分子标记技术在灵长类繁殖行为研究中的应用——应用

分子标记(Molecular Marker)技术在这一领域中的应用主要集中于动物的性选择策略、交配策略、繁殖成功度等方面的研究.作为自然选择进化论的中心机理,种内的繁殖竞争一直是行为生物学最为关注的焦点之一[1～2].近年来关于灵长类繁殖行为一个引人入胜的主题就是优势等级(Dominance Rank)与繁殖成功率(Reproductive Success)相关性的探讨.     

异丙肾上腺素对心内神经节中肽能递质VIP影响

异丙肾上腺素是临床常用的心脏骤停的抢救药物。为了研究该药对心内神经节中肽能递质的影响,本文在大鼠皮下注射异丙肾上腺素５ｍｇ／ｋｇ,连续三天,后固定取心房后壁,用免疫组化结合图像分析,观察心内神经节中肽能递质ＶＩＰ的变化。对照组大鼠心内神经节中含有ＶＩＰ免疫反应（ＶＩＰ－ＩＲ）阳性神经纤维和胞体;实验组大鼠心内神经节中含有ＶＩＰ－ＩＲ阳性神经纤维和胞体呈不同程度增多。其中ＶＩＰ－ＩＲ阳性神经纤维积分光密度较对照组增加２５．３％,而神经胞体积分光密度只增加８．１％。结果提示：１．大鼠心内神经节中ＶＩＰ－ＩＲ阳性神经纤维可能有两个来源：即心内ＶＩＰ－ＩＲ阳性神经节细胞和心外副交感神经元;２．异丙肾上腺素对心脏的作用并非单一的直接作用,其中部分是通过影响心内神经节中肽能递质的变化而发挥间接作用。     

茶（Camellia sinensis Kuntze）离体培养体细胞胚胎发生的组织细胞学研究

以茶树叶片为外植体．以ＭＳ培养基附加４ｍｇ·Ｌ－１６－ＢＡ,２ｍｇ·Ｌ－１ＩＡＡ．３ｍｇ·Ｌ－１ＧＡ３和０．２—０．３％活性碳诱导出愈伤组织和胚状体,进一步形成小植株．切片观察表明．茶叶愈伤组织胚状体的发生,起源于愈伤组织表层及其内部的单个细胞和细胞团,胚状体发育顺序与合子胚大致相似．经球形胚、心形胚、鱼雷胚和子叶胚阶段．但发育过程中常有畸形胚出现．     

ceRNA network construction and comparison of gastric cancer with or without Helicobacter pylori infection

Gastric cancer (GC) is a lethal disease, and among its variety of etiological factors, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is the strongest risk factor. However, the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying H. pylori-related GC need further elucidation. We investigated the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network differences between H. pylori (+) and H. pylori (−) GC. The long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression data from 32 adjacent noncancerous samples and 18 H. pylori (+) and 141 H. pylori (−) stomach adenocarcinoma samples were downloaded from the TCGA database. After construction of lncRNA–miRNA–mRNA ceRNA networks of H. pylori (+) and H. pylori (−) GC, Panther and Kobas databases were used to analyze the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. Finally, survival analysis was used to discover the key genes. In H. pylori (+) GC, we identified a total of 1,419 lncRNAs, 82 miRNAs, and 2,501 mRNAs with differentially expressed profiles. In H. pylori (−) GC, 2,225 lncRNAs, 130 miRNAs, and 3,146 mRNAs were differentially expressed. Furthermore, three unique pathways (cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction, HIF-1 signaling pathway, and Wnt signaling pathway) were enriched in H. pylori (+) GC. According to the overall survival analysis, three lncRNAs (AP002478.1, LINC00111, and LINC00313) and two mRNAs (MYB and COL1A1) functioned as prognostic biomarkers for patients with H. pylori (+) GC. In conclusion, our study has identified the differences in ceRNA regulatory networks between H. pylori (+) and H. pylori (−) GC and provides a rich candidate reservoir for future studies.     

