自絮凝酵母高浓度重复批次乙醇发酵

利用发酵性能优良的自絮凝酵母Saccharomyces cerevisiaeflo,研究开发了重复批次高浓度乙醇发酵系统,以节省下游加工过程的能耗。在终点乙醇浓度达到120g/L左右的条件下,发酵系统的乙醇生产强度达到8.2g/(L·h)。然而实验中发现,随着发酵批次的增多,自絮凝酵母沉降性能逐渐下降,从发酵液中沉降分离所需时间相应延长,导致发酵液中高浓度乙醇对酵母的毒害作用加剧,影响其发酵活性和发酵系统运行的稳定性,发酵装置运行11个批次后无法继续运行。实验结果表明,絮凝能力下降导致的酵母絮凝颗粒尺度减小是其沉降性能下降的主要原因。进一步研究发现,酵母的絮凝能力通过再培养可以恢复。在此基础上对发酵系统操作进行改进,每批发酵结束后可控采出一定比例菌体,调节系统的酵母细胞密度和乙醇生产强度以刺激酵母增殖,保持其絮凝能力。在达到相同发酵终点乙醇浓度条件下,虽然发酵系统的乙醇生产强度降低到4.0g/(L·h),但运行10d后絮凝颗粒酵母尺度趋于稳定,继续运行14d,未发现絮凝颗粒酵母尺度继续下降的现象,系统可以稳定运行。     

Isolation of recombinant DNA clones carrying complete integrated proviruses of Moloney murine leukemia virus

EcoRI DNA fragments from a Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV)-infected mouse fibroblast line (M-MuLV clone A9) were cloned in lambda phage Charon 4A cloning vector to derive clones containing integrated M-MuLV proviral DNA. A 10- to 16-megadalton class of EcoRI fragments was chosen for cloning, based on (i) its ability to induce XC-positive virus upon transfection of NIH/3T3 cells, and (ii) its content of a 0.8-megadalton viral KpnI fragment diagnostic for M-MuLV. Six recombinant DNA clones were isolated which contain a complete M-MuLV provirus, as judged by (i) restriction endonuclease mapping and (ii) the fact that all of the clones gave rise to XC-positive, NB-tropic virus upon DNA infection in NIH/3T3 cells. The sizes of the inserts were 12.0 (for three clones) or 12.5 megadaltons (for three clones). Restriction mapping indicated that these six clones represent five different M-MuLV proviral integrations into different cellular DNA sites.     

Biodegradation of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) by a new Penicillium oxalicum strain DSYD05-1

In this study, fungi isolated from soil were screened for their ability to form clear zones on agar plates with emulsified poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL). The most active strain, designated as DSYD05, was identified as Penicillium oxalicum on the basis of morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis. Mutant DSYD05-1, obtained by ultraviolet-light mutagenesis from strain DSYD05, was more effective in PCL degradation. In liquid cultures of the mutant strain with PCL emulsion, DSYD05-1 showed the highest PCL-degrading activity after 4?days of cultivation. The products of PCL degradation were analysed by mass spectrometry; the results indicated that 6-hydroxyhexanoic acid was produced and assimilated during cultivation. The degradation of PCL film by DSYD05-1 was observed by scanning electron microscopy, and was indicative of a three-stage degradation process. The degradation of amorphous parts of the film preceded that of the crystalline center and then the peripheral crystalline regions. In addition, DSYD05-1 showed a wide range of substrate specificity, with capability to degrade PCL, poly(β-hydroxybutyrate), and poly(butylene succinate), but not poly(lactic acid), indicating that the strain could have potential for application in the treatment or recycling of bio-plastic wastes.     

Homology modeling threedimensional structure of AnxB1 and reducing its immunogenicity by sequence-deleted mutagenesis

AnxB1,a novel annexin previously isolated from Cysticercus cellulose,shows high thrombi affinity and anticoagulant activity in vivo.In order to investigate the relationship between structure and biological function,a predicted three-dimensional(3D)model of AnxB1 was generated by homology modeling.This model contains four homologous internal-domains and the Cα trace of domain Ⅰ,Ⅱ and IV shows high similarity.Based on the structure characterization,four sequence-deleted mutants were constructed and expressed as GST fusion proteins in E.coli.Two of the mutants,GST-M3 and GST-M4 reserved high anticoagulant activity(p＜0.01 vs.GST).Furthermore,compared with the wild type GST-AnxB1,the immunogenicity of GST-M3 and GST-M4 was reduced significantly(p＜0.01)and the molecular weight was lowered to 27 kD and 34 kD,respectively.These observations laid a solid foundation for further study on developing new thrombolytic agents with higher efficiency and lower side effect.     

Differential effect of three-repeat and four-repeat tau on mitochondrial axonal transport

Tau protein is present in six different splice forms in the human brain and interacts with microtubules via either 3 or 4 microtubule binding repeats. An increased ratio of 3 repeat to 4 repeat isoforms is associated with neurodegeneration in inherited forms of frontotemporal dementia. Tau over-expression diminishes axonal transport in several systems, but differential effects of 3 repeat and 4 repeat isoforms have not been studied. We examined the effects of tau on mitochondrial transport and found that both 3 repeat and 4 repeat tau change normal mitochondrial distribution within the cell body and reduce mitochondrial localization to axons; 4 repeat tau has a greater effect than 3 repeat tau. Further, we observed that the 3 repeat and 4 repeat tau cause different alterations in retrograde and anterograde transport dynamics with 3 repeat tau having a slightly stronger effect on axon transport dynamics. Our results indicate that tau-induced changes in axonal transport may be an underlying theme in neurodegenerative diseases associated with isoform specific changes in tau's interaction with microtubules.     

