A New Glabrous Gene (csgl3) Identified in Trichome Development in Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

Spines or trichomes on the fruit of cucumbers enhance their commercial value in China. In addition, glabrous mutants exhibit resistance to aphids and therefore their use by growers can reduce pesticide residues. Previous studies have reported two glabrous mutant plants containing the genes, csgl1 and csgl2. In the present study, a new glabrous mutant, NCG157, was identified showing a gene interaction effect with csgl1 and csgl2. This mutant showed the glabrous character on stems, leaves, tendrils, receptacles and ovaries, and there were no spines or tumors on the fruit surface. Inheritance analysis showed that a single recessive gene, named csgl3, determined the glabrous trait. An F₂ population derived from the cross of two inbred lines 9930 (a fresh market type from Northern China that exhibits trichomes) and NCG157 (an American processing type with glabrous surfaces) was used for genetic mapping of the csgl3 gene. By combining bulked segregant analysis (BAS) with molecular markers, 18 markers, including two simple sequence repeats (SSR), nine insertion deletions (InDel) and seven derived cleaved amplified polymorphism sequences (dCAPs), were identified to link to the csgl3 gene. All of the linked markers were used as anchor loci to locate the csgl3 gene on cucumber chromosome 6. The csgl3 gene was mapped between the dCAPs markers dCAPs-21 and dCAPs-19, at genetic distances of 0.05 cM and 0.15 cM, respectively. The physical distance of this region was 19.6 kb. Three markers, InDel-19, dCAPs-2 and dCAPs-11, co-segregated with csgl3. There were two candidate genes in the region, Csa6M514860 and Csa6M514870. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that the expression of Csa6M514870 was higher in the tissues of 9930 than that of NCG157, and this was consistent with their phenotypic characters. Csa6M514870 is therefore postulated to be the candidate gene for the development of trichomes in cucumber. This study will facilitate marker-assisted selection (MAS) of the smooth plant trait in cucumber breeding and provide for future cloning of csgl3.     

Speckle Tracking Based Strain Analysis Is Sensitive for Early Detection of Pathological Cardiac Hypertrophy

Cardiac hypertrophy is a key pathological process of many cardiac diseases. However, early detection of cardiac hypertrophy is difficult by the currently used non-invasive method and new approaches are in urgent need for efficient diagnosis of cardiac malfunction. Here we report that speckle tracking-based strain analysis is more sensitive than conventional echocardiography for early detection of pathological cardiac hypertrophy in the isoproterenol (ISO) mouse model. Pathological hypertrophy was induced by a single subcutaneous injection of ISO. Physiological cardiac hypertrophy was established by daily treadmill exercise for six weeks. Strain analysis, including radial strain (RS), radial strain rate (RSR) and longitudinal strain (LS), showed marked decrease as early as 3 days after ISO injection. Moreover, unlike the regional changes in cardiac infarction, strain analysis revealed global cardiac dysfunction that affects the entire heart in ISO-induced hypertrophy. In contrast, conventional echocardiography, only detected altered E/E’, an index reflecting cardiac diastolic function, at 7 days after ISO injection. No change was detected on fractional shortening (FS), E/A and E’/A’ at 3 days or 7 days after ISO injection. Interestingly, strain analysis revealed cardiac dysfunction only in ISO-induced pathological hypertrophy but not the physiological hypertrophy induced by exercise. Taken together, our study indicates that strain analysis offers a more sensitive approach for early detection of cardiac dysfunction than conventional echocardiography. Moreover, multiple strain readouts distinguish pathological cardiac hypertrophy from physiological hypertrophy.     

重组人GM－CSF／MCAF融合蛋白抗血清的制备与鉴定

重组人粒细胞巨噬细胞集落刺激因子（ＧＭ－ＣＳＦ）和人单核细胞趋化激活因子（ＭＣＡＦ）融合蛋白经ＳｅｐｈａｄｅｘＧ－７５和ＣＭ－ＳｅｐｈａｒｏｓｅＦＦ两步柱层析,获得了电泳纯的ＧＭ－ＣＳＦ／ＭＣＡＦ融合蛋白。为进一步研究其结构与功能,我们以纯化的该融合蛋白为抗原免疫家兔制备抗血清。ＤｏｔＥＬＩＳＡ和Ｗｅｓｔｅｒｎｂｌｏｔ试验表明,该抗血清效价高、特异性好,可分别与ＧＭ－ＣＳＦ／ＭＣＡＦ、ＧＭ－ＣＳＦ和ＭＣＡＦ发生反应。     

Estrogen receptor beta promotes lung cancer invasion via increasing CXCR4 expression

Lung cancer is one of the most lethal malignant tumors in the world. The high recurrence and mortality rate make it urgent for scientists and clinicians to find new targets for better treatment of lung cancer. Early studies indicated that estrogen receptor β (ERβ) might impact the progression of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the detailed mechanisms, especially its linkage to the CXCR4-mediated cell invasion, remain unclear. Here we found that ERβ could promote NSCLC cell invasion via increasing the circular RNA (circRNA), circ-TMX4, expression via directly binding to the 5′ promoter region of its host gene TMX4. ERβ-promoted circ-TMX4 could then sponge and inhibit the micro RNA (miRNA, miR), miR-622, expression, which can then result in increasing the CXCR4 messenger RNA translation via a reduced miRNA binding to its 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR). The preclinical study using an in vivo mouse model with orthotopic xenografts of NSCLC cells confirmed the in vitro data, and the human NSCLC database analysis and tissue staining also confirmed the linkage of ERβ/miR-622/CXCR4 signaling to the NSCLC progression. Together, our findings suggest that ERβ can promote NSCLC cell invasion via altering the ERβ/circ-TMX4/miR-622/CXCR4 signaling, and targeting this newly circ-TMX4/miR-622/CXCR4 signaling may help us find new treatment strategies to better suppress NSCLC progression.Subject terms: Non-small-cell lung cancer, Metastasis     

