中华大蟾蜍γ-肌动蛋白基因Bbgγ-Actin的克隆与生物信息学分析

旨在获得中华大蟾蜍肌动蛋白序列全长。以中华大蟾蜍(Bufo bufo gargarizans)耳后腺为材料,提取总RNA,通过转录组高通量测序快速得到中华大蟾蜍肌动蛋白基因(Bbg Actin)cDNA全长2 055 bp,通过RT-PCR技术对其ORF序列进行验证,并对Bbg Actin基因进行分析。序列分析表明,Bbg Actin基因开放阅读框长1 131 bp,编码376个氨基酸。通过BLAST P程序分析,所得序列与Gen Bank数据库中肌动蛋白基因序列相似度均在89%以上,氨基酸序列的相似性达90%以上。系统进化分析表明,Bbg Actin与γ-Actin聚为一类,所得中华大蟾蜍肌动蛋白属于γ-Actin。首次获得了中华大蟾蜍γ-Actin cDNA全长序列。     

黄鳝转铁蛋白受体1基因的克隆及表达分析

旨在研究黄鳝转铁蛋白受体1基因的功能及其组织表达特异性,采用同源克隆结合RACE技术从黄鳝肝脏中分离其转铁蛋白受体1基因,用生物信息学方法对获得的氨基酸序列进行分析,用半定量RT-PCR技术研究各组织中Tf R1表达水平。结果表明,克隆获得黄鳝Tf R1,Gen Bank注册序列号为KF819396。该c DNA全长2 839 bp,5'UTR长134 bp,3'UTR长380 bp,编码一个长774个氨基酸的多肽链。氨基酸多序列比对结果表明,黄鳝Tf R1基因推断的氨基酸序列同其他鱼类的同源性较高,达55.68%-68.41%;而同哺乳动物的Tf R1基因同源性较低。半定量RT-PCR分析表明,黄鳝Tf R1基因转录本在不同组织表达量有明显差异;在血细胞中表达量最高,而在肾脏、脾脏和小肠中表达中等,在肝脏、胃、皮肤、脑、心脏和肌肉中表达量很低。     

中华大蟾蜍Mest基因的cDNA克隆和表达分析

Mest基因是一种印记基因,在人、小鼠以及其他的哺乳动物和有花植物中都有研究报道。为了更好地研究该基因的功能和进化特点,利用RACE法获得了中华大蟾蜍Mest基因(BgMest)的cDNA全长序列(1 325 bp),它包含一个完整的ORF,可编码326个氨基酸的多肽(GenBank登陆号:ABQ10905)。多肽链中包含一个典型的α/β水解酶折叠结构域,其在氨基酸水平上与热带爪蟾和一些哺乳动物分别存在86%和70%～80%的相似性。进化树分析显示Mest基因为单系起源。RT-PCR显示,BgMest基因在精巢、卵巢、肝、肾、脑、胃和肺中都有表达,并且该基因在序列、表达模式以及蛋白产物的高级结构的高度保守性都说明它在两栖类生物中是保守的。但是在对哺乳动物以及一些脊椎动物的印记基因进行进化分析时,发现它们具有不同的起源。     

中华大蟾蜍Mest基因的cDNA克隆和表达分析(英文）

Mest基因是一种印记基因,在人、小鼠以及其他的哺乳动物和有花植物中都有研究报道。为了更好地研究该基因的功能和进化特点,利用RACE法获得了中华大蟾蜍Mest基因（BgMest）的cDNA全长序列（1 325 bp）,它包含一个完整的ORF,可编码326个氨基酸的多肽（GenBank登陆号：ABQ10905）。多肽链中包含一个典型的α/β水解酶折叠结构域,其在氨基酸水平上与热带爪蟾和一些哺乳动物分别存在86%和70%～80%的相似性。进化树分析显示Mest基因为单系起源。RT-PCR显示,BgMest基因在精巢、卵巢、肝、肾、脑、胃和肺中都有表达,并且该基因在序列、表达模式以及蛋白产物的高级结构的高度保守性都说明它在两栖类生物中是保守的。但是在对哺乳动物以及一些脊椎动物的印记基因进行进化分析时,发现它们具有不同的起源。     

