Comprehensive Metabolite Profiling in Genetic Resources of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Collected from Different Geographical Regions

Garlic (Allium sativum) is the second most important Allium crop that has been used as a vegetable and condiment from ancient times due to its characteristic flavor and taste. Although garlic is a sterile plant that reproduces vegetatively through cloves, garlic shows high biodiversity, as well as phenotypic plasticity and environmental adaptation capacity. To determine the possible mechanism underlying this phenomenon and to provide new genetic materials for the development of a novel garlic cultivar with useful agronomic traits, the metabolic profiles in the leaf tissue of 30 garlic accessions collected from different geographical regions, with a special focus on the Asian region, were investigated using LC/MS. In addition, the total saponin and fructan contents in the roots and cloves of the investigated garlic accessions were also evaluated. Total saponin and fructan contents did not separate the garlic accessions based on their geographical origin, implying that saponin and fructan contents were clone-specific and agroclimatic changes have affected the quantitative and qualitative levels of saponins in garlic over a long history of cultivation. Principal component analysis (PCA) and dendrogram clustering of the LC/MS-based metabolite profiling showed two major clusters. Specifically, many Japanese and Central Asia accessions were grouped in cluster I and showed high accumulations of flavonol glucosides, alliin, and methiin. On the other hand, garlic accessions grouped in cluster II exhibited a high accumulation of anthocyanin glucosides and amino acids. Although most of the accessions were not separated based on country of origin, the Central Asia accessions were clustered in one group, implying that these accessions exhibited distinct metabolic profiles. The present study provides useful information that can be used for germplasm selection and the development of new garlic varieties with beneficial biotic and abiotic stress-adaptive traits.     

Stereoregular Polymerization of Alkyl Propiolate Catalyzed by Rh Complex

Abstract

The polymerizations of alkyl esters of propiolic acid by Rh complex catalysts were investigated. [Rh(norbornadiene)Cl]₂, which was the most active among the catalysts examined, gave rise to poly(alkyl propiolate) in a fairly high yield (～80%) in the presence of alcohol as the polymerization solvent. The polymers formed were a pale yellow powder soluble in common organic solvents except for poly(methyl propiolate). The structures of the polymers obtained were investigated by IR, ₁₃C-NMR, CP MAS ₁₃C-NMR, and laser Raman spectroscopies, together with the x-ray diffraction method. Based on these spectroscopic data, it was concluded that this Rh complex can be called a stereoregular polymerization catalyst of alkyl propiolate because the poly(alkyl propiolate) obtained has a cis-transoidal structure.     

含巯基/二硫键聚合物生物材料

含巯基/二硫键聚合物生物材料具有多种良好的性能,作为药物、基因等的释放载体在生物医学领域具有广泛的应用前景。随着基因工程和组织工程的发展,含巯基/二硫键聚合物生物材料的可生物降解性得到高度重视,而怎样改善其降解性能成为限制其应用的关键因素。由于二硫键在细胞外环境里保持稳定,在细胞溶质的还原环境中容易发生断裂,因此在制备新型基因、药物等释放载体上,二硫键充当了重要的角色,它的引入为聚合物生物材料的生物降解性能的设计与改善提供了一条重要的途径。本综述重点以聚合物水凝胶、聚合物微胶束、囊泡等为例,从巯基/烯的光聚合反应、Michael加成反应、氧化还原反应的角度,介绍了巯基/烯在聚合物中形成二硫键的不同途径的研究进展,并详细论述了基因载体、蛋白质载体、小分子药物载体三种还原敏感型材料的制备、表面修饰和改性的进展情况,进一步强调含巯基/二硫键聚合物生物材料的研究在生物医学领域应用的重要性。     

Novel synthesis of zerumbone-pendant derivatives and their biological activity

Zerumbone 1, having powerful latent reactivity and containing two conjugated double bonds and a double conjugated carbonyl group is the major component of the essential oil of wild ginger, Zingiber zerumbet Smith. The conjugation system plays an important role in the expression of biological activity. N-Bromosuccinimide (NBS) reaction of 1 gave high reactive intermediate 2 with an exo-methylene group, which was obtained from 1 quantitatively. Treatment of 2 with nucleophiles gave various zerumbone-pendant derivatives, including C–H, C–O, C–N, and C–C bond formation, maintaining the conjugation system through S_N2′-type reaction. Almost all zerumbone-pendant derivatives showed a good value of IC₅₀ against the suppressive effect of NO generation. Among them, amine derivative 5, binding with 2 mol of zerumbone, showed the strongest activity (IC₅₀: 0.24 μM).     

Synthesis of fused tetrahydropyrans by hydroalkoxylation of δ-hydroxy allenes

Fused tetrahydropyrans were synthesized by silver(I)- and mercury(II)-mediated intramolecular hydroalkoxylations of δ-hydroxy allenes installed on a tetrahydropyran template. Cyclization of simple allenes was promoted by silver perchlorate to afford vinyl-substituted trans-fused bis-tetrahydropyrans, whereas cyclization of methyl-substituted allenes at the internal allenic carbon atom was achieved more effectively with a catalytic amount of mercuric triflate rather than with silver salts.     

Efficient lookup table using a linear function of inverse distance squared

The major bottleneck in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of biomolecules exist in the calculation of pairwise nonbonded interactions like Lennard‐Jones and long‐range electrostatic interactions. Particle‐mesh Ewald (PME) method is able to evaluate long‐range electrostatic interactions accurately and quickly during MD simulation. However, the evaluation of energy and gradient includes time‐consuming inverse square roots and complementary error functions. To avoid such time‐consuming operations while keeping accuracy, we propose a new lookup table for short‐range interaction in PME by defining energy and gradient as a linear function of inverse distance squared. In our lookup table approach, densities of table points are inversely proportional to squared pair distances, enabling accurate evaluation of energy and gradient at small pair distances. Regardless of the inverse operation here, the new lookup table scheme allows fast pairwise nonbonded calculations owing to efficient usage of cache memory. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Accurate measurement of uranium isotope ratios in soil samples using thermal ionization mass spectrometry equipped with a warp energy filter

A chemical and mass-spectrometric procedure for uranium isotopic analysis using a thermal ionisation mass spectrometer equipped with a Wide Aperture Retardation Potential energy filter has been developed and applied to uranium isotopic measurements for various soil samples. Soil samples were digested using a microwave digestor. Uranium was isolated from soil samples by the chemical separation procedure based on the use of anion-exchange resin and UTEVA extraction chromatography column. The isotope ratios were measured for two certified reference materials by using a VG Sector 54-30 thermal ionisation mass spectrometer in dynamic mode with Faraday cup and Daly ion counting system. Replicates of standard reference materials showed excellent analytical agreement with established values supporting the reliability and accuracy of the method. Precision of the ²³⁵U/²³⁸U ratio was achieved by a correction factor of 0.22% amu as a function of ion-beam intensity with sample loads of around 250?ng of U. The resulting reproducibility for standards and soil samples was better than 0.2% at two standard deviations (SD). Uranium isotopic compositions have been determined in several reference soil samples such as Buffalo river sediment, NIST 2704, river sediment SRM 4350b and ocean sediment NIST-4357 and a Chernobyl soil sample. There was a significant deviation from the natural uranium in comparison with Chernobyl soil samples.