The Up-regulation of Carbonic Anhydrase Genes of Bacillus mucilaginosus under Soluble Ca2+ Deficiency and the Heterologously Expressed Enzyme Promotes Calcite Dissolution

Molecular mechanisms and gene regulation are of interest in the area of geomicrobiology in which the interaction between microbes and minerals is studied. This paper focuses on the regulation of the expression of carbonic anhydrase (CA) genes in Bacillus mucilaginosus and the effects of the expression product of the B. mucilaginosus CA gene in Escherichia coli on calcite weathering. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was used to explore the relationship between CA gene expression in B. mucilaginosus and promotion of calcite dissolution under condition of Ca²⁺ deficiency. The results showed that adding calcite to the medium, which lacks Ca²⁺, can up-regulate the expression of the bacterial CA genes to accelerate calcite dissolution for bacterial growth. CA genes from B. mucilaginosus were transferred into E. coli by cloning. We then employed crude enzyme extract from the resultant E. coli strain in calcite dissolution experiments. The enzyme extract promoted calcite dissolution. These findings provide direct evidence for the role of microbial CA on mineral weathering and mineral nutrition release.     

Exploration of DNA methylation markers for diagnosis and prognosis of patients with endometrial cancer

The accurate diagnosis of endometrial cancer (EC) holds great promise for improving its treatment choice and prognosis prediction. This work aimed to identify diagnostic biomarkers for differentiating EC tumors from tumors in other tissues, as well as prognostic signatures for predicting survival in EC patients. We identified 48 tissue-specific markers using a cohort of genome-wide methylation data from three common gynecological tumors and their corresponding normal tissues. A diagnostic classifier was constructed based on these 48 CpG markers that could predict cancerous versus normal tissue with an overall correct rate of 98.3% in the entire repository. Fifteen CpG markers associated with the overall survival (OS) and development of EC were also identified based on the methylation patterns of the EC samples. A prognostic model that aggregated these prognostic CpG markers was established and shown to have a higher discriminative ability to distinguish EC patients with an elevated risk of mortality than the FIGO staging system and several other clinical prognostic variables. This study presents the utility of DNA methylation in identifying biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of EC and will help improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved in the development of EC.     

Asynchronous CDX2 expression and polarization of porcine trophoblast cells reflects a species‐specific trophoderm lineage determination progress model

Upregulation of Cdx2 expression in outer cells is a key event responsible for cell lineage segregation between the inner cell mass and the trophoderm (TE) in mouse morula‐stage embryos. In TE cells, polarization can regulate Hippo and Rho‐associated kinase (Rho‐ROCK) signaling to induce the nuclear location of YAP, which has been demonstrated to further induce the expression of Cdx2. However, we found that CDX2 expression could not be detected in the outer cells of porcine morula‐stage embryos but only in some TE cells at the early blastocyst stage. The biological significance and the regulation mechanism of this species‐specific CDX2 expression pattern have still not been determined. We show here that an asynchronous CDX2 expression pattern exists in porcine TE cells during the development of the blastocyst. We demonstrate that CDX2 expression in porcine TE cells depends on the nuclear localization of YAP and polarization of the embryo through Y27632 treatment. We found that the polarization process in the morula to the late blastocyst stage porcine embryos was asynchronous, which was revealed by the apical localization of phosphorylated EZRIN staining. Artificially enhancing the number of polarized blastomeres by culturing the separated blastomeres of four‐cell stage porcine embryos resulted in increased CDX2‐positive cell numbers. These results indicate that the mechanism of CDX2 expression regulation is conserved, but the polarization progress is not conserved between the pig and the mouse, and results in a species‐specific trophoblast determination progress model.     

城市边缘区生态脆弱性时空演变——以大连市甘井子区为例

以1998年的土地利用数据和2003、2007、2013 SPOT5遥感数据等多元数据为基础,运用ESC模型结合空间分析法,线性加权方法计算社区的EVI值,并将甘井子区生态脆弱性划分为5个等级;以及运用二乘算法计算变化斜率,F值测算变化显著性,将变化斜率和变化显著性分为4个等级,研究大连市甘井子区1998—2013生态脆弱性的时空分异。结果表明:(1)从城市边缘区生态脆弱性等级分布特征来看,城市边缘区生态环境呈现出相同等级聚集,以邻近沙河口区社区为中心,相邻等级呈现出明显的辐射状,东西方向差异明显的特征。(2)从社区间生态脆弱性差异的角度来看,甘井子内部各社区生态状态差异显著。邻近市区的社区生态脆弱性变化显著生态环境迅速恶化,平均EVI由0.62增加至0.73,变化显著性指数为2.26。远离市区的部分社区生态环境变化不大,生态环境保持良好状态。部分社区EVI变化值呈现负增长,生态逐渐恢复。(3)从城市边缘区生态脆弱性整体变化趋势来看,1998—2013年间甘井子区的生态脆弱性变化与城市化发展速度密切相关,以2007年为节点,1998—2007年平均变化斜率指数为0.51,2007—2013年平均变化斜率指数为0.19,呈现出先快后慢的下降趋势。     

