Isolation and Identification of Pathogens Causing Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) Black Spot in Beijing,China

Black spot leads to great marigold losses worldwide. The disease is characterized by black spots on leaves and stems in its early stages, and the whole plant has black rot at the advanced stage. In this report, 6 of 217 Alternaria strains isolated from lesions of marigold plants in Beijing were randomly selected. The morphological characteristics and a pathogenic tree based on two protein‐coding genes (gpd and alt a 1) indicated that Alternaria tagetica is the causal agent of marigold black spot in Beijing. All six Alternaria strains could successfully re‐infect marigold, but they could not infect carrot or zinnia by either spore spray in a greenhouse or planting experiments in the epidemic area. This is the first report of the A. tagetica pathogen being isolated from marigold in Beijing.     

Matrix metalloproteinase-9 is up-regulated by CCL19/CCR7 interaction via PI3K/Akt pathway and is involved in CCL19-driven BMSCs migration

C–C chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) and its ligands CCL19 contributes to the directional migration of certain cancer cell lines, but its role in the migration of BMSCs remains vague. The aim of this study was to determine the possible interaction between CCL19-induced conditions and matrix metalloproteinases-9 (MMP9) expression in BMSCs. Cell migration using Transwell assay indicated that activation of CCR7 by its specific ligand, exogenous chemokine ligand 19 (CCL19), was associated with a significant linear increase. Western blot and real-time PCR indicated that CCL19/CCR7 significantly upregulated expression of MMP9, which is related to metastasis-associated genes. The CCL19/CCR7 interaction significantly enhanced phosphorylation of Akt, as measured by Western blot. P-Akt and MMP9 protein expression exhibited a time-dependent pattern, and the peak was at 48 h. LY294002 significantly abolished the effects of exogenous CCL19. These results suggest that CCL19/CCR7 contributes to the migration of BMSCs by upregulating MMP9 potentially via the PI3K/Akt pathway.     

Oral Administered Particulate Yeast-Derived Glucan Promotes Hepatitis B Virus Clearance in a Hydrodynamic Injection Mouse Model

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) persistent infection is associated with ineffective immune response for the clearance of virus. Immunomodulators represent an important class of therapeutics, which potentially could be beneficial for the treatment of HBV infection. The particulate yeast-derived glucan (PYDG) has been shown to enhance the innate and adaptive immune responses. We therefore, assessed the efficacy of PYDG in enhancing HBV specific immune responses by employing the hydrodynamic injection-based (HDI) HBV transfection mouse model. Mice were intragatric administered PYDG daily for 9 weeks post pAAV/HBV1.2 hydrodynamic injection. PYDG treatment significantly promoted HBV DNA clearance and production of HBsAb compared to control mice. PYDG treatment resulted in recruitment of macrophages, dendritic cells (DCs) and effector T cells to the liver microenvironment, accompanied by a significantly augmented DCs maturation and HBV-specific IFN-γ and TNF-α production by T cell. In addition, enhanced production of Th1 cytokines in liver tissue interstitial fluid (TIF) was associated with PYDG administration. Live imaging showed the accumulation of PYDG in the mouse liver. Our results demonstrate that PYDG treatment significantly enhances HBV-specific Th1 immune responses, accompanied by clearance of HBV DNA, and therefore holds promise for further development of therapeutics against chronic hepatitis B.     

Ptk2b deletion improves mice folliculogenesis and fecundity via inhibiting follicle loss mediated by Erk pathway

Ptk2b has been found playing critical roles in oocyte maturation and subsequent fertilization in vitro. But what is the exact in vivo function in reproduction still elusive. Here, by constructing Ptk2b mutant mice, we found Ptk2b was not essential for mice fertility, unexpectedly, contrary to previously reported in vitro findings, we found Ptk2b ablation significantly improved female fecundity. Follicle counting indicated that the number of primordial follicles and growing follicles in matured mice was significantly increased in the absence of Ptk2b, whereas the primordial follicle formation showed no defects. We also found this regulation was in an autophosphorylation independent pathway, as autophosphorylation site mutant mice (PTK2B^Y402F) show no phenotype in female fertility. Further biochemistry studies revealed that Ptk2b ablation promotes folliculogenesis via Erk pathway mediate follicle survival. Together, we found a novel biological function of Ptk2b in folliculogenesis, which could be potentially used as a therapeutic target for corresponding infertility.     

苹果属植物树皮组织总蛋白提取及分离方法的建立

为了建立适于苹果属植物树皮组织总蛋白提取的技术方法, 以8年生华月苹果(Malus domestica)树枝条为试材, 通过比较不同提取方法(TCA-丙酮沉淀法(A)、甲醇/醋酸铵沉淀法(B)和改良的Tris-酚抽提方法(C))并优化提取条件, 确立了最适提取及分离方法为改良的Tris-酚抽提方法。在2-DE分离时, 该方法所获得的样品图谱中蛋白点总数为993个, 明显多于TCA-丙酮沉淀(418个)和甲醇醋酸铵沉淀(674个)方法, 并且与其它两种方法相比, 该方法获得的图谱背景更清晰, 蛋白点聚焦效果更好。此外, 经过3个梯度上样量的图谱分离效果比较, 确定了800 μg为本研究中2-DE分析的理想上样量。另外, 为了验证该提取及分离方法的可行性, 进一步对蛋白质表达谱中的部分蛋白点进行了质谱分析, 且这些蛋白点均得到了成功鉴定。该研究通过优化总蛋白提取方法及样品上样量等条件, 获得了理想的双向电泳分离图谱, 为苹果属植物树皮组织材料的蛋白质组学研究奠定了基础。     

