Identification of the gene MdSOD3 and its role in resisting heavy metal stress in housefly (Musca domestica)

超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)是一种重要的抗氧化酶,在昆虫抗氧化保护过程中起着重要作用.本研究通过RTPCR技术鉴定了家蝇Musca domestica MdSOD3基因(GenBank登录号为JQ408979),cDNA序列817 bp,开放阅读框534 bp,推导的多肽序列含有177个氨基酸.同源性分析及NJ法系统分析表明MdSOD3与其他物种的Cu/ZnSOD关系较近.荧光定量PCR检测该基因在家蝇幼虫脂肪体、肠、表皮和血细胞中不存在差异表达;在受到不同浓度重金属Cd2+刺激时,MdSOD3基因呈诱导性表达,5 mmol/L时表达量最高.通过RNAi策略技术成功敲低MdSOD3表达水平.将RNA干扰60h的幼虫置于5 mmol/L Cd2+处理24h后死亡率明显升高,并且出现中毒表象.NBT活性染色检测到体外重组表达的MdSOD3具有明显的酶活性.结果提示MdSOD3基因可能在家蝇抗逆防御过程中起着重要作用.     

葡萄糖诱导绿色杜氏藻转录组及相关通路差异分析

绿色杜氏藻是研究耐盐机理的模式绿藻．葡萄糖不仅是营养物质,而且还是信号物质．目前,对绿色杜氏藻转录组、糖处理后差异表达基因和β-胡萝卜素生物合成途径关键基因表达还不清楚．本研究通过Illumina HiSeqTM 2000高通量测序,获得葡萄糖处理和未处理绿色杜氏藻转录组信息．利用P value值和差异倍数对样本进行差异表达分析,共111条转录本存在差异表达,3条为上调转录本,108条为下调转录本．利用RT-qPCR检验差异表达分析的准确性. 结果表明,转录本表达结果与转录组分析结果一致．GO功能富集结果表明,71条下调转录本与代谢相关,占所有下调转录本的65.74%．KEGG富集分析结果表明,21条KEGG通路含89条下调转录本,14条通路与代谢相关．代谢中通路最多的为能量代谢（6条）,含63条下调转录本．能量代谢中与光合作用相关的下调转录本最多,为29条．通过分析找到2条与β-胡萝卜素生物合成相关通路（MVA/MEP途径及β-胡萝卜素合成途径）,并发现通路的关键基因hmgs、dxs、dxr、psy、pds、chyb,对其进行差异表达分析,均不存在差异表达．研究表明,葡萄糖抑制了绿色杜氏藻光合作用,代谢受阻,但未影响β-胡萝卜素生物合成相关通路及关键基因．     

Isg15 controls p53 stability and functions

Degradation of p53 is a cornerstone in the control of its functions as a tumor suppressor. This process is attributed to ubiquitin-dependent modification of p53. In addition to polyubiquitination, we found that p53 is targeted for degradation through ISGylation. Isg15, a ubiquitin-like protein, covalently modifies p53 at 2 sites in the N and C terminus, and ISGylated p53 can be degraded by the 20S proteasome. ISGylation primarily targets a misfolded, dominant-negative p53, and Isg15 deletion in normal cells results in suppression of p53 activity and functions. We propose that Isg15-dependent degradation of p53 represents an alternative mechanism of controlling p53 protein levels, and, thus, it is an attractive pathway for drug discovery.     

Low-Rank and Eigenface Based Sparse Representation for Face Recognition

In this paper, based on low-rank representation and eigenface extraction, we present an improvement to the well known Sparse Representation based Classification (SRC). Firstly, the low-rank images of the face images of each individual in training subset are extracted by the Robust Principal Component Analysis (Robust PCA) to alleviate the influence of noises (e.g., illumination difference and occlusions). Secondly, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is applied to extract the eigenfaces from these low-rank and approximate images. Finally, we utilize these eigenfaces to construct a compact and discriminative dictionary for sparse representation. We evaluate our method on five popular databases. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our method.     

