重组SARS病毒N蛋白可与SARS患者血清发生特异反应

N蛋白是SARS CoV病毒基因组编码病毒核衣壳蛋白 ,它不同于现已知的任何蛋白质 .对它的深入研究对揭示SARS -CoV的致病机理和疫苗及诊断试剂的研制有重要意义 .灭活的病毒经逆转录后 ,用根据已知的病毒的基因组序列所设计的引物PCR扩增N蛋白基因 .扩增出的基因经序列分析表明和已知的序列完全一致 ,共编码 4 2 2个氨基酸残基 .将N蛋白基因克隆入原核表达载体pET2 8a构建成表达质粒pET2 8a N .表达质粒转化大肠杆菌BL2 1 (DE3) ,并用IPTG诱导后 ,获得了高表达N蛋白的重组菌株 .目的蛋白经一步金属离子螯合层析纯化后获得了纯度超过 90 %的样品 .Western印迹及ELISA分析表明 ,SARS患者体内有特异性的针对N蛋白的抗体 ,并具有较高的特异性 .这为临床上诊断SARS患者提供了新方法 ,并为SARS疫苗的研制提供了研究思路     

TNF‐α induces up‐regulation of MicroRNA‐27a via the P38 signalling pathway,which inhibits intervertebral disc degeneration by targeting FSTL1

The mechanism of intervertebral disc degeneration is still unclear, and there are no effective therapeutic strategies for treating this condition. miRNAs are naturally occurring macromolecules in the human body and have many biological functions. Therefore, we hope to elucidate whether miRNAs are associated with intervertebral disc degeneration and the underlying mechanisms involved. In our study, differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted by the GEO database and then confirmed by qPCR and in situ hybridization. Apoptosis of nucleus pulposus cells was detected by flow cytometry and Bcl2, Bax and caspase 3. Deposition of extracellular matrix was assessed by Alcian blue staining, and the expression of COX2 and MMP13 was detected by immunofluorescence, Western blot and qPCR. Moreover, qPCR was used to detect the expression of miR27a and its precursors. The results showed that miR27a was rarely expressed in healthy intervertebral discs but showed increased expression in degenerated intervertebral discs. Ectopic miR27a expression inhibited apoptosis, suppressed the inflammatory response and attenuated the catabolism of the extracellular matrix by targeting FSTL1. Furthermore, it seems that the expression of miR27a was up‐regulated by TNF‐α via the P38 signalling pathway. So we conclude that TNF‐α and FSTL1 engage in a positive feedback loop to promote intervertebral disc degeneration. At the same time, miR27a is up‐regulated by TNF‐α via the P38 signalling pathway, which ameliorates inflammation, apoptosis and matrix degradation by targeting FSTL1. Thus, this negative feedback mechanism might contribute to the maintenance of a low degeneration load and would be beneficial to maintain a persistent chronic disc degeneration.     

Shifting from population-wide to personalized cancer prognosis with microarrays

The era of personalized medicine for cancer therapeutics has taken an important step forward in making accurate prognoses for individual patients with the adoption of high-throughput microarray technology. However, microarray technology in cancer diagnosis or prognosis has been primarily used for the statistical evaluation of patient populations, and thus excludes inter-individual variability and patient-specific predictions. Here we propose a metric called clinical confidence that serves as a measure of prognostic reliability to facilitate the shift from population-wide to personalized cancer prognosis using microarray-based predictive models. The performance of sample-based models predicted with different clinical confidences was evaluated and compared systematically using three large clinical datasets studying the following cancers: breast cancer, multiple myeloma, and neuroblastoma. Survival curves for patients, with different confidences, were also delineated. The results show that the clinical confidence metric separates patients with different prediction accuracies and survival times. Samples with high clinical confidence were likely to have accurate prognoses from predictive models. Moreover, patients with high clinical confidence would be expected to live for a notably longer or shorter time if their prognosis was good or grim based on the models, respectively. We conclude that clinical confidence could serve as a beneficial metric for personalized cancer prognosis prediction utilizing microarrays. Ascribing a confidence level to prognosis with the clinical confidence metric provides the clinician an objective, personalized basis for decisions, such as choosing the severity of the treatment.     

