人参皂苷Rg2对慢性坐骨神经损伤大鼠痛觉敏化和抑郁状态的影响*

目的:观察人参皂苷Rg₂对慢性坐骨神经损伤大鼠痛觉敏化、抑郁状态的影响。方法: 将50只 SD 大鼠随机分为 5组(n=10): 空白对照组(Normal+生理盐水腹腔注射)、假手术组(手术但不结扎+生理盐水腹腔注射) 、坐骨神经慢性压迫损伤(CCI)组(CCI +生理盐水腹腔注射) 、人参皂苷Rg₂低剂量组(CCI+ Rg₂ 5 mg/kg腹腔注射)、人参皂苷Rg₂高剂量组(CCI+ Rg₂ 10 mg/kg 腹腔注射)。CCI模型建立后,药物通过注射器进行腹腔内注射 5 ml/kg,每天1次,连续14 d。分别在术前1 d和术后 1、3、5、7、10、14 d测定大鼠的机械性缩足反射阈值(MWT)和热缩足潜伏期(TWL);术前1 d和术后第14日时检测明暗箱实验和强迫游泳试验。 结果:与假手术组比较,CCI组术后14 d机械痛阈值和热痛潜伏期明显缩短(P＜0.01),明箱内停留时间明显缩短(P＜0.01),穿梭次数明显减少(P＜0.01),游泳潜伏期明显延长(P＜0.01)。与CCI组比较,人参皂苷Rg₂组术后14 d机械痛阈和热痛潜伏期明显增加(P＜0.01),大鼠在明箱内时间明显延长(P＜0.01),穿梭次数明显增多(P＜0.01),且游泳潜伏期明显缩短(P＜0.01)。结论:人参皂苷Rg₂能抑制 CCI 大鼠的机械痛敏和热痛敏,同时改善其抑郁状态。     

极端耐盐碱菌株的筛选及其菌肥对盐碱条件下小麦生长和土壤环境的影响

为获得具有盐碱地改良应用潜力的耐盐碱菌株,将采集于东营盐碱地的土样稀释涂布于pH 9、盐浓度100 g·L-1的Gibbson改良培养基上,共获得18株细菌.通过提高盐浓度、pH值,最终获得在pH 12、盐浓度20%的条件下仍然可以生长的极端耐盐碱菌株N14.对N14进行形态学、生理生化特征和16S rDNA序列分析鉴定,结果表明:菌株N14为马氏芽孢杆菌.盆栽试验结果表明,与盐碱土(CK)相比,N14菌肥可以显著提高小麦的生物量,株高、鲜重、干重分别提高了21.8%、57.9%、41.7%;显著增加小麦叶绿素a、叶绿素b、叶绿素总量,增长率分别为36.4%、20.0%、31.7%;显著提高盐碱土壤中的蔗糖酶、脲酶和碱性磷酸酶的活性,增长率分别为23.2%、68.8%、106.5%;显著提高小麦根系的超氧化物歧化酶、过氧化物酶和过氧化氢酶的活性,增长率分别为109.6%、17.8%、50%;显著减少小麦根系丙二醛的含量,减少率为39.8%.本研究为极端耐盐碱菌的应用提供了一条新思路,为盐碱地的改良提供了一条新途径.     

Excessive rainfall leads to maize yield loss of a comparable magnitude to extreme drought in the United States

Increasing drought and extreme rainfall are major threats to maize production in the United States. However, compared to drought impact, the impact of excessive rainfall on crop yield remains unresolved. Here, we present observational evidence from crop yield and insurance data that excessive rainfall can reduce maize yield up to ?34% (?17 ± 3% on average) in the United States relative to the expected yield from the long‐term trend, comparable to the up to ?37% loss by extreme drought (?32 ± 2% on average) from 1981 to 2016. Drought consistently decreases maize yield due to water deficiency and concurrent heat, with greater yield loss for rainfed maize in wetter areas. Excessive rainfall can have either negative or positive impact on crop yield, and its sign varies regionally. Excessive rainfall decreases maize yield significantly in cooler areas in conjunction with poorly drained soils, and such yield loss gets exacerbated under the condition of high preseason soil water storage. Current process‐based crop models cannot capture the yield loss from excessive rainfall and overestimate yield under wet conditions. Our results highlight the need for improved understanding and modeling of the excessive rainfall impact on crop yield.     

