The development of the region between the preexisting and nascent membranes during the first cleavage of Rana amurensis eggs

The region between the preexisting and nascentmembranes of a cleaving Rana egg is a dense protrusionregion of nearly 40μm wide at 180°stage.Later,thisregion differentiate,into an upper part,a strip withlong, branched and randomly distributed protrusionswhich are derived largely from the preexistingmembrane,and a lower part,a band with microvilli.During 4-and 8-cel1 stages,the strip is almost vanishedand microvilli in the band is shortened.The nascentmembrane is smooth at the 180°stage,then a rough areaappears below the smooth region and quickly expands.Wheat germ agglutinin which can bind to preexistingmembrane interrupts the development of the regionbetween the preexisting and nascent membranes.Detergent,Brij,having the property to increase the areaof nascent membrane,does not interrupt the developmentof the region between the preexisting and nascentmembranes.     

Effects of cannabinoid receptor type 2 on endogenous myocardial regeneration by activating cardiac progenitor cells in mouse infarcted heart

Cannabinoid receptor type 2(CB2)activation is recently reported to promote proliferation of some types of resident stem cells(e.g.,hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell or neural progenitor cell).Resident cardiac progenitor cell(CPC)activation and proliferation are crucial for endogenous cardiac regeneration and cardiac repair after myocardial infarction(MI).This study aims to explore the role and possible mechanisms of CB2receptor activation in enhancing myocardial repair.Our results revealed that CB2receptor agonist AM1241 can significantly increase CPCs by c-kit and Runx1 staining in ischemic myocardium as well as improve cardiomyocyte proliferation.AM1241 also decreased serum levels of MDA,TNF-αand IL-6 after MI.In addition,AM1241 can ameliorate left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening,and reduce fibrosis.Moreover,AM1241 treatment markedly increased p-Akt and HO-1 expression,and promoted Nrf-2 nuclear translocation.However,PI3K inhibitor wortmannin eliminated these cardioprotective roles of AM1241.In conclusion,AM1241 could induce myocardial regeneration and improve cardiac function,which might be associated with PI3K/Akt/Nrf2 signaling pathway activation.Our findings may provide a promising strategy for cardiac endogenous regeneration after MI.     

Biomechanism of impact resistance in the woodpecker’s head and its application

The woodpecker does not suffer head/eye impact injuries while drumming on a tree trunk with high acceleration(more than 1000×g) and high frequency.The mechanism that protects the woodpecker’s head has aroused the interest of ornithologists,biologists and scientists in the areas of mechanical engineering,material science and electronics engineering.This article reviews the literature on the biomechanisms and materials responsible for protecting the woodpecker from head impact injury and their applications in engineering and human protection.     

Clinical application of specific antibody against glypican-3 for hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis

Glypican-3(GPC3) is a promising tumor marker for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) diagnosis with high sensitivity and specificity.The aim of this study was to establish an immunohistochemical detection method for GPC3 using the 7D11 monoclonal antibody(7D11 mAb) and evaluate its application for HCC diagnosis.The feasibility of the 7D11 mAb was evaluated by immunohistochemistry performed on adjacent normal liver and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma(ICC) samples,Furthermore,the serum GPC3 levels were evaluated in 40 HCC patients,7 ICC patients and 50 healthy donors.The results showed that GPC3 was expressed in 85% of HCC tissues(34/40),but was undetectable in ICC tissues and adjacent normal tissues.GPC3 was significantly increased in the serum of HCC patients(17/40,42.5%) but was undetectable in the serum of ICC patients(0/7,0%) and healthy donors(0/50,0%).This prospective study evaluated the clinical usefulness of 7D11 mAb for GPC3 detection in HCC patients.In conclusion,the use of 7D11 mAb might be good for GPC3 large-scale applications for clinical diagnosis of HCC.     

Proteotyping：A New Approach Studying Influenza Virus Evolution at the Protein Level

Phylogenetic methods have been widely used to detect the evolution of influenza viruses.However,previous phylogenetic studies of influenza viruses do not make full use of the genetic information at the protein level and therefore cannot distinguish the subtle differences among viral genes.Proteotyping is a new approach to study influenza virus evolution.It aimed at mining the potential genetic information of the viral gene at the protein level by visualizing unique amino acid signatures(proteotypes).Neuraminidase gene fragments of some H5N1 avian influenza viruses were used as an example to illustrate how the proteotyping method worked.Bayesian analysis confirmed that the NA gene tree was mainly divided into three lineages.The NA proteotype analysis further suggested there might be multiple proteotypes within these three lineages and even within single genotypes.At the same time,some proteotypes might even involve more than one genotype.In particular,it also discovered some amino acids of viruses of some genotypes might co-reassort.All these results proved this approach could provide additional information in contrast to results from standard phylogenetic tree analysis.     

