Survival and Performance of Two Cellulose-Degrading Microbial Systems Inoculated into Wheat Straw-Amended Soil

( Pei Pei Li ),( Dong Dong Zhang ),( Xiao Juan Wang ),( Xiao Fen Wang ),( Zong Jun Cui1 ) 한국미생물 · 생명공학회 2012 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.22 No.1

A cellulose-degrading composite microbial system containing a mixture of microbes was previously shown to demonstrate a high straw-degrading capacity. To estimate its potential utilization as an inoculant to accelerate straw biodegradation after returning straw to the field, two cellulose-degrading composite microbial systems named ADS3 and WSD5 were inoculated into wheat straw-amended soil in the laboratory. The microbial survival of the inoculant was confirmed by a denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis, whereas the enhancement of straw degradation in soil was assessed by measuring the mineralization of the soil organic matter and the soil cellulase activity. The results indicated that most of the DGGE bands from ADS3 were detected after inoculation into straw-amended autoclaved soil, yet only certain bands from ADS3 and WSD5 were detected after inoculation into straw-amended non-autoclaved soil during five weeks of incubation; some bands were detected during the first two weeks after inoculation, and then disappeared in later stages. Organic matter mineralization was significantly higher in the soil inoculants ADS3 and WSD5 than in the uninoculated controls during the first week, yet the enhanced degradation did not persist during the subsequent incubation. Similar to the increase in soil organic matter, the cellulase activity also increased during the first week in the ADS3 and WSD5 treatments, yet decreased during the remainder of the incubation period. Thus, it was concluded that, although the survival and performance of the two inoculants did not persist in the soil, a significant enhancement of degradation was present during the early stage of incubation.

Isolation and characterization of a protease from the Actinidia arguta fruit for improving meat tenderness

Wang, Juan,Liu, Haoming,Wang, Haili,Cui, Mingxun,Jin, Qing,Jin, Tie,Cui, Fushun,Cui, Taihua,Liang, Chengyun,Kim, Bumsik,Li, Guanhao 한국식품과학회 2016 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.25 No.4

An protease from Actinidia arguta for improving meat tenderness was purified, characterized from wild A. arguta fruit by ammonium sulfate precipitation, Sephdex G-25 gel filtration chromatography, and DEAE Sepharose Fast Flow ion exchange chromatography, and its activity was investigated. The purified protease was subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to obtain a single band of protease. The protease was purified successfully, and found to have a molecular weight of 23.8 kDa (mass spectrometry). The specific activity of the purified protease reached 53,428 U/mg with a 25.5-fold purification factor and 9% activity recovery. Based on N-terminal sequencing results, the A. arguta protease was derived from the class of actinidia proteases that have an N-terminal sequence of VLPDY VDWRS AGAVV. The protease was effective for tenderizing beef and decomposing actomyosin, suggesting the potential application for improving meat tenderness.

Isolation and characterization of a protease from the Actinidia arguta fruit for improving meat tenderness

Juan Wang,Haoming Liu,Haili Wang,Mingxun Cui,Qing Jin,Tie Jin,Fushun Cui,Taihua Cui,Cheng Yun Liang,김범식,Guanhao Li 한국식품과학회 2016 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.25 No.4

An protease from Actinidia arguta for improving meat tenderness was purified, characterizedfrom wild A. arguta fruit by ammonium sulfate precipitation, Sephdex G-25 gel filtration chromatography,and DEAE Sepharose Fast Flow ion exchange chromatography, and its activity was investigated. Thepurified protease was subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis toobtain a single band of protease. The protease was purified successfully, and found to have a molecularweight of 23.8 kDa (mass spectrometry). The specific activity of the purified protease reached 53,428U/mg with a 25.5-fold purification factor and 9% activity recovery. Based on N-terminal sequencingresults, the A. arguta protease was derived from the class of actinidia proteases that have an Nterminalsequence of VLPDY VDWRS AGAVV. The protease was effective for tenderizing beef anddecomposing actomyosin, suggesting the potential application for improving meat tenderness.

