Advances in the Application of DNA Chip in Animal Medicine

Accompanying with the increasingly saturated genome figures,DNA chip has been widely applied.Thanks to its advantages of integration,miniaturization and automation,DNA chip becomes a powerful research tool in various research fields including biology,medicine and chemistry.This article overviews the application of DNA chip technology in animal medicine from gene expression spectrum research,pathogenic microbial detection,bacterial typing,genetic mutations and polymorphism detection,pathogenic microbial genomics research,as well as its principle and classification.

DNA chip-based expression profile analysis indicates involvement of the phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway in multiple plant responses to hormone and abiotic treatments

The phosphatidylinositol (PI) metabolic pathway is considered critical in plant responses to many environmental factors,and previous studies have indicated the involvement of multiple PI-related gene families during cellular responses.Through a detailed analysis of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome,82 polypeptides were identified as being involved in PI signaling. These could be grouped into different families including PI synthases (PIS),PI-phosphate kinases (PIPK),phospholipases (PL),inositol polyphosphate phosphatases (IPPase),inositol polyphosphate kinases (IPK),PI transfer proteins and putative inositol polyphosphate receptors. The presence of more than 10 isoforms of PIPK,PLC,PLD and IPPase suggested that these genes might be differentially expressed during plant cellular responses or growth and development. Accordingly,DNA chip technology was employed to study the expression patterns of various isoforms.In total,79 mRNA clones were amplified and used for DNA chip generation. Expression profile analysis was performed using samples that represented multiple tissues or cellular responses. Tested samples included normal leaf,stem and flower tissues,and leaves from plants treated with various hormones (auxin,cytokinin,gibberellin,abscisic acid and brassinosteroid) or environmental factors (temperature,calcium,sodium,drought,salicylic acid and jasmonic acid).Results showed that many PI pathway-related genes were differentially expressed under these experimental conditions.In particular,the different isoforms of each family were specifically expressed in many cases,suggesting their involvement in tissue specificity and cellular responses to environmental conditions. This work provides a starting point for functional studies of the relevant PI-related proteins and may help shed light onto the role of PI pathways in development and cellular responses.

PIEZOELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF SINGLE-STRAND DNA MOLECULAR BRUSH BIOLAYERS

The paper is devoted to investigations on nanomechanical behaviors of biochips in label-free biodetections. The chip consists of Si-layer, Ti-layer, Au-layer and single-strand DNA （ssDNA） molecular brush biolayer immobilized by self-assembly technology of thiol group. Unlike previous viewpoints, such as force-bending, entropy-bending and curvature electricity effect, etc., the piezoelectric effect of the biopolymer brush layer is viewed as the main factor that induces nanomechanical bending of biochips, and a classical macroscopic piezoelectric constitutive relation is used to describe the piezoelectric effect. A new laminated cantilever beam model with a piezoelectric biolayer in continuum mechanics, the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation in statistical mechanics and the scaling method in polyelectrolyte brush theory are combined to es- tablish a relationship between the nanomechanical deflection of DNA chips and the factors such as nanoscopic structural features of ssDNA molecules, buffer salt concentration, macroscopic mechanical/piezoelectric parameters of DNA chips etc. Curve fitting of experimental data shows that the sign of the piezoelectric constant of the biolayer may control the deflection direction of DNA chips during the packaging process.

PROGRESS IN DNA CHIP TECHNOLOGY

DNA chip technology employs light- directed in situ oligonucleotide synthesis and/or DNA microarray printing device to produce arrays of large number of probes in the tiny surface of silicon substrates, which makes it possible that the gene detection be conducted efficiently with high speed and sensitivity. The DNA chip may take important part in genome research, gene diagnoses and so on.

Different in-vitro and Clinical Studies to Evaluate the Improvement of the Eyes Cream Containing the Natural Algal Complex

A natural algal complex is prepared from the brown alga Undaria pinnatifida rich in fucoidan and the red calcareous algal Corallina officinalis. The effect of the algal complex was demonstrated by transcriptomic analysis on normal human fibroblasts through the DNA chip technology from AFFYMETRIX, combined with the following in vitro Elisa test and clinical studies. Clinical studies have been performed with a basic cream containing complex versus placebo on 2 groups of 30 Caucasian women for a period of 28 days. In the present study, the natural algal complex works on the crow’s feet, eye bags, and dark cycle through multiple ways of action, including enhancing natural immune responses, regulating the inflammatory and immunity process, and promoting the extracellular matrix synthesis. As the natural algal complex has excellent improvement on the eye circumference, we have applied it to mageline firming anti-wrinkle eye cream for further research.