牛耳草光合作用的脱水保护和复苏机理

本文以复苏植物牛耳草成熟植株的离体叶片为实验材料，以光合作用、蔗糖、抗氧化剂系统和离子渗漏等在脱水复苏过程中的变化为切入点，从生理生化水平上探讨其耐脱水复苏的机制;同时应用mRNA差异显示技术，从分子水平上探讨其耐脱水复苏的机制。 牛耳草叶片光系统II光化学活性参数和叶黄素循环色素在脱水复苏过程中的变化结果表明，极微弱光强（3μmol.m-2.s-1）下，脱水8天的牛耳草叶片诱导了叶黄素循环，叶黄素循环可能介导了牛耳草叶片脱水过程中的光保护作用。 利用不同浓度的磷酸盐溶液处理牛耳草叶片的结果表明，0.1mol/L以上的磷酸盐溶液对牛耳草叶片具有损伤作用，极大的影响了其光系统II的光化学活性，使得牛耳草叶片在脱水后不能很好的复苏。 牛耳草叶片在脱水复苏过程中，抗坏血酸（AsA）、还原型谷胱甘肽（GSH）和蔗糖含量在脱水时很快增加，复苏时又迅速恢复到原来水平，表明它们可能对脱水的牛耳草叶片具有保护作用，但对复苏的牛耳草叶片可能不重要;其离子渗漏情况表明质膜结构的完整性和稳定性在脱水复苏过程中能得到很好的保持，这可能是其耐脱水复苏的重要机制之一。 利用mRNA差异显示技术分离到牛耳草叶片脱水过程中一些脱水和磷酸盐特异诱导表达的cDNA。对其中5个脱水特异诱导表达和3个磷酸盐特异诱导表达的cDNA进行克隆测序、同源性探测和Northern 杂交检测表明，牛耳草脱水过程中诱导表达的基因可能涉及到脱水胁迫的信号转导、调节基因的级联和结构基因产物调节细胞结构在脱水胁迫中的稳定性等。

水稻菠菜紫黄质脱环氧化酶基因的克隆遗传转化及其特性的研究

自发现叶黄素循环具有热耗散的作用后它被引起广泛的关注目前普遍认为叶黄素循环的色素定位于天线色素蛋白复合体上在跨膜质子梯度pH形成后玉米黄质Z和环氧玉米黄质A能够从叶绿素中吸收过多的激发能并以热能的形式耗散到体外从而保护光合器官免受强光的破坏紫黄质脱环氧化酶VDE是叶黄素循环的关键酶在较低的pH条件下它能在数分钟内将紫黄质V转变为Z和A本论文从水稻和菠菜中克隆了编码VDE酶的基因并通过转基因植物进一步研究了叶黄素循环在热耗散方面的作用主要获得了以下结果 首次从两个水稻亚种籼稻和粳稻中克隆了Rvde基因分别命名为iRvde和jRvde的全长cDNA序列分别长1647bp和1887bp两者开放阅读框的同源性为98%与其它已知vde基因的同源性在60以上推导两者均编码446个氨基酸其中转运肽序列长98个氨基酸两者成熟蛋白的氨基酸序列完全相同与已知VDE成熟蛋白的同源性在75%以上其中与小麦的同源性最高达87.4 通过PCR扩增获得了Rvde基因的核基因组DNA序列在它们的编码区中含有4个内含子其长度在jRvde中分别为105bp327bp81bp和69bp而iRvde基因的第2个内含子长425bp与jRvde的第2个内含子差别较大内含子的AT含量为6063%其两端为典型的GT/AG结构 构建了Rvde基因的原核表达载体pET-Rvde在0.4mmol/L IPTG的诱导下该基因能在大肠杆菌BL21(DE3)中大量表达SDS-PAGE和Western杂交表明表达蛋白的分子量约为 43 kDa随着IPTG诱导时间的延长蛋白量逐渐增加诱导4h后它占大肠杆菌总蛋白的25左右吸收光谱差值A502-540随反应的进行逐渐增大反应体系总色素的HPLC分析表明V逐渐降低而Z刚好相反说明表达的蛋白具有与活体VDE酶相同的功能能在体外将V转变为A和Z 从菠菜中克隆了Svde基因并构建了该基因的反义抑制植物表达载体pCB-antiSvde用根癌农杆菌介导法转化烟草获得了大量的转基因植株再生的愈伤组织经GUS染色后呈蓝色PCR扩增潮霉素抗性基因hpt和Svde基因结果显示在转基因植株T0和T1代中都分别扩增出1.0 kb和1.4 kb的目的片段而在未转化的对照植株中没有扩增转基因植株的T0代种子在潮霉素培养基上的萌发数与未萌发数的比值为3:1符合单基因的孟德尔分离规律从T1代转基因植株中筛选出抑制程度较强的一个株系A29Southern杂交结果表明外源Svde基因已整合到烟草的基因组中并且只有一个插入位点通过冻融法从该植株的类囊体中提取VDE酶其酶活性为3.2是对照植株的45.7表明VDE酶受到了抑制荧光动力学及HPLC测定结果显示强光处理后在转基因植株中Z和A的形成较少非光化学淬灭NPQ值较对照低Fv/Fm的下降较对照快表明转基因植株的热耗散能力下降进而说明叶黄素循环具有热耗散的功能 同时还建立了根癌农杆菌介导的水稻遗传转化体系并初步作了转化Svde基因的试验另外还建立了一种适合于筛选转基因植株的DNA微量提取法此方法操作快捷方便一个人在一天内能制备50多个样品100mg的植物鲜样平均可获得40µg的DNA提取的DNA可直接用于PCR反应酶切分析及Southern分析

