Rock paper scissors: CRISPR/Cas9-mediated interference with geminiviruses in plants

<正>Geminiviruses are a group of circular single-stranded DNA viruses that constitute the largest family of plant viruses.Many diseases resulting from geminivirus infections, such as maize streak disease, cassava mosaic disease, tomato yellow leaf curl disease and cotton leaf curl diseases, cause significant problems in terms of economic losses, posing a serious threat to global crop productivity (Hanley-Bowdoin et al., 2013; Yang et al., 2019). As obligate intracellular     

森林固碳释氧服务价值与异养呼吸损失量评估

固碳释氧是森林最重要的生态系统服务之一,将森林碳收支与固碳释氧服务价值评估相结合对于准确评估生态系统服务价值具有重要意义。应用森林碳收支模型(CBM-CFS3),分别基于净初级生产力(NPP)和净生态系统生产力(NEP)评估了2009—2030年湖北省兴山县森林生态系统总、净固碳释氧服务价值的时空动态,量化了异养呼吸造成的固碳释氧服务价值损失。模拟期间兴山县森林生态系统NPP逐渐增加(0.46—0.70 Tg/a),NEP由0.12 Tg/a先增加至0.21 Tg/a,然后逐渐下降至0.18 Tg/a;所对应的森林总、净固碳释氧服务价值范围分别为7.59—11.53亿元/a和2.21—3.70亿元/a。异养呼吸逐年增加,导致固碳释氧价值每年损失平均值为7.29亿元/a或4509元hm~(-2) a~(-1),约占总价值的68.6%。兴山县东南部异养呼吸造成的森林固碳释氧服务价值损失较高,而中部及西南部森林净固碳释氧价值较高。模拟期间兴山县森林为碳汇,稳定地提供固碳释氧服务。与NPP相比,使用NEP评估固碳释氧服务价值更为合理。忽视异养呼吸将严重高估森林生态系统固碳释氧服务价值;因而必须将物质循环过程与生态系统服务评估相结合,以降低评估结果的不确定性、提高生态系统服务的评估能力。     

Genome‐wide scans to detect positive selection in Large White and Tongcheng pigs

Due to the direction, intensity, duration and consistency of genetic selection, especially recent artificial selection, the production performance of domestic pigs has been greatly changed. Therefore, we reasoned that there must be footprints or selection signatures that had been left during domestication. In this study, with porcine 60K BeadChip genotyping data from both commercial Large White and local Chinese Tongcheng pigs, we calculated the extended haplotype homozygosity values of the two breeds using the long‐range haplotype method to detect selection signatures. We found 34 candidate regions, including 61 known genes, from Large White pigs and 25 regions comprising 57 known genes from Tongcheng pigs. Many selection signatures were found on SSC1, SSC4, SSC7 and SSC14 regions in both populations. According to quantitative trait loci and network pathway analyses, most of the regions and genes were linked to growth, reproduction and immune responses. In addition, the average genetic differentiation coefficient F_ST was 0.254, which means that there had already been a significant differentiation between the breeds. The findings from this study can contribute to further research on molecular mechanisms of pig evolution and domestication and also provide valuable references for improvement of their breeding and cultivation.     

Declined miR‐181a‐5p expression is associated with impaired natural killer cell development and function with aging

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression and thereby influence cell development and function. Numerous studies have shown the significant roles of miRNAs in regulating immune cells including natural killer (NK) cells. However, little is known about the role of miRNAs in NK cells with aging. We previously demonstrated that the aged C57BL/6 mice have significantly decreased proportion of mature (CD27⁻CD11b⁺) NK cells compared with young mice, indicating impaired maturation of NK cells with aging. Here, we performed deep sequencing of CD27⁺ NK cells from young and aged mice. Profiling of the miRNome (global miRNA expression levels) revealed that 49 miRNAs displayed a twofold or greater difference in expression between young and aged NK cells. Among these, 30 miRNAs were upregulated and 19 miRNAs were downregulated in the aged NK cells. We found that the expression level of miR‐l8la‐5p was increased with the maturation of NK cells, and significantly decreased in NK cells from the aged mice. Knockdown of miR‐181a‐5p inhibited NK cell development in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, miR‐181a‐5p is highly conserved in mice and human. MiR‐181a‐5p promoted the production of IFN‐γ and cytotoxicity in stimulated NK cells from both mice and human. Importantly, miR‐181a‐5p level markedly decreased in NK cells from PBMC of elderly people. Thus, our results demonstrated that the miRNAs profiles in NK cells change with aging, the decreased level of miR‐181a‐5p contributes to the defective NK cell development and function with aging. This opens new strategies to preserve or restore NK cell function in the elderly.     

