Mapping an atlas of tissue-specific drosophila melanogaster metabolomes by high resolution mass spectrometry

Metabolomics can provide exciting insights into organismal function, but most work on simple models has focussed on the whole organism metabolome, so missing the contributions of individual tissues. Comprehensive metabolite profiles for ten tissues from adult Drosophila melanogaster were obtained here by two chromatographic methods, a hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) method for polar metabolites and a lipid profiling method also based on HILIC, in combination with an Orbitrap Exactive instrument. Two hundred and forty two polar metabolites were putatively identified in the various tissues, and 251 lipids were observed in positive ion mode and 61 in negative ion mode. Although many metabolites were detected in all tissues, every tissue showed characteristically abundant metabolites which could be rationalised against specific tissue functions. For example, the cuticle contained high levels of glutathione, reflecting a role in oxidative defence; the alimentary canal (like vertebrate gut) had high levels of acylcarnitines for fatty acid metabolism, and the head contained high levels of ether lipids. The male accessory gland uniquely contained decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine. These data thus both provide valuable insights into tissue function, and a reference baseline, compatible with the FlyAtlas.org transcriptomic resource, for further metabolomic analysis of this important model organism, for example in the modelling of human inborn errors of metabolism, aging or metabolic imbalances such as diabetes

Chinese Herbal Medicines for the Treatment of Type A H1N1 Influenza: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Chinese herbs are thought to be effective for type A H1N1 influenza. Series of Chinese herbs have been authorized recommended by the Chinese government, and until now a number of clinical trials of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza have been conducted. However, there is no critically appraised evidence such as systematic reviews or metaanalyses on potential benefits and harms of medicinal herbs for H1N1 influenza to justify their clinical use and their recommendation. CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CBM, CNKI, VIP, China Important Conference Papers Database, China Dissertation Database, and online clinical trial registry websites were searched for published and unpublished randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza till 31 August, 2011. A total of 26 RCTs were identified and reviewed. Most of the RCTs were of high risk of bias with flawed study design and poor methodological quality. The combination of several Chinese herbal medicines with or without oseltamivir demonstrated positive effect on fever resolution, relief of symptoms, and global effectiveness rate compared to oseltamivir alone. However, only one herbal medicine showed positive effect on viral shedding. Most of the trials did not report adverse events, and the safety of herbal medicines is still uncertain. Some Chinese herbal medicines demonstrated potential positive effect for 2009 type A H1N1 influenza; however, due to the lack of placebo controlled trial and lack of repeated test of the intervention, we could not draw confirmative conclusions on the beneficial effect of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza. More rigorous trials are warranted to support their clinical use

Emissions of NO and NH3 from a Typical Vegetable-Land Soil after the Application of Chemical N Fertilizers in the Pearl River Delta

Conceived and designed the experiments: DL. Performed the experiments: DL. Analyzed the data: DL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DL. Wrote the paper: DL.Cropland soil is an important source of atmospheric nitric oxide (NO) and ammonia (NH3). Chinese croplands are characterized by intensive management, but limited information is available with regard to NO emissions from croplands in China and NH3 emissions in south China. In this study, a mesocosm experiment was conducted to measure NO and NH3 emissions from a typical vegetable-land soil in the Pearl River Delta following the applications of 150 kg N ha−1 as urea, ammonium nitrate (AN) and ammonium bicarbonate (ABC), respectively. Over the sampling period after fertilization (72 days for NO and 39 days for NH3), mean NO fluxes (± standard error of three replicates) in the control and urea, AN and ABC fertilized mesocosms were 10.9±0.9, 73.1±2.9, 63.9±1.8 and 66.0±4.0 ng N m−2 s−1, respectively; mean NH3 fluxes were 8.9±0.2, 493.6±4.4, 144.8±0.1 and 684.7±8.4 ng N m−2 s−1, respectively. The fertilizer-induced NO emission factors for urea, AN and ABC were 2.6±0.1%, 2.2±0.1% and 2.3±0.2%, respectively. The fertilizer-induced NH3 emission factors for the three fertilizers were 10.9±0.2%, 3.1±0.1% and 15.2±0.4%, respectively. From the perspective of air quality protection, it would be better to increase the proportion of AN application due to its lower emission factors for both NO and NH3.Yeshttp://www.plosone.org/static/editorial#pee

