Abstract:Building a quality academic journal and serving the scientific innovation

Abstract:Advancing with times in continued reforms: on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of PIBB

Abstract:PIBB at forty: a history

Abstract:In the past 40 years, since the publication of Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics, especially after carry out the reform and opening policies, biochemistry research in China has been achieved great successes. Quite number aspects had their position in international biochemical research; some had been at the leading position. Beside enzymology, biological membranes and structure biology, they have their own paper for introduction in this issue, the present paper describe progresses mainly on total synthesis of yeast alanine transfer RNA; cloning and study on hepatitis B virus adr subtype; genome study on human genome, rice genome and some other genomes; functional genomics study found certain oncogene or disease related gene, as well as rice genes which correspond to relative trait; developed technology for molecular breeding in plants; important results were obtained on gene expression and regulation in animals, plants and yeast; new break through were obtained in RNA research, which include tRNA, SnoRNA, and ribozyme; good results also had been obtained in research on peptide, protein, proteomics and glucoconjugates.

Abstract:As a new independent subject, biophysics emerged in the early 1950's. The Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was established in 1958. It was the milestone of the beginning of biophysics in China. This review introduces the foundation and the early development of biophysics in China, and the establishment of the interdisciplinary subjects, including radiation biology, bio-cybernetics, astrobiology, and bionics.

Abstract:The determination by Chinese scientists in early 1970s of the crystal structure of rhombohedral 2Zn pig insulin, the first protein crystal structure ever to be solved in Asia, marked the historical beginning of the structural biology research in China. Starting with the new century, research in structural biology in China experiences a rapid progress and facing a new development stage, placing her at the frontier of this field worldwide. This Special Column will conduct a panoramic review of the history and current status of structural biology research in China in three Sections, "The history", "The establishment of modern experimental facilities", and "The representative research fruits in recent years at the international frontier of life sciences".

Abstract:Biomembrane research is one of the leading edges of modern biology. Here the rise and development of biomembrane research in Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences after the "Cultural Revolution"was reviewed.
After the termination of the "Cultural Revolution", the leaders of Chinese Academy of Sciences became aware of the rapid progress of biomembrane research in other countries. A deputation led by YANG Fu-Yu from Institute of Biophysics with five other scientists from Institute of Biochemistry, Institute of Zoology, Institute of Botany, and Institute of Experimental Biology visited the Federal Republic of Germany. After their visitation, the leaders of Chinese Academy of Sciences realized the importance of multidisciplinary integration for biomembrane research, and organized an inter-institutional team composed of scientists from Institute of Biophysics, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Beijing Medical University. The inter-institutional team proposed a keynote research project entitled "The interaction between membrane lipids and membrane proteins and its application in medicine and agriculture", and got funded from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. At the same time, the leaders of Chinese Academy of Sciences suggested the Biophysical Society of China, the Chinese Society of Biochemistry and the Chinese Society for Cell Biology host the symposium on biomembrane research. The First National Symposium on Biomembrane was held in march 1979 in Beijing Friendship Hotel and the follow-up symposiums were held every three years and never been discontinued. This series of symposiums significantly promotes the development of biomembrane research and communication in China. In 2003, the 200th Xiangshan Science Conference was held with the topic "Biomembrane research in the 21st Centry", which carried the biomembrane research in China a step forward.
The key findings in membrane biology by Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, were also highlighted in the review: (1) The molecular mechanisms underlying the metal cations regulate energy transfer, material transportation and cell signaling in biomembranes via modulating lipid-protein interactions; (2) The important viewpoint that Keshan disease is an endemic mitochondrial cardiomyopathy in China; (3) The discovery that lysosomes contain trace amount of chymotrypsin, a well-known digestive enzyme, which mediates apoptosis after its relocation into the cytosol; (4) The finding about targeting mitochondrial dynamics to inhibits tumor cell metastasis. Finally, it must be pointed out that Prof. CHANG Wen-Rui, in cooperation with Prof. KUANG Ting-Yun of Institute of Botany, published their research work entitled "Crystal structure of spinach major light-harvesting complex at 2.72 ? resolution"in Nature in 2004, and Prof. RAO Zi-He, in cooperation with Prof. XU Jian-Xing, published their research work entitled "Crystal structure of mitochondrial respiratory membrane protein complex II" in Cell in 2005. These milestones indicated the significance of Chinese biomembrane research in the world.
In 2004, XU Tao was selected as the chief scientist for the first project on biomembrane funded by National Basic Research Program of Chinabecause of his expertise in membrane trafficking, suggesting that the biomembrane research in China enter a new period of development.

Abstract:The research interest converted from bionics to neuroscience underwent several generations' arduous work in the Institute of Biophysics (IBP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since 1959, it had taken about 46 years from the beginning of 3-person theoretic research group (the predecessor for the laboratory of bionics) to the establishment of the State Key Laboratory for Brain and Cognitive Science in IBP in 2005. Here, we try to recall and review this progression.

Abstract:Since 1970s', Chinese enzymologists have obtained a lot of distinguished achievements on the basic research on enzymes. At the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics, this paper is attempted to review the selected achievements from the systematically enzymic research in China.

Abstract:Long noncoding RNAs are non-protein coding transcripts greater than 200 bp in length. Rapidly growing studies showed that these 90% non-protein coding regions in human genome, instead of being "transcription noise", were also playing important roles on transcription initiation, elongation and post-transcriptional regulation etc., thus affecting various biological processes. Based on recent research progress on long noncoding RNAs, this review aims to summarize their origin and evolution, novel kinds of long noncoding RNAs, typical functional mechanisms of long noncoding RNAs, and their roles in development and reprogramming. We also tried to update studies on epigenetic regulation of long noncoding RNAs as well as their roles in cancer research, and some closely related modern technologies for long noncoding RNAs. Systematic screen of long noncoding RNAs and the elaboration of their functional mechanisms will play critical roles in the progress of modern life sciences.

