Expression of a novel <Emphasis Type="Italic">OSPGYRP</Emphasis> (rice proline-, glycine- and tyrosine-rich protein) gene,which is involved in vesicle trafficking,enhanced cold tolerance in <Emphasis Type="Italic">E. coli</Emphasis>

A novel OSPGYRP gene encoding a rice proline-, glycine- and tyrosine-rich protein was isolated from cold-stress treated rice seedlings using suppression subtractive hybridization. Both amino acid sequence analysis and subcellular localization confirm that OsPGYRP is a novel protein involved in vesicle trafficking. The expression of the OSPGYRP gene was induced by cold, salt, and osmotic stress. In addition, expression of the OSPGYRP gene in E. coli increased the resistance to cold stress. These results show that OsPGYRP is a novel protein involved in vesicle trafficking and plays an important role in plant adaptation to stress. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Independence of stem and leaf hydraulic traits in six Euphorbiaceae tree species with contrasting leaf phenology

Hydraulic traits and hydraulic-related structural properties were examined in three deciduous (Hevea brasiliensis, Macaranga denticulate, and Bischofia javanica) and three evergreen (Drypetes indica, Aleurites moluccana, and Codiaeum variegatum) Euphorbiaceae tree species from a seasonally tropical forest in south-western China. Xylem water potential at 50% loss of stem hydraulic conductivity (P50_stem) was more negative in the evergreen tree, but leaf water potential at 50% loss of leaf hydraulic conductivity (P50_leaf) did not function as P50_stem did. Furthermore, P50_stem was more negative than P50_leaf in the evergreen tree; contrarily, this pattern was not observed in the deciduous tree. Leaf hydraulic conductivity overlapped considerably, but stem hydraulic conductivity diverged between the evergreen and deciduous tree. Correspondingly, structural properties of leaves overlapped substantially; however, structural properties of stem diverged markedly. Consequently, leaf and stem hydraulic traits were closely correlated with leaf and stem structural properties, respectively. Additionally, stem hydraulic efficiency was significantly correlated with stem hydraulic resistance to embolism; nevertheless, such a hydraulic pattern was not found in leaf hydraulics. Thus, these results suggest: (1) that the evergreen and deciduous tree mainly diverge in stem hydraulics, but not in leaf hydraulics, (2) that regardless of leaf or stem, their hydraulic traits result primarily from structural properties, and not from leaf phenology, (3) that leaves are more vulnerable to drought-induced embolism than stem in the evergreen tree, but not always in the deciduous tree and (4) that there exists a trade-off between hydraulic efficiency and safety for stem hydraulics, but not for leaf hydraulics.     

EPR studies on the superoxide-scavenging capacity of the nutraceutical resveratrol

Resveratrol (3,4',5-trihydroxystilbene), a polyphenolic compound found in mulberries, grapes, and red wine, has received considerable attention because of its apparent protective effects against various degenerative diseases due to its potential antioxidant activities. However, direct evidence for the superoxide-scavenging capacity of resveratrol is lacking in literature. In this study, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy in combination with 5-(diethoxyphosphoryl)-5-methylpyrroline-N-oxide (DEPMPO)-spin trapping technique was utilized to determine the ability of resveratrol in scavenging superoxide anions generated from both potassium superoxide and the xanthine oxidase/xanthine system. We have demonstrated here for the first time that the presence of resveratrol resulted in decreased formation of DEPMPO-superoxide adduct (DEPMPO-OOH) in both the potassium superoxide and xanthine oxidase/xanthine systems, indicating that resveratrol could directly scavenge superoxide anions. The inhibition of DEPMPO-OOH in the xanthine oxidase/xanthine system, however, was found to be much potent as compared to that observed in potassium superoxide system. It was further shown that resveratrol could also directly inhibit xanthine oxidase activity as assessed by oxygen consumption and formation of uric acid. Taken together, the dual role of resveratrol in directly scavenging superoxide and inhibiting its generation via xanthine oxidase reported in this study may explain, at least in part, the protective role of this compound against oxidative injury in various disease processes.     

冷应激大鼠睾丸细胞AR和ABP的检测

目的为研究冷应激大鼠睾丸细胞雄激素受体和雄激素结合蛋白的变化,本实验检测了睾丸细胞雄激素受体和雄激素结合蛋白的含量。方法采用放射配体—3H-睾酮结合分析法。结果冷应激实验组与对照组比较,雄激素受体最大结合量(单位:fmol/mgDNA)为143.38±9.47和87.46±15.11;雄激素结合蛋白(单位:fmol/mgpro.)为34.98±8.16和12.94±3.63;差异有显著性,P<0.05。结论冷应激导致睾酮水平下降的同时,反馈地引起其受体浓度增加的变化是机体代偿适应性反应。     

Differential ConA-enriched urinary proteome in rat experimental glomerular diseases

