固氮细菌找到新寄主

研究人员促成了固氮根瘤菌到包括稻子在内的非豆科植物的根际安家结瘤.固氮根瘤菌是一种极其特别的细菌.除个别例外,它们只能在豆科植物例如大豆,苜蓿和刺槐的根部结瘤固氮.这种细菌,摄取在空气中无用的氮气,并将其转化成氨和植物的其他营养成份.实际上,细菌是为     

植物保护：一个任重道远的课题

植物致病菌和传播它们的昆虫无时不在兴妖作怪 ;研究人员必须继续不懈努力 ,探索对付病虫害的植保新法——     

Regulation of cellulose synthesis in Acetobacter xylinum by cyclic diguanylic acid

Cellulose is the most abundant renewable carbon resource on earth and is an indispensable raw material for the wood, paper, and textile industries. A model system to study the mechanism of cellulose biogenesis is the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum which produces pure cellulose as an extracellular product. It was from this organism that in vitro preparations which possessed high levels of cellulose synthase activity were first obtained in both membranous and soluble forms. We recently demonstrated that this activity is subject to a complex multi-component regulatory system, in which the synthase is directly affected by an unusual cyclic nucleotide activator enzymatically formed from GTP, and indirectly by a Ca (2+) -sensitive phosphodiesterase which degrades the activator. The cellulose synthase activator (CSA) has now been identified as bis-(3' 5')-cyclic diguanylic acid (5'G3'p5'G3'p) on the basis of mass spectroscopic data, nuclear magnetic resonance analysis and comparison with chemically synthesized material. We also report here on intermediary steps in the synthesis and degradation of this novel circular dinucleotide, which have been integrated into a model for the regulation of cellulose synthesis.     

揭开免疫的秘密：MHC如何和抗原相遇

一个受到病毒感染的细胞,是如何通过免疫系统的杀伤者T细胞,在其自身表面触发起一种攻击活动的呢?简短答案,就是T细胞通过一种型-I主要组织相容性复合(MHC)蛋白质,识别出现在受感染细胞表面上的病毒蛋白质片段,这种现象,称作"抗原表述".但是,隐匿在这种答案中的秘密,多年来一直令免疫学家     

^210Pbex depth distribution in soil and calibration models for assessment of soil erosion rates from ^210Pbex measurements

Throughout the past decade, the potential for using nuclear weapon-produced 137Cs ( half-life 30.2 a) fallout to quantify soil erosion rates on both cultivated and uncul- tivated lands for medium-term timescales (≈ 40 a) has been successfully demonstrated in a wide range of envi- ronments in different regions of the world[1—6]. Because in difficulties of distinguishing Chernobyl-derived compo- nent from total 137Cs input in many parts of Europe, and in measuring low activity samples of…