Physiology, biomedicine, medicine

The physiology throughout centuries was considered as the basic fundamental science in medicine. Rapid development of molecular biology, genetics and of some other natural sciences in 2nd half XX demanded century not only the answer to a question on the sciences defining the base of development of medicine, but also key problems of its progress. The biomedicine is formed, its methods are discussed, is frequent in system of natural sciences, parities with physiology. The special attention is given unconditional necessity of finding-out of molecular mechanisms of functions, targets of action of physiologically active substances and obligatory correlation of data of modeling with the same processes in conditions in vivo in whole body. The role of various sciences in the decision of fundamental problems of medicine, a place and role of physiology in modern medicine is shown.     

Sleep as a teaching tool for integrating respiratory physiology and motor control

Sleep exerts major effects on most fundamental homeostatic mechanisms. Current data suggest, however, that students of physiology and medicine typically receive little or no formal teaching in sleep. Because sleep takes up a significant component of our life span, it is proposed that current teaching in systems and integrative physiology is not representative if it is confined to functions describing wakefulness only. We propose that sleep can be readily integrated into various components of physiology and medical curricula simply by emphasizing how commonly taught physiological processes are importantly affected by sleep mechanisms. In our experience, this approach can be used to reinforce basic physiological principles while simultaneously introducing sleep physiology into the students' training. We find that students have a general and inherent interest in sleep and related clinical disorders, and this proves useful as an effective means to teach the material. In this paper, examples of how sleep influences motor control and the respiratory system will illustrate these points. These considerations also highlight some important gaps in traditional teaching of respiratory physiology.     

Evolutionary physiology at 30+: Has the promise been fulfilled?

Three decades ago, interactions between evolutionary biology and physiology gave rise to evolutionary physiology. This caused comparative physiologists to improve their research methods by incorporating evolutionary thinking. Simultaneously, evolutionary biologists began focusing more on physiological mechanisms that may help to explain constraints on and trade-offs during microevolutionary processes, as well as macroevolutionary patterns in physiological diversity. Here we argue that evolutionary physiology has yet to reach its full potential, and propose new avenues that may lead to unexpected advances. Viewing physiological adaptations in wild animals as potential solutions to human diseases offers enormous possibilities for biomedicine. New evidence of epigenetic modifications as mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity that regulate physiological traits may also arise in coming years, which may also represent an overlooked enhancer of adaptation via natural selection to explain physiological evolution. Synergistic interactions at these intersections and other areas will lead to a novel understanding of organismal biology.     

Trade-offs in thermal adaptation: the need for a molecular to ecological integration

Through functional analyses, integrative physiology is able to link molecular biology with ecology as well as evolutionary biology and is thereby expected to provide access to the evolution of molecular, cellular, and organismic functions; the genetic basis of adaptability; and the shaping of ecological patterns. This paper compiles several exemplary studies of thermal physiology and ecology, carried out at various levels of biological organization from single genes (proteins) to ecosystems. In each of those examples, trade-offs and constraints in thermal adaptation are addressed; these trade-offs and constraints may limit species' distribution and define their level of fitness. For a more comprehensive understanding, the paper sets out to elaborate the functional and conceptual connections among these independent studies and the various organizational levels addressed. This effort illustrates the need for an overarching concept of thermal adaptation that encompasses molecular, organellar, cellular, and whole-organism information as well as the mechanistic links between fitness, ecological success, and organismal physiology. For this data, the hypothesis of oxygen- and capacity-limited thermal tolerance in animals provides such a conceptual framework and allows interpreting the mechanisms of thermal limitation of animals as relevant at the ecological level. While, ideally, evolutionary studies over multiple generations, illustrated by an example study in bacteria, are necessary to test the validity of such complex concepts and underlying hypotheses, animal physiology frequently is constrained to functional studies within one generation. Comparisons of populations in a latitudinal cline, closely related species from different climates, and ontogenetic stages from riverine clines illustrate how evolutionary information can still be gained. An understanding of temperature-dependent shifts in energy turnover, associated with adjustments in aerobic scope and performance, will result. This understanding builds on a mechanistic analysis of the width and location of thermal windows on the temperature scale and also on study of the functional properties of relevant proteins and associated gene expression mechanisms.     

