DNA中编码序列的分形特征研究

随着基因组数据库的日益增大，如何从这庞大的数据库中提取有用的信息已成为全世界科学家迫在眉睫的难题。本文运用网格维数分别刻画了60个人类基因序列编码区的分形特征。研究结果表明：在同一个基因中，外显子的维数一般要大于整个蛋白质编码序列的维数，并通过对比随机序列的网格维数，证实了这一结论。结合分形理论及功率谱研究可以得出，具有较少外显子的基因，外显子中包含有较多的遗传信息，而对于较多外显子的基因则相反，遗传信息可能储存于内含子中。这些结论对内含子功能以及DNA序列的复杂性的研究具有一定的理论意义和实用价值。     

基因密码子扩展技术在生物医药领域的应用

自然界中的蛋白质由20种天然氨基酸组成.基因密码子扩展技术利用无义密码子实现蛋白质中非编码蛋白氨基酸(noncanonical amino acids, ncAAs)的定点引入.目前,该技术已在不同物种的体蛋白中插入了几百种ncAAs,其应用已经扩展到了生物医药领域.一方面其定点引入生物正交化学官能团的特性,已在蛋白与抗体制药领域展现出了强大的应用潜力;另一方面其实现对无义密码子的通读调控,拓展了由合成生物学引领的新一代生物医药的应用和发展.本文重点总结了近年来基于基因密码子扩展技术所开发的各类蛋白抗体及细胞类药物,以及基于这一技术引领的新型生物治疗方法.     

可基因编码的多肽-蛋白质化学反应对

蛋白质的化学修饰在蛋白质工程、生物材料以及化学生物学等领域具有重要的意义.近年来,可基因编码的多肽-蛋白质化学反应对的发展为蛋白质的化学修饰提供了新的思路和强大的工具.本专论回顾了此类新型化学方法的发展背景,详细阐述了多肽-蛋白质反应对的作用原理和调控机制,介绍了业内在拓展一大类具有各种特性的反应对家族方面的初步尝试,并总结了它们在蛋白质拓扑工程学、蛋白质材料以及蛋白纳米组装体等诸多方面的应用.蛋白质独特的可基因编码的特性赋予了其广泛的可修饰性和体内应用的潜力,而由其衍生的诸多蛋白质超分子结构更为发展人工蛋白质机器以及多功能的"活"材料奠定了基础.     

PML基因的组织结构及在早幼粒白血病中的分子重组

本文报道了与急性早幼粒细胞白血病(APL)t(15;17)易位中有关的PML基因的结构。该基因长约50kb,由7个“主体外显子”(P_1—P_7)及几个可供不同剪接的3′端外显子及相应的内含子构成。其基因组织结构及蛋白质的功能区有明显的结构功能对应关系。于t(15;17)中,15号染色体的断裂点丛集于三个区域即PML-bcr1,PML-bcr2和PML-bcr3。PML-(bcr1+bcr2)与PML-bcr3之间的区域间隔为10kb,由此产生不同的外显子-内含子结构,导致PML基因的不同部分与位于17号染色体的部分RARα基因连接,后者的断裂点恒定地位于第二内含子中。PML基因断裂部位的差异是构成二种主要的PML-RARα融合mRNA异构体的分子基础:长(L)型异构体由PML1—6外显子与RARα编码B_F区域的外显子组成;短(S)型异构体由PML的三个外显子(P_1—P_3)与上述相同成分的RARα外显子剪接构成。顺序分析显示,在PML的7个“主体”外显子中,仅P_3和P_6与RARα外显子3的剪接能维持融合基因的阅读框架。     

半合成人肿瘤坏死因子cDNA的构建及其在大肠杆菌中的高表达

本文报道从人基因文库中分离淋巴毒素(LT)基因的同时,克隆了肿瘤坏死因子(TNF)基因,这两个基因相距1.2kb.TNF基因有4个外显子,第4外显子编码TNF成熟蛋白157个氨基酸中的140个.将第4外显子切出一部分,再人工合成编码其余氨基酸的DNA片段,两者连接构成重组的人TNF(rhTNF)cDNA,并克隆在大肠杆菌表达载体中成功地得到表达.5 l罐发酵得菌体约20g/l,以L929为靶细胞测定细胞毒活性为10~6-10~7单位/ml.高压液相色谱仪分离纯化rhTNF,冻干后得白色粉剂.测定了这种rhTNF的氨基端的10个氨基酸序列,证明与天然的人TNF完全相同.纯度约为95％.     