微生物菌剂对楸树幼苗生长及根际土细菌群落结构的影响

为探究球毛壳ND35微生物菌剂对楸树幼苗生长及土壤肥力的作用机制，本研究楸树幼苗为研究对象，采用室内盆栽试验，设计0（CK），10（T1），15（T2），20（T3）4种微生物菌剂施用量，测定幼苗生长情况、土壤微生物组成结构、土壤酶和土壤养分等特征。研究结果如下：（1）球毛壳ND35微生物菌剂可显著促进楸树幼苗的生长，株高、地径、地上及地下生物量显著提高（P<0.05），T2处理下促生效果最好。（2）施用球毛壳ND35微生物菌剂可显著提高土壤中有机质、硝态氮、铵态氮含量及脲酶、磷酸酶、蔗糖酶活性（P<0.05）。（3）球毛壳ND35微生物菌剂可显著影响土壤细菌群落组成，提高细菌群落的丰富度和多样性，使土壤中β-变形菌纲（Betaproteobacteria）、γ-变形菌纲（Gammaproteobacteria）的相对丰度显著下降，α-变形菌纲（Alphaproteobacteria）、δ-变形菌纲（Deltaproteobacteria）的相对丰度呈显著提高，可使土壤中鞘氨醇单胞菌属（Sphingomonas）的相对丰度显著提高21.88%-103.56%（P<0.05），芽孢杆菌属（Bacillus）的相对丰度提高66.28%-65.97%（P<0.05），酸杆菌属（Acidibacter）的相对丰度提高12.76%-38.06%。（4）冗余分析（RDA）结果表明，土壤硝态氮、铵态氮、有机质是影响土壤细菌群落分布和多样性的重要环境因子，土壤细菌群落结构的改变会显著影响土壤脲酶、蔗糖酶、碱性磷酸酶的活性。因此，施用球毛壳ND35微生物菌剂可通过影响植物根际土壤的化学性质及生物性质，促进楸树幼苗的生长。这一研究结果为楸树繁育提供了新的指导方向，亦为将其用于困难立地及退化生态系统植被恢复提供基础理论指导。     

饵料蛋白水平对德国小蠊肠道细菌群落的影响

昆虫肠道微生物在宿主营养代谢、生长发育、免疫以及抵御病原菌等方面具有重要作用。研究不同蛋白水平饵料饲养对德国小蠊（Blattella germanica）雄成虫肠道细菌群落组成及其功能的作用，探究德国小蠊肠道细菌对宿主营养和健康的影响，以期为发展生物防治的诱食性饵料提供理论支持。分别取连续饲喂低蛋白（LP2组：5%）、高蛋白（HP3组：65%）以及正常蛋白水平饵料（CD1组：25%）21 d的德国小蠊雄成虫，饥饿24 h后无菌条件下分离并提取肠道总基因组DNA，采用特异引物扩增细菌16S rDNA的V4可变区并进行高通量测序，分析德国小蠊肠道细菌群落组成及其功能特征。结果表明德国小蠊肠道细菌主要由拟杆菌门（Bacteroidetes）、变形菌门（Proteobacteria）、梭杆菌门（Fusobacteria）和厚壁菌门（Firmicutes）等细菌群落组成。饲喂低蛋白饵料LP2组的德国小蠊肠道细菌中拟杆菌属（Bacteroides）细菌丰度（47.44%）显著高于HP3组（23.97%）和对照CD1（7.04%）。饲喂高蛋白饵料的HP3组梭杆菌门丰度显著高于其他两组。LEfSe物种差异分析也表明HP3组德国小蠊肠道细菌中梭杆菌属（Fusobacterium）细菌与低蛋白饵料LP2组和对照CD1组有显著差异。基于Tax4Fun功能预测显示，HP3高蛋白饵料组的德国小蠊肠道细菌中与能量代谢功能相关基因的相对丰度极显著高于对照组CD1组，外源性物质代谢与降解和其他氨基酸代谢功能基因的相对丰度显著高于低蛋白LP2组。本研究结果表明饵料中蛋白质水平的差异能够显著改变德国小蠊肠道中细菌群落结构组成，并影响其代谢功能。     

核酸适配体在感染性疾病诊治中的研究进展

临床上，感染性疾病由于诊断不明或诊断时间较长导致严重后果的情况并不罕见。近年来，由于新型病原体感染报道层出不穷，现有病原体出现耐药也十分普遍，导致感染性疾病的诊断和治疗仍是临床上亟待解决的难题。核酸适配体是通过体外反复筛选或指数富集配体系统进化(systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment，SELEX)技术筛选出来的一类具有特异性识别能力的寡核苷酸序列，具有靶向结合目标分子的能力，可用于病原体检测和新型治疗性药物的开发。适配体已在感染性疾病诊治中显现良好的应用前景，进一步推进相关研究有望为感染性疾病的诊治提供新的途径。