日本手取群研究的新进展

介绍日本中生代晚期手取群研究的最新进展,并简要评述与中国的对比。手取群从下到上分为九头龙亚群、石白亚群、赤岩亚群。庄川地区九头龙亚群御手洗组新发现菊石,属Tithonian-Berriasian期,改变了以往Callovian期的传统意见。石白亚群发现菊石,属Late Hauterivian-Early Barremian期;亚群上部发现海相双壳类,属Hauterivian期,半咸水相和淡水双壳类也与外带Hauterivian期的对比;绝对年龄测定为135±7Ma和128±8Ma,分别属Hauterivian早期和Barremian早期,其中135Ma被普遍接受;植物群反映的古气候特征与俄罗斯东部Valanginian-Hauterivian期温湿化一致。石白亚群的时代综合为Valanginian-Hauterivian期。赤岩亚群的Trigonioides(Wakinoa)tetoriensis也发现于外带,时代属latest Hauterivian-Early Barremian期;绝对年龄测定数据不稳定,自127±8Ma(Barremian中期)至106±7Ma(Albian中期)。对亚群的Nippononaia ryosekiana作了修订,认为应属N.linhaiensis,与浙江馆头组的同种,比濑林组(Lower Aptian)的N.ryosekiana原始,故时代早于Aptian期。赤岩亚群的时代综合为Barremian期,但不排除上延的可能。区域对比结果认为,中国东北龙爪沟群及绥滨地区的相当地层可与九头龙亚群和石白亚群对比;馆头组、下城子组可与赤岩亚群对比;热河群上部沙海组-阜新组煤系地层可与石白亚群对比;并对义县组的时代提出了看法。     

Is 'big biology' a commercial enterprise?

Big projects in biology - such as the human genome project and a number of related and ensuing enterprises - require big funding. A new tradition is growing in which some types of basic research take place within commercial organizations. This article reviews some of the reasons for this and some of the key players, in the USA, Europe and Japan, and highlights some issues to be considered when deciding whether particular research belongs in a company rather than an academic setting.     

Structure and design of broadly-neutralizing antibodies against HIV

Since the discovery more than 30 years ago of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the causative agent of the deadly disease, acquired immune deficiency disease (AIDS), there have been no efficient vaccines against the virus. For the infection of the virus, the HIV surface glycoprotein gp120 first recognizes the CD4 receptor on the target helper T-cell, which initiates HIV fusion with the target cell and, if unchecked, leads to destruction of the patient's immune system. Despite the difficulty of developing appropriate immune responses in HIV-infected individuals, patient sera often contain antibodies that have broad neutralization activity, indicating the possibility of immunological treatment and prevention. Recently, through extensive structural studies of neutralizing antibodies of HIV in complex with gp120, the critical mechanisms of broad neutralization against HIV have been elucidated. Based on these discoveries, the structure-aided designs of antibodies and novel scaffolds were performed to create extremely potent neutralizing antibodies against HIV. These new discoveries and advances shed light on the road to development of efficient immunological therapies against AIDS.     

South American mammal diversity and Hernandez’s Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus

Following the discovery of the West Indies, philosophers of the XVI and XVII centuries came into contact with a particularly unexpected fauna which was considerably different from the documented animals at that time. These animals included the Xenarthra (the sloth, and armadillo) and Marsupialia. These new discoveries occurred during a period of crisis for the traditional Aristotelian and Galenical sciences. This debate developed in two opposing directions: on the one hand towards the confirmation of the well-established tradition of Magia Naturalis, and on the other towards the Galilean Scientia Nova which encouraged people to follow a more mathematical approach when interpreting nature in all its complexity. The first reports and zoological papers of the seventeenth century express the same wonder at these discoveries as all that was “mirum et insolitum” in the typical baroque style of that time.      

Discovery genetics: serendipity in basic research

The role of serendipity in science has no better example than the discovery of spontaneous mutations that leads to new mouse models for research. The approach of finding phenotypes and then carrying out genetic analysis is called forward genetics. Serendipity is a key component of discovering and developing mice with spontaneous mutations into animal models of human disease. In this article, the role of serendipity in discovering and developing mouse models is described within a program at The Jackson Laboratory that capitalizes on serendipitous discoveries in large breeding colonies. Also described is how any scientists working with mice can take advantage of serendipitous discoveries as a research strategy to develop new models. Spontaneous mutations cannot be planned but happen in all research mouse colonies and are discovered as unexpected phenotypes. The alert scientist or technician can rationally exploit such chance observations to create new research opportunities.     