化学标记与蛋白质/多肽的识别检测

化学标记技术可以实现选择性地标记蛋白质/多肽分子,从而极大地提高了对蛋白质/多肽的识别效率和检测灵敏度,是突破蛋白质/多肽化学组成局限和仪器分析检测能力瓶颈的有效途径.本文对目前这一领域的研究现状扼要地进行了综述,主要包括针对蛋白质/多肽分子中内源氨基酸残基的标记策略、蛋白质/多肽分子中翻译后修饰基团的标记策略、基因编码表达肽段的标记策略以及配体/抗体亲和标记策略.透过这些研究所取得的成果,可以断定化学标记技术将会不断发展并将在蛋白质及蛋白质组学研究中发挥重要作用.     

基于复杂网络的随机森林算法预测氨基酸突变对蛋白质稳定性的影响

利用机器学习方法对单个氨基酸突变引起的蛋白质稳定性变化进行精确地预测,对蛋白质的结构和功能方面的研究具有重要的价值,并且对设计新的蛋白质及蛋白质工程学具有一定的指导意义.通过对蛋白质网络拓扑特征的研究,发现网络拓扑特征对于蛋白质突变稳定性影响具有较高的准确率.基于蛋白质网络拓扑特征的随机森林算法,能较好的对蛋白质单点突...     

水稻组蛋白H3基因和1.5-二磷酸核酮糖羧化酶/加氧酶小亚基基因的克隆和结构分析

本文从水稻(Oryza sativa,IR26)细胞核中分离出的几个基因,测定了它们的DNA核苷酸序列,并从水稻IR26基因组文库中筛选和分离到一个14.8kb的DNA片段,其中含有一个H3基因和另一个类似H3的假基因。DNA序列分析的结果表明:水稻H3基因的编码顺序有405bp长,其5′和3′端的非编码区则含有几个与一般真核基因或组蛋白基因共同的调控序列。水稻H3基因的密码子有一显著特点,密码子的第三个核苷酸98％为G和C,通过Southern转移分析,表明水稻二倍体基因组中大约有50个左右H3基因,从同一个水稻基因文库中,我们还分离鉴定到了rbcS基因,它编码1,5-二磷酸核酮糖羧化酶/加氧酶(Rubisco)的小亚基,水稻rbcS基因的顺序含有一个内含子,其位置与小麦的相同,水稻和小麦rbcS基因所编码的转移肽,其最初18个氨基酸彼此是相同的。     

表达蛋白质质谱分析

对基因编码的蛋白质进行系统分析可以为注释基因组信息和研究疾病发生机理提供参考.质谱因其高通量、高灵敏度和高精度等特点成为蛋白质表达谱研究的核心技术.过去10年,质谱技术的发展大大促进了蛋白质表达谱的研究.本文综述了蛋白质表达谱的定性和定量研究进展,并展望了进一步的研究方向.     

一种同时检测多个单核苷酸多态性位点的新方法

对人类基因组中的单核苷酸多态性进行快速而准确的定位和分型是人类基因组计划的重要内容。本文利用SNaPshot试剂盒，建立了一种以多重引物延伸为基础、可同时对多个已知单核苷酸多态性位点进行快速而准确的遗传分型的方法。利用这一方法检测了20例大肠癌病人肿瘤组织中错配修复基因hMLHl和抑癌基因P53的8个单核苷酸多态性位点(包括5个突变热点)，其中一例发现错配修复基因hMLHl的384位密码子处发生GTT→GAT的杂合性突变。对该基因外显子的直接测序结果与SNaPshot检测结果完全吻合，充分证明了该方法的可靠性。     

