陕西省育龄期妇女风疹抗体水平调查

2006年在陕西省铜川、延安、宝鸡、渭南四市随机抽取20~40岁育龄期妇女共172人进行风疹IgG(RV-IgG)抗体水平调查,总阳性率87.2%,其中20~24岁组阳性率最高(95.6%),随着年龄的增长,阳性率和抗体几何平均浓度(GMC)有下降的趋势;不同居住地育龄妇女风疹抗体水平无显著性差异。这次调查反映了陕西省育龄期妇女风疹抗体水平的基本状况,为今后制定有效的免疫预防策略提供了依据。     

基因型和环境及其互作效应对小麦品质的影响及品质稳定性分析

分析基因型、环境及其互作对小麦品质性状的影响。对两年度3个试点13个小麦品种的16个主要品质性状进行分析。结果表明:品质性状在不同小麦品种及不同试点间皆存在显著差异,其中硬度、PPO活性、AWRC、稀懈值的变异系数较大;膨胀势、最终粘度、峰值粘度的变异系数较小;糊化温度、碱性水保持力、峰值时间、蛋白质含量、湿面筋含量的环境效应大于基因型效应;SDS沉降值、PPO活性、黄色素含量、膨胀势、峰值粘度、保持粘度、稀懈值、最终粘度、回升值、Zeleng沉降值、硬度的基因型效应大于环境效应,保持粘度这一品质性状基本上不受环境影响,比较稳定。     

高效毛细管电泳分离多种植物激素的方法研究

建立了高效毛细管电泳法分离测定茶叶中赤霉素(GA)、吲哚-3-乙酸(IAA)、脱落酸(ABA)、吲哚-3-丁酸(IBA)、细胞分裂素(CTK)等5种植物激素的分析方法。采用正交试验设计对高效毛细管电泳方法中的运行电压、缓冲液pH值和添加剂SDS浓度等分离条件进行优化,结果发现在30 mmol/L H3BO4-KH2PO4、40 mmol/LSDS组成的pH9.0缓冲液中,选择18 kV电压,25℃柱温和200 nm波长,可在11 min以内实现茶叶中5种激素的分离检测。本方法具有较高的灵敏度,5种激素的相关系数r=0.9907～0.9974,加标回收率为78.06%-95.5%,变异系数≤1.8%。利用本方法测定了茶叶不同部位的5种植物激素的含量变化。     

Metabolic profiling of serum using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography and the LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometry system

Advances in analytical instrumentation can provide significant advantages to the volume and quality of biological knowledge acquired in metabolomic investigations. The interfacing of sub-2mum liquid chromatography (UPLC ACQUITY((R))) and LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometry systems provides many theoretical advantages. The applicability of the interfaced systems was investigated using a simple 11-component metabolite mix and a complex mammalian biofluid, serum. Metabolites were detected in the metabolite mix with signals that were linear with their concentration over 2.5-3.5 orders of magnitude, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.993 and limits of detection less than 1mumolL(-1). Reproducibility of retention time (RSD<3%) and chromatographic peak area (RSD<15%) and a high mass accuracy (<2ppm) were observed for 14 QC serum samples interdispersed with other serum samples, analysed over a period of 40h. The evaluation of a single deconvolution software package (XCMS) was performed and showed that two parameters (snthresh and bw) provided significant changes to the number of peaks detected and the peak area reproducibility for the dataset used. The data were used to indicate possible biomarkers of pre-eclampsia and showed both the instruments and XCMS to be applicable to the reproducible and valid detection of disease biomarkers present in serum.     

Metabolite profiles of interacting mycelial fronts differ for pairings of the wood decay basidiomycete fungus, Stereum hirsutum with its competitors Coprinus micaceus and Coprinus disseminatus

The paper presents the first proof-of principle study of metabolite profiles of the interacting mycelial fronts of a wood decomposer basidiomycete, Stereum hirsutum, paired with two competitor basidiomycetes, Coprinus disseminatus and C. micaceus, using TLC and GC-TOF-MS profiling. GC-TOF-MS profiles were information rich, with a total of 190 metabolite peaks detected and more than 120 metabolite peaks detected per sample. The metabolite profiles were able to discriminate between the interactions of S. hirsutum with the two species of Coprinus. In confrontation with C. micaceus, where S. hirsutum mycelial fronts always overgrew those of C. micaceus, there were down-regulations of metabolites in the interaction zone, compared to monocultures of both S. hirsutum and C. micaceus. In contrast, in pairings with C. disseminatus, whose mycelia overgrew those of S. hirsutum, there were some up-regulations compared with monoculture controls, the majority of the metabolites being characteristic of the S. hirsutum monoculture profile. These differences indicate that up-regulation of metabolites in the mycelia of S. hirsutum may be connected to a defensive role or to stress. The results also show proof of principle for the employment of metabolic profiling for biological discovery studies of metabolites produced by fungi that could be applied to natural product screening programmes.     