中华大蟾蜍TAGLN2 cDNA的克隆与其组织分布

为研究蟾蜍(Bufo)基原的中药材中的多肽类有效成分,开展从日本蟾蜍(B.japonicus formosus)皮肤cDNA质粒文库中筛选蛋白编码基因的工作.由于后续拓展蟾蜍药用价值的研究中需要大量的实验材料,开始以中华大蟾蜍(B.gargarizans)皮肤第一链cDNA为模板,克隆其相关基因的工作.通过DNA聚合酶链式反应获得编码转胶蛋白-2(transgelin2,TAGLN2)的转录子(GenBank登录号为KF432856).该cDNA全长1 207 bp,其5′、3′端非翻译区域和开放阅读框分别为16 bp、597 bp和594 bp,编码由197个氨基酸残基组成的蛋白质,与日本蟾蜍的TAGLN2(GenBank登录号为AGQ03775.1)相比,仅一个氨基酸发生替换,与人的同源性为82%,与其他动物的同源性介于70%⁷5%.RT-PCR组织分布检测表明TAGLN2在所检测的中华大蟾蜍各器官中均有表达,在肺、肝和肾中表达量较多.这些研究结果为后续中华大蟾蜍TAGLN2的生物学功能研究以及相关药物研发提供基础数据.     

草鱼MyoD基因内含子和启动子的克隆与分析

本研究采用PCR和染色体步移法克隆了草鱼Myo D基因311 bp的内含子1、125 bp的内含子2及长1 066 bp的部分上游启动子序列。同源性比对分析表明,草鱼Myo D的内含子1与鲤科鱼类的同源性相对较高(87%~97.1%)。生物信息学方法预测草鱼Myo D的启动子序列中发现含有1个核心启动子序列,存在CREB、SP1、ATF等多种与转录诱导调控有关的转录因子结合位点,未发现Cp G岛。草鱼Myo D基因内含子及启动子克隆与特征分析,将为进一步研究鱼类Myo D基因的表达调控及其功能分析提供参考。     

绵羊FGF5基因的克隆、表达及RNA干扰

根据牛的成纤维细胞内生长因子5(Fibroblast growth factor 5,FGF5)基因cDNA序列设计引物,PCR扩增得到绵羊FGF5基因cDNA的开放阅读框序列,并比较和其他6种高等哺乳动物的序列同源性;同时研究该基因在绵羊多种组织的表达情况,以及研究以细胞模型RNA干扰下的表达情况。结果表明,绵羊FGF5基因ORF全长为813 bp,编码270个氨基酸,分子量约为29.58 kDa,理论等电点10.59。绵羊FGF5基因cDNA序列与牛、人、小鼠、大鼠、犬和猫的对应序列同源性高度保守,预测氨基酸序列同源性同样具有高度保守性。RT-PCR分析表明FGF5在绵羊皮肤、小肠、肾脏、心脏、肝脏、脾脏、胰脏和肺中均有表达,皮肤中表达量最高。构建该基因的原核表达载体和RNAi载体,IPTG诱导在大肠杆菌中融合表达获得55 kDa的蛋白条带,设计的RNA干扰片段能显著抑制FGF5基因的表达。文章为进一步阐明绵羊FGF5的功能尤其是在羊毛生长发育中的作用提供了理论和实验基础。     

草鱼与鲢鱼肥胖基因克隆与序列分析

肥胖基因产物leptin是调节哺乳动物摄食、能量代谢等生命活动的重要细胞因子。 应用RT-PCR和RACE法获得了草鱼(Ctenopharyngodon idellus)和鲢鱼(Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) leptin基因的全长cDNA序列分别为1 096 bp和1 176 bp,编码173和172个氨基酸。氨基酸序列同源性分析表明,草鱼和鲢鱼的leptin序列与其它鲤科鱼类leptin的同源性较高,而与其他鱼类的leptin同源性很低,但所有鱼类的leptin均含有用于形成二硫键的高度保守的半胱氨酸。系统进化树分析显示,草鱼和鲢鱼leptin与其他鱼类leptin聚于一进化分支。应用PCR和Genome Walker方法,进一步获得了草鱼和鲢鱼leptin基因的内含子和5′侧翼区序列。结果表明,获得的草鱼和鲢鱼leptin基因长度分别为2 129 bp和2 192 bp,含有与其他脊椎动物leptin相似的基因结构（含三个外显子和两个内含子）。本研究为深入研究鱼类肥胖基因结构功能关系与鱼类抗肥胖品系定向遗传选育奠定了良好的基础。     

