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Guided by TNF-α secretion inhibitory activity assay, four taraxastane-type triterpenoids, including two new ones, 22-oxo-20-taraxasten-3β, 30-diol (1) and 22α-hydroxy-20-taraxasten-30β, 30-triol (2), have been obtained from an active fraction of the petroleum ether-soluble extract of the the medicinal and edible plant Cirsium setosum. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic data and CD data analysis. In the TNF-α secretion inhibitory activity assay, compounds 1 and 2 were active with the IC50 of 2.6 and 3.8 μmol·L-1, respectively. In addition, compounds 1 and 2 showed moderately selective cytotoxicity against the human ovarian cancer (A2780) and colon cancer (HCT-8) cell lines.

Five norursane-type triterpenoids, including three novel of 3β-28-norursa-12,17,19,21-tetraene-3-ol (1), 3β-28-norursa-12,20(30)-dien-3-ol (2) and 3β-28-norursa-12,16,20(30)-triene-3-ol (3), as well as two known 3β-28-norursa-17,19,21-trien-3-ol (4) and 3β-28-norursa-12-ene-3-ol (5) were isolated from the ethyl acetate dissolved fraction of the ethanol extract from Rosmarinus officinalis. Their structures were elucidated by HR-ESI-MS, IR, 1D- and 2D-NMR spectroscopic methods. Compounds 1–5 exhibited significant inhibitory effect on NO production in LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells, and compounds 2, 3 and 5 shown better anti-inflammatory activity.

The lower seed setting is one of the major hindrances which face grain yield in rice. One of the main reasons to cause low spikelet fertility (seed setting) is male sterility or pollen abortion. Notably, pollen abortion has been frequently observed in advanced progenies of rice. In the present study, 149 BC 2 F 6 individuals with significant segregation in spikelet fertility were generated from the cross between N040212 ( indica ) and Nipponbare ( japonica ) and used for primary gene mapping. Three QTLs, qSS-1, qSS-7 and qSS-9 at chromosomes 1, 7 and 9, respectively, were found to be associated with seed setting. The recombinant analysis and the physical mapping information from publicly available resources exhibited that the qSS-, qSS-7 and qSS-9 loci were mapped to an interval of 188, 701 and 3 741 kb, respectively. The seed setting responsible for QTL qSS-1 was further fine mapped to 93.5 kb by using BC 2 F 7 population of 1 849 individuals. There are 16 possible putative genes in this 93.5 kb region. Pollen vitality tests and artificial pollination indicated that the male gamete has abnormal pollen while the female gamete was normal. These data showed that low seed setting rate relative to qSS-1 may be caused by abnormal pollen grains. These results will be useful for cloning, functional analysis of the target gene governing spikelet fertility (seed setting) and understanding the genetic bases of pollen sterility.

Background Penehyclidine hydrochloride (PHC) is a new anticholinergic drug, which has been shown to have a good curative effect for sepsis. Beta arrestins have been demonstrated to play important roles in sepsis. This study is to investigate the effects of PHC on pulmonary microvascular permeability and on expressions of beta arrestins in lung injury induced by the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) procedure. Materials and methods Thirty healthy female mice were randomly divided into three groups (n = 10 each): sham operation group (control group), CLP group (CLP group), and PHC 0.45 mg/kg group (PHC group). In the PHC group, mice were given an intraperitoneal injection of PHC 0.45 mg/kg 1 h before surgery. Mice in the other two groups received an intraperitoneal injection of the same volume of normal saline. At 12 h after surgery, serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were collected to examine lung permeability index. The lung tissue samples were collected to examine expressions of myosin light chain kinase (MLCK), vascular endothelial-cadherin (VE-cadherin), vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1), myeloperoxidase (MPO), NF-κB, and beta arrestins. Results Compared with the control group, pulmonary microvascular permeability, MPO activity, NF-κB, VCAM-1, and MLCK expressions were significantly increased, whereas VE-cadherin and beta-arrestin protein expressions were obviously decreased in CLP group. Furthermore, compared with the CLP group, PHC group markedly decreased pulmonary microvascular permeability, MPO activity, NF-κB, VCAM-1, and MLCK expressions, and increased expressions of VE-cadherin and beta arrestins. Conclusions This study suggests that in the CLP-induced lung injury model, PHC could reduce pulmonary microvascular permeability by upregulating expressions of beta arrestins.

α-Tocospiro C ( 1 ), the first example of nor-α-tocopheroid possessing unusual 7,8-dimethyl-1-oxaspiro[4.4]non-7-ene-6,9-dione carbon skeleton, was isolated and characterized from Cirsium setosum . Its structure and absolute configuration were determined by extensive spectroscopic methods, especially 2D NMR and ECD data analysis. The biosynthetic pathway was postulated. α-Tocospiro C ( 1 ) exhibited significant selective cytotoxic activities against human colon cancer (HCT8) cells, with IC 50 values of 0.03 μM.

Grain number per-panicle is one of the most important components for rice yield. Spikelets on the primary and secondary branches determine the grain number per-panicle in rice. In this study, we identified a natural mutant, gnp4, lack of lateral spikelet on the secondary branches in the field condition. In addition, the Gnp4 and Lax1-1 double mutant showed dramatically reduced secondary branches and spikelets in panicle at reproductive stage, and tillers at vegetative stage. By map-based cloning approach, and using four F 2 segregating populations, the Gnp4 gene was finally mapped to a 10.7-kb region on the long arm of chromosome 4 in rice. In this region, only one gene was predicted, and genomic DNA sequencing of the 10.7-kb region showed no nucleotide differences between the mutant and wild type. Interestingly, we found that the methylation level of several cytosines in the promoter CpG islands region of the predicted gene in gnp4 were different from the wild type. Thus, we propose that the DNA methylation changes at these sites may induce to decrease expression level of Gnp4, consequently, resulting in phenotypic variation.

For mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain weight (GW) and grain shape in rice ( Oryza sativa L.), a small GW variety, Nipponbare, was crossed with the largest GW line, SLG-1 to construct the mapping populations. In the cross progenies, large GW plants were selected to backcross with Nipponbare for several rounds. In the BC 4 F 1 population, which contained 73 lines, the distribution of GW appeared in 4 peaks. A single plant at each peak was selected to develop a SNIL population. Based on bulked segregant analysis, 19 polymorphic markers associated with GW and grain shape were screened from the 1513 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers covering the 12 chromosomes of rice. Using the 19 SSR markers, QTLs for GW, grain length, seed width, and grain thickness were identified in the 4 SNIL populations independently. A total of 12 QTLs were located in 6 regions on chromosomes 2, 3, 6, and 8, including genes GS3 and GW2 that have been cloned already. These QTLs explained phenotypic variations ranging from 7.22% to 53.38%. Five QTLs between RM6318 and RM1367 on chromosome 2, between RM5477 and RM6417 on chromosome 3, and between RM3370 and RM1161 on chromosome 6 were potential and required fine mapping. Among them, qGL3-1 is a novel locus with contribution on GL as high as 11.41-21.27%. These results and the SNILs constructed provide a basis for the fine mapping and gene cloning of novel locus associated with GW and grain shape in rice.