Use of silicone fluids in studies of cellular amino acids

In numerous cellular studies, cells labeled with radioisotopes have been separated from the labeling medium by an aqueous solution in order to determine the quantity of internalized labels; however, the aqueous wash tends to remove significant labeling from the cells. Therefore, in order to preserve all of the internalized labels, non-aqueous medium such as silicone fluids may be used. The termination of the labeling is achieved in the silicone method when, upon centrifugation, the cells separate from the medium and enter the silicone fluid to sediment to the tube bottom. This sedimentation of cells placed above a layer of silicone fluid exhibits a critical dependence on the centrifugal force, and gives rise to an uncertainty of only 2 s in determining the time of separation of cells from the medium using General Electric F-50 silicone fluid and a modified Beckman J2-21 centrifuge. It is therefore possible to determine the kinetics of incorporation of labeled amino acids into intracellular pools and proteins. In particular, since this silicone wash method determines the size of the total pool and the aqueous wash method determines the size of the acid-extractable pool, the simultaneous measurements of the size of both pools leads to the determination of the kinetics of labeling of the free amino acid pool. Among many possible applications and extensions of these methods, the studies of formation of intracellular pools and relations among different pools of transported molecules, such as water and amino acids, appear promising.     

贵州六盘水发现东阳江麝鼩

在贵州省六盘水市杨梅乡慕尼克村,利用陷阱法捕捉到3号麝鼩属(Crocidura)标本。本次采集标本的体形较小,头体长(49.0 ± 0.8)mm,尾长[(41.8 ± 4.2)mm]略短于头体长(尾长/头体长为85%)。背毛呈浅灰褐色,腹毛颜色浅于背毛,呈灰色。尾部双色,背侧黑褐色,腹侧淡于背侧。前足背部白色,后足则为淡灰色。尾近乎裸露,尾基约1/3着生稀疏白色长毛。颅全长(15.92 ± 0.55)mm,脑颅高(4.75 ± 0.18)mm。上门齿1枚,有一长而大的前尖和一小而矮的后尖。上单尖齿3枚,第1单尖齿最大,第2单尖齿略大于第3单尖齿,1枚第四前臼齿(P4),3枚臼齿。上述特征与东阳江麝鼩(C. dongyangjiangensis)模式标本的描述和鉴定特征基本一致,因此将3号采集标本鉴定为东阳江麝鼩。基于Cyt b基因进行分子系统发育分析,采集标本与麝鼩属物种中的东阳江麝鼩遗传距离最近,在0.004 ~ 0.027之间。系统发生树显示,3号标本与东阳江麝鼩构成一个单系进化分支,进一步证实本次采集的3号标本是东阳江麝鼩,为贵州省分布新记录种。     

海南省常见植物根围巨孢霉目丛枝菌根真菌

报道了从海南岛常见植物根围土壤中分离获得的巨孢霉目丛枝菌根真菌23种,分别属于Gigaspora、Scutellospora、Dentiscutata、Racocetra、Quatunica、Cetraspora等6个属,其中Dentiscutata hawaiiensis和Dentiscutata nigerita为中国新记录种。     

