Background: COVID-19 is a disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Epidemiological data indicated that bacterial complications in COVID-19 would decrease clearance rate of the in...Background: COVID-19 is a disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Epidemiological data indicated that bacterial complications in COVID-19 would decrease clearance rate of the infecting agent and increase mortality rate. Macrolides such as Azithromycin are usually administered to COVID-19 patients as palliative treatments. Currently, a considerable number of bacterial strains have developed resistance to various antibiotics, especially macrolides. Resistance is reported to be due to possession of mefA, ermB, and mphA genes by Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Therefore, this study determined antibiotic resistance patterns and identify mefA, ermB and mphA macrolide-resistant genes in bacterial pathogens isolated from COVID-19 cases in Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods: 400 Nasopharyngeal samples were collected from symptomatic cases before antibiotic medication;structured questionnaires were administered to collect socio-demographic data of participants. Samples were cultured on Blood, Chocolate, MacConkey and Mannitol salt agar at 37°C for 48 hrs. Bacterial identification was performed using VITEK 2.0 ID cards and API 20E for Gram positive and negative bacteria respectively. Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing was performed using Kirby Bauer disc diffusion methods and VITEK 2.0 AST card kits. DNA of multidrug resistant bacterial isolates was extracted;resistant genes were determined using a polymerase chain reaction with specific primers. Amplified genes were detected using agarose gel electrophoresis. Results: 240 (60%) had bacterial growth and 97 (22.2%) yielded no growth. From the 240 bacterial isolates, 38 (15.83%) were multi-drug resistant including resistance to macrolides (Azithromycin) 20 (52.63%) of which were positive for either mefA or ermB, and none (0.0%) possess mphA gene;14 (36.8%) isolates had mefA gene, 10 (26.3%) isolates carried ermB gene. Conclusion: Multi-drug bacterial resistance including macrolides and quinolones was detected. Only mefA and ermB genes were detected in the bacterial isolates, especially in Gram positive organisms. The detection of mefA and ermB genes in the MDR bacterial isolates raised concern on the use of azithromycin as palliative treatment for COVID-19 symptomatic patients.展开更多
AIM: To identify and understand the relationship between co-expression pattern and clinic traits in uveal melanoma, weighted gene co-expression network analysis(WGCNA) is applied to investigate the gene expression lev...AIM: To identify and understand the relationship between co-expression pattern and clinic traits in uveal melanoma, weighted gene co-expression network analysis(WGCNA) is applied to investigate the gene expression levels and patient clinic features. Uveal melanoma is the most common primary eye tumor in adults. Although many studies have identified some important genes and pathways that were relevant to progress of uveal melanoma, the relationship between co-expression and clinic traits in systems level of uveal melanoma is unclear yet. We employ WGCNA to investigate the relationship underlying molecular and phenotype in this study.METHODS: Gene expression profile of uveal melanoma and patient clinic traits were collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO) database. The gene co-expression is calculated by WGCNA that is the R package software. The package is used to analyze the correlation between pairs of expression levels of genes.The function of the genes were annotated by gene ontology(GO).RESULTS: In this study, we identified four co-expression modules significantly correlated with clinictraits. Module blue positively correlated with radiotherapy treatment. Module purple positively correlates with tumor location(sclera) and negatively correlates with patient age. Module red positively correlates with sclera and negatively correlates with thickness of tumor. Module black positively correlates with the largest tumor diameter(LTD). Additionally, we identified the hug gene(top connectivity with other genes) in each module. The hub gene RPS15 A, PTGDS, CD53 and MSI2 might play a vital role in progress of uveal melanoma.CONCLUSION: From WGCNA analysis and hub gene calculation, we identified RPS15 A, PTGDS, CD53 and MSI2 might be target or diagnosis for uveal melanoma.展开更多
