转型中的亚洲林业(续二)

在过去的20年里,亚洲林业经历了引人注目的转型,包括从计划经济到市场经济的转变,从天然林供给木材到人工林供给木材的转变,木材替代品与非木质林产品的增加,地方分权与当地群众的参与,生态时代的发展与生态系统管理。在促进亚洲可持续森林资源管理中,市场工具、社区参与和环境服务都得到了应用。亚洲林业的转型表现出多样化,其森林、社会与环境之间的联系是丰富多彩的。     

Transition state leading to β-O′ quinonemethide intermediate of p-coumaryl alcohol analyzed by semi-empirical molecular orbital calculation

The radical coupling reaction leading to the β-0′ quinonemethide intermediate of p-coumaryl alcohol was analyzed by semi-empirical molecular orbital calculation with MOPAC2002. By analyzing the radical monomer in a one-electron oxidation, the spin density of the unpaired electron at the 4-oxygen was less than half of the values at the C₁, C₃, C₅, and C_β positions. By analyzing the transition state during the radical coupling reaction, the activation enthalpy was evaluated as 9.76 kcal/mol, which corresponds to the activation energies for the propagation of common vinyl polymers. From the analysis of atomic interactions in the transition state, it was found that the activation enthalpy was largely composed of a high coulombic repulsion between C_β of the first monomer and the phenolic oxygen of the second monomer. After passing the transition state, the two radical monomers formed a metastable quinone-methide intermediate. The optimum conformation of the quinonemethide intermediate was formed from the meta-stable conformation through a second transition state with a small energy barrier. Part of this article was presented at the 46th Lignin Symposium, held in Fukuoka, October 31-November 1, 2002     

The histopathogenesis of paralytic rabies in six-week-old C57BL/6J mice following inoculation of the CVS-11 strain into the right triceps surae muscle

A fatal encephalomyelitis was developed after intracerebral and hind limb inoculation of in 6-week-old C57BL/6J mice by the inoculation of fixed rabies virus (CVS-11 strain), intracerebrally and into hind. After the intracerebral inoculation, virus antigens were detected in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus at 2 days postinoculation (PI), and later spread centrifugally to thalamus, brain stem, cerebellum, spinal cord and spinal ganglia. At 4 days PI, severe apoptosis and DNA fragmentation were observed in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. All mice infected intracerebrally were dead without limb paralysis at from 10 to 11 days PI. In contrast, mice infected with virus intramuscularly were persistently observed virus antigens in the myocytes at the site of inoculation from 2 days PI. At 4 days PI, the antigens were demonstrated in the spinal dorsal root ganglia, spinal cord and muscle spindles without their detection in the cerebrum and hippocampus. There were no apoptosis in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia, however hind limb paralysis was found in all infected mice. Hind limb paralysis was progressed to quadriparalysis, and mice were dead from 11 to 13 days PI. From 4 days PI, necrosis of neuron was observed in the the spinal and dorsal ganglia with infiltration of lymphocyte. This study suggested that the necrosis of spinal neurons was more important to cause the paralysis of hind limb rather than the severe cerebral infection and apoptosis in C57BL/6J mice infected with CVS-11 strain. The virus primarily replicated in the muscles was ascended the spinal cord via afferent fibers and retrogradely invaded the cerebrum, and with subsequent spread to muscle spindles.     

Identification of endophytic <Emphasis Type="Italic">Streptomyces</Emphasis> sp. R-5 and analysis of its antimicrobial metabolites

In a previous study, endophytic Streptomyces sp. R-5 isolated from a field-grown rhododendron was able to confer disease resistance on tissue-cultured seedlings of rhododendron when applied to medium surfaces in flasks. Here, the isolate was identified as Streptomyces galbus Frommer based on various physiological characteristics and analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence. Its major antimicro-bial metabolites were identified as actinomycin X₂ and fungichromin by analyses using liquid chromatography/mass spectometry and nuclear magnetic resonance.     

