菌根真菌的生理生态功能

菌根真菌是土壤中重要生物成员之一,不仅具有丰富的遗传多样性和物种多样性,其功能也是丰富多样,主要体现在：1）影响陆生植物起源、进化、演化与分布;2）促进植物的生长发育;3）提高植物的抗逆性;4）修复污染与退化土壤、改善土壤质量与健康状况;5）促进农林牧业的生产;6）保持生态平衡、稳定生态系统及其可持续生产力.随着技术发展和研究的深入,菌根真菌新功能将会不断被发现.     

Genotypes of Enterocytozoon bieneusi in Livestock in China: High Prevalence and Zoonotic Potential

Despite many recent advances in genotype characterization of Enterocytozoon bieneusi worldwide and the exploration of the extent of cross-species transmission of microsporidiosis between humans and animals, the epidemiology of this neglected disease in China is poorly understood. In this study, a very high prevalence (60.3%; 94/156) of E. bieneusi infections in farmed pigs in Jilin province was detected by PCR of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS). DNA sequence analysis of 88 E. bieneusi–positive specimens identified 12 distinct genotypes (11 known: CHN7, CS-1, CS-4, CS-6, EbpA, EbpB, EbpC, EbpD, EBITS3, G, and Henan-I; one novel: CS-9). Frequent appearance of mixed genotype infections was seen in the study animals. Weaned (74.6%; 53/71) or pre-weaned (68.8%; 22/32) pigs have infection rates significantly higher than growing pigs (35.8%; 19/53) (p<0.01). Likewise, E. bieneusi was detected in 2 of 45 sheep fecal specimens (4.4%) in Heilongjiang province, belonging to the known genotype BEB6. Genotypes EbpA, EbpC, EbpD, and Henan-I examined herein have been documented in the cases of human infections and BEB6, EbpA, EbpC, and EbpD in wastewater in central China. Infections of EbpA and EbpC in humans were also reported in other areas of the world. The other known genotypes (CHN7, CS-1, CS-4, CS-6, EBITS3, EbpB, and G) and the new genotype CS-9 were genetically clustered into a group of existing E. bieneusi genotypes with zoonotic potential. Thus, pigs could be a potential source of human E. bieneusi infections in China.     

妊娠期间子宫内免疫细胞的分布及其功能

在雌性生殖过程中,子宫内的免疫细胞在受精、着床、妊娠等过程中起着非常关键的作用。本文主要总结妊娠期间免疫细胞在子宫中的分布规律,并且阐述了子宫免疫细胞在妊娠期间所起的作用。各期的子宫中主要存在T细胞、自然杀伤细胞(NK细胞)、大颗粒淋巴细胞(NK样细胞)、巨噬细胞及肥大细胞等。     

Estimation of Wheat Agronomic Parameters using New Spectral Indices

Crop agronomic parameters (leaf area index (LAI), nitrogen (N) uptake, total chlorophyll (Chl) content ) are very important for the prediction of crop growth. The objective of this experiment was to investigate whether the wheat LAI, N uptake, and total Chl content could be accurately predicted using spectral indices collected at different stages of wheat growth. Firstly, the product of the optimized soil-adjusted vegetation index and wheat biomass dry weight (OSAVI×BDW) were used to estimate LAI, N uptake, and total Chl content; secondly, BDW was replaced by spectral indices to establish new spectral indices (OSAVI×OSAVI, OSAVI×SIPI, OSAVI×CI_{red edge}, OSAVI×CI_{green mode} and OSAVI×EVI2); finally, we used the new spectral indices for estimating LAI, N uptake, and total Chl content. The results showed that the new spectral indices could be used to accurately estimate LAI, N uptake, and total Chl content. The highest R² and the lowest RMSEs were 0.711 and 0.78 (OSAVI×EVI2), 0.785 and 3.98 g/m² (OSAVI×CI_{red edge}) and 0.846 and 0.65 g/m² (OSAVI×CI_{red edge}) for LAI, nitrogen uptake and total Chl content, respectively. The new spectral indices performed better than the OSAVI alone, and the problems of a lack of sensitivity at earlier growth stages and saturation at later growth stages, which are typically associated with the OSAVI, were improved. The overall results indicated that this new spectral indices provided the best approximation for the estimation of agronomic indices for all growth stages of wheat.     

