复方壮果素对香蕉果实生长发育和产量的效应

多年多点试验结果表明,在香蕉断蕾5～7天喷施复方壮果素,对促进香蕉果指生长和提高产量都有明显的效果;喷施壮果素的单指鲜重、果肉重以及果肉中的千物质和淀粉积累基本上能与果指长度、粗度同步增加,且不影响香蕉果实外观和品质。     

外源胆固醇对离体原生质体在冰冻—化冻过程中的保护作用

在适宜浓度(0.1～0.4m mol/L)的胆固醇存在下,经冰冻处理的小麦叶肉原生质体在化冻后存活率均高于对照,其中以0.4m mol/L胆固醇对原生质体的保护效果最佳。胆固醇对卷心菜叶肉原生质体的抗冰冻能力具有类似效果。从而表明外源胆固醇与质膜结合后,对稳定质膜结构和保持正常功能具有一定的作用。     

Homology‐based hydrogen bond information improves crystallographic structures in the PDB

The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is the global archive for structural information on macromolecules, and a popular resource for researchers, teachers, and students, amassing more than one million unique users each year. Crystallographic structure models in the PDB (more than 100,000 entries) are optimized against the crystal diffraction data and geometrical restraints. This process of crystallographic refinement typically ignored hydrogen bond (H‐bond) distances as a source of information. However, H‐bond restraints can improve structures at low resolution where diffraction data are limited. To improve low‐resolution structure refinement, we present methods for deriving H‐bond information either globally from well‐refined high‐resolution structures from the PDB‐REDO databank, or specifically from on‐the‐fly constructed sets of homologous high‐resolution structures. Refinement incorporating HOmology DErived Restraints (HODER), improves geometrical quality and the fit to the diffraction data for many low‐resolution structures. To make these improvements readily available to the general public, we applied our new algorithms to all crystallographic structures in the PDB: using massively parallel computing, we constructed a new instance of the PDB‐REDO databank ( https://pdb-redo.eu ). This resource is useful for researchers to gain insight on individual structures, on specific protein families (as we demonstrate with examples), and on general features of protein structure using data mining approaches on a uniformly treated dataset.     

Crystal structure of B‐cell co‐receptor CD19 in complex with antibody B43 reveals an unexpected fold

CD19 is a transmembrane protein expressed on malignant B cells, but not in other lineages or other tissues, which makes it an attractive target for monoclonal antibody‐mediated immunotherapy. Anti‐CD19 antibody B43 was utilized in a bispecific T‐cell engager (BiTE) blinatumomab that demonstrated potency for the treatment of relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia. To gain insight into the mechanism of action of the antibody, the crystal structure of B43 Fab was determined in complex with CD19 and in the unbound form. The structure revealed the binding epitope, explained the lack of cross‐reactivity toward non‐human species, and suggested the key‐and‐lock mechanism of antigen recognition. Most unexpectedly, the structure revealed a unique molecular topology of CD19. Rather than a tandem of c‐type immunoglobulin folds predicted from the amino acid sequence, the extracellular domain of CD19 exhibits an elongated β‐sandwich formed by two immunoglobulin folds by swapping their C‐terminal halves. This is the first structure of CD19, which has no sequence homologs.     

CCL19 and CXCL13 synergistically regulate interaction between B cell acute lymphocytic leukemia CD23+CD5+ B Cells and CD8+ T cells

Interacting with T cells, cytokine-producing B cells play a critical protective role in autoimmune diseases. However, the interaction between malignant B and T cells remains to be fully elucidated. In a previous study, we have reported that ligation of CCL19-CCR7 and CXCL13-CXCR5 activates paternally expressed gene 10 (PEG10), resulting in an enhancement of apoptotic resistance in B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL) CD23+CD5+ B cells. Here, we report that B-ALL CD23+CD5+ B cells produce IL-10 at high level, which can be further elevated by costimulation with CCL19 and CXCL13. CCL19/CXCL13-activated B-ALL CD23+CD5+ B cells, in turn, increase IL-10 expression in syngeneic CD8+ T cells in a B cell-derived IL-10-dependent manner and requiring a cell-cell contact. IL-10 secreted from B-ALL CD23+CD5+ B cells in vitro impairs tumor-specific CTL responses of syngeneic CD8+ T cells. The impairment of cytotoxicity of syngeneic CD8+ T cells is escalated by means of CCL19/CXCL13-induced up-regulation of IL-10 from B-ALL CD23+CD5+ B cells. Moreover, using a short hairpin RNA to knockdown PEG10, we provide direct evidence that increased expression of PEG10 in B-ALL CD23+CD5+ B cells is involved in malignant B-T cell interaction, contributing to the up-regulation of IL-10 expression, as well as to the impairment of cytotoxicity of syngeneic CD8+ T cells. Thus, malignant B-ALL CD23+CD5+ B cells play an immunoregulatory role in controlling different inflammatory cytokine expressions. IL-10 may be one of the critical cellular factors conferring B-ALL CD23+CD5+ B cells to escape from host immune surveillance.     

