CO2 stimulation and response mechanisms vary with light supply in boreal conifers

北方针叶树CO₂ 的刺激和响应机制随光强而变化 黑云杉(Picea mariana [Mill.] B.S.P.)和白云杉(Picea glauca [Moench] Voss.)是同属物种,两者都是适度耐阴,并且在北美北方针叶林中广泛分布。为了了解光照对CO₂ 浓度升高的生理生态反应的影响,在三种光照条件下(温室中光照设置为100%、50%和30%)将一年生的两种幼苗暴露在360和720 µmol mol^–1 浓度的CO₂环境中,测定了其中后期叶面气体交换量。研究结果表明,CO₂的浓度升高提高了净光合速率 (P_n)和光合水分利用效率,但降低了气孔导度和蒸腾作用。CO₂对光合作用的刺激在50%光照下最大, 在100%光照下最小。光合作用、最大羧化速率(V_cmax)和光饱和电子传递速率(J_max)均随光照强度的 降低而降低。升高的CO₂在所有光照处理中显著降低了V_cmax,在生长季节中期,两种云杉的V_cmax均显著 降低,但在生长季节后期,当光照达到30%时,这一影响变得不明显,而且黑云杉的响应大于白云杉。CO₂ 浓度升高也降低了白云杉的J_max,但在生长季后期30%光照时,这种影响变得不显著。但CO₂ 浓度升高对 黑云杉的影响随时间而变化。在所有光照处理中,CO₂ 浓度升高降低了黑云杉生长中期的J_max,且在生长后 期30%光照时影响不显著,但在100%和50%光照时,J_max升高。这些研究结果表明,两个树种植物都受益于CO₂ 浓度的升高,但它们的响应机制随着光照的增加而变化：即在100%和50%光照下,它们的响应主要是生理上的,而在30%光照下,它们的响应主要是形态上的。     

Standardized xeno- and serum-free culture platform enables large-scale expansion of high-quality mesenchymal stem/stromal cells from perinatal and adult tissue sources

Background aimsMesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are of interest for the treatment of graft-versus-host disease, autoimmune diseases, osteoarthritis and neurological and cardiovascular diseases. Increasing numbers of clinical trials emphasize the need for standardized manufacturing of these cells. However, many challenges related to diverse isolation and expansion protocols and differences in cell tissue sources exist. As a result, the cell products used in numerous trials vary greatly in characteristics and potency.MethodsThe authors have established a standardized culture platform using xeno- and serum-free commercial media for expansion of MSCs derived from umbilical cord (UC), bone marrow and adipose-derived (AD) and examined their functional characteristics.ResultsMSCs from the tested sources stably expanded in vitro and retained their biomarker expression and normal karyotype at early and later passages and after cryopreservation. MSCs were capable of colony formation and successfully differentiated into osteogenic, adipogenic and chondrogenic lineages. Pilot expansion of UC-MSCs and AD-MSCs to clinical scale revealed that the cells met the required quality standard for therapeutic applications.ConclusionsThe authors’ data suggest that xeno- and serum-free culture conditions are suitable for large-scale expansion and enable comparative study of MSCs of different origins. This is of importance for therapeutic purposes, especially because of the numerous variations in pre-clinical and clinical protocols for MSC-based products.     

Ancestral haplotype reconstruction in endogamous populations using identity-by-descent

In this work we develop a novel algorithm for reconstructing the genomes of ancestral individuals, given genotype or sequence data from contemporary individuals and an extended pedigree of family relationships. A pedigree with complete genomes for every individual enables the study of allele frequency dynamics and haplotype diversity across generations, including deviations from neutrality such as transmission distortion. When studying heritable diseases, ancestral haplotypes can be used to augment genome-wide association studies and track disease inheritance patterns. The building blocks of our reconstruction algorithm are segments of Identity-By-Descent (IBD) shared between two or more genotyped individuals. The method alternates between identifying a source for each IBD segment and assembling IBD segments placed within each ancestral individual. Unlike previous approaches, our method is able to accommodate complex pedigree structures with hundreds of individuals genotyped at millions of SNPs.We apply our method to an Old Order Amish pedigree from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, whose founders came to North America from Europe during the early 18th century. The pedigree includes 1338 individuals from the past 12 generations, 394 with genotype data. The motivation for reconstruction is to understand the genetic basis of diseases segregating in the family through tracking haplotype transmission over time. Using our algorithm thread, we are able to reconstruct an average of 224 ancestral individuals per chromosome. For these ancestral individuals, on average we reconstruct 79% of their haplotypes. We also identify a region on chromosome 16 that is difficult to reconstruct—we find that this region harbors a short Amish-specific copy number variation and the gene HYDIN. thread was developed for endogamous populations, but can be applied to any extensive pedigree with the recent generations genotyped. We anticipate that this type of practical ancestral reconstruction will become more common and necessary to understand rare and complex heritable diseases in extended families.     

