Chemical variability of the volatile metabolites from the Caribbean corals of the genus Gorgonia

The chemical composition of the investigated gorgonians showed a high level of individual variation and the colonies, according to their major contributors, were assigned to 10 distinct chemical profiles, among which A, C, E, and G were the most abundant ones. From the metabolites identified in the present study, either by means of GC/MS or using NMR techniques after conventional separation procedures, the novel cyclic ether 5,10-epoxymuurolane is found in significant quantities in D and I chemical profiles. Furanotriene, isofuranotriene and furanodiene could be referred as the most common metabolites of the genus, since they are found in 6 out of 10 chemical profiles. Isosericenine is, also, a significant contributor of H and I chemical profiles. A number of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, such as curzerene, bicyclogermacrene, valencene, beta-bourbonene and beta-elemene, along with the oxygenated sesquiterpenes elemanolide and furoventalene, are present at varying concentrations in the majority of the chemical profiles. Metabolites of high discriminant value are: alpha-himachalene for the K chemical profile, alpha-santalene and its oxygenated derivatives for the G chemical profile and the three geometrical isomers of germacrone for the F chemical profile. Several chemical profiles showed narrow geographic distribution. Most of the chemical profiles are located in the north, while F inhabits mainly southern sites and the others are equally distributed. Finally, 91% of the chemical profiles of the gorgonian colonies appeared to grow in all depths, while 9% did not inhabit deep-water environments. Most chemical profiles are less frequent at higher water depths with the exception of chemical profiles A and C.     

21世纪植物化学生态学前沿领域

植物和其它有机体通过次生物质为媒介的化学作用关系近年引入注目,其中植物的诱导化学防御,植物的化学通讯,植物次生物质和进化的关系,植物与人类的化学关系和海洋植物化学生态学是21世纪植物化学生态学值得关注的前沿领域。植物化学生态学前沿领域的进展将为实现21世纪的持续,发展是在生态安全条件下提高农业产量并达到对病虫草害的有效控制方面具有重要意义。     

昆虫的化学感觉机理

昆虫是通过化学感觉器与其周围环境中的大量化学信息发生联系的。通过特定的化学感觉机制 ,昆虫可感知来自种内和种间 ,以及无机环境中的各种化学信息 ,并由此而作出相应的行为反应 ,从而为其自身寻找适宜的食物、配偶以及生存与繁殖场所 (如躲避天敌、避免或减少竞争等等 ) ,达到最大的繁殖成功。阐明昆虫的化学感觉机理 ,不仅可在理论上进一步加深对昆虫与植物、昆虫与昆虫相互关系的了解 ,而且可在实践上为开发害虫治理的新途径提供理论指导。本文将根据目前的最新研究成果 ,主要就昆虫的化学感觉机理 ,包括嗅觉和味觉机理作一综述 ,以期…     

An Analysis of Chemical Ingredients Network of Chinese Herbal Formulae for the Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease

As a complex system, the complicated interactions between chemical ingredients, as well as the potential rules of interactive associations among chemical ingredients of traditional Chinese herbal formulae are not yet fully understood by modern science. On the other hand, network analysis is emerging as a powerful approach focusing on processing complex interactive data. By employing network approach in selected Chinese herbal formulae for the treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD), this article aims to construct and analyze chemical ingredients network of herbal formulae, and provide candidate herbs, chemical constituents, and ingredient groups for further investigation. As a result, chemical ingredients network composed of 1588 ingredients from 36 herbs used in 8 core formulae for the treatment of CHD was produced based on combination associations in herbal formulae. In this network, 9 communities with relative dense internal connections are significantly associated with 14 kinds of chemical structures with P<0.001. Moreover, chemical structural fingerprints of network communities were detected, while specific centralities of chemical ingredients indicating different levels of importance in the network were also measured. Finally, several distinct herbs, chemical ingredients, and ingredient groups with essential position in the network or high centrality value are recommended for further pharmacology study in the context of new drug development.     

