黄土地区小流域植被覆盖和降水对侵蚀产沙过程的影响

以1982~2000年吕二沟地区的水文气象观测资料与遥感资料为数据源,进行流域产沙强度与径流指标、降水指标、植被覆盖指标之间的相关与多元回归分析,结果表明,流域产沙强度随径流指标、降雨指标的增加而增大,随植被覆盖指标的增加而减小。为了区分人为因素与自然因素对侵蚀产沙的影响,采用对数据进行标准化处理之后再进行多元回归分析的方法,来确定相对贡献率。结果表明,植被盖度和降水变化对吕二沟流域土壤侵蚀量变化的贡献率分别为45·7%和54·3%,可见土壤侵蚀量受降水的影响要略大于受植被覆盖的影响。     

东北地区近50年来极端降水和干燥事件时空演变特征

利用东北地区93个国家常规气象观测站1951~2002年逐日降水资料,分析了东北地区的暴雨、严重干燥事件等极端降水事件的时空演变特征,从极端降水事件发生频率和强度变化的角度解释旱涝灾害加剧的原因。结果表明,近52年来,小雨事件发生频次显著减少;暴雨发生频次变化不大,但强度增强;严重干燥事件显著增加;严重湿润事件显著下降。因此,在东北地区降水总量具有减少趋势的背景下,降水事件还有向极端化发展的倾向,降水分布变得更不均匀,从而可能引起更多、更强的旱涝灾害,尤其是旱灾,从而对东北地区的生态环境,尤其是农业生产带来不利的影响,这应引起重视。     

黄河流域植被NDVI与温度、降水关系的时空变化

归一化差值植被指数(NDVI)是植被生长状态和空间分布的指示因子,区域气候对植被生长起着重要作用,两者具有密切的相互关系。通过对黄河流域NDVI与降水、温度的年际变化趋势及相互关系的时空变化规律分析,发现该流域NDVI与降水、温度相关显著的植被类型以草地、灌木为主,但相关区域的空间位置随时间变化。流域尺度上,NDVI年较差、年均温度、月均温度在1982~1999年呈升高趋势,年降水量呈减少趋势;NDVI年较差与年降水、年均温度相关不明显(P>0.05);7月ND-VI与同期降水、温度相关显著,相关系数分别达0.855、0.943。栅格尺度上,流域内大部分地区NDVI年较差与年均温度相关不显著;与年降水相关显著的区域以正相关为主,分布于上游的草地、灌木区;与夏季降水相关显著的区域面积最大,占13.74×104km2,分布于上游的灌木和部分草地,其中7月NDVI与同期降水相关性较好,相关区域的面积有9.91×104km2,分布于中上游干流河道附近的草地、灌木;NDVI年较差与春、夏、秋季的平均温度以正相关为主;4月NDVI与同期温度以正相关为主,分布于兰州上游的草原和灌木,而10月以负相关为主,分布于兰州与宁夏北部石嘴山之间的草地、灌木区。     

Oak Flat Restoration on Phosphate-Mine Spoils

Phosphate mining in Beaufort County, North Carolina, impacts a rare plant community type, oak flats (nonriverine wet hardwood forests [NRWHF]). Reclamation of land after mining utilizes three by‐products of mining and manufacturing: clay tailings containing dolomite, low‐pH phosphogypsum, and bucket‐wheel spoil from the surface 10 m. The open mine is backfilled with a blend of phosphogypsum and clay tailings, which may be left as the surface or capped with bucket‐wheel spoil. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of using these by‐products as substrates for restoring NRWHF. A field study measured survival of 11 tree and four shrub species planted in replicated plots of blend or bucket‐wheel spoil. Survival at the end of the second growing season was 59% on the blend and 52% on the bucket‐wheel spoil. A greenhouse experiment compared growth of four species of NRWHF oaks on bucket‐wheel spoil, blend, local topsoil (sterilized and unsterilized), and a commercial potting mix. Germination rates of acorns of all four species planted in topsoil were almost double those in bucket‐wheel spoil and 1.5 times greater than those in the blend. Height and stem volume of trees were significantly greater when grown in topsoil than in bucket‐wheel spoil and blend. There was no difference in tree growth on bucket‐wheel spoil and blend. In field and greenhouse soil tests, the blend had cadmium levels over 100 times that of local topsoil and the bucket‐wheel spoil had levels 40 times greater. Leaf chemical analysis in the field and greenhouse found higher cadmium levels in plants grown on the blend than on the bucket‐wheel spoil. These results indicate that the use of topsoil from the advancing mine front may lead to successful restoration of NRWHF.     

