Structure and nucleotide polymorphisms in pig uncoupling protein 2 and 3 genes

Uncoupling proteins (UCPs) are mitochondrial membrane transporters, acting as an uncoupler in oxidative phosphorylation. In this study, we designed 11 primer sets based on the human and mouse UCP2, UCP3 sequences and successfully amplified full regions of porcine UCP2 and UCP3 by polymerase chain reactions (PCR). Comparison of the UCP2 and UCP3 genic structures revealed a highly conservative region was putatively presented, showing the second transmembrane domain may be the UCPs' cardinal function region. Altogether 23 nucleotide polymorphisms of UCP2 and UCP3 genes were discovered in Yorkshire, Wuzhishan, and Lepinghua pigs. These polymorphisms included 3 missense mutations, 16 intronic substitutions, and 4 intronic deletions. The substitution of Ala-55-Val in UCP2 is actually the most common mutation in human. We also calculated genotypic frequencies of five polymorphisms in three pig breeds.     

我国微生物学相关方向研究生论文选题变化分析(1999-2018年)

【背景】当前微生物学研究正处于发展的重要时期,研究生学位论文作为研究生阶段的主要产出,在一定程度上体现了微生物学研究的热点和发展方向,但当前的大多文献计量分析以Web of Science、知网等收录的期刊论文为主,忽略了研究生论文数据库的重要作用。【目的】通过分析我国研究生学位论文的研究选题,为探究我国微生物学相关方向的研究生学位论文的选题热点及变化趋势提供数据支持。【方法】利用文献计量学方法,对1999-2018年收录于中国博硕士学位论文全文数据库的237 562篇以微生物为研究主题的论文进行分析。【结果】发现1999-2018年我国微生物学相关的研究生论文总体呈现增长趋势,学位论文发文量排名前三的科研机构是浙江大学、中国科学院大学和南京农业大学。通过关键词网络分析发现,近10年我国微生物学相关研究生论文的研究领域呈现多样化,关键词网络更加密集,研究主要集中于环境、人类医学和动物医学等领域,与国际热点领域基本一致,但基础微生物研究相对不足。近年来备受关注的一些新兴领域如宏基因组、蛋白质组、工程与药物等在研究生论文选题中仍需加强。【结论】文献分析结果为研究生及其导师选题、推动我国微生...     

黑曲霉(Aspergillus niger)发酵生产木聚糖酶的pH调控策略

为了提高黑曲霉(Aspergillus niger)D08生产木聚糖酶的能力,考察了不同p H条件对菌株生长及产酶的影响,结果发现木聚糖酶发酵过程中菌体生长的最适p H与木聚糖酶合成的最适p H不同,分别为3.5和4.5。由此针对性地提出了两阶段p H控制策略:在30 h内控制p H为3.5;30 h后p H控制为4.5。结果表明:分阶段p H调控策略的实施进一步提高了菌体合成木聚糖酶的能力,木聚糖酶比酶活(2 223.38 U/m L)和生产强度(26.47U/(m L·h))分别比恒定p H 4.5时提高了14.3%和30.6%。该工艺对提高木聚糖酶活力具有一定的指导意义,为后续研究和生产奠定了良好的基础。     

A new member of the short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases superfamily: Purification, characterization and substrate specificity of a recombinant carbonyl reductase from Pichia stipitis

A novel short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases superfamily (SDRs) reductase (PsCR) from Pichia stipitis that produced ethyl (S)-4-chloro-3-hydroxybutanoate with greater than 99% enantiomeric excess, was purified to homogeneity using fractional ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by DEAE-Sepharose chromatography. The enzyme purified from recombinant Escherichia coli had a molecular mass of about 35 kDa on SDS–PAGE and only required NADPH as an electron donor. The K_m value of PsCR for ethyl 4-chloro-3-oxobutanoate was 4.9 mg/mL and the corresponding V_max was 337 μmol/mg protein/min. The catalytic efficiency value was the highest ever reported for reductases from yeasts. Moreover, PsCR exhibited a medium-range substrate spectrum toward various keto and aldehyde compounds, i.e., ethyl-3-oxobutanoate with a chlorine substitution at the 2 or 4-position, or α,β-diketones. In addition, the activity of the enzyme was strongly inhibited by SDS and β-mercaptoethanol, but not by ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid.     

Strain improvement and metabolic flux modeling of wild-type and mutant <Emphasis Type="Italic">Alcaligenes</Emphasis> sp. NX-3 for synthesis of exopolysaccharide welan gum

Low-energy nitrogen ion beam implantation technique was used for the strain improvement of Alcaligenes sp. NX-3 for the production of exopolysaccharide welan gum. A high welan gum producing mutant, Alcaligenes sp. NX-3-1, was obtained through 20 keV N⁺ ion beam irradiation. Starting at a concentration of 50 g/L of glucose, mutant NX-3-1 produced 25.0 g/L of welan gum after 66 h of cultivation in a 7.5 L bioreactor, which was 34.4% higher than that produced by the wild-type strain. The results of metabolic flux analysis showed that the glucose-6-phosphate and acetyl coenzyme A nodes were the principle and flexible nodes, respectively. At the glucose-6-phosphate node, the fraction of carbon measured from glucose-6-phosphate to glucose-1-phosphate was enhanced after mutagenesis, which indicated that more flux was used to synthesize welan gum in the mutant. By analyzing the activities of related enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway of sugar nucleotides essential for welan gum production, we found that the specific activities of phosphoglucomutase, UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, UDP-glucose dehydrogenase, and dTDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase in the mutant strain were higher than those in the wild-type strain. These improvements in enzyme activities could be due to the affected of ion beam implantation.     

