Driver mutations in histone H3.3 and chromatin remodelling genes in paediatric glioblastoma

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a lethal brain tumour in adults and children. However, DNA copy number and gene expression signatures indicate differences between adult and paediatric cases. To explore the genetic events underlying this distinction, we sequenced the exomes of 48 paediatric GBM samples. Somatic mutations in the H3.3-ATRX-DAXX chromatin remodelling pathway were identified in 44% of tumours (21/48). Recurrent mutations in H3F3A, which encodes the replication-independent histone 3 variant H3.3, were observed in 31% of tumours, and led to amino acid substitutions at two critical positions within the histone tail (K27M, G34R/G34V) involved in key regulatory post-translational modifications. Mutations in ATRX (α-thalassaemia/mental retardation syndrome X-linked) and DAXX (death-domain associated protein), encoding two subunits of a chromatin remodelling complex required for H3.3 incorporation at pericentric heterochromatin and telomeres, were identified in 31% of samples overall, and in 100% of tumours harbouring a G34R or G34V H3.3 mutation. Somatic TP53 mutations were identified in 54% of all cases, and in 86% of samples with H3F3A and/or ATRX mutations. Screening of a large cohort of gliomas of various grades and histologies (n = 784) showed H3F3A mutations to be specific to GBM and highly prevalent in children and young adults. Furthermore, the presence of H3F3A/ATRX-DAXX/TP53 mutations was strongly associated with alternative lengthening of telomeres and specific gene expression profiles. This is, to our knowledge, the first report to highlight recurrent mutations in a regulatory histone in humans, and our data suggest that defects of the chromatin architecture underlie paediatric and young adult GBM pathogenesis.     

Solid lipid nanoparticles loading adefovir dipivoxil for antiviral therapy

Herein, solid lipid nanoparticles （SLN） were proposed as a new drug delivery system for adefovir dipivoxil （ADV）. The octadecylamine-fluorescein isothiocynate （ODA-FITC） was synthesized and used as a fluorescence maker to be incorporated into SLN to investigate the time-dependent cellular uptake of SLN by HepG2.2.15. The SLN of monostearin with ODA-FITC or ADV were prepared by solvent diffusion method in an aqueous system. About 15 wt% drug entrapment efficiency （EE） and 3 wt% drug loading （DL） could be reached in SLN loading ADV. Comparing with free ADV, the inhibitory effects of ADV loaded in SLN on hepatitis B surface antigen （HBsAg）, hepatitis B e antigen （HBeAg） and hepatitis B virus （HBV） DNA levels in vitro were significantly enhanced.     

Binding energies and interaction origins between nonclassical single-electron hydrogen,sodium and lithium bonds and neutral boron-containing radicals: a theoretical investigation

Nonclassical single electron hydrogen,sodium and lithium bonds(SEHBs,SENaBs and SELiBs)between single electron acceptors X–A(A=H,Na,Li;X=CN,HCC,HO,NC,CF3)and neutral radicals BY2(Y=H,OH,CH3)and have been systematically investigated by high level theoretical methods,such as second-order Mφller-Plesset perturbation theory(MP2),spin-component-scaled MφllerPlesset theory(SCS-MP2),the coupled cluster method with perturbative triples(CCSD(T)),and the correlation consistent composite approach(ccCA).Binding energies have been corrected for zero-point vibrational effects and(when applicable)basis set superposition error.The quantum theory of atoms in molecules(AIM)and natural bond orbital(NBO)analyses were also employed to qualitatively characterize the single electron bond interactions.The stabilization energy was partitioned via the localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis(LMOEDA)method,and both electrostatic and exchange interactions were seen to be major driving forces for the complex stabilization.Interestingly,the sum of the energy contributors of exchange(EEX),repulsion(EREP),polarization(EPOL),dispersion(EDIS)is close to zero and the changes in the interaction energy follow the trend of the electrostatic energy(EES).We observe several linear relationships among the optimized intermolecular parameters and the interaction energies of the various complexes.     

