基于长时间序列landsat数据的科尔沁沙地土地利用演变分析

以科尔沁沙地沙丘-草甸过渡带区域主要土地覆被类型为研究对象，以1987-2017年多时相Landsat TM/OLI遥感影像解译分类为基础，参考生态学植被演替研究方法，系统分析研究区30年来的土地利用/覆被动态演变规律，研究结果表明：（1）决策树法在复杂下垫面不同覆被类型的同步识别效果较好，所有影像分类精度均达到88%以上，分类效果较好，其中2017年分类精度最高为95.24%，达到了分类研究的要求；（2）研究区存在着"半灌丛-草甸地-灌丛"的植被结构特征，且整体表现为"南进北退"的变化趋势。结合土地利用动态度分析结果表明人类活动干涉下，研究区整体上遵循了半干旱区植被条件改善的一般规律，侧面反映该研究区域生态环境的持续不稳定性和脆弱性；（3）研究区覆被类型发生变化的总面积达到2623.59 hm²，总变化强度为63.76%。其中正向演替的比例为52.61%，以半灌丛面积的持续减小与沙地草甸面积的持续扩张为主要变化特征。但同时，半灌丛转为沙地的面积为184.95 hm²，表明以放牧为主的研究区同时发生着局部的逆行演变；（4）质心迁移结果反映了1987-2017年间，除人为影响较大的林地、草地以及耕地向北迁移外，其他植被类型的质心都有很明显的南迁，主要植被类型重心迁移距离依次由大到小为耕地 > 半灌丛 > 灌丛 > 沙地草甸 > 湿地草甸 > 林地。研究通过记录科尔沁沙地连续扩展的时空模式，展示了遥感-生态和时间序列影像在30 m分辨率下跟踪土地利用/覆被变化的潜力，为提高干旱半干旱区土地利用情况的动态监测效率，开展土地利用/覆被动态演变研究提供参考。     

Exosomal transfer of miR-106a-5p contributes to cisplatin resistance and tumorigenesis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a subclass of cancers of the neck and head, is a predominant cause of cancer-associated death worldwide. Hence, there is a critical need for research into NPC-related treatment strategies. Cisplatin is a promising therapy option for NPCs and other cancers that is frequently utilized. Some patients acquire resistance to cisplatin therapy, which complicates the successful use of cisplatin treatment in NPCs. Although exosomal transfer of oncogenic miRNAs has been shown to improve recipient cell proliferation, metastasis and chemoresistance, the molecular mechanism behind this effect on NPC has yet to be fully understood. Exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) from cisplatin-resistant cells were identified as significant mediators of chemoresistance in NPC cells in this investigation. Initially, we found that exosomal miR-106a-5p levels in the serum of chemoresistant and last-cycle patients were greater than in that of non-resistant and first-cycle patients. Also, exosomal miR-106a-5p enhanced the proliferative ability of NPC cells. Mechanistically, exosomal miR-106a-5p targets ARNT2, which further activates AKT phosphorylation, and thus promotes NPC cell proliferation, decreases apoptosis and in turn regulates tumorigenesis. We found similar results using in vivo NPC models, where exosomal miR-106a-5p through regulation of ARNT2 (aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator 2) promoted tumorigenesis. Taken together, these findings indicate that exosomal miR-106a-5p could be a promising diagnostic biomarker and drug target for patients with NPC.     

快速城市化背景下广西典型城市景观空间格局动态比较研究

随着城市化的快速发展与城市规模日益扩张,城市景观空间结构不断地被人为改变着,不合理的景观空间格局既削弱了区域的经济和社会发展功能,影响着城市生态环境质量的不断提高,也进一步制约着城市的可持续发展进程。以广西3座典型中心城市——南宁、柳州和桂林市为研究对象,利用6景Landsat5 TM和Landsat8 OLI/TIRS影像数据,通过遥感影像分类技术提取研究区的土地利用景观信息,对典型城市1990—2015年的景观空间格局特征与生态过程进行对比分析,旨在揭示快速城市化阶段重点城市核心景观要素的时空演化规律。结果表明:(1)在城市化进程加快的背景下,广西各典型城市的景观空间格局均发生了剧烈的变化。受人为影响强烈的土地利用景观类型变动最为显著,建设用地景观的不断扩张与耕地、林地景观的缩减是城市化发展的基本特征。(2)在水平空间上,城市建筑景观逐渐由核心圈层向外围圈层扩展,外围区的自然景观受人工干扰强度加大,景观类型逐渐丰富,但破碎化程度加剧。(3)在垂直空间上,城市景观类型呈现较显著的海拔分异特征,中、低海拔区是城镇化最集中的地带,建设用地的景观优势度增长最为显著。高海拔区因但受城市扩张与农业开发活动的胁迫,自然景观的优势度与团聚性呈下降趋势。(4)从城市功能定位来看,南宁、柳州和桂林市作为广西3座不同功能类型的中心城市,它们在区域社会经济发展方面起到重要的辐射和引领作用。该研究为科学开展城市景观规划、实施城市生态环境管理和推进广西城市化健康有序发展提供参考依据。     

祁连山东段高原鼢鼠暖季活动节律及其影响因素

正动物活动节律是在光周期、外界环境和内在生理机制共同调节下,动物表现出的休息和活动规律,它可以反映出动物个体营养状况、生存压力及社会地位等信息,是研究动物生态行为策略的重要依据(孙儒泳,2006)。尚玉昌(2006)认为温度和光照强度变化直接影响动物行为,而食物资源和天敌数量变化则能间接影响动物行为。目前对于地上栖息的啮齿动物活动节律及其影响因素已有许多报道(金建丽等,2003;纪春艳等,2005;宛新荣     

