小RNA病毒和小DNA病毒的三维结构模型

本文综述了小RNA病毒和小DNA病毒的主要结构特征,绘制出了它们的三维结构模型,从中找出了两者间的共同点和差异,为进一步研究两种病毒提供了依据。     

蛋白核小球藻发酵产油脂的研究

从5种不同来源的小球藻中筛选到1株油脂产量较高的蛋白核小球藻Chlorella pyrenoidosa No.2。研究了培养基组成及培养条件对其细胞生长和油脂积累的影响。结果表明, 最适培养基组成为(g/L)：葡萄糖 20, 甘氨酸 0.08, MgSO4·7H2O 0.4, K2HPO4 1.0, FeSO4·7H2O 0.004; 适宜的培养温度、初始pH、摇床转速和光照强度分别为28℃、6.0、130 r/min和 650 Lux。在上述优化条件下培养7 d, Chlorella pyrenoidosa No.2的生物量和油脂含量分别由优化前的3.73 g/L 和 40.15%提高到6.56 g/L和59.90%, 油脂产量提高了162%。Chlorella pyrenoidosa No.2能以木糖为碳源产油脂, 可望用于以木质纤维素等可再生生物质资源为原料生产油脂。气相色谱分析表明该油脂的脂肪酸组成与植物油相似, 不饱和脂肪酸含量达71％左右, 可作为生产生物柴油的原料。     

Neurogenesis of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells onto β-mercaptoethanol-loaded PLGA film

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are of particular interest in the field of tissue engineering because of their potential to differentiate into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and neuronal cells. In order to promote the differentiation of BMSCs into specific cell types, appropriate scaffold biomaterials and bioactive molecules that can support the differentiation of BMSCs into specific cell types are needed. We hypothesized that β-mercaptoethanol (BME), which has been reported to induce the differentiation of BMSCs into neural-like cells, promotes BMSCs to differentiate into neural-like cells when BME is added to polymeric scaffolds containing the BMSCs. We fabricated biocompatible film shaped scaffolds composed of poly(lacti-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) and various concentrations of BME to confirm that BME-promoted differentiation of BMSCs is concentration-dependent. Cell proliferation increased as the BME concentration in the films increased at the early stage, and the proliferation rate remained similar on the PLGA films for 3 weeks following the BMSC seeding. The expression of neuronal markers in differentiated BMSCs was assessed by RT-PCR. At 2- and 3-week time-points, mRNA expression of neurofilament and neuron specific enolase was significantly increased in PLGA/BME films containing 400 μM BME compared to PLGA films. Thus, we have identified BMSC-seeded PLGA/BME films with 200 μM and 400 μM BME as potentially useful candidates for neural tissue engineering applications by promoting BMSC proliferation and differentiation towards neural-like cells.     

Sensitivity and specificity amplification in signal transduction

Intracellular signal transduction pathways transmit signals from the cell surface to various intracellular destinations, such as cytoskeleton and nucleus through a cascade of protein-protein interactions and activation events, leading to phenotypic changes such as cell proliferation, differentiation, and death. Over the past two decades, numerous signaling proteins and signal transduction pathways have been discovered and characterized. There are two major classes of signaling proteins: phosphoproteins (e.g., mitogen-activated protein kinases) and guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases; e.g., Ras and G proteins). They both function as molecular switches by addition and removal of one or more high-energy phosphate groups. This review discusses developments that seek to quantify the signal transduction processes with kinetic analysis and mathematical modeling of the signaling phosphoproteins and GTPases. These studies have provided insights into the sensitivity and specificity amplification of biological signals in integrated systems.     

Intragenic spatial patterns of codon usage bias in prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes

To study the roles of translational accuracy, translational efficiency, and the Hill-Robertson effect in codon usage bias, we studied the intragenic spatial distribution of synonymous codon usage bias in four prokaryotic (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Sulfolobus tokodaii, and Thermotoga maritima) and two eukaryotic (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila melanogaster) genomes. We generated supersequences at each codon position across genes in a genome and computed the overall bias at each codon position. By quantitatively evaluating the trend of spatial patterns using isotonic regression, we show that in yeast and prokaryotic genomes, codon usage bias increases along translational direction, which is consistent with purifying selection against nonsense errors. Fruit fly genes show a nearly symmetric M-shaped spatial pattern of codon usage bias, with less bias in the middle and both ends. The low codon usage bias in the middle region is best explained by interference (the Hill-Robertson effect) between selections at different codon positions. In both yeast and fruit fly, spatial patterns of codon usage bias are characteristically different from patterns of GC-content variations. Effect of expression level on the strength of codon usage bias is more conspicuous than its effect on the shape of the spatial distribution.     

