科技发现

科学家首次绘制出树基因图，人类大脑存在“自私开关”，世界顶级仿人机器人亮相北京，美国25%的家庭不能上网，湖南出土金缕玉衣残片。[编者按]     

用叶绿体和核糖体DNA序列探讨中国特有植物斑子麻黄的系统位置

测定了我国特有植物斑子麻黄的叶绿体matK和rbcL基因以及核糖体18S基因和ITS区的序列, 选取麻黄属15个物种的16个类群(含旧大陆8种和新大陆7种)进行分子系统发育分析, 探讨斑子麻黄的系统位置. 基于最大简约法(MP)、邻接法(NJ)、最小进化法(ME)和最大似然法(ML)的独立与联合分析均表明斑子麻黄与木贼麻黄关系最近. 根据相对速率检验结果, 结合前人所建立的麻黄属rbcL基因进化速率估计斑子麻黄与木贼麻黄的分歧时间约为10.85±2.44 Ma.     

贾第虫4种新的box H/ACA snoRNA的鉴定及其进化意义

通过构建特异性的cDNA文库, 发现并鉴定了4种新的贾第虫box H/ACA snoRNA, 分别命名为GLsR22, GLsR23, GLsR24和GLsR25. 生物信息学分析表明, 这些snoRNA均可形成典型的box H/ACA snoRNA“双茎环”二级结构; GLsR24和GLsR25可能分别指导贾第虫23S rRNA上U1753和U2396的假尿嘧啶化修饰, 而GLsR22和GLsR23属于功能未知的“orphan” snoRNA. 新鉴定的box H/ACA snoRNA均位于蛋白质基因间隔区中, 并且都是由单拷贝基因编码的. 与古细菌及其他原生生物中已发现的同类分子相比, 贾第虫box H/ACA snoRNA具有很多独特特征, 提示snoRNA在从原核生物向真核生物进化的过程中可能有不同的进化路线.     

A perspective on fish gonad manipulation for biotechnical applications

Fish make attractive candidates for conducting stud- ies in gene expression, regulation, function, and genetic modification, since they reach sexual maturity rela- tively quickly, are highly fecund, utilize an external fertilization strategy, develop exte…     

Investigation of hrDNA targeting vector-mediated tumor-specific suicide gene therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma

Vectors pose most pivotal problem of gene therapy[1]. Because of the high transfection efficiency both in vitro and in vivo, the viral vector has been employed in 70% clinical trials of gene therapy (http://www.wiley.co.uk/ genmed/clinical). However, thei…     

Construction and anti-tumor effects of recombinant fowlpox virus expressing Newcastle disease virus hemagglutinin-neuramidinase gene

Hemagglutinin-neuramidinase (HN), a Newcastle disease virus-derived protein, not only mediates receptor recognition but also possesses neuraminidase (NA) activity, the ability to cleave a component of those receptors, N-acetylneuraminic acid (NAcneu, sialic acid). It is known that this protein in mammalian species, including human beings, has interesting anti-neoplastic as well as immune stimulating properties. To explore the use of the HN gene in cancer gene therapy, we constructed a recombi-nant fowlpox virus expressing the HN protein (vFV-HN) and compared the anti-tumor activity of the recombinant virus with that of wild-type fowlpox virus (FPV) in vivo and in vitro. Here we found that although B16 cells were somewhat resistant to the basal cytotoxic effect of wild-type fowlpox virus, infection with vFV-HN caused a pronounced cytotoxic effect and, the survival of tumor-bearing mice immunized with vFV-HN was significantly increased compared with the survival of mice immunized with the FPV alone. Furthermore, the immunization of mice with vFV-HN elicited a B16 tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response and clonal expansion of both CD4 and CD8 T cell populations in vivo. In addition, T cells from lymph nodes of mice vaccinated with vFV-HN secreted high levels of the Th1 cytokine IL-2 and IFN-γ, indicating that the regression of tumor cells is related to a Th1-type dominant immune response. These results demonstrate that vaccination with vFV-HN may be a potential strategy for cancer gene therapy.     

Rational design of glycerol dehydratase： Swapping the genes encoding the subunits of glycerol dehydratase to improve enzymatic properties

1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) is an important material for chemical industry,and there has been always much interest in the production of 1,3-PD using all possible routes. The genes encoding glyc-erol dehydratase (GDHt) from Citrobacter freundii,Klebsiella pneumoniae and metagenome were cloned and expressed in E. coli. All glycerol dehy-dratases but the one from metagenome could be detected to show enzyme activities. In order to im-prove the enzymatic properties of GDHts,the genes encoding α and β-γ subunits were cloned,and the enzyme characteristics were evolved by rational de-sign based on their 3D structures which were con-structed by homology modeling. Six heteroenzymes were obtained by swapping the α subunit genes of these three different-source-derived GDHts. The pH,thermal stability and Vmax of some heteroenzymes were dramatically improved by 2―5 times compared with the wild one (GDHtKP). The GDHt cloned from metagenome,originally proved to be with no enzyme activity,was converted into active enzyme by swap-ping its subunits with other different GDHts. In addi-tion,the effect of subtle 3D structural changes on the properties of the enzyme was also observed.     

水稻基因表达谱分析寡核苷酸芯片制备的研究

 首先有目的地搜集了50个水稻花序相关基因,进行了探针的设计、筛选及合成纯化,用点样仪以微阵列的形式将其点于醛基化的玻璃片上;将3个不同生长阶段的水稻花序材料的总RNA经荧光标记反转录后与寡核苷酸芯片进行杂交.用ScanArray3000对获得的表达谱进行扫描分析显示,芯片图像背景均匀,信号清晰.用ImaGene4.0软件对表达谱分析表明,候选基因在水稻花序3个不同发育阶段的材料中,表达水平有显著差异.为进一步进行水稻寡核苷酸芯片的制备及应用奠定了基础.     

基因科技面临的人权困境及出路

基因科技是人权课题的新领域。基因科技的发展面临难以抉择的人权困境。该文从平等权、生命健康权、隐私权、性权利和生育权、人权的类本质等方面分析基因科技涉及的人权问题,从科技人员自律、加强社会基因科技认知和风险防范意识、强化政府的责任意识、坚持用马克思主义人权观指导基因科技研究等方面探索了摆脱此种人权困境的出路。     

人过氧化氢酶基因在大肠杆菌中的克隆与表达

目的利用基因重组技术在大肠杆菌中获得高效表达人过氧化氢酶(catalase,CAT)。方法从人cDNA文库中获得CAT编码基因,并利用pMAL-c2x构建了融合表达载体并进行了表达。结果融合表达可获得可溶性蛋白,此项研究为后续重组酶性质的研究和开发利用奠定了基础。