Contrasting leaf and ‘ecosystem’ CO2 and H2O exchange in Avena fatua monoculture: Growth at ambient and elevated CO2

Elevated CO₂ (ambient + 35 Pa) increased shoot dry mass production in Avena fatua by 68% at maturity. This increase in shoot biomass was paralleled by an 81% increase in average net CO₂ uptake (A) per unit of leaf area and a 65% increase in average A at the ecosystem level per unit of ground area. Elevated CO₂ also increased ecosystem A per unit of biomass. However, the products of total leaf area and light-saturated leaf A divided by the ground surface area over time appeared to lie on a single response curve for both CO₂ treatments. The approximate slope of the response suggests that the integrated light saturated capacity for leaf photosynthesis is 10-fold greater than the ecosystem rate. Ecosystem respiration (night) per unit of ground area, which includes soil and plant respiration, ranged from-20 (at day 19) to-18 (at day 40) mol m^-2 s^-1 for both elevated and ambient CO₂ Avena. Ecosystem below-ground respiration at the time of seedling emergence was -10 mol m^-2 s^-1, while that occuring after shoot removal at the termination of the experiment ranged from -5 to-6 mol m^-2 s^-1. Hence, no significant differences between elevated and ambient CO₂ treatments were found in any respiration measure on a ground area basis, though ecosystem respiration on a shoot biomass basis was clearly reduced by elevated CO₂. Significant differences existed between leaf and ecosystem water flux. In general, leaf transpiration (E) decreased over the course of the experiment, possibly in response to leaf aging, while ecosystem rates of evapotranspiration (ET) remained constant, probably because falling leaf rates were offset by an increasing total leaf biomass. Transpiration was lower in plants grown at elevated CO₂, though variation was high because of variability in leaf age and ambient light conditions and differences were not significant. In contrast, ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET) was significantly decreased by elevated CO₂ on 5 out of 8 measurement dates. Photosynthetic water use efficiencies (A/E at the leaf level, A/ET at the ecosystem level) were increased by elevated CO₂. Increases were due to both increased A at leaf and ecosystem level and decreased leaf E and ecosystem ET.     

大肠杆菌F18菌株敏感和抵抗基因型仔猪十二指肠基因表达谱差异分析

文章运用Agilent 双标记表达谱芯片, 基于已建立的苏太猪大肠杆菌F18菌株敏感性和抗性型全同胞配对个体, 分析十二指肠组织基因表达谱差异, 旨在筛选导致仔猪断奶后腹泻和水肿病发生的大肠杆菌F18菌株受体相关基因, 探讨造成大肠杆菌病抗性和敏感性资源家系抗性差异的分子生物学机理。研究结果显示, 以Fold change绝对值大于2倍进行筛选, 在敏感型(GG基因型)对抗性型(AA基因型)配对组中, 差异基因共13个, 其中上调6个, 下调7个, 在以敏感型(AG基因型)对抗性型(AA基因型)配对组中, 共筛选出差异基因6个, 其中上调4个, 下调2个。经GO分析发现差异基因的生物学过程主要涉及免疫应答、胞外区修饰(如糖基化)、细胞黏附、信号转导等。通路发现大肠杆菌F18菌株抵抗性和敏感性差异基因主要涉及糖脂合成代谢以及炎症免疫相关通路, 经芯片筛选出的相关基因的功能还需进一步的研究验证。     

A short note on predicted motifs in the Thaparocleidus wallagonius genome

Thaparocleidus wallagonius is a monogenean parasite and a fish-borne pathogen with a worldwide distribution. The genome for Thaparocleidus wallagonius is known. Therefore, it is of interest to report the DNA motif analysis data in the 18S rDNA of Thaparocleidus wallagonius collected from the fish Wallago attu in India. This data forms a framework for an in-depth analysis of the parasite biology and development, immune evasion strategies, virulence and long-term survival within the definitive host.     