Identification of low-abundance proteins via fractionation of the urine proteome with weak anion exchange chromatography

Background  

Low-abundance proteins are difficultly observed on the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) maps of urine proteome, because they are usually obscured by high-abundance proteins such as albumin and immunoglobulin. In this study, a novel fractionation method was developed for enriching low-abundance proteins by removing high-abundance proteins and progressive elution with salts of various concentrations.     

Diurnal rhythms of free estradiol and cortisol during the normal menstrual cycle in women with major depression

To investigate whether depression is accompanied by changes in diurnal rhythms of free estradiol and cortisol in different phases of the menstrual cycle, we measured these two hormone levels in saliva samples collected every 2 h for 24 h from 15 healthy normally cycling women and 12 age-matched normally cycling women suffering from major depression taking antidepressants. The assessments were repeated four times over one menstrual cycle: during menstruation and in the late follicular/peri-ovulating, early to mid-luteal and late luteal phases, respectively. Quantification with a nonlinear periodic regression model revealed distinct diurnal rhythms in free estradiol and free cortisol in all subjects. For the diurnal cortisol rhythm, significant differences were found in the peak-width and ultradian amplitude among different menstrual phases, both in controls and depressed patients, while no significant differences were found between the two groups. The diurnal estradiol rhythm, on the other hand, was quite consistent among different menstrual phases within both groups, while the depressed patients had overall larger amplitudes than controls, which is negatively correlated with disease duration. Significant positive correlations between the two hormone rhythms were found for 24-h mean level (mesor), peak, and trough in late luteal phase, and for ultradian harmonics in early to mid-luteal phase in controls, but only for ultradian harmonics in late follicular/peri-ovulating phase and for acrophase in the menstruation phase in depressed patients. A sub-analysis was also performed in patients who received Fluoxetine (n = 7). The findings implicate a close correlation between the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, both of which may be involved in depression.     

A New Farnesyl Diphosphate Synthase Gene from Taxus media Rehder： Cloning, Characterization and Functional Complementation

Farnesyl dlphosphate synthase （FPS; EC 2.5.1.10） catalyzes the production of 15-carbon farnesyl dlphosphate which Is a branch-point Intermediate for many terpenoids. This reaction Is considered to be a ratelimiting step In terpenold biosynthesis. Here we report for the first time the cloning of a new full-length cDNA encoding farnesyl dlphosphate synthase from a gymnosperm plant species, Taxus media Rehder, designated as TmFPS1. The full-length cDNA of TmFPS1 （GenBank accession number： AY461811） was 1 464 bp with a 1 056-bp open reading frame encoding a 351-amino acid polypeptlde with a calculated molecular weight of 40.3 kDa and a theoretical pl of 5.07. Biolnformatlc analysis revealed that TmFPS1 contained all five conserved domains of prenyltransferases, and showed homology to other FPSs of plant origin. Phylogenetlc analysis showed that farnesyl dlphosphate synthases can be divided Into two groups： one of prokaryotic origin and the other of eukaryotic origin. TmFPS1 was grouped with FPSs of plant origin. Homologybased structural modeling showed that TmFPS1 had the typical spatial structure of FPS, whose most prominent structural feature Is the arrangement of 13 core helices around a large central cavity In which the catalytic reaction takes place. Our blolnformatic analysis strongly suggests that TmFPS1 is a functional gene. Southern blot analysis revealed that TmFPS1 belongs to a small FPSgene family in T. media. Northern blot analysis indicated that TmFPS1 is expressed in all tested tissues, Including the needles, stems and roots of T. media. Subsequently, functional complementatlon with TmFPS1 in a FPS-deflclent mutant yeast demonstrated that TmFPS1 did encode farnesyl dlphosphate synthase, which rescued the yeast mutant. This study will be helpful In future Investigations aiming at understanding the detailed role of FPS In terpenold biosynthesis flux control at the molecular genetic level.