The negative relationship between phosphorus and fungal in soil

To discuss the egative relationship between phosphorus and fungal in soil, a series of research were done.

In Quzhou and Shouguang, external input of fertilizer was in the rank of OF>CF>U and GH>FA>FL. As a result, the available phosphorus concentrations in OF, CF, and U plots in Quzhou reached 42-93 ppm, 25-27 ppm, and 7-10 ppm, respectively. From the samplings taken in Oct 2010, it could found clearly how phosphorus accumulated in agricultural soils http://www.cusabio.com/. The background value of available phosphorus in FL is 5ppm. In the farmland of ten years tillage experiment, the concentration of available phosphorus increased into 17 ppm, while in the soils of ten years greenhouse experiment, the concentration of available phosphorus reached 560ppm, it was over tenfold of the background value.

In Shouguang, because of the long-term intensified agricultural management, the accumulation of phosphorus in soil is remarkable, and the available phosphorus concentrations in the GH, FA, and FL were 351, 48, and 27 ppm, respectively. Since both the FA and FL in Shouguang were converted from a GH, they exhibited a much higher level of phosphorus than in Quzhou (Supplementary Information).

The research also indicated PLFA concentration of fungi and bacteria in agricultural soils (Shouguang and Quzhou). Samplings were taken at intervals from May 2006 to Oct 2010, and the total PLFA concentration fluctuated between 13- 92 nmol g -1 soil, and the average was 42 nmol g -1 soil. However, for the 2006-2008 data, the average of total PLFA was 57 nmol g -1 soil, which was much higher than that of 20 nmol g -1 soil in 2010 data.

For the 2010 PLFA measurement, because the water content was not adjusted prior to the isolation of soil solution, soil bacteria in GH and OF did not proliferate into the maximum concentration and the ratio of bacterial PLFA to total microbial PLFA was much lower than in 2008. This comparison indicated that the bacterial PLFA concentration was severely underestimated, while in the U treatment, the extent of underestimation was not so obvious.

Although the absolute PLFA concentrations for bacteria and fungi waved seriously in various soil samplings, the fungal to bacterial ratios (F/B) fluctuated between a small scope (0.07-1.19) and shown a trend that F/B ratio in unfertilized soil (U) was higher than in fertilized soil (OF, CF). And in fallowed land, F/B ratio was also higher that in cultivated land (GH, FA). For the data in 2010, this trend was not so obvious because of the underestimated bacterial PLFA concentration. While for the data in 2006-2008, this change trend of F/B ratios between treatments was very obvious (U>CF>OF), except in Nov 2006, which shown an opposite trend (OF>CF>U).

The trend of changes in various fungal PLFA molecules in agricultural soil. Oleic acid 18:1w9 (c, s, t), linoleic acid 18:2w6,9 (c, t), 18:2w10t, 18:3w6c, and 16:1w5c were used as indicators of fungal in this study. The percentage of 18:1w9, 18:2w6, 9, and 16:1w5 in the total PLFA were 0-0.25 mol%, 0-0.16 mol%, and 0.01-0.04 mol%, respectively. They were much lower than in other observations around the world, which were 6.7-8.3 mol%, 0.5-6.7 mol%, and 1.8-4.1 mol%, respectively. As summarized from reported data, the average percentages of 18:1w9, 18:2w6,9, and 16:1w5 in total PLFA in arable soil are 7.7±0.8 mol%, 2.5±1.1 mol%, and 3.1±1.3 mol%, respectively. Although the percentage of 18:2w6,9 declined remarkably in agricultural soil worldwide compared to that in natural ecosystems, the volume of fungi in agricultural soil in China was much lower than the average global level, according to the present preliminary study.

Furthermore, the correlation analysis indicated that F/B ratios in all treatments were negatively correlated with the phosphorus levels in most of the sampling events. Although the absolute fungal volume (nmol g -1 soil) also increased with phosphorus accumulation, the fungal/total PLFA declined with the increase in phosphorus concentration, because, in general, high phosphorus levels were always accompanied by high levels of nitrogen and organic carbon.

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Can high level of phosphorus reduce the food resources for mycophagous mites?

Soil is known to be the largest organic carbon reservoir in the terrestrial biosphere, and plays a crucial role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. The agricultural soil compartment has the potential to increase carbon sequestration with available management options. Although different farming practices have reportedly resulted in various carbon sequestration rates, as driven by the soil food web, there is lack of adequate knowledge regarding the processes and mechanisms.

The application of phosphorus fertilizer in China rapidly increased from 20 kg ha -1 in 1980 to 160 kg ha -1 in 2008, which resulted in remarkable accumulation of phosphorus in agricultural soil. According to a long-term observation by the China Fertilization Net, the content of available phosphorus in about 40% long-term experimental sites increased to nearly or over 100 ppm, which is significantly correlated with the application of organic and conventional chemica (NPK) fertilizers.

In our long-term field experiments, accumulation of available phosphorus in soil was observed under the treatments with either organic or chemical fertilizer. Based on changes in the community structure and abundance of soil mites, a hypothesis was proposed, that a “high level of phosphorus probably suppressed fungi, thus reducing the food resources for mycophagous mites".

In order to prove this hypothesis, two field experiment sites were selected in Quzhou County of Heibei Province and Shouguang County of Shandong Province. Both sites were located in the North Plain of China. Investigations on soil physicochemical properties, soil organic carbon fractions, and soil microorganism structure and abundance were conducted in three types of agricultural soils.

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Study on use of traditional medicinal plants as sources of new drugs

Traditional medicinal plants have been effectively used, with few side effects, over a long period of time. However, because of the large number of diverse plant species and complex multicomponent systems, the active components and pharmacological functions of many of these plants have not been defined. Therefore, the use of these plants as sources of new drugs still must be explored.

To screen the anti-inflammatory effects of medicinal plant extracts in vivo, we used Drosophila as a model organism, and adult flies were treated with toxic compounds. Out of 50 different medicinal plant extracts, 8 or 9 species significantly increased survival rates more than 70% compared to controls after treatment with SDS or NaCl, respectively. Among these extracts, however, we did not find a protective effect against SDS or NaCl. Furthermore, P. multiflorum Thunb., P. notoginseng (Burk) F. H. Chen, L. erythrorhizon Sieb. et Zucc., and C. rotundus L. specifically protect against SDS-induced gut damage but do not increase survival rate after NaCl treatment. This finding suggests that distinct mechanisms exist for these functions.

Next, we selected medicinal plants that have broad protective effects against SDS and NaCl for further investigation. Extracts of C. pilosula, S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan were used to examine their anti-inflammatory properties in the Drosophila intestine. C. pilosula can be used to invigorate the function of the spleen and is good for the liver, and has anti-tumor, anti-oxidant, and antimicrobial properties. Its main constituents include polysaccharides, saponins, sesquiterpenes, polyphenolic glycosides, alkaloids, polyacetylenes, essential oils, and phytosteroids. S. lappa is a traditional herbal medicine that has been used to treat asthma, inflammation, rheumatism, coughs, tuberculosis, and many other diseases. It contains several sesquiterpene lactones, flavonoids, lignans, phenyl propanoids, alkaloids, triterpenes, and phytosterols. I. cylindrical var. major is commonly used as a diuretic and anti-inflammatory agent in traditional Chinese medicine and exhibits diverse pharmacological activities, such as cytotoxicity, neuroprotection, and vasodilation. However, its active compounds remain unclear. M. toosendan has been widely used for the treatment of malaria, stomach aches caused by round worms, or as an anti-helminthic, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory analgesic. It mainly contains limonoids, toosen-danin, and triterpenoid derivatives. More>>> http://www.cusabio.com/ELISA-Kit/Dog-Complement-4C4-ELISA-kit-1035335.html

Although these medicinal plants have been explored previously, most of the results were limited to in vitro studies, with only a few researchers investigating their pharmacological roles in vivo. There are no references about their protective effects in gut immunity. In this study, we observed high survival rates in the experimental groups after treatment with toxic compounds. The previous studies indicated that after ingestion of pathogenic or toxic compounds, the proliferation of ISCs increased to replace dead cells, which was required for tissue homeostasis. After treatment with SDS, large numbers of 7-AAD-stained cells were detected in the control group; however, only a few dead cells were observed in the groups fed plant extracts. These plant extracts decreased epithelial cell damage and melanotic tumor formation, protected gut morphology, and significantly improved the survival rates of adult flies after toxic compound treatment. However, there were no differences between groups with regard to stem cell proliferation. In addition, only extracts of C. pilosula significantly increased AMP levels after treatment with SDS, whereas extracts of S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan increased basal AMP levels. The relationship between gut microbiota and the host immune system plays a vital role in organism health, and the dysregulation of this balance can lead to chronic inflammation and initiate tumor formation. The extracts of S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan may contribute to the basal host immune system in the Drosophila intestine.

In conclusion, this study provides a foundation for the effective screening of a large number of pharmacological functions from traditional medicinal plant extracts. This study demonstrated that extracts of four different traditional medicinal plants (C. pilosula, S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan) have protective effects against gut inflammation in Drosophila. These results may provide a pharmacological basis for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases in humans.

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The ultimate objective of an ecosystem is to improve its energy utilization efficiency

Before, a hypothesis was proposed that “life evolution route is the process of elevating energy efficiency. The ultimate objective of an ecosystem is to improve its energy utilization efficiency”.

In the present research, the hypothesis is only primarily proved by the evidence of higher net primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems than in aquatic ecosystems. It was also found that the soil food web’s energy utilization efficiency is higher than in ocean cost food webs. For the lack of evidence about an integral terrestrial ecosystem consisted of producer, consumer and decomposer, it has not yet been proved that the energy utilization efficiency of whole terrestrial ecosystem is higher than aquatic ecosystems.

