串联亲和纯化（TAP）技术在蛋白质组学中的应用

蛋白质是各种生命活动的主要执行者,因此构建蛋白质相互作用的网络图对于准确理解蛋白质功能、揭开各种细胞活动的奥秘十分重要.串联亲和纯化（TAP）,是近年来发展出来的一种能够快速研究在生理条件下蛋白质相互作用,揭示蛋白质复合体相互作用网络的新技术,已成为研究蛋白质组学的一个重要工具.随着该技术的不断完善,TAP技术在认识蛋白质相互作用的过程中必将发挥越来越重要的作用.     

蛋白质相互作用研究的新技术与新方法

目前,蛋白质相互作用已成为蛋白质组学研究的热点. 新方法的建立及对已有技术的改进标志着蛋白质相互作用研究的不断发展和完善．在技术改进方面,本文介绍了弥补酵母双杂交的蛋白定位受限等缺陷的细菌双杂交系统;根据目标蛋白特性设计和修饰TAP标签来满足复合体研究要求的串联亲和纯化技术,以及在双分子荧光互补基础上发展的动态检测多个蛋白质间瞬时、弱相互作用的多分子荧光互补技术．还综述了近两年建立的新方法：与免疫共沉淀相比,寡沉淀技术直接研究具有活性的蛋白质复合体;减量式定量免疫沉淀方法排除了蛋白质复合体中非特异性相互作用的干扰;原位操作的多表位－配基绘图法避免了样品间差异的影响,以及利用多点吸附和交联加固研究弱蛋白质相互作用的固相蛋白质组学方法.     

参与植物膜泡运输的蛋白质家族及功能研究进展

真核细胞的内吞和分泌途径中蛋白质和脂类的运输主要由膜泡运输介导。参与膜泡运输的蛋白质家族包括SNARE蛋白家族、RAB蛋白家族、被膜蛋白复合体、Sec1蛋白家族、Arf蛋白家族。这些蛋白质家族在进化中高度保守,并且在植物中已经鉴定了许多哺乳动物和酵母蛋白的同源物。近年来一些研究发现这些蛋白质不仅仅调节植物细胞的膜泡运输,还影响植物的许多生理活动和功能,例如向重性生长、胞质分裂、激素极性运输、气孔运动以及抗病性等。现主要阐述迄今在植物中研究这五类蛋白质家族功能的最新进展。     

两种实验技术在蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用检测中的应用

蛋白质是生命活动的主要承担者。蛋白质种类繁多,结构多样,具有十分广泛的生物学功能,可作为载体蛋白、酶蛋白和信号肽等参与调控细胞内的各种代谢活动。生物体内蛋白质与其他分子的相互作用,尤其是蛋白质-蛋白质之间的相互作用,是蛋白质行使这些重要生物学功能的基础。通过研究可以相互作用的蛋白质形成的各种复合体,对揭示蛋白质的功能,更清楚地阐明细胞生长、发育、分化和凋亡的生命活动规律,为重大疾病的预防、治疗和新药开发提供了理论基础。目前科研工作者在基于分子生物学、生物化学、微生物学和生物物理学的基础上已经发展出了许多蛋白质相互作用的研究技术,本文着重对现有研究方法中的生物膜干涉技术和微量热泳动技术进行介绍和综述。     

蛋白质复合体非变性凝胶电泳技术及其应用新进展

非变性凝胶电泳技术是研究蛋白质复合体的强有力工具。重点介绍了蓝绿温和非变性凝胶电泳(BN-PAGE)技术的原理和特点,比较了由BN-PAGE衍生的蓝色温和琼脂糖凝胶电泳、清澈温和非变性凝胶电泳(CN-PAGE)和高分辨清澈温和非变性凝胶电泳(HrCN-PAGE)技术的差异和适用范围,并概括地介绍了这些技术在植物蛋白质复合体研究中应用的新进展。     

