微量注射抗TGF_β-1抗体对爪蟾发育的影响

注射抗TGF_β-1抗体至2细胞胚胎的一个裂球中,产生了三个级别的卵黄团外露畸型胚胎,YE-1、YE-2和YE-3。它们的产生与抗体的注射量有关。它们的共同特征是注射后胚胎能正常发育至囊胚,卵黄团在注射一侧外露,外露部分无任何中胚层组织。高剂量注射时,主要产生YE-1级别的畸型胚胎,其中大部分在注射侧从头至尾不存在肌肉组织,中胚层发育受到了极大的影响。降低注射剂量后所产生的YE-2畸型胚胎,在注射侧有一定的肌肉组织,但明显小于未注射侧。YE-3是所受影响最小的畸型胚胎,YE-3 V 的注射侧产生了与未注射侧非常接近的肌肉组织。活体观察畸型胚胎的形成过程,发现不同级别的畸型胚胎与注射侧的原肠运动所受影响程度和范围有关。高剂量注射时,几乎整个注射侧的原肠运动受到了影响,由此产生了YE-1,而低剂量注射时,注射侧只有部分区域受到影响,因此产生了YE-3 v 和YE-3 d。无论是原肠运动受阻,还是中胚层发育受到影响,其原因可能是抗TGF_β-1抗体阻抑了中胚层诱导的过程,所以由此也进一步证实了TGF_β相关蛋白与中胚层诱导有关。     

Boosting Superior Lithium Storage Performance of Alloy‐Based Anode Materials via Ultraconformal Sb Coating–Derived Favorable Solid‐Electrolyte Interphase

Alloy materials such as Si and Ge are attractive as high‐capacity anodes for rechargeable batteries, but such anodes undergo severe capacity degradation during discharge–charge processes. Compared to the over‐emphasized efforts on the electrode structure design to mitigate the volume changes, understanding and engineering of the solid‐electrolyte interphase (SEI) are significantly lacking. This work demonstrates that modifying the surface of alloy‐based anode materials by building an ultraconformal layer of Sb can significantly enhance their structural and interfacial stability during cycling. Combined experimental and theoretical studies consistently reveal that the ultraconformal Sb layer is dynamically converted to Li₃Sb during cycling, which can selectively adsorb and catalytically decompose electrolyte additives to form a robust, thin, and dense LiF‐dominated SEI, and simultaneously restrain the decomposition of electrolyte solvents. Hence, the Sb‐coated porous Ge electrode delivers much higher initial Coulombic efficiency of 85% and higher reversible capacity of 1046 mAh g^?1 after 200 cycles at 500 mA g^?1, compared to only 72% and 170 mAh g^?1 for bare porous Ge. The present finding has indicated that tailoring surface structures of electrode materials is an appealing approach to construct a robust SEI and achieve long‐term cycling stability for alloy‐based anode materials.     

Highly efficient regeneration and medicinal component determination of Phellodendron chinense Schneid

Phellodendron chinense Schneid is an important Chinese herb with berberine and phellodendrine in stems and leaves, but with little information available on in vitro culture of this species. Disinfection of explants in 75% alcohol for 45 s, sterilization in 0.1% HgCl₂ for 20 min, and submersion in 1.0 mol L⁻¹ gibberellin3 (GA₃) solution for 24 h was the optimal condition for seed germination. Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) medium supplemented with 2.0 mg L⁻¹ 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA) in combination with 1.5 mg L⁻¹ 1-naphthylacetic acid (NAA) was optimal for callus induction. MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg L⁻¹ 6-BA was the appropriate medium for induction of adventitious shoots, and 1/2MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg L⁻¹ indole-3-butytric acid (IBA) and 0.5% active carbon was the optimal medium for root induction. The 15-d survival rate of regenerated plantlets after transplanting to basins containing perlite and peat moss (1:4) was greater than 80%, and the berberine and phellodendrine accumulation was lower in callus compared with regenerated plantlets. The establishment of highly efficient regeneration system provides technical support for genetic breeding of Phellodendron chinense Schneid.

     

Flexible chromosome painting based on multiplex PCR of oligonucleotides and its application for comparative chromosome analyses in Cucumis

Chromosome painting is a powerful technique for chromosome and genome studies. We developed a flexible chromosome painting technique based on multiplex PCR of a synthetic oligonucleotide (oligo) library in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L., 2n = 14). Each oligo in the library was associated with a universal as well as nested specific primers for amplification, which allow the generation of different probes from the same oligo library. We were also able to generate double‐stranded labelled oligos, which produced much stronger signals than single‐stranded labelled oligos, by amplification using fluorophore‐conjugated primer pairs. Oligos covering cucumber chromosome 1 (Chr1) and chromosome 4 (Chr4) consisting of eight segments were synthesized in one library. Different oligo probes generated from the library painted the corresponding chromosomes/segments unambiguously, especially on pachytene chromosomes. This technique was then applied to study the homoeologous relationships among cucumber, C. hystrix and C. melo chromosomes based on cross‐species chromosome painting using Chr4 probes. We demonstrated that the probe was feasible to detect interspecies chromosome homoeologous relationships and chromosomal rearrangement events. Based on its advantages and great convenience, we anticipate that this flexible oligo‐painting technique has great potential for the studies of the structure, organization, and evolution of chromosomes in any species with a sequenced genome.     