Activation of violaxanthin cycle in darkness is a common response to different abiotic stresses : a case study in Pelvetia canaliculata

Background: In the violaxanthin (V) cycle, V is de-epoxidized to zeaxanthin (Z) when strong light or light combined with other stressors lead to an overexcitation of photosystems. However, plants can also suffer stress in darkness and recent reports have shown that dehydration triggers V-de-epoxidation in the absence of light. In this study, we used the highly stress-tolerant brown alga Pelvetia canaliculata as a model organism, due to its lack of lutein and its non-photochemical quenching independent of the transthylakoidal-ΔpH, to study the triggering of the V-cycle in darkness induced by abiotic stressors. Results: We have shown that besides desiccation, other factors such as immersion, anoxia and high temperature also induced V-de-epoxidation in darkness. This process was reversible once the treatments had ceased (with the exception of heat, which caused lethal damage). Irrespective of the stressor applied, the resulting de-epoxidised xanthophylls correlated with a decrease in Fv/Fm, suggesting a common function in the down-regulation of photosynthetical efficiency. The implication of the redox-state of the plastoquinone-pool and of the differential activity of V-cycle enzymes on V-de-epoxidation in darkness was also examined. Current results suggest that both violaxanthin de-epoxidase (VDE) and zeaxanthin-epoxidase (ZE) have a basal constitutive activity even in darkness, being ZE inhibited under stress. This inhibition leads to Z accumulation. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that V-cycle activity is triggered by several abiotic stressors even when they occur in an absolute absence of light, leading to a decrease in Fv/Fm. This finding provides new insights into an understanding of the regulation mechanism of the V-cycle and of its ecophysiological roles.

