Xiankui Wang

tBid interaction with cardiolipin primarily orchestrates mitochondrial dysfunctions and subsequently activates Bax and Bak

TNFR1/Fas engagement results in the cleavage of cytosolic Bid to truncated Bid (tBid), which translocates to mitochondria. We demonstrate that recombinant tBid induces in vitro immediate destabilization of the mitochondrial bioenergetic homeostasis. These alterations result in mild uncoupling of mitochondrial state-4 respiration, associated with an inhibition the adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-stimulated respiration and phosphorylation rate. tBid disruption of mitochondrial homeostasis was inhibited in mitochondria overexpressing Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL. The inhibition of state-3 respiration is mediated by the reorganization of cardiolipin within the mitochondrial membranes, which indirectly affects the activity of the ADP/ATP translocator. Cardiolipin-deficient yeast mitochondria did not exhibit any respiratory inhibition by tBid, proving the absolute requirement for cardiolipin for tBid binding and activity. In contrast, the wild-type yeast mitochondria underwent a similar inhibition of ADP-stimulated respiration associated with reduced ATP synthesis. These events suggest that mitochondrial lipids rather than proteins are the key determinants of tBid-induced destabilization of mitochondrial bioenergetics.

Process planning under job shop environment

There is a lack of information flow from job shop environment to the CAPP (computer aided process planning) system, which prevents a CAPP system from being more practical. THCAPP-G (CAPP for garment, developed by Tsinghua University in 1994) is a two-stage, nonlinear, closed-loop and dynamic process planning system. It generates process plans taking advantage of the flexibility of the manufacturing process and job shop environment, according to the dynamic status of the job shop environment. Techniques of ES (expert system), CPA (critical path analysis), and heuristic method were utilized comprehensively. An information flow between job shop environment and CAPP system was realized in this system. The developed ideas and system structure are discussed mainly in this paper.