甜菜碱改善水稻高GC含量DNA序列的PCR扩增北大核心CSCD

聚合酶链式反应(Polymerase chain reaction,PCR)作为一项基本的分子生物学技术,是DNA序列扩增的强有力工具。水稻作为人类最重要的粮食作物之一被广泛研究,然而由于水稻基因组序列的GC含量相对较高,而高GC含量DNA序列的PCR扩增一般比较困难,使得水稻高GC含量序列的功能研究受阻。通过使用不同的添加剂,发现相比于二甲基亚砜和甘油等,甜菜碱对于水稻高GC含量片段的PCR扩增的增强效果最明显。通过对多个高GC含量的水稻DNA片段进行PCR扩增,发现1-2 mol/L甜菜碱对于增强PCR扩增效果显著。此外,甜菜碱对于多种DNA聚合酶作用下的PCR扩增均有增强效果。     

甜菜碱改善水稻高GC含量DNA序列的PCR扩增

聚合酶链式反应(Polymerase chain reaction,PCR)作为一项基本的分子生物学技术,是DNA序列扩增的强有力工具。水稻作为人类最重要的粮食作物之一被广泛研究,然而由于水稻基因组序列的GC含量相对较高,而高GC含量DNA序列的PCR扩增一般比较困难,使得水稻高GC含量序列的功能研究受阻。通过使用不同的添加剂,发现相比于二甲基亚砜和甘油等,甜菜碱对于水稻高GC含量片段的PCR扩增的增强效果最明显。通过对多个高GC含量的水稻DNA片段进行PCR扩增,发现1-2 mol/L甜菜碱对于增强PCR扩增效果显著。此外,甜菜碱对于多种DNA聚合酶作用下的PCR扩增均有增强效果。     

高GC含量基因NADK2的扩增及其真核表达载体的构建

在构建线粒体烟酰胺腺嘌呤二核苷酸激酶(mitochondrial nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide kinase,NADK2)真核表达载体时,该文发现,使用Ex Taq DNA聚合酶扩增无法得到其编码区域全长,5′端缺失一段DNA片段。对其cDNA序列进行分析发现,NADK2编码区GC含量不均衡。起始密码子附近GC含量最高可达92.5%,而3′端终止密码子附近GC含量最低只有27.5%。之后,使用LA Taq及GC缓冲液进行扩增,得到了NADK2基因ORF(open reading frame)全长,并克隆入真核表达载体。该文结果对类似高GC含量DNA片段的PCR扩增有一定的提示作用。     

帘蛤科贝类rDNA内转录间隔区序列的研究

根据18SrDNA、5．8SrDNA和28SrDNA保守序列设计引物,应用聚合酶链式反应（PCR）扩增了文蛤（Meretrix meretrix L．）、青蛤（Cyclina sinensis G）、硬壳蛤（Mercenaria mercenaria L．）和江户布目蛤（Protothaca jedoensis L．）4种帘蛤科贝类的第一内转录间隔区（ITS1）和第二内转录间隔区（ITS2）序列,并进行了测序。结果表明,文蛤、青蛤、硬壳蛤和江户布目蛤的ITS1扩增产物大小分别为978bp、663bp、757bp和942bp,GC含量分别为61．55％、60．78％、62．48％和64．86％～64．97％,其中ITS1序列长度分别为900bp、585bp、679bp和864bp,是迄今已报道双壳贝类中变化范围最大的,GC含量分别为61．67％、61．03％、63．03％和65．51％～65．62％,江户布目蛤种内ITS1序列有个体差异;ITS2扩增产物大小分别为644bp、618～620bp、593bp和513～514bp,GC含量分别为61．18％、61．29％～61．81％、62．73％和61．48％61．60％,其中ITS2序列长度分别为412bp、386～388bp、361bp和281～282bp,GC含量分别为65．29％、65．21％～66．06％、67．87％和67．38％～67．62％,青蛤和江户布目蛤种内ITS2序列有个体差异。4种蛤ITS1和ITS2序列种间差异很大,有明显的长度多态性,ITS2种间序列相似度73．0％～89．1％,与ITS1的种间序列相似度48．7％～81．5％相比略高。此外,在4种蛤ITS1和ITS2序列中各发现2个与rRNA加工有关的保守区。通过对ITS1和ITS2序列的组装获得了4种蛤5．8SrRNA基因完整序列,序列长度都是157bp,GC含量57．96％～58．60％,4种蛤5．8SrRNA基因相对保守,种间序列差异度0-6．0％,共有10个变异位点,其中转换4处,颠换6处,硬壳蛤和江户布目蛤5．8SrRNA基因序列完全相同。以ITS2序列（包含5．8SrRNA和28SrRNA基因部分序列）为标记,调用北极蛤科的Arctica islandica相应序列数据作外群,构建了帘蛤科贝类的系统发育树,其拓扑结构显示江户布目蛤与硬壳蛤亲缘关系最近,青蛤与其他3物种的亲缘关系最远。     