Microbial bio-production of a recombinant stimuli-responsive biosurfactant

Biosurfactants have been the subject of recent interest as sustainable alternatives to petroleum-derived compounds in areas ranging from soil remediation to personal and health care. The production of naturally occurring biosurfactants depends on the presence of complex feed sources during microbial growth and requires multicomponent enzymes for synthesis within the cells. Conversely, designed peptide surfactants can be produced recombinantly in microbial systems, enabling the generation of improved variants by simple genetic manipulation. However, inefficient downstream processing is still an obstacle for the biological production of small peptides. We present the production of the peptide biosurfactant GAM1 in recombinant E. coli. Expression was performed in fusion to maltose binding protein using chemically defined minimal medium, followed by a single-step affinity capture and enzymatic cleavage using tobacco etch virus protease. Different approaches to the isolation of peptide after cleavage were investigated, with special emphasis on rapid and simple procedures. Solvent-, acid-, and heat-mediated precipitation of impurities were successfully applied as alternatives to post-cleavage chromatographic peptide purification, and gave peptide purities exceeding 90%. Acid precipitation was the method of choice, due to its simplicity and the high purification factor and recovery rate achieved here. The functionality of the bio-produced peptide was tested to ensure that the resulting peptide biosurfactant was both surface active and able to be triggered to switch between foam-stabilizing and foam-destabilizing states.     

Binding of epigallocatechin-3-gallate to transthyretin modulates its amyloidogenicity

More than 100 transthyretin (TTR) variants are associated with hereditary amyloidosis. Approaches for TTR amyloidosis that interfere with any step of the cascade of events leading to fibril formation have therapeutic potential. In this study we tested (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the most abundant catechin of green tea, as an inhibitor of TTR amyloid formation. We demonstrate that EGCG binds to TTR “in vitro” and “ex vivo” and that EGCG inhibits TTR aggregation “in vitro” and in a cell culture system. These findings together with the low toxicity of the compound raise the possibility of using EGCG in a therapeutic approach for familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, the most frequent form of hereditary TTR amyloidosis.

Structured summary

MINT-7294529: TTR (uniprotkb:P02766) and TTR (uniprotkb:P02766) bind (MI:0407) by comigration in non-denaturing gel electrophoresis (MI:0404)     

Antiproliferative effect of ferrocifen drug candidates on malignant pleural mesothelioma cell lines

The purpose of this study was to investigate the antiproliferative potential of two novel bio-organometallic drug candidates, based on hydroxyl-phenyl-but-1-ene skeleton and containing the ferrocenyl (Fc) moiety, namely ferrociphenol (Fc-diOH) and ferrocifen (Fc-OH-TAM), on two cell lines, named BR95 (epithelial-like) and MM98 (sarcomatous-like), obtained from pleural effusions of previously untreated malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients. In vitro chemosensitivity of MPM cells towards the title compounds was evaluated by cell viability assay, alkaline Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis (Comet test) and western blotting evaluation of p53 induction. The two bio-organometallic derivatives were found to be more potent in inhibiting cell proliferation than the reference metallo-drug cisplatin (CDDP). This antiproliferative effect cannot be attributed to estrogenic/antiestrogenic activity, since both cell lines resulted to be estrogen insensitive (ER−). Fc-diOH and CDDP were able to upregulate wild type p53 present in MM98 cell line, while Fc-OH-TAM was not. Similarly, Fc-diOH and CDDP induced early DNA damage, while Fc-OH-TAM did not. This indicates that, albeit the similar structures, the two ferrocifens exhert different mechanisms of cytotoxicity on MPM cells.     