Helminth therapies: Translating the unknown unknowns to known knowns

The use of live helminth infections is currently in clinical trials as a novel approach for the treatment of a range of allergic and autoimmune diseases. This rapid progression from observational studies some 20 years ago to helminth clinical trials can be attributed to huge advances in not just pre-clinical and clinical evidence, pertaining to the efficacy of these parasites in unrelated diseases, but also a greater understanding of the complex immunological mechanisms that underpin these effects. Helminths have exerted significant evolutionary selective pressures on the host immune genome or “immunome”. Studies on helminths were pivotal in a paradigm shift in immunology with recent discoveries of a number of novel immune cell populations. Critically, these new discoveries highlight the need to further understand the underlying mechanism behind the desirable therapeutic effects that helminths offer. With these unknown unknowns there is the distinct possibility that a true, fundamental modus operandi for helminth therapy will arrive long after it has been established in the clinic.     

Cyclic dinucleotides at the forefront of innate immunity

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) have emerged as ubiquitous signaling molecules in all domains of life. In eukaryotes, CDN signaling systems are evolutionarily ancient and have developed to sense and respond to pathogen infection. On the other hand, dysregulation of these pathways has been implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. Thus, CDNs have garnered major interest over recent years for their ability to elicit potent immune responses in the eukaryotic host. Similarly, ancestral CDN-based signaling systems also appear to confer immunological protection against infection in prokaryotes. Therefore, a better understanding of the host processes regulated by CDNs will be of tremendous value in many areas of research. Here, we aim to review the latest discoveries and recent trends in CDN research with a particular focus on the molecular mechanisms by which these small molecules mediate innate immunity.     

Color vision: how the cortex represents color

Our understanding of how we see color has benefited from the long tradition of visual psychophysics. More recently, models and methods from psychophysics are guiding modern neuroimaging experiments on color vision. Combining the two techniques can lead to discoveries that neither can make alone.     

Biotechnology in Japan: A lesson in logistics? Part II: The research policy

Research in the natural sciences in Japan is not bound by tradition to the same extent as it is in Europe and the USA. The great economic upsurge of the Japanese bio-industry has only occurred during the last 40 years. Its expansion is largely due to Japan's capabilities for rapid adaptation and commercial exploitation of new knowledge and skills. However, the creativity behind this speedy development did not emanate exclusively from the country's own resources. In this article, an attempt is made to trace the origins of high technology in the Japanese bio-industry and to illustrate the research policy facilitating its development.     

Novel eicosanoid pathways

This article reviews a lecture I was honored to present at the Leon Wolfe Symposium in Montreal on March 25, 2004. The lecture described my research career, which started with my interaction with Wolfe at the Montreal Neurological Institute as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate and was followed by additional research discoveries after I left Montreal for my first academic position at the Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto. The article consists of two parts. The first part involves the discovery (in Wolfe’s laboratory) of a new pathway of arachidonic acid, in which a bicyclic prostanoid structure (later called prostacyclin by John Vane and his group) was described, and its further development in Toronto, which led to the discovery of the conversion of the bicyclic prostanoid into 6-keto prostaglandin F_1α. The second part deals with the hepoxilin pathway, a pathway I discovered during a sabbatical leave in Japan with Professor Shozo Yamamoto, which was followed by a stay of several months in the laboratory of Professor Bengt Samuelsson in Sweden. I deal with the historical aspects of both pathways and end with interesting novel aspects of hepoxilin stable antagonist analogs in the treatment of solid tumors in experimental animals.     