There will be other ways to prove this hypothesis, if related researchers are interested in this proposition. For example, we can take human population and feeding animals as a fraction of consumers at the biosphere, to estimate the energy utilization efficiency of the whole terrestrial consumer food web. In this case, we should carefully to calculate the fraction of natural food web and artificial food web. In addition, human beings are not only the omnivorous consumer of terrestrial products but also consumer of aquatic products. A panoramic overview on the global biosphere’s energy utilization efficiency will be an interesting academic progress, meanwhile it maybe a “thinking toolbox” for the management of our earth.

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Primary producer's energy utilization efficiency

The mean of net primary productivity (NPP) in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are 152 and 773 g dry mass m -2 yr -1 , respectively. The percentage of aquatic NPP to the total world NPP is 32.3%, and that of terrestrial NPP is 67.7%. It is obvious the net primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems is much higher, about 5 times of that in aquatic ecosystems. Although the aquatic area is much large, two third of the world primary productivity is in terrestrial area.

According to the variation range of net primary productivity, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems were divided into three levels. Among aquatic ecosystems, the low level group is the open ocean. And the middle level group includes lake and stream, continental shelf and upwelling ocean zones. The high level group includes estuaries, algal beds and reefs. In terrestrial ecosystems, the low level group is consisted of extreme deserts, rock, sand, ice; desert and semi-desert scrub, tundra and alpine, temperate grassland. The middle level group includes cultivated land, woodland and shrub land, savanna, boreal forest, temperate deciduous forest, temperate evergreen forest. The high level group only includes tropical seasonal forest, tropical rain forest, and swamp marsh http://www.cusabio.com/ .

Among aquatic ecosystems, the mean NPP in low, middle and high levels were 125g dry mass m -2 yr -1 , 360g dry mass m -2 yr -1 , 1800 g dry mass m -2 yr -1 , respectively. However, those in terrestrial ecosystems were 139g dry mass m -2 yr -1 , 863g dry mass m -2 yr -1 , 2091g dry mass m -2 yr -1 , respectively. For all three levels, the NPP in terrestrial ecosystems is higher than in aquatic ecosystems.

NPP is determined by two factors, the energy transferred by photosynthesis and the energy consumed by organism respiration. For primary producers, the respiration energy is about 30-40% of the production 3 . So the gross productivity, which described the energy conversion efficiency by photosynthesis, is higher than NPP. In this paper, I definite the energy utilization efficiency is the rate of available energy transferred by the ecosystem and accumulated in its production during a period time, so I only consider the “available energy” stored in the organisms. NPP is a form of available energy for the organisms in next trophic level, but the respiration energy is not available for use or transfer.

Although variation of NPP in ecosystems is obvious, from the global scale, the solar radiation energy entered into biosphere is about 0.8%, and the highest calculated solar energy conversion efficiency for primary producer is under 5% while it is under a ideal condition 3 . The energy utilization efficiency in aquatic ecosystems was 0.145%, 0.354% and 1.531% for low, middle and high NPP levels, respectively. Those in terrestrial ecosystems were 0.162%, 0.846% and 1.779%, respectively, obviously higher than aquatic ecosystems. So that, it could be concluded that the energy utilization efficiency in terrestrial ecosystems is higher than in aquatic ecosystems. So that the first step evidence is gotten for the hypothesis on “the biological community emerged in later geological era should has higher energy utilization efficiency than the community emerged earlier”.

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How is the structure of ecosystem like?

Three indicators were employed to describe the ecosystem or food web structure. They were trophic level, length of food chain and number of functional groups. In some ocean food webs, the theoretic trophic levels could reach eight because of their omnivorous characteristics, but the energy flux length never exceed five levels, so the concept of “effective trophic levels” was used. Any functional group has its own specific trophic level. The mean of effective trophic levels can describe the structure of whole consumer food web. With the same reason, the mean length of food chain can describe the food web structure more truly than the “maximum of food chain length”.

The mean of effective trophic level of primary producers, cultivation-husbandry food webs and ocean cost food webs increased from 1.0 to 3.3, step by step. For soil food web, the length of food web was more widely adopted than trophic level. The mean of food chain length in farmland soil was 3.5.

The value variation in the number of functional groups was much bigger than in trophic levels or food chain length. In this paper, it ranged from 1 to 36. The number of functional groups from low to high was: primary producers, cultivation-husbandry food webs, soil food webs, ocean food webs. This change trend was consistent with the trend of trophic level or food chain length. While the number of functional groups increased, the other two indicators increased synchronously.

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All development and succession of ecosystems is the result of evolution

The development and succession of ecosystems is led by evolution. In another words, all the present ecosystems is the result of evolution, it is like a mirror, reflecting the life evolution history and reminding us to remember the evolution route all the life has passed. Although there is a lot of life mystery hidden behind the earth and the life itself, as Gaia hypothesis [1-2] pointed early, if we remember that what we see today is the result what life experienced before, we will be more appreciated with what the earth provide us now, and more carefully to conduct our action, because today’s action is the result in future http://www.cusabio.com/.

It is known that different life types (patterns) emerged in different geological era. This “history book” is always opened on the earth. Various ecosystem types tell us the various evolution stories. For example, the prokaryotes in ocean tell us the origin of life and the form of earliest life, while the tropical rain forest tells us the pattern of most recent life. Table 1 presented a simplified list on the correspondence relation between life evolution history and present biological ecosystems. The main evolution route is from aquatic ecosystem to terrestrial ecosystem. Among the aquatic ecosystem, the evolution route is from plankton food web (pelagic food web) to demersal and benthic food webs. While in terrestrial ecosystem, the evolution route is from boreal forest to temperate deciduous forest.

Soil food web, as the decomposer of the forest and grassland ecosystems, its evolution route was a cooperating process with organic detritus provided by aboveground plants. Soil ecosystem is a huge “black box”, with which, our knowledge is very limited. Although Lovelock cognized that the geo-chemical environment was controlled by life, but he also pointed out that the process was very complicated and was not easy to reveal the truth.

What is the driven force for the development of ecosystem? Since all energy and materials in ecosystem originated from solar radiation, can we say that solar radiation energy is the driven force for ecosystem’s succession? If it is, then, what is the terminal “objective” for ecosystem succession? Is it to improve the energy utilization efficiency? If it is, then, the biological community emerged in later geological era should has higher energy utilization efficiency than the community emerged earlier.

The objective of this article is to test this suppose. I selected typical ecosystems as representatives of the biosphere, take the ecosystem as unit (because biological community has a cooperating evolution relation with its environment, it is more rational to use ecosystem as an unit than biological community), by calculating and comparing the energy utilization efficiency of various ecosystems, and analyzing the relationship between ecosystem’s energy utilization efficiency and food web structure, to prove the basic hypothesis: life evolution route is the process of elevating energy efficiency. The ultimate objective of an ecosystem is to improve its energy utilization efficiency.

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Research result of anti-inflammatory effects of a traditional medicinal plant in drosophila

In vivo screening for anti-inflammatory effects of traditional medicinal plant extracts. The intestinal epithelium is susceptible to damage caused by pathogens, oxidative stress, and toxic compounds. Foods containing SDS or NaCl could cause injury to the intestines and result in a melanotic phenotype in Drosophila. To screen for anti-inflammatory activities of traditional medicinal plant extracts, flies were fed a standard cornmeal medium supplemented with (experimental groups) or without (control group) aqueous extracts of the medicinal plants. Adult flies from each of the culture conditions were orally treated with the inflammatory reagent SDS or NaCl. First, a vial containing 30 adult flies from each culture condition was treated with 0.6% SDS containing 5% sucrose, and the survival rate was assessed over 6 days. The control group showed more than 88% mortality; however, some flies in the experimental groups appeared to have an increased survival rate. Out of 50 different medicinal plant extracts, 15 species significantly increased the survival rate by more than 50% compared with the control group. In addition, after treatment with 0.4 M NaCl, 18 species in which the survival rate increased by 50% over that of controls were also screened.

In other experiments, four plant extracts that showed a higher fly survival rate after treatment with SDS or NaCl (i.e., C. pilosula, S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan) were selected for use as the test extracts. After treatment with SDS for 6 days, the survival rates of the experimental groups were 94.4%, 92.1%, 92.1%, and 76.6%, respectively, which were significantly higher than the survival rate of the control group (11.17%). Likewise, all experimental groups showed significantly increased survival rates (84.4%, 66.6%, 57.7%, and 65.5%) after treatment with 0.4 M NaCl. We then analyzed another inflammatory reagent, dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), which interferes with intestinal barrier function and stimulates local and systemic inflammation, causing similar tissue damage in adult Drosophila gut. Dramatically increased survival rates of 35.5%, 60%, 51.1%, and 61.1% were observed for extracts of these medicinal plants compared with the control group (1.1%). The results indicate that extracts of C. pilosula, S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan are able to increase Drosophila survival rate after exposure to toxic compoundshttp://www.cusabio.com/.

Medicinal plant extracts can increase AMP leves. AMP-mediated defenses can enhance the stress response in adult flies and are regulated by the Imd pathway. To determine whether extracts of these four medicinal plants can reduce Drosophila intestinal damage, we analyzed AMP RNA levels (Dpt, Diptericin; Mtk, Metchnikowin) using real-time PCR. Slightly increased AMP levels in the experimental groups were observed compared with controls. Moreover, Dpt and Mtk RNA levels were dramatically increased in the C. pilosula feeding group 16 h after SDS treatment, with 40- and 23.5-fold increases, respectively, compared to the control group. The extracts of S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan did not significantly affect AMP levels in the Drosophila gut. The RNA levels of other AMPs (AttA, Attacin A; CecC, Cecropin C; Dro3, Dromycin-like peptides 3; Dfn, Defencin) were similar between groups (data not shown). These results indicate that extracts of C. pilosula, S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan can increase basal AMP levels, and C. pilosula extracts can also induce high levels of Dpt and Mtk 16 h after treatment with SDS in the Drosophila gut.

Medicinal plant extracts do not increase SDS-induced ISC proliferation in the midgut. After ingestion of toxic compounds, such as SDS or DSS, Drosophila ISCs increase their rate of proliferation in response to tissue damage. To analyze the protective effects of the four different medicinal plant extracts, the esg-Gal4 UAS-GFP marker (for ISCs and EBs) was used to assess adult flies after treatment with 0.6 % SDS. The numbers of ISCs and EBs were not significantly different between groups. This result indicates that these medicinal plant extracts do not induce stem cell proliferation in the Drosophila midgut in response to SDS.

Medicinal plant extracts are able to reduce SDS-induced cell death. In the Drosophila midgut, exposure to toxic compounds can increase death of epithelial cells. To determine whether the increased survival rate of adult flies resulted from decreased cell death in response to SDS, adult flies were treated with 0.6% SDS for 96 h. We observed a larger number of dead epithelial cells in the control group; however, flies fed extracts of traditional medicinal plants showed significantly reduced 7-AAD signals: 46.3%, 38.2%, 26.5%, and 54.4% when compared to control flies (100%), respectively. This result indicates that extracts of C. pilosula, S. lappa, I. cylindrical var. major, and M. toosendan can increase epithelial cell viability after toxic compound treatment.

Meicinal plant extracts have protective effects against SDS-induced gut damage and morphological changes. Previous reports showed that SDS is able to induce melanotic tumors and morphological changes in the Drosophila gut. After treatment with 0.6% SDS for 4 days, the guts of control flies appeared shorter than those of the experimental groups; furthermore, melanotic tumors were observed in the posterior midguts of control flies. In comparison, we observed significantly increased gut lengths in C. pilosula-, S. lappa-, I. cylindrical var. major-, and M. toosendan- fed groups: 40.3%, 55.4%, 41.5%, and 42.9% compared with control, respectively. In addition, we did not observe any melanotic masses in the experimental groups.

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Anti-inflammatory effects of a traditional medicinal plant in drosophila have been identified

Immune responses to infection or injury are causes of systemic or local inflammation, respectively. Inflammation is a complex biological response, leading to many diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic asthma, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis. Specifically, inflammatory bowel disease and ulcerative colitis are chronic debilitating diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. Drosophila melanogaster is a well-established model organism for studying various diseases, including inflammatory bowel diseases. Intestinal stem cells (ISCs) have been identified in Drosophila midgut and hindgut, which are equivalent to mammalian intestine and colon, respectively. To maintain gut homeostasis, intestinal epithelial cells turn over rapidly after damage from ingested pathogens, chemicals, and toxic compounds. In the Drosophila midgut, cell turnover is functionally equivalent to that occurring in the mammalian small intestine. An ISC divides into both a new ISC and a post-mitotic enteroblast (EB), which differentiates into either an absorptive enterocyte or a secretory enteroendocrine cell. Gut cell turnover is regulated by a balance between cell death and stem cell proliferationhttp://www.cusabio.com/.

In the Drosophila gut, the immune response mainly relies on the local production of microbicidal reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the release of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The production of ROS in the gut by the NADPH oxidase Duox provides an efficient barrier against most ingested microbes. However, the excessive accumulation of ROS can disrupt mitochondrial DNA, protein oxidation, and lipid peroxidation, which result in impaired function of mitochondria and metabolism. The local production of AMPs plays a critical role in the inducible defense mechanisms in the gut. AMPs are triggered by the Imd pathway through the recognition of Gram-negative peptidoglycan.

Traditional medicinal plants are used globally and have rapidly grown in economic importance. Intrinsically active compounds are well-known for their anti-oxidant, anti-tumor, anti-viral, and anti-inflammatory activities, and for improving immunity in general. In this study, we used Drosophila, a model organism to identify the anti-inflammatory effects of different traditional medicinal plant extracts that are known to have curative or beneficial effects on the symptoms of various disorders in China. Among these medicinal plants, we demonstrated that aqueous extracts of four species (Codonopsis pilosula, Saussurea lappa, Imperata cylindrical var. major, and Melia toosendan) can dramatically increase organism survival rates after treatment with the toxic compounds SDS, NaCl, and DSS. Moreover, a decrease in epithelial cell damage, an increase in AMP levels, and the maintenance of normal adult gut morphology were observed.

These findings suggest that the anti-inflammatory effects of these four traditional medicinal plant extracts may help clinical researchers better understand the complex roles of medicinal plants in gut inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel diseases.

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Cancers are promising to be treated since new gene map comes out

A group of scientists from Toronto which is led by Professor Jason Moffat at the University of Toronto's Donnelly Centre have mapped out the genes that keep our cells alive, providing a wonderful foothold for understanding how our genome works and which genes are crucial in diseases. The scientists switched off almost 18,000 genes one by one to find which genes are essential for cell survival. These genes involved 90 percent of the entire human genome.

The study about the new gene map was published in Cell on November 25. The data revealed more than 1,500 essential genes. This is greatly helpful to pinpoint the biomedical role for every gene in the genome.

The research team turned genes off in five different cancer cell lines — brain, retinal, ovarian, and two kinds of colorectal cancer cells. Then they discovered that each tumour relies on a unique set of genes that can be targeted by specific drugs. These findings make it possible to devise new treatments that target cancer cells, which leave the surrounding healthy tissue unharmed.

About 12 years ago, scientists completed the sequencing of the human genome, which allowed them to compile a list of 20,000 genes which make up our cells and bodies. Although it was a great achievement, they still didn't figure out each gene's function and why humans get sick when some of the genes go wrong. In order to understand the problem, the scientists started by switching genes off one by one across the entire genome to see what processes go wrong in the cells.

In general, the new gene map is of great importance for treatment of diseases like cancer. More progress will be made next.

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TGF β1 plays an acute effect on neuronal excitability

The present study demonstrated TGFβ1 and its receptors are involved in the pancreatic hyperalgesia in rats with chronic pancreatitis (CP). It is well known that TGFβ1 is upregulated in the pancreas in rodents as well as patients with CP and plays a dominant role in the development of CP by contributing to local inflammation and promoting pancreatic fibrosis. A recent report shows that administration of TGFβ1 neutralizing antibody significantly attenuated the pancreatic hyperalgesia in rats with CP. In the present study, administration of SB431542, a potent and selective TGFβ receptor I antagonist, significantly attenuated abdominal hyperalgesia in CP rats. Together, these data suggest a role for TGFβ1 and its receptors in the development of pancreatic hyperalgesia in rats with CP. Of particular note is that SB431542 did not affect nociceptive behaviors in control rats in our study, while in the previous report, TGFβ1 neutralization in control rats resulted in pancreatic hyperalgesia. This discrepancy may be due to differences in the administration methods (i.t. vs i.p.) and in the focus on action time of dugs (0.5-8 hours after injection vs 1 week after injection), or more probably due to the fact that we used the TGFβ receptor I antagonist which blocks the TGFβ signaling including TGFβ1, TGFβ2 and TGFβ3, while TGFβ1 neutralizing antibody does not block the other two isoforms (TGFβ2 and TGFβ3) that can also bind to TGFβ receptors and further activate the downstream signaling.

Another important finding is that TGFβ1 plays an acute effect on neuronal excitability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to report the acute effect of TGF β1 on neuron excitability. This is supported by the following observations. First, TGFβ1 application depolarized the membrane potential and caused firing activity of pancreas-specific DRG neurons. Second, TGFβ1 application also reduced the rheobase, hyperpolarized action potential threshold and increased the number of action potentials evoked by current injection of pancreas-specific DRG neurons. In the previous report [11] TGFβ1 sensitization of DRG neurons in vitro, occurring after incubation of TGFβ1 for 24 hours but not earlier (1 hour), was attributed to downregulation of Kv1.4 gene and decreased voltage-gated A-type K + currents (I A ), while TGFβ1 sensitization in our study, occurring after application of TGFβ1 for 3 minutes, was companied by decreased AP duration (data not shown), suggesting that the acute sensitized effect of TGFβ1 was due to some factors other than Kv1.4. Although these factors remain to be further investigated, one possibility is that two pore domain potassium channels (K 2 Ps) are the effectors in this pathway because inhibition of their activity leads to membrane depolarization similar to that observed in our study. This pathway mediates an immediate but mild depolarization that is not enough to trigger discharges.

In addition to enhance the neuronal excitability, TGFβ1 quickly increased [Ca 2+ ] i in pancreas-specific DRG neurons. Pretreatment of SB431542 largely inhibited or even completely blocked TGFβ1-induced [Ca 2+ ] i increase, indicating the involvement of TGFβ receptor I. Since TGFβ receptors (I and II) are serine-threonine kinase receptors that cannot act as ion channels downstream signaling and effectors are definitely necessary for TGFβ1-induced [Ca 2+ ] i increase. Recently studies indicate that TGFβ1 signaling sensitizes TRPV1 in primary sensory neurons. However, our result suggests that TGFβ1-induced [Ca 2+ ] i increase was independent of TRPV1. Of special note is that the proportion (16 of 55 neurons) of neurons displaying TGFβ1-induced firing is very similar to the proportion (32 of 114 neurons) of neurons showing [Ca 2+ ] i increase to TGFβ1, suggesting that TGFβ1-induced [Ca 2+ ] i increase might be due to the extracellular calcium influx through voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs). Nevertheless, our preliminary experiments show that neither pretreatment of CdCl 2 (a none selective VGCC antagonist) nor removal of the extracellular calcium inhibited TGFβ1-induced [Ca 2+ ] i increase (data not shown), suggesting that calcium release from intracellular calcium pools might be a main source of TGFβ1-induced [Ca 2+ ] i increase. Thus, another possibility mediating the acute effects of TGFβ1 is that calcium released from intracellular calcium pools as a second message opens one or more non-selective cation channels in direct or indirect ways, thus resulting in robust depolarization and discharges.

