Biostimulation and Bioaugmentation of Anaerobic Pentachlorophenol Degradation in Contaminated Soils

The effects of bioaugmentation with a pentachlorophenol (PCP)-adapted consortium and biostimulation with glucose as a carbon source on anaerobic bioremediation of PCP-contaminated soil were investigated in terms of the initial PCP removal rate and the extent of PCP dechlorination and mineralization. Samples from two PCP-contaminated sites were prepared, put into a series of Hungate tubes, inoculated, and fed under different conditions. Chlorophenols in the tubes were monitored over a 4-month period to measure PCP transformation in the soil. In less contaminated soil (10 mg PCP/kg soil), it was found that biostimulation with glucose at 1 g/kg soil or bioaugmentation at 0.14 g volatile suspended solids (VSS)/kg soil could greatly improve PCP degradation. The best PCP degradation was obtained when both bioaugmentation and biostimulation were applied, but higher levels of glucose (2 g/kg soil) or inoculum (0.56 g VSS/kg soil) had little additional effect. The highest initial PCP-removal rate reached 8.1 μmol/kg soil-d, which is almost 20 times greater than in the unamended controls. PCP was dechlorinated to lesser chlorinated phenols with 0.6 chlorine remaining on average, and the extent of mineralization approached 70% in 4 months. In highly PCP-contaminated soil (90 mg PCP/kg soil), PCP degradation was partially inhibited, but the relative effects of augmentation, stimulation, and combined treatments were the same as in the less contaminated soil.     

The effects of feeding by the rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel, on the growth and yield components of rice, Oryza sativa

Abstract 1 The effects of feeding by larvae of the rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel, on the growth and yield components of rice, Oryza sativa, were evaluated using four varieties of rice, ‘Cocodrie’, ‘Cypress’, ‘Bengal’ and ‘XP1003’, over 2 years. 2 Both adults and larvae of L. oryzophilus feed on rice plants, but it is feeding by the larval stage that causes economic losses. Feeding by L. oryzophilus larvae resulted in extensive damage to root systems. Pruning of root systems resulted in a decrease in tiller number and shoot biomass of rice plants in the vegetative stage of growth. 3 Yield losses were due to a combination of decreases in panicle densities, numbers of grains per panicle, and grain weights. Decreases in panicle densities were a direct result of the reductions in tiller numbers. Reductions in numbers of grains per panicle and grain weights probably resulted from decreases in shoot biomass. 4 Injury by rice water weevil larvae is chronic. The tillering stage of rice suffered the majority of weevil damage, but the growth effects were not manifested until later.     

瘦素受体的研究进展

瘦素的体重调节作用是通过瘦素受体介导的。随着分子生物学技术的发展,已以受体的基因表达、结构、功能等方面取得了一些进展。肥胖患者常合并高胰岛素血症、胰岛素抵抗和瘦素抵抗,说明瘦素受体与肥胖及其相关疾病有着不可分割的联系。     

L1 cell adhesion molecule overexpression in hepatocellular carcinoma associates with advanced tumor progression and poor patient survival

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE: L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM), as a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily, has recently been observed in a variety of human malignancies. However, no data of L1CAM are available for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of L1CAM in HCC and determine its correlation with tumor progression and prognosis. METHODS: One-hundred and thirty HCC patients who had undergone curative liver resection were selected and immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) were performed to analyze L1CAM expression in the respective tumors. RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and Q-PCR consistently confirmed the overexpression of L1CAM in HCC tissues compared with their adjacent nonneoplastic tissues at both protein and gene level (both P <0.01). Additionally, the high expression of L1CAM was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage (P = 0.02) and advanced tumor grade (P = 0.03), respectively. Moreover, HCC patients with high L1CAM expression were significantly associated with lower 5-year overall survival (P <0.01) and lower 5-year disease-free survival (P <0.01), respectively. The Cox proportional hazards model further showed that L1CAM over-expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for both 5-year disease-free survival (P = 0.02) and 5-year overall survival (P = 0.008) in HCC. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest for the first time that L1CAM expression in HCC was significantly correlated with the advanced tumor progression and was an independent poor prognostic factor for both overall survival and disease-free survival in patients with HCC.Virtual slidesThe virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1970024872761542.     

Identification and characterization of FHL3 as a novel angiogenin-binding partner

Angiogenin (Ang) is known to induce cell proliferation and inhibit apoptosis by cellular signaling pathways and by direct nuclear functions of Ang, but the mechanism of action for Ang is not yet clear. The aim of present study was to identify novel binding partner of Ang and to explore the underlying mechanism. With the use of yeast two-hybrid screening system, Ang was used as the bait to screen human fetal hepatic cDNA library for interacting proteins. Four and a half LIM domains 3 (FHL3) was identified as a novel Ang binding partner. The interaction between Ang and the full length FHL3 was further confirmed by yeast two-hybrid assay, co-immunoprecipitation and GST pull-down assays. Furthermore, FHL3 was required for Ang-mediated HeLa cell proliferation and nuclear translocation of Ang. These findings suggest that the interaction between Ang and FHL3 may provide some clues to the mechanisms of Ang-regulated cell growth and apoptosis.     

