植物中的气体信号分子硫化氢：无香而立，其臭如兰

硫化氢（H₂S）一直被认为是一种有毒气体,作为第三种气体信号分子,H₂S在生物体中的生理功能逐渐被揭示。植物中H2S信号研究在不到10年时间已取得了长足进步。植物体内H2S的生成酶比动物细胞丰富,定位于细胞质、线粒体和叶绿体等多个亚细胞部位,表达具有时空性。目前,植物领域H₂S的功能研究主要采用药理学方法。随着研究的深入,遗传学证据不断加强。内源H₂S的研究手段也在不断进步,从亚甲基蓝间接测定,发展到气/液相色谱、荧光探针、活体电极等直接检测手段。植物中H₂S的生理功能研究主要集中在对干旱、重金属等环境非生物胁迫的缓解作用及机理,也有一些植物生长发育调控方面的报道。目前了解到,H₂S可通过与植物激素、其它气体信号分子、活性氧等相互作用以及蛋白质巯基化修饰等方式发挥生理功能。虽然植物气体信号的研究有其特殊性,也遇到很多困难,但是H₂S信号的广泛而特殊的生理功能是一个具有重要科学意义和应用前景的研究领域。     

Chemical structure of wall teichoic acid isolated from Enterococcus faecium strain U0317

Wall teichoic acid (WTA) was isolated from Enterococcus faecium strain U0317 and structurally characterized using ¹H, ¹³C, and ³¹P NMR spectroscopy, including two-dimensional COSY, TOCSY, ROESY, HMQC, and HMBC experiments. Further compositional determination was undertaken using classical chemical methods and HF treatment followed by GLC and GLC–MS analyses. The repeating unit of WTA consisted of two residues of 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-d-galactose, glycerol (Gro), and phosphate, and has the structure shown below:→6)-α-d-GalpNAc-(1→3)-β-d-GalpNAc-(1→2)-Gro-(3→P→     

中老年肩痛患者疼痛及肩关节功能恢复的影响因素分析

摘要 目的：探究分析中老年肩痛患者疼痛及肩关节功能恢复的影响因素分析。方法：采用便利抽样法,随机抽取2020年9月至2022年9月期间于我院门诊就诊的2010名中老年患者作为调查对象,对患者进行筛查、复查、确诊、随访等。并对所搜集信息进行疼痛及肩关节功能恢复单因素与多因素Logistic回归分析。结果：单因素分析显示,年龄（x²=15.274, P＜0.001）、性别（x²=10.401, P=0.001）、病程（x²=16.410, P＜0.001）和是否进行功能锻炼（x²=6.293, P=0.012）为影响中老年肩痛患者肩关节功能恢复的主要因素;年龄≥70岁（OR=1.292, 95%CI 0.953-1.750）、女性（OR=1.672, 95%CI 1.348-2.074）、病程＞1个月（OR=1.470, 95%CI 1.021-2.116）和未进行功能锻炼（OR=1.844, 95%CI 1.175-2.894）为影响中老年肩痛患者肩关节功能恢复的独立危险因素。结论：年龄≥70岁、女性、病程＞1个月和未进行功能锻炼为影响中老年肩痛患者肩关节功能恢复的独立危险因素,根据上述因素尽早快速甄别高风险患者,及早给予合理有效的康复治疗措施,可显著改善肩痛患者肩关节功能的预后。     

血管内皮功能与急性脑梗死患者梗死类型及颈动脉斑块性质的相关性

目的:研究急性脑梗死(ACI)患者血管内皮功能的变化情况,并分析其与脑梗死类型及颈动脉斑块性质的相关性。方法:选择2014年6月到2015年6月在我院收治的脑梗死患者100例作为研究对象。根据病史及磁共振成像(MRI)诊断结果分为ACI组(n=70)和非急性脑梗死(NACI)组(n=30),对两组患者间的血管内皮细胞功能的相关指标进行比较,同时按照梗死类型以及颈动脉斑块性质不同对ACI组进行分组,探究梗死类型与斑块性质与反应性充血指数(RHI)的相关性。结果:ACI组纤维蛋白原(Fbg)、低密度脂蛋白(LDL)、大内皮素-1(big ET-1)、超敏C反应蛋白(hs-CRP)和内皮细胞生长因子(VEGF)水平均高于NACI组,RHI水平低于NACI组,差异有统计学意义(P0.05)。不同急性脑梗死TOAST分型中心源性栓塞型(CE)、小血管闭塞或腔隙性梗死型(SAA)、不明原因型(SUE)和大动脉粥样硬化型(LAA)测得RHI水平逐渐上升,hs-CRP水平和big ET-1水平逐渐下降,差异具有统计学意义(P0.05);比较不同斑块性质发现无斑块组、硬斑块组、软斑块组和混合斑块组的VEGF水平逐渐升高,RHI水平逐渐降低,差异均有统计学意义(P0.05)。相关性分析显示,RHI与斑块性质、hs-CRP以及big ET-1之间呈现负相关(r=-0.672,-0.402,-0.512,P0.05)。结论:血管内皮功能与急性脑梗死类型和颈动脉斑块性质有相关性,可作为评估梗死类型和斑块性质的预测指标。     

Evaluation of H2O activity in the free or phosphorylated catalytic site of Ca2+-ATPase

The sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase catalyses a reversible calcium transport coupled to phosphate transfer between ATP and water. It has been proposed [Biochemistry (1980) 19, 4252-4261] that the reactivity of the acyl-phosphate bond is dependent on the water activity within the catalytic site. We have tested this hypothesis and found that the polarity in the free catalytic site is lower than that of water, a further and large decrease is observed when the enzyme is phosphorylated by Pi. Phosphorylation by ATP indicates that this polarity change is specifically associated with the formation of the ADP-insensitive phosphoenzyme.     

Repair of oxidative DNA damage

Cellular genomes suffer extensive damage from exogenous agents and reactive oxygen species formed during normal metabolism. The MutT homologs (MutT/MTH) remove oxidized nucleotide precursors so that they cannot be incorporated into DNA during replication. Among many repair pathways, the base excision repair (BER) pathway is the most important cellular protection mechanism responding to oxidative DNA damage. The 8-oxoG glycosylases (Fpg or MutM/OGG) and the MutY homologs (MutY/MYH) glycosylases along with MutT/MTH protect cells from the mutagenic effects of 8-oxoG, the most stable and deleterious product known caused by oxidative damage to DNA. The key enzymes in the BER process are DNA glycosylases, which remove different damaged bases by cleavage of the N-glycosylic bonds between the bases and the deoxyribose moieties of the nucleotide residues. Biochemical and structural studies have demonstrated the substrate recognition and reaction mechanism of BER enzymes. Cocrystal structures of strated the substrate recognition and reaction mechanism of BER enzymes. Cocrystal structures of several glycosylases show that the substrate base flips out of the sharply bent DNA helix and the minor groove is widened to be accessed by the glycosylases. To complete the repair after glycosylase action, the apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) site is further processed by an incision step, DNA synthesis, an excision step, and DNA ligation through two alternative pathways. The short-patch BER (1-nucleotide patch size) and long-patch BER (2–6-nucleotide patch size) pathways need AP endonuclease to generate a 3′ hydroxyl group but require different sets of enzymes for DNA synthesis and ligation. Protein-protein interactions have been reported among the enzymes involved in BER. It is possible that the successive players in the repair pathway are assembled in a complex to perform concerted actions. The BER pathways are proposed to protect cells and organisms from mutagenesis and carcinogenesis.     

Herbivore regulation of plant abundance in aquatic ecosystems

Herbivory is a fundamental process that controls primary producer abundance and regulates energy and nutrient flows to higher trophic levels. Despite the recent proliferation of small‐scale studies on herbivore effects on aquatic plants, there remains limited understanding of the factors that control consumer regulation of vascular plants in aquatic ecosystems. Our current knowledge of the regulation of primary producers has hindered efforts to understand the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems, and to manage such ecosystems effectively. We conducted a global meta‐analysis of the outcomes of plant–herbivore interactions using a data set comprised of 326 values from 163 studies, in order to test two mechanistic hypotheses: first, that greater negative changes in plant abundance would be associated with higher herbivore biomass densities; second, that the magnitude of changes in plant abundance would vary with herbivore taxonomic identity. We found evidence that plant abundance declined with increased herbivore density, with plants eliminated at high densities. Significant between‐taxa differences in impact were detected, with insects associated with smaller reductions in plant abundance than all other taxa. Similarly, birds caused smaller reductions in plant abundance than echinoderms, fish, or molluscs. Furthermore, larger reductions in plant abundance were detected for fish relative to crustaceans. We found a positive relationship between herbivore species richness and change in plant abundance, with the strongest reductions in plant abundance reported for low herbivore species richness, suggesting that greater herbivore diversity may protect against large reductions in plant abundance. Finally, we found that herbivore–plant nativeness was a key factor affecting the magnitude of herbivore impacts on plant abundance across a wide range of species assemblages. Assemblages comprised of invasive herbivores and native plant assemblages were associated with greater reductions in plant abundance compared with invasive herbivores and invasive plants, native herbivores and invasive plants, native herbivores and mixed‐nativeness plants, and native herbivores and native plants. By contrast, assemblages comprised of native herbivores and invasive plants were associated with lower reductions in plant abundance compared with both mixed‐nativeness herbivores and native plants, and native herbivores and native plants. However, the effects of herbivore–plant nativeness on changes in plant abundance were reduced at high herbivore densities. Our mean reductions in aquatic plant abundance are greater than those reported in the literature for terrestrial plants, but lower than aquatic algae. Our findings highlight the need for a substantial shift in how biologists incorporate plant–herbivore interactions into theories of aquatic ecosystem structure and functioning. Currently, the failure to incorporate top‐down effects continues to hinder our capacity to understand and manage the ecological dynamics of habitats that contain aquatic plants.     

