Oxidized high-density lipoprotein promotes CD36 palmitoylation and increases lipid uptake in macrophages

Oxidized high-density lipoprotein (oxHDL) reduces the ability of cells to mediate reverse cholesterol transport and also shows atherogenic properties. Palmitoylation of cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36), an important receptor mediating lipoprotein uptake, is required for fatty acid endocytosis. However, the relationship between oxHDL and CD36 has not been described in mechanistic detail. Here, we demonstrate using acyl-biotin exchange analysis that oxHDL activates CD36 by increasing CD36 palmitoylation, which promotes efficient uptake in macrophages. This modification increased CD36 incorporation into plasma lipid rafts and activated downstream signaling mediators, such as Lyn, Fyn, and c-Jun N-terminal kinase, which elicited enhanced oxHDL uptake and foam cell formation. Furthermore, blocking CD36 palmitoylation with the pharmacological inhibitor 2-bromopalmitate decreased cell surface translocation and lowered oxHDL uptake in oxHDL-treated macrophages. We verified these results by transfecting oxHDL-induced macrophages with vectors expressing wildtype or mutant CD36 (mCD36) in which the cytoplasmic palmitoylated cysteine residues were replaced. We show that cells containing mCD36 exhibited less palmitoylated CD36, disrupted plasma membrane trafficking, and reduced protein stability. Moreover, in ApoE^−/−CD36^−/− mice, lipid accumulation at the aortic root in mice receiving the mCD36 vector was decreased, suggesting that CD36 palmitoylation is responsible for lipid uptake in vivo. Finally, our data indicated that palmitoylation of CD36 was dependent on DHHC6 (Asp-His-His-Cys) acyltransferase and its cofactor selenoprotein K, which increased the CD36/caveolin-1 interaction and membrane targeting in cells exposed to oxHDL. Altogether, our study uncovers a causal link between oxHDL and CD36 palmitoylation and provides insight into foam cell formation and atherogenesis.     

Chromosome-level genome assembly and characterization of Sophora Japonica

Sophora japonica is a medium-size deciduous tree belonging to Leguminosae family and famous for its high ecological, economic and medicinal value. Here, we reveal a draft genome of S. japonica, which was ∼511.49 Mb long (contig N50 size of 17.34 Mb) based on Illumina, Nanopore and Hi-C data. We reliably assembled 110 contigs into 14 chromosomes, representing 91.62% of the total genome, with an improved N50 size of 31.32 Mb based on Hi-C data. Further investigation identified 271.76 Mb (53.13%) of repetitive sequences and 31,000 protein-coding genes, of which 30,721 (99.1%) were functionally annotated. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that S. japonica separated from Arabidopsis thaliana and Glycine max ∼107.53 and 61.24 million years ago, respectively. We detected evidence of species-specific and common-legume whole-genome duplication events in S. japonica. We further found that multiple TF families (e.g. BBX and PAL) have expanded in S. japonica, which might have led to its enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress. In addition, S. japonica harbours more genes involved in the lignin and cellulose biosynthesis pathways than the other two species. Finally, population genomic analyses revealed no obvious differentiation among geographical groups and the effective population size continuously declined since 2 Ma. Our genomic data provide a powerful comparative framework to study the adaptation, evolution and active ingredients biosynthesis in S. japonica. More importantly, our high-quality S. japonica genome is important for elucidating the biosynthesis of its main bioactive components, and improving its production and/or processing.     

一株产絮凝剂不动杆菌的筛选及其絮凝特性

从活性污泥中筛选出一株高效的微生物絮凝剂产生菌,鉴定为鲍曼不动杆菌.蚕豆根尖细胞微核试验未显示该菌株所产絮凝剂具有遗传毒性.该菌产絮凝剂的最佳碳源和氮源分别为葡萄糖和酵母浸出汁,培养时间为24 h.在絮凝体系中加入Ca2 能明显提高发酵液的絮凝率.在pH为8.0时对高岭土悬浊液和污水具有良好的絮凝效果.     

DeepMHADTA: Prediction of Drug-Target Binding Affinity Using Multi-Head Self-Attention and Convolutional Neural Network

Drug-target interactions provide insight into the drug-side effects and drug repositioning. However, wet-lab biochemical experiments are time-consuming and labor-intensive, and are insufficient to meet the pressing demand for drug research and development. With the rapid advancement of deep learning, computational methods are increasingly applied to screen drug-target interactions. Many methods consider this problem as a binary classification task (binding or not), but ignore the quantitative binding affinity. In this paper, we propose a new end-to-end deep learning method called DeepMHADTA, which uses the multi-head self-attention mechanism in a deep residual network to predict drug-target binding affinity. On two benchmark datasets, our method outperformed several current state-of-the-art methods in terms of multiple performance measures, including mean square error (MSE), consistency index (CI), rm2, and PR curve area (AUPR). The results demonstrated that our method achieved better performance in predicting the drug–target binding affinity.     