雅致枝霉△6-脂肪酸脱氢酶基因的克隆及在酿酒酵母中的表达

根据真菌△^6 -脂肪酸脱氢酶基因保守的组氨酸Ⅱ区和Ⅲ区附近保守序列设计兼并引物进行RT-PCR,得到雅致枝霉（Thamnidium elegans）As3．2806△^6 -脂肪酸脱氢酶基因459bp部分cDNA序列,然后通过快速扩增cDNA末端技术（RACE）向两端延伸得到1504bp的△^6 -脂肪酸脱氢酶基因全长cDNA序列。序列分析表明有一个1377bp、编码459个氨基酸的开放阅读框TED6。推测的氨基酸序列与已知其他真菌的△^6 -脂肪酸脱氧酶基因的氨基酸序列比对,具有3个组氨酸保守区、2个疏水区及N末端细胞色素b5融合区。将此编码区序列亚克隆到酿酒酵母缺陷型菌株INVSel的表达载体pYES2.0中,构建表达载体pYTED6,并在酿酒酵母INVSel中异源表达。通过气相色谱（GC）和气相色谱,质谱（GC-MS）分析表明,该序列在酿酒酵母中获得表达,产生γ-亚麻酸（GLA）的含量占酵母总脂肪酸的7．5％。证明此序列编码的蛋白能将外加的亚油酸转化为γ-亚麻酸,是一个新的有功能的△^6 -脂肪酸脱氢酶基因（GenBank．AY941161）。     

普通小麦细胞质雄性不育系及其保持系线粒体DNA和RAPD分析

应用随机扩增多态ＤＮＡ（Ｒａｎｄｏｍ ａｍｐｌｉｆｉｅｄ ｐｏｌｙｍｏｒｐｈｉｃ ＤＮＡｓ,ＲＡＰＤ）技术,对普通小麦细胞质雄性不育系（Ａ）及其保持系（Ｂ）线粒体基因组（ｍｉｔｏｃｈｏｎｄｒｉａｌ ｇｅｎｏｍｅ）的指纹图谱进行了分析。共使用引物４１个,其中２０个引物得到了扩增产物,部分引物扩增结果表现多态性。说明线粒体ＤＮＡ（ｍｉｔｏｃｈｏｎｄｒｉａｌ ＤＡＮ,ｍｔ,ＤＮＡ）序列在不育系和保持系之     

植物乳杆菌ZS2058的亚油酸异构酶基因在乳酸克鲁维酵母中的克隆表达

目的：将植物乳杆菌ZS2058（Lactobacillus plantarum ZS2058）的亚油酸异构酶基因在乳酸克鲁维酵母（Kluyveromyces lactis）中进行克隆表达。方法：根据NCBI中已报道亚油酸异构酶（linoleate isomerase,LAI）基因的序列特征,设计引物对筛得的植物乳杆菌ZS2058进行PCR扩增,得到亚油酸异构酶全基因序列,克隆至乳酸克鲁维酵母表达载体pKLAC1,电转化得重组菌pKLAC1-LAI /Kluyveromyces lactis GG799。结果：SDS-PAGE检测,重组菌进行分泌表达获得目的蛋白,大小约为67 kDa;气相色谱（Gas Chromatogram,GC）检测到共轭亚油酸（conjugated linoleic acids,CLA）典型峰。结论：植物乳杆菌ZS2058中的亚油酸异构酶基因在乳酸克鲁维酵母中得到分泌表达,重组酶转化效率约为26%。     

