Opposite Expression of SPARC between the Liver and Pancreas in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) is a matricellular protein that regulates several cellular events, including inflammation and tissue remodelling. In this study, we investigated the tissue-specific expression of SPARC in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes, and found that SPARC was significantly up-regulated in the liver while down-regulated in the pancreas of STZ-induced diabetic rats. Chronic inflammation occurred in the diabetic pancreas accompanied by up-regulation of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta (C/EBPβ) and its targets (TNFα, Il6, CRP, and Fn1) as well as myeloperoxidase (Mpo) and C-X-C chemokine receptor type 2 (Cxcr2). Diabetic liver showed significant up-regulation of Tgfb1 as well as moderately less up-regulated TNFα and reduced Fn1, resulting in elevated fibrogenesis. PARP-1 was not up-regulated during CD95-mediated apoptosis, resulting in restoration of high ATP levels in the diabetic liver. On the contrary, CD95-dependent apoptosis was not observed in the diabetic pancreas due to up-regulation of PARP-1 and ATP depletion, resulting in necrosis. The cytoprotective machinery was damaged by pancreatic inflammation, whereas adequate antioxidant capacity indicates low oxidative stress in the diabetic liver. High and low cellular insulin content was found in the diabetic liver and pancreas, respectively. Furthermore, we identified six novel interacting partner proteins of SPARC by co-immunoprecipitation in the diabetic liver and pancreas, and their interactions with SPARC were predicted by bioinformatics tools. Taken together, opposite expression of SPARC in the diabetic liver and pancreas may be related to inflammation and immune cell infiltration, degrees of apoptosis and fibrosis, cytoprotective machinery, and cellular insulin levels.     

Eriophyoid mites (Acari,Eriophyoidea) associated with tea plants,with descriptions of a new genus and two new species

A new genus and two new species of mites in the family Eriophyidae, Theaphyes rapaneae gen. n. and sp. n. which is found on the type host Rapanea neriifolia (Sieb. et Zucc.) Mez (Myrsinaceae) and Paracaphyllisa theacea sp. n., are described and illustrated. They are vagrants on the tea plant Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze and no apparent symptoms were detected. A key to the eriophyoid mites including thirteen species associated with tea plants all over the world is provided.     

120 例初治、年轻、中高/ 高危弥漫大B细胞淋巴瘤的临床分析

目的:探讨初治、年轻、中高/高危弥漫大B细胞淋巴瘤(diffuse large B cell lymphoma,DLBCL)的临床特征、治疗措施及预后影响因素。方法:回顾性分析2006年1月至2014年5月军事医学科学院附属医院淋巴瘤科收治的年龄≤60岁、年龄调整的国际预后指数(aa IPI)评分≥2分的初治DLBCL病例,进行疗效及预后相关因素的分析。结果:共收集到资料完整的DLBCL病例120例,中位随访28(4-106)个月,3年PFS率53.25%,OS率61.52%。单因素分析结果显示B症状、治疗方案及近期疗效、自体移植对无进展生存(PFS)及总体生存(OS)率的影响有统计学意义。多因素分析结果显示治疗方案、自体造血干细胞移植是影响PFS、OS率的独立影响因素。结论:年轻、中高/高危DLBCL具有高度异质性,病理细胞来源、Ki-67等在本组病例中未见显著预后意义,有待临床进一步探索。     

Somaclonal variation does not preclude the use of rice transformants for genetic screening

Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the world's most important crops. Rice researchers make extensive use of insertional mutants for the study of gene function. Approximately half a million flanking sequence tags from rice insertional mutant libraries are publicly available. However, the relationship between genotype and phenotype is very weak. Transgenic plant assays have been used frequently for complementation, overexpression or antisense analysis, but sequence changes caused by callus growth, Agrobacterium incubation medium, virulence genes, transformation and selection conditions are unknown. We used high‐throughput sequencing of DNA from rice lines derived from Tainung 67 to analyze non‐transformed and transgenic rice plants for mutations caused by these parameters. For comparison, we also analyzed sequence changes for two additional rice varieties and four T‐DNA tagged transformants from the Taiwan Rice Insertional Mutant resource. We identified single‐nucleotide polymorphisms, small indels, large deletions, chromosome doubling and chromosome translocations in these lines. Using standard rice regeneration/transformation procedures, the mutation rates of regenerants and transformants were relatively low, with no significant differences among eight tested treatments in the Tainung 67 background and in the cultivars Taikeng 9 and IR64. Thus, we could not conclusively detect sequence changes resulting from Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation in addition to those caused by tissue culture‐induced somaclonal variation. However, the mutation frequencies within the two publically available tagged mutant populations, including TRIM transformants or Tos17 lines, were about 10‐fold higher than the frequency of standard transformants, probably because mass production of embryogenic calli and longer callus growth periods were required to generate these large libraries.     

