An ABRE-binding factor, OSBZ8, is highly expressed in salt tolerant cultivars than in salt sensitive cultivars of indica rice

BACKGROUND: The bZIP class Abscisic acid Responsive Element (ABRE)-binding factor, OSBZ8 (38.5 kD) has been considered to regulate ABA-mediated transcription in the suspension cultured cells of japonica rice. Still, nothing is known about the expression of OSBZ8 at protein level in vegetative tissue of salt sensitive and salt tolerant rice plants. In our previous study, Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA) of [(32)P]ABRE-DNA and nuclear extracts prepared from the lamina of Pokkali rice plants has detected the presence of an ABRE-binding factor. Northern analysis has also detected salinity stress induced accumulation of transcripts for bZIP class of factor. Therefore, OSBZ8 was considered to play an important role in the regulation of transcription in the vegetative tissue of rice. The aim of this study is to find out whether OSBZ8 has any role in regulating the NaCl-stress induced gene expression in vegetative tissue and whether the expression of OSBZ8 factor directly correlates with the stress tolerance of different varieties of indica type rice. RESULTS: Northern analysis of total RNA from roots and lamina of salt-sensitive M-I-48 and salt-tolerant Nonabokra, when probed with the N-terminal unique region of OSBZ8 (OSBZ8p, without the highly conserved basic region), a transcript of 1.3 kb hybridized and its level was much higher in tolerant cultivar. EMSA with Em1a, the strongest ABA Responsive Element till reported from the upstream of EmBP1, and the nuclear extracts from laminar tissue of untreated and salt-treated seedlings of three salt sensitive, one moderately sensitive and two salt tolerant indica rice cultivars showed specific binding of nuclear factor to ABRE element. Intensity of binding was low and inducible in salt sensitive rice cultivars while high and constitutive in salt tolerant cultivars. EMSA with 300 bp 5'upstream region of Rab16A gene, a well known salt stress and ABA-inducible gene of rice, showed formation of two complexes, again very weak in salt sensitive and strong in salt tolerant rice cultivar. CONCLUSION: The bZIP factor OSBZ8 was found to be present in the ABRE-DNA: protein complex as shown by the supershift of the complex by the purified antiserum raised against OSBZ8p. Treatment of the seedlings with NaCl was found to enhance the complex formation, suggesting the regulation of OSBZ8 gene at both transcriptional and post-translational steps. Comparative EMSA with different varieties of rice suggests a positive correlation with the expression pattern of OSBZ8 and salt tolerance in rice cultivars

Cytisus scoparius link - A natural antioxidant

BACKGROUND: Recent investigations have shown that the antioxidant properties of plants could be correlated with oxidative stress defense and different human diseases. In this respect flavonoids and other polyphenolic compounds have gained the greatest attention. The plant Cytisus scoparius contains the main constituent of flavone and flavonals. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant activities of extract of aerial part of Cytisus scoparius. METHODS: The plant extract was tested for DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl, 2-picryl hydrazyl) radical scavenging, nitric oxide radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, antilipid peroxidation assay, reducing power and total phenol content. RESULTS: The extract exhibited scavenging potential with IC(50 )value of 1.5 μg/ml, 116.0 μg/ml and 4.7 μg/ml for DPPH, nitric oxide and superoxide anion radicals. The values were found to lesser than those of vitamin C, rutin, and curcumin, as standards. The extract showed 50% protection at the dose of 104.0 μg/ml in lipid peroxidation induced by Fe(2+)/ ascorbate system in rat liver microsomal preparation. There is decrease in hydroxyl radical generation with IC(50 )value of 27.0 μg/ml when compared with standard vitamin E. The reducing power of the extract depends on the amount of extract. A significant amount of polyphenols could be detected by the equivalent to 0.0589 μg of pyrocatechol from 1 mg of extract. CONCLUSION: The results obtained in the present study indicate that hydro alcoholic extract of aerial part of Cytisus scoparius is a potential source of natural antioxidants