植物激素研究中的化学生物学思路与应用

植物激素是植物生长发育过程中必不可少的重要调节物质, 它们直接或间接参与调控从种子萌发到成熟的各个发育阶段以及对生物/非生物胁迫的响应。随着利用小分子化合物探究生物体生理代谢分子机制的不断发展, 植物生物学与化学之间一个新的前沿交叉学科——化学生物学随之诞生, 并在短时间内取得了重要进展。化学生物学的思路与方法在植物激素研究领域中起到了不可替代的作用, 尤其是在激素合成及信号转导研究领域。该文概述了主要植物激素的小分子类似物及其在植物生长发育和生物/非生物胁迫响应等方面的作用机制, 并讨论了激素类似物在实际生产中的应用潜力及未来的研究方向。     

Uncovering physiologic mechanisms of circadian rhythms and sleep/wake regulation through mathematical modeling

Mathematical models of neurobehavioral function are useful both for understanding the underlying physiology and for predicting the effects of rest-activity-work schedules and interventions on neurobehavioral function. In a symposium titled "Modeling Human Neurobehavioral Performance I: Uncovering Physiologic Mechanisms" at the 2006 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics/Society for Mathematical Biology (SIAM/SMB) Conference on the Life Sciences, different approaches to modeling the physiology of human circadian rhythms, sleep, and neurobehavioral performance and their usefulness in understanding the underlying physiology were examined. The topics included key elements of the physiology that should be included in mathematical models, a computational model developed within a cognitive architecture that has begun to include the effects of extended wake on information-processing mechanisms that influence neurobehavioral function, how to deal with interindividual differences in the prediction of neurobehavioral function, the applications of systems biology and control theory to the study of circadian rhythms, and comparisons of these methods in approaching the overarching questions of the underlying physiology and mathematical models of circadian rhythms and neurobehavioral function. A unifying theme was that it is important to have strong collaborative ties between experimental investigators and mathematical modelers, both for the design and conduct of experiments and for continued development of the models.     

对我国分子生态学研究近期发展战略的一些思考

分子生态学是多学科交叉的整合性研究领域, 是运用进化生物学理论解决宏观生物学问题的科学。经过半个多世纪的发展, 本学科已日趋成熟, 它不仅已经广泛渗透到宏观生物学的众多学科领域, 而且已经成为连接和融合很多不同学科的桥梁, 是目前最具活力的研究领域之一。其研究的范畴, 从最基础的理论和方法技术, 到格局和模式的发现和描述, 到对过程和机制的深入探讨, 再到付诸于实践的行动和规划指导等各个层次。分子生态学的兴起给宏观生物学带来了若干飞跃性的变化, 使宏观生物学由传统的以观察、测量和推理为主的描述性研究转变为以从生物和种群的遗传构成的变化和历史演化背景上检验、证明科学假设及揭示机制和规律为主的机制性/解释性研究, 因而使得对具有普遍意义的科学规律、生态和进化过程及机制的探索成为可能。分子生态学已经进入组学研究时代, 这使得阐明复杂生态过程、生物地理过程和适应性演化过程的机制性研究由原来难以企及的梦想变成完全可以实现的探求; 它也带来了全新的挑战, 其中最有深远影响的将是对分子生态学研究至关重要的进化生物学基础理论方面的突破, 例如遗传变异理论、种群分化理论、表观遗传因素的作用, 乃至进化生物学的基本知识构架等等。这些方面的进展必将使宏观生物学迎来一场空前的革命, 并对生态学的所有分支学科产生重大影响, 甚至催生诸如生态表观组学这样的新分支学科。对于中国科学家来说, 分子生态学组学时代的开启, 更是一个千载难逢的机遇, 为提出和建立生命科学的新方法、新假说、新思想和新理论提供了莫大的探索空间——此前我们对宏观生物学方法、理论和思想的发展贡献很小。然而, 限制组学时代重大突破的关键因素是理论、概念、理念、实验方法或分析方法方面的创新和突破, 这正是我国分子生态学研究最薄弱的环节。我国教育部门应尽快调整生命科学本科生培养的理念和方法, 以培养具备突出创新潜力的年轻一代后备人才; 同时, 科研项目资助部门和研究人员不仅应清醒地认识本学科领域的发展态势, 更要及时调整思路, 树立新的项目管理理念和治学 理念。     

