Origins, lineage-specific expansions, and multiple losses of tyrosine kinases in eukaryotes

Tyrosine kinases are important components of metazoan signaling pathways, and their mutant forms are implicated in various malignancies. Searching the sequences from the genomes of 28 eukaryotes and the GenBank, we found tyrosine kinases not only in metazoans but also in the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the potato late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans, and the protozoan pathogen Entamoeba histolytica, contrary to the current view that tyrosine kinases are animal-specific. Based on a phylogenetic analysis, we divided this gene family into 43 subfamilies and found that at least 19 tyrosine kinases were likely present in the common ancestor of chordates, arthropods, and nematodes. Interestingly, most of the subfamilies have conserved domain organizations among subfamily members but have undergone different degrees of expansion during the evolution of metazoans. In particular, a large number of duplications occurred in the lineage leading to the common ancestor of Tagifugu and mammals after its split from the Ciona lineage about 450 to 550 MYA. The timing of expansion coincides with proposed large-scale duplication event in the chordate lineage. Furthermore, gene losses have occurred in most subfamilies. Interestingly, different subfamilies have similar net gain rates in the chordates studied. However, the tyrosine kinases in mouse and human or in fruit fly and mosquito mostly have a one-to-one relationship between species, indicating that static periods of 90 Myr or longer in tyrosine kinase evolution have followed large expansion events.     

A roadmap of tandemly arrayed genes in the genomes of human, mouse, and rat

Tandemly arrayed genes (TAGs) play an important functional and physiological role in the genome. Most previous studies have focused on individual TAG families in a few species, yet a broad characterization of TAGs is not available. Here we identified all TAGs in the genomes of humans, mouse, and rat and performed a comprehensive analysis of TAG distribution, TAG sizes, TAG orientations and intergenic distances, and TAG functions. TAGs account for about 14-17% of all genes in the genome and nearly one-third of all duplicated genes, highlighting the predominant role that tandem duplication plays in gene duplication. For all species, TAG distribution is highly heterogeneous along chromosomes and some chromosomes are enriched with TAG forests, whereas others are enriched with TAG deserts. The majority of TAGs are of size 2 for all genomes, similar to the previous findings in Caenorhabditis elegans, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Oryza sativa, suggesting that it is a rather general phenomenon in eukaryotes. The comparison with the genome patterns shows that TAG members have a significantly higher proportion of parallel gene orientation in all species, corroborating Graham's claim that parallel orientation is the preferred form of orientation in TAGs. Moreover, TAG members with parallel orientation tend to be closer to each other than all neighboring genes in the genome with parallel orientation. The analyses of Gene Ontology function indicate that genes with receptor or binding activities are significantly overrepresented by TAGs. Computer simulation reveals that random gene rearrangements have little effect on the statistics of TAGs for all genomes. Finally, the average proportion of TAGs shows a trend of increase with the increase of family sizes, although the correlation between TAG proportions in individual families and family sizes is not significant.     

基因敲除与学习、记忆：现状、问题和展望

基因敲除技术的应用使学习、记忆分子机制的研究出现了新的突破.目前已报道了多种学习、记忆以及LTP、LTD有缺陷的基因敲除动物,发现多种基因在学习、记忆的形成过程中必不可少.然而,现有研究的一个较大问题是忽视了遗传背景基因在表型改变中的作用,被认为由突变靶基因造成的表型缺陷实际上可能是由背景基因而不是由突变基因造成的.要排除背景基因的作用,必须建立新的ES细胞,选择纯遗传背景的小鼠品系,并且在时间、范围和程度上对基因敲除进行精细的控制.     