Understanding and predicting frost‐induced tropical tree mortality patterns

Extreme climatic and weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity across the world causing episodes of widespread tree mortality in many forested ecosystems. However, we have a limited understanding about which local factors influence tree mortality patterns, restricting our ability to predict tree mortality, especially within topographically complex tropical landscapes with a matrix of mature and secondary forests. We investigated the effects of two major local factors, topography and forest successional type, on climate‐induced tropical tree mortality patterns using an observational and modeling approach. The northernmost Neotropical dry forest endured an unprecedented episode of frost‐induced tree mortality after the historic February 2011 cold wave hit northwestern Mexico. In a moderately hilly landscape covering mature and secondary tropical dry forests, we surveyed 454 sites for the presence or absence of frost‐induced tree mortality. In addition, across forty‐eight 1 ha plots equally split into the two forest types, we examined 6,981 woody plants to estimate a frost‐disturbance severity metric using the density of frost‐killed trees. Elevation is the main factor modulating frost effects regardless of forest type. Higher occurrence probabilities of frost‐induced tree mortality at lowland forests can be explained by the strong influence of elevation on temperature distribution since heavier cold air masses move downhill during advective frosts. Holding elevation constant, the probability of frost‐induced tree mortality in mature forests was twice that of secondary forests but severity showed the opposite pattern, suggesting a cautious use of occurrence probabilities of tree mortality to infer severity of climate‐driven disturbances. Extreme frost events, in addition to altering forest successional pathways and ecosystem services, likely maintain and could ultimately shift latitudinal and altitudinal range margins of Neotropical dry forests.     

Cloning and Drought Resistance Analysis of Soybean <i>GmHsps_p23-like</i> Gene

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is an important cultivated crop, which requires much water during its growth, and drought seriously affects soybean yields. Studies have shown that the expression of small heat shock proteins can enhance drought resistance, cold resistance and salt resistance of plants. In this experiment, soybean GmHsps_p23-like gene was successfully cloned by RT-PCR, the protein encoded by the GmHsps_p23-like gene was subjected to bioinformatics analysis, and the pCAMBIA3301-GmHsps_p23-like overexpression vector and pCBSG015-GmHsps_p23-like gene editing vector were constructed. Agrobacterium-mediated method was used to transform soybeans to obtain positive plants. RT-PCR detection, rehydration experiment and drought resistance physiological and biochemical index detection were performed on the T₂ generation positive transgenic soybean plants identified by PCR and Southern hybridization. The results showed that the overexpression vector plant GmHsps_p23-like gene expression increased. After rehydration, the transgenic overexpression plants returned to normal growth, and the damage to the plants was low. After drought stress, the SOD and POD activities and the PRO content of the transgenic overexpression plants increased, while the MDA content decreased. The reverse was true for soybean plants with genetically modified editing vectors. The drought resistance of the overexpressed soybeans under drought stress was higher than that of the control group, and had a stronger drought resistance. It showed that the expression of soybean GmHsps_p23-like gene can improve the drought resistance of soybean. The cloning and functional verification of soybean GmHsps_p23-like gene had not been reported yet. This is the first time that PCR technology has been used to amplify the soybean GmHsps_p23-like gene and construct an expression vector for this gene. This research has laid the foundation for transgenic technology to improve plant drought resistance and cultivate new drought-resistant transgenic soybean varieties.     