Preserving US microbe collections sparks future discoveries

Collections of micro-organisms are a crucial element of life science research infrastructure but are vulnerable to loss and damage caused by natural or man-made disasters, the untimely death or retirement of personnel, or the loss of research funding. Preservation of biological collections has risen in priority due to a new appreciation for discoveries linked to preserved specimens, emerging hurdles to international collecting and decreased funding for new collecting. While many historic collections have been lost, several have been preserved, some with dramatic rescue stories. Rescued microbes have been used for discoveries in areas of health, biotechnology and basic life science. Suggestions for long-term planning for microbial stocks are listed, as well as inducements for long-term preservation.     

Epidemiological survey of Orientia tsutsugamushi distribution in field rodents in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, and discovery of a new type

There are various antigenic variants of Orientia tsutsugamushi which are distinguished by immunological and molecular genetic methods targeted at the antigenic diversity of 56-kDa type-specific antigen proteins. The present study was performed to analyze 15 strains successfully isolated from rodents in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, by 56-kDa gene sequence homologies, reactivities with type-specific monoclonal antibodies and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using type-specific primer-pairs. We demonstrated the presence of a new type of O. tsutsugamushi among the isolates. This new type, designated as the Saitama type, was located in the branch of Karp type in the phylogenetic tree based on 56-kDa gene sequences, but distant from the known Karp types, such as Karp, JP-1 and JP-2, showing less than 90% homology. Strains of this type could not be distinguished by immunological methods from Karp type strains, but a new primer-pair for PCR which specifically amplifies the DNA of this new type strain was designed. This primer-pair may serve to find this strain type in future studies.     

Immunogenic cell death,DAMPs and anticancer therapeutics: An emerging amalgamation

Immunogenic profile of certain cancer cell death mechanisms has been transmuted by research published over a period of last few years and this change has been so drastic that a new (sub)class of apoptotic cancer cell death, redefined as ‘immunogenic apoptosis’ has started taking shape. In fact, it has been shown that this chemotherapeutic agent-specific immunogenic cancer cell death modality has the capabilities to induce ‘anticancer vaccine effect’, in vivo. These new trends have given an opportunity to combine tumour cell kill and antitumour immunity within a single paradigm, a sort of ‘holy grail’ of anticancer therapeutics. At the molecular level, it has been shown that the immunological silhouette of these cell death pathways is defined by a set of molecules called ‘damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs)’. Various intracellular molecules like calreticulin (CRT), heat-shock proteins (HSPs), high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) protein, have been shown to be DAMPs exposed/secreted in a stress agent/factor-and cell death-specific manner. These discoveries have motivated further research into discovery of new DAMPs, new pathways for their exposure/secretion, search for new agents capable of inducing immunogenic cell death and urge to solve currently present problems with this paradigm. We anticipate that this emerging amalgamation of DAMPs, immunogenic cell death and anticancer therapeutics may be the key towards squelching cancer-related mortalities, in near future.     

Natural products as probes in pharmaceutical research

From the start of the pharmaceutical research natural products played a key role in drug discovery and development. Over time many discoveries of fundamental new biology were triggered by the unique biological activity of natural products. Unprecedented chemical structures, novel chemotypes, often pave the way to investigate new biology and to explore new pathways and targets. This review summarizes the recent results in the area with a focus on research done in the laboratories of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. We aim to put the technological advances in target identification techniques in the context to the current revival of phenotypic screening and the increasingly complex biological questions related to drug discovery.     

Le « nucléus Donggutuo » et sa signification dans l’industrie du paléolithique inférieur de Donggutuo, bassin de Nihewan, Chine du Nord

As one of the most important Lower Pleistocene sites of the Nihewan basin in North China, Donggutuo (DGT) site is well known for its fine retouched small tools and characters of flake industry. However, new excavations still reveal some new discoveries and educe some new issues to us. For example, the “DGT core” introduced in this article is a new discovered typotechnology and indicates new economic strategy of the local people, which was never known before in this area at the time of 1.1 Ma B.P. The paper provides general background and statistic analysis of DGT industry including special method applied to the “DGT core” and discusses possible influence of environmental change for the emerging of the “DGT core”. The “DGT core” shows a germinated microlithic tradition and reflects a cultural diversity of early humans in the Lower Paleolithic in North China.     

