Seedling establishment of deciduous trees in various topographic positions

Abstract. We investigated the effect of topography‐related environmental factors (i.e., ground‐surface stability and soil moisture) on seedling establishment of 8 deciduous tree species. A field experiment was carried out using canopy species, which were classified into 3 groups based on the spatial distribution of adult trees (ridge, slope and valley). Demographic parameters were compared among species during the early stage of seedling establishment among 3 topographic positions in combination with gap and canopy conditions. The percentage of emerging seedlings tended to be lower on the ridge irrespective of the adult topographical distribution patterns. There was no clear trend in seedling emergence among the species groups classified by their spatial distribution. Seedling survival during 2 growing seasons was significantly different among species, topographic positions and light conditions. On the ridge, seedlings of the species dominating ridge tops had greater survival than those of other species, probably due to differences in demand for soil moisture. On the slope, frequent physical damage caused by surface material movement was observed and some species showed greater adaptability to the disturbed slope habitat. Survival of all seedlings was highest in the valley plots. Light conditions were the critical factor for seedling survival in some species. The results of this study suggest that topography creates diverse habitats for the establishment of tree seedlings. In addition to soil moisture, surface material movement may be a significant factor affecting seedling establishment.     

LncRNA SNHG12 promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis in osteosarcoma by upregulating Notch2 by sponging miR-195-5p

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor and has a high fatality rate in children and adolescents. Recently, an increasing amount of evidence has demonstrated that lncRNAs have crucial roles in regulating biological characteristics in malignant tumors. Therefore, this research was carried out to uncover the biological function and the potential molecular mechanism of SNHG12 in osteosarcoma. In this study, we found that SNHG12 was significantly upregulated in both osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines and osteosarcoma patients with high levels of SNHG12 tended to have a poor prognosis. We evaluated the biological function of SNHG12 in 143B and U2OS cells and show that the downregulation of SNHG12 suppressed cell proliferation by blocking cell cycle progression at the G0/G1 phase and weakened cell invasion and migration abilities. Dual-luciferase reporter and RIP assays were conducted to confirm that SNHG12 functioned as a ceRNA, modulating the expression of Notch2 by sponging miR-195-5p in osteosarcoma. We further demonstrate that Notch2 played a crucial role in activating the Notch signaling pathway. In conclusion, SNHG12 might serve as a valuable biomarker and prognosis factor in osteosarcoma patients. The SNHG12/miR-195-5p/Notch2-Notch signaling pathway axis might become a novel therapeutic for osteosarcoma.     

GBP3 promotes glioma cell proliferation via SQSTM1/p62-ERK1/2 axis

Guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) are interferon-inducible large GTPases and play a crucial role in cell-autonomous immunity. However, the biology function of GBPs in cancer remains elusive. GBP3 is specifically expressed in adult brain. Here we show that GBP3 is highly elevated in human glioma tumors and glioma cell lines. Overexpression of GBP3 dramatically increased glioma cell proliferation whereas silencing GBP3 by RNA interference produced opposite effects. We further showed that GBP3 expression was able to induce sequestosome-1(SQSTM1, also named p62) expression and activate extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2). The SQSTM1-ERK1/2 signaling cascade was essential for GBP3-promoted cell growth because depletion of SQSTM1 markedly reduced the phosphorylated ERK1/2 levels and GBP3-mediated cell growth, and inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinase/ERK kinase abolished GBP3-induced glioma cell proliferation. Consistently, GBP3 overexpression significantly promoted glioma tumor growth in vivo and its expression was inversely correlated with the survival rate of glioma patients. Taken together, these results for the first time suggest that GBP3 contributes to the proliferation of glioma cells via regulating SQSTM1-ERK1/2 pathway, and GBP3 might represent as a new potential therapeutic target against glioma.     

灰树花胞外多糖的结构及免疫调节活性

对灰树花胞外多糖A组分(EXGFP-A)进行结构分析和免疫活性的研究。结构分析结果表明,EXGFP-A是一种主要含有葡萄糖的吡喃型中性多糖。气相结果说明EXGFP-A的单糖组成为鼠李糖、阿拉伯糖、木糖、甘露糖、葡萄糖、半乳糖,摩尔比为0.28∶0.31∶0.30∶0.06∶7.98∶0.61。MTT(3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazo-lium bromide)比色实验表明,当EXGFP-A浓度为80μg/m L,作用48 h时,RAW264.7细胞增殖指数达到最大值,为137.5%。吖啶橙(AO)染色结果表明EXGFP-A能够激活RAW264.7细胞,增强细胞内部核酸代谢水平。EXGFP-A在一定浓度范围内,可以提高RAW264.7细胞中NO的释放量,上调细胞内TNF-α、IL-1β、IL-6、IL-12、IFN-γ细胞因子以及细胞中iNOS的mRNA水平的表达。结果表明,EXGFP-A具有一定的免疫调节活性,为灰树花胞外多糖的结构分析和应用提供了科学依据。     