Contributions of cysteine residues in Zn2 to zinc fingers and thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase activities of chaperone DnaJ

Escherichia coli DnaJ, possessing both chaperone and thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase activities, is a homodimeric Hsp40 protein. Each subunit contains four copies of a sequence of -CXXCXGXG-, which coordinate with two Zn(II) ions to form an unusual topology of two C4-type zinc fingers, C144DVC147Zn(II)C197NKC200 (Zn1) and C161PTC164Zn(II)C183PHC186 (Zn2). Studies on five DnaJ mutants with Cys in Zn2 replaced by His or Ser (C183H, C186H, C161H/C183H, C164H/183H, and C161S/C164S) reveal that substitutions of one or two Cys residues by His or Ser have little effect on the general conformation and association property of the molecule. Replacement of two Cys residues by His does not interfere with the zinc coordination. However, replacement of two Cys by Ser results in a significant decrease in the proportion of coordinated Zn(II), although the unique zinc finger topology is retained. The mutants of C183H, C186H, and C161S/C164S display full disulfide reductase activity of wild-type DnaJ, while C161H/C183H and C164H/183H exhibit severe defect in the activity. All of the mutations do not substantially affect the chaperone activity. The results indicate that the motif of -CXXC- is critical to form an active site and indispensable to the thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase activity of DnaJ. Each -CXXC- motif in Zn2 but not in Zn1 functions as an active site.     

魔芋无土栽培营养液配方研究初报

分别采用全MS、1/2MS、1/5MS、1/10MS(含大量元素、微量元素和铁盐)、1/10MS大量元素营养液(不含微量元素和铁盐)定期浇灌用蛭石栽培的不同级别的魔芋,前50d生长状况没有差异,50-80d以1/2MS-1/10MS营养液为佳,80-110d时1-5MS-1/10MS生长较好;魔芋在缺乏微量元素的营养液中后期生长不良,提前倒苗;产量分析结果表明:35g以上的种芋以1/2MS最高,35g以下的种芋以1/10MS最高,魔芋的耐盐浓度在2.25‰以下,高盐浓度对块茎的形成有毒害作用,造成产量大幅度下降,添加微量元素和铁有较好的增产作用。     

水稻插入突变库构建研究进展

水稻是单子叶植物基因组研究的一种模式植物 ,其全基因组测序已经完成 ,在此基础上开展功能基因组的研究。水稻插入突变体库的建立是功能基因组研究的一个重要内容 ,在此基础上也能进行正向遗传学及反向遗传学的研究。水稻插入突变体库构建的方法有T DNA插入突变、Ac Ds系统插入突变、Tos1 7插入突变。分别介绍三种方法的原理及其在水稻突变体库构建中的应用和研究进展。     

Characterization of rtSHSp13 gene encoding a development protein involved in vesicular traffic in spermiogenesis

A cDNA, designated as rtSH3p13, was isolated from a rat testis cDNA library. It consists of 1463 bp nuclear acids, which encodes a protein of 312 amino acids and was assigned the GenBank accession number AF227439. The deduced rtSH3p13 protein is a truncated isoform of SH3p13 as a result of mRNA alternative splicing. It is mainly expressed in the rat testis, detected in spermatids at the steps 8-19 of spermiogenesis, and found around the acrosome. During postnatal development, rtSH3p13 appears on day 18 and reaches maximum on day 60. Further experimental results suggested that rtSH3p13 forms a complex with activated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and interacts with synaptojanin I. Surprisingly, similar to SH3 domain, the V region of rtSH3p13 also inhibits endocytosis in CHO cells. Our results reveal a link between an rtSH3p13-synaptojanin-clathrin complex-mediated formation of pits and the process of spermiogenesis.     

白腹锦鸡,红腹锦鸡,中国雉鸡SC组型的比较研究

以微铺展—硝酸银染色技术制备三种鸡的SC标本,进行电镜观察。结果表明:三种鸡的SC组非常相似,即2n=82,ZZ/ZW型性别决定,雄性为ZZ。除1号SC和Z-SC为中着丝粒外,其余均为端着丝粒。Z-SC的相对长度有明显的细胞间差异;平均相对长度度介于第3和第4号SC之间。三者SC组型上的差异主要表现在相应SC长度上的不同。并对其亲缘关系及在鸟类进化中的可能地位进行了讨论。此外,在微铺展法制备的锦鸡精母细胞SC标本中还发现了巨大中心粒,这在高等动物尚属首次。