What Is XNA?

The term “xeno‐nucleic acids”, abbreviated XNA, has grown in popularity to the point that it has become a catch‐all phrase for almost any unnatural nucleic acid, raising the question: what is XNA and how does it differ from chemically modified DNA?     

人造细胞的化学构建及其生物医学应用研究

人造细胞是模拟生物细胞结构,人工构建的与细胞功能相近的微米囊泡。人造细胞的构建主要有两种模式：自上而下模式主要利用生物学方法对生物基因序列进行重新设计,获得具有细胞类似结构功能的人造细胞;自下而上模式主要利用化学方法采用非生命物质构筑简化的细胞结构模型。自下而上化学模式构建的人造细胞大多只包含执行所需功能的最小单元,具有简单的细胞仿生的结构与功能。本文详细综述了人造细胞的构建模式以及化学构建人造细胞的常见类型,包括脂质囊泡、蛋白体囊泡、聚合物囊泡、凝集体液滴和胶体囊泡等,总结了人造细胞在分析传感、细胞结构与功能模拟、生物载体转运、微纳米反应器、疾病诊疗方面的生物医学应用现状。     

Staurosporine and cytochalasin D induce chondrogenesis by regulation of actin dynamics in different way

Actin cytoskeleton has been known to control and/or be associated with chondrogenesis. Staurosporine and cytochalasin D modulate actin cytoskeleton and affect chondrogenesis. However, the underlying mechanisms for actin dynamics regulation by these agents are not known well. In the present study, we investigate the effect of staurosporine and cytochalasin D on the actin dynamics as well as possible regulatory mechanisms of actin cytoskeleton modulation. Staurosporine and cytochalasin D have different effects on actin stress fibers in that staurosporine dissolved actin stress fibers while cytochalasin D disrupted them in both stress forming cells and stress fiber-formed cells. Increase in the G-/F-actin ratio either by dissolution or disruption of actin stress fiber is critical for the chondrogenic differentiation. Cytochalasin D reduced the phosphorylation of cofilin, whereas staurosporine showed little effect on cofilin phosphorylation. Either staurosporine or cytochalasin D had little effect on the phosphorylation of myosin light chain. These results suggest that staurosporine and cytochalasin D employ different mechanisms for the regulation of actin dynamics and provide evidence that removal of actin stress fibers is crucial for the chondrogenic differentiation.     

The Role of Aqueous Aerosols in the “Glyoxylate Scenario”: An Experimental Approach

The origin of life is one of the fundamental questions in science. Eschenmoser proposed the “glyoxylate scenario”, in which plausible abiotic synthesis pathways were suggested to be compatible with the constraints of prebiotic chemistry. In this proposal, the stem compound is HCN. In this work, we explore the “glyoxylate scenario” through several syntheses of HCN polymers, paying particular attention to the role of the aqueous aerosols, together with statistical methods, as a step to elucidate the synthetic problem of the origin of life. The soluble and insoluble HCN polymers synthetized were analyzed by GC‐MS. We identified, for the first time, glyoxylic acid in these polymers, together with some constituents of the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle, amino acids and several N‐heterocycles. The findings presented herein, as the first global approach to the “glyoxylate scenario”, give full effect to this hypothesis and prove that aqueous aerosols could play an important role in this plausible scene of the origin of life.     

Synthetic Biology—The Synthesis of Biology

Synthetic biology concerns the engineering of man-made living biomachines from standardized components that can perform predefined functions in a (self-)controlled manner. Different research strategies and interdisciplinary efforts are pursued to implement engineering principles to biology. The “top-down” strategy exploits nature's incredible diversity of existing, natural parts to construct synthetic compositions of genetic, metabolic, or signaling networks with predictable and controllable properties. This mainly application-driven approach results in living factories that produce drugs, biofuels, biomaterials, and fine chemicals, and results in living pills that are based on engineered cells with the capacity to autonomously detect and treat disease states in vivo. In contrast, the “bottom-up” strategy seeks to be independent of existing living systems by designing biological systems from scratch and synthesizing artificial biological entities not found in nature. This more knowledge-driven approach investigates the reconstruction of minimal biological systems that are capable of performing basic biological phenomena, such as self-organization, self-replication, and self-sustainability. Moreover, the syntheses of artificial biological units, such as synthetic nucleotides or amino acids, and their implementation into polymers inside living cells currently set the boundaries between natural and artificial biological systems. In particular, the in vitro design, synthesis, and transfer of complete genomes into host cells point to the future of synthetic biology: the creation of designer cells with tailored desirable properties for biomedicine and biotechnology.