Warming and grazing enhance litter decomposition and nutrient release independent of litter quality in an alpine meadow

增温和放牧对高寒草甸凋落物分解及其养分释放的影响不依赖于凋落物品质在放牧生态系统中,增温、放牧和凋落物品质共同决定着凋落物分解和养分释放。然而,在以往的研究中这些因子的效应通常被单独地研究。在本研究中,我们在青藏高原高寒草甸开展了一个昼夜非对称增温和中度放牧两因子的凋落物分解试验。从每个处理中收集了凋落物样品,这些凋落物一部分放在它们的来源处理小区,另一部分放在其他处理小区以此来探究增温、放牧以及凋落物品质对凋落物分解和养分释放的影响。研究结果表明,增温而不是放牧显著增加了凋落物质量的损失、单位面积全碳、全氮以及全磷含量的损失,这主要是因为增温增加了凋落物生物量和分解速率。然而,尽管同时增温放牧处理也加快了凋落物分解速率,但由于降低了凋落物生物量,所以增温放牧处理并没有显著影响单位面积的凋落物碳和养分释放量。相比木质素含量和碳氮比而言,季节性土壤平均温度能够更好地预测凋落物分解速率。增温和放牧对凋落物分解存在交互作用,但它们和凋落物品质对凋落物的影响均不存在交互作用。单位面积的总氮释放的温度敏感性要高于总磷。因此,我们的结果表明,增温对凋落物分解以及养分释放的影响要显著大于凋落物品质变化对其分解的影响。在高寒草甸,氮释放的增加可能会间接导致土壤磷有效性的缺乏。     

The Tarenaya hassleriana Genome Provides Insight into Reproductive Trait and Genome Evolution of Crucifers

The Brassicaceae, including Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica crops, is unmatched among plants in its wealth of genomic and functional molecular data and has long served as a model for understanding gene, genome, and trait evolution. However, genome information from a phylogenetic outgroup that is essential for inferring directionality of evolutionary change has been lacking. We therefore sequenced the genome of the spider flower (Tarenaya hassleriana) from the Brassicaceae sister family, the Cleomaceae. By comparative analysis of the two lineages, we show that genome evolution following ancient polyploidy and gene duplication events affect reproductively important traits. We found an ancient genome triplication in Tarenaya (Th-α) that is independent of the Brassicaceae-specific duplication (At-α) and nested Brassica (Br-α) triplication. To showcase the potential of sister lineage genome analysis, we investigated the state of floral developmental genes and show Brassica retains twice as many floral MADS (for MINICHROMOSOME MAINTENANCE1, AGAMOUS, DEFICIENS and SERUM RESPONSE FACTOR) genes as Tarenaya that likely contribute to morphological diversity in Brassica. We also performed synteny analysis of gene families that confer self-incompatibility in Brassicaceae and found that the critical SERINE RECEPTOR KINASE receptor gene is derived from a lineage-specific tandem duplication. The T. hassleriana genome will facilitate future research toward elucidating the evolutionary history of Brassicaceae genomes.     

The interplay of LncRNA ANRIL and miR‐181b on the inflammation‐relevant coronary artery disease through mediating NF‐κB signalling pathway

This study was designed to investigate whether ANRIL affected the aetiology of coronary artery disease (CAD) by acting on downstream miR‐181b and NF‐κB signalling. Altogether 327 CAD patients diagnosed by angiography were included, and mice models of CAD were established. Human coronary endothelial cells (HCAECs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were also purchased. In addition, shRNA‐ANRIL, shRNA‐NC, pcDNA3.1‐ANRIL, miR‐181b mimic, miR‐181b inhibitor and miR‐NC were transfected into the cells. The lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) were also added to activate or deactivate NF‐κB signalling. Both highly expressed ANRIL and lowly expressed miR‐181b were associated with CAD population aged over 60 years old, with smoking history, with hypertension and hyperlipidemia, with CHOL H 4.34 mmol/L, TG ≥ 1.93 mmol/L and Hcy ≥ 16.8 μmol/L (all P < 0.05). Besides, IL‐6, IL‐8, NF‐κB, TNF‐α, iNOS, ICAM‐1, VCAM‐1 and COX‐2 expressions observed within AD mice models were all beyond those within NC and sham‐operated groups (P < 0.05). Also VEGF and HSP 70 were highly expressed within AD mice models than within NC and sham‐operated mice (P < 0.05). Transfection of either pcDNA‐ANRIL or miR‐181b inhibitor could significantly fortify HCAECs’ viability and put on their survival rate. At the meantime, the inflammatory factors and vascular‐protective parameters were released to a greater level (P < 0.05). Finally, highly expressed ANRIL also notably bring down miR‐181b expression and raise p50/p65 expressions within HCAECs (P < 0.05). The joint role of ANRIL, miR‐181b and NF‐κB signalling could aid in further treating and diagnosing CAD.     

