Virus-like particles produced in Saccharomyces cerevisiae elicit protective immunity against Coxsackievirus A16 in mice

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) has caused significant morbidity and mortality in the Asia-Pacific regions, particularly in infants and young children. Coxsackievirus A16 (CA16) represents one of the major causative agents for HFMD, and the development of a safe and effective vaccine preventing CA16 infections has become a public health priority. In this study, we have developed a yeast system for the production of virus-like particles (VLPs) for CA16 by co-expressing P1 and 3CD of CA16 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These VLPs exhibit similarity in both protein composition and morphology as empty particles from CA16-infected cells. Immunization with CA16 VLPs in mice potently induced CA16-specific IgG and neutralization antibodies in a dose-dependent manner. IgG subclass isotyping revealed that IgG1 and lgG2b were dominantly induced by VLPs. Meanwhile, cytokine profiling demonstrated that immunization with VLPs significantly induced the secretion of IFN-γ, indicating potent cellular immune response. Furthermore, in vivo challenge experiments showed that passive immunization with anti-VLPs sera conferred full protection against lethal CA16 challenge in neonate mice. Taken together, our data demonstrated that VLPs produced in yeast might have the potential to be further developed as a vaccine candidate against HFMD.     

基于全基因组数据华根霉产真菌毒素分析

【目的】在对中国传统优势浓香型白酒产业中重要功能微生物华根霉菌株CCTCCM201021全基因组测序的基础上,以生物信息学的方法和手段主要针对真菌毒素的合成代谢途径及关键基因进行分析,考察微生物在食品工业应用中的安全性。【方法】应用Illumina平台Solexa测序技术对华根霉进行基因组测序,运用SOAPdenovo组装软件进行拼接,并进行一系列生物信息分析,考察根霉素、小孢根霉素及典型丝状真菌毒素代谢的主要途径及相关基因,包括PKS、NRPS与PKS-NRPS混合代谢途径;萜类化合物代谢和其他代谢途径等,判断华根霉是否具有产真菌毒素的潜在危害性。【结果】测序结果表明华根霉全基因组大小为45.70 Mb左右,GC含量为36.99%。通过基因预测软件分析得到基因17 676个,共注释基因13 243个。通过进化树与同源基因比较分析,与目前基因组测序完成的仅有的3株接合菌基因组相比,序列相似性普遍偏低,与华根霉存在较为显著的差异,但同源基因的相似性在60%左右。代谢分析表明,华根霉中仅存在较少聚酮合成、萜类化合物合成途径代谢基因,存在大量异源物质降解途径基因。【结论】华根霉基本不具备产目前已知的真菌毒素的关键基因或合成能力,可以认为其发酵产品是相对安全的。在酿造过程中,不仅可作为糖化菌,在混菌发酵时,对部分具有抑菌能力的抗生物质具有降解功能,是发酵工业中应用的相对安全的重要生产菌。     

Streptomyces bullii sp. nov., isolated from a hyper-arid Atacama Desert soil

A Streptomyces strain isolated from a hyper-arid Atacama Desert soil was characterised using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The strain, designated C2^T, had chemical and morphological properties typical of the genus Streptomyces. The isolate formed a branch in the Streptomyces 16S rRNA gene tree together with the type strain of Streptomyces chromofuscus and was also loosely related to Streptomyces fragilis NRRL 2424^T. DNA:DNA relatedness values between the isolate and its two phylogenetic neighbours showed that it formed a distinct genomic species. The strain was readily distinguished from these organisms using a combination of morphological and phenotypic data. Based on the genotypic and phenotypic results, isolate C2^T represents a novel species in the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces bullii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is C2^T (=CGMCC 4.7019^T = KACC 15426^T).     

Combined small RNA and degradome sequencing reveals microRNA regulation during immature maize embryo dedifferentiation

Genetic transformation of maize is highly dependent on the development of embryonic calli from the dedifferentiated immature embryo. To better understand the regulatory mechanism of immature embryo dedifferentiation, we generated four small RNA and degradome libraries from samples representing the major stages of dedifferentiation. More than 186 million raw reads of small RNA and degradome sequence data were generated. We detected 102 known miRNAs belonging to 23 miRNA families. In total, we identified 51, 70 and 63 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) in the stage I, II, III samples, respectively, compared to the control. However, only 6 miRNAs were continually up-regulated by more than fivefold throughout the process of dedifferentiation. A total of 87 genes were identified as the targets of 21 DEM families. This group of targets was enriched in members of four significant pathways including plant hormone signal transduction, antigen processing and presentation, ECM-receptor interaction, and alpha-linolenic acid metabolism. The hormone signal transduction pathway appeared to be particularly significant, involving 21 of the targets. While the targets of the most significant DEMs have been proved to play essential roles in cell dedifferentiation. Our results provide important information regarding the regulatory networks that control immature embryo dedifferentiation in maize.     

A chronocoulometric aptasensor based on gold nanoparticles as a signal amplification strategy for detection of thrombin

A sensitive chronocoulometric aptasensor for the detection of thrombin has been developed based on gold nanoparticle amplification. The functional gold nanoparticles, loaded with link DNA (LDNA) and report DNA (RDNA), were immobilized on an electrode by thrombin aptamers performing as a recognition element and capture probe. LDNA was complementary to the thrombin aptamers and RDNA was noncomplementary, but could combine with [Ru(NH₃)₆]³⁺ (RuHex) cations. Electrochemical signals obtained by RuHex that bound quantitatively to the negatively charged phosphate backbone of DNA via electrostatic interactions were measured by chronocoulometry. In the presence of thrombin, the combination of thrombin and thrombin aptamers and the release of the functional gold nanoparticles could induce a significant decrease in chronocoulometric signal. The incorporation of gold nanoparticles in the chronocoulometric aptasensor significantly enhanced the sensitivity. The performance of the aptasensor was further increased by the optimization of the surface density of aptamers. Under optimum conditions, the chronocoulometric aptasensor exhibited a wide linear response range of 0.1–18.5 nM with a detection limit of 30 pM. The results demonstrated that this nanoparticle-based amplification strategy offers a simple and effective approach to detect thrombin.     

