Copy number variation (CNV) is an important source of structural variation in the mammalian genome. CNV assays present a new method to explore the genomic diversity of environmental adaptations in ...animals and plants and genes associated with complex traits. In this study, the genome-wide CNV distribution characteristics of 20 Tibetan sheep from two breeds (10 Oula sheep and 10 Panou sheep) were analysed using whole-genome resequencing to investigate the variation in the genomic structure of Tibetan sheep during breeding. CNVs were detected using CNVnator, and the overlapping regions of CNVs between individual sheep were combined. Among them, a total of 60,429 CNV events were detected between the indigenous sheep breed (Oula) and the synthetic sheep breed (Panou). After merging the overlapping CNVs, 4927 CNV regions (CNVRs) were finally obtained. Of these, 4559 CNVRs were shared by two breeds, and there were 368 differential CNVRs. Deletion events have a higher percentage of occurrences than duplication events. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the shared CNVRs were significantly enriched in 163 GO terms and 62 KEGG pathways, which were mainly associated with organ development, neural regulation, immune regulation, digestion and metabolism. In addition, 140 QTLs overlapped with some of the CNVRs at more than 1 kb, such as average daily gain QTL, body weight QTL, and total lambs born QTL. Many of the CNV-overlapping genes such as PPP3CA, SSTR1 and FASN, overlap with the average daily weight gain and carcass weight QTL regions. Moreover, V.sub.ST analysis showed that XIRP2, ABCB1, CA1, ASPA and EEF2 differed significantly between the synthetic breed and local sheep breed. The duplication of the ABCB1 gene may be closely related to adaptation to the plateau environment in Panou sheep, which deserves further study. Additionally, cluster analysis, based on all individuals, showed that the CNV clustering could be divided into two origins, indicating that some Tibetan sheep CNVs are likely to arise independently in different populations and contribute to population differences. Collectively, we demonstrated the genome-wide distribution characteristics of CNVs in Panou sheep by whole genome resequencing. The results provides a valuable genetic variation resource and help to understand the genetic characteristics of Tibetan sheep. This study also provides useful information for the improvement and breeding of Tibetan sheep in the future.
Softening is important for quality formation in some climacteric fruits. The molecular mechanism underlying fruit softening is, however, not well understood. In this study, we performed a comparative ...cell wall proteomics analysis on pre-climacteric (P1) and post-climacteric (P2) banana fruit, corresponding to fruit at the mature green stage and softening ripening stage, respectively, using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) technology. A total of 5230 proteins were identified in both sample groups, of which 928 were predicted to be secreted proteins. Of the secreted proteins, 162 were differentially expressed in P2 versus P1. The majority of these proteins had catalytic activity, binding activity, electron carrier activity and antioxidant activity. Compared with P1, P2 had 105 and 57 up- and down-regulated proteins, respectively. GO and KEGG-pathway analysis of these differentially expressed secreted proteins revealed that most were implicated in cell wall metabolism, stress and defense response, signaling, and protein metabolism and modification. Quantitative RT-PCR further validated some key differentially expressed secreted proteins associated with cell wall metabolism, stress and defense response, signaling and protein destination. Our results represent the first cell wall proteome of banana fruit and comprehensive proteomic study of banana fruit softening.
Softening, which is the consequence of cell wall and turgor modification, is one of the most important factors determining banana fruit quality. The molecular mechanism regulating fruit softening in harvested banana is not currently well understood. In this study, we performed a comparative cell wall proteome analysis for pre-climacteric (P1) and post-climacteric (P2) banana fruit, corresponding to the mature green stage and softening ripening stage, respectively, using iTRAQ technology. We found 162 differentially expressed secreted proteins that were mainly implicated in cell wall metabolism, stress response and defense, signaling, and protein metabolism and modification. We have presented the first cell wall proteome of banana fruit and conducted a comprehensive proteomic study of banana fruit softening that will help to develop strategies to improve the sensorial quality and reduce post-harvest fruit losses.
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•420 differentially expressed secreted proteins were identified during banana softening.•The DEPs were mainly related to cell wall metabolism and stress/defense response.•The majority of the DEPs were also related to signaling and protein destination.•The results represent the first cell wall proteome of banana fruit.
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•Crack-free CoCrNi laser directed energy deposition additive parts successfully obtained at high heat input.•High-angular grain boundary stress concentrations and excessive oxygen ...content in the additive parts were the main reasons for the crack formation.•Three crack suppression strategies could be proposed from this study, namely, reducing the heat input, performing additive experiments under argon-filled environment, and decreasing the oxygen content of the powder.
Laser-directed energy deposition (l-DED) additive manufacturing of the CoCrNi medium entropy alloy is prone to cracking, especially with high laser heat input. Electron backscatter diffraction analysis showed crack formation and stress concentration at the high-angle grain boundaries. In addition, element content test results exhibited a higher oxygen content in the additive parts with high laser heat input. Electron probe X-ray microanalysis indicated that the oxygen was distributed uniformly in the additive parts. Corresponding molecular dynamics simulation results revealed that an increase in oxygen content led to a decrease in the tensile strength of the additive parts. Two methods of argon-filled environment l-DED experiments and low-oxygen CoCrNi feeding power (argon gas atomization) were used. Results showed that the number and size of cracks were significantly reduced in the additive parts obtained by a high heat input process when the l-DED was conducted in an argon-filled atmosphere and when powders with lower oxygen content were used. For the crack-free additive parts, the ultimate tensile strengths reached 625 MPa with high laser heat input. Three crack suppression strategies could be proposed from this study, namely, reducing the heat input, performing additive experiments under argon-filled environment, and decreasing the oxygen content of the powder.
No data on predicting the survival of AML patients based on the level of trace elements in the serum have been presented to date. The aims of this prospective cohort study were as follows: (i) to ...evaluate the serum Cu and Zn levels in people from Northeast China, (ii) to assess the association between the serum Cu level (SCL) and Cu to Zn ratio (SCZR) and clinical and nutrition data, and (iii) to investigate the predictive values of the SCL and SCZR in newly diagnosed de novo AML patients.
A total of 105 newly diagnosed AML patients and 82 healthy controls were recruited. The serum Cu and Zn levels were determined by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry. The associations of SCL and SCZR with the survival of these AML patients were assessed by Cox proportional hazards models.
Both SCL and SCZR were positively related to the blast percentage of bone marrow and C-reactive protein, negatively related to albumin level and CEBPA double mutation and were significantly associated with worse overall survival and disease-free survival. Meanwhile, patients with higher SCL had worse CTCAE levels, and patients with higher SCZR showed less complete remission during the first course of induction chemotherapy. Moreover, higher SCZR was positively associated with ELN risk stratification, and was negatively associated with haemoglobin level and prognostic nutritional index (PNI).
The SCL and SCZR are associated with long-term survival in patients with newly diagnosed AML undergoing intensive induction and may serve as important predictive biomarkers.
The challenge of joining immiscible Mg/Steel dissimilar metals lies in the absence of an Fe-Mg intermetallic or Fe-Mg solid solution in an Mg-Fe system, and differences in their physical and chemical ...properties. Promoting interfacial reaction and regulating the composition of interface layer are beneficial for the formation of an Mg/steel interface layer and to obtain an effective Mg/steel joint. This research work focusses on the bonding of immiscible Mg/steel dissimilar metals: First, an Mg/steel interface layer was designed by controlling the composition of added alloy elements and trace elements in the base metal. Second, the Mg/steel dissimilar metals welding methods were divided into three parts-solid state welding, welding-brazing and fusion welding. The main distinctions between them were difference in interfacial temperature, thickness of interface layer, and type of compound. Third, the orientation relationships (OR) of the Mg/interface layer system and the interface layer/steel system was investigated. In this review, the effect of welding processing parameters, addition of alloy elements, base metal, and different welding methods on the joint's performance was studied. The mechanical property, microstructure, interface layer and metallurgical reactions of the joint were also examined. The most recent progress in joining immiscible Mg/Steel dissimilar metals and future research prospects are presented at the end of the paper.
