Hox10 and Hox11 genes are required to globally pattern the mammalian skeleton

Mice in which all members of the Hox10 or Hox11 paralogous group are disrupted provide evidence that these Hox genes are involved in global patterning of the axial and appendicular skeleton. In the absence of Hox10 function, no lumbar vertebrae are formed. Instead, ribs project from all posterior vertebrae, extending caudally from the last thoracic vertebrae to beyond the sacral region. In the absence of Hox11 function, sacral vertebrae are not formed and instead these vertebrae assume a lumbar identity. The redundancy among these paralogous family members is so great that this global aspect of Hox patterning is not apparent in mice that are mutant for five of the six paralogous alleles.     

团头鲂形态发育相关基因HoxB1b的克隆及功能研究

脊椎动物Hox族基因是一类重要的生长和发育调控基因,它编码具有螺旋—转角—螺旋结构的转录因子,能与下游靶基因特定区域结合并激活表达,从而调节脊椎动物胚胎发育过程中前后轴的形态建成。利用cDNA末端快速扩增法(RACE)克隆了团头鲂(Megalobrama amblycephala)HoxB1b基因的全长cDNA序列,并研究了该基因的表达模式。结果表明:(1)团头鲂HoxB1b基因cDNA全长为1 479 bp,其中包括一个编码306个氨基酸残基的921 bp阅读框,聚类分析结果表明,该基因与斑马鱼、红鳍东方鲀、青鳉的相似度分别为89%、45%、40%,在脊椎动物中具有一定的保守性;(2)RT-PCR分析结果显示,HoxB1b在团头鲂胚胎发育过程的各时期均有稳定表达,但在成熟卵中未检测到该基因的表达,表明该基因属非母源表达类型。进一步的整胚原位杂交结果显示,HoxB1b在团头鲂不同时期胚胎存在明显的空间表达差异,受精后20 h(20 hours post fertilization,20hpf)胚胎主要在后脑表达,受精后40 h(40hpf)胚胎除了在后脑表达外,在胸鳍也检测到表达;(3)HoxB1b基因在团头...     

Origins of bilateral symmetry: Hox and dpp expression in a sea anemone

Over 99% of modern animals are members of the evolutionary lineage Bilateria. The evolutionary success of Bilateria is credited partly to the origin of bilateral symmetry. Although animals of the phylum Cnidaria are not within the Bilateria, some representatives, such as the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, exhibit bilateral symmetry. We show that Nematostella uses homologous genes to achieve bilateral symmetry: Multiple Hox genes are expressed in a staggered fashion along its primary body axis, and the transforming growth factor-beta gene decapentaplegic (dpp) is expressed in an asymmetric fashion about its secondary body axis. These data suggest that bilateral symmetry arose before the evolutionary split of Cnidaria and Bilateria.     

Hoxc13 Expression Pattern in Cashmere Goat Skin During Hair Follicle Development

Hoxc13 has an important role in controlling hair formation. In this study, we examine the Hoxc13 RNA expression pattern of skin during embryo development. The result indicated that changes of the Hoxe13 gene expression and thickness of skin have a similar trend during hair follicle morphogenesis. In interpreting these results, we investigated whether the regulation motifs is in Hoxc13 intron, which is a 5.4 kb fragment. To blast with other mammals, we found a very conservative region in all mammal animals and two regions in livestock, such as cow, sheep, horse, dog, and so on, which are not in other Hox genes. We have examined putative pre-miRNA in this region, providing an entry point for elucidating currently unknown mechanisms that are required for regulating quantitative levels of Hoxc13 gene expression.     

猪繁殖候选基因HoxA10的克隆及表达分析

同源异形盒A10基因(Homeobox 10 gene,HoxA10)是Hox基因家族中重要一员,与子宫形态的发生,生育期子宫内膜的周期性形态发育密切相关,是与猪繁殖性状相关的重要候选基因.以长白猪为材料,采用RT-PCR方法,克隆了猪HoxA10基因,并用Real-Time PCR测定该基因在猪各组织器官中的表达.结果表明,从猪子宫组织中克隆获得HoxA10基因cDNA长538 bp,包括1个285 bp的开放阅读框,编码合成94个氨基酸残基,与人和小鼠的HoxA序列同源性分别为98.9%和97.9%;在猪各组织中,前肌是HoxA10基因表达量最高的组织,其次为肾、子宫、后肌、输卵管、大肠、腹脂等组织,在垂体、大脑、小脑、丘脑、卵巢、肺、胃、小肠、背肌、背膘中,HoxA10的表达很低或基本无表达.     

