基于茎流-蒸渗仪法的荒漠草原带人工灌丛群落蒸散特征

中国西北地区通过大量种植中间锦鸡儿(Caragana liouana)进行生态治理, 在荒漠草原带上形成人工灌丛景观, 改变了生态系统的结构和功能, 影响到地-气水汽循环过程, 研究该人工灌丛群落的蒸散特征, 对揭示其生态水文效应和指导地方生态治理实践具有重要意义。该文以宁夏盐池荒漠草原带上的人工灌丛群落为例, 利用茎流-蒸渗仪法测定了2018年5-8月的灌木蒸腾和丛下蒸散, 并分析了环境因子对人工灌丛群落蒸散的影响。结果表明: (1)茎流-蒸渗仪法所测的群落蒸散与水量平衡法、涡度相关法得到的群落蒸散有较好的一致性, 茎流-蒸渗仪法能适用于荒漠草原带人工灌丛群落蒸散及其组分结构的测定; (2)观测期内晴天的灌木蒸腾速率和丛下蒸散速率日变化趋势相近, 均为单峰曲线, 群落蒸散主要发生在日间, 但灌丛最大蒸腾速率的出现时间比丛下蒸散最大速率的出现时间晚1 h; (3) 5-8月间灌木累积蒸腾为83.6 mm, 日平均蒸腾量为0.7 mm·d^-1, 季节变化呈抛物线状; 同期丛下累积蒸散为182.5 mm, 日平均蒸散量为1.5 mm·d^-1; 丛下蒸散明显大于灌木蒸腾; (4)观测期间人工灌丛群落累积蒸散266.1 mm, 而同期的降水量为222.6 mm, 陆面水分收支处于亏缺状态; (5)净辐射是影响蒸散最主要、最直接的驱动因素, 且能够影响其他因子进而对人工灌丛群落蒸散产生作用。综上, 人工灌丛引发荒漠草原地带陆面水分收支亏缺的现象, 在生态恢复与重建中须引起注意。     

Enhanced CO2 biofixation and protein production by microalgae biofilm attached on modified surface of nickel foam

In this work, a photobioreactor with microalgae biofilm was proposed to enhance CO₂ biofixation and protein production using nickel foam with the modified surface as the carrier for immobilizing microalgae cells. The results demonstrated that, compared with microalgae suspension, microalgae biofilm lowered mass transfer resistance and promoted mass transfer efficiency of CO₂ from the bubbles into the immobilized microalgae cells, enhancing CO₂ biofixation and protein production. Moreover, parametric studies on the performance of the photobioreactor with microalgae biofilm were also conducted. The results showed that the photobioreactor with microalgae biofilm yielded a good performance with the CO₂ biofixation rate of 4465.6 µmol m⁻³ s⁻¹, the protein concentration of effluent liquid of 0.892 g L⁻¹, and the protein synthesis rate of 43.11 g m⁻³ h⁻¹. This work will be conducive to the optimization design of microalgae culture system for improving the performance of the photobioreactor.

     

Blood-brain barrier disruption in the hypothalamus of young adult spontaneously hypertensive rats

Vascular permeability and endothelial glycocalyx were examined in young adult spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), stroke-prone SHR (SHRSP), and Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY) as a control, in order to determine earlier changes in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in the hypothalamus in chronic hypertension. These rats were injected with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) as an indicator of vascular permeability. Brain slices were developed with a chromogen and further examined with cationized ferritin, a marker for evaluating glycocalyx. Staining for HRP was seen around vessels in the hypothalamus of SHR and SHRSP, but was scarce in WKY. The reaction product of HRP appeared in the abluminal pits of endothelial cells and within the basal lamina of arterioles, showing increased vascular permeability in the hypothalamus of SHR and SHRSP, whereas there were no leaky vessels in the frontal cortex of SHR and SHRSP, or in both areas of WKY. The number of cationized ferritin particles binding to the capillary endothelial cells was decreased in the hypothalamus of SHR and SHRSP, while the number decreased in the frontal cortex of SHRSP, compared with those in WKY. Cationized ferritin binding was preserved in some leaky arterioles, while it was scarce or disappeared in other leaky vessels. These findings suggest that BBB disruption occurs in the hypothalamus of 3-month-old SHR and SHRSP, and that endothelial glycocalyx is markedly damaged there without a close relationship to the early changes in the BBB.     

