Diversity, abundance, and activity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea in Chongming eastern intertidal sediments

Ammonia oxidation plays a pivotal role in the cycling and removal of nitrogen in aquatic sediments. Certain bacterial groups and a novel group of archaea, which is affiliated with the novel phylum Thaumarchaeota, can perform this initial nitrification step. We examined the diversity and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing β-Proteobacteria (β-AOB) and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in the sediments of Chongming eastern tidal flat using the ammonia monooxygenase-α subunit (amoA) gene as functional markers. Clone library analysis showed that AOA had a higher diversity of amoA gene than β-AOB. The β-Proteobacterial amoA community composition correlated significantly with water soluble salts in the sediments, whereas the archaeal amoA community composition was correlated more with nitrate concentrations. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) results indicated that the abundance of β-AOB amoA gene (9.11?×?10⁴–6.47?×?10⁵?copies?g^?1 sediment) was always greater than that of AOA amoA gene (7.98?×?10³–3.51?×?10⁵?copies?g^?1 sediment) in all the samples analyzed in this study. The β-Proteobacterial amoA gene abundance was closely related to organic carbon, while no significant correlations were observed between archaeal amoA gene abundance and the environmental factors. Potential nitrification rates were significantly greater in summer than in winter and correlated strongly with the abundance of amoA genes. Additionally, a greater contribution of single amoA gene to potential nitrification occurred in summer (1.03–5.39 pmol?N?copy^?1?day^?1) compared with winter (0.16–0.38 pmol?N?copy^?1?day^?1), suggesting a higher activity of ammonia-oxidizing prokaryotes in warm seasons.     

Cell-surface markers for the isolation of pancreatic cell types derived from human embryonic stem cells

Using a flow cytometry-based screen of commercial antibodies, we have identified cell-surface markers for the separation of pancreatic cell types derived from human embryonic stem (hES) cells. We show enrichment of pancreatic endoderm cells using CD142 and of endocrine cells using CD200 and CD318. After transplantation into mice, enriched pancreatic endoderm cells give rise to all the pancreatic lineages, including functional insulin-producing cells, demonstrating that they are pancreatic progenitors. In contrast, implanted, enriched polyhormonal endocrine cells principally give rise to glucagon cells. These antibodies will aid investigations that use pancreatic cells generated from pluripotent stem cells to study diabetes and pancreas biology.     

铅污染现状及其修复机理研究进展

介绍了铅污染的现状、修复机理及存在的问题。其中重点阐述了国内在寻找铅的超累积植物的研究进展,国外研究者对铅在植物体内吸收、运输和储存机理方面的研究现状,同时对已发现的与铅污染有关的基因以及转基因技术的应用情况进行了简单介绍,并探讨了提高铅污染修复效率的一些方法。     

以23S rDNA一个多变区作为分子标记对致病杆菌属细菌进行分类鉴定

【目的】致病杆菌属(Xenorhabdus)细菌是一类重要的生物杀虫剂,斯氏属昆虫病原线虫的共生菌,建立快速准确的分类鉴定方法,对研究开发这类细菌至关重要。【方法】本研究PCR扩增测序了本室保藏的26株,含20种已定名致病杆菌属细菌的一段845 bp的23S rDNA序列,构建了基于这段序列的致病杆菌属系统树并与基于几乎全长16S rDNA序列的相应系统树进行比较,分析了两者作为致病杆菌属细菌分类鉴定分子标记的优缺点。【结果】结果表明,与全长16S rDNA序列相比,所选择的23S rDNA序列片段所含可变位点、简约信息位点比例更高,遗传距离数值跨度大。【结论】上述结果显示该序列片段可用于致病杆菌属细菌进行分类鉴定,特别适用于对野外资源调查中采集到的大量菌株进行快速鉴定。     

Predicting protein-protein interactions by combing various sequence- derived features into the general form of Chou's Pseudo amino acid composition

Knowledge of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) plays an important role in constructing protein interaction networks and understanding the general machineries of biological systems. In this study, a new method is proposed to predict PPIs using a comprehensive set of 930 features based only on sequence information, these features measure the interactions between residues a certain distant apart in the protein sequences from different aspects. To achieve better performance, the principal component analysis (PCA) is first employed to obtain an optimized feature subset. Then, the resulting 67-dimensional feature vectors are fed to Support Vector Machine (SVM). Experimental results on Drosophila melanogaster and Helicobater pylori datasets show that our method is very promising to predict PPIs and may at least be a useful supplement tool to existing methods.     

PD-L1和CD147在口腔鳞癌中的表达与临床意义

目的:探讨口腔鳞癌组织中免疫共刺激分子PD-L1与细胞外基质蛋白酶诱导因子CD147的表达、两者的相关性及临床意义。方法:应用免疫组化技术检测66例口腔鳞癌组织及36例正常口腔黏膜组织中PD-L1和CD147的表达,分析PD-L1、CD147表达的相关性及二者与口腔鳞癌临床病理参数的关系。结果:PD-L1在口腔鳞癌组织中表达阳性率为68.18%(45/66),正常口腔黏膜组织中表达阳性率仅为16.67%(6/36);CD147在口腔鳞癌组织中表达阳性率为74.24%(49/66),明显高于其在正常口腔黏膜组织中的表达13.88%(5/36)。PD-L1和CD147两者在口腔鳞癌组织中阳性表达率与口腔黏膜组织相比均明显升高(P0.01)。统计学分析显示,PD-L1和CD147在口腔鳞癌组织中的高表达与患者的性别年龄、吸烟史及肿瘤的体积等因素无明显相关,但与TNM分期及鳞癌的组织分化程度紧密相关。口腔鳞癌组织中PD-L1与CD147两者相关性分析r=0.342,P值小于0.01,说明二者的表达呈显著正相关。结论:口腔鳞癌组织中PD-L1与CD147均呈高表达,并且二者的过度表达可能与口腔鳞癌的发生、发展关系密切,合并检测二者可能为OSCC的诊疗及预后指明新的方向,为口腔鳞癌的靶向治疗提供新的靶点。     

