生物技术与我国农业发展

从国际农业生物技术的发展趋势,看农业生物技术在现代中国农业发展中的重要地位和作用。分析了我国农业生物技术发展的现状和面临的挑战,提出在日益激烈的国际农业竞争环境中,我国农业生物技术的发展战略和措施 。     

海洋生物制药现状及展望

现代生物技术在制药产业中发挥了重要作用,海洋生物技术的出现和发展推动了海洋生 物药物的研究,是今后生物技术药物的发展方向。综述了生物技术在海洋药物开发中的应用,并 展望了新世纪海洋生物制药的前景。     

生物经济与生物技术之浅析

生物经济是由生物技术高度产业化推动的人类历史上将达到的第四次经济浪潮,当前我们正处于生物经济的成长阶段。生物经济具有资源依赖性强,产品多样化但垄断性差,生物技术通用性强的显著特点。生物技术产业的崛起将促进新经济发展,对农业、工业、医药、环境保护、新能源开发以及生物战剂的抵御能力产生重要影响。通过总结生物经济的发展态势及现状,指出我国发展生命科学与生物技术的成果和面临的问题,探讨发展对策,以期为推动生命科学和生物技术产业化提供参考。     

适于工程教育的生物化学PBL教学案例设计

工程教育是我国高等教育的重要组成部分,随着新工科人才培养内涵的不断深化,全方位开展课程改革,提高工科人才培养质量正当其时。为了突出新工科人才培养的特色,专业课和实习实践类课程正在成为课程教学改革的重点。但是,在专业基础课中如何突出工科特色人才培养的实践亟待探索。本文以生物化学课程为例,采用问题引导式教学方法,选择合适的教学案例,从科学与技术问题出发探索教学设计,引导学生凝练问题、分析问题并解决问题。实现引导学生从“被动式”到“主动式”学习的转变,提升学生思辨能力的同时,突出科学与技术的工程化应用,并为持续甚至终生学习奠定基础,为新工科背景下应用型人才培养提供参考和借鉴。     

Future societal issues in industrial biotechnology

Three international stakeholder meetings were organized by The Netherlands-based "Kluyver Center for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation" with the objective to identify the future societal issues in the field of industrial biotechnology and to develop a coordinated strategy for public dialogue. The meetings resulted in five unanimous recommendations: (i) that science, industry and the European Commission in conjunction with other stakeholders create a comprehensive roadmap towards a bio-based economy; (ii) that the European Commission initiate a series of round-table meetings to further articulate the views, interests and responsibilities of the relevant stakeholders and to define policy; (iii) that the development of new innovative communication activities is stimulated to increase public engagement and to discuss the ways that we do or do not want technologies to shape our common future; (iv) that further social studies are undertaken on public attitudes and behaviors to the bio-based economy and that novel methods are developed to assess public views of future technological developments; and (v) that the concept of sustainability is further operationalized and taken as a core value driving research and development and policy making.     

The dissection of a stick insect

The application of the carbon-14 ‘light and dark bottle’ technique for school or college use is described. Details are given for a simplified method suitable for a three-hour laboratory session. The method requires either a Geiger or liquid scintillation counter. Examples of class results are provided along with suggestions for further applications in an ecological context.     

Design and synthesis of thiazolylhydrazone derivatives as inhibitors of chitinolytic N-acetyl-β-d-hexosaminidase

N-acetyl-β-d-hexosaminidase (Hex) is potential target for pesticide design. Here, a series of thiazolylhydrazone derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated as competitive inhibitors of OfHex1, a Hex from the agricultural pest Ostrinia furnacalis. The derivative 3k, with a (benzyloxy)methyl group at the N3 atom, demonstrated greater potency with a K_i of 10.2?µM. Molecular docking analysis indicated that the (benzyloxy)methyl group of 3k was bound to a previously unexplored pocket formed by Loop478-496. Then further optimization around naphthalene ring led to find the more potency substituent phenyl. The derivative 7, with phenoxyethyl group at R₁ and a phenyl group at R₂, demonstrated an augmented potency with a K_i of 2.1?µM. Molecular docking analysis indicated that 7 was bound to the active pocket of OfHex1 more favorably than 3k. This work suggests a novel scaffold for developing specific Hex inhibitors.     

