Cryptocaryoniasis is a severe parasitic disease caused by ciliate Cryptocaryon irritans in farmed marine fish. To control this disease, we established a method to interrupt the life cycle of C. ...irritans via the removal of its tomonts. Marine fish Plectorhinchus cinctus were divided randomly into four groups, including placemat removal group (Group I), rotational culturing group (Group II), infection control group (IF group) and blank control group (Control); the former three groups were infected with C. irritans at low dose. A daily food consumption (DFC), relative infection intensity (RII) and survival rate of each group were observed. At 4-week post infection, some fish were challenged with C. irritans theronts at a lethal dose. Results showed that the fish' DFC in IF Group, Group I and II decreased significantly on 2nd day post infection, and gradually restored food intake when the trophonts exited the fish on the 5th day. However, their DFC in IF Group decreased significantly on 7th day, and eventually stopped feeding. Trophonts on fish' body of the three groups began to reduce from the 4th day and those of Group I and II almost disappeared on the 7th day, conversely the trophonts of IF group increased ten times. At 2-week post infection, the survival rates of Group I, II, IF and Control were 97%, 98%, 0%, and 100%, respectively. The survival rates of Group I, II and Control were 88.3%, 93.3%, 66.7%, respectively after challenge. Results demonstrate that placemat and rotational culturing method to remove tomonts can effectively control C. irritans infection.
Cryptocaryoniasis is a severe parasitic disease caused by ciliate Cryptocaryon irritans in farmed marine fish. To control this disease, we established a method to interrupt the life cycle of C. irritans via the removal of its tomonts. Marine fish P. cinctus were divided randomly into four groups, including placemat removal group (Group I), rotational culturing group (Group II), infection control group (IF group) and blank control group (Control); the former three groups were infected with C. irritans at low dose. A daily food consumption (DFC), relative infection intensity (RII) and survival rate of each group were observed. At 4-week post infection, some fish were challenged with C. irritans theronts at a lethal dose. Results showed that the fish' DFC in IF Group, Group I and II decreased significantly on 2nd day post infection, and gradually restored food intake when the trophonts exited the fish on the 5th day. However, their DFC in IF Group decreased significantly on 7th day, and eventually stopped feeding. Trophonts on fish' body of the three groups began to reduce from the 4th day and those of Group I and II almost disappeared on the 7th day, conversely the trophonts of IF group increased ten times. At 2-week post infection, the survival rates of Group I, II, IF and Control were 97%, 98%, 0%, and 100%, respectively. The survival rates of Group I, II and Control were 88.3%, 93.3%, 66.7%, respectively after challenge. Results demonstrate that placemat and rotational culturing method to remove tomonts can effectively control C. irritans infection. This method is an mechanical preventive one, not only provides an ideal means for controlling C. irritans in small scale culture systems, but also solves food safety problems.
•A new method to control C. irritans infection by means of placemat and rotational culturing to remove tomonts was developed.•The survival rates of placemat group, rotational culturing group, infection control and blank control were 97%, 98%, 0%, and 100%, respectively.•The relative protection rate of placemat and rotational culturing group was 61.67% and 74.44% compared with blank control.
We report the experimental results of the commissioning phase in the 10 PW laser beamline of the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF). The peak power reaches 2.4 PW on target without ...the last amplifying during the experiment. The laser energy of 72 ± 9 J is directed to a focal spot of approximately 6 μm diameter (full width at half maximum) in 30 fs pulse duration, yielding a focused peak intensity around 2.0 × 1021 W/cm2. The first laser-proton acceleration experiment is performed using plain copper and plastic targets. High-energy proton beams with maximum cut-off energy up to 62.5 MeV are achieved using copper foils at the optimum target thickness of 4 μm via target normal sheath acceleration. For plastic targets of tens of nanometers thick, the proton cut-off energy is approximately 20 MeV, showing ring-like or filamented density distributions. These experimental results reflect the capabilities of the SULF-10 PW beamline, for example, both ultrahigh intensity and relatively good beam contrast. Further optimization for these key parameters is underway, where peak laser intensities of 1022–1023 W/cm2 are anticipated to support various experiments on extreme field physics.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of time access to post-hatch feeding on the growth performance, hormone secretion, intestinal morphology, and intestinal microbiota structure of broilers. ...A total of 900 broilers were randomly allocated to 3 treatment groups, with 6 replicates of 50 broilers each. The 3 treatments were: immediate feeding (Group 2 h), delayed access to feed for 24 h (Group 24 h), and delayed access to feed for 48 h (Group 48 h). The experiment lasted for 50 d. Results revealed that Group 2 h had a higher average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) as well as a lower feed-to-gain ratio (F/G) than Group 48 h during the starter period (P < 0.05). Compared with Group 48 h, broilers in Group 2 h exhibited significantly elevated villus height (VH) and villus height to crypt depth ratio (VH: CD) in the duodenum, increased Occludin, and Claudin-1 mRNA expression in the jejunum but decreased crypt depth (CD) in the duodenum at 50 d (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, broilers in Groups 2 h and 24 h had increased glycogen (Gn) and protein (Pro) levels in breast muscle and TG levels in the liver, as well as a higher concentration of serum T3, T4, and IGF-1 compared with Group 48 h at 21 d (P < 0.05). Besides, intestinal microbiota consisted primarily of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria at the phylum level at 21 d and 50 d; at the genus level, broilers in Group 2 h displayed significantly reduced abundance of Escherichia at 21 d and Bacteroides at 50 d compared with Group 48 h (P < 0.05). Collectively, these findings signal that early post-hatch feeding measures, especially at 21 d, improve hormone secretion, intestinal morphology, and the growth performance of broilers by enhancing intestinal health and modulating the intestinal microbiota.