定量蛋白质组学研究揭示知母可缓解2型糖尿病模型大鼠肝脏代谢异常

2型糖尿病(type 2 diabetes mellitus, T2DM)是一种在全球范围内广泛存在的代谢性疾病,不及时治疗可能会引发众多危及生命的并发症。肝脏代谢在糖尿病发生发展的过程中扮演着至关重要的角色。目前已有报道中药知母用于缓解胰岛素抵抗及糖尿病,但其能否缓解糖尿病中肝脏代谢的异常仍有待深入研究。因此,提取了高脂饮食和化学药物链脲佐菌素(streptozotocin, STZ)诱导的2型糖尿病大鼠模型、知母提取物处理的2型糖尿病大鼠模型、高脂饮食大鼠模型以及正常饮食大鼠对照组的肝脏蛋白,通过基于质谱的定量蛋白质组学串联质量标签(tandem mass tag, TMT)标记技术获得定量蛋白质组数据。利用生物信息学软件对各组数据进行层次聚类分析及主成分分析,并以P<0.05,差异倍数(fold change)>1.5作为阈值标准进行火山图分析,发现知母提取物治疗组相较未治疗组与正常对照组更接近,表明肝脏组织定量蛋白质组数据能够反映知母提取物对2型糖尿病大鼠模型的治疗效果。筛选获得了表达水平与知母提取物治疗密切相关的关键蛋白簇。利用在线网站分析蛋白簇的GO功能与KEG...     

综述与专论: 白质消融性白质脑病研究进展

白质消融性白质脑病（leukoencephalopathy with vanishing white matter,VWM）是一种常染色体隐性遗传性脑白质病,其致病基因EIF2B 1~5分别编码真核细胞蛋白质翻译起始因子2B（eukaryotic initiation factor 2B,eIF2B）的5个亚基α~ε,其中任一编码基因突变均可引起发病。起病多见于婴幼儿及儿童期,临床表型差异大,典型表现为进行性运动功能退行,可伴共济失调和癫痫。应激（发热、外伤等）可导致发作性加重。影像学显示大脑白质进行性液化。尸解神经病理学特征主要表现为广泛性白质稀疏和囊性变性,无神经胶质细胞反应性增生,星形胶质细胞形态异常,过表达祖细胞标志物巢蛋白（Nestin）和胶质纤维酸性蛋白δ（GFAPδ）,少突前体细胞数量增加和成熟少突胶质细胞减少、泡沫化且凋亡增加。VWM致病基因EIF2B 1~5是管家基因,但多数患者通常仅脑白质受累。少数胎儿期及婴儿早期发病的患者可出现多系统受累,成年女性患者可有卵巢功能障碍。目前认为,星形胶质细胞在其致病机制中起着核心作用,病理性星形胶质细胞继发性引起少突胶质细胞成熟障碍和髓鞘形成异常,进而导致脑白质病变。其他疾病机制包括内质网应激后未折叠蛋白反应（UPR）过度激活、线粒体功能障碍、自噬抑制等,尚不完全明确。     

研究报告: EIF2B5表达下调的人星形胶质细胞与人神经元在内质网应激后细胞存活及miRNA表达的差异

目的 探讨白质消融性白质脑病中胶质细胞选择性受累而神经元受累轻微的原因。方法 将EIF2B5-RNAi表达载体转染至人星形胶质细胞和人神经元,检测基础状态下及内质网应激（endoplasmic reticulum stress,ERS）后细胞凋亡和活力,检测参与ERS调控的已知和未知miRNA,筛选EIF2B5-RNAi人星形胶质细胞在ERS后miRNA变化。结果 与EIF2B5-RNAi人神经元相比,星形胶质细胞自发凋亡及细胞活力下降。较之神经元,更多miRNA参与星形胶质细胞ERS刺激后的调控,EIF2B5-RNAi组参与调控的miRNA数目显著减少。聚类分析发现,5条已知miRNA是通路连接的关键组分。结论 人星形胶质细胞在ERS后可能更加依赖众多促细胞增殖分化的miRNA修复,而EIF2B5-RNAi人星形胶质细胞存在自发凋亡,ERS后严重减少的miRNA可能导致细胞无法存活。     

Detecting rare variants for quantitative traits using nuclear families

With the advent of sequencing technology opening up a new era of personal genome sequencing, huge amounts of rare variant data have suddenly become available to researchers seeking genetic variants related to human complex disorders. There is an urgent need for the development of novel statistical methods to analyze rare variants in a statistically powerful manner. While a number of statistical tests have already been developed to analyze collapsed rare variants identified by association tests in case-control studies, to date, only two FBAT tests-for-rare (described in the updated FBAT version v2.0.4) have applied collapsing methods analogously in family-based designs. For further research in this area, this study aims to introduce three new beta-determined weight tests for detecting rare variants for quantitative traits in nuclear families. In addition to evaluating the performance of these new methods, it also evaluates that of the two FBAT tests-for-rare, using extensive simulations of situations with and without linkage disequilibrium. Results from these simulations suggest that the four tests using beta-determined weights outperform the two collapsing methods used in FBAT (-v0 and -v1). In addition, both the linear combination method (detailed in the FBAT menu v2.0.4) and the multiple regression method (mixing LASSO and Ridge penalties) performed better than the other two beta-determined weight tests we proposed. Following testing and evaluation, we submitted four new beta-determined weight methods of statistical analysis in a computer program to the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) for general use.