Esophageal cancer is a common malignant tumor, whose pathogenesis and prognosis factors are not fully understood. This study aimed to discover the gene clusters that have similar functions and can be used to predict t...Esophageal cancer is a common malignant tumor, whose pathogenesis and prognosis factors are not fully understood. This study aimed to discover the gene clusters that have similar functions and can be used to predict the prognosis of esophageal cancer. The matched microarray and RNA sequencing data of 185 patients with esophageal cancer were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA), and gene co-expression networks were built without distinguishing between squamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. The result showed that 12 modules were associated with one or more survival data such as recurrence status, recurrence time, vital status or vital time. Furthermore, survival analysis showed that 5 out of the 12 modules were related to progression-free survival(PFS) or overall survival(OS). As the most important module, the midnight blue module with 82 genes was related to PFS, apart from the patient age, tumor grade, primary treatment success, and duration of smoking and tumor histological type. Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that 'glycoprotein binding' was the top enriched function of midnight blue module genes. Additionally, the blue module was the exclusive gene clusters related to OS. Platelet activating factor receptor(PTAFR) and feline Gardner-Rasheed(FGR) were the top hub genes in both modeling datasets and the STRING protein interaction database. In conclusion, our study provides novel insights into the prognosis-associated genes and screens out candidate biomarkers for esophageal cancer.展开更多
Aphis glycines (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is considered as a cosmopolitan pest of cultivated soybean, major difficulties in its control measures may be due to its higher genetic diversity; however, the knowledge about ...Aphis glycines (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is considered as a cosmopolitan pest of cultivated soybean, major difficulties in its control measures may be due to its higher genetic diversity; however, the knowledge about population genetic diversity of this species is limited. This study aimed to represent the genetic differentiation among different geographic populations of soybean aphid in Northeast China. In order to investigate and assess the genetic diversity, genetic differentiation, molecular variance, population structure, ecological importance and evolutionary history of A. glycines, we sequenced a fragment of one protein-coding gene, the cytochrome c oxidase I/of mitochondrial DNA gene. The results showed that four haplotypes were defined among CO 11 gene of 180 sequences of soybean aphid in Northeast China including H1 shared by all the populations. Lower haplotype diversity (Hd=0.3590± 0.0420) and nucleotide diversity (Pi=0.0012±0.0002) were observed and high gene flow was detected in every two populations, while most of the variation (80.81%) arose from variability within A. glycines from individuals. Low genetic differentiation and high gene flow (Nm=2.106) indicated a high migration rate between the populations, which might reveal that gene flow in different geographic populations did not affect by geographical distance. The phylogenetic tree and the haplotype network ofA. glycines were obtained based on sequences of CO Ⅱ gene, there were no significant genealogical branches or clusters recognized in NJ tree, and no clear distribution, delineation of haplotypes were demonstrated in the haplotype network according to geographical location. This study rejected the vicariance hypothesis: geographic isolation could be a barrier and it restricted A. glycines gene flow among 10 populations.展开更多
The genetic differences of 15 mitten crab populations from 6 river systems in China's Mainland and 1 population from Russia were studied based on RFLP analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (CO I...The genetic differences of 15 mitten crab populations from 6 river systems in China's Mainland and 1 population from Russia were studied based on RFLP analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (CO I). The results showed that Tas I-RFLP pattern could be used as a genetic marker to distinguish Eriocheir hepuensis from Eriocheir sinensis, Eriocheirjaponica and Eriocheir leptognathus; genetic distances among 13 populations of Eriocheir sinensis range from 0 to 0.015, indicating that they were different geographic strains; the subspecies status of Eriocheir sinensis and Eriocheir hepuensis (population from Nanliujiang) were considered owning to their genetic distances of 0.02-0.044, indicating that genetic divergence between them was low; Eriocheir leptognathus (population from Nanpaihe, Tianjin) was the most distant taxon with genetic distances value of 0.147-0.195, which could be defined as genetic distances between species in genus Eriocheir.展开更多
