尿激酶受体反义RNA抑制人乳腺癌细胞的侵袭作用

将尿激酶受体 u PAR反义 RNA表达质粒 p URAS以脂质体法转染高侵袭性人乳腺癌细胞株 MDA- MB- 2 31 ,G41 8筛选抗性克隆 .Northern印迹法检测 u PAR反义 RNA的表达 ,RT- PCR法检测 u PAR的表达 ,牛奶板法测定细胞培养上清中纤溶活性 .改良 Boyden小室模型和裸小鼠乳房脂肪垫接种试验分别检测肿瘤细胞体外和体内侵袭能力 .反义克隆细胞能表达 u PAR反义RNA,其 u PAR表达水平及培养上清中纤溶活性明显降低 .反义细胞克隆体外侵袭能力比原代细胞 MDA- MB- 2 31和转染载体细胞克隆显著降低 .裸小鼠体内侵袭实验表明 ,反义细胞克隆的成瘤性、生长性和侵袭性均显著受到抑制 .u PAR至少在一部分恶性乳腺癌侵袭行为中发挥重要作用 ,反义 RNA可望成为抗肿瘤侵袭治疗的一种有效手段 .     

PARVUS affects aluminium sensitivity by modulating the structure of glucuronoxylan in Arabidopsis thaliana

Glucuronoxylan (GX), an important component of hemicellulose in the cell wall, appears to affect aluminium (Al) sensitivity in plants. To investigate the role of GX in cell‐wall‐localized xylan, we examined the Arabidopsis thaliana parvus mutant in detail. This mutant lacks α‐D‐glucuronic acid (GlcA) side chains in GX and has greater resistance to Al stress than wild‐type (WT) plants. The parvus mutant accumulated lower levels of Al in its roots and cell walls than WT despite having cell wall pectin content and pectin methylesterase (PME) activity similar to those of WT. Our results suggest that the altered properties of hemicellulose in the mutant contribute to its decreased Al accumulation. Although we observed almost no differences in hemicellulose content between parvus and WT under control conditions, less Al was retained in parvus hemicellulose than in WT. This observation is consistent with the finding that GlcA substitutions in WT GX, but not mutant GX, were increased under Al stress. Taken together, these results suggest that the modulation of GlcA levels in GX affects Al resistance by influencing the Al binding capacity of the root cell wall in Arabidopsis.     

NEDD9 overexpression: Prognostic and guidance value in acute myeloid leukaemia

It has been demonstrated that neural precursor cell expressed developmentally downregulated protein (NEDD) plays crucial roles in tumorigenesis and may serve as potential biomarkers in cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, few studies systematically investigated the expression of NEDD family members in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). We systemically determined the expression of NEDD family members in AML and determined their clinical significance. We identified that NEDD9 expression was the only member among NEDD family which was significantly increased in AML. NEDD9 overexpression was more frequently classified as FAB-M4/M5 (p = 0.008 and 0.013, respectively), hardly as FAB-M2/M3. Moreover, NEDD9 overexpression was significantly associated with complex karyotype and TP53 mutation. The significant association between NEDD9 overexpression and survival was also observed in whole-cohort AML and non-M3 AML patients. Notably, AML patients with NEDD9 overexpression may benefit from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), whereas those cases without NEDD9 overexpression did not. Finally, a total of 822 mRNAs and 31 microRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between two groups. Among the microRNAs, miR-381 was also identified as a microRNA that could direct target NEDD9. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that NEDD9 overexpression is associated with genetic abnormalities as well as prognosis and might act as a potential biomarker guiding the choice between HSCT and chemotherapy in patients with AML after achieving complete remission.     

Bacteriophage adsorption rate and optimal lysis time

The first step of bacteriophage (phage) infection is the attachment of the phage virion onto a susceptible host cell. This adsorption process is usually described by mass-action kinetics, which implicitly assume an equal influence of host density and adsorption rate on the adsorption process. Therefore, an environment with high host density can be considered as equivalent to a phage endowed with a high adsorption rate, and vice versa. On the basis of this assumption, the effect of adsorption rate on the evolution of phage optimal lysis time can be reinterpreted from previous optimality models on the evolution of optimal lysis time. That is, phage strains with a higher adsorption rate would have a shorter optimal lysis time and vice versa. Isogenic phage lambda-strains with different combinations of six different lysis times (ranging from 29.3 to 68 min), two adsorption rates (9.9 x 10(-9) and 1.3 x 10(-9) phage(-1) cell(-1) ml(-1) min(-1)), and two markers (resulting in "blue" or "white" plaques) were constructed. Various pairwise competitions among these strains were conducted to test the model prediction. As predicted by the reinterpreted model, the results showed that the optimal lysis time is shorter for phage strains with a high adsorption rate and vice versa. Competition between high- and low-adsorption strains also showed that, under current conditions and phenotype configurations, the adsorption rate has a much larger impact on phage relative fitness than the lysis time.     

OsREC8 is essential for chromatid cohesion and metaphase I monopolar orientation in rice meiosis

The successful transmission of chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis relies on the establishment and subsequent release of cohesion between replicated chromatids. Cohesion is mediated by a four-subunit structural maintenance of chromosome complex, called cohesins. REC8 is a key component of this meiotic cohesion complex in most model organisms studied to date. Here, we isolated and dissected the functions of OsREC8, a rice (Oryza sativa) REC8 homolog, using two null Osrec8 mutants. We showed that OsREC8 encodes a protein that localized to meiotic chromosomes from approximately meiotic interphase to metaphase I. Homologous pairing and telomere bouquet formation were abnormal in Osrec8 meiocytes. Furthermore, fluorescent in situ hybridization experiments on Osrec8 meiocytes demonstrated that the mutation eliminated meiotic centromeric cohesion completely during prophase I and also led to the bipolar orientation of the kinetochores during the first meiotic division and accordingly resulted in premature separation of sister chromatid during meiosis I. Immunolocalization analyses revealed that the loading of PAIR2, PAIR3, OsMER3, and ZEP1 all depended on OsREC8. By contrast, the presence of the OsREC8 signal in pair2, pair3, Osmer3, and zep1 mutants indicated that the loading of OsREC8 did not rely on these four proteins. These results suggest that OsREC8 has several essential roles in the meiotic processes.