扩展青霉碱性脂肪酶基因5'端侧翼区域的克隆与鉴定

应用衔接头PCR技术,扩增得到约2000 bp的扩展青霉碱性脂肪酶基因5’端侧翼区域的单一产物。对该产物测序并提交GenBank数据库(GenBank accession DQ677520),经序列比对分析,发现该序列具有真核启动子序列的基本结构特征,含有TATA盒、CAAT盒、GC盒等元件。将扩增得到的脂肪酶基因5’端侧翼序列,连接到含有绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)报告基因的质粒中,构建了一个重组表达质粒,转化大肠杆菌细胞。荧光显微观察大肠杆菌阳性转化子发出荧光,侧翼序列含有启动子功能得到确认。     

卡介苗美国株全基因组测序缺口修补及序列

【目的】对卡介苗(Bacillus Calmette-Guerin,BCG)美国株(BCG Tice)进行基因组补缺口(补洞)工作,以得到它的基因组完整序列。【方法】首先对BCG Tice进行高通量测序,使用SOAPdenovo软件对得到的数据进行拼接。由于在高通量测序的过程中基因组某些区域测序覆盖度低,测序质量差会使测序结果经拼接后形成众多的重叠群(contig),相邻的位置关系确定的contig形成一个scaffold,contig之间未测到的区域为缺口序列(gap),在contig末端设计引物进行PCR扩增,得到连接相邻contig的PCR产物,对PCR产物进行测序。通过优化PCR引物设计策略,尝试不同的聚合酶进行聚合反应,调整PCR反应条件并结合PCR产物构建克隆测序等方法,补齐contig之间的缺口序列。【结果】完成了BCG Tice的全基因组测序,得到了它的基因组完整序列,序列已提交到美国国立生物技术信息中心(NCBI)的GenBank数据库。【结论】BCG属于高GC含量的革兰氏阳性细菌,其基因组GC含量高达65.65%。本文以BCG Tice基因组补洞为例,对高GC含量基因组补缺口过程中遇到的问题与采取的策略给予概述,望给相关高GC含量基因组的物种全基因组测序补缺口工作提供一些借鉴。     

幽门螺杆菌全长基因cagA扩增及限制性酶切片段多态性研究

目的 建立扩增幽门螺杆菌全长cagA基因的方法并对扩增的原因进行限制性酶切片段长度多态性（RFLP）进行初步研究。方法 采用巢式PCR与TD－PCR结合的方法扩增cagA,运用EcoRI T HindⅢ酶切PCR产物。结果 20例标本中有13例的目的基因片段得到了扩增并得到了相应的EFLP指纹图谱。结论 （1）我们所建立的方法能较好地扩增cagA全长基因。（2)cagA基因含有重复序列,并显示RFLP的多样性。     

Bovine serum albumin further enhances the effects of organic solvents on increased yield of polymerase chain reaction of GC-rich templates

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: While being a standard powerful molecular biology technique, applications of the PCR to the amplification of high GC-rich DNA samples still present challenges which include limited yield and poor specificity of the reaction. Organic solvents, including DMSO and formamide, have been often employed as additives to increase the efficiency of amplification of high GC content (GC > 60%) DNA sequences. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been used as an additive in several applications, including restriction enzyme digestions as well as in PCR amplification of templates from environmental samples that contain potential inhibitors such as phenolic compounds. FINDINGS: Significant increase in PCR amplification yields of GC-rich DNA targets ranging in sizes from 0.4 kb to 7.1 kb were achieved by using BSA as a co-additive along with DMSO and formamide. Notably, enhancing effects of BSA occurs in the initial PCR cycles with BSA additions having no detrimental impact on PCR yield or specificity. When a PCR was set up such that the cycling parameters paused after every ten cycles to allow for supplementation of BSA, combining BSA and organic solvent produced significantly higher yields relative to conditions using the solvent alone. The co-enhancing effects of BSA in presence of organic solvents were also obtained in other PCR applications, including site-directed mutagenesis and overlap extension PCR. CONCLUSIONS: BSA significantly enhances PCR amplification yield when used in combination with organic solvents, DMSO or formamide. BSA enhancing effects were obtained in several PCR applications, with DNA templates of high GC content and spanning a broad size range. When added to the reaction buffer, promoting effects of BSA were seen in the first cycles of the PCR, regardless of the size of the DNA to amplify. The strategy outlined here provides a cost-effective alternative for increasing the efficiency of PCR amplification of GC-rich DNA targets over a broad size range.     