甲状腺激素对胸腺上皮细胞CK19蛋白表达的影响

目的探讨甲状腺激素对胸腺的发育的影响及可能的机制。方法将12只怀孕4d的大鼠随机分成A组和B组,A组正常饮水,B组孕鼠供以含有0．02％甲巯咪唑的饮水制备仔鼠甲状腺功能低下动物模型,将A组的仔鼠随机分成对照组和甲状腺素钠组,将B组的仔鼠随机分成甲低组和甲低＋甲状腺素钠组。甲状腺素钠组和甲低＋甲状腺素钠组于出生后15d给予腹腔注射甲状腺素钠（0．5mg／kg体重,1次／d）,连续给药25d。所有动物于出生后40d麻醉处死,测定仔鼠的胸腺重量及脏器指数;采用放射免疫技术测定仔鼠血清中三碘甲状腺原氨酸（triiodothyronine,T3）、四碘甲状腺原氨酸（tetraiodothyronine,T4）、促甲状腺激素（thyroid—stimulating hormone,TSH）水平,免疫组织化学技术检测胸腺上皮细胞细胞角蛋白19（cytokeratin 19,CK19）蛋白的表达量。结果与对照组比较,甲状腺素钠组仔鼠血清中T3、T4显著升高,TSH减少,胸腺重量增大;甲低组仔鼠血清中T3、T4明显降低,TSH显著增高,胸腺重量降低,胸腺上皮细胞CK19蛋白表达减少。与甲低组比较,甲低＋甲状腺素钠组仔鼠血清中T3、T4升高,TSH降低,胸腺指数增大,胸腺上皮细胞CK19蛋白的表达明显增多。结论甲状腺激素可以通过影响胸腺上皮细胞CK19的表达量,使胸腺发育或退化。     

CCL5/CCR5 axis promotes the motility of human oral cancer cells

CCL5 (previously called RANTES) is in the CC‐chemokine family and plays a crucial role in the migration and metastasis of human cancer cells. On the other hand, the effect of CCL5 is mediated via CCR receptor. RT‐PCR and flow cytometry studies demonstrated CCR5 but not CCR1 and CCR3 mRNA in oral cancer cell lines, especially higher in those with high invasiveness (SCC4) as compared with lower levels in HSC3 cells and SCC9 cells. Stimulation of oral cancer cells with CCL5 directly increased the migration and metalloproteinase‐9 (MMP‐9) production. MMP‐9 small interfering RNA inhibited the CCL5‐induced MMP‐9 expression and thereby significantly inhibited the CCL5‐induced cell migration. Activations of phospholipase C (PLC), protein kinase Cδ (PKCδ), and NF‐κB pathways after CCL5 treatment was demonstrated, and CCL5‐induced expression of MMP‐9 and migration activity was inhibited by the specific inhibitor of PLC, PKCδ, and NF‐κB cascades. In addition, migration‐prone sublines demonstrate that cells with increasing migration ability had more expression of MMP‐9, CCL5, and CCR5. Taken together, these results indicate that CCL5/CCR5 axis enhanced migration of oral cancer cells through the increase of MMP‐9 production. J. Cell. Physiol. 220: 418–426, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

运用酶切自连法分析鉴定肺炎链球菌体内诱导基因

肺炎链球菌是严重侵袭性感染和上呼吸道感染最重要的条件致病菌之一,分析鉴定体内诱导基因序列变得尤为重要。本研究利用酶切自连法成功从129个体内诱导表达的肺炎链球菌中获得13个融合重组自杀质粒,通过与肺炎链球菌株TIGR4基因组序列的同源性比对,共得到10个不同的体内诱导基因,其中8个是从血液中筛选出的,另2个为从肺组织中筛选出;通过分析得到18个开放阅读框,其中大部分为已知功能基因,参与细菌多种生命活动,有2个为未知功能基因,编码假想蛋白。可见,酶切自连法可有效用于筛选基因的分析鉴定。     

Transmembrane peptides used to investigate the homo-oligomeric interface and binding hotspot of latent membrane protein 1

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a human γ-herpesvirus, establishes lifelong infection by targeting the adaptive immune system of the host through memory B cells. Although normally benign, EBV contributes to lymphoid malignancies and lymphoproliferative syndromes in immunocompromised individuals. The viral oncoprotein latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1) is essential for B lymphocyte immortalization by EBV. The constitutive signaling activity of LMP-1 is dependent on homo-oligomerization of its six-spanning hydrophobic transmembrane domain (TMD). However, the mechanism driving LMP-1 intermolecular interaction is poorly understood. Here, we show that the fifth transmembrane helix (TM5) of LMP-1 strongly self-associates, forming a homotrimeric complex mediated by a polar residue embedded in the membrane, D150. Replacement of this aspartic acid residue with alanine disrupts TM5 self-association in detergent micelles and bacterial cell membranes. A full-length LMP-1 variant harboring the D150A substitution is deficient in NFκB activation, supporting the key role of the fifth transmembrane helix in constitutive activation of signaling by this oncoprotein.