民勤绿洲边缘沙丘生物土壤结皮发育对浅层土壤质地、养分含量及微生物数量的影响

为探明干旱沙区沙丘生物土壤结皮形成及发育对浅层土壤质地、养分含量及微生物数量的影响,以民勤绿洲边缘结皮前期阶段(NCS)、物理-藻类结皮阶段(PACS)、藻类-地衣结皮阶段(ALCS)以及地衣-藓类结皮阶段(LMCS)的0—1 cm层土壤为研究对象,研究了土壤颗粒组成、土壤有机质、全氮、速效磷、速效钾含量以及土壤微生物数量动态变化。结果表明:1)生物土壤结皮在NCS向ALCS的发育过程中,其有效地提高了0—1 cm层土壤细沙粒(0—200μm)含量,同时降低了粗砂粒(200—2000μm)含量;在ALCS向LMCS演替过程中,土壤粒度组成无明显变化。2)土壤结皮形成与发育对0—1 cm层土壤有机质、全氮、速效磷以及速效钾含量均有显著影响(P0.05),4种养分含量均随生物结皮演替逐渐增大。3)在土壤结皮形成与演替过程中,0—1 cm层土壤细菌、放线菌以及真菌数量均呈现出先增大后减小趋势(峰值均出现在PACS),土壤总藻生物量一直处于持续增大趋势;在5—12月期间,土壤微生物数量或生物量变化均呈现出先增大后减小趋势。4)土壤结皮在NCS向PACS演替过程中,土壤颗粒组成的改变是土壤微生物量及养分变化的主要驱动因子;PACS向LMCS演替过程,土壤藻类、地衣、藓类是提高土壤养分含量的主要因子。表明民勤绿洲边缘沙丘生物土壤结皮形成与发育能有效地改善浅层土壤质量,提高土壤肥力,同时对土壤生态系统改善及生态环境保护具有重要作用。     

一株高产木聚糖酶真菌的筛选及酶学性质分析

从近百份土样中,首先筛选得到具有明显半纤维素水解活性透明圈的菌株564株,其中202株的木聚糖酶活力用96孔板筛选方法进行了验证。结果显示：基于96孔深孔板测定的酶活力与初筛测得的透明圈活力趋势一致。最终筛选得到一株高产木聚糖酶的菌株ECU2023,经核糖体rDNA内部转录间隔区的序列对比,鉴定为泡盛曲霉（Aspergillus awamori）。研究获得了其最佳培养条件：pH6．0,培养时间4d,C源为30～40g/L玉米芯粉。经过（NH4）2SO4沉淀和Superdex G-75凝胶过滤层析后,其中主要木聚糖酶成分的最适反应pH为6．0,最适反应温度为50℃。     

Molecular characterization of AwSox2 from bivalve Anodonta woodiana: Elucidating its player in the immune response

Sox2 is an embryonal stem cell Ag essential for early embryonic development, tissue homeostasis and immune regulation. In the current study, one complete Sox2 cDNA sequence was cloned from freshwater bivalve Anodonta woodiana and named AwSox2. Histological changes of testis derived from Bisphenol A (BPA) treatment were analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin staining. Expressions of AwSox2 derived from BPA, LPS and polyinosinic:polycytidylic (Poly I:C) challenge were measured by quantitative real-time PCR. The full-length cDNA of AwSox2 contained an open reading frame of 927 nucleotides bearing the typical structural features of Sox2 family. Obvious degeneration, irregular arrangement of spermatids, and clotted dead and intertwined spermatids were observed in BPA-treated groups. Administration of BPA could result in a dose-dependent up-regulation of AwSox2 expression in the male gonadal tissue of A. woodiana. In addition, expression of AwSox2 was significantly induced by LPS and Poly I:C treatment in the hepatopancreas, gill and hemocytes, compared with that of control group. These results indicated that up-regulations of AwSOx2 are closely related to apoptosis of spermatogonial stem cells derived from BPA treatment as well as enhancement of immune defense against LPS and Poly I:C challenge in A. woodiana.     

