Age and growth of the bastard grunt (Pomadasys incisus: Haemulidae) inhabiting the Canarian archipelago, Northwest Africa

The bastard grunt (Pomadasys incisus) is one of the most abundant coastal demersal fishes inhabiting the Canary Islands. Age and growth were studied from samples collected between October 2000 and September 2001. Growth analysis revealed that this species is a fast growing and moderately short-lived species (ages up to seven years recorded). Length-at-age was described by the von Bertalanffy growth model (L∞=309.58 mm; k=0.220/year; t0=–1.865 year), the Schnute growth model (y1=126.66 mm; y2=293.50 mm; a=–0.426; b= 5.963), and the seasonalized von Bertalanffy growth model (L∞=309.93 mm; k=0.218/ year; t0= –1.896 year; C=0.555; ts=0.652). Individuals grow quickly in their first year, attaining approximately 60% of their maximum length; after the first year, their growth rate drops rapidly as energy is probably diverted to reproduction. The parameters of the von Bertalanffy weight growth curve were W∞=788.22 mm; k=0.1567/year; t0= –1.984 year. Fish total length and otolith radius were closely correlated, r2=0.912. A power relationship was estimated between the total length and the otolith radius (a=49.93; ν=0.851). A year’s growth was represented by an opaque and hyaline (translucent) zone—an annulus. Backcalculated lengths were similar to those predicted by the growth models. Growth parameters estimated from the backcalculated sizes at age were L∞=315.23 mm; k=0.217/year; and t0= –1.73 year.

光系统Ⅱ放氧复合物的光组装研究

光合水氧化是地球上最重要的生化过程之一。这个过程是在位于类囊体囊腔侧的放氧复合物中完成的。光系统II中的锰簇催化中心在四个连续的氧化还原反应作用下将水裂解为四个质子和氧气。水氧化的催化中心含有四个锰、一个钙离子、一至两个氯离子和一个具氧化还原活性的YZ(D1-Y161)。在光系统II的功能性组装过程中，氧合催化中心的形成是在一个被称作光组装的作用下完成的。光组装是无机锰、钙、氯离子与光系统II蛋白结合并在光驱动下氧化形成功能性放氧中心的过程。到目前为止，放氧复合物(OEC)的结构及水氧化的机理仍不清楚，光组装的研究工作对于阐明放氧复合物的结构与功能具有重要的理论和实际意义。 本论文研究了一系列具有不同配位环璄的锰化合物与去锰的PSII的光组装过程， 同时研究了稀土离子LaCl3和TbCl3及重金属离子Co2＋和Ni2＋对PSII 放氧活性及光组装的影响。主要结果如下： 1. 选择了咪唑氮配位的锰化合物和非咪唑氮配位的锰化合物与去锰的PSII 颗粒进行重组, 发现化合物中锰的配位结构与其恢复电子传递能力和放氧活性之间有一定关系。 研究结果表明，锰中心为锰-咪唑氮连接的化合物能够有效地恢复去锰PSII的电子传递能力和放氧活性;而非咪唑氮配位的锰化合物恢复电子传递和放氧活性的能力都相应较低甚至没有，由此推测，咪唑氮为放氧中心锰簇的一个配体。 2. 选择了两个不同价态的二核锰化合物和一个带氧桥的三核锰化合物与去锰的PSII 颗粒进行重组。 研究结果表明，三核锰化合物表现出比另外两个二核锰化合物更强的恢复放氧活性的能力，但其作为电子供体的能力比另外两个化合物要差。由此可推测，影响锰化合物恢复电子传递和放氧活性效率的因素是不同的。另外, 三核锰化合物在重组过程中对CaCl2非常敏感，我们推测锰化合物中的羧基与Ca2+之间存在相互作用，而这种作用有助于锰的配位进而促进光组装。三个化合物重组放氧复合物能力的大小顺序为：Mn3(III)锰化合物>Mn(III)Mn(III)锰化合物> Mn(III)Mn(IV)锰化合物。 3. 研究了LaCl3、 TbCl3 对光系统II放氧复合物光组装的影响。研究表明，在光组装过程中，两种稀土离子La3+和Tb3+对光系统II的光组装有很强的抑制作用，这种作用很大程度上依赖于Ca2+的存在，两种稀土离子在Ca2+结合位点是一个混合型竞争抑制剂。 另外，在10 mmol/L Ca2+存在时，抑制50%的光组装活性所需的稀土离子浓度比抑制50%功能性PSII的放氧活性所需的稀土离子浓度小约10倍，这对理解稀土离子对光合作用的影响具有重要的理论意义。 4．本文研究了Ni2＋和Co2＋两种金属离子对光系统II膜蛋白复合体结构与功能的影响。结果表明，毫摩尔级Ni2＋和Co2＋可以使完整的光系统II和去除17 kDa、23 kDa外周蛋白的光系统II的放氧活性被一定程度地抑制，而且对后者的抑制作用更强，在上述两种情况下，CaCl2可使抑制作用减轻。两种金属离子对给体侧的完整性有一定影响：5 mmol/L金属离子存在的时，可使17 kDa蛋白解离，10 mmol/L的金属离子存在时可使17 kDa、 23 kDa蛋白解离。两种金属离子在光组装过程中对Mn、Ca的组装无明显的影响。

