污染土壤生态修复的理论内涵、方法及应用

讨论了污染土壤生态修复的理论内涵、修复方法的优化组合及其应用案例.将污染土壤生态修复的目标拓展为:目标污染物降低到可接受程度、土壤生态毒理性降低到可接受程度、部分恢复或全部恢复土壤的生态服务功能.归纳出污染土壤生态修复的5个特点、5个原则.初步提出污染土壤生态修复方法优化组合的原则.污染土壤生态修复方法优化组合表现出以...     

甲型流感病毒核蛋白在大肠杆菌中的可溶性高效表达与纯化

为了在大肠杆菌中高效表达甲型流感病毒A/京科/30/95(H3N2)核蛋白NP,以便对原核表达的NP蛋白进行免疫原性研究,本研究通过密码子优化及全基因合成等方法,将3种形式的NP基因:与6×His标签融合的NP基因NP(His)、非融合的野生型NP基因NPwt及非融合的按大肠杆菌优势密码子改造的基因NP(O)分别插入原核表达载体pET-30a,构建了表达3种形式NP基因的3种原核表达质粒并研究不同质粒中NP蛋白的表达形式、条件、纯化工艺及抗原性。限制性酶切反应与测序表明,三种形式的NP基因均正确插入原核表达质粒pET-30a;SDS-PAGE凝胶电泳显示,三种形式的NP基因均能在大肠杆菌中表达,NP(O)基因的表达量最高;在不同温度诱导条件下,NP蛋白呈现可溶性表达,NP(O)基因可溶性高效表达的条件为:T=25℃,t=10 h;经阴离子交换和凝胶过滤层析两步纯化,可溶性表达的NP蛋白纯度可达90%;Western blot检测显示,纯化的NP能与流感病毒A/PR/8/34(H1N1)株感染小鼠的血清发生特异性结合。这些结果表明,非融合表达的密码子优化甲型流感病毒NP蛋白能在大肠杆菌中高效表达和纯化,同时保持良好的免疫反应活性。     

蛛丝蛋白基因在大肠杆菌中表达研究

利用大腹园蛛基因组文库筛选获得一段693 bp基因片段,经分析该段基因处于鞭毛状丝基因重复区域,且其中包含了一个完整的重复框架。通过基因密码子优化,在其3′和5′端分别融合蛋白质亲和层析标签,克隆于pET30LIC表达载体中,在不同的大肠杆菌中进行表达试验。实验结果显示:经过密码子优化,融合目的蛋白基因在BL21(DE3)中得到了高效表达,产量达到25~30mg/L,纯化产物纯度达90%以上。SDS-PAGE和W estern-b lotting检测目的融合蛋白均与预期蛋白大小一致。     

湖南地区汉族人群p53基因第72位密码子多态性与宫颈鳞癌的相关性

目的：探讨宫颈组织p53基因第72位密码子的多态性及分析第72位密码子的多态性与湖南地区汉族人群宫颈鳞癌的相关性。方法：采用PCR方法扩增101例正常宫颈和150例宫颈鳞癌石蜡组织p53基因第72位密码子基因,回收目的片段进行测序。采用SPSS11．5软件分析p53基因第72位密码子的多态性。结果：p53第72位密码子基因测序结果显示,在宫颈鳞癌组织中Arg／Arg、Pro／Pro、Arg／Pro所占比例分别为40．66％、16．67％、42．67％;在正常宫颈组织中Arg／Arg、Pro／Pro、Arg／Pro所占比例分别为47．53％、7．92％、44．55％。统计学分析结果显示,Arg／Arg和Arg／Pro基因型在宫颈鳞癌和对照组中的表达差异没有统计学意义（P〉0．05）;Pro／Pro基因型在宫颈鳞癌组中所占比例显著高于正常宫颈组织（P〈0．05）。结论：p53基因第72位密码子Pro／pro基因型是湖南地区女性发生宫颈鳞癌易感因素。     

几种模式生物基因组中最适密码对和稀有密码对使用的规律性

以6种模式生物基因组为样本,从密码对的碱基组成及密码子的使用两方面,分析了最适密码对与稀有密码对的使用。结果显示:6种生物的最适密码对rP双碱基TA出现的频数都是最低的,而出现频率最大的双碱墓对于古菌、细菌、真核是不同的;稀有密码对中双碱基TA出现的频数却是最高的,而出现频率最低的双碱基刘·于古菌、细菌、真核是不同的。这说明双碱基的分布与密码对的偏好性有很强的相关性,同时也与基因组进化存在关联。另外,我们也分析了本文的6种生物编码序列叶,最适密码对与稀有密码对的出现频数与密码了的相对使用频率的关系,发现密码对的出现频数与其密码子的使用存在相关性。     

Impact of translational selection on codon usage bias in the archaeon Methanococcus maripaludis

Patterns of codon usage have been extensively studied among Bacteria and Eukaryotes, but there has been little investigation of species from the third domain of life, the Archaea. Here, we examine the nature of codon usage bias in a methanogenic archaeon, Methanococcus maripaludis. Genome-wide patterns of codon usage are dominated by a strong A + T bias, presumably largely reflecting mutation patterns. Nevertheless, there is variation among genes in the use of a subset of putatively translationally optimal codons, which is strongly correlated with gene expression level. In comparison with Bacteria such as Escherichia coli, the strength of selected codon usage bias in highly expressed genes in M. maripaludis seems surprisingly high given its moderate growth rate. However, the pattern of selected codon usage differs between M. maripaludis and E. coli: in the archaeon, strongly selected codon usage bias is largely restricted to twofold degenerate amino acids (AAs). Weaker bias among the codons for fourfold degenerate AAs is consistent with the small number of tRNA genes in the M. maripaludis genome.     

