Differentiation of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis strains by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis

Genetic diversity of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis strains isolated from naturally fermented sourdoughs of different origin was evaluated by using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Computer-assisted comparison of the RAPD patterns revealed a clear separation of L. sanfranciscensis from other obligately heterofermentative Lactobacillus species closely related or normally present in sourdough. Six clusters, five of them constituted by strains of the same origin, were recognized at a similarity level of 63%. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) results on strains chosen as representative were generally in good agreement with the grouping obtained by RAPD. Both techniques showed a high degree of discriminatory power and indicated the existence of a remarkable genetic polymorphism within the species. Furthermore, the chromosome size of L. sanfranciscensis was estimated by PFGE to be about 1.4 Mb.     

Strategic mining of cyanobacterial patents from the USPTO patent database and analysis of their scope and implications

Patent analysis with the help of the strategic mining of patents from databases is important and useful within the framework of application-oriented research and its commercialization. In the analysis reported here, we have mined cyanobacterial patents from the patent database of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In order to make an assessment of the commercial potentials of cyanobacteria, we conducted the patent search (from 1976 to April 2006) using certain generic terms and the 84 genera of cyanobacteria as keywords. The search was performed in two major ways – searching the abstracts and claims of the patents cumulatively and searching the entire patent documents by the mode of ‘all fields’ in USPTO. In the abstract- and claims-based search, 234 patents were obtained after the removal of overlapping patents among the keywords. An additional 31 patents were added following the ‘all fields’ search; these patents were not covered in the search that was based on abstracts and claims. The entire package of 265 patents, of which 244 were related to cyanobacteria, was then analyzed. Information derived from these patents identified five major areas of cyanobacterial utilization. Cyanobacteria have been patented as a source of a wide spectrum of products, for medical, agriculture and environmental applications, for gene-based products, for methods of cultivation and for methods of control. The chronological development in granting cyanobacterial patents was also traced. This study demonstrates that such strategic mining and analysis of patent data can be used as an index for future development.     

弱精子症精子中miRNAs特异表达及潜在致病靶点的分析

摘要 目的：弱精子症可见于40%的不育男性,其特征是精子活力低下。微小RNA（MicroRNAs,miRNAs）在精子发生中发挥重要作用,但关于精子中miRNAs在弱精子症中的作用知之甚少。本研究试图初探miRNAs在弱精子症的分子机制。方法：收集了重度弱精子症患者和健康男性的精子样本,采用高通量序列技术来识别差异表达的miRNAs,并对差异显著的miRNAs进行生物信息学分析。通过qRT-PCR 证实了2个特异性改变的 miRNA及其靶基因表达情况。结果：重度弱精子症患者与正常男性相比,共有146 个miRNAs（P＜0.05; |log2 Fold Change|＞1）发生改变,其中表达上调的52个,下调的94个;预测上下调幅度最显著的前10个miRNAs 的靶基因,同时在miRDB和TargetScan 数据库存在的靶基因共有1407个。富集分析结果显示,miRNAs的靶基因富集于精子细胞的生物过程,还参与精子细胞的氧化代谢、刺激反应、增殖和分化以及凋亡等生物过程。通路分析显示,靶基因可能参与细胞自噬、细胞衰老、PI3K-Akt信号通路、MAPK信号通路、HIF-1信号通路、mTOR信号通路等。其中,在弱精子症精子中特异性上调的hsa-miR-371a-5p和hsa-miR-2355-5p,预测靶基因分别为自噬效应蛋白Beclin1和线粒体内膜蛋白抑素2（prohibitin2,PHB2）,二者直接参与线粒体自噬过程。qRT-PCR结果显示随着精子活力的降低,精子中hsa-miR-371a-5p和hsa-miR-2355-5p的表达量升高。结论：本研究发现弱精子症患者精子中特异性失调的miRNAs及其靶基因,为后续深入研究低活力精子中miRNAs参与调控线粒体自噬功能的机制提供新思路和理论依据。     

A literature review on beneficial role of vitamins and trace elements: Evidence from published clinical studies

COVID-19 is a kind of SARS-CoV-2 viral infectious pneumonia. This research aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of the published studies of vitamins and trace elements in the Scopus database with a special focus on COVID-19 disease. To achieve the goal of the study, network and density visualizations were used to introduce an overall picture of the published literature. Following the bibliometric analysis, we discuss the potential benefits of vitamins and trace elements on immune system function and COVID-19, supporting the discussion with evidence from published clinical studies. The previous studies show that D and A vitamins demonstrated a higher potential benefit, while Selenium, Copper, and Zinc were found to have favorable effects on immune modulation in viral respiratory infections among trace elements. The principles of nutrition from the findings of this research could be useful in preventing and treating COVID-19.     

