作物分枝的分子调控研究进展

分枝的数量及角度是决定作物株型的重要农艺性状。有效分枝数决定着作物的穗数或荚果数,进而决定着作物的产量;而分枝角度与光合效率、种植密度和抗病性密切相关,不仅影响作物的产量,也会影响作物的品质。由于分枝在作物生产中具有十分重要的作用,吸引了越来越多的研究者的注意,多个与分枝性状相关的关键基因被鉴定,分枝数目调控的分子机制研究取得了重要进展。过去的研究表明作物分枝受严格的遗传调控,同时也受环境条件的影响。综述了与作物分枝性状相关的基因克隆、表达、功能和分子调控机理方面的研究进展,以及环境因素对分枝的影响,探讨分枝调控在作物品种改良中的应用。     

毛蕊花糖苷的生物合成研究进展

毛蕊花糖苷是由咖啡酸、羟基酪醇、葡萄糖和鼠李糖组成的苯乙醇苷类衍生物,广泛存在于多种天然药用植物中,具有抗炎、抗菌、抗病毒、抗肿瘤、抗氧化、镇痛、神经保护、改善性功能、免疫调节和改善细胞记忆等多方面的生物活性。然而,植物提取来源的毛蕊花糖苷存在含量低、环境污染问题,无法实现绿色可持续的规模化生产。利用合成生物学成功构建了一系列植物天然产物的微生物细胞工厂,为高效生产毛蕊花糖苷提供了新思路。综述了毛蕊花糖苷细胞工厂的研究现状,包括苯乙醇苷生物合成关键代谢途径解析、关键基因元件挖掘和优化、关键前体物的合成等方面,以期为毛蕊花糖苷的生物合成奠定基础。     

Genome‐wide distribution and functions of the AAE complex in epigenetic regulation in Arabidopsis

Heterochromatin is widespread in eukaryotic genomes and has diverse impacts depending on its genomic context. Previous studies have shown that a protein complex, the ASI1‐AIPP1‐EDM2 (AAE) complex, participates in polyadenylation regulation of several intronic heterochromatin‐containing genes. However, the genome‐wide functions of AAE are still unknown. Here, we show that the ASI1 and EDM2 mostly target the common genomic regions on a genome‐wide level and preferentially interacts with genetic heterochromatin. Polyadenylation (poly(A) sequencing reveals that AAE complex has a substantial influence on poly(A) site usage of heterochromatin‐containing genes, including not only intronic heterochromatin‐containing genes but also the genes showing overlap with heterochromatin. Intriguingly, AAE is also involved in the alternative splicing regulation of a number of heterochromatin‐overlapping genes, such as the disease resistance gene RPP4. We provided evidence that genic heterochromatin is indispensable for the recruitment of AAE in polyadenylation and splicing regulation. In addition to conferring RNA processing regulation at genic heterochromatin‐containing genes, AAE also targets some transposable elements (TEs) outside of genes (including TEs sandwiched by genes and island TEs) for epigenetic silencing. Our results reveal new functions of AAE in RNA processing and epigenetic silencing, and thus represent important advances in epigenetic regulation.     

Genetic tracing of HCoV-19 for the re-emerging outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing,China

The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)caused by a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2,also named as 2019-nCoV or HCoV-19)poses an unprecedented threat to public health(Zhu et al.,2020;Wang et al.,2020;Jiang et al.,2020).The novel HCoV-19 virus has rapidly spread into multiple countries across the world since it was first reported in December 2019.The World Health Organization(WHO)declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11th March 2020.As of 4th July,over 10 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in over 200 countries/regions with more than 0.5 million deaths,including 85,287 documented cases and 4,648 deaths in China(WHO,2020a).     

Mesenchymal stem cell‐conditioned medium attenuates the retinal pathology in amyloid‐β‐induced rat model of Alzheimer's disease: Underlying mechanisms

Amyloid‐beta (Aβ) oligomer is known to contribute to the pathophysiology of age‐related macular degeneration. Herein, we aimed to elucidate the in vivo and in vitro effects of Aβ_1‐42 application on retinal morphology in rats. Our in vivo studies revealed that intracerebroventricular administration of Aβ_1‐42 oligomer caused dysmorphological changes in both retinal ganglion cells and retinal pigment epithelium. In addition, in vitro studies revealed that ARPE‐19 cells following Aβ_1‐42 oligomer application had decreased viability along with apoptosis and decreased expression of the tight junction proteins, increased expression of both phosphor‐AKT and phosphor‐GSK3β and decreased expression of both SIRT1 and β‐catenin. Application of conditioned medium (CM) obtained from mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) protected against Aβ_1‐42 oligomer‐induced retinal pathology in both rats and ARPE‐19 cells. In order to explore the potential role of peptides secreted from the MSCs, we applied mass spectrometry to compare the peptidomics profiles of the MSC‐CM. Gene ontology enrichment analysis and String analysis were performed to explore the differentially expressed peptides by predicting the functions of their precursor proteins. Bioinformatics analysis showed that 3‐8 out of 155–163 proteins in the MSC‐CM maybe associated with SIRT1/pAKT/pGSK3β/β‐catenin, tight junction proteins, and apoptosis pathway. In particular, the secretomes information on the MSC‐CM may be helpful for the prevention and treatment of retinal pathology in age‐related macular degeneration.     

