稳定表达HIV-1辅助蛋白Rev���THP-1细胞模型的建立和鉴定

Human immunodeficiency virus-1(HIV-1)辅助蛋白在其感染和艾滋病发病过程中起着非常重要的作用.Regulator of expression of virion proteins(Rev)作为HIV-1辅助蛋白之一,可以调节病毒结构蛋白mRNA出核转运和蛋白表达,对于病毒的复制至关重要.为研究Rev���白对靶细胞表犁和功能的影响,本实验采用电穿孔的方法,将HIV-1的rev���因导入THP-1细胞,通过流式分选结合G418筛选的方法建立稳定表达Rev���白的细胞模型;并通过RT-PCR、荧光观察及流式检测的方法,在mRNA和蛋白两个水平对所建立的细胞模犁进行鉴定.结果证实rev���凶成功导入了THP-1细胞并稳定表达,为后续rev���因产物与细胞相互作用的研究提供了平台.

A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems

Seagrasses, marine flowering plants, have a long evolutionary history but are now challenged with rapid environmental changes as a result of coastal human population pressures. Seagrasses provide key ecological services, including organic carbon production and export, nutrient cycling, sediment stabilization, enhanced biodiversity, and trophic transfers to adjacent habitats in tropical and temperate regions. They also serve as “coastal canaries,” global biological sentinels of increasing anthropogenic influences in coastal ecosystems, with large-scale losses reported worldwide. Multiple stressors, including sediment and nutrient runoff, physical disturbance, invasive species, disease, commercial fishing practices, aquaculture, overgrazing, algal blooms, and global warming, cause seagrass declines at scales of square meters to hundreds of square kilometers. Reported seagrass losses have led to increased awareness of the need for seagrass protection, monitoring, management, and restoration. However, seagrass science, which has rapidly grown, is disconnected from public awareness of seagrasses, which has lagged behind awareness of other coastal ecosystems. There is a critical need for a targeted global conservation effort that includes a reduction of watershed nutrient and sediment inputs to seagrass habitats and a targeted educational program informing regulators and the public of the value of seagrass meadows.

Ocean urea fertilization for carbon credits poses high ecological risks

The proposed plan for enrichment of the Sulu Sea, Philippines, a region of rich marine biodiversity, with thousands of tonnes of urea in order to stimulate algal blooms and sequester carbon is flawed for multiple reasons. Urea is preferentially used as a nitrogen source by some cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates, many of which are neutrally or positively buoyant. Biological pumps to the deep sea are classically leaky, and the inefficient burial of new biomass makes the estimation of a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere questionable at best. The potential for growth of toxic dinoflagellates is also high, as many grow well on urea and some even increase their toxicity when grown on urea. Many toxic dinoflagellates form cysts which can settle to the sediment and germinate in subsequent years, forming new blooms even without further fertilization. If large-scale blooms do occur, it is likely that they will contribute to hypoxia in the bottom waters upon decomposition. Lastly, urea production requires fossil fuel usage, further limiting the potential for net carbon sequestration. The environmental and economic impacts are potentially great and need to be rigorously assessed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.