Although the detailed mechanisms have yet to be investigated, administration of TGFβ1 induced abdominal hyperalgesia dose- and time- dependently in health rats, confirming the involvement of acute effects of TGFβ1 in pancreatic nociception. Surprisingly, single administration of TGFβ1 at a high dose produced a persistent algogenic effect lasting for at least 48 hours. It is possible that excessive TGFβ1 may trigger some chronic effects. Our study does not exclude the importance of chronic effects of TGFβ1 in peripheral sensitization. Acute effects may be an initiating event and accumulation of acute effects probably contributes to the occurrence and development of chronic effects, and in return, chronic effects may amplify acute effects. Finally, both acute and chronic effects of TGFβ1 contribute to the peripheral sensitization in CP. The origin of TGFβ1 might be from mononuclear cells located in the fibrotic areas and ducts damaged by fibrosis in the pancreas of CP patients.

In conclusion, this study demonstrated for the first time that TGF β1 plays an acute effect on neuronal excitability, which might contribute to the pancreatic hyperalgesia in rats with chronic pancreatitis.

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Corn snake's genome sequenced to improve the large database of the species including reptiles

Genomics helps scientists better investigate the evolution of the living world. Now, there are 5000 species of mammals found in the world, of which more than 100 have their genome sequenced. However, among 10000 species, there are only 9 species of reptiles are available to the scientific community. Therefore, a research team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has produced a large database of the species. Notably, the database includes the newly-sequenced genome of the corn snake, which is a species used to understand the evolution of reptiles these years. The team has successfully found the mutation which causes albinism in the species. The researches published their findings in Scientific Reports this week. How the snake lost its limbs and how various skin colorations have evolved previously remains to be studied on. Previously, the genomic databases lack for the reptiles' information. Now, Dr. Athanasia Tzika, who is a researcher in the Department of genetics and evolution of the UNIGE Faculty of Sciences, has built a database involving sequenced genomes from the major evolutionary lineages of reptiles. This Reptilian Transcriptomes Database 2.0 is aimed at producing the researchers a substantial portion of the missing data by sequencing all genes from several reptilian species. This database will be useful to those researchers all over the world who are working on the development and evolution of vertebrates and especially reptiles Since gene sequencing requires to determine the sequence of the full genome of the investigated animal, corresponding to two billions of nucleotides for the corn snake, it is a great project. Now this work has been completed in the team of Michel Milinkovitch, professor in the Department of Genetics and Evolution at UNIGE. It covers about 85 percent of the snake total genome size. They chose the corn snake as this species breeds easily, and it is oviparous and non-venomous. The corn snake's genome sequencing will make precise identification of other mutations responsible for multiple variations of snake skin coloration easier. Read more:http://www.cusabio.com/ELISA-Kit/Sheep-Interleukin-11IL-11-ELISA-KIT-1035330.html

Floral organogenesis found in Urophysa rockii

The Chinese endemic genus Urophysa (Ranunculaceae) consists of two species, Urophysa henryi (Oliver) Ulbrich and Urophysa rockii Ulbrich, both distributed on cliffs, fissures of rocks or wet places by streams in southern China. The former species was been placed in Isopyrum, Aquilegia and Semiaquilegia. In 1925, J. F. Rock, an American plant collector, discovered the latter Urophysa species for the first time on moist, mossy banks along the Fujiang River in Jiangyou County, in western Sichuan Province, China. In 1929, Eberhard Ulbrich formed a new genus Urophysa based on Isopyrum henryi Oliv. = Semiaquilegia henryi (Oliv.) Drumm. et Hutch. This new genus included Urophysa henryi (Oliver) Ulbrich and U. rockii Ulbrich, with “rockii” in memory of J. F. Rock.

U. rockii had not been collected after 1925 until Dr. Chunyu Li found it again 80 years later near the Fujiang River in Jiangyou County of western Sichuan Province in 2005. Unfortunately, there are only about 2000 individuals in four populations surviving in the cracks of rocks in the upper reaches of Fujiang River. To preserve the species, the government moved most of the individuals to a new habitat in the year 2011, because their original habitats would be completely submerged by Wudu Reservoir project. The Ranunculaceae, as one of the core families in the Ranunculales, belongs to the early-diverging eudicots and is a "transitional" group between basal angiosperms and core eudicots. This in-between group is diverse in its floral characters.

Over the last past 20 years, molecular phylogenetic studies have contributed greatly to the resolution of phylogenetic relationships within the Ranunculaceae and thus to the continuous improvement of their systematics and taxonomy. In subfamily Thalictroideae of Ranunculaceae, three major groups were recognized by molecular data (1) Thalictrum, Leptopyrum, Paropyrum, and Paraquilegia; (2) Urophysa, Semiaquilegia, and Aquilegia; and (3) Dichocarpum, Enemion, and Isopyrum. At the same time, tremendous progress has been made in understanding the floral organogenesis of Ranunculaceae, including floral morphology and development. The Thalictroideae offers a wealth of opportunities to study comparative floral development both in morphology and gene expression. However, floral organogenesis of the Thalictroideae has been reported for only a few genera (Aquilegia, Semiaquilegia, Enemion, Dichocarpum and Thalictrum).

In the Urophysa-Semiaquilegia- Aquilegia group, flowers of Aquilegia possess morphological innovations, namely elaborate petal spurs and staminodium, that are well suited to the investigation of key questions about evolutionary development, thus this genus has become a new model for studies of plant development, ecology, and evolution. In contrast to knowledge about Aquilegia, a detailed study of the floral organogenesis of Urophysa, which may be of great help elucidating its systematic affinities within Ranunculaceae, had not been conducted. Since the species was rediscovered, however, studies have been done on its habitat, vegetative anatomy, seed dispersal and germination and genetic diversity.

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A Leymus chinensis gene which enhance the salinity tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Members of the “stress-associated protein” (SAP) gene family have been frequently implicated in the plant stress response. The genes' sequence most distinctive feature is the presence of two zinc finger domains (A20 and AN1), which have been long recognized as key elements in the animal immune system. The A20 domain was first identified in a human TNF-α inducible protein, and AN1 in an ubiquitin-like fusion protein in the Xenopus laevis egg and early embryo. The number of SAP genes present in plant genomes ranges from three in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to 19 in Populus trichocarpa; two types of SAP gene product have been recognized: type I proteins harbor the motif Cx2Cx9-12Cx1-2Cx4Cx2Hx5HxC, while type II ones harbor the more expansive motif Cx4Cx9-12Cx1-2Cx4Cx2Hx5HxC (where “x” represents any amino acid).



The xerophytic grass species Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel. is adapted to alkaline-sodic soils in northern China. It therefore serves both as a useful model for understanding the basis of abiotic stress tolerance in the monocotyledons, and as a potential donor of tolerance genes to the cereals. Here, a SAP gene was isolated from a L. chinensis leaf and root cDNA library, and its inducibility by salinity stress was characterized. The gene was also heterologously expressed in brewers' yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) with a view to testing its potential as a salinity tolerance enhancing transgenehttp://www.cusabio.com/.

After research, we get these findings bellow:

The full length LcSAP cDNA featured an 889 nt open reading frame, a 211 nt 5’-UTR and a 192 nt 3’-UTR. Its predicted product was a 161 residue protein of molecular mass 17.6 kDa and pI 8.56. The product, like other type I SAPs, harbored a A20 domain (Cx2-4Cx11Cx2C) at its N terminus and an AN1 domain (Cx2Cx9-12Cx1-2Cx4Cx2Hx5HxC) at its C terminus. The phylogenetic analysis grouped it with other plant SAPs (Fig. 1B). The sequence shared a high level of identity at the peptide level with that of a protein from Aeluropus littoralis, but its homology level with the other plant SAPs tested was no higher than 45.1%.

Under control conditions, the abundance of LcSAP transcript was clearly higher in the L. chinensis leaf than in its root. Other plant SAP genes have been found to also behave in this way. When exposed to 400 mM NaCl, the level of LcSAP transcription began to rise after 6 h, and had not fallen by the end of the sampling period (24 h). The effect of exposure to 100 mM Na 2 CO 3 was also to induce LcSAP transcription, but the extent of the induction lessened after 6 h. Salinity stress has been observed to up-regulate SAP genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, sorghum, tea, sugar cane, tomato, A. littoralis, rice, Medicago truncatula and Festuca arundinacea. However, in a few cases, it has been shown to down-regulate them: for example, MusaSAP1 in Suaeda salsa, SlSAP1/11 in tomato and ZFP177 in rice. It is presumed that this observed variation in the direction of salinity-induced regulation of the various SAP genes reflects the variety of roles which the genes play in the salinity response.

