In vitro starch binding experiments: Study of the proteins related to grain hardness of wheat

Two friabilin components, puroindoline a and GSP-1 were expressed in Escherichia coli. Starch binding properties of the recombinant polypeptides and of friabilin extracted from wheat flour were compared in vitro. The produced proteins as well as native wheat friabilin bound to starch granules prepared from different (soft, hard and durum) wheat cultivars. Starch granules also bound specifically several wheat endosperm proteins other than friabilin

Padrões de mortalidade da população feminina do município de Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo (Brasil), de 1970 a 1974 Mortality patterns of the female population in the county of Ribeirão Preto (S. Paulo, Brazil), 1970 to 1974

Estudou-se a mortalidade do sexo feminino determinando os coeficientes específicos de mortalidade feminina segundo os grupos etários e as causas de óbito no grupo etário de 15 a 49 anos. A investigação referiu-se a dados do município de Ribeirão Preto, SP (Brasil) . Para as estimativas de população, foram utilizados os dados dos censos de 1960 e 1970. As informações referentes aos óbitos, foram retiradas dos Mapas Demográficos Sanitários da Divisão Regional de Saúde de Ribeirão Preto. Somente se coletaram informações das mulheres falecidas que residiam no município. Estudaram-se as 5 principais causas de óbitos do grupo etário em idade fértil segundo os 17 grupos da Classificação Internacional de Doenças (OPAS/OMS, 1969), encontrando-se em ordem decrescente: Doenças do Aparelho Circulatório (Grupo VII), Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitárias (Grupo I), Tumores (Grupo II), Acidentes, Envenenamentos e Violências (Grupo XVII) e Doenças do Aparelho Digestivo (Grupo IX). O Grupo XI, complicações da gravidez, parto e puerpério, nos 5 anos analisados, correspondeu a 3,6% do total de óbitos. Conclui-se sobre a situação favorável do município, relacionada provavelmente à ampla cobertura profissional ao parto e puerpério.<br>The mortality of the female population in the county of Ribeirão Preto (S. Paulo State, Brazil), by determining the female mortality specific rates by age groups and the death causes in the age group of 15 to 49 years was studied. The results of 1960 and 1970 Demographic Census were used in the estimation of 1971 to 1974 population. The informations on deaths of the residents were taken from the Demographic-Sanitary Maps of the Regional Health Division of Ribeirão Preto. The first five causes of deaths were coded according to the categories of the eighth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Deaths. These were: Circulatory System Diseases, Infective and Parasitic Diseases, Neoplasms, Accidents, Poisoning and Violence and Digestive System Diseases. Complications of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium were found to be 3.6% of the total causes of deaths. The conclusions pointed to favourable conditions of the female fertile groups, probably due to good professional medical care covering delivrance and puerperium

Functional Survey for Heterologous Sugar Transport Proteins, Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a Host▿

Molecular transport is a key process in cellular metabolism. This step is often limiting when using a nonnative carbon source, as exemplified by xylose catabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. As a step toward addressing this limitation, this study seeks to characterize monosaccharide transport preference and efficiency. A group of 26 known and putative monosaccharide transport proteins was expressed in a recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae host unable to transport several monosaccharides. A growth-based assay was used to detect transport capacity across six different carbon sources (glucose, xylose, galactose, fructose, mannose, and ribose). A mixed glucose-and-xylose cofermentation was performed to determine substrate preference. These experiments identified 10 transporter proteins that function as transporters of one or more of these sugars. Most of these proteins exhibited broad substrate ranges, and glucose was preferred in all cases. The broadest transporters confer the highest growth rates and strongly prefer glucose. This study reports the first molecular characterization of the annotated XUT genes of Scheffersomyces stipitis and open reading frames from the yeasts Yarrowia lipolytica and Debaryomyces hansenii. Finally, a phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that transporter function clusters into three distinct groups. One particular group comprised of D. hansenii XylHP and S. stipitis XUT1 and XUT3 demonstrated moderate transport efficiency and higher xylose preferences

Development and characterization of a chimaeric tissue-specific promoter in wheat and rice endosperm

The recently achieved significant improvement of cereal transformation protocols provides facilities to alter the protein composition of the endosperm, for example, to increase or decrease the quantity of one of its protein components or to express foreign molecules. To achieve this goal, strong endosperm-specific promoters have to be available. The aim of our work was to develop a more efficient tissue-specific promoter which is currently used. A chimaeric promoter was assembled using the 5' UTR (1,900 bp) of the gene coding for the 1Bx17 HMW glutenin subunit protein, responsible for tissue-specific expression and the first intron of the rice actin gene (act1). The sequence around of the translation initial codon was optimized. The effect of the intron and promoter regulatory sequences, using different lengths of 1Bx17 HMW-GS promoter, were studied on the expression of uidA gene. The function of promoter elements, promoter length, and the first intron of the rice actin gene were tested by a transient expression assay in immature wheat endosperm and in stable transgenic rice plants. Results showed that insertion of the rice act1 first intron increased GUS expression by four times in transient assay. The shortest 1Bx17 HMW-GS promoter fragment (173 bp) linked to the intron and GUS reporter gene provided almost the same expression level than the intronless long 1Bx17 HMW-GS promoter. Analysis of the stable transformant plants revealed that 173 nucleotides were sufficient for endosperm-specific expression of the uidA gene, despite 13 nucleotides missing from the HMW enhancer sequence, a relevant regulatory element in the promoter region