水稻根系响应镉胁迫的蛋白质差异表达

为探讨水稻根系对镉胁迫的分子生理响应,以抗镉水稻PI312777和镉敏感水稻IR24为材料,设置Cd~(2+)浓度为0、50和100μmol/L的水培试验,处理7 d后分析了水稻根系的蛋白质差异表达。结果表明,在镉胁迫下水稻PI312777和IR24根系有18个蛋白质发生了差异表达,其中的12个得到MALDI-TOF/MS鉴定。这些鉴定的蛋白功能可分四类:(1)与活性氧(ROS)胁迫相关的过氧化物酶(POD)、蛋氨酸腺苷转移酶(MAT)、类萌发素蛋白前体;(2)与谷胱甘肽(GSH)合成相关的S-腺苷甲硫氨酸合成酶(SAMS)、谷氨酰胺合成酶(GS)和谷氨酸脱氢酶(GDH);(3)与逆境胁迫相关的ABA胁迫诱导蛋白含HVA22域蛋白、ABA-胁迫-成熟诱导蛋白5(ASR5);(4)与细胞分裂调控相关的GTP结合核蛋白Ran-2。镉胁迫下SAMS和GTP结合核蛋白Ran-2在两种水稻根系均发生上调表达;MAT、POD、类萌发素蛋白前体和GS发生下调表达;依赖NADP-GDH、GDH和磷酸甘油酸变位酶在IR24根部均发生下调表达,在PI312777根部仅在100μmol/L Cd~(2+)处理发生下调表达;含HVA22域蛋白在PI312777根部上调表达,在IR24根部发生下调表达;ASR5在PI312777根部上调表达,在IR24根部的表达无显著差异;100μmol/L Cd~(2+)胁迫下60S酸性核糖体蛋白P0在水稻PI312777根部表达下调,在IR24根部表达上调。可见,镉胁迫使水稻根部ROS增加,形成氧化胁迫反应,造成毒害作用,而水稻根通过调节SAMS和GS提高GSH合成降低镉毒害。ASR5和HVA22蛋白等逆境胁迫蛋白的表达差异则是水稻品种间抗性差异的重要原因之一。     

The macroecology of infectious diseases: a new perspective on global‐scale drivers of pathogen distributions and impacts

Identifying drivers of infectious disease patterns and impacts at the broadest scales of organisation is one of the most crucial challenges for modern science, yet answers to many fundamental questions remain elusive. These include what factors commonly facilitate transmission of pathogens to novel host species, what drives variation in immune investment among host species, and more generally what drives global patterns of parasite diversity and distribution? Here we consider how the perspectives and tools of macroecology, a field that investigates patterns and processes at broad spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales, are expanding scientific understanding of global infectious disease ecology. In particular, emerging approaches are providing new insights about scaling properties across all living taxa, and new strategies for mapping pathogen biodiversity and infection risk. Ultimately, macroecology is establishing a framework to more accurately predict global patterns of infectious disease distribution and emergence.     

Microbulbifer hainanensis sp. nov., a moderately halopilic bacterium isolated from mangrove sediment

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek - A new bacterium was successfully isolated from a mangrove sediment sample in Haikou City, Hainan Province, China. The organism is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile...     

Covalently linking the Escherichia coli global anaerobic regulator FNR in tandem allows it to function as an oxygen stable dimer

Glutathione (GSH) serves as an important anti-oxidant in the brain by scavenging harmful reactive oxygen species that are generated during different molecular processes. The GSH level in the brain provides indirect information on oxidative stress of the brain. We report in vivo detection of GSH non-invasively from various brain regions (frontal cortex, parietal cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum) in bilateral hemispheres of healthy male and female subjects and from bi-lateral frontal cortices in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). All AD patients who participated in this study were on medication with cholinesterase inhibitors. Healthy young male (age 26.4±3.0) and healthy young female (age 23.6±2.1) subjects have higher amount of GSH in the parietal cortical region and a specific GSH distribution pattern (parietal cortex>frontal cortex>hippocampus ~ cerebellum) has been found. Overall mean GSH content is higher in healthy young female compared to healthy young male subjects and GSH is distributed differently in two hemispheres among male and female subjects. In both young female and male subjects, statistically significant (p=0.02 for young female and p=0.001 for young male) difference in mean GSH content is found when compared between left frontal cortex (LFC) and right frontal cortex (RFC). In healthy young female subjects, we report statistically significant positive correlation of GSH content between RFC and LFC (r=0.641, p=0.004) as well as right parietal cortex (RPC) and left parietal cortex (LPC) (r=0.797, p=0.000) regions. In healthy young male subjects, statistically significant positive correlation of GSH content was observed between LFC and LPC (r=0.481, p=0.032) regions. This statistical analysis implicates that in case of a high GSH content in LPC of a young male, his LFC region would also contain high GSH and vice versa. The difference in mean of GSH content between healthy young female control and female AD patients in RFC region (p=0.003) and difference in mean of GSH content between healthy young male control and male AD patients (p=0.05) in LFC region is found to be statistically significant. It is the first scientific report correlating alteration (in selective brain regions) of GSH level with clinical status of male and female subjects using non-invasive imaging technique.     

