嗜水气单胞菌HBNUAh01 外膜蛋白A 基因在烟草叶片细胞中的瞬时表达

【目的】从嗜水气单胞菌(Aeromonas hydrophila)HBNUAh01中克隆外膜蛋白A(outer membrane proteinA,ompA)基因并在烟草(Nicotiana tabacum)叶片细胞中瞬时表达该蛋白。【方法】以嗜水气单胞菌HBNUAh01为模板进行嗜水气单胞菌外膜蛋白A(AhompA)基因片段的PCR扩增,并将其克隆到pEASY-Blunt Simple载体中以进行测序。测序正确的AhompA基因序列与含有黄色荧光蛋白(yellow fluorescentprotein,YFP)基因的表达载体pCAMBIA1300构建重组表达载体。将该重组表达载体转化到农杆菌(Agrobacterium tumefaciens)GV3101感受态细胞中,随后用阳性转化子转染烟草叶片细胞。使用激光扫描共聚焦成像系统(Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope)检测观察融合表达AhompA基因的黄色荧光蛋白并采用RT-PCR检测AhompA基因在烟草叶片中的转录情况。【结果】从嗜水气单胞菌HBNUAh01中克隆出大小为1032 bp的AhompA基因序列,并在烟草叶片中成功表达AhompA和YFP的融合蛋白。【结论】AhompA基因在烟草叶片细胞中的成功表达为进一步研究利用植物疫苗防治嗜水气单胞菌引起的水产动物疾病奠定了基础。     

啤酒废酵母的综合利用

概述了啤酒酵母的结构和组成,主要论述了啤酒废酵母在饲料工业、食品工业和医药工业中的广泛用途,并介绍了世界各国啤酒废酵母的研究和利用现状.     

Improving the limit of detection in portable luminescent assay readers through smart optical design

Critical biomarkers of disease are increasingly being detected by point‐of‐care assays. Chemiluminescence (CL) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) are often used in such assays due to their convenience and that they do not require light sources or other components that could complicate or add cost to the system. Reports of these assays often include readers built on a cellphone platform or constructed from low‐cost components. However, the impact the optical design has on the limit of detection (LOD) in these systems remains unexamined. Here, we report a theoretical rubric to evaluate different optical designs in terms of maximizing the use of photons emitted from a CL or ECL assay to improve the LOD. We demonstrate that the majority of cellphone designs reported in the literature are not optimized, in part due to misunderstandings of the optical tradeoffs in collection systems, and in part due to limitations imposed on the designs arising from the use of a mobile phone with a very small lens aperture. Based on the theoretical rubric, we design a new portable reader built using off‐the‐shelf condenser optics, and demonstrate a nearly 10× performance enhancement compared to prior reports on an ECL assays running on a portable chip.     

Genome-wide identification of SAUR genes in watermelon (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Citrullus lanatus</Emphasis>)

The early auxin responsive SAUR family is an important gene family in auxin signal transduction. We here present the first report of a genome-wide identification of SAUR genes in watermelon genome. We successfully identified 65 ClaSAURs and provide a genomic framework for future study on these genes. Phylogenetic result revealed a Cucurbitaceae-specific SAUR subfamily and contribute to understanding of the evolutionary pattern of SAUR genes in plants. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis demonstrates the existed expression of 11 randomly selected SAUR genes in watermelon tissues. ClaSAUR36 was highly expressed in fruit, for which further study might bring a new prospective for watermelon fruit development. Moreover, correlation analysis revealed the similar expression profiles of SAUR genes between watermelon and Arabidopsis during shoot organogenesis. This work gives us a new support for the conserved auxin machinery in plants.     

Catalytic mechanism of cyclic di-GMP-specific phosphodiesterase: a study of the EAL domain-containing RocR from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

EAL domain proteins are the major phosphodiesterases for maintaining the cellular concentration of second-messenger cyclic di-GMP in bacteria. Given the pivotal roles of EAL domains in the regulation of many bacterial behaviors, the elucidation of their catalytic and regulatory mechanisms would contribute to the effort of deciphering the cyclic di-GMP signaling network. Here, we present data to show that RocR, an EAL domain protein that regulates the expression of virulence genes and biofilm formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO-1, catalyzes the hydrolysis of cyclic di-GMP by using a general base-catalyzed mechanism with the assistance of Mg(2+) ion. In addition to the five essential residues involved in Mg(2+) binding, we propose that the essential residue E(352) functions as a general base catalyst assisting the deprotonation of Mg(2+)-coordinated water to generate the nucleophilic hydroxide ion. The mutation of other conserved residues caused various degree of changes in the k(cat) or K(m), leading us to propose their roles in residue positioning and substrate binding. With functions assigned to the conserved groups in the active site, we discuss the molecular basis for the lack of activity of some characterized EAL domain proteins and the possibility of predicting the phosphodiesterase activities for the vast number of EAL domains in bacterial genomes in light of the catalytic mechanism.     

Binding of cyclic diguanylate in the non-catalytic EAL domain of FimX induces a long-range conformational change

FimX is a multidomain signaling protein required for type IV pilus biogenesis and twitching motility in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. FimX is localized to the single pole of the bacterial cell, and the unipolar localization is crucial for the correct assembly of type IV pili. FimX contains a non-catalytic EAL domain that lacks cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP) phosphodiesterase activity. It was shown that deletion of the EAL domain or mutation of the signature EVL motif affects the unipolar localization of FimX. However, it was not understood how the C-terminal EAL domain could influence protein localization considering that the localization sequence resides in the remote N-terminal region of the protein. Using hydrogen/deuterium exchange-coupled mass spectrometry, we found that the binding of c-di-GMP to the EAL domain triggers a long-range (∼ca. 70 Å) conformational change in the N-terminal REC domain and the adjacent linker. In conjunction with the observation that mutation of the EVL motif of the EAL domain abolishes the binding of c-di-GMP, the hydrogen/deuterium exchange results provide a molecular explanation for the mediation of protein localization and type IV pilus biogenesis by c-di-GMP through a remarkable allosteric regulation mechanism.     

Statistical methods for analyzing microarray feature data with replications.

Expression levels in oligonucleotide microarray experiments depend on a potentially large number of factors, for example, treatment conditions, different probes, different arrays, and so on. To dissect the effects of these factors on expression levels, fixed-effects ANOVA methods have previously been proposed. Because we are not necessarily interested in estimating the specific effects of different probes and arrays, we propose to treat these as random effects. Then we only need to estimate their means and variances but not the effect of each of their levels; that is, we can work with a much reduced number of parameters and, consequently, higher precision for estimating expression levels. Thus, we developed a mixed-effects ANOVA model with some random and some fixed effects. It automatically accounts for local normalization between different arrays and for background correction. The method was applied to each of the 6,584 genes investigated in a microarray experiment on two mouse cell lines, PA6/S and PA6/8, where PA6/S enhances proliferation of Pre B cells in vitro but PA6/8 does not. To detect a set of differentially expressed genes (multiple testing problem), we applied the method of controlling the false discovery rate (FDR), which successfully identified 207 genes with significantly different expression levels.