植物小RNAs的研究进展

小RNAs(长度小于40 nt)是nc-RNAs重要的一部分,现在植物中已发现了多种小RNAs,如小干扰RNAs(siRNAs)、微小RNAs(miRNAs)、反式作用的小干扰RNAs、天然反义转录小干扰RNAs、异染色质小干扰RNAs、长小片段小干扰RNAs、天然反义转录的微小RNAs及其一些未命名的小RNAs.成熟的小RNAs聚集相关的蛋白质因子,可以抑制转录,导致转录水平的基因沉默(TGS);或介导目标mRNA的剪切,抑制翻译,导致转录后水平基因沉默(PTGS).就这些植物小RNAs产生及其作用的研究进展作一概述     

“减数分裂与受精作用”的教学组织

高中生物学课程标准在“遗传的细胞基础”模块选取减数分裂和受精作用等知识,主要是从细胞水平阐明生命的延续性,即生物体通过减数分裂产生配子,雌、雄配子通过融合将双亲的遗传信息传递给子代。本文将对减数分裂和受精作用的教学组织提出一些建议供您参考。     

紫芝酸性三萜类化合物体外抑癌和抑菌作用的研究

采用噻唑蓝比色(MTT)法研究紫芝酸性三萜对几种癌细胞体外增殖的影响,并用管碟法检测了紫芝胞内酸性三萜对几种细菌和霉菌的体外抑菌作用。结果表明,紫芝胞内酸性三萜和胞外酸性三萜在250μg/mL时,对人肝癌细胞BEL7402和人乳腺癌细胞MCF-7均有显著抑制作用(P<0.05),但对人胃癌细胞SGC-7901没有显著抑制作用(P>0.05)。BEL7402细胞的生长曲线试验表明,胞内酸性三萜组的细胞受到显著抑制,未出现指数增长期,且BEL7402细胞培养3d后,对照组细胞数目多、均匀,而胞内酸性三萜组的细胞数目明显减少,且细胞变小。抑菌试验结果表明,胞内酸性三萜在40mg/mL时,对大肠杆菌Escherichia coli和金黄色葡萄球菌Staphylococcus aureus的生长均具有显著抑制作用(P<0.01),对枯草芽孢杆菌Bacillus subtitis和青霉的Penicillium chrysogenum抑制作用较弱;而在此浓度下对黑曲霉Aspergillus niger没有抑制作用。该样品对大肠杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、枯草芽孢杆菌、黑曲霉和青霉的MIC分别为20mg/mL、20mg/mL、40mg/mL、80mg/mL和40mg/mL。此外,该酸性三萜的抑菌成分在60℃下(处理2h)较稳定,但在80℃以上,热稳定性较差,活性降低。     

毛木耳子实体中活性多糖APPⅡA的分离纯化与结构初探

毛木耳Auricularia polytricha子实体500g经热水浸提、乙醇沉淀、Sevage法脱蛋白后,得到粗多糖3.94g,得率为0.79%。经小鼠S180载体实验证实,50mg/kg该粗多糖对肿瘤的抑制率达47.89%,呈极显著差异。利用离子交换柱对其进行分离,共得到三个部分,分别命名为APPⅠ、APPⅡ、APPⅢ。其中,APPⅡ对小鼠S180的抑制率达到56.36%,明显优于其他两部分。通过SephacrylS300凝胶过滤层析柱后,APPⅡ被进一步分离为A和B两个部分,APPⅡA的抑瘤率为53.61%,远高于APPⅡB,呈极显著差异。通过紫外光谱、红外光谱等方法对该单一多糖组分进行结构分析,表明APPⅡA为一相对分子质量约为110,000Da、可能同时具有α和β构象的杂多糖,主要有木糖和甘露糖组成,且纯度较高,含有硫酸基。     

Macropinocytosis contributes to the macrophage foam cell formation in RAW264.7 cells

The key event in the atherosclerosis development is the lipids uptake by macrophage and the formation of foam cell in subendothelial arterial space. Besides the uptake of modified low-density lipoprotein （LDL） by scavenger receptor-mediated endocytosis, macrophages possess constitutive macropinocytosis, which is capable of taking up a large quantity of solute. Macrophage foam cell formation could be induced in RAW264.7 cells by increasing the serum concentration in the culture medium. Foam cell formation induced by serum could be blocked by phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor, LY294002 or wortmannin, which inhibited macropinocytosis but not receptor-mediated endocytosis. Further analysis indicated that macropinocytosis took place at the gangliosides-enriched membrane area. Cholesterol depletion by β-methylcyclodextrin-blocked macropinocytosis without affecting scavenger receptormediated endocytosis of modified LDLs. These results suggested that macropinocytosis might be one of the important mechanisms for lipid uptake in macrophage. And it made significant contribution to the lipid accumulation and foam cell formation.     

