微生物对三苯基甲烷类染料脱色的研究进展

三苯基甲烷染料广泛应用于纺织印染、医药、生物染色、造纸、皮革、食品及化妆品等领域, 常见的有作为抗菌剂的孔雀石绿和结晶紫等。由于其特殊的化学结构, 在环境中较稳定且难以降解脱色, 因此其生物脱色降解的研究可为印染废水处理和染料污染环境的生物修复提供理论依据。本文从细菌、放线菌、真菌及藻类等微生物对三苯基甲烷类染料降解脱色研究新进展做综述。通过分析不同微生物脱色三苯基甲烷类染料的中间产物来探讨其降解机理和降解途径, 同时论及功能酶的分离纯化、酶学特性及其编码基因的克隆表达新进展, 并分别从基础理论和应用两方面对微生物降解三苯基甲烷类染料未来的研究方向进行了展望。     

荧光光谱法定量测定纤维素酶活性架构中单个氨基酸突变对底物结合力的影响

纤维素酶活性架构是酶分子中多个氨基酸残基构成的可结合并催化底物的功能区,其中色氨酸等芳香族残基在该区域中起着重要作用.本研究利用荧光光谱法,定量分析了纤维素酶Ch Cel5A活性架构中色氨酸与底物的结合动力学过程,通过色氨酸荧光猝灭的定量分析,确定了色氨酸特异性结合时的底物浓度范围,并且测定了Ch Cel5A活性架构中单个氨基酸突变导致的底物结合常数的变化,与催化动力学参数比较发现,荧光光谱法可准确表征纤维素酶与底物的结合力及其单个残基突变引起动力学参数的变化.此外,由于p NP中含有强的吸电子基团,因而以p NPC等为配体时会高估与色氨酸的结合常数约20~100倍.荧光光谱法可以测定纤维素酶结合糖分子底物的动力学参数,该方法具有灵敏和快速的特点,这为蛋白质与底物之间相互作用的定量分析提供了新的视角.     

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel human 5'-deoxy-5'-methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) substrates

The structure-based design, chemical synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel MTAP substrates are described. These compounds incorporate various C5'-moieties and are shown to have different k(cat)/K(m) values compared with the natural MTAP substrate (MTA).     

Isolation of EpCAM+/CD133− hepatic progenitor cells

Progenitor cell-derived hepatocytes are critical for hepatocyte replenishment. Therefore, we established a line of human hepatic progenitor (HNK1) cells and determined their biological characteristics for experimental and therapeutic applications. HNK1 cells, isolated from human noncirrhotic liver samples with septal fibrosis, showed high expression of the hepatic progenitor cell (HPC) markers EpCAM, CK7, CK19, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), CD90 (Thy1), and EFNA1. Expression of CD133 was very low. Ductular reactions at the periphery of cirrhotic nodules were immunohistochemically positive for these HPC markers, including EFNA1. Sodium butyrate, a differentiation inducer, induced hepatocyte-like morphological changes in HNK1 cells. It resulted in down-regulation of the hepatic progenitor cell markers EpCAM, CK7, CK19, AFP, and EFNA1 and up-regulation of mature hepatocyte markers, including albumin, CK8, and CK18. Furthermore, sodium butyrate treatment and a serial passage of HNK1 cells resulted in enhanced albumin secretion, ureagenesis, and CYP enzyme activity, all of which are indicators of differentiation in hepatocytes. However, HNK1 cells at passage 50 did not exhibit anchorage-independent growth capability and caused no tumors in immunodeficient mice, suggesting that they had no spontaneous malignant transformation ability. From this evidence, HNK1 cells were found to be EpCAM⁺/CD133^- hepatic progenitor cells without spontaneous malignant transformation ability. We therefore conclude that HNK1 cells could be useful for experimental and therapeutic applications.     

DNA Methylation-mediated Repression of miR-941 Enhances Lysine (K)-specific Demethylase 6B Expression in Hepatoma Cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in carcinogenesis. However, their underlying mechanisms of action in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests that epigenetic silencing of miRNAs through tumor suppression by CpG island hypermethylation may be a common hallmark of human tumors. Here, we demonstrated that miR-941 was significantly down-regulated in HCC tissues and cell lines and was generally hypermethylated in HCC. The overexpression of miR-941 suppressed in vitro cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and inhibited the metastasis of HCC cells in vivo. Furthermore, the histone demethylase KDM6B (lysine (K)-specific demethylase 6B) was identified as a direct target of miR-941 and was negatively regulated by miR-941. The ectopic expression of KDM6B abrogated the phenotypic changes induced by miR-941 in HCC cells. We demonstrated that miR-941 and KDM6B regulated the epithelial-mesenchymal transition process and affected cell migratory/invasive properties.     

