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Background: Rice blast is a very serious disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae. The avirulence (AVR) genes of rice blast are perceived by the corresponding rice-blast resistance (R) genes and prompt specific resistance. A mutantion in AVR is a major force for new virulence. Exploring mutations in AVR among M. oryzae isolates from rice-production fields could aid assessment of the efficacy and durability of R genes. We studied the probable molecular-evolutionary patterns of AVR-Pib alleles by assaying their DNA-sequence diversification and examining their avirulence to the corresponding Pib resistance gene under natural conditions in China.Results: PCRs detected results from M. oryzae genomic DNA revealed that 162 out of 366 isolates collected from Yunnan Province contained AVR-Pib alleles. Among them, 36.1–73.3% isolates from six different rice-production areas of Yunnan contained AVR-Pib alleles. Furthermore, 36 (28.6%) out of 126 isolates had a transposable element (TE) insertion in AVR-Pib, which resulted in altered virulence. The TE insertion was identified in isolates from rice rather than from Musa nana Lour. Twelve AVR-Pib haplotypes encoding three novel AVR-Pib variants were identified among the remaining 90 isolates. AVR-Pib alleles evolved to virulent forms from avirulent forms by base substitution and TE insertion of Pot2 and Pot3 in the 5′ untranslated region of AVR-Pib. Conclusions: Our results revealed that AVR-Pib alleles suffered neutral evolution and divergences that led to overcome specific resistant Pib alleles under field conditions. The TE insertion in AVR-Pib was selected and adapted to rice and other Gramineae species.

The complete genome of the dsRNA virus isolated from Rhizoctonia solani AG-1 IA 9–11 (designated as Rhizoctonia solani dsRNA virus 11, RsRV11 ) were determined. The RsRV11 genome was 9,555 bp in length, contained three conserved domains, SMC, PRK and RT-like super family, and encoded two non-overlapping open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 potentially coded for a 204.12 kDa predicted protein, which shared low but significant amino acid sequence identities with the putative protein encoded by Rhizoctonia solani RNA virus HN008 (RsRV-HN008) ORF1. ORF2 potentially coded for a 132.41 kDa protein which contained the conserved motifs of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Phylogenetic analysis indicated that RsRV11 was clustered with RsRV-HN008 in a separate clade independent of other virus families. It implies that RsRV11, along with RsRV-HN008 possibly a new fungal virus taxa closed to the family Megabirnaviridae, and RsRV11 is a new member of mycoviruses.

In the field, the chemical constituents of the essential oil of Pelargonium graveolens cutting (diploid) and polyploid seedlings are the same, but the principal components of geraniol, geranyl formate, and linalool in polyploid plants are remarkably higher than those of cutting seedlings. The contents of citronellol, citronellyl formate, and rose oxide are significantly lower in polyploid seedlings than in cutting seedlings. ISSR and RAPD molecular markers were used to analyze P. graveolens in two different genetic populations and to compare the genetic background of differences between cutting and polyploid seedlings. The genomic DNA of 60 cutting and polyploid seedlings was extracted for PCR amplification by using 3 ISSR primers and 11 RAPD primers for random sampling from adjacent cultivated fields. Among the primers, ISSR-25 primer detected the highest diversity of the loci. Seven loci of variation were found in the two populations. The variation rates detected using 3 ISSR primers were 13.3% and 6.7% for the cutting and polyploid populations, respectively. Genetic polymorphisms in P. graveolens genome with mutation rates of 11.7% and 3.3% were respectively determined in cutting and polyploid seedlings by using 3 RAPD primers (B11, P4, and R19). Both types of molecular markers also revealed the mutation in cutting and polyploid seedlings. Results demonstrated that a genetic difference can be observed by the molecular markers, although no evident phenotypic difference exists in cutting and polyploid seedlings in fields. The trend of these molecular markers is consistent, that is, individual genetic differences in cutting seedlings are greater than those in polyploid seedlings. These results suggested that polyploid seedlings in a population are relative uniform and applicable to production.

