Transgenic Rice Expressing Ictb and FBP/Sbpase Derived from Cyanobacteria Exhibits Enhanced Photosynthesis and Mesophyll Conductance to CO2.

To find a way to promote the rate of carbon flux and further improve the photosynthetic rate in rice, two CO2-transporting and fixing relevant genes, Ictb and FBP/Sbpase, which were derived from cyanobacteria with the 35SCaMV promotor in the respective constructs, were transformed into rice. Three homologous transgenic groups with Ictb, FBP/Sbpase and the two genes combined were constructed in parallel, and the functional effects of these two genes were investigated by physiological, biochemical and leaf anatomy analyses. The results indicated that the mesophyll conductance and net photosynthetic rate were higher at approximately 10.5-36.8% and 13.5-34.6%, respectively, in the three groups but without any changes in leaf anatomy structure compared with wild type. Other physiological and biochemical parameters increased with the same trend in the three groups, which showed that the effect of FBP/SBPase on improving photosynthetic capacity was better than that of ICTB and that there was an additive effect in ICTB+FBP/SBPase. ICTB localized in the cytoplasm, whereas FBP/SBPase was successfully transported to the chloroplast. The two genes might show a synergistic interaction to promote carbon flow and the assimilation rate as a whole. The multigene transformation engineering and its potential utility for improving the photosynthetic capacity and yield in rice were discussed.

A major locus qS12, located in a duplicated segment of chromosome 12, causes spikelet sterility in an indica-japonica rice hybrid.

Chromosome segment duplications are integral in genome evolution by providing a source for the origin of new genes. In the rice genome, besides an ancient polyploidy event known in the rice common ancestor, it had been identified that there was a special segmental duplication involving chromosomes 11 and 12, but the biological role of this duplication remains unknown. In this study, by using a set of chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) and near isogenic lines (NILs) derived from the indica cultivar 9311 and japonica cultivar Nipponbare, a major QTL (qS12) resulting in hybrid male sterility was mapped within ~400 kb region adjacent to the special duplicated segment on the short arm of chromosome 12. Compared to the japonica cultivar Nipponbare, the two sides of the qS12 candidate region were inverted in the indica cultivar 9311. Among 47 of the 111 rice genotypes evaluated by molecular markers, the inverted sides were detected, and found completely homologous to indica cultivar 9311. These results suggested that the two inverted sides protect the sequence in the qS12 regions from recombination. On the short-arm of chromosome 12, two QTLs S-e and S25, in addition to qS12, were previously detected as a distinct segregation distortion and pollen semi-sterility loci. We propose these three hybrid sterility loci are the same locus, and the duplicated segment on chromosome 12 may play a prominent role in diversification, i.e., sub-speciation of cultivated rice.

[Submergence tolerance and Sub1 locus in rice].

Great progresses have been made in understanding of both submergence tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa L.) and the molecular mechanism of tolerance over 4 years. Tolerance of rice plants to submergence is controlled by Submergence-1 (Sub1) locus. Sub1 regulates ethylene- and GA-mediated responsiveness, leading to restriction in carbohydrate consumption and quiescence in shoot elongation during submergence and subsequently causing submergence tolerance. This article reviewed two strategies adopted by rice plants to cope with flooding stress, major physiological factors affecting submergence tolerance, and physical mapping of Sub1 locus, as well as the mechanisms of submergence tolerance, and assessed the prospects of the use of Sub1 in hybrid rice production.

Identification of functional candidate genes for drought tolerance in rice.

Drought tolerance (DT) in rice is known to be controlled by many quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and involved differential expression of large numbers of genes, but linking QTLs with their underlying genes remains the most challenging issue in plant molecular biology. To shed some light on this issue, differential gene expression in response to PEG simulated drought in 3 unique genetic materials (a lowland rice, IR64 and its derived line, PD86 which has 11 introgressed DT QTLs, and a upland rice IRAT109) was investigated using a PCR-based subtractive hybridization strategy. More than 300 unique subtracted cDNA sequences, covering genes of diverse cellular activities and functions, were identified and confirmed by semi-quantitative and quantitative RT-PCR. Detailed bioinformatics analyses of the data revealed two interesting results. First, the levels and mechanisms of DT of the three rice lines were associated with the number and types of differentially expressed genes, suggesting different DT mechanisms in rice are controlled by different sets of genes and different metabolic pathways, and most differentially expressed genes under drought were able to contribute to DT. Second, there appeared a high correspondence in genomic location between DT QTLs and clusters of differentially expressed genes in rice, suggesting some DT QTLs may represent clusters of co-regulated and functionally related genes. Thus, differential gene expression analyses using genetically characterized materials can provide additional insights into the molecular basis of QTLs and convergent evidence to shortlist the candidate genes for target QTLs.

