Rearrangements of microtubule cytoskeleton in stomatal closure of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Arabidopsis</Emphasis> induced by nitric oxide

NO （nitric oxide）, known as a key signal molecule in plant, plays important roles in regulation of stomatal movement. In this study, microtubule dynamics and its possible mechanism in the NO signal pathway were investigated. The results were as follows： （i） In vivo stomatsl aperture assays revealed that both vinblastine （microtubule-disrupUng drug） and SNP （exogenous NO donor） prevented stomatsl opening in the light, and vinblastine even could enhance the inhibitory effect of SNP, whereas tsxol （a microtubule-stsbilizing agent） was able to reduce this effect; （ii） microtubules in the opening Arabi-dopsis guard cells expressing GFP：a-tubulin-6 （AtGFP：a-tubulin-6） were organized in parallel, straight and dense bundles, radiating from the ventral side to the dorsal side, and most of them were localized perpendicularly to the ventral wall; （iii） under the same environmental conditions, treated with SNP for 30 min, the radial arrays of microtubules in guard cells began to break down, twisted partially and be- came oblique or exhibited a random pattern; （iv） furthermore, the involvement of cytosolic Ca^2＋ in this event was tested. Stomatal aperture assays revealed that BAPTA-AM （a chelator of Ca^2＋） greatly suppressed the effect of NO on stomatal closure; however, it did not show the same function on stomatal closure induced by vinblastine. When BAPTA-AM was added to the SNP-pretreated solution, the SNP-induced disordered microtubulue cytoskeleton in guard cells underwent rearrangement in a time-dependent manner. After 30 min of treatment with BAPTA-AM, the cortical microtubules resumed the original radial distribution, almost the same as the control. All this indicates that NO may promote rearrangement of microtubule cytoskeleton via elevation of [Ca^2＋]cyt （free Ca^2＋ concentration in the cytoplasm）, finally leading to stomatsl closure.     

Reporter-based screen for <Emphasis Type="Italic">Arabidopsis</Emphasis> mutants compromised in nonhost resistance

Plants are exposed to many potentially pathogenic microbes in the environment, but each species is only susceptible to a limited number of pathogens. The broad resistance is referred to as nonhost resistance. To date, little is known about the underlying mechanism of nonhost resistance and the signaling transduction process. Here we describe a simple method for isolating Arabidopsis nonhost resistance mutants against a nonadapted bacterial pathogen. A RAP2.6 promoter-driven LUC reporter system was developed to replace the tedious bacterial growth assay during the primary screening. The RAP2.6-LUC reporter gene is normally induced by the virulent bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato but not the nonadapted bacterium P. syringae pv phaseolicola. By using this method we iso- lated 4 mutants displaying strong reporter activity in response to P. syringae pv phaseolicola, which were characterized in some details, ebsl, ebs2, ebs3, and ebs4 （enhanced bacterial susceptibility） were compromised in resistance against P. syringae pv phaseolicola and/or P. syringae pv tomato. In addition, ebs4 showed enhanced hypersensitive response to the incompatible bacterium P. syringae pv tomato （avrB）. These results demonstrated that the method is suited for large scale screening for nonhost resistance mutants.     

The research progress of tiling array technology and applications

Tiling array technology was improved from microarray technology. Over the past five years, tiling array has become an important tool for gathering genome information. Its features of high density and high throughput allow people to probe into life from the whole-genome level. This paper is a survey of tiling array technology and its applications. In addition, some typical algorithms for identifying expressed probe signals are described and compared.     

Analysis of biomarkers for the cross-linkage of formaldehyde with bovine serum albumin peptides

Formaldehyde, a well-known environmental toxic hazard, has been found to produce endogenously via semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase-catalyzed oxidative deamination of methylamine. In diabetes, the activity of SSAO has been found to increase with a subsequent increase in endogenous formaldehyde production. It has been postulated that SSAO-induced production of formaldehyde may be involved in the alteration of protein structure, which may subsequently cause protein deposition associated with chronic pathological disorders. Formaldehyde has also been found to react （cross-link） with amino group of the N-terminal amino acid residue and with the side-chains of arginine, cysteine, histidine and lysine residues. Therefore, formaldehyde may be responsible, at least in part, for protein cross-linkage, oxidative stress and cytotoxicity. The cross-linking of formaldehyde with bovine serum albumin was studied using LC-MS and Mascot database. The peptides sequence for control BSA （untreated） digested with trypsin was matched in the online database search query by exporting the MS/MS data to online MASCOT database. In this way, a total of twenty-seven peptides were matched in the database search query. These twenty-seven peptides were then searched manually in all of the tryptic BSA samples treated with different concentrations of FA that were incubated in different time intervals. Six formaldehyde-treated BSA peptides （FKDLGEEHFK, HLVDEPQNLIK, KVPQVSTPTLVEVSR, RPCFSALTPDETYVPK, LVNELTEFAK, DAFLGSFLYEYSR） were found to be the possible markers for formaldehyde-protein/peptides adducts.     

Control of the carrier-envelope phases of a synchronously pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillator and its applications

The intrinsic synchronization, multi-color outputs and related carrier-envelope phases （CEP） among pulses bring advantages to synchronously pumped femtosecond optical parametric oscillators and the pumping sources for broadband frequency comb generation and ultrashort waveform coherent syn-thesis. In this paper, we discuss our latest research results in this field, which cover the following as-pects： the phase relationship and energy conservation law in an OPO and related experimental verifi-cation; control of the pumping Ti-sapphire femtosecond laser＇s CEP by self-referencing technology, and its repetition-rate locking by piezoelectric transducer （PZT）; CEP locking of the pulses from the OPO by beating the non-phase-matched visible outputs against pump supercontinuum to obtain a driving signal for a fast PZT on the OPO end mirror; the generation of a broadband frequency comb spanning from 400 nm to 2.4 μm with 1.2 kHz bandwidth; and the realization of coherent interference between phase controlled pump pulses and signal second harmonic pulses.     

