Interaction between Thymidylate Synthase and Its Cognate mRNA in Zebrafish Embryos

Thymidylate synthase (TS), which catalyzes the de novo synthesis of dUMP, is an important target for cancer therapy. In this report, the effects of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and ZD1694 on the regulation of TS gene expression were evaluated in zebrafish embryos. Our results revealed that the expression of TS was increased by about six-fold when embryos were treated with 1.0 mu M 5-FU and there was a greater than 10-fold increase in the TS protein level after treatment with 0.4 mu M ZD1694. Northern blot analysis confirmed that expression of TS mRNA was identical in treated or untreated embryos. Gel shift and immunoprecipitation assays revealed that zebrafish TS was specifically bound with its cognate mRNA in vitro and in vivo. We identified a 20 nt RNA sequence, TS:N20, localized to the 5'-UTR of TS mRNA, which corresponded to nt 13-32; TS:N20 bound to the TS protein with an affinity similar to that of the full-length TS mRNA. The MFold program predicted that TS:N20 formed a stable stem-loop structure similar to that of the cis-acting element found in human TS mRNA. Variant RNAs with either a deletion or mutation in the core motif of TS:N20 were unable to bind to the TS protein. In vitro translation experiments, using the rabbit lysate system, confirmed that zebrafish TS mRNA translation was significantly repressed when an excess amount of TS protein was included in the system. Additionally, a TS stability experiment confirmed that treatment of zebrafish embryos with 5-FU could increase the TS stability significantly, and the half life of TS protein was about 2.7 times longer than in untreated embryos. Our study revealed a structural requirement for the interaction of TS RNA with TS protein. These findings also demonstrated that the increase in TS protein induced by 5-FU occurs at the post-transcriptional level and that increased stability and translation efficiency both contributed to the increase in TS protein levels induced by TS inhibitors.

Periodical mixing of MORB magmas near East Pacific Rise 13N: evidence from modeling and zoned plagioclase phenocrysts

Thirty-six basalt samples from near East Pacific Rise 13N are analyzed for major and trace elements. Different types of zoned plagioclase phenocrysts in basalts are also backscatter imaged, and major element profiles scanned and analyzed for microprobe. Basalts dredged from a restricted area have evolved to different extents (MgO=9.38wt%-6.76wt%). High MgO basalts are modeled for crystallization to MgO of about 7wt%, and resulted in the Ni contents (28 ppm) that are generally lower than that in observed basalts (> 60 ppm). It suggests that low MgO basalts may have experienced more intensive magma mixing. High MgO (9.38wt%) basalt is modeled for self-"mixing-crystallization", and the high Ni contents in low MgO basalts can be generated in small scale and periodical self-mixing of new magma (high MgO). "Mixing-crystallization" processes that low MgO magmas experienced accord with recent 226Ra/230Th disequilibria studies for magma residence time, in which low MgO magmas have experienced more circles of "mixing-crystallization" in relatively longer residence time. Magma mixing is not homogeneous in magma chamber, however, low MgO magmas are closer to stable composition produced by periodical "mixing-crystallization", which is also an important reason for magma diversity in East Pacific Rise. Zoned plagioclase phenocrysts can be divided into two types: with and without high An# cores, both of which have multiple reversed An# zones, suggesting periodical mixing of their host magmas. Cores of zoned plagioclase in low MgO (7.45wt%) basalt differ significantly with their mantle in An#, but are similar in An# with microlite cores (products of equilibrium crystallization) in high MgO (9.38wt%) basalt, which further shows that plagioclase phenocryst cores in low MgO basalts may have formed in their parental magmas before entering into the magma chamber.

Characterization of a homogeneous taxonomic group of marine magnetotactic cocci within a low tide zone in the China Sea

Magnetotactic bacteria are a heterologous group of motile prokaryotes, ubiquitous in aquatic habitats and cosmopolitan in distribution. Here, we studied the diversity of magnetotactic bacteria in a seawater pond within an intertidal zone at Huiquan Bay in the China Sea. The pond is composed of a permanently submerged part and a low tide subregion. The magnetotactic bacteria collected from the permanently submerged part display diversity in morphology and taxonomy. In contrast, we found a virtually homogenous population of ovoid-coccoid magnetotactic bacteria in the low tide subregion of the pond. They were bilophotrichously flagellated and exhibited polar magnetotactic behaviour. Almost all cells contained two chains of magnetosomes composed of magnetite crystals. Intriguingly, the combination of restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (RFLP) and sequencing of cloned 16S rDNA genes from the low tide subregion samples as well as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) revealed the presence of a homogenous population. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis indicated that the Qingdao Huiquan low tide magnetotactic bacteria belong to a new genus affiliated with the alpha-subclass of Proteobacteria. This finding suggests the adaptation of the magnetotactic bacterial population to the marine tide.

