有活力。2. 突变株与对照植株的杂交F1代均表现正常株高，表明该突变性状为隐性突变。F1代植株相互授粉得到的168株F2代植株中，株高出现分离，正常株高（株高高于80cm）与矮秆植株（株高矮于40cm）的株数比为130：38，经卡方检验，其分离比符合3：1的分离比，因此推测该突变体属于单基因的隐性突变。3. 用ELISA方法检测突变株和对照植株的幼嫩种子中内源性生物活性赤霉素（GA1＋3）含量，结果表明突变株的赤霉素含量为36 ng/ml，而对照植株的赤霉素含量为900 ng/ml。对突变株外施赤霉素，发现矮秆突变株的株高和花粉育性均可得到恢复。这些结果表明该突变株为赤霉素缺陷型突变。4. 用荧光定量PCR方法比较突变株与对照植株中内根贝壳杉烯氧化酶和赤霉素20氧化酶的转录水平，结果表明突变株的KO转录水平比对照植株分别提高了6倍（苗期）和16倍（成熟期），突变株的GA20ox转录水平与对照植株在苗期无明显差异，在成熟期突变株较对照植株则提高了10倍左右。这些结果表明该矮秆突变体与赤霉素的生物合成途径密切相关，而且极有可能在赤霉素的生物合成途径早期就发生了改变。5. 以簇毛麦总基因组为模板，同源克隆了GenBank登录号为EU142950，RT-PCR分离克隆了簇毛麦的GA3ox基因cDNA全长序列，分析结果表明该cDNA全长1206bp，含完整编码区1104bp，推测该序列编码蛋白含368个氨基酸残基，分子量为40.063KD，等电点为6.27。预测的氨基酸序列含有双加氧酶的活性结构，在酶活性中心2个Fe离子结合的氨基酸残基非常保守。该序列与小麦、大麦和水稻的GA3ox基因一致性分别为98%、96%、86%。基因组序列与cDNA序列在外显子部分一致，在478-715bp和879-1019bp处分别含238bp和140bp的内含子。6. 通过RT-PCR技术克隆了簇毛麦的GA20ox基因全长，命名为DvGA20ox，GenBank登录号为EU142949。该基因全长1080个碱基，编码359个氨基酸，具有典型的植物GA20ox基因结构。该基因编码的蛋白质与小麦、大麦、黑麦草等GA20ox蛋白的同源性分别为98%，97% 和91%。该序列重组到原核表达载体pET-32a(+)上，将获得的重组子pET-32a(+)-DvGA20ox转化大肠杆菌BL21pLysS后用IPTG进行诱导表达。SDS-PAGE分析表明，DvGA20ox基因在大肠杆菌中获得了高效表达，融合蛋白分子量为55kDa。定量PCR分析表明，该基因在簇毛麦不同器官中的表达差异明显：叶片中表达水平最高，根部表达水平次之，茎部和穗中表达较弱。在外施赤霉素后，该基因的表达水平在两小时以后急剧下降，表明该基因的表达受自身的反馈调节。本研究结果认为，(1)该簇毛麦矮秆突变体为单基因的隐性突变；(2)该矮秆突变体为赤霉素敏感突变，内源赤霉素含量检测表明突变体的内源性赤霉素含量仅为对照植株的1/30；(3)荧光定量PCR结果表明突变株的赤霉素生物合成途径的关键酶基因表达水平比对照植株高，而且突变植株的赤霉素生物合成改变很可能发生在赤霉素生物合成途径的早期；(4)GA20ox有表达的组织特异性，且受到自身产物的反馈调节。 Plant height is an impotrant agronomic trait of triticeae crops.Semi-dwarf cropcultivars, including those of wheat, maize and rice, have significantly increased grainproduction that has been known as “green revolution”. The new dwarf varieties couldraise the harvest Index at the expense of straw biomass, and, at the sametime, improvelodging resistance and responsiveness to nitrogen fertilizer. Moreover, dwarf traits ofplant are crucial for elucidating mechanisms for plant growth and development aswell. In many plant species, various dwarf mutants have been isolated and theirmodles of inheritance and physiology also have been widely investigated.The causesfor their dwarf phenotypes were found to be associated with plant hormones,especially, gibberellins GAs.Dasypyrum villosum Candargy (syn.Haynaldia villosa) is a cross-pollinating,diploid (2n = 2x = 14) annual species that belongs to the tribe Triticeae. It is native toSouthern Europe and West Asia, especially the Caucasuses, and grows underconditions unfavorable to most cultivated crops. The genome of D. villosum,designated V by Sears, is considered an important donor of genes to wheat for improving powdery mildew resistance, take-all, eyespot, and plant and seed storageprotein content. A spontaneous dwarf mutant was found in D. villosum populations.The biological character and modles of inheritance of this dwarf mutant are studied.The cell length of stem cell is observed. The influence of extraneous gibberellin tothe dwarf mutant is also examined; the transcript level of key enzyme of gibberellinbiosynthesis pathway in mutant and control plants is compared. GA3ox and GA20oxare cloned and its expression pattern is researched.1. The dwarf mutant showed no difference with control plants at seedlingstage.At mature stage, the average height of control plants were 110cm and the dwarfplants were 33cm. The height of the mutant plant was only one third of the normalplants due to the shortened internodes. Cytology observation showed that theelongation of stem epidermal and the parenchyma cells were reduced. The