Depletion of YhcB, an inner membrane protein of Escherichia coli, inhibited the growth of rodZ deletion mutant showing that the loss of both YhcB and RodZ is synthetically lethal. Furthermore, YhcB was demonstrated to interact with RodZ as well as several other proteins involved in cell shape maintenance and an inner membrane protein YciS of unknown function, using bacterial two-hybrid system. These observations seem to indicate that YhcB is involved in the biogenesis of cell envelope and the maintenance of cell shape together with RodZ.

Illumination-induced greening in dark-grown plants is one of the most dramatic developmental processes known in plants. In our current study, we characterized the greening process of rice seedlings using comparative proteome analysis. We identified 886 different proteins in both whole cell lysates of illuminated and nonilluminated rice shoots and performed comparative proteome analysis based on the MS spectral intensities obtained for unique peptides from respective proteins. Furthermore, the changes in the levels of individual proteins were then compared with those of the corresponding mRNAs. The results revealed well-coordinated increases in the enzymes involved in the Calvin cycle at both the protein and mRNA levels during greening, and that the changes at the mRNA level precede those at the protein level. Although a much lower effect of illumination was found on the enzymes associated with glycolysis and the TCA cycle, coordinated increases during greening were evident for the enzymes involved in photorespiration and nitrogen assimilation as well as the components of the chloroplastic translational machinery. These results thus define the differential regulation of distinct biological systems during greening in rice and demonstrate the usefulness of comprehensive and comparative proteome analysis for the characterization of biological processes in plant cells.

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SUMMARYThe transmission characteristics of the electromagnetic induction RFID systems are greatly influenced by the distance between the primary and secondary antenna coils and by the materials used in their design. In this paper the induced current of the secondary antenna coil is calculated by the 3D finite element method when both the primary and secondary antenna coils are operated in resonant circuits. The influences of the analyzed parameters on the transmission characteristics are demonstrated.