分子水平的仿生科学

本文讲座了在分子水平进行的模仿生物大分子生物功能的研究现状，研究技术，及其在基础研究和生物制品生产中的应用。     

生物多样性与针叶林生态系统过程的关系

在过去10年中，生物多样性与生态系统过程的关系成为生态学中最具争议和挑战性的话题。生态学家们围绕植物组成和多样性与生态系统过程的关系、生物多样性与陆地生态系统的生物地球化学循环的关系、土壤生物多样性赇生态系统过程的影响、生态系统的功能多样性和组成对生态系统过程的影响、生物多样性与生态系统的稳定性以及生物多样性与生态系统过程对全球变化的响应等方面做了大量的开创性研究。川西亚高山针叶林是我国的生物多样性宝库和世界生物多样性的热点地区。迄今为止，有关川西亚高山针叶林生物多样性和生态过程的研究还相当有限，有关生物多样性与生态系统过程关系的研究尚未见报道。因此，建议在未来川西亚高山针叶林生态过程研究中加强生物多样性与针叶林生产力的关系，生物多样性和生物地球化学循环的关系、土壤生物多样性与生态系统过程的互动、地下／地上部分生物多样性的关系、生物多样性和生态过程对全球变化的响应等研究。     

生物传感器在环境监测中的应用及发展前景

论文综述和讨论了生物传感器在水、大气及其他环境监测中的应用，展望了生物传感器未来的发慌前景及发展方向。     

美国能源部推动生物能源研究

美国能源部10月3日宣布，在2007财年末期增拨近3000万美元以加速启动其三个生物能源研究中心，这使得能源部对生物能源研究中心的投资超过4亿美元。     

Danisco公司在生物燃料用酶领域增长强劲

酶制造商Danisco公司估测了全球生物乙醇的巨大产量，在2006年，伴随着美国生物燃料生产的快速增长，Danisco公司的酶产量月增长率达到20％。     

生物耦合功能特性及其实现模式

生物在大自然优胜劣汰的法则下, 进化出与自身生长和生存环境高度适应的功能特性. 生物通过两个或两个以上不同部分的协同作用或不同因素的耦合作用有效地实现生物的各种功能, 充分展现其对生境的最佳适应性. 本文从仿生学角度, 分析了生物耦合功能、特性及其类别, 初步揭示了生物耦合功能实现的机制与模式, 最后, 展望了生物耦合功能仿生实现的工程技术前景     

法国欲成为欧洲最大的生物燃料生产国

法国总理拉法兰已推出一项雄心勃勃的生物能源发展计划，目标是在2007年之前，将法国生物燃料的产量提高3倍，并最终使法国超过德国，成为欧洲生物燃料生产的第一大国。     

生物能量在生命体中传递的新理论及应用

生物能量在生物体当中的传递是生命科学中的一个基本问题，它相关于ATP水解放出的能量沿着蛋白质分子的传递。这种传递与蛋白质的动力学相关。根据ATP分子分布和水解的特性以及蛋白质结构的特点，在Davyclov理论的基础上提出了一个新的生物能量传递的理论。在这个理论当中，Amide振动的集体激发状态用一个两量子准相干态表示，系统的哈密顿量不但包含了Amide振动引起的相邻氨基酸残基的位移，而且包含了相邻Amide之间的共振相互作用所引起的氨基酸残基的相对位置的改变。由这个理论得出的传递生物能量的孤子的寿命可得10^-10秒，在这个时间之内孤子能传递过上千个氨基酸残基，因此它能在生物过程中起着重要的作用。这个理论与E．col．的Ramma谱的实验结果和我们做出的胶原蛋白的红外吸收谱等实验结果相一致，因此它可能是生物体中生物能量传递的一个可利用的和正确的理论。     

交叉学科研究推动了生物无机化学学科的发展

本文分为七部分，第一部分对生物无机化学学科发展进行历史回顾；第二部分从回顾史实中用实例表明生物无机化学的研究始终瞄准金属离子和生物配体控制生命过程中的化学问题；第三部分是介绍当今国际上研究核酸领域的争论焦点；第四部分是报导我们设计和合成了作为人工核酸酶的一系列新的配体以及许多不同金属的功能配合物；第五部分是讨论用动力学、热力学和DFT计算方法研究配合物和DNA相互作用的键合机制以及十多种影响因素；第六部分进一步报导配合物的生物功能和它们的应用探索，最后一部分提出在核酸领域的某些新的发展方向和途径。我们进一步提出了配合物的结构与DNA的作用机制以及它们的生物功能之间的规律性。通过配合物的结构改变去调控和改变配合物对DNA键合性质和生物功能。     

生物资源的合理开发利用和生物多样性的有效保护

目前应特别强调处理好生物资源的利用和生物多样性保护的关系。本文好生物资源的定义、范围及特点和历史发展程序，生物多样性的主要内容及意义。对云南生物资源利用正、负方面的条件进行了讨论，并提出了对合理开发利用生物资源的意义。     

Human bodies as chemical sensors: A history of biomonitoring for environmental health and regulation

The testing of human blood and urine for signs of chemical exposure has become the “gold standard” of environmental public health, leading to ongoing population studies in the US and Europe. Such methods first emerged over a century ago in medical and occupational contexts, as a means to calibrate drug doses for patients and prevent injury to workers from chemical or radiation exposure. This paper analyzes how human bodies have come to serve as unconscious sensors of their environments: containers of chemical information determined by expert testers. As seen in the case of lead testing in the US, these bodily traces of contaminants can provide compelling evidence about dangerous exposures in everyday life, useful in achieving stronger regulation of industry. The use of genetic testing of workers by Dow Chemical provides an example of industry itself undertaking biomonitoring, though the company discontinued the program at the same time its studies indicated chromosomal damage in connection with occupational exposure to certain chemicals. In this case and others, biomonitoring raises complex questions about informing subjects, interpreting exposure in the many cases for which health effects at low doses are unknown, and who should take responsibility for protection, compensation, or remediation. Further, the history of biomonitoring complicates how we understand human ‘experience’ of the global environment by pointing to the role of non-sensory—yet detectable—bodily exposures.     

