Stable expression of the bacterial neor gene in Leishmania enriettii

Molecular genetic studies in parasitic protozoa have been hindered by the lack of methods for the introduction and expression of modified or foreign genes in these organisms. Two recent reports described the transient expression of the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) gene under the control of parasite-specific sequences. We now describe the stable expression of a selectable marker, the gene for neomycin resistance (neor) in Leishmania enriettii. A chimaeric gene containing the neor gene inserted between two alpha-tubulin intergenic sequences was introduced into the cells and drug-resistant L. enriettii were observed which stably expressed the neor gene. One goal of this work was to analyse the sequences necessary for trans-splicing of messenger RNA, as trypanosomatids have a novel process of RNA trans-splicing, described initially in Trypanosome brucei and subsequently in several other trypanosomatids, including L. enriettii. Many trypanosomatid genes are arranged in tandem arrays and the intergenic sequences contain both the splice acceptor site for the addition of the spliced leader sequence and a putative polyadenylation site. Messenger RNA isolated from several different neor L. enrietti lines contained the spliced leader sequence joined to the neor gene at the position of the splice acceptor site in the alpha-tubulin intergenic sequence. The neor mRNA was also polyadenylated. Plasmid DNA is present within the drug-resistant organisms and appears to be extrachromosomal. The development of these methods allows the functional analysis of sequences necessary for trans-splicing.     

好好芭叶片RNA提取方法和cDNA干旱消减文库的构建

介绍了从好好芭成熟叶片中提取总RNA的方法;用含有SDS的裂解液裂解细胞,用DNase除去可能出现的DNA干扰,再经植物提取试剂盒纯化后,获得了高质量的完整RNA,可用于基因编码序列的克隆和基因表达的mRNA分析等精细研究,并进一步构建了好好芭干旱消减文库.     

Alu sequences are processed 7SL RNA genes

7SL RNA is an abundant cytoplasmic RNA which functions in protein secretion as a component of the signal recognition particle. Alu sequences are the most abundant family of human and rodent middle repetitive DNA sequences (reviewed in ref. 2). The primary structure of human 7SL RNA consists of an Alu sequence interrupted by a 155-base pair (bp) sequence that is unique to 7SL RNA. In order to obtain information about the evolution of the Alu domain of 7SL RNA, we have determined the nucleotide sequence of a cDNA copy of Xenopus laevis 7SL RNA and of the 7SL RNA gene of Drosophila melanogaster. We find that the Xenopus sequence is 87% homologous with its human counterpart and the Drosophila 7SL RNA is 64% homologous to both the human and amphibian molecules. Despite the evolutionary distance between the species, significant blocks of homology to both the Alu and 7SL-specific portions of mammalian 7SL RNA can be found in the insect sequence. These results clearly demonstrate that the Alu sequence in 7SL RNA appeared in evolution before the mammalian radiation. We suggest that mammalian Alu sequences were derived from 7SL RNA (or DNA) by a deletion of the central 7SL-specific sequence, and are therefore processed 7SL RNA genes.     

逆转录聚合酶链式反应快速检测水稻条叶枯病毒

逆转录聚合酶链式反应（Ｒｅｖｅｒｓｅ Ｔｒａｓｃｒｉｐｔｉｏｎ ａｎｄ Ｐｏｌｙｍｅｒａｓｅ Ｃｈａｉｎ Ｒｅａｃｔｉｏｎ,ＲＴ－ＰＣＲ）具有灵敏度高,准确性好的特点,因而被广泛应用于植物病毒检测。在ＲＴ反应中,ＲＮＡ样品的快速制备尤为重要用异丙醇二步沉淀法获得ＲＮＡ,快速检测水地片中ＲＳｔＶ伯ＲＴ－ＰＣＲ方法,可使测定时间缩短至６ｈ,并可从０．０７８ｍｇ感病叶片中检测出ＲＳｔＶ。     

Isolation of a gene from Drosophila by complementation in yeast

Transformation of mutant yeast cells by cloned genomic DNA from a higher eukaryote has made it possible to isolate a Drosophila DNA sequence that complements a yeast adenine-8-mutation. A 0.8-kilobase poly(A)-containing RNA is transcribed from the cloned Drosophila segment in transformed yeast cells and can account for functional expression of the gene.     

