Enhancement of defense responses by oligandrin against Botrytis cinerea

Oligandrin is an elicitin-like protein with a molecular mass of ∼10 kDa secreted by Pythium oligandrum. Here, the effect of oligandrin on defense response against Botrytis cinerea in tomato leaves is reported. Tomato seedlings were pretreated with 5 ml oligandrin (10 g/ml) by root submerging and then inoculated with B. cinerea. Disease severity was subsequently evaluated and compared with the control. Results indicate that oligandrin pretreatment reduced disease index by 78.6% on day 7 after inoculation. On day 3 after inoculation, oligandrin pretreatment caused up-regulation of peroxidases (POD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) in leaves by 20.0, 5.56 and 32.88%, compared with inoculation without oligandrin pretreatment, respectively. On day 5 after inoculation, POD, PPO and PAL were up-regulated by 46.24, 32.61 and 57.14%, respectively. 24 h after the treatment with oligandrin, the expression of pathogenesis-related protein (PRs) genes, PR-2a (extracellular β-1,3-glucanase) and PR-3a (extracellular chitinase), were up-regulated by 7.75 fold and 4.56 fold in tomato leaves, compared with the control, respectively. The expression of LeERF2, a member of ethylene-dependent signaling pathway, was also significantly elevated by 7.41 fold. At the same time, the expression of ethylene receptor homologue PR-6 protein was also induced. These results indicate that oligandrin can induce resistance to B. cinerea in tomatoes, and the induction of resistance involves the activation of the ethylene-dependent signaling pathway. Oligandrin is potentially useful for gray mould prevention in tomato crop.Key words: Botrytis cinerea, induced resistance, oligandrin, resistance related enzymes

An increased prevalence of self-reported allergic rhinitis in major Chinese cities from 2005 to 2011

Background: The prevalence of allergic rhinitis (AR) has increased worldwide in recent decades. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of self-reported AR and profiles of AR-related comorbidities in the adult population of China over time. Methods: This study surveyed residents of 18 major cities in mainland China. Telephone interviews were conducted with study participants after sampling target telephone numbers by random digit dialing. The questions asked during telephone interviews were based on those included in validated questionnaires and focused on topics regarding AR, nonallergic rhinitis (NAR), acute/chronic rhinosinusitis (ARS/CRS), asthma, and atopic dermatitis (AD). Results: During 2011, a total of 47216 telephone interviews were conducted, and the overall response rate was 77.5%. When compared with the AR prevalence in 11 cities surveyed in 2005, there was a significant increase in self-reported adult AR in eight of those cities (P<0.01). In 2011, the standardized prevalence of self-reported adult AR in the 18 cities was 17.6%. The concentration of SO2 was positively correlated with the prevalence of AR (r=0.504, P=0.033). A multiple regression model showed that the absolute change in household yearly income was significantly associated with the change in the prevalence of AR (R-2=0.68), after adjusting for PM10, SO2, NO2, temperature, and humidity. The overall prevalences of NAR, ARS, CRS, asthma, and AD in the general population were 16.4%, 5.4%, 2.1%, 5.8%, and 14%, respectively. Conclusion: During a 6-year period, there was a significant increase in the prevalence of self-reported AR in the general Chinese adult population. The incidence of AR being accompanied by rhinosinusitis, asthma, or AD was significantly higher among individuals having self-reported AR compared with the general population

Calmodulin in complex with the first IQ motif of myosin-5a functions as an intact calcium sensor

© 2016, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. The motor function of vertebrate myosin-5a is inhibited by its tail in a Ca2+-dependent manner. We previously demonstrated that the calmodulin (CaM) bound to the first isoleucine-glutamine (IQ) motif (IQ1) of myosin-5a is responsible for the Ca2+-dependent regulation of myosin-5a. We have solved the crystal structure of a truncated myosin-5a containing the motor domain and IQ1 (MD-IQ1) complexed with Ca2+-bound CaM (Ca2+-CaM) at 2.5-Å resolution. Compared with the structure of the MD-IQ1 complexed with essential light chain (an equivalent of apo-CaM), MD-IQ1/Ca2+-CaM displays large conformational differences in IQ1/CaM and little difference in the motor domain. In the MD-IQ1/Ca2+-CaM structure, the N-lobe and the C-lobe of Ca2+-CaM adopt an open conformation and grip the C-terminal and the N-terminal portions of the IQ1, respectively. Remarkably, the interlobe linker of CaM in IQ1/Ca2+-CaM is in a position opposite that in IQ1/apo-CaM, suggesting that CaM flip-flops relative to the IQ1 during the Ca2+ transition. We demonstrated that CaM continuously associates with the IQ1 during the Ca2+ transition and that the binding of CaM to IQ1 increases Ca2+ affinity and substantially changes the kinetics of the Ca2+ transition, suggesting that the IQ1/CaM complex functions as an intact Ca2+ sensor responding to distinct calcium signals

Characteristics of a tropospheric ozone profile and implications for the origin of ozone over subtropical China in the spring of 2001

Author name used in this publication: Y. S. Li2003-2004 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Characteristics of biomass burning emission sources, transport, and chemical speciation in enhanced springtime tropospheric ozone profile over Hong Kong

2003-2004 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Evaluation of tumor response to cytokine-induced killer cells therapy in malignant solid tumors

CIK cells therapy has been evaluated as an adoptive cell immunotherapy for cancer patients, but there still have not been any standardized systems for evaluating the antitumor efficacy yet. The WHO and RECIST criteria have already been established for a few years but not sufficient to fully characterize the activity of immunotherapy. Based on these two criteria, the irRC was proposed for evaluating the efficacy of immunotherapy. A variety of bioassays for immune monitoring including the specific and non-specific methods, have been established. We recommend detect levels of various immunocytes, immune molecules and soluble molecules to find the correlations among them and clinicopathological characteristics to establish criteria for immunological classification. We also recommend a paradigm shift for the oncologists in the evaluation of immune therapies to ensure assessment of activity based on clinically relevant criteria and time points

Formation of P In defect in annealed liquid-encapsulated Czochralski InP

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements have been carried out on liquid-encapsulated Czochralski-grown undoped InP wafers, which reproducibly become semi-insulating upon annealing in an ambient of phosphorus at 800-900°C. The measurements reveal a high concentration of hydrogen complexes in the form V InH 4 existing in the material before annealing in agreement with recent experimental studies. It is argued that the dominant and essential process producing the semi-insulating behavior is the compensation produced by an EL 2-like deep donor phosphorus antisite defect, which is formed by the dissociation of the hydrogen complexes during the process of annealing. The deep donor compensates acceptors, the majority of which are shallow residual acceptor impurities and deep hydrogen associated V In and isolated V In levels, produced at the first stage of the dissociation of the V InH 4 complex. The high concentration of indium vacancies produced by the dissociation are the precursor of the EL 2-like phosphorus antisite. These results show the importance of hydrogen on the electrical properties of InP and indicate that this largely results from low formation energy of the complex V InH 4 in comparison with that of an isolated V In. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio