Use of waist to hip ratio in the determination of the body composition in preschool children in Latvian population

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2008, the waist to hip ratio (WHR) has been suggested superior to the body mass index (BMI) in predicting the cardiovascular disease risk in adults and adolescents. There have been studies about the WHR in preschool children in the populations of Pakistan, Chile and Mexico; and it is not the WHO which recommended it as a routine method in preschool children.The present study includes 85 children (41 girls and 44 boys), aged 5 to 7 years, without any chronic conditions. Body height, body weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, triceps skinfold, abdominal skinfold and subscapular skinfold were measured. The WHR, the BMI, the sum of three skinfolds and the percentage of body fat (%BF) were calculated.It was found that the WHR decreased with age in girls; there were no specific changes found in the WHR with age in boys. The present study found no correlation in boys or girls between the WHR and the BMI; the WHR and the sum of three skinfolds; the WHR and the percentage of BF. There was also no correlation between the Z-scores of the BMI and Z-scores of the WHR.Conclusions. The WHR is a questionable body composition marker in preschool children in the Latvian population and must be evaluated separately from other body composition markers

Additional file 10: Table S6. of Integrated application of transcriptomics and metabolomics provides insights into glycogen content regulation in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Expression levels and annotation of the genes referred to in this article. (XLS 36 kb

Additional file 6: Table S3. of Integrated application of transcriptomics and metabolomics provides insights into glycogen content regulation in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Differentially-abundant metabolites identified by GC-TOF/MS. Data is presented as mean values ± SE (n = 10). Significant differences between the two groups were assessed by t test. Significant differences were declared at the level of p < 0.05 and VIP > 1. (H:high-glycogen content oysters, L: low-glycogen content oysters). (XLS 2133 kb

Additional file 13: Table S8. of Integrated application of transcriptomics and metabolomics provides insights into glycogen content regulation in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Metabolites and genes in enriched pathways identified by an integrative analysis of the metabolome and transcriptome data. The bold names represent the gene name whereas the others are metabolite names. (XLS 34 kb

Additional file 2: Figure S1. of Integrated application of transcriptomics and metabolomics provides insights into glycogen content regulation in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Pipeline for transcriptome analysis. (PDF 195 kb

Additional file 9: Table S5. of Integrated application of transcriptomics and metabolomics provides insights into glycogen content regulation in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Statistics of the transcriptome sequencing data. High: high-glycogen content oysters, Low: low-glycogen content oysters. (XLS 33 kb

Identification and Functional Characterization of the Glycogen Synthesis Related Gene Glycogenin in Pacific Oysters (<i>Crassostrea gigas</i>)

High glycogen levels in the Pacific oyster (<i>Crassostrea gigas</i>) contribute to its flavor, quality, and hardiness. Glycogenin (CgGN) is the priming glucosyltransferase that initiates glycogen biosynthesis. We characterized the full sequence and function of <i>C. gigas CgGN</i>. Three <i>CgGN</i> isoforms (CgGN-α, β, and γ) containing alternative exon regions were isolated. <i>CgGN</i> expression varied seasonally in the adductor muscle and gonadal area and was the highest in the adductor muscle. Autoglycosylation of CgGN can interact with glycogen synthase (CgGS) to complete glycogen synthesis. Subcellular localization analysis showed that CgGN isoforms and CgGS were located in the cytoplasm. Additionally, a site-directed mutagenesis experiment revealed that the Tyr200Phe and Tyr202Phe mutations could affect CgGN autoglycosylation. This is the first study of glycogenin function in marine bivalves. These findings will improve our understanding of glycogen synthesis and accumulation mechanisms in mollusks. The data are potentially useful for breeding high-glycogen oysters

Construction and evaluation of a high-density SNP array for the Pacific oyster (<i>Crassostrea gigas</i>)

<div><p>Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are widely used in genetics and genomics research. The Pacific oyster (<i>Crassostrea gigas</i>) is an economically and ecologically important marine bivalve, and it possesses one of the highest levels of genomic DNA variation among animal species. Pacific oyster SNPs have been extensively investigated; however, the mechanisms by which these SNPs may be used in a high-throughput, transferable, and economical manner remain to be elucidated. Here, we constructed an oyster 190K SNP array using Affymetrix Axiom genotyping technology. We designed 190,420 SNPs on the chip; these SNPs were selected from 54 million SNPs identified through re-sequencing of 472 Pacific oysters collected in China, Japan, Korea, and Canada. Our genotyping results indicated that 133,984 (70.4%) SNPs were polymorphic and successfully converted on the chip. The SNPs were distributed evenly throughout the oyster genome, located in 3,595 scaffolds with a length of ~509.4 million; the average interval spacing was 4,210 bp. In addition, 111,158 SNPs were distributed in 21,050 coding genes, with an average of 5.3 SNPs per gene. In comparison with genotypes obtained through re-sequencing, ~69% of the converted SNPs had a concordance rate of >0.971; the mean concordance rate was 0.966. Evaluation based on genotypes of full-sib family individuals revealed that the average genotyping accuracy rate was 0.975. Carrying 133 K polymorphic SNPs, our oyster 190K SNP array is the first commercially available high-density SNP chip for mollusks, with the highest throughput. It represents a valuable tool for oyster genome-wide association studies, fine linkage mapping, and population genetics.</p></div