Kinetic models of ribonucleic acid fermentation and continuous culture by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candida tropicalis</Emphasis> no.121

During ribonucleic acid fermentation, the fermentative processes were researched at pH controlled at 4.0 and under natural conditions. Unstructured models in a 50-L airlift fermentor were established for batch RNA production at pH 4.0 using the Verhulst equation for microbial growth, the Luedeking–Piret equation for product formation and a Luedeking–Piret-like equation for substrate uptake. Parameters of the kinetic models were determined using origin 7.5. Based on the models estimated above, another batch fermentation experiment was conducted in a 300-L airlift fermentor, which demonstrated that the models could be useful for RNA production on an industrial scale. Additionally, continuous fermentation based on kinetic models was proposed to make full use of substrates and reduce the cost of waste water treatment. As a result, although the DCW and RNA concentration were 11.5 and 1.68 g L⁻¹, which were lower than that of batch fermentation, the sugar utilization increased by 14.3%, while the waste water decreased by more than 90%.     

应用型人才培养视角下的生物工程类专业“生产实习”课程教学改革与实践

生产实习是本科阶段大学生利用专业技能,开展工程训练的重要教学环节,是生物工程类专业应用型人才培养的重要抓手。本文介绍了滨州学院“生物工程类专业生产实习”课程组在地方普通本科高校向应用型转变,培养高水平应用型人才的背景下,立足黄河三角洲——滨州生物与医药产业集群特色,深化校企合作,以绿色荧光蛋白(green fluorescent protein,GFP)多克隆抗体为例,从教学内容、教学模式、考核方式、课程持续改进等内容进行改革与实践。一方面对其开发、生产、流通等环节的内容进行设计与重排,利用虚拟仿真等线上资源和平台开展培训,并通过实操检测和“校友邦”等软件平台进行实习过程记录、追踪与监测;另一方面建立注重实习过程的实践性与应用性的考核方式和持续改进的双向评价模式。通过近年的改革与实践,取得了一定的教学成效,促进了生物工程类专业应用型人才的培养,希望能对同类课程的教学实践改革提供借鉴。     

Hydrophobicity-tuned anion responsiveness underlies endosomolytic cargo delivery mediated by amphipathic vehicle peptides

Peptide conformation can change subject to environment cues. This concept also applies to many cationic amphipathic peptides (CAPs) known to have cell membrane lytic or penetrative activities. Well-conditioned CAPs can match the properties of the target membrane to support their intended biological functions, e.g., intracellular cargo delivery; however, the intricacy in such conditioning surpasses our current understanding. Here we focused on hydrophobicity, a key biophysical property that dictates the membrane activity of CAPs, and applied a structure–function strategy to evolve a template peptide for endosomolytic cargo delivery. The template was subjected to iterative adjustment to balance hydrophobicity between its N-terminal linear and C-terminal helical domains. We demonstrate that the obtained peptide, LP6, could dramatically promote cargo cell entry and facilitate cytosolic delivery of biomacromolecules such as FITC-dextran, saporin, and human IgG. Among the evolved peptide series, LP6 has low cytotoxicity and moderate hydrophobicity, exhibits maximum change in helical conformation in response to negatively charged phospholipids, and also shows an apparent aggregational behavior in response to sialic acid enrichment. These attributes of LP6 collectively indicate that its anion-responsive conformational change is a critical underlining of its endosomolytic cargo delivery capability. Our results also suggest that modulation of hydrophobicity serves as a key to the precise tuning of CAP''s membrane activity for future biomedical applications.     

Enzymatic analysis of WWP2 E3 ubiquitin ligase using protein microarrays identifies autophagy-related substrates

WWP2 is a HECT E3 ligase that targets protein Lys residues for ubiquitination and is comprised of an N-terminal C2 domain, four central WW domains, and a C-terminal catalytic HECT domain. The peptide segment between the middle WW domains, the 2,3-linker, is known to autoinhibit the catalytic domain, and this autoinhibition can be relieved by phosphorylation at Tyr369. Several protein substrates of WWP2 have been identified, including the tumor suppressor lipid phosphatase PTEN, but the full substrate landscape and biological functions of WWP2 remain to be elucidated. Here, we used protein microarray technology and the activated enzyme phosphomimetic mutant WWP2^Y369E to identify potential WWP2 substrates. We identified 31 substrate hits for WWP2^Y369E using protein microarrays, of which three were known autophagy receptors (NDP52, OPTN, and SQSTM1). These three hits were validated with in vitro and cell-based transfection assays and the Lys ubiquitination sites on these proteins were mapped by mass spectrometry. Among the mapped ubiquitin sites on these autophagy receptors, many had been previously identified in the endogenous proteins. Finally, we observed that WWP2 KO SH-SH5Y neuroblastoma cells using CRISPR-Cas9 showed a defect in mitophagy, which could be rescued by WWP2^Y369E transfection. These studies suggest that WWP2-mediated ubiquitination of the autophagy receptors NDP52, OPTN, and SQSTM1 may positively contribute to the regulation of autophagy