南京市正常人群NQO1、CYP1A1、mEH基因的多态性研究

应用PCR技术,对南京市正常人群中NQO1、CYP1A1、mEH-外显子3、mEH－外显子4基因型多态性进行了研究。88例样本中,相关基因野生型纯合子（wt/wt）、杂合子（wt/vt）、突变型纯合子（vt/vt）三种基因型的频率分布及基因频率分别是：NQO1 29.5%（0.304）,51.1%(0.495)和19.3%(0.202);CYP1A?135.2%(0.329)、44.3%(0.489)和20.5%(0.181);mEH－外显子3为26.1%(0.297),56.8%(0.496),17.0%(0.207);mEH－外显子4为83.0%(0.826),15.9%(0.165),1.1%(0.008)。以上结果与国外的有关报道存在一定差异,在不同地区中国人群的频率分布特征基本一致,种族差异可能是造成有关基因型分布差异的重要原因。 Abstract：The polymorphisms of NQO1, CYP1A1, mEH-Exon3 ,and mEH-Exon4 genes in normal Nanjing population (88 cases) were investigat ed by PCR approach. The results showed that the population frequency distributio ns of genotypes of wild-type,heterozygote, homozygous variant were respectively: NQO1? 29.5%,51.1%,19.3%;CYP 1A1 35.2%,44.3%,20.5%;mEH-exon3 26.1 %,56.8%,17.0%;mEH-exon4 83.0%,15.9%,1.1%. The frequency distributions o f genotypes in Nanjing population differ from those of other countries and do no t show marked differences compared with other different area in Chinese populati on. The ethnic difference might be an important reason which results in the diff erences of related genotypes.     

The relationship between gene dosage,gene expression,and sex in Drosophila

In Drosophila, the ratio of the number of X chromosomes to sets of other chromosomes initiates a series of events which result in sexual differentiation. In addition, this ratio establishes dosage compensation, a mechanism which equalizes the products of X-linked genes in males and females. The present review discusses possible genetic entities responsible for the interpretation of chromosomal sex and subsequent sex-mediated regulation during development.     

RAP—PCXR技术及其应用

RAP－PCXR是以PCR为基础构建RNA指纹图谱,研究基因差异表达的有效方法,所显示的种系特异性差异可用于对基因的遗传作图,所揭示的组织特异性可用于研究特异基因的表达。该法可检测各种情形下RNA群体间的差异。本简介其基本原理及在基因差异表达研究领域的最新应用。     

人vasostatin的克隆、表达、纯化及活性检测

从成人肝脏cDNA文库中,PCR扩增得到人vasostatin基因编码区序列,将此序列插入原核表达载体pQE30进行表达,SDS-聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳(SDS-PAGE)测定表明产物以包涵体形式存在,表达量占菌体总蛋白量的50%以上.包涵体洗涤后溶于8 mol/L尿素溶液,在变性条件下通过镍-氨三乙酸(Ni-NTA)金属螯合亲和层析柱进行纯化后,再经透析进行复性.N端氨基酸序列、分子质量、等电点等理化指标的测定结果与理论值相符.用内皮细胞增殖试验、内皮细胞迁移试验以及鸡胚尿囊膜血管生成试验等方法进行活性检测,证实复性的表达产物具有抑制内皮细胞增殖和迁移、抑制鸡胚尿囊膜血管生成的功能.     

SpeciesRax: A Tool for Maximum Likelihood Species Tree Inference from Gene Family Trees under Duplication,Transfer, and Loss

Species tree inference from gene family trees is becoming increasingly popular because it can account for discordance between the species tree and the corresponding gene family trees. In particular, methods that can account for multiple-copy gene families exhibit potential to leverage paralogy as informative signal. At present, there does not exist any widely adopted inference method for this purpose. Here, we present SpeciesRax, the first maximum likelihood method that can infer a rooted species tree from a set of gene family trees and can account for gene duplication, loss, and transfer events. By explicitly modeling events by which gene trees can depart from the species tree, SpeciesRax leverages the phylogenetic rooting signal in gene trees. SpeciesRax infers species tree branch lengths in units of expected substitutions per site and branch support values via paralogy-aware quartets extracted from the gene family trees. Using both empirical and simulated data sets we show that SpeciesRax is at least as accurate as the best competing methods while being one order of magnitude faster on large data sets at the same time. We used SpeciesRax to infer a biologically plausible rooted phylogeny of the vertebrates comprising 188 species from 31,612 gene families in 1 h using 40 cores. SpeciesRax is available under GNU GPL at https://github.com/BenoitMorel/GeneRax and on BioConda.     

