蒙古冰草MwMYB4基因功能鉴定

MwMYB4基因是从蒙古冰草中克隆得到的MYB类转录因子家族成员之一。该研究以转MwMYB4基因的拟南芥后代为材料,通过在干旱和低温胁迫下对转基因植株进行表型分析、理化指标测试和分子鉴定,分析并验证MwMYB4基因的功能。结果显示:(1)蒙古冰草MwMYB4基因已成功整合到转基因拟南芥T_1代的基因组中并实现转录水平的表达。(2)转基因拟南芥T_2代植株在干旱胁迫条件下,转基因植株叶片枯黄程度较轻,相对电导率较野生型变化幅度低,脯氨酸含量明显高于野生型对照,且MwMYB4基因的表达量随干旱胁迫时间延长而增加。(3)在低温胁迫条件下,转基因拟南芥叶片的枯白程度明显低于野生型,且MwMYB4基因的表达量随低温胁迫时间增加而增加。研究表明,过量表达蒙古冰草MwMYB4基因能够提高转基因拟南芥对干旱和低温的耐受性,该基因可能在干旱胁迫和低温胁迫调控机制中发挥调控作用,可作为改良农作物和其他牧草抗旱、抗寒性的重要候选基因。     

修剪措施对紫叶紫薇花蕾中内源激素和碳氮营养含量的影响

为探讨修剪措施对二次开花的紫叶紫薇花蕾中内源激素和碳氮营养含量的影响,为指导紫叶紫薇花期调控提供理论依据,该研究以‘丹红紫叶’为试验材料,在一次花的末花期对主花枝进行重度修剪,以不进行修剪为对照(CK),分析不同处理下紫叶紫薇花蕾中主要花发育时期的吲哚乙酸(IAA)、脱落酸(ABA)、赤霉素(GA₃)、玉米素核苷(ZR)、可溶性糖、淀粉、全氮含量的变化。结果表明：(1)修剪处理后,紫叶紫薇花蕾中内源ZR含量在各花发育时期显著升高;内源GA₃含量在花芽分化期降低,在初花期至末花期显著升高;内源IAA含量在花芽分化期显著升高,在初花期至末花期降低;内源ABA含量变化不显著。(2)修剪处理后,紫叶紫薇花蕾可溶性糖含量较对照组先升高后降低,在末花期变化达到显著水平;其淀粉、全氮含量增加但未达到显著水平。(3)紫叶紫薇花蕾中碳氮比总体呈上升趋势,修剪处理后其碳氮比值小幅度提高。研究认为,修剪措施能够影响紫叶紫薇内源激素水平变化,并通过调控碳水化合物与全氮含量影响花蕾中碳氮营养代谢,从而促进了紫叶紫薇二次成花、花期延长。     

Promotion of plant growth, biological control and induced systemic resistance in maize by Pseudomonas aurantiaca JD37

Some Pseudomonas aurantiaca strains have been found to facilitate plant growth. A P. aurantiaca JD37 strain isolated from a suburb of Shanghai, China, was found to effectively colonize the rhizosphere soil and internal roots of maize (Zea mays L.) and promote maize growth. Agar diffusion assays and biocontrol effect experiments showed that strain JD37 had significant antagonistic activity against Bipolaris maydis, as well as a high biocontrol effect on southern maize leaf blight caused by B. maydis. PCR detection, associated with reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography assays, showed that strain JD37 might produce a number of important antibacterial substances, such as phenazine-1-carboxylic acid, pyrrolnitrin and 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol. The crude bacterial extracts and the cell-free supernatant of strain JD37 were found to induce resistance in maize against B. maydis and reduce plant disease. Our results indicate the potential of some bacteria for producing bacterial compounds that serve as inducers of disease resistance, which is an attractive alternative to the application of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and supplement in agricultural practices.     

Combined Injection of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose and 3′-Deoxy-3′-[18F]fluorothymidine PET Achieves More Complete Identification of Viable Lung Cancer Cells in Mice and Patients than Individual Radiopharmaceutical: A Proof-of-Concept Study

