A New Pathway for Senescence Regulation

<正>Research concerning senescence has become a hotspot since the conception of‘cellular senescence’was put forward by Drs.Hayflick and Moorhead over five decades ago[1].Recently,a paper published in Science by Kang and colleagues,which this article aims to comment on,provides evidence of a new pathway involved in senescence[2].Senescence is a physiological and pathological process induced by numerous factors,during which cell growth ceases     

Longitudinal Metabolomics Profiling of Parkinson’s Disease-Related α-Synuclein A53T Transgenic Mice

Metabolic homeostasis is critical for all biological processes in the brain. The metabolites are considered the best indicators of cell states and their rapid fluxes are extremely sensitive to cellular changes. While there are a few studies on the metabolomics of Parkinson’s disease, it lacks longitudinal studies of the brain metabolic pathways affected by aging and the disease. Using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectroscopy (UPLC/MS), we generated the metabolomics profiling data from the brains of young and aged male PD-related α-synuclein A53T transgenic mice as well as the age- and gender-matched non-transgenic (nTg) controls. Principal component and unsupervised hierarchical clustering analyses identified distinctive metabolites influenced by aging and the A53T mutation. The following metabolite set enrichment classification revealed the alanine metabolism, redox and acetyl-CoA biosynthesis pathways were substantially disturbed in the aged mouse brains regardless of the genotypes, suggesting that aging plays a more prominent role in the alterations of brain metabolism. Further examination showed that the interaction effect of aging and genotype only disturbed the guanosine levels. The young A53T mice exhibited lower levels of guanosine compared to the age-matched nTg controls. The guanosine levels remained constant between the young and aged nTg mice, whereas the aged A53T mice showed substantially increased guanosine levels compared to the young mutant ones. In light of the neuroprotective function of guanosine, our findings suggest that the increase of guanosine metabolism in aged A53T mice likely represents a protective mechanism against neurodegeneration, while monitoring guanosine levels could be applicable to the early diagnosis of the disease.     

Extracellular vesicles in bone and tooth: A state-of-art paradigm in skeletal regeneration

Bone and tooth, fundamental parts of the craniofacial skeleton, are anatomically and developmentally interconnected structures. Notably, pathological processes in these tissues underwent together and progressed in multilevels. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-released small organelles and transfer proteins and genetic information into cells and tissues. Although EVs have been identified in bone and tooth, particularly EVs have been identified in the bone formation and resorption, the concrete roles of EVs in bone and tooth development and diseases remain elusive. As such, we review the recent progress of EVs in bone and tooth to highlight the novel findings of EVs in cellular communication, tissue homeostasis, and interventions. This will enhance our comprehension on the skeletal biology and shed new light on the modulation of skeletal disorders and the potential of genetic treatment.     

兰州唐古特白刺根际微生物分离鉴定

【目的】从兰州唐古特白刺根际分离得到对植物有潜在促生效果的功能微生物，为研发相关菌种制剂的研究奠定基础。【方法】通过平板划线法从其根际分离纯化出6株细菌，并对菌株进行形态特征观察、革兰氏染色等一系列生理生化试验。用藜麦检测各菌株的促生功能，并对具有优良促生作用的1个菌株16S rRNA基因进行分子鉴定及基因草图绘制。【结果】根据生化鉴定结果，6株细菌分别属于不动杆菌属(Acinetobacter)、土壤杆菌属(Agrobacterium)、类芽孢杆菌属(Paenibacillus)、芽孢杆菌属(Bacillus)、鞘氨醇单胞菌属(Sphingomonas)和假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas)。其中，16S rRNA基因鉴定BC4属于肠杆菌属(Enterobacter)，具有较好的促生效果。【结论】BC4具有较好的促生效果，为兰州唐古特白刺菌种资源的开发和利用提供了一定的理论依据。     

阿拉善高原2种荒漠植物根系构型及生态适应性特征

根系构型决定了植物对资源的吸收方式，根系构型的变化是植物对环境的生态适应和有效生存策略。在阿拉善高原西南缘红砂（Reaumuria soongarica）-珍珠猪毛菜（Salsola passerina）混生群落采用传统挖掘法收集两种植物根系，基于量化的根系形态指标，利用几何拓扑学及分形理论分析了根系构型特征，探讨了该地区2种植物对干旱生境的生态适应策略。结果表明：红砂和珍珠猪毛菜根系均以水平分布占优，根系浅层化分布明显，混生的两种植物占据不同的生态位；2种荒漠植物均具有较大的比根长（SRL）和比表面积（SRA），红砂SRL=21.3 cm/g，SRA=7.6 cm²/g，珍珠SRL=22.4 cm/g，SRA=6.5 cm²/g，有利于水分和养分的获取；红砂根系拓扑指数（TI）、修正拓扑参数（q_a和q_b）分别为0.86、0.52、0.49，珍珠猪毛菜对应参数分别为0.93、0.76、0.73，表明2种植物根系均趋向于鱼尾形分支结构；根系分形维数值（FD_红=1.488、FD_珍=1.422）较小，而分形丰度值（lgK_红=1.855、lgK_珍=1.774）较大，表明2种植物分支相对简单，但空间拓展能力强，有利于对营养空间的占有。上述特征可能是阿拉善西南缘红砂-珍珠猪毛菜群落2种荒漠植物植物对干旱贫瘠生境的重要生态适应策略。     