Cadherin-Mediated Cell Adhesion Is Critical for the Closing of the Mouse Optic Fissure

Coloboma is a congenital disease that contributes significantly to childhood blindness. It results from the failure in closing the optic fissure, a transient opening on the ventral side of the developing eye. Although human and mouse genetic studies have identified a number of genes associated with coloboma, the detailed cellular mechanisms underlying the optic fissure closure and coloboma formation remain largely undefined. N-cadherin-mediated cell adhesion has been shown to be important for the optic fissure closure in zebrafish, but it remains to be determined experimentally how cell-cell adhesions are involved in the mammalian optic fissure closing process. α-catenin is required for cell adhesion mediated by all of the classic cadherin molecules, including N-cadherin. In this study, we used the Cre-mediated conditional knockout technique to specifically delete α-catenin from the developing mouse eye to show that it is required for the successful closing of the optic fissure. In α-catenin conditional mutant optic cups, the major cell fates, including the optic fissure margin, neural retina and retinal pigmented epithelium, are specified normally, and the retinal progenitor cells proliferate normally. However, adherens junctions components, including N-cadherin, β-catenin and filamentous actin, fail to accumulate on the apical side of α-catenin mutant retinal progenitor cells, where adherens junctions are normally abundant, and the organization of the neural retina and the optic fissure margin is disrupted. Finally, the α-catenin mutant retina gradually degenerates in the adult mouse eye. Therefore, our results show that α-catenin-mediated cell adhesion and cell organization are important for the fissure closure in mice, and further suggest that genes that regulate cell adhesion may underlie certain coloboma cases in humans.     

Relaxed Evolution in the Tyrosine Aminotransferase Gene Tat in Old World Fruit Bats (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae)

Frugivorous and nectarivorous bats fuel their metabolism mostly by using carbohydrates and allocate the restricted amounts of ingested proteins mainly for anabolic protein syntheses rather than for catabolic energy production. Thus, it is possible that genes involved in protein (amino acid) catabolism may have undergone relaxed evolution in these fruit- and nectar-eating bats. The tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT, encoded by the Tat gene) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the tyrosine catabolic pathway. To test whether the Tat gene has undergone relaxed evolution in the fruit- and nectar-eating bats, we obtained the Tat coding region from 20 bat species including four Old World fruit bats (Pteropodidae) and two New World fruit bats (Phyllostomidae). Phylogenetic reconstructions revealed a gene tree in which all echolocating bats (including the New World fruit bats) formed a monophyletic group. The phylogenetic conflict appears to stem from accelerated TAT protein sequence evolution in the Old World fruit bats. Our molecular evolutionary analyses confirmed a change in the selection pressure acting on Tat, which was likely caused by a relaxation of the evolutionary constraints on the Tat gene in the Old World fruit bats. Hepatic TAT activity assays showed that TAT activities in species of the Old World fruit bats are significantly lower than those of insectivorous bats and omnivorous mice, which was not caused by a change in TAT protein levels in the liver. Our study provides unambiguous evidence that the Tat gene has undergone relaxed evolution in the Old World fruit bats in response to changes in their metabolism due to the evolution of their special diet.     

未培养环境微生物培养方法的研究进展

自然界中微生物种类繁多、功能多样、分布广泛,对人类健康安全、生态稳定和物种进化等发挥不可替代的作用。尽管微生物培养技术至今已有一百多年,然而由于各种限制因素的制约,目前成功分离培养的微生物仅占0.1%-1.0%,自然界中仍有十分丰富的微生物资源有待挖掘和开发利用。如何理解难培养微生物的制约因素并探索作用机制,同时借此开发新型微生物培养方法则尤为必要。本文首先分析了典型环境微生物生长的限制因素,然后介绍了目前利用传统培养改进措施进行分离筛选的研究成果,进一步综述了原位培养、共培养、微流控培养技术、细胞分选技术等新型培养技术在难培养微生物分离培养中的应用,最后对目前培养法存在的瓶颈问题进行深入分析,提出今后可在多技术联合使用、难培养微生物复苏机制、微生物互作机制、代谢途径与调控机制等方面进行研究,以期为今后微生物资源开发利用提供借鉴。     

地质封存二氧化碳与深地微生物相互作用研究进展

地质封存将工业和能源相关领域生产活动产生的二氧化碳（CO₂）进行捕集并注入到深部地下岩石构造中,以实现长期储存的目标,是降低温室气体排放、实现CO₂长期封存的重要可行性手段之一。向深部地下地质构造中注入大量CO₂会导致深地环境发生显著变化,进而引起原生微生物活性及群落结构发生明显改变。因此,地质封存CO₂能够直接或间接影响深地微生物驱动的生物地球化学过程。同时,微生物在短期和长期的超临界CO₂（scCO₂）胁迫作用下,也会通过不同的适应性进化方式影响CO₂在地下环境中的迁移、转化和赋存形态。本文介绍了国内外二氧化碳捕获与封存发展现状以及地质封存CO₂影响条件下的scCO₂-水-微生物-矿物的相互作用领域的最新科研进展,并展望了利用深地微生物强化CO₂固定以及将其转化为高附加值产物的潜力。