Nucleoli and Stress Granules: Connecting Distant Relatives

Nucleoli and cytoplasmic stress granules (SGs) are subcellular compartments that modulate the response to endogenous and environmental signals to control cell survival. In our opinion, nucleoli and SGs are functionally linked; they are distant relatives that combine forces when cellular homeostasis is threatened. Several lines of evidence support this idea; nucleoli and SGs share molecular building blocks, are regulated by common signaling pathways and communicate when vital cellular functions become compromised. Together, nucleoli and SGs orchestrate physiological responses that are directly relevant to stress and human health. As both compartments have established roles in neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and virus infections, we propose that these conditions will benefit from therapeutic interventions that target simultaneously nucleoli and SGs.      

大豆对斜纹夜蛾幼虫抗性遗传的发展表达过程

采用植物数量性状遗传体系分离分析方法,通过4个感抗杂交组合研究了在网室人工接入斜纹夜蛾幼虫的条件下大豆抗斜纹夜蛾植株反应发育过程的遗传。不论P1、P2、F1、F2、F2：3多世代联合分析或单个分离世代分析,结果均表明大豆对斜纹夜蛾幼虫的抗性为两对主基因 多基因遗传模式。但在大豆生长发育的不同时期,随害虫数量的变化,其抗虫性遗传呈动态变化过程。在两对主基因充分表达日期,主基因的遗传率较高,达70.40%-99.21%,环境影响较小;多基因遗遗传率较低,为0.00%-22.29%。     

Alignments grow, secondary structure prediction improves.

Using information from sequence alignments significantly improves protein secondary structure prediction. Typically, more divergent profiles yield better predictions. Recently, various groups have shown that accuracy can be improved significantly by using PSI-BLAST profiles to develop new prediction methods. Here, we focused on the influences of various alignment strategies on two 8-year-old PHD methods. The following results stood out. (i) PHD using pairwise alignments predicts about 72% of all residues correctly in one of the three states: helix, strand, and other. Using larger databases and PSI-BLAST raised accuracy to 75%. (ii) More than 60% of the improvement originated from the growth of current sequence databases; about 20% resulted from detailed changes in the alignment procedure (substitution matrix, thresholds, and gap penalties). Another 20% of the improvement resulted from carefully using iterated PSI-BLAST searches. (iii) It is of interest that we failed to improve prediction accuracy further when attempting to refine the alignment by dynamic programming (MaxHom and ClustalW). (iv) Improvement through family growth appears to saturate at some point. However, most families have not reached this saturation. Hence, we anticipate that prediction accuracy will continue to rise with database growth.     

8805例外科术后患者医院感染的调查与分析

目的探讨外科术后患者医院感染的发病情况及细菌分布、耐药性,为临床采取防范措施提供依据。方法以2006年1月1日至2006年12月31日全部手术患者为研究对象,前瞻性地调查患者的医院感染情况,并有样必采,进行微生物鉴定和药敏试验。结果外科术后患者医院感染人次发病率为2.2%,例次发病率为3.1%;鉴定出的226株病原体中,G 菌64株,占28.3%,G-菌126株,占55.8%,真菌36株,占15.9%。按分离菌株数排列,依序为大肠埃希菌、铜绿假单胞菌、热带假丝酵母菌、表皮葡萄球菌、溶血葡萄球菌、鲍曼不动杆菌、肺炎克雷伯菌、鲁氏不动杆菌、粪肠球菌、白假丝酵母菌、阴沟肠杆菌。MRSA和MRCNS检出率分别是66.7%和95.5%,大肠埃希菌等G-杆菌对3代头孢类等多种抗菌药物耐药率≥70%。结论该院外科术后患者医院感染发病率符合一般规律,其病原体以G-菌为主,且对3代头孢类等高档抗菌药物多重耐药。     

外科深部真菌感染的病原学分析

目的分析外科住院患者合并真菌感染状况。方法分离的真菌用API 20C AUX真菌鉴定条,用ATB FUNGUS-2进行药敏试验。结果真菌的种类分布中第1位是白色念珠菌占53%,第2位是热带念珠菌占20%,第3位是光滑念珠菌占14%,第4位是近平滑念珠菌占4%,第5位是其余念珠菌占2%;真菌在外科各区分布中,外科ICU占42%,移植外科占25%;真菌在各类标本分布中,痰占43%,尿液占13%,粪便占10%,引流液占9%,血液占7%;真菌对药物5-氟胞嘧啶、两性霉素B、氟康唑、伊曲康唑的药物敏感性分别是93%、98.9%、90.8%、59.8%。结论外科真菌感染集中在重症病区(ICU),分离的致病真菌主要是白色念珠菌、热带念珠菌、光滑念珠菌,真菌对两性霉素B敏感性最高。     

