Some Molecular and Cellular Stress Mechanisms Associated with Neurodegenerative Diseases and Atherosclerosis

Chronic stress is a combination of nonspecific adaptive reactions of the body to the influence of various adverse stress factors which disrupt its homeostasis, and it is also a corresponding state of the organism’s nervous system (or the body in general). We hypothesized that chronic stress may be one of the causes occurence of several molecular and cellular types of stress. We analyzed literary sources and considered most of these types of stress in our review article. We examined genes and mutations of nuclear and mitochondrial genomes and also molecular variants which lead to various types of stress. The end result of chronic stress can be metabolic disturbance in humans and animals, leading to accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxidative stress, energy deficiency in cells (due to a decrease in ATP synthesis) and mitochondrial dysfunction. These changes can last for the lifetime and lead to severe pathologies, including neurodegenerative diseases and atherosclerosis. The analysis of literature allowed us to conclude that under the influence of chronic stress, metabolism in the human body can be disrupted, mutations of the mitochondrial and nuclear genome and dysfunction of cells and their compartments can occur. As a result of these processes, oxidative, genotoxic, and cellular stress can occur. Therefore, chronic stress can be one of the causes forthe occurrence and development of neurodegenerative diseases and atherosclerosis. In particular, chronic stress can play a large role in the occurrence and development of oxidative, genotoxic, and cellular types of stress.     

CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Generation of Pathogen-Resistant Tomato against Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus and Powdery Mildew

Tomato is one of the major vegetable crops consumed worldwide. Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) and fungal Oidium sp. are devastating pathogens causing yellow leaf curl disease and powdery mildew. Such viral and fungal pathogens reduce tomato crop yields and cause substantial economic losses every year. Several commercial tomato varieties include Ty-5 (SlPelo) and Mildew resistance locus o 1 (SlMlo1) locus that carries the susceptibility (S-gene) factors for TYLCV and powdery mildew, respectively. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) is a valuable genome editing tool to develop disease-resistant crop varieties. In this regard, targeting susceptibility factors encoded by the host plant genome instead of the viral genome is a promising approach to achieve pathogen resistance without the need for stable inheritance of CRISPR components. In this study, the CRISPR/Cas9 system was employed to target the SlPelo and SlMlo1 for trait introgression in elite tomato cultivar BN-86 to confer host-mediated immunity against pathogens. SlPelo-knockout lines were successfully generated, carrying the biallelic indel mutations. The pathogen resistance assays in SlPelo mutant lines confirmed the suppressed accumulation of TYLCV and restricted the spread to non-inoculated plant parts. Generated knockout lines for the SlMlo1 showed complete resistance to powdery mildew fungus. Overall, our results demonstrate the efficiency of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to introduce targeted mutagenesis for the rapid development of pathogen-resistant varieties in tomato.     

巨魾(Bagarius yarrelli)全基因组微卫星分布特征分析

对已公布在NCBI数据库中的巨魾(Bagarius yarrelli)全基因组测序结果,使用MISA软件对巨魾全基因组中的微卫星进行筛选并分析其数量与分布特征. 在巨魾基因组570 806 968 bp序列中,共筛选出360 235个完整型微卫星,其长度为6 998 449 bp,占基因序列总长度的1.23%. 在6种完整型微卫星中,微卫星数量最多的是单碱基类型,约占总数的44.65%,其余碱基类型数量排序为二碱基(43.29%)、三碱基(6.12%)、四碱基(4.80%)、五碱基(1.02%)和六碱基(0.11%). 基因组中数量最多的前10种微卫星类别分别为:A、AC、AG、AT、AAT、C、ATAG、AAAT、ACT和ATC.     

花斑无须鲶(Ageneiosus marmoratus)全基因组微卫星分布特征研究

根据NCBI已公布的花斑无须鲶全基因组序列,利用MISA软件对花斑无须鲶全基因组的6种完整型微卫星进行筛选并分析其分布特征. 结果如下:在花斑无须鲶全基因组(约1.03Gb)中符合条件的微卫星序列共336 037个,丰度为326个/Mb. 微卫星总长度为7 720 686 bp,占花斑无须鲶全基因组的0.75%. 其中二碱基类型的微卫星数目最多,为145 318个,占微卫星总数的43.24%,其次分别为单碱基(37.12%)、三碱基(11.00%)、四碱基(7.39%)、五碱基(1.04%)和六碱基(0.21%). 花斑无须鲶全基因组微卫星中的优势碱基类别按照数量从高到低排列依次为A、AC、AG、AT、AAT、AAAT、TATC、AAG、AAC和TGA,共有305 243个,占微卫星总数的 90.84%,A、T碱基在微卫星中占绝对优势.     

