药用真菌活性次级代谢产物研究

药用真菌作为我国传统中医药体系的重要组成部分,有着悠久的历史。它们能够产生丰富的活性次级代谢产物,具有神经保护、抗肿瘤、降血脂等诸多药效。然而,目前对大部分药用真菌次级代谢产物的化学和生物学研究较少。本课题组主要以抗肿瘤、抗炎、抗菌以及抗病毒等生物活性为指导,选择重要药用真菌进行化学研究,构建我国特色药用真菌代谢产物库。文章主要介绍近4年我们在这方面的研究进展。     

药用植物内生放线菌的生物活性及菌株D62的代谢产物分析

利用琼脂移块法及WST-8法分别对分离自西双版纳药用植物的165株内生放线菌进行了抗菌、抗肿瘤活性测定。结果显示,超过42%的菌株对病原菌表现出拮抗活性,且对病原真菌的总体拮抗活性明显强于土壤放线菌;78%的菌株表现出抗肿瘤活性,且大部分菌株(54.5%)具有强抗肿瘤活性。选取其中对真菌及肿瘤细胞均有高抑制活性的菌株D62,并对其次生代谢产物进行了进一步的研究,共分离得6个化合物,分别是Antimycin A4a(1),Antimycin A7a(2)、Antimycin A2a(3)、Antimycin A1a(4)、10-hydroxy-10-methyl-dodec-2-en-1,4-olide(5)及6-(2-(4-aminophenyl)-2-oxoethyl)-3,5-dimethyl-tetrahydropyran-2-one(6),其中化合物6为新化合物。以上结果表明药用植物内生放线菌作为一类新的微生物资源具有很好的开发潜力。     

An improved method for single step purification of metagenomic DNA

An improved method for purification of intact metagenomic DNA from soil has been developed using Q-Sepharose, which purified the DNA from phenolic and humic acid contaminants in a single step. The entire procedure for purification took only 45 min. A total of 81% of DNA was recovered after purification and there was 84% reduction in humic acid contents. The purified DNA was readily digested with restriction enzymes and can be further used for molecular applications.     

药用植物微生物组及其与药用植物次生代谢产物的关系

药用植物是中药的原料,是中药产业的源头,其生长发育受遗传和环境等诸多因素的影响。以往研究强调植物基因型及生态因子对药用植物产量和品质的影响。近几年,随着人类微生物组研究的推进,植物微生物组作为植物整体的重要组成部分在药用植物的生长发育、品质形成甚至药效等方面的作用也日益受到重视,有关植物微生物组的多样性,微生物组在植物生长发育中的作用已有较详细的综述,而有关药用植物微生物组及其与药用植物次生代谢产物间关系的综述较少。本文重点总结了自2010年以来药用植物微生物组的研究进展,包括药用植物微生物组物种组成、功能及其与药用植物次生代谢产物产生的关系等,并对其在药用植物提质增效及其生态种植中的潜在应用进行了展望。     

An improved method for DNA isolation from polyphenols rich leaf samples of Annona squamosa L.

A reliable and efficient method for isolating Annona squamosa L. genomic DNA, free from polyphenols and polysaccharides has been developed. Different methods involving use of CTAB and SDS with or without modifications were used. A CTAB based extraction method which uses diatomite to remove polyphenols and polysaccharides proved to be the best. This method allowed recovery of good quality DNA in sufficient quantity suitable for complete digestion by restriction endonucleases and amplifiable in polymerase chain reaction as compared to other methods.     

Genomic DNA extraction from medicinal plants available in Malaysia using a TriOmic(TM) improved extraction kit

DNA extraction was carried out on 32 medicinal plant samples available in Malaysia using the TriOmic(TM) extraction kit. Amounts of 0.1 g flowers or young leaves were ground with liquid nitrogen, lysed at 65°C in RY1(plus) buffer and followed by RNAse treatment. Then, RY2 buffer was added to the samples and mixed completely by vortexing before removal of cell debris by centrifugation. Supernatants were transferred to fresh microcentrifuge tubes and 0.1 volume RY3 buffer was added to each of the transferred supernatant. The mixtures were applied to spin columns followed by a centrifugation step to remove buffers and other residues. Washing step was carried out twice by applying 70% ethanol to the spin columns. Genomic DNA of the samples was recovered by applying 50 μL TE buffer to the membrane of each spin column, followed by a centrifugation step at room temperature. A modification of the TriOmic(TM) extraction procedure was carried out by adding chloroform:isoamyl alcohol (24:1) steps in the extraction procedure. The genomic DNA extracted from most of the 32 samples showed an increase of total yield when chloroform:isoamyl alcohol (24:1) steps were applied in the TriOmicTM extraction procedure. This preliminary study is very important for molecular studies of medicinal plants available in Malaysia since the DNA extraction can be completed in a shorter period of time (within 1 h) compared to manual extraction, which entails applying phenol, chloroform and ethanol precipitation, and requires 1-2 days to complete.     