Plasma and liver lipidomics response to an intervention of rimonabant in ApoE*3Leiden.CETP transgenic mice

Background

Lipids are known to play crucial roles in the development of life-style related risk factors such as obesity, dyslipoproteinemia, hypertension and diabetes. The first selective cannabinoid-1 receptor blocker rimonabant, an anorectic anti-obesity drug, was frequently used in conjunction with diet and exercise for patients with a body mass index greater than 30 kg/m² with associated risk factors such as type II diabetes and dyslipidaemia in the past. Less is known about the impact of this drug on the regulation of lipid metabolism in plasma and liver in the early stage of obesity.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We designed a four-week parallel controlled intervention on apolipoprotein E3 Leiden cholesteryl ester transfer protein (ApoE*3Leiden.CETP) transgenic mice with mild overweight and hypercholesterolemia. A liquid chromatography–linear ion trap-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometric approach was employed to investigate plasma and liver lipid responses to the rimonabant intervention. Rimonabant was found to induce a significant body weight loss (9.4%, p<0.05) and a significant plasma total cholesterol reduction (24%, p<0.05). Six plasma and three liver lipids in ApoE*3Leiden.CETP transgenic mice were detected to most significantly respond to rimonabant treatment. Distinct lipid patterns between the mice were observed for both plasma and liver samples in rimonabant treatment vs. non-treated controls. This study successfully applied, for the first time, systems biology based lipidomics approaches to evaluate treatment effects of rimonabant in the early stage of obesity.

Conclusion

The effects of rimonabant on lipid metabolism and body weight reduction in the early stage obesity were shown to be moderate in ApoE*3Leiden.CETP mice on high-fat diet.     

Modulation of Antiviral Immunity and Therapeutic Efficacy by 25-Hydroxycholesterol in Chronically SIV-Infected,ART-Treated Rhesus Macaques

Virologica Sinica - Cholesterol-25-hydroxylase (CH25H) and its enzymatic product 25-hydroxycholesterol (25HC) exert broadly antiviral activity including inhibiting HIV-1 infection. However, their...     

海南菠萝一种叶斑病病原菌的分离与鉴定及多基因序列分析

为明确菠萝叶斑病病原菌可可毛色二孢菌在海南省各市县的亲缘关系及遗传差异,从海南省的海口、澄迈、儋州、三亚、保亭等16个市县进行病样采集和病样分离,根据科赫氏法则鉴定,获得42株病原菌.观察形态特征,并基于多基因联合序列分析其遗传多样性.结果 表明,通过形态学鉴定和ITS与TUB2基因序列联合进化树分析发现,其中来自海口、澄迈、儋州、三亚、保亭等16个市县的16株代表病原菌均鉴定为可可毛色二孢菌(Lasiodiplodia theobromae),其分生孢子平均大小为(22.06～31.07) μm× (11.77～16.48) μm;通过ITS、TUB2、EF-1α、GAPDH、CHS-1和ACT基因拼接序列聚类分析,结果分为3个类群,海南岛的中部(儋州,昌江,白沙,五指山,万宁,琼海等地)聚为一个类群,中北部(屯昌,临高)聚为一个类群,西南部(东方,乐东,三亚等地)聚为一个类群.该结果说明来源于不同产地不同菠萝品种上的可可毛色二孢菌遗传多样性丰富,在海南省16个市县菠萝叶斑病菌中可可毛色二孢菌L.theobromae为优势种.     

Peptidomics analysis of myometrium tissues in term labor compared with term nonlabor

