Highly Efficient and Economical Baculovirus Expression System for Preparing Human Papillomavirus Type16 Virus-like Particle

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most importantagent of human primary cervical cancer, and the list ofmalignancies caused by or associated with HPV is stillgrowing. HPV has been detected in carcinomas of larynx,esophagus, oral cavity, nasal sinus, skin, …     

Analysis of part of the Trichophyton rubrum ESTs

Superficial fungi are the etiologic pathogens of various dermatophytoses, such as tinea capitis, tinea corporis, tinea inguinalis, tinea manus, tinea unguium and tinea pedis. These widespread infections affect up to 25% of the worlds population, a percentage that has continued to increase in recent years. T. rubrum is the most common superficial fungus, accounting for at least 60% of all infections of this type. T. rubrum can induce dermatophytoses in different parts of the hu-man skin, and ca…     

Critical Role of Cys168 in Noggin Protein's Biological Function

Previous studies have indicated that noggin exerts its neural inducing effect by binding andantagonizing bone morphogenetic protein 4(BMP4).In order to further clarify the relationship between thestructure and the function of noggin,and elucidate the possible mechanism responsible for noggin-BMP4interaction,we generated three noggin mutants,C168S,C174S and C197S,by using a site-directed mu-tagenesis method.Ectopic expression of wild-type(WT)noggin,C174S or C197S,in Xenopus animal caps(ACs)by mRNA injection converted the explants(prospective ectoderm)into neural tissue,as indicated bythe neural-like morphology and expression of the neural cell adhesion molecule(NCAM)in the ACs.Incontrast,ACs expressing C 168S suffered an epidermal fate similar to the control caps.Similarly,among the threemutants,only C 168S lost the dorsalizing function.These studies highlight the critical role played by Cys168in noggin's biological activities.It probably participates in the formation of an intermolecular disulfide bridge.     

Analysis of ESTs and gene expression patterns of the poste-rior silkgland in the fifth instar larvae of silkworm, Bom-byx mori L.

The fibroin gene expression pattern and regulation of the posterior silkgland were studied by means of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) using the first and fifth day larvae of the fifth instar of silkworm, Bombyx mori L (strain: C 108). The results showed that there were 911 repetitive ESTs and 1950 single sequences (Singlets) among total 2861 consentient sequences, which were spliced. 1335 sequences were identified and the other 1526 were unknown. 5560 sequences (55.89%) in the posterior silkgland cell of the silkworm were new ESTs without ho-mology with EST data published by Mita et al. The number of repetitive ESTs and single sequences from the first day larvae of the fifth instar was double more than that of the fifth day of the same instar in the silkworms. The unigenes which were more than 50 in repetitive EST size (contig size) came to only about 0.5% in total consentient sequences. There were significant differences between gene expression frequencies, and expressed genes were related to fibroin synthesis and its secretion and fibroin composition. Comparing the fifth day with the first day of the fifth instar, the genes-expressed quantity of fibroin heavy-chain gene was 18 fold higher, fibroin light-chain gene 9 fold and fibroin P52 gene 8 fold. 508 genes functioned for cellular component and 315 for enzyme after function tracing. These results implied that the gene expression of the first day was mainly for preparation for fibroin synthesis except for the growth of silkgland cells, and the gene expression of the fifth day of the fifth instar was mainly for synthesizing and excreting fibroin. Because the ratio of heavy chain, light chain and p25 of fibroin was not 6:6:1 as theoretically expected, or its special H-chain structure, the H-chain gene was not easy to detect through EST technique. Most of genes among total 2861 consentient sequences functioned for fibroin synthesis and secretion. This suggested the fibroin synthesis and secretion procedure of the posterior silkgland was more complex than the knowledge we have.     

The diversity effect of inductive reasoning under segment manipulation of complex cognition

Forming a general reasonable conclusion from a limited number of examples is one of the most mar-velous psychological activities of human beings. This kind of activities is inductive reasoning which is a key issue rising from the cross fields of psychology, phi-losophy, cognitive science, and so on. It is a thinking process of generalizing from concrete cases. The di-versity effect of inductive reasoning refers to the phe-nomenon that the inductive argument of more diverse premise can obtain s…     

Overexpression of the OsPDCD5 Gene Induces Programmed Cell Death in Rice

The primary aim of the present study was to investigate the overexpression of the rice （Oryza sativa L.） programmed cell death 5 （OsPDCD5） gene in rice plant. Constitutive expression of OsPDCD5 from the cauliflower mosaic virus （CaMV） 35S promoter induced programmed cell death （PCD） in transgenic rice. Programmed cell death was accompanied by typical features, including inhibition of developmental growth, a reduction of fresh weight, degradation of total protein content, and fragmentation of genomic DNA. These results suggest that OsPDCD5 plays an essential role in the regulation of PCD in rice plants.     

Comparative genomics and phylogenetic analysis of S. dysenteriae subgroup

Shigella spp are the pathogen of bacillary dysentery, the leading intestinal contagious disease in China. According to the O antigen, Shigella spp can be sub-grouped into four species: S.dysenteriae, S. flexneri, S. boydii and S. sonnei, also known as Shigella sub-groups A, B, C and D. In developing countries, S. dysenteriae A1, one of the thirteen serotypes in A sub-group, resulted in extremely serious bacterial diarrhea with mortality of 7%[1]. Traditional classifications were unsucces…     

用Amp-FLP方法分析江浙沪汉族人群DIS80位点多态性

采用PCR结合PAGE电泳及银染技术,即Amp-FLP方法,分析了148名江浙沪汉族人中D1S80位点的多态性分布,观察到20种等位基因,53种基因型。首次在国际上发现重复单元数为39的等位基因。该位点观察杂合性为0.86,个体鉴别力为0.96,多态性信息含量为0.83,基因频率分布符合Hardy-Weinb erg法则。本文结果提示,采用Amp-FLP技术分析D1S80位点多态性,样本分型具有较高的准确性及灵敏度,适用于人类民族演变、法医学个体指认、亲子鉴定、遗传病基因连锁分析等研究领域。