MamZ protein plays an essential role in magnetosome maturation process of Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1

Based on analysis of gene structure of mamXY operon in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense strain MSR-1,we constructed a mamZ deletion mutant strain(ΔmamZ)and four complemented strains with different mamZ fragment lengths.Various cell phenotypic and physiological parameters were evaluated and compared among the wild-type(WT),mutant,and complemented strains.Cell growth rates were not notably different;however,magnetic response(Cmag)and iron uptake ability were significantly lower inΔmamZ.High-resolution transmission electron microscopy(HR-TEM)showed that magnetosomes inΔmamZ were small and irregular,and rock magnetic measurements suggested that they contained immature particles.In comparison to WT of MSR-1,intracellular iron content ofΔmamZ and the complemented strains cultured with 20mmol/L iron source was similar or slightly higher.The complemented strains were unable to synthesize mature or normal amounts of magnetosomes,apparently because of abnormal expression of the transmembrane domain of MamZ protein.Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RTqPCR)analysis showed that relative transcription levels of mamX and ftsZ-like genes inΔmamZ were higher at 18 h than at 12 h,suggesting that MamXY proteins play cooperative functional roles in the magnetosome maturation process.Transcription level of mms6 was significantly upregulated inΔmamZ(incubated at 12 h)and the complemented strains(incubated at 12 and 18 h),refl ecting possible interaction between MamXY and Mms6 proteins during magnetosome biosynthesis.These findings,taken together,demonstrate the essential role of MamZ in the magnetosome maturation process in MSR-1.

Polymorphism analysis of microsatellites and construction of linkage map in part regions of four chromosomes in chicken

Based on chicken＇ consensus map issued in 2000, 17 microsatellites near 4 candidate genes such as IGF2, OBR, GDF8 and APOA 1 in 4 chromosomes （chromosome 5, 7, 8 and 24） were chosen for polymorphism analysis and construction of linkage map. Combining the technique of PCR and the fluorescent semi-automated detection, genome scanning was performed for 440 chickens, which was derived from China Agricultural University chicken resource families within three generations. The individuals of this resource families were genotyped. The results showed that the number of alleles ranged from 4 to 14; heterozygosity （H） of markers was between 0.3116 and 0.9148. Polymorphic information content （PIC） varied from 0.2672 to 0.8679. Microsatellites along with above-mentioned 4 candidate genes doing as general markers were used to construct linkage map. The spans of 4 linkage maps constructed in the part region of chromosome 5, 7, 8 and 24 were 263.5, 79.9, 206.2 and 104.2 cM, respectively. The order of markers was consistent with that of counterpart of reported consensus map. However, The spans of linkage map were larger than that of consensus map. The constructed linkage maps laid the foundation for mapping quantitative trait loci （QTL） responsible for economically important traits in chicken.

ENDOCOCHLEAR POTENTIAL AND POTASSIUM CONCENTRATION RECORDING IN MINIPIG COCHLEA

Objective To record the endocochlear potential (EP) and calculate potassium concentration [K+] in Minipig cochleae. Methods We used multi-barreled electrodes to measure the EP and the potential, [K + ]. EP and potassium electrode recording were made in 9 cochleae from 5 minipigs to get normal EP values. Results The average EP value in the cochlea from the minipigs was 77.3 ± 14 mV. The average [K+] for the minipigs was 147.1 ± 13 mM. Conclusions The EP and potential, [K + ] in minipigs are lower than in the human and rodents. This may be the reason why porcine ABR thresholds are slightly higher than humans and rodents.

Transcript variants and expression profiles analysis of Mitf gene in minipigs

Object： To identify transcript variants and expression patterns of porcine Mitf. Materials and methods： A pairwise BLAST search at NCBI database was performed to deduce the structure of porcine Mitf gene. Subsequently, 5＇ RACE and fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR were used to analyze the expression pattern of porcine Mitf in different tissues. Results： Four transcript variants of porcine Mitf, MITF-A, MITF-H, MITF-M and MITF-SUS were identified, all sharing high homology with those in humans, except Mitf-SUS.Conclusion： The sequence of porcine Mitf appear highly homologous to human MITF. However, only 4 transcript variants of porcine Mitf were identified in these minipigs, less than the 9 transcript variants in human MITF.

Overcoming HBV immune tolerance to eliminate HBsAg-positive hepatocytes via pre-administration of GM-CSF as a novel adjuvant for a hepatitis B vaccine in HBV transgenic mice

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor （GM-CSF） is known to be a potential vaccine adjuvant despite contradictory results from animal and human studies. The discrepancies may be due to the different doses and regimens of GM-CSF that were used, given that either mature or immature dendritic cells （DCs） could be induced under different conditions. To test the hypothesis that GM-CSF can be used as a novel adjuvant for a hepatitis B virus （HBV） therapeutic vaccine, we administered GM-CSF once per day for three days prior to vaccination with recombinant HBV vaccine （rHBVvac） in mice. We observed greater DC maturation in these pre-treated animals at day 3 as compared to day 1 or day 2 of daily GM-CSF administration. This strategy was further investigated for its ability to break the immune tolerance established in hepatitis B surface antigen-transgenic （HBsAg-Tg） animals. We found that the levels of induced anti-HBsAg antibodies were significantly higher in animals following three days of GM-CSF pre-treatment before rHBV vaccination after the third immunization. In addition to the increase in anti-HBsAg antibody levels, cell-mediated anti-HBsAg responses, including delayed-type hypersensitivity, T-cell proliferation, interferon-y production, and cytotoxic T lymphocytes, were dramatically enhanced in the three-day GM-CSF pre-treated group. After adoptive transfers of CD8＋ T cells from immunized animals, antigen-specific CD8＋ T cells were observed in the livers of recipient HBsAg-Tg animals. Moreover, the three-day pre-treatments with GM-CSF prior to rHBVvac vaccination could significantly eliminate HBsAg-positive hepatocytes, suggesting beneficial therapeutic effects. Therefore, this protocol utilizing GM-CSF as an adjuvant in combination with the rHBVvac vaccine has the potential to become a novel immunotherapy for chronic hepatitis B patients.

