表达SLTEC保护性抗原的重组猪霍乱沙门氏菌C500株的构建及生物学特性

摘要:【目的】 利用平衡致死系统构建表达产类志贺氏毒素大肠杆菌(Shiga-like toxin Escherichia coli , SLTEC)保护性抗原的减毒猪霍乱沙门氏菌。【方法】 构建表达SLT-IIeB－FedF的重组质粒 ,再将其电转入终宿主菌减毒猪霍乱沙门氏菌ΔasdC500株中构建成口服活疫苗株 ,经聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳检测SLT-IIeB－FedF融合蛋白的表达情况,并观察重组菌体外培养的稳定性。【结果】 　利用宿主-载体平衡致死系统构建了表达SLTEC保护性抗原的重组减毒猪霍乱沙门氏菌     

大熊猫的生境选择特征

基于王朗国家级自然保护区1997—2009年的连续监测数据,利用分布频率法和Bai-ley法,从地形因子、森林群落结构和主食竹3个方面研究了大熊猫的生境选择特征.结果表明:王朗国家级自然保护区的大熊猫对生境具有明显的选择性.在地形上,多选择海拔在2500～3000 m的山体脊部、上部和中部的均匀坡和凸坡,坡向西南,坡度在6°～30°,与水源距离>300 m的环境;森林群落结构上,多选择起源为次生林、针阔混交林,微生境为竹林的生境,乔木平均高度在20～29 m,灌木盖度在0～24%;主食竹多选择平均高度在2～5 m,竹丛盖度>50%,混生,生长状况良好的缺苞箭竹.     

Medium‐Chain Oil Reduces Fat Mass and Down‐regulates Expression of Adipogenic Genes in Rats

Objective: To test the hypothesis that adipose tissue could be one of the primary targets through which medium‐chain fatty acids (MCFAs) exert their metabolic influence. Research Methods and Procedures: Sprague‐Dawley rats were fed a control high‐fat diet compared with an isocaloric diet rich in medium‐chain triglycerides (MCTs). We determined the effects of MCTs on body fat mass, plasma leptin and lipid levels, acyl chain composition of adipose triglycerides and phospholipids, adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase activity, and the expression of key adipogenic genes. Tissue triglyceride content was measured in heart and gastrocnemius muscle, and whole body insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance were also measured. The effects of MCFAs on lipoprotein lipase activity and adipogenic gene expression were also assessed in vitro using cultured adipose tissue explants or 3T3‐L1 adipocytes. Results: MCT‐fed animals had smaller fat pads, and they contained a considerable amount of MCFAs in both triglycerides and phospholipids. A number of key adipogenic genes were down‐regulated, including peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α and their downstream metabolic target genes. We also found reduced adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase activity and improved insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in MCT‐fed animals. Analogous effects of MCFAs on adipogenic genes were found in cultured rat adipose tissue explants and 3T3‐L1 adipocytes. Discussion: These results suggest that direct inhibitory effects of MCFAs on adiposity may play an important role in the regulation of body fat development.     

Rab39, a novel Golgi-associated Rab GTPase from human dendritic cells involved in cellular endocytosis

Rab GTPases are Ras-like small molecular weight GTP binding proteins that are involved in various steps along the exocytic and endocytic pathways. Here we report that Rab39, a novel Rab protein, is a Golgi-associated protein involved in endocytosis of HeLa cells. Full-length cDNA of Rab39 contains 1251bp with an open reading frame (ORF) of 636bp, which is predicted to encode a 211 aa protein. By blast analysis of Rab39 cDNA and protein sequence with homologues, we find that Rab39 may be a short variant of Rab34. Rab39 contains conserved motifs involved in phosphate/guanosine binding and a microbody C-terminal targeting signal. RT-PCR analysis indicates that Rab39 is mainly detected in epithelial cell lines, and Northern blot analysis shows that Rab39 is expressed ubiquitously in human tissues. By using FITC-BSA as an endocytic tracer, we show that Rab39 can facilitate endocytosis in HeLa cells when expressed either transiently or stably. Confocal microscopy examination of Rab39 subcellular localization suggests that Rab39 is associated with Golgi-associated organelles. Our findings demonstrate that Rab39 is a novel Rab GTPase involved in cellular endocytosis.     

Attenuation of leukocyte-endothelium interaction by antioxidant enzymes

This report assessed the effect of overexpressing Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) and/or catalase on the interaction of mononuclear cells (MNCs) and endothelial cells (ECs). ECs were obtained from the aorta of wild-type mice and transgenic mice overexpressing Cu,ZnSOD and/or catalase. MNCs were obtained from wild-type mice. Treatment of wild-type ECs with CuSO4-oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) significantly elevated the expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and increased the adherence of MNCs. Overexpression of Cu,ZnSOD and/or catalase in ECs attenuated the adherence of MNCs and the expression of cell adhesion molecules induced by oxLDL. For example, ECs overexpressing Cu,ZnSOD and/or catalase showed significantly less expression of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 and less number of adherent MNCs than wild-type ECs. Moreover, ECs overexpressing Cu,ZnSOD and catalase in combination showed significantly less expression of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 and less number of adherent MNCs than those overexpressing either Cu,ZnSOD or catalase alone. These results suggest that combinational overexpression of Cu,ZnSOD and catalase can reduce the expression of cell adhesion molecules and inhibit the adherence of leukocyte to ECs more efficiently than overexpression of Cu,ZnSOD or catalase alone.     