MsxC基因在斑马鱼肌间刺和大侧肌发育中的作用

肌间刺存在于有些真骨鱼类的肌间隔中。已有研究表明，作为Hox基因家族成员，MsxC（muscle segment homeobox C）基因的表达模式与唇鱼骨肌间刺形成有一定的相关性。为了进一步探究MsxC基因在肌间刺形成中的作用，本研究利用CRISPR/Cas9基因编辑技术，建立了斑马鱼MsxC基因纯合突变体（MsxC-/-）。结果表明，与野生型斑马鱼相比，MsxC-/-斑马鱼尾部的髓弓小骨和脉弓小骨平均缩短15%以上，差异极显著，而躯干部的肌间刺长度则无明显差异；MsxC-/-斑马鱼大侧肌肌隔周围白肌细胞分布疏松，且排列混乱，越靠近尾部差异越明显；MsxC-/-突变体红肌面积增大，越靠近尾部，红肌面积增大越明显，尾部红肌面积增大2.22%（p<0.01），而躯干靠前部位面积增大0.97%（p<0.05）。以上结果表明，MsxC基因的缺失既影响了肌间刺的形成，同时也影响了大侧肌的发育。     

Small interannual variability of global atmospheric hydroxyl

The oxidizing capacity of the global atmosphere is largely determined by hydroxyl (OH) radicals and is diagnosed by analyzing methyl chloroform (CH(3)CCl(3)) measurements. Previously, large year-to-year changes in global mean OH concentrations have been inferred from such measurements, suggesting that the atmospheric oxidizing capacity is sensitive to perturbations by widespread air pollution and natural influences. We show how the interannual variability in OH has been more precisely estimated from CH(3)CCl(3) measurements since 1998, when atmospheric gradients of CH(3)CCl(3) had diminished as a result of the Montreal Protocol. We infer a small interannual OH variability as a result, indicating that global OH is generally well buffered against perturbations. This small variability is consistent with measurements of methane and other trace gases oxidized primarily by OH, as well as global photochemical model calculations.     

Vitamin K2 is a mitochondrial electron carrier that rescues pink1 deficiency

Human UBIAD1 localizes to mitochondria and converts vitamin K(1) to vitamin K(2). Vitamin K(2) is best known as a cofactor in blood coagulation, but in bacteria it is a membrane-bound electron carrier. Whether vitamin K(2) exerts a similar carrier function in eukaryotic cells is unknown. We identified Drosophila UBIAD1/Heix as a modifier of pink1, a gene mutated in Parkinson's disease that affects mitochondrial function. We found that vitamin K(2) was necessary and sufficient to transfer electrons in Drosophila mitochondria. Heix mutants showed severe mitochondrial defects that were rescued by vitamin K(2), and, similar to ubiquinone, vitamin K(2) transferred electrons in Drosophila mitochondria, resulting in more efficient adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production. Thus, mitochondrial dysfunction was rescued by vitamin K(2) that serves as a mitochondrial electron carrier, helping to maintain normal ATP production.     