Abstract:Calcium ion plays vital roles in virtually all aspects of cell physiology and biology. Dysregulation of calcium homeostasis emerges as an important hallmark for tumor cells. Remodeling in the expression, activities, and localizations of calcium channels and transporters is common to tumor progression. Elevated intracellular calcium prompts uncontrolled growth during tumor formation, whereas lowered calcium appears to be anti-apoptotic in the later phase of tumor progression. Moreover, local and global calcium oscillations may facilitate and guide cell migration in metastasis. These recent advances suggest that targeting calcium signaling may afford potential therapeutic strategies to intervene the tumor formation and progression.

Abstract:During the process of embryo development, formation of tissues and organs is strongly dependent on the correctly temporal-spatial differentiation and proliferation of stem cells, as well as apoptosis of intermediate cells. The processes of cell fate determination require sophisticated coordination, in order to promise the appropriate morphogenesis of tissues and organs during embryo development. GATA transcription factors play essential roles in this process, for example, in germ layer determination, hematopoietic system and cardiac formation, and also function in the genesis of thymus, intestine and tumor. Based on the current findings and combined with our research, this review will introduce the important function of GATA transcription factors in maintenance and differentiation of stem cells, as well as in cell reprogramming.

Abstract:From 1970s, structural biology has been advanced promptly in China, and many achievements are reached in different areas of life science. Recently, excellent efforts have been done in structural biology of influenza virus, including molecular basis on interspecies transmission of influenza virus and structure determination of polymerase complex. Here, we present a brief introduction of the advancements on structural biology of influenza virus in and out of China, providing a view of development of structural biology in China.

Abstract:Among many odes, I like the "Song of Yangtze River " very much: "you come from the ancient times, …you are the source of endless". At the 40th anniversary of the Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics, I would like to sing my heart song, "Ode to the Brain". The Human Brain is like the long river of history. It from ancient to today, and will from today to the future. Human brain is the most fine, most complex, most beautiful and the most successful organ created by the long natural selection process. It is the greatest miracle of intellectual evolution. It is the source of human intelligence, is the human spiritual home. The wisdoms of the human brain created and promote the formation of the social inheritance of human knowledge and civilization. Until now, we still don't know how the human brain works. We believe that the brain functional connectomics may be a key to crack the secret of the brain.

Abstract:Cancer is a class of complex diseases caused by gene-environment interaction. Risk for the development of cancer varies greatly among individuals with the same environmental exposure, indicating significant roles of genetic factors in carcinogenesis. Thus, the identification of such genetic factors has profound importance in understanding and clinical care including early detection, diagnose and treatment of cancers. Recently, genome-wide association study (GWAS) has been proved to be a powerful and successful tool for the discovery of genetic factors associated with complex phenotypes and diseases including cancer. GWAS in the US and some European countries have identified many genetic loci associated with a variety of common cancers. Since 2010, Chinese scientists have also published a series of high profile cancer GWAS, which contributed significant progresses in genetic etiology of common cancers in Chinese populations.

Abstract:Disrupting the normal signal transduction in host cells by injected bacterial effectors is a critical mechanism in bacterial pathogen-host interaction. The effectors usually harbor unique biochemical activities and function to block the anti-bacteria host defense pathways. Studies in the past few years have revealed several novel posttranslational modifications catalyzed by various bacterial effectors. The OspF family of phosphothreonine lyase effectors catalyzes "eliminylation"of phosphothreonine in MAPK, resulting permanent kinase inactivation. The NleE effector inhibits infection-induced NF-κB proinflammatory signaling by a cysteine methylation modification. The NleB effector mediates arginine GlcNAcylation of death domains and therefore blocks death receptor-mediated host cell death. The Fic-domain containing effectors VopS and IbpA transfer an AMP group onto a conserved serine or tyrosine residue in Rho GTPases, leading to Rho inactivation and disruption of the actin cytoskeleton dynamics in host cells. Identification of the biochemical activities of these effectors not only help to understand the virulence mechanism of the corresponding bacterial pathogens, but also establish a new research direction of posttranslational modifications in bacteria-host interaction studies. These effectors may also benefit or guide future study of the eukaryotic signal transduction.

Abstract:In multicellular organisms, the ligand-induced multiprotein complexes apoptosomes and inflammasomes are major players mediating apoptosis and inflammation, respectively. Both types of complexes function as a caspase-activating platform, but apoptosomes are specific for the apoptotic caspases such as caspase-9, whereas inflammasomes for inflammatory caspases like caspase-1. Here we summarize recent progresses on the molecular mechanisms underlying assembly and activation of the two types of protein complexes.

Abstract:DNA methylation at the 5 position of cytosine is one of the most important epigenetic modifications in vertebrate, which regulate gene expression in conjunction with specific protein readers to readout the methyl marks. This review focuses on two major classes of methyl DNAreaders, MBD and SRA domains, and discusses their structural bases and molecular mechanisms of recognizing different types of DNA modification marks.

Abstract:Both epidemiological and clinical evidences have indicated a strong association between inflammation and cancers. However, the molecular and genetic relationships between inflammation and tumor just begin to be understood. Accumulating data have established the notion that tumor microenvironment is largely orchestrated by the infiltrated immune cells including T lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, and mast cells. These cells are recruited to the tumor stroma and co-operate with each other, either to facilitate the initiation, invasion, migration and metastasis of tumor, or to elicit the anti-tumor immunity. Here, we review recent progress on how these immune cells function in tumor microenvironment. Understanding this issue is critical for developing novel strategies of tumor immune therapy.