Leprosy is a chronic infectious and neurological disease that is caused by infection of Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae). A recent genome-wide association study indicated a suggestive association of ...LRRK2 genetic variant rs1873613 with leprosy in Chinese population. To validate this association and further identify potential causal variants of LRRK2 with leprosy, we genotyped 13 LRRK2 variants in 548 leprosy patients and 1078 healthy individuals from Yunnan Province and (re-)analyzed 3225 Han Chinese across China. Variants rs1427267, rs3761863, rs1873613, rs732374 and rs7298930 were significantly associated with leprosy per se and/or paucibacillary leprosy (PB). Haplotype A-G-A-C-A was significantly associated with leprosy per se (P=0.018) and PB (P=0.020). Overexpression of the protective allele (Thr2397) of rs3761863 in HEK293 cells led to a significantly increased nuclear factor of activated T-cells' activity compared with allele Met2397 after lipopolysaccharides stimulation. Allele Thr2397 could attenuate 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 6-tetrahydropyridine-induced autophagic activity in U251 cells. These data suggest that the protective effect of LRRK2 variant p.M2397T on leprosy might be mediated by increasing immune response and decreasing neurotoxicity after M. leprae loading. Our findings confirm that LRRK2 is a susceptible gene to leprosy in Han Chinese population.
AIMS: To identify the taxonomy of tobacco rhizosphere‐isolated strain Lyc2 and investigate the mechanisms of the antifungal activities, focusing on antimicrobials gene clusters identification and ...function analysis. METHODS AND RESULTS: Multilocus sequence typing and 16S rRNA analyses indicated that strain Lyc2 belongs to Burkholderia pyrrocinia. Bioassay results indicated strain Lyc2 showed significant antifungal activities against a broad range of plant and animal fungal pathogens and control efficacy on seedling damping off disease of cotton. A 55·2‐kb gene cluster which was homologous to ocf gene clusters in Burkholderia contaminans MS14 was confirmed to be responsible for antifungal activities by random mutagenesis; HPLC was used to verify the production of antifungal compounds. Multiple antibiotic and secondary metabolized biosynthesis gene clusters predicated by antiSMASH revealed the broad spectrum of antimicrobials activities of the strain. CONCLUSIONS: Our results revealed the mechanisms of antifungal activities of strain Lyc2 and expand our knowledge about production of occidiofungin in the bacteria Burkholderia. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Understanding the mechanisms of antifungal activities of strain Lyc2 has contributed to discovery of new antibiotics and expand our knowledge of production of occidiofungin in the bacteria Burkholderia.
This study was conducted with the objectives to examine the impacts of inorganic selenium (Se) and different types and levels of organic selenium on the serum and tissues Se status and antioxidant ...capacity in broiler breeders.
Five hundred and forty 48-wk-old Lingnan Yellow broiler breeders were randomly assigned to 6 dietary treatments, provided same basal diet (0.04 mg/kg of Se) with 0.15 mg/kg, or 0.30 mg/kg of Se from sodium selenite (SS) or from selenium-enriched yeast (SY) or from selenomethionine (SM). The broiler breeders were slaughtered after an 8-wk experiment.
The results showed that SM was better than SY and SS, 0.30 mg/kg level was better than 0.15 mg/kg level in Se deposition (p<0.05) in serum, liver, kidney, pancreas and muscle; in antioxidant status, organic selenium had better effects than SS in broiler breeders (p<0.05), but SM and SY had a similar result, and 0.15 mg/kg level was better than 0.30 mg/kg (p<0.05).
