Over-expression of Arabidopsis DnaJ (Hsp40) contributes to NaCl-stress tolerance

DnaJ (Hsp40), a heat shock protein, is a molecular chaperones responsive to various environmental stress. To analyze the protective role of DnaJ, we obtained sense transgenic Arabidopsis plants that constitutively expressed elevated levels of DnaJ. In this study, sense transgenic plants show large thinner, fade color and malformed leaves, as well as less floss of back leaves. Plants with enhanced levels of DnaJ in their transgenic sense lines exhibited tolerance to NaCl stress. Under 120 mM NaCl, root length was higher in transgenic sense plants than wild-type plants. In vitro expression system, DnaJ protein shows tolerance to high NaCl. These results suggest that over-expression of DnaJ can confer NaCl-stress tolerance

The earlier identification of the seedless characteristic of the wampee [Clausena lansium (Lour.) Skeels] hybrid by a random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker

Wampee as an important fruit is widely grown in South China and conventional breeding methods for the production of new seedless wampee cultivars in recent years were operated. Hybridization wasconducted using the seed as female parents and the seedless as male parents. However, the seeds could be gotten from cross combination. An efficient operation was that, non-woven fabrics bag could increase burliness rate in hybridization. In order to earlier identify seedless seedlings in hybrid progeny, the objective of this work is to identify molecular markers linked to seedless trait through bulked segregant analysis. Two bulks, seedless and seed, were prepared by pooling DNA of individual identified plants and used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. Out of the 100 primers tested, only S06 primer could get a specific 930 bp restriction random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPDamplicon to seedless bulk. As a result, a hybrid was tested with this primer in two cross combinations.Keywords: Earlier identification, seedless wampee, bulked segregant analysis, randomly amplified polymorphic DN

Studies of the genetic diversity of seven sweetsop (Annona squamosa L.) cultivars by amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis

Seven sweetsop germplasm resources were studied, and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis system was established by detecting the results of several reactions, such as DNA extraction, enzyme restriction, ligation, preamplification and selective amplification in the reaction system of AFLP. The seven germplasm resources of sweetsop were studied by using AFLP technique, and UPGMA clustering results showed genetic distance of 0.572 ~ 0.818. Small genetic distance was 0.572 between ‘Yuanhua’ sweetsop and other sweetsop cultivars; high genetic distance was 0.818 between ‘AP’ and ‘Fenglishijia’ sweetsop. These results suggested that there was relative family relationship between them. This aims to study the family relationship in seven sweetsop germplasms resources, in order to select parents in sweetsop breeding and grafted rootstock.Key words: Sweetsop, DNA extraction, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), genetic diversity

A Radically Configurable Six-State Compound

Most organic radicals possess short lifetimes and quickly undergo dimerization or oxidation. Here, we report on the synthesis by radical templation of a class of air- and water-stable organic radicals, trapped within a homo[2]catenane composed of two rigid and fixed cyclobis (paraquat-p-phenylene) rings. The highly energetic octacationic homo[2]catenane, which is capable of accepting up to eight electrons, can be configured reversibly, both chemically and electrochemically, between each one of six experimentally accessible redox states (0, 2+, 4+, 6+, 7+, and 8+) from within the total of nine states evaluated by quantum mechanical methods. All six of the observable redox states have been identified by electrochemical techniques, three (4+, 6+, and 7+) have been characterized by x-ray crystallography, four (4+, 6+, 7+, and 8+) by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, one (7+) by superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry, and one (8+) by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy