Cinnamic acid pretreatment mitigates chilling stress of cucumber leaves through altering antioxidant enzyme activity

To elucidate the physiological mechanism of chilling stress mitigated by cinnamic acid (CA) pretreatment, a cucumber variety (Cucumis sativus cv. Jinchun no. 4) was pretreated with 50 μM CA for 2 d and was then cultivated at two temperatures (15/8 and 25/18 °C) for 1 d. We investigated whether exogenous CA could protect cucumber plantlets from chilling stress (15/8 °C) and examined whether the protective effect was associated with the regulation of antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxidation. At 2 d, exogenous CA did not influence plant growth, but induced the activities of some antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1), catalase (CAT, EC 1.11.1.6), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX, EC 1.11.1.7), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px, EC 1.6.4.2) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX, EC 1.11.1.11) in cucumber leaves, and it also elevated the contents of reduced glutathione (GSH) and ascorbate (AsA). When CA was rinsed and the CA-pretreated seedlings were exposed to different temperatures, the antioxidant activities in leaves at 3 d had undergone additional change. Chilling increased the activities of CAT, GSH-PX, APX, GSH and AsA in leaves, but the combination of CA pretreatment and chilling enhanced the antioxidant activities even more. Moreover, chilling inhibited plant growth and increased the contents of malonaldehyde (MDA), superoxide radical (O₂⁻) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) in cucumber leaves, and the stress resulted in 87.5% of the second leaves being withered. When CA pretreatment was combined with the chilling stress, we observed alleviated growth inhibition and decreased contents of MDA, H₂O₂ and O₂⁻ in comparison to non-pretreated stressed plants, and found that the withered leaves occurred at a rate of 25.0%. We propose that CA pretreatment increases antioxidant enzyme activities in chilling-stressed leaves and decreases lipid peroxidation to some extent, enhancing the tolerance of cucumber leaves to chilling stress.     

Tissue-specific and expression of porcine growth hormone gene in BAC transgenic mice

One of the primary goals of traditional livestock breeding is to improve growth rate and optimise body size. Growth rate can be significantly increased by integrating a growth hormone (GH) transgene under the control of a ubiquitous promoter, but while such animals do demonstrate increased growth there are also serious deleterious side-effects to the animals health. Here we report the generation and initial characterization of transgenic mice that carried a porcine BAC encoding the porcine GH gene. We show that GH expression is restricted specifically to the pituitary, is associated with elevated IGF-1 levels, and results in growth enhancement. No negative effects to the health of the transgenic animals were detected. This initial characterisation supports the use of BAC pGH transgene in livestock studies.     

Discovery of potent and selective thienopyrimidine inhibitors of Aurora kinases

In an effort to discover Aurora kinase inhibitors, an HTS hit revealed an amide containing pyrrolopyrimidine compound. Replacement of the pyrrolopyrimidine residue with a thienopyrimidine moiety led to a series of potent and selective Aurora inhibitors.     

Construction of 4″-Isovalerylspiramycin-I-Producing Strain by In-Frame Partial Deletion of 3-<Emphasis Type="Italic">O</Emphasis>-Acyltransferase Gene in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Streptomyces spiramyceticus</Emphasis> WSJ-1, the Bitespiramycin Producer

Bitespiramycin (BT), a multi-component antibiotic consisted mainly of 4″-isovalerylspiramycin I, II and III, is produced by Streptomyces spiramyceticus WSJ-1, a recombinant spiramycin-production strain that harbored the 4″-O-acyltransferase gene (ist) from Streptomyces mycarofaciens 1748, which could isovalerylate the 4″-OH of spiramycin. To eliminate the production of components 4″-isovalerylspiramycin II and III, therefore reducing the component complexity of BT, inactivation of the sspA gene, which encodes the 3-O-acyltransferase responsible for the acylation of spiramycin I to spiramycin II and III, was performed in Streptomyces spiramyceticus WSJ-1, by in-frame partial deletion. The resulting strain, Streptomyces spiramyceticus WSJ-2, is a 4″-isovalerylspiramycin-I-producing strain as expected.     

