Marek's disease (MD), a highly cell-associated and contagious disease of chickens caused by Marek's disease virus (MDV) can result in neural lesions, immunosuppression and neoplasia in chicken. The ...Meq gene is an important oncogene in the MDV genome, and it is expressed highly in MD tumor tissues and MD T-lymphoblastoid cell lines. An experiment was conducted to elucidate the role of Meq in MD tumor transformation. RNA interference technology was used to block its expression, and then analyzed the biological effects of Meq knockdown on the MD tumor cell line MSB1. A small interfering RNA with an interference efficiency of 70% (P<0.01) was transfected into MSB1 cells to knock down the expression of Meq gene. The cell proliferation, cycle and apoptosis were detected post-Meq knockdown. The results showed that MSB1 cell proliferation was downregulated remarkably at 48 h (P<0.01), 60 h (P<0.05) and 72 h (P<0.01) post-Meq knockdown. The cell cycle was unaffected (P>0.05). B-cell lymphoma 2 gene (BCL2) was anti-apoptotic and caspase-6 was the effector in the apoptosis pathway. The activity of caspase-6 was upregulated (P<0.05) significantly and BCL2 gene expression was downregulated (P<0.05) significantly post-Meq knockdown, suggesting cell apoptosis might be induced. MSB1 cell migration did not exhibit any obvious change (P>0.05) post-Meq knockdown, but the expression of two genes (matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) and MMP9) that are correlated closely to cell invasion was downregulated (P<0.05) remarkably post-Meq knockdown. The Meq knockdown might affect the main features of tumorous cells, including proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion, suggesting that the Meq gene might play a crucial role in interfering with lymphomatous cell transformation.
As a biodegradable, inexpensive and universally accessible material, paper is used widely in many applications, including packaging, office supplies and household products. However, the hydrophilic ...and oleophilic nature of paper often limits its use in applications that involve direct contact with liquids. The main purpose of this study was to create highly amphiphobic paper for products such as low cost medical testing strips, liquid packaging, and breathable and disposable medical apparel. A three-step process was developed to create paper with contact angles greater than 150° for water and motor oil, and greater than 140° for
n
-hexadecane. First, a commercially available debonding agent was used to manipulate the dimensions of the fiber network through efficient fines removal and modification of inter-fiber hydrogen bonding. Then an oxygen plasma was used to create nano-scale roughness on the micrometer-sized fibers and to remove residual fines that were blocking the inter-fiber pores. Finally, the paper was immersed in a fluorosilane solution to obtain a thin, low surface energy coating. XPS, SEM, mercury porosimetry and profilometry were used to evaluate changes in the fiber network after each step. This study marks the first report that uses debonder agents specifically to modify the anti-wetting properties of paper substrates by controlling the topology of the fiber network. The processes used in this procedure are simple, cost effective and amenable to scale-up.
A new method based on a light-gas gun has been proposed to synthesize Nb-Al alloys, and a recovery capsule has been investigated. The copper-coated sample is accessible after shock wave loading. In ...this paper, we successfully synthesize Nb-Al alloys, which are high-temperature structural materials. X-ray diffraction is employed to clarify the structural characteristics of compounds after impact, and the simulation of X-ray diffractions is employed to clarify the structure. In detail, tetragonal NbAl3 alloys certainly appeared in the recovery capsule; this alloy is considered to be best candidate.
This paper presents a compressive tracking framework using distributed binary sensors. The goal of this research is to achieve the minimum data throughput for an accurate multitarget tracking system ...through novel spatial sampling schemes. The framework consists of two main components: space encoding and measurement decoding. The space encoding scheme is based on the low-density parity-check matrix, which converts k-sparse target position vectors into different codewords. The measurement decoding scheme contains linear-programming-based localization and graphical-model-based tracking algorithms, which converts codewords into the states of multiple targets. A posterior Cramer-Rao bound analysis is utilized to achieve the tradeoff between the compression ratio of measurements and the accuracy of the tracking system. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the proposed framework.
