Effects of truncated mutants of the ε subunit of chloroplast ATP synthase on the fast phase of millisecond delayed light emission of chloroplast and its ATP synthesis ability

The ε subunit of the chloroplast ATP synthase and the truncated ε mutants which lack some amino acid residues from the N-terminus or C-terminus were overexpressed in E. coil When the ε subunit or the truncated ε proteins was added to the spinach chloroplast suspension, both the intensity of the fast phase of millisecond delayed light emission (ms-DLE) and the cyclic and noncyclic photophosphorylation activity of chloroplast were enhanced. With an increase in the number of residues deleted from the N-terminus, the enhancement effect of the N-terminal truncated proteins decreased gradually. For the C-terminal truncated proteins, the enhancement effect increased gradually with an increase in the number of residues deleted from the C-terminus. Besides, the ATP synthesis activity of ε-deficient membrane reconstituted with the ε subunit or the truncated ε proteins was compared. The ATP synthesis activity of reconstituted membrane with the N-terminal truncated proteins decreased gradually as the number of residues deleted from the N-terminus increased. For the C-terminal truncated proteins, the ATP synthesis activity of reconstituted membrane increased gradually with an increase in the number of residues deleted from the C-terminus, but was still lower than that of the wild type ε protein. These results suggested that: (a) the N-terminal domain of the ε subunit of the chloroplast ATP synthase could affect the ATP synthesis activity of ATP synthase by regulating the efficiency of blocking proton leakage of ε subunit; and (b) the C-terminal domain of the ε subunit of the chloroplast ATP synthase had a subtle function in modulating the ATP synthesis ability of ATP synthase.     

Isolation,purification and characterization of a new organphosphorus hydrolase OPHC2

A bacterium with the capability of degrading organphosphorus, identified as Pseudomonas pseudoaicaligenes, is isolated from OP-treated soil. The organphosphorus hydrolase OPHC2 from this bacterium has been purified and characterized. OPHC2 has optimum activity for the reaction at 65℃ and pH 9.0 with methyl parathion as a substrate, it also shows good thermal and pH stability. Most metal ions and chemicals have no effect on the activity of OPHC2. The analyses of nucleotide sequence encoding OPHC2 and amino acid sequence of OPHC2 show that there are lower homologies with those of organphosphorus hydrolase reported in GenBank.     

An in situ zircon Hf isotopic,U-Pb age and trace element study of banded granulite xenolith from Hannuoba basalt： Tracking the early evolution of the lower crust in the North China craton

Backscattered electron images, in situ Hf isotopes, U-Pb ages and trace elements of zircons in a banded granulite xenolith from Hannuoba basalt have been studied. The results show that the banded granulite is a sample derived from the early lower crust of the North China craton. It is difficult to explain the petrogenesis of the xenolith with a single process. Abundant information on several processes, however, is contained in the granulite. These processes in-clude the addition of mantle material, crustal remelting, metamorphic differentiation and the delamination of early lower crust. About 80% of zircons studied yield ages of 1842 ±40 Ma, except few ages of 3097-2824 Ma and 2489-2447 Ma. The zircons with ages older than 2447 Ma have high εHf (up to +18.3) and high Hf model age (2.5-2.6 Ga), indicating that the primitive materials of the granulite were derived mainly from a depleted mantle source in late Archean. Most εhf of the zircons with early Proterozoic U-Pb age vary around zero, but two have     

Characteristics of the binding features of Nelin with F-actin and screening Nelin interactive proteins

The interaction of nelin, a cardiac-specific expressed protein of human novel gene nelin, with F-actin was studied by both F-actin cosedimentation in vitro and colocalization assays. The results showed that nelin is a new F-actin binding protein and is colocolized with F-actin in cytoplasm of cells. Three new nelin binding proteins, filamin C subtype, titin N2B subtype and inter-alpha trypsin inhibitor heavy chain precursor (ITIH), were identified from human heart cDNA library using yeast two-hybrid screening. The binding activity of filamin C with nelin was confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation. Filamin C binds to nelin through its C-terminal region. It is indicated that nelin is a cytoskeleton associated protein and acts as a membrane-cytoskeleton associated protein involved in the formation of focal adhesions.     

GCC box in<Emphasis Type="Italic">Arabidopsis PDF1.2</Emphasis> promoter is an essential and sufficient cis-acting element in response to MeJA treatment

The expression of Arabidopsis PDF1.2 gene isregulated by jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET). It also has been well documented that GCC box is an element responsive to ET, however, the responsive mechanism of JA in such plant defense gene expression is unclear. In this paper, the authors define the essential cis-acting element in PDF1.2 promoter responsive to methyl jasmonate (MeJA) through fragment deletions and site-directed mutageneses combiningAgrobacterium-mediated transient reporter gene expression in tobacco leaves. Firstly, the MeJA inducible expression o fPDF1.2 was confirmed by using the upstream -1.86 kb fragment of PDFI.2 gene. Secondly, the upstream -300— -243 bp fragment of the promoter was evidenced to respond to MeJA. To further characterize this promoter region, three point mutations were introduced into the -300— -243 bp fragment of the promoter. This result showed that the mutation of GCC box abolished MeJA induction, whereas the mutations of the G box-like and the imperfect palindrome sequence did not significantly decrease MeJA inducible effect, indicating that GCC box in PDFI.2 is essential for MeJA induction. The sufficient responsiveness to MeJA of this GCC box was further investigated by 4xGCC fused upstream to the CaMV 35S minimal promoter. This result suggested that the fused promoter was able to activate reporter gene expression in response to MeJA. Thus these results indicate that the GCC box in PDFI.2 is an essential and sufficient element to confer MeJA induction.     

Comparison of summer thermohaline field and circulation structure of the Bohai Sea between 1958 and 2000

TheBohaiSea(37°07′—41°N,117°35′—121°10′E)isashallowsemi-enclosedsea.SincetheBohaiSeaistheonlyinnerseaofChinaandalsoanimportantstra-tegicsea,itisoneofthemostinvestigatedseasinChina.Alargenumberofstudiesonthetideandthetidalcurrentaswellasnumericalsimulationofcirculationhavebeencarriedout,enhancingourunderstandingoftheBohaiSea.Long-termvariationsoftheseasurfacesalinity(SSS)andseasurfacetemperature(SST)oftheBohaiSeawereanalyzed.Linetal.[1]foundthatthepositivetrendsoftheannualmeanS…     

Concentrations of “elemental carbon” in samples from the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian and the possibility of their application in the development of evidence for the use of fire by humans

Elemental carbon?EC) is a C-rich, O-H-S-N-depleted substance that is necessarily produced in the process of combustion. Due to the logn-term use of fire by cave-inhabiting ape-men, considerable amounts of 揺lemen-tal carbon?would be necessarily left behind in the corre-sponding strata inside the cave. The sepaation of EC was effected by the chemical method and the contents of carbon were determined on an element analyser and a self-made measuring system. The concentration of Ec in the hearth,the exhibited ash samples collected from near the hearth un-earthed in the 1930s, and the three samples of accumulated material collected from the tenth bed are 43.74%, 1.77%,3.88%,1.87% and 1.11%,respectively; those of the equivalent samples from the tenth bed outside the cave and samples from the fourth and seventh beds are at least one order of magnitude lower than the former抯. The above re-sults show that the sampling location of the tenth bed may be close to the hearth. Sampling over a wider range may lead to the finding of a location where the concentrations of EC are corresponding to the maximum values of EC in the hearth. The determination and study of EC may provide new evi-dence for the use of fire by Peking Man.