Lipolysis drives expression of the constitutively active receptor GPR3 to induce adipose thermogenesis

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Trichoderma harzianum strain SQR-T37 and its bio-organic fertilizer could control Rhizoctonia solani damping-off disease in cucumber seedlings mainly by the mycoparasitism

Damping-off disease is caused by Rhizoctonia solani and leads to serious loss in many crops. Biological control is an efficient and environmentally friendly way to prevent damping-off disease. Optical micrographs, scanning electron micrographs, and the determination of hydrolytic enzymes were used to investigate the antagonism of Trichoderma harzianum SQR-T37 (SQR-T37) against R. solani. Experiments were performed in pots to assess the in vivo disease-control efficiency of SQR-T37 and bio-organic fertilizer. The results indicate that the mycoparasitism was the main mechanism accounting for the antagonistic activity of SQR-T37. In one experiment, the population of R. solani was decreased from 10⁶ internal transcribed spacer (ITS) copies per gram soil to 10⁴ ITS copies per gram soil by the presence of the antagonist. In this experiment, 45% of the control efficiency was obtained when 8 g of SQR-T37 hyphae per gram soil was applied. In a second experiment, as much as 81.82% of the control efficiency was obtained when bio-organic fertilizer (SQR-T37 fermented organic fertilizer, BIO) was applied compared to only 27.27% of the control efficiency when only 4 g of SQR-T37 hyphae per gram soil was applied. Twenty days after incubation, the population of T. harzianum was 4.12 × 10⁷ ITS copies per gram soil in the BIO treatment, which was much higher than that in the previous treatment (8.77 × 10⁵ ITS copies per gram soil), where only SQR-T37 was applied. The results indicated that SQR-T37 was a potent antagonist against R. solani in a mycoparasitic way that decreased the population of the pathogen. Applying BIO was more efficient than SQR-T37 application alone because it stabilized the population of the antagonist.     

Long non‐coding RNA highly up‐regulated in liver cancer promotes epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition process in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an oral and maxillofacial malignancy that exhibits high incidence worldwide. In diverse human cancers, the long non‐coding RNA (lncRNA) highly up‐regulated in liver cancer (HULC) is aberrantly expressed, but how HULC affects OSCC development and progression has remained mostly unknown. We report that HULC was abnormally up‐regulated in oral cancer tissues and OSCC cell lines, and that suppression of HULC expression in OSCC cells not only inhibited the proliferation, drug tolerance, migration and invasion of the cancer cells, but also increased their apoptosis rate. Notably, in a mouse xenograft model, HULC depletion reduced tumorigenicity and inhibited the epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition process. Collectively, our findings reveal a crucial role of the lncRNA HULC in regulating oral cancer carcinogenesis and tumour progression, and thus suggest that HULC could serve as a novel therapeutic target for OSCC.     

The cell agglutination agent, phytohemagglutinin-L, improves the efficiency of somatic nuclear transfer cloning in cattle (Bos taurus)

One of the several factors that contribute to the low efficiency of mammalian somatic cloning is poor fusion between the small somatic donor cell and the large recipient oocyte. This study was designed to test phytohemagglutinin (PHA) agglutination activity on fusion rate, and subsequent developmental potential of cloned bovine embryos. The toxicity of PHA was established by examining its effects on the development of parthenogenetic bovine oocytes treated with different doses (Experiment 1), and for different durations (Experiment 2). The effective dose and duration of PHA treatment (150 microg/mL, 20 min incubation) was selected and used to compare membrane fusion efficiency and embryo development following somatic cell nuclear transfer (Experiment 3). Cloning with somatic donor fibroblasts versus cumulus cells was also compared, both with and without PHA treatment (150 microg/mL, 20 min). Fusion rate of nuclear donor fibroblasts, after phytohemagglutinin treatment, was increased from 33 to 61% (P < 0.05), and from 59 to 88% (P < 0.05) with cumulus cell nuclear donors. The nuclear transfer (NT) efficiency per oocyte used was improved following PHA treatment, for both fibroblast (13% versus 22%) as well as cumulus cells (17% versus 34%; P < 0.05). The cloned embryos, both with and without PHA treatment, were subjected to vitrification and embryo transfer testing, and resulted in similar survival (approximately 90% hatching) and pregnancy rates (17-25%). Three calves were born following vitrification and embryo transfer of these embryos; two from the PHA-treated group, and one from non-PHA control group. We concluded that PHA treatment significantly improved the fusion efficiency of somatic NT in cattle, and therefore, increased the development of cloned blastocysts. Furthermore, within a determined range of dose and duration, PHA had no detrimental effect on embryo survival post-vitrification, nor on pregnancy or calving rates following embryo transfer.     

利用葡萄糖废母液生产酒精的研究

选育出两株利用葡萄糖废母液生产酒精的菌株S_(995)和S_8。S_(095)用于70％母液和30％糖蜜混合连续酒精发酵,醪液中酒精份平均可达10.1％。S_8用于50％、70％母液和50％、30％玉米糖化醪混合生产酒精,醪液中酒精份可达12.37％(实验室数据)和10％(实际生产数据)。     

The role of the ubiquitin proteasome system in synapse remodeling and neurodegenerative diseases

The ubiquitin proteasome system is a potent regulatory mechanism used to control protein stability in numerous cellular processes, including neural development. Many neurodegenerative diseases are featured by the accumulation of UPS-associated proteins, suggesting the UPS dysfunction may be crucial for pathogenesis. Recent experiments have highlighted the UPS as a key player during synaptic development. Here we summarize recent discoveries centered on the role of the UPS in synapse remodeling and draw attention to the potential link between the synaptic UPS dysfunction and the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases.     

