微生物基因组注释系统MGAP

利用生物信息学方法和工具开发了微生物基因组注释系统（Microbial genome annotation package, MGAP）,并用于蓝细菌PCC7002的基因组注释。该系统由基因组注释系统和基于Web的用户接口程序两部分组成。基因组注释系统整合多个基因识别、功能预测和序列分析软件;以及蛋白质序列数据库、蛋白质资源信息系统和直系同源蛋白质家族数据库等。用户接口程序包括基因组环状图展示、基因和开放读码框在染色体上的分布图,以及注释信息检索工具。该系统基于PC微机和Linux操作系统,用MySQL作数据库管理系统、用Apache作Web服务器程序,用Perl脚本语言编写应用程序接口,上述软件均可免费获得。     

镁硅酸盐纳米粘土介导的深绿木霉HB20111的遗传转化

[背景]木霉菌遗传转化方法的烦琐复杂限制了对其基因克隆、基因功能的研究.[目的]建立深绿木霉HB20111便捷、高效的遗传转化体系.[方法]利用镁硅酸盐纳米粘土作为载体吸附含有荧光蛋白基因gfp的丝状真菌表达载体pCAMBIA1303-gpdA-GFP-TrpC-Hygro,形成质粒-镁硅酸盐纳米粘土复合物,在超声条件...     

The hydrophobic surface of PaAMP from pokeweed seeds is essential to its interaction with fungal membrane lipids and the antifungal activity

PaAMP is a small seed-specific antimicrobial protein from pokeweeds. It has a cysteine-knot fold with a positive patch and a hydrophobic surface. Site-specific mutagenesis was performed to study the roles of these two domains in antimicrobial activity and we found that the mutations in the hydrophobic surface had a more profound effect than that in the positive patch. A protein-membrane interaction was observed with the green fluorescence protein-PaAMP (GFP-AMP) fusion protein. The mutations that replace the amino acid residues forming hydrophobic surface with neutral residues abolished the interaction of PaAMP with the membrane and the binding of PaAMP to fungal sphingolipids while ergosterol enhanced the binding, suggesting that the hydrophobic surface was required for the interaction between PaAMP and fungal plasma membrane lipid raft.     

FesM, a membrane iron-sulfur protein, is required for cyclic electron flow around photosystem I and photoheterotrophic growth of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002

While it is known that cyclic electron flow around photosystem I is an important pathway of photosynthetic electron transfer for converting light energy to chemical energy, some components of cyclic electron flow remain to be revealed. Here, we show that fesM, encoding a novel membrane iron-sulfur protein, is essential to cyclic electron flow in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002. The FesM protein is predicted to have a cAMP-binding domain, an NtrC-like domain, a redox sensor motif, and an iron-sulfur (4Fe-4S) motif. Deletion of fesM (fesM-D) led to an inability for Synechococcus cells to grow in the presences of glycerol and 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea. Photoheterotrophic growth was restored by a complete fesM gene present on a replicable plasmid. A mutant fesM gene encoding a truncated FesM protein lacking the cAMP domain failed to restore the phenotype, suggesting this domain is important to the function of FesM. Measurements of reduction of P700(+) and the redox state of interphotosystem electron carriers showed that cells had a slower rate of respiratory electron donation to the interphotosystem electron transport chain, and cyclic electron flow around photosystem I in fesM-D was impaired, suggesting that FesM is a critical protein for respiratory and cyclic electron flow. Phosphatase fusion analysis showed that FesM contains nine membrane-spanning helices, and all functional domains of FesM are located on the cytoplasmic face of the thylakoid membranes.     

Theoretical Localized Electric Field Enhancement in Tip-Enhanced Spectroscopy Using Multi-Order Radially Polarized Modes

Multi-order radially polarized modes (RPMs), including Bessel-Gaussian, Gaussian, Super Gaussian, and multi-order hollow Gaussian are respectively utilized as the illumination laser to achieve tip-enhanced spectroscopy (TES). Based on the vector diffraction theory and finite difference time domain (FDTD) analysis, we achieve the optimization of RPM illuminated TES system, including the focal spot size, focal depth, and electric field enhancement factor, in which the focal spot size of 5th order hollow Gaussian RPM is smallest (0.54λ) and the focusing depth of super Gaussian RPM is longest (4.71λ). Specially, it is found that the multi-order hollow Gaussian RPM illuminated TES system with the tip cone angle of 45^° reveals better focusing ability and 40~60-fold electric field enhancement factor compared to the linearly polarized mode (LPM) illuminated TES system. These results will supply a useful reference for spectral signal enhancement of TES system.     

距离分析方法与杂种优势

对于75个小麦品种两年的试验结果,采用不同方法进行距离比较分析。结果表明:用表型平均值相关阵经主成分转换,计算品种间欧氏距离,再用类平均法聚类,似乎是适宜的距离分析方法。D~2值在年份间较稳定,不同年份的D~2估值,可用于预测杂种优势。根据13个性状估算的品种间距离(D~2)与株粒重杂种优势(H)之间呈曲线关系,其理论方程是:Y=-3.65 6.665X--0.1288X~2。根据该方程推算:D~2=25.87时,H出现最大值。     

Immunogenicity and Safety of Influenza Vaccination in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients Compared with Healthy Controls: A Meta-Analysis

Objective

To assess the immunogenicity and safety of influenza vaccine in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Methods

Relevant articles were retrieved from electronic databases. Seroprotection rate, seroconversion rate and factors that increase antibody geometric mean titer (GMT) were used as indices to measure the immunogenicity. The safety of vaccine was assessed through monitoring adverse events, which included side effects and SLE exacerbations. We performed a meta-analysis of influenza vaccine seroprotection, seroconversion and adverse effects. SLE exacerbation after vaccination was comprehensively described. We used the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP) guidelines to determine whether influenza can induce adequate immunogenicity in patients with SLE.

Results

Eighteen studies with 1966 subjects met the inclusion criteria. At least 565 of the subjects were patients with low-to-moderate SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) score or stable SLE disease. Compared with the general population, seroprotection rate in SLE patients was significantly decreased in patients with H1N1 [odds ratio (OR) = 0.36, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.27–0.50] and H3N2 vaccination (OR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.24–0.93), but not influenza B vaccination (OR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.24–1.25). Seroconversion rate also significantly decreased in patients with H1N1 (OR = 0.39, 95% CI: 0.27–0.57) and influenza B (OR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.29–0.76) vaccination, but not H3N2 vaccination (OR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.21–1.79). However, the immunogenicity of influenza vaccine in SLE patients almost reached that of the CPMP guidelines. The OR for side effects (patients versus healthy controls) was 3.24 (95% CI: 0.62–16.76). Among 1966 patients with SLE, 32 experienced mild exacerbation of SLE and five had serious side effects for other reasons.

Conclusion

Influenza vaccine has moderate effect on protecting patients with SLE. The side effects of influenza vaccine are not serious and are manageable. With consideration of a higher risk of SLE exacerbation and a more severe course of infection among SLE patients, influenza vaccination should be promoted among SLE patients with a low-to-moderate SLEDAI score or stable disease.