Adsorption of DNA by Bacteria and Their Composites with Minerals

Previous studies revealed the thermodynamic properties of DNA adsorption on pure minerals or biomasses; however, there has been little attempt to develop such studies on bacteria–mineral composites. Equilibrium adsorption experiments, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and isothermal titration calorimetry were employed to investigate the adsorption of DNA by Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas putida, and their composites with minerals. Similar capacity and affinity were observed for DNA adsorption on two bacterial cells. However, different patterns were found in the adsorption of DNA by bacteria–mineral composites. The Gram-positive bacterium B. subtilis enhanced the adsorption of DNA on its mineral composites compared with their individual components, while the composites of Gram-negative bacterial cells with kaolinite and goethite bound lower amounts of DNA than the predicted values. The thermodynamic parameters and the Fourier transform infrared spectra showed that van der Waals force and hydrogen bonding are responsible for the DNA adsorption on B. subtilis–minerals and P. putida–kaolinite. By contrast, the entropy increases of excluded water rearrangement and dehydration effect play key roles in the interaction between DNA and P. putida–montmorillonite/goethite composites.     

溶瘤病毒载体研究进展

溶瘤病毒(oncolytic virus,OVs)疗法是治疗肿瘤的一种新方法,它可通过直接杀死肿瘤细胞并引起机体的免疫反应发挥作用.然而天然溶瘤病毒有一定的局限性,因此需将各种不同的病毒作为载体,通过基因修饰的方法增强或减弱病毒毒力并导入新的功能性基因,以提高其溶瘤作用.目前可以作为溶瘤病毒载体的有单纯疱疹病毒、腺病毒、牛痘病毒、水泡性口炎病毒、麻疹病毒、腮腺炎病毒、脊髓灰质炎病毒等.这些病毒载体均可通过不同的基因修饰方法,靶向性感染并杀死不同的肿瘤细胞,获得较好的溶瘤作用.本文综述了几种溶瘤病毒载体的基因修饰方法,以及修饰后的溶瘤效果.     

不同修复措施对黄河源退化高寒草甸植物群落与土壤养分的影响

为了揭示退化高寒草甸逆向转变的驱动因子，通过野外调查和室内分析相结合的方法探究了黄河源不同修复措施（施有机肥F、免耕补播N、施有机肥+免耕补播FN）处理高寒草甸植物群落特征、土壤理化性质和两者相关性的变化规律，阐明不同修复措施对黄河源退化高寒草甸植物群落与土壤养分的影响。结果表明：免耕补播显著增加草甸物种丰富度指数（P<0.05）；施有机肥+免耕补播显著增加草甸植物盖度、总生物量、Shannon Wiener多样性指数和Pielous均匀度指数（P<0.05）。不同人工修复后草甸植物功能群地上、地下生物量变化趋势基本一致（除豆科）。和对照相比，莎草科，杂类草地上和地下生物量含量在N、FN处理分别降低83.04%、73.86%、30.43%、92.37%和96.51%、84.09%、85.68%、95.36%；禾本科地上和地下生物量含量在F、N和FN处理分别增加7.29%、23.45%、17.93%和6.04%、4.03%、10.52%；豆科地上生物量含量基本保持不变，地下生物量含量在F、N和FN处理分别降低24.43%、82.19%和42.61%。F显著增加土壤有机碳含量（P=0.033）；N显著降低土壤NO₃^--N含量（P=0.009）；FN显著降低土壤pH和增加土壤速效磷含量（P=0.024）；F和FN显著增加土壤含水量（P=0.000），N则显著降低土壤含水量（P=0.000）；F显著降低土壤容重（P=0.018）。相关性分析表明植物Shannon Wiener多样性和Pielous均匀度与土壤速效磷含量呈显著正相关（P=0.037；P=0.033），土壤有机碳和含水量与总生物量呈显著正相关（P=0.027；P=0.032），pH与盖度呈显著负相关（P=0.049）。冗余度分析结果表明土壤有机碳含量和含水量显著影响了植物群落结构特征，解释率分别为30.3%和19.7%。研究结果表明，因地制宜进行退化高寒草甸施有机肥+免耕补播修复措施，能够明显提高草地生产力，改善草甸植物群落及其土壤养分和水分环境。