Comprehensive peptidome analysis of mouse livers by size exclusion chromatography prefractionation and nanoLC-MS/MS identification

Peptidome analysis has received increasing attention in recent years. Cancer diagnosis by serum peptidome has also been reported by peptides' profiling for discovery of peptide biomarkers. Tissue, which may have a higher biomarker concentration than blood, has not been investigated extensively by means of peptidome analysis. Here, a method for the peptidome analysis of mouse liver was developed by the combination of size exclusion chromatography (SEC) prefractionation with nano-liquid chromatography-tamdem mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS/MS) analysis. The extracted peptides from mouse liver were separated according to their molecular weight using a size exclusion column. MALDI-TOF MS was used to characterize the molecular weight distribution of the peptides in fractions eluted from the SEC column. The low molecular weight (LMW) (MW < 3000 Da) peptides in the collected fractions were directly analyzed by LC-MS/MS which resulted in the identification of 1181 unique peptides (from 371 proteins). The high molecular weight (HMW) (MW > 3000 Da) peptides in the early two fractions from the SEC column were first digested with trypsin, and the resulted digests were then analyzed by LC-MS/MS, which led to the identification of 123 and 127 progenitor proteins of the HMW peptides in fractions 1 and 2, respectively. Analysis of the peptides' cleavage sites showed that the peptides are cleaved in regulation, which may reflect the protease activity and distribution in body, and also represent the biological state of the tissue and provide a fresh source for biomarker discovery.     

蛋白质组学关键技术及其在茶树研究中的应用

蛋白质组学是后基因组时代的研究热点,相对于基因组学来说,能更直接、更准确的解释生命现象。对蛋白质组学关键技术如双向凝胶电泳、生物质谱、蛋白质芯片、生物信息学等及其在茶树上的应用作一介绍。     

Telomere Biology and Cellular Aging in Nonhuman Primate Cells

To determine how cellular aging is conserved among primates, we analyzed the replicative potential and telomere shortening in skin fibroblasts of anthropoids and prosimians. The average telomere length of the New World primates Ateles geoffroyi (spider monkey) and Saimiri sciureus (squirrel monkey) and the Old World primates Macaca mulatta (rhesus monkey), Pongo pygmaeus (orangutan), and Pan paniscus (pigmy chimpanzee) ranged from 4 to 16 kb. We found that telomere shortening limits the replicative capacity of anthropoid fibroblasts and that the expression of human telomerase produced telomere elongation and the extension of their in vitro life span. In contrast the prosimian Lemur catta (ring-tailed lemur) had both long and short telomeres and telomere shortening did not provide an absolute barrier to immortalization. Following a transient growth arrest a subset of cells showing a reduced number of chromosomes overgrew the cultures without activation of telomerase. Here we show that the presence of continuous TTAGGG repeats at telomeres and rigorous control of replicative aging by telomere shortening appear to be conserved among anthropoid primates but is less effective in prosimian lemurs.     

基于微卫星标记的5个尼罗罗非鱼品系的遗传多样性分析

为了对生产上应用的5个尼罗罗非鱼(Oreochromis niloticus)品系的遗传背景进行本底调查,以期为育种工作提供基础数据, 本文用19对微卫星引物对5个尼罗罗非鱼品系(苏丹品系、台湾品系、吉富品系、超雄品系Ⅰ和超雄品系Ⅱ)进行了遗传多样性分析,计算并统计了等位基因数、多态信息含量( PIC)、杂合度、遗传相似性系数、遗传距离等参数。结果表明19个微卫星位点在5个罗非鱼品系中共检测到113个等位基因,平均期望杂合度在0.578–0.692之间,平均多态信息含量在0.473–0.628之间。5个尼罗罗非鱼品系有较丰富的遗传多样性,而超雄品系Ⅰ的遗传多样性相对较为贫乏。     

大熊猫肠道纤维素分解菌的分离鉴定及产酶性质

【目的】从健康大熊猫新鲜粪便中分离具有纤维素酶活性的菌株,并对其进行菌种鉴定及产酶性质研究。【方法】利用羧甲基纤维素钠培养基分离纯化具有较高纤维素酶活性的菌株,根据形态学特征、生理生化特性以及16S rDNA分析对其进行分类鉴定,研究影响该菌株纤维素酶的产酶条件,以及对不同纤维素底物的降解情况。【结果】分离得到一株纤维素酶产生菌株P2,该菌株为好氧的革兰氏阳性细菌,生长温度范围20-50℃(最适温度37℃),pH范围6.0-9.0(最适pH7.0),NaCl浓度范围0%-15%(最适2%NaCl),培养24h达到产酶高峰。16S rDNA基因序列分析显示,菌株P2与解淀粉芽胞杆菌(Bacillusamyloliquefaciens)NBRC15535相似性为99.66%。该菌株对四种纤维素底物(滤纸、脱脂棉、秸秆、竹纤维)均有不同程度的降解,内切葡聚糖酶、外切葡聚糖酶、β-葡萄糖苷酶和总酶活具有不同的酶活变化。【结论】本研究首次从大熊猫粪便中分离出了好氧纤维素分解菌,并鉴定为解淀粉芽胞杆菌,对上述四种纤维结构均有一定的破坏和分解作用,为进一步研究大熊猫竹纤维消化机制提供了菌源。