Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid, is widely consumed as a pain reliever and an anti-inflammatory as well as anti-platelet agent. Recently, our studies using the animal model of Drosophila demonstrated that the dietary supplementation of aspirin renovates age-onset intestinal dysfunction and delays organismal aging. Nevertheless, it remains probable that aspirin plays functional roles in other biological activities, for instance antiviral defense reactions. Intriguingly, we observed that the replications of several types of viruses were drastically antagonized in Drosophila macrophage-like S2 cells with the addition of aspirin. Further in vivo experimental approaches illustrate that adult flies consuming aspirin harbor higher resistances to viral infections with respect to flies without aspirin treatment. Mechanistically, aspirin positively contributes to the Drosophila antiviral defense largely through mediating the STING (stimulator of interferon genes) but not the IMD (immune deficiency) signaling pathway. Collectively, our studies uncover a novel biological function of aspirin in modulating Drosophila antiviral immunity and provide theoretical bases for exploring new antiviral treatments in clinical trials.

Drosophila melanogaster relies solely on innate immunity to defend against various microbial pathogens. Although it is well-known that the adaptor protein Imd undergoes K63-linked ubiquitination to activate the downstream signaling cascades, its involvement with K48-linked ubiquitination and what is responsible for controlling this modification remain largely unknown. In this study, we explored the immunological function of CG4968 , which encodes a typical ovarian tumour-associated protease (OTU)-type deubiquitinase (Dub) in flies. Our in vitro and vivo evidence demonstrated that CG4968 plays a positive role in governing the immune deficiency (IMD), but not the Toll innate immune response in an OTU domain-dependent manner. Mechanistically, we found that CG4968 is associated with Imd to restrict its K48-linked ubiquitination, thereby contributing to its turnover. Collectively, our study uncovered a novel regulatory mechanism involving the K48-linked ubiquitination of Imd in Drosophila innate immunity.

Drosophila ovary has been one of the most mature and excellent systems for studying the in vivo regulatory mechanisms of stem cell fate determination. It has been well-known that the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling released by the niche cells promotes the maintenance of germline stem cells (GSCs) through inhibiting the transcription of the bag-of-marbles (bam) gene, which encodes a key factor for GSC differentiation. However, whether Bam is regulated at the post-translational level remains largely unknown. Here we show that the E3 ligase Cullin-2 (Cul2) is involved in modulating Bam ubiquitination, which occurs probably at multiple lysine residues of Bam's C-terminal region. Genetic evidence further supports the notion that Cul2-mediated Bam ubiquitination and turnover are essential for GSC maintenance and proper germline development. Collectively, our data not only uncovers a novel regulatory mechanism by which Bam is controlled at the post-translational level, but also provides new insights into how Cullin family protein determines the differentiation fate of early germ cells.

依托长期(1989―)定位试验,田间试验设置5个处理:氮磷钾(NPK)、氮磷钾+花生秸秆(NPK+PS)、氮磷钾+绿肥(NPK+FR)、氮磷钾+腐熟猪粪(NPK+PM)、只施氮钾(CK),研究不同施肥措施对旱地红壤剖面磷素形态变化与累积特征的影响.结果显示:长期施磷肥显著增加红壤中全磷和速效磷的含量,提升土壤磷活化系数(PAC);相关分析表明,中等活性有机磷(MAOP)和无机磷中的磷酸铝盐(Al-P)、磷酸铁盐(Fe-P)与有效磷呈显著相关(P<0.05).对照处理土壤中无机磷以闭蓄态(O-P)为主(64.54％),但在不同施肥处理下外源性磷更易以Al-P和Fe-P形式积累,其中NPK+PM处理最为明显(Al-P,CK:6.27％、NPK+PM:27.58％;Fe-P,CK:17.28％、NPK+PM:37.35％).NPK+PS、NPK+FR处理对土壤中磷素的影响主要集中于耕层,但NPK+PM处理对20 cm以下土层磷含量仍有较大影响,在底层(60～100 cm)土壤中依然有少量有效磷积累.研究结果表明,磷肥及其与有机肥的配施明显促进了土壤磷素的积累与活化,以猪粪为原料的腐熟粪肥尤为显著.