RNF7 promotes glioma growth via the PI3K/AKT signalling axis

RNF7 has been reported to play critical roles in various cancers. However, the underlying mechanisms of RNF7 in glioma development remain largely unknown. Herein, the expression level of RNF7 was examined in tissues by quantitative real-time PCR, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. The effect of RNF7 on glioma progression was measured by performing CCK-8 and apoptosis assays, cell cycle-related experiments and animal experiments. The effect of RNF7 on PI3K/AKT signalling pathway was tested by Western blotting. First, we found that RNF7 was upregulated in tumour tissue compared with normal brain tissue, especially in high-grade glioma, and the high expression of RNF7 was significantly related to tumour size, Karnofsky Performance Scale score and a poor prognosis. Second, RNF7 overexpression facilitated tumour cell cycle progression and cell proliferation and suppressed apoptosis. Conversely, RNF7 knockdown suppressed tumour cell cycle progression and cell proliferation and facilitated apoptosis. Furthermore, follow-up mechanistic studies indicated that RNF7 could facilitate glioma cell proliferation and cell cycle progression and inhibit apoptosis by activating the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway. This study shows that RNF7 can clearly promote glioma cell proliferation by facilitating cell cycle progression and inhibiting apoptosis by activating the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway. Targeting the RNF7/PI3K/AKT axis may provide a new perspective on the prevention or treatment of glioma.     

北部湾茅尾海无瓣海桑红树林地上生物量反演——基于XGBoost机器学习算法

无瓣海桑是广西从自治区外引进的外来红树林树种,采用定量化算法精确估算无瓣海桑地上生物量对红树林生态修复以及海洋蓝碳监测提供经验和方法。论文以广西茅尾海自然保护区无瓣海桑红树林为研究对象,以野外实测无瓣海桑红树林地上生物量数据和Sentinel-1/2卫星提取的后向散射数据、波段数据、植被指数数据和纹理指数数据为数据源,通过分析各遥感因子与实测红树林地上生物量之间的重要性关系,采用极端梯度提升(XGBoost)机器学习算法对比了不同的变量组合对模型精度的影响,最后基于优选的变量组合反演了无瓣海桑红树林的地上生物量。结果表明：(1)研究区无瓣海桑红树林实测树高范围为1.55—13.58m,平均值为8.37m,胸径范围为0.7—41cm,平均值为15.62cm;(2)通过XGBoost算法优选的21个特征变量组合模型拟合效果较好,其模型在测试阶段R²=0.7237,RMSE=21.70Mg/hm²。XGBoost算法反演研究区无瓣海桑地上生物量介于19.14—138.46Mg/hm²之间,平均值为51.92Mg/hm^...     

细菌吸附及转运芳香族化合物的研究进展

芳香族化合物是一类具有苯环结构的有机物,它们结构稳定,不易分解,并可通过食物链进行生物富集和生物放大,对生态环境及人类健康造成极大危害。细菌具有超强的分解代谢能力,能降解多环芳烃(polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs)等多种难降解芳香族污染物。吸附和转运是细菌进行芳香族化合物细胞内代谢的前提。虽然芳香族化合物的细菌降解已取得较为显著的研究进展,但吸附和转运机理仍不甚清楚。本文讨论了细菌对芳香族化合物的吸附有积极作用的细胞表面疏水性、生物被膜形成和细菌趋化性等影响因素,总结了FadL家族、TonB依赖性受体蛋白、OmpW家族等外膜转运系统和主要协同转运蛋白超家族(major facilitator superfamily, MFS)转运体、ATP结合盒(ATP-binding cassette, ABC)转运蛋白等内膜转运系统对该类化合物跨膜运输作用,并对跨膜转运机制进行了讨论和阐述,旨在为芳香族污染物的防控和治理提供一定理论参考。     

植物乳杆菌谷氨酸脱羧酶催化pH范围的理性改造及高效转化生产g-氨基丁酸

γ-氨基丁酸可由谷氨酸脱羧酶(glutamate decarboxylase, GAD)催化谷氨酸一步合成,反应体系成分简单、环境友好。然而,绝大多数GAD酶催化pH偏酸性且反应范围狭小,需要加入无机盐维持最适催化环境,增加了生产附加成分。此外,随着产物γ-氨基丁酸的生成,溶液pH会逐渐上升,不利于GAD酶的持续转化。本研究首先从实验室保藏的一株高产γ-氨基丁酸的植物乳杆菌(Lactobacillus plantarum)中克隆得到谷氨酸脱羧酶LpGAD,基于酶蛋白表面电荷修饰,选择9个位点进行定点突变及组合突变,酶学性质表征结果显示三突变体LpGAD^{S24R/D88R/Y309K}在催化pH区间内酶活力整体提高,尤其拓宽了在偏中性pH 6.0下的酶活,为野生酶的1.68倍。接下来,通过分子动力学模拟解析了酶活提高的机理。此外,将Lpgad与Lpgad^{S24R/D88R/Y309K}突变基因分别在谷氨酸棒杆菌(Corynebacterium glutamicum) E01中过表达,通过优化确定了摇瓶最适转化条件为反应温度40 ℃,菌体量OD₆₀₀=20,底物L-谷氨酸100.0 g/L,5-磷酸吡哆醛添加量为100 μmol/L。5 L发酵罐中,不调节pH,通过分批投料底物L-谷氨酸,γ-氨基丁酸产量高达402.8 g/L,较对照菌株提高了1.63倍。本研究成功拓宽了LpGAD的pH催化范围及酶活,提高了γ氨基丁酸的转化效率,为实现其规模化工业生产奠定了基础。     