Compositional compartmentalization and gene composition in the genome of vertebrates

Summary The compositional distribution of coding sequences from five vertebrates (Xenopus, chicken, mouse, rat, and human) is shifted toward higher GC values compared to that of the DNA molecules (in the 35–85-kb size range) isolated from the corresponding genomes. This shift is due to the lower GC levels of intergenic sequences compared to coding sequences. In the cold-blooded vertebrate, the two distributions are similar in that GC-poor genes and GC-poor DNA molecules are largely predominant. In contrast, in the warm-blooded vertebrates, GC-rich genes are largely predominant over GC-poor genes, whereas GC-poor DNA molecules are largely predominant over GC-rich DNA molecules. As a consequence, the genomes of warm-blooded vertebrates show a compositional gradient of gene concentration. The compositional distributions of coding sequences (as well as of DNA molecules) showed remarkable differences between chicken and mammals, and between mouse (or rat) and human. Differences were also detected in the compositional distribution of housekeeping and tissue-specific genes, the former being more abundant among GC-rich genes.     

Polymerase chain reaction optimization for amplification of Guanine-Cytosine rich templates using buccal cell DNA

CONTEXT:

Amplification of Guanine-Cytosine (GC) -rich sequences becomes important in screening and diagnosis of certain genetic diseases such as diseases arising due to expansion of GC-rich trinucleotide repeat regions. However, GC-rich sequences in the genome are refractory to standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and require a special reaction conditions and/or modified PCR cycle parameters.

AIM:

Optimize a cost effective PCR assay to amplify the GC-rich DNA templates.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN:

Fragile X mental retardation gene (FMR 1) is an ideal candidate for PCR optimization as its GC content is more than 80%. Primers designed to amplify the GC rich 5’ untranslated region of the FMR 1 gene, was selected for the optimization of amplification using DNA extracted from buccal mucosal cells.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A simple and rapid protocol was used to extract DNA from buccal cells. PCR optimization was carried out using three methods, (a) substituting a substrate analog 7-deaza-dGTP to dGTP (b) in the presence of a single PCR additive and (c) using a combination of PCR additives. All PCR amplifications were carried out using a low-cost thermostable polymerase.

RESULTS:

Optimum PCR conditions were achieved when a combination of 1M betaine and 5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used.

CONCLUSIONS:

It was possible to amplify the GC rich region of FMR 1 gene with reproducibility in the presence of betaine and DMSO as additives without the use of commercially available kits for DNA extraction and the expensive thermostable polymerases.     

Amplification of a GC-rich sequence from barley by a two-step polymerase chain reaction in glycerol

PCR amplification of GC-rich sequences may fail due to poor denaturation or secondary structures that block elongation. Successful amplification of a 672-bp sequence encoding the barley α-amylase/subtilisin inhibitor (69% GC) was achieved in a simple two-step procedure with the addition of 20% glycerol and a high annealing temperature. This protocol may be useful for the amplification of other GC-rich sequences.     

