BraVRG, a novel protein of Brassica rapa, is induced by vernalization and promotes flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Plant flowering is an important economical characteristic for the transformation from vegetative growth to reproductive growth, especially for biennial crops. Additionally, bolting or flowering time is more important for vegetable plants due to their different harvest organs, such as flower for cauliflower and broccoli and leafy heads for cabbage and Chinese cabbage. The flowering time of Arabidopsis thaliana has six classical regulated pathways, and some key regulated genes are identified in Brassicaceae crops. However, the regulatory mechanism needs further exploration. Here, we reported an novel protein BraVRG (Vernalization Related Gene) of Chinese cabbage induced by vernalization. The expression of BraVRG increased rapidly at 14 day of vernalization in the semi-winter type of Brassica rapa and 21 days for the winter types. Meanwhile the modifications of H3K4me3 deposited on BraVRG increased but H3K27me3 decreased. Moreover, BraVRG promoted flowering in transgenic A. thaliana compared with the wild types accompanied the downregulated expression of FLC caused by the decrease of H3K4me3 enrichment and the increase of H3K27me3 on FLC with or without vernalization conditions.

[A novel protein microarray detection technique based on biotin-avidin conjugation probe].

In this experiment, a novel biotin-avidin conjugation probe was synthesized and employed in the detection of reverse-phase protein microarray. Firstly, the proportion of the biotin-avidin conjugation probe was optimized. Then the rat IgG and goat anti-rat IgG system was served as a model to optimize the fabrication conditions of reverse-phase protein microarray, including the non-specific absorption of streptavidin-Cy3 molecules, spotting buffer as well as protein activities. At last, the biotin-avidin conjugation probe was applied to the detection of the reverse-phase protein microarray. The results show that the protein microarray prepared by using BSA spotting buffer could prevent non-specific absorptions of fluorescent molecules and improve the sensitivity, effectively. In addition, compared with traditional biotin-avidin system, the detection limit could be improved four times using the biotin-avidin conjugation probe. In conclusion, the biotin-avidin conjugation probe has its merits of easy synthesis, low price and could be further conjugated with other signal amplification techniques, which is promising to be used in the detection of protein microarray.