黄土高原部分地区180－73万年间孢粉植物群和环境演变初探

根据黄土高原３个剖面的孢粉资料及测年数据,恢复了本区１８０－７３万年期间的植被面貌。在此基础上,结合中国和全球其它地区的孢粉、构造、地层、水系演化和火山活动等特征。将此期间植被、气候和环境的演化划分为３个主旋回,６个主要演化阶段,１０个亚阶段和５个事件。初步认识到,该时间段的气候环境演化有较大波动,且这些变化不限于局部地区,而是区域性的,是多种因素（内外动力）作用的结果,且有规律可循。     

双水相电泳分离蛋白质的研究

近几年来,随着生物技术的迅速发展,制备型电泳技术的研究得到了重视。然而由于技术上的原因,大规模的制备型电泳技术的研究还未能取得突破。阻碍电泳放大的一个主要问题是由于电加热作用而导致的热对流对电泳分离的破坏。为解决这一问题,人们提出了许多方法。例如,在太空的微重力环境下进行电泳,应力稳定自由流动电泳,循环等电聚焦和区带电泳,色谱电泳和等电膜等电聚焦等。这些方法在电泳放大上都取得了一定的进展,但各有其局限性。最近,Clark提出利用双水相的液液界面阻止热对流的设想,为开发大规模的制备型电泳技术开辟了一条新途径、Raghava Rao等在两种双水相体系上施加电场后成倍地缩短了分相时间。Levine和Bier采用U型管电泳装置研究了双水相体系中血红蛋白的电泳迁移率,观测到界面有阻滞作用。Clark在柱型电泳装置中进行了一组双水相萃取肌红蛋白的简单实验。在10mA的恒电流下电泳40min之后,肌红蛋白的分配系数为7.5,而当电场反向后,分配系数变为0.04,界面阻力并不显著,两者结论并不一致。     

尿素氮-葡萄糖双功能分析仪的研究

由固定化脲酶、谷氨酸脱氢酶、谷氨酸氧化酶、葡萄糖氧化酶的复合酶膜组成的双电极系统,可以同时测定尿素氮和葡萄糖的含量,每次进样量为25μl,20s即可测定出尿素氮和葡萄糖的含量。在0～60mg/dl尿素氮、0～500mg/dl葡萄糖范围内具有良好的线性关系。连续测定20次的变异系数分别为1.02％和1.05％。酶膜使用寿命为两星期以上。此仪器可广泛应用于临床检验和体育训练中。     

DISCOVERY OF VERTEBRATE FOSSILS AND PALEOLITHIC ARTIFACTS IN DANJIANG SUBMERGING AREA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

IntheareatobefloodedinthesecondengineeringstagefortheDanjiangreservoir,wediscovered16vertebratefossillocalitiesand52Paleolithicsitesin1994,andcollected603artifactsandmanyfossils.Ofthel6new1yfoundvertebratefossillocalities,threearereptilesitesrepresentedbydinosaureggsandlimbbones,andl3producemamma1s,including4Pale0gene,2Ne0geneand7Quaternarysites'ThemammalianlocalitiesareofPale0cene,Eocene,EarlyMiocene,andPli0ceneorEarlyPleistocene,MiddleandIntePleistocene,respectively.Theyfillinsomestrat…     

Site-directed mutagenesis of the katG gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: effects on catalase–peroxidase activities and isoniazid resistance

Recent studies examining the molecular mechanisms of isoniazid (INH) resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis have demonstrated that a significant percentage of drug-resistant strains are mutated in the katG gene which encodes a catalase–peroxidase, and the majority of these alterations are missense mutations which result in the substitution of a single amino acid. In previous reports, residues which may be critical for enzymatic activity and the drug-resistant phenotype have been identified by evaluating INH-resistant clinical isolates and in vitro mutants. In this study, site-directed mutagenesis techniques were utilized to alter the wild-type katG gene from M. tuberculosis at 13 of these codons. The effects of these mutations were determined using complementation assays in katG -defective, INH-resistant strains of Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG. This mutational analysis revealed that point mutations in the katG gene at nine of the 13 codons can cause drug resistance, and that enzymatic activity and resistance to INH are inversely related. In addition, mutations in the mycobacterial catalase–peroxidase which reduce catalase activity also decrease peroxidase activity.     

