非编码RNA与表达调控作用

真核生物转录产生了大量的非编码RNA（ncRNA）,种类繁多？表达及调节模式复杂多样,且对细胞的生长是必须的,并非是转录的＂垃圾＂。根据功能,ncRNA可以大致分成＂持家RNA＂与＂调控RNA＂。ncRNA在遗传信息的载体（DNA和染色质）与表达产物（蛋白质）的相关生物过程中都有着极其重要的作用。     

利用eIF4E分离纯化非编码RNA的新方法

人翻译起始因子eIF4E是特异性识别并结合mRNA帽结构的蛋白质.该文通过克隆人源基因eIF4E,并利用原核细胞大肠杆菌BL21成功表达了具有帽结合功能的eIF4E蛋白,利用该蛋白亲和纯化分离得到了具有帽子结构的RNA.通过对比用oligo(dT)分离得到的非编码RNA,eIF4E法得到了更多种类的非编码RNA.本研究为非编码RNA的分离与发现提供了一个重要的工具.     

circRNA研究进展

环形RNA（circular RNAs,circRNAs）是一类通过反向剪接所形成的闭合环状RNA分子,广泛存在于各种生物细胞中,并且具有结构稳定、表达量丰富以及在不同组织及其不同发育阶段具有表达特异性等特征。circRNAs可以作为miRNA海绵调控m iRNA的表达,通过cis或trans调控其母基因的表达,并参与蛋白的翻译。此外,circRNA在神经发育及相关疾病的发生和发展过程中起着重要的调控作用,有望成为疾病诊断的分子标志物。本文就circRNA的分子特征、形成机制、功能、常用的数据库及其与神经系统疾病的关系做一综述。     

几种内源性小RNA的比较

RNA干涉是近年来的研究热点,广泛参与生物发育、细胞分化、细胞凋亡等多种生物学过程。本文综述了近年来对转录后靶基因调控的几种小RNA：siRNA、microRNA、piRNA和endo-siRNA,从特点、生物发生过程和生物学功能方面进行了综述性地比较,以期为进一步深入研究提供参考。     

细菌中小RNA靶标识别的研究进展

细菌的小RNA（small RNA,sRNA）是一类长度在50~500nt之间的RNA分子,目前已在细菌内发现150多种sRNA.随着越来越多的sRNA被证实,识别sRNA的靶标进而研究sRNA的功能已具有越来越重要的意义.目前,对sRNA靶标的研究主要采用生物信息学预测结合分子生物学实验的方法.本文就细菌中sRNA靶标识别方法的研究进展做一简要综述.     

反义RNA对质粒复制的调控作用

反义RNA的存在最先是在质粒和其它原核附属DNA元件中被证实的.对这些体系深入的研究揭示了原核反义RNA结构和功能的联系,以及正义/反义RNA相互作用的机理.本文着重叙述反义RNA在质粒复制中的作用及其进展.     

Environmental RNA interference in animals

Animals interact with their environments all the time, and must react to all kinds of factors present in the environments. Environmen- tal RNA interference refers to the phenomenon that exogenous RNA molecules can enter cells of certain animal species and inter- fere with gene expression of these animals. These exogenous RNAs may be molecules in animal food, or may be present in the living environment from other sources. Molecular pathways for the cell entry of environmental RNAs and further for their func- tionality in gene interference have started to be revealed in the animal model Caenorhabditis elegans. Here we highlight some known examples of environmental RNA interference （RNAi） in animals and introduce the molecular mechanisms underneath.     

家蚕非编码RNA Bm-152功能初探

Bm-152是前期研究中发现的一个在家蚕丝腺中高表达的非编码RNA.采用实时荧光定量PCR技术对Bm-152在家蚕5龄到预蛹期不同发育天数丝腺中的表达谱进行检测.同时,在个体中过表达Bm-152,检测Bm-152可能参与的信号通路.结果显示,Bm-152在家蚕5龄幼虫丝腺发育过程中无明显的变化规律,但在吐丝第1天表达量较高,随后表达量又下降.通过在血淋巴中注射2μg piggyBac[A3-EGFP-A3-Bm-152]过表达载体,48h后发现Bm-152在丝腺组织中无明显过表达,但在非丝腺组织中可实现明显过表达,且表达量上调1.66倍;蜕皮激素信号通路基因Usp在非丝腺组织中上调1.95倍,E75A在非丝腺组织中上调2.26倍,保幼激素信号通路基因Met在非丝腺组织中上调1.79倍.表明非编码RNA Bm-152可能通过蜕皮激素和保幼激素信号通路参与家蚕发育,该结果为进一步探索Bm-152的功能提供了方向.     