Isoflurane Preconditioning Confers Cardioprotection by Activation of ALDH2

The volatile anesthetic, isoflurane, protects the heart from ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is thought to be an endogenous mechanism against ischemia-reperfusion injury possibly through detoxification of toxic aldehydes. We investigated whether cardioprotection by isoflurane depends on activation of ALDH2.Anesthetized rats underwent 40 min of coronary artery occlusion followed by 120 min of reperfusion and were randomly assigned to the following groups: untreated controls, isoflurane preconditioning with and without an ALDH2 inhibitor, the direct activator of ALDH2 or a protein kinase C (PKCε) inhibitor. Pretreatment with isoflurane prior to ischemia reduced LDH and CK-MB levels and infarct size, while it increased phosphorylation of ALDH2, which could be blocked by the ALDH2 inhibitor, cyanamide. Isolated neonatal cardiomyocytes were treated with hypoxia followed by reoxygenation. Hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) increased cardiomyocyte apoptosis and injury which were attenuated by isoflurane and forced the activation of ALDH2. In contrast, the effect of isoflurane-induced protection was almost abolished by knockdown of ALDH2. Activation of ALDH2 and cardioprotection by isoflurane were substantially blocked by the PKCε inhibitor. Activation of ALDH2 by mitochondrial PKCε plays an important role in the cardioprotection of isoflurane in myocardium I/R injury.     

Suppression of NF-κB Reduces Myocardial No-Reflow

No-reflow phenomenon is a risk factor which severely compromises the benefits of coronary revascularization in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Inflammatory response, as an essential component of cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, has been suggested to contribute to the myocardial no-reflow. Since nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) is a key mediator of inflammation, we reasoned that inhibition of NF-κB might reduce the extent of no-reflow. To test this hypothesis, the left circumflex coronary arteries of New Zealand white male rabbits were ligated for 1.5 h, followed by reperfusion for 1 h to induce I/R injury. Pretreatment of the rabbits with a specific NF-κB inhibitor, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), significantly attenuated neutrophil infiltration in the no-reflow area as well as the expansion of no-reflow. These beneficial effects were associated with a marked reduction in the serum levels of myocardial induced I/R tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and CXCL16. Consistently, simulative I/R culture of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) resulted in an increase of TNF-α, ICAM-1 and CXCL16, and all of these changes were significantly suppressed by pretreatment of the cells with PDTC or with siRNA-mediated p65 knockdown. Our data thus suggest that inhibition of NF-κB may reduce I/R-associated myocardial no-reflow through reduction of myocardial inflammation.     

Characterization of AP3B2_v2, a novel splice variant of human AP3B2.

A novel splice variant of human AP3B2, named AP3B2_v2, was isolated through the large-scale sequencing analysis of a human fetal brain cDNA library. The AP3B2_v2 cDNA is 1171 bp in length. Sequence analysis revealed AP3B2_v2 missed 22 exons that existed in AP3B2_v1, leading to a different putative protein. The deduced proteins were 145 amino acids (designated as AP3B2_v2) and 1082 amino acids (AP3B2_v1) in length, sharing the C-terminal 145 amino acids. RT-PCR analysis showed that human AP3B2_v2 were expressed in several human adult tissues analyzed. The expression levels of AP3B2_v2 were relatively high in brain and testis. In contrast, low levels of expression were detected in kidney, pancreas, spleen, thymus, prostate, ovary and small intestine.     