Further progress towards a catalogue of all Arabidopsis genes: analysis of a set of 5000 non-redundant ESTs

Nearly 7000 Arabidopsis thaliana -expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from 10 cDNA libraries have been sequenced, of which almost 5000 non-redundant tags have been submitted to the EMBL data bank. The quality of the cDNA libraries used is analysed. Similarity searches in international protein data banks have allowed the detection of significant similarities to a wide range of proteins from many organisms. Alignment with ESTs from the rice systematic sequencing project has allowed the detection of amino acid motifs which are conserved between the two organisms, thus identifying tags to genes encoding highly conserved proteins. These genes are candidates for a common framework in genome mapping projects in different plants.     

Poplar (Populus nigra L.) plants transformed with aBacillus thuringiensis toxin gene: insecticidal activity and genomic analysis

Insect-resistant poplar (Populus nigra L.) plants have been produced by infecting leaves withAgrobacterium tumefaciens strains carrying a binary vector containing different truncated forms of aBacillus thuringiensis (B.t.) toxin gene under a duplicated CaMV 35S promoter. Putative transgenic plants were propagated by cuttings at two experimental farms (in Beijing and Xinjiang, China). At 2–3 years after transformation, 17 of them were selected on the bases of insect-tolerance and good silvicultural traits, and evaluated for insect resistance, for the presence of theB.t. toxin DNA fragment (Southern blots and PCR) and for the expression of the transgene (western and northern blots). Somaclonal variation, as suggested by the appearance of permanent changes in the shape of the leaves, was also investigated with molecular tools (RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism), RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) and microsatellite DNA).Bioassays withApochemia cineraius andLymantria dispar on the leaves of the selected clones showed different and, in some cases, high levels of insecticidal activity. The molecular analysis demonstrated integration and expression of the foreign gene. Somatic changes were correlated to extensive genomic changes and were quantified in dendrograms, in terms of genomic similarity. The analysis of control plants suggested that genomic changes were correlated to thein vitro culture step necessary forA. tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer, rather than to the integration of the foreign genes.Three transgenic clones (12, 153 and 192), selected for insect resistance, reduced morphological changes and promising silvicultural traits, are now under large-scale field evaluation in six different provinces in China.     

Physicochemical basis for the rapid time-action of LysB28ProB29-insulin: dissociation of a protein-ligand complex.

The rate-limiting step for the absorption of insulin solutions after subcutaneous injection is considered to be the dissociation of self-associated hexamers to monomers. To accelerate this absorption process, insulin analogues have been designed that possess full biological activity and yet have greatly diminished tendencies to self-associate. Sedimentation velocity and static light scattering results show that the presence of zinc and phenolic ligands (m-cresol and/or phenol) cause one such insulin analogue, LysB28ProB29-human insulin (LysPro), to associate into a hexameric complex. Most importantly, this ligand-bound hexamer retains its rapid-acting pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The dissociation of the stabilized hexameric analogue has been studied in vitro using static light scattering as well as in vivo using a female pig pharmacodynamic model. Retention of rapid time-action is hypothesized to be due to altered subunit packing within the hexamer. Evidence for modified monomer-monomer interactions has been observed in the X-ray crystal structure of a zinc LysPro hexamer (Ciszak E et al., 1995, Structure 3:615-622). The solution state behavior of LysPro, reported here, has been interpreted with respect to the crystal structure results. In addition, the phenolic ligand binding differences between LysPro and insulin have been compared using isothermal titrating calorimetry and visible absorption spectroscopy of cobalt-containing hexamers. These studies establish that rapid-acting insulin analogues of this type can be stabilized in solution via the formation of hexamer complexes with altered dissociation properties.