青花菜萝卜硫素合成相关基因BoCYP83A1的克隆与表达分析

CYP83A1基因是萝卜硫素合成代谢中的关键基因,该试验以青花菜品种CDBY-10为材料,利用RACE和RT-PCR方法,获得BoCYP83A1基因的全长序列。该基因全长1 509bp,编码502个氨基酸,包含保守的P450结构域。通过实时荧光定量PCR分析了BoCYP83A1基因在不同品种、不同组织以及不同激素处理下的表达水平。系统进化树分析表明,BoCYP83A1与结球甘蓝亲缘关系最近。BoCYP83A1基因在不同品种间的组织特异性不同:在青花菜品种CDBY-10的根、茎、叶3个组织间表达水平差异较小,在品种CDBY-12中表现为茎叶根,在CDBY-14中则表现为根茎叶。MeJA及SA处理均能够引起BoCYP83A1基因表达量的变化:经MeJA处理后,BoCYP83A1基因表达量升高至对照的1.9倍,而后有少量下降;经SA处理后,BoCYP83A1基因表达水平迅速降低,在6h时降低至对照的0.1倍,而后逐渐回升至对照的表达水平。研究表明,BoCYP83A1基因在不同青花菜品种中的表达特性不同,其表达能够被MeJA和SA所调控。青花菜BoCYP83A1的克隆及鉴定为培育高萝卜硫素含量的青花菜新品种奠定了理论基础。     

CX3CR1-Mediated Akt1 Activation Contributes to the Paclitaxel-Induced Painful Peripheral Neuropathy in Rats

Painful peripheral neuropathy is a serious dose-limiting side effect of paclitaxel therapy, which unfortunately often happens during the optimal clinical management of chemotherapy in cancer patients. Currently the underlying mechanisms of the painful peripheral neuropathy remain largely unknown. Here, we found that paclitaxel treatment (3 × 8 mg/kg, cumulative dose 24 mg/kg) upregulated the expression of CX3CR1 and phosphorylated Akt1 in DRG and spinal dorsal horn. Blocking of Akt1 pathway activation with different inhibitor (MK-2206 or LY294002) significantly attenuated mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia induced by paclitaxel. Furthermore, inhibition of CX3CR1 by using neutralizing antibody not only prevented Akt1 activation in DRG and spinal dorsal horn but also alleviated pain-related behavior induced by paclitaxel treatment. This study suggested that CX3CR1/Akt1 signaling pathway may be a potential target for prevention and reversion of the painful peripheral neuropathy induced by paclitaxel.     

Constructing a linkage–linkage disequilibrium map using dominant-segregating markers

The relationship between linkage disequilibrium (LD) and recombination fraction can be used to infer the pattern of genetic variation and evolutionary process in humans and other systems. We described a computational framework to construct a linkage–LD map from commonly used biallelic, single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for outcrossing plants by which the decline of LD is visualized with genetic distance. The framework was derived from an open-pollinated (OP) design composed of plants randomly sampled from a natural population and seeds from each sampled plant, enabling simultaneous estimation of the LD in the natural population and recombination fraction due to allelic co-segregation during meiosis. We modified the framework to infer evolutionary pasts of natural populations using those marker types that are segregating in a dominant manner, given their role in creating and maintaining population genetic diversity. A sophisticated two-level EM algorithm was implemented to estimate and retrieve the missing information of segregation characterized by dominant-segregating markers such as single methylation polymorphisms. The model was applied to study the relationship between linkage and LD for a non-model outcrossing species, a gymnosperm species, Torreya grandis, naturally distributed in mountains of the southeastern China. The linkage–LD map constructed from various types of molecular markers opens a powerful gateway for studying the history of plant evolution.     

Predicting the responses of forest distribution and aboveground biomass to climate change under RCP scenarios in southern China

In the past three decades, our global climate has been experiencing unprecedented warming. This warming has and will continue to significantly influence the structure and function of forest ecosystems. While studies have been conducted to explore the possible responses of forest landscapes to future climate change, the representative concentration pathways (RCPs) scenarios under the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) have not been widely used in quantitative modeling research of forest landscapes. We used LANDIS‐II, a forest dynamic landscape model, coupled with a forest ecosystem process model (PnET‐II), to simulate spatial interactions and ecological succession processes under RCP scenarios, RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively. We also modeled a control scenario of extrapolating current climate conditions to examine changes in distribution and aboveground biomass (AGB) among five different forest types for the period of 2010–2100 in Taihe County in southern China, where subtropical coniferous plantations dominate. The results of the simulation show that climate change will significantly influence forest distribution and AGB. (i) Evergreen broad‐leaved forests will expand into Chinese fir and Chinese weeping cypress forests. The area percentages of evergreen broad‐leaved forests under RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP8.5 and the control scenarios account for 18.25%, 18.71%, 18.85% and 17.46% of total forest area, respectively. (ii) The total AGB under RCP4.5 will reach its highest level by the year 2100. Compared with the control scenarios, the total AGB under RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 increases by 24.1%, 64.2% and 29.8%, respectively. (iii) The forest total AGB increases rapidly at first and then decreases slowly on the temporal dimension. (iv) Even though the fluctuation patterns of total AGB will remain consistent under various future climatic scenarios, there will be certain responsive differences among various forest types.