Reducing fat deposition in sheep (
) tails is one of the most important ways to combat rising costs and control consumer preference. Our previous studies have shown that oar-miR-432 is differentially ...expressed in the tail adipose tissue of Hu (a fat-tailed sheep breed) and Tibetan (a thin-tailed sheep breed) sheep and is a key factor in the negative regulation of fat deposition through
in ovine preadipocytes. This study investigated the effect of oar-miR-432 and its target genes in ovine preadipocytes. A dual luciferase assay revealed that
is a direct target gene of oar-miR-432. We transfected an oar-miR-432 mimic and inhibitor into preadipocytes to analyze the expression of target genes. Overexpression of oar-miR-432 inhibits
expression, whereas inhibition showed the opposite results. Compared with thin-tailed sheep,
was highly expressed in the fat-tailed sheep at the mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, we transfected the overexpression and knockdown target genes into preadipocytes to analyze their influence after inducing differentiation. Knockdown of
induced ovine preadipocyte differentiation into adipocytes but suppressed oar-miR-432 expression. Conversely, the overexpression of
significantly inhibited differentiation but promoted oar-miR-432 expression.
overexpression also decreased the content of triglycerides. Additionally,
is a nested gene in intron 1 of
. When
was overexpressed, the
expression also increased, whereas
knockdown showed the opposite results. This is the first study to reveal the biological mechanisms by which oar-miR-432 inhibits preadipocytes through
and provides insight into the molecular regulatory mechanisms of
in ovine preadipocytes. These results have important applications in animal breeding and obesity-related human diseases.
Surface roughness and slope gradient are two important factors influencing soil erosion. The objective of this study was to investigate the interaction of surface roughness and slope gradient in ...controlling soil loss from sloping farmland due to water erosion on the Loess Plateau, China. Following the surface features of sloping farmland in the plateau region, we manually prepared rough surfaces using four tillage practices (contour drilling, artificial digging, manual hoeing, and contour plowing), with a smooth surface as the control measure. Five slope gradients (3°, 5°, 10°, 15°, and 20°) and two rainfall intensities (60 and 90 mm/hr) were considered in the artificial rainfall simulation experiment. The results showed that the runoff volume and sediment yield increased with increasing slope gradient under the same tillage treatment. At gentle slope gradients (e.g., 3° and 5°), the increase in surface roughness prevented the runoff and sediment production, that is, the surface roughness reduced the positive effect of slope gradient on the runoff volume and sediment yield to a certain extent. At steep slope gradients, however, the enhancing effect of slope gradient on soil erosion gradually increased and surpassed the reduction effect of surface roughness. This study reveals the existence of a critical slope gradient that influences the interaction of surface roughness and slope gradient in controlling soil erosion on sloping farmland. If the slope gradient is equal to or less than the critical value, an increase in surface roughness would decrease soil erosion. Otherwise, the increase in surface roughness would be ineffective for preventing soil erosion. The critical slope gradient would be smaller under higher rainfall intensity. These findings are helpful for us to understand the process of soil erosion and relevant for supporting soil and water conservation in the Loess Plateau region of China.
• We got that there existed a critical slope gradient for the effect of surface roughness on soil erosion.
• The erosion effect of surface roughness was to increase the erosion when slope gradient was greater than the critical slope.
• We have calculated the critical slopes which were approximately 10° slope.