Comparison of four DNA barcodes in identifying certain medicinal plants of Lamiaceae

Many species in the family Lamiaceae have been widely used for the treatment of coronary heart disease,stroke,and other conditions,and authenticating each of these species has become an important topic...     

Antimutagenicity of secondary metabolites from higher plants.

Higher plants contain both mutagens and antimutagens and are susceptible to mutagenesis but screening programs for detection of antimutagenesis rarely employ higher plant systems. Short-term bacterial and mammalian tissue culture systems are the norm. Using modified screening tests for detecting antimutagenic agents, higher plants have been shown to contain a variety of structurally novel antimutagenic agents. Systematic bioassay-directed methodology resulted in the isolation in pure form and biological and chemical characterization of the responsible individual active components from various plants. The methodology in use is illustrated by the isolation of cinnamic acid, cinnamyl cinnamate and cinnamyl ricinoleate as the active constituents of the classic medicinal plant product, Styrax asiatica. The methods which may be used to reveal structure-activity relationships and to explore putative molecular modes of action are illustrated with excerpts from the same study.     

Therapeutic agents from endophytes harbored in Asian medicinal plants

Phytochemistry Reviews - Endophytes are a diverse group of microorganisms present in plant tissues which include fungi and bacteria and have been utilized as therapeutic agents. They are known to...     

A DNA extraction method for RAPD analysis from plants rich in soluble polysaccharides

A simple procedure for the isolation of DNA from mature leaf tissue was developed. This procedure purified DNA using Sephacryl S-1000 column and PEG 8000 precipitation. Polysaccharide-like components were successfully removed from DNA samples from species in which polysaccharides were found to be difficult to remove by phenol/chloroform extraction. The DNA obtained by this method was suitable for PCR, RAPD, enzyme digestion, and Southern-blot analyses.     

Combinatorial biosynthesis of medicinal plant secondary metabolites

Combinatorial biosynthesis is a new tool in the generation of novel natural products and for the production of rare and expensive natural products. The basic concept is combining metabolic pathways in different organisms on a genetic level. As a consequence heterologous organisms provide precursors from their own primary and secondary metabolism that are metabolised to the desired secondary product due to the expression of foreign genes. In this review we discuss the possibilities and limitations of combining genes from different organisms and the expression of heterologous genes. Major focuses are fundamentals of the genetic work, used expression systems and latest progress in this field. Combinatorial biosynthesis is discussed for important classes of natural products, including alkaloids (vinblastine, vincristine), terpenoids (artemisinin, paclitaxel) and flavonoids. The role and importance of today's used host organisms is critically described, and the latest approaches discussed to give an outlook for future trends and possibilities.     

An improved purification method for cytoplasmic dynein

An improved method has been devised for the purification of cytoplasmic dynein from sea urchin eggs (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis and S purpuratus). This protocol introduces three changes over a previously published procedure (Hisanaga and Sakai: J Biochem 93:87, 1983)--the substitution of diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-cellulose for hydroxylapatite chromatography, the elimination of sucrose density gradient centrifugation, and the use of phosphocellulose chromatography. These changes reduce the time and increase the efficiency of the purification procedure. The purified egg cytoplasmic dynein has enzymatic properties in common with axonemal dynein, including ionic specificity (Ca++ATPase/Mg++ ATPase = 0.8) and inhibition by sodium vanadate and erythro-9-2,3-hydroxynonyl adenine (EHNA). As assayed by silver staining of polyacrylamide gels, the cytoplasmic dynein is composed of two high molecular weight polypeptides (greater than 300 kilodaltons) that comigrate with flagellar dynein heavy chains, and lesser amounts of three lower molecular weight bands. None of these polypeptides appears to contain bound carbohydrate. The purification procedure can be modified slightly to allow the preparation of cytoplasmic dynein in only 2 days from as little as 3-5 ml of packed eggs, a 20-fold reduction over the previous method. This more rapid and efficient method will facilitate the investigation of cytoplasmic dynein in other systems where starting material is limited, including tissue culture cells and nerve axoplasm.     

An improved method for purification of L-threonine deaminase from rat liver

L-threonine deaminase was obtained at a high degree of purity from rat liver. Two main steps were added to the previously reported procedure: cryoprecipitation and chromatofocusing (in the presence of a specific KCl concentration). The purification factor was 3,090 and the specific activity 989. The method is very reproducible and convenient. It gives the highest specific activity and the highest degree of purity of the enzyme recorded to date.     

Smoothing of the thermal stability of DNA duplexes by using modified nucleosides and chaotropic agents

The effect of alkyltrimethylammonium ions on the thermostability of natural and modified DNA duplexes has been investigated. We have shown that the use of tetramethylammonium ions TMA+along with the chemical modification of duplexes allow the fine adjustment of T m and the possibility of obtaining several duplex systems with varied isostabilizedtemperatures, some of which show greater stability than those of natural DNA. This approach could be very useful for DNA sequencing by hybridization.