Investigation of <i>GhFAT</i> Genes Related to Seed Oil Content and Fatty Acid Composition in <i>Gossypium hirsutum</i> L.

Fatty Acyl-ACP thioesterase (FAT) is a key enzyme controlling oil biosynthesis in plant seeds. FATs can be divided into two subfamilies, FATA and FATB according to their amino acid sequences and substrate specificity. The Upland cotton genome contains 20 GhFAT genes, amongst which 6 genes were of the GhFATA subfamily and 14 of the GhFATB subfamily. The 20 GhFAT genes are unevenly distributed on 14 chromosomes. The GhFATA genes have 5 or 7 exons and the GhFATB genes have 6 or 7 exons. All GhFAT proteins have the conserved Acyl-ACP_TE domain and PLN02370 super family, the typical characteristics of plant thioesterases. Analyses of the expression level of GhFATs and the compositions of fatty acid in 5–60 days-post-anthesis seeds showed that the ratio of saturated fatty acids to unsaturated fatty acids was consistent with the expression profile of GhFATB12, GhFATB3, and GhFATB10; the ratio of monounsaturated fatty acid to polyunsaturated fatty acids was consistent with the expression profile of GhFATA3. The oil contents of mature cottonseeds were positively correlated with the contents of palmitic acid and linolenic acid as well as seed vigor. These results provide essential information for further exploring the role(s) of the specific GhFATs in determining oil biosynthesis and cottonseed compositions.     

串叶松香草Giemsa C带和染色中心研究

以Giemsa C带技术处理串叶松香草根尖细胞染色体(2n=14),全部着丝点及第5和第7对染色体短臂端部显稳定的C带,第6对染色体长臂有两条明显的居间带,其他居间带小而不稳定(重复率不高)。间期细胞核染色体呈Rable构型,其着丝点一极最多出现20个染色中心。统计分析表明,靠近着丝点的短臂端带区和居间带区异染色质有易与着丝点区异染色质融合的倾向。分裂中期Giemsa C带数目与间期染色中心数目存在数量对应关系。     

人体超微弱发光图像中的信号检验

用近期研制的具有单光子探测能力的超高灵敏度成像系统获得了人体体表生物超微弱发光的强度数据。为分析图像中的信号检验,二项分布被用于人手不同时间累积发光图像中的信号显著性检验,证实人手存在超微弱生物发光,手指的发光强度在３００～５５０ｐｈｏｔｏｎｓ／ｓ范围内,全手的发光强度在８５０～１２００ｐｈｏｔｏｎｓ／ｓ范围内。     

Superior Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Phosphorus‐Doped Carbon Dot/Graphene Aerogel for All‐Solid‐State Flexible Al–Air Batteries

Carbon dots have been recognized as one of the most promising candidates for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media. However, the desired ORR performance in metal–air batteries is often limited by the moderate electrocatalytic activity and the lack of a method to realize good dispersion. To address these issues, herein a biomass‐deriving method is reported to achieve the in situ phosphorus doping (P‐doping) of carbon dots and their simultaneous decoration onto graphene matrix. The resultant product, namely P‐doped carbon dot/graphene (P‐CD/G) nanocomposites, can reach an ultrahigh P‐doping level for carbon nanomaterials. The P‐CD/G nanocomposites are found to exhibit excellent ORR activity, which is highly comparable to the commercial Pt/C catalysts. When used as the cathode materials for a primary liquid Al–air battery, the device shows an impressive power density of 157.3 mW cm^?2 (comparing to 151.5 mW cm^?2 of a similar Pt/C battery). Finally, an all‐solid‐state flexible Al–air battery is designed and fabricated based on our new nanocomposites. The device exhibits a stable discharge voltage of ≈1.2 V upon different bending states. This study introduces a unique biomass‐derived material system to replace the noble metal catalysts for future portable and wearable electronic devices.     

Stable polymer bilayers for protein channel recordings at high guanidinium chloride concentrations

The use of chaotropic reagents is common in biophysical characterization of biomolecules. When the study involves transmembrane protein channels, the stability of the protein channel and supporting bilayer membrane must be considered. In this letter, we show that planar bilayers composed of poly(1,2-butadiene)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer are stable and leak-free at high guanidinium chloride concentrations, in contrast to diphytanoyl phosphatidylcholine bilayers, which exhibit deleterious leakage under similar conditions. Furthermore, insertion and functional analysis of channels such as α-hemolysin and MspA are straightforward in these polymer membranes. Finally, we demonstrate that α-hemolysin channels maintain their structural integrity at 2 M guanidinium chloride concentrations using blunt DNA hairpins as molecular reporters.     

Inhibitory mechanism of Penicillin V on mushroom tyrosinase

Molecular Biology Reports - Penicillin V is a bacteriolytic β-lactam antibiotic drug. In the present work, we investigated the inhibitory effect of Penicillin V on the activity of mushroom...     

