Specific degradation of photosystem II D1 protein by a protease （Air3815） in heterocysts of the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC7120

Some filamentous cyanobacteria form heterocysts under conditions lacking combined nitrogen for nitrogen fixation.Photosystem II is removed from heterocyst during the process of cell differentiation.Here,we demonstrate that Alr3815 is a protease that is capable of degrading D1 protein of photosystem II.Strain-322,which lacks alr3815,is impaired in nitrogen fixation in air because some oxygen evolving activity is retained in its heterocysts.Our results also suggest that calcium may play a regulatory role in D1 degradation during heterocyst differentiation.     

An Arabidopsis ctpA homologue is involved in the repair of photosystem II under high light

A T-DNA insertion mutant AtctpA1 was identified to study the physiological roles of a carboxyl-terminal processing protease (CtpA) homologue in Arabidopsis. Under normal growth conditions, disruption of AtctpA1 did not result in any apparent alterations in growth rate and thylakoid membrane protein components. However the mutant plants exhibited increased sensitivity to high irradiance. Degradation of PSII reaction center protein D1 was accelerated in the mutant during photoinhibition. These results demostrated that AtctpA1 was required for efficient repair of PSII in Arabidopsis under high irradiance.     

拟南芥逆境胁迫诱导转录因子DREB1A基因的克隆和序列分析

以拟南芥基因组DNA为模板,通过PCR扩增得到逆境胁迫诱导转录因子DREB1A基因,将其克隆到pUC19质粒中.序列分析表明获得的基因序列与已报道的该基因的序列完全相同.     

Expression profile analysis of 9 heat shock protein genes throughout the life cycle and under abiotic stress in rice

Plant heat shock proteins (Hsps) facilitate protein folding or assembly under diverse developmental and adverse environmental conditions. Nine OsHsps were identified in our previous study from a proteomic analysis of rice cv. IRAT 109 leaf samples at the seedling stage under drought stress. To obtain additional information on the 9 OsHsp genes, this study focused on an expression profile analysis at different development stages throughout the life cycle of rice, and under different abiotic stresses and phyto-hormone treatments. The 9 genes exhibited distinctive expression patterns in different organs or development stages. Five of the genes (OsHsp72.90, OsHsp72.57, OsHsp71.18, OsHsp24.15 and OsHsp18.03) showed high expression in the endosperm, indicating that OsHsp genes may play important roles in rice seed development. All 9 OsHsps were up-regulated under heat, polyethylene glycol, and abscisic acid treatment, whereas salt stress caused up-regulation of 6 genes (OsHsp93.04, OsHsp71.10, OsHsp71.18, OsHsp72.57, OsHsp24.15 and OsHsp18.03) and cold stress resulted in down-regulation of OsHsp93.04 and OsHsp72.57. These diverse expression profiles imply potential functional diversity of the Hsp gene family in rice.