Epigenetic silencing of microRNA-149 in cancer-associated fibroblasts mediates prostaglandin E2/interleukin-6 signaling in the tumor microenvironment

Tumor initiation and growth depend on its microenvironment in which cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in tumor stroma play an important role. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and interleukin (IL)-6 signal pathways are involved in the crosstalk between tumor and stromal cells. However, how PGE2-mediated signaling modulates this crosstalk remains unclear. Here, we show that microRNA (miR)-149 links PGE2 and IL-6 signaling in mediating the crosstalk between tumor cells and CAFs in gastric cancer (GC). miR-149 inhibited fibroblast activation by targeting IL-6 and miR-149 expression was substantially suppressed in the CAFs of GC. miR-149 negatively regulated CAFs and their effect on GC development both in vitro and in vivo. CAFs enhanced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the stem-like properties of GC cells in a miR-149-IL-6-dependent manner. In addition to IL-6, PGE2 receptor 2 (PTGER2/EP2) was revealed as another potential target of miR-149 in fibroblasts. Furthermore, H. pylori infection, a leading cause of human GC, was able to induce cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)/PGE2 signaling and to enhance PGE2 production, resulting in the hypermethylation of miR-149 in CAFs and increased IL-6 secretion. Our findings indicate that miR-149 mediates the crosstalk between tumor cells and CAFs in GC and highlight the potential of interfering miRNAs in stromal cells to improve cancer therapy.     

Spontaneous elicitation of potent antitumor immunity and eradication of established tumors by administration of DNA encoding soluble transforming growth factor-β II receptor without active antigen-sensitization

Since immunity is generally suppressed by immunoregulatory factors, such as transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), interleukin (IL)-10, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), produced by tumor cells or stromal cells surrounding tumor cells, various kinds of cancer immunotherapy mostly fail to elicit potent antitumor immunity. Herein, we tested whether neutralization of TGF-β can elicit strong antitumor immune responses and tumor regression in tumor-bearing mice. A plasmid DNA, pcDNA-sTGFβR/huIg, encoding a fusion protein consisting of the extracellular domain of TGF-β type II receptor (TGFβRII) and the Fc portion of human IgG heavy chain, was injected through different routes into B6 mice carrying established tumors of E.G7 cells, which consist of the poorly immunogenic tumor cells EL4, transfected with the ovalbumin (OVA) gene. The frequency of OVA-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), in the treated mice. increased resulting in the tumor eradication and relapse-free survival in around 70% of the E.G7-bearing mice. In contrast, administration of mock DNA into E.G7-bearing mice did not elicit tumor-specific immune responses. Therefore, administration of DNA encoding TGFβRII allowed tumor-bearing hosts to elicit sufficiently potent antitumor immune responses without requirement of further active antigen-immunization. This strategy seems to be applicable to clinical therapy against cancer, because it is low-cost, safe, and easy to manipulate.     

Allelopathic impact of artificially applied coumarin on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fusarium oxysporum</Emphasis> f.sp. <Emphasis Type="Italic">niveum</Emphasis>

Watermelon production is threatened by fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. niveum (FON) in continuous cultivation system. Some elements, mainly allelochemicals, released from living roots or decayed plants might be associated with the disease. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the possible impact of coumarin, one kind of watermelon allelochemical, on FON. Furthermore, possible new mechanisms might be investigated during the ecological interactions of plant-microbe. Results showed that coumarin strongly inhibited growth of FON leading to a decrease in its biomass, dry weight of mycelia of FON in a liquid culture. The dry weight was decreased by 62.9% compared with control. The hyphal growth of FON on plates was stopped at high (>400 mg l⁻¹) concentrations of coumarin. At 320 mg l⁻¹, sporulation and enzyme activities of FON were also severely suppressed by coumarin. The yield of conidia, and the activities of proteinase, cellulase, and amylase were reduced by 98.9%, 79.7%, 29.8% and 15.9% respectively. However, conidial germination and mycotoxin (MT) production of FON were greatly stimulated, being increased by 55.7% and 14.9 fold at 320 mg l⁻¹ respectively. We conclude that coumarin acted as an allelochemical substance to inhibit growth and pathogenic enzyme activities of FON but to stimulate mycotoxin production and conidial germination. It was suggested that coumarin acted as a signal transduction element bridging plant and pathogen in the process of plant-microbe interactions.     

