Delayed Formation of Chromosome Aberrations in Mouse Pachytene Spermatocytes Treated with Triethylenemelamine (Tem)

Induction of chromosome aberrations in pachytene spermatocytes of mice by 2 mg/kg TEM was compared with induction by 400 R X rays. These doses induced comparably high dominant lethal effects in pachytene spermatocytes of mice. Cytological analysis at diakinesis–metaphase I stage showed that whereas 76.4% of the cells treated with X rays at pachytene stage had aberrations, the frequencies observed in two TEM experiments were only 0.8 and 2.2%. On the other hand, 5% of the progeny from TEM-treated pachytene spermatocytes were found to be translocation heterozygotes. This is the first report on the recovery of heritable translocations from treated spermatocytes of mice. The aberration frequencies observed for TEM in diakinesis–metaphase I were much too low to account for all the lethal mutations and heritable translocations. Thus, the formation of the bulk of aberrations induced by TEM in pachytene spermatocytes was delayed—a marked contrast to the more immediate formation of X-ray-induced aberrations. It is postulated that the formation of the bulk of TEM-induced aberrations in pachytene spermatocytes and in certain postmeiotic stages occurs sometime during spermiogenesis, and not through the operation of postfertilization pronuclear DNA synthesis.     

Hexylresorcinol Induces Chromosome Aberrations in Mouse Peripheral Blood Cells

Hexylresorcinol has been demonstrated to induce chromosome aberrations in eukaryotic cells at doses of 0.5, 0.05, and 0.005 mg/g body weight. The metabolic transformation of hexylresorcinol in mice decreases its genotoxic effect. The mutagenic effect is retained for three days only after the administration of the highest dose of hexylresorcinol (0.5 mg/g); during the first two days, lower doses are also genotoxic. Therefore, hexylresorcinol doses lower than 0.5 mg/g body weight are metabolized within two days to the extent precluding the expression of the cytotoxic effect. After a single administration to mice, exogenous hexylresorcinol is transformed at a rate of 0.0025–0.025 mg/day.__________Translated from Genetika, Vol. 41, No. 8, 2005, pp. 1045–1048.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Margulis, Ozhiganova, Bushmanova, Kolpakov, Il’inskaya.     

Aluminum Induces Chromosome Aberrations in Cells of Wheat Root Meristem

The yield and pattern of chromosome structure aberrations in wheat seedlings treated with aluminum nitrate and aluminum sulfate at various concentrations have been determined by the anaphase method. Aluminum has a genotoxic effect causing genome, chromatid, and chromosome aberrations in apical root meristem cells. The relationship between the total yield of structural mutations and the aluminum concentration follows a bell-shaped curve. The mutagenic activity of aluminum nitrate peaks at 10^–3mg/ml, which is twice as high as the permissible concentration limit (PCL) of aluminum in potable water. The maximum of the mutagenic activity of aluminum sulfate is observed at 5 × 10^–4mg/ml, i.e., one PCL. Tap water boiled for 2 h in an aluminum vessel has virtually no genotoxic effect on wheat cells.     

Analysis of the Chromosome Aberrations Induced by X-Rays in Somatic Cells of DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

A technique has been perfected for enabling good microscope preparations to be obtained from the larval ganglia of Drosophila melanogaster. This system was then tested with X-rays and an extensive series of data was obtained on the chromosome aberrations induced in the various stages of the cell cycle.-The analysis of the results obtained offers the following points of interest: (1) There exists a difference in radio-sensitivity between the two sexes. The females constantly display a greater frequency of both chromosome and chromatid aberrations. They also display a greater frequency of spontaneous aberrations. (2) In both sexes the overall chromosome damage is greater in cells irradiated in stages G(2) and G(1). These two peaks of greater radiosensitivity are produced by a high frequency of terminal deletions and chromatid exchanges and by a high frequency of dicentrics, respectively. (3) The aberrations are not distributed at random among the various chromosomes. On the average, the Y chromosome is found to be more resistant and the breaks are preferentially localized in the pericentromeric heterochromatin of the X chromosome and of the autosomes. (4) Somatic pairing influences the frequency and type of the chromosome aberrations induced. In this system, such an arrangement of the chromosomes results in a high frequency of exchanges and dicentrics between homologous chromosomes and a low frequency of scorable translocations. Moreover, somatic pairing, probably by preventing the formation of looped regions in the interphase chromosomes, results in the almost total absence of intrachanges at both chromosome and chromatid level.     

Activities of Various FLP Recombinases Expressed by Adenovirus Vectors in Mammalian Cells

FLP, like Cre, is a frequently employed site-specific recombinase. Because wild-type FLP (wtFLP) is thermolabile, a thermostable FLP mutant (FLPe) has been developed for efficient recombination of FLP in studies using mammalian cells and animals. FLPe and wtFLP have been compared in multiple assays in vitro and in vivo, and in mouse genetics, FLPe has been shown to be very effective like Cre. Here we show an adenovirus vector (AdV) system to be valuable for quantitative measurements of the enzyme activity in mammalian cells and, using this system, precisely compare activities of wtFLP and FLPe. Unexpectedly, we found that the recombination efficiency of FLPe enzyme was lower on a molar basis than that of wtFLP even at 37 °C and, consequently, that the higher recombination yield per transduced AdV genome expressing FLPe compared to wtFLP was due not to inherently higher enzyme activity, but rather to higher steady-state levels of FLPe by its thermostability. Therefore, trying to increase FLPe levels further, we generated a “humanized” FLPe (hFLPe) gene with codon usage optimized for mammals. hFLPe produced about 10-fold more FLPe enzyme in transfection experiments than FLPe, as expected. However, hFLPe-expressing AdV was unstable and could not be prepared without deletion, suggesting that a subtle deleterious effect of FLP on 293 cells may exist. With hFLPe-expressing AdV thus unavailable, of the AdV constructs tested, AdV-expressing FLPe yielded the most recombined targets, despite the lower recombination efficiency of FLPe per enzyme molecule compared with that of wtFLP. We found hFLPe to be valuable for plasmid transfection, and its properties are probably suitable for experiments involving cell lines and transgenic mice.     

