利用基因诱捕技术进行小鼠基因剔除的初步研究

对利用基因诱捕技术进行小鼠基因剔除做了初步的探索,为进一步应用该技术进行小鼠基因功能研究奠定了基础.利用基因诱捕载体转染小鼠ES细胞,获得了36株neo基因单拷贝整合的诱捕ES细胞,其中14株细胞表达有活性的β半乳糖苷酶.将3株诱捕ES细胞分别经显微注射引入到受体囊胚中,再植入假孕母鼠的子宫中使其发育成小鼠.两株细胞得到了程度不同的嵌合体小鼠,其中一株诱捕ES细胞整合至生殖系.利用质粒拯救实验获得了诱捕载体整合位点附近的基因组序列,通过序列比对发现被诱捕的基因可能是一个新基因.X-gal染色结果显示,该基因的表达局限于小鼠腹部及肢芽的部位.     

A new trick for an old dog: The application of mifepristone in the treatment of adenomyosis

Adenomyosis is also called internal endometriosis and affects about 20% of reproductive‐aged women. It seriously reduces life quality of patients because current drug therapies face with numerous challenges. Long‐term clinical application of mifepristone exhibits wonderful therapeutic effects with mild side‐effects in many disorders since 1982. Since adenomyosis is a refractory disease, we investigate whether mifepristone can be applied in the treatment of adenomyosis. In this study, we investigated the direct effects of mifepristone on human primary eutopic endometrial epithelial cells and stromal cells in adenomyosis. We found that mifepristone causes cell cycle arrest through inhibiting CDK1 and CDK2 expressions and induces cell apoptosis via the mitochondria‐dependent signalling pathway in endometrial epithelial cells and stromal cells of adenomyosis. Furthermore, mifepristone inhibits the migration of endometrial epithelial cells and stromal cells through decreasing CXCR4 expression and restricts the invasion of endometrial epithelial cells via suppression of epithelial‐mesenchymal transition in adenomyosis. We also found that mifepristone treatment decreases the uterine volume, CA125 concentration and increases the haemoglobin concentration in serum for adenomyosis patients. Therefore, we demonstrate that mifepristone could serve as a novel therapeutic drug in the treatment of adenomyosis, and therefore, the old dog can do a new trick.     

GPI7-mediated glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchoring regulates appressorial penetration and immune evasion during infection of Magnaporthe oryzae

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchoring plays key roles in many biological processes by targeting proteins to the cell wall; however, its roles are largely unknown in plant pathogenic fungi. Here, we reveal the roles of the GPI anchoring in Magnaporthe oryzae during plant infection. The GPI-anchored proteins were found to highly accumulate in appressoria and invasive hyphae. Disruption of GPI7, a GPI anchor-pathway gene, led to a significant reduction in virulence. The Δgpi7 mutant showed significant defects in penetration and invasive growth. This mutant also displayed defects of the cell wall architecture, suggesting GPI7 is required for cell wall biogenesis. Removal of GPI-anchored proteins in the wild-type strain by hydrofluoric acid (HF) pyridine treatment exposed both the chitin and β-1,3-glucans to the host immune system. Exposure of the chitin and β-1,3-glucans was also observed in the Δgpi7 mutant, indicating GPI-anchored proteins are required for immune evasion. The GPI anchoring can regulate subcellular localization of the Gel proteins in the cell wall for appressorial penetration and abundance of which for invasive growth. Our results indicate the GPI anchoring facilitates the penetration of M. oryzae into host cells by affecting the cell wall integrity and the evasion of host immune recognition.     

Proteiniclasticum sediminis sp. nov., an obligate anaerobic bacterium isolated from anaerobic sludge

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek - An obligate anaerobic bacterial BAD-10 T was isolated from anaerobic acetochlor-degrading sludge. The strain was Gram-stain negative, curved rod-shaped,...