大肠杆菌高效表达载体pSY621的构建

基因在大肠杆菌中的表达往往受转录起始区的二级结构所影响,通过改变原有载体ｐＳＹ６００的ＴＩＲ区域的序列,来改造出一个能高效表达的载体ｐＳＹ６２１。在表达载体上接入ＡＮＧ（Ａｎｇｉｏｇｅｎｉｎ）,ＮＴ４（Ｎｅｕｒｏｔｒｏｐｈｉｎ－４）基因,由ＰＣＧＥＮＥ软件来计算二级结构和自由能,设计修改片段,产生新载体ｐＳＹ６２１。通过表达ＡＮＧ,ＮＴ４,ｐＺＰ３（ｐｉｇ ｚｏｎａ ｐｅｌｌｕｃｉｄａ）基因来检测     

RNA editing in wheat mitochondria results in the conservation of protein sequences

RNA editing is a process that results in the production of a messenger RNA with nucleotide sequences that differ from those of the template DNA, and provides another mechanism for modulating gene expression. The phenomenon was initially described in the mitochondria of protozoa. Here we report that RNA editing is also required for the correct expression of plant mitochondrial genes. It has previously been proposed that in plant mitochondria there is a departure from the universal genetic code, with CGG specifying tryptophan instead of arginine. This was because CGG codons are often found in plant mitochondrial genes at positions corresponding to those encoding conserved tryptophans in other organisms. We have now found, however, wheat mitochondrial gene sequences containing C residues that are edited to U residues in the corresponding mRNA sequences. In this way, CGG codons can be changed to UGG codons in the mRNA so that tryptophan may be encoded according to the universal genetic code. Furthermore, for each codon modification resulting from a C----U conversion that we studied, we found a corresponding change in the amino acid that was encoded. RNA editing in wheat mitochondria can thus maintain genetic information at the RNA level and as a result contribute to the conservation of mitochondrial protein sequences among plants.     

表观遗传学研究进展

 概述了表观遗传调节模式、表观遗传调节的效应、植物表观遗传学的研究进展等。在每种细胞中,都会发生一部分特异基因激活、另一部分基因抑制的现象,形成多种基因表达模式。表观遗传指DNA序列不发生变化,而基因表达发生可遗传改变的现象。表观遗传学改变包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰、非编码RNA作用等,产生基因组印记、母性影响、基因沉默、核仁显性、休眠转座子激活等效应。表观遗传变异是环境因素和细胞内遗传物质间交互作用的结果,其效应通过调节基因表达,控制生物学表型来实现。正是因为表观修饰对于维持生物体内环境和各器官系统功能的重要性,表观遗传的异常会引发疾病,这也成为药物和治疗方案设计的着眼点。     

最小汉明距离译码的原核生物DNA表达效率分析

鉴于通信系统结构,将分子生物的信息传递过程用通信模型描述,采用最小汉明距离译码算法,分析核糖体16S rRNA的突变对原核生物DNA翻译效率表达的影响,仿真结果表明原核生物以16S rRNA作为一个标准的差错校验码对DNA全序列进行纠错,证明了运用通信编码理论分析原核生物的遗传信息传递的可行性.     

RNA对基因表达调控作用的研究进展

RNA可以单独或者通过与其它蛋白因子的相互作用参与基因表达的调控。在转录前水平,RNA分子可以通过介导DNA的甲基化或异染色质的形成来调控基因表达;在转录水平,RNA分子通过直接与转录因子或RNA聚合酶相互作用来调控基因表达;在转录后水平,RNA利用由siRNA和microRNA介导的RNA干扰机制,通过降解目标mRNA或阻碍目标基因的翻译来沉默基因的表达。此外,mRNA还可以通过感知环境中代谢物的浓度,通过形成核糖开关（riboswitch）来调控基因的表达;反义RNA可以从复制、转录和翻译3个水平上调控基因的表达。     

The complete nucleotide sequence of chromosome 3 of Plasmodium falciparum.

Analysis of Plasmodium falciparum chromosome 3, and comparison with chromosome 2, highlights novel features of chromosome organization and gene structure. The sub-telomeric regions of chromosome 3 show a conserved order of features, including repetitive DNA sequences, members of multigene families involved in pathogenesis and antigenic variation, a number of conserved pseudogenes, and several genes of unknown function. A putative centromere has been identified that has a core region of about 2 kilobases with an extremely high (adenine + thymidine) composition and arrays of tandem repeats. We have predicted 215 protein-coding genes and two transfer RNA genes in the 1,060,106-base-pair chromosome sequence. The predicted protein-coding genes can be divided into three main classes: 52.6% are not spliced, 45.1% have a large exon with short additional 5' or 3' exons, and 2.3% have a multiple exon structure more typical of higher eukaryotes.     

Functional profiling of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome

Determining the effect of gene deletion is a fundamental approach to understanding gene function. Conventional genetic screens exhibit biases, and genes contributing to a phenotype are often missed. We systematically constructed a nearly complete collection of gene-deletion mutants (96% of annotated open reading frames, or ORFs) of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. DNA sequences dubbed 'molecular bar codes' uniquely identify each strain, enabling their growth to be analysed in parallel and the fitness contribution of each gene to be quantitatively assessed by hybridization to high-density oligonucleotide arrays. We show that previously known and new genes are necessary for optimal growth under six well-studied conditions: high salt, sorbitol, galactose, pH 8, minimal medium and nystatin treatment. Less than 7% of genes that exhibit a significant increase in messenger RNA expression are also required for optimal growth in four of the tested conditions. Our results validate the yeast gene-deletion collection as a valuable resource for functional genomics.     