A DFT study of the geometrical structures and electronic properties of CumMn (m + n = 6, M = Fe, Co, Ni) clusters

Wang Su Juan,Zhou Dan,Hu Yan Fei,Tang Cui Ming,Wang Qiao Zhi,Chen Shun Ling 한국물리학회 2021 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.79 No.3

In this work, we investigated bimetallic CumMn (m + n = 6, M = Fe, Co, Ni) clusters on the basis of the density functional theory at the M06L level. While changing the structure and composition, our team studied the geometrical structures, relative stabilities and electronic magnetic moments of these clusters. We found that the average atomic binding energies vary linearly with the number of doping atoms in the CumFen and the CumNin clusters. The values of electron affinity (EA) and the ionization potential (IP) for the CumNin clusters are closer to those of pure Cu clusters compared with the others. A negative value of the EA is only seen in CumFen clusters. The electronic magnetic moments of these clusters indicate that most of them exhibit a local minimum when doped with three atoms. Moreover, we further analyzed the HOMO–LUMO gaps, the natural population, and the geometrical structures.

Metagenomic analysis suggests unique gut‐microbiota composition and GH family constitution of Macrotermes annandalei

Cui Yongzhong,Wang Weiwei,Lu Qin,Wu Hai‐Xia,Ling Xiaofei,Liu Juan,Zhang Jinwen,Chen Hang 한국곤충학회 2022 Entomological Research Vol.52 No.3

Energy supply is a major concern of human survival and development, and that concern demands new sources of renewable clean energy. Cellulose, as a renewable energy material is affected by low activity and high cost of cellulose. Studies of cellulose degrading bacterial microbiota in insect intestine have revealed that these potential microbes can be used as a rich resource of cellulose degrading strains. Here, the present study involves metagenomic sequencing of intestinal microbes of Macrotermes annandalei by Illumina PE150 and a total of 401,190 scaftigs were obtained. Open Reading frame (ORF) species annotation showed that the largest proportion of them belong to the phylum of Bacteroides, followed by Protobacteia, Firmicutes and Mucoromycota. Mapping to the CAZy database indicates that 4,539 genes encoding of glycoside hydrolase belongs to 109 distinct CAZy families. The results provide a theoretical basis for exploring new candidate bacteria for efficient cellulose degradation to obtain high cellulose resource yield.

RALY RNA Binding Protein-like Reduced Expression is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Cui, Zhi-Wen,Xia, Ye,Ye, Yi-Wang,Jiang, Zhi-Mao,Wang, Ya-Dong,Wu, Jian-Ting,Sun, Liang,Zhao, Jun,Fa, Ping-Ping,Sun, Xiao-Juan,Gui, Yao-Ting,Cai, Zhi-Ming Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.7

The molecular mechanisms involved in the progression of clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) are still unclear. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationships between expression of RALYL and clinical characteristics. In 41 paired samples of ccRCCs and adjacent normal tissues, we used real-time qPCR to evaluate the expression of RALYL mRNA. RALYL protein levels were determined in 146 samples of ccRCC and 37 adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemistry. Statistical analysis was used to explore the relationships between expression of RALYL and the clinical characteristics (gender, age, tumor size, T stage, N stage, M stage, survival times and survival outcome) in ccRCC. In addition, these patients were follow-up period 64 months (range: 4~116months) to investigate the influence on prognosis. We found significantly differences between ccRCC tissues and normal tissues (p<0.001, paired-sample t test) in mRNA levels of RALYL. Immunohistochemistry analyses in 146 ccRCC samples and 37 adjacent normal tissues showed significantly lower RALYL protein levels in ccRCC samples (${\chi}^2$-test, p<0.001), inversely correlating with tumour size (p=0.024), T stage (0.005), N stage (p<0.001) as well as M stage (p=0.019), but not age (p=0.357) and gender (p=0.348). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that people with lower level of RALYL expression had a poorer survival rate than those with a higher level of RALYL expression, significantly different by the log-rank test (p=0.011). Cox regression analysis indicated that RALYL expression (p=0.039), N stage (p=0.008) and distant metastasis (p<0.001) were independent prognosis factors for the overall survival of ccRCC patients. We demonstrated that the expression of RALYL was significantly low in ccRCC and correlated with a poor prognosis in a large number of clinical samples. Our findings showed that RALYL may be a potential therapeutic target as well as a poor prognostic factor.

