Contrasting consequences of climate change for migratory geese: Predation,density dependence and carryover effects offset benefits of high‐arctic warming

Climate change is most rapid in the Arctic, posing both benefits and challenges for migratory herbivores. However, population‐dynamic responses to climate change are generally difficult to predict, due to concurrent changes in other trophic levels. Migratory species are also exposed to contrasting climate trends and density regimes over the annual cycle. Thus, determining how climate change impacts their population dynamics requires an understanding of how weather directly or indirectly (through trophic interactions and carryover effects) affects reproduction and survival across migratory stages, while accounting for density dependence. Here, we analyse the overall implications of climate change for a local non‐hunted population of high‐arctic Svalbard barnacle geese, Branta leucopsis, using 28 years of individual‐based data. By identifying the main drivers of reproductive stages (egg production, hatching and fledging) and age‐specific survival rates, we quantify their impact on population growth. Recent climate change in Svalbard enhanced egg production and hatching success through positive effects of advanced spring onset (snow melt) and warmer summers (i.e. earlier vegetation green‐up) respectively. Contrastingly, there was a strong temporal decline in fledging probability due to increased local abundance of the Arctic fox, the main predator. While weather during the non‐breeding season influenced geese through a positive effect of temperature (UK wintering grounds) on adult survival and a positive carryover effect of rainfall (spring stopover site in Norway) on egg production, these covariates showed no temporal trends. However, density‐dependent effects occurred throughout the annual cycle, and the steadily increasing total flyway population size caused negative trends in overwinter survival and carryover effects on egg production. The combination of density‐dependent processes and direct and indirect climate change effects across life history stages appeared to stabilize local population size. Our study emphasizes the need for holistic approaches when studying population‐dynamic responses to global change in migratory species.     

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay for the detection of Plasmopara viticola infecting grapes

Grapes downy mildew caused by obligate oomycete plant pathogen Plasmopara viticola is a devastating disease worldwide, resulting in significant yield and quality losses. A field survey was conducted in two major grapes cultivated areas of Tamil Nadu for the incidence of grapevine downy mildew. The disease incidence was 43.42%–76.69%, and the highest disease incidence of 76.69% was observed in the Theni district. Totally eight P. viticola isolates were collected from different places in Coimbatore and Theni districts. These isolates were confirmed through microscopic observation and sequencing of COX 2 gene, and the phylogenetic tree was developed to study their phylogenetic relationship among the isolates which shows 97–100% sequence similarity with other P. viticola isolates and less sequence similarity with Plasmopara species. The loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay was developed based on the CesA4 gene sequence of P. viticola. The assay developed was more sensitive as it detected P. viticola genomic DNA up to 20 fmg. LAMP assay specificity was proved by carrying out the assay with genomic DNA extracted from other Oomycetes and fungal plant pathogens. Finally, LAMP assay was validated by testing seventy-eight grapevine leaf samples collected from seven different locations. LAMP assay showed a positive reaction in sixty-two samples tested out of seventy-eight samples tested. Therefore, the LAMP assay described should helpful for early and specific detection of downy mildew pathogen and help in mitigating disease incidence.     

基于CRISPR/Cas系统的生物传感策略研究进展

CRISPR/Cas9系统是继锌指核酸内切酶、类转录激活因子效应物核酸酶之后的第三代基因组定点编辑工具,因其具有特异性切割双链DNA的能力,被广泛应用于基因编辑、生物传感等领域。Cas12a(Cpf1)、Cas13a(C2c2)等蛋白"附属切割"活性的发现,拓展了CRISPR/Cas系统在生物传感中的应用。近年来,研究人员开发出一系列快速、超敏、高特异性的生物传感系统用于分子检测,如SHERLOCK,DETECTR等。本文主要综述了基于CRISPR/Cas系统的生物传感策略的研究进展,并展望了其未来发展的方向。     