Correlations between glycolysis with clinical traits and immune function in bladder urothelial carcinoma

Background: Glycolysis was a representative hallmark in the tumor microenvironment (TME), and we aimed to explore the correlations between glycolysis with immune activity and clinical traits in bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA).Methods: Our study obtained glycolysis scores for each BLCA samples from TCGA by a single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) algorithm, based on a glycolytic gene set. The relationship between glycolysis with prognosis, clinical characteristics, and immune function were investigated subsequently.Results: We found that enhanced glycolysis was associated with poor prognosis and metastasis in BLCA. Moreover, glycolysis had a close correlation with immune function, and enhanced glycolysis increased immune activities. In other words, glycolysis had a positive correlation with immune activities. Immune checkpoints such as IDO1, CD274, were up-regulated in high-glycolysis group as well.Conclusion: We speculated that in BLCA, elevated glycolysis enhanced immune function, which caused tumor cells to overexpress immune checkpoints to evade immune surveillance. Inhibition of glycolysis might be a promising assistant for immunotherapy in bladder cancer.     

Identification and Characterization of MicroRNAs by High Through-Put Sequencing in Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Bone Tissue from Mice of Age-Related Osteoporosis

The functional deficiencies of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may contribute to the aging process and age-related diseases, such as osteoporosis. Although it has been reported that microRNAs (miRNAs) played an important role in mechanisms of gene regulation of aging, and their expression profiles in MSCs osteogenic differentiation were established in recent years, but it is still elusive for the dynamic patterns of miRNAs in aging process. Importantly, the miRNAs in aged bone tissue had not been yet reported so far. Here, we combined high through-put sequencing with computational techniques to detect miRNAs dynamics in MSCs and bone tissue of age-related osteoporosis. Among the detected miRNAs, 59 identified miRNAs in MSCs and 159 in bone showed significantly differential expressions. And more importantly, there existed 8 up-regulated and 30 down-regulated miRNAs in both MSCs and bone during the aging process, with the majority having a trend of down-regulation. Furthermore, after target prediction and KEGG pathway analysis, we found that their targeted genes were significantly enriched in pathways in cancer, which are complex genetic networks, comprise of a number of age-related pathways. These results strongly suggest that these analyzed miRNAs may be negatively involved in age-related osteoporosis, given that most of them showed a decreased expression, which could lay a good foundation for further functional analysis of these miRNAs in age-related osteoporosis.     

Effect of superalkali substituents on the strengths and properties of hydrogen and halogen bonds

Quantum chemical calculations have been performed for the complexes Li₃OCCX–Y (X?=?Cl, Br, H; Y?=?NH₃, H₂O, H₂S) and Li₃OCN–X′Y′ (X′Y′?=?ClF, BrCl, BrF, HF) to study the role of superalkalis in hydrogen and halogen bonds. The results show that the presence of an Li₃O cluster in a Lewis acid weakens its acidity, while its presence in a Lewis base enhances its basicity. Furthermore, the latter effect is more prominent than the former one, and the presence of an Na₃O cluster causes an even greater effect than Li₃O. The strengths of hydrogen and halogen bonds were analyzed using molecular electrostatic potentials. The contributions of superalkalis to the strength of hydrogen and halogen bonds were elucidated by analyzing differences in electron density.     

Distance-based analysis of variance for brain connectivity

The field of neuroimaging dedicated to mapping connections in the brain is increasingly being recognized as key for understanding neurodevelopment and pathology. Networks of these connections are quantitatively represented using complex structures, including matrices, functions, and graphs, which require specialized statistical techniques for estimation and inference about developmental and disorder-related changes. Unfortunately, classical statistical testing procedures are not well suited to high-dimensional testing problems. In the context of global or regional tests for differences in neuroimaging data, traditional analysis of variance (ANOVA) is not directly applicable without first summarizing the data into univariate or low-dimensional features, a process that might mask the salient features of high-dimensional distributions. In this work, we consider a general framework for two-sample testing of complex structures by studying generalized within-group and between-group variances based on distances between complex and potentially high-dimensional observations. We derive an asymptotic approximation to the null distribution of the ANOVA test statistic, and conduct simulation studies with scalar and graph outcomes to study finite sample properties of the test. Finally, we apply our test to our motivating study of structural connectivity in autism spectrum disorder.