皱纹盘鲍伴侣蛋白CCTζ的分子克隆及其在不同锌含量日粮处理下的表达分析

伴侣蛋白CCT在蛋白折叠、抗胁迫以及调节细胞生长等生理过程中担负重要作用。研究利用同源克隆和RACE技术克隆了皱纹盘鲍伴侣蛋白CCTζ(HdhCCTζ)cDNA全长序列,并对CCTζ基因的序列特征进行了分析。HdhCCTζcDNA序列长1960 bp,开放阅读框为1599 bp,编码532个氨基酸,生物学软件推测其编码蛋白相对分子量为58.46 kD,等电点为6.53。BLAST分析结果表明HdhCCTζ与哺乳动物、鸟和鱼类等物种的CCT具有较高的同源性。生物信息学分析结果显示,HdhCCTζ蛋白序列中包含3个典型的CCT信号基序(35RTNLGPKGTLKML47,56LTKDGNVLLHEMQIQHP72和84QDDITGDGT92)以及1个腺苷三磷酸结合基序(89GDGTTS94)。此外,在HdhCCTζ蛋白序列中还包含3个糖基化位点(23NISA26,128NKSL131and234NVSL237)。实时荧光定量PCR检测结果显示,HdhCCTζ在皱纹盘鲍组织中为组成型表达,但主要集中在性腺、血淋巴和肝胰腺中表达。使用不同锌含量(6.69 mg/kg、33.85 mg/kg、710.63 mg/kg和3462.5 mg/kg)的日粮来饲喂幼鲍20周后,取其肝脏和血细胞总RNA,利用实时荧光定量PCR技术进行HdhCCTζmRNA的表达水平分析。分析结果显示,随着日粮中锌含量的增加,HdhCCTζmRNA在血淋巴和肝胰腺中的表达水平呈现上调的趋势。相比于锌适量组(33.85 mg/kg),过量的锌(3462.5 mg/kg)却能够下调HdhCCTζmRNA的表达水平。上述结果表明,HdhCCTζ的表达受到日粮中锌添加量的影响,而高表达量的HdhCCTζ可能在提高皱纹盘鲍机体抗胁迫过程中发挥重要作用。     

A robust correlation estimator and nonlinear recurrent model to infer genetic interactions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and pathways of pulmonary disease in Homo sapiens

In order to identify genes involved in complex diseases, it is crucial to study the genetic interactions at the systems biology level. By utilizing modern high throughput microarray technology, it has become feasible to obtain gene expressions data and turn it into knowledge that explains the regulatory behavior of genes. In this study, an unsupervised nonlinear model was proposed to infer gene regulatory networks on a genome-wide scale. The proposed model consists of two components, a robust correlation estimator and a nonlinear recurrent model. The robust correlation estimator was used to initialize the parameters of the nonlinear recurrent curve-fitting model. Then the initialized model was used to fit the microarray data. The model was used to simulate the underlying nonlinear regulatory mechanisms in biological organisms. The proposed algorithm was applied to infer the regulatory mechanisms of the general network in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the pulmonary disease pathways in Homo sapiens. The proposed algorithm requires no prior biological knowledge to predict linkages between genes. The prediction results were checked against true positive links obtained from the YEASTRACT database, the TRANSFAC database, and the KEGG database. By checking the results with known interactions, we showed that the proposed algorithm could determine some meaningful pathways, many of which are supported by the existing literature.     

Physiological functions of hemocytes newly emerged from the cultured hematopoietic organs in the silkworm, Bombyx mori

Abstract  Cellular immunity is a very important part of insect innate immunity. It is not clear if hemocytes entering the hemolymph require a maturation process to become competent. The establishment of a tissue culture system for the insect hematopoietic organs would enable physiological function assays with hemocytes newly emerged from hematopoietic organs. To this end, we established a hematopoietic organ culture system for the purebred silkworm pnd pS and then studied the physiological functions of the newly emerged hemocytes. We found that Grace's medium supplemented with 10% heated silkworm larval plasma was better for culturing the hematopoietic organs of pnd pS . Newly emerged hemocytes phagocytosed propidium iodide-labeled bacteria and encapsulated the Iml-2 coated nickel beads as well as pupal tissue debris. This culture system is therefore capable of generating physiologically functional hemocytes. These hemocytes can be used to study the mechanisms of the hemocyte immune response among others.