透明颤菌血红蛋白基因的研究与应用

总结了近 15年来透明颤菌血红蛋白的研究结果 ,包括它的分布、结构、功能、合成等分子生物学以及在基因工程中的应用。透明颤菌的血红蛋白是 2 0世纪 70年代被发现的 ,由于它具有结合氧的特性 ,可使透明颤菌这一专性好氧的革兰氏阴性菌在贫氧环境中生长。透明颤菌血红蛋白是同型二聚体形式的可溶性血红蛋白分子 ,每分子透明颤菌血红蛋白由两个分子量为 15 775的亚基和两个b型血红素组成。透明颤菌血红蛋白的功能是为透明颤菌强大的呼吸膜增加氧的流量。完整的有功能的血红蛋白由血红蛋白亚基和血红素组成 ,血红蛋白亚基由基因vgb编码 ,血红素由生化代谢合成。透明颤菌血红蛋白基因在野生透明颤菌中是以单拷贝的方式随染色体一起复制表达的。透明颤菌血红蛋白基因已经被克隆和测序。同时也讨论了将透明颤菌血红蛋白基因整合到异源宿主菌中增加重组蛋白产量和发酵产量方面的研究。最后 ,概述了当透明颤菌血红蛋白在植物中表达时 ,转基因植物表现出生长增加以及代谢物产量发生变化的情况。     

Structures of sortase B from Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus anthracis reveal catalytic amino acid triad in the active site

Surface proteins attached by sortases to the cell wall envelope of bacterial pathogens play important roles during infection. Sorting and attachment of these proteins is directed by C-terminal signals. Sortase B of S. aureus recognizes a motif NPQTN, cleaves the polypeptide after the Thr residue, and attaches the protein to pentaglycine cross-bridges. Sortase B of B. anthracis is thought to recognize the NPKTG motif, and attaches surface proteins to m-diaminopimelic acid cross-bridges. We have determined crystal structure of sortase B from B. anthracis and S. aureus at 1.6 and 2.0 A resolutions, respectively. These structures show a beta-barrel fold with alpha-helical elements on its outside, a structure thus far exclusive to the sortase family. A putative active site located on the edge of the beta-barrel is comprised of a Cys-His-Asp catalytic triad and presumably faces the bacterial cell surface. A putative binding site for the sorting signal is located nearby.     

Involvement of nitric oxide in elicitor-induced defense responses and secondary metabolism of Taxus chinensis cells

This work was to characterize the generation of nitric oxide (NO) in Taxus chinensis cells induced by a fungal elicitor extracted from Fusarium oxysporum mycelium and the signal role of NO in the elicitation of plant defense responses and secondary metabolite accumulation. The fungal elicitor at 10-100 microg/ml (carbohydrate equivalent) induced a rapid and dose-dependent NO production in the Taxus cell culture, which exhibited a biphasic time course, reaching the first plateau within 1 h and the second within 12 h of elicitor treatment. The NO donor sodium nitroprusside potentiated elicitor-induced H2O2 production and cell death but had little influence on elicitor-induced membrane K+ efflux and H+ influx (medium alkalinization). NO inhibitors Nomega-nitro-L-arginine and 2-phenyl-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-imidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide partially blocked the elicitor-induced H2O2 production and membrane ion fluxes. Moreover, the NO inhibitors suppressed elicitor-induced activation of phenylalanine ammonium-lyase and accumulation of diterpenoid taxanes (paclitaxel and baccatin III). These results suggest that NO plays a signal role in the elicitor-induced responses and secondary metabolism activities in the Taxus cells.     

A unified statistical model for functional mapping of environment-dependent genetic expression and genotype x environment interactions for ontogenetic development

The effects of quantitative trait loci (QTL) on phenotypic development may depend on the environment (QTL x environment interaction), other QTL (genetic epistasis), or both. In this article, we present a new statistical model for characterizing specific QTL that display environment-dependent genetic expressions and genotype x environment interactions for developmental trajectories. Our model was derived within the maximum-likelihood-based mixture model framework, incorporated by biologically meaningful growth equations and environment-dependent genetic effects of QTL, and implemented with the EM algorithm. With this model, we can characterize the dynamic patterns of genetic effects of QTL governing growth curves and estimate the global effect of the underlying QTL during the course of growth and development. In a real example with rice, our model has successfully detected several QTL that produce differences in their genetic expression between two contrasting environments. These detected QTL cause significant genotype x environment interactions for some fundamental aspects of growth trajectories. The model provides the basis for deciphering the genetic architecture of trait expression adjusted to different biotic and abiotic environments and genetic relationships for growth rates and the timing of life-history events for any organism.     

茼蒿素类似物对菜粉蝶幼虫的生物活性及作用机理研究(英文)

以菜粉蝶幼虫为对象对茼蒿素类似物进行了拒食活性筛选,结果表明,12号和20号化合物的活性最高。生测结果表明,在非选择性条件下,12号和20号化合物对菜粉蝶3龄幼虫处理后24h后的AFC50分别为370.00μg/mL和226.93 μg/ml;在选择性条件下,对菜粉蝶4龄幼虫处理后24h后的AFC50分别为398.88?g/ml和280.54?g/ml。20号化合物能明显延迟菜粉蝶卵的孵化,降低菜粉蝶幼虫血淋巴及其蛋白质的含量。盆栽试验结果表明,20号化合物具有较好的保叶效果并对菜粉蝶幼虫具有较好的防效。     

The thymic stromal cell line MTSC4 induced thymocyte apoptosis in a non-MHC-restricted manner

Mouse thymic stromal cell line 4 (MTSC4) is one of the stromal cell lines established in our laboratory. While losing the characteristics of epithelial cells, they express some surface markers shared with thymic dendritic cells (TDCs). To further study the biological functions of these cells, we compared the capability of MTSC4 with TDCs in the induction of thymocyte apoptosis, using thymic reaggregation culture system. Apoptosis of thymocytes induced by MTSC4 and TDCs was measured by Annexin V and PI staining and analyzed by flow cytometry. We found that MTSC4 selectively augmented the apoptosis of CD4^ 8^ (DP) thymocytes. This effect was Fas/FasL independent and could not be blocked by antibodies to MHC class I and class II molecules. In addition, MTSC4 enhanced the apoptosis of DP thymocytes from different strains of mice, which implies that MTSC4-induced thymocyte apoptosis is not mediated by the TCR recognition of self peptide/MHC molecules. In contrast to MTSC4, thymocyte apoptosis induced by TDCs was MHC-restricted. Thus, MHC-independent fashion of stromal-DP thymocyte interaction may be one of the ways to induce thymocyte apoptosis in thymus. Our study has also shown that the interaction of MTSC4 stromal cells and thymocytes is required for the induction of thymocyte apoptosis.