// Jing Sui 1 , Si-Yi Xu 1 , Jiali Han 2 , Song-Ru Yang 3 , Cheng-Yun Li 1 , Li-Hong Yin 1 , Yue-Pu Pu 1 and Ge-Yu Liang 1 1 Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, P.R. China 2 Department of Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA 3 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Nanjing Chest Hospital, Nanjing, P.R. China Correspondence to: Ge-Yu Liang, email: lianggeyu@163.com Keywords: lncRNA, ceRNA network, LUSC, prognostic biomarker Received: May 23, 2017 Accepted: June 28, 2017 Published: July 27, 2017 ABSTRACT Accumulating evidence shows the important role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks for predicting survival in tumor patients. However, prognostic biomarkers for lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) are still lacking. The objective of this study is to identify a lncRNA signature for evaluation of overall survival (OS) in 474 LUSC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. A total of 474 RNA sequencing profiles in LUSC patients with clinical data were obtained, providing a large sample of RNA sequencing data, and 83 LUSC-specific lncRNAs, 26 miRNAs, and 85 mRNAs were identified to construct the ceRNA network (fold change>2, P

Magnaporthe grisea is the causal agent of rice blast disease, which is the most serious disease of cultivated rice. Aromatic polyketides are its typical metabolites and are involved in the infection process. In the search for novel lead compounds, chemical investigation of the fungus M. grisea M639 has led to the isolation of four new aromatic polyketides (salicylaldehyde skeleton bearing an unsaturated side chain), griseaketides A&ndash, D (1&ndash, 4), as well as 15 known compounds (5&ndash, 19). The structures of the new compounds were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analyses, including HR-MS, 2D NMR. Compound 12 showed prominent activity that killed 94.5% of C. elegans at 400 ppm and 66.9% at 200 ppm over 24 h. This is the first report describing the nematicidal activity of this type aromatic polyketide.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a prevalent aggressive malignant tumor with poor prognosis. Investigations into the molecular changes that occur as a result of the disease, as well as identification of novel biomarkers for its diagnosis and prognosis, are urgently required. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to play a critical role in tumor progression. The present study performed data mining analyses for ESCC via an integrated study of accumulated datasets and identification of the differentially expressed lncRNAs from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. The identified intersection of differentially expressed genes (lncRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs) in ESCC tissues between the GEO and TCGA datasets was investigated. Based on these intersected lncRNAs, the present study constructed a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network of lncRNAs in ESCC. A total of 81 intersection lncRNAs were identified; 67 of these were included in the ceRNA network. Functional analyses revealed that these 67 key lncRNAs primarily dominated cellular biological processes. The present study then analyzed the associations between the expression levels of these 67 key lncRNAs and the clinicopathological characteristics of the ESCC patients, as well as their survival time using TCGA. The results revealed that 31 of these lncRNAs were associated with tumor grade, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and lymphatic metastasis status (P

Cervical cancer (CC) is a common gynecological malignancy in women worldwide. Using an RNA sequencing profile from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the CC patient information, the aim of the present study was to identify potential long non‑coding RNA (lncRNA) biomarkers of CC using bioinformatics analysis and building a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) co‑expression network. Results indicated several CC‑specific lncRNAs, which were associated with CC clinical information and selected some of them for validation and evaluated their diagnostic values. Bioinformatics analysis identified 51 CC‑specific lncRNAs (fold‑change >2 and P

