Expression of human prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in a mouse tumor cell line reduces tumorigenicity and elicits PSA-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes

 Human prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has a highly restricted tissue distribution. Its expression is essentially limited to the epithelial cells of the prostate gland. Moreover, it continues to be synthesized by prostate carcinoma cells. This makes PSA an attractive candidate for use as a target antigen in the immunotherapy of prostate cancer. As a first step in characterizing the specific immune response to PSA and its potential use as a tumor-rejection antigen, we have incorporated PSA into a well-established mouse tumor model. Line 1, a mouse lung carcinoma, and P815, a mouse mastocytoma, have been transfected with the cDNA for human PSA. Immunization with a PSA-expressing tumor cell line demonstrated a memory response to PSA which protected against subsequent challenge with PSA-expressing, but not wild-type, tumors. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes could be isolated from PSA-expressing tumors grown in naive hosts and were specifically cytotoxic against a syngeneic cell line that expressed PSA. Immunization with tumor cells resulted in the generation of primary and memory cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) specific for PSA. The isolation of PSA-specific CTL clones from immunized animals further demonstrated that PSA can serve as a target antigen for antitumor CTL. The immunogenicity studies carried out in this mouse tumor model provide a rationale for the design of methods to elicit PSA-specific cell-mediated immunity in humans. Received: 4 April 1996 / Accepted: 31 May 1996     

Corrigendum of Zhao et al. (2020): a revised infrageneric classification of Lepisorus (Polypodiaceae)

Here, we publish Lepisorus sect. Paragramma (Blume) C.F. Zhao, R. Wei & X.C. Zhang as a combinatio nova to replace the section name in Zhao et al. (2020), which was published as a status nova and turned out to be an invalid name, because we cited an incorrect basionym. A revised infrageneric classification of Lepisorus also is proposed.     

气候变化下中国八种梧桐属树种潜在适生区模拟

中国梧桐属（Firmiana）在世界梧桐属中占比较大，且除梧桐外其余种均为中国特有且分布范围狭窄的植物种，灭绝风险大，研究气候变化对中国梧桐属树种的影响对于维护生物多样性具有重要的意义。结合多时期第六次国际气候耦合模式比较计划（CMIP6）气候变量数据和中国八种梧桐属树种的分布数据，基于R语言kuenm程序包优化的最大熵（Maxent）模型模拟分析中国八种梧桐属树种在多尺度下的潜在适生区，得出梧桐属最适宜的模拟尺度、潜在适生区的面积变化和迁移方向、梧桐属多样性保护关键区域及保护空缺。结果表明：（1）梧桐属最适宜的模拟尺度为亚洲；（2） Maxent模型的接收者操作特征曲线下面积（AUC）值均大于0.9，表明模型对梧桐属潜在适生区预测结果具有较高准确度；（3）气候变化影响下除云南梧桐（Firmiana major）外其它树种的潜在适生区都将在未来有所扩大；（4）中国八种梧桐属树种潜在适生区迁移方向主要为东西向，南北向大跨度迁移较少，纬度变化不大；（5）丹霞梧桐（Firmiana danxiaensis）的稳定潜在适生区最小；（6）中国梧桐属多样性保护关键区域主要分布于广西壮族自治区及云南、广东、海南等省区；（7）中国梧桐属多样性保护空缺区域主要分布于广西壮族自治区中部及海南省北部；（8）梧桐属多样性保护关键区域正在为人造地表所侵蚀。研究分析气候变化对中国八种梧桐属树种的影响及其潜在适生区变化、中国梧桐属多样性保护状态，可为中国梧桐属建立多样性保护廊道提供相关建议，为制定多样性保护规划及相应措施提供参考。     

Digest: Developmental life history and adaptive radiation in salamanders*

What determines the rate at which species adapt to new climatic conditions? Weaver et al. found that the evolution of short larval periods promotes climatic niche evolution in salamanders in the genus Desmognathus.     

Production of Bio-Energy from Pig Manure: A Focus on the Dynamics Change of Four Parameters under Sunlight-Dark Conditions

This study investigated the effect of sunlight-dark conditions on volatile fatty acids (VFAs), total ammonium nitrogen (TAN), total alkalinity (TA) and pH during pig manure (PM) digestion and then the subsequent influence on biogas yield of PM. PM₁ and PM₂ were performed in a transparent reactor and a non-transparent reactor, respectively. Two sets of experiments were conducted with a temperature of 35.0±2.0 °C and a total solid concentration of 8.0% to the digestion material. The dynamic change of the four parameters in response to sunlight-dark conditions resulted in variations of the physiological properties in the digester and affected the cumulative biogas production (CBP). PM₁ obtained higher CBP (15020.0 mL) with a more stable pH and a lower TAN concentration (1414.5 mg/L) compared to PM₂ (2675.0 mL and 1670.0 mg/L, respectively). The direct path coefficients and indirect path coefficients between the four parameters and CBP were also analyzed.     

Posttranslational Regulation of Human DNA Polymerase ι

Human DNA polymerases (pols) η and ι are Y-family DNA polymerase paralogs that facilitate translesion synthesis past damaged DNA. Both polη and polι can be monoubiquitinated in vivo. Polη has been shown to be ubiquitinated at one primary site. When this site is unavailable, three nearby lysines may become ubiquitinated. In contrast, mass spectrometry analysis of monoubiquitinated polι revealed that it is ubiquitinated at over 27 unique sites. Many of these sites are localized in different functional domains of the protein, including the catalytic polymerase domain, the proliferating cell nuclear antigen-interacting region, the Rev1-interacting region, and its ubiquitin binding motifs UBM1 and UBM2. Polι monoubiquitination remains unchanged after cells are exposed to DNA-damaging agents such as UV light (generating UV photoproducts), ethyl methanesulfonate (generating alkylation damage), mitomycin C (generating interstrand cross-links), or potassium bromate (generating direct oxidative DNA damage). However, when exposed to naphthoquinones, such as menadione and plumbagin, which cause indirect oxidative damage through mitochondrial dysfunction, polι becomes transiently polyubiquitinated via Lys¹¹- and Lys⁴⁸-linked chains of ubiquitin and subsequently targeted for degradation. Polyubiquitination does not occur as a direct result of the perturbation of the redox cycle as no polyubiquitination was observed after treatment with rotenone or antimycin A, which both inhibit mitochondrial electron transport. Interestingly, polyubiquitination was observed after the inhibition of the lysine acetyltransferase KATB3/p300. We hypothesize that the formation of polyubiquitination chains attached to polι occurs via the interplay between lysine acetylation and ubiquitination of ubiquitin itself at Lys¹¹ and Lys⁴⁸ rather than oxidative damage per se.     

Survival rates of mutant genes under artificial selection using individual and family information

We have used diffusion and branching process methods to investigate fixation rates, probabilities of survival per generation, and times to fixation of mutant genes under different selection methods incorporating individual and family information. Diffusion approximations fit well to simulated results even for large selection coefficients. Methods that give much weight to family information, such as BLUP evaluation which is widely used in animal breeding, reduce fixation rates of mutant genes because of the reduced effective population sizes. In general, it is observed that even mutants with relatively small heterozygous effects (say 0.1 phenotypic standard deviation) are practically ‘safe’ (i.e. their probability of loss from one generation to the next is smaller than, say, 10%) after just a few generations, typically less than 10. For methods of selection with larger effective size, such as within-family selection, the mutant is ‘safe’ in the population somewhat earlier but eventual fixation takes a longer time. Finally we evaluate the amount by which the use of marker assisted selection reduces the fixation probability of newly arisen mutants.