成熟促进因子及其对卵母细胞成熟调控机制研究的新进展

卵母细胞成熟调控机制一直是发育生物学和生殖生物学领域的热点问题。以现代分子生物学理论为基础,科学家们对卵母细胞成熟分裂的分子生物学调控机理进行了大量研究。发现了细胞周期中许多关键的调控因子：cdc基因、周期蛋白依赖性激酶(CDKs)及细胞周期蛋白(cyclin)。本文对卵母细胞成熟调控的核心调控物质——成熟促进因子(maturation—promoting factor,MPF)的分子结构、周期变化及其在卵母细胞成熟过程中与丝裂原激活蛋白激酶(mitogen—activated protein kinase,MAPK)相互作用关系的最新进展进行了综述。     

植物ASR蛋白的研究进展

ASR(abscisic acid,stress,ripening)蛋白是植物特有的一类蛋白质家族。ASR基因在成熟果实中表达,也受脱落酸和胁迫诱导在营养组织中表达。现对ASR基因家族的发现和进化、时空表达和ASR蛋白的特性及亚细胞定位等进行综述,特别对ASR蛋白抗非生物胁迫功能及其可能的分子机制进行了总结,旨在为ASR蛋白的农业应用提供新思路。     

寒害或冻害?

低温对植物的危害,可因温度范围的不同而分为所谓零上低温和零下低温危害。Levitt在他的抗性生理专著Responses of Plants to Environmental Stresses中分别将其称为Chilling injury和freezing injury。国内学者对前者译为“冷害”,似已统一。但对于后者则有的译作“冻害气有的却译作“寒害”,造成一些不应有的紊乱。我查阅了有关文献,Chilljng意指making or becoming cold or cool, rather cold, 所以Chilling injury译为“冷害”可以说是十分恰当的。而     

单克隆抗体生产的新时代

由fd噬菌体与质粒重组载体噬菌粒(phagemid)构建大容量,高效筛选的表面表达抗体基因片段文库,经突变、模仿体内B细胞亲和力成熟过程(affinity maturation)以免疫亲和层析筛选高亲和力特异抗体片段.取代单克隆抗体,应用于免疫分析诊断.     

家猫及其他猫科动物的生殖工程研究

在脊椎动物中,猫科动物是一类比较特殊的动物类群,共有37种动物,除家猫外,其余均为珍稀或临近灭绝的濒危动物,因而了解家猫的生殖习性和生殖规律,尤其是了解家猫胚胎工程领域,如猫卵母细胞的体外成熟（in vitro maturation IVM),体外受精（in vitro fertilization,IVF),显微受精等,对于利用现代生殖技术研究和探讨非家猫猫科动物的繁殖和保护具有极为重要的借鉴意义。     

成熟促进因子对克隆重构胚核重编程的调控

成熟促进因子(maturation promoting factor,MPF)由催化亚单位P34cdc2和调节亚单位cyclin组成,对细胞周期的调控起着重要作用。目前,在核移植研究中发现：供体核在MPF的作用下发生核膜破裂(nuclear envelop breakdown．NEBD)和早熟染色体凝集(premature chromosome condensation,PCC),促进了核、质蛋白质因子的交换,有利于核重编程的进行。PCC还会对供体核的倍性及形态产生影响。     

益生素研究进展

益生素(Probiotic)有的译为竞生素、优生素,促生素或生菌剂。这一术语是Parker(1974)首先提出的。它的含意是“参与肠内微生物平衡的微生物或物质”。它来源于两个希腊词汇。原意是     

Studies on the physiological function of spermine in the process of progesterone induced toad oocyte maturation

Spermidine or spermine but not putrescine inhibited progesterone induced Bufo bufo gargarizans oocyte maturation.The ID50 for spermine inhibition via intra -oocyte microinjection on maturation induced by progesterone was 6.8mM(100nl).Spermine could inhibit MPF induced toad oocyte maturation with a much higher ID50.A 55 kD protein was dephosphorylated during the process of progesterone induced oocyte maturation .Spermine selectively promoted the level of phosphorylation of this protein in both progesterone-stimulated and hormone-untreated oocytes.The extent of its dephosphorylation was fairly Correlated with the percentage of GVBD in the hormone stimulated oocytes.The level of endogenous spermine was reduced by 28% between the perod of 0.40 GVBD50 and 0.60 GVBD50,at which 55 kD protein was dephosphorylated.Spermine inhibited progesterone-stimulated protein synthesis in almost the same dose dependent manner as its inhititory effect on the hormone-induced maturation,The endogenous spermine regulated 55 kD protein dephosphorylation which may trigger the increase of protein dephosphorylation which may trigger the increase of protein synthesis and in turn promote the activation of MPF,It is possible that 55 kD protein may be one of the components of messenger ribonucleoprotein(mRNP) particles.     

