Putative phosphorylation sites on WCA domain of HA2 is essential for <Emphasis Type="Italic">Helicoverpa armigera</Emphasis> single nucleopolyhedrovirus replication

Protein phosphorylation is one of the most common post-translational modification processes that play an essential role in regulating protein functionality.The Helicoverpa armigera single nucleopolyhedrovirus (HearNPv) orf2-encoded nucleocapsid protein HA2 participates in orchestration of virus-induced actin polymerization through its WCA domain,in which phosphorylation status are supposed to be critical in respect to actin polymerization.In the present study,two putative phosphorylation sites (232Thr and 250Ser) and a highly conserved Serine (245Ser) on the WCA domain of HA2 were mutated,and their phenotypes were characterized by reintroducing the mutated HA2 into the HearNPV genome.Viral infectivity assays demonstrated that only the recombinant HearNPV bearing HA2 mutation at 245Ser can produce infectious virions,both 232Tbr and 250Ser mutations were lethal to the virus.However,actin polymerization assay demonstrated that all the three viruses bearing HA2 mutations were still capable of initiating actin polymerization in the host nucleus,which indicated the putative phosphorylation sites on HA2 may contribute to HearNPV replication through another unidentified pathway.     

Spindlin1, a novel nuclear protein with a role in the transformation of NIH3T3 cells

spindlin1, a novel human gene recently isolated by our laboratory, is highly homologous to mouse spindlin gene. In this study, we cloned cDNA full-length of this novel gene and send it to GenBank database as spindlin1 (Homo sapiens spindlin1) with Accession No. AF317228. In order to investigate the function of spindlin1, we studied further the subcellular localization of Spindlin1 protein and the effects of spindlin1 overexpression in NIH3T3 cells. The results showed that the fusion protein pEGFP-N1-spindlin1 was located in the nucleus and the C-terminal is correlated with nuclear localization of Spindlin1 protein. NIH3T3 cells which could stably express spindlin1 as a result of RT-PCR analysis compared with the control cells displayed a complete morphological change; made cell growth faster; and increased the percentage of cells in G2/M and S phase. Furthermore, overexpressed spindlin1 cells formed colonies in soft agar in vitro and formed tumors in nude mice. Our findings provide direct evidence that spindlin1 gene may contribute to tumorigenesis.     

miR-10a Regulates Proliferation of Human Cardiomyocyte Progenitor Cells by Targeting GATA6

microRNAs (miRNAs) play essential roles in cardiogenesis. The altered expression of miRNAs can result in cardiac malformations by inducing abnormalities in the behavior of cardiac cells. However, the role of miR-10a in the regulation of cardiomyocyte progenitor cells (CMPCs) remains undetermined. In the present study, we found that up- or down-regulation of miR-10a inhibited or promoted the proliferation of human CMPCs, respectively, without affecting their differentiation toward cardiomyocytes. miR-10a bound to GATA6 directly and reduced GATA6 expression. Over-expression of GATA6 greatly attenuated the miR-10a-mediated inhibitory effect on the proliferation of human CMPCs. Thus, our results indicate that miR-10a could effectively modulate the proliferation of human CMPCs by targeting GATA6. The finding provides novel insights into the potency of miR-10a during heart development.     

保护行为学: 正在兴起的保护生物学分支学科

过去的30年里, 人们利用动物行为的进化生物学方法来解决保护实践中遇到的问题, 行为学、行为生态学与保护生物学相结合, 产生了保护生物学的一个新分支学科--保护行为学。保护行为学的研究目的是: 从物种保护实践中发现环境对动物行为的影响以及行为的生态适应性, 并把动物行为学和行为生态学理论应用到物种保护实践中, 从而促进物种保护工作。目前全球有10%的物种濒临灭绝, 生物多样性保护日趋紧迫, 保护行为学的诞生为行为学和保护生物学研究带来了新的机遇, 也表明行为学家和保护生物学家正在担负起挽救濒危物种的使命。不久的将来, 保护行为学及其相关学科将更加繁荣。     

