Inheritance of tuber greening under light exposure in diploid potatoes

Low tendency to tuber greening under light exposure is a desirable trait for marketing and processing potatoes. Knowledge of the genetic basis of this trait is limited. During two consecutive years tuber greening after 2-week light exposure was evaluated on 17 unselected diploid potato families obtained between parents with varying tuber-greening tendencies. Parents of these families and standard cultivars were evaluated at the same time. External and depth of tuber greening were examined after tubers were exposed to 2 weeks of light in the greenhouse followed by storage at 10 C, 4 C, and after reconditioning at 18 C. Families, storage conditions, and years significantly influenced tuber greening. Distribution of greening indicated it would be possible to select individuals with very low tuber-greening tendency. Generally, external tuber greening was more intense than depth of greening. External tuber greening increased during storage while depth of tuber greening decreased. A significant maternal effect on external tuber greening was found in one of the three sets of reciprocal crosses after storage at 4 C. Both general and specific combining abilities were important in the inheritance of tuber greening. The correlations between external and depth of tuber greening in most families were significant and relatively high. The results indicated that genotypes with low tendency to tuber greening can be selected in diploid families.     

Honey as the Potential Natural Source of Cholinesterase Inhibitors in Alzheimer’s Disease

Plant Foods for Human Nutrition - Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized, among others by abnormal levels of acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase in...     

Changes of the lipid catabolism in potato tubers from cultivars differing in susceptibility to autolysis during the storage

Summary The activities of lipolytic acyl-hydrolases (LAH) and lipoxygenases (LOX) were compared in stored tubers of potato cultivars resistant (Acresta, Eba, Pentland Envoy) and susceptible (Kastor, Pana, Tasso) to post-wounding autolysis. In most cultivars, LAH activities had reached a maximum by the end of December but in cv. Kastor activity continued to increase throughout the storage period. LOX activities increased during most of the storage period except in cv. Tasso. The level of the fatty acid hydroperoxides, assumed from determinations of the malonaldehyde level, also increased during storage. This work was supported by Project CPBP 05.02.2.10 financed by the Polish Academy of Science.     

Preparation of biologically active monomeric recombinant zebrafish (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Danio rerio</Emphasis>) and rainbow trout (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Oncorhynchus mykiss</Emphasis>) recombinant growth hormones

Fish growth hormones (GHs) play an important role in regulating growth, metabolism, reproduction, osmoregulation, and immunity and have thus garnered attention for their application in aquaculture. Zebrafish GH (zGH) cDNA or rainbow trout GH (rtGH) cDNA was cloned into the pMon3401 vector, expressed in MON105-competent Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. Their biological activity was evidenced by their ability to interact with ovine GH receptor extracellular domain and stimulate GH receptor-mediated proliferation in FDC-P1-3B9 cells stably transfected with rabbit GH receptor. The relative affinity of zGH and rtGH, estimated by IC₅₀, was about 38-fold and 512-fold lower, respectively, than ovine GH. This is likely the reason for the low biological activity in cells with rabbit GH receptor, ~?36-fold lower for zGH and ~?107-fold lower for rtGH than for human GH. This was not due to improper refolding, as evidenced by circular dichroism analysis. Predicting the activity of fish GHs is problematic as there is no one single optimal in vitro bioassay; heterologous assays may be ambiguous, and only homologous assays are suitable for measuring activity.     

Rearing of coregonid fishes (Coregonidae) in illuminated lake cages: IV. Gonad development in whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus L.) under conditions of cage culture

The paper presents the results of observations on gonad development in whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus L.) in the fourth year of culture in illuminated like cages. Whitefish ovaries attained stage III of maturity. Stage IV of maturity was attained by only a few individual females. Disturbances in the development of the ovary were observed, consisting of asynchronous growth of the oocytes, their partial resorption, and delayed trophoplasmatic growth. Development of male gonads was also disturbed. Different males matured at different times, and their testes were in different stages of maturity. Fishes did not attain sexual maturity by the end of the fourth year of cage culture, so that no spawning could have taken place.     

Neuropeptides isotocin and arginine vasotocin in urophysis of three fish species

In this study, for the first time, both neuropeptides isotocin (IT) and arginine vasotocin (AVT) have been identified and measured in urophysis, the neurohaemal organ of the caudal neurosecretory system of teleost fish. So far, AVT, but not IT, was quantified by radioimmunoassay (RIA) in urophysis of several fish species. We have used high-performance liquid chromatographic assay with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FL) preceded by solid-phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI MS/MS) technique to determine both neuropeptides in urophysis of three fish species. The efficiency of peptide’s SPE extraction was 79–85 %. In HPLC-FL method, the limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were estimated as 1.0 and 3.4 pmol/mL for IT and 0.25 and 2.20 pmol/mL for AVT. In LC–MS/MS method, LOD and LOQ were estimated as 0.4 and 1.2 pmol/mL for IT and 0.06 and 0.2 pmol/mL for AVT. The chromatographic methods are good alternative for RIA, because enable to measure both nonapeptides simultaneously in one sample. In round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and sea bream (Sparus aurata), urophysial IT concentrations ranged between 0.056 and 0.678 pmol/mg tissue and AVT concentrations ranged between 0.0008 (or even below detection threshold) and 0.084 pmol/mg tissue.     

Septin-mediated plant cell invasion by the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae

To cause rice blast disease, the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae develops a pressurized dome-shaped cell called an appressorium, which physically ruptures the leaf cuticle to gain entry to plant tissue. Here, we report that a toroidal F-actin network assembles in the appressorium by means of four septin guanosine triphosphatases, which polymerize into a dynamic, hetero-oligomeric ring. Septins scaffold F-actin, via the ezrin-radixin-moesin protein Tea1, and phosphatidylinositide interactions at the appressorium plasma membrane. The septin ring assembles in a Cdc42- and Chm1-dependent manner and forms a diffusion barrier to localize the inverse-bin-amphiphysin-RVS-domain protein Rvs167 and the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein Las17 at the point of penetration. Septins thereby provide the cortical rigidity and membrane curvature necessary for protrusion of a rigid penetration peg to breach the leaf surface.