硫化氢在植物中的生理功能及作用机制

硫化氢(H₂S)是继一氧化氮(NO)和一氧化碳(CO)之后第3个气体信号分子, 在植物体内参与许多重要的生理活动, 能够促进植物光合作用和有机物的积累, 缓解各种生物和非生物胁迫并促进植物生长发育。该文综述了植物体内H₂S的物理化学性质、产生机制、主要生理功能和作用机制以及与其它信号分子的互作关系, 并展望了H₂S信号分子的研究前景。     

拟南芥学术研讨会2005

为促进我国拟南芥科研人员的交流与合作,第四届“拟南芥学术研讨会/WorkshoponArabidopsisResearch2005”定于2005年11月30日在北京举行。研讨会由中国科学院遗传与发育生物学研究所和中国科学院上海生命科学研究院植物生理生态研究所主办,植物基因组学国家重点实验室、植物分子遗传国家重点实验室、蛋白质工程及植物基因工程国家重点实验室、植物生理生物化学国家重点实验室、植物细胞与染色体工程国家重点实验室、中国科学院光合作用与环境分子生理学重点实验室、中国科学院分子发育生物学重点实验室、JournalofIntegrativePlantBiolog…     

NMDA受体信号复合体中蛋白质的相互作用

谷氨酸能兴奋性突触的突触后密集区(postsynaptic density,PSD)包含多种受体蛋白、骨架蛋白和信号蛋白,它们通过分子中特定的结构域相互识别并动态地结合,形成多个信号复合体,参与突触后受体功能的调节及其下游特异性信号转导通路的激活。其中,NMDA受体信号复合体中蛋白质-蛋白质的相互作用及其调控机制的阐明,对于深入了解神经发育、突触可塑性、兴奋性毒性等生理病理的分子机制有重要意义。     

上海举行植物基因工程学术报告会

上海市细胞生物学会与上海植物生理所,于3月28日举行植物基因工程学术报告会。会上听取了“植物基因分离研究概况”;“外源基因在植物细胞中的表达的研究动态”;“第一届国际植物分子生物学会议”以及“对欧洲共同体中,英国、比利时等国植物分子遗传学研究的考察”等学术报告和传达。从这些介绍中可以看到:(1)植物分子遗传学的研究正为人们从分子水平上认识植物的各种基本生命活动的规律不断提供新的思想及技术;并迅速向植物科学分校学科渗透;(2)反过来,它本身的发展又依赖     

植物中钙信号介导的硝酸盐信号途径的研究进展

硝酸盐不仅是植物的主要氮源,而且是植物极为重要的信号分子,参与众多生理生化反应、代谢过程,调控植物的生长和发育.研究发现钙信号参与初级硝酸盐响应过程,然而关于钙信号如何参与硝酸盐信号的感知和硝酸盐信号的传递过程尚未清楚.本文综述了具有钙离子通道活性的环核苷酸门控通道与硝酸盐转运体复合体(Cyclic nucleotid...     

Applications of the molecular dynamics flexible fitting method

In recent years, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has established itself as a key method in structural biology, permitting the structural characterization of large biomolecular complexes in various functional states. The data obtained through single-particle cryo-EM has recently seen a leap in resolution thanks to landmark advances in experimental and computational techniques, resulting in sub-nanometer resolution structures being obtained routinely. The remaining gap between these data and revealing the mechanisms of molecular function can be closed through hybrid modeling tools that incorporate known atomic structures into the cryo-EM data. One such tool, molecular dynamics flexible fitting (MDFF), uses molecular dynamics simulations to combine structures from X-ray crystallography with cryo-EM density maps to derive atomic models of large biomolecular complexes. The structures furnished by MDFF can be used subsequently in computational investigations aimed at revealing the dynamics of the complexes under study. In the present work, recent applications of MDFF are presented, including the interpretation of cryo-EM data of the ribosome at different stages of translation and the structure of a membrane-curvature-inducing photosynthetic complex.     