牙鲆emx1基因的克隆及表达

为阐述空通气孔同源框1(empty spiracles homeobox 1,emx1)基因在牙鲆发育中的作用,通过PCR技术克隆牙鲆emx1基因,运用Bio Edit、MEGA等软件分析其序列结构特征,并采用荧光定量PCR技术分析其在牙鲆早期发育和组织分布中的表达情况。结果成功获得一长度为1 127 bp的牙鲆emx1 c DNA序列,其中包括708 bp的开放阅读框,编码235个氨基酸。同源性比对发现,牙鲆emx1基因的氨基酸序列与雀鲷和花鳉同源性最高,为95%,与其它物种如斑马鱼、墨西哥脂鲤、原鸡、热带爪蟾、小鼠和人的同源性分别为87%、84%、83%、80%、72%和72%。系统进化树分析显示,牙鲆Emx1蛋白与鱼类Emx1紧密聚为一支。荧光定量PCR显示,emx1基因在牙鲆卵巢中的表达量丰富,精巢中次之,而在其他各组织的表达量则较低。emx1在从原肠胚到孵化后10 d的牙鲆早期发育中也发现了相对较高的表达,且在胚孔封闭和心跳期有最高的表达。结果表明emx1基因很可能在牙鲆早期发育和生殖系统中发挥重要作用。     

黄河裸裂尻鱼肌肉生长抑制素基因克隆及表达分析

肌肉生长抑制素(myostatin,MSTN)属于转化生长因子β(TGF-β)超家族中的一个成员,是骨骼肌生长发育的负调控因子。该文以黄河裸裂尻鱼肌肉总RNA为模板,采用RT-PCT、5’-RACE和3’-RACE法获得MSTN基因全长cDNA序列为2180bp,包含长为1128bp的开放阅读框,编码375个氨基酸。以肌肉总DNA为模板,通过PCR法进一步获得了MSTN基因的2个内含子序列,分析表明,黄河裸裂尻鱼MSTN基因与其他脊椎动物具有相似的基因结构(包括3个外显子和2个内含子)。黄河裸裂尻鱼MSTN具有脊椎动物MSTN的共同序列特征,含有1个蛋白酶水解位点RXXR和8个位于TGF-β功能区域保守的半胱氨酸残基。氨基酸序列同源性分析表明,黄河裸裂尻鱼MSTN序列与其他鲤科鱼类MSTN具有较高的同源性;而与哺乳动物和禽类的MSTN同源性较低。系统发育分析表明,黄河裸裂尻鱼MSTN与其他鲤科鱼类聚于同一进化支。RT-PCR分析表明,该基因在黄河裸裂尻鱼9个被检组织中均有表达,但在心、肾、肠、精巢中表达量较高。Real-TimePCR分析显示,MSTN基因在胚胎中的相对表达量,随胚胎发育阶段的不同而有所差异,暗示MSTN的功能可能并不局限在对肌肉生长发育的负调控作用,可能还有其他功能。     

Stanniocalcin-1 regulates re-epithelialization in human keratinocytes

Stanniocalcin-1 (STC1), a glycoprotein hormone, is believed to be involved in various biological processes such as inflammation, oxidative responses and cell migration. Riding on these emerging evidences, we hypothesized that STC1 may participate in the re-epithelialization during wound healing. Re-epithelialization is a critical step that involves keratinocyte lamellipodia (e-lam) formation, followed by cell migration. In this study, staurosporine (STS) treatment induced human keratinocyte (HaCaT) e-lam formation on fibronectin matrix and migration via the activation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), the surge of intracellular calcium level [Ca²⁺]i and the inactivation of Akt. In accompanied with these migratory features, a time- and dose-dependent increase in STC1 expression was detected. STC1 gene expression was found not the downstream target of FAK-signaling as illustrated by FAK inhibition using PF573228. The reduction of [Ca²⁺]i by BAPTA/AM blocked the STS-mediated keratinocyte migration and STC1 gene expression. Alternatively the increase of [Ca²⁺]i by ionomycin exerted promotional effect on STS-induced STC1 gene expression. The inhibition of Akt by SH6 and GSK3β by lithium chloride (LiCl) could respectively induce and inhibit the STS-mediated e-lam formation, cell migration and STC1 gene expression. The STS-mediated e-lam formation and cell migration were notably hindered or induced respectively by STC1 knockdown or overexpression. This notion was further supported by the scratched wound assay. Collectively the findings provide the first evidence that STC1 promotes re-epithelialization in wound healing.     

