浅谈牛奶的营养价值与健康的密切关系

研究德宏奶水牛乳腺组织FASN基因表达水平及水牛FASN蛋白的生物学特性。

用乳成分分析仪测定乳脂率,并按照乳脂率将德宏奶水牛分为高(H)、中(M)、低(L)组;运用qPCR法测定乳腺组织FASN基因的表达水平,分析其与乳脂率的相关性;运用生物信息学方法分析水牛FASN蛋白的理化性质及结构特征。

H组德宏奶水牛乳腺组织的FASN基因表达水平极显著高于L组和M组(P<0.01),M组极显著高于L组(P<0.01),其mRNA表达水平与乳脂率呈极显著正相关(P<0.01)。水牛FASN蛋白的分子式为C₁₂₁₈₈H₁₉₃₂₇N₃₃₆₃O₃₆₃₁S₁₀₉,分子质量为274.56 ku,蛋白不稳定;在细胞内主要分布于细胞核;具有2个结构域,均与脂类合成代谢有关;二级结构以α-螺旋和无规则卷曲为主;进化树及同源性分析显示：水牛FASN蛋白与牦牛和家牛的亲缘关系较近,序列同源性较高;FASN主要与ACACB、ACACA和ACLY互作较为紧密。

德宏奶水牛乳腺组织中FASN基因表达可能促进乳脂率提高。

     

Dissecting and exploiting intermodular communication in polyketide synthases

Modular polyketide synthases catalyze the biosynthesis of medicinally important natural products through an assembly-line mechanism. Although these megasynthases display very precise overall selectivity, we show that their constituent modules are remarkably tolerant toward diverse incoming acyl chains. By appropriate engineering of linkers, which exist within and between polypeptides, it is possible to exploit this tolerance to facilitate the transfer of biosynthetic intermediates between unnaturally linked modules. This protein engineering strategy also provides insights into the evolution of modular polyketide synthases.     

Cis-AT和Trans-AT聚酮合酶及其特殊功能域研究进展

聚酮合酶(Polyketide synthase,PKS)是产生聚酮化合物的模块化复合酶,聚酮合酶能产生数量众多并具有生物活性的聚酮类天然产物。近年来一类与cis-AT聚酮合酶存在较大差异的trans-AT聚酮合酶被广泛研究。文章介绍cis-AT聚酮合酶与trans-AT聚酮合酶区别及trans-AT聚酮合酶基因簇中特殊功能域研究进展,展望利用功能域改造基因簇研究方向,以期为天然产物改造提供新靶点。     

Free-radical carbon-carbon bond formation in organic synthesis

Organic chemists have begun to use intra- and intermolecular free-radical addition reactions to develop useful synthetic transformations. Carboncentered radicals can form bonds with electron-rich or electron-deficient alkenes, allenes, and acetylenes. Radical addition reactions can also be used to construct hindered carbon-carbon bonds. These characteristics, as well as the large number of functional groups that tolerate free-radical conditions contribute to the importance of such reactions in organic synthesis.     

A functional model for O-O bond formation by the O2-evolving complex in photosystem II

The formation of molecular oxygen from water in photosynthesis is catalyzed by photosystem II at an active site containing four manganese ions that are arranged in di-mu-oxo dimanganese units (where mu is a bridging mode). The complex [H2O(terpy)Mn(O)2Mn(terpy)OH2](NO3)3 (terpy is 2,2':6', 2"-terpyridine), which was synthesized and structurally characterized, contains a di-mu-oxo manganese dimer and catalyzes the conversion of sodium hypochlorite to molecular oxygen. Oxygen-18 isotope labeling showed that water is the source of the oxygen atoms in the molecular oxygen evolved, and so this system is a functional model for photosynthetic water oxidation.     

RNA-mediated metal-metal bond formation in the synthesis of hexagonal palladium nanoparticles

RNA sequences have been discovered that mediate the growth of hexagonal palladium nanoparticles. In vitro selection techniques were used to evolve an initial library of approximately 10(14) unique RNA sequences through eight cycles of selection to yield several active sequence families. Of the five families, all representative members could form crystalline hexagonal palladium platelets. The palladium particle growth occurred in aqueous solution at ambient temperature, without any endogenous reducing agent, and at low concentrations of metal precursor (100 micromolar). Relative to metal precursor, the RNA concentration was significantly lower (1 micromolar), yet micrometer-size crystalline hexagonal palladium particles were formed rapidly (7.5 to 1 minutes).     

