KIF14 promotes tumor progression and metastasis and is an independent predictor of poor prognosis in human gastric cancer

The kinesin family member 14 (KIF14) is a potential oncogene and is involved in the metastasis of various cancers. Nevertheless, its function in gastric cancer (GC) remains poorly defined. The expression of KIF14 was examined in GC cell lines and a clinical cohort of GC specimens by qPCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining. The relationship between KIF14 expression and the clinicopathological features was analyzed. The effect of KIF14 on cell proliferation, colony formation, invasion and migration were investigated in vitro and in vivo. The expression of KIF14 was significantly increased in the GC tissues and cell lines. High KIF14 expression was associated with tumor stage, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and metastasis. KIF14 was an independent prognostic factor for the overall survival of GC, and a higher expression of KIF14 predicted a poorer survival. KIF14 silencing resulted in attenuated proliferation, invasion and migration in human gastric cancer cells, whereas KIF14 ectopic expression facilitated these biological abilities. Notably, the depressed expression of KIF14 inhibited Akt phosphorylation, while overexpressed KIF14 augmented Akt phosphorylation. Additionally, there was a significant correlation between the expression of KIF14 and p?Akt in GC tissues. Importantly, the proliferation, invasion and migration of the GC cells, which was promoted by KIF14 overexpression, was abolished by the Akt inhibitor MK-2206, while Akt overexpression greatly rescued the effects induced by KIF14 knockdown. Our findings are the first to demonstrate that KIF14 is overexpressed in GC, is correlated with poor prognosis and plays a crucial role in the progression and metastasis of GC.     

In vitro selection of small RNA-cleaving deoxyribozymes that cleave pyrimidine-pyrimidine junctions

Herein, we sought new or improved endoribonucleases based on catalytic DNA molecules known as deoxyribozymes. The current repertoire of RNA-cleaving deoxyribozymes can cleave nearly all of the 16 possible dinucleotide junctions with rates of at least 0.1/min, with the exception of pyrimidine–pyrimidine (pyr–pyr) junctions, which are cleaved 1–3 orders of magnitude slower. We conducted four separate in vitro selection experiments to target each pyr–pyr dinucleotide combination (i.e. CC, UC, CT and UT) within a chimeric RNA/DNA substrate. We used a library of DNA molecules containing only 20 random-sequence nucleotides, so that all possible sequence permutations could be sampled in each experiment. From a total of 245 clones, we identified 22 different sequence families, of which 21 represented novel deoxyribozyme motifs. The fastest deoxyribozymes exhibited k_obs values (single-turnover, intermolecular format) of 0.12/min, 0.04/min, 0.13/min and 0.15/min against CC, UC, CT and UT junctions, respectively. These values represent a 6- to 8-fold improvement for CC and UC junctions, and a 1000- to 1600-fold improvement for CT and UT junctions, compared to the best rates reported previously under identical reaction conditions. The same deoxyribozymes exhibited ~1000-fold lower activity against all RNA substrates, but could potentially be improved through further in vitro evolution and engineering.     

Phylogenetic position and physiology of Cerinosterus cyanescens

Partial 25S rRNA sequencing of Cerinosterus cyanescens showed it to be a close relative of Microstroma juglandis, a member of the basidiomycetous order Microstromatales. It is unrelated to the generic type species, C. luteoalba, which is a member of the order Dacrymycetales. The clinical occurrence of C. cyanescens is possibly explained by its thermotolerance and lipolytic activity. The species' nutritional profile is established. Growth on n-hexadecane is rapid; it grows well on typical plant constituents like gallic, tannic, vanillic, quinic and p-coumaric acids, but not on 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, phenol and hydroquinone. The failure to assimilate D-galactose, L-sorbose and ethylamine, the presence of urease and sensitivity to cycloheximide are diagnostic for the species.     

Improvement of xylose utilization in Clostridium acetobutylicum via expression of the talA gene encoding transaldolase from Escherichia coli

Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 was metabolically engineered for improved xylose utilization. The gene talA, which encodes transaldolase from Escherichia coli K-12, was cloned and overexpressed in C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Compared with C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824 (824-WT), the transformant bearing the E. coli talA gene (824-TAL) showed improved ability on xylose utilization and solvents production using xylose as the sole carbon source. During the fermentation of xylose and glucose mixtures with three xylose/glucose ratios (approximately 1:2, 1:1 and 2:1), the rate of xylose consumption and final solvents titers of 824-TAL were all higher than those of 824-WT, despite glucose repression on xylose uptake still existing. These results suggest that the insufficiency of transaldolase in the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) of C. acetobutylicum is one of the bottlenecks for xylose metabolism and therefore, overexpressing the gene encoding transaldolase is able to improve xylose utilization and solvent production.     