Effect of volume of non-surgical embryo transfer medium on ability of porcine embryos to survive to term

Non-surgical embryo transfer is a promising method for improving efficiency in the pork industry and also for biotechnology applications, such as in vitro embryo production, transgenesis and cloning. Several groups have reported successful piglet production using an artificial insemination catheter or flexible catheter designed for this procedure; however, the efficiency of the technique is still low. The critical points that need to be addressed in order to improve this procedure are (1) the embryo deposition site and (2) volume of transfer medium associated with the embryos; however, the latter has not yet been examined systematically. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of the volume of non-surgical embryo transfer medium on the ability of porcine embryos to survive to term by using a recently produced flexible catheter. The catheter consists of a guide and an injector. Blastocysts 200-230 mum in diameter were collected from donor gilts and transferred to recipient gilts. The time required for the completion of embryo transfer using this catheter was 14.6 +/- 3.9 min. The tip of the injector was determined by laparotomy to be located in a uterine horn 20-30 cm anterior from the branching point of the uterus body. We transferred 17.0-17.3 embryos with different volumes of medium (1.6, 3.2 and 10 ml) into each of 5, 4 and 4 recipients, respectively, and pregnancy was confirmed in 4, 3 and 1 of these recipients, respectively. Three recipients in the 1.6 ml group farrowed a total of 19 piglets (4, 5 and 10 piglets, respectively). These results suggest that successful non-surgical embryo transfer is affected by the volume of transfer medium.     

Dehydroeffusol Rescues Amyloid β25–35-Induced Spatial Working Memory Deficit

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition - Amyloid β (Aβ) peptides produced from the amyloid precursor protein, a transmembrane protein, are neurotoxic and blocking the neurotoxicity may lead to...     

Allelopathy assessments for the environmental biosafety of the salt-tolerant transgenic Eucalyptus camaldulensis, genotypes codA12-5B, codA 12-5C, and codA 20C

Allelopathy tests were conducted on salt-tolerant transgenic eucalyptus trees conferring bacterial codA gene in the designated net-house conditions under Type II use (contained use) of the Japanese law on environmental biosafety aiming for Type I (field use) application. Three transgenic and corresponding nontransgenic genotypes were employed for four different tests: (1) sandwich bioassay; (2) soil germination method; (3) gas chromatography (GC) for volatile substances from the plants; and (4) high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on phenolic compounds from fresh leaves, which are the primary allelopathic substances on the species. The simple approaches, the bioassays, indicated no significant difference between the transgenic and nongenetically modified genotypes. There was no qualitative difference between the transgenic and nontransgenic lines by GC or HPLC. Absence of any quantitative difference was suggested by repetitive examination and subsequent analysis of variance assessments with the chromatographic methods and bioassays. Moreover, it was also indicated that bioassays should be the primary assessment method for allelopathy in considering the simplicity, speed, low cost, and reproducibility of these methods. Overall, substantial equivalence was considered on the three transgenic genotypes with codA gene when compared with the nontransgenic Eucalyptus camaldulensis lines. The experiments supported the application to isolated field testing of the transgenic Eucalyptus camaldulensis genotypes as the first case and experience in Japanese regulatory approval processes Type I Use for the deliberate release to the environment.     

Dodeca-CLE peptides as suppressors of plant stem cell differentiation

In plants and animals, small peptide ligands that signal in cell-cell communication have been suggested to be a crucial component of development. A bioassay of single-cell transdifferentation demonstrates that a dodecapeptide with two hydroxyproline residues is the functional product of genes from the CLE family, which includes CLAVATA3 in Arabidopsis. The dodecapeptide suppresses xylem cell development at a concentration of 10(-11) M and promotes cell division. An application, corresponding to all 26 Arabidopsis CLE protein family members, of synthetic dodecapeptides reveals two counteracting signaling pathways involved in stem cell fate.