Use of serum amyloid A in equine medicine and surgery

Serum amyloid A (SAA) has become an indispensable part of the management of equine patients in general practice and specialized hospital settings. Although several proteins possess acute phase properties in horses, the usefulness of SAA exceeds that of other acute phase proteins. This is due to the highly desirable kinetics of the equine SAA response. SAA concentrations exhibit a rapid and pronounced increase in response to inflammation and a rapid decline after the resolution of inflammation. This facilitates the detection of inflammatory disease and real-time monitoring of inflammatory activity. SAA may be used in all stages of patient management: (1) before diagnosis (to rule in/rule out inflammatory disease), (2) at the time of diagnosis (to assess the severity of inflammation and assist in prognostication), and (3) after diagnosis (to monitor changes in inflammatory activity in response to therapy, with relapse of disease, or with infectious/inflammatory complications). By assessing other acute phase reactants in addition to SAA, clinicians can succinctly stage inflammation. White blood cell counts and serum iron concentration change within hours of an inflammatory insult, SAA within a day, and fibrinogen within 2–3 days; the interrelationship of these markers thus indicates the duration and activity of the inflammatory condition. Much research on the equine SAA response and clinical use has been conducted in the last decade. This is the prerequisite for the evidence-based use of this analyte. However, still today, most published studies involve a fairly low number of horses. To obtain solid evidence for use of SAA, future studies should be designed with larger sample sizes.     

Development and identification of glyphosate-tolerant transgenic soybean via direct selection with glyphosate

Glyphosate-tolerant soybean is the most widely planted genetically modified crop worldwide. However, soybean remains recalcitrant to routine transformation because of the low infection efficiency of Agrobacterium to soybean and lack of useful selectable markers. In this study, several Agrobacterium strains and cell densities were compared by transient expression of the GUS gene. The results showed that Agrobacterium strain Ag10 at cell densities of OD_(600) of 0.6–0.9 yielded the highest infection efficiency in Agrobacterium-mediated soybean cotyledonary node transformation system. Meanwhile, a simple and rapid method was developed for identification of glyphosate tolerance in putative T_0 transgenic plants, consisting of spotting plantlets with 1 μL Roundup~?. The whole cycle of genetic transformation could be shortened to about 3 mon by highly efficient selection with glyphosate during the transformation process and application of the spot assay in putative T_0 transgenic plantlets. The transformation frequency ranged from 2.9 to 5.6%. This study provides an improved protocol for development and identification of glyphosate-tolerant transgenic soybeans.     

利用凝胶扩散法测定刺萼龙葵种子中β-甘露聚糖酶的活性

β-甘露聚糖酶是种子萌发过程中降解胚乳细胞壁的关键酶,明确其活性的动态变化可为揭示杂草种子的休眠萌发机制提供重要依据。以外来杂草刺萼龙葵Solanum rostratum Dunal种子为材料,建立了种子中β-甘露聚糖酶活性的检测方法—凝胶扩散法。利用凝胶扩散法对不同贮存时间及贮存条件下刺萼龙葵种子中β-甘露聚糖酶的活性进行了检测,发现贮存3年以上的种子中该酶的活性为0.03 nmol/(min·mg),显著低于贮存3年以下的种子中的酶活性0.15 nmol/(min·mg),而湿润冷藏的种子中β-甘露聚糖酶的活性为0.12 nmol/(min·mg),显著高于干燥冷藏的种子的酶活性0.02 nmol/(min·mg)。实际应用结果表明,凝胶扩散法综合了传统方法的优势,检测特异性强、灵敏度高、重复性好,可同时检测大量种子样品,具有良好的实用性。     

华北地区十字花科芸薹属蔬菜上立枯丝核菌的病原生物学研究

 由丝核菌引起的十字花科蔬菜叶腐和茎基腐病在中国华北地区普遍发生,其中以河北、内蒙以及北京较为严重。2011~2018年,从华北地区不同省份具有典型叶腐和茎基腐症状的芸苔属蔬菜上分离获得95个丝核菌(Rhizoctonia spp.)分离物,大多数分离自发病植株的叶部,少数分离自茎基部。通过细胞核染色,87株菌属于多核丝核菌,另外8株属于双核丝核菌;经菌丝融合鉴定、rDNA-ITS区及TEF-1α(translation elongation factor 1-alpha, TEF-1α)序列分析,大多数多核丝核菌属于立枯丝核菌(Rhizoctonia solani)AG-2-1(74％),其他少数分别属于AG-1-IB(16％)、AG-4-HG II(2％)和双核丝核菌AG-A(8％)。温室条件下进行寄主范围致病力测定,各分离物对原寄主都表现出致病力,呈现典型叶腐或茎基腐症状;对其他作物的致病力差异较大。不同融合群(Anastomosis group,AG)的菌株对寄主致病力大小存在差异,AG-2-1致病力最强,只有AG-A对叶部没有致病力。AG-2-1对寄主叶部的致病力和对茎基部的致病力呈显著正相关,AG-1-IB对寄主叶部的致病力和对茎基部的致病力无显著相关性。     

