阳离子诱导大叶藻叶绿体膜中激发能在PSⅡ和PSⅠ之间分配变化的机理(英文)

用Ｃａ２＋ 和胰酶处理大叶藻（Ｚｏｓｔｅｒａ ｍ ａｒｉｎａ）叶绿体膜研究了其类囊体膜多肽成分与Ｍｇ２＋ 诱导其Ｃｈｌａ荧光和类囊体膜表面电荷变化之间的相互关系,观察到：１．在正常的叶绿体膜中,Ｍｇ２＋ 诱导ＰＳⅡ荧光强度的增高与其诱导类囊体膜表面电荷密度的降低密切相关;２．用Ｃａ２＋ 处理这种叶绿体膜,除去类囊体膜表面的３２～３４ ｋＤ多肽对Ｍｇ２＋ 诱导的上述现象无影响;３．如果用胰酶消化Ｃａ２＋ 处理过的叶绿体膜,进一步除去膜表面的２６ ｋＤ多肽,Ｍｇ２＋诱导的这些现象则全部消失。这些实验结果清楚地表明,在大叶藻的叶绿体膜中,类囊体膜表面的２６ ｋＤ 多肽是阳离子诱导这两种相关现象的特异性作用部位。对阳离子调节激发能在ＰＳⅡ和ＰＳⅠ之间分配的机理进行了讨论     

天津发现白额鹱

正2017年11月4日上午11时左右,在天津市北大港湿地自然保护区的万亩鱼塘(38°47′15.33″N,117°25′3.98″E,海拔3 m)观察到1只白额鹱(Calonectris leucomelas)飞过,并拍照记录。此后数日前往观察,均未能再看到此鸟。被观察到时,该白额鹱的飞行高度约60 m;当时同域空中有红嘴鸥(Chroicocephalus ridibumdus)、红嘴巨燕     

Crystal structures of Nipah and Hendra virus fusion core proteins

The Nipah and Hendra viruses are highly pathogenic paramyxoviruses that recently emerged from flying foxes to cause serious disease outbreaks in humans and livestock in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Bangladesh. Their unique genetic constitution, high virulence and wide host range set them apart from other paramyxoviruses. These characteristics have led to their classification into the new genus Henpavirus within the family Paramyxoviridae and to their designation as Biosafety Level 4 pathogens. The fusion protein, an enveloped glycoprotein essential for viral entry, belongs to the family of class I fusion proteins and is characterized by the presence of two heptad repeat (HR) regions, HR1 and HR2. These two regions associate to form a fusion-active hairpin conformation that juxtaposes the viral and cellular membranes to facilitate membrane fusion and enable subsequent viral entry. The Hendra and Nipah virus fusion core proteins were crystallized and their structures determined to 2.2 A resolution. The Nipah and Hendra fusion core structures are six-helix bundles with three HR2 helices packed against the hydrophobic grooves on the surface of a central coiled coil formed by three parallel HR1 helices in an oblique antiparallel manner. Because of the high level of conservation in core regions, it is proposed that the Nipah and Hendra virus fusion cores can provide a model for membrane fusion in all paramyxoviruses. The relatively deep grooves on the surface of the central coiled coil represent a good target site for drug discovery strategies aimed at inhibiting viral entry by blocking hairpin formation.     

Spatial distribution of Holcocerus hippophaecolus (Lepidoptera: Cossidae) pupae in a seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) stand

The seabuckthorn carpenter moth, Holcocerus hippophaecolus, which has a generation time of four years, is recently becoming one of the major pests of the seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) in Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shanxi, Ningxia and Shaanxi of China (Hua et al., 1990). The larvae of the H. hippophaecolus mainly damage the stems and roots of the seabuckthorn, and the mature larvae pupate in the soil. The spatial distribution of the pupae was analyzed by using biostatistics and geostatistics in order to effectively control the insect and further study the spatial distribution of the population. Results show that most of the pupae (90%) had an eclosion time span from early June to the end of July. The sex ratio of the pupae was nearly 1:1 in the woodland samples. In addition, 24.3% of the 971 trees investigated had pupae and it ranged from 0 to 4 per tree within a distance of 1.3 m from the base of the stem. 90% of the pupae were aggregated within a distance of 1 m from the base of the stem. The pupae show intense spatial aggregation in the sampled woodland which had an 11.1 m spatial dependence and a 90.7% intensity in the local spatial continuity. Moreover, the population presented an intensive spotted distribution and many aggregated spots were found in the woodlands. As for the relationship between grid size and variogram of the pupae, the variations in the range, the intensity of local spatial continuity and the sill were all very low or non-existent when the grid size was 5 m, 6 m or 7 m. Whereas, the value of the decisive coefficient was the biggest when the grid size was 5 m making it the ideal grid size.     