PLCγ1 inhibition-driven autophagy of IL-1β-treated chondrocyte confers cartilage protection against osteoarthritis,involving AMPK,Erk and Akt

Previous studies identified the involvement of phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PLC) γ1 in some events of chondrocytes. This study aims to investigate whether and how PLCγ1 modulates autophagy to execute its role in osteoarthritis (OA) progression. Rat normal or human OA chondrocytes were pretreated with IL-1β for mimicking or sustaining OA pathological condition. Using Western blotting, immunoprecipitation, qPCR, immunofluorescence and Dimethylmethylene blue assays, and ELISA and transmission electron microscope techniques, we found that PLCγ1 inhibitor U73122 enhanced Collagen II, Aggrecan and GAG levels, accompanied with increased LC3B-II/I ratio and decreased P62 expression level, whereas autophagy inhibitor Chloroquine partially diminished its effect. Meanwhile, U73122 dissociated Beclin1 from Beclin1-IP3R-Bcl-2 complex and blocked mTOR/ULK1 axis, in which the crosstalk between PLCγ1, AMPK, Erk and Akt were involved. Additionally, by haematoxylin and eosin, Safranin O/Fast green, and immunohistochemistry staining, we observed that intra-articular injection of Ad-shPLCγ1-1/2 significantly enhanced Collagen and Aggrecan levels, accompanied with increased LC3B and decreased P62 levels in a rat OA model induced by anterior cruciate ligament transection and medial meniscus resection. Consequently, PLCγ1 inhibition-driven autophagy conferred cartilage protection against OA through promoting ECM synthesis in OA chondrocytes in vivo and in vitro, involving the crosstalk between PLCγ1, AMPK, Erk and Akt.     

高通量测序分析妊娠期糖尿病对早产儿肠道菌群的影响

目的通过高通量测序技术探究妊娠期糖尿病对早产儿肠道菌群的影响,并对相关功能及代谢通路进行预测。方法选取符合入组条件的早产儿40例,依据孕母是否患有妊娠期糖尿病分为妊娠期糖尿病组(GDM组)和对照组,各20例,于出生后24 h内收集早产儿胎便进行16S rRNA基因测序,对测序结果进行物种分类学分析及生物信息学分析。结果 GDM组显示出更低的物种丰富度及多样性(P=0.048)。两组物种组成存在显著差异(P=0.048),GDM组厚壁菌门与拟杆菌门比值明显升高,机会致病菌相对丰度增加,同时革兰阴性杆菌比例上升。PICRUSt功能预测分析表明,GDM组在碳水化合物转运及代谢、细胞外结构、环境信息处理代谢通路和免疫性疾病代谢通路的功能丰度增高。结论妊娠期糖尿病可导致早产儿肠道微生态平衡被破坏,肠道菌群失调或为母亲患有GDM的早产儿多种疾病发病率增高的原因之一。     

苦丁茶中绿原酸及其异构体的提取变化分析

以富含绿原酸类成分的苦丁茶(Ilex kaushue)为材料,使用溶剂甲醇、乙醇、丙酮和水,结合超声波提取、水浴提取、回流提取等方法对绿原酸及其异构体的提取效率及提取后各异构体的变化进行分析。应用超高效液相色谱法可使苦丁茶的6种绿原酸类成分及咖啡酸在6 min内实现分离。提取结果表明,丙酮作为提取溶剂,在采用超声波和水浴提取时能获得较高的提取效率,易获得较多总量的绿原酸类成分和高含量异绿原酸A。而最常用的溶剂乙醇并未达到理想的提取效果。在不同溶剂的回流提取中,虽然提取的绿原酸类成分总量接近,但异绿原酸A和异绿原酸C含量有较大差异。醇溶液特别是乙醇溶液的回流提取使异绿原酸C的量大幅增加,而相应的异绿原酸A的量大幅减少,表明在醇加热条件下,异绿原酸A转化为异绿原酸C,这为获得抗氧化性更强的异绿原酸C提供了新思路。     

An efficient pipeline for ancient DNA mapping and recovery of endogenous ancient DNA from whole‐genome sequencing data

Ancient DNA research has developed rapidly over the past few decades due to improvements in PCR and next‐generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, but challenges still exist. One major challenge in relation to ancient DNA research is to recover genuine endogenous ancient DNA sequences from raw sequencing data. This is often difficult due to degradation of ancient DNA and high levels of contamination, especially homologous contamination that has extremely similar genetic background with that of the real ancient DNA. In this study, we collected whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) data from 6 ancient samples to compare different mapping algorithms. To further explore more effective methods to separate endogenous DNA from homologous contaminations, we attempted to recover reads based on ancient DNA specific characteristics of deamination, depurination, and DNA fragmentation with different parameters. We propose a quick and improved pipeline for separating endogenous ancient DNA while simultaneously decreasing homologous contaminations to very low proportions. Our goal in this research was to develop useful recommendations for ancient DNA mapping and for separation of endogenous DNA to facilitate future studies of ancient DNA.