生物性状的系统分析理论──多元分析在生物性状分析中的应用研究

本文首次提出了生物性状的系统分析理论,指出了多元分析在生物性状应用研究中,应使统计分析模型适应于生物性状之间的相互作用规律,而不应是使生物性状适应于统计分析模型。生物性状多元分析时,统计上或任何人为增加或减少某些性状将影响生物性状之间的相互作用的大小,并得出不符合生物规律的错误结论,只有根据生物性状的系统理论分析生物性状之间的相互作用关系,才能准确评价各性状之间的相互作用大小。     

芝麻花叶病的病毒病原鉴定

从患芝麻花叶病的病叶中提纯了一种线条状病毒颗粒,长700～800nm,宽13nm。经汁液摩擦接种可感染心叶烟、大豆,甜菜等9种植物,不感染西瓜,苋色藜、豇豆等。主要传毒介体是发生在芝麻田的桃蚜。病土、病种均不传病。该病毒与西瓜花叶病毒、芜菁花叶病毒及马铃薯Y病毒的抗血清无反应。超薄切片中可见到风轮形和纸卷形的圆柱状内含体以及结晶状内含体。结晶状内含体分布在细胞质和叶绿体中,其它内含体均见于细胞质中。同时,细胞质中还可见到大量聚集的线状病毒颗粒。初步认为此病毒可能是马铃薯Y病毒群中的一个新成员,暂称为芝麻花叶病毒。国内外均未见报道。     

Peptidomic analysis reveals multiple protection of human breast milk on infants during different stages

It has been shown that human breast milk (HBM) is an important nutrient for the growth and development of newborns. Currently, peptide drugs provide promising regimes in neonatal disease treatment, especially peptides from HBM that exhibit multiple functions within cells. To explore the potential biological function peptides among the colostrum, transition and mature milk from mother of extremely low birth weight children (the samples were collected from Women's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from December 2016 to February 2017). A total of 3,182 nonredundant peptides were identified and compared among colostrum, transitional and mature milk using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry technology, and the numbers and fragments of peptides were various. The isoelectric point and molecular weight analysis of the differentially expressed peptides basically accord with the range of mass spectrometry identification (<3 kDa). Gene Ontology analysis and Pathway analysis, restriction sites analysis, as well as bioinformatics analysis showed that these differentially expressed peptides enriched a variety of biological processes. We identified several putative peptides that might have bioactive effects in diseases and development of newborns, which will inform further functional investigations. Our preliminary research provided a better understanding of the function of peptides during the newborn periods. Furthermore, it laid a foundation for discovering new peptide drugs in neonatal disease treatment.     

不同温度下斜纹夜蛾感染核型多角体病毒的流行病模型及模拟

研究了温度对斜纹夜蛾核型多角体病毒病流行的影响.结果表明,温度在29 ℃以上时,感病幼虫大多在2～3 d开始死亡,4～5 d达到高峰.随着温度的升高,感病幼虫病死率增加,病死速度加快.在试验温度范围内,未发现该病毒的热抑制温度,但感病幼虫死亡速率存在恒定温区,在29～35 ℃之间.感病幼虫的每日病死率可用互补重对数模型较好地拟合,累计病死时间分布可用Gompertz模型拟合,生物物理模型经改进后可很好地描述幼虫病死速率与温度的关系,可用于模拟分析不同温度下的幼虫病死时间分布和幼虫病死速率.     

樟子松人工固沙林衰退的规律和原因

系统地研究了章古台地区樟子松人工固沙林衰退的规律和起因．结果表明,天然分布区以外的樟子松人工固沙林衰退是一种生命周期缩短、成熟期提前的早衰现象．松枯梢病侵害是樟子松枯死的直接原因,樟子松衰退是由多种生物与非生物因素综合引起的,属于侵染性病害和非侵染性病害之外的第三类病害,即“森林衰退病”,气候差异过大、经营管理不当、土壤水分利用失衡、大气氮沉降超标准是诱导因素,其中气候差异、土壤水分利用失衡起主导作用,松沫蝉、松毛虫危害是促进因素,松枯梢病侵染是激化因素。     

Integration of dsRNA against host immune response genes augments the virulence of transgenic Metarhizium robertsii strains in insect pest species

The slow lethality of fungal biopesticides to insects restrains their widespread application as a strategy of pest control. In this study, unary, binary and ternary transgenic Metarhizium robertsii were created by integrating genes that encode the scorpion neurotoxin BjαIT, the cuticle-degrading protease Pr1A, and a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that targets host gnbp3, individually or collectively under a constitutive promoter to enhance virulence. Compared with the parental wild type, all unary transgenic strains had increased virulence against four insect species, Tenebrio molitor, Locusta migratoria, Plutella xylostella and Galleria mellonella, whereas the binary transgenic strain expressing both pr1A and BjαIT had increased virulence to T. molitor and L. migratoria, with no change in virulence against P. xylostella and G. mellonella. Importantly, all ternary transgenic strains simultaneously expressing pr1A, BjαIT, and the dsRNA specific to host gnbp3 exhibited the highest increase in insect-specific virulence. This finding highlights a novel strategy for genetic engineering of dsRNAs that target genes associated with the host immune response alongside virulence genes to maximize fungal virulence and lethality against insect pests.     

