没想到这么快本命年就过去了，今年的春节也就是一个普普通通的周末，外面还有积雪。这个周末是学校的招生宣传日，周六早上就去看poster，中午随便吃了些；到了晚上，是时候该准备吃顿年夜饭了。一堆卤的东西，两种鲨鱼，还有一些蔬菜。胃口不是特别的好，但是吃的还是很开心。

 

我本来不是一个特别喜欢春节的人，总觉得热闹的过头了，再加上每年程序式的访客吃饭，没几天就没胃口了。 今年倒是一下子不热闹了，就觉得有点冷清，一年到头来好像少了些什么。冬天的时候总觉得在等待，突然春节来了，春节又走了。于是才知道，自己还是喜欢热闹一点的。 网上看到高中的同学还要聚会，真不错。毕业五年了，大家的感情还是那么好； 虽然上学的那时候大家都闷头读书，也不像大学一样有什么活动，每次听到有高中同学的什么消息，一直是很关切。很可惜这次的聚会不能参加了，下一次也不知道什么时候呢。我想我是没有从他们群体中蒸发掉了，就算和他们一起玩的时候话是属于少的那种人。

 

不过，的确有一些那时候关系挺不错的同学，现在基本上联系不上了，尤其是去了部队的那些同学......祝大家都好运吧

 

When cleaning my desktop of computer, I found something interesting I write last semester.  I am not gonna lose ideas out, so ZZ here: 

 

 

A cAMP- response element binding protein induced microRNA regulates neuronal morphogenesis

By Ngan Vo and Soren Impey

PNAS Nov 8, 2005

 

This paper described a novel finding that is very original in the realm of developmental and functional neuroscience. It is known that cAMP response element binding protein, CREB, which is a basic leucine zipper transcription factor, regulates many rapid response genes. CREB is especially studied in the nervous system and previous studies indicate that CREB plays crucial roles in associative learning and memory. Once phosphorylated by upstream kinases including PKA, CaMKs, CREB translocated in the nucleus, binds to special sequence in the promoter regions of targets gene and recruit coactivator to induce gene transcription.

 

The target they investigate in the paper actually codes for a putative micro RNA MIR132 instead of a protein. Using a genome-wide screen system they developed, they isolated CREB binding sites associated with noncoding transcripts. And they find that there are CRE （cAMP response element） upstream of mir132 and chromatin immunoprecipitation and DNA footprint experiments all indicate that CREB is binding to the putative CRE sites of the mir132. Expression profile of the mir132 shows an high level in the hippocampus region, which plays important role in learning and memory.

 

They treated the cultured neurons with BDNF, which can induce CREB dependent transcription in vivo. Real time PCR results show that the response of the mir132 gene to BDNF is rapid and long lasting, and this response is reduced greatly when cotransfecting with mutant CREB (which can not binding to CRE DNA).

 

The function of the mir132 on neurons are also very interesting. Over express of the mir132 precusor in the primary cortical neurons induced a marked increase of the primary neurite outgrowth. The morphological change is confirmed to be specific for mir132 by overexpress control precursor of other mirRNAs. Bioinformatics analysis predicted a putative target of the mir132, p250GAP, which is a member of the Rac/Rho family of GAPs. p250GAP also enriched in the CNS. Overexpression of the mir132 precursor repressed both exogenous luciferase reported fused to p250 GFP and the endogenous p250 GAP. Because mir132 stimulate neurite outgrowth, it is possible that mir132 doing this by negatively regulate p250GAP. This hypothesis is test by inhibition of endogenous p250 GAP by a shRNA. They observed a striking increase of neurite outgrowth in cells transfected with the p250 shRNA construct compared with a control shRNA.

 

The originality of this paper, I think, is that it show the way a transcription factor plays role in a certain developmental or physiological process could be induced a transcription of a mirRNA. In the past decades, micro RNA is a booming realm and also an exciting discovery that they plays important role in many biological processes by regulating gene expression. It is reasonable to investigate microRNA from many aspects as we study the basic life brick, proteins, the transcription regulation, the targets, and also the termination of those 19-24 nt small molecules.

 

Anther thing that is interesting to me is much more related to the topic of the paper itself. Synaptic plasticity of the nerves network is believed to be important in learning and memory. Also, for the development of long term memory, a change of the protein synthesis is also required. How these two things come together? What is the cellular and molecular basis of synaptic plasticity? CREB is indicated as important transcription factor involved in learning and memory by inducing transcription of genes response to outer signals. Study is this paper indicates that one target of CREB, the mir132 could increase the neurite outgrowth, which is a reasonable basis for synaptic plasticity. What else could be there that can couple the new gene expression and the synaptic plasticity is a question worth thinking.

第一次听说superbowl是从freinds里面有题目叫superbowl part的两集。不过今天晚上终于看到了----对我来说不过是很普通的一推人乱撞得野蛮游戏的超级碗了。 上个礼拜就听说浩男哥和浩男嫂家里周末一起看superbowl. football我是一点兴趣都没有的，不过作为他们家的粉丝，随便什么party终归是不能错过的，而且还有好吃的东西。

 

节目也不知道是什么时候开始的，就像我看的也不知道什么时候会结束一样。感觉就是广告比较的多，而且也有点意思。最有意思的是一个gps的广告，一个地图变成的怪兽然后司机拿着gps就变成奥特曼了。比赛断断续续的，我看也看不懂什么东西。一开始连球在哪里都看不到。后来在几个football fans的教育下知道了一些，能看到球在那里了，还知道了一个好像是叫fun ball的比较fun的规则项目。最后的结果，Indiana 的一个队赢了一个银色的橄榄球，几个人说了话，我吃的很撑,一堆的paper要赶着看。

 

据说过几个礼拜篮球又有什么可以开party的机会。Anyway, american football我也许这辈子都不会喜欢上看得了，比赛没有连贯性，技术含量也比soccer差远了......