The foxtail millet Si69 gene is a Wali7 (wheat aluminum-induced protein 7) homologue and may function in aluminum tolerance

We isolated a clone, named Si69, from a foxtail millet immature seed cDNA library. The protein encoded by Si69 contains a conserved Wali7 (wheat aluminum induced protein 7) domain and shares high-level homology with aluminum-induced proteins from other species including rice and Arabidopsis. The Si69 gene presents as a single locus in foxtail millet genome and is globally expressed in all tissues examined. Its expression is up-regulated by aluminum. The sequence feature and expression pattern suggest that the Si69 gene is involved in aluminum tolerance or detoxification. To confirm its biological functions, Si69 controlled by the CaMV35S promoter was introduced into Arabidopsis. Transgenic plants did not show any visible morphological changes compared to wild-type plants under normal growth conditions. However, when treated with 20 or 50 μmol/L Aluminum (Al), the root apices of wild-type plants were heavily stained by hematoxylin, whereas those of Si69 transgenic plants were not stained when treated with 20 μmol/L Al and slightly stained when treated with 50 μmol/L Al. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results further demonstrated that the damage of the root apices was se- verer in wild-type plants than in transgenic plants. Inhibition of root growth and accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA), an indicator of lipid peroxidation, were lower in transgenic plants than in wild-type plants. The results show that overexpression of Si69 may increase Al tolerance in transgenic plants, indicating that a series of Wali7-containing genes may play similar roles in Al tolerance/detoxification.

Cloning and functional analysis of the sequences flanking mini-Tn5 in the magnetosome-deleted mutant NM21 of Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1

A magnetosome-deleted mutant NM21 of Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1 was generated by mini-Tn5 lacZ2 transposon mutagenesis, and a 3073-bp fragment flanking mini-Tn5 lacZ2 in NM21 was cloned by Anchored PCR. Sequencing analysis showed that this fragment involved three putative ORFs; the mini-Tn5 lacZ2 was inserted into ORF1. Functional complementary test indicated that the 3073-bp fragment was required for biosynthesis of magnetosomes in M. gryphiswaldense MSR-1. The majority of proteins, which had homology with the protein encoded by ORF1, were the cation transporter. Transmembrane domain analysis showed that the protein encoded by ORF1 contained four trans-membrane domains. It may be a transmembrane protein. The protein encoded by ORF1 contained two putative conserved domains: COG0053 and PRK09509. The MMT1 and FieF, containing conserved do-mains COG0053 and PRK09509 too, were Fe2+ transporter (cation diffusion facilitator superfamily). It was suggested that the protein encoded by ORF1 might take part in the magnetosomes biosynthesis as Fe2+ transporter.

Survival of the magnetotactic bacterium Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense exposed to Earth’s lower near space

地球临近空间指海平面之上20~100 km高度区域,具有高辐射、低温、干燥、低气压等极端条件,是一类典型的类火星环境.研究生命在临近空间的存活机制有助于深化对火星宜居性和生命探测的认识.本研究利用自主研发的临近空间天体生物学载荷和飞行实验平台,将趋磁细菌Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1带入23 km高度区域开展生物暴露实验.结果发现合成磁小体的趋磁细菌经过7小时16分钟的暴露后仍有部分细胞存活,而不合成磁小体的菌株经过暴露后没有检测到存活细胞;临近空间暴露后存活的样品与实验室对照组相比,其磁小体的数量、尺寸和岩石磁学性质等均发生变化.这些结果表明细胞内的磁小体纳米颗粒有助于趋磁细菌抵御临近空间的高辐射等极端环境,为趋磁细菌的起源和早期演化、生命适应类火星极端环境的机制等提供了新认识.鉴于趋磁细菌具有在类火星环境中生存的潜力,这些感磁微生物可以作为天体生物学研究的重要生物类群.

Cloning of 5' regulatory element of bovine β-lactoglobulin gene and its utilization in generation of mammary bioreactors

To obtain a regulatory element for generating mammary bioreactors. a DNA fragment derived from bovine β-lactoglobulin (BLG) gene was cloned, which consisted of a 650-bp 5' flanking sequence, exon Ⅰ, intron Ⅰ and exon Ⅱ. A 661-bp region of the cloned fragment, consisting of the 650-bp 5' flanking sequence and a non-coding sequence of 11 bp downstream of the transcription initiation site, was used as a regulatory element to combine with human growth hormone (hGH) gene to generate a bovine BLG/hGH fusion construct, which was then introduced into cultured primary mammary epithelial cells of goat for transient expression of hGH gene. It was demonstrated that the hGH gene was able to express following hormone induction and the expressed product was able to be secreted into the medium. The bovine BLG/hGH fusion construct was also used to generate transgenic mice by microinjection. Subsequently, five transgenic mice were generated. The hGH in milk by one transgenic female mouse was 420μg/mL, while the content of hGH in serum was 0.051 μg/mL only. This indicated that the cloned regulatory element in this experiment could make the expression of target gene occur almost specifically in mammary gland and the expressed product could be secreted with milk.