The roles of specific xanthophylls in photoprotection

Xanthophyll pigments have critical structural and functional roles in the photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes of algae and vascular plants. Genetic dissection of xanthophyll metabolism in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii revealed functions for specific xanthophylls in the nonradiative dissipation of excess absorbed light energy, measured as nonphotochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence. Mutants with a defect in either the α- or β-branch of carotenoid biosynthesis exhibited less nonphotochemical quenching but were still able to tolerate high light. In contrast, a double mutant that was defective in the synthesis of lutein, loroxanthin (α-carotene branch), zeaxanthin, and antheraxanthin (β-carotene branch) had almost no nonphotochemical quenching and was extremely sensitive to high light. These results strongly suggest that in addition to the xanthophyll cycle pigments (zeaxanthin and antheraxanthin), α-carotene-derived xanthophylls such as lutein, which are structural components of the subunits of the light-harvesting complexes, contribute to the dissipation of excess absorbed light energy and the protection of plants from photo-oxidative damage.

Differential Control of Xanthophylls and Light-Induced Stress Proteins, as Opposed to Light-Harvesting Chlorophyll a/b Proteins, during Photosynthetic Acclimation of Barley Leaves to Light Irradiance

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) plants were grown at different photon flux densities ranging from 100 to 1800 μmol m−2 s−1 in air and/or in atmospheres with reduced levels of O2 and CO2. Low O2 and CO2 partial pressures allowed plants to grow under high photosystem II (PSII) excitation pressure, estimated in vivo by chlorophyll fluorescence measurements, at moderate photon flux densities. The xanthophyll-cycle pigments, the early light-inducible proteins, and their mRNA accumulated with increasing PSII excitation pressure irrespective of the way high excitation pressure was obtained (high-light irradiance or decreased CO2 and O2 availability). These findings indicate that the reduction state of electron transport chain components could be involved in light sensing for the regulation of nuclear-encoded chloroplast gene expression. In contrast, no correlation was found between the reduction state of PSII and various indicators of the PSII light-harvesting system, such as the chlorophyll a-to-b ratio, the abundance of the major pigment-protein complex of PSII (LHCII), the mRNA level of LHCII, the light-saturation curve of O2 evolution, and the induced chlorophyll-fluorescence rise. We conclude that the chlorophyll antenna size of PSII is not governed by the redox state of PSII in higher plants and, consequently, regulation of early light-inducible protein synthesis is different from that of LHCII.

Integrating health and sustainability in life cycle assessment

Until now health impact assessment and environmental impact assessment are two different issues, often not addressed together. Both issues have to be dealt with for sustainable building. The aim of this paper is to link healthy and sustainable housing in life cycle assessment. Two strategies are studied: clean air as a functional unity and health as a quality indicator. The strategies are illustrated with an example on the basis of Eco-Quantum, which is a Dutch whole-building assessment tool. It turns out that both strategies do not conflict with the LCA methodology. The LCA methodology has to be refined for this purpose.

Particle and gaseous emissions from commercial aircraft at each stage of the landing and takeoff cycle

A novel technique was used to measure emission factors for commonly used commercial aircraft including a range of Boeing and Airbus airframes under real world conditions. Engine exhaust emission factors for particles in terms of particle number and mass (PM2.5), along with those for CO2, and NOx were measured for over 280 individual aircraft during the various modes of landing/takeoff (LTO) cycle. Results from this study show that particle number, and NOx emission factors are dependant on aircraft engine thrust level. Minimum and maximum emissions factors for particle number, PM2.5, and NOx emissions were found to be in the range of 4.16×1015-5.42×1016 kg-1, 0.03-0.72 g.kg-1, and 3.25-37.94 g.kg-1 respectively for all measured airframes and LTO cycle modes. Number size distributions of emitted particles for the naturally diluted aircraft plumes in each mode of LTO cycle showed that particles were predominantly in the range of 4 to 100 nm in diameter in all cases. In general, size distributions exhibit similar modality during all phases of the LTO cycle. A very distinct nucleation mode was observed in all particle size distributions, except for taxiing and landing of A320 aircraft. Accumulation modes were also observed in all particle size distributions. Analysis of aircraft engine emissions during LTO cycle showed that aircraft thrust level is considerably higher during taxiing than idling suggesting that International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards need to be modified as the thrust levels for taxi and idle are considered to be the same (7% of total thrust) [1].