1990-2020年三峡库区植被物候时空格局及其演变机制

作为长江上游生态屏障的核心区,三峡库区特殊的地理位置使其在推动长江经济带发展和生态文明建设中肩负着重大使命。三峡库区的生态环境在蓄水前后发生了较大改变,其变化能通过植被物候的变动体现,研究三峡库区植被物候时空演变特征及其驱动力,对于区域生态可持续发展和长江经济带生态文明建设具有重要意义。借助动态阈值法提取物候参数,整合多源遥感物候参数提取结果,分析1990-2020年三峡库区植被物候时空格局;结合Theil-Sen Median趋势分析与Mann-Kendall检验等方法,定量分析三峡库区蓄水前后植被物候时空演变特征;运用地理加权回归分析、Pearson相关性分析以及主成分分析等方法,定量探究三峡库区植被物候时空演变的影响因素。结果表明:(1)近31年来,三峡库区植被的生长季开始时间(Start of Growing Season, SOS)主要出现在60 DOY(Date of Year),生长季结束时间(End of Growing Season, EOS)主要出现在301 DOY,生长季长度(Length of Growing Season, LOS)总体为248 d。在空间上,SOS与EOS均呈现出从库首至库尾逐渐提前的趋势,LOS的空间异质性较小。(2)库区植被物候表现出SOS提前、EOS推迟和LOS延长的特征,SOS提前的平均幅度为0.3 d/a,库首区域最为典型;EOS推迟的平均幅度为0.8 d/a,库尾区域尤为明显;LOS延长的平均幅度为1.7 d/a,库尾区域更加突出。植被物候对库区蓄水的响应表现出一定的滞后性。(3)人为因素与间接人为因素(水位、人口和水域面积等)是影响库区植被物候时空分异的主要因素。     

华北落叶松种子园控制授粉子代遗传多样性分析

以华北落叶松控制授粉群体的全部子代为材料,母本相同的个体视为同一家系,利用18对SSR分子标记对7个家系257个个体进行扩增,分析其遗传多样性及其遗传分化水平。结果表明:(1)18个SSR位点共检测到72个等位基因,平均等位基因数4个,有效等位基因数(Ne)为1.247~3.411。(2)7个家系的平均有效等位基因数为2.135个,观测杂合度(Ho)为0.518,期望杂合度(He)为0.502,Shannon信息指数0.846,其中55号家系遗传多样性水平最高,56号的遗传多样性水平最低。(3)遗传分化系数(GST)为0.113,各家系群体处于中等遗传分化水平,AMOVA分析结果显示82%的遗传变异存在于家系内,18%的遗传变异存在于家系间。(4)聚类分析结果表明,55号与59号家系的遗传距离最近,具有较近的亲缘关系,49号家系与其他家系的遗传距离最远。(5)结合遗传多样性及遗传分化水平结果,估算获得选择核心家系数及核心个体数,选择5个家系均可获得96%以上的遗传多样性,对于个体数较少的家系,选择15~20个个体;对于个体数较多的家系,选择35个个体,即可获得96%以上的遗传多样性。该研究结果对华北落叶松种子园育种群体的选择及其遗传多样性的保护具有重要意义。     

Effect of sinomenine on vascular smooth muscle cell dedifferentiation and neointima formation after vascular injury in mice

Sinomenine, a pure alkaloid extract from Sinomenium acutum, has anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory functions. This study investigated the efficiency and the signalling pathways involved in the effect of sinomenine on vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) dedifferentiation in response to platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB stimulation and vascular injury. VSMCs were isolated from rat aorta and preincubated with sinomenine before being stimulated with PDGF-BB. WST and BrdU incorporation assays were used to evaluate VSMC proliferation. Flow cytometric analysis was performed for testing the cell cycle progression. The cell migration of VSMCs were analysed using a Transwell system. The expression of VSMC specific genes and signalling proteins were tested by Western blot. For the animal study, C57/BL6 mice were fed either normal rodent chow diets or sinomenine chow diets that supplemented with 0.09 % sinomenine (w/w) in the normal chows for 14 days before carotid artery wire injury. PDGF-BB activated the dedifferentiation of VSMCs characterised by decreased expression of SMA, Smoothelin and SM22α. However, sinomenine treatment preserved the dedifferentiation in response to PDGF-BB. The activations of mitogen-activated protein kinase extracellular signal-regulated kinases, Akt, GSK3β and STAT3 induced by PDGF-BB were also inhibited in sinomenine-treated VSMCs. In vivo evidence with wire-injured mice exhibited a reduction in neointimal area and an increase in smooth muscle-specific gene expression in the sinomenine-treated group. In this study, we found that sinomenine-suppressed VSMC phenotype switching induced by PDGF-BB in vitro and neointimal formation in vivo. Therefore, sinomenine is a potential candidate to be used in the treatment of vascular proliferative disease.     