The results demonstrated the evident advantage of supplementation of broiler breeders with 0.15 mg/kg SM, which improved tissue Se concentrations and antioxidant status, and can be considered as the best selenium source.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is characterized by genome-wide alterations to DNA methylation that influence gene expression and genomic stability. Less is known about the extent to which methylation is ...disrupted in the earliest stages of CRC development. In this study, we have combined laser-capture microdissection with reduced representation bisulfite sequencing to identify cancer-associated DNA methylation changes in human aberrant crypt foci (ACF), the earliest putative precursor to CRC. Using this approach, methylation profiles have been generated for 10 KRAS-mutant ACF and 10 CRCs harboring a KRAS mutation, as well as matched samples of normal mucosa. Of 811 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) identified in ACF, 537 (66%) were hypermethylated and 274 (34%) were hypomethylated. DMRs located within intergenic regions were heavily enriched for AP-1 transcription factor binding sites and were frequently hypomethylated. Furthermore, gene ontology analysis demonstrated that DMRs associated with promoters were enriched for genes involved in intestinal development, including homeobox genes and targets of the Polycomb repressive complex 2. Consistent with their role in the earliest stages of colonic neoplasia, 75% of the loci harboring methylation changes in ACF were also altered in CRC samples, though the magnitude of change at these sites was lesser in ACF. Although aberrant promoter methylation was associated with altered gene expression in CRC, this was not the case in ACF, suggesting the insufficiency of methylation changes to modulate gene expression in early colonic neoplasia. Altogether, these data demonstrate that DNA methylation changes, including significant hypermethylation, occur more frequently in early colonic neoplasia than previously believed, and identify epigenomic features of ACF that may provide new targets for cancer chemoprevention or lead to the development of new biomarkers for CRC risk.
We describe the development of a non-equiatomic CoCrFeNi2Al0.3Ti0.25 high entropy alloy (HEA). Both high-density nano-lamellar precipitates and ultrafine grain structure are simultaneously introduced ...by cold rolling then annealing at 600–800 °C for 1 h. The HEA annealing at 700 °C (CR-700) exhibits ultra-high yield strength (σy) of 1900 ± 15 MPa, ultimate tensile stress of 2074 ± 17 MPa and excellent total elongation (εte) of 16.7 ± 1.5. This succeeds in overcoming the strength-ductility trade-off that often hampers the development of high-performance alloys. Compared with the as-cast alloy, σy of the CR-700 HEA increases by 171% and εte decreases by 54%. The ultra-high strength is mainly attributed to the synergistic strengthening effects of both nano-lamellar precipitates and ultrafine grains. The high coherent FCC/L12 interface facilitates the transmission of dislocations, which eliminates the stress concentration during deformation and effectively maintains uniform deformation. Meanwhile, high-density stacking faults and Lomer-Cottrell locks are formed during the deformation process. These promote the multiplication of dislocations and further improves the work-hardening ability. The combination of high-density nano-lamellar precipitates and ultrafine grain structure can potentially be applied to other conventional alloys. This work provides a new strategy for fabricating materials with ultra-high strength and excellent ductility.
A standardized procedure for
Cryptocaryon irritans propagation was established by means of infecting the animal model pompano
Trachinotus ovatus (167.8
±
15.1 g) with a sub-lethal dose of theronts. ...By using this method, up to 40 consecutive cycles were successively established. Briefly, theronts collected within 2 h of excystment were used to infect pompanos (8000–15,000 theronts per fish) in dark for 3 h starting between 22:00 and 24:00, at 27
±
0.5 °C and 29–32‰ salinity. The trophonts on the skin and gill appeared evidently 60 h post-infection. Their growth phase culminated when the mature trophonts spontaneously exited the host after another 24 h and fell to the bottom as protomonts. All of the protomonts were collected by using a special collection unit. After a 60-h incubation, the protomonts evolved into tomonts and began to release theronts. The excystment of theronts reached the peak after 24 h, and at this time point the theronts were collected for the next cycle of propagation. One cycle of propagation took one week and produced approximately 1 million theronts per fish. The maximum parasite yield of propagation was 122-fold and the minimum was 61-fold. The longest survival time of theronts was 36 h. The infection rate of theronts upon excystment was 64%, and then declined evidently by 4 h. At 8 h, the infection rate declined to 9.6%. The present study demonstrated that
C. irritans could be efficiently propagated on
T. ovatus, a suitable experimental host. The standardized method for
C. irritans propagation provides a foundation for future studies of
C. irritans such as its pathogenicity and control of the disease it causes.
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