Cleavage of pyrimidine dimers in specific DNA sequences by a pyrimidine dimer DNA-glycosylase of M. luteus

Pyrimidine dimer formation in response to UV radiation is governed by the thymine content of the potential dimer and the two flanking nucleotides. An enzymatic activity can be purified from Micrococcus luteus that cleaves the N-glycosyl bond between the 5' pyrimidine of a dimer and the corresponding sugar without rupture of a phosphodiester bond. We propose that strand scission at a dimer site by the M. luteus enzyme requires two activities, a pyrimidine dimer DNA-glycosylase and an apyrimidinic/apurinic endonuclease.     

DNA bending induced by cruciform formation

Cruciform structures in DNA are of considerable interest, both as extreme examples of sequence-dependent structural heterogeneity and as models for four-way junctions such as the Holliday junction of homologous genetic recombination. Cruciforms are of lower thermodynamic stability than regular duplex DNA, and have been observed only in negatively supercoiled molecules, where the unfavourable free energy of formation is offset by the topological relaxation of the torsionally stressed molecule. From an experimental viewpoint this can be a disadvantage, as cruciform structures can be studied only in relatively large supercoiled DNA circles, and are destabilized when a break is introduced at any point. We therefore set out to construct a pseudo-cruciform junction--by generating hereroduplex formation between two inverted repeat sequences. Stereochemically, this should closely resemble a true cruciform but remain stable in a linear DNA fragment. We have now created such a junction and find that it has the expected sensitivities to endonucleases. These DNA fragments exhibit extremely anomalous gel electrophoretic mobility, the extent of which depends on the relative position of the pseudo-cruciform along the length of the molecule. Our results are very similar to those obtained by Wu and Crothers using kinetoplast DNA, and we conclude that the pseudo-cruciform junction introduces a bend in the linear DNA molecule.     

微量Se保护细胞膜和细胞内DNA免受~1O_2损伤的研究

本文利用亚甲蓝光敏化产生~1O_2,对~1O_2的荧光检测法做了研究;利用滤膜过滤法研究了硒化合物保护NIH小鼠肾细胞DNA免受~1O_2损伤的作用;利用~3H-TdR掺入法研究了Na_2SeO_3对~1O_2抑制Wistar大鼠骨髓细胞DNA合成的作用;利用TBA法检测细胞脂质过氧化作用,观察到Na_2SeO_3抑制~1O_2诱导的细胞脂质过氧化的作用.Na_2SeO_3起保护作用的最适宜浓度范围为0.01～1.00μmol/L,高浓度的Na_2SeO_3表现出毒性作用.     

求解接点网络问题的DNA算法

利用DNA的二级结构——发卡构形,给出了求解接点网络问题的DNA算法．首先用DNA分子编码接点网络问题,然后利用DNA分子的自组装和形成二级结构的能力来求解问题．算法具有自动化实现计算的特点,计算所需的实验操作比Lipton提出的算法少,同时计算所需的DNA量也比Lipton提出的算法少．     

Telomeric DNA dimerizes by formation of guanine tetrads between hairpin loops

The telomeric ends of eukaryotic chromosomes are composed of simple repeating sequences in which one DNA strand contains short tracts of guanine residues alternating with short tracts of A/T-rich sequences. The guanine-rich strand is always oriented in a 5'-3' direction towards the end of the chromosome and is extended to produce a 3' overhang of about two repeating units in species where the telomeric terminus is known. This overhang has been implicated in the formation of several unusual intra-and intermolecular DNA structures, although none of these structures has been characterized fully. We now report that oligonucleotides encoding Tetrahymena telomeres dimerize to form stable complexes in solution. This salt-dependent dimerization is mediated entirely by the 3'-terminal telomeric overhang (TT-GGGGTTGGGG) and produces complexes in which the N7 position of every guanine in the overhangs is chemically inaccessible. We therefore propose that telomeric DNA dimerizes by hydrogen bonding between two intramolecular hairpin loops, to form antiparallel quadruplexes containing cyclic guanine base tetrads. These novel hairpin dimers may be important in telomere association and recombination and could also provide a general mechanism for pairing two double helices in other recombinational processes.     

