Identification of exopolysaccharide-deficient mutants of Mycoplasma pulmonis

The presence of capsular exopolysaccharide (EPS) in Mollicutes has been inferred from electron micrographs for over 50 years without conclusive data to support the production of complex carbohydrates by the organism. Mycoplasma pulmonis binds the lectin Griffonia simplicifolia I (GS-I), which is specific for terminal β-linked galactose residues. Mutants that failed to produce the EPS bound by GS-I were isolated from a transposon library. All of the mutants had the transposon located in open reading frame MYPU_7410 or MYPU_7420. These overlapping genes are predicted to code for a heterodimeric pair of ABC transporter permeases and may code for part of a new pathway for synthesis of EPS. Analysis by lectin-affinity chromatography in conjunction with gas chromatography demonstrated that the wild-type mycoplasma produced an EPS (EPS-I) composed of equimolar amounts of glucose and galactose that was lacking in the mutants. Phenotypic analysis revealed that the mutants had an increased propensity to form a biofilm on glass surfaces, colonized mouse lung and trachea efficiently, but had a decreased association with the A549 lung cell line. Confounding the interpretation of these results is the observation that the mutants missing EPS-I had an eightfold overproduction of an apparent second EPS (EPS-II) containing N -acetylglucosamine.     

昆虫多样性三十年研究进展

当前, 全球昆虫数量和多样性均处于下降趋势, 而导致这一趋势的原因主要包括人为干扰及气候变化。本文基于森林、草地、农业、水生和土壤生态系统, 以植食性、访花、捕食性、寄生性、食果以及食腐昆虫为重点功能昆虫群, 综述了近三十年来国内外昆虫多样性研究领域的主要进展, 并分析了发展趋势。近年来, 昆虫多样性的研究维度不断拓展, 形态多样性研究不断深入, 系统发生多样性、功能多样性和遗传多样性等研究也显著加强。此外, 昆虫多样性研究的空间尺度也逐步扩大, 大尺度区域性研究甚至全球范围的调查持续增长。昆虫进化历史也被引入多样性格局研究中, 并随着系统发生信息学方法的普及而被整合到生态系统建成和生物多样性形成机制研究中。未来需要加强关键昆虫类群整合分类学研究、功能性状多样性、林冠昆虫多样性、互作网络结构等方向的研究。     

Models of maximum stress and strain of zebrafish embryos under indentation

Micro-injection of zebrafish embryo is widely applied in biology for the analysis of early developmental processes. The success of a micro-injection to a large extent depends on the mechanical interaction between the micro-pipette and the membrane of the zebrafish embryo. In this paper, we present the development of (i) a maximum stress model of the deformed membrane with respect to the depth of indentation, (ii) a family-of-conics elongation model to determine the length of the deformed membrane for the estimation of the maximum strain at a given indentation depth, and (iii) an experimental system to generate the required data for these two models. The significance of these results is that the estimated maximum stress provides a performance target for the penetration process, while the estimated corresponding maximum strain serves as an indicator of the extent of deformation sustained by the embryo prior to penetration. Implications of these modeling and experimental results are discussed in the context of optimizing the process of micro-injection.     

SERCA regulates collective cell migration by maintaining cytoplasmic Ca~(2+) homeostasis

<正>Characterized by multicellular migratory behavior and cooperative ability,collective cell migration plays critical roles in developmental,physiological and pathological processes,such as organogenesis,wound healing and tumor metastasis (Friedl and Gilmour,2009).Molecular features of collective cell migration including collective polarization,coordinated cytoskeletal activity,and guidance signaling have been recently investigated in a variety of in vivo and in vitro model systems (Scarpa and Mayor,2016),but many other aspects of regulatory mechanisms remain unexplored.     

Palmitic acid suppresses apolipoprotein M gene expression via the pathway of PPARβ/δ in HepG2 cells

It has been demonstrated that apolipoprotein M (APOM) is a vasculoprotective constituent of high density lipoprotein (HDL), which could be related to the anti-atherosclerotic property of HDL. Investigation of regulation of APOM expression is of important for further exploring its pathophysiological function in vivo. Our previous studies indicated that expression of APOM could be regulated by platelet activating factor (PAF), transforming growth factors (TGF), insulin-like growth factor (IGF), leptin, hyperglycemia and etc., in vivo and/or in vitro. In the present study, we demonstrated that palmitic acid could significantly inhibit APOM gene expression in HepG2 cells. Further study indicated neither PI-3 kinase (PI3K) inhibitor LY294002 nor protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor GFX could abolish palmitic acid induced down-regulation of APOM expression. In contrast, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor beta/delta (PPAR_β/δ) antagonist GSK3787 could totally reverse the palmitic acid-induced down-regulation of APOM expression, which clearly demonstrates that down-regulation of APOM expression induced by palmitic acid is mediated via the PPAR_β/δ pathway.     

aⅡbb3同源模拟和环形RGD药物小分子设计

血小板表面的整合蛋白aⅡbb3对血栓的形成具有很重要的调控作用, aⅡbb3与纤维蛋白原上的RGD特征序列结合, 促进血小板凝集进而形成血栓。这样可以在理论上设计一个环形RGD小分子(RGD-c)与aⅡbb3蛋白结合, 阻断其与纤维蛋白原的结合位点, 进而阻断血栓形成。以糖蛋白avb3(pdb 代码 1jv2)作为模板, 利用modeller8v2软件进行同源模拟得到aⅡbb3三维模型。而小分子则以RGD序列为主, 两边各加一个氨基酸X、Y, X和Y之间用一个二硫键相连, 通过改变X和Y, 重复优化过程则可得到不同的小分子模型, 将其与aⅡbb3进行分子对接, 可以找出比较理想的XY组合, 对治疗血栓的药物设计具有重要的理论指导作用     

Using jackknife to assess the quality of gene order phylogenies

Background  

In recent years, gene order data has attracted increasing attention from both biologists and computer scientists as a new type of data for phylogenetic analysis. If gene orders are viewed as one character with a large number of states, traditional bootstrap procedures cannot be applied. Researchers began to use a jackknife resampling method to assess the quality of gene order phylogenies.     

Antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of hydroxyl-substituted Schiff bases

Eight hydroxyl-substituted Schiff bases with the different number and position of hydroxyl group on the two asymmetric aromatic rings (A and B rings) were prepared by the reaction between the corresponding aromatic aldehyde and aniline. Their antioxidant effects against the stable galvinoxyl radical (GO) in ethyl acetate and methanol, and 2,2′-azobis(2-amidinopropane hydrochloride) (AAPH)-induced DNA strand breakage, and their antiproliferative effects on human hepatoma HepG2 cells, were investigated. Structure–activity relationship analysis demonstrates that o-dihydroxyl groups on the aromatic A ring and 4-hydroxyl group attached to the aromatic B ring contribute critically to the antioxidant and antiproliferative activities.