A Degeneration Gradient of Poplar Trees Contributes to the Taxonomic,Functional, and Resistome Diversity of Bacterial Communities in Rhizosphere Soils

Bacterial communities associated with roots influence the health and nutrition of the host plant. However, the microbiome discrepancy are not well understood under different healthy conditions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that rhizosphere soil microbial diversity and function varies along a degeneration gradient of poplar, with a focus on plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) and antibiotic resistance genes. Comprehensive metagenomic analysis including taxonomic investigation, functional detection, and ARG (antibiotics resistance genes) annotation revealed that available potassium (AK) was correlated with microbial diversity and function. We proposed several microbes, Bradyrhizobium, Sphingomonas, Mesorhizobium, Nocardioides, Variovorax, Gemmatimonadetes, Rhizobacter, Pedosphaera, Candidatus Solibacter, Acidobacterium, and Phenylobacterium, as candidates to reflect the soil fertility and the plant health. The highest abundance of multidrug resistance genes and the four mainly microbial resistance mechanisms (antibiotic efflux, antibiotic target protection, antibiotic target alteration, and antibiotic target replacement) in healthy poplar rhizosphere, corroborated the relationship between soil fertility and microbial activity. This result suggested that healthy rhizosphere soil harbored microbes with a higher capacity and had more complex microbial interaction network to promote plant growing and reduce intracellular levels of antibiotics. Our findings suggested a correlation between the plant degeneration gradient and bacterial communities, and provided insight into the role of high-turnover microbial communities as well as potential PGPB as real-time indicators of forestry soil quality, and demonstrated the inner interaction contributed by the bacterial communities.     

Next Generation Cereal Crop Yield Enhancement: From Knowledge of Inflorescence Development to Practical Engineering by Genome Editing

Artificial domestication and improvement of the majority of crops began approximately 10,000 years ago, in different parts of the world, to achieve high productivity, good quality, and widespread adaptability. It was initiated from a phenotype-based selection by local farmers and developed to current biotechnology-based breeding to feed over 7 billion people. For most cereal crops, yield relates to grain production, which could be enhanced by increasing grain number and weight. Grain number is typically determined during inflorescence development. Many mutants and genes for inflorescence development have already been characterized in cereal crops. Therefore, optimization of such genes could fine-tune yield-related traits, such as grain number. With the rapidly advancing genome-editing technologies and understanding of yield-related traits, knowledge-driven breeding by design is becoming a reality. This review introduces knowledge about inflorescence yield-related traits in cereal crops, focusing on rice, maize, and wheat. Next, emerging genome-editing technologies and recent studies that apply this technology to engineer crop yield improvement by targeting inflorescence development are reviewed. These approaches promise to usher in a new era of breeding practice.     

污染物的生物催化降解研究进展

在生物催化和生物降解中微生物反应起了关键的作用。近来，与环境有关的细茵的基因组测序揭示了以前未被怀疑过的代谢潜能可以被开发利用。与细菌的生物降解能力相协调，细菌对污染物的趋化性可能归因于细茵与环境中其他生物体竞争能力以及有效修复能力。除了对有机污染物的生物矿化作用，某些细菌还能固定被污染蓄水层中的有毒重金属，从而进一步阐明了微生物转化污染物的潜能。     

应用基因组重排技术提高普那霉素产量

将普那霉素产生菌——始旋链霉菌ND-23的孢子和原生质体经紫外线诱变后获得高产突变菌株,其中高产突变株SP-S73的产量达到356 mg/L,比出发菌株提高了31%.在上述增产突变株中选取4株作为基因组重排的出发亲本,对它们进行了4轮基因组重排育种,筛选得到了高产重排菌株,其中1株重排菌株G-211的普那霉素产量为832 mg/L,比产量最高的亲本菌株提高了134%,比原始出发菌株ND-23(272 mg/L)提高了206%.通过研究高产菌株和出发菌株ND-23在5 L罐上的发酵过程,发现普那霉素产生菌的生物合成属于非生长耦合型;其高产菌株G-211在合成产物的时期对还原糖和氨基氮的消耗量均大于原始菌株ND-23,这些结果将为高产菌株发酵条件优化和发酵放大研究提供有价值的参考.     

New Generations: Sequencing Machines and Their Computational Challenges

New generation sequencing systems are changing how molecular biology is practiced. The widely promoted ＄1000 genome will be a reality with attendant changes for healthcare, including personalized medicine. More broadly the genomes of many new organisms with large samplings from populations will be commonplace. What is less appreciated is the explosive demands on computation, both for CPU cycles and storage as well as the need for new computational methods. In this article we will survey some of these develo...