Detection of single base substitutions in total genomic DNA

Certain single base substitutions causing genetic diseases or resulting in polymorphisms linked to mutant alleles, alter a restriction enzyme cleavage site and can therefore be detected in total genomic DNA using DNA blots. Many base substitutions do not lead to an altered restriction site, but these can be detected using synthetic oligonucleotides as hybridization probes if the DNA sequence surrounding the base substitution is known. In the case of beta-thalassaemia, where 22 different single base mutations have been identified, a large number of probes would be required for diagnosis. An approach which was used to detect mutations in viral DNA involves the S1 nuclease treatment of heteroduplexes formed between wild-type and mutant DNA. Although certain single base mismatches are cleaved by S1 nuclease (ref. 11 and T. Shenk, personal communication), many other mismatches examined by this procedure are not cleaved (B. Seed, personal communication; R.M.M., unpublished data). Heteroduplexes between mutant and wild-type subgenomic fragments of double-stranded reovirus RNA migrate slower than the corresponding homoduplexes in polyacrylamide gels containing 7 M urea, but it is not known whether this method is applicable to DNA heteroduplexes containing single base mismatches. Here we describe a procedure that involves the electrophoretic separation of DNA heteroduplexes in a well-characterized gel system. We show that four different human beta-thalassaemia alleles with known single base mutations can be detected with as little as 5 micrograms of total genomic DNA. The method should be useful in the localization and diagnosis of mutations associated with genetic diseases.     

A-XY~*的Moore-Penrose逆的表示(英文)

设H,K为Hilbert空间,L(H,K)为H到K的有界线性算子全体.设A∈L(H)=dL(H,H)及X,Y∈L(K,H)满足条件:R(A)闭,R(X)■R(A),R(Y)■R(A*).如果(A-XY*)+存在,则可以得到A-XY*的Moore-Pen-rose逆的表示.     

树鼩对人乙型肝炎病毒易感性的验证

为验证树Ｑｕ对人乙型肝炎病毒（ＨＢＶ）的易感性,用含ＨＢＶ的人血清接种给１０只成年树Ｑｕ（雌雄各半）。然后每周抽血１次,每只动物共抽血１１次。用不同公司生产的ＥＬＩＳＡ试剂检测接种后的动物血清感染指标。实验观察至１３周,结果分别有９只和８只动物出现ＨＢｓＡｇ阳性,持续最短１周,最长７周。用ＰＣＲ检测,结果有１只动物连续４周在血清中检测出ＨＢＶ ＤＮＡ。表明树Ｑｕ能感染人ＨＢＶ,但实验有待改进以延长感染持续时间。     

新疆8个地域维吾尔族群线粒体DNA V区9 bp缺失频率与Y染色体DYS287位点多态性研究

 为研究新疆8个地域维吾尔族群体的线粒体DNA 9 bp序列缺失频率与Y染色体DYS287位点多态性,分别采用PCR扩增直接测序法和PCR结合琼脂糖凝胶电泳检测法对群线粒体DNA 9 bp缺失频率与Y 染色体DYS287位点多态性进行分析。结果表明在新疆的喀什、和田、库车、且木、哈密、吐鲁番、伊梨和尉梨县的240个无关现代维吾尔族群体中,线粒体DNA 9 bp缺失频率为3.3%,3.3%,6.6%,3.3%,6.6%,3.3%,3.3%,10%。在180个无关现代维吾尔族群男性个体中Y染色体DYS287位点全部显示为YAP-,没有显示为YAP＋。结果提示新疆不同地域现代维吾尔族群体的线粒体DNA 9 bp缺失频率相当低,9 bp缺失不是现代维吾尔族的母系遗传传结构特征,而且不同地域维吾尔族群体线粒体DNA 9 bp缺失频率没有显著性的差异。父系遗传结构单一, YAP+不是现代维吾尔族群体的父系遗传特征。研究获得了新疆不同地域维吾尔族群体的线粒体DNA 9 bp序列缺失频率与Y染色体DYS287位点多态性数据,为不同地域维吾尔族群体遗传关系的分析,法医鉴定及不同地域维吾尔族群体之间的起源关系差异提供了一定的遗传背景资料。     