Archaeological Investigations at the Budenbender Site,Tuttle Creek Reservoir,North-Central Kansas, 1957

Abstract

By means of a contract with the National Park Service, and additional support from the University, the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas conducted archaeological salvage investigations in the northern part of the Tuttle Creek Reservoir of north-central Kan5as in 1957. Excavations were conducted at five sites, of which the Budenbender site (14P04) proved most productive. The present report describes excavations at Budenbender, the discoveries made, and interprets the data from the excavations in terms of current archaeological interest and taxonomic usages. The single house completely excavated at Sudanbender is identified as a component of the Central Plains tradition, and is placed in the Smoky Hill regional variant of that tradition.     

寒武纪大爆发——来自贵州的化石证据*

寒武纪展示了生物演化和生态创新最为关键的一段历史, 在此期间发生了后生动物快速的辐射性演化事件, 被称为“寒武纪大爆发”。近四十年来, 基于寒武纪特异埋藏生物群的大量研究为解密寒武纪大爆发具体过程、主要动物类群起源与生态演化作出了重要贡献。贵州素有古生物王国之称, 在寒武系地层中不仅保存了大量解剖学细节精美的化石资源, 也在多个地区产出时间连续的生物组合演化序列, 在探讨动物起源与演化、全球地层对比及群落古生态学等方面具有极其重要的科研价值。近年来, 以小壳动物群、牛蹄塘生物群、杷榔生物群、剑河生物群、凯里生物群等多个生物群在贵州的发现提供了早期后生生物的新信息, 加密了中国乃至全球早期后生生物特异埋藏化石群的演化链, 为全面揭示寒武纪生物群落面貌、早期多门类后生动物的辐射演化和海洋生物群落演替提供了独特的意义, 最终为深入解读寒武纪大爆发的过程与发生机制提供重要实证。本文简要总结了贵州地区在该领域的主要学术贡献, 结合全球研究进展, 对目前存在的问题和未来研究方向提出展望。     

Parure,pigment et art mobilier du Paléolithique supérieur au Japon

In the Japanese Archipelago, Upper Palaeolithic Accessories, Pigment and Portable Art are discovered, but very few. We introduce the Palaeolithic Art in Japan including new discoveries. The majority of accessories is discovered in Hokkaido, for example the sites of Yunosato 4, Pirika 1, Kashiwadai1 and Obarubetsu 2, but very few in Honshu, the largest island of Japan: Togeyamabokujo 1 in Iwate and Fujiishi in Shizuoka. A lot of pigments are discovered in Hokkaido like Kawanishi C, Kashiwadai 1, Marukoyama and Kiusu 5, without those of Deguchi-Kanezuka in Chiba in Honshu. Kashiwadai 1 in Hokkaido and Kamihikikiri in Chiba are the sites with portable art. In Ehime in Shikoku, one of four large islands of Japan, engraved pebbles called “Kamikuroiwa Venus”, of the Incipient Jomon followed after the Upper Palaeolithic period, before about 14,500 years, are researched again recently. The Palaeolithic art in Japan has a strong relation with Northeast Asia's art, because the lithic materials of Palaeolithic accessories in Hokkaido came from the Continent, and the engraved pebbles have some characters common with Siberian figurines, but also there are accessories and pigment of which the stones are native of the region from the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic period.     

The evolutionary history of infectious disease in the ancient Americas and the pathogenic consequences of European contact

The increasing availability of next generation sequencing techniques in recent decades has led to new discoveries, and sometimes the redefinition of conventional hypotheses, regarding many complex human-pathogen evolutionary relationships. These new discoveries are particularly poignant in studies of the Americas, where research into Indigenous ancestry and migration has historically been ignored. As a result, conventional hypotheses regarding the origin of global pathogens like tuberculosis, syphilis, and malaria in the Americas and their spread within the continents have been mischaracterized. Fortunately, recent studies using molecular techniques have now superseded these missteps, which were often based in anecdotal accounts from colonial missionary reports rather than rigorous scientific study. It is now clear that there was not a unidirectional pipeline of pathogen introduction that began with European contact; instead, a rich and varied microbiological landscape already existed in the Americas. This synthesis of research regarding the origin and spread of pathogens in the Americas examines the scope of this changing perception within the fields of paleogenomics and paleomicrobiology.