The successful transcription of the LcSAP transgene in yeast was confirmed by northern blotting. Under non-stressed conditions, the growth rate of the transgenic yeast cells was indistinguishable from that of wild type cells. However, in the presence of 1.4 M NaCl, the transgenic cells were better able to maintain their growth than were the wild type cells. An equivalent experience has been reported for a number of other SAP genes. Thus, for example, the constitutive expression of the rice AN/A20 gene OsiSAP1 succeeded in enhancing the tolerance of tobacco plants to a range of abiotic stresses, including salinity. Similarly, the over-expression of OsiSAP8 in rice and its constitutive expression in tobacco improved the plants' capacity to tolerate salinity, drought and low temperature stress. The constitutive expression of OsSAP11 in A. thaliana conferred tolerance to both salinity and moisture-deficit. When the rice gene ZFP177 was constitutively expressed in tobacco, the plants displayed increased tolerance to both high and low temperature and to peroxide, but became more sensitive to both dehydration and salinity. The over-expression of AtSAP5 led to an improved level of tolerance to both salinity and water deficiency. The expression of the A. littoralis gene AlSAP in both yeast and tobacco raised the tolerance of the host to both salinity, ionic and osmotic stress. Similarly, the heterologous expression of sorghum SbSAP14 in rice helped to protect the plants against the oxidative damage caused by salinity. Transgenic tobacco plants expressing the sugar cane gene ShSAP1 were found to be more tolerant to both salinity and drought than the wild type controls.

Finally, the constitutive expression in tobacco of the M. truncatula gene MtSAP1 conferred tolerance to various abiotic stresses. While SAPs are clearly involved in the plant response to salinity, the mechanistic basis of their contribution is not as yet known. A future research goal will be to identify the proteins which interact with LcSAP.

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Mysterious light communication is found in marine animals

Animals between each other may have various ways to communicate. What about the marine animals? A new form of secret light communication has been found in marine animals.

The discovery was made by researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute at The University of Queensland. In earlier time, Dr Yakir Gagnon, Professor Justin Marshall and their colleagues did research on mantis shrimp and found that they can reflect and detect circular polarising light. That's a mystical ability which is rare in nature. No one has known what it is used for by the mantis shrimp.

However, the new study comes out to show that the circular polarisation is used by the shrimp to covertly advertise their presence to aggressive competitors.

That's to say, scientists have found a new way of communication we never saw it on other animals. For birds, they take color as one of their communication means; for reef fish, color is also a form of communication we've learnt. Now at this time, light communication is uncovered as a way to communicate.

Linear polarised light is seen only in one plane, while circular polarised light travels in a spiral, which is a clockwise direction or an anti-clockwise direction. Then the researchers judged that mantis shrimp display circular polarised patterns on the body - particularly the head, legs and tail - these parts are most visible when they curl up during conflict.

The findings may help doctors find out cancers. Cancerous cells do not reflect polarised light, which is in the same way as healthy cells. Therefore, cameras equipped with circular polarising sensors may detect cancerous cells before people can see them with naked eyes.

This study will be published in the print edition of Current Biology in December 2015, together with another study which shows that fiddler crabs use linear polarised light as a form of communication. All these findings may be useful if applied to cancer detection, computer data storage, biomedical imaging, and satellite remote sensing.

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Addition of sugar molecules is crucial for plants in basic developmental processes

Researchers have found that for plants in basic developmental processes, the addition of sugar molecules to particular proteins plays a surprising variety of roles. The research team, led by CSHL Associate Professor Zachary Lippman, published the related study in The Plant Journal last week.

The team conducted research on the role of certain evolutionarily conserved enzymes that add specific sugars to various proteins, and then they discovered that if they delete the genes for these enzymes from the flowering mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the moss Physcomitrella patens, similar defects in both species will occur, which are widely separated in evolutionary time. But part of one species grow more quickly and part of the other grow less quickly than normal level.

We have all known for a long time that adding sugars will modify proteins and that the way proteins function is also changed. The research indicates the importance of proteins to decorate with these sugar molecules in different developmental contexts. Before, the team has shown that a set of sugar-adding enzymes HPATs, which is short for Hydroxyproline O-arabinosyltransferases, control stem cell production in tomato plants. Plants lacking the genes to make HPATs grow more flowers and larger fruit. They also found HPAT genes across a wide variety of plant species.

The researchers proposed that the ancient function of the HPAT genes is to control tip growth, which is likely related to key proteins that are important for forming cell walls.

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What determines community stability in the Inner Mongolia typical grassland?

Relationship of diversity and ecosystem stability and its maintenance mechanism has been one of the hotspots in ecology. There are mainly three relationships between the diversity and stability: positive correlation, negative correlation and nonlinear relationshiphttp://www.cusabio.com/. Many hypothesized mechanisms of maintaining diversity and ecosystem function have been proposed, such as diversity-stability hypothesis, rivet-popping hypothesis, species redundancy hypothesis, idiosyncratic hypothesis, and keystone species hypothesis, etc. Among these, the redundancy hypothesis proposed by Walker has increasingly become an important concept in understanding the ecological values of biodiversity. This hypothesis believes that in a functional group which containing many species, the species often manifest functional redundancy, that is, some species present similar or identical features and these species show asynchronous response to environmental changes, or display a phenomenon of time niche differentiation, playing a role as insurance in maintaining system stability during interference. However, some scholars doubted the accuracy of the redundancy hypothesis, thus this hypothesis is not widely accepted. Although some studies on a large scale investigated the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functions in Inner Mongolia grassland, more studies focused on productivity, carbon sequestration and other functions, and there is a lack of description on ecosystem stability of this region. On the other hand, there are rare studies on small-scale landscape, while topography is the most important environmental factor of landscape scale, leading to re-distribution of resource in space and thereby affecting the diversity and ecosystem functions. Therefore, taking the example of Inner Mongolia typical steppe, this study analyzes changes of diversity and community stability as well as their relationship under different resource supply rate caused by micro-topography, and plans to solve the following scientific issues: (1) The type of relationship between the diversity and ecosystem stability in Inner Mongolia typical steppe. (2) To verify the usefulness of the redundancy hypothesis in this region and further investigate the relative importance of species redundancy and functional redundancy in maintaining the stability. It aims to provide scientific basis for rational restoration of degraded grassland and range management at the same time of enriching the theoretical studies of diversity and stability. The results are as following: The soil total N, total P, available N, and organic C in seven transacts showed increasing trend with decreasing slope position from the top to the base of hills, except the available phosphorus does not showed obvious change with decreasing slope position. Therefore, it was considered that overall soil resource supplement gradually increased with transacts. The Shannon-weaver species diversity index (SD) and reciprocal of variation coefficient of aboveground biomass (S) increased with decreasing slope position, representing that the species diversity and community stability increased with the resource supplement. Meanwhile, the regression analysis displayed the positive relationship between diversity and stability (R2=0.550，P > 0.05). The regression analysis of species redundancy and functional redundancy revealed the non-significant causal effect of species redundancy to functional redundancy (R2=0.223， P > 0.05). The regression analysis for species redundancy and functional redundancy with stability showed that both community redundancy indices were positively related with stability, and the functional redundancy presented significant causal relationship with stability (R2=0.893，P ˂ 0.01), while the species redundancy was displayed lower R2 value (R2=0.146，P > 0.05). In conclusion, Species redundancy and functional redundancy are two different features of community redundancy. Species redundancy and functional redundancy are two different features of community redundancy. Functional redundancy is more important in maintaining stability compared with the species redundancy. You may like to read this:http://www.cusabio.com/Polyclonal-Antibody/ATL3-Antibody-FITC-conjugated--11098195.html

3D printed spine implant saves a patient with severe back pain

3D printing is now more common in our daily life, and even, it is involved in health care. These days news comes out that a medical device company and a neurosurgeon have successfully created a 3D printed vertebral cage for a patient with severe back pain cooperating with RMIT University in Melbourn. Amanda Gorvin is a patient who was suffering severe back pain resulting from an abnormal structure of the fifth lumbar vertebra and severe degeneration of the adjacent disc. She is one of the patients of the spine surgery specialist Dr Marc Coughlan, working at the North Gosford and Prince of Wales Hospitals. Coughlan considered spinal surgery as a good option, but the current implant would possibly only give her slight relief because of Gorvin's unusual shape of vertebrae. Coughlan then turned to Anatomics, Melbourne medical device specialist, to design and develop a customized titanium spinal implant using 3D printing technology. Anatomics worked with Professor Milan Brandt and his team at RMIT's Centre for Additive Manufacturing at the Advanced Manufacturing Precinct. They produced the implant layer by layer, which adds successive layers of material under computer control. The 3D printing process (or additive manufacturing) is not the same as the subtractive manufacturing techniques of casting, fabrication, stamping and machining. The implant can be made of any shape and complex internal architecture at a reasonable cost by using 3D printing. The surgery was done three months ago and now Gorvin can take part in normal activities without any significant pain. 3D printing's ability to create unique and complex titanium implants for specific conditions showed that it can be used to offer continuous support for patients with chronic pain. This revolutionary technology is proved to be helpful in more areas. Read more as you like:http://www.cusabio.com/Polyclonal-Antibody/MAGEA10-Antibody-HRP-conjugated-11098209.html

How to reasonably make use of nature reserves?

With the development of society and economy, the environmental damage caused by human has resulted in the fragmentation of habitat, the threatening on biodiversity, and the serious influences on the structure and function of ecosystems. Nature reserves, as the most effective measure for protecting biological resources, are getting more and more attention. However, to give play to this measure to make benefits for mankind, it is needed efforts on many aspects.

Firstly, it is suggested to strengthen the background investigation on the biodiversity in the reserves and prefect the basic data of the reserves to improve data accuracy. Data provide foundation and supports for the protection, monitoring, and scientific researches on the nature reserves. This study found that the information contained in existing data is insufficient and the data of the reserves are inconsistent. Thus it is needed of strengthening the collection and improvement on the basic data.

