微卫星DNA及其在鱼类中的应用

生物的遗传可变性和多态性是生物自组织管理中的重要一环,也正是这一环使得生物得以适应变化的环境,为了更有效的管理和利用生物资源,就必须在遗传多态的水平上对生物种群进行认识和分析。这种分析需要有遗传标记,即需要生物体的某些性状和物质,它们能够稳定的遗传且方式简单,可用以反映生物个体或群体的特征。尽管现在已经有一些分子水平的遗传标记方法可以采用,但是对于一些濒危物种的研究和保护而言,仍需要多态信息含量更大的分子标记体系。       

The intrinsic mechanisms underlying the maturation of programming sequential spikes at cerebellar Purkinje cells

Cerebellum is involved in the motion coordination and working memory, to which the programming of sequential spikes at Purkinje cells is essential. It is not clear about the intrinsic mechanisms underlying spike capacity and timing precision as well as their postnatal maturation. We investigated the programming and intrinsic property of sequential spikes at Purkinje neurons during postnatal development by whole-cell recording in cerebellar slices. Cerebellar Purkinje neurons demonstrate the increasing of spike capacity and timing precision, as well as the lowering of refractory periods and threshold potentials during the postnatal maturation. In addition, the correlation between spike parameters and intrinsic properties converts to be more linear. This postnatal plasticity of neuronal intrinsic properties improves the timing precision and capacity of spike programming at cerebellar Purkinje neurons.     

转基因高γ-亚麻酸大豆油抗肿瘤作用的研究

γ-亚麻酸(GLA)是人体和动物饮食中具有营养作用的重要的多烯不饱和脂肪酸,在大多数油料作物种子中不含有GLA,而含有其前体物亚油酸。△⁶-脂肪酸脱氢酶可将亚油酸转化为γ-亚麻酸,为了能够在传统的油料作物大豆中产生GLA,将从深黄被孢霉中克隆的△⁶-脂肪酸脱氢酶基因,与植物表达载体pBIl21连接,构建了重组质粒pBIM16,采用农杆菌介导的大豆子叶节转化系统,成功地将该基因导入到栽培大豆吉林47品种中,获得一批转基因植株。经PCR检测和Southern杂交分析,证明外源基因已导入并整合到大豆的基因组中。通过气相色谱(GC)对大豆种子进行脂肪酸成分分析,结果表明,产生了GLA,其含量最高可达36．585％。将高GLA的转基因大豆油口服给药,结果表明,其对小鼠S180肉瘤、肝癌H22和Ehrlich癌实体型的抑瘤率分别为32．63％、31．91％和34．34％。其肿瘤抑制率均>30％,与对照组比较有显著差异(p<0．01),表现初步的抗肿瘤作用。     

Modelling intravascular delivery from drug-eluting stents with biodurable coating: investigation of anisotropic vascular drug diffusivity and arterial drug distribution

In-stent restenosis occurs in coronary arteries after implantation of drug-eluting stents with non-uniform restenosis thickness distribution in the artery cross section. Knowledge of the spatio-temporal drug uptake in the arterial wall is useful for investigating restenosis growth but may often be very expensive/difficult to acquire experimentally. In this study, local delivery of a hydrophobic drug from a drug-eluting stent implanted in a coronary artery is mathematically modelled to investigate the drug release and spatio-temporal drug distribution in the arterial wall. The model integrates drug diffusion in the coating and drug diffusion with reversible binding in the arterial wall. The model is solved by the finite volume method for both high and low drug loadings relative to its solubility in the stent coating with varied isotropic–anisotropic vascular drug diffusivities. Drug release profiles in the coating are observed to depend not only on the coating drug diffusivity but also on the properties of the surrounding arterial wall. Time dependencies of the spatially averaged free- and bound-drug levels in the arterial wall on the coating and vascular drug diffusivities are discussed. Anisotropic vascular drug diffusivities result in slightly different average drug levels in the arterial wall but with very different spatial distributions. Higher circumferential vascular diffusivity results in more uniform drug loading in the upper layers and is potentially beneficial in reducing in-stent restenosis. An analytical expression is derived which can be used to determine regions in the arterial with higher free-drug concentration than bound-drug concentration.     

Intentionally introduced species: more easily invited than removed

Alien species are brought into countries world wide on a massive scale for agricultural production, ex situ conservation, landscape aesthetics, gardens, and ecosystem restoration. Unfortunately, some of these species have escaped and adversely impacted on regional as well as global biodiversity conservation and agricultural production. To reduce such risks, it is necessary to implement specific and effective measures. Since various government departments and institutions are involved in the management of alien species, it is difficult to prevent native and agroecosystems from being invaded by invited species. We propose the establishment of a supervision and inspection continuum over intentional species introduction, similar to that which exists in some countries over unintentional species introductions. Namely, a justification of the necessity to import, a risk assessment, assurances as to provision of an adequate containment facility assessment, and a damage-limitation protocol should that need to be invoked. These requirements should be satisfied before an alien species is knowingly imported, and the necessary follow-up supervision is important post- importation.     

Amplification, analysis and chromosome mapping of novel homeobox-containing and homeobox-flanking sequences in rice

Homeobox genes, widely distributed among animal and plant kingdoms, play an important role in developmental process. Several homeobox conserved fragments were amplified by PCR and the flanking regions were also obtained by an LM-PCR procedure. Sequencing and Southern analysis showed that they belong to a homeobox gene family of rice. Six homeobox-containing fragments were mapped on the molecular linkage map of rice. They were located on chromosomes 3, 4 and 7 respectively. It is noteworthy that there are 4 homeobox fragments located on rice chromosome 3 and the result is also consistent with the comparative genomics between rice and maize.     

Human adipose tissue is a source of multipotent stem cells

Much of the work conducted on adult stem cells has focused on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) found within the bone marrow stroma. Adipose tissue, like bone marrow, is derived from the embryonic mesenchyme and contains a stroma that is easily isolated. Preliminary studies have recently identified a putative stem cell population within the adipose stromal compartment. This cell population, termed processed lipoaspirate (PLA) cells, can be isolated from human lipoaspirates and, like MSCs, differentiate toward the osteogenic, adipogenic, myogenic, and chondrogenic lineages. To confirm whether adipose tissue contains stem cells, the PLA population and multiple clonal isolates were analyzed using several molecular and biochemical approaches. PLA cells expressed multiple CD marker antigens similar to those observed on MSCs. Mesodermal lineage induction of PLA cells and clones resulted in the expression of multiple lineage-specific genes and proteins. Furthermore, biochemical analysis also confirmed lineage-specific activity. In addition to mesodermal capacity, PLA cells and clones differentiated into putative neurogenic cells, exhibiting a neuronal-like morphology and expressing several proteins consistent with the neuronal phenotype. Finally, PLA cells exhibited unique characteristics distinct from those seen in MSCs, including differences in CD marker profile and gene expression.