A genetic link between co-suppression and RNA interference in C. elegans

Originally discovered in plants, the phenomenon of co-suppression by transgenic DNA has since been observed in many organisms from fungi to animals: introduction of transgenic copies of a gene results in reduced expression of the transgene as well as the endogenous gene. The effect depends on sequence identity between transgene and endogenous gene. Some cases of co-suppression resemble RNA interference (the experimental silencing of genes by the introduction of double-stranded RNA), as RNA seems to be both an important initiator and a target in these processes. Here we show that co-suppression in Caenorhabditis elegans is also probably mediated by RNA molecules. Both RNA interference and co-suppression have been implicated in the silencing of transposons. We now report that mutants of C. elegans that are defective in transposon silencing and RNA interference (mut-2, mut-7, mut-8 and mut-9) are in addition resistant to co-suppression. This indicates that RNA interference and co-suppression in C. elegans may be mediated at least in part by the same molecular machinery, possibly through RNA-guided degradation of messenger RNA molecules.     

A DNA sequence alignment algorithm using quality information and a fuzzy inference method

DNA sequence alignment algorithms in computational molecular biology have been improved by diverse methods. In this paper, we propose a DNA sequence alignment that uses quality information and a fuzzy inference method developed based on the characteristics of DNA fragments and a fuzzy logic system in order to improve conventional DNA sequence alignment methods that uses DNA sequence quality information. In conventional algorithms, DNA sequence alignment scores are calculated by the global sequence alignment algo- rithm proposed by Needleman-Wunsch, which is established by using quality information of each DNA fragment. However, there may be errors in the process of calculating DNA sequence alignment scores when the quality of DNA fragment tips is low, because only the overall DNA sequence quality information are used. In our proposed method, an exact DNA sequence alignment can be achieved in spite of the low quality of DNA fragment tips by improvement of conventional algorithms using quality information. Mapping score param- eters used to calculate DNA sequence alignment scores are dynamically adjusted by the fuzzy logic system utilizing lengths of DNA fragments and frequencies of low quality DNA bases in the fragments. From the experiments by applying real genome data of National Center for Biotechnology Information, we could see that the proposed method is more efficient than conventional algorithms.     

A DNA sequence alignment algorithm using quality information and a fuzzy inference method

DNA sequence alignment algorithms in computational molecular biology have been improved by diverse methods. In this paper, we propose a DNA sequence alignment that uses quality information and a fuzzy inference method developed based on characteristics of DNA fragments and a fuzzy logic system in order to improve conventional DNA sequence alignment methods that uses DNA sequence quality information. In conventional algorithms, DNA sequence alignment scores are calculated by the global sequence alignment algorithm proposed by Needleman-Wunsch, which is established by using quality information of each DNA fragment. However, there may be errors in the process of calculating DNA sequence alignment scores when the quality of DNA fragment tips is low, because only overall DNA sequence quality information are used. In our proposed method, an exact DNA sequence alignment can be achieved in spite of low quality of DNA fragment tips by improvement of conventional algorithms using quality information. Mapping score parameters used to calculate DNA sequence alignment scores are dynamically adjusted by the fuzzy logic system utilizing lengths of DNA fragments and frequencies of low quality DNA bases in the fragments. From the experiments by applying real genome data of National Center for Biotechnology Information, we could see that the proposed method is more efficient than conventional algorithms.     

Unravelling the dynamics of RNA degradation by ribonuclease II and its RNA-bound complex

RNA degradation is a determining factor in the control of gene expression. The maturation, turnover and quality control of RNA is performed by many different classes of ribonucleases. Ribonuclease II (RNase II) is a major exoribonuclease that intervenes in all of these fundamental processes; it can act independently or as a component of the exosome, an essential RNA-degrading multiprotein complex. RNase II-like enzymes are found in all three kingdoms of life, but there are no structural data for any of the proteins of this family. Here we report the X-ray crystallographic structures of both the ligand-free (at 2.44 A resolution) and RNA-bound (at 2.74 A resolution) forms of Escherichia coli RNase II. In contrast to sequence predictions, the structures show that RNase II is organized into four domains: two cold-shock domains, one RNB catalytic domain, which has an unprecedented alphabeta-fold, and one S1 domain. The enzyme establishes contacts with RNA in two distinct regions, the 'anchor' and the 'catalytic' regions, which act synergistically to provide catalysis. The active site is buried within the RNB catalytic domain, in a pocket formed by four conserved sequence motifs. The structure shows that the catalytic pocket is only accessible to single-stranded RNA, and explains the specificity for RNA versus DNA cleavage. It also explains the dynamic mechanism of RNA degradation by providing the structural basis for RNA translocation and enzyme processivity. We propose a reaction mechanism for exonucleolytic RNA degradation involving key conserved residues. Our three-dimensional model corroborates all existing biochemical data for RNase II, and elucidates the general basis for RNA degradation. Moreover, it reveals important structural features that can be extrapolated to other members of this family.