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.     

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.     

An exact solution for a normal point source problem

This paper presents an exact algebraic solution for a normal point source problem on elastic half-space due to impact pulse by adopting the Cagniard-Hoop method and improving Pekeris‘ partial fraction decomposition means.     

K-rich lamellar exsolution in clinopyroxene： Constraint on the depth of peridotite source at Zhimafang

The oriented lamellar K-rich exsolutions within clinopyroxene host were recognized in garnet peridotite massif at Zhimafang in the Sulu ultrahigh pressure metamorphic terrane, eastern China. EMP and TEM analyses revealed that the composition and the index of electron diffraction for this exsolution are corresponding with phlogopite, and the shape is the lamellae with 1 μm in width and 5 to 30 μm in length. Moreover, the topotaxy is that the (001) of K-rich exsolution parallels to (I00) of the clinopyroxene host. The electron diffraction analyzing shows the exsolution is of a 1M polymorphism. The high-resolution lattice fringe image displays the stack features along [001], which only a layer mineral shows. We conclude that the clinopyroxene with IM and K-rich exsolution was probably derived from mantle depths over 240 km, thus resulting from decompressional exsolution in the initial stage of slab exhumation.     

Blue emission from hydrogen-containing a-Si：H／SiO2 multilayers and the investigation of its mechanism

A series of hydrogen-containing a-Si:H/SiO2 multilayers with different a-Si:H sublayer thickness were fabricated by layer-by-layer deposition and in situ plasma oxidation in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system (PECVD). Optical induced blue emission from the samples was observed by the naked eye at room temperature, which has never been reported in the luminescence study of Si/SiO2 multilayers up to now. Both the photoluminescence (PL) peak and the absorption edge show a blue shift as the a-Si:H sublayer thickness decreases. The origin of the blue emission and the effect of hydrogen are discussed.     

A proteomic analysis of bacterial strain<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sinorhizobium fredii</Emphasis> RT19 subjected to salt shock

Sinorhizobium fredii RT19, a strain of freeliving bacteria, was subjected to salt shock and its protein expression profiles were analyzed by differential display proteome approaches. The results of separation by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D PAGE) showed that the number of resolved proteins was 481, 465 and 424, corresponding to salt-free control, 5 and 50 min 1 mol/L salt treatment, respectively. Among the resolved proteins, 82 in total had altered expression in response to salt-shock stress. 26 out of the 82 proteins were induced and 23 were completely inhibited, while 12 were up-regulated and 21 down-regulated in response to salt shock. In addition, the appearance of differentially displayed proteins responding to different salt shock periods is also reported. The identity of the 26 induced proteins was revealed by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) followed by database searching. Among them, 20 were assigned to proteins with known functions. Their roles in response to salt shock stress are discussed.