Characterization of a cDNA encoding a homolog of actin-related protein 4 from a marine red alga Porphyra yezoensis

ABSTRACT:   A cDNA ( PyARP4 ) containing an open reading frame for a protein of 573 amino acids was identified in the marine red alga Porphyra yezoensis . The conceptual PyARP4 protein exhibits significant similarity to actin-related protein (ARP) 4 in the terrestrial plant Arabidopsis . Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence showed moderate sequence identity (30%) to a conventional actin in P. yezoensis , as seen in comparisons between ARP and conventional actins of other organisms. A putative bipartite nuclear localization signal and an actin motif were found within the PyARP4 amino acid sequence. In a phylogenetic analysis, the PyARP4 was found to cluster with the ARP4 of other organisms. The expression level of PyARP4 did not change significantly among four developmental stages of life cycle and was lower than that of a conventional actin. This cDNA therefore may serve as a useful internal standard in gene expression analyses of differentially expressed genes in P. yezoensis .     

Guanine-cytosine contents of the host and symbiont cDNA in a symbiotic coral

ABSTRACT:   Hermatypic (reef-building) corals harbor dinoflagellate endo-symbionts Symbiodinium spp. In studying gene expression in such symbiotic corals, problems arise regarding how to distinguish the coral and symbiont mRNA, and how to estimate their fractions in the mRNA population of the holobiont (symbiotic complex of the coral and Symbiodinium cells). In this study, these issues were addressed using juveniles of hermatypic coral Acropora tenuis in symbiosis with Symbiodinium cells of strain PL-TS-1. First, the guanine-cytosine (GC) contents were determined in expressed sequence tags (EST) from PL-TS-1 cells cultured in vitro and symbiont-free larvae of A. tenuis , and their average GC contents were found to be significantly different. The average GC content of the EST from the holobiont was much closer to that of A. tenuis larvae, suggesting that the majority (>90%) of mRNA isolated from the holobiont originated in the host. In protein-coding sequences, little overlap was observed between the GC-content distributions of PL-TS-1 cells and A. tenuis larvae. All of the coding sequences ( n  = 59) found in the A. tenuis EST had GC contents below 0.5, whereas the GC content exceeded 0.5 in the majority (43/44) of coding sequences from the nuclear genome of PL-TS-1 cells.     

Decomposition of (1–3,1–4)-β-Glucan and Expression of the (1–3,1–4) -β-Glucanase Gene in Rice Stems during Ripening

Abstract

To elucidate the possible participation of hemicellulose decomposition in lodging resistance, we studied the change of hemicellulose and cellulose content in the stems of rice during the ripening stage by methylation analysis and the expression of related genes by Northern blotting. In the rice stem in ripening stage, content of (1-3,1-4)-β-glucan, a component of hemicellulose, decreased markedly although the content of arabinoxylan, a major component of hemicellulose, and cellulose showed little change during the same growth period. On the other hand, expression of the Gns 1 gene, which may encode (1-3,1-4) -β-glucanase that catalyzes the degradation of (1-3,14) -β-glucan, increased sharply in the stem. The mechanism of decomposition of (1-3,1-4) -β-glucan in rice stem and the possible association with lodging resistance is discussed.     

柔嫩艾美耳球虫棒状体颈部蛋白2基因真核表达载体的构建及在293T细胞中表达

为构建柔嫩艾美耳球虫棒状体颈部蛋白2(Eimeria tenella rhoptry neck protein 2,EtRON2)基因的重组质粒pCAGGS-EtRON2,并转染293T细胞进行表达,以柔嫩艾美耳球虫孢子化卵囊cDNA为模板,经PCR扩增其核心编码区的一部分,将其克隆至pGEM-Teasy载体,构建pGEM-Teasy-EtRON2质粒,双酶切出目的片段后与相应酶切的真核表达载体pCAGGS连接,构建真核表达质粒pCAGGS-EtRON2。该重组质粒经酶切和测序鉴定后转染293T细胞进行表达,分别用免疫印迹和间接免疫荧光鉴定EtRON2基因的表达情况。所构建的真核表达质粒pCAGGS-EtRON2经过双酶切鉴定,可见一条大小约为1172 bp的目的条带,测序结果与GenBank所登录序列完全一致;免疫印迹实验可见大小约为43 kDa的目的蛋白条带,间接免疫荧光实验可以检测到特异性红色荧光。研究结果表明已成功构建了EtRON2的真核表达质粒pCAGGS-EtRON2,并在真核细胞中获得表达,为深入研究EtRON2的生物学功能奠定了基础。