Modeling protein structure at near atomic resolutions with Gorgon

Electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) has played an increasingly important role in elucidating the structure and function of macromolecular assemblies in near native solution conditions. Typically, however, only non-atomic resolution reconstructions have been obtained for these large complexes, necessitating computational tools for integrating and extracting structural details. With recent advances in cryo-EM, maps at near-atomic resolutions have been achieved for several macromolecular assemblies from which models have been manually constructed. In this work, we describe a new interactive modeling toolkit called Gorgon targeted at intermediate to near-atomic resolution density maps (10-3.5 ?), particularly from cryo-EM. Gorgon's de novo modeling procedure couples sequence-based secondary structure prediction with feature detection and geometric modeling techniques to generate initial protein backbone models. Beyond model building, Gorgon is an extensible interactive visualization platform with a variety of computational tools for annotating a wide variety of 3D volumes. Examples from cryo-EM maps of Rotavirus and Rice Dwarf Virus are used to demonstrate its applicability to modeling protein structure.     

Cryo-EM Studies of Virus-Antibody Immune Complexes

Antibodies play critical roles in neutralizing viral infections and are increasingly used as therapeutic drugs and diagnostic tools. Structural studies on virus-antibody immune complexes are important for better understanding the molecular mechanisms of antibody-mediated neutralization and also provide valuable information for structure-based vaccine design.Cryo-electron microscopy(cryo-EM) has recently matured as a powerful structural technique for studying bio-macromolecular complexes. When combined with X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM provides a routine approach for structurally characterizing the immune complexes formed between icosahedral viruses and their antibodies. In this review, recent advances in the structural understanding of virus-antibody interactions are outlined for whole virions with icosahedral T = pseudo 3(picornaviruses) and T = 3(flaviviruses) architectures, focusing on the dynamic nature of viral shells in different functional states. Glycoprotein complexes from pleomorphic enveloped viruses are also discussed as immune complex antigens. Improving our understanding of viral epitope structures using virus-based platforms would provide a fundamental road map for future vaccine development.     

Visualizing transiently associated catalytic domains in assembly-line biosynthesis using cryo-electron microscopy

While cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has revolutionized the structure determination of supramolecular protein complexes that are refractory to structure determination by X-ray crystallography, structure determination by cryo-EM can nonetheless be complicated by excessive conformational flexibility or structural heterogeneity resulting from weak or transient protein–protein association. Since such transient complexes are often critical for function, specialized approaches must be employed for the determination of meaningful structure–function relationships. Here, we outline examples in which transient protein–protein interactions have been visualized successfully by cryo-EM in the biosynthesis of fatty acids, polyketides, and terpenes. These studies demonstrate the utility of chemical crosslinking to stabilize transient protein–protein complexes for cryo-EM structural analysis, as well as the use of partial signal subtraction and localized reconstruction to extract useful structural information out of cryo-EM data collected from inherently dynamic systems. While these approaches do not always yield atomic resolution insights on protein–protein interactions, they nonetheless enable direct experimental observation of complexes in assembly-line biosynthesis that would otherwise be too fleeting for structural analysis.     

植物GRAS蛋白结构和功能研究进展

GRAS蛋白是一类植物特有的蛋白家族,是许多重要生长发育过程中的关键调控蛋白,如赤霉素信号转导、光信号转导、根的发育、根瘤和菌根形成以及分生组织形成等。从蛋白分子结构、分类及生理功能等方面综述了植物GRAS蛋白的最新研究进展,并对未来的研究方向进行了讨论。     

环氧角鲨烯环化酶在三萜化合物生物合成中的进展

三萜类化合物是植物代谢产物中最具多样性的化合物之一,具有广泛的生理活性和重要的经济价值.环氧角鲨烯环化酶(oxidosqualene cyclases,OSCs)催化2,3-氧化鲨烯环化生成不同类型的甾醇和植物三萜化合物,对天然产物的结构多样性具有重要意义.然而,目前对于OSCs酶催化2,3-氧化鲨烯发生环化多样性的机...     

