基于RNA-seq的能源植物芒转录组分析

芒(Miscanthus sinensis Anderss)是多年生C4草本植物,可为能量和纤维素产品生产提供高品质的木质纤维素材料,是一种理想的能源植物。采用Illumina Hi Seq?2000高通量测序技术,对芒花芽和叶芽进行转录组分析。经拼接组装共获得98 326个Unigene,序列平均长度822 bp,N50为1 337 bp。将Unigene序列与NR、NT、Swiss-Prot、KEGG、GO和COG数据库进行比对(Evalue1e-5),共有74 134条Unigene获得了基因注释,占总Unigene的75.40%。其中,通过GO功能分类,45 507个Unigene映射到GO不同的功能节点上;通过KEGG pathways分析,共有36 710个Unigene参与了128个代谢通路;比对到同源序列比例最高的物种分别为高粱(37 731,60.86%)、玉米(16 258,26.22%)、水稻(3 065,4.94%),共占所有同源序列的92.02%。此外,获得了芒C4关键酶相关基因24个。这些注释信息的完成为芒功能基因及相关候选基因的发掘提供了重要依据。     

Comprehensive analysis of prognostic immune-related genes in the tumor microenvironment of cutaneous melanoma

Cutaneous malignant melanoma (hereafter called melanoma) is one of the most aggressive cancers with increasing incidence and mortality rates worldwide. In this study, we performed a systematic investigation of the tumor microenvironmental and genetic factors associated with melanoma to identify prognostic biomarkers for melanoma. We calculated the immune and stromal scores of melanoma patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) using the ESTIMATE algorithm and found that they were closely associated with patients’ prognosis. Then the differentially expressed genes were obtained based on the immune and stromal scores, and prognostic immune-related genes further identified. Functional analysis and the protein–protein interaction network further revealed that these genes enriched in many immune-related biological processes. In addition, the abundance of six infiltrating immune cells was analyzed using prognostic immune-related genes by TIMER algorithm. The unsupervised clustering analysis using immune-cell proportions revealed eight clusters with distinct survival patterns, suggesting that dendritic cells were most abundant in the microenvironment and CD8⁺ T cells and neutrophils were significantly related to patients’ prognosis. Finally, we validated these genes in three independent cohorts from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. In conclusion, this study comprehensively analyzed the tumor microenvironment and identified prognostic immune-related biomarkers for melanoma.     

七星瓢虫滞育关联基因的转录组学分析

对七星瓢虫正常发育、滞育以及滞育解除的雌成虫进行RNA测序,并对筛选出来的滞育相关基因进行KEGG通路富集分析,从分子水平解析七星瓢虫滞育发机理。本研究以正常发育产卵、滞育30 d以及滞育贮存30 d后解除产卵的七星瓢虫雌成虫为研究对象,分别抽提RNA,合成c DNA,构建c DNA文库,文库检测合格后在Illummina Hiseq 2500测序仪上进行双向测序。根据测序结果,共获取unigene 82820个。采用两两比较法对正常发育组和滞育组、滞育组和滞育解除组进行差异表达分析,分别获得差异表达基因3501个和1427个。深入分析两组比对结果,将在滞育组上调且滞育解除组下调的unigene定义为滞育关联基因,共有443个基因为滞育关联基因。应用KEGG KAAS在线pathway比对分析工具对滞育关联基因进行通路富集分析,结果发现这些基因主要集中在碳水化合物代谢、脂质代谢以及信号转导等途径中。     

鲍免疫相关基因和蛋白的研究进展

鲍是世界重要的海水养殖经济贝类, 但近年来时常发生的疾病给养鲍业带来了大量的经济损失。目前有关鲍免疫相关基因和蛋白的研究报道较少, 而这些功能分子对揭示鲍的免疫机制具有关键作用, 文章综述了鲍免疫相关基因和蛋白的研究进展, 以期为防治鲍疾病的相关研究提供参考。     

Transcriptome analysis of flowering genes in mango (Mangifera indica L.) in relation to floral malformation

Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology - Flowering is a complicated developmental process of physiological and morphological stages under the control of a number of external signals and...     

