Mutation in a flexible linker modulates binding affinity for modular complexes

Tandem beta zippers are modular complexes formed between repeated linear motifs and tandemly arrayed domains of partner proteins in which β-strands form upon binding. Studies of such complexes, formed by LIM domain proteins and linear motifs in their intrinsically disordered partners, revealed spacer regions between the linear motifs that are relatively flexible but may affect the overall orientation of the binding modules. We demonstrate that mutation of a solvent exposed side chain in the spacer region of an LHX4–ISL2 complex has no significant effect on the structure of the complex, but decreases binding affinity, apparently by increasing flexibility of the linker.     

闽江和漓江暗鳜mtDNA控制区序列差异分析

为解决暗鳜(Siniperca obscura)在分类上的争议,利用PCR和直接测序法分析了闽江和漓江13尾暗鳜mtDNA控制区的序列差异。在长度813bp的同源序列中,共发现71个变异位点,占分析位点总数的8.73%;定义了11个单倍型,其中闽江群体7个,漓江群体4个,两群体之间没有共享单倍型,且有37个鉴别位点。两群体间的核苷酸歧义度(Dxy)为5.421%±1.129%。分子方差分析(AMOVA)得出两群体间的固定指数(Fst)为0.852(P<0.001)。构建的NJ亲缘关系树中,闽江暗鳜和漓江暗鳜各自组群,明显分为两支。这些表明闽江和漓江暗鳜群体之间出现了显著的遗传分化,其分化可能与南岭山脉的隆起形成有关。     

Emergence,evolution, and vaccine production approaches of SARS-CoV-2 virus: Benefits of getting vaccinated and common questions

The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Wuhan city, China at the end of 2019 made it urgent to identify the origin of the causal pathogen and its molecular evolution, to appropriately design an effective vaccine. This study analyzes the evolutionary background of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-2) in accordance with its close relative SARS-CoV (SARS-1), which was emerged in 2002. A comparative genomic and proteomic study was conducted on SARS-2, SARS-1, and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS), which was emerged in 2012. In silico analysis inferred the genetic variability among the tested viruses. The SARS-1 genome harbored 11 genes encoding 12 proteins, while SARS-2 genome contained only 10 genes encoding for 10 proteins. MERS genome contained 11 genes encoding 11 proteins. The analysis also revealed a slight variation in the whole genome size of SARS-2 comparing to its siblings resulting from sequential insertions and deletions (indels) throughout the viral genome particularly ORF1AB, spike, ORF10 and ORF8. The effective indels were observed in the gene encoding the spike protein that is responsible for viral attachment to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) cell receptor and initiating infection. These indels are responsible for the newly emerging COVID-19 variants αCoV, βCoV, γCoV and δCoV. Nowadays, few effective COVID-19 vaccines developed based on spike (S) glycoprotein were approved and become available worldwide. Currently available vaccines can relatively prevent the spread of COVID-19 and suppress the disease. The traditional (killed or attenuated virus vaccine and antibody-based vaccine) and innovated vaccine production technologies (RNA- and DNA-based vaccines and viral vectors) are summarized in this review. We finally highlight the most common questions related to COVID-19 disease and the benefits of getting vaccinated.     

Application of partial restriction procedure in both shotgun and non-random strategies for nucleotide sequencing

Partial digestion of a target DNA fragment with 4-bp-recognition restriction enzymes followed by a forced ligation to an M13 vector was employed for the construction of a subfragment library. The library can be used for either shotgun or non-random nucleotide sequencing. Application of the partial digests generated with the 4-bp recognition restriction enzymes instead of DNase I in the improved non-random strategy for nucleotide sequencing (Li and Wu, 1987) made the procedure as easy as that of the random strategy. The library can also be used in shotgun nucleotide sequencing directly, and few self-ligated subfragments were found. The usefulness of this procedure was demonstrated by the sequencing of a goat 6.5-kb EcoRI fragment, which is located 5' to the globin gene.     