Cytosolic prion protein is not toxic and protects against Bax-mediated cell death in human primary neurons

Recently, it was observed that reverse-translocated cytosolic PrP and PrP expressed in the cytosol induce rapid death in neurons (Ma, J., Wollmann, R., and Lindquist, S. (2002) Science 298, 1781-1785). In this study, we investigated whether accumulation of prion protein (PrP) in the cytosol is toxic to human neurons in primary culture. We show that in these neurons, a single PrP isoform lacking signal peptide accumulates in the cytosol of neurons treated with epoxomicin, a specific proteasome inhibitor. Therefore, endogenously expressed PrP is subject to the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway and is degraded by the proteasome in human primary neurons. In contrast to its toxicity in N2a cells, reverse-translocated PrP (ERAD-PrP) is not toxic even when neurons are microinjected with cDNA constructs to overexpress either wild-type PrP or mutant PrPD178N. We found that ERAD-PrP in human neurons remains detergent-soluble and proteinase K-sensitive, in contrast to its detergent-insoluble and proteinase K-resistant state in N2a cells. Furthermore, not only is microinjection of a cDNA construct expressing CyPrP not toxic, it protects these neurons against Bax-mediated cell death. We conclude that in human neurons, ERAD-PrP is not converted naturally into a form reminiscent of scrapie PrP and that PrP located in the cytosol retains its protective function against Bax. Thus, it is unlikely that simple accumulation of PrP in the cytosol can cause neurodegeneration in prion diseases.     

Towards precise classification of cancers based on robust gene functional expression profiles

Background

Despite the continuous production of genome sequence for a number of organisms, reliable, comprehensive, and cost effective gene prediction remains problematic. This is particularly true for genomes for which there is not a large collection of known gene sequences, such as the recently published chicken genome. We used the chicken sequence to test comparative and homology-based gene-finding methods followed by experimental validation as an effective genome annotation method.

Results

We performed experimental evaluation by RT-PCR of three different computational gene finders, Ensembl, SGP2 and TWINSCAN, applied to the chicken genome. A Venn diagram was computed and each component of it was evaluated. The results showed that de novo comparative methods can identify up to about 700 chicken genes with no previous evidence of expression, and can correctly extend about 40% of homology-based predictions at the 5' end.

Conclusions

De novo comparative gene prediction followed by experimental verification is effective at enhancing the annotation of the newly sequenced genomes provided by standard homology-based methods.     

Genetic analysis of IREB2, FAM13A and XRCC5 variants in Chinese Han patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Recently, variants (rs2568494, rs2869967 and rs3821104) in the IREB2, FAM13A and XRCC5 genes were found to be associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in non-Asian populations by genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis. To evaluate whether variants in these genes are related to COPD in Chinese Han population, we investigated COPD patients of Chinese Han ethnicity from Mainland China. Significant differences in genotypic distributions (χ² = 6.319, p = 0.042 for rs2869967; χ² = 6.062, p = 0.048 for rs3821104) and allele distributions (χ² = 4.014, p = 0.045 for rs2869967; χ² = 5.607, p = 0.018 for rs3821104) were observed between patients and control subjects for variants rs2869967 and rs3821104, whereas no statistically significant associations for genotypic and allelic distribution between IREB2 rs2568494 and COPD phenotype (p > 0.05) were identified. Our results support that FAM13A rs2869967 and XRCC5 rs3821104 are associated with COPD in Chinese Han population.     

重组人S100A6促进人乳腺癌细胞MCF-7的增殖和迁移侵袭并抑制其凋亡

该研究旨在探讨重组人S100A6蛋白对乳腺癌细胞株MCF-7的增殖、凋亡、迁移及侵袭能力的影响。利用原核表达制备重组人S100A6蛋白(GST-hS100A6),SDS-PAGE显示其大小为36 kDa,Western blot显示其可以被S100A6抗体特异识别,BCA法测定1 L菌液共收获约16.7 mg蛋白;将其作用于人乳腺癌细胞MCF-7,MTT显示细胞培养48 h时,浓度为100μg/mL和300μg/mL的GST-hS100A6组的D_(492)值较GST组增加29.1%和84.6%(P<0.05),提示S100A6促进MCF-7细胞增殖;平板克隆形成实验显示GST-hS100A6组的克隆形成率较GST组高38.7%(P<0.05),提示S100A6促进MCF-7的克隆形成;Hoechst染色显示GST-hS100A6组在24 h时细胞凋亡率较GST组减少67.8%(P<0.05),48 h时细胞凋亡率较GST组减少58.4%(P<0.05),提示S100A6抑制MCF-7细胞凋亡;划痕实验显示在24 h时GST-hS100A6组的划痕愈合率为GST组的2.2倍(P<0.05),提示S100A6促...