Research progress on vegetation restoration of road slopes in China.

China is the largest country in road construction due to rapid economy growth, which results in a large number of exposed slopes. Vegetation restoration of these road slopes has become the dominant method in ecological restoration. We reviewed research progress from three aspects, including key technologies for road slope vegetation restoration, application of vegetation restoration engineering, and factors influencing the vegetation restoration efforts. The slope protection technologies commonly used in road slope vegetation restoration include soil spraying technology, vegetation concrete slope protection technology, thick base material technology, and hydraulic spraying technology. In engineering applications, slope vegetation has the functions such as soil and water conservation, air purification, and landscape restoration. Currently, the most common community configuration is shrub and grass configuration. The main influencing factors of vegetation restoration on road slopes are climate, soil substrate, slope direction, plant species and community configuration used, human factors, and other natural factors (such as hydrology, altitude, microtopography, and wildlife). Future researches should focus on the mechanisms of different factors affecting road slope vegetation restoration, and study ecological substrates and slope protection technologies, plant species and diverse community configuration models suitable for road slope restoration in different climatic regions and site conditions.

Anti-Food Allergic Alkaloids from the Lotus Seed Pot.

Lotus seed pod (LSP) has been used as traditional herbal cuisine to modulate immunity. From the AcOEt-soluble extract of LSP, one new aporphine alkaloid, N-[2-(2H-phenanthro[3,4-d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)ethyl]acetamide (nelunucine A, 1) was obtained along with 19 known ones. Their structures were established by detailed analysis of the 1D-, 2D-NMR, and HR-ESI-MS data. N-Nornuciferine (9) and lirinidine (10) showed potent in vitro anti-food allergic activity with IC50 values of 40.0 and 55.4 µM, respectively, compared to 91.4 µM for loratadine, the positive control.

Cu3L2 metal-organic cages for A3-coupling reactions: reversible coordination interaction triggered homogeneous catalysis and heterogeneous recovery.

The reported Cu(ii) metal-organic cage (Cu3L2, 1) can be a highly active reusable catalyst to homogeneously catalyze the A3-coupling reaction in CHCl3 and can be heterogeneously recovered by simply adding 1,4-dioxane via formation of the insoluble metal-organic framework (Cu3L2(1,4-dioxane)1.5, 2).

Bioactive polyprenylated acylphloroglucinol derivatives from Hypericum cohaerens.

Nine new polyprenylated acylphloroglucinol derivatives, hypercohins B-J (1-9), and nine known analogues were isolated from the aerial parts of Hypericum cohaerens. The structures of 1-9 were elucidated based on spectroscopic analysis, and the absolute configuration of 1 was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The inhibitory activities of these isolates on acetylcholinesterase and five human tumor cell lines were tested, and hypercohins B-D (1-3) exhibited moderate inhibitory activity (IC50 5.8-17.9 µM) against the tested tumor cell lines.

[Cloning and cellular localization of pORF8 plasmid protein of Chlamydia trachomatis].

OBJECTIVE: To clone the plasmid protein pORF8 of Chlamydia trachomatis and localize its expression in Chlamydia-infected cells. METHODS: pORF8 gene was amplified and cloned into pGEX-6p vector, and the pORF8 fusion protein was expressed in E.coli XL1 Blue. After purification with glutathione-conjugated agarose beads, the pORF8 fusion protein was used to immunize BALB/c mice to generate polyclonal antibodies against pORF8 protein. The antibodies obtained were used to localize the plasmid protein pORF8 in Chlamydia-infected cells with immunofluorescence assay (IFA). RESULTS: The pORF8 gene 744 bp in length was successfully cloned and the GST fusion protein with a relative molecular mass of 54 000 was obtained. The cellular distribution pattern of the plasmid protein pORF8 was similar to that of the major outer membrane protein (MOMP), a known C. trachomatis inclusion body protein, but not to that of chlamydial protease-like activity factor (CPAF, a secreted protein). CONCLUSION: The plasmid protein pORF8 is localized on the bacterial organism as an inclusion body protein in C. trachomatis-infected cells. The cellular location of pORF8 protein can potentially provide important insights into the pathogenesis of C. trachomatis.

[Application of the recombinant protein MOMP(VD2-VD3) from Chlamydia pneumoniae in sero diagnosis].

To express the recombinant protein MOMP(VD2-VD3) of Chlamydia pneumoniae, and research on the immunocompetence of the MOMP(VD2-VD3) to support serodiagnosis,PCR and gene recombinant technique was used to clone the targeted DNA fragment from a strain AR-39. The recombinant plasmid was induced in E. coli BL21 after having constructed the prokaryotic expression system, then the immunocompetence of the expression product was analyzed by Western blot and indirected ELISA which is based on the animal experimentation. A group of control sera and 126 sera from patients with coronary heart disease were examined by using ELISAs based on the recombinant protein (MOMP(VD2-VD3), and then the results were evaluated comparing with a commercial ELISAs kit. The results of the Western blot and indirected ELISA showed ompA(VD2-VD3) gene inserted in pET30a could express a recombinant protein with the molecular weight of 24kDa in BL21 and specifically reacted with the antibodies against the MOMP. Specific humoral response was elicited after immune the BALB/c mouse with protein and the specific antibody titer was more than 1:20480. Using a panel of control sera, the participation of the recombinant antigen, the sensitivity and the specificity of the indirected ELISAs were 100% respectively. Comparisons between two methods in detecting 126 sero samples, the concordance of two tests was 96.3%. The results reported here show that the recombinant protein with excellent immunocompetence could benefit the research on the serodiagnosis to Chlamydia pneumoniae.