Protection of cottontop tamarins against Epstein-Barr virus-induced malignant lymphoma by a prototype subunit vaccine

Epstein-Barr (EB) virus is one of the five herpesviruses of man. Strong links between this agent and the chain of events causing two human cancers, endemic Burkitt's lymphoma and undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma, have long been evident (reviewed in ref. 1). Because of this, and because of the very high incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in certain large populations, it was suggested in 1976 that a vaccine should be developed against EB virus to prevent infection and thereby reduce tumour incidence amongst those at risk. The virus-determined membrane antigen (MA) was proposed as immunogen because it was known to elicit naturally occurring virus-neutralizing antibodies in man and because analogous antigens had been shown to act as effective experimental vaccines for preventing the herpesvirus-induced lymphomas of Marek's disease in chickens. Progress has been achieved in defining, quantifying and preparing MA molecules, and in enhancing their immunogenicity; a sensitive assay for antibodies to MA has been elaborated. Here we report that isolated cell membranes expressing MA, or purified MA glycoprotein of relative molecular mass (Mr) 340,000 (gp340), have been used to vaccinate cottontop tamarins (Saguinus oedipus oedipus), and that animals receiving either preparation were protected against the effects of a 100% tumour-inducing challenge dose of EB virus.     

Chiral recognition in dimerization of adsorbed cysteine observed by scanning tunnelling microscopy

Stereochemistry plays a central role in controlling molecular recognition and interaction: the chemical and biological properties of molecules depend not only on the nature of their constituent atoms but also on how these atoms are positioned in space. Chiral specificity is consequently fundamental in chemical biology and pharmacology and has accordingly been widely studied. Advances in scanning probe microscopies now make it possible to probe chiral phenomena at surfaces at the molecular level. These methods have been used to determine the chirality of adsorbed molecules, and to provide direct evidence for chiral discrimination in molecular interactions and the spontaneous resolution of adsorbates into extended enantiomerically pure overlayers. Here we report scanning tunnelling microscopy studies of cysteine adsorbed to a (110) gold surface, which show that molecular pairs formed from a racemic mixture of this naturally occurring amino acid are exclusively homochiral, and that their binding to the gold surface is associated with local surface restructuring. Density-functional theory calculations indicate that the chiral specificity of the dimer formation process is driven by the optimization of three bonds on each cysteine molecule. These findings thus provide a clear molecular-level illustration of the well known three-point contact model for chiral recognition in a simple bimolecular system.     

Single-site enzymatic cleavage of yeast genomic DNA mediated by triple helix formation.

Physical mapping of chromosomes would be facilitated by methods of breaking large DNA into manageable fragments, or cutting uniquely at genetic markers of interest. Key issues in the design of sequence-specific DNA cleaving reagents are the specificity of binding, the generalizability of the recognition motif, and the cleavage yield. Oligonucleotide-directed triple helix formation is a generalizable motif for specific binding to sequences longer than 12 base pairs within DNA of high complexity. Studies with plasmid DNA show that triple helix formation can limit the operational specificity of restriction enzymes to endonuclease recognition sequences that overlap oligonucleotide-binding sites. Triple helix formation, followed by methylase protection, triple helix-disruption, and restriction endonuclease digestion produces near quantitative cleavage at the single overlapping triple helix-endonuclease site. As a demonstration that this technique may be applicable to the orchestrated cleavage of large genomic DNA, we report the near quantitative single-site enzymatic cleavage of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome mediated by triple helix formation. The 340-kilobase yeast chromosome III was cut uniquely at an overlapping homopurine-EcoRI target site 27 base pairs long to produce two expected cleavage products of 110 and 230 kilobases. No cleavage of any other chromosome was detected. The potential generalizability of this technique, which is capable of near quantitative cleavage at a single site in at least 14 megabase pairs of DNA, could enable selected regions of chromosomal DNA to be isolated without extensive screening of genomic libraries.     