Functional characterization of a new human Ad4BP/SF-1 variation, G146A

Ad4BP/SF-1 plays key roles at all levels of the hypothalamic-pituitary-steroidogenic organ axis and its functional disruption causes endocrine disorders of these organs. However, only three human subjects with Ad4BP/SF-1 mutations have been reported to date, suggesting limited clinical significance as a cause of inborn adrenal or sexual abnormalities. We report the first functional characterization of a new variation found in the hinge region of human Ad4BP/SF-1, G146A. Resulting from a single nucleotide shift (GGG-->GCG), G146A bears slightly diminished transactivation activity evidenced by both adrenal specific cyp11A promoter and ovary specific cyp19 promoter II. The variation does not affect protein expression or stability, exhibiting no dominant negative effect. G146A has a normal interaction pattern with standard co-regulators and subnuclear distribution pattern, and can be considered as a nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism, since it occurs in normals and patients with adrenal diseases. In normal Japanese the allele C frequency is 8%, while in a preliminary population of patients with adrenal diseases it is elevated to 30%; suggesting the G146A variation might be of clinical importance.     

水分胁迫下臭柏（Sabina vulgaris Ant.）光合特性和色素组成的季节变化

在室内砾耕栽培条件下,通过培养液中加入PEG(Polyethylene glycol 分子量为6000)以调节溶液渗透势,设置对照、弱水分胁迫和强水分胁迫3种处理 (培养液渗透势分别为0.02,-0.1,-0.34 MPa), 从1997年开始对臭柏进行长期干旱胁迫模拟实验.2003年测定了臭柏叶片光合色素和光合特性的季节变化.结果表明:对照区气孔导度季节变化在5月和9月份形成了典型的双峰曲线.尽管对照区的气孔导度明显高于其他两个处理,但日光合量却低于弱水分胁迫区.3个处理Chl a/b的比值在11月至翌年3月的低温期内均升高,以强水分胁迫区的增幅最大,其它月份该比值在3个处理之间没有显著的差异.3个处理的叶绿素总量(Chl a+b)在生长季的5～9月份均有不同程度的上升,但其中以强水分胁迫区增幅最小.在11月至翌年3月的低温期,各处理均大幅提高叶黄素总量(V+A+Z)和热耗散色素比例(A+Z)/(V+A+Z) (V:紫黄质、A:单环氧玉米黄质、Z:玉米黄质);在5～7月份的生长高峰期,各处理则明显降低了叶黄素总量和热耗散色素比例.这种趋势在强水分胁迫区表现的更为显著.     

CO2浓度升高对不同品种水稻镉吸收和根形态的影响

为了探讨CO2浓度升高下不同水稻品种荣优398 (RY)和粤杂889(YZ)吸收重金属Cd差异性的原因,利用水培试验研究了不同浓度Cd处理下两种水稻吸收Cd的差异及根形态的变化特征.结果表明:低Cd处理(5、10、20 μmol·L-1)显著增加水稻生物量;当Cd浓度高于50 μmol·L-1时,Cd胁迫效果开始显现,水稻生物量减少.CO2浓度升高显著增加了水稻的生物量,增加了YZ茎Cd含量而降低了RY茎Cd含量.在5～200 μmol·L-1的Cd浓度下,CO2浓度升高增加了YZ活性根在总根长中的比例,降低了RY活性根的比例.CO2浓度升高下不同水稻品种根形态的变化是导致其对Cd吸收差异性的原因之一.     

PSMD: An extensive database for pan‐species microsatellite investigation and marker development

Microsatellites are widely distributed throughout nearly all genomes which have been extensively exploited as powerful genetic markers for diverse applications due to their high polymorphisms. Their length variations are involved in gene regulation and implicated in numerous genetic diseases even in cancers. Although much effort has been devoted in microsatellite database construction, the existing microsatellite databases still had some drawbacks, such as limited number of species, unfriendly export format, missing marker development, lack of compound microsatellites and absence of gene annotation, which seriously restricted researchers to perform downstream analysis. In order to overcome the above limitations, we developed PSMD (Pan‐Species Microsatellite Database, http://big.cdu.edu.cn/psmd/ ) as a web‐based database to facilitate researchers to easily identify microsatellites, exploit reliable molecular markers and compare microsatellite distribution pattern on genome‐wide scale. In current release, PSMD comprises 678,106,741 perfect microsatellites and 43,848,943 compound microsatellites from 18,408 organisms, which covered almost all species with available genomic data. In addition to interactive browse interface, PSMD also offers a flexible filter function for users to quickly gain desired microsatellites from large data sets. PSMD allows users to export GFF3 formatted file and CSV formatted statistical file for downstream analysis. We also implemented an online tool for analysing occurrence of microsatellites with user‐defined parameters. Furthermore, Primer3 was embedded to help users to design high‐quality primers with customizable settings. To our knowledge, PSMD is the most extensive resource which is likely to be adopted by scientists engaged in biological, medical, environmental and agricultural research.