[Stress effects of imidacloprid on RSV in rice plants].

The rice stripe disease is a viral disease transmitted by small brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus, which outbroke a few years ago in the Yangtze River basin, especially Jiangsu region, China. To study the effects of imidacloprid stress on rice stripe virus (RSV) in rice plants, the rice seedlings were treated with imidacloprid 1, 2, 3 and 4 times (B1, B2, B3 and B4), respectively, after artificial inoculation by L. striatellus for 48 h, and the expression levels of relative genes including RSV NS3, CP, SP and NSvc4, as well as the protein concentrations of CP and SP were detected at different stages by real-time PCR and Western blotting. The results showed that the effects of imidacloprid treatment on the expression levels of four genes were gene-specific and correlated with application frequencies of imidacloprid. The expression levels of NS3 gene were upregulated in three treatments, and the highest expression level (10.86) was observed 16 days after inoculation in B4 treatment, but a significant down-regulation of NS3 gene was found in all other treatments. The expression levels of CP, SP and NSvc4 genes were down-regulated significantly (0-0.74) in almost all B2 and B3 treatments, while a significant up-regulation was found in half of B1 and B4 treatments, and the highest expression levels of SP gene were observed 16 days after inoculation in B1 (258.89) and B4 (730.54) treatment, respectively. On the other hand, the effects of imidacloprid stress on the expression patterns of CP and SP genes were different from those of CP and SP proteins. For example, the expression level of CP gene was almost no expression (0) 19 days after inoculation in B1 treatment, while significantly up-regulated (23.08) was observdd for CP protein.

Experimental analysis on the main contents of Rhizoma gastrodiae extract and inter-transformation throughout the fermentation process of Grifola frondosa.

Gastrodin (GA), p-hydroxylbenzaldehyde (HBA), p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol (gastrodigenin, HA) and parishin not only are the major active ingredients of Rhizoma gastrodiae, but exist transformed relations from each other throughout the fermentation process of Grifola frondosa in this work. We had found that parishin (non-free gastrodin) almost could completely transformed into gastrodin (GA, free gastrodin) after R. gastrodiae alcohol extract was sterilized by moist heat (121 °C, 30 min), but before was added into submerged cultivation of G. frondosa. However, interestingly and importantly, gastrodin re-synthesized of parishin after R. gastrodiae alcohol extract's addition into submerged cultivation of G. frondosa. In addition, the reduction of p-hydroxylbenzaldehyde and p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol in G. frondosa fermentation process reconfirmed that the G. frondosa strain 51616 really could synthesize gastrodin into parishin by submerged fermentation. This paper firstly also reported G. frondosa's effects on R. gastrodiae.

UV-B induced changes in the secondary metabolites of Morus alba L. leaves.

Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation is harmful to plants and human beings. Many secondary metabolites, like flavonoids, alkaloids, and lignin, are UV-B absorbing compounds, which can protect the genetic material of plants. Furthermore, they are active components of herbal drugs. UV-B radiation can activate the self-protective secondary metabolism system. The results of this paper provide a method to induce bioactive secondary metabolites from mulberry leaves (Morus alba L.) by UV-B irradiation in vitro. Five significantly different chromatographic peaks were found by HPLC fingerprint after induction, from which two active compounds were identified: One was chalcomoracin, a natural Diels-Alder type adduct with antibacterial activity; the other one was moracin N, which is a precursor of chalcomoracin. Their contents were 0.818 mg/g and 0.352 mg/g by dry weight, respectively.

One new guaiane-type sesquiterpene glycoside from the fruits of Daucus carota L.

A new guaiane-type sesquiterpene glycoside, torilolone 8-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (1), together with a known analogue compound, torilolone 11-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (2), was isolated from the fruits of Daucus carota L. Their chemical structures were elucidated on the basis of MS, NMR spectroscopic analyses coupled with chemical degradation. The cytotoxic activities of two isolated compounds were evaluated against two human gastric cancer cell lines BGC-823 and AGS using MTT assay.

[Hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype and the prevalence of anti-HEV in 8 species of animals in the suburbs of Beijing].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of anti-hepatitis E virus (HEV) and genotypes of hepatitis E virus in 8 species of animals including swine, cattle, sheep, horse, donkey, dog, chicken and duck in the suburb of Beijing. METHODS: Serum samples were collected from the 8 species of animals, and fecal samples of younger swine were collected from 2 stock farms. Anti-HEV was detected by Double Antigen Sandwich Assay. HEV RNA from fecal samples was detected by a reverse transcription nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR). Parts of the PCR products were cloned and sequenced. The swine HEV sequences were analyzed genetically. RESULTS: The positive rates of anti-HEV in serum specimens of swine, cattle, horse, donkey, sheep, dog, duck and chicken were 80.43% (481/598), 15.02% (52/346), 14.29% (40/280), 0 (0/26), 9.88% (33/334), 0 (0/21), 3.03% (7/231) and 2.53% (8/316), respectively. The anti-HEV prevalence of adult swine (>/= 6 months) and younger swine ( < / = 3 months) were 87.86% (369/420) and 62.92% (112/178) respectively. 74 of 111 (66.67%) pig faces were positive for HEV RNA. Sequence analysis on these positive samples showed that there were 6 groups of HEV designated as bjsw1, bjsw2, bjsw3, bjsw4, bjsw5 and bjsw6. The 6 strains of HEV shared 94.5% - 99.6% sequence identity of partial HEV ORF2 nucleotide with each other. The identities of HEV ORF2 nucleotide sequences between the 6 strains and genotype 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 75.6% - 78.6%, 75.6% - 76.2%, 77.1% - 80.7% and 83.7% - 94.5%, respectively. The sequence identity between the 6 strains and human HEV genotype 4d was 90.0% - 94.5%. CONCLUSION: HEV infection was seen in swine, cattle, horse, sheep, duck and chicken in the suburbs of Beijing. The anti-HEV positive rate appeared the highest in swine and the lowest in dog and donkey. The six strains of HEV isolated from younger swine belonged to genotype 4d.

Two new guaiane-type sesquiterpene glycosides from the fruits of Daucus carota L.

Two new guaiane-type sesquiterpene glycosides, 11-O-acetyl-torilolone 8-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (1) and 1beta-hydroxytorilolone 11-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (2), were isolated from the fruits of Daucus carota L. Their chemical structures were elucidated on the basis of MS, NMR spectroscopic analyses coupled with chemical degradation.

Two new guaiane-type sesquiterpenoids from the fruits of Daucus carota L.

Two new guaiane-type sesquiterpenoids containing an interesting epoxy unit, daucuside (1) and daucusol (2) were isolated from the fruits of Daucus carota L. Their chemical structures were elucidated on the basis of MS, NMR spectroscopic analyses coupled with chemical degradation and they were also evaluated for the cytotoxic effects against two human gastric cancer cell lines BGC-823 and AGS.

A new sesquiterpene from the fruits of Daucus carota L.

Phytochemical investigation of the fruits of Daucus carota L. resulted in the isolation of a new sesquiterpene named as daucucarotol (1). Its structure was elucidated on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR experiments, coupled with MS studies. To our knowledge, compound 1 is the first example for a natural eudesmane sesquiterpene with a hydroxymethyl group located at a methine carbon rather than a usual quaternary carbon in the two fused six-membered ring systems.

A new sesquiterpene lactone with sulfonic acid group from Saussurea lappa.

A new sesquiterpene lactone with an unusual sulfonic acid group, 13-sulfo-dihydrodehydrocostus lactone (1), was isolated from the roots of Saussurea lappa C. (Compositae), together with a known lignan (2). The structure of 1 was characterized on the basis of spectral evidence including 2DNMR studies. Compound 2 was obtained from this plant for the first time.

One new anthraquinone from marine Streptomyces sp. FX-58.

One new anthraquinone, 1,8-dihydroxy-2-ethyl-3-methylanthraquinone (1), together with two known compounds octadecanoic acid (2) and cholest-4-en-3-one (3) was isolated from marine actinomycete Streptomyces sp. FX-58. The structure of 1 was elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic methods, especially, the 2D-NMR spectral analysis. The cytotoxic activities of 1 were evaluated in vitro.

Two new sesquiterpene lactones with the sulfonic acid group from Saussurea lappa.

Two new sesquiterpene lactones with the unusual sulfonic acid group, 13-sulfo-dihydrosantamarine (1) and 13-sulfo-dihydroreynosin (2), have been isolated from the roots of Saussurea lappa C. Their structures, including the absolute configurations, were elucidated by spectroscopic methods.

[Studies on constituents from the fermentation of Alternalia sp].

OBJECTIVE: To study the metabolites of marine fungus Alternalia sp. METHOD: Compounds were separated by column chromatography and their structures were elucidated by means of chemical and spectral analysis. RESULT: Six compounds were isolated from the ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts of the fermentation of marine fungus Alternalia sp. Their structures were elucidated as p-benzyloxy-phenol ( I ), p-hydroxy phenyl ethylamine( II ), 3-hydroxymethyl-8-hydroxyl-pyrrolopiperazine-2, 5-dione ( III ), 3-isobutyl-6-secbutyl-piperazine-2, 5-dione (IV), 5alpha, 8alpha-epidioxy-ergosta-6, 22-diene-3beta-ol (V), 3beta-hydroxxy-cholesta-5-ene (VI). CONCLUSION: Compounds I , II, III, IV have the activity of inducing morphological deformation of mycelia germinated from conidia of Pyricularia oryzae. Compounds I , II , III were isolated from the genus Alternalia for the first time.