利用癌功能类从癌基因组突变谱中识别癌基因

从大规模癌样本基因突变扫查数据中识别癌基因具有重要的意义. 一些重要功能的改变对于癌的发生发展是必需的, 因此将它们定义为癌功能类, 并从GO(Gene Ontology)中选择一组显著富集已知癌基因的细致功能类来代表它们. 为了评价以癌相关功能类作为特征识别癌基因的效果, 将已知的蛋白激酶癌基因定义为阳性金标准, 而将其他的蛋白激酶基因定义为阴性金标准. 结果表明, 与利用选择压力作为特征的方法比较, 利用癌相关功能类作为特征的方法可以更有效地识别癌基因. 进一步结合癌相关功能类与基因非同义突变个数可以产生更可靠的预测结果. 最后, 将46个注释到癌相关功能类并且其非同义突变个数至少为3的蛋白激酶基因预测为癌基因, 预测精确率达到0.42.     

Genomic Analysis of the Mycoparasite Pestalotiopsis sp. PG52

Pestalotiopsis sp. is a mycoparasite of the plant pathogen Aecidium wenshanense. To further understand the mycoparasitism mechanism of Pestalotiopsis sp., we assembled and analyzed its genome. The genome of Pestalotiopsis sp. strain PG52 was assembled into 335 scaffolds and had a size of 58.01 Mb. A total of 20,023 predicted genes and proteins were annotated. This study compared PG52 with the mycoparasites Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma atroviride, and Trichoderma virens. This study reveals the entirely different mycoparasitism mechanism of Pestalotiopsis compared to Trichoderma and reveals this mycoparasite’s strong ability to produce secondary metabolites.     

Canopy height variation and environmental heterogeneity in the tropical dry forests of coastal Oaxaca,Mexico

Despite its importance for carbon storage and other ecosystem functions, the variation in vegetation canopy height is not yet well understood. We examined the relationship between this community attribute and environmental heterogeneity in a tropical dry forest of southern Mexico. We sampled vegetation in 15 sites along a 100‐km coastal stretch of Oaxaca State, and measured the heights of all woody plants (excluding lianas). The majority of the ca. 4000 individuals recorded concentrated in the 4–8 m height range. We defined three plant sets to describe overall community canopy height at each site: a set including all plants, a set made up by the tallest plants representing 10 percent of all individuals, and a set comprising the 10 tallest plants. For each site we computed maximum height and the mean and median heights of the three sets. Significant collinearity was observed between the seven resulting height variables, but null distributions constructed through bootstrap revealed their different behaviors as functions of species richness and density of individuals. Through linear modeling and a model selection procedure, we identified 21 models that best described the variation in canopy height variables. These models pointed out to soil (measured as PC1 of a principal component analysis performed on 10 soil variables), water stress, and elevation as the main drivers of canopy height variation in the region. In the event of increasing water stress resulting from global climate change, the studied tropical dry forests could become shorter and thus decrease their carbon storage potential.     

锡林郭勒盟煤电基地开发生态脆弱性评价

内蒙古锡林郭勒盟国家大型煤电基地的建设,对我国华北和华东区域能源安全具有重要的作用。但随着锡盟大型煤电基地的开发,其对锡林郭勒盟这一具有重要生态屏障功能的典型草原区的生态环境造成不利影响。通过对区域生态敏感性、生态弹性及生态压力的系统研究,建立了基于生态敏感性、生态弹性及生态压力的生态脆弱性评价模型,对该区域生态脆弱性进行了评价。结果表明,锡盟地区总体生态环境质量较好,但呈现由东北向西南递减的特征。研究为锡林郭勒盟国家大型煤电基地的开发建设,区域协调发展与生态环境保护提供理论支持。     

美常安治疗老年人抗生素相关性腹泻的疗效观察

目的:观察美常安治疗老年人抗生素相关性腹泻的疗效.方法:将79例老年人抗生素相关性腹泻患者随机分为2组,对照组为常规治疗,治疗组在常规治疗的基础上加用美常安治疗.结果:治疗组患者的总有效率明显高于对照组,2组有显著差异(P＜0.05).结论:美常安治疗老年人抗生素相关性腹泻疗效显著.     