[Distribution and SNPs of the rice CMS-related gene in AA-genome of Oryza species].

The moiety of a chimeric gene in mitochondrial genome, orf79 and orfH79, probably related to BT-type and HL-type CMS of rice respectively, has 98% homology and only 4 nucleotide variation in DNA sequence. Of which, the former comes from Oryza sativa L., and the latter originates from Oryza rufipogon Griff. That means the orf79/ orfH79 may widely exist in Oryza species with AA genome. In order to investigate the distribution and difference of orf79/ orfH79 in the Oryza species, 190 cultivated rice accessions (including O. sativa and O. glaberrima) and 104 accessions of AA-genome Oryza wild species (including O. nivara, O. rufipogon, O. barthii, O. longistaminlata, O. glumaepatula, and O. meridion-alis) were detected with PCR amplification. Of which, 31 accessions mainly from AA-genome Oryza species were found to share the special amplified fragment with the control of Yuetai A and Shijin A. The special amplified fragments were all recovered and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequences showed that the 31 accessions were fallen into two groups, correspondingly representing HL-type and BT-type cytoplasm group. Further, the results revealed that the HL-type cytoplasm distributed mainly in annual O. nivara, and the BT-type cytoplasm centered in cultivated varieties or perennial O. rufipogon.

[A novel method of the genome-wide prediction for the target genes and its application].

Based on the protein databases of several model species, this study developed a new method of the Genome-wide prediction for the target genes, using Hidden Markov model by Perl programming. The advantages of this method are high throughput, high quality and easy prediction, especially in the case of multi-domains proteins families. By this method, we predicted the PPR and TPR proteins families in whole genome of several model species. There were 536 PPR proteins and 199 TPR proteins in Oryza sativa ssp. japonica, 519 PPR proteins and 177 TPR proteins in Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica, 735 PPR proteins and 292 TPR proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana, 6 PPR proteins and 32 TPR proteins in Cyanidioschyzon merolae. Synechococcus and Thermophilic archaebacterium did not have PPR proteins. By contrast, 10 TPR proteins were found in Synechococcus and 4 TPR proteins were found in Thermophilic archaebacterium. Moreover, of these results, some further bioinformatics analyses were conducted.

RFLP analysis for mitochondrial genome of CMS-rice.

Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used to analyze mitochondrial (mt) genome of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) rice. Differences were observed among mitochondrial genomes of the sterile line (A) and maintain line (B) of nine types of CMS rice; Mitochondrial genomic differences were also detected between A and B in many functional gene regions. Even the materials with the same nucleic background have differences in their mtDNA. This provides molecular evidence for the cytoplasmic heterogeneity and the CMS mechanism research.

Transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing cotton glutathione S-transferase (GST) show enhanced resistance to methyl viologen.

A GST (EC 2.5.1.18) gene (Gst-cr 1) from cotton was introduced into Nicotiana tabacum by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. Transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing Gst-cr1 were normal in growth and mature compared with control, but had much higher levels of GST and GPx activities and showed an enhanced resistance to oxidative stress induced by a low concentration of methyl viologen (MV). Six antioxidant enzymes, glutathione S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.9), superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1), peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7), catalase (EC 1.11.1.6), and ascorbate peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.11) were monitored in transgenic lines and non-transgenic control during MV treatments. When they were treated with 0.03 mmol/L of MV, both transgenic lines and control showed a rapid increase in the activities of GST, GPx, SOD, POD, APx, while the activity of CAT seemed to be irregular. The percent of the increase in SOD and POD activities was much higher in control than in transgenic plants. When treated with 0.05 mmol/L of MV, both control and transgenic plants were severely damaged, and the activities of the six enzymes decreased sharply.

Use of a rapid mismatch PCR method to detect gyrA and parC mutations in ciprofloxacin-resistant clinical isolates of Escherichia coli.

Four amino acid substitutions, two in GyrA and two in ParC subunits of DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV, respectively, are commonly responsible for fluoroquinolone resistance in Escherichia coli. In this study, an economical and time-efficient mismatch amplification mutation assay (MAMA) PCR was developed to detect mutations in the chromosomal gyrA and parC genes causing these substitutions. One hundred and twenty-one clinical E. coli isolates were tested by this assay, and the results confirmed that accumulation of amino acid alterations in GyrA and ParC correlates closely with stepwise increases in the MIC of ciprofloxacin.