Learning Proteome Domain Folding Using LSTMs in an Empirical Kernel Space

The recognition of protein structural folds is the starting point for protein function inference and for many structural prediction tools. We previously introduced the idea of using empirical comparisons to create a data-augmented feature space called PESS (Protein Empirical Structure Space)¹ as a novel approach for protein structure prediction. Here, we extend the previous approach by generating the PESS feature space over fixed-length subsequences of query peptides, and applying a sequential neural network model, with one long short-term memory cell layer followed by a fully connected layer. Using this approach, we show that only a small group of domains as a training set is needed to achieve near state-of-the-art accuracy on fold recognition. Our method improves on the previous approach by reducing the training set required and improving the model’s ability to generalize across species, which will help fold prediction for newly discovered proteins.     

生物热对传统固态发酵菌群演替及其代谢影响的研究进展

解析传统固态发酵中产生的生物热对微生物菌群代谢的影响,是认识发酵机制、调控发酵过程、保证发酵效率的关键之一。固态发酵过程中,微生物菌群代谢活动所产生的生物热及传热效率低等问题引起微环境温度升高,进而影响微生物的生长与代谢。然而,关于传统固态发酵微生物受生物热的影响及其适应机制仍不明晰。因此,本文以传统固态发酵体系为研究对象,阐述持续生物热介导的高温对固态发酵过程中微生物群落演替和代谢功能的影响,并提出复杂群落中具有多层次调控微生物代谢以适应高温环境的方式,主要从微生物群体与个体层面介绍可能存在的耐热机制。了解生物热对传统固态发酵微生物的影响及潜在的耐热机制,有助于靶向调控发酵过程、强化高温发酵等,以满足未来的工业化需求。     

陕西省植被覆盖时空变化及其对极端气候的响应

基于2001—2018年MODIS NDVI数据,从生态分区视角分析陕西省归一化植被指数(NDVI)的时空变化特征,并结合该地区31个气象站点日值数据,探讨NDVI对极端气温和极端降水指数的响应特征。结果表明：(1)陕西省及其各生态区的NDVI变化均显著上升,整体呈南高北低的分布特点,其中秦巴山地落叶与阔叶林生态区(IV)NDVI值最高为0.86,陕北北部典型草原生态区(I)NDVI值最低为0.38。(2)年际尺度上,陕西省NDVI与极端气温暖极值(暖夜日数)和极端降水指数总体呈显著正相关(P<0.05),在陕西省北部NDVI变化主要受极端降水的影响,南部则对极端气温的敏感度更高。(3)多年月尺度上,各生态区NDVI对极端气温冷极值(最低气温、日最低气温的极低值和日最高气温的极低值)和极端气温暖极值(最高气温、日最低气温的极高值和日最高气温的极高值)存在明显的滞后性,滞后时间多为3个月;与极端降水指数(单日最大降水量和连续5日最大降水量)的滞后时间为2个月,说明陕西省内NDVI对极端气候的响应具有显著的滞后效应。     

Creation and validation of a reactor engineering model for multiphase red wine fermentations

Red wine fermentations are performed in the presence of grape skins and seeds to ensure the extraction of color and other phenolics. The presence of these solids results in two distinct phases in the fermentor, as the solids float to the top to form a “cap.” Modeling of red wine fermentation is, therefore, complex and must consider spatial heterogeneity to predict fermentation kinetics. We have developed a reactor-engineering model for red wine fermentations that includes the fundamentals of fermentation kinetics, heat transfer, diffusion, and compressible fluid flow. To develop the heat transfer component of the model, the heat transfer properties of grapes were experimentally determined as a function of fermentation progression. COMSOL was used to solve all components of the model simultaneously utilizing a finite element analysis approach. Predictions from this model were validated using prior experimental work. Model prediction and experimental data showed excellent agreement. The model was then used to predict spatial profiles of active yeast cell concentration and ethanol productivity, as well as liquid velocity profiles. Finally, the model was used to predict how these gradients would change with differences in initial bioavailable nitrogen concentration, a key parameter in predicting fermentation outcome in nitrogen-limited wine fermentations.