Nanoparticle formulation of mycophenolate mofetil achieves enhanced efficacy against hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting tumour-associated fibroblast

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most aggressive tumours with marked fibrosis. Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) was well-established to have antitumour and anti-fibrotic properties. To overcome the poor bioavailability of MMF, this study constructed two MMF nanosystems, MMF-LA@DSPE-PEG and MMF-LA@PEG-PLA, by covalently conjugating linoleic acid (LA) to MMF and then loading the conjugate into polymer materials, PEG_5k-PLA_8k and DSPE- PEG_2k, respectively. Hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines and C57BL/6 xenograft model were used to examine the anti-HCC efficacy of nanoparticles (NPs), whereas NIH-3T3 fibroblasts and highly-fibrotic HCC models were used to explore the anti-fibrotic efficacy. Administration of NPs dramatically inhibited the proliferation of HCC cells and fibroblasts in vitro. Animal experiments revealed that MMF-LA@DSPE-PEG achieved significantly higher anti-HCC efficacy than free MMF and MMF-LA@PEG-PLA both in C57BL/6 HCC model and highly-fibrotic HCC models. Immunohistochemistry further confirmed that MMF-LA@DSPE-PEG dramatically reduced cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) density in tumours, as the expression levels of alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), fibroblast activation protein (FAP) and collagen IV were significantly downregulated. In addition, we found the presence of CAF strongly correlated with increased HCC recurrence risk after liver transplantation. MMF-LA@DSPE-PEG might act as a rational therapeutic strategy in treating HCC and preventing post-transplant HCC recurrence.     

莫古礼(Floyd Alonzo McClure)在华采集和引种竹类植物的历史及其影响

竹类植物是美国采集者在我国采集和引种的一类主要植物。在众多的竹类植物采集者中, 莫古礼(Floyd Alonzo McClure)是最具代表性的一位, 他于1919-1940年在岭南大学开展竹类植物研究, 在此期间多次采集竹类植物标本并引种竹类植物到美国。本研究通过大量文献研究、档案查阅以及实地调研, 整理了莫古礼采集竹类植物的路线和采集地, 并对竹类植物学名进行校对, 分析了莫古礼在华研究、采集和引种竹类植物的历史及其影响。经统计, 莫古礼在华期间竹类植物标本采集地涉及12个省级行政区39个地级市, 主要集中在广东、海南、香港等地; 引种地涉及9个省级行政区的25个地级市; 共采集竹类植物标本727号1,840份, 隶属20属93种(含种下单位, 下同), 分别占我国竹类植物属和种的58.8%和17.4%; 共引种竹类植物255份, 隶属于17属77种, 分别占我国竹类植物属和种的50.0%和14.4%。莫古礼在华采集和引种竹类植物极大地发展了竹类植物分类学, 所采集的竹类植物标本为后人竹类植物研究提供了极大的帮助, 所引种的竹类植物极大丰富了美国竹类植物种类, 也促进了竹类植物在美国的应用。     

中药调节肠道菌群防治高血压的研究进展

肠道菌群是人体内环境的重要组成部分,可影响机体的代谢、免疫和炎症反应,与原发性高血压的发生发展密切相关,已成为防治高血压的研究热点。中药在临床用于原发性高血压的治疗且疗效显著。研究表明中药可被肠道菌群分解代谢为易于吸收的活性物质,而这些活性物质又可通过调节肠道菌群结构及其代谢产物防治高血压。本文以肠道菌群作为切入点,通过分析肠道菌群与原发性高血压发生发展的关系和中药在调节原发性高血压肠道菌群方面的研究,总结中药通过调节肠道菌群防治原发性高血压的作用和机制,以期为中药防治高血压及药物研发提供新的研究思路。     

A Lipidomic Approach to the Study of Biodiversity of Symbiotic Dinoflagellates in Millepora Hydrocorals from Vietnam Coral Reefs

Russian Journal of Marine Biology - To assess the biodiversity of symbiotic dinoflagellates (SD) in hydrocorals, we compared the molecular species compositions of four SD lipid classes such as...     

Blockade of JAK2 signaling produces immunomodulatory effect to preserve pancreatic homeostasis in severe acute pancreatitis

JAK/STAT plays an important role in cytokine signal transduction and it is potentially involved in the proinflammatory response during the early phase of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). However, whether JAK2 activity is upregulated and whether JAK2 inhibition plays a role in the maintenance of pancreatic homeostasis during SAP is incompletely understood. Here we show that JAK2/STAT3 activity is highly elevated in SAP and blockade of JAK2 by AG-490 protects against SAP-induced pancreatic inflammation and injury. Gene expression and ELISA studies showed that JAK2 inhibition altered the cytokine profiles in both the circulation and pancreases. Further analysis revealed that JAK2 inhibition restored the level of cytokines critical for macrophage polarization towards M2 macrophage. Our findings suggest that pharmacological targeting at JAK2/STAT signalling may be an effective choice of therapeutic interventions against SAP.     

Gaussia分泌型萤光素酶的研究进展及其应用

Gaussia分泌型萤光素酶是近年发现的一种来源于海洋桡脚类动物Gaussia princeps的新型分泌型萤光素酶,是目前已知的可自然分泌的最小萤光素酶,因其分子小、灵敏度高、半衰期短和可高效分泌,而成为一种理想的报告基因,广泛应用于体内外研究。我们就Gaussia分泌型萤光素酶的发光原理、荧光特性及其应用等进行简要综述。