Preterm birth (PTB) is a major cause of neonatal mortality, with a poorly understood etiology. The regular contraction of the myometrium was considered as contributing to the etiology of the onset of labor, especially PTB. Thus, studying the mechanism of myometrium contraction is very important for understanding the initiation of labor and also for preventing PTB. Using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, we found 322 significantly differential peptides in myometrium tissues between term nonlabor and term labor groups (absolute fold change ≥ 2 and P < .05). We next analyzed length, molecular weights, isoelectric point, and cleavage site of all the different peptides. We, next, analyzed the functions of different peptides through their precursor proteins by Gene Ontology, enrichment and canonical pathway analysis. The results indicated that the extracellular matrix (ECM) played a major role in biological process, the cellular component, and molecular function categories, and revealed that ECM remodeling played a vital role in myometrial contraction. In addition, some known signaling, such as corticotropin-releasing hormone signaling and calcium signaling were proven to be involved in this process. Ingenuity Pathways Analysis upstream regulator analysis suggested that some of the known molecules, which reportedly were very important in labor onset, were included, for example, nuclear factor κB, tubulin, and phosphoinositide 3-kinase. We also identified 23 peptides derived from the precursor protein TITIN, of which 21 peptides sequences from TITIN were located in functional domains. These results suggested that peptides play an important role in labor onset and provide further insight into PTB therapy.     

In vitro and ex vitro rooting of Siratia grosvenorii, a traditional medicinal plant

Since a decade, the large-scale commercial production of Siratia grosvenorii plantlets is being practiced through in vitro culture of its microcuttings, but it has some drawbacks such as handling of plantlets, low transplant-survival rate, development of massive callus, low yield after transplantation, etc. An experiment has been conducted to improve the prevailing technique as well as to develop a new ex vitro technique to overcome these drawbacks. Several concentrations of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (0–4.0 mg/l) have been tried with the MS (Murashige and Skoog in Physiol Plant 15:473–479, 1962) basal medium containing 3% (w/v) sucrose and 4.0 g/l agar, out of which 0.1 mg/l NAA was found best in terms of smaller diameter of callus and maximum rooting and transplant survival rate. Further, use of perlite instead of agar medium also showed possibilities for future research on commercial-scale plantlet production. Ex vitro rooting technique was found superior to the in vitro one as plantlets developed through this method had lateral roots without any callus at the base of microcuttings, just like the natural root system and of course with higher root length, rooting rates, and transplant survival rate compared to the in vitro developed plantlets. Further, this technique is economical in terms of labor and time saving and gives rise to vigorous plants which ultimately bring higher yields and profits.     

Development of a fluorescent and colorimetric detection methods-based protein microarray for serodiagnosis of TORCH infections

We developed a protein microarray methodology that has the ability of serodiagnosis of IgM antibodies directed against TORCH pathogens. Six chemical surface modifications were validated by a dimension atomic force microscope (AFM) and contact angle measurement, agarose modified surface of which offered an appropriate platform for detecting IgM antibody. Further, signal amplification sensitivities on agarose modified microarrays were detected by Cy3-labeled biotin-streptavidin and immunogold-based assays. The detection limits of IgM antibody on the microarrays were 0.48 and 0.24mug/ml, quantitatively equal to 0.25 and 12.5pg, respectively, on each spot as ascertained by the two assays. Satisfactory linear correlations between the signal intensity and the logarithm of the IgM concentration were obtained. Finally, 60 serum samples characterized by a commercial ELISA were evaluated by the protein microarray. There were good concordances between the results of the protein microarray and ELISA assay for sorting of the TORCH infected sera (95.0% by fluorescence-based assay and 96.7% by immunogold-based assay). Clearly, the potential application of this protein microarray format facilitates clinical detection of not only the antibodies directed against TORCH pathogens but also other autoimmune diseases.     

RPLC-ion-trap-FTMS method for lipid profiling of plasma: method validation and application to p53 mutant mouse model

A reversed-phase liquid chromatography-linear ion trap-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometric method was developed for the profiling of lipids in human and mouse plasma. With the use of a fused-core C 8 column and a binary gradient, more than 160 lipids belonging to eight different classes were detected in a single LC-MS run. The method was fully validated and the analytical characteristics such as linearity ( R (2), 0.994-1.000), limit of detection (0.08-1.28 microg/mL plasma), repeatability (RSD, 2.7-7.9%) and intermediate precision (RSD, 2.7-15.6%) were satisfactory. The method was successfully applied to p53 mutant mice plasma for studying some phenotypic effects of p53 expression.