Electric conduction improvement of well-structured multi-walled carbon nanotubes

We characterized the electrical conductance of well-structured multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) which had post-treated by a rapid vacuum arc thermal annealing process and structure defects in these nanotubes are removed. We found that the after rapid vacuum arc annealing, the conductivity of well-structured MWCNTs can be improved by an order of magnitude. We also investigated the conductivity of MWCNTs bundle by the variation of temperatures. These results show that the conductance of annealed defect-free MWCNTs is sensitive to temperature imply the phonon scatting dominated the electron conductions. Compare to the well-structured MWCNTs, the defect scattering dominated the electron conduction in the as-grown control sample which has large amount of structure defects. A detail measurement of electron conduction from an individual well-structured MWCNT shows that the conductivity increases with temperatures which imply such MWCNTs exhibited semiconductor properties. We also produced back-gated field-effect transistors using these MWCNTs. It shows that the well-structured MWCNT can act as p-type semiconductor. © 2010 IEEE.

稳定表达HIV-1辅助蛋白Rev的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蛋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基因导入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蛋白的细胞模型;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基凶成功导入了THP-1细胞并稳定表达,为后续rev基因产物与细胞相互作用的研究提供了平台.

Population diversity studies of pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis) in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman

The pharaoh Cuttlefish (Sepia Pharaonis) is the most abundant species in the persian gulf and oman sea. The stock patterns of this species was studied conserning biological, morphological and electrophoretical aspects. In addition to measuring the biological patterns; 21 quantitative and qualitative factors were measured or counted. There tissues namely muscle, eye and liver were also used for further polyacrylamide electrophoresis analysis (SDS-Page method). The densitograms of protein bands of each tissue were prepared by Gel-Scanner and also the amount of bands' areas were estimated. The results of LSD test showed that tentacle length (TL), Tentacle club length (TCL) and TCL were indicative factors which they showed significant difference between male TL and female specimen of Bushehr and Balouchestan regions. Regarding to length and weight frequencies data the results indicated that males are always bigger than females and also, the cuttlefishes of the gulf of oman are bigger than persian gulf's samples. There were found a significant sample correlation (95%) between different quantitative parameters and the most correlation (0.963) was found to be between TL and TCL; whereas the less correlation (0.384) was observed between GL and LA3. However the gill length factor illustrated the less correlation with the other factors. The results of Cluster analysis for both sexes showed that the cuttlefishes of both studied regions belongs to seperate stocks. The electrophoretic experiments of proteins showed that the protein bands of the sample tissue of muscle and eye from both sampling areas revealed significant differences; whereas the tissue of liver wasn't recognized as an indicative tissue for population studies. Taking into consideration the findings of the present study including: (1) difference in spawning season, (2) results of dendrograms, (3) observed Significant differences in one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for morphometric measurements, (4) differences in body length and weight, (5) ecological variations of the persian gulf and oman sea, (6) as well as the results of electrophoresis of proteins have indicatend that: "The Pharaoh cuttlefishes of Bushehr and Balouchestan waters belong to two seperate stocks. Also, it is believed that each region has propably two different populations and more studies are needed to approve this result.