烟厂MIS中成本核算子系统实现时的几个重要问题

针对工厂企业中用微机实现管理信息系统(MIS)时,数据量大与数据处理速度慢、存储空间小之间的矛盾,本文论述了在不更新设备和不增加投资的条件下如何用软件方法来解决问题.在延吉卷烟厂成本核算子系统中的实践结果是:数据处理速度可提高到原来的2.24倍,所节省的存储空间相当于目前实际占用数的56%.

准噶尔盆地热历史与油气

Based on the temperature data from 196 wells and thermal conductivity measurements of 90 rock samples, altogether 35 heat flow data are obtained. The results show that the Junggar basin is a relatively "cold basin" at present. The thermal gradients vary between 11.6 and 26.5 ℃/km, and the thermal conductivity change from 0.17 to 3.6 W/mK. Heat flow ranges from 23.4 to 53.7 mW/m~2 with a mean of 42.3 ± 7.7 mW/m~2. The heat flow pattern shows that heat flow is higher on the uplifts and lower on the depressions. The overall low present-day heat flow in the Junggar Basin reflects its stable cratonic basement and Cenozoic tectonothermal evolution characterized by lithospheric thickening, thrust and fault at shallow crust as well as consequently quick subsidence during the Late Cenozoic. The study of the basin thermal history, which is one of the important content of the basin analysis, reveals not only the process of the basin's tectonothermal evolution, but also the thermal evolution of the source rocks based on the hydrocarbon generation models. The latter is very helpful for petroleum exploration. The thermal history of the Junggar basin has been reconstructed through the heat flow based method using the VR and Fission track data. The thermal evolutions of main source rocks (Permian and Jurassic) and the formations of the Permian and the Jurassic petroleum systems as well as the influences of thermal fields to petroleum system also have been discussed in this paper. Thermal history reconstruction derived from vitrinite reflectance data indicates that the Paleozoic formations experienced their maximum paleotemperature during Permian to Triassic with the higher paleoheat flow of around 70-85 mW/m~2 and the basin cooled down to the present low heat flow. The thermal evolution put a quite important effect on the formation and evolution of the petroleum system. The Jurassic petroleum system in the Junggar basin is quite limited in space and the source rocks of Middle-Lower Jurassic entered oli-window only along the foreland region of the North Tianshan belt, where the Jurassic is buried to the depth of 5-7 km. By contrast, the Middle-Lower Permian source rocks have initiated oil and gas generation in latter Permian to Triassic, and the major petroleum systems, like Mahu-West Pen 1 Well, was formed prior to Triassic when later Paleozoic formation reached the maximum paleotemperature.

不可提取态有机质对菲和萘的吸附过程的影响

土壤对疏水性有机污染物的吸附实际上是土壤中矿物和有机质两部分共同作用的结果。土壤有机质的作用相当重要，因为与矿物相比，它通常对疏水性有机污染物具有较大的热力学亲合力。因此，土壤吸附有机污染物机理的研究主要是从土壤有机质的角度进行的。土壤有机质组成复杂，主要包括非特异性有机质和腐殖质，其中腐殖质约占有机质总量的50％-80％，包括胡敏酸、富里酸和胡敏素。早期的实验研究认为疏水性有机污染物在土壤有机质相中表现为线性分配，可以用平衡分配系数来描述。但是，随着实验研究的深入，平衡分配模型不能合理解释疏水性有机污染物的一些吸附特征，如非线性吸附、溶质竞争吸附以及解吸过程的滞后现象等。后来，Weber和Huang提出土壤吸附有机污染物的三端元模型。同时Pignatello和Xing提出双模式吸附模型。都认为土壤有机质存在明显的不均匀性，并且提出了“软碳”与“硬碳”的概念.

Cobalt boride catalysts for hydrogen generation from alkaline NaBH4 solution

Cobalt boride precursors were synthesized via chemical reaction of aqueous sodium borohydride with cobalt chloride, and followed by heat-treating at various temperatures. The as-prepared Co-B catalysts were characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption and catalytic activity test; and were adopted to help accelerating hydrolysis reaction of NaBH4 alkaline solution. The Co-B catalyst treated at 500 degrees C exhibits the best catalytic activity, and achieves an average H, generation rate of 2970 ml/min/g, which may give a successive H, supply for a 481 W proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) at 100% H-2 utilization. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.