Wnt Signaling Pathway Linked to Intestinal Regeneration via Evolutionary Patterns and Gene Expression in the Sea Cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

Many echinoderms are regenerative species that exhibit exceptional regenerative capacity, and sea cucumber is a representative organism that could regenerate the whole intestine after evisceration. There are many signaling pathways participate in the regeneration process, but it is not clear which is essential for the intestinal regeneration. In this study, we performed genome-wide comprehensive analyses on these regeneration-related signaling pathways, and found the Wnt signaling pathway was one of the most conservative pathways among regenerative species. Additionally, among these signaling pathways, we found that the Wnt signaling pathway was the only one under positive selection in regenerative echinoderms, and the only one enriched by differentially expressed genes during the intestinal regeneration. Thus, it suggests both coding sequence and gene expression of the Wnt signaling pathway have been shaped by natural selection to provide the genetic architecture for intestinal regeneration. Wnt7, Fz7, and Dvl are the three positively selected genes and also happen to be three upstream genes in the Wnt signaling pathway. They are all significantly upregulated at the early stages of regeneration, which may contribute significantly to the early activation of Wnt signaling and the initiation of intestinal regeneration. Expression knockdown of Wnt7 and Dvl by RNA interference significantly inhibit intestinal extension, implying that they are essential for intestinal regeneration. As an important regeneration-related gene, the downstream gene c-Myc is also conserved and highly expressed during the whole regeneration stages, which may make the Wnt/c-Myc signaling to be an important way to promote intestinal regeneration. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the Wnt signaling pathway is the chosen one to play an important role in intestinal regeneration of sea cucumbers, or even in the regeneration of other echinoderms

Penaeid shrimp genome provides insights into benthic adaptation and frequent molting

Crustacea, the subphylum of Arthropoda which dominates the aquatic environment, is of major importance in ecology and fisheries. Here we report the genome sequence of the Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, covering similar to 1.66 Gb (scaffold N50 605.56 Kb) with 25,596 protein-coding genes and a high proportion of simple sequence repeats (>23.93%). The expansion of genes related to vision and locomotion is probably central to its benthic adaptation. Frequent molting of the shrimp may be explained by an intensified ecdysone signal pathway through gene expansion and positive selection. As an important aquaculture organism, L. vannamei has been subjected to high selection pressure during the past 30 years of breeding, and this has had a considerable impact on its genome. Decoding the L. vannamei genome not only provides an insight into the genetic underpinnings of specific biological processes, but also provides valuable information for enhancing crustacean aquaculture

A Self-Switchable Polymer Reactor for Controlled Catalytic Chemistry Processes with a Hyperbranched Structure

A self-switchable polymer reactor with a hyperbranched structure for controlled catalytic chemistry processes is reported. This polymer reactor was made of silver nanoparticles and a polymer carrier consisting of hyperbranched polyethylenimine and hydroxyethyl acrylate that behaved as thermally switchable domains. Below the transfer temperature, relatively strong catalytic reactivity was demonstrated due to the leading role of hydrophilic groups in the switchable domains, which opened access to the substrate for the packaged silver nanoparticles. In contrast, it showed weak catalysis at relatively high temperatures, reducing from the significantly increased hydrophobicity in the switchable domains. In this way, the polymer reactor displays controllable, tunable, catalytic activity based on this approach. This novel design opens up the opportunity to develop intelligent polymer reactors for controlled catalytic processes

LvCD14L Acts as a Novel Pattern Recognition Receptor and a Regulator of the Toll Signaling Pathway in Shrimp

Leucine-rich repeat (LRR) is a structural motif has important recognition function in immune receptors, such as Tolls and NOD-like receptors (NLRs). The immune-related LRR proteins can be divided into two categories, LRR-containing proteins and LRR-only proteins. The latter contain LRR motifs while they are without other functional domains. However, the functional mechanisms of the LRR-only proteins were still unclear in invertebrates. Here, we identified a gene encoding a secretory LRR-only protein, which possessed similarity with vertebrate CD14 and was designated as LvCD14L, from the Pacific whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. Its transcripts in shrimp hemocytes were apparently responsive to the infection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Knockdown of LvCD14L with dsRNA resulted in significant increase of the viable bacteria in the hepatopancreas of shrimp upon V. parahaemolyticus infection. Further functional studies revealed that LvCD14L could bind to microorganisms’ PAMPs, showed interaction with LvToll1 and LvToll2, and regulated the expression of LvDorsal and LvALF2 in hemocytes. These results suggest that LvCD14L functions as a pattern recognition receptor and activates the NF-κB pathway through interaction with LvTolls. The present study reveals a shrimp LvCD14L-Tolls-NF-κB signaling pathway like the CD14/TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway in mammalians, which enriches the functional mechanism of secretory LRR-only immune receptors during pathogens infection in invertebrates

Advances in Dendrobium molecular research: Applications in genetic variation, identification and breeding

Orchids of the genus Dendrobium are of great economic importance in global horticultural trade and in Asian traditional medicine. For both areas, research yielding solid information on taxonomy, phylogeny, and breeding of this genus are essential. Traditional morphological and cytological characterization are used in combination with molecular results in classification and identification. Markers may be useful when used alone but are not always reliable in identification. The number of species studied and identified by molecular markers is small at present. Conventional breeding methods are time-consuming and laborious. In the past two decades, promising advances have been made in taxonomy, phylogeny and breeding of Dendrobium species due to the intensive use of molecular markers. In this review, we focus on the main molecular techniques used in 121 published studies and discuss their importance and possibilities in speeding up the breeding of new cultivars and hybrids. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Advances in Dendrobium molecular research: Applications in genetic variation, identification and breeding

Orchids of the genus Dendrobium are of great economic importance in global horticultural trade and in Asian traditional medicine. For both areas, research yielding solid information on taxonomy, phylogeny, and breeding of this genus are essential. Traditional morphological and cytological characterization are used in combination with molecular results in classification and identification. Markers may be useful when used alone but are not always reliable in identification. The number of species studied and identified by molecular markers is small at present. Conventional breeding methods are time-consuming and laborious. In the past two decades, promising advances have been made in taxonomy, phylogeny and breeding of Dendrobium species due to the intensive use of molecular markers. In this review, we focus on the main molecular techniques used in 121 published studies and discuss their importance and possibilities in speeding up the breeding of new cultivars and hybrids. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved