Effects of vertebral number variations on carcass traits and genotyping of Vertnin candidate gene in Kazakh sheep

Objective The vertebral number is associated with body length and carcass traits, which represents an economically important trait in farm animals. The variation of vertebral number has been observed in a few mammalian species. However, the variation of vertebral number and quantitative trait loci in sheep breeds have not been well addressed. Methods In our investigation, the information including gender, age, carcass weight, carcass length and the number of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae from 624 China Kazakh sheep was collected. The effect of vertebral number variation on carcass weight and carcass length was estimated by general linear model. Further, the polymorphic sites of Vertnin (VRTN) gene were identified by sequencing, and the association of the genotype and vertebral number variation was analyzed by the one-way analysis of variance model. Results The variation of thoracolumbar vertebrae number in Kazakh sheep (18 to 20) was smaller than that in Texel sheep (17 to 21). The individuals with 19 thoracolumbar vertebrae (T13L6) were dominant in Kazakh sheep (79.2%). The association study showed that the numbers of thoracolumbar vertebrae were positively correlated with the carcass length and carcass weight, statistically significant with carcass length. To investigate the association of thoracolumbar vertebrae number with VRTN gene, we genotyped the VRTN gene. A total of 9 polymorphic sites were detected and only a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs426367238) was suggested to associate with thoracic vertebral number statistically. Conclusion The variation of thoracolumbar vertebrae number positively associated with the carcass length and carcass weight, especially with the carcass length. VRTN gene polymorphism of the SNP (rs426367238) with significant effect on thoracic vertebral number could be as a candidate marker to further evaluate its role in influence of thoracolumbar vertebral number

Reaction hijacking inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum asparagine tRNA synthetase

Malaria poses an enormous threat to human health. With ever increasing resistance to currently deployed drugs, breakthrough compounds with novel mechanisms of action are urgently needed. Here, we explore pyrimidine-based sulfonamides as a new low molecular weight inhibitor class with drug-like physical parameters and a synthetically accessible scaffold. We show that the exemplar, OSM-S-106, has potent activity against parasite cultures, low mammalian cell toxicity and low propensity for resistance development. In vitro evolution of resistance using a slow ramp-up approach pointed to the Plasmodium falciparum cytoplasmic asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase (PfAsnRS) as the target, consistent with our finding that OSM-S-106 inhibits protein translation and activates the amino acid starvation response. Targeted mass spectrometry confirms that OSM-S-106 is a pro-inhibitor and that inhibition of PfAsnRS occurs via enzyme-mediated production of an Asn-OSM-S-106 adduct. Human AsnRS is much less susceptible to this reaction hijacking mechanism. X-ray crystallographic studies of human AsnRS in complex with inhibitor adducts and docking of pro-inhibitors into a model of Asn-tRNA-bound PfAsnRS provide insights into the structure-activity relationship and the selectivity mechanism.</p

Reaction hijacking inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum asparagine tRNA synthetase

Malaria poses an enormous threat to human health. With ever increasing resistance to currently deployed drugs, breakthrough compounds with novel mechanisms of action are urgently needed. Here, we explore pyrimidine-based sulfonamides as a new low molecular weight inhibitor class with drug-like physical parameters and a synthetically accessible scaffold. We show that the exemplar, OSM-S-106, has potent activity against parasite cultures, low mammalian cell toxicity and low propensity for resistance development. In vitro evolution of resistance using a slow ramp-up approach pointed to the Plasmodium falciparum cytoplasmic asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase (PfAsnRS) as the target, consistent with our finding that OSM-S-106 inhibits protein translation and activates the amino acid starvation response. Targeted mass spectrometry confirms that OSM-S-106 is a pro-inhibitor and that inhibition of PfAsnRS occurs via enzyme-mediated production of an Asn-OSM-S-106 adduct. Human AsnRS is much less susceptible to this reaction hijacking mechanism. X-ray crystallographic studies of human AsnRS in complex with inhibitor adducts and docking of pro-inhibitors into a model of Asn-tRNA-bound PfAsnRS provide insights into the structure-activity relationship and the selectivity mechanism

Reaction hijacking inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum asparagine tRNA synthetase

Malaria poses an enormous threat to human health. With ever increasing resistance to currently deployed drugs, breakthrough compounds with novel mechanisms of action are urgently needed. Here, we explore pyrimidine-based sulfonamides as a new low molecular weight inhibitor class with drug-like physical parameters and a synthetically accessible scaffold. We show that the exemplar, OSM-S-106, has potent activity against parasite cultures, low mammalian cell toxicity and low propensity for resistance development. In vitro evolution of resistance using a slow ramp-up approach pointed to the Plasmodium falciparum cytoplasmic asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase (PfAsnRS) as the target, consistent with our finding that OSM-S-106 inhibits protein translation and activates the amino acid starvation response. Targeted mass spectrometry confirms that OSM-S-106 is a pro-inhibitor and that inhibition of PfAsnRS occurs via enzyme-mediated production of an Asn-OSM-S-106 adduct. Human AsnRS is much less susceptible to this reaction hijacking mechanism. X-ray crystallographic studies of human AsnRS in complex with inhibitor adducts and docking of pro-inhibitors into a model of Asn-tRNA-bound PfAsnRS provide insights into the structure-activity relationship and the selectivity mechanism

A promising trend for field information collection: An air-ground multi-sensor monitoring system

Timely identifying and quantifying significant spatial and temporal variability in agricultural field has been a crucial factor for improving agricultural production and management. This paper focuses on the mainstream techniques and applications can be adopted to improve the field information collection method. In this paper, the development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and remote sensing (RS) technology were reviewed, especially the micro unmanned aerial vehicle (mUAV)-based WSNs and mUAV-based RS by analyzing its applications in field information collection, and pointed out its existing benefits and limitations. A system encompassed multiple technique approaches was proposed in this paper which is called air-ground multi-sensor monitoring system. With the diversification methods of in-field information collection and the improvement of detection precision, an in-field information collection system will play an important role in controlling the farming operations of mechanized agriculture and optimizing the management of agricultural machinery group. In the future, the combination of mUAV, WSNs and RS for crop and soil monitoring will become a powerful tool to obtain field information, increase production, optimize the overall farming practices and input of resources and provide comprehensive reference for the study of soil-crops-machine relationships. Keywords: Field information collection, mUAV-based WSNs, mUAV-based RS, Multi-sensor monitoring system, 2010 MSC: 00-01, 99-0

Dielectric Property and Breakdown Strength Performance of Long-Chain Branched Polypropylene for Metallized Film Capacitors

At high temperatures, the insulation performance of polypropylene (PP) decreases, making it challenging to meet the application requirements of metallized film capacitors. In this paper, the dielectric performance of PP is improved by long-chain branching modification and adding different kinds of nucleating agents. The added nucleating agents are organic phosphate nucleating agent (NA-21), sorbitol nucleating agent (DMDBS), rare earth nucleating agent (WBG-Ⅱ) and acylamino nucleating agent (TMB-5). The results show that the long-chain branches promote heterogeneous nucleation and inhibit the motion of molecular chains, thereby enhancing the dielectric properties at high temperatures. Nucleating agents modulate the crystalline morphology of long-chain branched polypropylene (LCBPP), which leads to a decrease in the mean free path of carriers and an increase in trap energy level and trap density. Therefore, the conductivity is reduced and the breakdown strength is improved. Among the added nucleating agents, NA-21 showed a significant improvement in the electrical properties of LCBPP films. At 125 °C, compared with PP, the breakdown strength of the modified film is increased by 26.3%, and the energy density is increased by 66.1%. This method provides a reference for improving the dielectric properties of PP

Research Progress of Copper-Based Bimetallic Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2

Fossil fuels are still the main source of energy in today&rsquo;s society, so emissions of CO2 are inevitable, but when the CO2 level in the atmosphere is too high, many environmental problems will arise, such as the greenhouse effect, among others. Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 is one of the most important methods that one can use to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. This paper reviews bimetallic catalysts prepared on the basis of copper materials, such as Ag, Au, Zn and Ni. The effects of different ratios of metal atoms in the bimetallic catalysts on the selectivity of CO2RR were investigated and the effects of bimetallic catalysts on the CO2RR of different ligands were also analysed. Finally, this paper points out that the real reaction of CO2RR still needs to be studied and analysed, and the effect of the specific reaction environment on selectivity has not been thoroughly studied. This article also describes some of the problems encountered so far