The rate, not the spectrum, of base pair substitutions changes at a GC-content transition in the human NF1 gene region: implications for the evolution of the mammalian genome structure

The human genome is composed of long stretches of DNA with distinct GC contents, called isochores or GC-content domains. A boundary between two GC-content domains in the human NF1 gene region is also a boundary between domains of early- and late-replicating sequences and of regions with high and low recombination frequencies. The perfect conservation of the GC-content distribution in this region between human and mouse demonstrates that GC-content stabilizing forces must act regionally on a fine scale at this locus. To further elucidate the nature of these forces, we report here on the spectrum of human SNPs and base pair substitutions between human and chimpanzee. The results show that the mutation rate changes exactly at the GC-content transition zone from low values in the GC-poor sequences to high values in GC-rich ones. The GC content of the GC-poor sequences can be explained by a bias in favor of GC > AT mutations, whereas the GC content of the GC-rich segment may result from a fixation bias in favor of AT > GC substitutions. This fixation bias may be explained by direct selection by the GC content or by biased gene conversion.     

Amplification of GC-rich DNA for High-Throughput Family-Based Genetic Studies

Researchers face a significant problem in PCR amplification of DNA fragments with high GC contents. Analysis of these regions is of importance since many regulatory regions of different genes and their first exons are GC-rich. There are a large number of protocols for amplification of GC-rich DNA, some of which perform well but are costly. Most of the economical protocols fail to perform consistently, especially on products with >80 % GC contents and a size of >300 bp. One of these protocols requires multiple additions of DNA polymerase during thermal cycling which therefore rules out its utility if a large number of samples have to be amplified. We have established a method for simultaneous amplification of specific PCR products from a large number of human DNA samples using general laboratory reagents. These amplicons have GC contents ranging from 65–85 % and sizes up to 870 bp. The protocol uses a PCR buffer containing co-solvents including 2-mercaptoethanol and bovine serum albumin for amplification of DNA. A specific thermal cycling profile is also used which incorporates a high annealing temperature in the first 7 cycles of the reactions. The PCR products are suitable for different molecular biology applications including sequencing.     

Different hydrophobicities of orthologous proteins from Xenopus and human

A compositional transition was previously detected by comparing orthologous coding sequences from cold- and warm-blooded vertebrates (see Bernardi, G., Hughes, S., Mouchiroud, D., 1997. The major compositional transitions in the vertebrate genome. J. Mol. Evol. 44, S44-S51 for a review). The transition is characterized by higher GC levels (GC is the molar ratio of guanine+cytosine in DNA) and, especially, by higher GC3 levels (GC3 is the GC level of third codon positions) in coding sequences from warm-blooded vertebrates. This transition essentially affects GC-rich genes, although the nucleotide substitution rate is of the same order of magnitude in both GC-poor and GC-rich genes. In order to understand the evolutionary basis of the changes, we have compared the hydrophobicity of orthologous proteins from Xenopus and human. Although the differences are small in proteins encoded by coding sequences ranging from 0 to 65% in GC3, they are large in the proteins encoded by sequences characterized by GC3 values higher than 65%. The latter proteins are more hydrophobic in human than in Xenopus.     

Assessment of multiple displacement amplification in molecular epidemiology

Well-characterized epidemiological resources are generated with great effort, yet associated patient DNA samples can be limiting. The efficacy of the whole genome amplification (WGA) method, termed multiple displacement amplification (MDA), was assessed for detecting heterozygous sequence variants, mutation scanning, and PCR for challenging segments. Fifteen common polymorphisms from 10 genes located on 8 chromosomes were genotyped by direct sequencing of 300 PCR products from 115 high-quality MDA-amplified DNA samples extracted by different methods. The GC content of these analyzed segments ranges from 30% to 69%. Genotyping results demonstrate 100% accuracy. For heterozygotes, the relative intensity of peaks generated by the two alleles is highly similar for genomic and MDA-amplified genomic DNA, independent of GC content. In contrast, one of four heterozygous loci was mistyped when lower quality MDA-amplified DNA samples were used. The results of single-stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP)-type of mutation scanningfor seven MDA-amplified DNA samples in four genes were concordant with the genomic DNA samples. PCR on MDA-amplified DNA was routinely successful for challenging 10- and 12-kb segments with GC content ranging from 30% to 80%, demonstrating that rather long segments, which are difficult to amplify with PCR, are amplified well with MDA. These results suggest that MDA is an effective method of WGA with utility in molecular epidemiology. Quality control of the MDA-amplified DNA is critical for high performance.