Table of Content

• 
• Current Biotechnology
  Volume 1 Issue 3 25 September 2011
• The Role of Nitrate Reductase and Nitrite Reductase in Plant
• May Sandar Kyaing, GU Li-jiang, CHENG Hong-mei*
• 2011, 1(3):  159-164.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.02
• Abstract ( ) PDF (529KB)( )
Plants take up nitrogen in the form of nitrate and ammonia through nitrate assimilation pathway. Nitrate assimilation is highly regulated process by two successive enzymes, nitrate reductase (NR) and nitrite reductase (NiR), which mainly controll the primary nitrogen assimilation. In higher plants, various external and endogenous factors influence the regulation of NR and NiR gene expression transcriptionally as well as post-transcriptionally. Post-translational modulation is an important mechanism to eliminate the accumulation of nitrite. Development of molecular biology methods will contribute to the research of regulatory networks of NR and NiR by creating mutants and transgenic lines.
• Progress on Biosynthetic Pathway of Gossypol and its Derivatives
• ZHANG Cheng-cheng, WU Yan-min, TANG Yi-xiong*
• 2011, 1(3):  165-171.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.03
• Abstract ( ) PDF (607KB)( )
Gossypol, one kind of sesquiterpene phytoalxins, which is synthesized in pigment glands of cotton outer tissues such as root and seed,has been widely applied in medical, industrial and agricultural areas. Recently, studies on biosynthesis of gossypol and its derivatives have made a great progress and many key enzymes have been cloned and characterized. It is of significance to understand the biosynthetic pathway and to mannually control gossypol content with genetic modification. This paper reviews the researh progress in biosynthetic parthway of gossypol, its derivatives, and relative key enzymes; prospects the application of gossypol in all fields.
• Analysis, Evaluation and Application Prospect of Peanut EST Database
• LI Chang-sheng1, SONG Shu-yu2, ZHANG Wen-gang3, XIA Han1, ZHAO Chuan-zhi1*
• 2011, 1(3):  172-177.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.04
• Abstract ( ) PDF (517KB)( )
Peanut is an important oil crop, the development of peanut industry has strategic significance for China′s national economy. With the progress of molecular biology, the new technology will effectively improve the peanut germplasm innovation. According to the latest research progress of the functional genomics of peanut and other plants, this paper analyzes the peanut EST′s application prospect in gene cloning, molecular marker development and expression profile study, discusses  the problems of peanut EST′s. This study provides references for better utilization of peanut EST database.
• Progress on Maize Genetic Transformation Techniques
• SHI Qing-ling
• 2011, 1(3):  178-183.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.05
• Abstract ( ) PDF (509KB)( )
Maize(Zea mays L) is an important food-supply crop. Maize transformation is an effective method of crops genetic improvement. This paper summarizes the selectable criteria of receptor, compares the transformation methods, such as agrobacterium-mediated technique, gene gun bombardment, pollen tube pathway transgenic technique etc., and also investigates how to screen positive events of transgenic plants.
• Research Progress on Sortase and its Application in Biotechnology
• JIANG Li-bin, WEN Ying, CHEN Zhi*
• 2011, 1(3):  184-188.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.06
• Abstract ( ) PDF (497KB)( )
Sortases are membrane-bound transpeptidases produced by Gram-positive bacteria to anchor cell surface proteins covalently to peptidoglycan in the cell wall. Due to its specific reaction, sortases are exploited for a range of biotechnology application, such as Gram-positive bacterial cell-surface display and protein engineering, etc. This paper reviews research progress on sortase and its application in biotechnology.
• Research Advances in Pullulanase
• QIAO Yu, DING Hong-biao*, WANG Hai-yan, CHANG Min
• 2011, 1(3):  189-194.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.07
• Abstract ( ) PDF (517KB)( )
Pullulanase belongs to a kind of starch debranching enzyme, which can specifically hydrolyze the α-1,6-linkages in branched oligosaccharides of amylopectin, and lead to the formation of amylase. Pullulanase together with other amylases are very useful in starch industry with good market prospect. The present review focuses on the structure, catalytic mechanism, enzymatic characterization,origin and application of pullulanase, and provides a brief overview on the latest studies.
