基于转录终点序列特征预测大肠杆菌sRNA

细菌sRNA是一类长度在40～500nt的调控RNA,在细菌与环境相互作用中发挥重要功能,因此,细菌sRNA识别研究具有重要意义。然而,与蛋白编码基因具有易于识别的特征不同,目前细菌sRNA识别仍是一件比较困难的事。此方法介绍了一个基于已知细菌sRNA转录终点的碱基频率矩阵来识别sRNA的预测策略,并在大肠杆菌K-12 MG1655中进行了sRNA的预测。结果表明,该模型在独立测试集中具有较高的特异性和阳性检出率,因此,这一方法将为实验发现细菌sRNA提供较好的生物信息学支持。     

ErbB2 overexpression in mammary cells upregulates VEGF through the core promoter

The angiogenic molecule, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), is a critical regulator of normal and pathologic angiogenesis. ErbB2, an epidermal growth factor receptor family member whose overexpression in mammary tumors is correlated with poor patient prognosis, has been implicated as a positive modulator of VEGF expression. Mammary tumor cells overexpressing ErbB2 (NAFA cells) and a normal mouse mammary cell line (HC11) transfected with ErbB2 expression vectors were used to study the effects of ErbB2 overexpression on VEGF regulation. We found that ErbB2 overexpression led to an increase in endogenous VEGF mRNA as well as ErbB3 protein levels in HC11 cells. Additionally, we determined that ErbB2 overexpression-mediated upregulation of VEGF involves at least two distinct promoter elements, one previously identified as the hypoxia responsive element and the other the core promoter region (-161 to -51bp), which is specifically controlled via two adjacent SP1 binding sites (-80 to -60bp).