原花青素对磷酸三钙磨损颗粒所致小鼠颅骨溶解的干预作用及其机制

目的:研究原花青素对磷酸三钙(TCP)磨损颗粒诱导小鼠颅骨溶解的保护作用,并探讨其机制。方法:48只雄性ICR小鼠,随机分为假手术(Sham)组、TCP磨损颗粒(TCP)组、原花青素(0.2mg/kg,1mg/kg,5mg/kg)组,每组12只。将TCP磨损颗粒30mg包埋于小鼠颅骨顶部构建假体周围模型,于术后第2日颅顶局部注射原花青素,隔日1次。2周后处死小鼠采血、取颅骨。抗酒石酸酸性磷酸酶(TRAP)染色和HE染色观察假体周围骨溶解和破骨细胞生成情况;实时荧光定量PCR检测假体周围骨组织中破骨细胞调控基因TRAP、capthesinK、c-Fos和NFATc1的mRNA水平;化学比色法检测血清中丙二醛(MDA)和总抗氧化能力(T-AOC)含量及超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)活性;Westernblot法检测小鼠假体周围骨组织中自噬标志蛋白Beclin-1和微管相关蛋白1轻链3(LC-3)表达变化。结果:与Sham组比较,TCP组假体周围骨溶解面积、破骨细胞生成及其调控基因mRNA水平显著增加(P<0.05),血清MDA含量均明显升高、T-AOC水平和SOD活性明显降低(P<0.05),假体周围骨组织中Beclin-1和LC-3均表达显著上调、LC-3I向LC-3II转换明显增加(P<0.05)。与TCP组比较,原花青素组假体周围骨溶解面积、破骨细胞生成及其上述调控基因、血清MDA含量明显减少(P<0.05),血清T-AOC含量和SOD活性显著增加(P<0.05)且Beclin-1和LC-3等蛋白表达及LC-3I向LC-3II转换也明显下调。结论:原花青素对TCP磨损颗粒所致的假体周围骨溶解具有明显保护作用,其机制可能与减轻氧化应激反应和自噬的活化密切相关。     

基于生态系统服务价值重构的干旱内陆河流域生态安全格局优化——以张掖市甘州区为例

干旱区内陆河流域的生态环境极为脆弱,生态系统的微小变化也可能给流域生态安全带来巨大影响。甘州区位于干旱内陆河流域,生态问题突出,重视生态系统自身安全、构建合理的生态安全格局是保障该地区生态安全的有效措施。通过当量因子法估算2000、2005、2010年甘州区生态系统服务的静态价值,在充分考虑各项生态系统服务功能变化率及空间集聚程度对功能发挥影响的基础上,采用生态系统服务优先指数和空间丰富度指数,对甘州区2010年生态系统服务静态价值的估算结果进行动态重构。利用重构后的生态系统服务价值构建了甘州区3种不同安全水平情景下的生态安全格局。结果表明:1)甘州区生态系统服务价值总量逐步上升,各项服务多年变化率差异不大。2)重构后生态系统服务价值量为1438.21—390993元/hm~2,大部分地区为中低值。3)低、中、高安全水平生态安全格局中,生态源地面积分别为155.75 km~2,191.25 km~2和224.5 km~2。基于生态系统服务价值构建的生态安全格局是立足于生态系统服务现状提出的规划策略,可为区域生态保护规划和生态文明建设提供重要依据。     

NEK5 regulates cell cycle progression during mouse oocyte maturation and preimplantation embryonic development

NEK5, a member of never in mitosis‐gene A‐related protein kinase, is involved in the regulation of centrosome integrity and centrosome cohesion at mitosis in somatic cells. In this study, we investigated the expression and function of NEK5 during mouse oocyte maturation and preimplantation embryonic development. The results showed that NEK5 was expressed from germinal vesicle (GV) to metaphase II (MII) stages during oocyte maturation with the highest level of expression at the GV stage. It was shown that NEK5 localized in the cytoplasm of oocytes at GV stage, concentrated around chromosomes at germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) stage, and localized to the entire spindle at prometaphase I, MI and MII stages. The small interfering RNA‐mediated depletion of Nek5 significantly increased the phosphorylation level of cyclin‐dependent kinase 1 in oocytes, resulting in a decrease of maturation‐promoting factor activity, and severely impaired GVBD. The failure of meiotic resumption caused by Nek5 depletion could be rescued by the depletion of Wee1B. We found that Nek5 depletion did not affect CDC25B translocation into the GV. We also found that NEK5 was expressed from 1‐cell to blastocyst stages with the highest expression at the blastocyst stage, and Nek5 depletion severely impaired preimplantation embryonic development. This study demonstrated for the first time that NEK5 plays important roles during meiotic G2/M transition and preimplantation embryonic development.     