LEP and LEPR are possibly a double-edged sword for wound healing

Wound healing is a complex and error-prone process. Wound healing in adults often leads to the formation of scars, a type of fibrotic tissue that lacks skin appendages. Hypertrophic scars and keloids can also form when the wound-healing process goes wrong. Leptin (Lep) and leptin receptors (LepRs) have recently been shown to affect multiple stages of wound healing. This effect, however, is paradoxical for scarless wound healing. On the one hand, Lep exerts pro-inflammatory and profibrotic effects; on the other hand, Lep can regulate hair follicle growth. This paper summarises the role of Lep and LepRs on cells in different stages of wound healing, briefly introduces the process of wound healing and Lep and LepRs, and examines the possibility of promoting scarless wound healing through spatiotemporal, systemic, and local regulation of Lep levels and the binding of Lep and LepRs.     

Testing the success of palaeontological methods in the delimitation of clam shrimp (Crustacea,Branchiopoda) on extant species

Fossil spinicaudatan taxonomy heavily relies on carapace features (size, shape, ornamentation) and palaeontologists have greatly refined methods to study and describe carapace variability. Whether carapace features alone are sufficient for distinguishing between species of a single genus has remained untested. In our study, we tested common palaeontological methods on 481 individuals of the extant Australian genus Ozestheria that have been previously assigned to ten species based on genetic analysis. All species are morphologically distinct based on geometric morphometrics (p ≤ 0.001), but they occupy overlapping regions in Ozestheria morphospace. Linear discriminant analysis of Fourier shape coefficients reaches a mean model performance of 93.8% correctly classified individuals over all possible 45 pairwise species comparisons. This can be further increased by combining the size and shape datasets. Nine of the ten examined species are clearly sexually dimorphic but male and female morphologies strongly overlap within species with little influence on model performance. Ornamentation is commonly species-diagnostic; seven ornamentation types are distinguished of which six are species-specific while one is shared by four species. A transformation of main ornamental features (e.g. from punctate to smooth) can occur among closely related species suggesting short evolutionary timescales. Our overall results support the taxonomic value of carapace features, which should also receive greater attention in the taxonomy of extant species. The extensive variation in carapace shape and ornamentation is noteworthy and several species would probably have been assigned to different genera or families if these had been fossils, bearing implications for the systematics of fossil Spinicaudata.     

东海带鱼的最适可捕规格

带鱼是中国东海的重要经济渔获种类,其可捕规格会随不同时期的捕捞强度而变化。为确定目前东海带鱼最适可捕规格,根据2016—2020年拖网、帆张网及延绳钓等主捕带鱼作业方式采集的带鱼样品和数据,利用FiSAT II软件对其生长、死亡参数进行估算,进而计算可捕规格。结果表明: 带鱼的拐点肛长、临界肛长、1龄鱼肛长分别为382.84、397.12、216.05 mm,50%带鱼性成熟肛长为230.38 mm,最小可捕肛长为219.23 mm。利用Beverton-Holt模型分析带鱼单位补充量渔获量可知,带鱼当前渔业参考点为:t_c=0.38 a,F=2.11,处于捕捞过度区域,并得出最适可捕肛长为364.64 mm。但过高的可捕规格会导致短期内带鱼产量急剧下降,渔民难以接受,因此,本研究综合考虑采用接近1龄鱼肛长与50%性成熟肛长作为最适可捕规格较为合适,即220 mm。     

用Reinecke盐液曝光计检测树冠内的光合有效辐射

1 引言 传统的植物光合生理生态研究中,多用照度计来测定光照指标,它以人眼对光亮度的响应特性为基础,与植物叶片对光照的响应曲线差异很大;而太阳光谱中只有400—700nm的波段才是光合有效辐射     

Current status and prospects of basic research and clinical application of mesenchymal stem cells in acute respiratory distress syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common and clinically devastating disease that causes respiratory failure. Morbidity and mortality of patients in intensive care units are stubbornly high, and various complications severely affect the quality of life of survivors. The pathophysiology of ARDS includes increased alveolar–capillary membrane permeability, an influx of protein-rich pulmonary edema fluid, and surfactant dysfunction leading to severe hypoxemia. At present, the main treatment for ARDS is mechanical treatment combined with diuretics to reduce pulmonary edema, which primarily improves symptoms, but the prognosis of patients with ARDS is still very poor. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are stromal cells that possess the capacity to self-renew and also exhibit multilineage differentiation. MSCs can be isolated from a variety of tissues, such as the umbilical cord, endometrial polyps, menstrual blood, bone marrow, and adipose tissues. Studies have confirmed the critical healing and immunomodulatory properties of MSCs in the treatment of a variety of diseases. Recently, the potential of stem cells in treating ARDS has been explored via basic research and clinical trials. The efficacy of MSCs has been shown in a variety of in vivo models of ARDS, reducing bacterial pneumonia and ischemia-reperfusion injury while promoting the repair of ventilator-induced lung injury. This article reviews the current basic research findings and clinical applications of MSCs in the treatment of ARDS in order to emphasize the clinical prospects of MSCs.