Background: Population-based cancer registry collects the data on cancer incidence and mortality deaths from covered population to describe and survey the epidemics in certain areas. The aim of this study was to estimate the cancer incidence and mortality in Wuwei, Gansu province, Northwestern China from 2003 to 2012. The goal is to better understand cancer distribution and long-term development of cancer prevention and treatment in Wuwei. Methods: Data were collected from the Wuwei Cancer Registry between 2003 and 2012. In this registry, data from 46 cancer report centers were included in this analysis. Incidence/mortality rates, age-specific incidence/mortality rates, age-standardized incidence/mortality rates, and cumulative incidence/mortality rates were calculated. Totally, 9,836,740 person-years (5,110,342 for males and 4,726,398 for females) had been monitored over this time period. The gender ratio of male/female was 1.08:1. The number of new cancer cases and related deaths was 24,705 and 17,287 from 2003 to 2012, respectively. Results: The proportion of morphological verification was 74.43%. The incidence of cases identified through death certification only was 1.21%, and the mortality to incidence ratio was 0.70. The average crude incidence was 251.15/100,000 persons (310.61 and 186.87 for males and females per 100,000 persons, respectively). The age-standardized rates by Chinese standard population (ASR-China) and by world standard population (ASR-world) were 207.76 and 245.42 per 100,000 persons, respectively. The crude cancer mortality was 175.74/100,000 persons (228.34 and 118.86 for males and females per 100,000 persons). ASR for China and the world was 149.57 and 175.13/100,000 persons, respectively. The most common cancers and leading causes of cancer-related deaths in Wuwei were as follows: cancers of stomach, esophagus, liver, lung, colorectum, breast, cervix, lymphoma, blood (leukemia), brain, and central nervous system. In Wuwei, during 2003 and 2012, cancer incidence and mortality rates increased by 1.32% and 1.31%/year, respectively. During this time, colorectum cancer incidence and mortality rates increased by 2.69% and 7.54%/year, respectively, in Wuwei. The incidence and mortality of other gastric, esophageal, liver, and lung cancers also all increased. Conclusions: The results of this study report a more accurate cancer burden among the population of Wuwei, China. Active research of cancers etiology and effective prevention should be established to reduce the incidence and mortality associated with cancers.

Population-based cancer registration data were collected to estimate the cancer incidence and mortality in Wuwei, Hexi Corridor Region, China in 2018. We used the 2011-2013 data to predict the number of new cases and deaths in 2018 and the 2003-2013 data to analyze trends in cancer incidence and mortality. The goal is to enable cancer prevention and control directions. Our results indicated that stomach cancer is the most common cancer. For all cancers combined, the incidence and mortality rates showed significantly increasing trends (+2.63% per year; P0.05 and +1.9% per year; P0.05). This study revealed a significant cancer burden among the population of this area. Cancer screening and prevention should be performed after an epidemiological study of the cause of the cancer is completed.

This study was conducted to examine the effects of defaunation (removal of live protozoa) on fermentation characteristics, degradation of ryegrass hay and CH4 (methane) production by rumen microbes when incubated with plant oils (SO, sunflower oil and LO, linseed oil) in vitro. Sodium lauryl sulfate (0.000375 g/ml) as a defaunation reagent was added into the culture solution and incubated anaerobically up to 24 h at 39℃. pH from defaunation was increased for all treatments from 6 h incubation times (p

Medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) has been used in animal production, not only as an energy substance, but also as a kind of functional material, especially in pig production. At present, however, the action mechanism of MCFAs on ingestion and growth is not fully clear. In addition, there is no consensus for effect of MCFAs on feed intake and weight gain in animals. In this review, we summarized the information from comprehensive and rational arguments for the role of MCFAs on feed intake and weight gain in monogastric animal studies(mainly in rats and pigs). As a result, the supplementation level of MCFAs in diet is a key influence factor on animal ingestion, of which underlying action mechanism may be attributed to influence of MCFAs on appetite hormones (mainly, insulin and Acyl ghrelin) and fluctuation of energy balance. Additionally, the influence of MCFAs on growth performance is related to addition level of MCFAs, the types of MCFAs, characteristics of based diet, as well as the physiological status of animal. The effectiveness of MCFAs on ingestion and weight gain depend on the balance of the various influence factors.

Previous analyses of the naphthomycin biosynthetic gene cluster and a comparison with known naphthomycin-type products from Streptomyces sp. CS have suggested that new products can be found from this strain. In this study, screening by LC-MS of Streptomyces sp. CS products formed under different culture conditions revealed several unknown peaks in the product spectra of extracts derived from oatmeal medium cultures. Three new naphthomycins, naphthomycins L (1), M (2), and N (3), and the known naphthomycins A (4), E (5), and D (6) were obtained. The structures were elucidated using spectroscopic data from 1D and 2D NMR and HRESIMS experiments.

