The construction of customized nucleosomal arrays

A simple, efficient, and reliable method is demonstrated for cloning long tandem arrays of the 601 nucleosomal positioning sequence. In addition, it is shown that such long arrays can be ligated together in vitro with high efficiency. By combining these two procedures it becomes straightforward to synthesize customized arrays that contain different (or variable) nucleosomal repeat lengths (NRLs) and monosome units bearing chemical modifications such as fluorophores, methyl groups, and reaction sites. This is, therefore, an enabling technology for the in vitro study of chromatin structure and function.     

Cell-type preference of immunoglobulin kappa and lambda gene promoters.

Immunoglobulin gene constant regions are known to be associated with strictly tissue-specific enhancer elements. Until recently the promoter of the variable region, which becomes linked to the constant region by somatic rearrangement, could have been viewed as a passive recipient of the enhancer stimulus. Here we show that the promoters of the immunoglobulin kappa and lambda light chain genes are approximately 20-30 times more active in lymphoid cells than in non-lymphoid cells. To avoid the problem of differential mRNA stability upon transfection of immunoglobulin genes into non-lymphoid cells we have constructed chimeric genes. All kappa mRNA sequences were progressively deleted to fuse the kappa gene promoter to a globin gene coding body. A similar chimeric gene was constructed with the promoter of the lambda gene. The cell-type preference of the promoter may be exploited during B-lymphocyte differentiation to regulate the immunoglobulin gene promoter independently from the enhancer.     

Knockout of the Sendai virus C gene eliminates the viral ability to prevent the interferon-alpha/beta-mediated responses.

Sendai virus (SeV) renders cells unresponsive to interferon (IFN)-alpha. To identify viral factors involved in this process, we examined whether recombinant SeVs, which could not express V protein, subsets of C proteins (C, C', Y1 and Y2) or any of four C proteins, retained the capability of impeding IFN-alpha-mediated responses. Among these viruses, only the 4C knockout virus completely lost the ability to suppress the induction of IFN-alpha-stimulated gene products and the subsequent establishment of an anti-viral state. These findings reveal crucial roles of the SeV C proteins in blocking IFN-alpha-mediated responses.     

Polymorphism in the interferon-alpha gene family.

A pronounced genetic polymorphism of the interferon type I gene family has been assumed on the basis of RFLP analysis of the genomic region as well as the large number of sequences published compared to the number of loci. However, IFNA2 is the only locus that has been carefully analyzed concerning gene frequency, and only naturally occurring rare alleles have been found. We have extended the studies on a variation of expressed sequences by studying the IFNA1, IFNA2, IFNA10, IFNA13, IFNA14, and IFNA17 genes. Genomic white-blood-cell DNA from a population sample of blood donors and from a family material were screened by single-nucleotide primer extension (allele-specific primer extension) of PCR fragments. Because of sequence similarities, in some cases "nested" PCR was used, and, when applicable, restriction analysis or control sequencing was performed. All individuals carried the interferon-alpha 1 and interferon-alpha 13 variants but not the LeIF D variant. At the IFNA2 and IFNA14 loci only one sequence variant was found, while in the IFNA10 and IFNA17 groups two alleles were detected in each group. The IFNA10 and IFNA17 alleles segregated in families and showed a close fit to the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was a significant linkage disequilibrium between IFNA10 and IFNA17 alleles. The fact that the extent of genetic polymorphism was lower than expected suggests that a majority of the previously described gene sequences represent nonpolymorphic rare mutants that may have arisen in tumor cell lines.     