Low variability in a Y-linked plant gene and its implications for Y-chromosome evolution

Sex chromosomes have evolved independently in several different groups of organisms, but they share common features, including genetic degeneration of the Y chromosome. Suppression of recombination between ancestral proto-X and proto-Y chromosomes is thought to have led to their gradual divergence, and to degeneration of the Y chromosome, but the evolutionary forces responsible are unknown. In non-recombining Y chromosomes, deleterious mutations may be carried to fixation by linked advantageous mutations ("selective sweeps"). Occurrence of deleterious mutations may drive "Muller's ratchet" (stochastic loss of chromosomes with the fewest mutations). Selective elimination of deleterious mutations, causing "background selection" may accelerate stochastic fixation of mildly detrimental mutations. All these processes lower effective population sizes, and therefore reduce variability of genes in evolving Y chromosomes. We have studied DNA diversity and divergence in a recently described X- and Y-linked gene pair (SLX-1 and SLY-1) of the plant Silene latifolia to obtain evidence about the early stages of Y degeneration. Here we show that DNA polymorphism in SLY-1 is 20-fold lower than in SLX-1, but the pattern of polymorphism does not suggest a selective sweep.     

铁酸钡复合超细微粒的制备和性能研究

以FeCl3·6H2 O、FeSO4·7H2 O和BaCl2 ·2H2 O为原料 ,采用固相反应法和微乳液 -沉淀法制备铁酸钡超细微粒。并进行了XRD、TEM、IR分析和磁化率的测定 ,结果表明 ,微粒的主要成分为α 型BaFe2 O4,平均粒径分别约为 2 38nm和 2 5 5nm ,单个微粒的粒径分别约为 3 1 4nm和2 65nm ,每个复合微粒中分别含有 72和 1 34个铁酸钡粒子 ;磁化率的大小随磁场强度、灼烧温度的增加而增大。     

A primitive Y chromosome in papaya marks incipient sex chromosome evolution

Many diverse systems for sex determination have evolved in plants and animals. One involves physically distinct (heteromorphic) sex chromosomes (X and Y, or Z and W) that are homozygous in one sex (usually female) and heterozygous in the other (usually male). Sex chromosome evolution is thought to involve suppression of recombination around the sex determination genes, rendering permanently heterozygous a chromosomal region that may then accumulate deleterious recessive mutations by Muller's ratchet, and fix deleterious mutations by hitchhiking as nearby favourable mutations are selected on the Y chromosome. Over time, these processes may cause the Y chromosome to degenerate and to diverge from the X chromosome over much of its length; for example, only 5% of the human Y chromosome still shows X-Y recombination. Here we show that papaya contains a primitive Y chromosome, with a male-specific region that accounts for only about 10% of the chromosome but has undergone severe recombination suppression and DNA sequence degeneration. This finding provides direct evidence for the origin of sex chromosomes from autosomes.     

树对人乙型肝炎病毒易感性的验证

为验证树对人乙型肝炎病毒 (HBV)的易感性 ,用含 HBV的人血清接种给 10只成年树 (雌雄各半 )。然后每周抽血 1次 ,每只动物共抽血 11次。用不同公司生产的 EL ISA试剂检测接种后的动物血清感染指标。实验观察至 13周 ,结果分别有 9只和 7只动物出现 HBs Ag阳性 ,持续最短 1周 ,最长 7周。用 PCR检测 ,结果有 1只动物连续 4周在血清中检测出 HBV DNA。表明树能感染人 HBV,但实验有待改进以延长感染持续时间     