Development of a Prototype Lateral Flow Immunoassay (LFI) for the Rapid Diagnosis of Melioidosis

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a soil-dwelling bacterium and the causative agent of melioidosis. Isolation of B. pseudomallei from clinical samples is the “gold standard” for the diagnosis of melioidosis; results can take 3–7 days to produce. Alternatively, antibody-based tests have low specificity due to a high percentage of seropositive individuals in endemic areas. There is a clear need to develop a rapid point-of-care antigen detection assay for the diagnosis of melioidosis. Previously, we employed In vivo Microbial Antigen Discovery (InMAD) to identify potential B. pseudomallei diagnostic biomarkers. The B. pseudomallei capsular polysaccharide (CPS) and numerous protein antigens were identified as potential candidates. Here, we describe the development of a diagnostic immunoassay based on the detection of CPS. Following production of a CPS-specific monoclonal antibody (mAb), an antigen-capture immunoassay was developed to determine the concentration of CPS within a panel of melioidosis patient serum and urine samples. The same mAb was used to produce a prototype Active Melioidosis Detect Lateral Flow Immunoassay (AMD LFI); the limit of detection of the LFI for CPS is comparable to the antigen-capture immunoassay (∼0.2 ng/ml). The analytical reactivity (inclusivity) of the AMD LFI was 98.7% (76/77) when tested against a large panel of B. pseudomallei isolates. Analytical specificity (cross-reactivity) testing determined that 97.2% of B. pseudomallei near neighbor species (35/36) were not reactive. The non-reactive B. pseudomallei strain and the reactive near neighbor strain can be explained through genetic sequence analysis. Importantly, we show the AMD LFI is capable of detecting CPS in a variety of patient samples. The LFI is currently being evaluated in Thailand and Australia; the focus is to optimize and validate testing procedures on melioidosis patient samples prior to initiation of a large, multisite pre-clinical evaluation.     

Cytoplasmic Retention of a Nucleocytoplasmic Protein TBC1D3 by Microtubule Network Is Required for Enhanced EGFR Signaling

The hominoid oncogene TBC1D3 enhances epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling and induces cell transformation. However, little is known regarding its spatio-temporal regulation and mechanism of tumorigenesis. In the current study, we identified the microtubule subunit β-tubulin as a potential interaction partner for TBC1D3 using affinity purification combined with mass spectrometry analysis. The interaction between TBC1D3 and β-tubulin was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation. Using the same method, we also revealed that TBC1D3 co-precipitated with endogenous α-tubulin, another subunit of the microtubule. In agreement with these results, microtubule cosedimentation assays showed that TBC1D3 associated with the microtubule network. The β-tubulin-interacting site of TBC1D3 was mapped to amino acids 286∼353 near the C-terminus of the TBC domain. Deletion mutation within these amino acids was shown to abolish the interaction of TBC1D3 with β-tubulin. Interestingly, the deletion mutation caused a complete loss of TBC1D3 from the cytoplasmic filamentous and punctate structures, and TBC1D3 instead appeared in the nucleus. Consistent with this, wild-type TBC1D3 exhibited the same nucleocytoplasmic distribution in cells treated with the microtubule depolymerizing agent nocodazole, suggesting that the microtubule network associates with and retains TBC1D3 in the cytoplasm. We further found that deficiency in β-tubulin-interacting resulted in TBC1D3''s inability to inhibit c-Cbl recruitment and EGFR ubiquitination, ultimately leading to dysregulation of EGFR degradation and signaling. Taken together, these studies indicate a novel model by which the microtubule network regulates EGFR stability and signaling through tubulin dimer/oligomer interaction with the nucleocytoplasmic protein TBC1D3.     

Combinative application of pH-zone-refining and conventional high-speed counter-current chromatography for preparative separation of alkaloids from Stephania kwangsiensis

A method which involves the combination of pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography (pH-zone-refining CCC) and conventional high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was established for the preparative separation of alkaloids from the crude extracts of Stephania kwangsiensis. pH-zone-refining CCC was first performed with the solvent system composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (3:7:1:9, v/v), where triethylamine (10 mM) was added to the upper organic stationary phase as a retainer and hydrochloric acid (5 mM) to the aqueous mobile phase as an eluter. From 2.0 g of crude extract, 370 mg of sinoacutine and 600 mg of a mixture of three other alkaloids were obtained. Then, the mixture was further separated by conventional HSCCC with the solvent system composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (7:3:6:4, v/v), yielding 42 mg of (-)-crebanine, 50 mg of (-)-stephanine and 30 mg of l-romerine from 150 mg mixture of three other alkaloids, respectively. The purities of the four compounds were all over 98% as determined by HPLC, and the chemical structures of the four compounds were confirmed by positive ESI-MS and (1)H NMR data. Results of the present study successfully indicated that this method was efficient for the preparative separation of alkaloids from natural plants.     