Evolution of the tRNA gene family in mitochondrial genomes of five Meretrix clams (Bivalvia,Veneridae)

In contrast to the extreme conservation of nuclear-encoded tRNAs, organization of the mitochondrial (mt) tRNA gene family in invertebrates is highly dynamic and rapidly evolving. While gene duplication and loss, gene isomerism, recruitment, and rearrangements have occurred sporadically in several invertebrate lineages, little is known regarding the pattern of their evolution. Comparisons of invertebrate mt genomes at a generic level can be extremely helpful in investigating evolutionary patterns of variation, as intermediate stages of the process may be identified. Variation of mitochondrial tRNA organization among Meretrix clams provides good materials to investigate mt tRNA evolution. We characterized the complete mt genome of the lyrate Asiatic hard clam Meretrix lyrata, re-annotated tRNAs of four previously sequenced Meretrix clams, and undertook an intensive comparison of tRNA gene families in these clams. Our results 1) provide evidence that the commonly observed duplication of trnM may have occurred independently in different bivalve lineages and, based on the higher degree of trnM gene similarity, may have occurred more recently than expected; 2) suggest that “horizontal” evolution may have played an important role in tRNA gene family evolution based on frequent gene duplications and gene recruitment events; and 3) reveal the first case of isoacceptor “vertical” tRNA gene recruitment (VTGR) and present the first clear evidence that VTGR allows rapid evolution of tRNAs. We identify the trnS^− UCR gene in Meretrix clams, previously considered missing in this lineage, and speculate that trnS^− UCR lacking the D-arm in both M. lyrata and Meretrix lamarckii may represent the ancestral status. Phylogenetic analysis based on 13 concatenate protein-coding genes provided opportunities to detect rapidly evolved tRNA genes via VTGR and gene isomerism processes. This study suggests that evolution of the mt tRNA gene family in bivalves is more complex than previously thought and that comparison of several congeneric species is a useful strategy in investigating evolutionary patterns and dynamics of mt tRNA genes.     

Cofilin aggregation blocks intracellular trafficking and induces synaptic loss in hippocampal neurons

Cofilin is an actin-binding protein and a major actin depolymerization factor in the central nervous system (CNS). Cofilin-actin aggregates are associated with neurodegenerative disorders, but how cofilin-actin aggregation induces pathological effects in the CNS remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that cofilin rods disrupted dendritic microtubule integrity in rat hippocampal cultures. Long term time-lapse imaging revealed that cofilin rods block intracellular trafficking of both mitochondria and early endosomes. Importantly, cofilin rod formation induced a significant loss of SV2 and PSD-95 puncta as well as dendritic spines. Cofilin rods also impaired local glutamate receptor responses. We discovered an inverse relationship between the number of synaptic events and the accumulation of cofilin rods in dendrites. We also detected cofilin rods in aging rat brains in vivo. These results suggest that cofilin aggregation may contribute to neurodegeneration and brain aging by blocking intracellular trafficking and inducing synaptic loss.     

The mitogenome of Paphia euglypta (Bivalvia: Veneridae) and comparative mitogenomic analyses of three venerids

Extraordinary variation has been found in mitochondrial (mt) genome inheritance, gene content and arrangement among bivalves. However, only few bivalve mt genomes have been comparatively analyzed to infer their evolutionary scenarios. In this study, the complete mt genome of the venerid Paphia euglypta (Bivalvia: Veneridae) was firstly studied and, secondly, it was comparatively analyzed with other venerids (e.g., Venerupis philippinarum and Meretrix petechialis) to better understand the mt genome evolution within a family. Though several common features such as the AT content, codon usage of protein-coding genes, and AT/GC skew are shared by the three venerids, a high level of variability is observed in genome size, gene content, gene order, arrangements and primary sequence of nucleotides or amino acids. Most of the gene rearrangement can be explained by the "tandem duplication and random loss" model. From the observed rearrangement patterns, we speculate that block interchange between adjacent genes may be common in the evolution of mt genomes in venerids. Furthermore, this study presents several new findings in mt genome annotation of V. philippinarum and M. petechialis, and hence we have reannotated the genome of these two species as: (1) the ORF of the formerly annotated cox2 gene in V. philippinarum is deduced by using a truncated "T" codon and a second cox2 gene is identified; (2) the trnS-AGN gene is identified and marked in the mt genome of both venerids. Thus, this study demonstrated a high variability of mt genomes in the Veneridae, and showed the importance of comparative mt genome analysis to interpret the evolution of the bivalve mt genome.