Taking organelles apart, putting them back together and creating new ones: lessons from the endoplasmic reticulum

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a highly dynamic organelle. It is composed of four subcompartments including nuclear envelope (NE), rough ER (rER), smooth ER (sER) and transitional ER (tER). The subcompartments are interconnected, can fragment and dissociate and are able to reassemble again. They coordinate with cell function by way of protein regulators in the surrounding cytosol. The activity of the many associated molecular machines of the ER as well as the fluid nature of the limiting membrane of the ER contribute extensively to the dynamics of the ER. This review examines the properties of the ER that permit its isolation and purification and the physiological conditions that permit reconstitution both in vitro and in vivo in normal and in disease conditions.     

MD Simulations and first principles to evaluate the role of binary Fe–V alloys layer on the radiation resistance in the alpha-iron

Radiation damage in reactor materials caused by the collision of the fast neutrons has a great impact on the reliability and safety of nuclear reactors. The element vanadium has attracted interest in many fields due to its advantageous properties in alloys. Thus, molecular dynamics simulation (MD) and first-principles calculation have been executed here to explore the radiation-resistant properties of five materials adding a layer in the bulk (pure iron and four types of Fe–V alloys containing 10%-40% V). The following results were inferred from these simulations. Firstly, the number of Frenkel pairs (FPs) at the stable quenching stage in the bulk decreases when the Fe–V alloy is added as an anti-radiation layer to the bulk. These benefits are evident for the Fe₈₀V₂₀ and alloy layers with more vanadium. The main reason is that the Fe–V binding energy is greater than the Fe-Fe binding energy, which can make the Primary Knock-On atom (PKA) lose more energy at the Fe–V alloy layer. Secondly, the average value of point-defect, cluster and defect clustered fractions in the bulk of Fe–V alloy is smaller than that in the pure iron at the stable quenching stage, especially for the Fe₈₀V₂₀ alloy.     

肽类抗生素生物合成基因簇在Escherichia coli中的异源表达

微生物能够产生众多结构和生物活性多样的次生代谢产物,而其生物合成基因簇的挖掘和异源表达是药物创新和产量提高的必要前提. 在过去20年里,大量重要天然产物的生物合成基因簇在微生物中被不断的发现. 在这些被挖掘的基因簇中,肽类抗生素的生物合成基因簇占了很大比重.肽类抗生素因具有抗菌、抗肿瘤、抗病毒等多种生物学活性而备受化学家和药物学家的重视. 如能了解它们的生物合成机制,实现其基因簇的异源表达,将使合理化遗传修饰生物合成通路获取结构类似物（药物开发）和提高产量成为可能. 大肠杆菌作为最广泛、最成功的表达体系,常用来表达外源基因,但一般只能表达一个或几个基因,却很少有用它来表达整个生物合成基因簇. 2001年,Khosla和Cane在E.coli中成功异源表达了一个复杂聚酮天然产物（红霉素苷原6dEB）基因簇. 这是首个有关在E.coli中异源表达天然产物生物合成基因簇的研究. 至此之后,大肠杆菌开始作为生物合成基因簇的异源表达宿主,越来越受到相关领域的重视. 紧接着核糖体肽和非核糖体肽生物合成基因簇也相继在大肠杆菌中成功异源表达. 本文对肽类抗生素生物合成基因簇在E.coli中的异源表达进行了综述.     

微生物酶法制备D-对羟基苯甘氨酸的研究进展

D-对羟基苯甘氨酸(D-p-HPG)是半合成青霉素和头孢霉素的重要前体。综述了微生物酶法生产D-对羟基苯甘氨酸的方法种类及其优缺点并对酶的来源即菌种的选育方法做了总结。此外,还简介了基因工程领域内的研究状况。     

Circulating tumor microemboli: Progress in molecular understanding and enrichment technologies

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and their clusters, also known as circulating tumor microemboli (CTM), have emerged as valuable tool that can provide mechanistic insights into the tumor heterogeneity, clonal evolution, and stochastic events within the metastatic cascade. However, recent investigations have hinted that CTM may not be mere aggregates of tumor cells but cells comprising CTM exhibit distinct phenotypic and molecular characteristics in comparison to single CTCs. Moreover, in many cases CTM demonstrated higher metastatic potential and resistance to apoptosis as compared to their single cell counterparts. Thus, their evaluation and enumeration may provide a new dimension to our understanding of cancer biology and metastatic cancer spread as well as offer novel theranostic biomarkers. Most of the existing technologies for isolation of hematogenous tumor cells largely favor single CTCs, hence there is a need to devise new approaches, or re-configure the existing ones, for specific and efficient CTM isolation. Here we review existing knowledge and insights on CTM biology. Furthermore, a critical commentary on current and emerging trends in CTM enrichment and characterization along with recently developed ex-vivo CTC expansion methodologies is presented with the aim to facilitate researchers to identify further avenues of research and development.