Etude comparee des proprietes physico-chimiques des mannanes de neuf levures

In order to correlate and compare the antigenic relationships observed between nine yeast strains, we have studied their major antigenic determinant represented by the mannans. This material is a constituent of their cell.The compounds that we have isolated are, in reality, glycopeptides. All their polysaccharide fractions consist of mannose only — except for those of the compounds that we have isolated of R. glutinis and C. lipolytica. All these polysaccharides have very close ramified structures; the only one that seems to be very different is that of R. glutinis, and this is in agreement with the antigenic properties of that yeast.The peptidic fractions of these glycopeptides are rich in threonine, serine and aspartic acid and it is very likely that these amino acids make the link with the polysaccharide fraction. The quantity of these amino acids seem to be affected by the conditions of culture of the yeasts, but not their presence or absence.     

CBEA: Competitive balances for taxonomic enrichment analysis

Research in human-associated microbiomes often involves the analysis of taxonomic count tables generated via high-throughput sequencing. It is difficult to apply statistical tools as the data is high-dimensional, sparse, and compositional. An approachable way to alleviate high-dimensionality and sparsity is to aggregate variables into pre-defined sets. Set-based analysis is ubiquitous in the genomics literature and has demonstrable impact on improving interpretability and power of downstream analysis. Unfortunately, there is a lack of sophisticated set-based analysis methods specific to microbiome taxonomic data, where current practice often employs abundance summation as a technique for aggregation. This approach prevents comparison across sets of different sizes, does not preserve inter-sample distances, and amplifies protocol bias. Here, we attempt to fill this gap with a new single-sample taxon enrichment method that uses a novel log-ratio formulation based on the competitive null hypothesis commonly used in the enrichment analysis literature. Our approach, titled competitive balances for taxonomic enrichment analysis (CBEA), generates sample-specific enrichment scores as the scaled log-ratio of the subcomposition defined by taxa within a set and the subcomposition defined by its complement. We provide sample-level significance testing by estimating an empirical null distribution of our test statistic with valid p-values. Herein, we demonstrate, using both real data applications and simulations, that CBEA controls for type I error, even under high sparsity and high inter-taxa correlation scenarios. Additionally, CBEA provides informative scores that can be inputs to downstream analyses such as prediction tasks.     

AvrRps4 effector family processing and recognition in lettuce

During pathogenesis, effector proteins are secreted from the pathogen to the host plant to provide virulence activity for invasion of the host. However, once the host plant recognizes one of the delivered effectors, effector‐triggered immunity activates a robust immune and hypersensitive response (HR). In planta, the effector AvrRps4 is processed into the N‐terminus (AvrRps4^N) and the C‐terminus (AvrRps4^C). AvrRps4^C is sufficient to trigger HR in turnip and activate AtRRS1/AtRPS4‐mediated immunity in Arabidopsis; on the other hand, AvrRps4^N induces HR in lettuce. Furthermore, AvrRps4^N‐mediated HR requires a conserved arginine at position 112 (R112), which is also important for full‐length AvrRps4 (AvrRps4^F) processing. Here, we show that effector processing and effector recognition in lettuce are uncoupled for the AvrRps4 family. In addition, we compared effector recognition by lettuce of AvrRps4 and its homologues, HopK1 and XopO. Interestingly, unlike for AvrRps4 and HopK1, mutation of the conserved R111 in XopO by itself was insufficient to abolish recognition. The combination of amino acid substitutions arginine 111 to leucine with glutamate 114 to lysine abolished the XopO‐mediated HR, suggesting that AvrRps4 family members have distinct structural requirements for perception by lettuce. Together, our results provide an insight into the processing and recognition of AvrRps4 and its homologues.     

TEB/POLQ plays dual roles in protecting Arabidopsis from NO-induced DNA damage

Nitric oxide (NO) is a key player in numerous physiological processes. Excessive NO induces DNA damage, but how plants respond to this damage remains unclear. We screened and identified an Arabidopsis NO hypersensitive mutant and found it to be allelic to TEBICHI/POLQ, encoding DNA polymerase θ. The teb mutant plants were preferentially sensitive to NO- and its derivative peroxynitrite-induced DNA damage and subsequent double-strand breaks (DSBs). Inactivation of TEB caused the accumulation of spontaneous DSBs largely attributed to endogenous NO and was synergistic to DSB repair pathway mutations with respect to growth. These effects were manifested in the presence of NO-inducing agents and relieved by NO scavengers. NO induced G2/M cell cycle arrest in the teb mutant, indicative of stalled replication forks. Genetic analyses indicate that Polθ is required for translesion DNA synthesis across NO-induced lesions, but not oxidation-induced lesions. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that Polθ bypasses NO-induced base adducts in an error-free manner and generates mutations characteristic of Polθ-mediated end joining. Our experimental data collectively suggests that Polθ plays dual roles in protecting plants from NO-induced DNA damage. Since Polθ is conserved in higher eukaryotes, mammalian Polθ may also be required for balancing NO physiological signaling and genotoxicity.     