病毒编码的RNA沉默抑制子的特征及其生物技术应用

RNA沉默是一种依赖核酸序列特异性的RNA降解过程,是动物、植物抵抗病毒等外源核酸的一种保守防御机制。而针对寄主的这种防御机制,许多病毒演化出RNA沉默抑制子以克服这种防御反应。本文综述了几种动物、植物病毒抑制子的结构和作用方式,讨论了病毒抑制子之间的交叉抑制功能,病毒运动和沉默抑制子之间的关系,病毒RNA和亚病毒寄生物通过沉默抑制子而进行的自我保护原理,抑制子对于miRNA（microRNA）途径的影响以及病毒抑制子在生物技术方面的应用。     

RNAi表达载体在哺乳动物中的研究进展

对RNA干扰(RNAi)表达载体的非生物与生物递送系统及主流应用进行综述,明确其在基因调控及未来基因治疗领域的应用前景,并指出其在种属特异性及表达效率等方面存在的局限性.对RNAi表达载体的结构组成、发展沿革及体内作用机制进行归纳分析,提出基于结构组成和加工机制双重属性的分类方法.     

miRNA作用通路研究

后基因组时代的分子生物学研究需要从整体的角度,系统地阐述基因参与的生物调控过程,已有的通过构建基因调控网络的方式所做的系统生物学研究主要关注于蛋白编码基因之间的相互作用。随着近年来非编码RNA（noncoding RNA）,特别是miRNA研究的深入,显示生物体内存在着广泛的基因转录后调控。本论文通过建立综合蛋白质编码基因与miRNA基因相互作用关系的基因调控网络,分析了人类基因组中涉及miRNA的三类作用模式：（1）宿主基因与内含子miRNA共同作用于另一个蛋白编码基因。（2）miRNA簇中的不同miRNA分别作用于存在着相互作用的两个蛋白编码基因。（3）由两个宿主基因与其各自的内含子miRNA形成双向负调控回路。本研究的结果为进一步认识人类miRNA基因的功能特性提供了重要参考,研究所预测的数据为实验验证提供了依据。     

水稻低温胁迫响应 ｍｉｃｒｏＲＮＡ 鉴定

水稻是世界三大粮食作物之一,然而低温胁迫会严重抑制水稻的生长发育。为了探究micoRNA在水稻低温胁迫中的作用,采用低温处理前,5℃低温处理24h和5℃低温处理48h的2~3叶期水稻整株,构建9个小RNA文库。通过高通量测序后,对9个小RNA文库的microRNA进行差异表达分析,一共筛选出21个与冷胁迫相关的microRNA,其中16个在冷胁迫下上调,5个在冷胁迫下下调。通过对这21个microRNA靶基因的CO富集结果表明,其靶基因广泛富集在包括信号转导,免疫系统和物质合成等细胞内过程中。这表明水稻可能通过多种micoRNA 介导,从各个方面来协同抵御低温胁迫。本研究为进一步阐明microRNA响应低温胁迫的分子机制提供了基础,且本研究所鉴定的microRNA为增强水稻对低温耐受性遗传改良提供了优异的miRNA资源。     

Essential roles of PI(3)K-p110beta in cell growth, metabolism and tumorigenesis

On activation by receptors, the ubiquitously expressed class IA isoforms (p110alpha and p110beta) of phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase (PI(3)K) generate lipid second messengers, which initiate multiple signal transduction cascades. Recent studies have demonstrated specific functions for p110alpha in growth factor and insulin signalling. To probe for distinct functions of p110beta, we constructed conditional knockout mice. Here we show that ablation of p110beta in the livers of the resulting mice leads to impaired insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis, while having little effect on phosphorylation of Akt, suggesting the involvement of a kinase-independent role of p110beta in insulin metabolic action. Using established mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we found that removal of p110beta also had little effect on Akt phosphorylation in response to stimulation by insulin and epidermal growth factor, but resulted in retarded cell proliferation. Reconstitution of p110beta-null cells with a wild-type or kinase-dead allele of p110beta demonstrated that p110beta possesses kinase-independent functions in regulating cell proliferation and trafficking. However, the kinase activity of p110beta was required for G-protein-coupled receptor signalling triggered by lysophosphatidic acid and had a function in oncogenic transformation. Most strikingly, in an animal model of prostate tumour formation induced by Pten loss, ablation of p110beta (also known as Pik3cb), but not that of p110alpha (also known as Pik3ca), impeded tumorigenesis with a concomitant diminution of Akt phosphorylation. Taken together, our findings demonstrate both kinase-dependent and kinase-independent functions for p110beta, and strongly indicate the kinase-dependent functions of p110beta as a promising target in cancer therapy.     

