高通量SNP基因分型技术研究进展

在后基因组时代,单核苷酸多态性研究已迅速成为了生物医学许多领域的焦点。发展可靠、敏感、经济、稳定、高通量的SNP基因分型技术已迫在眉睫。本文主要着重于高通量SNP基因分型技术的原理、利弊以及这些技术在这个领域过去几年中的进展。     

高等植物helitron转座子的研究进展

作为重复序列的一种主要类型,转座子在高等植物基因组中具有相当丰富的DNA含量,在改变基因结构、调节基因表达、影响基因组进化,以及创造新基因的过程中扮演着重要的角色。Helitron转座子是DNA转座子的一种,在转座过程中经常捕获基因或基因片段,以及插入到基因附近或基因内部,因此在改变基因组构成、影响基因组的进化过程以及改变基因型和表型等方面起着重要作用。该文对国内外近年来有关植物基因组中helitron转座子的结构特征、鉴定和分类方法、基因组中的含量和在染色体上的分布,以及转座扩增和基因片段的捕获等方面的研究进展进行了综述,并对helitron转座子研究过程中存在的问题进行了讨论,对今后helitron相关的研究进行了展望。     

基于RNA-Seq高通量测序技术的牦牛卵巢转录组研究:进一步完善牦牛基因结构及挖掘与繁殖相关新基因

RNA-Seq作为近年来新发展起来的高通量转录组测序技术,为大规模转录组学研究提供了一种全新的且更为有效的方法.目前该技术已广泛应用于转录组学中多方面的研究,尤其近年来,该技术在进一步完善基因结构信息及挖掘新转录本及新基因方面的功能也逐渐受到关注.本研究以牦牛卵巢组织作为研究对象,应用RNA-Seq技术对其进行高通量转录组测序分析,经测序后得到了一个包含26826516条过滤后测序读数,4828772880 bp的卵巢测序文库,比对分析显示,有16992条牦牛基因发生表达,其中3734条基因存在不同类型的可变剪接.功能分析表明,这些表达基因涉及多种GO分类及KEGG通路.进一步分析转录组数据发现,共有7340个基因的5′或3′端在原有基因组的位置基础上发生了延伸,同时还发现了6321个新转录本,定位回基因组预测显示,外显子数量为1~84个,其中2267个新转录本预测具有编码蛋白的能力.比对分析显示,共有1200~4993条新转录本分别与Nt数据库、Nr数据库及SwissProt数据库中的基因比对上,其中与牛相似性基因最多(41.4%),其次为野牦牛(33.0%)、绵羊(6.3%)、人类(2.8%)及小鼠(1.6%)等其他物种.进一步对新转录本进行GO分类注释,结果显示,与繁殖发育相关的GO分类占有较大比例,其中繁殖类别(reproduction)所涉及的新转录本最多.本研究结果为描绘牦牛卵巢正常转录组图谱及进一步探析牦牛繁殖性能提供了基础,同时证实RNA-Seq高通量转录组技术在完善基因结构及挖掘新转录本及新基因方面的具有强大的优势,为进一步完善牦牛基因组结构信息及挖掘潜在的新基因提供了丰富数据.     

CRISPR/Cas9基因组编辑技术的研究进展及其应用

随着测序技术的不断进步,获得了越来越多物种的全基因组序列。面对这些海量的基因组数据,基因定点编辑技术是高效捕获目标基因、迅速获得基因功能和应用信息的重要研究手段。CRISPR/Cas9是目前最有效的一种基因定点编辑技术。CRISPR/Cas9系统(clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated)是广泛存在于细菌及古生菌中的,由细菌体长期进化而形成,能够降解入侵病毒或噬菌体DNA的适应性免疫系统。因此,对CRISPR/Cas9系统的发展、应用,以其在相关研究中的应用前景进行阐述显得尤为必要。     

基于CRISPR-Cas9的功能基因筛选研究进展

功能性基因的筛选是探索生物进程、研究疾病发生发展和诠释基因功能的重要方法,在生物、医药、新治疗靶点筛选及肿瘤耐药等方面有广泛的应用。CRISPR-Cas9(Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat sequences/CRISPR-associated protein 9)技术作为近期热门的基因编辑工具,能够高通量地对基因组进行精准修饰,为实现功能性基因的筛选提供了简便高效的技术支持。文中对CRISPR-cas9技术应用于功能性基因筛选的方法及研究进展进行了综述。     

Red同源重组在大肠杆菌基因组修饰中的应用

Red同源重组技术发展迅速,已广泛应用于大肠杆菌基因组修饰,在点突变、基因敲除、序列整合等方面发挥着重要作用。简要综述了Red同源重组的重组机制和操作策略等研究进展,并介绍了Red同源重组在大肠杆菌基因组减小及多基因代谢途径优化方面的应用情况。     