Human responses to the geophysical daily, annual and lunar cycles

Collectively the daily, seasonal, lunar and tidal geophysical cycles regulate much of the temporal biology of life on Earth. The increasing isolation of human societies from these geophysical cycles, as a result of improved living conditions, high-quality nutrition and 24/7 working practices, have led many to believe that human biology functions independently of them. Yet recent studies have highlighted the dominant role that our circadian clock plays in the organisation of 24 hour patterns of behaviour and physiology. Preferred wake and sleep times are to a large extent driven by an endogenous temporal program that uses sunlight as an entraining cue. The alarm clock can drive human activity rhythms but has little direct effect on our endogenous 24 hour physiology. In many situations, our biology and our society appear to be in serious opposition, and the damaging consequences to our health under these circumstances are increasingly recognised. The seasons dominate the lives of non-equatorial species, and until recently, they also had a marked influence on much of human biology. Despite human isolation from seasonal changes in temperature, food and photoperiod in the industrialised nations, the seasons still appear to have a small, but significant, impact upon when individuals are born and many aspects of health. The seasonal changes that modulate our biology, and how these factors might interact with the social and metabolic status of the individual to drive seasonal effects, are still poorly understood. Lunar cycles had, and continue to have, an influence upon human culture, though despite a persistent belief that our mental health and other behaviours are modulated by the phase of the moon, there is no solid evidence that human biology is in any way regulated by the lunar cycle.     

Craniofacial development and the evolution of the vertebrates: the old problems on a new background

Based on recent advances in experimental embryology and molecular genetics, the morphogenetic program for the vertebrate cranium is summarized and several unanswered classical problems are reviewed. In particular, the presence of mesodermal segmentation in the head, the homology of the trabecular cartilage, and the origin of the dermal skull roof are discussed. The discovery of the neural-crest-derived ectomesenchyme and the roles of the homeobox genes have allowed the classical concept of head segmentation unchanged since Goethe to be re-interpreted in terms of developmental mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels. In the context of evolutionary developmental biology, the importance of generative constraints is stressed as the developmental factor that generates the homologous morphological patterns apparent in various groups of vertebrates. Furthermore, a modern version of the germ-layer theory is defined in terms of the conserved differentiation of cell lineages, which is again questioned from the vantage of evolutionary developmental biology.     

The end of "naive reductionism": rise of systems biology or renaissance of physiology?

Systems biology is an emerging discipline focused on tackling the enormous intellectual and technical challenges associated with translating genome sequence into a comprehensive understanding of how organisms are built and run. Physiology and systems biology share the goal of understanding the integrated function of complex, multicomponent biological systems ranging from interacting proteins that carry out specific tasks to whole organisms. Despite this common ground, physiology as an academic discipline runs the real risk of fading into the background and being superseded organizationally and administratively by systems biology. My goal in this article is to discuss briefly the cornerstones of modern systems biology, specifically functional genomics, nonmammalian model organisms and computational biology, and to emphasize the need to embrace them as essential components of 21st-century physiology departments and research and teaching programs.     

An expanded role for microbial physiology in metabolic engineering and functional genomics: moving towards systems biology

Microbial physiology has traditionally played a very important role in both fundamental research and in industrial applications of microorganisms. The classical approach in microbial physiology has been to analyze the role of individual components (genes or proteins) in the overall cell function. With the progress in molecular biology it has become possible to optimize industrial fermentations through introduction of directed genetic modification - an approach referred to as metabolic engineering. Furthermore, as a consequence of large sequencing programs the complete genomic sequence has become available for an increasing number of microorganisms. This has resulted in substantial research efforts in assigning function to all identified open reading frames - referred to as functional genomics. In both metabolic engineering and functional genomics there is a trend towards application of a macroscopic view on cell function, and this leads to an expanded role of the classical approach applied in microbial physiology. With the increased understanding of the molecular mechanisms it is envisaged that in the future it will be possible to describe the interaction between all the components in the system (the cell), also at the quantitative level, and this is the goal of systems biology. Clearly this will have a significant impact on microbial physiology as well as on metabolic engineering.     

Research Advances in Mechanisms of Turfgrass Tolerance to Abiotic Stresses: From Physiology to Molecular Biology

Turgrfass used on landscapes, parks, sports fields, and golf courses has significant ecological, environmental, and economic impacts. The economic value of seed production of turfgrasses is second to hybrid corn. The land area cultivated with turfgrass is increasing due to rapid urban development. Turfgrass is often subjected to various abiotic stresses, which cause declines in aesthetic quality, functionality and seed yield. Among abiotic stresses, drought, salinity, heat, and low temperature are the most common detrimental factors for turfgrass growth in various regions. Thorough understanding of mechanisms of turfgrass stress responses is vital for the development of superior stress-tolerant germplasm through breeding and biotechnology. Significant progress has been made in turfgrass stress physiology and molecular biology in recent decades, but research for turfgrasses generally lags behind that of the major Poaceae crops, particularly at the molecular and genomic levels. This review focuses on research advances in turfgrass stress physiology and provides an overview of limited information on gene discovery, genetic transformation, and molecular marker development for improving stress tolerance, with emphasis on drought, salinity, heat, and low temperature stress. Major growth and physiological traits associated with these stresses, as well as metabolic and molecular factors regulating various traits for turfgrass tolerance to each stress are discussed. Future research at the systems biology level and through genomic sequencing is paramount for further insights on fundamental mechanisms of turfgrass stress tolerance and for improving turfgrass tolerance to various environmental stresses.     