ODV-Associated Proteins of the <i>Pieris rapae</i> Granulovirus

Wang, Xiao-Feng,Zhang, Bao-Qin,Xu, Hai-Jun,Cui, Ying-Jun,Xu, Yi-Peng,Zhang, Min-Juan,Han, Yeon Soo,Lee, Yong Seok,Bao, Yan-Yuan,Zhang, Chuan-Xi American Chemical Society 2011 JOURNAL OF PROTEOME RESEARCH Vol.10 No.6

<P><I>Alphabaculovirus</I> (lepidopteran-specific nucleopolyhedroviruses, NPV) and <I>Betabaculovirus</I> (granuloviruses, GV) are two main genera of the family Baculoviridae. The virion proteomes of <I>Alphabaculovirus</I> have been well studied; however, the <I>Betabaculovirus</I> virion compositions remain unclear. <I>Pieris rapae</I> granulovirus (PrGV) can kill larvae of <I>P. rapae</I>, a worldwide and important pest of mustard family crops. In this study, the occlusion-derived virus (ODV)-associated proteins of PrGV were identified using three mass spectrometry (MS) approaches. The MS analyses demonstrated that 47 proteins were present in PrGV-ODV. Of the 47 PrGV-ODV proteins, 33 have homologues identified previously in other baculovirus ODV/BVs, whereas 14 (P10, Pr21, Pr29, Pr35, Pr42, Pr54, P45/48, Pr83, Pr84, Pr89, Pr92, Pr111, Pr114 and FGF3) were newly identified ODV proteins. Seven of the 14 newly identified ODV proteins are specific to <I>Betabaculovirus</I>, including Pr35, Pr42, Pr54, Pr83, Pr84, Pr111 and Pr114. Furthermore, the data derived from these MS approaches were validated by immunoblotting analysis using antisera prepared from 11 randomly selected recombinant PrGV-ODV proteins (including 5 <I>Betabaculovirus</I>-unique proteins). Comparison analyses revealed the similar and different compositions between <I>Betabaculovirus</I> and <I>Alphabaculovirus</I> virions, which deepen our understanding of the baculovirus virion structure and provide helpful information on <I>Betabaculovirus</I>–host interaction studies.</P><P>We used three mass spectrometry (MS) approaches to identify the occlusion-derived virus (ODV)-associated proteins of the <I>Pieris rapae</I> Granulovirus. A total of 47 proteins were identified; 14 of them were first identified in the ODV, and 7 are specific to Granulovirus.</P><P><B>Graphic Abstract</B> <IMG SRC='http://pubs.acs.org/appl/literatum/publisher/achs/journals/content/jprobs/2011/jprobs.2011.10.issue-6/pr2000804/production/images/medium/pr-2011-000804_0002.gif'></P>

Apoptosis induction by alantolactone in breast cancer MDA-MB- 231 cells through reactive oxygen species-mediated mitochondrion-dependent pathway

Li Cui,Weiquan Bu,Jie Song,Liang Feng,Tingting Xu,Dan Liu,Wenbo Ding,Jianhua Wang,Changyang Li,Binge Ma,Yi Luo,Ziyu Jiang,Chengcheng Wang,Juan Chen,Jian Hou,Hong-mei Yan,Lei Yang,Xiao-bin Jia 대한약학회 2018 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.41 No.3

