生态环境损害鉴定评估业务化技术研究

随着社会经济的不断发展和人类需求的不断提高,我国生态环境损害事件屡有发生,由于人类活动导致的典型生态系统结构和功能退化、生态系统服务降低等生态环境损害严重威胁到我国的生态安全。系统研究典型生态系统生态环境损害基线、因果关系及损害程度的判定技术方法对保障国家生态安全和实现可持续发展具有重要的理论和实践意义。根据国家"十三五"《典型脆弱生态修复与保护研究专项指南》的要求,中国科学院大学牵头组织6家课题牵头单位联合申报了"生态环境损害鉴定评估业务化技术研究"项目,通过了专业机构组织的评审,获准立项。本文对该项目的研究背景、总体目标、主要内容及预期产出进行了介绍。该项目的开展将对典型生态环境损害评估提供决策支持,为国家在政策层面解决环境损害追责、环境执法与管理提供科学技术和平台支撑。     

基于非线性热扩散效应的亚衍射极限光声二次谐波显微成像技术

本文提出了一种基于非线性热扩散效应的光声二次谐波显微SH-PAM成像技术,用于实现亚衍射极限光声成像。生物组织受到强度调制的高斯激光束辐射时,组织吸收光子形成高斯分布的温度场,由于热扩散系数非线性热效应引起的非线性光声PA效应,从而产生光声二次谐波信号。模拟和试验结果均表明,重建后的光声二次谐波成像的横向分辨率超过了传统光学成像分辨率。本文通过仿体样品验证了该方法的可行性,并且对人表层皮肤细胞进行了成像,以证明其对生物样品的成像能力。该方法扩展了传统光声成像的范围,为超分辨成像开辟了新的可能性,为生物医学成像和材料检测提供了新的方法。     

Spinach-based RNA mimicking GFP in plant cells

Functional & Integrative Genomics - Spinach RNA-mimicking GFP (S-RMG) has been successfully used to monitor cellular RNAs including microRNAs in bacterium, yeast, and human cells. However,...     

The toxin mimic FS48 from the salivary gland of Xenopsylla cheopis functions as a Kv1.3 channel-blocking immunomodulator of T cell activation

The Kv1.3 channel has been widely demonstrated to play crucial roles in the activation and proliferation of T cells, which suggests that selective blockers could serve as potential therapeutics for autoimmune diseases mediated by T cells. We previously described that the toxin mimic FS48 from salivary gland of Xenopsylla cheopis downregulates the secretion of proinflammatory factors by Raw 264.7 cells by blocking the Kv1.3 channel and the subsequent inactivation of the proinflammatory MAPK/NF-κB pathways. However, the effects of FS48 on human T cells and autoimmune diseases are unclear. Here, we described its immunomodulatory effects on human T cells derived from suppression of Kv1.3 channel. Kv1.3 currents in Jurkat T cells were recorded by whole-cell patch-clamp, and Ca²⁺ influx, cell proliferation, and TNF-α and IL-2 secretion were measured using Fluo-4, CCK-8, and ELISA assays, respectively. The in vivo immunosuppressive activity of FS48 was evaluated with a rat DTH model. We found that FS48 reduced Kv1.3 currents in Jurkat T cells in a concentration-dependent manner with an IC₅₀ value of about 1.42 μM. FS48 also significantly suppressed Kv1.3 protein expression, Ca²⁺ influx, MAPK/NF-κB/NFATc1 pathway activation, and TNF-α and IL-2 production in activated Jurkat T cells. Finally, we show that FS48 relieved the DTH response in rats. We therefore conclude that FS48 can block the Kv1.3 channel and inhibit human T cell activation, which most likely contributes to its immunomodulatory actions and highlights the great potential of this evolutionary-guided peptide as a drug template in future studies.     