基因敲除小鼠技术的研究进展

基因敲除小鼠技术的建立和发展使得人们为研究基因的功能和寻找新的治疗人类疾病的靶点提供了强有力的支持。基因打靶和基因捕获是两种通过胚胎干细胞(Embryonicstemcell,ESC)构建基因敲除小鼠的技术。基因打靶通过同源重组替换内源基因从而敲除目的基因,而基因捕获则有启动子捕获和polyA捕获两种方法对目的基因进行敲除。近年来,有许多新的基因敲除技术不断被开发出来,包括Cre/loxP系统、CRISP/Cas9系统以及最新的ZFN技术和TAILEN技术,都有望取代传统基因敲除手段。文中简要阐述了如今新出现的几种基因敲除小鼠技术。     

Tc1/Mariner转座子超家族的研究进展

随着高通量测序技术的迅猛发展,越来越多的生物基因组注释结果表明：转座子几乎存在于所有生物的基因组中,是大多数生物基因组的重要组分。其中,Tc1/Mariner转座子是自然界中分布最广泛的一类DNA转座子超家族,在自然界已经发现14个有活性的Tc1/Mariner转座子(如Minos,Mos1等),另外通过分子重构也获得高活性的人工转座子,如睡美人转座子(Sleeping Beauty, SB)。SB和Mos1等转座子作为基因转移载体已被广泛应用于转基因、基因捕获和基因治疗等领域的研究中,并取得了很好的应用效果。本文将重点综述Tc1/Mariner转座子的结构、分类、分布、转座机制、活性转座子的挖掘,及其在转基因、基因捕获和基因治疗等研究领域的应用。     

谱系特有基因研究进展

谱系特有基因(Lineage-specific genes,LSGs)是指在一个谱系中特有并与其他物种谱系所有基因没有明显序列相似性的基因,约为物种基因组全部基因数量的10%~20%,于1996年首次在完成全基因组测序的酵母基因组中大量发现。大规模测序技术的发展使谱系特有基因研究成为比较基因组学的研究热点,已在微生物、海洋低等生物、植物(如拟南芥、水稻、杨树)、昆虫及高等灵长类动物等多个物种或类群中展开,其生物功能对于阐明物种进化历程和生物适应性具有重要意义。文章介绍了谱系特有基因的研究背景和现状,从谱系特有基因获取、基因结构分析、进化起源、生物功能、表达特性分析等方面阐述谱系特有基因的研究进展,分析了存在的问题和后续研究方向,以期为相关研究提供参考。     

现代质谱技术在蛋白质组学中的应用及其最新进展

简述了蛋白质组学的概念、内容和意义,重点综述了现代质谱技术在蛋白质组学中的应用,主要包括蛋白质和肽段的鉴定和定量、蛋白质翻译后修饰的鉴定和蛋白质间相互作用的检测等。随着新的高质量精确度、分辨率、灵敏度和通量质谱仪的出现,现代质谱技术在蛋白质组学中的应用将越来越广泛,并给蛋白质组学研究带来新的机遇。     

隐性次级代谢产物生物合成基因簇的激活及天然产物定向发现

传统的"活性-化合物"天然药物发现方法导致大量已知化合物被重复分离,大大加剧了新药发现的难度。规模化基因组测序揭示了微生物基因组中存在大量的隐性(cryptic)次级代谢产物生物合成基因簇,如何激活这些隐性基因簇成为当今世界天然产物研究领域的难点与热点。本文从途径特异性和多效性两个角度综述了隐性生物合成基因簇激活策略;同时,对基因组信息指导下结构导向(structure-guided)的化合物定向分离技术进行了归纳。隐性基因簇的激活为定向发掘具有优良活性的新型天然产物提供了新的契机。     

Nanotechnology based drug delivery system(s) for the management of tuberculosis

The era of nanotechnology has allowed new research strategies to flourish in the field of drug delivery. Nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems are suitable for targeting chronic intracellular infections such as tuberculosis. Polymeric nanoparticles employing poly lactide-co-glycolide have shown promise as far as intermittent chemotherapy in experimental tuberculosis is concerned. It has distinct advantages over the more traditional drug carriers, i.e. liposomes and microparticles. Although the experience with natural carriers, e.g. solid lipid nanoparticles and alginate nanoparticles is in its infancy, future research may rely heavily on these carrier systems. Given the options for oral as well as parenteral therapy, the very nature of the disease and its complex treatment urges one to emphasize on the oral route for controlled drug delivery. Pending the discovery of more potent antitubercular drugs, nanotechnology-based intermittent chemotherapy provides a novel and sound platform for an onslaught against tuberculosis.     

A novel method for prokaryotic promoter prediction based on DNA stability

Background  

In the post-genomic era, correct gene prediction has become one of the biggest challenges in genome annotation. Improved promoter prediction methods can be one step towards developing more reliable ab initio gene prediction methods. This work presents a novel prokaryotic promoter prediction method based on DNA stability.     

