Screening and isolation of an organic solvent-tolerant bacterium for high-yield production of organic solvent-stable protease

Forty-three strains were screened from crude oil-contaminated samples by toluene and cyclohexane enrichment in medium. Ten of these strains demonstrated high protease activity on skim-milk agar. Among them, the PT121 isolate, identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, was selected based on its extracellular protease stability in the presence of hydrophilic organic solvents. The crude protease also retained most of its activity up to at least 14 days in the presence of various organic solvents at 50% concentration, and the protease activity in production medium was 10,876U/ml after 72h incubation. This protease showed high activity as a catalyst for aspartame precursor Cbz-Asp-Phe-NH2 synthesis in the presence of 50% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO).     

非NMDA受体参与双相呼气和吸气神经元电活动的调节

在新生大鼠延髓脑片上同步记录舌下神经根和双相呼气神经元／吸气神经元单位的放电活动,并在灌流的改良Kredbs液中先后加以非NMDA受体的激动剂KA和拮抗剂DNQX,观察对神经元单位放电的影响,以进一步探讨非NMDA受体在对双相呼气神经元之间交互兴奋和吸气神经元兴奋性突触输入中的作用,结果表明,使用非NMDA受体激动剂KA以后,双相呼气神经元的放电频率和蜂频率都明显增大,吸气神经元中期放电的频率和非NMDA受体激动剂KA以后,双相呼气神经元的放电频率和峰频率都明显增大,吸气神经元中期放电的频率和峰频率也显著增大,而早期和晚期放电的频率无明显改变,用相应拮抗剂以后,上述效应明显被抑制,结果提示,非NMDA受体参与了双相呼气神经元之间的交互兴奋作用,并且也介导了吸气神经元的兴奋性突触输入／     

凤凰木种子蛋白的分离提纯和生化性质

研究了植物凤凰木种子中的蛋白质成分,试图分离出新的核糖体失活蛋白凤凰木种子经磷酸盐缓冲液抽提,硫酸铵分级盐析,分子筛和阴离子交换剂等多次柱层析,分离出三种组分ＤｒⅠ、ＤｒⅡ和ＤｒⅢ．ＳＤＳ－ＰＡＧＥ和ＩＥＦ实验表明这三种蛋白质均达到单一纯,而ＨＰＬＣ实验则表明它们的纯度不低于９０％。它们的分子量据ＳＤＳ－ＰＡＧＥ和ＨＰＬＣ实验分别约２３５００、２６０００、２８５００．ＩＥＦ实验测得三者的等电点均为５．２左右。测定了组分ＤｒⅠ的蛙卵泡裂解活性,其毒性约为天花粉蛋白的１／４０．分析了它们的氨基酸组成。估算了三种蛋白质的二级结构含量,结果表明三者均富含β折叠结构。已有的实验事实表明这三种蛋白质的生化行为明显异于核糖体失活蛋白,因而很可能不属于这一蛋白质家族。     

Mobile Phone Call Data as a Regional Socio-Economic Proxy Indicator

The advent of publishing anonymized call detail records opens the door for temporal and spatial human dynamics studies. Such studies, besides being useful for creating universal models for mobility patterns, could be also used for creating new socio-economic proxy indicators that will not rely only on the local or state institutions. In this paper, from the frequency of calls at different times of the day, in different small regional units (sub-prefectures) in Côte d''Ivoire, we infer users'' home and work sub-prefectures. This division of users enables us to analyze different mobility and calling patterns for the different regions. We then compare how those patterns correlate to the data from other sources, such as: news for particular events in the given period, census data, economic activity, poverty index, power plants and energy grid data. Our results show high correlation in many of the cases revealing the diversity of socio-economic insights that can be inferred using only mobile phone call data. The methods and the results may be particularly relevant to policy-makers engaged in poverty reduction initiatives as they can provide an affordable tool in the context of resource-constrained developing economies, such as Côte d''Ivoire''s.     

Spontaneous Activation of Quiescent Uq Transposable Elements during Endosperm Development in Zea Mays

This study addresses the question of the activation of quiescent transposable elements in maize breeding lines. The a-ruq reporter allele of the Uq transposable element system expresses Uq activity (spots or sectors of spots in otherwise colorless aleurone tissue) when exposed to various genotypes of assorted maize inbred lines lacking any active Uq element. This activation of quiescent Uq elements occurs randomly during the growth of the endosperm. It is concluded that there are components in the genome that enhance the rare activation of quiescent Uq elements. Further, it seems that this activation occurs in the absence of any stress-inducing treatment, but that normal growth conditions provide sufficient stimulus for such activation.     

