Artificial  seeds production by the  encapsulation of somatic embryos  in alginate  gel is widely applied  method in  micropropagation. In  this  study,  artificial seeds  were  obtained from  pRi  T-DNA transformed roots  (known also  as “hairy  root  culture”) of skullcap  (Scutellaria baicalensis  Georgi). Root  segments  in  artificial seeds  were  viable  after  prolonged storage  at  +4°C. The  main  parameters of  hairy  root   cultures, produced from  the  artificial seeds,   were  investigated. Using   encapsulation method, the  hairy  root  culture of skullcap  with  higher  productivity was obtained. After  encapsulation  there  was observed  the  chloroplasts formation in  root  cells  under  light  conditions, and  the  total amount of chlorophyll and  the  content of flavonoids  in  green  roots  were  determined.

Choripetaly of  Rhododendron tomentosum  is the  result  of  secondary reduction. Our  data  sup-

port  earlier  observations of  P. Leins  [1]  that  a  rudimentary corolla  tube  occurs  during  early  stages of  floral  development. Choripetaly of  Empetrum   may  be  a  plesiomorphic condition,  because   any vestiges  of  corolla   tube  were  not  detected throughout all  stages  of  flower  development. However,  a complete loss of corolla  tube  cannot be excluded. The  type  of congenital petal  fusion  varies within a  group  of  closely  related   taxa  of  Ericaceae: Phyllodoce  caerulea  has  late  sympetaly while  Loise- leuria  procumbens  has  early  sympetaly. In  contrast, in  euasterids, the  type  of sympetaly appears to characterize taxa  of higher  rank.

The  taxonomic status,   origin  and  sib  connections of  various  forms  of  the  Altai  grey  wolf  remain   debatable.  We  had   been   developed  and   tested   the  technique  of  the  microsatellite  analysis which  is one  of the  basic  tools  in phylogeography researches. 97 samples  of grey wolf (Canis  lupus) have  been  analyzed, extracted from  the  populations occupying flat steppe, foothill  forest-steppe and mountain-taiga  ecotopes of  Altai  Krai  and  Altai  Republic. The  microsatellite loci  chosen as  genetic   markers have  shown  high  efficiency. Forest-steppe  populations of  Altai  grey  wolf  according to our  data  supported with  references are a part  of mountain-taiga populations Canis  lupus altaicus.

In  this  work  we  researched Ca2+ oscillations in  astrocytes of  hippocampus acute  slices,  using confocal laser scanning microscopy and  bulk-loading of the  Ca2+-sensitive dye Oregon  Green Bapta 1-AM. We  demonstrated that  frequency and  duration of  the  calcium oscillations had  reduced  by the  rat  age,  but  frequency and  duration of the  calcium oscillations had  increased by the  glutamate application.

4,5SH RNA  genes  contain an  internal RNA  polymerase III  promoter consisting of  A and  B boxes.  To  analyze  the  influence of the  various  sequences inserted upstream from  4,5SH RNA  gene we used  in  vitro  transcription and  transfection in  the  whole  cell.  We found  that  various  5ґ-flanking sequences could  increase or  decrease the  transcription efficiency  of a mouse  4,5SH RNA  gene,  but the  experiments did  not  reveal  the  correlations between   the  structure of  the  5ґ-flanking sequences and  there   influence on  the  transcription level.  Apparently, there   are  a  lot  of  sequences  favorable for  4,5SH RNA  genes  transcription.

Wood-decaying  white   rot  basidiomycetes  Bjerkandera   adusta  BIMF-260 and   Pleurotus  ostreatus  BIMF-247 were  found   to  show  prooxidant activity   in  solid-state culture  on  lignocellulose substrate — flax  straw.  The  prooxidant activity  in  the  culture filtrates  of  the  wood-decaying  fungi depends on  the  presence of ligninolytic enzymes and  first  of all peroxidases.