生物多样性与传染性疾病的关系: 进展、挑战与展望

在全球生物多样性快速丧失的背景下, 理解生物多样性如何影响传染性疾病风险具有重要意义。大量研究表明, 宿主多样性对传染性疾病可能存在稀释效应(即疾病风险随宿主生物多样性的增加而降低), 但是也有放大效应或者没有影响的证据。本文首先介绍了关于生物多样性与传染性疾病关系的研究进展, 以及该领域的热点研究问题, 包括宿主多样性-疾病关系的格局和空间依赖性、稀释效应的体系依赖性和系统发育稀释效应等。随后,介绍了相关研究伴随的争议和批判, 主要集中在: 稀释效应发生的普遍性、生物多样性-疾病关系实验研究的发表偏好性以及部分疾病生态学家对生物多样性和传染性疾病之间简单数字关系的过分关注。最后指出稀释效应与物种共存、全球变化对稀释效应的影响、进化与稀释效应、稀释效应在政策制定中的应用等领域可能是今后的主要研究方向。     

肉类及肉制品中动物源性成分鉴别方法研究进展

肉类掺假问题直接影响着人类健康、公共卫生安全以及社会稳定等方面,成为当今食品安全热点话题之一,因此,高效、精确的肉类及肉制品中动物源性成分的检测鉴定势在必行。基于此,主要介绍了对于动物源性成分检测及鉴别的不同研究方法,分析了利弊,并对后续肉类及肉制品中动物源性成分的鉴别方法的研发方向进行了展望,以期为此领域提供资料性参考。     

用于新型冠状病毒检测的核酸等温扩增技术研究进展

核酸检测作为新型冠状病毒肺炎(COVID-19)筛查诊断和病情监测的主要手段,在疫情防控中发挥了重要作用。虽然实时荧光定量PCR被认为是新型冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)核酸检测的金标准,但其依赖荧光定量PCR仪且扩增检测时间较长,难以实现现场快速检测。因此许多基于核酸等温扩增的SARS-CoV-2检测方法相继诞生。等温扩增对仪器温控要求不高,通过与微流控芯片和可视化检测技术结合,可进一步简化操作、降低成本,为SARS-CoV-2现场快速筛查提供有力的技术支撑。本文围绕已报道的SARS-CoV-2等温扩增检测方法原理、检测性能及优缺点进行探讨,为进一步发展SARS-CoV-2现场快速检测平台提供参考。     

Amplification of RAD54B promotes progression of hepatocellular carcinoma via activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling

Liver cancer was reported to be the sixth most frequently diagnosed cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for 75%-85% of primary liver cancer. Nevertheless, the concrete molecular mechanisms of HCC progression remain obscure, which is essential to elucidate. The expression profile of RAD54B in HCC was measured using qPCR and western blotting. Moreover, the levels of RAD54B in paraffin-embedded samples were evaluated using immunohistochemistry (IHC). The effect of RAD54B on HCC progression was testified by in vitro experiments, and in vivo orthotopic xenograft tumor experiments. The mechanisms of RAD54B promoting HCC progression were investigated through molecular and function experiments. Herein, RAD54B are dramatically upregulated in HCC tissues and cell lines both on mRNA and protein levels, and RAD54B can servers as an independent prognostic parameter of 5-year overall survival and 5-year disease-free survival for patients with HCC. Moreover, up-regulation of RAD54B dramatically increases the capacity for in vitro cell viability and motility, and in vivo intrahepatic metastasis of HCC cells. Mechanistically, RAD54B promotes the HCC progression through modulating the wnt/β-catenin signaling. Notably, blocking the wnt/β-catenin signaling axis can counteract the activating effects of RAD54B on motility of HCC cells. Besides, further analysis illustrates that DNA amplification is one of the mechanisms leading to mRNA overexpression of RAD54B in HCC. Our findings indicate that RAD54B might be a promising potential prognostic marker and a candidate therapeutic target to therapy HCC.     