Myxococcus fulvus HW-1, a salt-tolerant bacterial strain, which was isolated from a coastal environment, changes its behavior with different salinities. To study the relationship between behavioral shifts and the adaption to oceanic conditions, the HW-1 strain was randomly mutagenized using transposon insertion, producing a dispersed-growing mutant, designated YLH0401. The mutant did not develop fruiting bodies and myxospores, was deficient in S-motility, produced less extracellular matrix and was less salt tolerant. The YLH0401 strain was determined to be mutated by a single insertion in a large gene of unknown function (7011 bp in size), which is located in a horizontally transferred DNA fragment. The gene is expressed during the vegetative growth stage, as well as highly and stably expressed during the development stage. This horizontally transferred gene may allow Myxococcus to adapt to oceanic conditions.

Using a small pilot coating pan, red clover and tall fescue seeds were coated under different rotating speed of pan (20, 30, 40, 45, 55, 60 rpm) for standardization of seed coating. Vermiculite was used as particulate matter and polyvinyl alcohol as adhesive for the coating of seeds. Coating index was calculated based on the percent singles out, percent agglomerates out, weight of particulate matter fine, percent friability, and average weight per 100 seeds to evaluate the physical characteristics of coated seeds. The coated seed of red clover under 45 rpm rotating speed of pan, was best in terms of percent singles out, percent agglomerates out, weight of fines, and average 100 seed weight. The coated seed of tall fescue under 40 rpm rotating speed of pan, showed highest percent singles out, lowest percent agglomerates out, lowest weight of fines, and heaviest average 100 seed weight. Excellent coating results were obtained with the pan speed of 45rpm for red clover and 40 rpm for tall fescue seeds. As rotatory speed of coating pan affected much to the physical characteristics of coated seeds, standardization of the speed is required before seed coating.(

Abnormal regulation of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) appears to be a primary feature of numerous types of human cancer. However, the association between the dysregulation of lncRNAs and functional alterations in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. In previous studies, we applied microarray and bioinformatics analyses to screen for key lncRNAs from the tumor tissues and matched adjacent non-tumor tissues of 10 patients with GC. There were seven key lncRNAs demonstrated to be significantly different between carcinoma tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues. In the present study, the expression of these seven selected lncRNAs were validated in 82 patients with GC to further investigate the association between lncRNAs and GC clinical characterization. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) results demonstrated that RP5-919F19, MCPH1 antisense RNA 1 (CTD-2541M15) and urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 (UCA1) exhibited consistent upregulation in cancer compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues, whereas AP000459, LOC101928316, tumor suppressor candidate 8 (LINC01071) and maternally expressed 3 (MEG3) showed consistent downregulation. The results from the microarray and RT-qPCR experiments achieved 100% agreement. A correlation analysis indicated that RP5-919F19, LOC101928316 and MEG3 were significantly associated with tumor differentiation degree, RP5-919F19, UCA1 and MEG3 were significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, and RP5-919F19, CTD-2541M15 and UCA1 were significantly associated with tumor-node-metastasis stage (P

To observe the effect of Chinese herbal medicine in alleviating acute toxic-adverse effect of radiotherapy and on growth of stromal cells in bone marrow. Seventy-two patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) were randomly divided into two groups. Radical radiotherapy was applied to both groups. In the radiotherapeutic period, to the 36 patients in the treated group, Yiqi Huoxue Yangyin Recipe (YHYR) was given additionally by oral taking and compressing on radiation area, and to the 36 patients in the control group, vitamin B12 solution was given for gargling or compressing. Experimental study was carried out in rats of two groups, irradiated with 5.0 Gy X-ray and treated with YHYR or normal saline intraperitoneally, to observe the colony forming unit-fibroblastoid (CFU-F) in cultured bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC), taken from the rats at different time. The oral mucomembranous radiation damage occurred in 47.2% of the treated group when the dose of radiation reached to 41.4 ±9.4 Gy, while in the control group, it was 91.7% when the dose reached to 30. 9±8.9 Gy. The skin radiation damage occurrence rate in the two groups was 13.9% and 33.3% respectively when the dose of radiation reached to 50.2±5.6 Gy and 43.2±6.3 Gy respectively. Comparison of the two groups showed significant difference (P

