The role of GAP1 gene in the nitrogen metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during wine fermentation

Aim:  The aim of this study was to analyse the relevance of the general amino acid permease gene ( GAP1 ) of the wine yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae on nitrogen metabolism and fermentation performance.
Methods and Results:  We constructed a gap1 mutant in a wine strain. We compared fermentation rate, biomass production and nitrogen consumption between the gap1 mutant and its parental strain during fermentations with different nitrogen concentrations. The fermentation capacity of the gap1 mutant strain was impaired in the nitrogen-limited and -excessive conditions. The nitrogen consumption rate between the wild strain and the mutant was different for some amino acids, especially those affected by nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR). The deletion of GAP1 gene also modified the gene expression of other permeases.
Conclusions:  The Gap1 permease seems to be important during wine fermentations with low and high nitrogen content, not only because of its amino acid transporter role but also because of its function as an amino acid sensor.
Significance and Impact of the Study:  A possible biotechnological advantage of a gap1 mutant is its scarce consumption of arginine, whose metabolism has been related to the production of the carcinogenic ethyl carbamate.     

Cervitec凝胶局部应用结合洁刮治术对牙周炎龈下菌群的影响

目的:探讨Cervitec凝胶局部应用结合洁刮治术对牙周炎龈下菌群的影响效果。方法:选取我院口腔科已确诊为牙周炎患者60例,根据治疗方案不同分为实验组与对照组,对照组进行传统洁刮术治疗,实验组在对照组基础上将Cervitec凝胶涂抹于牙齿及牙周袋周围,比较两组患者的口腔健康指数、探诊及龈沟液水平、菌群抑制效果及主要细菌杀灭水平变化情况,其数据结果应用统计学软件SPSS 17.0处理。结果:与对照组相比较,实验组患者口腔指数、牙龈水平及菌群杀灭抑制效果明显,表现为:菌斑指数、牙龈指数、出血指数明显降低(P0.05);探诊深度、附着水平、龈沟液含量明显下降(P0.05);总菌群、G-及G+菌群抑制程度提高(P0.05);高登链球菌、缓症链球菌、变黑普氏菌、牙龈卟啉单胞菌杀灭程度明显提高(P0.05)。其结果均有统计学意义。结论:Cervitec凝胶局部应用联合洁刮治术对牙周炎牙龈下菌群有良好抑制效果,并维持长久疗效,降低刺激程度及过敏情况,提高临床有效率,保护牙龈健康,对牙体产生较小的副作用。     

广西地区104例泰国缺失型alpha-地中海贫血1 的研究

目的：对广西地区的泰国缺失型琢-地中海贫血1 的血液学、基因型、临床表现及民族分布进行分析。方法：对门诊病人进行 血常规、血红蛋白电泳及- 地中海贫血基因分析,收集已确诊为泰国缺失型琢- 地中海贫血1 患者的检测数据及临床资料,并用 SPSS 统计软件对以上数据进行统计分析。结果：共检出104 例泰国缺失型alpha- 地中海贫血1,其中71 例基因型为--THAI /alpha-alpha,17 例 基因型为--THAI/-alpha3.7,14 例基因型为--THAI/alpha CS alpha ,2 例基因型为--THAI/alpha QS alpha。统计学分析：--THAI/alpha alpha杂合子和--SEA/alpha-alpha杂合子的血常规 结果比较没有统计学意义,P>0.05;泰国型Hb H病(--THAI/-alpha3.7、--THAI/alpha-CSalpha、--THAI/alpha-CSalpha)和东南亚型Hb H病（--SEA/-alpha-alpha3.7、--SEA/alpha-CS-alpha)的血常 规结果比较有统计学意义,P<0.01;民族分布上,有67 例为壮族,34 例为汉族,其他民族3 例。结论：泰国缺失型- 地中海贫血1 在 广西有一定的发生率,在壮族人群多见;和东南亚缺失型Hb H病相比,泰国缺失型Hb H病出现临床症状的时间更早、贫血更严 重。     

VersusSNP:一种单碱基突变的筛选及分类工具

单碱基突变的筛选和分类是SNP分析的基础。为解决手工进行突变位点挖掘工作的困难,编写了VersusSNP软件。它可以解析并过滤序列比对结果,并根据突变类型将位点加以分类,以图形界面呈现给用户。使用VersusSNP,用户可以直观地了解基因组中单碱基突变的情况。其程序及源代码可以从http://sourceforge.net/projects/versussnp下载。     

Detection by whole genome microarrays of a spontaneous 126-gene deletion during construction of a ytfE mutant: confirmation that a ytfE mutation results in loss of repair of iron-sulfur centres in proteins damaged by oxidative or nitrosative stress

We show that genomic hybridization allows detection of a spontaneous secondary deletion of 126 genes that occurred during construction of an Escherichia coli ytfE mutant, LMS4209, explaining some of its unexpected growth defects. We confirm that YtfE is required to repair damage to iron-sulfur centres and for hydrogen peroxide resistance.     

