药用白及资源再生策略初探

白及为兰科白及属植物。作为著名中药,白及功效多样、用途广泛,具有较高的药用价值和经济价值。随资源利用强度的增加,野生白及资源日渐萎缩,人工规模化种植是实现白及药用资源可持续利用的必由之路。优良种质及繁育技术是种植业的关键问题。为了更好地推动白及资源研究和可持续利用,本文就白及种质及快繁技术研究进展作一综述,并就白及资源再生策略进行初步探讨,为相关研究和生产提供参考。     

Current methods for the maturation of induced pluripotent stem cellderived cardiomyocytes

Induced pluripotent stem cells(iPSCs) were first generated by Yamanaka and colleagues over a decade ago. Since then, iPSCs have been successfully differentiated into many distinct cell types, enabling tissue-, disease-, and patientspecific in vitro modelling. Cardiovascular disease is the greatest cause of mortality worldwide but encompasses rarer disorders of conduction and myocardial function for which a cellular model of study is ideal. Although methods to differentiate iPSCs into beating cardiomyocytes(iPSC-CMs) have recently been adequately optimized and commercialized, the resulting cells remain largely immature with regards to their structure and function,demonstrating fetal gene expression, disorganized morphology, reliance on predominantly glycolytic metabolism and contractile characteristics that differ from those of adult cardiomyocytes. As such, disease modelling using iPSC-CMs may be inaccurate and of limited utility. However, this limitation is widely recognized, and numerous groups have made substantial progress in addressing this problem. This review highlights successful methods that have been developed for the maturation of human iPSC-CMs using small molecules,environmental manipulation and 3-dimensional(3 D) growth approaches.     

Site fertility drives temporal turnover of vegetation at high latitudes

Experimental evidence shows that site fertility is a key modulator underlying plant community changes under climate change. Communities on fertile sites, with species having fast dynamics, have been found to react more strongly to climate change than communities on infertile sites with slow dynamics. However, it is still unclear whether this generally applies to high‐latitude plant communities in natural environments at broad spatial scales. We tested a hypothesis that vegetation of fertile sites experiences greater changes over several decades and thus would be more responsive under contemporary climate change compared to infertile sites that are expected to show more resistance. We resurveyed understorey communities (vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens) of four infertile and four fertile forest sites along a latitudinal bioclimatic gradient. Sites had remained outside direct human disturbance. We analyzed the magnitude of temporal community turnover, changes in the abundances of plant morphological groups and strategy classes, and changes in species diversity. In agreement with our hypothesis, temporal turnover of communities was consistently greater on fertile sites compared to infertile sites. However, our results suggest that the larger turnover of fertile communities is not primarily related to the direct effects of climatic warming. Furthermore, community changes in both fertile and infertile sites showed remarkable variation in terms of shares of plant functional groups and strategy classes and measures of species diversity. This further emphasizes the essential role of baseline environmental conditions and nonclimatic drivers underlying vegetation changes. Our results show that site fertility is a key determinant of the overall rate of high‐latitude vegetation changes but the composition of plant communities in different ecological contexts is variously impacted by nonclimatic drivers over time.     

Applications of a new subspace clustering algorithm (COSA) in medical systems biology

A novel clustering approach named Clustering Objects on Subsets of Attributes (COSA) has been proposed (Friedman and Meulman, (2004). Clustering objects on subsets of attributes. J. R. Statist. Soc. B 66, 1–25.) for unsupervised analysis of complex data sets. We demonstrate its usefulness in medical systems biology studies. Examples of metabolomics analyses are described as well as the unsupervised clustering based on the study of disease pathology and intervention effects in rats and humans. In comparison to principal components analysis and hierarchical clustering based on Euclidean distance, COSA shows an enhanced capability to trace partial similarities in groups of objects enabling a new discovery approach in systems biology as well as offering a unique approach to reveal common denominators of complex multi-factorial diseases in animal and human studies. Doris Damian, Matej Orešič, and Elwin Verheij contributed equally to this work.     

