The activities of the two types of starch debranching enzymes, isoamylase and pullulanase, were greatly reduced in endosperms of allelic sugary-1 mutants of rice (Oryza sativa), with the decrease more pronounced for isoamylase than for pullulanase. However, the decrease in isoamylase activity was not related to the magnitude of the sugary phenotype (the proportion of the phytoglycogen region of the endosperm), as observed with pullulanase. In the moderately mutated line EM-5, the pullulanase activity was markedly lower in the phytoglycogen region than in the starch region, and isoamylase activity was extremely low or completely lost in the whole endosperm tissue. These results suggest that both debranching enzymes are involved in amylopectin biosynthesis in rice endosperm. We presume that isoamylase plays a predominant role in amylopectin synthesis, but pullulanase is also essential or can compensate for the role of isoamylase in the construction of the amylopectin multiple-cluster structure. It is highly possible that isoamylase was modified in some sugary-1 mutants such as EM-273 and EM-5, since it was present in significant and trace amounts, respectively, in these mutants but was apparently inactive. The results show that the Sugary-1 gene encodes the isoamylase gene of the rice genome.The super-cluster structure of amylopectin (Gallant et al., 1997) might have evolved as a fitting strategy for plant survival and must be accomplished by well-refined regulation of a network of numerous enzyme actions. The fine structure of amylopectin is distinct from that of glycogen in animals and bacteria in that glycogen is randomly branched, the branches are more numerous, and the chains are shorter compared with amylopectin. Biochemical analyses of sugary-type mutants of maize, rice (Oryza sativa), Arabidopsis, and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii have provided new insights needed to understand the mechanism of synthesis and construction of the amylopectin fine structure

SummaryThe biochemical lesion of the sugary-1 mutation was examined in five different mutants of rice with varying phenotypes but with mutations at the same locus. The cells in the inner part of the endosperm of all mutants tested contained phytoglycogen instead of starch, while the cells located in the outer part of the endosperm tissue from some mutants were filled with numerous starch granules. The molecular size of phytoglycogen was markedly smaller than that of amylopectin as measured by Sephacryl S-1O00 chromatography. Analysis of the distribution of a-1,4 chain lengths revealed that in phytoglycogen the number of A-chains dramatically increased, while long B chains with DP I> 37 remarkably decreased or were almost absent, which resulted in the disappearance of the cluster structure. The results suggest that changes in the balance of enzymic activities induced by the mutations brought about a drastic alteration in polyglucan structure and the shape of the polyglucan granule. The greater the extent of phytogiycogen regions in sul endosperm tissues became, the greater was the phytoglycogen content, and the greater the reduction in the activity of starch debranching enzyme, a type of enzyme referred to as R-enzyme (RE}, limit dextrinase or puUulanase. Immunoblot analysis showed that the reduction in RE activity was due to a decrease in the amount of RE protein, and that the reduction in RE was specific since proteins of starchbranching enzymes I and Ila and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase were not markedly affected by sul mutations.The proportion of starch region to the whole endosperm Received

Toroidal rotation velocity profiles are measured by multichord charge-exchange spectroscopy for discharges where the direction of the neutral beams is changed from parallel to the plasma current to antiparallel.Analysis of the transport of toroidal momentum in the transient phase suggests the existence of a nondiffusive term in the transport matrix. This nondiffusive term results in a spontaneous source of toroidal momentum in the direction antiparallel to the plasma current.PACS numbers: 52.25.Fi, 52.50.GjAn important issue in the study of the transport properties of plasmas is the evaluation of the transport coefficients for the particle, momentum, and heat fIuxes. The transport matrix has nine coefficients for the particle, momentum, and energy cruxes; the diagonal elements are the diffusive terms, consisting of particle diffusivity D, viscosity p"and thermal diffusivity g, while the offdiagonal terms are considered the nondiffusive terms.

Rice caryopses show different patterns of grain filling depending on position within a panicle. Caryopses located on the upper primary rachis branches generally accumulate larger amounts of starch at maturity than caryopses located on the secondary rachis branches of the lower primary rachis. In this study, the former and latter types of caryopses were defined as superior and inferior caryopses, respectively. Superior caryopses elongated soon after flowering, whereas inferior caryopses hardly elongated and were morphologically stagnant until the first 4 d after flowering (DAF). However, once inferior caryopses began elongation, their morphological development was the same as superior caryopses until the middle stage of grain filling. Cell division of the inner integument ceased before endosperm cellularization, pericarp functioned as a transient starch storage tissue until endosperm accumulated starch, and endosperm cell number was determined concomitantly with nucellus disintegration. These results implied the coordinated development of the endosperm with maternal tissues. In addition, differences of inner-integument cell number and endosperm cell number were related to a difference of endosperm size between superior and inferior caryopses.

This paper describes the content of an L-mode database that has been compiled with data from Alcator C-Mod, ASDEX, DIII, DIII-D, FTU, JET, JFT-2M, JT-60, PBX-M, PDX, T-10, TEXTOR, TFTR, and Tore-Supra. The database consists of a total of 2938 entries, 1881 of which are in the L-phase while 922 are ohmically heated only (OH). Each entry contains up to 95 descriptive parameters, including global and kinetic information, machine conditioning, and configuration. The paper presents a description of the database and the variables contained therein, and it also presents global and thermal scalings along with predictions for ITER. The L-mode thermal confinement time scaling, determined from a subset of 1312 entries for which the T E ,~F , are provided, is

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The paper describes the content of an H-mode confinement database that has been assembled for the ITER project. Data were collected from six machines of different sizes and shapes: ASDEX, DIII-D, JET, JFT-2M, PBX-M and PDX. A detailed description of the criteria used in the selection of the data and the definition of each of the variables is given. The paper also presents an analysis of the conditions of the database, the scalings (power law and offset linear) of the data with both dimensional and dimensionless variables, and predictions of the expected confinement time for ITER.

In rice, caryopses located at the base of the panicle have a lower growth rate than those at the tip of the panicle. The former and latter types of caryopses are called inferior and superior caryopses, respectively. Taking the different growth rate into consideration, sugar status and the expression of genes encoding carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes in inferior caryopses were compared with those in superior caryopses. During the first 5 d after flowering, superior caryopses elongated rapidly, but inferior caryopses did not. At this phase, inferior caryopses had a low ratio of hexose to sucrose, high activity of acid invertase and the absence of the expression of the genes encoding the above enzymes except for two isoforms of cell wall invertase, OsCIN4 and INV1, in comparison with superior caryopses. At the start of caryopsis elongation in both superior and inferior caryopses, the hexose/sucrose ratio increased accompanied by gene expression of vacuolar invertase (INV3), sucrose synthase (RSus1) and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGP-L2: D50317). Furthermore, the genes related to endospermal starch accumulation were expressed highly with the decrease in the hexose/sucrose ratio after its peak. Based on the comparison of superior and inferior caryopses, the possible mechanism of grain filling in rice is discussed.