Glomerular diseases are leading causes of end-stage renal diseases worldwide. They are considered to be consequences of injury primarily to the three types of glomerular cells. Differential diagnosis typically relies on invasive biopsy findings. We expected that injuries of different glomerular cells would cause different changes in urinary proteome. The goal of this study was to identify differential urinary proteins distinguishing between injuries of different glomerular cells before significant histopathologic changes. Adriamycin nephropathy and Thy1.1 glomerulonephritis were employed as models with different primary impaired cells. ConA-enriched urinary glycoproteome on day3 were profiled by gel-free shotgun tandem mass spectrometry, and compared with self-healthy controls to identify differential urinary proteins for each model. By comparing the changes of the differential proteins between these two models, we identified 39 proteins with different directions of changes, which may potentially be useful in differentiation; and 7 proteins with the same direction of changes, which may be potential indicators of early renal damage. These differential proteins were of several origins: plasma proteins, proteins with urine or kidney specificity, proteins without tissue-specificity (mainly inflammatory mediators) etc. Our results may help better understand the effects of injuries of different glomerular cells at the initial stage, and lead to the discovery of novel early diagnostic markers for human focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (MsPGN) which have the same primary impaired cells with adriamycin nephropathy and Thy1.1 glomerulonephritis, respectively.     

Predicting protein fold types by the general form of Chou's pseudo amino acid composition: approached from optimal feature extractions

Identification on protein folding types is always based on the 27-class folds dataset, which was provided by Ding & Dubchak in 2001. But with the avalanche of protein sequences, fold data is also expanding, so it will be the inevitable trend to improve the existing dataset and expand more folding types. In this paper, we construct a multi-class protein fold dataset, which contains 3,457 protein chains with sequence identity below 35% and could be classified into 76 fold types. It was 4 times larger than Ding & Dubchak's dataset. Furthermore, our work proposes a novel approach of support vector machine based on optimal features. By combining motif frequency, low-frequency power spectral density, amino acid composition, the predicted secondary structure and the values of auto-correlation function as feature parameters set, the method adopts criterion of the maximum correlation and the minimum redundancy to filter these features and obtain a 95-dimensions optimal feature subset. Based on the ensemble classification strategy, with 95-dimensions optimal feature as input parameters of support vector machine, we identify the 76-class protein folds and overall accuracy measures up to 44.92% by independent test. In addition, this method has been further used to identify upgraded 27-class protein folds, overall accuracy achieves 66.56%. At last, we also test our method on Ding & Dubchak's 27-class folds dataset and obtained better identification results than most of the previous reported results.     

Cognitive and socio-emotional deficits in platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β gene knockout mice

Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is a potent mitogen. Extensive in vivo studies of PDGF and its receptor (PDGFR) genes have reported that PDGF plays an important role in embryogenesis and development of the central nervous system (CNS). Furthermore, PDGF and the β subunit of the PDGF receptor (PDGFR-β) have been reported to be associated with schizophrenia and autism. However, no study has reported on the effects of PDGF deletion on mice behavior. Here we generated novel mutant mice (PDGFR-β KO) in which PDGFR-β was conditionally deleted in CNS neurons using the Cre/loxP system. Mice without the Cre transgene but with floxed PDGFR-β were used as controls. Both groups of mice reached adulthood without any apparent anatomical defects. These mice were further examined by conducting several behavioral tests for spatial memory, social interaction, conditioning, prepulse inhibition, and forced swimming. The test results indicated that the PDGFR-β KO mice show deficits in all of these areas. Furthermore, an immunohistochemical study of the PDGFR-β KO mice brain indicated that the number of parvalbumin (calcium-binding protein)-positive (i.e., putatively γ-aminobutyric acid-ergic) neurons was low in the amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex. Neurophysiological studies indicated that sensory-evoked gamma oscillation was low in the PDGFR-β KO mice, consistent with the observed reduction in the number of parvalbumin-positive neurons. These results suggest that PDGFR-β plays an important role in cognitive and socioemotional functions, and that deficits in this receptor may partly underlie the cognitive and socioemotional deficits observed in schizophrenic and autistic patients.     

Differentiating the 2,3-diols of glucopyranosides by 4,6-O-benzylidene-protected-1,2-d-glucopyranosylorthoesters strategy

A facile and efficient method to differentiate the 2,3-diols of glucopyranosides based on 1,2-orthoesters strategy was developed. Stable thioglucosides were employed as the starting materials to prepare the corresponding 1,2-orthoesters. When treated with HCl aqueous solution and followed with Et₃N, differentiation of the 2,3-diols was efficiently achieved along with the generation of a convertible anomeric hydroxyl group. In addition, an easy and practical method based on NOE was proposed to determine whether the 1,2-orthoesters were endo-type or exo-type.