The Medicago genome provides insight into the evolution of rhizobial symbioses

Legumes (Fabaceae or Leguminosae) are unique among cultivated plants for their ability to carry out endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation with rhizobial bacteria, a process that takes place in a specialized structure known as the nodule. Legumes belong to one of the two main groups of eurosids, the Fabidae, which includes most species capable of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation. Legumes comprise several evolutionary lineages derived from a common ancestor 60 million years ago (Myr ago). Papilionoids are the largest clade, dating nearly to the origin of legumes and containing most cultivated species. Medicago truncatula is a long-established model for the study of legume biology. Here we describe the draft sequence of the M. truncatula euchromatin based on a recently completed BAC assembly supplemented with Illumina shotgun sequence, together capturing ～94% of all M. truncatula genes. A whole-genome duplication (WGD) approximately 58 Myr ago had a major role in shaping the M. truncatula genome and thereby contributed to the evolution of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation. Subsequent to the WGD, the M. truncatula genome experienced higher levels of rearrangement than two other sequenced legumes, Glycine max and Lotus japonicus. M. truncatula is a close relative of alfalfa (Medicago sativa), a widely cultivated crop with limited genomics tools and complex autotetraploid genetics. As such, the M. truncatula genome sequence provides significant opportunities to expand alfalfa's genomic toolbox.     

Neuropsin cleaves EphB2 in the amygdala to control anxiety

A minority of individuals experiencing traumatic events develop anxiety disorders. The reason for the lack of correspondence between the prevalence of exposure to psychological trauma and the development of anxiety is unknown. Extracellular proteolysis contributes to fear-associated responses by facilitating neuronal plasticity at the neuron-matrix interface. Here we show in mice that the serine protease neuropsin is critical for stress-related plasticity in the amygdala by regulating the dynamics of the EphB2-NMDA-receptor interaction, the expression of Fkbp5 and anxiety-like behaviour. Stress results in neuropsin-dependent cleavage of EphB2 in the amygdala causing dissociation of EphB2 from the NR1 subunit of the NMDA receptor and promoting membrane turnover of EphB2 receptors. Dynamic EphB2-NR1 interaction enhances NMDA receptor current, induces Fkbp5 gene expression and enhances behavioural signatures of anxiety. On stress, neuropsin-deficient mice do not show EphB2 cleavage and its dissociation from NR1 resulting in a static EphB2-NR1 interaction, attenuated induction of the Fkbp5 gene and low anxiety. The behavioural response to stress can be restored by intra-amygdala injection of neuropsin into neuropsin-deficient mice and disrupted by the injection of either anti-EphB2 antibodies or silencing the Fkbp5 gene in the amygdala of wild-type mice. Our findings establish a novel neuronal pathway linking stress-induced proteolysis of EphB2 in the amygdala to anxiety.     

Conformational changes in the G protein Gs induced by the β2 adrenergic receptor

G protein-coupled receptors represent the largest family of membrane receptors that instigate signalling through nucleotide exchange on heterotrimeric G proteins. Nucleotide exchange, or more precisely, GDP dissociation from the G protein α-subunit, is the key step towards G protein activation and initiation of downstream signalling cascades. Despite a wealth of biochemical and biophysical studies on inactive and active conformations of several heterotrimeric G proteins, the molecular underpinnings of G protein activation remain elusive. To characterize this mechanism, we applied peptide amide hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry to probe changes in the structure of the heterotrimeric bovine G protein, Gs (the stimulatory G protein for adenylyl cyclase) on formation of a complex with agonist-bound human β(2) adrenergic receptor (β(2)AR). Here we report structural links between the receptor-binding surface and the nucleotide-binding pocket of Gs that undergo higher levels of hydrogen-deuterium exchange than would be predicted from the crystal structure of the β(2)AR-Gs complex. Together with X-ray crystallographic and electron microscopic data of the β(2)AR-Gs complex (from refs 2, 3), we provide a rationale for a mechanism of nucleotide exchange, whereby the receptor perturbs the structure of the amino-terminal region of the α-subunit of Gs and consequently alters the 'P-loop' that binds the β-phosphate in GDP. As with the Ras family of small-molecular-weight G proteins, P-loop stabilization and β-phosphate coordination are key determinants of GDP (and GTP) binding affinity.     

韩国伞滑刃属线虫的形态和分子特征

以锥尾伞滑刃线虫（Bursaphelenchus conicaudatus）作为对照,在韩国不同地域和寄主中采集了15个松材线虫分离物、3 个拟松材线虫的分离物及5个未鉴定的该属的分离物,并对其进行了ITS 和 D2D3 rDNA序列分析。以单条雌线虫的DNA为模板,ITS 和 D2D3 区由PCR仪扩增并克隆其序列。结果表明,所有松材线虫的ITS 和 D2D3 区序列相同,没有种内变异。然而2个采自黑松和红松的拟松材线虫分离物的基因型分别是亚洲型和欧洲型。5个未鉴定线虫的数据表明,它们分别接近B. tusciae、B. lini、B. thailandae、B. doui和 B. hylobianum,该结果同时被形态学结果所支持。利用5种酶（Hinf I、Alu I、Msp I、Hae III、Rsa）,PCR产物克隆并测序的数据也可以区分不同种和基因型。     

加快上饶现代服务业发展的调查与思考

现代服务业的发展水平是一个区域综合实力的重要体现,加快发展现代服务业对于转变经济增长方式、优化产业结构、缓解就业压力,具有重要的现实意义.上饶市服务业发展已实现了从小到大、由传统向现代的历史转变,构建了优势较明显、特色较鲜明、功能较完善的服务业发展格局.但与发达地区和发展要求相比,仍然存在发展规划相对滞后、辐射带动力不强、产业层次不高、管理体制不顺等许多亟待解决的问题和不足.上饶市必须加快提升现代服务业发展的层次和水平,要坚持立足当前与谋划长远相结合,重点发展与全面提升相结合,构建现代服务业体系,拓展商务区空间,加强保障机制建设.     

Live birth in the Devonian period

The extinct placoderm fishes were the dominant group of vertebrates throughout the Middle Palaeozoic era, yet controversy about their relationships within the gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates) is partly due to different interpretations of their reproductive biology. Here we document the oldest record of a live-bearing vertebrate in a new ptyctodontid placoderm, Materpiscis attenboroughi gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation of Australia (approximately 380 million years ago). The new specimen, remarkably preserved in three dimensions, contains a single, intra-uterine embryo connected by a permineralized umbilical cord. An amorphous crystalline mass near the umbilical cord possibly represents the recrystallized yolk sac. Another ptyctodont from the Gogo Formation, Austroptyctodus gardineri, also shows three small embryos inside it in the same position. Ptyctodontids have already provided the oldest definite evidence for vertebrate copulation, and the new specimens confirm that some placoderms had a remarkably advanced reproductive biology, comparable to that of some modern sharks and rays. The new discovery points to internal fertilization and viviparity in vertebrates as originating earliest within placoderms.