Temporal consistency is currency in shifts of transient visual attention

Background

Observers respond more accurately to targets in visual search tasks that share properties with previously presented items, and transient attention can learn featural consistencies on a precue, irrespective of its absolute location.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We investigated whether such attentional benefits also apply to temporal consistencies. Would performance on a precued Vernier acuity discrimination task, followed by a mask, improve if the cue-lead times (CLTs; 50, 100, 150 or 200 ms) remained constant between trials compared to when they changed? The results showed that if CLTs remained constant for a few trials in a row, Vernier acuity performance gradually improved while changes in CLT from one trial to the next led to worse than average discrimination performance. The results show that transient attention can quickly adjust to temporal regularities, similarly to spatial and featural regularities. Further experiments show that this form of learning is not under voluntary control.

Conclusions/Significance

The results add to a growing literature showing how consistency in visual presentation improves visual performance, in this case temporal consistency.     

近岸海洋线虫与细菌、古菌的共现性及其对碳、氮循环的影响

【目的】初步探究海洋线虫与微生物的相互作用对碳、氮循环的影响。【方法】利用16S r RNA和18S r RNA基因高通量测序方法,对33个近岸沉积物样品中细菌、古菌和真核生物的多样性进行调查;对海洋线虫与细菌、海洋线虫与古菌的共现性进行网络分析,并采用Spearman统计学方法,识别出与海洋线虫共现性呈显著相关性的微生物种类。【结果】在夏季,红树林和潮间带泥滩样品中线虫OTU平均相对丰度基本呈随深度增加而递减趋势;冬季的红树林样品中发现相类似变化规律,只有在冬季潮间带泥滩样品中线虫OTU平均相对丰度在深层较高于表层。相对丰度最高的海洋线虫隶属于单宫目(47%)、色矛目(19%)、刺嘴目(16%)和垫刃目(9%),它们与热源体古菌、深古菌、γ-和δ-变形菌等微生物有显著正/负相关关系。【结论】在香港米埔湿地沉积物中,与相对丰度最高的5种线虫显著相关的几大类微生物均在碳、氮、硫等元素循环方面起十分重要的作用,暗示海洋线虫与微生物潜在的相互作用对元素地球化学循环具有重要影响。研究结果有助于深入了解线虫在生态系统中未被揭示的生态功能,有助于更清晰地认识海洋线虫在底栖生态系统中所扮演的角色。     

A neural network model of attention-modulated neurodynamics

Visual attention appears to modulate cortical neurodynamics and synchronization through various cholinergic mechanisms. In order to study these mechanisms, we have developed a neural network model of visual cortex area V4, based on psychophysical, anatomical and physiological data. With this model, we want to link selective visual information processing to neural circuits within V4, bottom-up sensory input pathways, top-down attention input pathways, and to cholinergic modulation from the prefrontal lobe. We investigate cellular and network mechanisms underlying some recent analytical results from visual attention experimental data. Our model can reproduce the experimental findings that attention to a stimulus causes increased gamma-frequency synchronization in the superficial layers. Computer simulations and STA power analysis also demonstrate different effects of the different cholinergic attention modulation action mechanisms.     

Functions of poly-gamma-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) degradation genes in γ-PGA synthesis and cell morphology maintenance

Poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) is an important biopolymer with greatly potential in industrial and medical applications. In the present study, we constructed a metabolically engineered glutamate-independent Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LL3 strain with considerable γ-PGA production, which was carried out by single, double, and triple markerless deletions of three degradation genes pgdS, ggt, and cwlO. The highest γ-PGA production (7.12 g/L) was obtained from the pgdS and cwlO double-deletion strain NK-pc, which was 93 % higher than that of wild-type LL3 strain (3.69 g/L). The triple-gene-deletion strain NK-pgc showed a 28 % decrease in γ-PGA production, leading to a yield of 2.69 g/L. Furthermore, the cell morphologies of the mutant strains were also characterized. The cell length of cwlO deletion strains NK-c and NK-pc was shorter than that of the wild-type strain, while the ggt deletion strains NK-g, NK-pg, NK-gc, and NK-pgc showed longer cell lengths. This is the first report concerning the markerless deletion of γ-PGA degradation genes to improve γ-PGA production in a glutamate-independent strain and the first observation that γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (encoded by ggt) could be involved in the inhibition of cell elongation.     

改性聚二甲基硅氧烷 (iPDMS) 蛋白芯片在肿瘤相关抗原自身抗体筛查中的应用

肿瘤标记的快速筛查是临床早期诊断的难题。利用化学发光蛋白质芯片技术,对低丰度的肿瘤相关抗原的自身抗体进行高灵敏度的筛选,是一种有益的尝试。本研究首先将带烯烃末端的、引发聚合反应的表面引发剂加入到常规聚二甲基硅氧烷材料中,再通过热交联反应固定到聚二甲基硅氧烷的三维结构中,形成改性聚二甲基硅氧烷 (iPDMS)。为了使iPDMS材料具有抗蛋白质非特异性吸附的特性,在活性引发位点处通过表面引发的原子转移自由基聚合反应合成poly(OEGMA) 高分子刷。最后将20种肿瘤相关的抗原利用高通量喷点打印技术打印到芯片的特定区域,并组装成iPDMS芯片的48孔检测微孔板。对临床上常见的8种肿瘤患者血清进行分析,发现VEGFR1和VEGF121自身抗体对常见的8种肿瘤具有检测价值,有望成为肿瘤快速筛查的检测指标。