比较五种中草药牙膏对口腔常见菌的抗菌潜力

目的评价5种国产中草药牙膏对口腔常见菌的抗菌潜力。方法运用扩散法来评价5种国产中草药牙膏———美加净复合中草药牙膏(MAX)、洁银中药牙膏(JY)、田七特效中药牙膏(TQ)、中华中草药牙膏(ZH)、高露洁草本美白牙膏(Colgate H)对口腔常见菌:变形链球菌(S.mutants)、血链球菌(S.sanguis)、粘放线菌(A.viscosus)和白色念珠菌(C.albicans)的抗菌潜力。结果阴性对照组未见产生抗菌区域,而阳性对照组对4种口腔常见菌产生明显的抗菌区域。TQ对除了白色念珠菌(C.albicans)外的其他3种口腔常见菌都有明显的抗菌作用,其余4种牙膏在膏状和稀释状态下对所有4种常见菌均显示了明显和持续的抗菌作用。膏状状态下的抗菌区域比稀释状态下有显著的增大(P<0.05)。结论除TQ对C.albicans显示无效外,所有5种国产中草药牙膏对口腔内的常见菌均有明显的抗菌作用。     

Geographic variation in parasitism rates of two sympatric cuckoo hosts in China

Rates of brood parasitism vary extensively among host species and populations of a single host species. In this study, we documented and compared parasitism rates of two sympatric hosts, the Oriental Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) and the Reed Parrotbill (Paradoxornis heudei), in three populations in China. We found that the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is the only parasite using both the Oriental Reed Warbler and Reed Parrotbill as hosts, with a parasitism rate of 22.4%-34.3% and 0%-4.6%, respectively. The multiple parasitism rates were positively correlated with local parasitism rates across three geographic populations of Oriental Reed Warbler, which implies that higher pressure of parasitism lead to higher multiple parasitism rate. Furthermore, only one phenotype of cuckoo eggs was found in the nests of these two host species. Our results lead to two conclusions: (1) The Oriental Reed Warbler should be considered the major host of Common Cuckoo in our study sites; and (2) obligate parasitism on Oriental Reed Warbler by Common Cuckoo is specialized but flexible to some extent, i.e., using Reed Parrotbill as a secondary host. Further studies focusing on egg recognition and rejection behaviour of these two host species should be conducted to test our predictions.     

土壤微生物增强了外来植物紫茎泽兰对本地植物种的竞争力

【Background】The soil microbial community plays an important role in plant establishment, growth and nutrition. Invasion success may be linked to plant microbe interactions. 【Method】Under glasshouse conditions, we compared the effect of soil microbial communities to the growth and interactions between the exotic weed Ageratina adenophora and native plants. The microbial communities were from soil invaded by A.adenophora (IS) vs. that dominated by native weeds (NS). 【Result】A.adenophora which received inoculum from IS had higher arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization rate than that from NS, especially when Medicago falcata or Setaria viridis grew near A.adenophora. Microbial inoculum from IS accelerated the growth of A.adenophora, when planted in polyculture with the native plant S.viridis, but the native species growth was not affected. A.adenophora, receiving an inoculum from IS, inhibited the growth of its two neighboring native species, while no such effect was observed when using inoculum from NS. A.adenophora responded positively to the inoculum taken from IS in all planting combinations, but responded negatively to inoculum from NS both in monoculture and in polyculture with M.falcata. 【Conclusion and significance】Soil microbes, including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi present in soil in the rhizosphere of A.adenophora enhanced the competiveness of this invasive weed against native species, which may be an important invasion mechanism of exotic plants.     

Evolutionary trace analysis of eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I superfamily: Identification of novel antitumor drug binding site

During protein evolutionary processes, protein fam-ily members undergo extensive random mutations and a long period of natural selections, and thus induce the functional evolution and the emergence of subfamily. The evolutionary variation events were recorded in the sequences of protein family members. Therefore, identification of functionally important residues can be achieved by studying residue conservation in protein sequence families. Generally, the residues conserved across the family of…