Serum, liver, and kidney proteomic analysis for the alloxan-induced type I diabetic mice after insulin gene transfer of naked plasmid through electroporation

Gene therapy has been reported to be effective in treating diabetes mellitus (DM), while little has been found out about the functional protein changes since. The liver and kidney play important roles in glucose absorption, metabolism, and excretion. Changes in the two organs may reflect pathologic alterations during DM, while the serum has a direct connection with most organs and pathological changes. We used alloxan to induce diabetic mice, electrotranferred the insulin gene into their sural muscles, and discovered that their blood glucose decreased to normal level. Consequently, proteomic approaches were applied to evaluate protein changes in the liver, kidney, and serum of normal, diabetic, and gene transferred mice. Forty-three proteins were found either up-regulated or down-reglulated in the liver, kidney, and serum of the alloxan-induced type I diabetic mice. Only five proteins in the liver, five proteins in the kidney, and seven proteins in the serum of diabetic mice were found to be back-regulated to normal levels after gene transfer. These back-regulated proteins are involved in lipid and glucose metabolism, associated with phosphorylation, signal transduction, oxidation, and immune inflammation. Our findings might promote a better understanding for the mechanism of DM, and provide novel targets for estimating the effects of gene therapy.     

Modified apoptotic molecule (BID) reduces hepatitis C virus infection in mice with chimeric human livers

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) encodes a polyprotein consisting of core, envelope (E1, E2, p7), and nonstructural polypeptides (NS2, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5A, NS5B). The serine protease (NS3/NS4A), helicase (NS3), and polymerase (NS5B) constitute valid targets for antiviral therapy. We engineered BH3 interacting domain death agonist (BID), an apoptosis-inducing molecule, to contain a specific cleavage site recognized by the NS3/NS4A protease. Cleavage of the BID precursor molecule by the viral protease activated downstream apoptotic molecules of the mitochondrial pathway and triggered cell death. We extended this concept to cells transfected with an infectious HCV genome, hepatocytes containing HCV replicons, a Sindbis virus model for HCV, and finally HCV-infected mice with chimeric human livers. Infected mice injected with an adenovirus vector expressing modified BID exhibited HCV-dependent apoptosis in the human liver xenograft and considerable declines in serum HCV titers.     

Genetic association analysis using sibship data: a multilevel model approach

Family based association study (FBAS) has the advantages of controlling for population stratification and testing for linkage and association simultaneously. We propose a retrospective multilevel model (rMLM) approach to analyze sibship data by using genotypic information as the dependent variable. Simulated data sets were generated using the simulation of linkage and association (SIMLA) program. We compared rMLM to sib transmission/disequilibrium test (S-TDT), sibling disequilibrium test (SDT), conditional logistic regression (CLR) and generalized estimation equations (GEE) on the measures of power, type I error, estimation bias and standard error. The results indicated that rMLM was a valid test of association in the presence of linkage using sibship data. The advantages of rMLM became more evident when the data contained concordant sibships. Compared to GEE, rMLM had less underestimated odds ratio (OR). Our results support the application of rMLM to detect gene-disease associations using sibship data. However, the risk of increasing type I error rate should be cautioned when there is association without linkage between the disease locus and the genotyped marker.     

Complementing amino acid substitutions within loop 6 of the alpha/beta-barrel active site influence the CO2/O2 specificity of chloroplast ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase

Photosynthesis-deficient mutant 45-3B of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii contains a chloroplast mutation that causes valine-331 to be replaced by alanine within the large subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase. This amino acid substitution occurs in loop 6 of the alpha/beta-barrel active site, three residues distant from catalytic lysine-334. The mutation reduces the specific activity of the enzyme and also reduces its CO2/O2 specificity factor by 42%, but the amount of holoenzyme is unaffected. In a previous study, an intragenic-suppressor mutation, named S40-9D, was selected that causes threonine-342 to be replaced by isoleucine, thereby increasing the CO2/O2 specificity of the mutant enzyme by 36%. To determine which other residues might be able to complement the original mutation, nine additional genetically independent revertants have now been analyzed. Another intragenic suppressor, represented by mutation S61-2J, causes glycine-344 to be replaced by serine. This change increases the CO2/O2 specificity of the mutant enzyme by 25%. Of the revertants recovered and analyzed, the mutant enzyme was improved only due to true reversion or by intragenic suppression mediated by substitutions at residues 342 or 344. Changes in the physical properties of the two pairs of complementing substitutions indicate that steric effects within loop 6 are responsible for the observed changes in the CO2/O2 specificity of the enzyme.