Stanniocalcin-1 is induced by hypoxia inducible factor in rat alveolar epithelial cells

Alveolar type II (ATII) cells remain differentiated and express surfactant proteins when cultured at an air–liquid (A/L) interface. When cultured under submerged conditions, ATII cells dedifferentiate and change their gene expression profile. We have previously shown that gene expression under submerged conditions is regulated by hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) signaling due to focal hypoxia resulting from ATII cell metabolism. Herein, we sought to further define gene expression changes in ATII cells cultured under submerged conditions. We performed a genome wide microarray on RNA extracted from rat ATII cells cultured under submerged conditions for 24–48 h after switching from an A/L interface. We found significant alterations in gene expression, including upregulation of the HIF target genes stanniocalcin-1 (STC1), tyrosine hydroxylase (Th), enolase (Eno) 2, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 13, and we verified upregulation of these genes by RT-PCR. Because STC1, a highly evolutionarily conserved glycoprotein with anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, anti-oxidant, and wound healing properties, is widely expressed in the lung, we further explored the potential functions of STC1 in the alveolar epithelium. We found that STC1 was induced by hypoxia and HIF in rat ATII cells, and this induction occurred rapidly and reversibly. We also showed that recombinant human STC1 (rhSTC1) enhanced cell motility with extended lamellipodia formation in alveolar epithelial cell (AEC) monolayers but did not inhibit the oxidative damage induced by LPS. We also confirmed that STC1 was upregulated by hypoxia and HIF in human lung epithelial cells. In this study, we have found that several HIF target genes including STC1 are upregulated in AECs by a submerged condition, that STC1 is regulated by hypoxia and HIF, that this regulation is rapidly and reversibly, and that STC1 enhances wound healing moderately in AEC monolayers. However, STC1 did not inhibit oxidative damage in rat AECs stimulated by LPS in vitro. Therefore, alterations in gene expression by ATII cells under submerged conditions including STC1 were largely induced by hypoxia and HIF, which may be relevant to our understanding of the pathogenesis of various lung diseases in which the alveolar epithelium is exposed to relative hypoxia.     

Stanniocalcin-2 is a HIF-1 target gene that promotes cell proliferation in hypoxia

Stanniocalcin-2 (STC2), the paralog of STC1, has been suggested as a novel target of oxidative stress response to protect cells from apoptosis. The expression of STC2 has been reported to be highly correlated with human cancer development. In this study, we reported that STC2 is a HIF-1 target gene and is involved in the regulation of cell proliferation. STC2 was shown to be up-regulated in different breast and ovarian cancer cells, following exposure to hypoxia. Using ovarian cancer cells (SKOV3), the underlying mechanism of HIF-1 mediated STC2 gene transactivation was characterized. Hypoxia-induced STC2 expression was found to be HIF-1α dependent and required the recruitment of p300 and HDAC7. Using STC2 promoter deletion constructs and site-directed mutagenesis, two authentic consensus HIF-1 binding sites were identified. Under hypoxic condition, the silencing of STC2 reduced while the overexpression of STC2 increased the levels of phosphorylated retinoblastoma and cyclin D in both SKOV3 and MCF7 cells. The change in cell cycle proteins correlated with the data of the serial cell counts. The results indicated that cell proliferation was reduced in STC2-silenced cells but was increased in STC2-overexpressing hypoxic cells. Solid tumor progression is usually associated with hypoxia. The identification and functional analysis of STC2 up-regulation by hypoxia, a feature of the tumor microenvironment, sheds light on a possible role for STC2 in tumors.     

Characterization of stanniocalcin 2, a novel target of the mammalian unfolded protein response with cytoprotective properties

Accumulation of misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) induces a highly conserved homeostatic response in all eukaryotic cells, termed the unfolded-protein response (UPR). Here we describe the characterization of stanniocalcin 2 (STC2), a mammalian homologue of a calcium- and phosphate-regulating hormone first identified in fish, as a novel target of the UPR. Expression of STC2 gene is rapidly upregulated in cultured cells after exposure to tunicamycin and thapsigargin, by ATF4 after activation of the ER-resident kinase PERK. In addition, STC2 expression is also activated in neuronal cells by oxidative stress and hypoxia but not by several cellular stresses unrelated to the UPR. In contrast, expression of another homologue, STC1, is only upregulated by hypoxia independent of PERK or ATF4 expression. In vivo studies revealed that rat cortical neurons rapidly upregulate STC2 after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Finally, siRNA-mediated inhibition of STC2 expression renders N2a neuroblastoma cells and HeLa cells significantly more vulnerable to apoptotic cell death after treatment with thapsigargin, and overexpression of STC2 attenuated thapsigargin-induced cell death. Consequently, induced STC2 expression is an essential feature of survival component of the UPR.