Application of an optimized marker amplification protocol in immunohistochemistry — a valuable tool for visualizing antigenic sites of low signal strength or sparse distribution

Amplification of immunohistochemical markers received considerable attention during the 1980s and 1990s. The amplification approach was largely abandoned following the development of antigen retrieval and reporter amplification techniques, because the latter were incorporated more easily into high throughput automated procedures in industrial and diagnostic laboratories. There remain, however, a number of instances where marker amplification still has much to offer. Consequently, we examined experimentally the utility of an optimized marker amplification technique in diagnostically relevant tissue where either the original signal strength was low or positive sites were visible, but sparsely distributed. Marker amplification in the former case not only improved the visibility of existing positive sites, but also revealed additional sites that previously were undetectable. In the latter case, positive sites were rendered more intense and therefore more easily seen during low magnification examination of large areas of tissue.     

Cubic regression-based degree of correction predicts the performance of whole bisulfitome amplified DNA methylation analysis

Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, are important determinants in development and disease. There is a need for technologies capable of detecting small variations in methylation levels in an accurate and reproducible manner, even if only limited amounts of DNA are available (which is the case in many studies in humans). Quantitative methylation analysis of minute DNA amounts after whole bisulfitome amplification (qMAMBA) has been proposed as an alternative, but this technique has not been adequately standardized and no comparative study against conventional methods has been performed, that includes a wide range of methylation percentages and different target assays. We designed an experiment to compare the performance of qMAMBA and bisulfite-treated genomic (non-amplified) DNA pyrosequencing. Reactions were performed in duplicate for each technique in eight different target genes, using nine artificially constructed DNA samples with methylation levels ranging between 0% and 100% with intervals of 12.5%. Cubic polynomial curves were plotted from the experimental results and the real methylation values and the resulting equation was used to estimate new corrected data points. The use of the cubic regression-based correction benefits the accuracy and the power of discrimination in methylation studies. Additionally, dispersion of the new estimated data around a y = x line (R²) served to fix a cutoff that can discriminate, with a single 9-point curve experiment, whether whole bisulfitome amplification and subsequent qMAMBA can produce accurate methylation results. Finally, even with an optimized reagent kit, DNA samples subjected to whole bisulfitome amplification enhance the preferential amplification of unmethylated alleles, and subtle changes in methylation levels cannot be detected confidently.     

16S/18S/ITS扩增子高通量测序引物的生物信息学评估和改进

【背景】在过去的十几年里,基于核糖体RNA基因的扩增子测序技术被广泛用于各种生态系统中微生物群落的多样性检测。扩增子测序的使用极大地促进了土壤、水体、空气等环境中微生物生态的相关研究。【目的】随着高通量测序技术的不断发展和参考数据库的不断更新,针对不同的环境样本的引物选择和改进仍然需要更深入的校验。【方法】本文收集了目前在微生物群落研究中被广泛采用的标记基因扩增通用引物,包括16S rRNA基因扩增常用的8对通用引物和2对古菌引物、9对真菌转录间隔区(internal transcribed spacer,ITS)基因扩增引物,以及18S rRNA基因扩增的4对真核微生物通用引物和1对真菌特异性引物。这些引物中包括了地球微生物组计划(Earth Microbiome Project,EMP)推荐的2对16S rRNA基因扩增引物、1对ITS1基因扩增引物和1对18S rRNA基因扩增引物。采用最近更新的标准数据库对这些引物进行了覆盖度和特异性评价。【结果】EMP推荐的引物依然具有较高的覆盖度,而其他引物在覆盖度及对特定环境或类群的特异性上也各有特点。此外,最近有研究对这些通用引物进行了一些改进,而我们也发现,一个碱基的变化都可能会导致评价结果或扩增产物发生明显变化,简并碱基的引入既可以覆盖更多的物种,但同时也会在一定程度上降低关注物种的特异性。【结论】研究结果为微生态研究中标记基因的引物选择提供了一个广泛的指导,但在关注具体科学问题时,引物的选择仍需数据指导与实验尝试。