Preparation and partial characterization of a Lactobacillus lactis bacteriophage

High-titer lysates of a bacteriophage active against Lactobacillus lactis were prepared from liquid cultures as well as from areas of confluent lysis in soft-agar overlayers. Phage concentration and purification were accomplished by means of polyethylene glycol precipitation, differential centrifugation, and cesium chloride gradient centrifugation. The buoyant density of this phagein cesium chloride was 1.4795 g/ml. Characterization of phage growth cycle by one-step growth experiments under optimal conditions showed that the latent period was about 120 min, that the rise period lasted approx. 130 min, and that the average burst-size was about 80.Abbreviations p.f.u. plaque forming units - m.o.i. multiplicity of infection - PEG polyethylene glycol - SSC standard saline citrate solution     

Effect of MOI ratio on the composition and yield of chimeric infectious bursal disease virus-like particles by baculovirus co-infection: deterministic predictions and experimental results

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are empty particles consisting of virus capsid proteins that closely resemble native virus but are devoid of the native viral nucleic acids and therefore have attracted significant attention as noninfectious vaccines. A recombinant baculovirus, vIBD-7, which encodes the structural proteins (VP2, VP3, and VP4) of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), produces native IBD VLPs in infected Spodoptera frugiperda insect cells. Another baculovirus, vEDLH-22, encodes VP2 that is fused with a histidine affinity-tag (VP2H) at the C-terminus. By co-infection with these two baculoviruses, hybrid VLPs with histidine tags were formed and purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography (Hu et al., 1999). Also, we demonstrated that varying the MOI ratio of these infecting viruses altered the extent of VP2H incorporated into the particles. A dynamic mathematical model that described baculovirus infection and VLP synthesis (Hu and Bentley, 2000) was adapted here for co-infection and validated by immunofluorescence labeling. It was shown to predict the VLP composition as a dynamic function of MOI. A constraint in the VP2H content incorporated into the particles was predicted and shown by experiments. Also, the MOI ratio of both infecting viruses was shown to be the major factor influencing the composition of the hybrid particles and an important factor in determining the overall yield. ELISA results confirmed that VP2H was exhibited to a varied extent on the outer surface of the particles. This model provides insight on the use of virus co-infection in virus-mediated recombinant protein expression systems and aids in the optimization of chimeric VLP synthesis.     

用共聚焦激光扫描显微镜观测GFP标记的内生固氮菌Klebsiella oxytoca SA2侵染水稻根

用高效绿色荧光蛋白（green fluorescent protein,GFP）突变体EGFPmut2的基因标记内生固氮菌－－产酸克雷伯氏菌（Klebsiella axytoca (Fluegge)Lautrop）SA2,用标记菌接种限菌培养条件下生长的水稻（Oryza sativa L.）幼苗,在接种后1、2、4 、8、12、16和21d,用共聚焦激光扫描显微镜对水稻鲜根进行光学切片,显示了标记菌从水稻根成熟区表面向根内入侵的过程。定殖在根表面的标记菌主要从侧根伸出的位置侵入侧根皮层,从邻近发生侧根的位置进入内皮层和维管柱。SA2还能从初生根成熟区无侧根伸出的位置侵入皮层向维管柱迁移。SA2入侵水稻根引发了水稻根局部的过敏反应以阻滞细菌地下海主侵,表现为侵入根内的细菌周围的根细胞细胞壁变厚,在蓝光下发出很强的黄绿荧光。     

Construction of a fusion protein carrying antigenic determinants of enteric clostridial toxins

Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens type A are infectious agents of enteric diseases. The main virulence factors of these microorganisms include toxins A and B of C. difficile (ToxA and ToxB) and enterotoxin of C. perfringens (Cpe). In this study genetic constructions have been created for the expression of ToxA, ToxB and Cpe fragments either as individual components or as a hybrid multidomain (ToxA-ToxB-Cpe) protein. Rabbit monospecific sera raised against individual peptides reacted with the chimeric product indicating that the corresponding antigenic determinants were correctly expressed on the hybrid molecule. Furthermore, mice immunized with the fusion protein produced antibodies specific to each of the three separate components. These data suggest that the constructed three-domain molecule could be used in future studies for development of a vaccine against enteric clostridial diseases.     

Multiple stressors on biotic interactions: how climate change and alien species interact to affect pollination

Global change may substantially affect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning but little is known about its effects on essential biotic interactions. Since different environmental drivers rarely act in isolation it is important to consider interactive effects. Here, we focus on how two key drivers of anthropogenic environmental change, climate change and the introduction of alien species, affect plant–pollinator interactions. Based on a literature survey we identify climatically sensitive aspects of species interactions, assess potential effects of climate change on these mechanisms, and derive hypotheses that may form the basis of future research. We find that both climate change and alien species will ultimately lead to the creation of novel communities. In these communities certain interactions may no longer occur while there will also be potential for the emergence of new relationships. Alien species can both partly compensate for the often negative effects of climate change but also amplify them in some cases. Since potential positive effects are often restricted to generalist interactions among species, climate change and alien species in combination can result in significant threats to more specialist interactions involving native species.