反刍兽月形单胞菌β-木糖苷酶基因在毕赤酵母中的高效表达及酶学性质

β-木糖苷酶(β-xylosidase,酶编号EC 3.2.1.37)是木聚糖降解酶系中的重要组成部分。本研究以毕赤酵母Pichia pastoris GS115为宿主菌尝试表达反刍兽月形单胞菌Selenomonas ruminantium中的β-木糖苷酶基因Sxa。根据毕赤酵母对密码子的偏爱性、mRNA二级结构、GC含量和稀有密码子,对Sxa基因进行优化;通过基因合成技术获得了全长基因mSxa并构建重组酵母表达载体pPIC9K-mSxa;以BglⅡ酶切重组载体pPIC9K-mSxa,电击转化将m Sxa基因导入毕赤酵母GS115中,获得的转化子经过表型和遗传霉素G418抗性筛选、PCR鉴定,得到表达β-木糖苷酶基因的工程菌GS115-pPIC9K-mSxa;通过活性测定获得高效表达β-木糖苷酶的重组酵母,并对重组β-木糖苷酶的酶学性质进行了初步研究。结果表明,重组β-木糖苷酶的分子量约为66 kDa。在发酵罐水平表达的酶活性达到了287.61 IU/mL。对酶学性质研究显示,该酶在温度为40-60℃,pH为5.0-7.0时较稳定,其最适反应温度和pH分别为55℃和6.0,专一性地作用于β-木糖苷键。Mn~(2+)和Ca~(2+)对该酶具有激活作用,而Fe~(3+)、Cu~(2+)、Co~(2+)、Mg~(2+)、EDTA及SDS抑制其酶活性。本研究首次将反刍兽月形单胞菌的β-木糖苷酶基因转化到毕赤酵母中获得表达,并具有较高活性,为进一步工业化应用奠定了基础。     

A model for the blood–brain barrier permeability to water and small solutes

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) has unique structures in order to protect the central nervous system. In addition to the tight junction of the microvessel endothelium, there is a uniform and narrow matrix-like basement membrane (BM) sandwiched between the vessel wall and the astrocyte foot processes ensheathing the cerebral microvessel. To understand the mechanism by which these structural components modulate permeability of the BBB, we developed a mathematical model for water and solute transport across the BBB. The fluid flow in the cleft regions of the BBB were approximated by the Poiseuille flow while those in the endothelial surface glycocalyx layer (SGL) and BM were approximated by the Darcy and Brinkman flows, respectively. Diffusion equations in each region were solved for the solute transport. The anatomical parameters were obtained from electron microscopy studies in the literature. Our model predicts that compared to the peripheral microvessels with endothelium only, the BM and the wrapping astrocytes can reduce hydraulic conductivity (L_p) of the BBB and the permeability to sodium fluorescein (P^NaF) by up to 6-fold when the fiber density in the BM is the same as that in the SGL. Even when the SGL and the tight junctions of the endothelium are compromised, the BM and astrocyte foot processes can still maintain the low L_p and P^NaF of the BBB. Our model predictions indicate that the BM and astrocytes of the BBB provide a great protection to the CNS under both physiological and pathological conditions.     

Complete genome sequence of Bacillus thuringiensis serovar finitimus strain YBT-020

Bacillus thuringiensis is a gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium that forms parasporal crystals at the onset of the sporulation phase of its growth. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of B. thuringiensis serovar finitimus strain YBT-020, whose parasporal crystals consist of Cry26Aa and Cry28Aa crystal proteins and are located between the exosporium and the spore coat and remain adhering to the spore after sporulation.     

Mean time to resolution of gene duplication

The mean time to resolution of gene duplication (T_r) is studied in this paper under the double null recessive (DNR) and haplo-insufficient (HI) models within the same analytical and simulation framework. We show that when population size is not too small (more precisely Nμ > 0.1), T_r for unlinked duplication is usually larger than that for linked and T_r for unlinked duplication under the HI model might be greatly prolonged, which were consistent with previous observations. Furthermore, by analytical approach we here indicate the primary underlying mechanism is that the frequency of the original (or wild-type) chromosomal haplotype of the linked duplication decreases nearly exponential to zero with time while that of the unlinked decreases quickly to an quasi-equilibrium; and this phenomenon is particularly profound under the HI model, because the quasi-equilibrium frequency of the original chromosomal haplotype (x₀) under the HI model is higher than that under the DNR model. These results suggest that recombination and HI model might jointly contribute to the marked prolongation of T_r even in a modest population. The prolonged T_r and higher quasi-equilibrium frequency of the original allele at both duplicated loci might have offered more opportunities for the emergence of novel genes.     

