太湖大型底栖动物群落结构及多样性

为揭示现阶段太湖大型底栖动物群落现状及其对生态环境变化的响应, 于2007年2月至2008年11月对太湖大型底栖动物进行为期两周年的季度调查。30个采样点共记录底栖动物3门7纲19科40种, 底栖动物平均密度和生物量空间差异较大, 平均密度高值出现在梅梁湾、竺山湾及河口, 主要为寡毛纲颤蚓类; 平均生物量高值出现在贡湖湾、西湖区、东太湖和东部湖湾, 主要为软体动物。霍甫水丝蚓(Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri)、中华河蚓(Rhyacodrilus sinicus)、河蚬(Corbicula fluminea)、铜锈环棱螺(Bellamya aeruginosa)、中国长足摇蚊(Tanypus chinensis)和钩虾属一种(Gammarus sp.)是现阶段太湖大型底栖动物的优势种。聚类分析将30个采样点分成3组, 相似性分析检验表明各聚类组大型底栖动物群落具有显著差异(P<0.05)。多样性分析结果表明, 东太湖和东部湖湾物种多样性、丰富度和均匀度最高, 优势种为腹足纲螺类; 梅梁湾、竺山湾及河口多样性最低、密度最高, 霍甫水丝蚓和中华河蚓在该区占据绝对优势; 贡湖湾、湖心和西湖区多样性处于中等水平, 其优势种为河蚬。研究结果表明营养水平、底质类型以及水生植被的分布是决定太湖大型底栖动物群落结构及多样性的关键因子。     

A Primary Study of the Subgroups of T Lymphocytes in MHV-3 Induced Chronic Viral Hepatitis

To study the contribution of T cell subsets in the pathogenesis of Murine hepatitis virus Type 3(MHV-3) induced chronic viral hepatitis in C3H/Hej mice,ninety C3H/Hej mice were chosen to individually receive 10 plaque forming units(PFU)of MHV-3 intraperitoneally.The changes of virus titer and pathology in liver tissue were examined by standard plaque assay and by the hematoxylin/eosin(HE) staining method from 2 days post MHV-3 infection.The ratios of T cell subsets including CD3 CD4 CD8-,CD3 CD4-CD8 ,CD3 CD4-CD8-,CD3 CD4 CD25 ,CD3 CD4 CD25-and CD3 CD4-CD25 T lymphocyte of total T lymphocytes in blood,spleen and liver were examined at 0,2,4,6,8,10,12,15,20,25,30,40 days post MHV-3 infection by flow cytosorting.We observed that the virus titer raised and showed persistent virus duplications and inflammatory changes in the livers of C3H/Hej mice from 2 days post MHV-3 infection.The double negative T cell(DN Treg cell) and CD4 CD25 T cell ratios increased significantly from 2 days post MHV-3 infection in C3H/Hej mice,and CD3 CD4 CD8-,CD3 CD4-CD8 ,CD3 CD4 CD25-and CD3 CD4-CD25 T cell ratios decreased accordingly.In conclusion,the changes of virus titer and pathology in the livers of C3H/Hej mice post MHV-3 suggest their contribution to viral persistence.Further characterizations of DN Treg cells are that infection indicates that MHV-3 could induce the chronic inflammation in livers of C3H/Hej mice.The increase of the DN Treg cell and CD4 CD25 T cell ratios in C3H/Hej mice post MHV-3 infection suggests that DN Treg cells and CD4 CD25 T cells may both have important suppressive immunomodulation functions in the development of chronic viral hepatitis and have important roles in the virus persistent infection.Further characterizations of DNT cell and CD4 CD25 T cell are under investigation.     

PSMD: An extensive database for pan‐species microsatellite investigation and marker development

Microsatellites are widely distributed throughout nearly all genomes which have been extensively exploited as powerful genetic markers for diverse applications due to their high polymorphisms. Their length variations are involved in gene regulation and implicated in numerous genetic diseases even in cancers. Although much effort has been devoted in microsatellite database construction, the existing microsatellite databases still had some drawbacks, such as limited number of species, unfriendly export format, missing marker development, lack of compound microsatellites and absence of gene annotation, which seriously restricted researchers to perform downstream analysis. In order to overcome the above limitations, we developed PSMD (Pan‐Species Microsatellite Database, http://big.cdu.edu.cn/psmd/ ) as a web‐based database to facilitate researchers to easily identify microsatellites, exploit reliable molecular markers and compare microsatellite distribution pattern on genome‐wide scale. In current release, PSMD comprises 678,106,741 perfect microsatellites and 43,848,943 compound microsatellites from 18,408 organisms, which covered almost all species with available genomic data. In addition to interactive browse interface, PSMD also offers a flexible filter function for users to quickly gain desired microsatellites from large data sets. PSMD allows users to export GFF3 formatted file and CSV formatted statistical file for downstream analysis. We also implemented an online tool for analysing occurrence of microsatellites with user‐defined parameters. Furthermore, Primer3 was embedded to help users to design high‐quality primers with customizable settings. To our knowledge, PSMD is the most extensive resource which is likely to be adopted by scientists engaged in biological, medical, environmental and agricultural research.     