Jasmonic acid-isoleucine formation in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) by two enzymes with distinct transcription profiles

The plant hormone jasmonic acid (JA) is essential for stress responses and the formation of reproductive organs, but its role in fruit development and ripening is unclear. Conjugation of JA to isoleuci...     

Baculo-expression and enzymatic characterization of CES7 esterase

The male reproductive tracts in different species are characterized by similar patterns of male-dependent overexpression of carboxylesterases. This phenomenon indicates male sex-associated functions of these enzymes for spermatogenesis, sperm maturation, and sperm use. Recently, a novel epididymis-specific gene named Ces7 was cloned and characterized, which belongs to the carboxylesterase family. To study the functions of CES7 in sperm maturation and storage, CES7 recombinant protein was expressed in baculovirus system. The recombinant protein had carboxylesterase activity hydrolyzing cholesterol ester and choline ester. CES7 as carboxylesterase might be involved in ester hydrolysis, sperm maturation, and storage in male reproductive tract.     

Morphogenesis of T-tubules in heart cells: the role of junctophilin-2

The T-tubule (TT) system forms the structural basis for excitation-contraction coupling in heart and muscle cells. The morphogenesis of the TT system is a key step in the maturation of heart cells because it does not exist in neonatal cardiomyocytes. In the present study, we quantified the morphological changes in TTs during heart cell maturation and investigated the role of junctophilin-2 (JP2), a protein known to anchor the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) to TT, in changes to TT morphological parameters. Analysis of confocal images showed that the transverse elements of TTs increased, while longitudinal elements decreased during the maturation of TTs. Fourier transform analysis showed that the power of ~2 m spatial components increased with cardiomyocytes maturation. These changes were preceded by increased expression of JP2, and were reversed by JP2 knockdown. These findings indicate that JP2 is required for the morphogenesis of TTs during heart development.     

Casein kinase G may be the target of spermine during progesterone-induced oocyte maturation

Casein kinase G (CKG) with more than 2500-fold enrichraent was purified from Bufo bufo gargarizans ovaries. The catalytic activity of the enzyme was found to be associated with its 42 kD subunit, and its 26 kD subunit was found to be the major tsrget for the enzyme autophos phorylation. Each fuU-grown oocyte contained 1.9 units of CKG corresponding to an intracellular concentration of 93 nM. After injecting an amount of 0,38 units of the enzyme into the oocyte, approximately 50% of the progesterone-induoed maturation was inhibited. The inhibitory effect was enhanced in oocytes pretreated with spermine, which was consistent with the results that the enzyme was activated in vitro in the presence of spermine, The MPF-induced oocyte maturation was delayed and even prohibited in the kinase-microinjected oocytes. A 55 kD oocyte protein was identified as an suhstrate of CKG both in vivo and in vitro, and the enhancement of the 55 kD protein phosphory[ation was associated with kinase inhibition on maturation and on protein synthesis in kinase-microinjected oocytes. As the endogenous spermine level decreased in the course of progesteroneinduced oocyte maturation. 55 kD protein was dephosphorylated, Heparin, a specific inhibitor of CKG, potentiated the progesterone-induced oocyte maturation. Altogether the experimental reSults indicated Strongly that CKG may be the physiological target of spermine.     

Comparative Gene Expression Analysis of Mouse and Human Cardiac Maturation

Understanding how human cardiomyocytes mature is crucial to realizing stem cell-based heart regeneration, modeling adult heart diseases, and facilitating drug discovery. However, it is not feasible to analyze human samples for maturation due to inaccessibility to samples while cardiomy-ocytes mature during fetal development and childhood, as well as difficulty in avoiding variations among individuals. Using model animals such as mice can be a useful strategy;nonetheless, it is not well-understood whether and to what degree gene expression profiles during maturation are shared between humans and mice. Therefore, we performed a comparative gene expression analysis of mice and human samples. First, we examined two distinct mice microarray platforms for shared gene expression profiles, aiming to increase reliability of the analysis. We identified a set of genes display-ing progressive changes during maturation based on principal component analysis. Second, we demonstrated that the genes identified had a differential expression pattern between adult and ear-lier stages (e.g., fetus) common in mice and humans. Our findings provide a foundation for further genetic studies of cardiomyocyte maturation.     

