1.Detection and sequence analysis of broad bean wilt virus 2 on Rehmannia glutinosa.
Xiao-Long DENG ; Jie YAO ; Lang QIN ; Shi-Wen DING ; Tie-Lin WANG ; Kun ZHANG ; Lei CHENG ; Zhen HE
China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 2025;50(7):1741-1747
To clarify the occurrence and distribution of broad bean wilt virus 2(BBWV2) on Rehmannia glutinosa, this study collected 87 R. glutinosa samples with typical symptoms of viral disease such as chlorosis and crumple from Wenxian county and Wuzhi county in Jiaozuo city, Henan province and Qiaocheng district in Bozhou city, Anhui province. The BBWV2 CP target band was amplified from 37 R. glutinosa samples by RT-PCR technology. The total detection rate reached 42.5%, among which 43.0% was detected in samples from Henan province. The detection rate in samples from Anhui province was 37.5%. 37 BBWV2 CP sequences were obtained by cloning and sequencing of BBWV2 positive samples(data has been submitted to GenBank, accession numbers: PP407959-PP407995), and the sequence analysis of these CP sequences with 91 other BBWV2 isolates in GenBank showed a high genetic diversity with a consistency rate of 70.8%-100%. Meanwhile, phylogenetic analysis showed that BBWV2 could be divided into three groups according to CP sequences, among which the BBWV2 in R. glutinosa isolates obtained in this study were all located in group 3. This study identified the differences in the occurrence, distribution, and genetic diversity of BBWV2 in R. glutinosa from Henan province and Anhui province and provided a theoretical basis for the prevention and control of BBWV2.
Rehmannia/virology*
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Phylogeny
;
Plant Diseases/virology*
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China
;
Molecular Sequence Data
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Fabavirus/classification*
2.Functional characterization of flavonoid glycosyltransferase AmGT90 in Astragalus membranaceus.
Guo-Qing PENG ; Bing-Yan XU ; Jian-Ping HUANG ; Zhi-Yin YU ; Sheng-Xiong HUANG
China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 2025;50(6):1534-1543
Astragalus membranaceus(A. membranaceus), a traditional tonic, contains flavonoids as one of its main bioactive components and key indicators for quality standard detection. These compounds predominantly exist in glycosylated forms after glycosylation modification within the plant. The catalytic products of flavonoid glycosyltransferases in A. membranaceus have been reported to be mostly monoglycosides, and only AmUGT28 catalyzes luteolin to form diglycosides. In this study, we cloned a glycosyltransferase gene, AmGT90, from A. membranaceus, with an ORF length of 1 335 bp, encoding 444 amino acids, and the protein had a relative molecular mass of 50.5 kDa. Phylogenetic tree analysis indicated that AmGT90 belongs to the UGT74 family. In vitro enzymatic reaction showed that AmGT90 had broad substrate specificity and could catalyze the glycosylation of various flavonoids, including isoflavones, flavones, flavanones, and chalcones. AmGT90 not only catalyzed the formation of monoglycosides but also diglycosides. In addition, the mechanism of AmGT90 catalyzing the formation of diglycosides from luteolin was preliminarily explored. The experimental results showed that AmGT90 may preferentially recognize C4'-OH of luteolin and then recognize C7-OH to form diglycosides. This study reported a glycosyltransferase from A. membranaceus capable of converting flavonoids into monoglycosides and diglycosides. This finding not only enhances our understanding of the biosynthetic pathways of flavonoid glycosides in A. membranaceus but also introduces a new component for glycoside production through synthetic biology.
Glycosyltransferases/chemistry*
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Flavonoids/chemistry*
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Astragalus propinquus/classification*
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Phylogeny
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Glycosylation
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Plant Proteins/chemistry*
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Substrate Specificity
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Cloning, Molecular
;
Amino Acid Sequence
3.Construction of a camel-derived natural phage nanobody display library and screening of anti-CD22 nanobodies.