2株黄瓜花叶病毒卫星RNA的cDNA克隆及序列分析

在辣椒上获得2株黄瓜花叶病毒卫星RNA(CS1和CS2),通过cDNA克隆和测序并将其与35个已知的卫星RNA序列进行同源比较．结果表明,CS1和CS2的全长序列分别为336,382nt;与CS2、Rs和Yns比较,CS1从第80位起有连续30多个核苷酸的缺失．由此推测,卫星RNA的二级结构也随这些核苷酸的缺失而发生了改变．将CMV卫星RNA分为4个组,卫星RNA CS1属于中小卫星组小卫星亚组Ⅱ,CS2属于长卫星组,CS1与其他来源的卫星RNA的同源性为80．4％～93．7％,CS2与其他来源的卫星RNA的同源性则为75％～94．8％;两之间的序列同源性为86％．CMV卫星RNA的序列同源性和分组与卫星RNA分布的地区和寄主来源并无直接联系．     

非编码RNA研究进展

多年来,人们已经清楚的认识了一系列结构RNA和调节RNA。最近,由Tuschel,Bartel和Ambro实验室发表的一系列文章里,记述了这些结构RNA和调节RNA外,还包括有许多最近发现的仅由22个核苷酸组成的微小RNA(miRNA)的研究前景。由于这些RNA不编码蛋白质,所以统称为非编码RNA(ncRNA)。最近的研究表明,ncRNA比以前所想像的要丰富和重要的多,它们在转录调节,染色体复制,RNA加工、修饰,mRNA稳定性和翻译,甚至蛋白质降解和转运过程中都起作用。本文就对ncRNA的研究进展和最近发现的miRNA作一简要综述。     

Identification of common microRNA-mRNA regulatory biomodules in human epithelial cancer

The complex regulatory network between microRNAs and gene expression remains an unclear domain of active research. We proposed to address in part this complex regulation with a novel approach for the genome-wide identification of biomodules derived from paired microRNA and mRNA profiles, which could reveal correlations associated with a complex network of dys-regulation in human cancer. Two published expression datasets for 68 samples with 11 distinct types of epithelial cancers and 21 samples of normal tissues were used, containing microRNA expression and gene expression profiles, respectively. As results, the microRNA expression used jointly with mRNA expression can provide better classifiers of epithelial cancers against normal epithelial tissue than either dataset alone (P=1×10^–10, F test). We identified a combination of 6 microRNA-mRNA biomodules that optimally classified epithelial cancers from normal epithelial tissue (total accuracy = 93.3%; 95% confidence intervals: 86%–97%), using penalized logistic regression (PLR) algorithm and three-fold cross-validation. Three of these biomodules are individually sufficient to cluster epithelial cancers from normal tissue using mutual information distance. The biomodules contain 10 distinct microRNAs and 98 distinct genes, including well known tumor markers such as miR-15a, miR-30e, IRAK1, TGFBR2, DUSP16, CDC25B and PDCD2. In addition, there is a significant enrichment (Fisher’s exact test P=3×10^–10) between putative microRNA-target gene pairs reported in 5 microRNA target databases and the inversely correlated microRNA-mRNA pairs in the biomodules. Further, microRNAs and genes in the biomodules were found in abstracts mentioning epithelial cancers (Fisher’s Exact test, unadjusted P<0.05). Taken together, these results strongly suggest that the discovered microRNA-mRNA biomodules correspond to regulatory mechanisms common to human epithelial cancer samples. In conclusion, we developed and evaluated a novel comprehensive method to systematically identify, on a genome scale, microRNA-mRNA expression biomodules common to distinct cancers of the same tissue. These biomodules also comprise novel microRNA and genes as well as an imputed regulatory network, which may accelerate the work of cancer biologists as large regulatory maps of cancers can be drawn efficiently for hypothesis generation.     

MicroRNA特征与功能

通过分析总结现代分子生物学国际前沿microRNA(miRNA)领域的研究文献，整理出miRNA研究的基本脉络和走向。miRNA是一类长度～22nt的非编码小分子RNA，在包括线虫、果绳、家鼠、人体以及拟南芥等生物中普遍存在；它在调节基因转录与表达，调控生物体正常发育等生理过程中扮演重要角色。从比较的角度出发，揭示了miRNA与小干扰RNA在其代谢与功能方面共用某些途径，相互交叉与替代，可能同属一个更广范围的小分子RNA介导的生理调控机制。miRNA的研究可能对新一代基因药物的开发具有深远意义。