Phylogenetic relationships of Eurasian pines (Pinus, Pinaceae) based on chloroplast rbcL, MATK, RPL20-RPS18 spacer, and TRNV intron sequences

The sequence divergence of chloroplast rbcL, matK, trnV intron, and rpl20-rps18 spacer regions was analyzed among 32 Pinus species and representatives of six other genera in Pinaceae. The total aligned sequence length is 3570 bp. Of the four sequences examined, matK evolved much faster than rbcL in Pinus and in other Pinaceae genera. The two noncoding regions did not show more divergence than the two coding regions, especially within each Pinus subgenus. Phylogenetic analyses based on these four sequences gave consistent results and strongly supported the monophyly hypothesis for the genus Pinus and its two recognized subgenera. Pinus krempfii, the two-flat-needle pine endemic to Vietnam, was placed in subgen. Strobus and showed closer affinity to subsect. Gerardianae. The ancient character of sect. Parrya is further confirmed. However, monophyly of the sect. Parrya is not supported by our data. Among the Eurasian pines of subgen. Pinus, Mediterranean pines formed one clade and the Asian members of subsect. Sylvestres formed another. The Himalayan P. roxburghii showed considerable divergence from all the other hard pines from both regions. Pinus merkusii was distinctly separated from all the Asian members of subsect. Sylvestres. The implications of our results for Pinus classification are discussed.     

类风湿关节炎与白细胞介素-18 的研究进展

类风湿关节炎发病机制不明,许多细胞因子参与了RA的发病机制。近年发现,白细胞介素-18可作用于RA发病的多个参与因素,成为研究RA的新热点。     

反相C18固相萃取小柱用于蛋白质组分析中少量样品预处理

针对少量且复杂蛋白质组样品,开发一种耗时短、操作简便的分离方法。以人的脑海马组织蛋白样品为研究对象,采用反相C18固相萃取小柱,采用不同乙腈浓度对酶切后样品进行梯度洗脱,与反相高效液相色谱法对比分离效果。通过比较不同乙腈梯度洗脱方案所鉴定到的谱图数、非冗余多肽数、蛋白数和各洗脱组分间重复率分析,确定一种样品量少、简单易行、分离效果好的实验方案。虽然反相C18固相萃取小柱法鉴定蛋白总数占高效液相色谱法的85.5%,但其操作简单,耗时少。通过4种不同乙腈浓度方案比较,确定乙腈洗脱浓度优化为5%、15%、20%和90%时,分离30μg人的海马多肽混合物可以得到较优的分离效果。其蛋白鉴定数为反相液相色谱法的67.0%,且重复性良好。该结果证实反相C18固相萃取小柱分离效果比反相高效液相色谱法稍差,但此方法可以分离少量复杂蛋白质组样品。该方法分离样品充分,操作易行,耗时短,是进行蛋白质组学分析中少量样品的一个简便预处理方法。     

Identification and characterization of an ABA‐activated MAP kinase cascade in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a major phytohormone involved in important stress‐related and developmental plant processes. Recent phosphoproteomic analyses revealed a large set of ABA‐triggered phosphoproteins as putative mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) targets, although the evidence for MAPKs involved in ABA signalling is still scarce. Here, we identified and reconstituted in vivo a complete ABA‐activated MAPK cascade, composed of the MAP3Ks MAP3K17/18, the MAP2K MKK3 and the four C group MAPKs MPK1/2/7/14. In planta, we show that ABA activation of MPK7 is blocked in mkk3‐1 and map3k17mapk3k18 plants. Coherently, both mutants exhibit hypersensitivity to ABA and altered expression of a set of ABA‐dependent genes. A genetic analysis further reveals that this MAPK cascade is activated by the PYR/PYL/RCAR‐SnRK2‐PP2C ABA core signalling module through protein synthesis of the MAP3Ks, unveiling an atypical mechanism for MAPK activation in eukaryotes. Our work provides evidence for a role of an ABA‐induced MAPK pathway in plant stress signalling.     