Decision analysis approach to risk/benefit evaluation in the ethical review of controlled human infection studies

Risks and benefit evaluation for controlled human infection studies, where healthy volunteers are deliberately exposed to infectious agents to evaluate vaccine efficacy, should be explicit, systematic, thorough, and non-arbitrary. Decision analysis promotes these qualities using four steps: (1) determining explicit criteria and measures for evaluation, (2) identifying alternatives to the study, (3) defining the models used to estimate the measures for each alternative, and (4) running the models to produce the estimates and compare the alternatives. In this paper, we describe how decision analysis might be applied by funders and regulators, as well as by others contemplating the use of novel controlled human infection studies for vaccine development and evaluation.     

我国分离的肠道病毒71型(SHZH03病毒株)全基因组核苷酸序列分析

对肠道病毒71型(enterovirus 71,EV71)中国(深圳)分离株SHZH03进行了全基因组(未包括多聚腺苷尾)7406个碱基的核苷酸序列测定.结果表明,SHZH03株与其它肠道病毒71型毒株相比,在编码区没有核苷酸的缺失和插入,其5′UTR和3′UTR区的长度和序列有一定的差异.核苷酸同源性比较结果表明,在P1区SHZH03株与SHZH98株、中国台湾流行株(TW2086、TW2272)的同源性较高(分别为92.5%,90.1%和87.9%),与新加坡流行株SIN5666、SIN5865及标准株MS、BrCr的同源性则在81%左右,而与Coxsackievirus A16(Cox.A16)的同源性最低(63.6%).氨基酸同源性比较结果表明,在P1区SHZH03株与Cox. A16的同源性最低,但在P2和P3区SHZH03株与Cox.A16的同源性最高.P1区的遗传进化分析表明,SHZH03株和中国台湾1998年流行的EV71毒株的亲缘关系较近,属于同一型(genogroup),而与标准株BrCr和MS的亲缘关系较远.上述结果有助于肠道病毒71型的基础研究和中国对于EV71所致疾病的预防.     

Representations of specific acoustic patterns in the auditory cortex and hippocampus

Previous behavioural studies have shown that repeated presentation of a randomly chosen acoustic pattern leads to the unsupervised learning of some of its specific acoustic features. The objective of our study was to determine the neural substrate for the representation of freshly learnt acoustic patterns. Subjects first performed a behavioural task that resulted in the incidental learning of three different noise-like acoustic patterns. During subsequent high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, subjects were then exposed again to these three learnt patterns and to others that had not been learned. Multi-voxel pattern analysis was used to test if the learnt acoustic patterns could be ‘decoded’ from the patterns of activity in the auditory cortex and medial temporal lobe. We found that activity in planum temporale and the hippocampus reliably distinguished between the learnt acoustic patterns. Our results demonstrate that these structures are involved in the neural representation of specific acoustic patterns after they have been learnt.     

Molecular typing of Pasteurella pneumotropica isolated from rodents by amplified 16S ribosomal DNA restriction analysis and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis

A total of 52 isolates of Pasteurella pneumotropica obtained from rodents were examined for their genetic heterogeneity. On the basis of DNA restriction analysis, including amplified 16S ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), differences were identified among the isolates. ARDRA typing with Hae III revealed 4 different banding patterns of the P. pneumotropica isolates. Eighty-two percent of the 23 isolates identified as a-1 were derived from mice, whereas all the isolates identified as a-3 were derived from rats. Most of the isolates, which showed hemolytic activity on blood agar, obtained from mice and rats, were identified as a-2 and a-4, respectively. By restriction analysis of genomic DNA, Apa I and Not I digestion differentiated 9 variants and an undiscriminating group. However, no close relation with regard to the phenotypic characteristics was observed among the variants. The isolates identified as a-2 and a-4 could not be distinguished by PFGE analysis. DNA restriction analysis revealed that the genetic diversity of the P. pneumotropica isolates was more complex than the phenotypic characteristics among the species, and that at least the P. pneumotropica isolates were clearly differentiated into 4 groups by ARDRA typing with Hae III.     

影像分析在生化研究中的应用概况

影像分析是一项重要的微观物质形态测量和浓度测量技术,已经在众多领域中得到应用。本主要介绍影像分析系统的基本结构及其在生化领域中的应用情况,包括细胞形态观察与测量、突变菌株的区分与筛选、蛋白质与ＤＮＡ分子浓度的测量。