A graph-theoretical analysis of the electron acceptor properties of benzoquinones, catechol and quinol

126-129A recently developed graph-theoretical method of construction of characteristic polynomial (CP) has been used to analyse the electron acceptor properties of some quinones and the corresponding quinols. The method of analysis does not require actual computation of energy-eigenvalues or eigenvectors- the properties can be predicted from the sign-change patterns of the CP’s alone

Non-planar amino groups: Protein structure database analysis and <i>ab initio </i>quantum chemical studies on model systems

58-67Hydrogen bond is one of the most important interactions in bio-molecular stability and recognition. Amino groups of nucleotides or amino acid residues act as important hydrogen bond donors in such interactions. The positions of the hydrogen atoms, which determine the directionality of the hydrogen bonds, are generally not available in the PDB entries. Although, such positions are reported in a few crystal structures, analysis of their geometry indicates that in most of them the positions are not thoroughly refined. The pyramidal nature of a few well-refined amino groups, however, indicates that a strong correlation exists between the non-planarity of the amide and the peptide torsion angles. The pyramidal nature of the amino groups might arise due to effect of lone pair electrons at the central nitrogen atoms, which do not take part in extended conjugation. In order to establish the above hypothesis, we have also studied a few amino group containing model systems by ab initio quantum chemical methods, which donate one of their lone pair electrons from nitrogen atoms during photo-induced electron transfer processes. The amino group of the excited state complex, geometry optimized by MCSCF/6-31 G** basis set, is found to have twisted planar geometry and the pyramidal nature is completely lost. This further supports the effect of lone-pair electrons in the vicinity of a conjugated system in amino group non-planarity

HYNIC and DOMA conjugated radiolabeled bombesin analogs as receptor-targeted probes for scintigraphic detection of breast tumor

Abstract Background Among the many peptide receptor systems, gastrin-releasing-peptide (GRP) receptors, the mammalian equivalent of bombesin (BN) receptors, are potential targets for diagnosis and therapy of breast tumors due to their overexpression in various frequently occurring human cancers. The aim of this study was to synthesize and comparative evaluation of 99mTc-labeled new BN peptide analogs. Four new BN analogs, HYNIC-Asp[PheNle]BN(7-14)NH2, BN1; HYNIC-Pro-Asp[TyrMet]BN(7-14)NH2, BN2; HYNIC-Asp-Asn[Lys-CHAla-Nle]BN(7-14)NH2, BN3; and DOMA-GABA[Pro-Tyr-Nle]BN(7-14)NH2, BN4 were synthesized and biologically evaluated for targeted imaging of GRP receptor-positive breast-tumors. Methods Solid-phase synthesis using Fmoc-chemistry was adopted for the synthesis of peptides. BN1–BN4 analogs were better over the standard Gln-Trp-Ala-Val-Gly-His-Leu-Met-NH2 (BNS). Lipophilicity, serum stability, internalization, and binding affinity studies were carried out using 99mTc-labeled analogs. Biodistribution and imaging analyses were performed on MDA-MB-231 cell-induced tumor-bearing mice. BN-analogs induced angiogenesis; tumor formation and GRP-receptor-expression were confirmed by histology and immunohistochemistry analyses of tumor sections and important tissue sections. Results All the analogs displayed ≥ 97% purity after the HPLC purification. BN-peptide-conjugates exhibited high serum stability and significant binding affinity to GRP-positive tumor; rapid internalization/externalization in/from MDA-MB-231 cells were noticed for the BN analogs. BN4 and BN3 exhibited higher binding affinity, stability than BN1 and BN2. Highly specific in vivo uptakes to the tumor were clearly visualized by scintigraphy; rapid excretion from non-target tissues via kidneys suggests a higher tumor-to-background ratio. BN4, among all the analogs, stimulates the expression of angiogenic markers to a maximum. Conclusion Considering its most improved pharmacological characteristics, BN4 is thus considered as most promising probes for early non-invasive diagnosis of GRP receptor-positive breast tumors