上海农作物种质资源数据库的设计和构建

随着农作物种质资源数量的不断增加,种质资源交流的日益频繁以及种质资源利用的逐步深入,农作物种质资源数据库的建设对农作物的应用研究和基础性研究至关重要。上海市农业生物基因中心借助于本中心保存的近21万份种质资源的信息,开发了一套上海农作物种质资源数据库,本文主要阐述了该数据库设计和构建的目的、原则和数据库的架构、运行环境以及主要功能模块。上海农作物种质资源数据库采用了B/S结构,平台系统利用多层逻辑架构实现了对农作物种质资源数据信息的收集、存储、查询、统计分析等功能。外部用户通过浏览器即可访问平台系统,浏览查询种质资源信息。内部管理员可使用平台的受限功能,需要认证成功后才可使用后台管理功能,实现对整个平台数据的管理。注册用户还可通过基因资源数据库提交引种申请,管理员结合管理信息系统实现对外供种全流程的网络化,借此可提高工作效率,增加工作流程的透明度。     

Tillering and small grain 1 dominates the tryptophan aminotransferase family required for local auxin biosynthesis in rice

Auxin is a crucial phytohormone, controlling multiple aspects of plant growth and responses to the changing environment. However, the role of local auxin biosynthesis in specific developmental programs remains unknown in crops. This study characterized the rice tillering and small grain 1 (tsg1) mutant, which has more tillers but a smaller panicle and grain size resulting from a reduction in endogenous auxin. TSG1 encodes a tryptophan aminotransferase that is allelic to the FISH BONE (FIB) gene. The tsg1 mutant showed hypersensitivity to indole‐3‐acetic acid and the competitive inhibitor of aminotransferase, L‐kynurenine. TSG1 knockout resulted in an increased tiller number but reduction in grain number and size, and decrease in height. Meanwhile, deletion of the TSG1 homologs OsTAR1, OsTARL1, and OsTARL2 caused no obvious changes, although the phenotype of the TSG1/OsTAR1 double mutant was intensified and infertile, suggesting gene redundancy in the rice tryptophan aminotransferase family. Interestingly, TSG1 and OsTAR1, but not OsTARL1 and OsTARL2, displayed marked aminotransferase activity. Meanwhile, subcellular localization was identified as the endoplasmic reticulum, while phylogenetic analysis revealed functional divergence of TSG1 and OsTAR1 from OsTARL1 and OsTARL2. These findings suggest that TSG1 dominates the tryptophan aminotransferase family, playing a prominent role in local auxin biosynthesis in rice.     

Cryptochrome‐mediated hypocotyl phototropism was regulated antagonistically by gibberellic acid and sucrose in Arabidopsis

Both phototropins(phot1 and phot2) and cryptochromes(cry1 and cry2) were proven as the Arabidopsis thaliana blue light receptors. Phototropins predominately function in photomovement, and cryptochromes play a role in photomorphogenesis. Although cryptochromes have been proposed to serve as positive modulators of phototropic responses, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here, we report that depleting sucrose from the medium or adding gibberellic acids(GAs) can partially restore the defects in phototropic curvature of the phot1 phot2 double mutants under high-intensity blue light; this restoration does not occur in phot1 phot2 cry1 cry2 quadruple mutants and nph3(nonphototropic hypocotyl 3) mutants which were impaired phototropic response in sucrose-containing medium. These results indicate that GAs and sucrose antagonistically regulate hypocotyl phototropism in a cryptochromes dependent manner, but it showed a crosstalk with phototropin signaling on NPH3.Furthermore, cryptochromes activation by blue light inhibit GAs synthesis, thus stabilizing DELLAs to block hypocotyl growth, which result in the higher GAs content in the shade side than the lit side of hypocotyl to support the asymmetric growth of hypocotyl. Through modulation of the abundance of DELLAs by sucrose depletion or added GAs, it revealed that cryptochromes have a function in mediating phototropic curvature.     

