Optimization of an HPLC Method for Determining the Genomic Methylation Levels of Taxus Cells.

An HPLC method for quantifying total DNA methylation in Taxus chinensis cells is described. Optimal conditions for the method were established as follows: DNA was hydrolyzed with DNA degradase at 37°C for 3 h. The mobile phase was a mixture of Solvent A [50 mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate/triethylamine (100:0.

Proteomic and comparative genomic analysis of two Brassica napus lines differing in oil content.

Ultrastructural observations, combined with proteomic and comparative genomic analyses, were applied to interpret the differences in protein composition and oil-body characteristics of mature seed of two Brassica napus lines with high and low oil contents of 55.19% and 36.49%, respectively.

Cloning and expression of Brassica napus beta-carbonic anhydrase cDNA.

A new full-length beta-carbonic anhydrase cDNA was obtained from Brassica napus by homologous cloning. The cDNA has an open-reading frame of 996 nucleotides, encoding 331 amino acids with a calculated molecular weight of 35,692 Da and an estimated pI value of 5.459.

Improvement of arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid production by increasing the copy number of the genes encoding fatty acid desaturase and elongase into Pichia pastoris.

Genes encoding Delta6 desaturase, Delta6 fatty acid elongase, and Delta5 desaturase from the alga, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, were co-expressed in Pichia pastoris to produce arachidonic acid (ARA; 20:4 Delta(5, 8, 11, 14)) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5 Delta(5, 8, 11, 14, 17)). A panel of Pichia clones carrying progressively increasing copies of the heterologous gene expression cassette was created using an in vitro multimerization approach. ARA and EPA accumulated up to 0.

Evolution of structure in gamma-class carbonic anhydrase and structurally related proteins.

Protein structure contains evolutionary information and it is more highly conserved than sequence. The evolution of structure in gamma-class carbonic anhydrase (gamma-CA) and its structurally related proteins (gammaCASRPs) were discussed. To obtain a reliable analysis, we defined a subset that contains all specificities and organisms as the nonredundant set using QR factorization based on the multiple structural alignment of the known crystallographic structures of gammaCASRPs with Q(H) as the structural homology measure.

[The heredity of flower colors and the discovery of flower color chimera in chrysanthemum species].

The reciprocal crosses of yellow colored chrysanthemum x red colored chrysanthemum and white colored chrysanthemum x red colored chrysanthemum were conducted in order to analyze the heredity of flower colors. The results revealed that the heredity of flower colors was very complicated, and mainly exhibited matroclinous characteristics when red colored materials was used as maternal parent but not in the combinations when the yellow or white colored materials were used as maternal parents. The incomplete dominance and mosaic dominance also existed in the heredity of chrysanthemum flower colors.

[Development of relationship between A, B and C genomes in Brassica genera].

The study on genetic relationship among A, B and C genomes in Brassica genera has gained prodigious development, which revealed that the relationship between A and C genome was more closer than that of A and B, B and C genome. The results of comparative genomics showed that A, B and C genomes were all originated from a common ancestral genome. A lot of chromosome variations were taken place in the evolution of Brassica genomes, such as duplication, deletion and rearrangement, resulting in the difference of genomes.