论欧盟现代消费者保护法的形成与确立

欧盟现代意义上的消费者保护法与中国传统意义上的消费者权益保护法有着截然不同的区别。随着全球消费者保护意识的加强,各国越来越重视对消费者的保护。本文通过分析欧盟现代意义上消费者保护法的形成、发展、概念与体系,评析其与民法、消费者权益保护法的辩证关系,揭示其对我国消费者保护法的借鉴作用。     

H5亚型禽流感病毒HA基因昆虫/杆状病毒系统的表达及对BALB/c小鼠的免疫保护

经RT-PCR扩增了禽流感病毒A/Goose/Guangdong/1／96 H5N1亚型1．7kb HA基因的cDNA,将其克隆到pMD18-T中并测序。亚克隆到杆状病毒转移载体pMelBacA的蜜蜂蜂毒素分泌信号下游中,测序正确后与线性化的杆状病毒DNA(Bac-N-BlueTM DNA)共转染Sf9昆虫细胞。将重组杆状病毒感染HFive细胞,72h左右收获细胞,超声波裂解,SDS—PAGE结果表明HA基因在重组杆状病毒感染的HFive细胞中获得表达。蛋白胶薄层扫描分析显示:表达的HA蛋白占重组杆状病毒感染细胞总蛋白含量的17．1％。Western-blot 及血凝实验结果显示,表达的禽流感H5N1亚型病毒HA蛋白具有生物学活性。表达的H5 HA蛋白定量乳化后,皮下多点注射免疫SPF 级BALB/c雌性小鼠,免疫后产生了H5 HA特异抗体,并在三免前后达到并保持较高水平。用致死剂量的HPAIV H5N1攻击小鼠,免疫组小鼠提供了100％的保护力,而对照组小鼠先后发病且死亡:为研制禽流感H5N1亚型病毒亚单位疫苗,防制禽流感奠定了基础。     

Protection against enteric salmonellosis in transgenic mice expressing a human intestinal defensin

Genetically encoded antibiotic peptides are evolutionarily ancient and widespread effector molecules of immune defence. Mammalian defensins, one subset of such peptides, have been implicated in the antimicrobial defence capacity of phagocytic leukocytes and various epithelial cells, but direct evidence of the magnitude of their in vivo effects have not been clearly demonstrated. Paneth cells, specialized epithelia of the small intestinal crypt, secrete abundant alpha-defensins and other antimicrobial polypeptides including human defensin 5 (HD-5; also known as DEFA5). Although antibiotic activity of HD-5 has been demonstrated in vitro, functional studies of HD-5 biology have been limited by the lack of in vivo models. To study the in vivo role of HD-5, we developed a transgenic mouse model using a 2.9-kilobase HD-5 minigene containing two HD-5 exons and 1.4 kilobases of 5'-flanking sequence. Here we show that HD-5 expression in these mice is specific to Paneth cells and reflects endogenous enteric defensin gene expression. The storage and processing of transgenic HD-5 also matches that observed in humans. HD-5 transgenic mice were markedly resistant to oral challenge with virulent Salmonella typhimurium. These findings provide support for a critical in vivo role of epithelial-derived defensins in mammalian host defence.     

Protection against the dopaminergic neurotoxicity of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine by monoamine oxidase inhibitors

1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) causes degeneration of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway in several animal species, including humans, monkeys and mice. Changes observed after MPTP administration include marked decrements in the neostriatal content of dopamine and its major metabolites, dihydroxyphenylacetic acid and homovanillic acid, and a greatly diminished capacity of neostriatal synaptosomes to take up 3H-dopamine. In contrast, there is no pronounced loss of serotonin in the neostriatum or of dopamine and its metabolites in other brain areas in MPTP-treated animals. The oxidative metabolism of MPTP to 1-methyl-4-phenyl pyridine, a positively charged species, has been suggested as a critical feature in the neurotoxic process. Moreover, in rat brain preparations, the monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor pargyline and the specific MAO-B inhibitor deprenil can prevent the formation of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-pyridine from MPTP, while the specific MAO-A inhibitor clorgyline has no such effect, suggesting that MAO, and specifically MAO-B, is responsible for the oxidative metabolism of MPTP. We now report that pargyline, nialamide and tranylcypromine, which inhibit both MAO-A and MAO-B, when administered to mice before MPTP, protect against MPTP-induced dopaminergic neurotoxicity. Deprenil is also protective, but clorgyline is not. Our data are consistent with the premise that MAO-B has a crucial role in MPTP-induced degeneration of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neuronal pathway.