栗山天牛成虫羽化与温湿度的关系

栗山天牛Massicus raddei (Blessig)是危害我国东北辽东栎Quercus liaotungensis和蒙古栎Q.mongolicus天然林的重大害虫,生活周期长,3a发生1代,而且生活史整齐,在东北林区的辽宁、吉林和内蒙发育历期基本一致,因而绝大部分的成虫羽化时期出现在同一年份.为了有效防治栗山天牛,利用栗山天牛成虫具有趋光性这一特点,研究发明了诱集捕杀成虫的专用黑光灯,诱杀了大量的栗山天牛成虫,吉林省2008年共诱杀栗山天牛成虫达24.16t.根据每天晚上所诱到的栗山天牛的成虫数量(平均lkg栗山天牛成虫数量为430头,按此折合成重量kg统计),分析栗山天牛在成虫发生期其羽化数量与温湿度因子的关系.结果表明,栗山天牛成虫的羽化高峰期集中在7月下旬至8月上旬;成虫的羽化与林间气温呈显著的正相关关系,与相对湿度则呈显著负相关关系.研究对栗山天牛成虫的发生量与温湿度的关系进行了拟合.研究结果为我国东北林区栗山天牛成虫羽化年份预测预报成虫出现和发生期以及在成虫发生期开展防治提供了依据.     

mTORC1-independent translation control in mammalian cells by methionine adenosyltransferase 2A and S-adenosylmethionine

Methionine adenosyltransferase (MAT) catalyzes the synthesis of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM). As the sole methyl-donor for methylation of DNA, RNA, and proteins, SAM levels affect gene expression by changing methylation patterns. Expression of MAT2A, the catalytic subunit of isozyme MAT2, is positively correlated with proliferation of cancer cells; however, how MAT2A promotes cell proliferation is largely unknown. Given that the protein synthesis is induced in proliferating cells and that RNA and protein components of translation machinery are methylated, we tested here whether MAT2 and SAM are coupled with protein synthesis. By measuring ongoing protein translation via puromycin labeling, we revealed that MAT2A depletion or chemical inhibition reduced protein synthesis in HeLa and Hepa1 cells. Furthermore, overexpression of MAT2A enhanced protein synthesis, indicating that SAM is limiting under normal culture conditions. In addition, MAT2 inhibition did not accompany reduction in mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 activity but nevertheless reduced polysome formation. Polysome-bound RNA sequencing revealed that MAT2 inhibition decreased translation efficiency of some fraction of mRNAs. MAT2A was also found to interact with the proteins involved in rRNA processing and ribosome biogenesis; depletion or inhibition of MAT2 reduced 18S rRNA processing. Finally, quantitative mass spectrometry revealed that some translation factors were dynamically methylated in response to the activity of MAT2A. These observations suggest that cells possess an mTOR-independent regulatory mechanism that tunes translation in response to the levels of SAM. Such a system may acclimate cells for survival when SAM synthesis is reduced, whereas it may support proliferation when SAM is sufficient.     

薏苡胚发育及贮藏营养物质积累的研究

薏苡（Ｃｏｉｘ ｌａｃｒｙｍ ａ－ｊｏｂｉ）胚发育分下列各期：棒形胚前的原胚期、棒形胚期、胚芽鞘期、１叶期、２ 叶期、３叶期、４ 叶期、５ 叶期及６叶期成熟胚。３ 叶期胚具１ 条不定根（种子根）,４ 叶期具２ 条,５ 叶期及成熟胚期具３ 条。不定根与胚根排成１ 纵行。营养物质最先在盾片细胞中积累。开花后９ 天的１ 叶期胚,在盾片、胚芽鞘及胚轴细胞中积累了淀粉,以后遍及成熟胚的各部分。淀粉粒含量与器官发生及生长顺序成正相关,但发育后期,盾片细胞内的淀粉粒含量下降。开花后１０ 天,盾片细胞中形成含晶体的蛋白质体,晶体含蛋白质及植酸钙镁。以后,这种蛋白质体增多、增大。同时,又形成不含晶体的蛋白质体。一定时期,含晶体的蛋白质体消失,不含晶体的蛋白质体增多,直到胚成熟。开花后１３ 天,胚芽鞘上部细胞形成蛋白质体。以后遍及成熟胚的各部分,器官发生越早,所含蛋白质体越多、越大。开花后１０ 天,盾片细胞中产生了脂体,成熟胚的盾片细胞,含有大量的脂体。还观察了胚发育各期与颖果及盾片长度的对应关系     

微生物1,3-1,4-β-葡聚糖酶蛋白质改造及工业应用研究进展

1,3-1,4-β-葡聚糖酶(E.C.3.2.1.73)是一种重要的工业用酶,其可以通过特异性切割毗邻β-1,3-糖苷键的β-1,4-糖苷键将β-葡聚糖或地衣多糖降解为纤维三糖和纤维四糖。微生物β-葡聚糖酶属于糖苷水解酶家族16,其三维结构为卷心蛋糕状的逆向β-片层结构。文中综述了近些年来β-葡聚糖酶在工业上的应用情况及酶蛋白质工程改造的研究进展,并对其研究前景进行了展望。     

柱前衍生-RP-HPLC法测定青蒿中青蒿素的含量

采用柱前衍生-RP-HPLC法测定10个不同产地的青蒿药材中青蒿素的含量.采用Lichrospher 100 RP-18e(250 mm×4.6 mm,5μm,Merck KgaA,Germany)色谱柱,甲醇-0.01 mol/L醋酸钠-醋酸缓冲液(pH 5.8)(体积比62:38)为流动相;检测波长:260 nm;流速:0.5 mL/min;柱温:25℃.结果表明该法准确重现性好,可以为青蒿质量标准的制订提供科学依据.