Secondly, increasing the protected area of the vegetation types with small protected area and accelerating the type supplementation of nature reserves. According to the equilibrium theory of island biogeography, the larger the reserve area, the more the protected species. Of course, it is not recommended to blindly apply this concept to the protection practice of biological species. Therefore, considering the human survival, life, and economic factors, it is necessary to formulate more reasonable and detailer protection plans and determine the vegetation types with less protection and severe damage by analyzing the real situation.

Thirdly, reducing human interferences. Human interferences, which are increasingly intensive under the urgent need of rapid development and the pursuit for economic interests, greatly threaten the current biodiversity. It is of great significance to determine how to increase economic income and obtain win-win in premise of reasonable utilization on the resources in the reserves.

Finally, seeking for efficient protection strategy, perfecting protection mechanisms, and increasing staffing. The establishment of reserves is targeted for more effective protection.

However, establishment is not the end. Subsequently, focus should be put on the legislation of the nature reserves to further strengthen the legal status of nature reserves. In addition, professional staffing should be improved to effectively give play to the value of nature reserve. Environmental protection needs everyone to take part in.

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A protein complex's function in chromosome segregation is revealed by studying its structure

A protein complex has been revealed to play a foundational role in the machine that directs chromosome segregation during cell division. The study is published online by Whitehead Institute researchers this week in the journal Molecular Cell.

The kinetochore serves as an attachment point for microtubules in the process of chromosome segregation. In human cells, a protein complex, Constitutive Centromere-Associated Network (CCAN), critical for recruiting the kinetochore to a specific point on each chromosome. If there is no 16-subunit CCAN, the link between kinetochore and chromosome will fail so will the chromosome segregation and cell division.

The connection of DNA and the segregation machinery is formed by the CCAN. Hence learning about the organization of CCAN can help researchers to know how it targets specifically to the right part of the chromosome and the properties that underlie its role in kinetochore stability.

The researchers then used the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system to knock out each subunit and introduce tags that cause the cell to chew up a given subunit through addition of a drug. Though there are research relied on RNAi and other methods to knock down the proteins' expression, there is no achievement of the clean removal of the individual CCAN subcomplexes that is necessary for deciphering their position and function. After studying the sixteen CCAN proteins, McKinley finally could refine the relationships seen in cells and understand how each individual subcomplex touches the others.

It was a surprising finding that each subcomplex needs to be connected in a mesh by touching many other subcomplexes to be functional. The property is important to for kinetochore assembly to build a stable structure. This model helps to explain that the connections between the subcomplexes assist he CCAN tolerate the changes it is exposed to throughout the cell cycle. Besides, these proteins are crucial in resisting the forces that pull on the kinetochore in the process of chromosome segregation. The interconnected framework of interactions is better able to withstand force than is a linear bridge.

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Protein in bacteria helps stem cells to be converted into neurons

Scientists have studied the issue of turning stem cells into other types of cells for a long time. Recently a study published in Chemistry & Biology on November 19 has shown some interesting findings. The study suggests that a protein in E. coli bacteria can act synergistically to push pluripotent cells into functional neurons if working together with small molecules.

In the beginning, Sungkyunkwan University scientists in Korea accidentally discovered that Sox2, one of the four Yamanaka factors that affect a stem cell's ability to remain a stem cell or differentiate, can bind to a bacterial chaperone protein, Skp. Then the researchers tested what would go on if they introduce Skp into stem cells and found that it could initiate differentiation. So they got the assumption that Skp could be combined with other techniques to make differentiation more efficient.

There have been a great amount of research in this field, but a bottleneck of producing a high number of stem cells efficiently still exists. This problem remains to be solved by looking for new ways to guide stem cell differentiation and understand the molecular mechanisms underlying improved protocols, according to co-author Kyeong Kyu Kim, of the Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine.

The differentiation of pluripotent stem cells can be conceived as two simple steps: (1) a stem cell decides to no longer be a stem cell and begins to differentiate; (2) the cell decides what kind of cell it wants to be. The bacterial protein Skp acts in the first step by binding to Sox2 and inhibiting its function in their protocol to induce neuron differentiation. The small chemicals neurodazine (Nz) and neurodazole (Nzl) then act in the second step by telling the stem cell to become a neuron.

More functional neurons can be produced per batch of stem cells faster if using either protein or small molecules alone by influencing both steps. The synergy arises from combining suppression of stemness by protein and directing lineage-specific commitment by chemical inducers. So the process shows rationally designed cell differentiation to achieve a high level of lineage commitment efficiency.

There are also disadvantages of the protocol. For example, using bacterial proteins like Skp in a therapeutic setting may have hidden safety concerns. But comparing with introducing genetic elements, using this protein is quite advantageous, for protein cannot cause any genetic alteration or instability, thus avoiding the major concerns of using virus-mediated gene delivery to the stem cells. The authors are now calling on other researchers to develop the similar approaches to realize more possibilities.

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The accuracy of CRISPR/Cas9 is improved by new technology

It's great news that scientists from the University of Massachusetts Medical School have developed a new CRISPR/Cas9 technology which is precise enough to surgically edit DNA at nearly any genomic location. The study was published in Nature Methods. The new technology can avoid potentially harmful off-target changes typically seen in the current CRISPR gene editing techniques. Researchers now have created an additional proofreading step by pairing the CRISPR/Cas9 system with a programmable DNA-binding domain (CRISPR/Cas9-pDBD). The new step can improve the accuracy of the gene editing system and open up the way to potential clinical and gene therapy applications. The standard CRISPR/Cas9 systems are breakthroughs in the genome, which is suboptimal for most gene therapy applications involving the editing of massive cells where minimizing collateral damage to the genome is critical. Then the scientists added the extra proofreading step to the system. It now verifies an additional genetic feature in its intended target site before it will cut the genome. It will improve the precision by nearly 100 fold. The researchers have been developing this nuclease platform to excise latent HIV provirus from the genome of infected cells and potentially correct the genetic mutation that leads to chronic granulomatous disease. The CRISPR/Cas9 system can be reprogramed with artificial guide RNAs to cleave sequences within mammalian genomes and insert new fragments of genetic information into cells. CRISPR/Cas9 is such a simple and efficient way of editing the genome to revolutionize biomedical research by being easier to inactivate or activate genes in a cell line for study. The same work which used to take months or years now can be completed in a short time. You may also like these elisa kit products:http://www.cusabio.com/ELISA-Kit/Goat-Apolipoprotein-B-APOB-ELISA-kit-1042036.html

How NeuroD1 gene can drive the formation of brain cells?

Recently, a research published in The EMBO Journal describes a complex regulatory mechanism that can explain how a single gene can drive the formation of brain cells. The research, published by the scientists from the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) in Mainz, helps them to understand more about how the brain develops. It also shows potential for regenerative medicine. If the brain is damaged, it stays damaged, for neurons generally cannot regenerate by themselves unlike other many other cell types in the body. Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, are usually characterized by an irreversible loss of brain cells (neurons). One possibility of developing treatments for such damage is to master how the brain develops at the beginning and then imitate the process. But as we all know, the brain is one of the most complex organs in the body, and scientists know little about the molecular pathways which guide the development. A central gene in brain development, called NeuroD1, has been investigated by scientists in Dr. Vijay Tiwari's group at the Institute of Molecular Biology from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. This NeuroD1 gene is expressed in the developing brain and marks the onset of neurogenesis. Tiwari and his colleagues have shown in their new-published study that during brain development, NeuroD1 is not only expressed in brain stem cells but acts as a master regulator of a great number of genes that cause these cells to develop into neurons. They combined neurobiology, epigenetics and computational biology approaches and found that these genes are normally turned off in development, but NeuroD1 activity changes their epigenetic state to turn them on. Remarkably, these genes remain switched on even after NeuroD1 is switched off. The researchers later showed the reason that NeuroD1 activity leaves permanent epigenetic marks on these genes that keep them turned on. That's to say, it creates an epigenetic memory of neuronal differentiation in the cell. This research shows that the NeuroD1 gene, as single factor, has the capacity to change the epigenetic landscape of the cell, leading to a gene expression program that directs the generation of neurons. The findings help scientists understand more about the formation of the brain in the state of embryonic development, thus showing possibility of regenerative therapy. Read more here as you like:http://www.cusabio.com/ELISA-Kit/Dog-Apolipoprotein-B-APOB-ELISA-kit-1042037.html

An eye-tracking study shows the first fixation location in face recognition mediates the other-race Effect

There is a well-documented phenomenon that individuals generally recognize own-race faces better than other-race faces. This phenomenon is called the other-race effect (ORE). An array of researches showed that eye region is the most important part in the face recognition and the ORE. For example, participants recognized eyes better than nose and mouse, and are more sensitive to the changes in the eye region of own-race faces than that of other-race faces. However, using the eye-tracking techniques, plenty of researches demonstrated that Asian participants view eye region less than nose region when they see a whole face. Why Asian individuals do not look at the eye region of face for a longer time? One possibility is that recognizing a face does not need so many fixations, only one single fixation, that is the first fixation, might be enough. For example, Hills demonstrated that African Participants can recognize Caucasian faces better when their first fixations are attracted to the eye region of the faces than to the nose region. Hsian and Cottrell showed that both Caucasian and Asian participants recognize own-race faces better than other-race faces, and their performance was above chance when only one fixation was allowed. The current study is aiming to examine two specific questions: where is the first fixation located when Asian individuals recognize an own- or other-race face? Will the ORE be affected when the position of the first fixation is manipulated? To answer these questions, we conducted a standard old/new task in Experiment 1 and we reasoned that if the ORE for Asian and Caucasian faces is affected by the first fixation location, we should observe that the first fixations of Asian participants are located on the eye region of both races of faces. Basing on the findings from experiment 1, we manipulated the first fixation of Asian participants by forcing participants to look at a fixation cross, which presented on the region of eyes or nose of the face, and display a face immediately after the fixation cross disappeared in Experiment 2. We expected that the ORE is shown when participants are guided to gaze at eye region and the ORE is disappeared when participants are guided to gaze at nose region. Read more about stuies about life science here>>>http://www.cusabio.com/Polyclonal-Antibody/FGL2--Antibody-Biotin-conjugated-11098192.html