Application of high-speed counter-current chromatography for preparative separation of cyclic peptides from Vaccaria segetalis

Following an initial clean-up step on silica gel, high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was used to separate cyclic peptides from an extract of the seeds of Vaccaria segetalis. The two-phase solvent system used for HSCCC separation was composed of petroleum ether-ethyl acetate-methanol-water at an optimized volume ratio of 0.5:3.5:1:5. From 190 mg of crude extract, 38.0 mg of segetalin B and 28.5 mg of segetalin A were obtained with purities of 98.1% and 95.6% as determined by HPLC, respectively. The chemical structures of the target compounds were confirmed by high resolution electrospray ionization time of flight MS (HRESI-TOF-MS) and (1)H NMR analyses.     

Factors Associated with Loss-to-Follow-Up during Behavioral Interventions and HIV Testing Cohort among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Nanjing,China

Background

Behavioral interventions (BIs) remained the cornerstone of HIV prevention in resource-limited settings. One of the major concerns for such efforts is the loss-to-follow-up (LTFU) that threatens almost every HIV control program involving high-risk population groups.

Methods

To evaluate the factors associated with LTFU during BIs and HIV testing among men who have sex with men (MSM), 410 HIV sero-negatives MSM were recruited using respondent driven sampling (RDS) in Nanjing, China during 2008, they were further followed for 18 months. At baseline and each follow-up visits, each participant was counseled about various HIV risk-reductions BIs at a designated sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic.

Results

Among 410 participants recruited at baseline, altogether 221 (53.9%) were LTFU at the 18-month follow-up visit. Overall, 46 participants were found to be positive for syphilis infection at baseline while 13 participants were HIV sero-converted during the follow-up period. Increasing age was less (Adjusted Odds Ratio(aOR) of 0.90, 95% confidence Interval (CI) 0.86–0.94) and official residency of provinces other than Nanjing (AOR of 2.49, 95%CI 1.32–4.71), lower level of education (AOR of 2.01, 95%CI 1.10–3.66) and small social network size (AOR of 1.75, 95%CI 1.09–2.80) were more likely to be associated with higher odds of LTFU.

Conclusion

To improve retention in the programs for HIV control, counseling and testing among MSM in Nanjing, focused intensified intervention targeting those who were more likely to be LTFU, especially the young, less educated, unofficial residents of Nanjing who had smaller social network size, might be helpful.     

MiR-130a and MiR-374a Function as Novel Regulators of Cisplatin Resistance in Human Ovarian Cancer A2780 Cells

Chemoresistance remains a major obstacle to effective treatment in patients with ovarian cancer, and recently increasing evidences suggest that miRNAs are involved in drug-resistance. In this study, we investigated the role of miRNAs in regulating cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cell line and analyzed their possible mechanisms. We profiled miRNAs differentially expressed in cisplatin-resistant human ovarian cancer cell line A2780/DDP compared with parental A2780 cells using microarray. Four abnormally expressed miRNAs were selected (miR-146a,-130a, -374a and miR-182) for further studies. Their expression were verified by qRT-PCR. MiRNA mimics or inhibitor were transfected into A2780 and A2780/DDP cells and then drug sensitivity was analyzed by MTS array. RT-PCR and Western blot were carried out to examine the alteration of MDR1, PTEN gene expression. A total of 32 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in A2780/DDP cells. Among them, miR-146a was down-regulated and miR-130a,-374a,-182 were upregulated in A2780/DDP cells, which was verified by RT-PCR. MiR-130a and miR-374a mimics decreased the sensitivity of A2780 cells to cisplatin, reversely, their inhibitors could resensitize A2780/DDP cells. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-130a could increase the MDR1 mRNA and P-gp levels in A2780 and A2780/DDP cells, whereas knockdown of miR-130a could inhibit MDR1 gene expression and upregulate the PTEN protein expression .In a conclusion, the deregulation of miR-374a and miR-130a may be involved in the development and regulation of cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cells. This role of miR-130a may be achieved by regulating the MDR1 and PTEN gene expression.