Infraciliature and myoneme system of Campanella umbellaria (Protozoa, Ciliophora, Peritrichida)

The infraciliature and myoneme system of Campanella umbellaria were revealed using the protargol impregnation technique. The main characteristics of the infraciliature are the peristomial ciliary rows (haplokinety and polykineties), which make four and a half turns around the peristomial disc before plunging into the infundibulum, and the aboral infraciliature, which is made up of the aboral ciliary wreath (trochal band) and the scopula. The myoneme system is composed of: 1) longitudinal fibers, which include 60-84 (mean 72.3) short longitudinal fibers, 40-56 (mean 45.8) medium-length longitudinal fibers, and numerous long longitudinal fibers; and 2) circular fibers, which include 8-12 (mean 9.3) peristomial ring fibers, linking fibers, support fibers, and peristomial disc fibers. The various fibers in C. umbellaria are interconnected to form a single myoneme system that may act as a cell skeleton as well as providing the mechanism by which the zooid contracts and relaxes.     

针刺对去卵巢大鼠脑内胆碱乙酰转移酶基因表达的影响

本工作旨在探讨雌激素对脑内乙酰胆碱生成的影响和电针刺激“足三里”穴对去卵巢大鼠脑内乙酰胆碱生成的调整作用。实验选用成年Wistar雌性大鼠,将动物分为正常对照组(INT)、去卵巢组(OVX)和去卵巢针刺组(OVX AC)。用放射免疫分析方法测定血中雌二醇含量,采用RT-PCR方法获得大鼠脑内胆碱乙酰转移酶(ChAT)mRNA的逆转录表达产物——cDNA,用琼脂糖凝胶电泳方法检测,并通过原位杂交方法观察海马ChAT mRNA阳性神经元的表达,然后用计算机图像分析系统进行统计分析。实验结果显示：去卵巢组大鼠体内雌激素水平明显降低,脑内ChAT mRNA的RT-PCR产物和海马ChAT mRNA阳性表达产物的平均面积、平均积分光度值均明显减少,与对照组和针刺组比较有显著性差异;去卵巢针刺“足三里”穴组与去卵巢组相比,大鼠血中雌激素水平明显升高,脑内ChAT mRNA RT-PCR产物明显增多,海马的ChAT mRNA表达阳性神经元增多。以上结果提示：脑内ChAT基因表达与体内雌激素水平有密切关系,去卵巢后针刺“足三里”穴对ChAT的调节作用可能是针刺增强脑内乙酰胆碱含量的机制之一。     

A fast empirical approach to binding free energy calculations based on protein interface information

Three useful variables from the interfaces of 20 protein-protein complexes were investigated. These variables are the side-chain accessible number (N(b)), the number of hydrophilic pairs (N(pair)) and buried a polar solvent accessible surface areas (DeltaDeltaASA(apol)). An empirical model based on the three variables was developed to describe the free energy of protein associations. As the results show, the side-chain accessible numbers characterize the loss of side-chain conformational entropy of protein interactions and the effective empirical function presented here has great capability for estimating the binding free energy. It was found that the variables of interface information capture most of the significant features of protein-protein association. Also, we applied the model based on the variables as a rescoring function to docking simulations and found that it has the potential to distinguish the 'true' binding mode. It is clear that the simple and empirical scale developed here is an attractive target function for calculating binding free energy for various biological processes to rational protein design.     

Protein molecular dynamics with electrostatic force entirely determined by a single Poisson-Boltzmann calculation

The electrostatic force including the intramolecular Coulombic interactions and the electrostatic contribution of solvation effect were entirely calculated by using the finite difference Poisson-Boltzmann method (FDPB), which was incorporated into the GROMOS96 force field to complete a new finite difference stochastic dynamics procedure (FDSD). Simulations were performed on an insulin dimer. Different relative dielectric constants were successively assigned to the protein interior; a value of 17 was selected as optimal for our system. The simulation data were analyzed and compared with those obtained from 500-ps molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with explicit water and a 500-ps conventional stochastic dynamics (SD) simulation without the mean solvent force. The results indicate that the FDSD method with GROMOS96 force field is suitable to study the dynamics and structure of proteins in solution if used with the optimal protein dielectric constant.     

Endcaps for stabilizing short DNA duplexes

The syntheses of endcaps for covalently linking the 3' and 5' hydroxyl groups of blunt end double-stranded DNA are described. Endcap diols were converted into DMTr protected phosphoramidites and incorporated between nucleotides 4 and 5 of a self-complementary octamer. The stabilizing effect of the endcaps on duplex DNA was determined by Tm experiments on the self-complementary octamer.     

A new computational approach for real protein folding prediction

An effective and fast minimization approach is proposed for the prediction of protein folding, in which the 'relative entropy' is used as a minimization function and the off-lattice model is used. In this approach, we only use the information of distances between the consecutive Calpha atoms along the peptide chain and a generalized form of the contact potential for 20 types of amino acids. Tests of the algorithm are performed on the real proteins. The root mean square deviations of the structures of eight folded target proteins versus the native structures are in a reasonable range. In principle, this method is an improvement on the energy minimization approach.     

小麦丛矮病毒NS蛋白基因的克隆及序列分析

利用与Ｎ蛋白ｍＲＮＡ３＇末端顺序相同的２０寡聚核苷酸引物,通过点杂交、限制性内切酶分析从小麦丛矮病毒（ＷＲＳＶ）ｃＤＮＡ文库中筛选到编码Ｎ蛋白基因下游顺序的ｃＤＮＡ克隆。序列分析表明,该ｃＤＮＡ片段含有一编码的４０ｋＤ蛋白的开放读框。将该读框的全长ｃＤＮＡ经ＰＣＲ扩增后,克隆到ｐＧＥＸ－３Ｘ上,在大肠杆菌ＤＥ３中用ＩＰＴＧ诱导表达,经蛋白质印迹鉴定,该基因为小麦丛矮病毒ＮＳ蛋白基因。     

小麦丛矮病毒M蛋白基因的序列测定,表达和鉴定

从小麦丛矮病毒（ＷＲＳＶ）基因文库含磷蛋白ＮＳ基因的质粒中,经亚克隆、测序,得到ＮＳ蛋白基因的下游序列,其中含有一读框４５３ｎｔ、编码一分子量约１７ｋＤ蛋白。用ＰＣＲ方法获得该读框全长片段并克隆到表达载体ｐＧＥＸ－３Ｘ,在大肠杆菌ＢＬ２１（ＤＥ３）菌株中以ＩＰＴＧ诱导表达,产物由谷胱甘肽Ｓ－转移酶（ＧＳＴ）亲和层析柱纯化后,用蛋白质印迹分析鉴定,结果表明,该读框为编码病毒基质蛋白Ｍ的基因。     

高山红景天（Rhodiola sachalinensis）遗传变异及其濒危机制的探讨

采用淀粉凝胶电泳手段,等位酶分析技术对分布于黑龙江大海林林业局高山红景天天然分布区内３个亚种群及吉林长白山１个亚种群的９种酶系统１８个位点进行了遗传分析,结果表明种群内存在一定的遗传变异（从态位点百分比为３０．５５％,等位基因平均数为１．３３３）但不是很丰富,主要是该种类狭窄的分布区致使生境单一及人为破坏其本身的生物学特性长期的进化过程中相互适应相互选择的结果。在黑龙江的分布区内各亚种群之间一致度