THE ROLE OF BACTERIAL SYMBIONTS IN AMINO ACID COMPOSITION OF BLACK BEAN APHIDS

To evaluate the role of bacterial symbionts ( Buchnera spp. ) in the black bean aphids ( Aphis craccivora Koch), the aphids were treated with the antibiotic, rifampicin, to eliminate their intracellular symbiotic bacteria. Analysis of protein and amino acid concentration in 7-day-old of aposymbiotic aphids showed that the total protein content per mg fresh weight was significantly reduced by 29 %, but free amino acid titers were increased by 17% . The ratio of the essential amino acids was in general only around 20% essential amino acids in phloem sap of broad bean, whereas it was 44% and 37% in symbiotic and aposymbiotic aphids, respectively,suggesting that the composition of the free amino acids was unbalanced. For example, the essential amino acid,threonine represented 21. 6% of essential amino acids in symbiotic aphids, but it was only 16.7% in aposymbiotic aphids. Likewise, two nonessential amino acids, tyrosine and serine, represented 8.9% and 5.6% of total amino acids in symbiontic aphids, respectively, but they enhanced to 21.1% and 13.6% in aposymbiotic aphids. It seems likely that the elevated free amino acid concentration in aposymbiotic aphids was caused by the limited protein anabolism as the result of the unbalanced amino acid composition.     

利用CRISPR／Cas9技术实现快速、经济的大鼠条件基因敲除技术

在2014年第1期的Cell Research杂志上发表了一篇利用CRISPR／Cas9技术进行大鼠条件基因敲除技术的技术性论文（Ma，et al．，Generating rats with conditional alleles using CRISPR／Cas9， Cell Research （2014）24：122-125．），这篇论文利用CRISPR／Cas9在靶基因的特定外显子产生DNA双链断裂，同时提供一个环形质粒模板，该质粒包含两端被loxP位点标记的、且与被打断外显子相同的DNA片段。在受精卵内同源重组修复系统（ homologous recombination repair pathway ）的作用下，可实现高效率的靶基因loxP位点标记，从而用于大鼠的条件性基因敲除。论文中利用该技术实现了三个甲基化酶基因（Dnmt1， Dnmt3a， Dnmt3b）loxP位点标记，效率高达30％，使得制备一个含loxP位点标记大鼠的周期仅2～3个月，成为目前为止最经济、快速的大鼠条件基因敲除技术。