A Novel Immunodiagnostic Assay to Detect Serum Antibody Response against Selected Soluble Egg Antigen Fractions from Schistosoma japonicum

Background

Schistosomiasis japonica remains a real threat to public health in China. The currently used immunodiagnostic assays are sensitive and have a certain degree of specificity, however, they all use complex crude antigens, are based on detection of schistosome-specific antibodies, and have been shown to cross-react with other parasitic diseases. Therefore, these assays cannot be used to evaluate chemotherapy efficacy. The development of highly sensitive and highly specific immunodiagnostic techniques that can monitor the decline of antibodies specific for S. japonica will be extremely valuable as part of the ongoing strategy to control schistosomiasis in endemic areas. Here we report on the identification of unique fraction antigens of soluble egg antigen (SEA) to which the antibodies disappear 7 weeks after effective treatment. Furthermore, we use these SEA fractions to develop a modified assay with both high sensitivity and specificity.

Methodology/Principal Findings

SEA of S. japonicum was fractionated by electrophoresis using 7.5% SDS-PAGE under non-reducing conditions. The SEA fraction antigens to which antibodies were decreased soon after treatment were collected and used as the detection antigens to establish the FA-ELISA. Sera from patients with acute and chronic schistosomiasis infection, healthy people, and those with other parasitic diseases, were used to evaluate their sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, sera from patients with chronic schistosomiasis infection were evaluated before and after treatment at different time points to evaluate their chemotherapeutic efficacy.

Conclusion/Significance

We demonstrated that this novel FA-ELISA provided high sensitivity and specificity, with very low cross-reactivity, and can serve as an effective tool to determine the efficacy of chemotherapy against S. japonicum.     

Automatic non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy screening system based on color fundus image

Background

Non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy is the early stage of diabetic retinopathy. Automatic detection of non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy is significant for clinical diagnosis, early screening and course progression of patients.

Methods

This paper introduces the design and implementation of an automatic system for screening non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy based on color fundus images. Firstly, the fundus structures, including blood vessels, optic disc and macula, are extracted and located, respectively. In particular, a new optic disc localization method using parabolic fitting is proposed based on the physiological structure characteristics of optic disc and blood vessels. Then, early lesions, such as microaneurysms, hemorrhages and hard exudates, are detected based on their respective characteristics. An equivalent optical model simulating human eyes is designed based on the anatomical structure of retina. Main structures and early lesions are reconstructed in the 3D space for better visualization. Finally, the severity of each image is evaluated based on the international criteria of diabetic retinopathy.

Results

The system has been tested on public databases and images from hospitals. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system achieves high accuracy for main structures and early lesions detection. The results of severity classification for non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy are also accurate and suitable.

Conclusions

Our system can assist ophthalmologists for clinical diagnosis, automatic screening and course progression of patients.

     

猪2、7和8号染色体上影响血常规指标的数量性状基因座(QTL)检测

以3个品种（长白猪、大白猪、松辽黑猪）16个公猪家系共计368头仔猪组成资源群体,在猪2、7和8号染色体上共选取35个微卫星标记,采用基于线性混合模型的方差组分分析方法,对影响与猪白细胞、红细胞和血小板相关的共计18项血常规指标的数量性状基因座（quantitative trait loci,QTL）进行了检测．通过似然比检验,并以自由度为2的卡方分布作为检验统计量的分布,共发现22个在P〈5％水平下显著的QTL,其中在2号染色体上有9个,分别影响白细胞总数、中性粒细胞数、平均红细胞体积、血红蛋白含量、平均红细胞血红蛋白浓度、血小板总数、平均血小板体积、血小板分布宽度和血小板压积,在7号染色体有7个,分别影响白细胞总数、中性粒细胞数、平均红细胞血红蛋白浓度、血红蛋白含量、血小板总数、平均红细胞体积和红细胞分布宽度变异,在8号染色体上有6个,分别影响中性粒细胞百分比、淋巴细胞百分比、平均红细胞血红蛋白浓度、血小板总数、血小板压积和平均红细胞体积．为尽可能地避免由于多重检验所造成的假阳性率的升高,我们采用了控制假检出率（false discovery rate,FDR）的方法来对这22个QTL进行进一步检验,发现有14个达到FDR〈5％显著水平,其中又有9个达到FDR〈1％显著水平．     

Improved induction of antibodies against key neutralizing epitopes by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gp120 DNA prime-protein boost vaccination compared to gp120 protein-only vaccination

A major challenge in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) vaccine development is to elicit potent and broadly neutralizing antibodies that are effective against primary viral isolates. Previously, we showed that DNA prime-protein boost vaccination using HIV-1 gp120 antigens was more effective in eliciting neutralizing antibodies against primary HIV-1 isolates than was a recombinant gp120 protein-only vaccination approach. In the current study, we analyzed the difference in antibody specificities in rabbit sera elicited by these two immunization regimens using peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and a competitive virus capture assay. Our results indicate that a DNA prime-protein boost regimen is more effective than a protein-alone vaccination approach in inducing antibodies that target two key neutralizing domains: the V3 loop and the CD4 binding site. In particular, positive antibodies targeting several peptides that overlap with the known CD4 binding area were detected only in DNA-primed sera. Different profiles of antibody specificities provide insight into the mechanisms behind the elicitation of better neutralizing antibodies with the DNA prime-protein boost approach, and our results support the use of this approach to further optimize Env formulations for HIV vaccine development.