Purification and kinetic characterization of recombinant alternative oxidase from Trypanosoma brucei brucei

The trypanosome alternative oxidase (TAO) functions in the African trypanosomes as a cytochrome-independent terminal oxidase, which is essential for their survival in the mammalian host and as it does not exist in the mammalian host is considered to be a promising drug target for the treatment of trypanosomiasis. In the present study, recombinant TAO (rTAO) overexpressed in a haem-deficient Escherichia coli strain has been solubilized from E. coli membranes and purified to homogeneity in a stable and highly active form. Analysis of bound iron detected by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) reveals a stoichiometry of two bound iron atoms per monomer of rTAO. Confirmation that the rTAO was indeed a diiron protein was obtained by EPR analysis which revealed a signal, in the reduced forms of rTAO, with a g-value of 15. The kinetics of ubiquiol-1 oxidation by purified rTAO showed typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics (K_m of 338 μM and V_max of 601 μmol/min/mg), whereas ubiquinol-2 oxidation showed unusual substrate inhibition. The specific inhibitor, ascofuranone, inhibited the enzyme in a mixed-type inhibition manner with respect to ubiquinol-1.     

No evidence for a genetic association between female mating preference and male secondary sexual trait in a Lake Victoria cichlid fish

Sexual selection by female mating preference for male nuptial coloration has been suggested as a driving force in the rapid speciation of Lake Victoria cichlid fish. This process could have been facilitated or accelerated by genetic associations between female preference loci and male coloration loci. Preferences, as well as coloration, are heritable traits and are probably determined by more than one gene. However, little is known about potential genetic associations between these traits. In turbid water, we found a population that is variable in male nuptial coloration from blue to yellow to red. Males at the extreme ends of the phenotype distribution resemble a reproductively isolated species pair in clear water that has diverged into one species with blue-grey males and one species with bright red males. Females of the turbid water population vary in mating preference coinciding with the male phenotype distribution. For the current study, these females were mated to blue males. We measured the coloration of the sires and male offspring. Parents-offspring regression showed that the sires did not affect male offspring coloration, which confirms earlier findings that the blue species breeds true. In contrast, male offspring coloration was determined by the identity of the dams, which suggests that there is heritable variation in male color genes between females. However, we found that mating preferences of the dams were not correlated with male offspring coloration. Thus, there is no evidence for strong genetic linkage between mating preference and the preferred trait in this population [Current Zoology 56 (1): 57-64 2010].     

Estimating Haplotype Effects for Survival Data

Summary Genetic association studies often investigate the effect of haplotypes on an outcome of interest. Haplotypes are not observed directly, and this complicates the inclusion of such effects in survival models. We describe a new estimating equations approach for Cox's regression model to assess haplotype effects for survival data. These estimating equations are simple to implement and avoid the use of the EM algorithm, which may be slow in the context of the semiparametric Cox model with incomplete covariate information. These estimating equations also lead to easily computable, direct estimators of standard errors, and thus overcome some of the difficulty in obtaining variance estimators based on the EM algorithm in this setting. We also develop an easily implemented goodness‐of‐fit procedure for Cox's regression model including haplotype effects. Finally, we apply the procedures presented in this article to investigate possible haplotype effects of the PAF‐receptor on cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease, and compare our results to those based on the EM algorithm.     

中医药外治法在腰椎管狭窄症中的应用

腰椎管狭窄症是由于腰椎的骨与软组织因某种原因而发生形态与组织结构方面的变化,造成椎管容积变小,导致脊神经根受到机械性压迫而出现特有的临床症状的一种疾病。本文拟通过对近年来腰椎管狭窄症的研究文献的分析、总结,从针刺、推拿、注射、牵引等对腰椎管狭窄症的中医药外治现状进行总结,旨在指导临床治疗。     

Mental health literacy towards depression among non-medical students at a Malaysian university

