Kazuo Tanaka

The oxidative stress response of rice cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase (APX) was examined. The transcript level of cytosolic APX was significantly increased when suspension cultures of germinating rice embryos were treated with paraquat (7.9-fold) or H2O2 (6.1-fold). Induction by paraquat reached a maximum at 8 h. Induction by H2O2 peaked earlier at 4 h of treatment. This result suggests that the induction by paraquat might be caused by the H2O2 generated from superoxide. Treatment with a superoxi

The synthesis and application of organoboron complexes are a highly relevant topic owng to their unique characteristics. Based on their emissive properties, these complexes have been used to make novel optical materials and devices; boron -diketonate is a simple and robust organoboron complex. From a series of recent studies, unique and versatile optical properties have been reported. In this review, we introduce the results of primarily recent studies on boron diketonate and related compounds c

We report the synthesis of a stable room-temperature ionic liquid consisting of an octacarboxy polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) anion and an imidazolium cation. The introduction of the POSS moiety enhances the thermal stability and reduces the melting temperature. From an evaluation of the thermodynamic parameters during the melting, it was found that the rigidity and cubic structure of POSS can contribute to the enhancement of these thermal properties.

For isolation of the gene responsible for xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) complementation group A, plasmid pSV2gpt and genomic DNA from a mouse embryo were cotransfected into XP2OSSV cells, a group-A XP cell line. Two primary UV-resistant XP transfectants were isolated from about 1.6 X 10(5) pSV2gpt-transformed XP colonies. pSV2gpt and genomic DNA from the primary transfectants were again cotransfected into XP2OSSV cells and a secondary UV-resistant XP transfectant was obtained by screening about 4.8

We report dendrimer complexes which can show triplet-triplet annihilation-supported upconversion from visible light to UV light in aqueous solutions. The Pt complex of octaethylporphyrin as a sensitizer and anthracene as an emitter were accumulated into the water-soluble dendrimers.

We have isolated a cDNA (RGRC2) encoding glutathione reductase (GR) from rice (Oryza sativa L.). The comparison of deduced amino acid sequences from RGRC2 and other plant GR cDNAs indicated that RGRC2 encodes a putative cytosolic isoform. The recombinant RGRC2 protein had enzymatic properties comparable to those of GR from rice embryo. Subcellular fractionation showed that the RGRC2 protein is localized primarily in cytosol. mRNA and protein of RGRC2 were observed mainly in roots and calli but l

Cytosine methylation is one of the most important epigenetic events, and much effort has been directed to develop a simple reaction for methylcytosine detection. In this paper, we describe the design of tag-attachable ligands for direct methylcytosine labeling and their application to fluorescent and electrochemical assays. The effect of the location of bipyridine substituents on the efficiency of osmium complexation at methylcytosine was initially investigated. As a result, a bipyridine derivat