硒对培养人胚肝细胞Ⅲ型前胶原,羟脯氨酸合成的影响

原代培养人胚肝细胞经１．１５６×１０￣(－７）ｍｏｌ／Ｌ硒预处理４ｈ,加入２０ｍｍｏｌ／Ｌ四氟化碳作用２０ｈ,观察硒对其Ⅲ型前胶原（ＰＣⅢ）和羟脯氨酸（Ｈｙｐ）生成的影响。结果培养液中ＰＣⅢ水平、细胞内Ｈｙｐ含量及细胞内外丙二醛（ＭＤＡ）水平均降低,与未加硒对照组比较差别有显著性（Ｐ＜０．０１）。而硒谷腕甘肽过氧化物酶（Ｓｅ－ＧＳＨ－ＰＸ）活性则较对照组显著增高（Ｐ＜０．００１）,且ＰＣⅢ水平与Ｓｅ－ＧＳＨ－Ｐ＿Ｘ／ＭＤＡ比值呈负相关（ｒ＝－０．９１５６,Ｐ＜０．０１）。提示硒可提高Ｓｅ－ＧＳＨ－Ｐ＿Ｘ／ＭＤＡ比值,抑制脂质过氧化激发的肝细胞胶原合成。     

Post-translational inhibitory regulation of acid invertase induced by fructose and glucose in developing apple fruit

Acid invertase (EC 3.2.1.26) is one of the key enzymes involved in the carbohydrate sink-organ development and the sink strength modulation in crops. The experiment conducted with 'Starkrimson' apple (Malus domestica Borkh) fruit showed that, during the fruit development, the activity of acid invertase gradually declined concomitantly with the progressive accumulation of fructose, glucose and sucrose, while Western blotting assay of acid invertase detected a 30 ku peptide of which the immuno-signal intensity increased during the fruit development. The im-muno-localization via immunogold electron microscopy showed that, on the one hand, acid invertase was mainly located on the flesh cell wall with numbers of the immunosignals present in the vacuole at the late stage of fruit development; and on the other hand, the amount of acid invertase increased during fruit development, which was consistent with the results of Western blotting. The in vivo pre-incubation of fruit discs with soluble sugars showed that     

SRNAome and degradome sequencing analysis reveals specific regulation of sRNA in response to chilling injury in tomato fruit

Plant genomes encode diverse small RNA classes that function in distinct gene‐silencing pathways. To elucidate the intricate regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) and endogenous small‐interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in response to chilling injury in tomato fruit, the deep sequencing and bioinformatic methods were combined to decipher the small RNAs landscape in the control and chilling‐injured groups. Except for the known miRNAs and ta‐siRNAs, 85 novel miRNAs and 5 ta‐siRNAs members belonging to 3 TAS families (TAS5, TAS9 and TAS10) were identified, 34 putative phased small RNAs and 740 cis/trans‐natural antisense small‐interfering RNAs (nat‐siRNAs) were also found in our results which enriched the tomato small RNAs repository. A large number of genes targeted by those miRNAs and siRNAs were predicted to be involved in the chilling injury responsive process and five of them were verified via degradome sequencing. Based on the above results, a regulatory model that comprehensively reveals the relationships between the small RNAs and their targets was set up. This work provides a foundation for further study of the regulation of miRNAs and siRNAs in the plant in response to chilling injury.     

E. O. 威尔逊的学术生涯与蚂蚁研究成就纵览

1"蚁学巨匠"E.O.Wilson E.O.Wilson教授被誉为当代蚂蚁研究的翘楚。他的研究领域涉及蚂蚁的分类、生态和行为等各个方面,并由此衍生出岛屿生物地理学的理论和社会生物学的体系。这些研究成果对于当今的昆虫学和生物学其他分支学科均产生着深远的影响。     

疏伐对黄土丘陵区刺槐林蒸腾的影响

黄土高原地区植被建设已达到土壤水分承载力的阈值,需要对现有林分进行结构优化并提升其生态功能。不合理的林分密度是导致黄土丘陵区刺槐林土壤干化、生长衰退的主要原因之一。疏伐可以优化林分结构,并能够通过控制蒸腾耗水来调控土壤水分,是促进刺槐林可持续生长的有效手段。疏伐对黄土丘陵区刺槐林蒸腾有何影响,目前并不清楚。研究基于树干液流法估算了4个不同疏伐强度（样地1：52%、样地2：48%、样地3：35%、样地4：未疏伐）下刺槐单株尺度的液流速率与林分尺度的日平均蒸腾量,并分析了不同时间尺度下液流速率与环境因子的关系,以阐明疏伐对黄土丘陵区刺槐林蒸腾的影响。结果表明：（1） 单株尺度刺槐蒸腾速率（即液流速率）随疏伐强度减小（林分密度增大）呈现下降趋势（样地1：0.53 kg cm^-2 d^-1、样地2：0.41 kg cm^-2 d^-1、样地3：0.31 kg cm^-2 d^-1、样地4：0.33 kg cm^-2 d^-1）;（2） 观测期林分尺度日平均蒸腾量随疏伐强度减小呈现上升趋势（样地1：0.90 mm/d、样地2：1.18 mm/d、样地3：1.04 mm/d、样地4：1.44 mm/d）;（3） 在半小时尺度与日尺度上,各样地液流速率与环境因子的关系没有显著差异,半小时尺度单株液流速率均与太阳辐射相关性最高（相关系数0.883-0.908）,液流速率日变化过程与环境因子日变化过程存在时滞现象;日尺度单株液流速率与饱和水汽压亏缺相关性最高（相关系数0.843-0.913）,样地间日尺度单株液流速率的差异性随着饱和水汽压亏缺增大而增大。研究结果初步反映了疏伐导致的林分密度变化对刺槐蒸腾的影响,将为黄土丘陵区刺槐林的结构改造、功能提升和土壤水分调控提供理论支持。