Many homeotic MADS-box genes have been identified as controllers of the floral transition and floral development. However, information regarding Bsister (Bs)-function genes in monocots is still limited. Here, we describe the functional characterization of a Bs-group MADS-box gene FEMALE-STERILE (FST), whose frame-shift mutation (fst) results in abnormal ovules and the complete abortion of zygotic embryos and endosperms in rice. Anatomical analysis showed that the defective development in the fst mutant exclusively occurred in sporophytic tissues including integuments, fertilized proembryos and endosperms. Analyses of the spatio-temporal expression pattern revealed that the prominent FST gene products accumulated in the inner integument, nucellar cell of the micropylar side, apical and base of the proembryos and free endosperm nuclei. Microarray and gene ontology analysis unraveled substantial changes in the expression level of many genes in the fst mutant ovules and seeds, with a subset of genes involved in several developmental and hormonal pathways appearing to be down-regulated. Using both forward and reverse genetics approaches, we demonstrated that rice FST plays indispensable roles and multiple functions during ovule and early seed development. These findings support a novel function for the Bs-group MADS-box genes in plants.

Reasonable utilization of natural resource and protection of ecological environment is the foundation for implementing agricultural sustainable development. Biodiversity research and protection are becoming an important issue concerned commonly in the world. Crop disease is one of the important natural disasters for food production and safety, and is also one of the main reasons that confine sustainable development of agricultural production. Large-scale deployment of single highly resistant variety results in reduction of agro-biodiversity level. In this case, excessive loss of agro-biodiversity has become the main challenge in sustainable agriculture. Biodiversity can not only effectively alleviate disease incidence and loss of crop production, but also reduce pollution of agricultural ecological environment caused by excessive application of pesticides and fertilizers to the agricultural ecological environment. Discovery of the mechanism of biodiversity to control crop diseases can reasonably guide the rational deployment and rotation of different crops and establish optimization combinations of different crops. This review summarizes recent advances of research on molecular, physiological, and ecological mechanisms of biodiversity managing crop diseases, and proposes some research that needs to be strengthened in the future.

Fagopyrum homotropicum Ohnishi is a self-pollinating wild buckwheat species indigenous to eastern Tibet and the Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces of China. It is useful breeding material for shifting cultivated buckwheat (F. esculentum ssp. esculentum Moench) from out-crossing to self-pollinating. Despite its importance as a genetic resource in buckwheat breeding, the genetic variation of F. homotropicum is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the genetic variation and phylogenetic relationships of the diploid and tetraploid forms of F. homotropicum based on the nucleotide sequences of a nuclear gene, AGAMOUS (AG). Neighbor-joining analysis revealed that representative individuals clustered into three large groups (Group I, II and III). Each group contained diploid and tetraploid forms of F. homotropicum. We identified tetraploid plants that had two diverged AG sequences; one belonging to Group I and the other belonging to Group II, or one belonging to Group II and the other belonging to Group III. These results suggest that the tetraploid form originated from at least two hybridization events between deeply differentiated diploids. The results also imply that the genetic diversity contributed by tetraploidization of differentiated diploids may have allowed the distribution range of F. homotropicum to expand to the northern areas of China.