Direct in Vivo Intracellular Selection of Conformation-sensitive Antibody Domains Targeting Alzheimer's Amyloid-β Oligomers

The development of conformation-sensitive antibody domains targeting the misfolding beta amyloid (Aβ) peptide is of great interest for research into Alzheimer's disease (AD).We describe the direct selection, by the Intracellular Antibody Capture Technology (IACT), of a panel of anti-Aβ single chain Fv antibody fragments (scFvs), targeting pathologically relevant conformations of Aβ. A LexA-Aβ1-42 fusion protein was expressed in yeast cells, as the “intracellular antigen”. Two different scFv antibody libraries (Single Pot Libraries of Intracellular Antibodies, SPLINT) were used for the intracellular selections: (i) a naïve library, derived from a natural, non-immune, source of mouse antibody variable region (V) genes; and (ii) an immune library constructed from the repertoire of antibody V genes of Aβ-immunized mice. This led to the isolation of 18 different anti-Aβ scFvs, which bind Aβ both in the yeast cell, as well as in vitro, if used as purified recombinant proteins. Surprisingly, all the anti-Aβ scFvs isolated are conformation-sensitive, showing a high degree of specificity towards Aβ oligomers with respect to monomeric Aβ, while also displaying some degree of sequence-specificity, recognizing either the N-terminal or the C-terminal part of Aβ1-42; in particular, the scFvs selected from Aβ-immune SPLINT library show a relevant N-terminal epitope bias. Representative candidates from this panel of the anti-Aβ scFvs were shown to recognize in vivo-produced Aβ “deposits” in histological sections from human AD brains and to display good neutralization properties, significantly inhibiting Aβ oligomer-induced toxicity and synaptic binding of Aβ oligomers in neuronal cultured cells. The properties of these anti-Aβ antibody domains, as well as their direct availability for intra- or extra-cellular “genetic delivery” make them ideally suited for new experimental approaches to study and image the intracellular processing and trafficking of Aβ oligomers.     

Nonmyristoylated Matrix Protein from the Mason-Pfizer Monkey Virus Forms Oligomers

We studied the oligomeric properties of betaretroviral nonmyristoylated matrix protein (MA) and its R55F mutant from the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus in solution by means of chemical crosslinking and NMR spectroscopy. By analyzing crosslinked products and using concentration-dependent NMR chemical shift mapping, we have proven that the wild-type (WT) MA forms oligomers in solution. Conversely, no oligomerization was observed for the R55F mutant. Structural comparison of MAs explained their different behaviors in solution, concluding that the key residues involved in intermonomeric interaction are exposed in the WT MA but buried in the mutant, preventing the oligomerization of R55F. The final model of oligomerization of the WT MA was derived by concerted use of chemical shift mapping and diffusion-ordered spectroscopy measured on a set of protein samples with varying concentrations. We found that the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus WT MA exists in a monomer-dimer-trimer equilibrium in solution, with the corresponding dissociation constants of 2.3  and 0.24 mM, respectively. Structures of the oligomers calculated with HADDOCK software are closely related to the structures of other retroviral MA trimers.     

Oxygen partial pressure modulates 67-kDa laminin receptor expression, leading to altered activity of the green tea polyphenol, EGCG

(−)-Epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG) exhibits anti-tumor activity mediated via the 67-kDa laminin receptor (67LR). In this study, we found that 67LR protein levels are reduced by exposure to low O₂ levels (5%), without affecting the expression of HIF-1α. We also found that EGCG-induced anti-cancer activity is abrogated under low O₂ levels (5%) in various cancer cells. Notably, treatment with the proteasome inhibitor, prevented down-regulation of 67LR and restored sensitivity to EGCG under 5% O₂. In summary, 67LR expression is highly sensitive to O₂ partial pressure, and the activity of EGCG can be regulated in cancer cells by O₂ partial pressure.