The matrix protein CCN1 (CYR61) promotes proliferation, migration and tube formation of endothelial progenitor cells

Neovascularization and re-endothelialization relies on circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), but their recruitment and angiogenic roles are subjected to regulation by the vascular microenvironment, which remains largely unknown. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of mature ECs and matrix protein CCN1 on the properties of EPCs. In a coculture system, effects of ECs on proliferation, migration and participation in tube-like formation of EPCs were evaluated, and functional assays were employed to identify the exact role of CCN1 in EPCs vitality and function. We demonstrated that ECs, as an indispensable part of the cellular milieu, significantly promoted the proliferation, migration and tube formation activities of EPCs, and more importantly, CCN1 was potentially involved in such effects of ECs. Expression of CCN1 in EPCs was significantly increased by serum, VEGF, ECs-cocultivation and ECs conditioned medium. Moreover, Ad-CCN1-mediated overexpression of CCN1 directly enhanced migration and tube formation of EPCs, whereas silencing of endogenous CCN1 in EPCs inhibits cell functions. Furthermore, CCN1 induced the expressions of chemokines and growth factors, such as MCP-1 and VEGF, suggesting a complex interaction between those proangiogenic factors. Our data suggest that matrix protein CCN1 may play an important role in microenvironment-mediated biological properties of EPCs.     

Systematics of Mukdenia and Oresitrophe (Saxifragaceae): Insights from genome skimming data

Oresitrophe and Mukdenia (Saxifragaceae) are epilithic sister genera used in traditional Chinese medicine. The taxonomy of Mukdenia, especially of M. acanthifolia, has been controversial. To address this, we produced plastid and mitochondrial data using genome skimming for Mukdenia acanthifolia and Mukdenia rossii, including three individuals of each species. We assembled complete plastomes, mitochondrial CDS and nuclear ribosomal ETS/ITS sequences using these data. Comparative analysis shows that the plastomes of Mukdenia and Oresitrophe are relatively conservative in terms of genome size, structure, gene content, RNA editing sites and codon usage. Five plastid regions that represent hotspots of change (trnH-psbA, psbC-trnS, trnM-atpE, petA-psbJ and ccsA-ndhD) are identified within Mukdenia, and six regions (trnH-psbA, petN-psbM, trnM-atpE, rps16-trnQ, ycf1 and ndhF) contain a higher number of species-specific parsimony-informative sites that may serve as potential DNA barcodes for species identification. To infer phylogenetic relationships between Mukdenia and Oresitrophe, we combined our data with published data based on three different datasets. The monophyly of each species (Oresitrophe rupifraga, M. acanthifolia and M. rossii) and the inferred topology ((M. rossii, M. acanthifolia), O. rupifraga) are well supported in trees reconstructed using the complete plastome sequences, but M. acanthifolia and M. rossii did not form a separate clade in the trees based on ETS + ITS data, while the mitochondrial CDS trees are not well-resolved. We found low recovery of genes in the Angiosperms353 target enrichment panel from our unenriched genome skimming data. Hybridization or incomplete lineage sorting may be the cause of discordance between trees reconstructed from organellar and nuclear data. Considering its morphological distinctiveness and our molecular phylogenetic results, we strongly recommend that M. acanthifolia be treated as a distinct species.     

Increased high‐latitude photosynthetic carbon gain offset by respiration carbon loss during an anomalous warm winter to spring transition

Arctic and boreal ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon (C) budget, and whether they act as a future net C sink or source depends on climate and environmental change. Here, we used complementary in situ measurements, model simulations, and satellite observations to investigate the net carbon dioxide (CO₂) seasonal cycle and its climatic and environmental controls across Alaska and northwestern Canada during the anomalously warm winter to spring conditions of 2015 and 2016 (relative to 2010–2014). In the warm spring, we found that photosynthesis was enhanced more than respiration, leading to greater CO₂ uptake. However, photosynthetic enhancement from spring warming was partially offset by greater ecosystem respiration during the preceding anomalously warm winter, resulting in nearly neutral effects on the annual net CO₂ balance. Eddy covariance CO₂ flux measurements showed that air temperature has a primary influence on net CO₂ exchange in winter and spring, while soil moisture has a primary control on net CO₂ exchange in the fall. The net CO₂ exchange was generally more moisture limited in the boreal region than in the Arctic tundra. Our analysis indicates complex seasonal interactions of underlying C cycle processes in response to changing climate and hydrology that may not manifest in changes in net annual CO₂ exchange. Therefore, a better understanding of the seasonal response of C cycle processes may provide important insights for predicting future carbon–climate feedbacks and their consequences on atmospheric CO₂ dynamics in the northern high latitudes.