乌桕化学成分的研究（Ⅰ）

从乌柏「ｓａｐｉｕｍ ｓｅｂｉｆｅｒｕｍ（Ｌ．）Ｒｏｘｂ．」叶虫分离出四个化合物,经波谱鉴定分别是：β－谷甾醇、正三十二烷醇、软木酮、Ｎ－苯基－１－萘胺。从乌桕茎皮中分离出两个化合物,经波谱鉴定分别是：莫雷亭酮、莫雷亭醇。其中正三十二烷醇,Ｎ－苯基－１－萘胺系首次从该植物中分离。     

贝莱斯芽孢杆菌L-1对梨灰霉和青霉病菌的抑制作用评价及全基因组分析

【目的】明确贝莱斯芽孢杆菌(Bacillus velezensis)L-1对梨灰霉和青霉病菌的抑制作用,明确菌株L-1无菌发酵液拮抗活性的稳定性及可能的拮抗机制。【方法】通过离体测定、活体测定和病原菌菌丝形态观察,评价菌株L-1对梨灰霉和青霉病菌的拮抗活性。以梨灰霉病菌为供试病原菌,利用牛津杯法测定菌株L-1无菌发酵液拮抗活性的稳定性。利用Pacbio RSII三代测序技术测定L-1的全基因序列,将全基因序列与基因蛋白质序列数据库进行BLAST比对分析,预测菌株L-1可能产生的次生代谢产物及潜在的作用机制。【结果】菌株L-1对梨灰霉和青霉病菌的活体抑制率分别为92.88%和77.47%,能引起病原菌菌丝膨大、畸形。菌株L-1在含10%Na Cl的培养液中仍能正常生长,其无菌发酵液耐高温、酸、碱、紫外照射和蛋白酶降解,对病原菌具有稳定的拮抗活性。全基因序列分析结果显示菌株L-1有112个基因参与了多种碳源的代谢,可以利用多种碳源进行生长;含有参与亚精胺、海藻糖等与菌株抗逆性相关化合物合成的基因;次生代谢产物预测结果显示:L-1含有合成surfactin、fengycin、bacillibactin、bacillaene、macolactin、difficidin、bacilysin等多种肽聚糖和聚酮糖类抗性化合物的基因簇,以及能够降解病原菌细胞壁的β-1,3-葡聚糖酶和几丁质酶相关的基因;此外菌株L-1含有生成乙偶姻等能够诱导植物抗性的基因。【结论】菌株L-1能有效拮抗多种梨果采后病害,抗逆性强,拮抗活性稳定,预测菌株L-1能够通过产生多种拮抗活性化合物和细胞壁水解酶类以及诱导植物抗性实现防病效果,具有很大的应用潜力。     

二羟丙氧甲基鸟苷(DHPG)体外抑制单纯疱疹病毒增殖的研究

二羟丙氧甲基鸟苷[9-(1,3-dihydroxy-2-Propoxymethyl)guanine,简称DHPG]是近几年合成的一种结构与无环鸟苷(ACV)类似的抗病毒化合物(图1)。已证明,它对单纯疱疹病毒1、2型(HSV-1、2),巨细胞病毒(CMV)、水痘带状疱疹病毒(VZV)具有较强的选择性抑制作用,尤以对CMV的作用,被认为是最有希望的抗CMV药物之     

Whole genomic DNA sequencing and comparative genomic analysis of Arthrospira platensis: high genome plasticity and genetic diversity

Arthrospira platensis is a multi-cellular and filamentous non-N2-fixing cyanobacterium that is capable of performing oxygenic photosynthesis. In this study, we determined the nearly complete genome sequence of A. platensis YZ. A. platensis YZ genome is a single, circular chromosome of 6.62 Mb in size. Phylogenetic and comparative genomic analyses revealed that A. platensis YZ was more closely related to A. platensis NIES-39 than Arthrospira sp. PCC 8005 and A. platensis C1. Broad gene gains were identified between A. platensis YZ and three other Arthrospira speices, some of which have been previously demonstrated that can be laterally transferred among different species, such as restriction-modification systems-coding genes. Moreover, unprecedented extensive chromosomal rearrangements among different strains were observed. The chromosomal rearrangements, particularly the chromosomal inversions, were analysed and estimated to be closely related to palindromes that involved long inverted repeat sequences and the extensively distributed type IIR restriction enzyme in the Arthrospira genome. In addition, species from genus Arthrospira unanimously contained the highest rate of repetitive sequence compared with the other species of order Oscillatoriales, suggested that sequence duplication significantly contributed to Arthrospira genome phylogeny. These results provided in-depth views into the genomic phylogeny and structural variation of A. platensis, as well as provide a valuable resource for functional genomics studies.     

Synergistic Effect of Yeast-Bacterial Co-Culture on Bioremediation of Oil-Contaminated Soil

The effects of various treatments, including biostimulation, bioaugmentation with bacterial consortium, yeast, and yeast-bacterial co-culture, on oil biodegradation were systematically compared. Synergistic effects were observed on the removal of total petroleum hydrocarbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons via the amendment of co-culture, with a 48-day degradation of 56% for total petroleum hydrocarbon and 32% for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, respectively. Yeast played an important role in the removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with 4–6 rings. The synergistic effect of yeast-bacteria was further evidenced by the increase of biomass and enzyme activities in soil. In comparison with the bacterial community, the yeast community was more sensitive to the inoculated cultures, which was indexed by the changes of diversity, abundance, and evenness in polymerase chain reaction–denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) analysis.