Transmission of oxygen isotope signals of precipitation-soil water-drip water and its implications in Liangfeng Cave of Guizhou,China

According to systemically monitoring results of oxygen （hydrogen） isotope compositions of precipitation, soil waters, soil CO2, cave drip waters and their corresponding speleothems in Liangfeng Cave （LFC） in Guizhou Province, Southwest China, it is found that local precipitation is the main source of soil waters and drip waters, and that the amplitudes of those δ18O values of three waters （precipitation, soil water and drip water） decrease in turn in the observed year, which are 0‰ to -10‰, -2‰ to -9‰ and -6‰ to -8‰, respectively. Moreover, the δ18O values for three waters show a roughly simultaneous variation, namely, that those values are lighter in the rainy seasons, weightier in the dry seasons, and that the average δ18O value of drip waters is about 0.3‰ weightier than that of precipitation, which is modified by surface evaporation processes. We also find that oxygen isotope equilibrium is reached or neared in the formation processes of speleothems in LFC system, and that it is feasible to reconstruct paleotemperature and paleoprecipitation by using δ18O values of speleothems. However, it should be noted that surface evaporation would affect the oxygen isotope values in the study area.     

Petrographic and geochemical characterization of seep carbonate from Alaminos Canyon,Gulf of Mexico

Seep carbonates were collected from the Alaminos Canyon lease area, Gulf of Mexico. The carbonates are present as slabs and blocks. Bivalve shell and foraminifer are the dominant bioclasts in carbonate. Pores are common and usually filled with acicular aragonite crystals. XRD investigation shows that aragonite is the dominate mineral （98%）. Peloids, clotted microfabirc and botryoidal aragonite are developed in carbonate and suggest a genesis linked with bacterial degradation of the hydrocarbons. The δ^13C value of bioclasts in carbonate is from -4.9‰ to -0.6‰, indicating that the carbon source is mainly from sea water as well as the small portion incorporation of the seep hydrocarbon. The microcrystalline and sparite aragonite shows the δ^13C value from -31.3‰ to -23.4‰, suggesting that their carbon is derived mainly from microbial degradation of crude oil. ^14C analyses give the radiocarbon age of about 10 ka. Rare earth elements （REE） analyses of the 5% HNO3-treated solution of the carbonates show that the total REE content of the carbonates is low, that is from 0.752 to 12.725 μg·g^-1. The shale-normalized REE patterns show significantly negative Ce anomalies. This suggests that cold seep carbonate is most likely formed in a relatively aerobic environment.     

Decadal variability of the IOD-ENSO relationship

Using three kinds of over 100-year sea surface temperature （SST） datasets as well as three-dimensional wind data from NCEP/NCAR, this paper documents the decadal variability of the Indian Ocean Dipole （IOD）-EI Nino/Southern Oscillation （ENSO） relationship. During 1948--1969, positive （negative） IOD and warm （cold） ENSO events were more independent of each other. But after 1970, they tended to occur in the same year. ENSO would influence the whole life span of IOD, and IOD also affects the developing phase of ENSO. Considering the climatological background SST, low-level winds and also equatorial vertical circulations, it is revealed that the decadal variability of the IOD-ENSO relationship may be caused by the enhanced Walker circulation with increased rising motion over the Maritime Continent after 1970. Warmer SST around the Maritime Continent gives rise to anomalous low-level convergence and intensified convection there, which apparently increases the SST linkage between the eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific and thereby the interaction between the IOD and ENSO event.     

Identification of the deposited layers in landslides reservoir and investigation of the sediment yields during the later sixteenth century on the Hill Loess Plateau,China

There are many sediment trapping reservoirs in the Hill Loess Plateau. The Huangtuwa small catchment is selected as a research field where samples were collected in a sediment deposit profile with a vertical length of 12.73 m. By the variation of fine particle content and pollen concentration, 54 flood couples were identified. Taking the freeze-thawing disturbed texture as the sign of the latest flood couple in a year, it is ascertained that those 54 floods should happen in 31 years. Using pyramid volume calculation formula, the sediment yields of flood ranged between 716-30376 t· km^-2, The average sediment yield was 7106 t· km^-2, The annual sediment yields varied between 968-55579 t· （km^2· a）^-1, and the average value is 12629 t· （km^2· a）^-1. Compared with the modern annual sediment discharge of the Huaining River, the erosion rate in the Huangtuwa region 450 years ago was similar to the modern erosion rate. In the period from the 27th year to the 31st year, the average annual sediment yield increased sharply to 31309 t· （km^2· a）^-1. It implied that re-reclamation of the abandoned land in the catchment since the landslide disaster, where vegetation had rehabilitated already, caused very severe soil erosion in the catchment.     

An endpoint damage oriented model for life cycle environmental impact assessment of buildings in China

The midpoint impact assessment methodology and several weighting methods that are currently used by most building Life cycle assessment （LCA） researchers in China, still have some shortcomings. In order to make the evaluation results have better temporal and spatial applicability, the endpoint impact assessment methodology was adopted in this paper. Based on the endpoint damage oriented concept, four endpoints of resource exhaustion, energy exhaustion, human health damage and ecosystem damage were selected according to the situation of China and the specialties of the building industry. Subsequently the formula for calculating each endpoint, the background value for normalization and the weighting factors were defined. Following that, an endpoint damage oriented model to evaluate the life cycle environmental impact of buildings in China was established. This model can produce an in- tegrated indicator for environmental impact, and consequently provides references for directing the sustainable building design.