Mining Effector Proteins in Phytopathogenic Fungi

A highly conservative host-targeting motif composed of 4 amino acid residues, namely, RxLx was reported to be present only in virulence proteins of malarial parasites (Plasmodium species) and the oomycete avirulence(Avr) protein of Phytophthora. In the present study, we analyzed the secretory proteins of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea that were predicted by bioinformatics and comparative genomic tools to determine whether the RxLx motif is present in the secretory proteins. In 297 of 1270 secretory proteins, the RxLx motif was detected within a region of 100 amino acids downstream the N-terminal signal peptide cleavage sites. A comparison with the PEDANT database revealed that RxLx motif-containing proteins included enzymes for the degradation of plant cell wall components such as cellulose, endoxylanase, endoglucanase and cutinase hydrolase for degradation of plant cell membrane and cellular contents, this suggests that the RxLx motif-containing proteins probably functioned as virulence proteins and were primarily involved in interaction between the rice blast fungus and host cells. So, our results support the idea that the host -targeting motif (HTM) is a conserved transport machinery, which imply that divergent eukaryotic pathogens might share common mechanisms of pathogenicity. This research will provide useful materials to elucidate whether similar or distinct pathogenic secretion signlals in different eukaryotic pathogens and can be helpful to validate predicted function of the HTM in vivo.

The soft rot bacteria Erwinia are an important pathogens of konnyaku and other ornamental plants. Thirty-three strains were isolated from soft-rotted konnyaku and other ornamental plants. According to the characteristics of pathogenicity and culture character on semi selective medium (crystal violet pectate, CVP), most of strains tested caused rotten symptom in tubers and stems of konnyaku, and characteristic deep cavities were formed on CVP. To amplify 16S-23S rDNA intergenic transcribed spacer( ITS) by PCR and electrophorese through agarose gel, most strains are clustered into two heterogeneous populations of Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora, E.c.c. and Erwinia chrysanthemi, E. ch.. Besides, several other strains could not be identified into species by ITS-PCR. The characteristic band patterns of E.c.c. and E.ch. could be clearly distinguished by repetitive element-polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR,BOX and J3 primers). And the fingerprinting of E.c.c. stains were also different from each other. Dendrogram was generated from the data of primer BOX by using UPGMA analysis because the primer BOX was higher resolution than other primers (such as prime J3) for identifying the same intraspecies strains. Strains of E.c.c. were divided into five groups on the 0.1 level of linkage distance.

The internet-based softwares SignalP v3.0, TargetP v1.01, big-PI predictor and TMHMM v2.0 were combined to predict the signal peptides and the signal peptide-dependent secreted proteins from the 19,855 ORFs in Caenorthaditis elegans ws123 genome. 1,990 proteins were predicted to be secreted and to contain signal peptides among 19,855 proteins, among which 1,936 have SignalPase I signal peptide (containing 41 with RR-motif signal peptide), 53 have SignalPase II signal peptide and one has SignalPase IV signal peptide. The signal peptides of 742 secreted proteins include only H-domain and C-domain, but no typical N-domain; the signal peptides of other 1,248 secreted proteins include all three domains. Although the amino acids constitution of the SignalPase I signal peptides were similar in general between Caenorthaditis elegans and prokaryote, there were apparently small differences, and the amino acid composition of Caenorthaditis elegans are more diverse and less conserved. But there are distinct differences on the amino acid composition of SignalPase II signal peptides. The signal peptides of Caenorthaditis elegans were more diverse than unicellular eukaryotic organism. The signal peptides of a few proteins were exactly the same. We used the BLAST 2 SEQUENECES aligning method to compare the homology among the secreted proteins with the same signal peptides. The alignment results indicated that the genes sharing the same signal peptide sequences were homologous to each other and were likely to have arisen from gene duplication.

The completed genome sequence of filamental fungus Neurospora crassa has completed and 10,082 open reading frames (ORFs) were predicted in whole genome. Among them, 437 proteins were secreted ones based on the combination of prediction algorithms SignalP v3.0 and PSORT, transmembrane domains prediction algorithms TMHMM v2.0 and THUMBUP, potential GPI-anchor sites prediction algorithm big-PI predictor and the subcellular protein location prediction algorithm TargetP v1.01. The minimum ORF length of the encoding sequences for 437 secreted proteins was 252 bp, the maximum ORF length was 6 604 bp and average was 1 433 bp. The length of signal peptide of secreted proteins ranged from 15 to 59 amino acids. Among the 437 secreted proteins, 205 were provided with function description. The function of secretory proteins were involved in kinds of enzyme, cell energy, transmission, cell recovered itself and defense mechanism et al. These results implied that processes catalyzed by these proteins probably occurred outside of cells, at least partially.