Plant trichomes are specialized epidermal cells that protect plants from insects and pathogens. In Arabidopsis, epidermal hairs decrease as internodes increase in height, with only few epidermal ...hairs produced on the sepals abaxial surface of the early flowers. TRIPTYCHON (TRY) is known to be a negative regulator of epidermal hair development in Arabidopsis, suppressing the formation of ectopic epidermal hairs in the inflorescence. Here, we reported that the second intron of TRY gene plays a critical role in trichome spatial distribution in Arabidopsis. The expression of TRY rises with the increasing stem nodes and reaches the peak in the inflorescence, while the trichomes distribution decrease. The transgenic plants showed that TRY promoter could only drive the genomic instead of coding sequences combined with GUS reporter gene, which indicates that the regulatory elements of TRY expression in inflorescence could be located in the intron regions. Multiple SPLs and MADS-box binding sites were found in the TRY intron2 sequence. Further genetic and biochemistry assays revealed that the flowering-related genes such as SPL9 could bind to these cis-elements directly, contributing to the TRY spatial expression. Since cotton fiber and Arabidopsis trichomes share similar regulatory mechanism, extended analysis showed that the intron2 of cotton TRY genes also contain the cis-elements. Thus, the introns harboring the transcription element may be the general way to regulate the gene expression in different plants and provides molecular clues for the related crops’ traits design.
•TRY expresses high in the inflorescence contributing to no trichomes in this part, while TRY promoter could only drive the genomic sequence instead of CDS expressing in the inflorescence.•Transgenic and biochemistry assays showed that the SPL-binding motifs and MADS box exist in the TRY inron2, which could be activated by flower related genes.•The cotton GhTRY genes introns also contain the cis-elements and the growth of trichomes through the introns may be a general way in plants.
The mechanism of humoral immunity to Takayasu arteritis (TAK) is not clear. In our study, we aimed to investigate the correlation between immunoglobulins and disease activity and the relationship ...between immunoglobulins and the prognosis of TAK patients.
One hundred ninety TAK patients divided into two groups according to whether they had elevated immunoglobulins or not. We compared the demographic data and the clinical data between the two groups. Pearson correlation was used to analyze the relationship between immunoglobulin and disease activity, as well as the relationship between their changes. Immunohistochemical staining was used to compare the expression of humoral immune cells in TAK and atherosclerotic patients. One hundred twenty TAK patients who achieved remission within 3 months after discharge were followed up for 1 year. Logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between elevated immunoglobulins and recurrence.
Disease activity and inflammatory factors were significantly higher in the group with elevated immunoglobulins than in the normal group NIH (3.0 vs. 2.0, P = 0.001), ITAS-A (9.0 vs. 7.0, P = 0.006). Compared with atherosclerotic patients, CD138 + plasma cells were significantly increased in the aortic wall of patients with TAK (P = 0.021). Changes in IgG correlated well with CRP and ESR CRP (r = 0.40, P = 0.027), ESR (r = 0.64, P < 0.001). For patients with TAK in remission, elevated immunoglobulins was associated with 1-year recurrence OR95%, CI: 2.37 (1.03, 5.47), P = 0.042.
Immunoglobulins is of clinical value in evaluating disease activity in TAK patients. Moreover, the dynamic changes of IgG were correlated with the changes in inflammatory indicators in TAK patients.
In recent years, dynamic visual SLAM techniques have been widely used in autonomous navigation, augmented reality, and virtual reality. However, the increasing demand for computational resources by ...SLAM techniques limits its application on resource-constrained mobile devices. MEC technology combined with 5G ultra-dense networks enables complex computational tasks in visual SLAM systems to be offloaded to edge computing servers, thus breaking the resource constraints of terminals and meeting real-time computing requirements. This paper firstly introduces the research results in the field of visual SLAM in detail through three categories: static SLAM, dynamic SLAM, and SLAM techniques combined with deep learning. Secondly, the three major parts of the technology comparison between mobile edge computing and mobile cloud computing, 5G ultra-dense networking technology, and MEC and UDN integration technology are introduced to sort out the basic technologies related to the application of 5G ultra-dense network to offload complex computing tasks from visual SLAM systems to edge computing servers.
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