Drugging the undruggable proteins in cancer: A systems biology approach

In recent years, the research community has, with comprehensive systems biology approaches and related technologies, gained insight into the vast complexity of numerous cancers. These approaches allow an in-depth exploration that cannot be achieved solely using conventional low-throughput methods, which do not closely mimic the natural cellular environment. In this review, we discuss recent integrative multiple omics approaches for understanding and modulating previously identified ‘undruggable’ targets such as members of the RAS family, MYC, TP53, and various E3 ligases and deubiquitinases. We describe how these technologies have revolutionized drug discovery by overcoming an array of biological and technological challenges and how, in the future, they will be pivotal in assessing cancer states in individual patients, allowing for the prediction and application of personalized disease treatments.     

Global research trends and gaps in ecological compensation studies from 1990 to 2020: A scientometric review

Ecosystems are facing severe destruction and threats due to unreasonable human utilization. Repairing damage to nature and protect biodiversity through ecological compensation will be an inevitable measure for achieving sustainable development. To explore the current research hotspots and future research directions of ecological compensation, this paper tries to search the WoS Core Collection and collects 685 ecological compensation papers published between 1990 and 2020. R language and CiteSpace software were applied in this paper. It is found that: (1) The number of articles has gone through the initial explorations, fluctuating growth, and rapid development of the field from 1990 to 2020. Only 7.5% of authors have published more than two papers. (2) Regarding the production of papers, the top 3 countries are the US, China, and the UK. At present, the majority of countries focus on independent research, and international cooperation is gradually strengthening. (3) The current research hotpots mainly invlove biodiversity and sustainable development, ecological compensation for forests and water resources, China's Grain-to-Green Project, poverty reduction, livelihood issues, public participation willingness and equity issues, indicating that ecological compensation is a rapidly emerging interdisciplinary academic field. (4) The results reveal several research directions in the future: strengthening theoretical research, resolving issues pertaining to the complex relationships among stakeholders, encouraging a transformation from qualitative to quantitative research, increasing the focus of ecological compensation models on local conditions, and applying more scientific models and high-tech tools in effect evaluation.     

高校新型植物标本馆的建立与发展——以河南农业大学植物标本馆为例

高校标本馆作为重要的科普和教学实践基地,是连接大学与社会的桥梁,在提升高校社会影响力和加快高校发展中起着重要作用。目前,高校标本馆普遍存在经费少和缺乏管理等问题。如何立足高校现状,有效解决标本采集和标本数字化过程中耗时耗力的难题,建设具有地方特色的新型植物标本馆,是高校标本馆建设关注的焦点之一。该文以河南农业大学植物标本馆新馆建设为例,介绍了河南农业大学标本馆成立以来,充分发挥高校的人力资源优势,让学生通过实验课或野外实习积极参与新型植物标本馆的建设,基本实现了标本采集、制作、鉴定和数字化的同步进行。在这一过程中,既有效锻炼了学生能力,加深了学生对植物形态的认识,发挥了植物标本馆在教学、科学研究及科学普及中的积极作用,又极大地丰富了标本馆馆藏量,有效地促进了高校新型植物标本馆的发展。     

Expression and functional analysis of flotillins in Dugesia japonica

FLOTILLIN-1 and FLOTILLIN-2 are membrane rafts associated proteins that have been implicated in insulin and growth factor signaling, endocytosis, cell migration, proliferation, differentiation, cytoskeleton remodeling and membrane trafficking. Furthermore, FLOTILLINs also play important roles in the progression of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, the roles of flotillins are investigated in planarian Dugesia japonica. The results show that Djflotillin-1 and Djflotillin-2 play a key role in homeostasis maintenance and regeneration process by regulating the proliferation of the neoblast cells, they are not involved in the maintenance and regeneration of the central nervous system in planarians.     

Living with observational data in biological anthropology

The establishment of cause and effect relationships is a fundamental objective of scientific research. Many lines of evidence can be used to make cause–effect inferences. When statistical data are involved, alternative explanations for the statistical relationship need to be ruled out. These include chance (apparent patterns due to random factors), confounding effects (a relationship between two variables because they are each associated with an unmeasured third variable), and sampling bias (effects due to preexisting properties of compared groups). The gold standard for managing these issues is a controlled randomized experiment. In disciplines such as biological anthropology, where controlled experiments are not possible for many research questions, causal inferences are made from observational data. Methods that statisticians recommend for this difficult objective have not been widely adopted in the biological anthropology literature. Issues involved in using statistics to make valid causal inferences from observational data are discussed.