• Progress of Study on the Heparoson Production by E.coli K5
• ZHAO Lei, YAN Zi-qin, WANG Chang, ZHONG Wei-hong*
• 2011, 1(3):  195-200.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.08
• Abstract ( ) PDF (494KB)( )
Heparin is a widely used drug polysaccharide for anticoagulant in clinical application. Heparosan, a composition of GAG in some bacteria capsular, has the same disaccharide backbone structure as that in vertebrate, and can be used as precurosor of heparin and heparan sulfate biosynthesis. This article reviewes the function and application of heparin and heparosan, the progress of study on the enzymes related to heparosan synthesis and transformation in E.coli K5, the preparation of heparosan by fermentation, and the application prospect of heparosan.
• The Advance of Embryonic Stem Cell Transplantation for Diabetes
• LI Ming, ZHAO Hui
• 2011, 1(3):  201-206.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.09
• Abstract ( ) PDF (489KB)( )
Autoimmue destruction of β cells is the predominant cause of typeⅠdiabetes. Recently, insulin-secreting cells′ transplantation from embryonic stem cells has been proved successful in the treatment of diabetes. This review discusses the advance of embryonic stem cell transplantation for diabetes.
• Cloning and Expression Analysis of Cotton GhCdn Gene
• ZHOU Ting, GUO San-dui*, ZHANG Rui
• 2011, 1(3):  207-213.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.10
• Abstract ( ) PDF (685KB)( )
Cadinene synthase is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of gossypol, which catalyze (E, E)-farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) cyclization to form (+)-δ-cadinene. In this study, a gene of cadinene synthase(GhCdn) was cloned from the upland Y18R. The genome sequences of GhCdn gene are 2 700 bp, including six introns. Its sheared open reading frame(ORF) are 1 665 bp, encoding 554 amino acid residues. This gene belongs to cadinene synthase C subfamily. The Overlap PCR method was applied to making two Hind Ⅲ restriction sites of GhCdn gene passivated. The GhCdn gene was ligated to plant expression vector pBI121, with the constitutive promoter CaMV 35S and green tissue-specific promoter Psbp, and two plant expression vector pGBI-CaMV 35S-GhCdn and pGBI-Psbp-GhCdn were constructed successfully. By Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of cotton hypocotyls and tissue culture, nine 35S transgenic callus lines and two P transgenic callus lines were botained. The mRNA expression of GhCdn gene and gossypol content increased in transgenic callus lines by experimental testing, however, 35S lines are higher than P lines generally. This research provided theoretical basis to improve gossypol content in vegetative organs through genetic engineering.
• Genetic Relationship of 40 Maize Inbred Lines Based on ISSR
• WANG Han-yu1, Du Yan-wei2, LI Ping2, ZHANG Xi-wen2, ZHU Jing-ying1, ZHAO Jin-feng2, YU Ai-li1*
• 2011, 1(3):  214-218.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.11
• Abstract ( ) PDF (440KB)( )
Genetic relationship of 40 maize inbred lines were analyzed by inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker. Ten primers, which selected from 59 primers, were used to amplify the maize simple, 90 bands were amplified, including 81 polymorphic bands. The percentage of polymorphic bands was 90.00%. The results showed that plenty diversities existed in the maize inbred lines. Cluster analysis by UPGMA indicated that genetic similarity was from 0.65~1.00. The result revealed the genetic relationship between different maise inbred lines. All the result provide reference for to fine varieties improvement and breeding on molecular level.
• A Modified Method for Efficient Isolation of Total RNA from Cotton
• SHI Ya-li, ZHANG Rui, MENG Zhi-gang, GUO San-dui*
• 2011, 1(3):  219-222.  DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-2341.2011.03.12
• Abstract ( ) PDF (413KB)( )
The isolation of good-quality RNA from various tissues of cotton is difficult, due to the abundance of secondary metabolites such as polyphenol, terpene, polysaccharide and so on. An efficient method was constructed in this paper for quick extraction of cotton RNA with high yield and good quality. It is also applicable for RNA isolation from other plants containing polyphenol and polysaccharide.