小麦黄色素合成途径中Psy基因的克隆及分子特性

对普通小麦(Ttiticum aestivum)黄色素(YP)合成途径中的首要限速酶——八氢番茄红素合成酶(Psy)基因进行克隆和测序,并和玉米Psy基因进行序列比对。结果表明,在高和低YP含量小麦品种中均扩增出一条长1192bp的Psy基因片段,该片段包含一条可编码78个氨基酸的小麦Psy基因的外显子,与玉米Psy基因第4外显子的核苷酸序列同源率为80.74,同源区域内有47个SNPs,但仅11个SNPs导致氨基酸编码序列的改变,二者氨基酸序列的同源率达85.89,推测Psy基因在不同物种中的表达具有较高的保守性。BLAST聚类分析表明,禾谷类植物Psy基因的分类与物种的亲缘关系存在明显的相关性,小麦Psy基因在系统进化中比禾谷类其他植物更为高级。     

Foraging mechanics and their outcomes for cattle grazing reproductive tropical swards

For grazing animals an important determinant of animal performance is the rate of nutrient intake (RNI) which depends on diet quality and instantaneous intake rate (IIR). In turn, diet quality and IIR are the outcome of the interaction between the morphology and behaviour of the animal and the structure of the sward. Using artificial microswards of Panicum maximum we evaluated the effect of four levels of the tensile resistance of stems in tropical swards on the grazing behaviour of cattle of two age classes (1- and 3-year-old steers) faced with a stem barrier either in a vertical (experiment 1, E1) or horizontal plane (experiment 2, E2). The animals did not select against low tensile resistance stems (LTRS) but did avoid high tensile resistance stems (HTRS) which resulted in a significant difference (P < 0.001) between diet DM (dry matter) digestibility and forage DM digestibility in swards with HTRS. IIR decreased (P < 0.001) on average 62% in E1 and 67% in E2 as stem tensile resistance increased, 144% and 177% in E1 and E2, respectively. This led to a reduction (P < 0.001) in digestible DM IIR in both young and mature cattle respectively of 56% and 68% in E1, and 45% and 79% in E2, as stem tensile resistance increased. The decline in IIR was due to an increase in time per bite and a reduction in bite dimensions that were the result of different mechanisms in the two experiments: when leaves were taller than the stems (E1) the decrease in bite area was associated with an asymptotic increase (P < 0.001) in bite force in mature animals, and a maintenance (P = 0.456) of bite force in young animals, suggesting that maximum bite force regulated bite area in E1. This was not the case in E2 because both bite area and bite force decreased (P < 0.05) with the increase in stem tensile resistance suggesting that the animals were not able to gather enough plant material with the tongue in order for bite force to regulate bite area. We conclude that bite force and tongue force regulate selectivity and bite dimensions, which are the ultimate determinants of the RNI; IIR is the primary determinant of the RNI with diet quality being of lesser importance; and HTRS act as deterrents to achieving maximum IIR in tropical swards, particularly in mature cattle.     

Influence of BCG vaccine strain on the immune response and protection against tuberculosis

The Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine has been used for more than 80 years to protect against tuberculosis. Worldwide, over 90% of children are immunized with BCG, making it the most commonly administered vaccine, with more than 120 million doses used each year. Although new tuberculosis vaccines are under investigation, BCG will remain the cornerstone of the strategy to fight the worsening tuberculosis pandemic for the foreseeable future. The recent delineation of genetic differences between BCG vaccine strains has renewed interest in the influence of the vaccine strain on the protective efficacy against tuberculosis. This review critically examines the data from animal and human studies comparing BCG vaccine strains. Although there is good evidence to support the notion that the induced immune response and protection afforded against tuberculosis differs between BCG vaccine strains, currently, there are insufficient data to favour or recommend one particular strain. Identifying BCG strains with superior protection would have a dramatic effect on tuberculosis control at a population level: a small increment in protection provided by BCG immunization will prevent large numbers of cases of severe tuberculosis and deaths, particularly in children.     

Light enhanced amino acid uptake by dominant bacterioplankton groups in surface waters of the Atlantic Ocean

(35)S-Methionine and (3)H-leucine bioassay tracer experiments were conducted on two meridional transatlantic cruises to assess whether dominant planktonic microorganisms use visible sunlight to enhance uptake of these organic molecules at ambient concentrations. The two numerically dominant groups of oceanic bacterioplankton were Prochlorococcus cyanobacteria and bacteria with low nucleic acid (LNA) content, comprising 60% SAR11-related cells. The results of flow cytometric sorting of labelled bacterioplankton cells showed that when incubated in the light, Prochlorococcus and LNA bacteria increased their uptake of amino acids on average by 50% and 23%, respectively, compared with those incubated in the dark. Amino acid uptake of Synechococcus cyanobacteria was also enhanced by visible light, but bacteria with high nucleic acid content showed no light stimulation. Additionally, differential uptake of the two amino acids by the Prochlorococcus and LNA cells was observed. The populations of these two types of cells on average completely accounted for the determined 22% light enhancement of amino acid uptake by the total bacterioplankton community, suggesting a plausible way of harnessing light energy for selectively transporting scarce nutrients that could explain the numerical dominance of these groups in situ.