Random coil chemical shift for intrinsically disordered proteins: effects of temperature and pH

Secondary chemical shift analysis is the main NMR method for detection of transiently formed secondary structure in intrinsically disordered proteins. The quality of the secondary chemical shifts is dependent on an appropriate choice of random coil chemical shifts. We report random coil chemical shifts and sequence correction factors determined for a GGXGG peptide series following the approach of Schwarzinger et al. (J Am Chem Soc 123(13):2970–2978, 2001). The chemical shifts are determined at neutral pH in order to match the conditions of most studies of intrinsically disordered proteins. Temperature has a non-negligible effect on the ¹³C random coil chemical shifts, so temperature coefficients are reported for the random coil chemical shifts to allow extrapolation to other temperatures. The pH dependence of the histidine random coil chemical shifts is investigated in a titration series, which allows the accurate random coil chemical shifts to be obtained at any pH. By correcting the random coil chemical shifts for the effects of temperature and pH, systematic biases of the secondary chemical shifts are minimized, which will improve the reliability of detection of transient secondary structure in disordered proteins.     

Negentropy and the evolution of chemical recruitment in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

The applicability of the concept of negentropy to the study of evolution is tested by tracing the phylogeny of the information content of the communication systems used for recruitment in the Formicidae. Data from the literature is reviewed and ordered around theoretical evolutionary routes based on increasing negentropy of the chemical communication systems used. One pathway presupposes the development of chemical orientation prior to chemical attraction, i.e. signalling the presence of food; whereas the others begin with the chemical attraction of nestmates without orientation with chemical cues to the food. The results suggest that the Myrmicinae, Ponerinae, Dolichoderinae, Pseudomyrmycinae and possibly Dorylinae evolved chemical recruitment via chemical attraction, whereas the Formicinae evolved chemical recruitment via chemical orientation. These alternative patterns permit the establishment of phyletic trends based on glandular evolution for chemical recruitment. The results are compared with phylogenetic studies based on morphological and chemical characters, and it emerges that the recruitment behaviour proves to be a particularly conservative characteristic, in that it is evident in the same form in a wider range of species. The conclusion is reached that the negentropy content of living systems is a powerful tool in phylogenetic studies, even of small taxonomic groups.     

Unambiguous correspondence and complementarity of the chemical properties of amino acids and anticodons of the genetic code

The chemical language of genetic code is proposed. As a result of chemical language application for the analysis of the modern genetic code, the existence of an unambiguous correspondence between the chemical properties of amino acids and their coding triplets (codons and anticodons) is shown. This confirms the hypothesis of the code chemical determination. The complementarity between the chemical properties of amino acids and their anticodons (but not the codons) has been found also to exist. This observation supports the hypothesis of the genetic code determination by the direct recognition and also underlines the primary role of anticodon in the origin of genetic code in comparison with codons.     

植物-微生物联合修复化学农药污染土壤的研究进展

化学农药的高毒性、生物积累性和扩散性极易对环境及人类健康造成危害,环境中化学农药的去除尤为重要。植物-微生物联合修复技术因其高效、环境友好和修复成本低等优点受到越来越多的关注,植物-微生物联合修复化学农药污染土壤是一种很有前景的方法。植物为根际和内生细菌提供养分,而细菌通过化学农药的降解和解毒来支持植物生长。本文综述了影响化学农药在植物体内吸收和转运的因素以及植物-微生物修复技术的原理,并讨论了植物与微生物在化学农药污染土壤修复中的协同效应,并对植物-微生物联合修复法在化学农药污染土壤修复中的应用前景进行了展望。     

Principles of organization and evolution of systems of regulation of functions

Evolution of living organisms is closely connected with evolution of structure of the system of regulations and its mechanisms. The functional ground of regulations is chemical signalization. As early as in unicellular organisms there is a set of signal mechanisms providing their life activity and orientation in space and time. Subsequent evolution of ways of chemical signalization followed the way of development of delivery pathways of chemical signal and development of mechanisms of its regulation. The mechanism of chemical regulation of the signal interaction is discussed by the example of the specialized system of transduction of signal from neuron to neuron, of effect of hormone on the epithelial cell and modulation of this effect. These mechanisms are considered as the most important ways of the fine and precise adaptation of chemical signalization underlying functioning of physiological systems and organs of the living organism     