The crystal phase field (PFC) method is used to simulate the propagation of the nano-crack of samples with different crystal orientations under the strain of the uniaxial tensile. The results show ...that the different crystal orientations have a significant effect on the initiation and propagation of the cracks. For the samples with the orientation angles of 5° and 20°, the notch is directly cracked due to the strain concentration at the dislocation of the crack tip. The cracks mainly show a mode of the brittle expansion, and its edges show smooth planar features. For the samples with the orientation angles of 10° and 15°, the dislocation is firstly emitted at the notch to generate vacancies by dislocation slipping. The vacancies grow and connect to form cracks. This process of the crack propagation belongs to the mode of the ductile crack with the rough edges. The results are consistent with that of the molecular dynamic and experimental results.
Graphical abstract
Plant pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) are essential for immune responses and establishing symbiosis. Plants detect invaders via the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) ...by PRRs. This phenomenon is termed PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI). We investigated disease resistance in
to identify PRRs that are important for resistance against downy mildew, analyzed the PRRs that were upregulated by incompatible
infection, and cloned the full-length cDNA of the
gene. We then analyzed the structure, subcellular localization, and relative disease resistance of
.
and PRR-receptor-like kinase 5 (RLK5) are highly similar, belonging to the leucine-rich repeat (LRR)-RLK family and localizing to the plasma membrane. The expression of PRR genes changed after the inoculation of
with compatible and incompatible
; during early disease development, transiently transformed
plants expressing
were more resistant to pathogens than those transformed with the empty vector and untransformed controls, potentially due to increased H₂O₂, NO, and callose levels in the transformants. Furthermore, transgenic
showed upregulated expression of genes related to the PTI pathway and improved disease resistance. These results show that
is a positive regulator of resistance against downy mildew in grapevines.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the GoldenGate microarray as a diagnostic tool and to elucidate the contribution of the genes on this array to the development of both nonsyndromic and syndromic ...sensorineural hearing loss in China.
We developed a microarray to detect 240 mutations underlying syndromic and nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss. The microarray was then used for analysis of 382 patients with nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss (including 15 patients with enlarged vestibular aqueduct syndrome), 21 patients with Waardenburg syndrome, and 60 unrelated controls. Subsequently, we analyzed the sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of this new approach after Sanger sequencing-based verification, and also determined the contribution of the genes on this array to the development of distinct hearing disorders.
The sensitivity and specificity of the microarray chip were 98.73% and 98.34%, respectively. Genetic defects were identified in 61.26% of the patients with nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss, and 9 causative genes were identified. The molecular etiology was confirmed in 19.05% and 46.67% of the patients with Waardenburg syndrome and enlarged vestibular aqueduct syndrome, respectively.
Our new mutation-based microarray comprises an accurate and comprehensive genetic tool for the detection of sensorineural hearing loss. This microarray-based detection method could serve as a first-pass screening (before next-generation-sequencing screening) for deafness-causing mutations in China.
Fatty acids are involved in the development and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, genetic effects of fatty acid biosynthesis pathway on CRC outcome are unclear. Cox regression model ...was used to evaluate genetic effects on CRC overall survival (OS) and progression‐free survival (PFS), accompanied by calculating hazard ratios (HRs) and confidence intervals (CIs). Differential expression analysis, expression quantitative trait loci analysis, dual‐luciferase reporter assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay were performed to explore the genetically biological mechanism. The rs10838164 C>T in HSD17B12 was significantly associated with an increased risk of death and progression of CRC (OS, HR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.40‐3.22, P = 4.03 × 10−4; PFS, HR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.11‐2.44, P = 1.35 × 10−2), of which T allele could increase HSD17B12 expression (P = 1.78 × 10−11). Subsequently, the functional experiments indicated that rs10838164 T allele could not only enhance the binding affinity of transcription factor YY1 to HSD17B12 region harbouring rs10838164 but also promote the transcriptional activity of HSD17B12, which was significantly up‐regulated in colorectal tumour tissues. Our findings suggest that genetic variants in fatty acid biosynthesis pathway play an important role in CRC outcome.
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