Hemagglutinin gene of Measles virus(Nepal strain) was amplified by RT PCR technique, cloned and sequenced by the dideoxy mediated chain termination method. The comparison to the standard strain(Edmonston strain) sho...Hemagglutinin gene of Measles virus(Nepal strain) was amplified by RT PCR technique, cloned and sequenced by the dideoxy mediated chain termination method. The comparison to the standard strain(Edmonston strain) showed many important mutations. The homology of these two strains was 98.17%. Then H gene was cloned into expression vector pCD SRα296 and introduced into COS 7 cells by electroporation method. The expression and function of cloned H gene was checked by hemadsorption assays.展开更多
Background: Osteoporosis (OP) is a common clinical manifestation of multiple myeloma (MM). The aim of this study was to investigate the possible molecular pathways and shared genes in the co-occurrence of OP and MM. M...Background: Osteoporosis (OP) is a common clinical manifestation of multiple myeloma (MM). The aim of this study was to investigate the possible molecular pathways and shared genes in the co-occurrence of OP and MM. Methods: The Gene Expression Omnibus database was used to retrieve gene expression information. Use WGCNA and differential analysis to screen out Hub genes. The GENEMANIA was used to build protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. Enrichment analyses were performed to explore the functions. Validation datasets were selected to verify the diagnostic marker reliability of PLAGL1. The immune microenvironment of diseases was analyzed by immune infiltration analyses. Results: We confirmed a hub gene called PLAGL1, which is significantly under-expressed in both OP and MM. We found hub genes were associated with glucose and energy metabolism. Subsequently, the reliability of PLAGL1 for diagnosing OP and MM was verified using ROC curves, with all areas under the curve > 0.75. Moreover, PLAGL1 regulates t lymphocytes and may participate in the occurrence of OP in MM through immune pathways. Conclusions: PLAGL1 is a hub gene for the co-occurrence of OP and MM. It can regulate T-lymphocyte involvement in disease development. PLAGL1 may be a novel diagnostic marker for the co-occurrence of OP and MM.展开更多
The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of co-suppressing tomato ACC oxidase Ⅰ on the expression of fruit ripening-related and pathogenesis-related protein genes, and on the biosynthesis of endogenous e...The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of co-suppressing tomato ACC oxidase Ⅰ on the expression of fruit ripening-related and pathogenesis-related protein genes, and on the biosynthesis of endogenous ethylene and storage ability of fruits. Specific fragments of several fruit ripening-related and pathogenesis-related protein genes from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) were cloned, such as the l-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase 1 gene (LeAC01), 1- aminocyclopropane-l-carboxylic acid oxidase 3 gene (LeAC03), EIN3-binding F-box 1 gene (LeEBF1), pathogenesis-related protein 1 gene (LePR1), pathogenesis-related protein 5 gene (LePR5), and pathogenesis-related protein osmotin precursor gene (LeNP24) by PCR or RT-PCR. Then these specific DNA fragments were used as probes to hybridize with the total RNAs extracted from the wild type tomato Ailsa Craig (AC++) and the LeAC01 co-suppression tomatoes (V1187 and T4B), respectively. At the same time, ethylene production measurement and storage experiment of tomato fruits were carded out. The hybridization results indicated that the expression of fruit ripening-related genes such as LeACO3 and LeEBF1, and pathogenesis-related protein genes such as LePR1, LePR5, and LeNP24, were reduced sharply, and the ethylene production in the fruits, wounded leaves decreased and the storage time of ripening fruits was prolonged, when the expression of LeACO1 gene in the transgenic tomato was suppressed. In the co-suppression tomatoes, the expression of fruit ripening-related and pathogenesis-related protein genes were restrained at different degrees, the biosynthesis of endogenous ethylene decreased and the storage ability of tomato fruits increased.展开更多