PURPOSE: The objective is to validate the combination of 3′-deoxy-3′-[¹⁸F]fluorothymidine (¹⁸F-FLT) and ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) as a “novel” positron emission tomography (PET) tracer for better visualization of cancer cell components in solid cancers than individual radiopharmaceutical. METHODS: Nude mice with subcutaneous xenografts of human non-small cell lung cancer A549 and HTB177 cells and patients with lung cancer were included. In ex vivo study, intratumoral radioactivity of ¹⁸F-FDG, ¹⁸F-FLT, and the cocktail of ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-FLT detected by autoradiography was compared with hypoxia (by pimonidazole) and proliferation (by bromodeoxyuridine) in tumor section. In in vivo study, first, ¹⁸F-FDG PET and ¹⁸F-FLT PET were conducted in the same subjects (mice and patients) 10 to 14 hours apart. Second, PET scan was also performed 1 hour after one tracer injection; subsequently, the other was administered and followed the second PET scan in the mouse. Finally, ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-FLT cocktail PET scan was also performed in the mouse. RESULTS: When injected individually, ¹⁸F-FDG highly accumulated in hypoxic zones and high ¹⁸F-FLT in proliferative cancer cells. In case of cocktail injection, high radioactivity correlated with hypoxic regions and highly proliferative and normoxic regions. PET detected that intratumoral distribution of ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-FLT was generally mismatched in both rodents and patients. Combination of ¹⁸F-FLT and ¹⁸F-FDG appeared to map more cancer tissue than single-tracer PET. CONCLUSIONS: Combination of ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-FLT PET imaging would give a more accurate representation of total viable tumor tissue than either tracer alone and would be a powerful imaging strategy for cancer management.     

Chitosan bearing pendant cyclodextrin as a carrier for controlled protein release

The objective of this work was to investigate the possibility of chitosan bearing β-cyclodextrin (CDen-g-CS) nanocomplexes for controlled protein release. CDen-g-CS was synthesized by a one-step procedure with N-succinylated chitosan and mono(6-(2-aminoethyl)amino-6-deoxy)-β-cyclodextrin in the presence of the water-soluble carbodiimide. The amount of β-CD grafted was up to 62.1 wt%. In vitro cytotoxicity against NIH 3T3 cells showed that CDen-g-CS was not cytotoxic and no significant difference of cytotoxicity was found between CDen-g-CS groups. Self-assembled nanocomplexes between CDen-g-CS and insulin were in the size range of 190–328 nm, with positive electrical charge (+3.7 to +25.5 mV) and high loading efficiency (37.7%). Insulin release in vitro was affected by the medium pH and the composition of copolymer. These results demonstrated that CDen-g-CS copolymer was a new promising vehicle for controlled protein release.     

Enhanced Stim1 expression is associated with acquired chemo-resistance of cisplatin in osteosarcoma cells

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor. Although cisplatin is the primary chemotherapy used in osteosarcoma treatment, the cisplatin resistance remains a big challenge for improving overall survival. The store-operated calcium (Ca²⁺) entry (SOCE) and its major mediator Stim1 have been shown to be implicated in a number of pathological processes typical for cancer. In this study, we showed that Stim1 expression was significantly increased in chemo-resistant osteosarcoma tissues compared with chemo-sensitivity tissues. Patients with Sitm1 expression exhibited poorer overall survival than Stim1-negative patients. Moreover, un-regulation of Stim1 expression and SOCE were also observed in cisplatin-resistant MG63/CDDP cells compared with their parental cells. Cisplatin treatment obviously reduced Stim1 expression and SOCE in cisplatin-sensitivity MG63 cells, but had no effects on MG63/CDDP cells. In addition, cisplatin resulted in a more pronounced increase of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in MG63 cells than in their resistant variants, which was evidenced by the activation of molecular markers of ER stress, GRP78, CHOP and ATF4. Knockdown of Stim1 using siRNA remarkably enhanced cisplatin-induced apoptosis and ER stress in MG63/CDDP cells, thereby sensitizing cancer cells to cisplatin. On the other hand, overexpression of Stim1 markedly reversed apoptosis and ER stress following cisplatin treatment. Taken together, these results demonstrate that Stim1 as well as Ca²⁺ entry contributes cisplatin resistance via inhibition of ER stress-mediated apoptosis, and provide important clues to the mechanisms involved in cisplatin resistance for osteosarcoma treatment. Stim1 represents as a target of cisplatin and blockade of Stim1-mediated Ca²⁺ entry may be a useful strategy to improve the efficacy of cisplatin to treat osteosarcoma.     

Energy Spectral Behaviors of Communication Networks of Open-Source Communities

Large-scale online collaborative production activities in open-source communities must be accompanied by large-scale communication activities. Nowadays, the production activities of open-source communities, especially their communication activities, have been more and more concerned. Take CodePlex C # community for example, this paper constructs the complex network models of 12 periods of communication structures of the community based on real data; then discusses the basic concepts of quantum mapping of complex networks, and points out that the purpose of the mapping is to study the structures of complex networks according to the idea of quantum mechanism in studying the structures of large molecules; finally, according to this idea, analyzes and compares the fractal features of the spectra in different quantum mappings of the networks, and concludes that there are multiple self-similarity and criticality in the communication structures of the community. In addition, this paper discusses the insights and application conditions of different quantum mappings in revealing the characteristics of the structures. The proposed quantum mapping method can also be applied to the structural studies of other large-scale organizations.