PPM: a side-chain and backbone chemical shift predictor for the assessment of protein conformational ensembles

The combination of the wide availability of protein backbone and side-chain NMR chemical shifts with advances in understanding of their relationship to protein structure makes these parameters useful for the assessment of structural-dynamic protein models. A new chemical shift predictor (PPM) is introduced, which is solely based on physical?Cchemical contributions to the chemical shifts for both the protein backbone and methyl-bearing amino-acid side chains. To explicitly account for the effects of protein dynamics on chemical shifts, PPM was directly refined against 100?ns long molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of 35 proteins with known experimental NMR chemical shifts. It is found that the prediction of methyl-proton chemical shifts by PPM from MD ensembles is improved over other methods, while backbone C??, C??, C??, N, and H^N chemical shifts are predicted at an accuracy comparable to the latest generation of chemical shift prediction programs. PPM is particularly suitable for the rapid evaluation of large protein conformational ensembles on their consistency with experimental NMR data and the possible improvement of protein force fields from chemical shifts.     

Chemical States of Bacterial Spores: Dry-Heat Resistance

Mature bacterial spores can be manipulated by chemical pretreatments between states sensitive and resistant to dry heat. The two chemical forms of the spore differ in dry-heat resistance by about an order of magnitude. Log survivor curves for each chemical state were approximately straight lines. The temperature dependence of dry-heat resistance for each chemical state was similar to that usually found for dry-heat resistance. A method of testing spore resistance to dry heat has been designed to minimize artifacts resulting from (i) change of chemical state during the test, (ii) effects of water vapor activity, (iii) incomplete recovery of spores from the test container and clumping of spores. Implications of the existence of different chemical resistance states for experimental strategy and testing of dry-heat resistance are discussed.     

Prediction of intracellular targets of a small compound by analyzing peptides presented on MHC class I

In chemical biology, the elucidation of chemical target is crucial for successful drug development. Because MHC class I molecules present peptides from intracellular damaged proteins, it might be possible to identify targets of a chemical by analyzing peptide sequences on MHC class I. Therefore, we treated cells with the autophagy-inducing chemical TMD-457 and identified the peptides presented on MHC class I. Many of the peptides were derived from molecules involved in ER trafficking and ER stress, which were confirmed by morphological and biochemical analyses. Therefore, our results demonstrate that analyzing MHC class I peptides is useful for the detection of chemical targets.     

Structural analysis of silk with 13C NMR chemical shift contour plots.

The polymorphic structures of silk fibroins in the solid state were examined on the basis of a quantitative relationship between the 13C chemical shift and local structure in proteins. To determine this relationship, 13C chemical shift contour plots for C alpha and C beta carbons of Ala and Ser residues, and the C alpha chemical shift plot for Gly residues were prepared using atomic co-ordinates from the Protein Data Bank and 13C NMR chemical shift data in aqueous solution reported for 40 proteins. The 13C CP/MAS NMR chemical shifts of Ala, Ser and Gly residues of Bombyx mori silk fibroin in silk I and silk II forms were used along with 13C CP/MAS NMR chemical shifts of Ala residues of Samia cynthia ricini silk fibroin in beta-sheet and alpha-helix forms for the structure analyses of silk fibroins. The allowed regions in the 13C chemical shift contour plots for C alpha and C beta carbons of Ala and Ser residues for the structures in silk fibroins, i.e. Silk II, Silk I and alpha-helix, were determined using their 13C isotropic NMR chemical shifts in the solid state. There are two area of the phi,psi map which satisfy the observed Silk I chemical shift data for both the C alpha and C beta carbons of Ala and Ser residues in the 13C chemical shift contour plots.     