GNAT-like strategy for polyketide chain initiation

An unexpected biochemical strategy for chain initiation is described for the loading module of the polyketide synthase of curacin A, an anticancer lead derived from the marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula. A central GCN5-related N-acetyltransferase (GNAT) domain bears bifunctional decarboxylase/S-acetyltransferase activity, both unprecedented for the GNAT superfamily. A CurA loading tridomain, consisting of an adaptor domain, the GNAT domain, and an acyl carrier protein, was assessed biochemically, revealing that a domain showing homology to GNAT (GNAT(L)) catalyzes (i) decarboxylation of malonyl-coenzyme A (malonyl-CoA) to acetyl-CoA and (ii) direct S-acetyl transfer from acetyl-CoA to load an adjacent acyl carrier protein domain (ACP(L)). Moreover, the N-terminal adapter domain was shown to facilitate acetyl-group transfer. Crystal structures of GNAT(L) were solved at 1.95 angstroms (ligand-free form) and 2.75 angstroms (acyl-CoA complex), showing distinct substrate tunnels for acyl-CoA and holo-ACP(L) binding. Modeling and site-directed mutagenesis experiments demonstrated that histidine-389 and threonine-355, at the convergence of the CoA and ACP tunnels, participate in malonyl-CoA decarboxylation but not in acetyl-group transfer. Decarboxylation precedes acetyl-group transfer, leading to acetyl-ACP(L) as the key curacin A starter unit.     

Imaging bond formation between a gold atom and pentacene on an insulating surface

A covalent bond between an individual pentacene molecule and a gold atom was formed by means of single-molecule chemistry inside a scanning tunneling microscope junction. The bond formation is reversible, and different structural isomers can be produced. The single-molecule synthesis was done on ultrathin insulating films that electronically isolated the reactants and products from their environment. Direct imaging of the orbital hybridization upon bond formation provides insight into the energetic shifts and occupation of the molecular resonances.     

真菌聚酮合酶基因研究进展

真菌聚酮化合物是一类重要的次生代谢产物,其结构和功能多样,生物学活性广泛.聚酮合酶(Polyketide synthase,PKS)是催化聚酮化合物合成的关键酶.近几年,随着基因组测序技术、分子生物学技术和遗传分析工具、表达宿主、重组酶制剂等的发展,真菌聚酮合酶基因的研究取得了许多新的进展.文章对近年来在真菌聚酮合酶基因获得、基因功能验证及真菌聚酮合酶基因工程方面的研究进展进行了综述,并对该领域的研究热点进行了展望.     

Deconstruction of iterative multidomain polyketide synthase function

PksA, which initiates biosynthesis of the environmental carcinogen aflatoxin B1, is one of the multidomain iterative polyketide synthases (IPKSs), a large, poorly understood family of biosynthetic enzymes. We found that dissection of PksA and its reconstitution from selected sets of domains allows the accumulation and characterization of advanced octaketide intermediates bound to the enzyme, permitting the reactions controlled by individual catalytic domains to be identified. A product template (PT) domain unites with the ketosynthase and thioesterase in this IPKS system to assemble precisely seven malonyl-derived building blocks to a hexanoyl starter unit and mediate a specific cyclization cascade. Because the PT domain is common among nonreducing IPKSs, these mechanistic features should prove to be general for IPKS-catalyzed production of aromatic polyketides.     

Control of enzyme activity by an engineered disulfide bond

A novel approach to the control of enzyme catalysis is presented in which a disulfide bond engineered into the active-site cleft of bacteriophage T4 lysozyme is capable of switching the activity on and off. Two cysteines (Thr21----Cys and Thr142----Cys) were introduced by oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis into the active-site cleft. These cysteines spontaneously formed a disulfide bond under oxidative conditions in vitro, and the catalytic activity of the oxidized (cross-linked) T4 lysozyme was completely lost. On exposure to reducing agent, however, the disulfide bond was rapidly broken, and the reduced (non-cross-linked) lysozyme was restored to full activity. Thus an enzyme has been engineered such that redox potential can be used to control catalytic activity.     

Modular organization of genes required for complex polyketide biosynthesis

In Saccharopolyspora erythraea, the genes that govern synthesis of the polyketide portion of the macrolide antibiotic erythromycin are organized in six repeated units that encode fatty acid synthase (FAS)-like activities. Each repeated unit is designated a module, and two modules are contained in a single open reading frame. A model for the synthesis of this complex polyketide is proposed, where each module encodes a functional synthase unit and each synthase unit participates specifically in one of the six FAS-like elongation steps required for formation of the polyketide. In addition, genetic organization and biochemical order of events appear to be colinear. Evidence for the model is provided by construction of a selected mutant and by isolation of a polyketide of predicted structure.     

Bone: formation by autoinduction

Wandering histiocytes, foreign body giant cells, and inflammatory connective-tissue cells are stimulated by degradation products of dead matrix to grow in and repopulate the area of an implant of decalcified bone. Histiocytes are more numerous than any other cell form and may transfer collagenolytic activity to the substrate to cause dissolution of the matrix. The process is followed immediately by new-bone formation by autoinduction in which both the inductor cells and the induced cells are derived from ingrowing cells of the host bed. The inductor cell is a descendant of a wandering histiocyte; the induced cell is a fixed histiocyte or perivascular young connective-tissue cell. Differentiation of the osteoprogenitor cell is elicited by local alterations in cell metabolic cycles that are as yet uncharacterized.