Certain protein complex may be responsible for magnetic sensing in animals

Over the years, scientists have studied that animals like homing pigeons that can use the Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves, but the mechanism of how the ability forms and works are still not clear to the scientists. Recently, researchers from the Peking University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University has identified a protein that aligns with a magnetic field when polymerized and coupled with another well-known proteinhttp://www.cusabio.com/catalog-13-1.html. They think that the protein complex may be the means that many insects and animals use to locate themselves by use of the Earth's magnetic field. They believe that they may have discovered the underlying chemistry, but how to connect it to magnetic sensing is still unknown. Their work is published in the journal Nature Materials. The researchers started from the points other research stopped - with cryptochrome, a light sensing protein that has been identified by some animals. However, the protein is not sensitive to magnetism, the team inferred that it might cooperate with another protein. In order to figure out the puzzle, they checked the genome of a fruit fly which is known to sense magnetic fields. Finally, they discovered a gene related to a protein called CG8198 (Later renamed as MagR). This protein would response to iron. The researchers polymerized the protein and coupled it with cryptochrome. The used a microscope to watch what happened. They found that the protein complex lined up like a needle in a compass as iron objects were brought near. The researchers admit that these findings do not means that the protein complex is responsible for magnetic sensing, but it shows possibility. The protein complex exists in many organisms that have been proved to have magnetic sensing, according to the researchers. They also call on other research group to do other studies about the protein complex to find out whether and how it works in insects and animals. More antibody and protein products can be found here:http://www.cusabio.com/Polyclonal-Antibody/ATL3-Antibody-11098193.html

Two evolutions of disruptive camouflage found in horned praying mantises

A research about horned praying mantises was published by scientists from The Cleveland Museum of Natural History on Nov. 16, 2015 online in the journal Systematic Entomology. This research was led by Dr. Gavin Svenson and assisted by his colleagues. It revised the horned praying mantis group and traced the evolution of its distinctive camouflage features. The researchers identified a new genus and new tribe of praying mantis and found that disruptive camouflage evolved twice within the group. More recently, they discovered the re-evolution of a special leg lobe that disguises the body profile to help the insect hide from predators. The research team studied the origins of sixteen features that provide disruptive crypsis for the Central and South American horned praying mantises of the subfamily Vatinae, all of which contribute to their camouflage strategy. A head process or horn and leafy looking lobes on the legs were found in the features. The study covered 33 species and nearly 400 specimens from Museum collections in the United States, South America, Europe and insects Svenson recently sampled from South America. We all know that praying mantises depend on camouflage to protect themselves from predators, but scientists still know little about how their body structures benefit to crypsis evolvement. Now they have known that two mantis lineages evolved structural camouflage millions of years apart in very similar ways. It shows that re-evolution occurred, and also proves that the developmental mechanisms controlling cryptic features may be more ancient than the camouflaged mantises themselves. The scientists got the idea that leafy lobes on the middle and hind legs evolved during the first origin of the horned mantises. Then, one lineage focused on a camouflage strategy and started to accumulate other leg lobes, an extend head process or horn, even lobes on the abdomen, while others lost the early evolved leg lobes and relied only on coloration to mix with vegetation. But there is another tendency that the smaller lineage of mantises within this color camouflaged group began to gain disruptive cryptic features about twenty million years later after the re-evolution of those same early originating leg lobes. The second condition was turned to a strategy of disruptive camouflage appears to have followed a remarkably similar path as the first through the accumulation of leg lobes in the same positions, and a similar extended head process or horn. The scientists thought that the latter one was likely to be controlled by genetic and developmental mechanisms present now. In fact, the ability of evolving camouflage was already in the genetic toolkit of the lineage and the features emerged again when it was good for survival. Svenson even considered the mantis groups have disruptive camouflage, and the praying mantises had evolved the ability very early, and they can control it freely in many kinds of ways. Read more as you like:http://www.cusabio.com/Polyclonal-Antibody/TSPAN31-Antibody-FITC-conjugated--11098198.html

Gene editing will be more efficient owing to RNA-based drugs

CRISPR/Cas9, a way to use a naturally occurring bacterial system, has been found by researchers for several years to inactivate or correct specific genes in any organism. Though the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing activity works continuously, it results in risk of additional editing at unwanted sites. Recently, scientists from University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Ludwig Cancer Research and Isis Pharmaceuticals showed a way to use RNA to turn the CRISPR-Cas9 system on and off as wished: permanently editing a gene, but only temporarily activating CRISPR-Cas9. They published the new study in the National Academy of Sciences November 16. The study provides a platform for multiple therapeutic applications, especially for nervous system diseases, using successive application of designer CRISPR RNA drugs. They design a RNA which acts as a guide role to match the sequence of a specific target gene. The RNA guides the Cas9 enzyme to the desired site, where it cuts the DNA. The cell will repair the DNA break imprecisely, thus inactivating the gene. As an alternative, researchers can coax the cell into replacing the section adjacent to the cut with a healthier version of the gene. Now they are testing the CRISPR/Cas9 system in various applications to repair defective genes which cause disease. Above is the workflow of CRISPR/Cas9 system. This new way provides RNA-based, chemically modified drugs to transiently activate the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system. Though the activity is transient, the editing stops when the guiding RNA drug is cleared. An extension of the way can turn off the molecular scissors faster by addition of a second, chemically modified RNA drug that directs inactivation of the gene encoding the Cas9 enzyme. In conclusion, the RNA-based drugs shown in this study have so many advantages over the present CRISPR/Cas9 system in efficiency and selectivity. What's more, they can be synthesized in a short time on an industrial scale with strong commercial feasibility. Know more about CRISPR/Cas9 tools and other gene priducts here>>>http://www.cusabio.com/Recombinant-Protein/Recombinant-Homo-sapiens-Human-T-cell-surface-glycoprotein-CD8-alpha-chain-11090032.html

Two evolutions of disruptive camouflage found in horned praying mantises

A research about horned praying mantises was published by scientists from The Cleveland Museum of Natural History on Nov. 16, 2015 online in the journal Systematic Entomology. This research was led by Dr. Gavin Svenson and assisted by his colleagues. It revised the horned praying mantis group and traced the evolution of its distinctive camouflage features. The researchers identified a new genus and new tribe of praying mantis and found that disruptive camouflage evolved twice within the group. More recently, they discovered the re-evolution of a special leg lobe that disguises the body profile to help the insect hide from predators. Read more about this>>>http://www.cusabio.com/ The research team studied the origins of sixteen features that provide disruptive crypsis for the Central and South American horned praying mantises of the subfamily Vatinae, all of which contribute to their camouflage strategy. A head process or horn and leafy looking lobes on the legs were found in the features. The study covered 33 species and nearly 400 specimens from Museum collections in the United States, South America, Europe and insects Svenson recently sampled from South America. We all know that praying mantises depend on camouflage to protect themselves from predators, but scientists still know little about how their body structures benefit to crypsis evolvement. Now they have known that two mantis lineages evolved structural camouflage millions of years apart in very similar ways. It shows that re-evolution occurred, and also proves that the developmental mechanisms controlling cryptic features may be more ancient than the camouflaged mantises themselves. The scientists got the idea that leafy lobes on the middle and hind legs evolved during the first origin of the horned mantises. Then, one lineage focused on a camouflage strategy and started to accumulate other leg lobes, an extend head process or horn, even lobes on the abdomen, while others lost the early evolved leg lobes and relied only on coloration to mix with vegetation. But there is another tendency that the smaller lineage of mantises within this color camouflaged group began to gain disruptive cryptic features about twenty million years later after the re-evolution of those same early originating leg lobes. The second condition was turned to a strategy of disruptive camouflage appears to have followed a remarkably similar path as the first through the accumulation of leg lobes in the same positions, and a similar extended head process or horn. The scientists thought that the latter one was likely to be controlled by genetic and developmental mechanisms present now. In fact, the ability of evolving camouflage was already in the genetic toolkithttp://www.cusabio.com/Recombinant-Protein/Recombinant-Xenopus-laevis-African-clawed-frog-Transforming-growth-factor-beta-1-11090034.html of the lineage and the features emerged again when it was good for survival. Svenson even considered the mantis groups have disruptive camouflage, and the praying mantises had evolved the ability very early, and they can control it freely in many kinds of ways.