Current strategies to induce secondary metabolites from microbial biosynthetic cryptic gene clusters

The genome of actinomycetes and several other microorganisms are endowed with many cryptic gene clusters that can code for previously undetected, a plethora of complex secondary metabolites. Under standard laboratory controlled conditions, the genes regulating these biosynthetic clusters are expressed at very low levels or remain phenotypically cryptic (silent). Over the past several decades, multi-drug-resistant bacteria have been observed with increased frequency, posing a significant threat to human health worldwide. The present alarming situation urgently calls for concerted global efforts for the discovery of new antimicrobials. The present situation, if not controlled, will take us again to the pre-antibiotic era. Today, in the post-genomic era, various new strategies such as the activation of cryptic gene clusters in microorganisms rejuvenate a new conviction in the field of natural product research that may lead to the identification of yet-unidentified novel secondary metabolites of therapeutic and other use. Decryptification of this versatile endogenous genetic reservoir may provide in the near future the more concrete rationale for antibiotic discovery. The present review is an attempt to provide a comprehensive detail, outlining current strategies that have been shown successful to activate cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters in microorganisms.     

On the origin and evolution of new genes——a genomic and experimental perspective

The inherent interest on the origin of genetic novelties can be traced back to Darwin, But it was not until recently that we were allowed to investigate the fundamental process of origin of new genes by the studies on newly evolved young genes. Two indispensible steps are involved in this process: origin of new gene copies through various mutational mechanisms and evolution of novel functions, which fur-ther more leads to fixation of the new copies within populations. The theoretical framework for the former step formed in 1970s. Ohno proposed gene duplication as the most important mechanism producing new gene copies. He also believed that the most common fate for new gene copies is to become pseudogenes. This classical view was validated and was also challenged by the characterization of the first functional young gene jingwei in Drosophila. Recent genome-wide comparison on young genes of Drosophila has elucidated a compre-hensive picture addressing remarkable roles of various mechanisms besides gene duplication during origin of new genes. Case surveys revealed it is not rare that new genes would evolve novel structures and functions to contribute to the adaptive evolution of organisms.Here, we review recent advances in understanding how new genes originated and evolved on the basis of genome-wide results and ex-perimental efforts on cases, We would finally discuss the future directions of this fast-growing research field in the context of functional genomics era.     

Community-based gene structure annotation

Uncertainty and inconsistency of gene structure annotation remain limitations on research in the genome era, frustrating both biologists and bioinformaticians, who have to sort out annotation errors for their genes of interest or to generate trustworthy datasets for algorithmic development. It is unrealistic to hope for better software solutions in the near future that would solve all the problems. The issue is all the more urgent with more species being sequenced and analyzed by comparative genomics - erroneous annotations could easily propagate, whereas correct annotations in one species will greatly facilitate annotation of novel genomes. We propose a dynamic, economically feasible solution to the annotation predicament: broad-based, web-technology-enabled community annotation, a prototype of which is now in use for Arabidopsis.     

Recent innovations in tissue-specific gene modifications in the mouse

Annotating the functions of individual genes in in vivo contexts has become the primary task of mouse genetics in the post-genome era. In addition to conventional approaches using transgenic technologies and gene targeting, the recent development of conditional gene modification techniques has opened novel opportunities for elucidating gene function at the level of the whole mouse to individual tissues or cell types. Tissue-specific gene modifications in the mouse have been made possible using site-specific DNA recombinases and conditional alleles. Recent innovations in this basic technology have facilitated new types of experiments, revealing novel insights into mammalian embryology. In this review, we focus on these recent innovations and new technical issues that impact the success of these conditional gene modification approaches.     

Highly efficient proteolysis accelerated by electromagnetic waves for Peptide mapping

Proteomics will contribute greatly to the understanding of gene functions in the post-genomic era. In proteome research, protein digestion is a key procedure prior to mass spectrometry identification. During the past decade, a variety of electromagnetic waves have been employed to accelerate proteolysis. This review focuses on the recent advances and the key strategies of these novel proteolysis approaches for digesting and identifying proteins. The subjects covered include microwave-accelerated protein digestion, infrared-assisted proteolysis, ultraviolet-enhanced protein digestion, laser-assisted proteolysis, and future prospects. It is expected that these novel proteolysis strategies accelerated by various electromagnetic waves will become powerful tools in proteome research and will find wide applications in high throughput protein digestion and identification.     

后基因组时代的真菌天然产物发现

真菌产生的次级代谢产物是新药发现的重要来源之一,然而近年来传统的真菌天然产物发现方法在大量真菌基因组测序完成的时代遇到了很大的挑战。如何利用这些基因组数据来发现真菌中新的天然产物已成为后基因组时代天然产物发现的研究重点和热点。本综述先后介绍了真菌天然产物的类型及其相应基因簇和骨架酶的特征,基于基因组挖掘技术发展而来的天然产物发现新策略,以及利用合成生物学理念和技术在真菌天然产物发现中的应用现状,最后展望了后基因组时代中的天然产物发现研究前沿及基因组数据在后基因组时代对真菌天然产物发现的应用前景。