Optimal Bayesian Design for Patient Selection in a Clinical Study

Summary .  Bayesian experimental design for a clinical trial involves specifying a utility function that models the purpose of the trial, in this case the selection of patients for a diagnostic test. The best sample of patients is selected by maximizing expected utility. This optimization task poses difficulties due to a high-dimensional discrete design space and, also, to an expected utility formula of high complexity. A simulation-based optimal design method is feasible in this case. In addition, two deterministic algorithms that perform a systematic search over the design space are developed to address the computational issues.     

Analysis of recognition of transfer-messenger RNA by the ribosomal decoding center

Bacterial ribosomes stalled on defective mRNAs are rescued by tmRNA that functions as both tRNA and mRNA. The first ribosomal elongation cycle on tmRNA where tmRNA functions as tRNA is highly unusual: occupation of the ribosomal A site by tmRNA occurs without codon:anticodon pairing. Our analysis shows that in this case the role of a codon:anticodon duplex should be accomplished by a single unpaired triplet. In order that tmRNA could participate in the ribosomal elongation cycle, a triplet preceding the mRNA portion of tmRNA (the -1triplet) should be in the A-form and this form should be recognized by the ribosomal decoding center. A rule is derived that determines what triplets cannot be used as the -1triplet. The rule was tested with the -1triplets of all known 414 tmRNA species. All 23 observed -1triplets follow the formulated rule. The rule is also supported by the available data on base substitutions within the -1triplet.     

Relationships Among Stop Codon Usage Bias, Its Context, Isochores, and Gene Expression Level in Various Eukaryotes

It is well known that stop codons play a critical role in the process of protein synthesis. However, little effort has been made to investigate whether stop codon usage exhibits biases, such as widely seen for synonymous codon usage. Here we systematically investigate stop codon usage bias in various eukaryotes as well as its relationships with its context, GC3 content, gene expression level, and secondary structure. The results show that there is a strong bias for stop codon usage in different eukaryotes, i.e., UAA is overrepresented in the lower eukaryotes, UGA is overrepresented in the higher eukaryotes, and UAG is least used in all eukaryotes. Different conserved patterns for each stop codon in different eukaryotic classes are found based on information content and logo analysis. GC3 contents increase with increasing complexity of organisms. Secondary structure prediction revealed that UAA is generally associated with loop structures, whereas UGA is more uniformly present in loop and stem structures, i.e., UGA is less biased toward having a particular structure. The stop codon usage bias, however, shows no significant relationship with GC3 content and gene expression level in individual eukaryotes. The results indicate that genomic complexity and GC3 content might contribute to stop codon usage bias in different eukaryotes. Our results indicate that stop codons, like synonymous codons, exhibit biases in usage. Additional work will be needed to understand the causes of these biases and their relationship to the mechanism of protein termination. [Reviewing Editor: Dr. Manyuan Long]     

Intragenic Hill-Robertson interference influences selection intensity on synonymous mutations in Drosophila

Natural selection influences synonymous mutations and synonymouscodon usage in many eukaryotes to improve the efficiency oftranslation in highly expressed genes. Recent studies of genecomposition in eukaryotes have shown that codon usage also variesindependently of expression levels, both among genes and atthe intragenic level. Here, we investigate rates of evolution(Ks) and intensity of selection (_s) on synonymous mutationsin two groups of genes that differ greatly in the length oftheir exons, but with equivalent levels of gene expression andrates of crossing-over in Drosophila melanogaster. We estimate_s using patterns of divergence and polymorphism in 50 Drosophilagenes (100 kb of coding sequence) to take into account possiblevariation in mutation trends across the genome, among genesor among codons. We show that genes with long exons exhibithigher Ks and reduced _s compared to genes with short exons.We also show that Ks and _s vary significantly across long exons,with higher Ks and reduced _s in the central region comparedto flanking regions of the same exons, hence indicating thatthe difference between genes with short and long exons can bemostly attributed to the central region of these long exons.Although amino acid composition can also play a significantrole when estimating Ks and _s, our analyses show that the differencesin Ks and _s between genes with short and long exons and acrosslong exons cannot be explained by differences in protein composition.All these results are consistent with the Interference Selection(IS) model that proposes that the Hill-Robertson (HR) effectcaused by many weakly selected mutations has detectable evolutionaryconsequences at the intragenic level in genomes with recombination.Under the IS model, exon size and exon-intron structure influencethe effectiveness of selection, with long exons showing reducedeffectiveness of selection when compared to small exons andthe central region of long exons showing reduced intensity ofselection compared to flanking coding regions. Finally, ourresults further stress the need to consider selection on synonymousmutations and its variation—among and across genes andexons—in studies of protein evolution.