Phylogenetic analysis of anostracans (Branchiopoda: Anostraca) inferred from nuclear 18S ribosomal DNA (18S rDNA) sequences

The nuclear small subunit ribosomal DNA (18S rDNA) of 27 anostracans (Branchiopoda: Anostraca) belonging to 14 genera and eight out of nine traditionally recognized families has been sequenced and used for phylogenetic analysis. The 18S rDNA phylogeny shows that the anostracans are monophyletic. The taxa under examination form two clades of subordinal level and eight clades of family level. Two families the Polyartemiidae and Linderiellidae are suppressed and merged with the Chirocephalidae, of which together they form a subfamily. In contrast, the Parartemiinae are removed from the Branchipodidae, raised to family level (Parartemiidae) and cluster as a sister group to the Artemiidae in a clade defined here as the Artemiina (new suborder). A number of morphological traits support this new suborder. The Branchipodidae are separated into two families, the Branchipodidae and Tanymastigidae (new family). The relationship between Dendrocephalus and Thamnocephalus requires further study and needs the addition of Branchinella sequences to decide whether the Thamnocephalidae are monophyletic. Surprisingly, Polyartemiella hazeni and Polyartemia forcipata ("Family" Polyartemiidae), with 17 and 19 thoracic segments and pairs of trunk limb as opposed to all other anostracans with only 11 pairs, do not cluster but are separated by Linderiella santarosae ("Family" Linderiellidae), which has 11 pairs of trunk limbs. All appear to be part of the Chirocephalidae and share one morphological character: double pre-epipodites on at least part of their legs. That Linderiella is part of the Polyartemiinae suggests that multiplication of the number of limbs occurred once, but was lost again in Linderiella. Within Chirocephalidae, we found two further clades, the Eubranchipus-Pristicephalus clade and the Chirocephalus clade. Pristicephalus is reinstated as a genus.     

用~（18）F-FDG观察脂肪肝患者肝脏葡萄糖摄取变化

目的：通过PET/CT检查观察脂肪肝患者肝脏及其他组织对18F脱氧葡萄糖（18F-FDG）摄入变化,探讨脂肪肝与糖脂代谢的相关性。方法：36例做PET/CT的健康和2型糖尿病男性患者,分为对照组（n=18例）;脂肪肝组（n=9例）;糖尿病脂肪肝组（n=9例）。常规测血糖、血脂及肝肾功能。PET/CT测肝脏CT值和肝脏、肾皮质,骨骼肌组织18F-FDG的最大标准摄入值（SUVmax）及平均标准摄入值（SUVmean）。结果：1.糖尿病脂肪肝组的TG显著高于单纯脂肪肝组和正常对照组,P=0.0003,0.0000。单纯脂肪肝组的TG亦显著高于正常对照组,P=0.028。2.糖尿病脂肪肝组的肝脏18F-FDG的SUVmean和SUVmax显著高于正常对照组的SUVmean和SUVmax,P=0.0054,0.0133。单纯脂肪肝组的肝脏SUVmean和SUVmax亦高于正常对照组,但比较无统计学差异。脑皮质、肾皮质和骨骼肌组织的18F-FDG的SUVmean和SUVmax三组间比较无显著性差异。3.Spearman相关性分析发现FBG与TG显著正相关（r=0.59919,P=0.0004）;FBG和TG与肝脏的CT值显著负相关（r=-0．55625,P=0．0004;r=-0．45739,P=0．0097）。结论：脂肪肝与空腹血糖和甘油三酯升高显著相关。脂肪肝及2型糖尿病脂肪肝患者肝脏对葡萄糖摄取增高。     

Expression of equine interleukin-18 by baculovirus expression system and its biologic activity

The equine interleukin-18 (IL-18) cDNA that contains the coding sequence was cloned and a recombinant baculovirus, named AcEIL-18, was constructed. The recombinant protein of the equine IL-18 was expressed by AcEIL-18 and its expression was confirmed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blotting. Insect cells infected with AcEIL-18 secreted a precursor IL-18 with 24 kilo dalton (kDa) into the culture supernatant. Western blot analysis showed that mature equine IL-18 about 18 kDa was also confirmed without co-expression of caspase-1. Culture supernatant from AcEIL-18 infected cells showed a synergistic effect with recombinant human interleukin-12 for induction of interferon-gamma gene expression in equine peripheral mononuclear cells, indicating that the recombinant equine IL-18 expressed in this study also has biological activity without any treatment.