水稻OsNRT1-d启动子的分离和功能分析

采用PCR技术,从水稻基因组中分离到OsNRT1-d读码框上游2 019 bp序列.序列分析表明:在起始密码ATG上游-189 bp和-127 bp处分别存在CAAT-box和TATA-box,具有典型的启动子结构.推测的转录起始位点CAC位于起始密码ATG上游-93 bp处.将OsNRT1-d启动子5′-端系列缺失后,分别与GUS报告基因融合,获得的NRT2019∷GUS、NRT1196∷GUS 和NRT719∷GUS转基因载体.农杆菌介导转化水稻,获得的转基因水稻均能启动下游GUS报告基因在水稻的根、叶、花颖和种子中表达;将转基因水稻幼苗放在滤纸上紧急干旱处理和用15% PEG6000进行模拟干旱处理,GUS基因的表达量明显升高,且干旱应答元件在-719 bp～-1 bp的范围内;GUS活性分析表明:OsNRT1-d启动子对ABA、NaCl、(NH4)2SO4、KNO3和Gln等信号没有应答反应.     

Quantification of the elevated rate of domain rearrangements in metazoa

Most eukaryotic proteins consist of multiple domains created through gene fusions or internal duplications. The most frequent change of a domain architecture (DA) is insertion or deletion of a domain at the N or C terminus. Still, the mechanisms underlying the evolution of multidomain proteins are not very well studied.Here, we have studied the evolution of multidomain architectures (MDA), guided by evolutionary information in the form of a phylogenetic tree. Our results show that Pfam domain families and MDAs have been created with comparable rates (0.1-1 per million years (My)). The major changes in DA evolution have occurred in the process of multicellularization and within the metazoan lineage. In contrast, creation of domains seems to have been frequent already in the early evolution. Furthermore, most of the architectures have been created from older domains or architectures, whereas novel domains are mainly found in single-domain proteins. However, a particular group of exon-bordering domains may have contributed to the rapid evolution of novel multidomain proteins in metazoan organisms. Finally, MDAs have evolved predominantly through insertions of domains, whereas domain deletions are less common.In conclusion, the rate of creation of multidomain proteins has accelerated in the metazoan lineage, which may partly be explained by the frequent insertion of exon-bordering domains into new architectures. However, our results indicate that other factors have contributed as well.     

Evolved to be active: sulfate ions define substrate recognition sites of CK2alpha and emphasise its exceptional role within the CMGC family of eukaryotic protein kinases

CK2alpha is the catalytic subunit of protein kinase CK2 and a member of the CMGC family of eukaryotic protein kinases like the cyclin-dependent kinases, the MAP kinases and glycogen-synthase kinase 3. We present here a 1.6 A resolution crystal structure of a fully active C-terminal deletion mutant of human CK2alpha liganded by two sulfate ions, and we compare this structure systematically with representative structures of related CMGC kinases. The two sulfate anions occupy binding pockets at the activation segment and provide the structural basis of the acidic consensus sequence S/T-D/E-X-D/E that governs substrate recognition by CK2. The anion binding sites are conserved among those CMGC kinases. In most cases they are neutralized by phosphorylation of a neighbouring threonine or tyrosine side-chain, which triggers conformational changes for regulatory purposes. CK2alpha, however, lacks both phosphorylation sites at the activation segment and structural plasticity. Here the anion binding sites are functionally changed from regulation to substrate recognition. These findings underline the exceptional role of CK2alpha as a constitutively active enzyme within a family of strictly controlled protein kinases.     

在系统发育分析中编码空位

空位包含了可用于系统发育分析的进化信息.为了准确地计算系统发育关系,空位包含的信息应该予以考虑.本文讨论了7种最常用的空位编码方法,并举例说明这些方法的编码原理.另外,本文还介绍了一些经验用以帮助研究者在使用现有的系统发育软件时选择空位编码方法.但是,所有的空位编码方法都有其优点和缺点,需要提出新的空位编码方法才能使空位信息在系统发育分析中得以充分地应用.     

Analysis of ALS5 and ALS6 allelic variability in a geographically diverse collection of Candida albicans isolates

The Candida albicans ALS (agglutinin-like sequence) gene family encodes eight cell-surface glycoproteins, some of which function in adhesion to host surfaces. ALS genes have a central tandem repeat-encoding domain comprised entirely of head-to-tail copies of a conserved 108-bp sequence. The number of copies of the tandemly repeated sequence varies between C. albicans strains and often between alleles within the same strain. Because ALS alleles can encode different-sized proteins that may have different functional characteristics, defining the range of allelic variability is important. Genomic DNA from C. albicans strains representing the major genetic clades was PCR amplified to determine the number of tandemly repeated sequence copies within the ALS5 and ALS6 central domain. ALS5 alleles had 2-10 tandem repeat sequence copies (mean=4.82 copies) while ALS6 alleles had 2-8 copies (mean=4.00 copies). Despite this variability, tandem repeat copy number was stable in C. albicans strains passaged for 3000 generations. Prevalent alleles and allelic distributions varied among the clades for ALS5 and ALS6. Overall, ALS6 exhibited less variability than ALS5. ALS5 deletions can occur naturally in C. albicans via direct repeats flanking the ALS5 locus. Deletion of both ALS5 alleles was associated particularly with clades III and SA. ALS5 exhibited allelic polymorphisms in the coding region 5' of the tandem repeats; some alleles resembled ALS1, suggesting recombination between these contiguous loci. Natural deletion of ALS5 and the sequence variation within its coding region suggest relaxed selective pressure on this locus, and that Als5p function may be dispensable in C. albicans or redundant within the Als family.