Activity of the Heat Shock Protein 90 Inhibitor Ganetespib in Melanoma

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is involved in the regulation of diverse biological processes such as cell signaling, proliferation and survival, and has been recently recognized as a potential target for cancer therapy. Ganetespib is a potent ATP competitive inhibitor of HSP90. Ganetespib downregulated the expression of multiple signal transducing molecules including EGFR, IGF-1R, c-Met, Akt, B-RAF and C-RAF, resulting in pronounced decrease in phosphorylation of Akt and Erk1/2 in a panel of five cutaneous melanoma cell lines including those harboring B-RAF and N-RAS mutations. Ganetespib exhibited potent antiproliferative activity on all five of these cell lines, with IC50 values between 37.5 and 84 nM. Importantly, Ganetespib is active on B-RAF mutated melanoma cells that have acquired resistance to B-RAF inhibition. Ganetespib induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G1 and/or G2/M phase. Ganetespib induced cell cycle arrest was accompanied by altered expression of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI) p21^Cip1 and p27^Kip1, cyclins B1, D1 and E, and/or cyclin-dependent kinases 1, 2 and 4. HSP90 is functionally important for melanoma cells and HSP90 inhibitors such as ganetespib could potentially be effective therapeutics for melanoma with various genetic mutations and acquired resistance to B-RAF inhibition.     

Identification of uteroglobin-related protein 1 and macrophage scavenger receptor with collagenous structure as a lung-specific ligand-receptor pair

High in normal (HIN)-1 is a secreted protein highly expressed in normal breast epithelium and down-regulated in breast carcinomas. By searching GenBank expressed sequence tag databases, we identified HIN-2, a protein homologous to HIN-1. HIN-2 is identical with a recently identified protein called uteroglobin-related protein 1 (UGRP1). Northern blot analysis demonstrated that UGRP1 is specifically expressed by lung, but not by the other tissues examined. By in situ hybridization experiments, UGRP1 was shown to be expressed by lung Clara-like cells in the bronchial epithelium and to be up-regulated in cystic fibrosis. In a mammalian expression system, secreted recombinant UGRP1 was copurified with apolipoprotein A-I. Using a retroviral vector-mediated expression cloning approach, we identified macrophage scavenger receptor with collagenous structure (MARCO) as a receptor for UGRP1. Northern blot and in situ hybridization experiments indicated that MARCO is expressed by alveolar macrophages in the lung. UGRP1 also bound to bacteria and yeast. LPS, a previously identified MARCO ligand, competed with UGRP1 for binding to MARCO and bacteria. Our findings suggest that UGRP1-MARCO is a ligand-receptor pair that is probably involved in inflammation and pathogen clearance in the lung.     

杀灭土壤中线虫对小麦生长和吸收N、P的影响

盆栽条件下研究了施用杀线剂(克线磷,67mg·kg^-1干土)和干热(105℃,2h)两种杀线措施对小麦生长和N、P养分吸收的影响。杀线剂对土壤中线虫的平均杀灭率约为80%, 干热处理的杀灭率为100%. 在杀线剂处理中,苗期至抽穗期小麦生物量、拔节期至成熟期植株含N量、全生育期植株吸N量以及抽穗和成熟期吸P量均显着低于对照。土壤干热处理后抽穗和成熟期小麦的生物量、含N量及N、P吸收量也比对照显着降低。两种杀线处理植株地上部生物量和N、P吸收量与相应处理全株变化趋势基本一致。但杀灭线虫对植株含P量影响较小。分析杀线虫后小麦生长和养分吸收受抑主要与土壤有机氮的矿化作用减弱、微生物活动产生的植物生长促进物质降低有关     

Microbial response to salinity change in Lake Chaka, a hypersaline lake on Tibetan plateau

Previous investigations of the salinity effects on the microbial community composition have largely been limited to dynamic estuaries and coastal solar salterns. In this study, the effects of salinity and mineralogy on microbial community composition was studied by using a 900-cm sediment core collected from a stable, inland hypersaline lake, Lake Chaka, on the Tibetan Plateau, north-western China. This core, spanning a time of 17,000 years, was unique in that it possessed an entire range of salinity from freshwater clays and silty sands at the bottom to gypsum and glauberite in the middle, to halite at the top. Bacterial and archaeal communities were studied along the length of this core using an integrated approach combining mineralogy and geochemistry, molecular microbiology (16S rRNA gene analysis and quantitative polymerase chain reaction), cultivation and lipid biomarker analyses. Systematic changes in microbial community composition were correlated with the salinity gradient, but not with mineralogy. Bacterial community was dominated by the Firmicutes-related environmental sequences and known species (including sulfate-reducing bacteria) in the freshwater sediments at the bottom, but by halophilic and halotolerant Betaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes in the hypersaline sediments at the top. Succession of proteobacterial groups along the salinity gradient, typically observed in free-living bacterial communities, was not observed in the sediment-associated community. Among Archaea, the Crenarchaeota were predominant in the bottom freshwater sediments, but the halophilic Halobacteriales of the Euryarchaeota was the most important group in the hypersaline sediments. Multiple isolates were obtained along the whole length of the core, and their salinity tolerance was consistent with the geochemical conditions. Iron-reducing bacteria were isolated in the freshwater sediments, which were capable of reducing structural Fe(III) in the Fe(III)-rich clay minerals predominant in the source sediment. These data have important implications for understanding how microorganisms respond to increased salinity in stable, inland water bodies.