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木質(zhì)和其他生物纖維構(gòu)成的植物細(xì)胞壁是生物燃料生產(chǎn)原料的主要形式。這些生物纖維經(jīng)消化產(chǎn)生糖，再經(jīng)發(fā)酵產(chǎn)生生物燃料。但是植物可以阻止被消化，例如植物細(xì)胞壁具有酰基化合物能阻止纖維轉(zhuǎn)化成糖，酰基還可以形成網(wǎng)絡(luò)使細(xì)胞壁異常強韌。美國能源部Brookhaven國家實驗室的科學(xué)家從擬南芥和白楊(Populus trichocarpa)中發(fā)現(xiàn)一個基因家族可以控制細(xì)胞壁-酰基的結(jié)合。通過調(diào)節(jié)這些基因，科學(xué)家可以使工程作物更容易生產(chǎn)生物燃料。 Chang-Jun Liu及同事觀察到一些基因?qū)Γ鼈兣c基因組中的臨近基因反向重疊。這些基因產(chǎn)生的RNA彼此結(jié)合形成分子Velcro，因此這對基因中的一個基因表達就會抑制它的搭檔。Liu認(rèn)為研究這一反義調(diào)節(jié)機制將幫助科學(xué)家調(diào)節(jié)酰基產(chǎn)生。 推薦原始出處： Plant Molecular Biology doi:10.1007/s11103-009-9482-1 BAHD superfamily of acyl-CoA dependent acyltransferases in Populus and Arabidopsis : bioinformatics and gene expression Xiao-Hong Yu1, Jin-Ying Gou1 and Chang-Jun Liu1 (1) Department of Biology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA Plant acyl-CoA dependent acyltransferases constitute a large specific protein superfamily, named BAHD. Using the conserved sequence motifs of BAHD members, we searched the genome sequences of Populus and Arabidopsis, and identified, respectively, 94- and 61-putative genes. Subsequently, we analyzed the phylogeny, gene structure, and chromosomal distribution of BAHD members of both species; then, we profiled expression patterns of BAHD genes by “in silico” northern- and microarray-analyses based on public databases, and by RT-PCR. While our genomic- and bioinformatic- analyses provided full sets of BAHD superfamily genes, and cleaned up a few existing annotation errors, importantly it led to our recognizing several unique Arabidopsis BAHD genes that inversely overlapped with their neighboring genes on the genome, and disclosing a potential natural anti-sense regulation for gene expressions. Systemic gene-expression profiling of BAHD members revealed distinct tissue-specific/preferential expression patterns, indicating their diverse biological functions. Our study affords a strong knowledge base for understanding BAHD members’ evolutionary relationships and gene functions implicated in plant growth, development and metabolism. (責(zé)任編輯：Doctor001) |