自然降雨下黄土丘陵区草灌植物垂直覆盖结构的减流减沙效应

黄土高原是我国水土流失和生态环境问题最为严重的地区之一,植被恢复是防治水土流失的重要措施。植物垂直覆盖结构包括地上冠层、地表枯落物和地下根系,各组分具有不同的水土保持作用,是研究植被与水土流失关系的基本单元。目前,关于植物垂直覆盖结构不同组分对土壤侵蚀影响的研究主要是基于人工模拟降雨,缺少自然降雨条件下不同植物的垂直覆盖结构对产流、产沙和入渗等多过程影响的系统研究。本研究以黄土丘陵区典型的草本(须芒草)、半灌木(铁杆蒿)和灌木(绣线菊)为研究对象,每种植物进行三种处理(自然状态、去除枯落物和仅留根系)以及裸地对照,观测2015—2016年降雨事件的产流产沙量和入渗量,分析植物不同垂直覆盖结构的减流减沙效益及其相对贡献。结果表明:三种植物均具有较好的减流(45.9%—73.2%)、减沙效益(87.5%—94.6%)和增加入渗作用(4.7%—10.8%),灌木的减流效果(73.2%)显著高于草本(45.9%)和半灌木(63.5%),但三种植物间的减沙效益没有显著性差异。冠层的减流作用最大,贡献率接近一半(48%—50%),草本枯落物的减流贡献率与根系基本一致,而半灌木和灌木枯落物的减流贡献...     

基于3种线粒体标记探讨中日沿海角木叶鲽遗传多样性差异

角木叶鲽(Pleuronichthys cornutus)是东亚沿海重要的鲽形目经济鱼类, 为更好地保护和开发利用其种质资源, 有必要全面了解其遗传背景。本研究测定了中国和日本沿海7个群体200尾角木叶鲽线粒体控制区(CR) 5'端、细胞色素b (Cytb)和NADH脱氢酶第二亚基(ND2)基因序列, 比较不同标记在解析遗传多样性和种群结构上的可行性与有效性, 阐明中日沿海角木叶鲽群体间出现遗传分化的分子机制。CR序列分析发现中日沿海7个角木叶鲽群体遗传多样性表现出较高的单倍型多样性(H_d = 0.9699)和较低的核苷酸多样性(π = 0.0061); 各群体间无显著的遗传分化(F_ST = -0.0197-0.0184, P > 0.05); 单倍型网络未显示出明显的地理聚群和谱系结构; 分子方差分析(AMOVA)表明变异主要发生在群体内部(> 99.17%)。进一步通过Cytb和ND2基因分别与CR序列对比分析, 结果表明群体遗传多样性均表现为高H_d (0.9683-0.9829)低π (0.0050-0.0063)模式, 仅有ND2基因分析F_ST值(F_ST = 0.0302, P < 0.05)显示了中国碣石(GDJS)和日本明石(JAP)群体间显著的低水平遗传分化现象。CR、Cytb和ND2的单倍型网络图均无明显的地理聚类和谱系结构, AMOVA分析也显示变异主要来源于群体内(> 98.39%)。种群历史动态分析结果显示, 角木叶鲽可能在第四纪中更新世晚期经历了群体扩张事件, 扩张时间分别为31.93-9.58万年前(CR)、27.53-22.02万年前(Cytb)和26.99-18.75万年前(ND2)。综上所述, 中日沿海的角木叶鲽具有较高遗传多样性, GDJS和JAP群体间存在低度分化; ND2基因比CR和Cytb序列更适于分析角木叶鲽种群遗传结构, 选择多个遗传标记可有效弥补单一标记分析遗传多样性的局限性; 推测冰期两大独立避难所的形成及GDJS和JAP群体距离相隔较远是其发生遗传分化的主要原因。研究结果为中日沿海角木叶鲽渔业资源的种质保护与可持续利用提供了理论依据。     