Author’s   research shows  that  it  is possible  to  make  sufficiently accurate anthropological characteristic of  the  peoples  by painting portraits, created artist  of  the  realistic. Anthropological  types of  Russian nobility   and  Russian merchants of  18th—19th century  were  found  on  the  basis  of  the painting portraits.

At  this  research work  the  informational structure of  cytochrome c was  investigated using  the ANIS-method  (analyse   of  informational  structure  method).  The   mutant  genes  of  cytochrome   c were  constructed  on  a  basis  of  data   from   ANIS-method. The  mutations  were  turned to  reduce electron-transport activity  of cytochrome c at  mitochondrial respiratory chain. These  mutant genes were  obtained and  expressed   at  bacterial system.  Recombinant proteins were  purified   and  its  bio- logical  activities  were  tested  at  rat  liver  mitochondria.

Isotopic  analysis   was  used   to  estimate  the   trophic  differentiation  of  Diplopoda  species   in a  deciduous temperate and  a  tropical monsoon forest.  The  variation in  isotopic signatures among different species  was  much larger  in  the  tropical forest  (in  23  co-occurring  species, 15N Ranged from  –1 to  +9,5‰) than   in  the  temperate forest  (9  species, 15N from  –1 to  +1,5‰).  These data  suggest  that  the  trophic niche   differentiation contributes to  the  maintenance of  high  species diversity  of soil  saprophagous animals in  tropical ecosystems.

In  the  article   it  is studed   the  polymorphism of  the  genes  ADH1B, ADLH2 and  CYP2E1 in the  population of Shors, Russians  of Siberia  and  progenis of Russian-Shors marriages. The  reliable differences  between   groups   according  to  the   frequency  of  genotypes  and   allele   are   discovered. The  article  shows  the  high  heterozygosis level  of  genes  ADH1B and  ALDH2. The  gene  distances prove  that  metis  and  Shors  are  very  close  to  each  other   (d  = 0,005)  and  Russians   of  Siberia  are not  similar  to  the  Russians  od  Cental part  of Russia  (d  = 0,046).

Frontal cortex  tissue  obtained from  green  fluorescent protein (GFP)  transgenic mice  embryos was transplanted into  the  striatum of adults.  In  the  present experiments, we have  compared  survival of  solid  neural   grafts  with  grafts  of  neuronal cell  suspensions. Histological evaluation showed  that tissue  transplants size increased distinctly compared to cell transplants. Axonal  outgrowth from  both graft  types  and  host  was detected. Also transplanted cells  were  capable to  differentiate into  neurons and  glial cells.

Genes  coding   for   the   DNA  methyltransferases of  restriction-modification  system   BspACI from  Bacillus  psychrodurans  AC  have  been  cloned in  E. coli cells.  The  analysis  of amino acid  se- quences of the  proteins showed  that  both  these  genes  belong  to  C5  DNA methyltransferases. Gene bspACIM1 has  been  subcloned in pJW2  vector.  High-purity recombinant enzyme has  been  obtained with  chromatography on  different carriers. It  has  been  shown  that   M1.BspACI modifies   the  first cytosine  residue  in the  sequence 5ґ-CCGC-3ґ. Kinetic parameters have  been  determined. The  cata- lytic  constant appears to  be 0,095 ± 0,002  min–1, Km   ДНК фага   — 0,053 ± 0,007  мкМ, Km  SAM   — 5,1 ± 0,3  мкМ.

We  characterized effects  of  nitric  oxide  synthase (NOS)  substrate and  inhibitors on  NO  biosynthesis  in  probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus   plantarum  8P-A3. NO-synthase derived  origin  of  de- tected nitric  oxide  was confirmed by induction of  NO  production by exogenous L-arginine. None of  used  inhibitors of  three   isoforms   of  mammalian NOSs   (L-NAME, L-NIL, nNOS inhibitor I) showed  significant inhibitory effect  on  lactobacillar NO-synthase  activity.