Inhibition of Filamin-A Reduces Cancer Metastatic Potential

Filamin-A cross-links actin filaments into dynamic orthogonal networks, and interacts with an array of proteins of diverse cellular functions. Because several filamin-A interaction partners are implicated in signaling of cell mobility regulation, we tested the hypothesis that filamin-A plays a role in cancer metastasis. Using four pairs of filamin-A proficient and deficient isogenic cell lines, we found that filamin-A deficiency in cancer cells significantly reduces their migration and invasion. Using a xenograft tumor model with subcutaneous and intracardiac injections of tumor cells, we found that the filamin-A deficiency causes significant reduction of lung, splenic and systemic metastasis in nude mice. We evaluated the expression of filamin-A in breast cancer tissues by immunohistochemical staining, and found that low levels of filamin-A expression in cancer cells of the tumor tissues are associated with a better distant metastasis-free survival than those with normal levels of filamin-A. These data not only validate filamin-A as a prognostic marker for cancer metastasis, but also suggest that inhibition of filamin-A in cancer cells may reduce metastasis and that filamin-A can be used as a therapeutic target for filamin-A positive cancer.     

Molecular genetic characterization of rice seed lipoxygenase 3 and assessment of its effects on seed longevity

Lipoxygenases (LOXs) are enzymes involved in lipid peroxidation. Here we reported the identification, molecular and functional characterization of the gene encoding rice (Oryza sativa L.) seed LOX3 (sLOX3). Via a map-based cloning strategy we identified Os03g0700400 as the candidate gene encoding sLOX3. Further functional complementary test and biochemical characterization of the recombinant Os03g0700400 protein verified the identification. The sLOX3 gene was highly expressed in roots, moderately in embryos and very weakly in leaves, leaf sheaths and stems. Transient expression experiment (in rice protoplasts) and subsequent laser confocal microscopic analysis demonstrated that the sLOX3 protein was localized into the cytosol. We next showed that overexpression of sLOX3 in a japonica sLOX3-normal rice cultivar, Wuyunjing 7 accelerated the decrease of seed germination ability when the seeds were routinely stored, which demonstrated that sLOX3 had a negative effect on seed longevity (storability). Meanwhile, an increased occurrence of embryo decay was observed in the same transgenic seeds, suggesting that sLOX3 might negatively affect seed longevity by facilitating colonization of particular seed pathogens. Our result forwarded the understanding of the effects of 9-LOX on rice seed longevity.     

Pyrosequencing Reveals Contrasting Soil Bacterial Diversity and Community Structure of Two Main Winter Wheat Cropping Systems in China

Microbes are key components of the soil environment, playing an important role in maintaining soil health, sustainability, and productivity. The composition and structure of soil bacterial communities were examined in winter wheat–rice (WR) and winter wheat–maize (WM) cropping systems derived from five locations in the Low-Middle Yangtze River plain and the Huang-Huai-Hai plain by pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicons. A total of 102,367 high quality sequences were used for multivariate statistical analysis and to test for correlation between community structure and environmental variables such as crop rotations, soil properties, and locations. The most abundant phyla across all soil samples were Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. Similar patterns of bacterial diversity and community structure were observed within the same cropping systems, and a higher relative abundance of anaerobic bacteria was found in WR compared to WM cropping systems. Variance partitioning analysis revealed complex relationships between bacterial community and environmental variables. The effect of crop rotations was low but significant, and interactions among soil properties, locations, and crop rotations accounted for most of the explained variation in the structure of bacterial communities. Soil properties such as pH, available P, and available K showed higher correlations (positive or negative) with the majority of the abundant taxa. Bacterial diversity (the Shannon index) and richness (Chao1 and ACE) were higher under WR than WM cropping systems.     

Single chain antibody displays glutathione S-transferase activity

Substrate binding and the subsequent reaction are the two principal phenomena that underlie the activity of enzymes, and many enzyme-like catalysts were generated based on the phenomena. The single chain variable region fragment of antibody 2F3 (scFv2F3) was elicited against hapten GSH-S-DN2phBu, a conjugate of glutathione (GSH), butyl alcohol, and 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB); it can therefore bind both GSH and CDNB, the substrates of native glutathione S-transferases (GSTs). It was shown previously that there is a serine residue that is the catalytic group of GST in the CDR regions of scFv2F3 close to the sulfhydryl of GSH. Thus, we anticipated that scFv2F3 will display GST activity. The experimental results showed that scFv2F3 indeed displayed GST activity that is equivalent to the rat-class GST T-2-2 and exhibited pH- and temperature-dependent catalytic activity. Steady-state kinetic studies showed that the Km values for the substrates are close to those of native GSTs, indicating that scFv2F3 has strong affinities for the substrates. Compared with some other GSTs, its kcat value was found to be low, which could be caused by the similarity between the GSH-S-DN2phBu and the reaction product of GSH and CDNB. These results showed that our approach to imitating enzymes is correct, which is that an active site may catalyze a chemical reaction when a catalytic group locates beside a substrate-binding site of a receptor. It is important to consider product inhibition in hapten design in order to obtain a mimic with a high catalytic efficiency.