鳗鱼肌肉的氨基酸及营养价值

通过对优质食用鱼类—鳗鱼肌肉的氨基酸进行测定证实,鳗鱼较之其它鱼类是一种营养价值更高、滋味更鲜美的鱼类。并且,根据结果氨基酸组成比例,可为鳗鱼的人工饲养等方面的研究提供理论依据。     

Monoclonal antibodies against human myelomonocytic cells: detection of certain lineage-specific antigens on CFU-GM progenitor cells

A series of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) were raised against nonlymphoid leukemic cell lines. Three of them have been characterized in detail. mAb H8 (IgG2), mAB U2 (IgG1), and mAb ML143 (IgM) were established with HEL, an erythroleukemia cell line, U937, a monocytoid (histiocytic) line, and ML-1, a myeloid cell line as immunogen, respectively. A 65 to 75 KD polypeptide was precipitated from monocytes by mAb H8, a 160 KD protein from monocytes by mAb U2, and two broad bands in the regions of 150 and 195 KD from granulocytes by mAb ML143. All three mAb stained peripheral blood monocytes and granulocytes, but not lymphocytes, platelets, and erythrocytes. The mAb reacted with immature myeloid cells in bone marrow, ranging from myeloblasts to mature myelomonocytic cells. They also were reactive with various nonlymphoid cell lines and leukemia of myelomonocytic origin. They did not react with B cell lines and B cell CLL cells. By complement-mediated cytolysis and/or an immune rosette method, antigens H8 and U2 were found to be expressed on the vast majority of CFU-GM (14 days) progenitors but not on BFU-E. Antigen ML143 was not expressed by either progenitor. Furthermore, ML143 antigen was found on T leukemia cell lines, a subpopulation of mitogen-activated T cells, and certain non-T/non-B ALL cells. This reactivity was not found with mAb H8 and U2. The relationship between these mAb and those reported are discussed. The possibility of using these mAb to obtain a markedly enriched CFU-GM progenitor population is also raised.     

Distributed Function Mining for Gene Expression Programming Based on Fast Reduction

For high-dimensional and massive data sets, traditional centralized gene expression programming (GEP) or improved algorithms lead to increased run-time and decreased prediction accuracy. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a new improved algorithm called distributed function mining for gene expression programming based on fast reduction (DFMGEP-FR). In DFMGEP-FR, fast attribution reduction in binary search algorithms (FAR-BSA) is proposed to quickly find the optimal attribution set, and the function consistency replacement algorithm is given to solve integration of the local function model. Thorough comparative experiments for DFMGEP-FR, centralized GEP and the parallel gene expression programming algorithm based on simulated annealing (parallel GEPSA) are included in this paper. For the waveform, mushroom, connect-4 and musk datasets, the comparative results show that the average time-consumption of DFMGEP-FR drops by 89.09%%, 88.85%, 85.79% and 93.06%, respectively, in contrast to centralized GEP and by 12.5%, 8.42%, 9.62% and 13.75%, respectively, compared with parallel GEPSA. Six well-studied UCI test data sets demonstrate the efficiency and capability of our proposed DFMGEP-FR algorithm for distributed function mining.     

人NK细胞对猪/人血管内皮细胞的差异粘附

采用^51Cr标记法和^3H-TdR摄入法研究了人外周血NK细胞（PBNK）和人NK细胞系－－NK92对猪主动脉内皮细胞（PAEC）和人脐静脉内皮细胞（HUVEC）的粘附作用。结果表明,NK92和PBNK对PAEC的粘附率显著高于对HUVEC的粘附率;rhTNF－α预刺激PAEC／HUVEC后,PBNK的粘附率呈现TNF－α剂量依赖性的增高;rhIFN－γ预刺激NK92／PBNK后,两者对PAEC粘附率的增幅均高于对HUVEC的增幅;CD11a（LFA－1）单抗可以以不同程度地抑制PBNK对静息和TNF－α激活的PAEC的粘附作用。这些结果显示,NK细胞在细胞介导的异种移植排斥反应中起重要作用。