Alantolactone is a sesquiterpene lactone isolatedfrom Inula helenium L. Although alantolactone possessesanti-inflammation and apoptosis-induction activities, theunderlying mechanism of anti-cancer effect on humanbreast cancer cells remains largely unknown. In this study,we explored the possibility of alantolactone as an apoptosis-inducing cytotoxic agent using MDA-MB-231 cells asin vitro model. Alantolactone significantly induced itsapoptosis, demonstrated by cell cycle analysis, annexinV-APC/7-AAD double staining and dUTP nick end labeling. Additionally, alantolactone triggered the mitochondrial-mediated caspase cascade apoptotic pathway, whichwas confirmed by increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, loss of MMP,release of cytc from mitochondria to cytoplasm, activationof caspase 9/3, and subsequent cleavage of PARP. Z-VADFMKpartially prevented apoptosis induced by alantolactone. Alantolactone provoked the production of ROS, whileNAC (a scavenger of ROS) reversed alantolactone-mediateddepolarization of MMP and apoptosis. Alantolactonemodulated the activities of MAPKs. As expected, cotreatmentwith SB203580, SP600125 or U0126 could reducedthe apoptotic rate. Furthermore, alantolactone decreasedthe protein expressions of p-NF-kB p65 and p-STAT3,increased p-c-Jun level in a dose-dependent manner. Thesefindings suggested that alantolactone possessed anticanceractivity via ROS-mediated mitochondrial dysfunctioninvolving MAPK pathway, and had an effect on the transcriptionfactors of NF-kB, AP-1 and STAT3.

Alu Tandem Sequences Inhibit GFP Gene Expression by Triggering Chromatin Wrapping

Xiu Fang Wang,Xiao Yan Wang,Jing Liu,Jing Jing Feng,Wen Li Mu,Xiao Juan Shi,Qin Qing Yang,Xiao Cui Duan,Ying Xie,Zhan Jun Lu 한국유전학회 2009 Genes & Genomics Vol.31 No.3

Alu elements belonging to the short interspersed nuclear elements (SINE) of repetitive elements are present in more than one million copies which altogether represent 10% of the whole human genome. In this study, the roles of Alu tandem sequences in the process of GFP gene (GFP) expression and packing into chromatin of its DNA were studied. To detect the effect of Alu repeats on gene expression, different copies of Alus were inserted GFP downstream respectively in pEGFP-C1 vector. We found that Alu sequences decreased the amount of GFP transcription, the percentage of GFP positive cells and the accessibility to DNase I in length-dependent manner. Inserting Alu caused the production of higher-molecular-mass RNA, indicating Alu sequence did not induce premature transcriptional termination. Tight packing chromatins keep silent and resist to DNase I digestion, which is a general phenomenon. We suggested that head and tail tandem Alu sequences suppressed GFP expression in length dependent manner by triggering chromatin packing.

Synthesis, Structure and Biological Properties of a Novel Copper (II) Supramolecular Compound Based on 1,2,4-Triazoles Derivatives

Guang-Mei Qiu,Cui-Juan Wang,Ya-Jun Zhang,Shuai Huang,Xiao-Lei Liu,Bing-Jun Zhang,Xian-Li Zhou 대한화학회 2012 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.33 No.8

A novel mononuclear supramolecule of copper(II) has been synthesized with Ippyt ligand (Ippyt=3-(4'- imidazole phenyl)-5-(pyrid-2''-yl)-1,2,4-triazole) (1). Compound 1, namely [Cu(Ippyt)2(H2O)2], has been characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, IR spectrum, elemental analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. Structure determination reveals that the elongated-octahedral geometry is formed in the vicinity of the copper (II) atom being coordinated by four nitrogen atoms from two Ippyt ligands occupying the equatorial position and two oxygen atoms from two coordinated water molecules in the axial position, which together form the N4O2 donor set. Hydrogen bonding interactions between nitrogen and oxygen atoms result in the set up of a supramolecular network architecture. Biological properties including antibacterial activity and superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic activity of compound 1 have been investigated by agar diffusion method and the modified Marklund method, respectively. The results indicate that compound 1 exhibits a stronger antibacterial efficiency than the parent ligand and it also has a certain radical-scavenging activity.