Characteristics of Apoptotic Cell Death Induced by Coxsackievirus B in Permissive Vero Cells

Coxsackievirus B (CVB) causes a wide spectrum of human diseases which are closely associated with direct destruction of infected cells. We investigated the morphological and biochemical characteristics of CPEs in permissive Vero cells caused by different CVB serotypes. Regardless of serotype, the infected cells experienced similar degrees of CPEs within 24 h postinfection (p.i.). Using both Hoechst 33342 staining and transmission electron microscopy, we consistently observed morphological properties of apoptosis, heavily condensed nuclei and subsequent chromatin condensation into the periphery of the nuclei within 12 h p.i. Moreover, we noticed typical oligonucleosomal DNA fragmentation, while productive CVB multiplication was accomplished within 6 h p.i. prior to an apoptotic signal. Caspase inhibitor significantly prohibited nuclear changes due to apoptosis with no influence on virus production and cell death, demonstrating that all the CVBs induced more than one type of pathological effect, including apoptotic alteration in permissive Vero cells

Generation and Analysis of End Sequence Database for T-DNA Tagging Lines in Rice

We analyzed 6,749 lines tagged by the gene trap vector pGA2707. This resulted in the isolation of 3,793 genomic sequences flanking the T-DNA. Among the insertions, 1,846 T-DNAs were integrated into genic regions, and 1,864 were located in intergenic regions. Frequencies were also higher at the beginning and end of the coding regions and upstream near the ATG start codon. The overall GC content at the insertion sites was close to that measured from the entire rice (Oryza sativa) genome. Functional classification of these 1,846 tagged genes showed a distribution similar to that observed for all the genes in the rice chromosomes. This indicates that T-DNA insertion is not biased toward a particular class of genes. There were 764, 327, and 346 T-DNA insertions in chromosomes 1, 4 and 10, respectively. Insertions were not evenly distributed; frequencies were higher at the ends of the chromosomes and lower near the centromere. At certain sites, the frequency was higher than in the surrounding regions. This sequence database will be valuable in identifying knockout mutants for elucidating gene function in rice. This resource is available to the scientific community at http://www.postech.ac.kr/life/pfg/risd