甘蓝型油菜扩展蛋白家族的全基因组鉴定及其对缺硼胁迫响应的差异分析

以甘蓝型油菜(Brassica napus L.)硼高效品种‘青油10号’和硼低效品种‘Westar 10’为研究对象,采用生物信息学分析、转录组测序和实时荧光定量PCR技术,鉴定其基因组中扩展蛋白的家族成员,并对该基因家族响应缺硼胁迫的表达差异进行分析。结果显示,甘蓝型油菜基因组中包含109个扩展蛋白,可分为4个亚家族,包括:79个扩展蛋白A(BnaEXPAs)、21个扩展蛋白B(BnaEXPBs)、5个类扩展蛋白A(BnaEXLAs)和4个类扩展蛋白B(BnaEXLBs)。同一亚家族中的扩展蛋白具有相对保守的基因结构和蛋白质基序组成。这些扩展蛋白基因分布在19条染色体上,其中10个位于硼高效QTL区间内。转录组测序分析结果表明,缺硼胁迫时‘青油10号’的根、幼叶和老叶中分别有40、18和30个扩展蛋白基因显著上调或下调表达;而‘Westar10’中分别有27、24和41个扩展蛋白基因显著上调或下调表达。其中‘青油10号’根中的BnaC04.EXPA6a,幼叶中的BnaA09.EXPA5以及老叶中的BnaA09.EXPA16、BnaC04.EXPA3、BnaCnn.EXPA5b和BnaA03.EXPA8基因的表达水平均显著高于‘Westar10’。研究结果说明甘蓝型油菜基因组中扩展蛋白基因家族数量庞大,其中高、低效品种间和不同硼水平中差异表达的扩展蛋白可能在甘蓝型油菜低硼适应性中发挥重要作用。     

Application of disposable plastic microfluidic device arrays with customized chemistries to multiplexed biochemical assays

Plastic microfluidic array platforms and synergistic multiplexed assay chemistries are under development for a variety of applications, including assays of gene expression, proteomics, genotyping, DNA sequencing and fragment analysis, sample preparation and high-throughput pharmaceutical discovery. The low production costs of plastic substrates makes possible economical single-use device arrays, eliminating cleaning and sample-to-sample carryover contamination. Hundreds of microchannels and reservoirs are readily included on a single microtitre-plate-size substrate, enabling the manufacture of highly parallel fluidic array systems to increase throughput and speed.     

Tup1突变对转录抑制局部网络中基因表达的非线性影响

研究基因网络的非线性行为特征是研制基因网络技术的基础。Tup1基因是酵母中作用最为广泛的转录抑制因子之一,利用酵母生物信息学数据库中蛋白相互作用关系,构建一个以Tup1为中心,4个层次741个基因的局部基因网络。统计分析六张Tup1不同突变的基因表达芯片数据,将局部基因网络中的全部基因按照3个网络特征进行统计分析：必需、非必需基因、网络层次和网络节点,并研究这些特征与基因表达之间的关系。初步发现基因表达变化的强度与节点数目成一定的反比关系,必需基因的平均变化程度较非必需基因为低,且由Tup1突变引发的其他基因的表达变化在以Tup1为中心的局部基因网络中近层次网络变化程度较大,远层次网络变化程度较低。     

Cyclosporine-induced tolerance in experimental organ transplantation. Evidence of diminished donor-specific cytotoxicity relative to donor-specific proliferative response

Alloreactivity of intragraft and peripheral blood lymphocytes from tolerant canine lung allograft recipients was examined. Tolerance was induced by variable periods of treatment with cyclosporine. Analysis of effector cells from lung allografts (obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage) revealed the absence of specific cytolytic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity and the presence of a low level of cytolytic activity detected in a lectin-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity assay. In contrast, high levels of specific CTL activity and lectin-dependent activity were detected in cell preparations from lung allografts undergoing rejection. Tolerant recipients retained normal ability to generate specific CTL activity to third party alloantigens in mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLC) but had diminished ability to generate CTL to donor alloantigens in recipient X donor MLC. Addition of exogenous interleukin 2 to these MLC was unable to restore donor-specific CTL activity. Lymphocytes from tolerant recipients were, however, capable of generating proliferative responses and lectin-dependent cytotoxicity on exposure to donor alloantigens in MLC. Evidence presented in this report suggests that the lectin-dependent cytolytic activity generated in these MLC is mediated by lymphokine-activated killer cells. Such cells are likely to be activated by interleukin 2 released in the proliferative response. The results support the proposal that the cyclosporine-induced tolerant state is characterized by the relative inability to respond against major histocompatibility complex class I antigens in contrast to class II antigens and/or minor histocompatibility antigens since MLC-induced CTL are directed, for the most part, against class I molecules.