Hydrogen peroxide induces the activation of the phospholipase C-γ1 survival pathway in PC12 cells： protective role in apoptosis

It has been reported that phospholipase C-γ1 （PLC-γ1） plays an important protective role in hydrogen peroxide （H2O2）-induced pheochromocytoma （PC） 12 cells death. However, most studies have used high doses of H2O2 and the downstream targets of PLC-γ1 activation remain to be identified. The present study was designed to examine the roles of PLC-γ1 signaling pathway in the apoptosis of PC12 cells induced by low dose of H2O2, as well as the downstream factors involved in this pathway. Low-dose treatment of H2O2 resulted in PLC-γ1 tyrosine phosphorylation in a time-dependent manner and H2O2 killed the PC12 cells by inducing necrosis. In contrast, pretreatment of PCI2 cells with U73122, a specific inhibitor of PLC, markedly increased the percentage of dead cells. The mode of cell death was converted to apoptosis as determined by Hoechst/PI nuclear staining and fluorescence microscopy. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the expression of Bcl-2 protein and the activation of pro-caspase-3 were not significantly affected by low dose of H2O2 alone. However, after pretreatment with U73122, Bcl-2 protein expression was dramatically decreased and the activation of pro-caspase-3 was significantly increased. We concluded that PLC-γ1 plays an important protective role in H2O2-induced PC12 cells death. Bcl-2 and caspase-3 probably participate in the signaling pathway as downstream factors.     

Effect of LDL concentration polarization on the uptake of LDL by human endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells co-cultured

To substantiate our hypothesis that concentration polarization of low-density Upoprotein （LDL） plays an important role in the localization of atherogenesis, we investigated the effects of wall shear stress and water filtration rate （or perfusion pressure） on the luminal surface LDL concentration （cw） and the LDL uptake by human vascular endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells co-cultured on a permeable membrane using a parallel-plate flow chamber technique and a flow cyto-metry method. The results indicated that the uptake of fluorescent labeled LDL （DiI-LDL） by the co-cultured cells was positively correlated with Cw in a non-linear fashion. When cw was low, the uptake increased very sharply with increasing Cw. Then the increase became gradual and the uptake was seemingly leveled out when Cw reached beyond 160 μg/ml. The present study therefore has provided further experimental evidence that concentration polarization may occur in the arterial system and have a positive correlation with the uptake of LDLs by the arterial wall, which gives support to our hypothesis regarding the localization of atherogenesis.     

建立更好的抗毒素

丁酰胆碱酯酶（BChE）的研究已进行了几十年,它可以抵制有机磷（OP）神经毒剂,例如甲硫膦酸丙胺乙酯（VX）、甲氟膦酸异丙酯（沙林）和甲氟磷酸异已酯（索曼）等。虽然人们广泛认为BchE对OP暴露具有很大的潜在保护作用,不论是对军人还是对普通平民;但血浆中的BchE浓度为2mg／L,从而使得大范围的纯化及商业化行不通。     

人工群落中苗期紫茎泽兰的化感作用和对光环境的适应

在有、无活性炭的条件下分别构建紫茎泽兰（Ageratinaa denophora）与4种受体植物——飞机草（Chromolaena odorata）、鬼针草（Bidenspilosa）、胜红蓟（Ageratum conyzoides）和兰花菊三七（Gynura sp.）混种的人工群落,研究了群落中紫茎泽兰的化感作用和对群落光环境的适应,探讨了化感作用和光适应特性与其入侵性的关系。结果表明,活性炭处理对4种受体植物的生长、生理特性影响不显著,说明苗期紫茎泽兰化感作用不明显,推测入侵初期化感作用不是紫茎泽兰排挤本地种的主要原因。4种受体植物可以通过化感作用对紫茎泽兰产生某些影响,但群落的光环境对其影响更大。紫茎泽兰能很好地适应群落中不同的光环境。苗期紫茎泽兰处于群落下层,叶片受光指数低,此时它能长期忍耐并缓慢生长;随着叶片受光指数的升高,其最大净光合速率、超氧化物歧化酶活性、叶绿素a／b比、总生物量、总叶面积、地茎、叶片数和分支数升高,比叶面积和比茎长降低,这有利于它维持叶片能量平衡并导致对邻近植物的严重遮荫。紫茎泽兰强的光适应能力、强光下对其它物种的遮荫效应与其入侵性密切相关。