Inhibition of fatty acid synthase suppresses U-2 OS cell invasion and migration via downregulating the activity of HER2/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in vitro

FASN plays an important role in the malignant phenotype of various tumors. Our previous studies show that inhibition FASN could induce apoptosis and inhibit proliferation in human osteosarcoma (OS) cell in vivo and vitro. The aim in this study was to investigate the effect of inhibition FASN on the activity of HER2/PI3K/AKT axis and invasion and migration of OS cell. The expression of FASN, HER2 and p-HER2(Y1248) proteins was detected by immunohistochemistry in OS tissues from 24 patients with pulmonary metastatic disease, and the relationship between FASN and p-HER2 as well as HER2 was investigated. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between FASN and HER2 as well as p-HER2 protein expression. The U-2 OS cells were transfected with either the FASN specific RNAi plasmid or the negative control RNAi plasmid. FASN mRNA was measured by RT-PCR. Western blot assays was performed to examine the protein expression of FASN, HER2, p-HER2(Y1248), PI3K, Akt and p-Akt (Ser473). Migration and invasion of cells were investigated by wound healing and transwell invasion assays. The results showed that the activity of HER2/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway was suppressed by inhibiting FASN. Meanwhile, the U-2OS cells migration and invasion were also impaired by inhibiting the activity of FASN/HER2/PI3K/AKT. Our results indicated that inhibition of FASN suppresses OS cell invasion and migration via down-regulation of the “HER2/PI3K/AKT” axis in vitro. FASN blocker may be a new therapeutic strategy in OS management.     

Discovery of a disused desaturase gene from the pheromone gland of the moth Ascotis selenaria, which secretes an epoxyalkenyl sex pheromone

Female Ascotis selenaria (Geometridae) moths use 3,4-epoxy-(Z,Z)-6,9-nonadecadiene, which is synthesized from linolenic acid, as the main component of their sex pheromone. While the use of dietary linolenic or linoleic fatty acid derivatives as sex pheromone components has been observed in moth species belonging to a few families including Geometridae, the majority of moths use derivatives of a common saturated fatty acid, palmitic acid, as their sex pheromone components. We attempted to gain insight into the differentiation of pheromone biosynthetic pathways in geometrids by analyzing the desaturase genes expressed in the pheromone gland of A. selenaria. We demonstrated that a Δ11-desaturase-like gene (Asdesat1) was specifically expressed in the pheromone gland of A. selenaria in spite of the absence of a desaturation step in the pheromone biosynthetic pathway in this species. Further analysis revealed that the presumed transmembrane domains were degenerated in Asdesat1. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that Asdesat1 anciently diverged from the lineage of Δ11-desaturases, which are currently widely used in the biosynthesis of sex pheromones by moths. These results suggest that an ancestral Δ11-desaturase became dysfunctional in A. selenaria after a shift in pheromone biosynthetic pathways.     

Design and synthesis of 1-aryl-5-anilinoindazoles as c-Jun N-terminal kinase inhibitors

Starting from pyrazole HTS hit (1), a series of 1-aryl-1H-indazoles have been synthesized as JNK3 inhibitors with moderate selectivity against JNK1. SAR studies led to the synthesis of 5r as double digital nanomolar JNK3 inhibitor with good in vivo exposure.     

Structure of the Essential Diversity-Generating Retroelement Protein bAvd and Its Functionally Important Interaction with Reverse Transcriptase

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Highlights? bAvd forms a highly positively charged pentameric barrel ? bAvd binds both DNA and RNA, but without sequence preference ? The coding sequence for bAvd serves dual purposes ? The interaction of bAvd with bRT is likely to be important for retrohoming     

He-Ne激光和增强UV-B辐射对小麦幼叶叶绿素荧光和Rubisco活化酶的影响

选用小麦‘ML7113’品种为材料,人工模拟He-Ne激光(5mJ·s-1·mm-2)、增强UV-B(10.8kJ·m-2·d-1)辐射及两者复合辐照进行处理,利用叶绿素荧光仪、考马斯亮蓝G-250染色法和PCR技术研究7d龄小麦幼苗叶绿素荧光特性、Rubisco活化酶含量、基因表达量及其基因序列的变化。结果表明:(1)与对照组相比,增强UV-B辐射后,小麦幼苗叶绿素荧光特性减弱,Rubisco活化酶含量及其基因表达量均下降;而低剂量的He-Ne激光辐照后能够在一定程度上修复经UV-B辐射后对小麦幼苗叶绿素荧光特性所造成的损伤,且使Rubisco活化酶含量及其基因表达量上升。(2)与对照组相比,经He-Ne激光和增强UV-B辐射以及两者复合辐照处理后基因序列均出现两个相同的点突变,但并未造成氨基酸序列的变化。研究认为,低剂量He-Ne激光辐照能够在一定程度上修复受UV-B辐射小麦幼苗叶绿素荧光活性、Rubisco活化酶含量及其基因表达量的降低;He-Ne激光和增强UV-B辐射对小麦幼苗Rubisco活化酶活性的影响可能发生在其转录水平,从而使小麦光合能力发生相应的变化。