里氏木霉RutC30常温常压等离子体（ARTP）诱变筛选pyr4基因缺陷型菌株及转化系统的建立

以里氏木霉Trichoderma reesei重要工业生产菌RutC30为出发菌株,通过等离子体（ARTP）诱变筛选,以5-氟乳清酸（5-FOA）和尿苷（Uridine）进行筛选,获得一株pyr4基因缺陷株RutC30ΔU3。用含有野生型里氏木霉pyr4基因的互补质粒转化突变株,可回复野生性状。经测序发现其pyr4基因在核酸序列多个位点发生突变,其中包括两个错义突变和一个移码突变,从而导致乳清酸核苷-5′-磷酸脱羧酶失活。经遗传稳定性研究分析,传代5次后仍保持良好的尿苷依赖性、去葡萄糖阻遏以及高产纤维素酶特性。经实验筛选获得了pyr4基因缺陷菌株可作为基因表达系统的受体菌株,建立了以尿苷营养缺陷为筛选标记的木霉转化系统。     

Preliminary results on nematicidal activity from culture filtrates of Basidiomycetes against the pine wood nematode,Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Aphelenchoididae)

One hundred and eighty one fungal species that were isolated from the fresh fruiting bodies collected in the Mountains of Pu Er County of Yunnan Province, China were tested on the pine wood nematode,Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in vitro. Each fungal species was grown in Czapek broth and potato dextrose broth (PDB). Fifteen filtrates fromAmauroderma austrosinense, Amauroderma macer, Filoboletus sp.,Laccaria tortilis, Lactarius gerardii, Lentinula edodes, Oudemansiella longipes, Oudemansiella mucida, Peziza sp.,Pleurotus sp.,Sinotermitomyces carnosus (two strains),Strobilomyces floccopus, Termitomyces albuminosus, Tylopilus striatulus grown on PDB were found to be pathogenic to the tested nematodes. Eleven filtrates fromAmanita junguillea, Amanita sp.,Daedalea sepiaria, Fistulina hepatica, Omphalotus olearius, Oudemansiella mucida, Peziza sp.,Pleurotus pulmatus, Ramaria sp.,Tricholoma conglobatum, Tylopilus striatulus grown on Czapek broth were also pathogenic to the nematodes. When screening for nematicidal potential of fungi, it is important to study the growth medium conditions necessary to obtain the optimal nematicidal effect as fungal filtrates growing on different liquid media showed a very inconsistent toxicity towards nematodes.     

Complete genome sequence of the bacterium Ketogulonicigenium vulgare Y25

Ketogulonicigenium vulgare is characterized by the efficient production of 2KGA from L-sorbose. Ketogulonicigenium vulgare Y25 is known as a 2-keto-L-gulonic acid-producing strain in the vitamin C industry. Here we report the finished, annotated genome sequence of Ketogulonicigenium vulgare Y25.     

Tenascin-R distinct domains modulate migration of neural stem/progenitor cells in vitro

Extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules constitute a "niche" that modulates the migration, proliferation, and differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs). The glycoprotein Tenascin-R (TN-R) is an ECM molecule, comprising multiple domains. Either the whole TN-R molecule or its distinct domains has been demonstrated to play a very important role in the developing central nervous system. However, little is known about the effect of the TN-R domain on NSPCs, especially NSPC migration. In the present study, we first show that both TN-R domains epidermal growth factor-like repeat (EGFL) and fibronectin type III (FN)6-8 can inhibit the NSPCs migration from neurospheres in vitro. Furthermore, both the EGFL and FN6-8 domains affect the distribution of neurons generated from neurospheres, indicating that EGFL and FN6-8 domains inhibit the motility of neurons generated from neurospheres. These results suggest that TN-R has an inhibitory effect on NSPCs migration.