Pharmacogenetics and ecogenetics

Concluding comments The study of pharmacogenetics and ecogenetics among different individuals and populations offers an unique opportunity to understand multiple, simultaneously occurring interactions between genes and the environment, and the subsequent phenotypic expression of heritable characters. Incorporation of appropiate ecogenetic diagnostic services into the general genetic services may be useful for public health monitoring in the prevention of occupational disease.The modern methods of molecular biochemistry will allow the characterization of hereditary traits affecting drug metabolism at the DNA level. Gene identification, isolation and cloning will help to determine whether gene duplication and other such events have taken place leading to species differences in the metabolism of drugs and xenobiotics.     

A possibility to achieve genetic transformation in the platyfish-swordtail system (Platypoecilus maculatus — Xiphophorus helleri)

Summary In order to determine how informative homologous donor DNA might be made available to propigment cells of the recipientXiphophorus helleri for transformation, labelled heterologous DNA fromE. coli was injected into the neural crest region or the yolk sac of embryos of the recipient. On the basis of the degradation rate of the donor DNA and the incorporation rate of radioactivity into the recipient DNA, it is concluded that injection into the neural crest region may be a suitable method to make available informative homologous donor DNA for transformation.Supported by DFG through SFB No. 103, and by Stiftung Volkswagenwerk.     

Transformation: a tool for studying fungal pathogens of plants

Plant diseases caused by plant pathogenic fungi continuously threaten the sustainability of global crop production. An effective way to study the disease-causing mechanisms of these organisms is to disrupt their genes, in both a targeted and random manner, so as to isolate mutants exhibiting altered virulence. Although a number of techniques have been employed for such an analysis, those based on transformation are by far the most commonly used. In filamentous fungi, the introduction of DNA by transformation typically results in either the heterologous (illegitimate) integration or the homologous integration of the transforming DNA into the target genome. Homologous integration permits a targeted gene disruption by replacing the wild-type allele on the genome with a mutant allele on transforming DNA. This process has been widely used to determine the role of newly isolated fungal genes in pathogenicity. The heterologous integration of transforming DNA causes a random process of gene disruption (insertional mutagenesis) and has led to the isolation of many fungal mutants defective in pathogenicity. A big advantage of insertional mutagenesis over the more traditional chemical or radiation mutagenesis procedures is that the mutated gene is tagged by transforming DNA and can subsequently be cloned using the transforming DNA. The application of various transformation-based techniques for fungal gene manipulation and how they have increased our understanding and appreciation of some of the most serious plant pathogenic fungi are discussed. Received 9 May 2001; received after revision 2 July 2001; accepted 3 July 2001     

Integrase, LEDGF/p75 and HIV replication

HIV integrates a DNA copy of its genome into a host cell chromosome in each replication cycle. The essential DNA cleaving and joining chemistry of integration is known, but there is less understanding of the process as it occurs in a cell, where two complex and dynamic macromolecular entities are joined: the viral pre-integration complex and chromatin. Among implicated cellular factors, much recent attention has coalesced around LEDGF/p75, a nuclear protein that may act as a chromatin docking factor or receptor for lentiviral pre-integration complexes. LEDGF/p75 tethers HIV integrase to chromatin, protects it from degradation, and strongly influences the genome-wide pattern of HIV integration. Depleting the protein from cells and/or over-expressing its integrase-binding domain blocks viral replication. Current goals are to establish the underlying mechanisms and to determine whether this knowledge can be exploited for antiviral therapy or for targeting lentiviral vector integration in human gene therapy. Received 25 November 2007; received after revision 7 January 2008; accepted 10 January 2008     

DNA damage repair and transcription

DNA mutations and aberrations are a problem for all forms of life. Eukaryotes specifically have developed ways of identifying and repairing various DNA mutations in a complex and refractory chromatin environment. The chromatin structure is much more than a packaging unit for DNA; it is dynamic. Cells utilize and manipulate chromatin for gene regulation, genome organization and maintenance of genome integrity. Once a DNA aberration has occurred, the various DNA repair machineries interact with chromatin proteins, such as the histone variant H2A.X, and chromatin remodeling machines of the SWI/SNF family to gain access and repair the lesion in a timely manner. Recent studies have thus begun to address the roles of chromatin proteins in DNA repair as well as to dissect the functions of DNA repair machinery in vitro on more physiological, nucleosomal templates.     

Emerging connections between DNA methylation and histone acetylation

Modifications of both DNA and chromatin can affect gene expression and lead to gene silencing. Evidence of links between DNA methylation and histone hypoacetylation is accumulating. Several proteins that specifically bind to methylated DNA are associated with complexes that include histone deacetylases (HDACs). In addition, DNA methyltransferases of mammals appear to interact with HDACs. Experiments with animal cells have shown that HDACs are responsible for part of the repressive effect of DNA methylation. Evidence was found in Neurospora that protein acetylation can in some cases affect DNA methylation. The available data suggest that the roles of DNA methylation and histone hypoacetylation, and their relationship with each other, can vary, even within an organism. Some open questions in this emerging field that should be answered in the near future are discussed.