High throughput gene expression analysis is swiftly becoming the focal point for deciphering molecular mechanisms underlying various dif-ferent biological questions. Testament to this is the fact that vast volumes of ...High throughput gene expression analysis is swiftly becoming the focal point for deciphering molecular mechanisms underlying various dif-ferent biological questions. Testament to this is the fact that vast volumes of expression profiles are being generated rapidly by scientists worldwide and subsequently stored in publicly available data repositories such as ArrayEx-press and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Such wealth of biological data has motivated biologists to compare expression profiles gen-erated from biologically-related microarray ex-periments in order to unravel biological mecha-nisms underlying various states of diseases. However, without the availability of appropriate software and tools, they are compelled to use manual or labour-intensive methods of com-parisons. A scrutiny of current literature makes it apparent that there is a soaring need for such bioinformatics tools that cater for the multiple analyses of expression profiles. In order to contribute towards this need, we have developed an efficient software pipeline for the analysis of multiple gene expression data-sets, called Micropath, which implements three principal functions;1) it searches for common genes amongst n number of datasets using a number crunching method of comparison as well as applying the principle of permutations and combinations in the form of a search strat-egy, 2) it extracts gene expression patterns both graphically and statistically, and 3) it streams co-expressed genes to all molecular pathways belonging to KEGG in a live fashion. We sub-jected MicroPath to several expression datasets generated from our tolerance-related in-house microarray experiments as well as published data and identified a set of 31 candidate genes that were found to be co-expressed across all interesting datasets. Pathway analysis revealed their putative roles in regulating immune toler-ance. MicroPath is freely available to download from: www.1066technologies.co.uk/micropath.展开更多
Inhibition of neurite growth, which is in large part mediated by the Nogo-66 receptor, affects neural regeneration following bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell transplantation. The tissue engineering scaffold poly(D,L...Inhibition of neurite growth, which is in large part mediated by the Nogo-66 receptor, affects neural regeneration following bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell transplantation. The tissue engineering scaffold poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) has good histocompatibility and can promote the growth of regenerating nerve fibers. The present study used small interfering RNA to silence Nogo-66 receptor gene expression in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and Schwann cells, which were subsequently transplanted with poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) into the spinal cord lesion regions in rats. Simultaneously, rats treated with scaffold only were taken as the control group. Hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry revealed that at 4 weeks after transplantation, rats had good motor function of the hind limb after treatment with Nogo-66 receptor gene-silenced ceils prus the poly(O,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) scaffold compared with rats treated with scaffold only, and the number of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and neuron-like cells was also increased. At 8 weeks after transplantation, horseradish peroxidase tracing and transmission electron microscopy showed a large number of unmyelinated and myelinated nerve fibers, as well as intact regenerating axonal myelin sheath following spinal cord hemisection injury. These experimental findings indicate that transplantation of Nogo-66 receptor gene-silenced bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and Schwann cells plus a poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) scaffold can significantly enhance axonal regeneration of spinal cord neurons and improve motor function of the extremities in rats following spinal cord injury.展开更多
文摘Background: COVID-19 is a disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Epidemiological data indicated that bacterial complications in COVID-19 would decrease clearance rate of the infecting agent and increase mortality rate. Macrolides such as Azithromycin are usually administered to COVID-19 patients as palliative treatments. Currently, a considerable number of bacterial strains have developed resistance to various antibiotics, especially macrolides. Resistance is reported to be due to possession of mefA, ermB, and mphA genes by Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Therefore, this study determined antibiotic resistance patterns and identify mefA, ermB and mphA macrolide-resistant genes in bacterial pathogens isolated from COVID-19 cases in Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods: 400 Nasopharyngeal samples were collected from symptomatic cases before antibiotic medication;structured questionnaires were administered to collect socio-demographic data of participants. Samples were cultured on Blood, Chocolate, MacConkey and Mannitol salt agar at 37°C for 48 hrs. Bacterial identification was performed using VITEK 2.0 ID cards and API 20E for Gram positive and negative bacteria respectively. Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing was performed using Kirby Bauer disc diffusion methods and VITEK 2.0 AST card kits. DNA of multidrug resistant bacterial isolates was extracted;resistant genes were determined using a polymerase chain reaction with specific primers. Amplified genes were detected using agarose gel electrophoresis. Results: 240 (60%) had bacterial growth and 97 (22.2%) yielded no growth. From the 240 bacterial isolates, 38 (15.83%) were multi-drug resistant including resistance to macrolides (Azithromycin) 20 (52.63%) of which were positive for either mefA or ermB, and none (0.0%) possess mphA gene;14 (36.8%) isolates had mefA gene, 10 (26.3%) isolates carried ermB gene. Conclusion: Multi-drug bacterial resistance including macrolides and quinolones was detected. Only mefA and ermB genes were detected in the bacterial isolates, especially in Gram positive organisms. The detection of mefA and ermB genes in the MDR bacterial isolates raised concern on the use of azithromycin as palliative treatment for COVID-19 symptomatic patients.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.81271019No.61463046)Gansu Province Science Foundation for Youths(No.145RJYA282)
文摘AIM: To identify and understand the relationship between co-expression pattern and clinic traits in uveal melanoma, weighted gene co-expression network analysis(WGCNA) is applied to investigate the gene expression levels and patient clinic features. Uveal melanoma is the most common primary eye tumor in adults. Although many studies have identified some important genes and pathways that were relevant to progress of uveal melanoma, the relationship between co-expression and clinic traits in systems level of uveal melanoma is unclear yet. We employ WGCNA to investigate the relationship underlying molecular and phenotype in this study.METHODS: Gene expression profile of uveal melanoma and patient clinic traits were collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO) database. The gene co-expression is calculated by WGCNA that is the R package software. The package is used to analyze the correlation between pairs of expression levels of genes.The function of the genes were annotated by gene ontology(GO).RESULTS: In this study, we identified four co-expression modules significantly correlated with clinictraits. Module blue positively correlated with radiotherapy treatment. Module purple positively correlates with tumor location(sclera) and negatively correlates with patient age. Module red positively correlates with sclera and negatively correlates with thickness of tumor. Module black positively correlates with the largest tumor diameter(LTD). Additionally, we identified the hug gene(top connectivity with other genes) in each module. The hub gene RPS15 A, PTGDS, CD53 and MSI2 might play a vital role in progress of uveal melanoma.CONCLUSION: From WGCNA analysis and hub gene calculation, we identified RPS15 A, PTGDS, CD53 and MSI2 might be target or diagnosis for uveal melanoma.
文摘Esophageal cancer is a common malignant tumor, whose pathogenesis and prognosis factors are not fully understood. This study aimed to discover the gene clusters that have similar functions and can be used to predict the prognosis of esophageal cancer. The matched microarray and RNA sequencing data of 185 patients with esophageal cancer were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA), and gene co-expression networks were built without distinguishing between squamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. The result showed that 12 modules were associated with one or more survival data such as recurrence status, recurrence time, vital status or vital time. Furthermore, survival analysis showed that 5 out of the 12 modules were related to progression-free survival(PFS) or overall survival(OS). As the most important module, the midnight blue module with 82 genes was related to PFS, apart from the patient age, tumor grade, primary treatment success, and duration of smoking and tumor histological type. Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that 'glycoprotein binding' was the top enriched function of midnight blue module genes. Additionally, the blue module was the exclusive gene clusters related to OS. Platelet activating factor receptor(PTAFR) and feline Gardner-Rasheed(FGR) were the top hub genes in both modeling datasets and the STRING protein interaction database. In conclusion, our study provides novel insights into the prognosis-associated genes and screens out candidate biomarkers for esophageal cancer.
