慕课背景下“微生物工程”实验课开放式教学模式探索

慕课等线上学习平台是教育信息化的结果,结合慕课对传统教学进行突破是近年来教学改革的热点之一。"微生物工程"课程是高等院校生物技术、生物工程专业的必修课,该课程具有很强的应用性和实践性。为了加深学生对理论知识的理解、培养学生的科研思维,我们在微生物工程实验课的教学中引入了一种基于慕课教学资源的开放式教学模式。结果表明,这种慕课背景下的开放式教学在提升学生学习兴趣、锻炼学生创造性思维、增强学生科研素养、培养学生团队协作能力等方面都具有很好的效果。     

A DFT study of structure and stability of pleated and rippled cross‐β sheets with hydrophobic sidechains

The rippled cross‐β sheet, a topography, in which mirror‐image peptides are arranged with alternating chirality into a periodic two‐dimensional network, is burgeoning as a new design principle for materials and biomedical applications. Experiments by the Schneider, Nilsson, and Raskatov labs have independently shown diverse racemic mixtures of aggregation‐prone peptide of different sizes to favor the rippled over the pleated topography. Yet, systematic ab initio studies are lacking, and the field is yet to develop rules that would enable the design of new rippled cross‐β frameworks from first principles. Here, DFT calculations were performed on a set of model systems, designed to begin understanding the impact that bulky, hydrophobic sidechains have upon the formation of pleated and rippled cross‐β frameworks. It is hoped that this study will help stimulate the development of a predictive, general framework to enable rational design of rippled cross‐β sheets in the future.     

A penalized structural equation modeling method accounting for secondary phenotypes for variable selection on genetically regulated expression from PrediXcan for Alzheimer's disease

As the global burden of mental illness is estimated to become a severe issue in the near future, it demands the development of more effective treatments. Most psychiatric diseases are moderately to highly heritable and believed to involve many genes. Development of new treatment options demands more knowledge on the molecular basis of psychiatric diseases. Toward this end, we propose to develop new statistical methods with improved sensitivity and accuracy to identify disease‐related genes specialized for psychiatric diseases. The qualitative psychiatric diagnoses such as case control often suffer from high rates of misdiagnosis and oversimplify the disease phenotypes. Our proposed method utilizes endophenotypes, the quantitative traits hypothesized to underlie disease syndromes, to better characterize the heterogeneous phenotypes of psychiatric diseases. We employ the structural equation modeling using the liability‐index model to link multiple genetically regulated expressions from PrediXcan and the manifest variables including endophenotypes and case‐control status. The proposed method can be considered as a general method for multivariate regression, which is particularly helpful for psychiatric diseases. We derive penalized retrospective likelihood estimators to deal with the typical small sample size issue. Simulation results demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method and the real data analysis of Alzheimer's disease illustrates the practical utility of the techniques. Data used in preparation of this article were obtained from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database.     

X-linked meiotic drive can boost population size and persistence

X-linked meiotic drivers cause X-bearing sperm to be produced in excess by male carriers, leading to female-biased sex ratios. Here, we find general conditions for the spread and fixation of X-linked alleles. Our conditions show that the spread of X-linked alleles depends on sex-specific selection and transmission rather than the time spent in each sex. Applying this logic to meiotic drive, we show that polymorphism is heavily dependent on sperm competition induced both by female and male mating behavior and the degree of compensation to gamete loss in the ejaculate size of drive males. We extend these evolutionary models to investigate the demographic consequences of biased sex ratios. Our results suggest driving X-alleles that invade and reach polymorphism (or fix and do not bias segregation excessively) will boost population size and persistence time by increasing population productivity, demonstrating the potential for selfish genetic elements to move sex ratios closer to the population-level optimum. However, when the spread of drive causes strong sex-ratio bias, it can lead to populations with so few males that females remain unmated, cannot produce offspring, and go extinct. This outcome is exacerbated when the male mating rate is low. We suggest that researchers should consider the potential for ecologically beneficial side effects of selfish genetic elements, especially in light of proposals to use meiotic drive for biological control.     

全球变化格局下重要传粉昆虫大蜜蜂的潜在适生区变化

【目的】当前全球气候变化、土地利用改变、人类活动加剧等正威胁着传粉昆虫的多样性及分布;蜜蜂是生态系统中重要的传粉昆虫类群,对气候、环境变化响应敏感。本研究以重要的传粉昆虫大蜜蜂Apis dorsata为对象,探讨全球变化格局下其潜在适生区变化以及影响其分布的关键因子。【方法】通过文献、馆藏和野外调查系统收集了全球范围内大蜜蜂的物种分布数据,使用13个环境变量通过MaxEnt模型模拟了大蜜蜂当前的潜在适生区;使用9个气候变量并结合公共地球系统模型(CCSM4)模拟了大蜜蜂过去、当前和未来的潜在适生区。【结果】AUC比率显示MaxEnt模型对大蜜蜂的潜在适生区模拟具有较高的准确性,模拟结果表明大蜜蜂的中高潜在适生区主要分布在南亚和东南亚湿润的热带雨林、热带季节性雨林和低地雨林。人类影响、温度季节性变化、等温性、最冷季均温和海拔是影响大蜜蜂潜在适生区的5个最主要因子;在人类影响下大蜜蜂的潜在适生区向山区和连片的湿润常绿森林区收缩,中高潜在适生区显著减少且呈破碎化趋势。基于9个气候变量和CCSM4气候模型对过去、当前和未来的模拟结果显示：在过去的末次冰盛期,东南亚地区可能是大蜜蜂的避难所;在未来,广布于热带地区的大蜜蜂适生区与当前的相近,且部分地区适生指数升高。【结论】基于气候的模拟结果显示大蜜蜂能积极应对未来气候变暖,但随人类活动的加剧及全球气候变化,大蜜蜂仍然面临较大的威胁,需要加强其在南亚和东南亚的中高潜在适生区的重视和保护。     

Establishment of the biological control agent Hypocosmia pyrochroma for Dolichandra unguis-cati (Bignoniaceae) is limited by microclimate

Cat's claw creeper, Dolichandra unguis-cati (Bignoniaceae), a perennial woody vine native to tropical America, is a target for biological control in Australia and South Africa. The cat's claw creeper leaf-tying moth Hypocosmia pyrochroma (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) from tropical South America was released as a biological control agent for cat's claw creeper in Australia from 2007 to 2010. A total of 2,277 adults, 837 pupae and 77,250 larvae were released at 40 sites in Queensland and New South Wales. Releases were made mostly in open fields (85%), and at limited sites (15%) in insect-proof cages erected over naturally occurring cat's claw creeper infestations in the field. Sampling was conducted annually in spring and autumn to monitor the establishment and dispersal of H. pyrochroma. Establishment of H. pyrochroma was first noticed in 2012 at three release sites and since then the number of established sites has increased to 80 in 2020. Establishment was evident on both ‘short-pod’ and ‘long-pod’ forms of cat's claw creeper and was more widespread in sites where releases were made within insect-proof field cages (50%) than in sites with open field releases (9%). The moth was active from late spring to late autumn with peak larval activity in late summer. To date, all field establishments have been in areas predicted by a CLIMEX model as climatically suitable but restricted mostly to riparian environment (93% of establishment), where the moth has continued to spread from 1.5 to 23 km from release sites. In contrast, there is the only limited establishment and spread in non-riparian corridors, highlighting the role of microclimate (riparian) as a limiting factor for establishment and spread. Future efforts will focus on redistribution of the agent to river/creek systems where the moth is currently not present.