关于tester和driver二词的译法

在差减杂交中,有两种ｃＤＮＡ被用来杂交。其中被检测的(即欲从其中找出高差别表达的ｃＤＮＡ的)ｃＤＮＡ群体叫做ｔｅｓｔｅｒ,而和ｔｅｓｔｅｒ杂交的(即预料缺少该高表达ｃＤＮＡ的)ｃＤＮＡ群体叫做ｄｒｉｖｅｒ。目前国内文献中,这两个名词的译法差别很大,有的文章索性不翻译。我认为,这两个名词应当有中文译名。与其从英文意义转译,不如根据其本来意义翻译。按其本意,我把ｔｅｓｔｅｒ译为“被测物”,而把ｄｒｉｖｅｒ译为“促减物”。如与ｃＤＮＡ一词连用,则可译成“被测ｃＤＮＡ”和“促减ｃＤＮＡ”。我觉得,在无正式译名前,这样…     

Tomato Fruit Development and Ripening Are Altered by the Silencing of LeEIN2 Gene

Loss-of-function ethylene insensitive 2 （EIN2） mutations showed ethylene insensitivity in Arabidopsis, which indicated an essential role of EIN2 in ethylene signaling. However, the function of EIN2 in fruit ripening has not been investigated. To gain a better understanding of EIN2, the temporal regulation of LeEIN2 expres- sion during tomato fruit development was analyzed. The expression of LeEIN2 was constant at different stages of fruit development, and was not regulated by ethylene. Moreover, LeEIN2-silenced tomato fruits were developed using a virus-induced gene silencing fruit system to study the role of LeEIN2 in tomato fruit ripening. Silenced fruits had a delay in fruit development and ripening, related to greatly descended expression of ethylene-related and ripening-related genes in comparison with those of control fruits. These results suggested LeEIN2 positively mediated ethylene signals during tomato development. In addition, there were fewer seeds and Iocules in the silenced fruit than those in the control fruit, like the phenotype of parthenocarpic tomato fruit. The content of auxin and the expression of auxin-regulated gene were declined in silenced fruit, which indicated that EIN2 might be important for crosstalk between ethylene and auxin hormones.     

酵母双杂合系统

常规研究蛋白质相互作用的生化方法包括化学交联、免疫共沉淀等,这些方法反映的是体外的情况而非体内情况,而且这些方法无法让我们直接克隆与某已知蛋白质作用的未知蛋白质的基因。最近一种新的技术逐渐成熟并得到广泛应用,它就是“Yeast two-hybrid sys-tem”,我们姑且将其译为“酵母双杂合系统”。该技术     

BLIMP-1:B细胞分化为浆细胞的开关?

浆细胞是B细胞来源的终末分化细胞,主要参与体液免疫.成熟B细胞在初次和再次遇到抗原时,可通过一系列机制,分化为可分泌抗体的浆细胞.这一过程主要受一些转录因子的调控,目前已发现有七种参与其中,即BCL-6、BLIMP-1、IRF-4、MITF、MTA3、PAX5和XBP-1,近期研究表明,B-lymphocyte-induced maturation pro-tein 1(BLIMP-1)在正常浆细胞上表达,且其表达增加可促进向浆细胞分化,而BLIMP-1缺陷小鼠则出现浆细胞成熟障碍;同时,这一转录因子还是B-1细胞分泌正常免疫球蛋白所必需,虽然并不参与B-1细胞自我更新,这些都提示BLIMP-1可能为B细胞分化为浆细胞的开关,在B细胞(B-1、B-2细胞)向浆细胞分化的过程中扮演主导角色.     

自分泌游动因子与其受体系统的肿瘤生物学意义

自分泌游动因子(autocrine motility factor,AMF)由肿瘤细胞表达并自分泌产生,与自分泌游动因子受体(autocrine motility factor receptor,AMFR,gp78)结合,可刺激肿瘤细胞移动.AMF是一个家族,与磷酸己糖异构酶(phosphohexose isomerase,PHI)、神经白细胞素(neuroleukin,NLK)和成熟因子(maturation factor,MF)是同一前体基因的表达产物,它们与AMFR结合后能介导多方面的生物学功能.本文重点介绍有关AMF和AMFR蛋白分子的结构特点及其肿瘤生物学意义的研究进展.