Attention allocation on mobile app interfaces when human interacts with them

With the popularity of smartphones and the pervasion of mobile apps, people spend more and more time to interact with a diversity of apps on their smartphones, especially for young population. This raises a question: how people allocate attention to interfaces of apps during using them. To address this question, we, in this study, designed an experiment with two sessions (i.e., Session1: browsing original interfaces; Session 2: browsing interfaces after removal of colors and background) integrating with an eyetracking system. Attention fixation durations were recorded by an eye-tracker while participants browsed app interfaces. The whole screen of smartphone was divided into four even regions to explore fixation durations. The results revealed that participants gave significantly longer total fixation duration on the bottom left region compared to other regions in the session (1) Longer total fixation duration on the bottom was preserved, but there is no significant difference between left side and right side in the session2. Similar to the finding of total fixation duration, first fixation duration is also predominantly paid on the bottom area of the interface. Moreover, the skill in the use of mobile phone was quantified by assessing familiarity and accuracy of phone operation and was investigated in the association with the fixation durations. We found that first fixation duration of the bottom left region is significantly negatively correlated with the smartphone operation level in the session 1, but there is no significant correlation between them in the session (2) According to the results of ratio exploration, the ratio of the first fixation duration to the total fixation duration is not significantly different between areas of interest for both sessions. The findings of this study provide insights into the attention allocation during browsing app interfaces and are of implications on the design of app interfaces and advertisements as layout can be optimized according to the attention allocation to maximally deliver information.     

Epitope mapping of gp350/220 conserved domain of epstein barr virus to develop nasopharyngeal carcinoma (npc) vaccine

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant tumor in the nasopharyngeal epithelial cells that caused by many factors, one of which is the viral infection of EBV (Epstein Barr Virus). The standard treatments to cure NPC still have not been encouraging. The prevention through vaccination is an effective way to stop the disease. However, EBV vaccine being able to cover all variants of virus is still not available yet. Therefore, we identified the conserved region of glycoprotein 350/220 of EBV which has immunogenic and antigenic properties. The glycoprotein 350/220 is viral surface protein responsible to bind CR2 receptor, mediated EBV to enter the host cell. The conserved domain is crucial for EBV in infecting host cells. Further, by blocking CR2 binding domain of gp350/220 using antibody will inhibit EBV's spreading, and provoke an immune system to eliminate the virus in a patient. Glycoprotein 350/220 from all variants of Epstein-Barr virus was retrieved from NCBI. The conserved domain of gp350/220 was identified by aligning the protein sequences and structures. The polymorphic structure was used as a template for docking analysis to identify the resemblance of amino acid from polymorphic variants of gp350/220 that binds CR2. The epitope mapping of gp350/220 was done by Discotope BepiPred method. The result revealed that the conserved region of gp350/220 was predicted to have an epitope, QNPVYLIPETVPYIKWDNC residue, and it does not have any similarities to the human's cell surface protein. Therefore, it can be used as a reference to develop vaccine to prevent NPC.     

Interleukin-23 receptor genetic variants contribute to susceptibility of multiple cancers

Aim

Interleukin-23 (IL-23) and IL-23 receptor (IL23R) play an important role during the T-helper 17 (Th17) cell-mediated inflammatory process as well as pathogenesis of multiple cancers. Several IL-23R single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), especially rs6682925, rs10889677 and rs1884444 polymorphisms, are considered to have significant impacts on susceptibility of multiple cancers. A number of case-control studies have explored the role these genetic polymorphisms in development of carcinogenesis, but the conclusions are inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to systematically investigate the associations between the three genetic variants and multiple cancer risk.

Methods

A total of ten studies are eligible (12,211 patients and 14,650 controls). Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were appropriately calculated using either fixed-effect model or random-effect model.

Results

Significant associations between rs6682925 or rs10889677 polymorphism and cancer risk were found (OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.03–1.21, P = 0.007; or OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.71–0.92, P = 0.001). However, there was no such association between rs1884444 genotypes and cancer susceptibility (P > 0.05).

Conclusion

These findings reveal that the IL-23R rs6682925 and rs10889677 genetic variants play a more important part in pathogenesis of multiple cancers.