Wanjun HE ; Kai CUI ; Xiqian ZHANG ; Dan JIANG ; Guangxian XU
Chinese Journal of Cellular and Molecular Immunology 2025;41(3):254-261
Objective To screen the anti-CD22-specific nanobodies to provide a basis for immunotherapy agents. Methods The naive phage nanobody library was constructed and its diversity was analyzed. Three rounds of biotinylated streptavidin liquid phase screening were performed by using biotinylated CD22 antigen as the target, and the sequence of nanobodies against CD22 were identified by ELISA and gene sequencing. Results The capacity of the constructed naive phage nanobody library was 3.89×109 CFU/mL, and the insertion of effective fragments was higher than 85%. Based on this library, seven anti-human CD22 nanobodies were screened, and the amino acid sequence comparison results showed that the overall similarity was 70.34%, and all of them were hydrophilic proteins. The results of protein-protein complex docking prediction showed that the mimetic proteins of the five nanobody sequences could be paired and linked to CD22, and the main forces were hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonding. Conclusion This study provided a basis for the study of chimeric antigen receptor T cells targeting CD22, successfully constructed the natural phage nanobody library and obtaining five anti-CD22-specific nanobodies.
Camelus/immunology*
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Single-Domain Antibodies/chemistry*
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Peptide Library
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Humans
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Animals
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Sialic Acid Binding Ig-like Lectin 2/genetics*
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Amino Acid Sequence
;
Molecular Docking Simulation
4.Identification of the Novel Allele HLA-B*54:01:11 Detected by NGS Using the Third Generation Sequencing Technology.
Nan-Ying CHEN ; Yi-Zheng HE ; Wen-Wen PI ; Qi LI ; Li-Na DONG ; Wei ZHANG
Journal of Experimental Hematology 2025;33(2):565-568
OBJECTIVE:
To distinguish the ambiguous genotyping results of human leukocyte antigen (HLA), identify a novel HLA-B allele and analyze the nucleotide sequence.
METHODS:
A total of 2 076 umbilical core blood samples from the Zhejiang Cord Blood Bank in 2022 were detected using the next generation sequencing technology (NGS) based on the Ion Torrent S5 platform. Among these a rare HLA-B allele with ambiguous combination result containing a base mutation was identified, and was further confimed by the third-generation sequencing (TGS) based on the nanopore technology.
RESULTS:
The NGS typing result of HLA-B locus showed HLA-B* 46:18, 54:06 or HLA-B*46:01, 54:XX (including a base mutation), and nanopore sequencing confirmed the typing as HLA-B*46:01, 54:XX (including a base mutation). Compared with HLA-B*54:01:01:01, the HLA-B*54:XX allele showed one single nucleotide substitution at position 1014 T>C in exon 6, with no amino acid change. The nucleotide sequence of the novel HLA-B*54:XX has been submitted to the GenBank nucleotide sequence database and the accession number OP853532 was assigned.
CONCLUSION
A ambiguous genotyping of the HLA-B Locus detected by NGS was distinguished by nanopore sequencing and a new HLA-B allele was successfully identified, which was officially named as HLA-B*54:01:11 by the World Health Organization Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System.
Humans
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High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
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Alleles
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HLA-B Antigens/genetics*
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Genotype
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Mutation
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Sequence Analysis, DNA
;
Base Sequence
5.Gene print-based cell subtypes annotation of human disease across heterogeneous datasets with gPRINT.
Ruojin YAN ; Chunmei FAN ; Shen GU ; Tingzhang WANG ; Zi YIN ; Xiao CHEN
Protein & Cell 2025;16(8):685-704
Identification of disease-specific cell subtypes (DSCSs) has profound implications for understanding disease mechanisms, preoperative diagnosis, and precision therapy. However, achieving unified annotation of DSCSs in heterogeneous single-cell datasets remains a challenge. In this study, we developed the gPRINT algorithm (generalized approach for cell subtype identification with single cell's voicePRINT). Inspired by the principles of speech recognition in noisy environments, gPRINT transforms gene position and gene expression information into voiceprints based on ordered and clustered gene expression phenomena, obtaining unique "gene print" patterns for each cell. Then, we integrated neural networks to mitigate the impact of background noise on cell identity label mapping. We demonstrated the reproducibility of gPRINT across different donors, single-cell sequencing platforms, and disease subtypes, and its utility for automatic cell subtype annotation across datasets. Moreover, gPRINT achieved higher annotation accuracy of 98.37% when externally validated based on the same tissue, surpassing other algorithms. Furthermore, this approach has been applied to fibrosis-associated diseases in multiple tissues throughout the body, as well as to the annotation of fibroblast subtypes in a single tissue, tendon, where fibrosis is prevalent. We successfully achieved automatic prediction of tendinopathy-specific cell subtypes, key targets, and related drugs. In summary, gPRINT provides an automated and unified approach for identifying DSCSs across datasets, facilitating the elucidation of specific cell subtypes under different disease states and providing a powerful tool for exploring therapeutic targets in diseases.