dwarfmutant also shows partly male sterile. Pollen viability test indicates that more than80% of the pollen of the mutant is not viable.2. The inheritance modle of this dwarf mutant is studied. All The F1 plantsshowed normal phenotype indicating that the dwarfism is controlled by recessivealleles. Among the 168 F2 plants, there are 130 normal plants and 30 dwarf plants, thesegregation proportion accord with Mendel’s 3:1 segregation. We therefore proposethat this dwarf phenotype is controlled by a single recessive gene.3. Quantitative analyses of endogenous GA1+3 in the young seeds indicated thatthe content of GA1+3 was 36ng/ml in mutant plants and 900ng/ml in normal plants.The endogenous bioactive GA1+3 in mutant plants are only about 1/30 of that innormal plants. In addition, exogenously supplied GA3 could considerably restore themutant plant to normal phenotype. These results showed that this mutant wasdefective in the GA biosynthesis.4. More than ten enzymes are involved in GA biosynthesis. KO catalyzes thefirst cytochrome P450-mediated step in the gibberellin biosynthetic pathway and themutant of KO lead to a gibberellin-responsive dwarf mutant. GA20ox catalyze therate-limited steps so that their transcript level will influence the endogenous GAbiosynthesis and modifies plant architecture. The relative expression levels of genesencoding KO and GA20ox were quantified by real time PCR to assess whether thechanges in GA content correlated with the expression of GA metabolism genes andwhere the mutant occurred during the GA biosynthesis pathway. In mutant plants,the transcript levels of KO increased about 6-fold and 16-fold at the seedling stage and elongating stage respectively comparing with the normal plants. For theseedlings, there was no notable difference in the expression of GA20ox betweenmutant and normal plants. At the elongating stage, GA20ox transcript increased 10times in mutant plants, suggesting that the GA biosynthesis pathway in mutant plantshad changed from the early steps rather than the late steps.5. A full length cDNA of D. villosum gibberellin 3β-hydroxylase homology(designated as DvGA3ox) was isolated and consisted of 1206bp containing an openreading frame of 1104bp encoding 368 predicted amino acid residues. Identityanalysis showed that the gibberellin 3β-hydroxylase nucleotide sequence shared 98%,96% and 86% homology with that of wheat, barley and rice. The predicted peptidecontained the active-site Fe of known gibberellin 3β-hydroxylase and the regionhomologous to wheat, barley and Arabidopsis. The genomic clone of gibberellin3β-hydroxylase has two introns.6. The full-length cDNA of D. villosum gibberellin 20 oxidase (designated asDvGA20ox) was isolated and consisted of 1080-bp and encoded 359 amino acidresidues with a calculated mol wt of 42.46 KD. Comparative and bio-informaticsanalyses revealed that DvGA20ox had close similarity with GA20ox from otherspecies and contained a conserved LPWKET and NYYPXCQKP regions. Tissueexpression pattern analysis revealed DvGA20ox expressed in all the tissues that wereexamined and the highest expression of DvGA20ox in expanding leaves followed byroots. Heterologous expression of this cDNA clone in Escherichia coli gave a fusionprotein that about 55KD. Transcript levels of DvGA20ox dramatically reduced twohours after application of biologically active GA3, suggesting that the biosynthesis ofthis enzymes might be under feedback control.