旱地红壤反硝化功能基因丰度对长期施肥的响应

农田施肥会影响土壤微生物驱动的氮素转化和氧化亚氮(N₂O)排放。基于32年的长期肥料定位试验,研究了旱地红壤反硝化功能基因(nirS、nirK、nosZ I和nosZ II)对不同长期施肥处理的响应及其关键影响因素。试验包括6个处理,分别为不施肥(CK)、单施化肥、化肥+花生秸秆、化肥+水稻秸秆、化肥+萝卜菜和化肥+猪粪。结果表明: 与单施化肥相比,化肥和有机物料配施可以有效缓解红壤酸化、提高土壤有机碳含量,其中以化肥和猪粪配施的效果最好。长期施肥对nirK基因丰度没有显著影响,但显著影响nirS基因丰度;与CK相比,长期单施化肥可显著增加nirS基因丰度,增幅达426%,但与单施化肥相比,化肥和有机物料配施降低了nirS基因丰度。旱地红壤中nosZ I基因丰度远高于nosZ II基因丰度,表明nosZ I在酸性红壤中占主导地位;长期施肥对nosZ II基因丰度没有显著影响。但长期施用化肥+猪粪显著提高了nosZ I基因丰度,增幅为138%。逐步回归分析表明,有效磷含量是影响nosZ I基因丰度的关键环境因子,而nosZ II基因丰度则主要受硝态氮含量的影响。化肥和猪粪配施处理的(nirS+nirK)/(nosZ I+nosZ II)值最低,表明化肥和猪粪配施可能会降低旱地红壤的N₂O排放能力。     

Behavioural response of bullfrog tadpoles to chemical cues of predation risk are affected by cue age and water source

When confronted by signals of predators presence, many aquatic organisms modify their phenotype (e.g., behaviour or morphology) to reduce their risk of predation. A principal means by which organisms assess predation risk is through chemical cues produced by the predators and/or prey during predation events. Such responses to predation risk can directly affect prey fitness and indirectly affect the fitness of species with which the prey interacts. Accurate assessment of the cue will affect the adaptive nature, and hence evolution, of the phenotypic response. It is therefore, important to understand factors affecting the assessment of chemical cues. Here I examined the effect of the age of chemical cues arising from an invertebrate predator, a larval dragonfly (Anax junius), which was fed bullfrog tadpoles, on the behavioural response (activity level and position) of bullfrog tadpoles. The bullfrog response to chemical cues declined as a function of chemical cue age, indicating the degradation of the chemical cue was on the order of 2–4 days. Further, the decay occurred more rapidly when the chemical cue was placed in pond water rather than well water. These results indicate a limitation of the tadpoles to interpret factors that affect the magnitude of the chemical cue and hence accurately assess predation risk. These findings also have implications for experimental design and the adaptation of phenotypic responses to chemical cues of predation risk.     

The academic pursuit of screening

High-throughput screening has become increasingly important in academic research over the last decade. The diversity of chemical and biological space being probed by academic chemical screening, coupled with the public reporting of results, has created an important new resource of data for chemical biologists.     

干、湿化学法在乳糜血中的应用比较

目的探讨乳糜血对干、湿化学法检测结果的影响,以期找到一种适合于在乳糜血中应用的检测方法。方法分别用干、湿化学法检测乳糜血中总蛋白、血糖,比较两种方法检测结果差异。结果湿化学法测定结果高于乙醇处理法(P0.05),干化学法与乙醇处理法结果比较差异无显著性(P0.05)。结论在乳糜血检测中干性化学法与湿性化学法比较更接近真实值。     

牵牛子(黑丑)挥发油成分研究

目的:研究牵牛子的化学成分.方法:利用有机溶剂-水蒸气蒸馏法提取牵牛子(Semen pharbitidis)挥发油,采用GC -MS进行测定,并应用色谱峰面积归—化法计算各成分的相对百分含量.结果:鉴别出35个化学成分,其化学成分为庚醛( 14.368％);反,反-2.4 -葵二烯醛(6.887％);2-戊基呋喃(5.327％);2-羟基-4-甲氧基苯甲醛(5.312％);萜品烯-4-醇(3.772％);苯乙醛(3.458％);十六烷酸乙酯(2.063％)等.结论:该文首次采用气相色谱-质谱联用法对牵牛子中的挥发性成分进行.