Humans
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Algorithms
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Single-Cell Analysis
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Databases, Genetic
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Molecular Sequence Annotation
6.Cloning, prokaryotic expression, and functional validation of flavonoid 3-O-glycosyltransferase gene (Rh3GT) from Rhododendron hybridum Hort.
Yicheng YAN ; Zehang WU ; Yuhang JIANG ; Gaoyuan HU ; Yujie YANG ; Xiaohong XIE ; Yueyan WU ; Yonghong JIA
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2025;41(2):881-895
Flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase (3GT) is a key enzyme in the glucosidation of anthocyanins. To investigate the 3GT gene in rhododendron, we cloned an open reading frame (ORF) of 3GT gene (named Rh3GT) from Rhododendron hybridum Hort (Red cultivar) and then characterized this gene and the deduced protein in terms of the biochemical characteristics, expression level, and enzymatic function. The results showed that Rh3GT had a full length of 993 bp and encoded 330 amino acid residues. The deduced protein was hydrophilic, stable, weak acid, belonging to the glycosyltransferase family (GT-B type), with glutamine (Q) at position 44 in the PSPG box. The phylogenetic analysis showed that Rh3GT was most closely related to Vc3GT from Vaccinium corymbosum and Vm3GT from Vaccinium myrtillus. Rh3GT was expressed in the stems, leaves, and flowers and almost not expressed in the roots, with the highest expression level in petals during full blooming stage. Introduction of pCAMBIAL1302-Rh3GT into petals significantly up-regulated the expression level of Rh3GT and increased the total anthocyanin accumulation. Rh3GT was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 in the form of inclusion bodies with a size of about 36 kDa. The results of HPLC showed that the recombinant Rh3GT after denaturation, purification, and dilution could catalyze the synthesis of cyanidin and UDP-glucose to synthesize cyanidin 3-O-glucoside, indicating that the expressed protein had 3GT activity. This study provides basic data for further studying the molecular regulation mechanism of anthocyanin biosynthesis and theoretical support for molecular breeding of rhododendron.
Rhododendron/classification*
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Glucosyltransferases/metabolism*
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Cloning, Molecular
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Escherichia coli/metabolism*
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Recombinant Proteins/biosynthesis*
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Anthocyanins/biosynthesis*
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Phylogeny
;
Plant Proteins/metabolism*
;
Amino Acid Sequence
7.Cloning and functional analysis of the phenylalanine ammonia-lyase gene from Anthoceros angustus.