基金Supported by the Special funds for Construction of Modern Agricultural Technology System(CARS-04)Public Welfare Industry(Agriculture)Special Fund(201103002)
文摘Aphis glycines (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is considered as a cosmopolitan pest of cultivated soybean, major difficulties in its control measures may be due to its higher genetic diversity; however, the knowledge about population genetic diversity of this species is limited. This study aimed to represent the genetic differentiation among different geographic populations of soybean aphid in Northeast China. In order to investigate and assess the genetic diversity, genetic differentiation, molecular variance, population structure, ecological importance and evolutionary history of A. glycines, we sequenced a fragment of one protein-coding gene, the cytochrome c oxidase I/of mitochondrial DNA gene. The results showed that four haplotypes were defined among CO 11 gene of 180 sequences of soybean aphid in Northeast China including H1 shared by all the populations. Lower haplotype diversity (Hd=0.3590± 0.0420) and nucleotide diversity (Pi=0.0012±0.0002) were observed and high gene flow was detected in every two populations, while most of the variation (80.81%) arose from variability within A. glycines from individuals. Low genetic differentiation and high gene flow (Nm=2.106) indicated a high migration rate between the populations, which might reveal that gene flow in different geographic populations did not affect by geographical distance. The phylogenetic tree and the haplotype network ofA. glycines were obtained based on sequences of CO Ⅱ gene, there were no significant genealogical branches or clusters recognized in NJ tree, and no clear distribution, delineation of haplotypes were demonstrated in the haplotype network according to geographical location. This study rejected the vicariance hypothesis: geographic isolation could be a barrier and it restricted A. glycines gene flow among 10 populations.
基金Tianjin Development Foundation of Science and Technology and International Cooperation Foundation(033803511,033803511G)Tianjin Higher Educational Development Foundation(2004BA31)
文摘The genetic differences of 15 mitten crab populations from 6 river systems in China's Mainland and 1 population from Russia were studied based on RFLP analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (CO I). The results showed that Tas I-RFLP pattern could be used as a genetic marker to distinguish Eriocheir hepuensis from Eriocheir sinensis, Eriocheirjaponica and Eriocheir leptognathus; genetic distances among 13 populations of Eriocheir sinensis range from 0 to 0.015, indicating that they were different geographic strains; the subspecies status of Eriocheir sinensis and Eriocheir hepuensis (population from Nanliujiang) were considered owning to their genetic distances of 0.02-0.044, indicating that genetic divergence between them was low; Eriocheir leptognathus (population from Nanpaihe, Tianjin) was the most distant taxon with genetic distances value of 0.147-0.195, which could be defined as genetic distances between species in genus Eriocheir.
文摘Hemagglutinin gene of Measles virus(Nepal strain) was amplified by RT PCR technique, cloned and sequenced by the dideoxy mediated chain termination method. The comparison to the standard strain(Edmonston strain) showed many important mutations. The homology of these two strains was 98.17%. Then H gene was cloned into expression vector pCD SRα296 and introduced into COS 7 cells by electroporation method. The expression and function of cloned H gene was checked by hemadsorption assays.
文摘Background: Osteoporosis (OP) is a common clinical manifestation of multiple myeloma (MM). The aim of this study was to investigate the possible molecular pathways and shared genes in the co-occurrence of OP and MM. Methods: The Gene Expression Omnibus database was used to retrieve gene expression information. Use WGCNA and differential analysis to screen out Hub genes. The GENEMANIA was used to build protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. Enrichment analyses were performed to explore the functions. Validation datasets were selected to verify the diagnostic marker reliability of PLAGL1. The immune microenvironment of diseases was analyzed by immune infiltration analyses. Results: We confirmed a hub gene called PLAGL1, which is significantly under-expressed in both OP and MM. We found hub genes were associated with glucose and energy metabolism. Subsequently, the reliability of PLAGL1 for diagnosing OP and MM was verified using ROC curves, with all areas under the curve > 0.75. Moreover, PLAGL1 regulates t lymphocytes and may participate in the occurrence of OP in MM through immune pathways. Conclusions: PLAGL1 is a hub gene for the co-occurrence of OP and MM. It can regulate T-lymphocyte involvement in disease development. PLAGL1 may be a novel diagnostic marker for the co-occurrence of OP and MM.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(30471180)Nature Science Foundation of Chongqing City,China(8045,2004-56).
