Comparative Analysis of Endogenous Hormones and Metabolite Profiles in Early-Spring Flowering Plants and Unflowered Plants Revealing the Strategy of Blossom

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Early-spring plants are a special type of plant that complete their life cycle promptly in cold, early spring. Very little effort has been made into researching...     

Agar Diffusion Method for Negative Staining of Microbial Suspensions in Salt Solutions

Microbial suspensions in a saline medium can be prepared for negative staining by a simple agar diffusion method that achieves a high degree of particle concentration.     

N-Glycans and sulfated glycosaminoglycans contribute to the action of diverse Tc toxins on mammalian cells

Tc toxin is an exotoxin composed of three subunits named TcA, TcB and TcC. Structural analysis revealed that TcA can form homopentamer that mediates the cellular recognition and delivery processes, thus contributing to the host tropism of Tc toxin. N-glycans and heparan sulfates have been shown to act as receptors for several Tc toxins. Here, we performed two independent genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screens, and have validated glycans and sulfated glycosaminoglycans (sGAGs) as Tc toxin receptors also for previously uncharacterized Tc toxins. We found that TcdA1 form Photorhabdus luminescens W14 (TcdA1^W14) can recognize N-glycans via the RBD-D domain, corroborating previous findings. Knockout of N-glycan processing enzymes specifically blocks the intoxication of TcdA1^W14-assembled Tc toxin. On the other hand, our results showed that sGAG biosynthesis pathway is involved in the cell surface binding of TcdA2^TT01 (TcdA2 from P. luminescens TT01). Competition assays and biolayer interferometry demonstrated that the sulfation group in sGAGs is required for the binding of TcdA2^TT01. Finally, based on the conserved domains of representative TcA proteins, we have identified 1,189 putative TcAs from 1,039 bacterial genomes. These TcAs are categorized into five subfamilies. Each subfamily shows a good correlation with both genetic organization of the TcA protein(s) and taxonomic origin of the genomes, suggesting these subfamilies may utilize different mechanisms for cellular recognition. Taken together, our results support the previously described two different binding modalities of Tc toxins, leading to unique host targeting properties. We also present the bioinformatics data and receptor screening strategies for TcA proteins, provide new insights into understanding host specificity and biomedical applications of Tc toxins.     

Structural analysis of inhibition of <Emphasis Type="Italic">E. coli</Emphasis> methionine aminopeptidase: implication of loop adaptability in selective inhibition of bacterial enzymes

Background  

Methionine aminopeptidase is a potential target of future antibacterial and anticancer drugs. Structural analysis of complexes of the enzyme with its inhibitors provides valuable information for structure-based drug design efforts.     

外泌体源性miRNAs在肺癌发生发展中的作用

外泌体(exosomes)是细胞分泌的纳米级细胞外囊泡.外泌体通过释放其内的生物活性大分子,比如微小RNA(microRNA,miRNA)到受体细胞,从而介导细胞间交流通讯. MiRNAs作为一类主要在转录后水平负向调控靶mRNAs的非编码RNAs,其在外泌体中含量最为丰富.在肺癌中,miRNAs经肿瘤细胞分泌的外泌体转运释放而发挥重要的作用.本文主要讨论了外泌体源性miRNAs在肺癌发生发展的各个阶段,包括血管生成、细胞增殖、侵袭转移、免疫逃逸、耐药等方面的作用,以及其在作为新型肺癌诊断和预后标志物方面的临床价值.     

线粒体膜完整性对细胞命运的调控

线粒体双层膜的完整性是细胞存活的关键因素，其遭到破坏后会使细胞发生凋亡、焦亡或炎症。线粒体膜的破坏包括线粒体外膜通透、线粒体内膜通透、通透性转换，三者可通过调控不同的信号通路导致不同的细胞命运。然而，这些信号通路之间存在交叉关联，使得线粒体膜对细胞命运的调控错综复杂，导致人们对其机制缺乏清晰的认识。本综述首先分析了不同程度线粒体外膜通透在细胞存活、癌变或凋亡中的作用，接着讨论了线粒体内膜通透通过引发线粒体DNA释放促进炎症发生的分子机制，然后阐述了线粒体通透性转换引发焦亡的作用机制，最后总结出线粒体膜完整性影响细胞命运决策的内在关联。深入了解线粒体膜完整性调控细胞命运的分子动力学机制，有助于为癌症和神经退行性疾病的诊疗提供思路。