哺乳动物细胞中重组蛋白瞬时表达技术（TGE）的研究进展

近年来越来越多的重组蛋白,尤其是单克隆抗体,作为生物药应用于医疗。临床及实验室研究中,经常要求在短时间内生产一定量的候选蛋白供应研究需求。经典的建立稳定细胞系生产重组蛋白过程复杂冗长,而作为替代方法,瞬时基因表达技术在数周内即可生产数十至数百毫克重组蛋白,得到广泛应用。本文将总结近年来工业及学术上,在哺乳动物细胞尤其是人胚胎肾细胞（HEK293）TL中国仓鼠卵巢细胞（CHO）中瞬时表达重组蛋白的一系列研究,概述瞬时表达技术在宿主细胞改造、表达载体最优化设计、瞬时转染条件等方面的研究进展,并展望其未来发展方向。     

外空飞行后小麦根尖细胞的染色体畸变

小麦种子在科学探测和技术实验卫星上进行空间飞行,返回地面后浸种萌发,经不同时间培养后取根尖固定并观察根尖细胞染色体畸变情况。空间飞行可引起根尖细胞染色体畸变率的增加,其损伤随取样时间的延后呈下降趋势,说明空间飞行所诱导的染色体损伤可被部分修复;种子经辐射保护剂芥子碱和半胱氨酸预处理能显著降低空间飞行诱发的根尖细胞染色体畸变率,而经辐射敏化剂咖啡因预处理的情况则相反。     

哺乳动物细胞中重组蛋白瞬时表达技术(TGE)的研究进展

近年来越来越多的重组蛋白,尤其是单克隆抗体,作为生物药应用于医疗。临床及实验室研究中,经常要求在短时间内生产一定量的候选蛋白供应研究需求。经典的建立稳定细胞系生产重组蛋白过程复杂冗长,而作为替代方法,瞬时基因表达技术在数周内即可生产数十至数百毫克重组蛋白,得到广泛应用。本文将总结近年来工业及学术上,在哺乳动物细胞尤其是人胚胎肾细胞(HEK293)及中国仓鼠卵巢细胞(CHO)中瞬时表达重组蛋白的一系列研究,概述瞬时表达技术在宿主细胞改造、表达载体最优化设计、瞬时转染条件等方面的研究进展,并展望其未来发展方向。     

转基因哺乳动物细胞自合成多不饱和脂肪酸

亚油酸、亚麻酸是哺乳动物体内的必需脂肪酸,但哺乳动物由于缺乏△12和ω-3脂肪酸脱氢酶而自身不能合成．△12和ω-3脂肪酸脱氢酶存在于真菌、植物和一些低等动物中．为了实现哺乳动物细胞亚油酸的自身合成,克隆了线虫编码△12脂肪酸脱氢酶的FAT-2基因eDNA序列,通过优化密码子,构建真核表达载体,稳定转染细胞,经抗生素筛选获得稳定整合FAT-2基因的CHO细胞．PCR和RNA印迹（Northern blot）验证了基因的整合和表达．气相色谱分析细胞的脂肪酸含量表明,FAT-2基因的表达显著提高了转基因细胞中亚油酸的含量,亚油酸含量为阴性对照细胞的2．4倍．研究结果表明,低等动物△12脂肪酸脱氢酶可以重建哺乳动物多不饱和脂肪酸合成途径,并利用细胞中的油酸合成亚油酸．上述研究为进一步利用转基因技术促进农业动物合成多不饱和脂肪酸从而提高食品营养价值奠定基础．     

Rapid Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations in Mouse B Lymphocytes by PNA-FISH

Defective DNA repair leads to increased genomic instability, which is the root cause of mutations that lead to tumorigenesis. Analysis of the frequency and type of chromosome aberrations in different cell types allows defects in DNA repair pathways to be elucidated. Understanding mammalian DNA repair biology has been greatly helped by the production of mice with knockouts in specific genes. The goal of this protocol is to quantify genomic instability in mouse B lymphocytes. Labeling of the telomeres using PNA-FISH probes (peptide nucleic acid - fluorescent in situ hybridization) facilitates the rapid analysis of genomic instability in metaphase chromosome spreads. B cells have specific advantages relative to fibroblasts, because they have normal ploidy and a higher mitotic index. Short-term culture of B cells therefore enables precise measurement of genomic instability in a primary cell population which is likely to have fewer secondary genetic mutations than what is typically found in transformed fibroblasts or patient cell lines.     

Chromosome Aberrations Induced by an Ultrasonic Fetal Pulse Detector

Human blood cultures were exposed to ultrasound from an ultrasonic fetal heart detector for periods of one and two hours. Considerable increases in the number of chromosome aberrations over control values were found.     

哺乳动物X染色体失活机制

哺乳动物X染色体连锁基因的剂量平衡,是通过雌性胚胎发育早期随机或印记失活一条X染色体来实现的,这是一个复杂的过程,包括：启动、计数、选择、维持等一系列的步骤。X染色体失活中心是X染色体失活的主控开关座位,调节X失活的早期事件,失活发生后,X染色体的失活状态可稳定地存在并传递给后代,这一过程涉及基因组印记的形成。此外,在雄性动物,精原细胞减数分裂早期也存在着短暂的X染色体失活现象。现对哺乳动物X染色体失活机制的最新进展进行综述。