Demethylation of the Protein Phosphatase PP2A Promotes Demethylation of Histones to Enable Their Function as a Methyl Group Sink

1. Download high-res image (174KB)
2. Download full-size image

     

Single-Cell Heterogeneity Analysis and CRISPR Screen Identify Key β-Cell-Specific Disease Genes

1. Download high-res image (209KB)
2. Download full-size image

     

Development of high‐resolution DNA barcodes for Dioscorea species discrimination and phylogenetic analysis

The genus Dioscorea is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, and is economically important in terms of food supply and pharmaceutical applications. However, DNA barcodes are relatively unsuccessful in discriminating between Dioscorea species, with the highest discrimination rate (23.26%) derived from matK sequences. In this study, we compared genic and intergenic regions of three Dioscorea chloroplast genomes and found that the density of SNPs and indels in intergenic sites was about twice and seven times higher than that of SNPs and indels in the genic regions, respectively. A total of 52 primer pairs covering highly variable regions were designed and seven pairs of primers had 80%–100% PCR success rate. PCR amplicons of 73 Dioscorea individuals and assembled sequences of 47 Dioscorea SRAs were used for estimating intraspecific and interspecific divergence for the seven loci: The rpoB‐trnC locus had the highest interspecific divergence. Automatic barcoding gap discovery (ABGD), Poisson tree processes (PTP), and generalized mixed Yule coalescence (GMYC) analysis were applied for species delimitation based on the seven loci and successfully identified the majority of species, except for species in the Enantiophyllum section. Phylogenetic analysis of 51 Dioscorea individuals (28 species) showed that most individuals belonging to the same species tended to cluster in the same group. Our results suggest that the variable loci derived from comparative analysis of plastid genome sequences could be good DNA barcode candidates for taxonomic analysis and species delimitation.     

Environmental Factors Associated with the Eukaryotic Microbial Diversity of Ulleungdo Volcanic Island in South Korea

Microbiology - Ulleungdo is a volcanic island with an oceanic climate seasonally affected by warm and cold currents. The freshwater ecosystems of Ulleungdo Island act as an ecological indicator...     

Jeotgalibacillus aurantiacus sp. nov., a novel orange-pigmented species with a carotenoid biosynthetic gene cluster,isolated from wetland soil

A Gram-stain-positive, orange-pigmented, rod-shaped and flagellated bacterial strain T12^T was isolated from wetland soil in Kunyu Mountain Wetland in Yantai, China. The strain was able to grow at 15–40 °C (optimum 37 °C), at 0.0–9.0% NaCl (optimum 2%, w/v) and at pH 5.5–9.0 (optimum 8.5). A phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain T12^T is a member of the family Planococcaceae, sharing 97.6% and 97.1% sequence similarity with the type strains of Jeotgalibacillus salarius and Jeotgalibacillus marinus, respectively. Genome-based analyses revealed a genome size of 3,506,682 bp and a DNA G?+?C content of 43.7%. Besides, the genome sequence led to 55.0–74.6% average amino acid identity values and 67.8–74.7% average nucleotide identity values between strain T12^T and the current closest relatives. Digital DNA-DNA hybridization of strain T12^T with the type strains of Jeotgalibacillus proteolyticus and J. marinus demonstrated 19.0% and 20.3% relatedness, respectively. The chemotaxonomic analysis showed that the sole quinone was MK-7. The predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C_15:0, anteiso-C_15:0, C_16:1ω7c alcohol and iso-C_14:0. The polar lipids consisted of an unidentified aminolipid, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified phospholipids. Based on the polyphasic characterization, strain T12^T is considered to represent a novel species, for which the name Jeotgalibacillus aurantiacus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is T12^T (=?KCTC 43296 ^T?=?MCCC 1K07171^T).