Fourier Power Spectrum Analysis of Exons for the Period-3 Behavior

The period-3 behaviors of 105 exons from 20 genes in human were studied by Fourier power spectrum. The results indicated that not all exons show the period-3 behavior. The exons were adjusted in order to make them accord with the order of the protein translated, and we found that the period-3 character is relation to the length of exons and the bases distribution in the three codon position. Furthermore, as long as the exons with period-3 behavior accord with the order of protein translated, they would exhibit the synonymous codons usage preference, and the codons with g/c at the third position are used in higher frequency. The results are significant to the gene prediction and the research on the introns.     

Selecting effective siRNA target sequences by using Bayes’ theorem

Short interfering RNA (siRNA) has been widely used for studying gene functions in mammalian cells but varies markedly in its gene silencing efficacy. Although many design rules/guidelines for effective siRNAs based on various criteria have been reported recently, there are few consistencies among them. This makes it difficult to select effective siRNA sequences in mammalian genes. Another shortcoming of most previously reported methods is that they cannot estimate the probability that a candidate sequence will silence the target gene. The analytical prediction method proposed in the present study uses Bayes’ theorem to select effective siRNA target sequences from many possible candidate sequences. It is quite different from the previous score-based siRNA design techniques and can predict the probability that a candidate siRNA sequence will be effective. The results of evaluating it by applying it to recently reported effective and ineffective siRNA sequences for various genes indicate that it would be useful for many other genes. It should therefore be useful for selecting siRNA sequences effective for mammalian genes.     

Origin and evolution of exon/intron junctions

In nuclear mRNA genes, exon/intron junctions (both exon/intron and intron/exon junctions in this paper) possess the specific duplex pattern with the corresponding ends (3′ to 3′, 5′ to 5′) of exons and introns more or less identical. In genes with group I or group II introns, overall analyses indicate there are also related patterns in their exon/intron junctions. From the analysis of these specific regions of split genes and the study of the composition of primitive genomes, it is proposed that the sequences of primitive exons and introns are identical at least in their corresponding boundary regions. And more fundamentally, it may be concluded that exon/intron junctions were originally related to tandem repeated sequences in the earliest genomes. Results from a preliminary analysis of specific motifs in modern repeated sequences support such a view on the origin of exon/intron junctions. As for the evolution of exon/intron junctions, there have been multiple rather than single paths.     

SETE: Sequence-based Ensemble learning approach for TCR Epitope binding prediction

Predicting the binding of T cell receptors (TCRs) to epitopes plays a vital role in the immunotherapy, because it guides the development of therapeutic vaccines and cancer treatments. Many prediction methods attempted to explain the relationship between TCR repertoires from different aspects such as the V(D)J gene locus and the biophysical features of amino acids molecules, but the extraction of these features is time consuming and the performance of these models are limited. Few studies have investigated how k-mers formed by adjacent amino acids in TCR sequences direct the epitope recognition, and the specific mechanism of TCR epitope binding is still unclear. Motivated by these, we presented SETE (Sequence-based Ensemble learning approach for TCR Epitope binding prediction), a novel model to predict the TCR epitope binding accurately. The model deconstructed the CDR3β sequence to short amino acid chains as features and learned the pattern of them between different TCR repertoires with gradient boosting decision tree algorithm. Experiments have demonstrated that SETE can be helpful in predicting the TCRs’ corresponding epitopes and it outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in predicting the epitope specificity of TCR on VDJdb data set. The source codes have been uploaded at https://github.com/wonanut/SETE for academic usage only.     