Haina YU ; Jian MO ; Jiayi YANG ; Xiaochun QIN
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2025;41(7):2855-2870
Anthoceros angustus Steph. is rich in phenolic acids such as rosmarinic acid (RA). Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) is an entry enzyme in the phenylpropanoid pathway of plants, playing an important role in the biosynthesis of RA. To investigate the important role of PAL in rosmarinic acid synthesis, two PAL genes (designated as AanPAL1 and AanPAL2) were cloned from A. angustus, encoding 755 and 753 amino acid residues, respectively. The AanPAL deduced amino acid sequences contain the conserved domains of PAL and the core active amino acid residues Ala-Ser-Gly. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that AanPAL1 and AanPAL2 were clustered with PALs from bryophytes and ferns and had the shortest evolutionary distance with the PALs from Physcomitrella patens. Quantitative real-time PCR results showed that the expression of AanPAL1 and AanPAL2 was induced by exogenous methyl jasmonate (MeJA). HPLC results showed that the MeJA treatment significantly increased the accumulation of RA. AanPAL1 and AanPAL2 were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by histidine-tag affinity chromatography. The recombinant proteins catalyzed the conversion of L-phenylalanine to generate trans-cinnamic acid with high efficiency, with the best performance at 50 ℃ and pH 8.0. The Km and kcat of AanPAL1 were 0.062 mmol/L and 4.35 s-1, and those of AanPAL2 were 0.198 mmol/L and 14.48 s-1, respectively. The specific activities of AanPAL1 and AanPAL2 were 2.61 U/mg and 8.76 U/mg, respectively. The two enzymes had relatively poor thermostability but good pH stability. The high activity of AanPAL2 was further confirmed via whole-cell catalysis with recombinant E. coli, which could convert 1 g/L L-phenylalanine into trans-cinnamic acid with a yield of 100% within 10 h. These results give insights into the regulatory role of AanPAL in the biosynthesis of RA in A. angustus and provide candidate enzymes for the biosynthesis of cinnamic acid.
Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase/metabolism*
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Cloning, Molecular
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Cinnamates/metabolism*
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Recombinant Proteins/metabolism*
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Rosmarinic Acid
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Depsides/metabolism*
;
Escherichia coli/metabolism*
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Amino Acid Sequence
;
Plant Proteins/metabolism*
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Phylogeny
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Acetates/pharmacology*
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Cyclopentanes
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Oxylipins
8.Signature motif identification and enzymatic characterization of a protein tyrosine phosphatase in Metarhizium anisopliae.
Ze TAN ; Pei ZHU ; Zhenlun LI ; Shuiying YANG
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2025;41(9):3579-3588
Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs, EC 3.1.3.48) are key regulators of cellular processes, with the catalytic activity attributed to the conserved motif (H/V)CX5R(S/T), where cysteine and arginine residues are critical. Previous studies revealed that alternative splicing of extracellular phosphatase mRNA precursors in Metarhizium anisopliae generated two distinct transcripts, with the longer sequence containing a novel HCPTPMLS motif resembling PTP signatures but lacking the arginine residue. To identify the novel signature motif and characterize its enzymatic properties, we heterologously expressed and purified both proteins in Pichia pastoris and comprehensively characterized their enzymatic properties. The protein containing the HCPTPMLS motif (designated as L-protein) exhibited the highest activity at pH 5.5 and a strong preference for pTyr substrates. Its phosphatase activity was inhibited by Ag+, Zn2+, Cu2+, molybdate, and tungstate, but enhanced by Ca2+ and EDTA. AcP101 (lacking HCPTPMLS) showed the maximal activity at pH 6.5 and a strong preference toward pNPP (P < 0.05), with the activity inhibited by NaF and tartrate, but enhanced by Mg2+ and Mn2+. Functional analysis confirmed that the L-protein retained the PTP activity despite the absence of arginine in its signature motif, while AcP101 functioned as an acid phosphatase. This study provides the first functional validation of an arginine-deficient PTP motif, expanding the definition of PTP signature motifs and offering new insights for phosphatase classification.
Metarhizium/genetics*
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Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases/chemistry*
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Amino Acid Motifs
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Recombinant Proteins/biosynthesis*
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Amino Acid Sequence
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Pichia/metabolism*
;
Fungal Proteins/chemistry*
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Substrate Specificity
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Saccharomycetales
9.Identification and expression analysis of TCP family members in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.).