High-resolution solution structure of siamycin II: Novel amphipathic character of a 21-residue peptide that inhibits HIV fusion

Summary The 21-amino acid peptides siamycin II (BMY-29303) and siamycin I (BMY-29304), derived from Streptomyces strains AA3891 and AA6532, respectively, have been found to inhibit HIV-1 fusion and viral replication in cell culture. The primary sequence of siamycin II is CLGIGSCNDFAGCGYAIVCFW. Siamycin I differs by only one amino acid; it has a valine residue at position 4. In both peptides, disulfide bonds link Cys¹ with Cys¹³ and Cys⁷ with Cys¹⁹, and the side chain of Asp⁹ forms an amide bond with the N-terminus. Siamycin II, when dissolved in a 50:50 mixture of DMSO and H₂O, yields NOESY spectra with exceptional numbers of cross peaks for a peptide of this size. We have used 335 NOE distance constraints and 13 dihedral angle constraints to generate an ensemble of 30 siamycin II structures; these have average backbone atom and all heavy atom rmsd values to the mean coordinates of 0.24 and 0.52 Å, respectively. The peptide displays an unusual wedge-shaped structure, with one face being predominantly hydrophobic and the other being predominantly hydrophilic. Chemical shift and NOE data show that the siamycin I structure is essentially identical to siamycin II. These peptides may act by preventing oligomerization of the HIV transmembrane glycoprotein gp41, or by interfering with interactions between gp41 and the envelope glycoprotein gp120, the cell membrane or membrane-bound proteins [Frèchet, D. et al. (1994) Biochemistry, 33, 42–50]. The amphipathic nature of siamycin II and siamycin I suggests that a polar (or apolar) site on the target protein may be masked by the apolar (or polar) face of the peptide upon peptide/protein complexation.Abbreviations ABNR adopted basis Newton Raphson - AIDS acquired immunodeficiency syndrome - CW continuous wave - DMSO dimethylsulfoxide - DQF-COSY two-dimensional double-quantum-filtered correlation spectroscopy - HIV human immunodeficiency virus - HSQC heteronuclear single-quantum coherence - NOE nuclear Overhauser enhancement - NOESY two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy - ppm parts per million - P.E.-COSY two-dimensional primitive exclusive correlation spectroscopy - REDAC redundant dihedral angle constraint - rf radio frequency - rmsd root-mean-square difference - SIV simian immunodeficiency virus - sw spectral width - _m mixing time - TOCSY two-dimensional total correlation spectroscopy - TSP trimethylsilyl-2,2,3,3-²H₄-propionate - 2D two-dimensional     

Sophorose lipid production from lipidic precursors: Predictive evaluation of industrial substrates

Summary Sophorose lipids stand out as biosurfactants with a wide potential for industrial application and which can be produced in good yield from glucose and a lipidic cosubstrate.Candida bombicola CBS 6009 (ATCC 22214) was used in the present study. The influence of the lipidic cosubstrate on various aspects of production performance of these glycolipids (final concentration, yield) and on product composition (in particular, the structure of the hydroxy fatty acid vegetable and animal oils, markedly influenced product composition. In terms of production performance, the best substrates were oils or esters rich in C18:0 and C18:1 fatty acids. Optimal overall performance was obtained with esters (340 g L^–1 sophorose lipids with rapeseed esters). Conclusions drawn from the results allow predictive evaluation of lipidic industrial substrates.