A special issue on ＂Plant Molecular Biology＂

The use of molecular biology and genomics tools in plant biology research has greatly expanded our understandingof the molecular mechanisms that underlie plant development and physiology.The successful establishment of researchresources such as mutant populations has led to progress in a variety of fields,including plant reproductive develop-ment,signal transduction,hormone functions,defense responses and epigenetic control.In the future these advanceswill potentially facilitate crop improvement through molecular breeding.     

Advances in Cell‐Free Biosensors: Principle,Mechanism, and Applications

Synthetic biology has promoted the development of biosensors as tools for detecting trace substances. In the past, biosensors based on synthetic biology have been designed on living cells, but the development of cell biosensors has been greatly limited by defects such as genetically modified organism problem and the obstruction of cell membrane. However, the advent of cell‐free synthetic biology addresses these limitations. Biosensors based on the cell‐free protein synthesis system have the advantages of higher safety, higher sensitivity, and faster response time over cell biosensors, which make cell‐free biosensors have a broader application prospect. This review summarizes the workflow of various cell‐free biosensors, including the identification of analytes and signal output. The detection range of cell‐free biosensors is greatly enlarged by different recognition mechanisms and output methods. In addition, the review also discusses the applications of cell‐free biosensors in environmental monitoring and health diagnosis, as well as existing deficiencies and aspects that should be improved. In the future, through continuous improvement and optimization, the potential of cell‐free biosensors will be stimulated, and their application fields will be expanded.     

Inter-Hemispheric Oscillations in Human Sleep

Sleep is generally categorized into discrete stages based on characteristic electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns. This traditional approach represents sleep architecture in a static way, but it cannot reflect variations in sleep across time and across the cortex. To investigate these dynamic aspects of sleep, we analyzed sleep recordings in 14 healthy volunteers with a novel, frequency-based EEG analysis. This approach enabled comparison of sleep patterns with low inter-individual variability. We then implemented a new probability dependent, automatic classification of sleep states that agreed closely with conventional manual scoring during consolidated sleep. Furthermore, this analysis revealed a previously unrecognized, interhemispheric oscillation during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This quantitative approach provides a new way of examining the dynamic aspects of sleep, shedding new light on the physiology of human sleep.     

The methods of quantitative proteomics

In modern science proteomic analysis is inseparable from other fields of systemic biology. Possessing huge resources quantitative proteomics operates colossal information on molecular mechanisms of life. Advances in proteomics help researchers to solve complex problems of cell signaling, posttranslational modification, structure and funciotnal homology of proteins, molecular diagnostics etc. More than 40 various methods have been developed in proteomics for quantitative analysis of proteins. Although each method is unique and has certain advantages and disadvantages all these use various isotope labels (tags). In this review we will consider the most popular and effective methods employing both chemical modifications of proteins and also metabolic and enzymatic methods of isotope labeling.     

假俭草(Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro.)Hack.)种质资源改良研究进展

假俭草(Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro.)Hack.)是主产于中国的世界著名的暖季型草坪草。全面系统地研究假俭草在遗传多样性和抗性生理等各方面的变异变化规律对于开发利用假俭草种质资源具有十分重要的意义。在综述假俭草种质资源的收集、整理和初步评价的基础上,重点介绍了近年来国内外在其遗传多样性(包括形态水平、细胞水平和分子水平)、抗性生理、育种进程和栽培管理措施等方面的研究进展。     

How to eat something bigger than your head

Characterization of the mechanisms underlying various types of muscular dystrophy has been an outstanding triumph of molecular biology. Increasing clarification of the aberrant cellular processes responsible for these conditions may ultimately permit the development of effective means for molecular intervention, allowing correction of the abnormal cellular physiology that results in the dystrophic phenotype.     

植物CBL-CIPK信号系统的功能及其作用机理

由类钙调磷酸酶B蛋白CBLs及其互作蛋白激酶CIPKs组成的信号系统是植物逆境胁迫信号传导的关键调控节点,是近几年植物逆境胁迫生理与分子生物学研究领域中的重要热点之一。文章主要介绍了CBLs和CIPKs基本功能结构域、CBL-CIPK信号系统在各种生物和非生物逆境胁迫响应、营养物质吸收及植物激素应答中的生物学功能及其作用机理。