Shize WANG ; Yun LI ; Yucui HAN ; Shizhou YU ; Shuang WANG ; Yong LIU ; Xiaohu LIN
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2024;40(1):226-238
TCP family as plant specific transcription factor, plays an important role in different aspects of plant development. In order to screen TCP family members in tobacco, the homologous sequences of tobacco and Arabidopsis TCP family were identified by genome-wide homologous alignment. The physicochemical properties, phylogenetic relationships and cis-acting elements were analyzed by bioinformatics. The homologous genes of AtTCP3/AtTCP4 were screened, and RT-qPCR was used to detect the changes of gene expression upon 20% PEG6000 treatment. The results show that tobacco contains 63 TCP family members. Their amino acid sequence length ranged from 89 aa to 596 aa, and their protein hydropathicity grand average of hydropathicity (GRAVY) ranged from -1.147 to 0.125. The isoelectric point (pI) ranges from 4.42 to 9.94, the number of introns is 0 to 3, and the subcellular location is all located in the nucleus. The results of conserved domain and phylogenetic relationship analysis showed that the tobacco TCP family can be divided into PCF, CIN and CYC/TB1 subfamilies, and each subfamily has a stable sequence. The results of cis-acting elements in gene promoter region showed that TCP family genes contain low docile acting elements (LTR) and a variety of stress and metabolic regulation related elements (MYB, MYC). Analysis of gene expression patterns showed that AtTCP3/AtTCP4 homologous genes (NtTCP6, NtTCP28, NtTCP30, NtTCP33, NtTCP42, NtTCP57, NtTCP63) accounted for 20% PEG6000 treatment significantly up-regulated/down-regulated expression, and NtTCP30 and NtTCP57 genes were selected as candidate genes in response to drought. The results of this study analyzed the TCP family in the tobacco genome and provided candidate genes for the study of drought-resistance gene function and variety breeding in tobacco.
Nicotiana/genetics*
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Phylogeny
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Plant Breeding
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Amino Acid Sequence
;
Arabidopsis
;
Polyethylene Glycols
10.Genome-wide identification of Atropa belladonna WRKY transcription factor gene family and analysis of expression patterns under light and temperature regulation.
Wen-Ze LIU ; Sheng-Wei ZHOU ; Shao-Ke ZHANG ; Liu-Ming WANG ; Xu-Peng GU ; Lei-Xia CHU ; Lu QIAO ; Jie WAN ; Xiao ZHANG ; Lin-Lin YANG ; Cheng-Ming DONG ; Wei-Sheng FENG
China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 2024;49(21):5843-5855
Based on whole genome data, the identification and expression pattern analysis of the Atropa belladonna WRKY transcription factor family were conducted to provide a theoretical foundation for studying the biological functions and mechanisms of these transcription factors. In this study, bioinformatics methods were employed to identify members of the A. belladonna WRKY gene family and to predict their physicochemical properties, conserved motifs, promoter cis-acting elements, and chromosomal localization. Additionally, the expression patterns of the A. belladonna WRKY gene family under the regulation of environmental factors such as light quality and temperature were analyzed. The results revealed a total of 28 AbWRKY transcription factors, randomly distributed across 16 chromosomes, encoding 324-707 amino acids. Most AbWRKY proteins were acidic, unstable, and hydrophilic. Based on multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis, the WRKY gene family members were classified into two subfamilies. Conserved motif and domain analysis indicated that WRKY transcription factors in the same subfamily possessed conserved structural features. Promoter analysis predicted that the A. belladonna WRKY family contained light-responsive elements, hormone-responsive elements, and stress-responsive elements. Collinearity analysis showed that AbWRKY24 plays a crucial role in the expansion of the AbWRKY gene family. Then qRT-PCR results indicated that AbWRKY6, AbWRKY8, AbWRKY14, and AbWRKY24 responded to red light stress, while AbWRKY8, AbWRKY14, and AbWRKY24 responded to yellow light/low-temperature combined stress. AbWRKY6 and AbWRKY8 were significantly expressed in leaves and stems, AbWRKY27 and AbWRKY28 were significantly expressed in fibrous roots, and AbWRKY25 was significantly expressed in flowers. This study is the first to identify and analyze the WRKY gene family in A. belladonna and to examine its expression patterns under light and temperature regulation, laying a foundation for in-depth analysis and functional validation of the molecular mechanisms of A. belladonna WRKY transcription factors in responding to light quality and temperature environmental factors.
Transcription Factors/chemistry*
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Plant Proteins/metabolism*
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Phylogeny
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Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
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Light
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Temperature
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Atropa belladonna/metabolism*
;
Multigene Family/genetics*
;
Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics*
;
Sequence Alignment
;
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Genome, Plant/genetics*

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