Abstract: A hub bearing 1 including an outer ring 2 that serves as a stationary side raceway ring, a hub wheel 3 and an inner ring 5 serving as a rotatable side raceway ring, balls 4 serving as a plurality of rolling elements disposed between a raceway surface of the stationary side raceway ring and a raceway surface of the rotatable side raceway ring, and grease that lubricates a rolling contact part between each of the raceway surfaces and the rolling elements. The surface roughness of at least one raceway surface selected from the raceway surface of the stationary side raceway ring and the raceway surface of the rotatable side raceway ring in the rolling contact part is 0.03 ?m Ra or less.

Abstract: To provide a hub bearing that is capable of reducing a delay in a response of the hub bearing and improving a steering stability of a vehicle. A hub bearing 1 includes an outer ring 2 serving as a stationary side raceway ring, a hub wheel 3 and an inner ring 5 serving as a rotatable side raceway ring, balls 4 serving as a plurality of rolling elements disposed between a raceway surface of the stationary side raceway ring and a raceway surface of the rotatable side raceway ring, and grease that lubricates a rolling contact part between each of the raceway surfaces and the rolling elements. The surface roughness of at least one raceway surface selected from the raceway surface of the stationary side raceway ring and the raceway surface of the rotatable side raceway ring in the rolling contact part is 0.03 ?mRa or less. Further, the grease has a traction coefficient in the rolling contact part of 0.04 or less at 40° C. when a vehicle speed is 20 km/h or more.

Abstract: There is provided an Agrobacterium transformation method for monocotyledons, comprising a step of infecting an intact seed.

Abstract: The present inventors isolated and purified elicitor-binding proteins in good yield by combining the development of a column that uses APEA derivatives, pre-columns to remove non-specifically adsorbing substances, and effective elution methods. Using the N-terminal and internal chain amino acid sequences of the obtained proteins, the present inventors successfully isolated cDNAs encoding the proteins of the present invention from a rice cDNA library. Moreover, when anti-Con A-CEBiP antibodies were purified and their effect on elicitor-responsive reactive oxygen production was examined, production of reactive oxygen was inhibited by a pretreatment with the antibodies, suggesting that the present proteins are receptor proteins involved in chitin oligosaccharide elicitor responses. Since these elicitors induce resistance to blast in rice, the proteins of the present invention can be applied to the development of novel disease control technologies.

Abstract: To date, those skilled in the art have never considered that cultured plant cells respond to gibberellins. However, to comprehensively and conveniently identify and isolate gibberellin responsive genes, cultured cells, which are uniform and easy to handle, are appropriate. Considering the advantages of cultured cells, the present inventors developed methods for identifying and isolating gibberellin responsive genes using cultured cells. After pre-culturing cells in an auxin-free medium, they examined whether or not changes in gene expression could be detected. As a result, it was surprisingly revealed that changes in the expression of some genes could be detected after gibberellin treatment.

Abstract: There is provided an Agrobacterium transformation method for monocotyledons, comprising a step of infecting an intact seed.

Abstract: Genes whose expression was induced in the early stages of elicitor treatment were investigated using a DNA microchip containing 1265 varieties of rice ESTs. A chitin oligomer (N-acetylchitooligosaccharide), an important component in the cell wall of rice blast fungus, was used as the elicitor. This resulted in the identification of six varieties of novel elicitor-responsive ESTs. Of these, the product of two genes (named CIGR1 gene and CIGR2 gene) possessed a motif characteristic of the GRAS family, which are thought to be transcription factors. Thus it was indicated for the first time that, in addition to gibberellin signal transduction regulatory factors, the GRAS family is also present in rice.