TIPE1‐mediated autophagy suppression promotes nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell proliferation via the AMPK/mTOR signalling pathway

Recent studies have shown that tumour necrosis factor‐α–induced protein 8 like‐1(TIPE1) plays distinct roles in different cancers. TIPE1 inhibits tumour proliferation and metastasis in a variety of tumours but acts as an oncogene in cervical cancer. The role of TIPE1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains unknown. Interestingly, TIPE1 expression was remarkably increased in NPC tissue samples compared to adjacent normal nasopharyngeal epithelial tissue samples in our study. TIPE1 expression was positively correlated with that of the proliferation marker Ki67 and negatively correlated with patient lifespan. In vitro, TIPE1 inhibited autophagy and induced cell proliferation in TIPE1‐overexpressing CNE‐1 and CNE‐2Z cells. In addition, knocking down TIPE1 expression promoted autophagy and decreased proliferation, whereas overexpressing TIPE1 increased the levels of pmTOR, pS6 and P62 and decreased the level of pAMPK and the LC3B. Furthermore, the decrease in autophagy was remarkably rescued in TIPE1‐overexpressing CNE‐1 and CNE‐2Z cells treated with the AMPK activator AICAR. In addition, TIPE1 promoted tumour growth in BALB/c nude mice. Taken together, results indicate that TIPE1 promotes NPC progression by inhibiting autophagy and inducing cell proliferation via the AMPK/mTOR signalling pathway. Thus, TIPE1 could potentially be used as a valuable diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for NPC.     

Ultrasound combined with SDF‐1α chemotactic microbubbles promotes stem cell homing in an osteoarthritis model

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common joint disease in the middle and old age group with obvious cartilage damage, and the regeneration of cartilage is the key to alleviating or treating OA. In stem cell therapy, bone marrow stem cell (BMSC) has been confirmed to have cartilage regeneration ability. However, the role of stem cells in promoting articular cartilage regeneration is severely limited by their low homing rate. Stromal cell‐derived factor‐1α (SDF‐1α) plays a vital role in MSC migration and involves activation, mobilization, homing and retention. So, we aim to develop SDF‐1α‐loaded microbubbles MB(SDF‐1α), and to verify the migration of BMSCs with the effect of ultrasound combined with MB(SDF‐1α) in vitro and in vivo. The characteristics of microbubbles and the content of SDF‐1α were examined in vitro. To evaluate the effect of ultrasound combined with chemotactic microbubbles on stem cell migration, BMSCs were injected locally and intravenously into the knee joint of the OA model, and the markers of BMSCs in the cartilage were detected. We successfully prepared MB(SDF‐1α) through covalent bonding with impressive SDF‐1α loading efficacy loading content. In vitro study, ultrasound combined with MB(SDF‐1α) group can promote more stem cell migration with highest migrating cell counts, good cell viability and highest CXCR4 expression. In vivo experiment, more BMSCs surface markers presented in the ultrasound combined with MB(SDF‐1α) group with or without exogenous BMSCs administration. Hence, ultrasound combined with MB(SDF‐1α) could promote the homing of BMSCs to cartilage and provide a novel promising therapeutic approach for OA.     

Room Temperature Preparation of Surface-Clean Hydrogen-Doped Plasmonic Molybdenum Oxide as a High-Efficient and Degradable Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenger

Considerable efforts have been made to develop reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers for removing high level of ROS. However, most of the reported ROS scavengers are nondegradable and involve harsh reaction conditions as well as utilize various surface ligands. In order to overcome these drawbacks, in the present work, we develop a facile and mild synthesis avenue for preparation of surface-clean hydrogen-doped molybdenum oxide (H_0.34MoO₃) via simply mixing MoO₃ dispersion with aluminum foil under an acidic environment without any surface capping reagents at room temperature. The resulting H_0.34MoO₃ can act as a broad-spectrum ROS scavenger, including ^.OH, H₂O₂, O₂⁻, and ¹O₂ as well as 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). The free radical scavenging activity of H_0.34MoO₃ achieves as high as 71.6% and 99.1% for ^.OH and DPPH scavenging, which is comparable and superior to that of ascorbic acid that is a classic free radical scavenger. More significantly, the resulting H_0.34MoO₃ is degrade, which can be degraded into molybdate ions under a neutral environment (pH 7.4).

     

The Development Process: from SAHA to Hydroxamate HDAC Inhibitors with Branched CAP Region and Linear Linker

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) belong to a group of epigenetic regulatory enzymes that participate in modulating the acetylation level of histone lysine residues as well as non‐histone proteins, and they play a key role in the regulation of gene expression. HDACs are potential anticancer drug targets highly expressed in various kinds of cancer cells. So far, five small molecules targeting HDACs have been approved for the therapy of cancer, and over 20 inhibitors of HDACs are under different phases of clinical trials. Among them, hydroxamate‐based HDAC inhibitors (HDACis) represent a well‐investigated series of chemical entities. The current review covers the recent progress in the discovery process, form SAHA to hydroxamate HDAC inhibitors with branched CAP region and linear linker. At the same time, the pharmacological and structure‐activity relationship (SAR) studies of the specific derivatives from SAHA and the HDACis with branched CAP region and linear linker are also introduced.