使用线性微分方程构建初步的乳腺癌转移相关基因网络模型

随着基因芯片的技术的推广,越来越多的表达数据需要被处理和分析．利用这些表达数据提取基因调控矩阵从而构建基因网络是一个重要的问题．通过线性微分方程模型可以初步构建基因网络,了解网络结构,提取最显著的信息．然而由于分子生物学的条件限制或者数据来源的限制,导致实验数据不充分,使方程组无解．本文使用三次样条方法,对26例临床、病理资料完备的具有淋巴结转移的乳腺癌基因表达数据进行插值处理,使表达数据满秩,从而使用最小二乘法解出加权矩阵,构建初步的表达基因调控网络．通过对构建的基因网络的初步分析表明:乳腺癌转移的形成是由多基因异常引起多条传导通路异常,致使细胞恶性转化的结果,这与生物学上公认的看法是相一致的．因此,利用此线性模型方法对基因表达谱进行分析兵有一定可行性,在认识乳腺癌转移机制,乳腺癌诊断和治疗方面具有一定的理论和应用价值．     

Effects of rare earth elements on telomerase activity and apoptosis of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells

To study the effects of rare earth exposure on human telomerase and apoptosis of mononuclear cells from human peripheral blood (PBMNCs). The blood contents of 15 rare earth elements, including La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, and Y, were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay and flow cytometer analysis were carried out to analyze the telomerase activity and apoptosis of PBMNCs, respectively. The total content of rare earth elements in the blood showed significant differences between the exposed group and the control group. The rare earth exposure increased the telomerase activity and the percentages of cells in the S-phase and the G₂/M phase in PBMNCs, but it had no effect on the apoptotic rate of PBMNCs. Under the exposure to lower concentrations of rare earth elements, the telomerase activity of PBMNCs in the exposed group was higher than that of the control group, and there was no effect on the apoptotic rate of PBMNCs, but promoted the diploid DNA replication and increased the percentages of G₂/M- and S-phase cells.     

Top-down modulations from dorsal stream in lexical recognition: an effective connectivity FMRI study

Both the ventral and dorsal visual streams in the human brain are known to be involved in reading. However, the interaction of these two pathways and their responses to different cognitive demands remains unclear. In this study, activation of neural pathways during Chinese character reading was acquired by using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique. Visual-spatial analysis (mediated by the dorsal pathway) was disassociated from lexical recognition (mediated by the ventral pathway) via a spatial-based lexical decision task and effective connectivity analysis. Connectivity results revealed that, during spatial processing, the left superior parietal lobule (SPL) positively modulated the left fusiform gyrus (FG), while during lexical processing, the left SPL received positive modulatory input from the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and sent negative modulatory output to the left FG. These findings suggest that the dorsal stream is highly involved in lexical recognition and acts as a top-down modulator for lexical processing.     

基于生态效率理论和TOPSIS法的工业园区循环经济发展评价

工业园区层面的生态效率评价是生态效率研究领域有待深入探索的课题。TOPSIS方法则可能是适用于生态效率评价的一种方法,它以空间统计学为基础,借助于多目标决策问题的理想解和负理想解来进行排序,能够客观地比较和评价不同样本点综合指标的优劣。本文根据生态效率和循环经济理论,结合《综合类生态工业园区标准（试行）》,建立工业园区循环经济评价指标体系,运用TOPSIS方法对苏州高新区、苏州工业园区生态工业园和无锡新区生态工业示范园区的生态效率进行综合评价,结果表明：三者的生态效率综合排名由高到低依次为：无锡新区生态工业示范园区> 苏州工业园区生态工业园> 苏州高新区,且3园区在经济发展、资源能源利用率、物质循环利用、环境污染控制等子系统有所优劣。并针对各园区的各自存在的不足提出了相应的改进和发展建议。     

华北地区汉族的Lewis、ABO、MN、Rh、P等血型系统和ABH分泌型的分布

调查了原籍华北地区汉族的ABO、Lewis、MN、Rh、P等血型系统和ABH分泌型的分布,结果表明:O型(33.44％)和B型(29.38％)较多;N型(27.97％)略多于M型(27.65％);Le(a )型的频率很高(24.17％)。在94人中还发现四名Le(a )型属于ABH分泌型,且都属于分泌A或B血型物质的类型,无一例为分泌H血型物质的类型;Rh(D)阴性率仅0.3％,CCDee和CcDE型占75％以上;P_1( )型占39.1％;ABH分泌型占72％,低于全国其他民族中已知的分布。