Computational analyses of mammalian lactate dehydrogenases: Human, mouse, opossum and platypus LDHs

Computational methods were used to predict the amino acid sequences and gene locations for mammalian lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) genes and proteins using genome sequence databanks. Human LDHA, LDHC and LDH6A genes were located in tandem on chromosome 11, while LDH6B and LDH6C genes were on chromosomes 15 and 12, respectively. Opossum LDHC and LDH6B genes were located in tandem with the opossum LDHA gene on chromosome 5 and contained 7 (LDHA and LDHC) or 8 (LDH6B) exons. An amino acid sequence prediction for the opossum LDH6B subunit gave an extended N-terminal sequence, similar to the human and mouse LDH6B sequences, which may support the export of this enzyme into mitochondria. The platypus genome contained at least 3 LDH genes encoding LDHA, LDHB and LDH6B subunits. Phylogenetic studies and sequence analyses indicated that LDHA, LDHB and LDH6B genes are present in all mammalian genomes examined, including a monotreme species (platypus), whereas the LDHC gene may have arisen more recently in marsupial mammals.     

Epidemiological comparisons of codon usage patterns among HIV-1 isolates from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas

To investigate the genomic properties of HIV-1, we collected 3,081 sequences from the HIV Sequence Database. The sequences were categorized according to sampling region, country, year, subtype, gene name, and sequence and were saved in a database constructed for this study. The relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) values of matrix, capsid, and gp120 and gp41 genes were calculated using correspondence analysis. The synonymous codon usage patterns based on the geographical regions of African countries showed broad distributions; when all the other regions, including Asia, Europe, and the Americas, were taken into account, the Asian countries tended to be divided into two groups. The sequences were clustered into nine non-CRF subtypes. Among these, subtype C showed the most distinct codon usage pattern. To determine why the codon usage patterns in Asian countries were divided into two groups for four target genes, the sequences of the isolates from the Asian countries were analyzed. As a result, the synonymous codon usage patterns among Asian countries were divided into two groups, the southern Asian countries and the other Asian countries, with subtype 01_AE being the most dominant subtype in southern Asia. In summary, the synonymous codon usage patterns among the individual HIV-1 subtypes reflect genetic variations, and this bioinformatics technique may be useful in conjunction with phylogenetic methods for predicting the evolutionary patterns of pandemic viruses.     

Multiplexed p53 Mutation Detection by Microchip Electrophoresis with Laser-Induced Fluorescence Detector

A form of single‐strand DNA‐conformation polymorphism analysis (SSCP) employing nondenaturing slab gel electrophoresis is applicable to the genetic diagnosis of mutations at exons 7, 8 and 9 of the p53 gene. Recently, microchip electrophoresis (ME) systems have been used in SSCP analysis instead of conventional slab gel electrophoresis in terms of speed, sensitivity and automation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the application of SSCP and ME analysis as a rapid and effective method to the detection of mutations for exons 7, 8 and 9 of the p53 gene. It was found that using the electric field strength 260 V/cm and the sieving matrix of 4 mg/mL poly(ethylene oxide) was very useful to achieve better resolution and fast detection of mutations at exons 7, 8 and 9 of p53 gene. Under the optimized conditions, mutations at exons 7–9 of p53 gene were analyzed within 60 s and the relative standard deviation values of the migration times were less than 5.81% (n=5). The detection limit can be as low as 1 ng·L^?1.     

MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF RICE Wx GENE

The complete nucleotide (nt) sequence of the rice waxy(Wx) gene, which is responsible for the synthesis of amylose in endosperm and pollen, has been determined by a combination of restriction mapping and nt sequence analysis of two overlapping genomic DNA clones. The entire gene is about 5.5 kb in length. The alignment of the nt sequence of the Wx gene from rice with those of maize (Klsgen, R. B. et al.) and barley (Rohde, W. et al.) revealed the presence of thirteen introns and fourteen exons. The full-length of Wx protein in cluding transit peptide is 609 amino acid (aa) residues. The calculated molecular weight of rice Wx preprotein is about 72 kD. There is no significant difference between the similarity scores of the aa sequence deduced from the rice Wx gene compared with those of maize and barley. However, the nt sequences of the 5'-end upstream, 3'-end downstream and introns of the rice Wx gene, as well as the aa sequence of the transit peptide region of the Wx preprotein have low similarity scor