The Genomes of Oryza sativa: a history of duplications

We report improved whole-genome shotgun sequences for the genomes of indica and japonica rice, both with multimegabase contiguity, or almost 1,000-fold improvement over the drafts of 2002. Tested against a nonredundant collection of 19,079 full-length cDNAs, 97.7% of the genes are aligned, without fragmentation, to the mapped super-scaffolds of one or the other genome. We introduce a gene identification procedure for plants that does not rely on similarity to known genes to remove erroneous predictions resulting from transposable elements. Using the available EST data to adjust for residual errors in the predictions, the estimated gene count is at least 38,000–40,000. Only 2%–3% of the genes are unique to any one subspecies, comparable to the amount of sequence that might still be missing. Despite this lack of variation in gene content, there is enormous variation in the intergenic regions. At least a quarter of the two sequences could not be aligned, and where they could be aligned, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rates varied from as little as 3.0 SNP/kb in the coding regions to 27.6 SNP/kb in the transposable elements. A more inclusive new approach for analyzing duplication history is introduced here. It reveals an ancient whole-genome duplication, a recent segmental duplication on Chromosomes 11 and 12, and massive ongoing individual gene duplications. We find 18 distinct pairs of duplicated segments that cover 65.7% of the genome; 17 of these pairs date back to a common time before the divergence of the grasses. More important, ongoing individual gene duplications provide a never-ending source of raw material for gene genesis and are major contributors to the differences between members of the grass family.     

Molecular cloning of giant panda pituitary prolactin cDNA and its expression in Escherichia coli

cDNA encoding pituitary (PRL) of giant panda was obtained using RT-PCR and expressed in E. coli. The results revealed that panda PRL cDNA encodes a precursor protein of 229 amino acids including a putative signal peptide of 30 amino acids and a mature protein of 199 residues with one potential N-glycosylation site. Sequence comparison indicated that panda PRL shares a high degree of identity to other known PRL sequences ranging from 98% with mink PRL to about 50% with rodent PRL. Six cysteine residues and 29 conserved residues distributed in four domains (PD1, PD2, PD3, and PD4) of PRL were observed. through multiple sequence alignment. Fourteen key residues of binding sites 1 and 2 involved in receptor binding are conserved in panda PRL. GST fused recombinant panda PRL protein was efficiently expressed with the form of insoluble inclusion bodies in E. coli BL21 transformed with a pGEX-4T-1 expression vector containing the DNA sequence encoding mature panda PRL. Western blot analysis indicated that GST-panda PRL recombinant protein could be recognized by antibody against human PRL. Our results would contribute to further elucidating the structural and functional characteristics of pituitary PRL and provide a basis for the production of recombinant panda prolactin for future use in the breeding of giant panda.     

Enzyme catalyzed synthesis of some vinyl drug esters in organic medium

A series of vinyl drug esters was synthesized using acyclovir and chloramphenicol with different carbon chain length acyl donors by alkaline protease from Bacillus subtilis and Lipozyme respectively, in non-aqueous medium. The corresponding vinyl drug derivatives were confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectrometry. The influences of different organic solvents, reaction time, temperature, and content of water on synthesis of vinyl chloramphenicol esters were studied.     

Distribution of the CCR5 gene 32-basepair deletion in 11 Chinese populations

A mutant allele of the chemokine receptor gene CCR5 bearing a 32-basepair deletion (delta 32CCR5) could increase the resistance to HIV-1 infection or delayed progression to AIDS. The frequency of this mutation is higher in Europeans than in Asians. To investigate the distribution of this polymorphism in China, 715 individuals from 11 Chinese populations were screened by PCR, including the Han and 10 other ethnic groups. The delta 32CCR5 gene was found in 16 individuals from 5 ethnic groups. All of them were heterozygous. The frequency of the mutant alleles of delta 32CCR5 is low in China and reflects (or might reflect) ancestral gene flow from Europe to Chinese ethnic groups and recent intermarriage within the ethnic groups.