A Primer to Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis in Plants

Reconstructing a tree of life by inferring evolutionary history is an important focus of evolutionary biology. Phylogenetic reconstructions also provide useful information for a range of scientific disciplines such as botany, zoology, phylogeography, archaeology and biological anthropology. Until the development of protein and DNA sequencing techniques in the 1960s and 1970s, phylogenetic reconstructions were based on fossil records and comparative morphological/physiological analyses. Since then, progress in molecular phylogenetics has compensated for some of the shortcomings of phenotype-based comparisons. Comparisons at the molecular level increase the accuracy of phylogenetic inference because there is no environmental influence on DNA/peptide sequences and evaluation of sequence similarity is not subjective. While the number of morphological/physiological characters that are sufficiently conserved for phylogenetic inference is limited, molecular data provide a large number of datapoints and enable comparisons from diverse taxa. Over the last 20 years, developments in molecular phylogenetics have greatly contributed to our understanding of plant evolutionary relationships. Regions in the plant nuclear and organellar genomes that are optimal for phylogenetic inference have been determined and recent advances in DNA sequencing techniques have enabled comparisons at the whole genome level. Sequences from the nuclear and organellar genomes of thousands of plant species are readily available in public databases, enabling researchers without access to molecular biology tools to investigate phylogenetic relationships by sequence comparisons using the appropriate nucleotide substitution models and tree building algorithms. In the present review, the statistical models and algorithms used to reconstruct phylogenetic trees are introduced and advances in the exploration and utilization of plant genomes for molecular phylogenetic analyses are discussed.     

Motions and negative cooperativity between p97 domains revealed by cryo-electron microscopy and quantised elastic deformational model

p97, a Mg-ATPase belonging to the AAA (ATPase associated with various cellular activities) super family of proteins, has been proposed to function in two distinct cellular pathways, namely homotypic membrane fusion and ubiquitin protein degradation by utilizing differing adaptor complexes. We present the cryo-electron microscopy three-dimensional reconstruction of endogenous p97 in an AMP-PNP bound state at 24 A resolution. It reveals clear nucleotide-dependent differences when compared to our previously published "p97-ADP" reconstruction, including a striking rearrangement of N domains and a positional change of the two ATPase domains, D1 and D2, with respect to each other. The docking of the X-ray structure of N-D1 domains in an ADP bound state indicates that an upward repositioning of N domain is necessary to accommodate the cryo-EM map of "p97-AMP-PNP", suggesting a change in the orientation of N domains upon nucleotide hydrolysis. Furthermore, computational analysis of the deformational motions of p97, performed on the cryo-EM density map and the atomic structure of the N-D1 domains independently, shows the existence of a negative cooperativity between the D1 and D2 rings and the flexibility of the N domains. Together these results allow the identification of functionally important features that offer molecular insights into the dynamics of the proposed p97 chaperone function.     

Cryo-EM of the injectisome and type III secretion systems

Double-membrane-spanning protein complexes, such as the T3SS, had long presented an intractable challenge for structural biology. As a consequence, until a few years ago, our molecular understanding of this fascinating complex was limited to composite models, consisting of structures of isolated domains, positioned within the overall complex. Most of the membrane-embedded components remained completely uncharacterized.In recent years, the emergence of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) as a method for determining protein structures to high resolution, has be transformative to our capacity to understand the architecture of this complex, and its mechanism of substrate transport.In this review, we summarize the recent structures of the various T3SS components, determined by cryo-EM, and highlight the regions of the complex that remain to be characterized. We also discuss the recent structural insights into the mechanism of effector transport through the T3SS. Finally, we highlight some of the challenges that remain to be tackled.     

植物跨膜蛋白研究进展

跨膜蛋白是一类结构独特,在植物细胞中广泛存在,并发挥重要生理功能的蛋白质。综述了植物跨膜蛋白的理化性质、蛋白质结构预测的方法,以及其生理功能的研究进展。随着对植物跨膜蛋白的深入研究,将有助于揭示跨膜蛋白对植物生长发育调控的重要分子机制。