Synthesis of [(C5H5Y (η2-PzMe2)(η-PzMe2)]2 and [Y(η2-PzMe2)2(η-PzMe2)(η-THF)]2 and the insertion of Me2SiO into the Y-N bond

3,5-Dimethylpyrazole (HPzMe2) reacted with (C5H5)3Y in THF to yield dinuclear complexes [(C5H5)Y-(η2-PzMe2)(μ-PzMe2)]2 (I) and [Y(η 2-PzMe2)2(μ-PzMe2)-(μ-THF)]2 (II), revealing a new method for synthesizing tris(pyrazolate) complexes of lanthanide metals. The X-ray crystallographic analysis showed that complex II crystallizes in space group P 1 , with unit cell dimensions a = 1.0798(1), b = 1.0818(1), c = 1.1313(1) nm, α= 76.914(2)°, β= 68.940(2)°, (R= 60.510(2)°, V = 1.0715(2) nm3, Z = 1. The final R factor is 0.0445. The investigation results showed that Me2SiO can only be inserted into the Y-N (bridging) bond of complex I to form [(C5H5)Y(η 2-PzMe2)(μ-OSiMe2 PzMe2)]2 (Ⅲ), but cannot be inserted into the Y-N (bridging) bond of complex Ⅱ due to the bulky crowding of the tetraple bridge structure.     

hB1F and HNF1 work syner-gistically in the regulation of the function of HBV ENⅡ

Human B1 binding factor (hB1F) is a novel trans- cription factor cloned in our laboratory, which has the capacity of binding the B1 region of HBV enhancer Ⅱ (ENⅡ) and stimulating its activity. In this report, the functional relationship between hB1F and other liver-enriched activators of ENⅡ was investigated. The results of CAT assay indicated that there was only additive effect between hB1F and HNF4 as well as HNF3?. On the contrary, the presence of both hB1F and HNF1 would result in significant functional synergism. Further GST pull down assay indicated that hB1F could interact with HNF1 directly in vitro. This study provides the evidence that hB1F and HNF1 work synergistically in the regulation of the activity of HBV ENⅡ.     

v-Fos transformation effector binds with CD2 cytoplasmic tail

The CD2 molecule, an adhesive and co-stimulating molecule, expresses virtually on all T lymphocytes, thymocytes, as well as natural killer cells, playing an important role in thymus development, T cell activation and apoptosis[1―3]. CD2 molecule consists of an ex- tracellular region with two Ig-like domains, a single membrane-spanning domain, and a positively charged proline-rich cytoplasmic tail, which is highly conserved between different species[1,4―7]. The functions of CD2 in signal t…     

眼皮肤白化病患者的TYR基因突变类型初步研究

目的:对临床诊断为眼皮肤白化病(OCA)患者的TYR基因进行突变筛查,以了解我国大陆OCA患者TYR基因突变类型。方法:应用PCR技术扩增患者及其父母的TYR基因外显子、外显子-内含子交界区及启动子区,以DNA序列测定技术进行突变筛查与鉴定。结果:在8名患者的16个TYR等位基因内,查明9种突变;其中错义突变4种(R77Q、E294K、R299H和W 400L),无义突变2种(R116X和R278X),插入突变2种(929 insC和232 insGGG),剪切位点突变1种(IVS1-3 C>G)。结论:W 400L、R299H分别占本研究所检出全部OCA1突变等位基因的31.3%(5/16)和18.8%(3/16),可能为中国大陆人群中较常见的TYR基因突变类型。     

Y4Si2O7N2-BN复合材料抗热震性能研究

系统地研究了Y4Si2O7N2_BN复合材料的抗热震性能.计算表明,Y4Si2O7N2_30vol.％BN复合材料具有较高的热应力断裂抵抗因子R1值.进一步的实验证明该复合材料的临界热震温差为850～900K.第二相h-BN在热震条件下的层间劈裂愈合机制对复合材料保持较高的残余强度有利.     

