The abasic site lesions in the human telomeric sequence d[TA(G3T2A)3G3]: A thermodynamic point of view

Background

The abasic sites represent one of the most frequent lesions of DNA and most of the events able to generate such modifications involve guanine bases. G-rich sequences are able to form quadruplex structures that have been proved to be involved in several important biological processes.

Methods

In this paper, we report investigations, based on calorimetric, UV, CD and electrophoretic techniques, on 12 oligodeoxynucleotides analogues of the quadruplex forming human telomere sequence d[TA(G₃T₂A)₃G₃], in which each guanine has been replaced, one at a time, by an abasic site mimic.

Results

Although all data show that the modified sequences preserve their ability to form quadruplex structures, the thermodynamic parameters clearly indicate that the presence of an abasic site decreases their thermal stability compared to the parent unmodified sequence, particularly if the replacement concerns one of the guanosines involved in the formation of the central G-tetrad.

Conclusions

The collected data indicate that the effects of the presence of abasic site lesions in telomeric quadruplex structures are site-specific. The most dramatic consequences come out when this lesion involves a guanosine in the centre of a G-run.

General significance

Abasic sites, by facilitating the G-quadruplex disruption, could favour the formation of the telomerase primer. Furthermore they could have implications in the pharmacological approach targeting telomere.     

Combined use of leaf size and economics traits allows direct comparison of hydrophyte and terrestrial herbaceous adaptive strategies

Background and Aims

Hydrophytes generally exhibit highly acquisitive leaf economics. However, a range of growth forms is evident, from small, free-floating and rapidly growing Lemniden to large, broad-leaved Nymphaeiden, denoting variability in adaptive strategies. Traits used to classify adaptive strategies in terrestrial species, such as canopy height, are not applicable to hydrophytes. We hypothesize that hydrophyte leaf size traits and economics exhibit sufficient overlap with terrestrial species to allow a common classification of plant functional types, sensu Grime''s CSR theory.

Methods

Leaf morpho-functional traits were measured for 61 species from 47 water bodies in lowland continental, sub-alpine and alpine bioclimatic zones in southern Europe and compared against the full leaf economics spectrum and leaf size range of terrestrial herbs, and between hydrophyte growth forms.

Key Results

Hydrophytes differed in the ranges and mean values of traits compared with herbs, but principal components analysis (PCA) demonstrated that both groups shared axes of trait variability: PCA1 encompassed size variation (area and mass), and PCA2 ranged from relatively dense, carbon-rich leaves to nitrogen-rich leaves of high specific leaf area (SLA). Most growth forms exhibited trait syndromes directly equivalent to herbs classified as R adapted, although Nymphaeiden ranged between C and SR adaptation.

Conclusions

Our findings support the hypothesis that hydrophyte adaptive strategy variation reflects fundamental trade-offs in economics and size that govern all plants, and that hydrophyte adaptive strategies can be directly compared with terrestrial species by combining leaf economics and size traits.     

Orexins cause epileptic activity

Orexins have been implicated in the regulation of sleep-wake cycle, energy homeostasis, drinking behavior, analgesia, attention, learning and memory but their effects on epileptic activity are controversial. We investigated whether intracortical injections of orexin A (100pmol) and B (100pmol) cause epileptic activity in rats. We observed epileptic seizure findings on these two groups rats. Orexin A and B also significantly increased total EEG power spectrum. Our findings indicate that orexins cause epileptic activity.     

A possible structure of retrograded maize starch speculated by UV and IR spectra of it and its components

“Retrogradation” has been used to describe the changes that occur in starch after gelatinization, from an initially amorphous state to a more ordered or crystalline state, which has a significant impact on starch application in food, textiles and materials fields. But mechanism of starch retrogradation is still unclear until now and there is no breakthrough in this area. Here we are speculating a possible structure of retrograded maize starch by UV (binding with iodine) and IR spectra of it and its compositions. We speculate that nucleation of retrograded starch origins from combination of reducing end of amylopectin and non-reducing end of amylose, and retrogradation terminates at combining of non-reducing end of amylopectin and reducing end of amylose. The chain length of resistant digestion retrograded starch should be nearly same. The hydroxyl associated with sixth carbon atoms of glucan must form hydrogen bond with other hydroxyl of starch.     