重寄生真菌盾壳霉pH信号通路中Pal相关基因的功能鉴定

【目的】研究pH信号通路(Pal)在重寄生真菌盾壳霉与寄主核盘菌互作过程中的作用。【方法】从盾壳霉全基因组信息中分析获得了6个Pal相关基因CmpalA、CmpalB、CmpalC、CmpalF、CmpalH和CmpalI的全编码序列和氨基酸序列,通过PEG介导的原生质转化技术获得了CmpalA、CmpalB、CmpalC、CmpalF和CmpalH等5个基因的敲除突变体,分析这些敲除突变体与野生型在菌落培养性状、重寄生能力、降解草酸能力、产生抗真菌物质能力等方面的差异。【结果】与野生型相比,在pH 6–8的条件下,5个Pal相关基因敲除突变体的菌丝生长受到显著抑制,这说明缺失Pal相关基因使盾壳霉对高pH值环境更加敏感。菌核重寄生试验发现5个Pal相关基因敲除突变体的重寄生能力均显著低于野生型。qRT-PCR试验结果表明,敲除Pal相关基因之后导致重寄生相关酶基因Cmch1、Cmg1和Cmsp1的表达量显著降低,而且pH信号通路下游的CmpacC基因的表达量也显著降低。Pal相关基因敲除突变体在pH 6条件下对草酸盐的降解能力显著高于野生型,同时这5个突变体在pH 8条件下产生抗真菌物质能力也显著高于野生型。【结论】pH信号通路相关基因的缺失影响盾壳霉对环境pH的响应。pH信号通路在盾壳霉与核盘菌互作中发挥重要作用,不仅影响盾壳霉的重寄生作用,而且还影响盾壳霉的草酸降解作用和抗真菌作用。     

对TMV不同抗性番茄品种的叶绿体DNA限制性内切酶酶谱分析

选用对TMV有抗性和敏感的番茄品种、制备其ct-DNA, 用限制性内切酶BumHI、EcoRI和PstI完全酶解, 三种酶切图谱与前人报道一致, 由酶切片段计算番茄ct-DNA。分子量约为156.9kb。比较抗性和敏感品种的ct-DNA图谱, 发现三种酶切图谱均存在差异, 但由差异片段计算分子量之和又很除近。我们推测这是由于检基顺序变异或小段DNA顺序插入或缺失所造成, 由此证明, 叶绿体基因组与核中的TMV抗性基因, 共同决定着植物体对TMV的抗性。     

Mitofusin 2 Protects Hepatocyte Mitochondrial Function from Damage Induced by GCDCA

Mitochondrial impairment is hypothesized to contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic cholestatic liver diseases. Mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) regulates mitochondrial morphology and signaling and is involved in the development of numerous mitochondrial-related diseases; however, a functional role for Mfn2 in chronic liver cholestasis which is characterized by increased levels of toxic bile acids remain unknown. Therefore, the aims of this study were to evaluate the expression levels of Mfn2 in liver samples from patients with extrahepatic cholestasis and to investigate the role Mfn2 during bile acid induced injury in vitro. Endogenous Mfn2 expression decreased in patients with extrahepatic cholestasis. Glycochenodeoxycholic acid (GCDCA) is the main toxic component of bile acid in patients with extrahepatic cholestasis. In human normal hepatocyte cells (L02), Mfn2 plays an important role in GCDCA-induced mitochondrial damage and changes in mitochondrial morphology. In line with the mitochondrial dysfunction, the expression of Mfn2 decreased significantly under GCDCA treatment conditions. Moreover, the overexpression of Mfn2 effectively attenuated mitochondrial fragmentation and reversed the mitochondrial damage observed in GCDCA-treated L02 cells. Notably, a truncated Mfn2 mutant that lacked the normal C-terminal domain lost the capacity to induce mitochondrial fusion. Increasing the expression of truncated Mfn2 also had a protective effect against the hepatotoxicity of GCDCA. Taken together, these findings indicate that the loss of Mfn2 may play a crucial role the pathogenesis of the liver damage that is observed in patients with extrahepatic cholestasis. The findings also indicate that Mfn2 may directly regulate mitochondrial metabolism independently of its primary fusion function. Therapeutic approaches that target Mfn2 may have protective effects against hepatotoxic of bile acids during cholestasis.     

猪尾鼠(Typhlomys cinereus) 广东省新纪录

We collected a specimen of Chinese Pygmy Dormouse (Typhlomys cinereus)from Nanling Nature Reserve in Guangdong Province in August 2012,analyzed the specimen’s morphological and skull indices,and compared them with the published data for other T. cinereus subspecies located throughout China. The skull of our specimen had four pairs of palatal holes:among them,the two posterior pairs merged together to form two large and long holes,and the posterior edge of the nasals was located vertically below the frontopremaxillary suture. Based on these two unique characteristics,we identified the specimen as the subspecies T. c. daloushanensis. This is the first time this species has been recorded in Guangdong Province.     

