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.     

Isolated point of spectrum ofP-hyponormal, log-hyponormal operators

LetT B(H) be a bounded linear operator on a complex Hilbert spaceH. Let ₀ (T) be an isolated point of (T) and let be the Riesz idempotent for ₀. In this paper, we prove that ifT isp-hyponormal or log-hyponormal, thenE is self-adjoint andE H=ker(H–₀)=ker(H–₀ ^*.This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid Research 1 No. 12640187.     

Flat Extensions of Nonsingular Moment Matrices

In this paper we consider the truncated complex moment problem suggested by Curto and Fialkow. First, we give another computing proof for a solution of the nonsingular quadratic moment problem. Then we consider the nonsingular quartic moment problem and give some partial solutions.     

CHLORPROMAZINE PHOTOSENSITIZATION–II. FAILURE TO DETECT ANY EVIDENCE FOR INVOLVEMENT OF DNA DAMAGE IN THE PHOTODYNAMIC KILLING OF ESCHERICHIA COLI IN THE PRESENCE OF CHLORPROMAZINE

Abstract— When a suspension of Escherichia coli was irradiated with near-UV light in the presence of chlorpromazine (at a concentration below a cytotoxic level), the cells were killed. Efficiency of the photodynamic killing was not influenced by the deficiency of the uvrA gene or the recA gene. Neither phenotypic reversion of E. coli Hs30R (arginine auxotroph) nor induction of lambda prophage in lysogenic bacteria was detected after this treatment.     

Synthesis of dysiherbaine analogue

Synthesis of dysiherbaine analogue 4, which corresponds to 8,9-epi-neodysiherbaine A, is described. The synthesis features a concise route to the bicyclic ether skeleton through stereoselective C-glycosylation to set the C₆ stereocenter and 5-exo ring-closure to form the tetrahydrofuran ring. The results of preliminary biological studies of 4 are also provided.     

Topographic Distribution of Photon Measurement Density Functions on the Brain Surface by Hybrid Radiosity-Diffusion Method

An accurate modelling of light propagation in the head is required to develop an algorithm to reconstruct the image of brain activity. Most previous studies have calculated the light propagation in two dimensional models because of their advantage in computation time and memory requirement over three dimensional models. However, in topographic imaging, the sensitivity distribution in the cross sections parallel to the brain surface which cannot be obtained from a two dimensional model is most important to reconstruct the image. In this study, the light propagation in three dimensional adult head models is calculated by finite element method and hybrid radiosity-diffusion method. The light propagation in the adult head is strongly affected by the non-scattering cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) layer surrounding the brain. The sensitive area is shifted toward the deeper region, and is spread around the CSF layer. The intensely sensitive region on the brain surface is broadly distributed between the source and detector. However, the sensitive region does not penetrate into the deeper part of the brain.     

Channel spacing-tunable sampled fiber Bragg grating by linear chirp and its application to multiwavelength fiber laser

We theoretically investigated the two methods for densifying the channel spacing of sampled fiber Bragg gratings (SFBGs), the multiple-phase-shift (MPS) method and the linear chirp method, and found that the two methods have similar principle and ability, although the chirp method has an advantage that the tuning of channel spacing is easier. Then we realized channel spacing-tunable SFBGs by use of deformation of ring and S-bend structures by 2- and 3-folds. Finally, we applied the chirp method to realize a wavelength spacing-tunable multiwavelength fiber laser.