Soviet psychology and psychophysiology

Pavlov's experiments, begun long before the revolution, have always been generously supported by the Soviet state. However, their far-reaching ontological and methodological implication gained an official and commanding position to Soviet biomedical and psychosocial (as distinct from socioeconomic) sciences only in 1950 with the Resolution of the 28 June-4 July Joint Pavlovian Session of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and Academy of Medical Sciences. In the biomedical sciences, present-day Soviet Pavlovianism may best be conceived of as (i) a doctrine of nervism (a Russian term)-the ubiquity of neural control of bodily reactions (neural, neurosomatic, neurovisceral, and neurohumoral) and (ii) a doctrine of what might be called concomitantism (my term )-the ready and radical modification of these reactions by concomitant reactions; or, viewed more generally and somewhat differently, as (iii) a far-reaching physicalistic psychosomaticism or, rather, a neuroviscerosomaticism. Psychophysiology-or higher nervous activity-is the key discipline here. With scores of research institutes, it is indeed a very well-established, wide-scoped, and faradvanced faradvanced science that, in both present achievements and future capabilities, is a challenge to American and Western equivalents. On the other hand, in the psychosocial sciences and the key discipline of psychology proper, unmitigated Pavlovian physicalism and objectivism is met head on by (i) the unbending postulate of dialectical materialism of "the specific emergent efficacy of consciousness and subjective conscious categories" as well as by (ii) the simple consideration that a consistent Pavlovianism is a fully autarchic psychology and needs no other science of psychology on top of it. A large portion of current Soviet psychological theory in psychology proper is thus primarily a textual and exegetic collation and conciliation of the views of Pavlov with those of Marx, Engels, and Lenin (until recently and, to some extent even now, also of Stalin), just as most current Soviet psychological experimentation in psychology proper is primarily a duplication of what Soviet psychophysiology could do as well, if not better. Moreover, there is the longstanding drastic ban on intelligence testing, psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, and other to-be-shunned "bourgeois-psychological" thought-and-practice systems, so that, in all, psychology proper is a much constricted and, per se, more ancilliary than basic discipline of Soviet empirical research-a state of affairs plainly reflected in the fact that the number of its research institutes and publications (as well as the number of psychologists proper) is but a small fraction of the number in psychophysiology. Yet, in evaluating our efforts in the area vis-à-vis those of the Soviets, we must, obviously, take full account of both disciplines, Soviet psychophysiology being in all respects a psychology in American terms (60). Indeed, it is Soviet psychophysiology, and not Soviet psychology proper, that is the homolog not only of American behavioristics but also, to a large extent, of all American experimental psychology.     

Molecular self-assembly of two-terminal, voltammetric microsensors with internal references

Self-assembly of a ferrocenyl thiol and a quinone thiol onto Au microelectrodes forms the basis for a new microsensor concept: a two-terminal, voltammetric microsensor with reference and sensor functions on the same electrode. The detection is based on measurement of the potential difference of current peaks for oxidation and reduction of the reference (ferrocene) and indicator (quinone) in aqueous electrolyte in a two-terminal, linear sweep voltammogram in which a counterelectrode of relatively large surface area is used. The quinone has a half-wave potential, E((1/2)), that is pH-sensitive and can be used as a pH indicator; the ferrocene center has an E(1/2) that is a pH-insensitive reference. The key advantages are that such sensors require no separate reference electrode and function as long as current peaks can be located for reference and indicator molecules.     

The cholinergic synapse and the site of memory

A simple hypothesis can explain the results obtained to date if we disregard those results when we wait 30 minutes after original learning to inject. The hypothesis is that, as a result of learning, the postsynaptic endings at a specific set of synapses become more sensitive to transmitter. This sensitivity increases with time after initial learning and then declines. The rate at which such sensitivity increases depends on the amount of initial learning. If the curve of transmission plotted against time is displaced upward with anticholinesterases then the very low portions will show facilitation, and the high portions will cause block (Fig. 8). The middle portions will appear unaffected (unless special experimental tests are made). If the curve of transmission is displaced down with anticholinergics, then the middle portion will appear unaffected and only the very early or late components will show block. The results are evidence that synaptic conductance is altered as a result of learning. So far it seems (i) that cholinergic synapses are modified as a result of learning and that it probably is the postsynaptic membrane that becomes increasingly more sensitive to acetylcholine with time after learning, up to a certain point. (ii) After this point, sensitivity declines, leading to the phenomenon of forgetting. (iii) There is also good evidence that there is an initial phase of declining sensitivity to cholinesterase or increasing sensitivity to anticholinergics. This could reflect the existence of a parallel set of synapses with fast decay that serve as a shortterm store. (iv) Increasing the amount of learning leads to an increase in conductance in each of a set of synapses without an increase in their number. (v) Both original learning and extinction are subserved by cholinergic synapses.