新疆玛纳斯热气泉免培养土壤细菌多样性分析

【目的】了解新疆玛纳斯热气泉土壤免培养细菌群落组成及多样性。【方法】采用免培养法直接从土壤样品中提取总DNA,利用细菌通用引物对土壤总DNA进行16S rDNA扩增,构建细菌16SrDNA文库。使用HaeⅢ限制性内切酶对阳性克隆进行限制性片段长度多态性分析(restriction fragment length polymorphism,RFLP),挑选具有不同酶切图谱的克隆进行测序、比对并构建16SrDNA系统发育树。【结果】从土壤细菌16S rDNA文库中随机挑选了170个阳性克隆,共得到29个不同的分类单元(operational taxonomic unit,OTU)。系统发育分析归为6个门:酸杆菌门(Acidobacteria)、放线菌门(Actinobacteria)、拟杆菌门(Bacteroidetes)、厚壁菌门(Firmicutes)、变形菌门(Proteobacteria)和浮霉菌门(Planctomycetes)。其中厚壁菌门(Firmicutes)为绝对优势类群,占整个细菌文库的71%。29个OTUs中有14条序列与GenBank中相关序列的相似性低于97%(序列长度约1.5kb),占序列总数的48%。【结论】热气泉土壤细菌种群多样性较低,但存在大量潜在细菌新种。     

植物异源多倍体进化中基因表达的变化

多倍化是植物物种进化的主要动力, 异源多倍体植物在形成早期发生着快速的基因表达变化。本文概述了异源多倍体植物中基因表达变化的特点, 包括基因的沉默、激活和部分同源基因表达水平的变化, 探讨了基因表达变化的分子机制和生物学意义, 并对研究中的问题进行了分析和展望。     

Impact of emotion on consciousness: positive stimuli enhance conscious reportability

Emotion and reward have been proposed to be closely linked to conscious experience, but empirical data are lacking. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a central role in the hedonic dimension of conscious experience; thus potentially a key region in interactions between emotion and consciousness. Here we tested the impact of emotion on conscious experience, and directly investigated the role of the ACC. We used a masked paradigm that measures conscious reportability in terms of subjective confidence and objective accuracy in identifying the briefly presented stimulus in a forced-choice test. By manipulating the emotional valence (positive, neutral, negative) and the presentation time (16 ms, 32 ms, 80 ms) we measured the impact of these variables on conscious and subliminal (i.e. below threshold) processing. First, we tested normal participants using face and word stimuli. Results showed that participants were more confident and accurate when consciously seeing happy versus sad/neutral faces and words. When stimuli were presented subliminally, we found no effect of emotion. To investigate the neural basis of this impact of emotion, we recorded local field potentials (LFPs) directly in the ACC in a chronic pain patient. Behavioural findings were replicated: the patient was more confident and accurate when (consciously) seeing happy versus sad faces, while no effect was seen in subliminal trials. Mirroring behavioural findings, we found significant differences in the LFPs after around 500 ms (lasting 30 ms) in conscious trials between happy and sad faces, while no effect was found in subliminal trials. We thus demonstrate a striking impact of emotion on conscious experience, with positive emotional stimuli enhancing conscious reportability. In line with previous studies, the data indicate a key role of the ACC, but goes beyond earlier work by providing the first direct evidence of interaction between emotion and conscious experience in the human ACC.     

Antifungal constituents from the Chinese moss Homalia trichomanoides

Bioautographic assay on TLC plates was adopted to guide the fractionation of the Et2O extract of Homalia trichomanoides (Hedw.) B. S. G., which led to the isolation of the novel p-terphenyl derivative trichomanin (= 4,4'-dihydroxy-1,1':4',1'-terphenyl-2',3',5',6'-tetrayl tetrakis(phenylacetate); 1), together with five known compounds: 3alpha-methoxyserrat-14-en-21beta-ol (2), 3beta-methoxyserrat-14-en-21beta-ol (3), 3beta-methoxyserrat-14-en-21-one (4), atranorin (5), and methyl 2,4-dihydroxy-3,6-dimethylbenzoate (6). Their structures were determined on the basis of spectral data (1D- and 2D-NMR, MS), X-ray crystallographic analysis, and chemical transformation. Compounds 3, 5, and 6 exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans, with minimum inhibitory doses (MID) of 2.0, 2.0, and 0.6 microg, respectively.     

Apoptosis,cytokine and chemokine induction by non-structural 1 (NS1) proteins encoded by different influenza subtypes

Background

Influenza pandemic remains a serious threat to human health. Viruses of avian origin, H5N1, H7N7 and H9N2, have repeatedly crossed the species barrier to infect humans. Recently, a novel strain originated from swine has evolved to a pandemic. This study aims at improving our understanding on the pathogenic mechanism of influenza viruses, in particular the role of non-structural (NS1) protein in inducing pro-inflammatory and apoptotic responses.

Methods

Human lung epithelial cells (NCI-H292) was used as an in-vitro model to study cytokine/chemokine production and apoptosis induced by transfection of NS1 mRNA encoded by seven infleunza subtypes (seasonal and pandemic H1, H2, H3, H5, H7, and H9), respectively.

Results

The results showed that CXCL-10/IP10 was most prominently induced (> 1000 folds) and IL-6 was slightly induced (< 10 folds) by all subtypes. A subtype-dependent pattern was observed for CCL-2/MCP-1, CCL3/MIP-1α, CCL-5/RANTES and CXCL-9/MIG; where induction by H5N1 was much higher than all other subtypes examined. All subtypes induced a similar temporal profile of apoptosis following transfection. The level of apoptosis induced by H5N1 was remarkably higher than all others. The cytokine/chemokine and apoptosis inducing ability of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 was similar to previous seasonal strains.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the NS1 protein encoded by H5N1 carries a remarkably different property as compared to other avian and human subtypes, and is one of the keys to its high pathogenicity. NCI-H292 cells system proves to be a good in-vitro model to delineate the property of NS1 proteins.