MicroRNA control of Nodal signalling

MicroRNAs are crucial modulators of gene expression, yet their involvement as effectors of growth factor signalling is largely unknown. Ligands of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily are essential for development and adult tissue homeostasis. In early Xenopus embryos, signalling by the transforming growth factor-beta ligand Nodal is crucial for the dorsal induction of the Spemann's organizer. Here we report that Xenopus laevis microRNAs miR-15 and miR-16 restrict the size of the organizer by targeting the Nodal type II receptor Acvr2a. Endogenous miR-15 and miR-16 are ventrally enriched as they are negatively regulated by the dorsal Wnt/beta-catenin pathway. These findings exemplify the relevance of microRNAs as regulators of early embryonic patterning acting at the crossroads of fundamental signalling cascades.     

Transcriptome profiling of lung schistosomula,in vitro cultured schistosomula and adult Schistosoma japonicum

The schistosomulum is the main target of vaccine-induced protective immunity; however, most studies have utilized schistosomula produced by mechanical transformation of infective larvae followed by in vitro culture rather than larvae isolated directly from the lungs of infected mammals. Using transmission electron microscopy, we demonstrated that there was little difference in the ultrastructure of Schistosoma japonicum schistosomula obtained by the two methods. However, significant differences in gene expression profiles were apparent when we used an oligonucleotide microarray to compare the gene expression profiles of schistosomula obtained in vivo from lung tissue with those maintained in vitro, and with adult worms of S. japonicum. It is likely that host environmental factors, which cannot be reliably reproduced in vitro, do influence the growth, development and overall biology of schistosomes. Thus caution is urged when using in vitro-cultured schistosomes and mechanically transformed/cultured schistosomula in molecular, biochemical and immunological studies.     

Complex Network Analysis of the Robustness of the Hanoi,Vietnam Bus Network

Many complex networks exist to facilitate the transport of material or information. In this capacity, the authors are often concerned with the continued flow of material or information when a fraction of the links in the complex network is disrupted. In other words, the authors are interested in the robustness of the complex network. In this paper, the authors survey measures of robustness like the average path length, the average clustering coefficient, the global efficiency, the size of largest cluster and use these to analyze the robustness of the bus network in Hanoi, Vietnam. The authors find that the bus network is robust against random failure but sensitive to targeted attack, in agreement with its scale-free character. By examining sharp drops in the average path length within the largest cluster of the Hanoi bus network under successive targeted attack, the authors identify five nodes whose loss lead to the fragmentation of the network into five or six disconnected clusters. These isolated clusters represent geographically the Central, Western, Southern, and Northwestern districts of Hanoi. Special considerations must therefore be given to these five nodes when planners wish to expand the bus network, or make it more robust.     

Modelling schizophrenia using human induced pluripotent stem cells

Schizophrenia (SCZD) is a debilitating neurological disorder with a world-wide prevalence of 1%; there is a strong genetic component, with an estimated heritability of 80-85%. Although post-mortem studies have revealed reduced brain volume, cell size, spine density and abnormal neural distribution in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of SCZD brain tissue and neuropharmacological studies have implicated dopaminergic, glutamatergic and GABAergic activity in SCZD, the cell types affected in SCZD and the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease state remain unclear. To elucidate the cellular and molecular defects of SCZD, we directly reprogrammed fibroblasts from SCZD patients into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and subsequently differentiated these disorder-specific hiPSCs into neurons (Supplementary Fig. 1). SCZD hiPSC neurons showed diminished neuronal connectivity in conjunction with decreased neurite number, PSD95-protein levels and glutamate receptor expression. Gene expression profiles of SCZD hiPSC neurons identified altered expression of many components of the cyclic AMP and WNT signalling pathways. Key cellular and molecular elements of the SCZD phenotype were ameliorated following treatment of SCZD hiPSC neurons with the antipsychotic loxapine. To date, hiPSC neuronal pathology has only been demonstrated in diseases characterized by both the loss of function of a single gene product and rapid disease progression in early childhood. We now report hiPSC neuronal phenotypes and gene expression changes associated with SCZD, a complex genetic psychiatric disorder.     

有机-无机纳米杂化材料在荧光、光声和拉曼生物成像领域的最新研究进展(英文)

有机-无机纳米杂化材料是一类重要的功能材料,能够在纳米尺度范围内实现有机材料和无机材料本质的复合,可以获得传统材料所不具有的结构、相态、性能和功能,广泛应用于光电、催化、生物医学等领域.本文着重总结了几类有机-无机纳米杂化材料的制备以及它们在荧光、光声和拉曼生物成像领域的最新研究进展,并对该领域将来的发展方向进行了讨论.     

Stratigraphy and paleontology of the marine Jurrassic strata in Vietnam

Marine Jurassic strata in Vietnam have yielded characteristic ammonites and occur in: (1) west Quang Binh Province located in the eastern margin of the Nam Theun Basin (the main part of which is located in Middle Laos); (2) the Nong Son Basin situated in the north of the Kon Tum Geoblock; (3) the Da Lat Basin, the largest Jurassic basin in Vietnam, extending from the southern margin of the Kon Tum Geoblock to southeast of Ho Chi Minh City. In the first two, Lower Jurassic marine beds occupy the lower part of the section and grade up into Middle Jurassic red beds. In central Da Lat Basin the section consists completely of marine strata containing many ammonite levels dated from Early Sinemurian to Bajocian, whereas the marginal basin section is like the first two areas. Based particularly on biostratigraphical evidence, a marine transgression is considered to have entered the Indochina Block as early as the Late Hettangian. During the early transgression the fauna was distinctly endemic, showing the separate character of the basins, but since the Late Sinemurian, communication between the Da Lat and other basins was established; the marine regime in Da Lat Basin ended around the Late Bathonian.     

THM1 negatively modulates mouse sonic hedgehog signal transduction and affects retrograde intraflagellar transport in cilia

Characterization of previously described intraflagellar transport (IFT) mouse mutants has led to the proposition that normal primary cilia are required for mammalian cells to respond to the sonic hedgehog (SHH) signal. Here we describe an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea-induced mutant mouse, alien (aln), which has abnormal primary cilia and shows overactivation of the SHH pathway. The aln locus encodes a novel protein, THM1 (tetratricopeptide repeat-containing hedgehog modulator-1), which localizes to cilia. aln-mutant cilia have bulb-like structures at their tips in which IFT proteins (such as IFT88) are sequestered, characteristic of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Caenorhabditis elegans retrograde IFT mutants. RNA-interference knockdown of Ttc21b (which we call Thm1 and which encodes THM1) in mouse inner medullary collecting duct cells expressing an IFT88-enhanced yellow fluorescent protein fusion recapitulated the aln-mutant cilial phenotype, and live imaging of these cells revealed impaired retrograde IFT. In contrast to previously described IFT mutants, Smoothened and full-length glioblastoma (GLI) proteins localize to aln-mutant cilia. We hypothesize that the aln retrograde IFT defect causes sequestration of IFT proteins in aln-mutant cilia and leads to the overactivated SHH signaling phenotype. Specifically, the aln mutation uncouples the roles of anterograde and retrograde transport in SHH signaling, suggesting that anterograde IFT is required for GLI activation and that retrograde IFT modulates this event.