A Comparative Study of Survival, Metabolism, Immune Indicators, and Proteomics, in Five Batches of Japanese Scallop Mizuhopecten yessoensis under Short-Term High Temperature Stress

Five batches of the Japanese scallop Mizuhopecten pyessoensis were tested for survival rate, oxygen consumption, catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, total antioxidant capacities (T-AOC) contents, and proteomics under short-term high temperature conditions. The five batches, (W1, W2, W3, W4, W5) selected from the established 21 ‘ivory white’ M. yessoensis batches, had higher survival rates than the other batches after one year of culture. Initial rearing water temperature of 15°C was increased by 1°C per day with a cooling and heating system. The temperature was raised until over 50% of the scallops from 3 batches died. This occurred at 30°C. The higher than normal culture temperature conditions showed significant or highly significant differences in the responses of some of the batches. Some showed significantly higher survival rates and significantly different rates of oxygen consumption. CAT activity, SOD activity and T-AOC content was similar in the five batches, and all three indices were significantly lower in W3 and W5 than in the other batches (P<0.01). Expression patterns of MDA content were opposite to those of CAT activity, SOD activity and T-AOC content. Protein profiles of all five batches were similar; the sizes of the predominant bands ranged from 20-110 kDa. We identified twenty-eight proteins with high scores in the database. These included heat shock proteins (HSPs), glucose-regulated protein 94, and arginine kinase

Vitamin D pathway gene variation rs3740165 is associated with serological uric acid levels in healthy Chinese women

AimTo investigate the relationship between gene polymorphisms involved in the vitamin D metabolic pathway and serum uric acid (UA) levels in Chinese women.MethodsFifteen key genes within the vitamin D metabolic pathway were screened using 96 single nucleotide polymorphisms in a group of 1,206 (37.96 ± 13.08 years) unrelated healthy Chinese women (aged 20–85 years). Blood and urine tests were performed at the same time. The Wilcoxon Mann–Whitney test was used to compare groups aged ≤50 years and &gt;50 years. The mean serum UA values were computed within each group of homozygous referent, heterozygous, and homozygous variant genotypes for each single nucleotide polymorphism.ResultsThe exclusion process left 1,169 participants (38.16 ± 13.13 years) for analysis. One single nucleotide polymorphism in the CUBN gene (rs3740165) was identified as being significantly associated with serum UA levels in the group aged over 50 years. The wild type (C/C) population had higher serum UA levels in this group (P&lt;0.001). In women aged over 50 years, allele C was associated with a higher risk of hyperuricemia than allele T (odds ratio 2.752, 95% confidence interval 1.458–5.192; P = 0.002). There was also a higher risk of hyperuricemia in genotype TC + CC compared with genotype TT (odds ratio 3.326, 95% confidence interval 1.513–7.313; P = 0.003) in women over 50 years of age.ConclusionThe results suggest that the CUBN gene contributes to variability in serum UA levels in healthy Chinese Han women over 50 years of age

A transcript profiling approach reveals the zinc finger transcription factor ZNF191 is a pleiotropic factor

BACKGROUND: The human zinc finger protein 191 (ZNF191) is a member of the SCAN domain family of Krüppel-like zinc finger transcription factors. ZNF191 shows 94% identity to its mouse homologue zinc finger protein 191(Zfp191), which is the most highly conserved among the human-mouse SCAN family member orthologues pairs. Zfp191 is widely expressed during early embryogenesis and in adult organs. Moreover, Zfp191(-/- )embryos have been shown to be severely retarded in development and die approximately at embryonic day E7.5. ZNF191 can specifically interact with the widespread TCAT motif which constitutes the HUMTH01 microsatellite in the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) gene. Allelic variations of HUMTH01 have been stated to have a quantitative silencing effect on TH gene expression and to correlate with quantitative and qualitative changes in the binding by ZNF191. In addition, ZNF191 displays a suppressive effect on the transcription; however, little downstream targets have identified. RESULTS: We searched for ZNF191 target genes by using a transient overexpression and knockdown strategy in the human embryo kidney (HEK293) cells. Microarray analyses identified 6094 genes modulated by overexpression of ZNF191 and 3332 genes regulated by knockdown of ZNF191, using a threshold of 1.2-fold. Several interested candidate genes, validated by real time RT-PCR, were correlated well with the array data. Interestingly, 1456 genes were identified in both transient overexpression and transient knockdown strategies. The GenMAPP and MappFinder software packages were further used for pathway analysis of these significantly altered genes. Several gene pathways were found to be involved in processes of the regulation of kinase activity, transcription, angiogenesis, brain development and response to DNA damage. CONCLUSION: Our analysis reveals for the first time that ZNF191 is a pleiotropic factor that has a role in hematopoiesis, brain development and cancers

Case report: Sarcomatoid urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis masquerading as a renal abscess