Researchers found mechanism behind the cell stress response of misfolded proteins

So far, no one has completely how cells regulate an appropriate response to the build-up of misfolded proteins. Once cells are under stress, proteins misfold. What's worse, when these misfolded proteins are not properly handled, they can build-up in the cell, resulting in death and disease. To optimize function, cells should maintain the right balance of fixing and clearing out misfolded proteins without taxing the system by responding when the number of damaged proteins is low. New research from the Cornell University was published online on Nov. 9 in Nature Cell Biologyhttp://www.cusabio.com/. It shows a system that controls levels of a cell’s sensors, which is called IRE1α, is responsible for sensing the accumulation of misfolded proteins. IRE1α is found in almost every cell type which trigger the action of a complex named the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD), thus fixing or degrading misfolded proteins before they accumulate. During the research, the researchers found that the ERAD complex actually controls the level of the IRE1α sensor, so it doesn't trigger a major response during normal or low levels of cell stress and protein misfolding. The ERAD complex has the ability of recognizing the sensor and putting it in the trash when there is low level of activation or in basal conditions. The cells need right response because too much of an IRE1α response can lead to cell death. They also found that once in the high levels of cellular stress, when misfolded proteins are accumulating, an intermediary protein called BiP uncouples the IRE1α sensor from ERAD's control. Subsequently, the IRE1α sensor can accumulate and give a response to call the ERAD complex to clear out misfolded proteins, which is just like a process of putting out a fire. The researchers took mice to conduct the research. They disabled the ERAD complex in gut lining cells in mice and discovered that the mice developed colitis with an overt activation of the sensor IRE1α. If the sensor protein level is too high, an unwanted alarm will be triggered. This mechanism seems to be critical in gut lining in the development of colitis, according to the research. More research such as how ERAD recognizes and trashes the IRE1α sensor and other proteins and how the mechanism relates to colitis will be focused on in the near future. More treatment will be developed as a result of this new-found mechanism. You can find more here:http://www.cusabio.com/ELISA-Kit/Human-Interleukin-18IL-18-ELISA-KIT-11090105.html

New metabarcoding approach to boost population of honeybees

Researchers at the Ohio State University are using the latest DNAhttp://www.cusabio.com/ sequencing technology and a supercomputer in order to uncover what honey bees rely on. After several months' research from beehives, they developed a multi-locus metabarcoding approach to identify which plants, and what proportions of each, are present in pollen samples they collected. A beehive can collect pollen from different plant species, and the pollen is a strong evidence of the hive's foraging behavior and nutrition preferences. "Knowing the degree to which certain plants are being foraged upon allows us to infer things like the potential for pesticide exposure in a given landscape, the preference of certain plant species over others, and the degree to which certain plant species contribute to the honey bee diet," says Rodney Richardson, graduate student from the Ohio State University. "One of the major interests of our lab is researching honey bee foraging preferences so we can enhance landscapes to sustain robust honey bee populations." Richardson and his colleagues took metabarcoding as the key to this research. It is a DNA analysis method that enables researchers to identify biological specimens. It works by comparing short genetic sequence "markers" from unidentified biological specimens to libraries of known reference sequences. Metabarcoding can be used to detect biological contaminants in water and food, characterize animal diets from dung samples, and even test air samples for bacteria and fungal spores. When it comes to pollen, it could save a lot of time for researchers to identify and count individual pollen grains under a microscope. The researchers used three specific locations in the genome, or loci, as markers, to devise the new metabarcoding method and found that using multiple loci simultaneously produced the best metabarcoding results for pollen. In their publication in the November issue of Applications in Plant Sciences, they described the entire procedure including DNA extraction, sequencing, and marker analysis. "With a tool like this, we could more easily assess what plants various bee species are relying on, helping to boost their populations as well as the economic and ecological services they provide to our agricultural and natural landscapes." Richardson says, "While the honey bee is seen as our most economically important pollinator, it's only one of several hundred bee species in Ohio, the vast majority of which are greatly understudied in terms of their foraging ecology." The new tool can help humans to assess what plants various bee species are relying on more easily, thus helping to boost their populations. Since the honey bee is seen as the most economically important pollinator, their prosperous population can improve the economic and ecological services they provide to our agricultural and natural landscapes. You may like this>>>http://www.cusabio.com/Clone/VV10542-1089591.html

Wild birds give up food for love

You may never know that animals can give up food chance in order to spend more time with their family. A new study from Oxford University shows that wild birds tend to sacrifice access to food for staying close to their partner during the winter. In an experiment of preventing tits couples from foraging in the same location, scientists from the Department of Zoology found that mated pairs of great tits chose to prioritise their relationships over sustenance. It meant that birds ended up spending a significant amount of time with their partners' mates. The findings were published in the journal Current Biology. The study stressed out the importance of social relationships for wild birds, even though pursuing those relationships which are harmful to them. We can get the conclusion from the study that even in wild animals, an individual's behavior can be governed by aiming to accommodate the needs of those they are socially attached to. This research about the wild birds is benefit for scientists to learn more about social relationship in wild life. Besides humans, the facts that species give up food for love also happens in wild life. Read more as you like>>>http://www.cusabio.com/Clone/rpmE2-1089585.html

Electrochemical Aptasensor for the Detection of Ochratoxin A Based on DNA Super-Tree Structures

A paper published recently shows that a nonlinear hybridization chain reaction, magnetic separationand printed electrodes were used to construct an electrochemical aptasensor for the sensitive detection of OTA based on DNA super-tree structures. First, capture probes were accurately modified on the surface of MBs and hybridized with the added partly complementary OTA aptamer probe, constituting a magnetic sensor platform of analysis, separation and detection. In the presence of OTA, a series of non-linear hybrid chain reaction could occur upon adding of substrate probes and auxiliary probes, resulting in the formation of DNA super-tree structures. Finally, the MBs were adsorbed onto the surface of printed electrode for electrochemical detection. Under optimal conditions, the detection limit was up to 8 fg / mL. This method was expected to provide an efficient, fast, easy, economical and portable way for mycotoxins detection, and would guarantee the quality and safety of agricultural products. YOU MAY LIKE THIS>>>http://www.cusabio.com/Clone/CT0239-1089564.html

Prokaryotic Expression Analysis of A PpCAD Gene from Elephant Grass

Cinnamyl Alcohol Dehydrogenase (CAD), a multifunctional enzyme that catalyzes the last step in lignin monolignol biosynthesis, has significant meanings to plant lignification improvement. In the present study, a prokaryotic expression vector of pGEX-PpCAD was constructed based on the cDNA sequence of PpCAD gene, aiming to investigate the in vitro expression property of PpCAD protein. The E. coli strain BL21 was used as expression host. The results showed that soluble fusion protein GST-PpCAD could be induced under the condition of 0.02 mmol/L IPTG, 28℃ and 60 min, but the expression level was low. The induced fusion protein was about 69 kDa and the PpCAD was about 40 kDa, which was consistent with the prediction. Meanwhile, fusion protein would convert to inclusion body with increase of induction time, and it was mostly existed in inclusion body no matter how to optimize induction conditions. Ethyl alcohol and low temperature treatment would slow down the induction of fusion protein, but had no effect on the inclusion body. Frozen treatment was conductive to the extraction of inclusion bodies. Refer to this link:http://www.cusabio.com/Clone/dnaT-1089563.html

Newly-developed white blood cells to destroy cancer cells in lymph nodes

Biomedical engineers from Cornell University have developed specialized white blood cells that seek out cancer cells in lymph nodes and destroy them. This is the only purpose of the newly-developed super natural killer cells. This great breakthrough is published in the journal Biomaterials. The lymph nodes for the tumor play an important role in advancing metastasis through the body. During the research, the engineers killed the cancerous tumor cells within days by injecting liposomes armed with TRAIL that attach to "natural killer" cells. It's a type of white blood cell resides in the lymph nodes. These natural killer cells find the cancerous cells and induce apoptosis, where the cancer cells self-destruct and disintegrate, thus preventing the lymphatic spread of cancer any further. In their research, they used nanoparticles - the liposomes they have created with TRAIL protein, and attach them to natural killer cells to create the super natural killer cells and then lymph node metastases in mice were eliminated, according to Michael R. King, the Daljit S. and Elaine Sarkaria Professor of Biomedical Engineering and senior author of the paper. King and other biomedical engineers showed their hope that lymph node metastasis become a thing of the past. Read more as you like:http://www.cusabio.com/Clone/ndhI-1089562.html

The importance of the research on C-reactive protein

As we know that C-reactive protein (CRP) is an annular (ring-shaped), pentameric protein found in blood plasma, whose levels rise in response to inflammation. It is a typical acute phase protein of inflammation. The concentration of CRP can raise more than 1,000 times in the acute condition. CRP is mainly expressed in hepatic cells and secreted to the plasma. At present, CRP can be used as a nonspecific marker of inflammation in clinical test. It was proved to be a predictor of athereosclerosis these years. The basal level concentration of CRP in plasma is related to the risk of atherogenesis. However, the precise function of CRP is not clear so far in inflammationary regulation and atherogenesis. So the current situation of C-reactive protein and the research on it is quite important. Extended reading recommended for you>>>http://www.cusabio.com/Recombinant-Protein/Recombinant-mouse-Glucagon-like-peptide-1-receptor-11089633.html

New method to identify to find Reproducible Drug-resistance-related Desregulated Genes

In microarray experiments for comparing gene expression profiles of two groups of cell lines, one of the most popular experimental designs is to measure only a few (e.g., two or three) technical replicates and detect differentially expressed genes by FC with a cutoff value. Apparently, genes with high expression levels in one group are hardly to be identified to be desregulated and genes with low expression levels tend to have large FC introduced by random measurement fluctuations. Besides, the cutoff value is usually arbitrarily. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the character of methods that commonly used in small cell line datasets and develop some new methods which are suitable for these datasets. PD algorithm proposed in this paper can identify significantly reproducible DE genes with a stringent FDR on 4 small resistant-sensitive cell lines datasets and significantly enriched in many biological pathways known to be related with drug resistance of the corresponding drugs. SAM and RP could identify DE genes in datasets at least three pairs of samples and they were all biased to find genes with low expression levels. Besides, SAM or RP might miss many drug resistance-related biological pathways which could be identified by PD. Therefore, the PD algorithm is an effective supplementary method to SAM and RP. Refer to this link:http://www.cusabio.com/Recombinant-Protein/Recombinant-Escherichia-coli-strain-K12-Signal-peptidase-I-11089634.html