耐热链霉菌4″-O-异戊酰基转移酶基因在变铅青链霉菌TK24中的表达

拟研究异源调控系统提高耐热链霉菌Streptomyces thermotolerans 4″-O-异戊酰基转移酶基因(ist)表达的可能性。在麦迪霉素产生菌Streptomyces mycarofaciens 1748中曾克隆到BamHⅠ~8.0 kb片段,含此基因片段的变铅青链霉菌TK24 Streptomyces lividans TK24转化子可将螺旋霉素高效转化为丙酰螺旋霉素。序列分析表明此片段除包含麦迪霉素4″-O-丙酰基转移酶基因(mpt)外还存在与其连锁的两个正调控基因orf27和orf28。将这个基因簇中mpt基因的orf替换为ist基因的orf,然后与两个正调控基因或者单独一个orf27连接,将这些构建好的片段分别克隆到中等拷贝数及高拷贝数载体pKC1139和pWHM3上,再转化到S.lividans TK24中。通过测定S.lividans TK24转化子中螺旋霉素生物转化为4″-O-酰化螺旋霉素的产率来评价mpt和ist基因的表达水平。结果表明只有高拷贝载体pWHM3构建的重组质粒S.lividans TK24转化子中才能明显检测到4″-O-异戊酰螺旋霉素的产生。mpt基因的正调节系统可以提高ist基因的表达水平,含两个调节基因的转化子转化效率高于含单一调节基因的转化子。     

Impact of TREM-2 gene silencing on inflammatory response of endotoxin-induced acute lung injury in mice

Acute lung injury (ALI) is one of the critical clinical respiratory diseases, of which infection is the main cause and the first risk factor. This study investigated the impact of triggering receptor of myeloid cells expression (TREM)-2 gene silencing on inflammatory response of endotoxin-induced ALI in mice. Lentivirus-mediated TREM-2-shRNA was transfected into healthy male C57BL/6 mice, and the lipopolysaccharide-induced ALI model was established. The immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, fluorescence quantitative PCR, western blot, and ELISA were applied to detect the pathological changes of lung tissue and expressions of TREM-2, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin 10 (IL-10) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. The lentivirus group, saline control group, ALI model group, blank control group, and negative control group were set up at the same time. Results found that, in lentivirus group, the pathological change of lung tissue was significantly lighter than ALI model group (P < 0.05), and the expression of TREM-2 was significantly reduced compared with all control groups (P < 0.05). The levels of TNF-α and IL-10 were significantly increased than all control groups (P < 0.05), while above indexes in negative control group and blank control group showed no significant difference with ALI group (P > 0.05). This study indicates that TREM-2 has a protective effect on inflammatory response of endotoxin-induced ALI in mice, which has provided new potential targets for prevention and treatment of ALI.     

A Two-Stage Association Study Suggests BRAP as a Susceptibility Gene for Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder in which altered immune function typically plays an important role in mediating the effect of environmental insults and regulation of inflammation. The breast cancer suppressor protein associated protein (BRAP) is suggested to exert vital effects in neurodevelopment by modulating the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade and inflammation signaling. To explore the possible role of BRAP in SZ, we conducted a two-stage study to examine the association of BRAP polymorphisms with SZ in the Han Chinese population. In stage one, we screened SNPs in BRAP from our GWAS data, which detected three associated SNPs, with rs3782886 being the most significant one (P  =  2.31E-6, OR  =  0.67). In stage two, we validated these three SNPs in an independently collected population including 1957 patients and 1509 controls, supporting the association of rs3782886 with SZ (P  =  1.43E-6, OR  =  0.73). Furthermore, cis-eQTL analysis indicates that rs3782886 genotypes are associated with mRNA levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 family (ALDH2) (P  =  0.0039) and myosin regulatory light chain 2 (MYL2) (P < 1.0E-4). Our data suggest that the BRAP gene may confer vulnerability for SZ in Han Chinese population, adding further evidence for the involvement of developmental and/or neuroinflammatory cascades in the illness.