International Symposium:From Ecosystems to Modern Agriculture

<正>Scientific Committee:Zhihong Xu,Lizhe An,Chun-Ming Liu,Li-Jia Qu,Wei-Cai Yang,Leon Kochian William Lucas and Jia Li Website:http://www.jipb.net/jipbsymposiumlanzhou2015Keynote speakers:·Prof.William Lucas(University of California,Davis,USA)The plant vascular system functions as a major communication conduit to integrate gene regulatory networks at     

The Lego® analogy model for teaching gene sequencing and biotechnology

Research in biotechnology is rapidly advancing; everyday, new and exciting discoveries are made. With this new technology there are also many safety and ethical questions, though, as well as the need for education. Alternative teaching methods may help to increase students' understanding of difficult concepts in all aspects of schooling, including mathematics, science, genetics, and biotechnology. The Genomic Analogy Model for Educators (GAME) is a teaching tool currently under development, made up of three different pieces: (i) a CD-Rom, (ii) a website and (iii) laboratory exercises. The GAME model uses simple analogies of easily understandable concepts to explain the technical and scientific aspects of modern genomics; the first module is the Lego® Analogy Model (LAM) which focuses on DNA sequencing using the Sanger method and electrophoresis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the GAME model on high school students. In addition, the short term effect of the GAME model on high school students' attitudes about biotechnology was also measured. Results showed a positive change in students' post-test scores after participating in GAME which indicates the effectiveness of this new tool for biotechnology education.     

International Symposium:From Ecosystems to Modern Agriculture

<正>Organized by:Co-organized by:Scientific Committee:Zhihong Xu,Lizhe An,Chun-Ming Liu,Li-Jia Qu,Wei-Cai Yang,Leon Kochian William Lucas and Jia Li Website:http://www.jipb.net/jipbsymposiumlanzhou2015Keynote speakers:·Prof.William Lucas(University of California,Davis,USA)The plant vascular system functions as a major communication conduit to integrate gene regulatory networks at the whole-plant level·Prof.Kang Chong(Institute of Botany,CAS,China)How does rice sensye the cold?     

Chemically programmed bispecific antibodies that recruit and activate T cells

Bispecific antibodies (biAbs) that mediate cytotoxicity by recruiting and activating endogenous immune cells are an emerging class of next-generation antibody therapeutics. Of particular interest are biAbs of relatively small size (～50 kDa) that can redirect cytotoxic T cells through simultaneous binding of tumor cells. Here we describe a conceptually unique class of biAbs in which the tumor cell specificity of a humanized antibody fragment that recognizes CD3 on T cells is chemically programmed through a C-terminal selenocysteine (Sec) residue. We demonstrate that through chemically programmed specificity for integrin α(4)β(1) or folate receptor 1 (FOLR1), and common specificity for CD3, these hybrid molecules exert potent and specific in vitro and ex vivo cytotoxicity toward tumor cell lines and primary tumor cells in the presence of primary T cells. Importantly, the generic nature of chemical programming allows one to apply our approach to virtually any specificity, promising a broad utility of chemically programmed biAbs in cancer therapy.     

From natural products discovery to commercialization: a success story

In order for a natural product to become a commercial reality, laboratory improvement of its production process is a necessity since titers produced by wild strains could never compete with the power of synthetic chemistry. Strain improvement by mutagenesis has been a major success. It has mainly been carried out by “brute force” screening or selection, but modern genetic technologies have entered the scene in recent years. For every new strain developed genetically, there is further opportunity to raise titers by medium modifications. Of major interest has been the nutritional control by induction, as well as inhibition and repression by sources of carbon, nitrogen, phosphate and end products. Both strain improvement and nutritional modification contribute to the new process, which is then scaled up by biochemical engineers into pilot scale and later into factory size fermentors.     

超声波在生物工程中的应用

研究发现在酶和细胞催化的生物反应过程中,较低强度的超声作用可提高酶的催化活性或加速细胞的代谢过程。本文主要简述超声波作用的物理机制并对其在生物工程中的应用前景进行讨论。     

Genetic Code-guided Protein Synthesis and Folding in Escherichia coli

Universal genetic codes are degenerated with 61 codons specifying 20 amino acids, thus creating synonymous codons for a single amino acid. Synonymous codons have been shown to affect protein properties in a given organism. To address this issue and explore how Escherichia coli selects its “codon-preferred” DNA template(s) for synthesis of proteins with required properties, we have designed synonymous codon libraries based on an antibody (scFv) sequence and carried out bacterial expression and screening for variants with altered properties. As a result, 342 codon variants have been identified, differing significantly in protein solubility and functionality while retaining the identical original amino acid sequence. The soluble expression level varied from completely insoluble aggregates to a soluble yield of ∼2.5 mg/liter, whereas the antigen-binding activity changed from no binding at all to a binding affinity of > 10⁻⁸ m. Not only does our work demonstrate the involvement of genetic codes in regulating protein synthesis and folding but it also provides a novel screening strategy for producing improved proteins without the need to substitute amino acids.     