Novel Muscle-Specific Genes TCAP,TNNI1, and FHL1 in Cattle: SNVs,Linkage Disequilibrium,Combined Genotypes,Association Analysis of Growth Performance,and Carcass Quality Traits and Expression Studies

TCAP, TNNI1, and FHL1 regulate muscle growth and development. In this study, four single nucleotide variants (SNVs) were discovered in almost all of the exon and intron regions of the TCAP, TNNI1, and FHL1 genes using DNA pooled sequencing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-RFLP, and forced-PCR-RFLP methods in 576 cattle. Four SNVs were significantly associated with the growth performance and carcass quality traits of the cattle. In addition, the haplotype, haplotype frequency, and linkage disequilibrium coefficient of three sequence variants were also evaluated in the cattle population. Haplotype analysis demonstrated that eight haplotypes were present in the Qinchuan cattle population and no haplotypes were present in the Chinese Holstein population; haplotype 1 had the highest frequency in the Qinchuan (42.7%) population. Statistical analyses of 12 combined genotypes indicated that some were significantly associated with the growth performance and carcass quality traits of the Qinchuan cattle population. Moreover, the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction results demonstrated that the bovine TCAP, TNNI1, and FHL1 genes were exclusively expressed in muscle tissue. These data support the high potentials of the TCAP, TNNI1, and FHL1 as marker genes to improve the growth performance and carcass quality traits of Qinchuan cattle or other animals selection programs.     

家蚕chi、gluE和fruA基因与微生物相应基因的同源性及基因水平转移初探

通过对家蚕(Bombyxm mori)大规模EST的分析,发现家蚕的chi、gluE和fruA基因分别与微生物的相应基因存在高度的氨基酸序列同源性,且进化关系很近,但与线虫(Caenorhabditis elegans)、果蝇(Drosophila melanogaster)、按蚊(Anopheles gamble)以及家蚕近缘昆虫的类似基因之间的相似性却非常低。这表明它们可能分别与微生物的同源基因具有共同的祖先,即微生物的基因水平转移给了家蚕,进化途径不属于垂直遗传。     

VfCPK1, a gene encoding calcium-dependent protein kinase from Vicia faba, is induced by drought and abscisic acid

Calcium, one of the most ubiquitous second messengers, has been shown to be involved in a wide variety of responses in plants. Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) (EC 2.7.1.37) are the predominant Ca(2+)-regulated serine/threonine protein kinase in plants and play an important role in plant calcium signal transduction. CDPKs are encoded by a large multigene family in many plants, which has been showed so far; however, the precise role of each specific CDPK is still largely unknown. A novel CDPK gene designated as VfCPK1 was cloned from epidermal peels of broad bean (Vicia faba L.) leaves using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE)-PCR technique and its expression was studied in detail. The VfCPK1 cDNA is 1783 bp long and contains an open reading frame of 1482 bp encoding 493 amino acids. VfCPK1 contains all conserved regions found in CDPKs and shows a high level of sequence similarity to many other plant CDPKs. VfCPK1 was highly expressed in leaves, especially in leaf epidermal peels of broad bean in mRNA and protein levels. Expressions of VfCPK1 at both the mRNA and protein levels were increased in leaves treated with abscisic acid or subjected to drought stress. Potential roles of VfCPK1 in epidermal peels are discussed. The nucleotide sequence data reported here were deposited in the GenBank database under accession number AY753552.     

水稻抗白叶枯病基因的鉴定、定位和克隆进展

由水稻黄单胞菌水稻变种Xoo引起的水稻白叶枯病是全球性的重要病害之一。已有31个水稻白叶枯抗性基因被鉴定并报道,其中18个被定位到染色体上,5个被克隆。简要综述了水稻白叶枯抗性基因的鉴定、定位和克隆的进展,并讨论了合理利用抗性基因防治白叶枯病的前景。     

Phylogenetic relationships among Rhacophorinae (Rhacophoridae, Anura, Amphibia), with an emphasis on the Chinese species