文摘The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of co-suppressing tomato ACC oxidase Ⅰ on the expression of fruit ripening-related and pathogenesis-related protein genes, and on the biosynthesis of endogenous ethylene and storage ability of fruits. Specific fragments of several fruit ripening-related and pathogenesis-related protein genes from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) were cloned, such as the l-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase 1 gene (LeAC01), 1- aminocyclopropane-l-carboxylic acid oxidase 3 gene (LeAC03), EIN3-binding F-box 1 gene (LeEBF1), pathogenesis-related protein 1 gene (LePR1), pathogenesis-related protein 5 gene (LePR5), and pathogenesis-related protein osmotin precursor gene (LeNP24) by PCR or RT-PCR. Then these specific DNA fragments were used as probes to hybridize with the total RNAs extracted from the wild type tomato Ailsa Craig (AC++) and the LeAC01 co-suppression tomatoes (V1187 and T4B), respectively. At the same time, ethylene production measurement and storage experiment of tomato fruits were carded out. The hybridization results indicated that the expression of fruit ripening-related genes such as LeACO3 and LeEBF1, and pathogenesis-related protein genes such as LePR1, LePR5, and LeNP24, were reduced sharply, and the ethylene production in the fruits, wounded leaves decreased and the storage time of ripening fruits was prolonged, when the expression of LeACO1 gene in the transgenic tomato was suppressed. In the co-suppression tomatoes, the expression of fruit ripening-related and pathogenesis-related protein genes were restrained at different degrees, the biosynthesis of endogenous ethylene decreased and the storage ability of tomato fruits increased.
文摘High throughput gene expression analysis is swiftly becoming the focal point for deciphering molecular mechanisms underlying various dif-ferent biological questions. Testament to this is the fact that vast volumes of expression profiles are being generated rapidly by scientists worldwide and subsequently stored in publicly available data repositories such as ArrayEx-press and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Such wealth of biological data has motivated biologists to compare expression profiles gen-erated from biologically-related microarray ex-periments in order to unravel biological mecha-nisms underlying various states of diseases. However, without the availability of appropriate software and tools, they are compelled to use manual or labour-intensive methods of com-parisons. A scrutiny of current literature makes it apparent that there is a soaring need for such bioinformatics tools that cater for the multiple analyses of expression profiles. In order to contribute towards this need, we have developed an efficient software pipeline for the analysis of multiple gene expression data-sets, called Micropath, which implements three principal functions;1) it searches for common genes amongst n number of datasets using a number crunching method of comparison as well as applying the principle of permutations and combinations in the form of a search strat-egy, 2) it extracts gene expression patterns both graphically and statistically, and 3) it streams co-expressed genes to all molecular pathways belonging to KEGG in a live fashion. We sub-jected MicroPath to several expression datasets generated from our tolerance-related in-house microarray experiments as well as published data and identified a set of 31 candidate genes that were found to be co-expressed across all interesting datasets. Pathway analysis revealed their putative roles in regulating immune toler-ance. MicroPath is freely available to download from: www.1066technologies.co.uk/micropath.
基金sponsored by the Science and Technology Foundation of Tianjin Health Bureau,No. 2010ky04the Application Basis and Front Technology Projects of Tianjin (Science and Technology Foundation of Tianjin),No.12JCYBJC18000
文摘Inhibition of neurite growth, which is in large part mediated by the Nogo-66 receptor, affects neural regeneration following bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell transplantation. The tissue engineering scaffold poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) has good histocompatibility and can promote the growth of regenerating nerve fibers. The present study used small interfering RNA to silence Nogo-66 receptor gene expression in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and Schwann cells, which were subsequently transplanted with poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) into the spinal cord lesion regions in rats. Simultaneously, rats treated with scaffold only were taken as the control group. Hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry revealed that at 4 weeks after transplantation, rats had good motor function of the hind limb after treatment with Nogo-66 receptor gene-silenced ceils prus the poly(O,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) scaffold compared with rats treated with scaffold only, and the number of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and neuron-like cells was also increased. At 8 weeks after transplantation, horseradish peroxidase tracing and transmission electron microscopy showed a large number of unmyelinated and myelinated nerve fibers, as well as intact regenerating axonal myelin sheath following spinal cord hemisection injury. These experimental findings indicate that transplantation of Nogo-66 receptor gene-silenced bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and Schwann cells plus a poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) scaffold can significantly enhance axonal regeneration of spinal cord neurons and improve motor function of the extremities in rats following spinal cord injury.