基于全基因组序列的弯曲菌特征分析

空肠弯曲菌(Campylobacter jejuni)和结肠弯曲菌(Campylobacter coli)是引起人类腹泻的主要致病菌。传统生化方法在鉴定弯曲菌时存在步骤多、耗时长、通量低等问题。本研究通过利用生物信息学方法对弯曲菌全基因组进行序列、基因注释、耐药基因、多位点序列分型以及CRISPR-Cas系统等分析,挖掘能够有效区分空肠弯曲菌和结肠弯曲菌的高分辨力特征。实验结果表明,空肠弯曲菌和结肠弯曲菌在基因组序列长度、GC含量、基因数量、多位点序列分型以及CRISPR-Cas系统等方面存在显著差异。同时,研究还发现了一段在空肠弯曲菌基因组中广泛存在的高分辨力CRISPR重复序列。这些特征可用于构建能够准确鉴别空肠弯曲菌和结肠弯曲菌的生物信息学方法。     

The rational designed antagonist derived from the complex structure of interleukin-6 and its receptor affectively blocking interleukin-6 might be a promising treatment in multiple myeloma

Human interleukin-6 is involved in the maintenance and progression of several diseases such as multiple myeloma (MM), rheumatoid arthritis, or osteoporosis. Our previous work demonstrated that an interleukin-6 antagonist peptide (named PT) possessed potential bioactivity to antagonize the function of hIL-6 and could efficiently induce the growth arrest and apoptosis of XG-7 and M1 cells in a dose-dependent manner. In this study, the theoretical interaction of the peptide PT with its receptor was analyzed further more with molecular docking and molecular dynamics methods. The theoretical studies showed that PT possessed very high affinity to interleukin-6R and offered a practical means of imposing long-term blockade of interleukin-6 activity in vivo. According to the theoretical results, the biological evaluation of PT was researched on two different cells models with more sensitive approaches: (1) The antagonist activity of PT was studied on the interleukin-6 dependent MM cells (XG-7) cultured with interleukin-6. In the other interleukin-6 dependent MM cells (SKO-007), they survived themselves by auto/paracrine without the exogenous interleukin-6, and also could be antagonized by PT. The therapeutic value of PT only limited on the interleukin-6 dependent category in MM. (2) Myeloid leukemia M1 cells were induced for growth arrest and apoptosis in response to interleukin-6. The results supported our previous findings and showed that PT could be evaluated by protecting the cells from interleukin-6 induced apoptosis. In conclusion, PT could induce interleukin-6-dependent XG-7 and SKO-007 cells to apoptosis while inhibit interleukin-6-stimulated apoptosis in M1 cells.     

Verification and tissue-specific expression of nifU-like gene from the amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri

A nifU-like gene exhibiting similarity to nifU of nitrogen fixation gene cluster was identified for the first time from the gut cDNA library of amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri. Both RT-PCR and Northern blotting as well as in situ hybridization histochemistry verified that the cDNA represents an amphioxus nifU-like gene rather than a microbial contaminant. The nifU-like gene encodes a protein of 164 amino acid residues including a highly conserved U-type motif (C-X26-C-X43-C), and shares 66-86% identity to NifU-like proteins from a variety of species including vertebrates, invertebrates and microbes. It is expressed in a tissue-specific manner in the digestive system including epipharyngeal groove, endostyle, hepatic caecum and hind-gut and in the gill, ovary and testis. Taken together, it is highly likely that NifU-like protein plays some tissue-dependent and critical role in amphioxus.     

Experimental investigation of the seesaw mechanism of the relay region that moves the myosin lever arm

A seesaw-like movement of the relay region upon the recovery step of myosin was recently simulated in silico. In this model the relay helix tilts around its pivoting point formed by a phenylalanine cluster (Phe(481), Phe(482), and Phe(652)), which moves the lever arm of myosin. To study the effect of the elimination of the proposed pivoting point, these phenylalanines were mutated to alanines in two Dictyostelium myosin II motor domain constructs (M(F481A, F482A) and M(F652A)). The relay movement was followed by the fluorescence change of Trp(501) located in the relay region. The steady-state and transient kinetic fluorescence experiments showed that the lack of the phenylalanine fulcrum perturbs the formation of the "up" lever arm state, and only moderate effects were found in the nucleotide binding, the formation of the "down" lever arm position, and the ATP hydrolysis steps. We conclude that the lack of the fulcrum decouples the distal part of the relay from the nucleotide binding site upon the recovery step. Our molecular dynamics simulations also showed that the conformation of the motor is not perturbed by the mutation in the down lever arm state, however, the lack of the pivoting point rearranges the dynamic pattern of the kink region of the relay helix.