Bmo-miR-3377-5p down-regulates the Bombyx mori Sericin gene-1

MiRNAs are small non-coding molecules, which can regulate a huge number of genes. Based on bioinformatics analysis, we found a target site in the 3′UTR of BmSer-1 for binding bmo-miR-3377-5p. By using semi-quantitative RT-PCR, we detected that miR-3377-5p and BmSer-1 were both more highly expressed in the middle silk gland than in other tissues of 3-day-old fifth-instar Bombyx mori larvae, implying that there is a spatiotemporal condition for miR-3377-5p regulating on BmSer-1. To confirm this prediction, a BmSer-13′UTR recombinant luciferase reporter pGL3.0 [A3-luc-BmSer-1-3′UTR-SV40] and pri-bmo-miR-3377-5p expression pcDNA3.0 [ie1-egfp-pri-bmo-miR-3377-5p-SV40] were constructed and co-transfected into B. mori ovary cells (BmN cells). The results showed that miR-3377-5p suppressed the expression of BmSer-1 significantly (P < .001). When BmN cells were co-transfected by an artificial inhibitor together with a miR-3377-5p expression vector and a BmSer-1-3′UTR recombinant plasmid, BmSer-1 expression increased significantly (P < .05), indicating that the inhibitor was active against miR-3377-5p, and expression of BmSer-1 was recovered. Moreover, we injected miR-3377-5p expression plasmid and bmo-miR-3377-5p inhibitor into 3-day-old fifth-instar larvae. At 36 h post-injection, silk glands were collected for total RNA extraction. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that miR-3377-5p down-regulated the expression of BmSer-1 in vivo, while there was no significant difference inhibitor treatment group compared with NC. Thus, we conclude that miR-3377-5p down-regulated the expression of BmSer-1. Our results provide insight for understanding the function of miRNAs and the regulation network of silk protein genes.     

From East Gondwana to Central America: historical biogeography of the Alstroemeriaceae

Aim The Alstroemeriaceae is among 28 angiosperm families shared between South America, New Zealand and/or Australia; here, we examine the biogeography of Alstroemeriaceae to better understand the climatic and geological settings for its diversification in the Neotropics. We also compare Alstroemeriaceae with the four other Southern Hemisphere families that expanded from Patagonia to the equator, to infer what factors may have permitted such expansions across biomes. Location South America, Central America, Australia and New Zealand. Methods Three chloroplast genes, one mitochondrial gene and one nuclear DNA region were sequenced for 153 accessions representing 125 of the 200 species of Alstroemeriaceae from throughout the distribution range; 25 outgroup taxa were included to securely infer evolutionary directions and be able to use both ingroup and outgroup fossil constraints. A relaxed‐clock model relied on up to three fossil calibrations, and ancestral ranges were inferred using statistical dispersal–vicariance analysis (S‐DIVA). Southern Hemisphere disjunctions in the flowering plants were reviewed for key biological traits, divergence times, migration directions and habitats occupied. Results The obtained chronogram and ancestral area reconstruction imply that the most recent common ancestor of Colchicaceae and Alstroemeriaceae lived in the Late Cretaceous in southern South America/Australasia, the ancestral region of Alstroemeriaceae may have been South America/Antarctica, and a single New Zealand species is due to recent dispersal from South America. Chilean Alstroemeria diversified with the uplift of the Patagonian Andes c. 18 Ma, and a hummingbird‐pollinated clade (Bomarea) reached the northern Andes at 11–13 Ma. The South American Arid Diagonal (SAAD), a belt of arid vegetation caused by the onset of the Andean rain shadow 14–15 Ma, isolated a Brazilian clade of Alstroemeria from a basal Chilean/Argentinean grade. Main conclusions Only Alstroemeriaceae, Calceolariaceae, Cunoniaceae, Escalloniaceae and Proteaceae have expanded and diversified from Patagonia far into tropical latitudes. All migrated northwards along the Andes, but also reached south‐eastern Brazil, in most cases after the origin of the SAAD. Our results from Alstroemeria now suggest that the SAAD may have been a major ecological barrier in southern South America.