Identification of immune-related hub genes and construction of an immune-related gene prognostic index for low-grade glioma

Low-grade glioma (LGG) poses significant management challenges and has a dismal prognosis. While immunotherapy has shown significant promise in cancer treatment, its progress in glioma has confronted with challenges. In our study, we aimed to develop an immune-related gene prognostic index (IRGPI) which could be used to evaluate the response and efficacy of LGG patients with immunotherapy. We included a total of 529 LGG samples from TCGA database and 1152 normal brain tissue samples from the GTEx database. Immune-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened. Then, we used weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify immune-related hub genes in LGG patients and performed Cox regression analysis to construct an IRGPI. The median IRGPI was used as the cut-off value to categorize LGG patients into IRGPI-high and low subgroups, and the molecular and immune mechanism in IRGPI-defined subgroups were analysed. Finally, we explored the relationship between IRGPI-defined subgroups and immunotherapy related indicators in patients after immunotherapy. Three genes (RHOA, NFKBIA and CCL3) were selected to construct the IRGPI. In a survival analysis using TCGA cohort as a training set, patients in the IRGPI-low subgroup had a better OS than those in IRGPI-high subgroup, consistent with the results in CGGA cohort. The comprehensive results showed that IRGPI-low subgroup had a more abundant activated immune cell population and lower TIDE score, higher MSI, higher TMB score, lower T cell dysfunction score, more likely benefit from ICIs therapy. IRGPI is a promising biomarker in the field of LGG ICIs therapy to distinguish the prognosis, the molecular and immunological characteristics of patients.     

A mecillinam-sensitive peptidoglycan crosslinking reaction in Escherichia coli

The amidinopenicillin, mecillinam, induces the formation of spherical cells of Escherichia coli by inactivation of penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2). A mecillinam-sensitive peptidoglycan crosslinking reaction has been demonstrated in particulate membrane preparations from this organism. The activity was detected in membranes that contained elevated levels of PBP2 and in which crosslinking reactions due to all other PBPs had been inactivated with the cephamycin antibiotic, cefmetazole. The particulate membrane preparation catalyzed synthesis of peptidoglycan that was up to 20% crosslinked from nucleotide precursors. Crosslinkage of the peptidoglycan was inhibited 50% by 0.2 μg mecillinam per ml but was not inhibited by much higher concentrations of cephamycins, which have very low affinity for PBP2. The crosslinking reaction appears to be due to the transpeptidase activity of PBP2, which is implicated in the mechanism of cell shape determination, and is the killing target for mecillinam.     

家蚕免疫相关基因和信号途径的鉴定和比较分析

家蚕Bombyx mori是一种重要的经济昆虫, 在中国约有5 000年的驯化历史。家蚕分子免疫学方面的最新研究已经初步勾勒出其先天免疫的轮廓。本研究基于更新的家蚕基因组数据, 通过与黑腹果蝇Drosophila melanogaster、冈比亚按蚊Anopheles gambiae、意大利蜜蜂Apis mellifera和赤拟谷盗Tribolium castaneum基因组的比较分析, 鉴定了家蚕21个免疫相关基因家族的218个基因, 其编码产物包括模式识别受体、信号传导因子、效应分子和氧化防御相关的酶类。尽管信号传导因子的序列分化较大, 但系统进化分析显示它们在不同昆虫间呈明显的直系同源关系。相反, 与识别、调制和效应因子相关的基因的序列保守性更高, 但是这些基因家族明显缺乏直系同源基因, 由此推测这些基因是由物种特异的基因复制机制产生的。结果提示家蚕拥有与其他昆虫相同的免疫应答调控的分子机制, 而且家蚕同样可以通过基因复制及其序列分化等方式调节防御策略。