Phenyl 2‐pyridyl ketoxime induces cellular senescence‐like alterations via nitric oxide production in human diploid fibroblasts

Phenyl‐2‐pyridyl ketoxime (PPKO) was found to be one of the small molecules enriched in the extracellular matrix of near‐senescent human diploid fibroblasts (HDFs). Treatment of young HDFs with PPKO reduced the viability of young HDFs in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner and resulted in senescence‐associated β‐galactosidase (SA‐β‐gal) staining and G2/M cell cycle arrest. In addition, the levels of some senescence‐associated proteins, such as phosphorylated ERK1/2, caveolin‐1, p53, p16^ink4a, and p21^waf1, were elevated in PPKO‐treated cells. To monitor the effect of PPKO on cell stress responses, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was examined by flow cytometry. After PPKO treatment, ROS levels transiently increased at 30 min but then returned to baseline at 60 min. The levels of some antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase, peroxiredoxin II and glutathione peroxidase I, were transiently induced by PPKO treatment. SOD II levels increased gradually, whereas the SOD I and III levels were biphasic during the experimental periods after PPKO treatment. Cellular senescence induced by PPKO was suppressed by chemical antioxidants, such as N‐acetylcysteine, 2,2,6,6‐tetramethylpiperidinyloxy, and L‐buthionine‐(S,R)‐sulfoximine. Furthermore, PPKO increased nitric oxide (NO) production via inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in HDFs. In the presence of NOS inhibitors, such as L‐NG‐nitroarginine methyl ester and L‐NG‐monomethylarginine, PPKO‐induced transient NO production and SA‐β‐gal staining were abrogated. Taken together, these results suggest that PPKO induces cellular senescence in association with transient ROS and NO production and the subsequent induction of senescence‐associated proteins .     

植物水通道蛋白及其活性调节

水通道蛋白是对水专一的通道蛋白,普遍存在于动、植物及微生物中。研究表明高等植物的质膜和液泡膜上存在着丰富的水通道蛋白,其种类繁多,分布广泛,并具有一定的组织特异性。植物水通道蛋白的活性受到严格的调控,其调节方式主要有两种,分别为基因水平的表达调控和翻译后的修饰作用。     

Deep Learning for Population Genetic Inference

Given genomic variation data from multiple individuals, computing the likelihood of complex population genetic models is often infeasible. To circumvent this problem, we introduce a novel likelihood-free inference framework by applying deep learning, a powerful modern technique in machine learning. Deep learning makes use of multilayer neural networks to learn a feature-based function from the input (e.g., hundreds of correlated summary statistics of data) to the output (e.g., population genetic parameters of interest). We demonstrate that deep learning can be effectively employed for population genetic inference and learning informative features of data. As a concrete application, we focus on the challenging problem of jointly inferring natural selection and demography (in the form of a population size change history). Our method is able to separate the global nature of demography from the local nature of selection, without sequential steps for these two factors. Studying demography and selection jointly is motivated by Drosophila, where pervasive selection confounds demographic analysis. We apply our method to 197 African Drosophila melanogaster genomes from Zambia to infer both their overall demography, and regions of their genome under selection. We find many regions of the genome that have experienced hard sweeps, and fewer under selection on standing variation (soft sweep) or balancing selection. Interestingly, we find that soft sweeps and balancing selection occur more frequently closer to the centromere of each chromosome. In addition, our demographic inference suggests that previously estimated bottlenecks for African Drosophila melanogaster are too extreme.     

Effects of lipids on the interaction of SecA with model membranes.

The effects of nonlamellar-prone lipids, diacylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), on the kinetic association of SecA with model membranes were examined by measuring changes in the intrinsic emission fluorescence with a stopped-flow apparatus. Upon interaction with standard liposomes composed of 50 mol% dioleolyphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) and 50 mol% of dioleoylphosphatidylglycerol (DOPG), the intrinsic fluorescence intensity of SecA was decreased after a lapse of time with a rate constant of 0.0049 s(-1). When the DOPC of the standard vesicles was gradually replaced with either dioeloyl PE (DOPE) or Escherichia coli (E. coli) PE, the rate constant increased appreciably as a function of PE concentration, in the order DOPE > E. coli PE. In addition, when the PE of E. coli PE/DOPG (50/50) vesicles was replaced with more than 5 mol% dioleoylglycerol (DOG), the rate constant further increased by 40%. The incorporation of nonlamellar-prone lipids in the vesicles also enhanced the binding of SecA to model membranes in the order DOPE > or = E. coli PE/DOG > E. coli PE > DOPC. These results provide the first kinetic evidence for the importance of nonlamellar-prone phospholipids for the association rate of SecA with membranes.     

多点接种方法计数土壤细胞生理类群的研究

多点接点计数方法是根据细菌分解固体培养基上不同的有机化合物的能力确定为不同的生理类群,由有机化合物的降解点数和根据MPN方法进行计数,对不同的耕作方法进行了测定表明,秸秆覆盖免肾够明显提高土壤中分解淀粉,木聚糖,纤维素,果胶,几丁质,卵磷质,脂类和蛋白质类群的细菌数量。