Background The aim of the present study was to evaluate the knowledge and perception of depression among students of University Sains Malaysia (USM), in Penang, Peninsular Malaysia.Method Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a pre-validated 21-item questionnaire among students at USM.Results A total of 500 respondents participated in the survey comprising 24.6% (n=123) males and 75.4% (n=377) females. Half (50.0%, n=250) were Malays, followed by Chinese (44.0%, n=220) and Indians (6.0%, n=30). Whilst exploring the respondents' knowledge of the symptoms of depression, it was found that Chinese females had a comparatively better knowledge (P=0.058) of the symptoms of depression in comparison with Malays and Indians. Overall, social issues were attributed as the possible cause of depression. A cursory knowledge level was observed regarding medication for depression. Female students were more inclined towards the use of alternative and traditional medicines. However, with regard to seeking professional help, consultation with a psychiatrist was preferred by the majority.Conclusion Overall, a moderate level of knowledge about the symptoms of depression and a cursory knowledge of its therapy were observed. Those with personal experience of depression had better knowledge of the symptoms and therapy. Alternative treatments and traditional medicines were also favoured. There is a risk that this may affect the ability of Malaysian youths to seek evidence-based mental health care.     

On multistability of delayed genetic regulatory networks with multivariable regulation functions

Many genetic regulatory networks (GRNs) have the capacity to reach different stable states. This capacity is defined as multistability which is an important regulation mechanism. Multiple time delays and multivariable regulation functions are usually inevitable in such GRNs. In this paper, multistability of GRNs is analyzed by applying the control theory and mathematical tools. This study is to provide a theoretical tool to facilitate the design of synthetic gene circuit with multistability in the perspective of control theory. By transforming such GRNs into a new and uniform mathematical formulation, we put forward a general sector-like regulation function that is capable of quantifying the regulation effects in a more precise way. By resorting to up-to-date techniques, a novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) is introduced for achieving delay dependence to ensure less conservatism. New conditions are then proposed to ensure the multistability of a GRN in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) that are dependent on the delays. Our multistability conditions are applicable to several frequently used regulation functions especially the multivariable ones. Two examples are employed to illustrate the applicability and usefulness of the developed theoretical results.     

The distribution of coalescence times and distances between microsatellite alleles with changing effective population size

We investigate the effects of past changes of the effective population size on the present allelic diversity at a microsatellite marker locus. We first derive the analytical expression of the generating function of the joint probabilities of the time to the Most Recent Common Ancestor for a pair of alleles and of their distance (the difference in allele size). We give analytical solutions in the case of constant population size and the geometrical mutation model. Otherwise, numerical inversion allows the distributions to be calculated in general cases. The effects of population expansion or decrease and the possibility to detect an ancient bottleneck are discussed. The method is extended to samples of three and four alleles, which allows investigating the covariance structure of the frequencies f(k) of pairs of alleles with a size difference of k motifs, and suggesting some approaches to the estimation of past demography.     

牛蒡群落分布、物种组成与生态环境因子的关系

综合运用相关分析、CCA排序和TWINSPAN分类方法,研究了牛蒡群落分布、物种组成和生态环境因子之间的关系。结果表明:牛蒡群落中牛蒡重要值与各生态环境因子之间没有显著的相关性,证明牛蒡是广布种;牛蒡群落中,除牛蒡外的其他伴生物种的分布与空气相对湿度、年降水量、年均温、海拔高度呈正相关,与土壤有机质含量、日照时数呈负相关;根据牛蒡群落的分类和排序,划分出牛蒡的4大主产区:东北、西北、西南和东南沿海产区,与药典记载的牛蒡的主产区基本一致。     

蓖麻品种遗传多样性与亲缘关系的SRAP分析

利用SRAP技术对81份蓖麻品种材料亲缘关系进行了分析,实验选用20对SRAP引物组合,在81份蓖麻材料中共扩增出263条带,多态性条带计214条,多态性条带比率（PPB）为81.37%,遗传相似系数变幅范围在0.32558～0.92973,显示了蓖麻品种的遗传多样性较丰富。从分子聚类结果分析表明,在相异系数0.43为阈值时,可将81份蓖麻材料分为4个类群L1-1、L1-2、L1-3和L1-4;若在相异系数0.287为阈值时,又可将L1-4大类群分为两个亚类群L2-1和L2-2。从聚类图得知,聚在同一亚类群的蓖麻品种大多数所处的地域相近或者是由同一育种单位所选育,其类内的品种基因型遗传相似系数较高,类间的品种遗传差异相对较大,该分子聚类树状图可为蓖麻栽培种种质资源遗传多样性与亲缘关系在育种的利用上提供科学依据。