RNAi沉默烟草GA 20-氧化酶基因研究

赤霉素是一种高效能的广谱植物生长调节剂，为五大植物激素之一，具有重要的生物学功能。目前利用赤霉素突变体研究生物合成途径和信号转导已经成为热点。 GA 20-氧化酶是GA生物合成中的一类关键酶，它位于GA合成途径的中心位置。本研究根据烟草（Nicotiana tabacum）GA 20-氧化酶基因序列，设计2对分别含有特定酶切位点的特异引物，以烟草基因组DNA为模板，扩增目的基因(约250 bp)片段。将正、反向目的片段分别插入中间载体的内含子两侧，再经BamH I和Sac I双酶切回收约700 bp的目的片段，插入到双元载体质粒p2355中，成功构建了含GA 20-氧化酶基因片段反向重复序列的植物表达载体p23700。分别将p2355质粒和p23700质粒导入根癌农杆菌（Agrobacterium tumefaciens）EHA105中并转化烟草叶片细胞，经卡那霉素选择培养，PCR及GUS组织染色鉴定，获得转基因烟草植株。以EHA105-p2355转化的烟草，获得41株转基因植株，均没有矮化表型；而以EHA105-p23700转化的烟草，获得转基因植株14株，其中具有矮化表型的烟草10株，表明反向重复序列转录产物能形成发夹RNA(hpRNA)，产生小分子干扰RNA（small interferring RNA，简称siRNA），干扰目的基因的表达。 赤霉素含量测定表明矮化植株中赤霉素合成途径的最终产物GA3总含量明显低于野生型烟草植株。荧光定量PCR结果表明，矮化转基因烟草的GA 20-氧化酶基因表达量受到明显抑制，表达量明显低于野生型对照。同时对上游内根-贝壳杉合成酶（Ent-kaurene synthase，KS）基因，下游的GA-3β羟化酶基因进行了RT-PCR分析，结果显示上游基因的表达没有规律性变化，而下游基因表达量亦降低。上述结果表明，GA 20-氧化酶基因的表达被有效地干扰了，表达受到抑制，从而影响植株体内GA3的合成，影响植株的生长发育，导致植株矮化。并推测，GA 20-氧化酶基因受到抑制，可能影响下游基因的表达。并且通过干旱胁迫测试，发现矮化植株相对于野生型植株及不含干扰片段的转基因植株，对干旱的耐受力有了很大的提高，具有更强的耐受力。 研究结果为进一步进行相关研究奠定基础。 Gibberellin(GA) is an efficient plant growth regulator. As one of five major plant hormones, it plays an important biological function. Using GA mutant for investigating biosynthetic pathways and signal transduction has become high lights. GA 20-oxidase is a crucial enzyme involved in gibberellin biosynthesis. According to tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) GA 20-oxidase enzyme gene sequence and based on binary vector p2355, we constructed a plant expression vector p23700, which habors an inverted repeat DNA fragment of GA 20-oxidase gene drivered by Cauliflower mosaic virus promtor (CaMV 35Sp). Binary plasmid p2355 had no inverted repeat DNA fragment of GA 20-oxidase gene. The vector p2355 and p23700 were introduced into Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA105 and tobacco leaf transformation was conducted. After selected by kanamycin and characterized by PCR and GUS hischemical reaction, transsgenic plants were obtained. Fourtheen transgenic plants, which were transformed by EHA105-p23700, were obtained. Among them, 10 were dwarf mutants. However, 41 transgenic plants with the same normal phenotype as wild type,which were transformed by EHA105-p2355, were obtained. Analysis of Gibberellin contents showed that it was lower in dwarf mutants than in normal phenotype plants. Moreover, comparing to normal phenotype plants including wild type and transgenic plants with no interference fragment, the drought tolerance of dwarf plants have greatly increased. And their proline content increased obviously after drought test. Fluorescence quantitative real time PCR (RT-PCR) showed that GA 20-oxidase gene expression was significantly inhibited in dwarf transgenic tobacco. Meanwhile, the expression of the upstream gene ent-kaurene synthase (KS) gene and downstream gene GA-3β hydroxylase gene was also detected by RT-PCR. The results presented that KS gene expression had no regular change while GA-3β hydroxylase gene expression reduced. It implied that inhibiting GA 20-oxidase gene probably reduce the expression of downstream genes. The results showed that the transcriptional products of the foreign inverted repeat fragment can form hairpin RNA (hpRNA) to induce RNAi. It presented that GA 20-oxidase gene expression was effectively interfered, resulting in reducing GA3 synthesis and inhibiting plant growth and development, then dwarf plants were produced. However, the dwarf plants had higher tolerance of drought.