Impairment of hepatitis B virus virion secretion by single-amino-acid substitutions in the small envelope protein and rescue by a novel glycosylation site

Mutations in the S region of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) envelope gene are associated with immune escape, occult infection, and resistance to therapy. We previously identified naturally occurring mutations in the S gene that alter HBV virion secretion. Here we used transcomplementation assay to confirm that the I110M, G119E, and R169P mutations in the S domain of viral envelope proteins impair virion secretion and that an M133T mutation rescues virion secretion of the I110M and G119E mutants. The G119E mutation impaired detection of secreted hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), suggesting immune escape. The R169P mutant protein is defective in HBsAg secretion as well and has a dominant negative effect when it is coexpressed with wild-type envelope proteins. Although the S domain is present in all three envelope proteins, the I110M, G119E, and R169P mutations impair virion secretion through the small envelope protein. Conversely, coexpression of just the small envelope protein of the M133T mutant could rescue virion secretion. The M133T mutation could also overcome the secretion defect caused by the G145R immune-escape mutation or mutation at N146, the site of N-linked glycosylation. In fact, the M133T mutation creates a novel N-linked glycosylation site ((131)NST(133)). Destroying this site by N131Q/T mutation or preventing glycosylation by tunicamycin treatment of transfected cells abrogated the effect of the M133T mutation. Our findings demonstrate that N-linked glycosylation of HBV envelope proteins is critical for virion secretion and that the secretion defect caused by mutations in the S protein can be rescued by an extra glycosylation site.     

Research progress on the immune mechanism of the silkworm Bombyx mori

The silkworm Bombyx mori L., representing an important economic insect and one of the best models for studying insect immunity, possesses an efficient and sophisticated innate immune system against invasive microorganisms. The innate immune system basically includes humoural immunity and cellular immunity. The humoural immunity, which functions via molecules including humoural factors, lysozymes, phenoloxidase, hemolin, lectins and, in particular, antimicrobial peptides, plays a central role in eliminating the invading pathogens. The cellular immunity is primarily carried out and mediated by plasmatocytes and granular cells of haemocytes in the haemolymph, usually followed by melanization. Additionally, apoptosis, a primary viral defence for insects lacking adaptive immunity, comprises an important part of the silkworm immune system. Currently, there is still the lack of a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the molecular mechanisms of silkworm immunity. We review the latest research progress on silkworm immune mechanisms, including phenoloxidase‐dependent melanization and apoptosis, which is conducive to improving our understanding of the silkworm immune mechanism, clarifying the relationship of various immune mechanisms, and also providing a theoretical basis and reference for the future research of insect immunity.     

颈槽蛇的地理变异

地理变异是蛇类中较为常见的现象。颈槽蛇Rhabdophis nuchalis在中国具有广泛的地理分布,是研究地理变异的理想物种。统计分析采自中国各地的61号颈槽蛇标本外部形态特征,对其地理变异模式进行了研究。结果表明:来自云南省高黎贡山的种群与其他种群在眶后鳞数、腹鳞数、上唇鳞黑纹的数量和后颔片间是否有小鳞等形态特征上的差异有统计学意义。     

A Sequential Quantitative Trait Locus Fine-Mapping Strategy Using Recombinant-Derived Progeny

A thorough understanding of the quantitative trait loci(QTLs)that underlie agronomically important traits in crops would greatly increase agricultural productivity.Although advances have been made in QTL cloning,the majority of QTLs remain unknown because of their low heritability and minor contributions to phenotypic performance.Here we summarize the key advantages and disadvantages of current QTL fine-mapping methodologies,and then introduce a sequential QTL fine-mapping strategy based on both genotypes and phenotypes of progeny derived from recombinants.With this mapping strategy,experimental errors could be dramatically diminished so as to reveal the authentic genetic effect of target QTLs.The number of progeny required to detect QTLs atvarious R~2 values was calculated,and the backcross generation suitable to start QTL fine-mapping was also estimated.This mapping strategy has proved to be very powerful in narrowing down QTL regions,particularly minor-effect QTLs,as revealed by fine-mapping of various resistance QTLs in maize.Application of this sequential QTL mapping strategy should accelerate cloning of agronomically important QTLs,which is currently a substantial challenge in crops.     

Biological control of oilseed rape Sclerotinia stem rot by Bacillus subtilis strain Em7

In the present study, the endophytic bacterium Bacillus subtilis strain Em7 (GU258545.1) was evaluated as a biological control agent for Sclerotinia sclerotiorum on oilseed rape. In petri dish, strain Em7 not only strongly inhibited pathogen mycelium growth but also germination of sclerotia at concentrations between 10⁹ and 10¹¹ colony forming unit (CFU)·ml^?1. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy studies revealed that in the presence of strain Em7, hyphae of S. sclerotiorum showed leakage and disintegration of hyphal cytoplasm. Furthermore, the strain Em7 showed a broad antifungal spectrum on mycelium growth of numerous important plant pathogenic fungi. Light microscopic observations revealed that strain Em7 caused morphological alterations including increased branching, swelling and collapse of cytoplasm. In the greenhouse, spray treatments of cell suspensions of strain Em7 (1×10⁹ CFU·ml^?1) reduced leaf and stem rot incidence and severity in the seedling and blossom stage. The control efficacy was higher when strain Em7 cell suspension was applied one day prior to inoculation of the pathogen than after inoculation. Three-year field trials showed that two applications of strain Em7 cell suspension at blossom stage significantly reduced disease incidence and severity by 50–70%. There was no significant difference in control efficacy among treatments with strain Em7 cell suspension and the fungicides containing carbendazim or tebuconazole (P = 0.05). Thus, our results strongly suggest that B. subtilis strain Em7 is a promising biological control agent for control of oilseed rape Sclerotinia stem rot.     

高通量测序技术及其在微生物学研究中的应用

20世纪70年代发明的核酸测序技术为基因组学及其相关学科的发展做出了巨大贡献,本世纪初发展的以Illumina公司的HiSeq 2000,ABI公司的SOLID,和Roche公司的454技术为代表的高通量测序技术又为基因组学的发展注入了新活力.本文在阐述这些技术的基础上,着重讨论了新一代测序技术在微生物领域中的应用.