The partial nucleotide sequence of mitochondrial 12S and 16S rRNA genes was determined for 23 Chinese species of Rhacophoridae (Amphibia: Anura), representing four of the eight recognized genera. Using Buergeriinae as the outgroup, phylogenetic analyses (maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference) were performed in combination with already published mitochondrial 12S and 16S sequences of Rhacophorinae frogs. In all cases, Philautus romeri Smith, 1953 is recovered as the sister taxon to all other Rhacophorinae, although the support values are weak. Chirixalus doriae Boulenger, 1893 is closer to Chiromantis [ Chiromantis rufescens (Günther, 1868) and Chiromantis xerampelina Peters, 1854] than to Chirixalus vittatus (Boulenger, 1887). The clade { Philautus odontotarsus Ye & Fei, 1993, [ Philautus idiootocus (Kuramoto & Wang, 1987), Kurixalus eiffingeri (Boettger, 1895)]} is recovered with strong support. The monophyly of Theloderma and Rhacophorus rhodopus Liu & Hu, 1959 is not supported. It is suggested that Philautus albopunctatus Liu & Hu, 1962 should be placed into the synonymy of Theloderma asperum (Boulenger, 1886), and that Philautus rhododiscus Liu & Hu, 1962 should be assigned to Theloderma , so as to correct the paraphyly. Additionally, the monophyly of ' Aquixalus ' is not supported, and this requires further examination. Results also indicate that the Rhacophorus leucomystax (Gravenhorst, 1829)/ Rhacophorus megacephalus (Hallowell, 1861) complex needs further revision. Studies employing broader sampling and more molecular markers will be needed to resolve the deep relationships within the subfamily Rhacophorinae.  © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 153 , 733–749.     

GeneRax: A Tool for Species-Tree-Aware Maximum Likelihood-Based Gene Family Tree Inference under Gene Duplication,Transfer, and Loss

Inferring phylogenetic trees for individual homologous gene families is difficult because alignments are often too short, and thus contain insufficient signal, while substitution models inevitably fail to capture the complexity of the evolutionary processes. To overcome these challenges, species-tree-aware methods also leverage information from a putative species tree. However, only few methods are available that implement a full likelihood framework or account for horizontal gene transfers. Furthermore, these methods often require expensive data preprocessing (e.g., computing bootstrap trees) and rely on approximations and heuristics that limit the degree of tree space exploration. Here, we present GeneRax, the first maximum likelihood species-tree-aware phylogenetic inference software. It simultaneously accounts for substitutions at the sequence level as well as gene level events, such as duplication, transfer, and loss relying on established maximum likelihood optimization algorithms. GeneRax can infer rooted phylogenetic trees for multiple gene families, directly from the per-gene sequence alignments and a rooted, yet undated, species tree. We show that compared with competing tools, on simulated data GeneRax infers trees that are the closest to the true tree in 90% of the simulations in terms of relative Robinson–Foulds distance. On empirical data sets, GeneRax is the fastest among all tested methods when starting from aligned sequences, and it infers trees with the highest likelihood score, based on our model. GeneRax completed tree inferences and reconciliations for 1,099 Cyanobacteria families in 8 min on 512 CPU cores. Thus, its parallelization scheme enables large-scale analyses. GeneRax is available under GNU GPL at https://github.com/BenoitMorel/GeneRax (last accessed June 17, 2020).       

甲基对硫磷水解酶基因的克隆与融合表达

利用鸟枪法从甲基对硫磷降解菌DLL-1 Peudomonas putida）中克隆了甲基对硫磷水解酶基因(mpd)片段2．5kb,并进行了测序。通过软件分析开放阅读框和启动子序列,表明该序列中最可能为甲基对硫磷水解酶结构基因的阅读框为769—1794区域。软件分析还表明该水解酶前端45个氨基酸为典型的信号肽结构。通过PCR扩增了mpd结构基因,亚克隆到表达载体pET—32a中,构建了完整的融合表达载体pET—MP。转化大肠杆菌BL21(DE3),在IPTG的诱导下2～4h甲基对硫磷水解酶表达可以达到最高水平;同时还研究了乳糖的诱导效果,2％乳糖诱导2h就可以起到很好的效果。通过PCR反应验证了mpd基因定位于DLL-E4的染色体而不是质粒上。