中国人胎盘组织ABCB1基因多态性与P-gp表达水平的相关性

为了探讨中国人群胎盘组织中ABCB1基因单核苷酸多态性与其mRNA及蛋白表达水平的相关性,为妊娠期安全用药提供理论依据,本研究选取2016年6月至2018年5月于昆明医科大学第一附属医院正常分娩的200例中国汉族妇女的胎盘组织为研究对象,剪取母体侧胎盘组织,用于DNA、RNA和蛋白质的提取.通过测序确定ABCB1基因rs1045642、rs1128503及rs2032582多态性位点的基因型;采用实时荧光定量PCR和Western blot法测定组织中P-gp的mRNA和蛋白表达水平;对ABCB1基因多态性与P-gp的mRNA及蛋白表达水平的相关性进行分析.研究发现,对于rs1045642、rs1128503及rs2032582多态性位点,各基因型之间P-gp的mRNA及蛋白表达水平差异均无统计学意义(F=0.813,0.219,P＞0.05;F=0.132,0.086,P＞0.05;F=1.617,0.794,P＞0.05).本研究表明ABCB1 rs1045642、rs1128503及rs2032582基因多态性与中国汉族人群胎盘组织P-gp mRNA及蛋白表达水平可能无关.     

过表达SmERF1提高了丹参耐盐性

ERF(ethylene-responsive factor)蛋白是植物中一大类转录因子家族,在植物的生长发育及逆境胁迫中发挥着重要作用.为研究丹参中新的转录因子SmERF1的功能,本研究对其编码序列、表达模式进行分析,并在丹参中进行过表达,检测过表达后转基因植株耐盐性、次生代谢物和激素的变化.研究结果表明,SmERF1含有一个AP2结构域,是典型的ERF转录因子.SmERF1受到MeJA和酵母诱导子(YE)的诱导表达.在盐胁迫下,过表达SmERF1的丹参株系中脯氨酸含量、SOD和POD活性较野生型丹参植株高,MDA含量降低,说明转基因株系的抗盐特性增强.而且过表达SmERF1的丹参株系中ABA含量升高,GA含量降低;过表达SmERF1对丹参酮、丹酚酸等代谢物的合成调控效果不强.综合以上结果,表明SmERF1可能通过调节ABA的合成,提高了丹参耐盐性.     

Autophagy in plants: Physiological roles and post‐translational regulation

In eukaryotes, autophagy helps maintain cellular homeostasis by degrading and recycling cytoplasmic materials via a tightly regulated pathway.Over the past few decades, significant progress has been made towards understanding the physiological functions and molecular regulation of autophagy in plant cells. Increasing evidence indicates that autophagy is essential for plant responses to several developmental and environmental cues, functioning in diverse processes such as senescence, male fertility, root meristem maintenance, responses to nutrient starvation,and biotic and abiotic stress. Recent studies have demonstrated that, similar to nonplant systems,the modulation of core proteins in the plant autophagy machinery by posttranslational modifications such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination,lipidation, S-sulfhydration, S-nitrosylation, and acetylation is widely involved in the initiation and progression of autophagy. Here, we provide an overview of the physiological roles and posttranslational regulation of autophagy in plants.     

Potassium and phosphorus transport and signaling in plants

Nitrogen(N), potassium(K), and phosphorus(P) are essential macronutrients for plant growth and development, and their availability affects crop yield. Compared with N, the relatively low availability of K and P in soils limits crop production and thus threatens food security and agricultural sustainability. Improvement of plant nutrient utilization efficiency provides a potential route to overcome the effects of K and P deficiencies. Investigation of the molecular mechanisms underlying how plants sense, absorb, transport, and use K and P is an important prerequisite to improve crop nutrient utilization efficiency. In this review, we summarize current understanding of K and P transport and signaling in plants, mainly taking Arabidopsis thaliana and rice(Oryza sativa) as examples. We also discuss the mechanisms coordinating transport of N and K, as well as P and N.     

杧果蔗糖合成酶MiSS基因的克隆与表达分析

为克隆杧果(Mangifera indica L.)蔗糖合成酶基因序列,预测其编码蛋白特性,阐明其在果实发育过程中的表达规律和作用.本研究采用同源克隆法和RACE技术克隆了1个编码蔗糖合成酶基因的全长cDNA,命名为MiSS,其cDNA全长2110 bp,开放阅读框为1455 bp,编码484个氨基酸,相对分子量为55.3 kD,理论等电点为6.08.系统进化分析显示,MiSS基因编码的氨基酸序列与温州蜜柑(Citrus unshiu)、荔枝(Litchi chinensis)、龙眼(Dimocarpus longan)氨基酸序列一致性为90％～93％.RT-qPCR分析显示,MiSS基因表达量呈现先上升后下降的趋势,且果实发育各时期果皮内MiSS基因表达量均显著高于果肉,综合分析MiSS基因可能与淀粉的合成密切相关.本研究为进一步了解MiSS基因在杧果蔗糖代谢过程中的作用以及从分子角度阐明植物生长调节剂对杧果蔗糖代谢的影响机理奠定了理论和技术基础.     

Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine in comparison with chloroquine in moderate and severe patients with COVID-19

Science China Life Sciences -     

Silencing Nrf2 attenuates chronic suppurative otitis media by inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion through up-regulating TLR4

Compromised TLR-mediated chronic inflammation contributes to bacterial infection-caused chronic suppurative otitis media, but the mechanisms are unclear. The present study examined the expression status of nuclear erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and TLRs in human middle-ear mucosae tissues collected from patients with chronic suppurative otitis media, chronic otitis media and non-otitis media, and found that Nrf2 was high-expressed, whereas TLR4, instead of other TLRs, was low expressed in chronic suppurative otitis media compared to chronic otitis media and non-chronic otitis media groups. Consistently, inflammatory cytokines were significantly up-regulated in the chronic suppurative otitis media group, instead of the chronic otitis media and non-chronic otitis media groups. Next, LPS-induced acute otitis media and chronic suppurative otitis media models in mice were established, and high levels of inflammatory cytokines were sustained in the mucosae tissues of chronic suppurative otitis media mice compared to the non-otitis media and acute otitis media groups. Interestingly, continuous low-dose LPS stimulation promoted Nrf2 expression, but decreased TLR4 levels in chronic suppurative otitis media mice mucosae. In addition, knock-down of Nrf2 increased TLR4 expression levels in chronic suppurative otitis media mice, and both Nrf2 ablation and TLR4 overexpression inhibited the pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in chronic suppurative otitis media. Finally, we found that both Nrf2 overexpression and TLR4 deficiency promoted chronic inflammation in LPS-induced acute otitis media mice models. Taken together, knock-down of Nrf2 reversed chronic inflammation to attenuate chronic suppurative otitis media by up-regulating TLR4.     

Multifaceted roles of duckweed in aquatic phytoremediation and bioproducts synthesis

Duckweed (Lemnaceae) is a fast‐growing aquatic vascular plant. It has drawn an increasing attention worldwide due to its application in value‐added nutritional products and in sewage disposal. In particular, duckweed is a promising feedstock for bioenergy production. In this review, we summarized applications of duckweed from the following four aspects. Firstly, duckweed could utilize nitrogen, phosphorus, and inorganic nutrition in wastewater and reduces water eutrophication efficiently. During these processes, microorganisms play an important role in promoting duckweed growth and improving its tolerance to stresses. We also introduced our pilot‐scale test using duckweed for wastewater treatment and biomass production simultaneously. Secondly, its capability of fast accumulation of large amounts of starch makes duckweed a promising bioenergy feedstock, catering the currently increasing demand for bioethanol production. Pretreatment conditions prior to fermentation can be optimized to improve the conversion efficiency from starch to bioethanol. Furthermore, duckweed serves as an ideal source for food supply or animal feed because the composition of amino acids in duckweed is similar to that of whey protein, which is easily digested and assimilated by human and other animals. Finally, severing as a natural plant factory, duckweed has shown great potential in the production of pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements. With the surge of omics data and the development of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats technology, remodeling of the metabolic pathway in duckweed for synthetic biology study will be attainable in the future.     

NEDD9 overexpression: Prognostic and guidance value in acute myeloid leukaemia

It has been demonstrated that neural precursor cell expressed developmentally downregulated protein (NEDD) plays crucial roles in tumorigenesis and may serve as potential biomarkers in cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, few studies systematically investigated the expression of NEDD family members in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). We systemically determined the expression of NEDD family members in AML and determined their clinical significance. We identified that NEDD9 expression was the only member among NEDD family which was significantly increased in AML. NEDD9 overexpression was more frequently classified as FAB-M4/M5 (p = 0.008 and 0.013, respectively), hardly as FAB-M2/M3. Moreover, NEDD9 overexpression was significantly associated with complex karyotype and TP53 mutation. The significant association between NEDD9 overexpression and survival was also observed in whole-cohort AML and non-M3 AML patients. Notably, AML patients with NEDD9 overexpression may benefit from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), whereas those cases without NEDD9 overexpression did not. Finally, a total of 822 mRNAs and 31 microRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between two groups. Among the microRNAs, miR-381 was also identified as a microRNA that could direct target NEDD9. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that NEDD9 overexpression is associated with genetic abnormalities as well as prognosis and might act as a potential biomarker guiding the choice between HSCT and chemotherapy in patients with AML after achieving complete remission.     

Synthesis,telomerase inhibitory and anticancer activity of new 2-phenyl-4H-chromone derivatives containing 1,3,4-oxadiazole moiety

Based on previous studies, 66 2-phenyl-4H-chromone derivatives containing amide and 1,3,4-oxadiazole moieties were prepared as potential telomerase inhibitors. The results showed most of the title compounds exhibited significantly inhibitory activity on telomerase. Among them, some compounds demonstrated the most potent telomerase inhibitory activity (IC₅₀ < 1 µM), which was significantly superior to the staurosporine (IC₅₀ = 6.41 µM). In addition, clear structure–activity relationships were summarised, indicating that the substitution of the methoxy group and the position, type and number of the substituents on the phenyl ring had significant effects on telomerase activity. Among them, compound A33 showed considerable inhibition against telomerase. Flow cytometric analysis showed that compound A33 could arrest MGC-803 cell cycle at G2/M phase and induce apoptosis in a concentration-dependent way. Meanwhile, Western blotting revealed that this compound could reduce the expression of dyskerin, which is a fragment of telomerase.