Germ banks affect the inference of past demographic events

Continuous progress in empirical population genetics based on the whole‐genome polymorphism data requires the theoretical analysis of refined models in order to interpret the evolutionary history of populations with adequate accuracy. Recent studies focus prevalently on the aspects of demography and adaptation, whereas age structure (for example, in plants via the maintenance of seed banks) has attracted less attention. Germ banking, that is, seed or egg dormancy, is a prevalent and important life‐history trait in plants and invertebrates, which buffers against environmental variability and modulates species extinction in fragmented habitats. Within this study, we investigate the combined effect of germ banking and time‐varying population size on the neutral coalescent and particularly derive the allele frequency spectrum under some simplifying assumptions. We then perform an ABC analysis using two simple demographic scenarios—a population expansion and an instantaneous decline. We demonstrate the appreciable influence of seed banks on the estimation of demographic parameters depending on the germination rate with biases scaled by the square of the germination rate. In the more complex case of a population bottleneck, which comprises an instantaneous decline and an expansion phase, ignoring information on the germination rate denies reliable estimates of the bottleneck parameters via the allelic spectrum. In particular, when seeds remain in the bank over several generations, recent expansions may remain invisible in the frequency spectrum, whereas ancient declines leave signatures much longer than in the absence of seed bank.     

Synthesis and properties of a new red luminescence europium complex containing a 2‐(benzimidazol‐2‐yl)‐8‐octyloxyquinoline as the second ligand

A new Eu(III) complex, Eu(III)(DBM)₃BIOQ, has been synthesized with dibenzoylmethane (DBM) as the first ligand and 2‐(benzimidazol‐2‐yl)‐8‐octyloxyquinoline (BIOQ) as the second ligand. The stability of the complex was analysed by DSC–TG. The results show that the Eu(III) complex has a relatively high thermal stability with a melting point of 235 °C and a decomposition temperature (onset) of 252 °C. The fluorescence properties of the compound were also investigated. The fluorescence results reveal that the as‐prepared complex shows the characteristic maximum emission spectra of Eu(III) at 611 nm (λ_ex = 350 nm). In addition, the photoluminescence spectrum of the complex in the solid state exhibits a single and symmetrical emission band at 611 nm, with a full width at half‐maximum of 4.7 nm, showing high colour purity. This finding indicates the possibility for the development of brighter red luminescent materials. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

粗毛栓菌和蜡状芽孢杆菌及其共固定菌对pb2+的吸附

将粗毛栓菌菌丝球与蜡状芽孢杆菌共固定为共固定菌.以粗毛栓菌菌丝球、蜡状芽孢杆菌和共固定菌为研究对象,测定不同吸附时间、初始pH、吸附剂浓度和pb2+浓度对3种生物吸附剂吸附pb2+的影响,并将3种生物吸附剂吸附pb2+前后的红外吸收光谱进行分析比较.结果表明:在吸附剂浓度为2g.L-1、pH为5.0、pb2+浓度为50 mg·L-1条件下对pb2+吸附lh效果良好,其吸附率分别为71.7％、91.0％和96.9％.生物吸附剂红外光谱主要由蛋白质、碳水化合物和含硫、磷酸基团的吸收带组成,表明对pb2+吸附起主要作用的官能团是羟基、羧基、磷酸基和含硫基团.     

红外-核磁共振光谱-免疫亲和柱法解析梨孢镰孢菌代谢产物成分

利用红外光谱,核磁共振光谱结合免疫亲和柱的方法解析梨孢镰孢菌代谢产物成分,为真菌代谢产物的分析提供新的信息.将F.Poae菌株在GYM培养基上25℃条件下培养12 h后转至8℃培养12h,交替进行4周,将其代谢产物分离纯化、结晶,80℃干燥后用红外光谱议分析产物结构,然后利用免疫亲和柱特异性,比较产物经T-2免疫亲和柱纯化前后的1H核磁谱图.由红外谱图可判断目标组分存在与单端孢霉烯族毒素相同的特征官能团,初步判定产物为单端孢霉烯族毒素.通过1H核磁谱图比较T-2免疫亲和柱纯化前后物质结构一致.梨孢镰孢菌代谢产物成分为T-2毒素.红外-核磁共振光谱结合免疫亲和柱的方法解析梨孢镰孢菌代谢产物的方法在国内外尚未见报道.     

利用小波变换的一种快速预测基因方法

三周期性是大多数基因组序列的编码区所具有的主要特征.本文提出只计算1/3频率点的傅里叶频谱的快速计算方法,并用它分析DNA序列的三周期性,再利用小波变换在一定尺度下滤波来实现对DNA序列编码区的预测.理论分析和大量计算机实验证实了方法的有效性,预测效果良好.该方法运算快速,不需要任何训练组,也不依赖于现有数据库的信息.