Structural properties of the peroxiredoxin AhpC2 from the hyperthermophilic eubacterium Aquifex aeolicus

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are thiol peroxidases that scavenge various peroxide substrates such as hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), alkyl hydroperoxides and peroxinitrite. They also function as chaperones and are involved in signal transduction by H₂O₂ in eukaryotic cells. The genome of Aquifex aeolicus, a microaerophilic, hyperthermophilic eubacterium, encodes four Prxs, among them an alkyl hydroperoxide reductase AhpC2 which was found to be closely related to archaeal 1-Cys peroxiredoxins. We determined the crystal structure of AhpC2 at 1.8?Å resolution and investigated its oligomeric state in solution by electron microscopy. AhpC2 is arranged as a toroid-shaped dodecamer instead of the typically observed decamer. The basic folding topology and the active site structure are conserved and possess a high structural similarity to other 1-Cys Prxs. However, the C-terminal region adopts an opposite orientation. AhpC2 contains three cysteines, Cys⁴⁹, Cys²¹², and Cys²¹⁸. The peroxidatic cysteine C_P⁴⁹ was found to be hyperoxidized to the sulfonic acid (SO₃H) form, while Cys²¹² forms an intra-monomer disulfide bond with Cys²¹⁸. Mutagenesis experiments indicate that Cys²¹² and Cys²¹⁸ play important roles in the oligomerization of AhpC2. Based on these structural characteristics, we proposed the catalytic mechanism of AhpC2. This study provides novel insights into the structure and reaction mechanism of 1-Cys peroxiredoxins.     

The isolation of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">IGT</Emphasis> family genes in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Malus × domestica</Emphasis> and their expressions in four idiotype apple cultivars

IGT family genes share the highly conserved motif GφL-(A/T) IGT in domain II and play an essential role in plant form. The tree architecture of apple (Malus ×?domestica Borkh.) affects fruit quality and yield. However, little information is available regarding IGT family genes in apple. Apple cultivars of four ideotypes (columnar, tip bearer, spur, and standard) were selected to characterize IGT family genes. Four IGT family members named MdoTAC1a, MdoTAC1b, MdoLAZY1, and MdoLAZY2 were found in the apple genome, sharing four conserved domains. In addition, MdoLAZY1 and MdoLAZY2 contain a fifth domain (EAR motif) at the C-terminus. There was no difference in the coding sequences of each gene in the four cultivars, but several mutated sites were found in their promoters. The four genes displayed lower expression levels in all tested tissues and organs of the columnar cultivar than in the other three cultivars, while expression levels of MdoTAC1a and MdoTAC1b in shoot tips and vegetative buds were highest in the standard cultivar, followed by spur, tip bearing, and columnar cultivars in decreasing order. These results indicate that IGT gene promoters are of great importance in the development of apple tree architecture and lay a theoretical basis for developing gene-specific markers for marker-assisted selection in breeding programs.     

Multi-target drug repositioning by bipartite block-wise sparse multi-task learning

Background

Finding potential drug targets is a crucial step in drug discovery and development. Recently, resources such as the Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) L1000 database provide gene expression profiles induced by various chemical and genetic perturbations and thereby make it possible to analyze the relationship between compounds and gene targets at a genome-wide scale. Current approaches for comparing the expression profiles are based on pairwise connectivity mapping analysis. However, this method makes the simple assumption that the effect of a drug treatment is similar to knocking down its single target gene. Since many compounds can bind multiple targets, the pairwise mapping ignores the combined effects of multiple targets, and therefore fails to detect many potential targets of the compounds.

Results

We propose an algorithm to find sets of gene knock-downs that induce gene expression changes similar to a drug treatment. Assuming that the effects of gene knock-downs are additive, we propose a novel bipartite block-wise sparse multi-task learning model with super-graph structure (BBSS-MTL) for multi-target drug repositioning that overcomes the restrictive assumptions of connectivity mapping analysis.

Conclusions

The proposed method BBSS-MTL is more accurate for predicting potential drug targets than the simple pairwise connectivity mapping analysis on five datasets generated from different cancer cell lines.

Availability

The code can be obtained at http://gr.xjtu.edu.cn/web/liminli/codes.

     

Chromosome mapping of low-temperature induced Wcs120 family genes and regulation of cold-tolerance expression in wheat

 Low-temperature (LT) induced genes of the Wcs120 family in wheat (Triticum aestivum) were mapped to specific chromosome arms using Western and Southern blot analysis on the ditelocentric series in the cultivar Chinese Spring (CS). Identified genes were located on the long arms of the homoeologous group 6 chromosomes of all 3 genomes (A, B, and D) of hexaploid wheat. Related species carrying either the A, D, or AB genomes were also examined using Southern and Western analysis with the Wcs120 probe and the WCS120 antibody. All closely related species carrying one or more of the genomes of hexaploid wheat produced a 50 kDa protein that was identified by the antibody, and a Wcs120 homoeologue was detected by Southern analysis in all species. In the absence of chromosome arm 6DL in hexaploid CS wheat no 50 kDa protein was produced and the high-intensity Wcs120 band was missing, indicating 6DL as the location of Wcs120 but suggesting silencing of the Wcs120 homoeologue in the A genome. Levels of proteins that cross-reacted with the Wcs120 antibody and degrees of cold tolerance were also investigated in the Chinese Spring/Cheyenne (CS/CNN) chromosome substitution series. CNN chromosome 5A increased the cold tolerance of CS wheat. Densitometry scanning of Western blots to determine protein levels showed that the group 5 chromosome 5A had a regulatory effect on the expression of the Wcs120 gene family located on the group 6 chromosomes of all three hexaploid wheat genomes. Received: 10 July 1996 / Accepted: 30 September 1996