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

The Potential Role of ORM2 in the Development of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common malignancy in the world. The risk of death is closely correlated to the stage of CRC at the time of primary diagnosis. Therefore, there is a compelling need for the identification of blood biomarkers that can enable early detection of CRC. We used a quantitative proteomic approach with isobaric labeling (iTRAQ) to examine changes in the plasma proteome of 10 patients with CRC compared to healthy volunteers. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbnent Assay (ELISA) and Western blot were used for further validation. In our quantitative proteomics analysis, we detected 75 human plasma proteins with more than 95% confidence using iTRAQ labeling in conjunction with microQ-TOF MS. 9 up-regulated and 4 down-regulated proteins were observed in the CRC group. The ORM2 level in plasma was confirmed to be significantly elevated in patients suffering from CRC compared with the controls. ORM2 expression in CRC tissues was significantly increased compared with that in corresponding adjacent normal mucous tissues (P<0.001). ITRAQ together with Q-TOF/MS is a sensitive and reproducible technique of quantitative proteomics. Alteration in expression of ORM2 suggests that ORM2 could be used as a potential biomarker in the diagnosis of CRC

Murine hematopoietic stem cell activity is derived from pre-circulation embryos but not yolk sacs.

The embryonic site of definitive hematopoietic stem cell (dHSC) origination has been debated for decades. Although an intra-embryonic origin is well supported, the yolk sac (YS) contribution to adult hematopoiesis remains controversial. The same developmental origin makes it difficult to identify specific markers that discern between an intraembryonic versus YS-origin using a lineage trace approach. Additionally, the highly migratory nature of blood cells and the inability of pre-circulatory embryonic cells (i.e., 5-7 somite pairs (sp)) to robustly engraft in transplantation, even after culture, has precluded scientists from properly answering these questions. Here we report robust, multi-lineage and serially transplantable dHSC activity from cultured 2-7sp murine embryonic explants (Em-Ex). dHSC are undetectable in 2-7sp YS explants. Additionally, the engraftment from Em-Ex is confined to an emerging CD31+CD45+c-Kit+CD41- population. In sum, our work supports a model in which the embryo, not the YS, is the major source of lifelong definitive hematopoiesis

Comparative Transcriptomes Profiling of Photoperiod-sensitive Male Sterile Rice Nongken 58S During the Male Sterility Transition between Short-day and Long-day

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterile (PGMS) rice, Nongken 58S, was discovered in 1973. It has been widely used for the production of hybrid rice, and great achievements have been made in improving rice yields. However, the mechanism of the male sterility transition in PGMS rice remains to be determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To investigate the transcriptome during the male sterility transition in PGMS rice, the transcriptome of Nongken 58S under short-day (SD) and long-day (LD) at the glume primordium differentiation and pistil/stamen primordium forming stages was compared. Seventy-three and 128 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified at the glume primordium differentiation and pistil/stamen primordium forming stages, respectively. Five and 22 genes were markedly up-regulated (≥ 5-fold), and two and five genes were considerably down-regulated (≥ 5-fold) under SD during the male sterility transition. Gene ontology annotation and pathway analysis revealed that four biological processes and the circadian rhythms and the flowering pathways coordinately regulated the male sterility transition. Further quantitative PCR analysis demonstrated that the circadian rhythms of <it>OsPRR1, OsPRR37, OsGI, Hd1, OsLHY </it>and <it>OsDof </it>in leaves were obviously different between Nongken 58S and Nongken 58 under LD conditions. Moreover, both <it>OsPRR37 </it>and <it>Hd1 </it>in the inflorescence displayed differences between Nongken 58S and Nongken 58 under both LD and SD conditions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results presented here indicate that the transcriptome in Nongken 58S was significantly suppressed under LD conditions. Among these DEGs, the circadian rhythm and the flowering pathway were involved in the male sterility transition. Furthermore, these pathways were coordinately involved in the male sterility transition in PGMS rice.</p