真菌诱导子对悬浮培养西洋参细胞的生理效应

报道了不同真菌诱导子对悬浮培养的西洋参（Ｐａｎａｘｑｕｉｎｑｕｅｆｏｌｉｕｍ）细胞生长、皂甙和多糖合成,以及细胞内和培养液中过氧化物酶活性的生理效应。悬浮培养的西洋参细胞经刺盘孢菌（Ｃｏｌｌｅｔｏｔｒｉｃｈｕｍｎｉｃｏｌｔｉａｎａｅ）丝体诱导子处理后,总皂甙产率可由对照的２９６ｍｇ／Ｌ增加到６７９ｍｇ／Ｌ（约占细胞干重的（１６．３％）,比对照提高约１．３倍,而且总皂甙的８５％排放在培养液中;经黑曲霉（Ａｓｐｅｒｇｉｌｌｕｓｎｉｇｒａｎ）诱导子处理后,细胞多糖含量可达到１１．７９％（细胞干重）,比对照增加１倍多。初步纯化的刺盘孢菌丝体诱导子和尖孢镰刀菌（Ｆｕｓｕｒｉｕｍｏｘｙｓｐｏｒｕｍ）滤液诱导子在诱导处理前期能明显促进西洋参细胞生长,同时细胞内及培养液中过氧化物酶活性显著增加;随时间延长,细胞生长和酶活性逐步受到抑制。     

Experimental study and mechanism analysis on bioeffects by nanosecond electromagnetic pulses

The athermal bioeffects caused by nanosecond electromagnetic pulses with body cells was studied by using a broad band transverse EM-wave cell (BTEM CELL). The experimental system and preliminary mechanism analysis were presented.     

Microbial biosensors: a review

A microbial biosensor is an analytical device which integrates microorganism(s) with a physical transducer to generate a measurable signal proportional to the concentration of analytes. In recent years, a large number of microbial biosensors have been developed for environmental, food, and biomedical applications. Starting with the discussion of various sensing techniques commonly used in microbial biosensing, this review article concentrates on the summarization of the recent progress in the fabrication and application of microbial biosensors based on amperometry, potentiometry, conductometry, voltammetry, microbial fuel cell, fluorescence, bioluminescence, and colorimetry, respectively. Prospective strategies for the design of future microbial biosensors will also be discussed.     

Impact of Functional Constipation on Health-Related Quality of Life in Preschool Children and Their Families in Xi’an,China

Aim

Functional constipation (FC) is one of the common diseases among children. The aim of this study was to investigate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in preschool children diagnosed with FC and the impact of the condition on affected families.

Methods

In this cross-sectional, case-control study, 152 children aged 3–6 years with FC, 176 healthy children aged 3–6 years without FC, and their primary caregivers were selected. Chinese versions of the PedsQL^TM 4.0 Generic Core Scale and the Family Impact Module (FIM) were used to assess childhood HRQOL and the impact of FC on family members, respectively. HRQOL scores were compared between children with FC and healthy children. In addition, a multiple step-wise regression with demographic variables of children and their caregivers, family economic status, duration and symptoms of FC, as independent variables, was used to determine factors that influenced HRQOL in children and had impacted caregivers.

Results

Scores of physical, emotional, social and school functions, and summary scales were significantly lower in children with FC than in healthy children (p < 0.05). Physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and communication scores for caregivers, as well as daily activities and relationships for families of children with FC, were significantly lower than those of caregivers and families with healthy children (p < 0.05). Children’s ages, duration of FC, symptoms of FC, the child-caregiver relationship, family economic status, and caregiver education level emerged as the main factors influencing HRQOL in children, caregivers, and family members.

Conclusions

FC had a significant impact on HRQOL of affected children and their caregivers, as well as their family functions. Social characteristics of children and caregivers, duration and symptoms of FC and family economic status significantly affected HRQOL of children and caregivers, as well as family functions of children with FC.     