广西灵川县种植业的可持续发展

广西是我国南方农业大省(区),明确其农业发展的制约因素,提出具体的解决措施,实现农业可持续发展,对解决农业、农村和农民问题,促进经济持续、快速、健康发展,实现社会主义现代化建设战略目标具有重要的理论和现实意义。主要采用了参与性农户评估方法(PRA),通过随机入户方式,与农户面对面交流,并结合调查问卷,对广西桂林市灵川县11个乡镇的农户进行了调查访问,为方便研究和数据处理,在数据分析过程中将该县11个乡镇分为3个片区:东部片区、中部片区、北部片区,对比3组农户的文化素质、种植制度、冬季农业现状、农业需求和农田水利设施等方面问题,探讨广西农业可持续发展的制约因素,并提出相应的对策,以期为广西农业可持续发展提供理论依据。调查结果表明,虽然目前灵川县农业取得众多发展成就,但仍存在以下几个方面的问题,严重影响了该县种植业可持续发展的进程。一是种植制度结构单一,二是冬季农业发展薄弱,三是种植技术贫乏,四是基础设施建设不完善等,因此,为促进灵川县种植业可持续发展,亟需采取以下对策和措施:调整作物种植结构,建立合理的种植制度;大力发展冬季农业;满足农民最迫切的农业需求;加强农业基础设施建设等。     

Potassium in agriculture – Status and perspectives

In this review we summarize factors determining the plant availability of soil potassium (K), the role of K in crop yield formation and product quality, and the dependence of crop stress resistance on K nutrition. Average soil reserves of K are generally large, but most of it is not plant-available. Therefore, crops need to be supplied with soluble K fertilizers, the demand of which is expected to increase significantly, particularly in developing regions of the world. Recent investigations have shown that organic exudates of some bacteria and plant roots play a key role in releasing otherwise unavailable K from K-bearing minerals. Thus, breeding for genotypes that have improved mechanisms to gain access to this fixed K will contribute toward more sustainable agriculture, particularly in cropping systems that do not have access to fertilizer K. In K-deficient crops, the supply of sink organs with photosynthates is impaired, and sugars accumulate in source leaves. This not only affects yield formation, but also quality parameters, for example in wheat, potato and grape. As K has beneficial effects on human health, its concentration in the harvest product is a quality parameter in itself. Owing to its fundamental roles in turgor generation, primary metabolism, and long-distance transport, K plays a prominent role in crop resistance to drought, salinity, high light, or cold as well as resistance to pests and pathogens. Despite the abundance of vital roles of K in crop production, an improvement of K uptake and use efficiency has not been a major focus of conventional or transgenic breeding in the past. In addition, current soil analysis methods for K are insufficient for some common soils, posing the risk of imbalanced fertilization. A stronger prioritization of these areas of research is needed to counter declines in soil fertility and to improve food security.     

Methods for Studying the Mechanisms of Action of Antipsychotic Drugs in Caenorhabditis elegans

Caenorhabditis elegans is a simple genetic organism amenable to large-scale forward and reverse genetic screens and chemical genetic screens. The C. elegans genome includes potential antipsychotic drug (APD) targets conserved in humans, including genes encoding proteins required for neurotransmitter synthesis and for synaptic structure and function. APD exposure produces developmental delay and/or lethality in nematodes in a concentration-dependent manner. These phenotypes are caused, in part, by APD-induced inhibition of pharyngeal pumping^1,2. Thus, the developmental phenotype has a neuromuscular basis, making it useful for pharmacogenetic studies of neuroleptics. Here we demonstrate detailed procedures for testing APD effects on nematode development and pharyngeal pumping. For the developmental assay, synchronized embryos are placed on nematode growth medium (NGM) plates containing APDs, and the stages of developing animals are then scored daily. For the pharyngeal pumping rate assay, staged young adult animals are tested on NGM plates containing APDs. The number of pharyngeal pumps per unit time is recorded, and the pumping rate is calculated. These assays can be used for studying many other types of small molecules or even large molecules.     

SARS康复患者血浆蛋白谱的双向凝胶电泳分析

以蛋白质双向凝胶电泳（2-DE）比较了不同中和抗体效价的SARS康复患者血浆样本（试验组）与正常人单采血浆样本（对照组）蛋白谱的异同。结果显示：对照组9份样本的2-DE 图谱出现蛋白斑点338±24个,试验组9份样本出现蛋白斑点348±45个,二者主要斑点的位置与数量基本一致;对照组中少量蛋白斑点的出现频度不同,且有4个蛋白点群的灰度值存在明显的差异;试验组有6个蛋白点群与对照组出现差异,并在相同区域Ⅲ内有4个蛋白斑点的灰度值出现变化,且灰度值与样本的中和抗体效价呈正相关性。结果表明,试验组与对照组的蛋白谱存在差异,且与SARS病毒中和抗体效价呈现相关性。