AcSDKP对PDGF诱导的大鼠心脏成纤维细胞增殖和胶原合成的调节作用

目的：探讨N-乙酰基-丝氨酰-天门冬酰-赖氨酰-脯氨酰（AcSDKP）对血小板源性生长因子（PDGF）诱导的大鼠心脏成纤维细胞增殖和胶原合成的调节作用。方法：建立新生大鼠心脏成纤维细胞系;采用四甲基偶氮唑（MTT）法和^3H-TdR掺入法检测心脏成纤维细胞的增殖;采用^3H-脯氨酸掺入法检测心脏成纤维细胞胶原的合成。结果：PD3F在1～20ng／ml浓度范围内对心脏成纤维细胞增殖和胶原合成均有促进作用。且随着PDGF浓度的增加,其促细胞增殖和胶原合成作用增强,并在10ng／ml浓度时PDGF的促增殖和胶原合成效应最强。在10^-10～10^-8mol／L浓度范围内,AcSDKP对PDGF介导的心脏成纤维细胞增殖和胶原合成均有抑制作用,并且在10叫mol／L时,AcSDKP抑制心脏成纤维细胞增殖和胶原合成作用最强。结论：AcSDKP对PDGF介导的心脏成纤维增殖和胶原合成均有明显抑制作用,这可能与其抗心脏纤维化的作用相关。     

生物信息学在发现新基因方面的应用

自生物信息学作为一门交叉学科诞生以来,其在计算机、农业和生命科学等各方面发挥了重要的作用,在后基因组时代,更是成为发现新基因的重要手段。对生物信息学的概况做了回顾与展望,并简述了生物信息学近年在发现新基因方面所取得的成果。     

rPA(K)的原核表达及其产物的初步纯化

rPA(K)是经过缺失/定点突变技术所获得的t-PA突变体。本实验以IPTG诱导,实现了rPA(K)在原核系统中的表达。实验证明目的产物的表达形式为包涵体,且当以IPTG诱导3h时,表达量最高,为41%。此后对该表达产物进行了初步纯化,即通过对不同超声破碎次数,包涵体洗涤液(脲,Triton X-100,乙醇)的不同浓度对纯化的影响因素进行了摸索。结果表明,超声2次,2M脲,0.5%Triton X-100,20%乙醇对目的蛋白纯化的效果最好,从而为进一步的纯化和复性奠定基础。     

康氏木霉基因组DNA提取方法的比较研究

采用3种常规DNA提取方法提取瑞氏木霉基因组DNA。结果表明:冷冻研磨CTAB法更适合此真菌DNA的提取,试剂盒提取的总DNA纯度和浓度也较高,但是价格昂贵,饱和酚抽提法提取的DNA浓度不高,且易有降解现象,不适合分子生物学操作的要求。     

乳酸菌用作口服疫苗传递载体的研究

乳酸菌是食品级安全菌,利用乳酸菌为表达载体制成的口服疫苗安全无毒,能诱导机体产生有效的免疫应答和免疫耐受。乳酸菌口服疫苗通过胃肠粘膜进行抗原呈递,使用方便,而且较传统注射途径的免疫效果和依从性好,是理想的疫苗,有广阔的发展前景。     

SNP mapping of QTL affecting growth and fatness on chicken GGA1

An F2 chicken population was established from a crossbreeding between a Xinghua line and a White Recessive Rock line. A total of 502 F2 chickens in 17 full-sib families from six hatches was obtained, and phenotypic data of 488 individuals were available for analysis. A total of 46 SNP on GGA1 was initially selected based on the average physical distance using the dbSNP database of NCBI. After the polymorphism levels in all F0 individuals (26 individuals) and part of the F1 individuals (22 individuals) were verified, 30 informative SNP were potentially available to genotype all F2 individuals. The linkage map was constructed using Cri-Map. Interval mapping QTL analyses were carried out. QTL for body weight (BW) of 35 d and 42 d, 49 d and 70 d were identified on GGA1 at 351–353 cM and 360 cM, respectively. QTL for abdominal fat weight was on GGA1 at 205 cM, and for abdominal fat rate at 221 cM. Two novel QTL for fat thickness under skin and fat width were detected at 265 cM and 72 cM, respectively.     

Improving the prediction of RNA secondary structure by detecting and assessing conserved stems

The prediction of RNA secondary structure can be facilitated by incorporating with comparative analysis of homologous sequences. However, most of existing comparative methods are vulnerable to alignment errors and thus are of low accuracy in practical application. Here we improve the prediction of RNA secondary structure by detecting and assessing conserved stems shared by all sequences in the alignment. Our method can be summarized by: 1) we detect possible stems in single RNA sequence using the so-called position matrix with which some possibly paired positions can be uncovered; 2) we detect conserved stems across multiple RNA sequences by multiplying the position matrices; 3) we assess the conserved stems using the Signal-to-Noise; 4) we compute the optimized secondary structure by incorporating the so-called reliable conserved stems with predictions by RNAalifold program. We tested our method on data sets of RNA alignments with known secondary structures. The accuracy, measured as sensitivity and specificity, of our method is greater than predictions by RNAalifold.     

Gypsophin: a novel alpha-glucosidase inhibitory cyclic peptide from the roots of Gypsophila oldhamiana

An unusual new cyclic peptide with a pyrrolidine-2,5-dione unit, gypsophin (1), was isolated from Gypsophila oldhamiana. Its structure was elucidated by the spectroscopic evidences. The stereochemistry was determined by application of the Marfey's method and the single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Compound 1 exhibited inhibitory activity against alpha-glucosidase with IC50 of 305 microM.     

Diversity of tropical forest landscape types in Hainan Island, China

A novel landscape classification system was proposed in this study based on landscape ecological theory and the differentiation in climate, topography, soil, vegetation and land use mode. Five basic units (zone, tract, province, region and type) and two assistant units (sub and group) were used in this system. The tropical forest landscape in Hainan Island was regarded as a landscape province, belonging to global tropical forest landscape zone, Asiatic (oriental) tropical forest landscape tract and Chinese tropical forest landscape subtract. Based on the grade system of region, sub-region, type-group and type, this landscape province (Hainan Island) is divided into 6 landscape regions (east moist forest landscape, west semi-arid forest landscape, central-south mountainous forest landscape, tropical evergreen needle-leaved forest landscape, tropical bamboo landscape and tropical plantation landscape), 11 tropical forest landscape sub-regions represented by tropical lowland valley rain forest landscape, 26 tropical forest landscape-type groups represented by tropical lowland valley Dipterocarpaceae forest landscape, and 54 forest landscape types (FLT) represented by lowland valley Vatica mangachapoi forest. Generally, this classification system represents the landscape diversity of the tropical forest in Hainan Island. Further studies are needed to better understand the landscape diversity of Hainan Island.