Sarcomatoid urothelial carcinoma (SUC), a rare tumor of the urinary tract epithelium, exhibits a high degree of malignancy and therefore a poor prognosis. Due to the absence of specific clinical presentations and imaging findings, SUC of the renal pelvis masquerades as a renal abscess is frequently under-recognized or misdiagnosed as benign inflammatory disease, resulting in delayed or erroneous treatment. Here, we report a patient with SUC of the renal pelvis who presented with a renal abscess. Repeated anti-inflammatory treatment was ineffective. Unexpectedly, cancerous cells were detected in subsequent exfoliative cytology of nephrostomy drainage fluid. In accordance with this, radical surgery and postoperative chemotherapy were conducted. Fortunately, neither recurrence nor metastasis occurred during a one-year follow-up

Periodic elastic nanodomains in ultrathin tetrogonal-like BiFeO3 films

We present a synchrotron grazing incidence x-ray diffraction analysis of the domain structure and polar symmetry of highly strained BiFeO3 thin films grown on LaAlO3 substrate. We revealed the existence of periodic elastic nanodomains in the pure tetragonal-like BFO ultrathin films down to a thickness of 6 nm. A unique shear strain accommodation mechanism is disclosed. We further demonstrated that the periodicity of the nanodomains increases with film thickness but deviates from the classical Kittel's square root law in ultrathin thickness regime (6 - 30 nm). Temperature-dependent experiments also reveal the disappearance of periodic modulation above 90C due to a MC-MA structural phase transition.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev.

Transcriptome sequencing and characterization of Japanese scallop Patinopecten yessoensis from different shell color lines.

Shell color is an important trait that is used in breeding the Japanese scallop Patinopecten yessoensis, the most economically important scallop species in China. We constructed four transcriptome libraries from different shell color lines of P. yessoensis: the left and right shell mantles of ordinary strains of P. yessoensis and the left shell mantles of the 'Ivory' and 'Maple' strains. These four libraries were paired-end sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform and contained 54,802,692 sequences, 40,798,962 sequences, 74,019,262 sequences, and 44,466,166 sequences, respectively. A total of 214,087,082 expressed sequence tags were assembled into 73,522 unigenes with an average size of 1,163 bp. When the data were compared against the public Nr and Swiss-Prot databases using BlastX, nearly 30.55% (22,458) of the unigenes were significantly matched to known unique proteins. Gene Ontology annotation and pathway mapping analysis using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes categorized unigenes according to their diverse biological functions and processes and identified candidate genes that were potentially involved in growth, pigmentation, metal transcription, and immunity. Expression profile analysis was performed on all four libraries and many differentially expressed genes were identified. In addition, 5,772 simple sequence repeats were obtained from the P. yessoensis transcriptomes, and 464,197, 395,646, and 310,649 single nucleotide polymorphisms were revealed in the ordinary strains, the 'Ivory' strain, and the 'Maple' strain, respectively. These results provide valuable information for future genomic studies on P. yessoensis and improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the growth, immunity, shell coloring, and shell biomineralization of this species. These resources also may be used in a variety of applications, such as trait mapping, marker-assisted breeding, studies of population genetics and genomics, and work on functional genomics

Biochemical Components of Different Colored Strains of Cultured Japanese Scallop (Mizuhopecten yessoensis) Under Different Cultivation Systems

In this study, the water and total fat content, total crude protein, ash, fatty acids, amino acids and mineral elements of scallop adductor muscle were used to understand the biochemical components of different colored strain of Japanese scallop, Mizuhopecten yessoensis, cultured using different cultivation methods. Common scallops had slightly higher moisture, and total protein content, significantly higher total fat content, and significantly lower ash content than ivory white scallops when cultivated under both suspended and bottom culture conditions. For scallops of both colors, suspended culture individuals had slightly higher moisture, total protein content, significantly lower total fat and ash content, compared to bottom culture conditions. Most amino acids were more abundant in scallops from the bottom culture group than in scallops from the suspended culture group. The ivory white scallops contained slightly higher amounts of total amino acids, essential amino acids, and flavor-imparting amino acids, than the common scallops under a given culture method. In the suspended culture group, common scallops had higher content of unsaturated fatty acids, mono-unsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, lower contents of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, compared with ivory white scallops. In the bottom culture group, common scallops contained more unsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid compared with ivory white scallops. In common scallops, levels of mineral elements (apart from Fe and Mg) were higher in suspended culture than in bottom culture. Levels of mineral elements in ivory white scallops in suspended culture were higher than or the same as those in bottom culture with the exception of K and Mn. In conclusion, different cultivation methods and shell color of M. yessoensis affected biochemical composition, amino acid content, fatty acid content, and mineral element content of the scallops. The research results may provide useful information for selective breeding, culture methods, deep processing, and comprehensive utilization of M. yessoensis

Frequency distribution of single nucleotide polymorphisms identified in <i>Patinopectin yessoensis</i> transcriptomes from different shell color lines.

<p>Frequency distribution of single nucleotide polymorphisms identified in <i>Patinopectin yessoensis</i> transcriptomes from different shell color lines.</p

Statistics regarding alignment of sequences.

<p>Statistics regarding alignment of sequences.</p