Evaluation of a high throughput toxicity biosensor and comparison with a Daphnia magna bioassay

A high throughput toxicity biosensor has been designed and constructed using recombinant Escherichia coli cells, containing stress specific promoters (recA, fabA, or katG) or constitutive promoters (lac) fused to luciferase genes originating from Vibrio fisheri. These genetically engineered cells were immobilized in 96 well plates. By optimizing cell immobilization conditions and the strains' response specificity to toxic chemicals, bioluminescent outputs decreased or increased dose-dependently upon adding test chemicals. However, to date the toxicity data obtained using this biosensor have not been compared with the results of other toxicity tests. Phenolics were chosen to evaluate the correlation between the LD50 and the EC50 (GC2) or EC120 (DPD2540) of Daphnia magna and E. coli, respectively. Toxicity data obtained from constitutive strains by bioluminescent level decrements were compared with the results from D. magna as a standard. LD50 values were used as parameters of D. magna toxicity and EC50 of EC120 values were used for the immobilized biosensor. In the DPD2540 test, phenolics, membrane damaging toxic chemicals, for testing immobilized stress specific bacterial strains trigger dose-dependant bioluminescence increase within specific concentration. Although the stress specific responsiveness from the strains could not be compared with D. magna's LD50 values, these responses offer additional information, such as upon the mode of toxic action in the sample, in addition to the cellular toxicity results as indicated by the EC50. This novel high throughput toxicity biosensor can be implemented to investigate the toxicity of any other soluble materials, and can be used as a standardization tool for the evaluation of toxicity.     

Inhibitory role of E2F-1 in the regulation of tumor suppressor p53 during DNA damage response

Appropriate regulation of DNA damage response is pivotal for maintaining genome stability. p53 as well as E2F-1 plays a critical role during DNA damage response, however, the physiological significance of their interaction has been elusive. In the present study, we found that E2F-1 has an inhibitory effect on p53 during adriamycin (ADR)-mediated DNA damage response. Upon ADR exposure, p53 and E2F-1 were markedly induced at protein and mRNA levels in p53-procifient U2OS and HCT116 cells, and formed a stable complex as examined by co-immunoprecipitation experiments. Of note, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments revealed that ADR-mediated induction coincides with the efficient recruitment of p53 and E2F-1 onto the promoters of p53-target genes, such as p21(WAF1) and BAX. Subsequent RT-PCR and luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that E2F-1 strongly attenuates p53-dependent transactivation of p53-target genes. Importantly, siRNA-mediated knockdown of E2F-1 stimulated apoptosis in response to ADR, which was associated with an accelerated response of p21(WAF1) and BAX. Collectively, our present findings suggest that E2F-1 participates in p53-mediated DNA damage response and might have a checkpoint function to limit overactive p53.     

Studies on Some Properties of the Apoplastic β-N-Acetyl-D-Hexosaminidase from Tomato Leaves

Some properties of the β-N-acetyl-D-hexosaminidase purified from intercellular fluid of tomato leaves after the plant was systematically infected by TMV (tobacco mosaic virus) were studied. When pNP β-D-GlcNAc (p nitrophenyl-N-aeetyl β-D-glucosaminide) or pNP β-D- GalNAc (p-nitrophenyl-N-acetyl-β-D galactosaminide) was used as the substrate, it showed the optical pH between 4. 8--5.0 and optical temperature between 44— 47℃. Studies of thermostabillty indicated that the enzyme had a biphasic denaturation curve. Using pNP-β-D-GIcNAc or pNP-β-D GalNAc as the substrate, the Km value of the enzyme was 0. 36 and 0. 67 mmol/L respectively. N acetyi-D glucosamine and N acetyl-D-galactosamine were competitive inhibitors of the enzyme activities. Ag+ and Hg2+ were sensitive inhibitors and Fe2+ . Fe3+ and Cu2+ were also inhibitors enzyme activities.