湘南典型次生林粗木质残体生物量、碳储量和养分特征

对九龙江森林公园次生常绿阔叶林粗木质残体(CWD)进行量化研究,了解亚热带典型次生林CWD的本底数据。以九龙江森林公园典型天然次生林中的6个20m×20m的标准样地为对象,调查并分析样地内不同分解等级CWD的生物量、碳储量和养分特征变化。九龙江森林公园亚热带典型次生林的CWD储量在2.8—30.4t/hm~2之间,碳储量在6.10—6.75t/hm~2之间,大量营养元素(N、P、K、 Ca、 Mg)含量相对稳定,化学计量变化不显著,微量营养元素中Pb与Cd元素含量随着分解等级的增加而增加。九龙江森林公园亚热带典型次生林的CWD储量在亚热带常绿阔叶林中处于中等水平,CWD主要以分解中后期的倒木为主,反映出该次生林处于中幼龄林阶段,具有较高的碳储量,养分含量相对稳定,并表现出Pb与Cd在CWD中积累的现象,在中度分解和重度分解的CWD中Pb含量分别增加了62.65%和69.88%,Cd含量则分别增加了33.33%和100%,其内在机理有待进一步深入研究。研究结果有助于进一步了解CWD如何参与森林生态系统养分循环、重金属积累等生态过程,比较不同林分干扰历史下CWD储量、分布及养分特征的异质性...     

Discovery and SAR analysis of 5-chloro-4-((substituted phenyl)amino)pyrimidine bearing histone deacetylase inhibitors

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are validated targets for the development of anticancer drugs in epigenetics. In the discovery of novel HDAC inhibitors with anticancer potency, the 5-chloro-4-((substituted phenyl)amino)pyrimidine fragment is assembled as a cap group into the structure of HDAC inhibitors. The SAR revealed that presence of small groups (such as methoxy substitution) is beneficial for the HDAC inhibitory activity. In the enzyme inhibitory selectivity test, compound L20 exhibited class I selectivity with IC₅₀ values of 0.684 µM (selectivity index of >1462), 2.548 µM (selectivity index of >392), and 0.217 µM (selectivity index of >4608) against HDAC1, HDAC2 and HDAC3 compared with potency against HDAC6 (IC₅₀ value of >1000 µM), respectively. In the antiproliferative assay, compound L20 showed both hematological and solid cancer inhibitory activities. In the flow cytometry, L20 promoted G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of K562 cells.     

工业园区氮代谢——以江苏宜兴经济开发区为例

以江苏宜兴经济开发区为例,基于物质流分析构建了工业园区的氮代谢网络和分析方法,解析了工业园区中产业系统和污水处理系统的氮代谢途径和通量。研究表明,氮物质流系统的源和汇比磷物质流系统多,流通量大且较为集中;氮肥生产、纺织印染和食品加工行业是宜兴经济开发区的主要氮排放源;企业自备处理设施除氮效果较好,去除率约79%,而污水处理厂由于设计和运行等原因氮去除率较低,约57%;生活污水氮去除率低;直接排入水体的降水造成的水体负荷约28%。由此,建议企业继续完善企业内处理设施,对集中污水处理厂进行脱氮除磷提标改造,同时加强对园区内生活污水、生活垃圾和企业固体排放物的管理。     

TEB/POLQ plays dual roles in protecting Arabidopsis from NO-induced DNA damage

Nitric oxide (NO) is a key player in numerous physiological processes. Excessive NO induces DNA damage, but how plants respond to this damage remains unclear. We screened and identified an Arabidopsis NO hypersensitive mutant and found it to be allelic to TEBICHI/POLQ, encoding DNA polymerase θ. The teb mutant plants were preferentially sensitive to NO- and its derivative peroxynitrite-induced DNA damage and subsequent double-strand breaks (DSBs). Inactivation of TEB caused the accumulation of spontaneous DSBs largely attributed to endogenous NO and was synergistic to DSB repair pathway mutations with respect to growth. These effects were manifested in the presence of NO-inducing agents and relieved by NO scavengers. NO induced G2/M cell cycle arrest in the teb mutant, indicative of stalled replication forks. Genetic analyses indicate that Polθ is required for translesion DNA synthesis across NO-induced lesions, but not oxidation-induced lesions. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that Polθ bypasses NO-induced base adducts in an error-free manner and generates mutations characteristic of Polθ-mediated end joining. Our experimental data collectively suggests that Polθ plays dual roles in protecting plants from NO-induced DNA damage. Since Polθ is conserved in higher eukaryotes, mammalian Polθ may also be required for balancing NO physiological signaling and genotoxicity.     

High auxin stimulates callus through SDG8-mediated histone H3K36 methylation in Arabidopsis

Callus induction,which results in fate transition in plant cells,is considered as the first and key step for plant regeneration.This process can be stimulated in different tissues by a callus-inducing medium(CIM),which contains a high concentration of phytohormone auxin.Although a few key regulators for callus induction have been identified,the multiple aspects of the regulatory mechanism driven by high levels of auxin still need further investigation.Here,we find that high auxin induces callus ...