Proteome analysis of the plant-pathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae

The plant-pathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is the causal agent of bacterial blight, which is one of the most serious diseases of rice. Xoo has been studied for over one century, and much has been learned about it, but proteomic investigation has been neglected. In this study, proteome reference maps of Xoo were constructed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and 628 spots in the gels representing 469 different protein species were identified with MALDI-TOF/TOF MS. The identified spots were assigned to 15 functional categories according to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database and the annotations from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. The data set has been deposited in the World-2DPAGE database (Database ID: 0044). In addition, comparative proteomic analysis revealed that proteins related to the TonB-dependent transportation system and energy metabolism are involved in the phenazine-1-carboxylic acid resistance in Xoo. In conclusion, we have established a proteome database for Xoo and have used this database in a comparative proteomic analysis that identified proteins potentially contributing to phenazine-1-carboxylic acid resistance in Xoo.     

Functional Promoter -94 ins/del ATTG Polymorphism in NFKB1 Gene Is Associated with Bladder Cancer Risk in a Chinese Population

Background

A functional -94 insertion/deletion polymorphism (rs28362491) in the promoter of the NFKB1 gene was reported to influence NFKB1 expression and confer susceptibility to different types of cancer. This study aims to determine whether the polymorphism is associated with risk of bladder cancer.

Materials and methods

TaqMan assay was used to determine genotype among 609 cases and 640 controls in a Chinese population. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between the polymorphism and bladder cancer risk, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine NFKB1 mRNA expression.

Results

Compared with the ins/ins/ins/del genotypes, the del/del genotype was associated with a significantly increased risk of bladder cancer [adjusted odd ratio (OR)  = 1.92, 95% confidence interval (CI)  = 1.42–2.59]. The increased risk was more prominent among subjects over 65 years old (OR  = 2.37, 95% CI  = 1.52–3.70), male subjects (OR  = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.40–2.79) and subjects with self-reported family history of cancer (OR  = 3.59, 95% CI  = 1.19–10.9). Furthermore, the polymorphism was associated with a higher risk of developing non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (OR  = 2.07, 95% CI  = 1.51–2.85), grade 1 bladder cancer (OR  = 2.40, 95% CI  = 1.68–3.43), single tumor bladder cancer (OR  = 2.04, 95% CI  = 1.48–2.82) and smaller tumor size bladder cancer (OR  = 2.10, 95% CI  = 1.51–2.92). The expression of NFKB1 mRNA in bladder cancer tissues with homozygous insertion genotype was higher than that with deletion allele.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the -94 ins/del ATTG polymorphism in NFKB1 promoter may contribute to the etiology of bladder cancer in the Chinese population.     

Genomic organization and expression analysis of a farnesyl diphosphate synthase gene (FPPS2) in apples (Malus domestica Borkh.)

A farnesyl diphosphate synthase gene (FPPS2), which contains 11 introns and 12 exons, was isolated from the apple cultivar “White Winter Pearmain”. When it was compared to our previously reported FPPS1, its each intron size was different, its each exon size was the same as that of FPPS1 gene, 30 nucleotide differences were found in its coding sequence. Based on these nucleotide differences, specific primers were designed to perform expression analysis; the results showed that it expressed in both fruit and leaf, its expression level was obviously lower than that of FPPS1 gene in fruit which was stored at 4 °C for 5 weeks. This is the first report concerning two FPPS genes and their expression comparison in apples.     

Enhanced sampling of molecular dynamics simulation of peptides and proteins by double coupling to thermal bath

Low sampling efficiency in conformational space is the well-known problem for conventional molecular dynamics. It greatly increases the difficulty for molecules to find the transition path to native state, and costs amount of CPU time. To accelerate the sampling, in this paper, we re-couple the critical degrees of freedom in the molecule to environment temperature, like dihedrals in generalized coordinates or nonhydrogen atoms in Cartesian coordinate. After applying to ALA dipeptide model, we find that this modified molecular dynamics greatly enhances the sampling behavior in the conformational space and provides more information about the state-to-state transition, while conventional molecular dynamics fails to do so. Moreover, from the results of 16 independent 100?ns simulations by the new method, it shows that trpzip2 has one-half chances to reach the naive state in all the trajectories, which is greatly higher than conventional molecular dynamics. Such an improvement would provide a potential way for searching the conformational space or predicting the most stable states of peptides and proteins.