Bioscience

Mouse Pups Generated from iPS Cells

On Jul. 23, Nature published on line the research results jointly achieved by the research group led by Prof. Zhou Qi of the Institute of Zoology, CAS and the research group led by Prof. Zeng Fanyi of the Medical College of Shanghai Jiaotong University. They obtained fertile live mouse pups by injecting iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells into a tetraploid blastocyst, thus demonstrating the pluripotency of iPS cells for the first time in the world. Zhou Qi and his colleagues prepared 37 iPS cell lines and injected 6 of which into over 1,500 tetraploid blastocysts; finally three of which produced 27 live mouse pups. Multiple molecular biological appraisals proved that these mouse pups were actually developed from iPS cells. Some mouse pups have grown to maturity and reproduced offsprings. These are live mouse pups completely generated from iPS cells for the first time in the world, which fully demonstrate the pluripotency of iPS cells.-6

Settlement of Native Tree Species in South Asia

Under the guidance of Prof. Ren Hai, Dr. Wang Jun of the Vegetation and Landscape Ecology Group of the South China Botanical Garden has made significant progress in the research of settlement limitations of native tree species under typical plantation at the south subtropical area after three years’ observation and follow-up research. The research results showed that the present seed bank of plantation in South China has a common issue of deficiency in source of native arbor species, which resulted in relatively high survival rate of transplanted seedlings and their growth rate in the environment eliminating floor vegetation and litters; the response of transplanted seedlings to environmental factor is species-specific; the influence of illumination on the survival and growth of seedlings is related to the level of shade tolerance of species; chinquapins of heliophytes gros better in a biotope with light transmittance through high forest; soil nutrient is one of important factors deciding the performance of seedlings. Seedling transplantation is an effective means to accelerate the establishment of native tree species under plantation. But native tree species should be introduced to a type of plantation suitable for the establishment of their seedlings according to their characteristics, in order to increase the establishment rate of native tree species under plantation and further promote updating of community and its development to secondary forest of a higher stage of succession. Relevant research results were published in the Forest Ecology and Management on line.