Limited T Cell Receptor Repertoire Diversity in Tuberculosis Patients Correlates with Clinical Severity

Background

The importance of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells in protection against tuberculosis (TB) is well known, however, the association between changes to the T cell repertoire and disease presentation has never been analyzed. Characterization of T-cells in TB patients in previous study only analyzed the TCR β chain and omitted analysis of the Vα family even though α chain also contribute to antigen recognition. Furthermore, limited information is available regarding the heterogeneity compartment and overall function of the T cells in TB patients as well as the common TCR structural features of Mtb antigen specific T cells among the vast numbers of TB patients.

Methodology/Principal Findings

CDR3 spectratypes of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells were analyzed from 86 patients with TB exhibiting differing degrees of disease severity, and CDR3 spectratype complexity scoring system was used to characterize TCR repertoire diversity. TB patients with history of other chronic disease and other bacterial or viral infections were excluded for the study to decrease the likely contribution of TCRs specific to non-TB antigens as far as possible. Each patient was age-matched with a healthy donor group to control for age variability. Results showed that healthy controls had a normally diversified TCR repertoire while TB patients represented with restricted TCR repertoire. Patients with mild disease had the highest diversity of TCR repertoire while severely infected patients had the lowest, which suggest TCR repertoire diversity inversely correlates with disease severity. In addition, TB patients showed preferred usage of certain TCR types and have a bias in the usage of variable (V) and joining (J) gene segments and N nucleotide insertions.

Conclusions/Significance

Results from this study promote a better knowledge about the public characteristics of T cells among TB patients and provides new insight into the TCR repertoire associated with clinic presentation in TB patients.     

蛇足石杉原叶体的培养及孢子体的诱导

以蛇足石杉孢子囊为材料培养得到蛇足石杉原叶体,进一步对原叶体进行增殖培养并诱导产生蛇足石杉孢子体。结果表明,适合蛇足石杉原叶体增殖的培养基是无激素的MS培养基,在该培养基上培养60d,原叶体的增殖倍数达到131．1;较高浓度的外源激素对原叶体的增殖有抑制作用,而低浓度的外源激素对原叶体的增殖影响不大;原叶体在无激素培养基上培养90d,孢子体的诱导频率为4．0％;通过HPLC检测蛇足石杉原叶体中石杉碱甲的含量为0．0059％,是野生孢子体中含量的0．25倍。     

无需覆土的蘑菇属食用菌——中国美味蘑菇

采集于新疆的“中国美味蘑菇”是一种个体巨大的野生蘑菇,迄今未有人工栽培报道。本文已成功对其进行驯化栽培并完成了它的生物学特性研究,可为今后商业化栽培提供科学依据。结果表明,中国美味蘑菇菌丝生长的最佳碳源是葡萄糖,最佳氮源是大豆蛋白胨;菌丝生长最适温度是25℃,最适pH值为6。该种蘑菇可利用稻草、麦杆、芦苇等基质进行栽培;它还有一重要的特点就是出菇可不需覆土,而覆土为一般栽培的蘑菇属种类生产中的必须环节。初步驯化表明,该种蘑菇以芦苇为基质比以稻草为基质的生物学效率高15.01%。     

山羊GOLA-DQB1基因外显子2多态性与免疫性状的相关分析

利用PCR-RFLP技术, 对莱芜黑山羊、鲁波山羊和波尔山羊3个山羊种群共 175 只个体的GOLA-DQB1基因外显子2进行遗传多态性研究, 并对山羊种群的血液免疫指标的效应进行了分析。结果表明: 3个山羊种群共检测到(AA、BB、CC、AB、AC、BC、DD)7种基因型, GOLA-DQB1基因外显子2的第24、151位的碱基表现出多态性。多数指标品种效应是主要效应。莱芜黑山羊中, BC基因型的淋巴细胞百分比(W-SCR)显著高于AC 、CC基因型(P<0.05), 中性球比例(W-LCR)显著低于CC基因型(P<0.05), 大型白细胞数(W-LCC)低于AC、CC基因型, 但差异不显著(P>0.05)。波尔山羊中, BC基因型的W-LCC低于AA 、AB 、BB基因型, 但差异不显著(P>0.05)。鲁波山羊中, BC 、AC基因型的W-LCC显著低于AA基因型(P<0.05)。揭示GOLA-DQB1基因与血液免疫性状有一定的相关性。