Colonization and growth promotion characteristics of Enterobacter sp. and Herbaspirillum sp. on Brassica oleracea

We investigated the effects of inoculating a dicot plant, Brassica oleracea , with nitrogen-fixing endophytic bacteria isolated from monocots. The bacteria used were Enterobacter sp. strain 35 isolated from sugarcane and Herbaspirillum sp. strain B501 isolated from wild rice. Under glasshouse conditions, B. oleracea inoculated with strain 35 had a significantly greater fresh weight than uninoculated plants, and the fresh weight of plants inoculated with strain B501 tended to be higher than that of uninoculated plants. We conducted a laboratory-scale experiment to confirm the above results and to investigate the colonization and nitrogen-fixing abilities of these bacteria. Plants inoculated with Enterobacter sp. strain 35-1, a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled strain derived from strain 35, had larger bacterial populations and greater acetylene reduction activity than those inoculated with Herbaspirillum sp. strain B501 gfp 1. Strain 35-1 colonized the intercellular spaces and the junctions of the lateral roots with the parent root. The results indicated that isolates from monocots can successfully colonize B. oleracea (a dicot) and promote plant growth.     

Discrimination between Virulent and Attenuated Isolates of Tomato mosaic virus by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism

The three missense mutations on the gene for the 130-K protein of Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) L₁₁A have been thought to be responsible for the attenuation of its virulence. The Eco47I RFLP detecting the missense mutation at 2349 successfully discriminated L₁₁A and its derivative attenuated isolates from ToMV virulent ones. RFLP analysis and mismatch amplification assay detecting the missense mutations at 1117 and 2754, respectively, could not discriminate some of the attenuated isolates from the virulent ones. These results indicated that, of the three missense mutations, only the one at 2349 was conserved in all the L₁₁A-derivative attenuated isolates. Received 16 March 2001/ Accepted in revised form 22 June 2001     

Functional Characterization of Citrus Polygalacturonase-inhibiting Protein

A cDNA encoding a polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein gene (SaiPGIPA) was identified from the citrus cultivar Sainumphung (Citrus sp.), one of the most popular cultivars in northern Thailand. SaiPGIPA was expressed in Escherichia coli cells, and the functional properties of citrus PGIP were analyzed. The PGIP fusion protein inhibited by a maximum of about 60% of the endopolygalacturonase activity, and a mixture of the PGIP and fungal endopoly-galacturonase released oligogalacturonides from polygalacturonic acid. The mixture containing the oligogalactur-onides, endopolygalacturonase and PGIP induced expression of the PGIP gene and a chalcone synthase gene in citrus leaves. The mixture also induced resistance in cucumber leaves against Colletotrichum lagenarium. Received 5 September 2001/ Accepted in revised form 20 November 2001     

The novel polymorphism of the beta 3-adrenergic receptor gene and its distribution in domestic pigs and wild boars in Asia

The beta 3‐adrenergic receptor (ADRB3) is a G protein‐coupled receptor that is involved in regulating energy homeostasis. We have studied DNA sequences of porcine ADRB3 to find candidate genetic polymorphisms for economically important growth and performance traits in pigs. Five novel haplotypes derived from the three In/dels and 44 SNPs were identified among domestic pigs and wild boars. Three of them encode non‐synonymous amino acid sequences by five missense polymorphisms and a frameshift by a thymine insertion. The amino acid polymorphic sites were distributed as follows: one substitution was in extracellular loop 1, three substitutions were in intracellular loop3 and one substitution and the deletion of two amino acids were at the carboxyl‐terminal. There was no polymorphism in the transmembrane domains. In addition, we surveyed the allelic frequency of the thymine insertion that cause frameshift in South‐east Asian local pigs, including some commercial breeds and wild boars. This thymine insertion was distributed widely in the domestic pigs and wild boars. The frequencies of this allele were relatively low in Western improved breeds, while they were very common in Asian breeds and wild boars in Asia. This result indicates that this insertion originally occurred in ancient Asian wild boars and then circulated among Asian domestic pigs. This allele also spread over Western breeds, probably through the introgression of Asian pigs into European stocks during the 18th and 19th centuries.     

Profiling of plasma metabolites in canine oral melanoma using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Malignant melanoma is one of the most common and aggressive tumors in the oral cavity of dog. The tumor has a poor prognosis, and methods for diagnosis and prediction of prognosis after treatment are required. Here, we examined metabolite profiling using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for development of a discriminant model for evaluation of prognosis. Metabolite profiles were evaluated in healthy and melanoma plasma samples using orthogonal projection to latent structure using discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Cases that were predicted to be healthy using the OPLS discriminant model had no advanced lesions after radiation therapy. These results indicate that metabolite profiling may be useful in diagnosis and prediction of prognosis of canine malignant melanoma.