Adaptive protein evolution at the Adh locus in Drosophila

Proteins often differ in amino-acid sequence across species. This difference has evolved by the accumulation of neutral mutations by random drift, the fixation of adaptive mutations by selection, or a mixture of the two. Here we propose a simple statistical test of the neutral protein evolution hypothesis based on a comparison of the number of amino-acid replacement substitutions to synonymous substitutions in the coding region of a locus. If the observed substitutions are neutral, the ratio of replacement to synonymous fixed differences between species should be the same as the ratio of replacement to synonymous polymorphisms within species. DNA sequence data on the Adh locus (encoding alcohol dehydrogenase, EC 1.1.1.1) in three species in the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup do not fit this expectation; instead, there are more fixed replacement differences between species than expected. We suggest that these excess replacement substitutions result from adaptive fixation of selectively advantageous mutations.     

Frequent mtDNA mutations and its role in gastric carcinogenesis

In order to disclose the relationship between mutations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and gastric carcinogenesis, we screened the entire mtDNA sequence in 30 cases of human gastric cancer and matched normal tissues by using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and DNA sequencing. Our data showed that high frequency (66.7%, 20/30) of mitochondrial genome mutation occurred in gastric cancer. Among these variants, 17 cases (56.7%, 17/30) were identified to be somatic mutation. High level mutant frequency was found in ND4, ND5 coding genes and D-loop control region, which was 36.7%, 26.7% and 30% respectively. Comparing with complexes Ⅲ, Ⅳ and Ⅴof the electron transport chain, we found that variants appeared to be more frequent in the subunit genes of complexⅠ. Most of mutations were base substitutions (85.4%, 41/48). Our results suggested that mutations of subunit genes encoding complexⅠ, especially ND3, ND4 and ND5 genes, might contribute to human gastric carcinogenesis.     

Genome-wide distribution of histone H3 acetylation in all- trans retinoic acid induced neuronal differentiation of SH-SY5Y cells

With chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and promoter DNA microarray analyses (ChIP-on-chip), we analyzed the variations of acetylation on histone H3 in all-trans retinoic acid (RA) induced neuronal cell differentiation. Neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells were treated with RA for 24 h and the acetylation on histone H3 in the promoter region of the genes was detected. Results showed that, after treatment, the level of acetylation on histone H3 elevated in 597 genes in the genome, and reduced in the other 647 genes compared with those of the control. In summary, we have successfully adopted a high throughput technique to detect and analyze variations of acetylation of histone H3 in human genome at the early phage of RA induced neuronal differentiation of the SH-SY5Y cells. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 90408007 and 30721063) and National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2004CB518605)     

First-principles exploration of the stabilization mechanism of long-period stacking ordered structures in high performance Al alloys

Long-period stacking ordered(LPSO) structures, like 9 R, 12 R, 15 R and 18 R phases etc., play a key role in improving the mechanical properties of Al alloys. In the present study the Gaussian-Like distribution(GLD)model was utilized to investigate the effects of solute atoms(Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, Li, Mg, Sc, Si, Sn, Sr, Ti, Y, Zn) on these phase stabilizations in Al alloys by first-principles calculations. The interaction energies between solute atoms and these phases were strictly calculated. The results suggested that the solute segregations showed different characteristics in these phase structures, and solute atoms(Ga, Ge, Si, Sn, Sr, Y) tended to segregate to the stacking fault(SF) planes of them, and Sr atom was the easiest to promote the stabilization of 15 R phase compared to other structures. High solute concentrations promoted the stabilizations of these phases, while high temperature inhibited their stabilizations. In the light of the degrees of reducing the intrinsic stacking fault energies(ISFEs), the solute atoms can be ranked by:(a) For 9 R and 12 R phases, Sr Y Sn Sc;(b) For15 R and 18 R phases, Sr Y Sc Sn. Thus, it may be concluded that Sr and Y atoms are hopeful to become the underlying candidates for exploring and exploiting high-performance Al alloys with LPSO structures.