Aquatic birnavirus induces apoptosis through activated caspase-8 and -3 in a zebrafish cell line

In this study, the possible influence of temperature on infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV)-induced apoptosis in a zebrafish liver epithelium (ZLE) cell line was investigated. At a lower temperature (18 degrees C), there was expression of viral proteins VP2 and VP3 at 4 h post-infection (p.i.). At this time no expression was found in the high temperature group at 28 degrees C. The cell survival ratio was 52 and 18% at 24 and 48 h p.i., respectively, during IPNV infection at 18 degrees C. In addition, we assayed for apoptosis in IPNV-infected cells with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated end labelling (TUNEL) of DNA at different dosages of virus. We found a ratio of apoptotic cells of 8 and 25% at 12 and 18 h p.i., respectively, in the multiplicity of infection (MOI) 1 group. The MOI 10 group had 20 and 45% apoptotic cells at 12 and 18 h, respectively. Furthermore, at 18 degrees C IPNV activated the caspase-8 and 3 from 1.5 to 2 times at 12 and 18 h p.i., respectively. Taken together, these findings suggest that successful virus replication occurs at the low temperature (18 degrees C) compared with the non-permissive temperature of 28 degrees C. Thus, IPNV replication is capable of activating caspase-8 and -3 and inducing host apoptosis.     

Cloning and expression of a surface immunogenic protein in Streptococcus dysgalactiae isolated from fish and its application in enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays to diagnose S. dysgalactiae infections in fish

Lancefield group C Streptococcus dysgalactiae (GCSD) causes severe necrotic lesions in the caudal peduncle in the genus Seriola farmed in Japan. To develop a sero‐diagnostic method for GCSD infection in farmed fish, we attempted to identify a surface immunogenic protein that induces an antibody after infection with GCSD by immunoblot analysis using sera collected from infected fish. A protein obtained from sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) extracts of GCSD was identified as S. dysgalactiae surface immunogenic protein (Sd‐Sip). Sd‐Sip exhibited more than 94% homology with a surface antigen or a hypothetical protein from S. dysgalactiae mammalian isolates at the nucleotide sequence level. Expression of the recombinant Sd‐Sip (rSd‐Sip) was confirmed by immunoblot analysis, that is, its reactivity to GCSD‐infected sera. Antibody detection ELISA using rSd‐Sip and their usefulness for diagnosis of GCSD infection were examined. GCSD‐infected sera collected from farmed amberjack, Seriola dumerili (Risso), showed strong reaction with immobilized rSd‐Sip. Meanwhile, sera immunized by other pathogenic bacteria of fish were showed ELISA values similar to those of non‐infected sera. These results of this study suggest that the antibody detection ELISA using rSd‐Sip is an effective diagnostic method for GCSD infection in fish.     

奥尔森帕金虫环介导等温扩增(LAMP)检测方法的建立及应用

奥尔森帕金虫是重要的贝类病原性寄生虫之一,为建立快速、灵敏、准确和使用简便的检测方法,实验根据奥尔森帕金虫5.8S rDNA中的内转录间隔区(internal transcribedspacer,ITS)序列,建立了环介导等温扩增(loop-mediated isothermal amplification,LAMP)检测方法,并对反应温度、反应体系中Mg2+浓度和反应时间进行了优化。该方法的检测灵敏度约为30拷贝质粒DNA,并且特异性较强,与海水帕金虫、包纳米虫、波豆虫及急性病毒性坏死病毒(acute viral necrosis virus,AVNV)等病原均无交叉反应。使用LAMP法对两批菲律宾蛤仔样品进行检测,结果表明,LAMP检测与传统PCR检测相比,灵敏度更高,检测结果更准确。实验所建立的奥尔森帕金虫LAMP检测方法简单、快速、灵敏且特异性强,可以在沿海贝类养殖厂及条件简陋的实验室使用。