基于萤火虫荧光素酶报告基因检测凋亡的系统构建及鉴定

为构建一个能够快速检测凋亡的含荧光素酶报告基因 (Fluc) 的真核表达质粒,采用PCR的方法将Caspase-3的识别基序Asp-Glu-Val-Asp (DEVD) 四个氨基酸引入至Fluc基因的C端和N端之间;同时选取Asp-Glu-Val-Gly (DEVG) 四个氨基酸作为阴性对照。随后重组片段分别克隆至分离型内含肽的N端和C端之间,并命名为pFluc-DEVD和pFluc-DEVG。将该表达质粒与海肾荧光素酶报告质粒 (RLUC) 同时转染至HeLa细胞,通过双荧光素酶报告基因和Western blotting实验检测细胞凋亡水平。双荧光素酶报告基因系统实验结果显示,当发生凋亡时,pFluc-DEVD质粒组表达的萤火虫荧光素酶的含量高出pFluc-DEVG质粒组约3倍。Western blotting检测结果显示,转染pFluc-DEVD质粒的细胞在凋亡药物刺激后,Fluc活化的蛋白显著增多,且Caspase-3 的活化程度与Fluc的表达呈正相关,并有显著的统计学差异。以上结果表明,pFluc-DEVD真核表达质粒表达的萤火虫荧光素酶蛋白能被细胞内的Caspase-3酶裂解,且该质粒能够精确地反映出细胞的凋亡水平,为后续进行凋亡定量检测提供了一个可借鉴的方法。     

Surface salt bridges contribute to the extreme thermal stability of an FN3-like domain from a thermophilic bacterium

This study uses differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray crystallography, and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the structural basis for the high thermal stability (melting temperature 97.5°C) of a FN3-like protein domain from thermophilic bacteria Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis (FN3tt). FN3tt adopts a typical FN3 fold with a three-stranded beta sheet packing against a four-stranded beta sheet. We identified three solvent exposed arginine residues (R23, R25, and R72), which stabilize the protein through salt bridge interactions with glutamic acid residues on adjacent strands. Alanine mutation of the three arginine residues reduced melting temperature by up to 22°C. Crystal structures of the wild type (WT) and a thermally destabilized (?Tm ?19.7°C) triple mutant (R23L/R25T/R72I) were found to be nearly identical, suggesting that the destabilization is due to interactions of the arginine residues. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that the salt bridge interactions in the WT were stable and provided a dynamical explanation for the cooperativity observed between R23 and R25 based on calorimetry measurements. In addition, folding free energy changes computed using free energy perturbation molecular dynamics simulations showed high correlation with melting temperature changes. This work is another example of surface salt bridges contributing to the enhanced thermal stability of thermophilic proteins. The molecular dynamics simulation methods employed in this study may be broadly useful for in silico surface charge engineering of proteins.     

Screening of microRNA and mRNA related to secondary hair follicle morphogenesis and development and functional analysis in cashmere goats

Functional & Integrative Genomics - microRNA (miRNA) is a type of endogenous short-chain non-coding RNA with regulatory function found in eukaryotes, which is involved in the regulation of a...     

从线粒体控制区全序列变异看短颌鲚和湖鲚的物种有效性

经克隆测序获得我国七丝鲚(Coilia grayii)、凤鲚(C. mystus)、刀鲚(C. nasus)和短颌鲚(C. brachygnathus)以及太湖湖鲚(C. nasus taihuensis)等4个种和1亚种32尾个体的mtDNA D-loop区全序列, 以日本鳀(Engraulis japonicus)和秘鲁鳀(E. ringens)为外类群构建了中国鲚属的分子系统发育树, 并讨论了短颌鲚和湖鲚的物种有效性。结果显示, 七丝鲚的D-loop区全序列长1,208 bp, 凤鲚1,279–1,361 bp, 刀鲚1,252–1,290 bp, 短颌鲚1,214–1,252 bp, 湖鲚1,252–1,442 bp, 除七丝鲚外的其他种类个体间均表现出序列长度的多态性。短颌鲚、刀鲚和湖鲚三者间的平均K 2-P遗传距离仅为0.011–0.020, 明显小于它们与凤鲚、七丝鲚及外类群间的遗传距离(0.051–0.349)。以邻接法和最大简约法构建的系统发育树表明, 刀鲚、短颌鲚及湖鲚均未各自构成单系, 而是共同构成一个单系群, 三者并未发生显著分化。研究表明, 短颌鲚和湖鲚为刀鲚的淡水生态型种群, 并非有效物种。系统发育分析表明, 中国鲚属3个有效物种间以凤鲚最为原始, 刀鲚和七丝鲚为姐妹群, 处于较进化的位置。推测凤鲚可能是鲚属祖先种最早从起源中心扩散到西北太平洋的后裔, 而刀鲚和七丝鲚则是凤鲚在演化过程中分别适应寒冷和温暖气候而分化出的物种。