Co-inoculation of healthy standing rice plants with compatible isolates of Magnaporthe grisea pathogenic to rice resulted in the production of perithecia on the detached portions of leaf sheaths. The isolates had been obtained from the same lesion on a diseased plant collected in Yunnan Province, China. Peritheeia were also produced on dead tissue of leaf sheaths and nodes of standing rice plants in a moist chamber. These results strongly suggest that the teleomorph of M. grisea can occur in the upland rice fields in Yunnan.

The completed 5 615 ORFs of chromosome sequence of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato were analyzed by SignalP 3.0. The result revealed that 679 ORFs consisted of putative secretary proteins with signal peptides. 107 ORFs of signal peptides have been named. The length of most signal peptides was different from 19 amino acids to 31 amino acids, and the most dominant one was 23 amino acids in length. The size of most ORFs varied between 101 ~ 400 amino acids. The frequency of particular amino acids in signal peptides by statistical approach was 48.54% for hydrophobic, 18.67% for uncharged, 24.54% for negative and 8.00% for positive amino acids. The most frequent amino acid was alanine, and the least was isoleucine. Three classes of signal peptides were found in the genome of P. syringae pv. tomato: 501 ORFs belong to secretary signal peptides, 36 ORFs belong to twin-arginine signal peptides, and 15 ORFs belong to lipoprotein signal peptides. Type IV pilin signal peptide and bacteriocins and pheronoes signal peptide was not found in the genome.

The 4554 ORFs of Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 Cereon were used for the prediction of signal peptides by the network tools, such as SignalP3.0, LipoP1.0, TMHMM2.0 and TargetP1.01. Total 203 signal peptides with conserved amino residues are found, among them, 158 are secretary types, 9 are RR-motif types, 28 are SignalPase II types and 8 are bacteriocin-pheromone types. However, only two signal peptides from the secreted proteins, AGR-C-1878p and AGR-C-1880p have the same amino sequences, showing the signal peptides of the strain are highly variable.

A total of 30.1 Mb of publicly available DNA sequence in Aspergillus niculans was researched for mono- to hexanucleotide variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) to determine its type, size and frequency. A total of 4 837 VNTRs were observed in whole genomic DNA sequence with criteria of VNTR length15 bp and 80% matches. Considering all six classes of VNTRs, they occur on average about once every 6.2 kb for mono- to hexanucleotide in genomic DNA. The most abundance variable-number tandem repeat is pentanucleotide repeats; the number was 1 386, followed by hexanucleotide and trinucleotide repeats, the number was 1 228 and 1 199 respectively. The least abundance is dinucleotide repeat, only 144 tracts.

Plasmid pBLGC containing chitinase gene from Phaseolus limensis and beta-1,3-glucanase gene from Nicotiana tabacum was bombarded into the restorer line "Nan29" of Dian-type hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica) from Yunnan province of South-west China. 93 regenerants were obtained from the calli that were resistant to G418 (100 to 150 mg/L) on NB medium. Using beta-1,3 glucanase gene as the probe, 17 of the regenerants were identified to be transgenic lines by dot blotting and the foreign genes construction were integrated into the genomes of T1 lines by Southern blotting hybridization. Two foreign genes were inherited stably to T4 generation according to PCR results of the lines. The resistance to rice blast of six transgenic lines were evaluated by inoculating four violent biological races of Magnaporthe grisea from Yunnan province and inducing the disease in the field. The results indicated that the resistance to rice blast of transgenic lines were enhanced to varying degrees compared with the receptor line and the transgenic lines could be used in rice blast resistant breeding.