Transcriptome Analysis of the Octopus vulgaris Central Nervous System

Background: Cephalopoda are a class of Mollusca species found in all the world's oceans. They are an important model organism in neurobiology. Unfortunately, the lack of neuronal molecular sequences, such as ESTs, transcriptomic or genomic information, has limited the development of molecular neurobiology research in this unique model organism. Results: With high-throughput Illumina Solexa sequencing technology, we have generated 59,859 high quality sequences from 12,918,391 paired-end reads. Using BLASTx/BLASTn, 12,227 contigs have blast hits in the Swissprot, NR protein database and NT nucleotide database with E-value cutoff 1e(-5). The comparison between the Octopus vulgaris central nervous system (CNS) library and the Aplysia californica/Lymnaea stagnalis CNS ESTs library yielded 5.93%/13.45% of O. vulgaris sequences with significant matches (1e(-5)) using BLASTn/tBLASTx. Meanwhile the hit percentage of the recently published Schistocerca gregaria, Tilapia or Hirudo medicinalis CNS library to the O. vulgaris CNS library is 21.03%-46.19%. We constructed the Phylogenetic tree using two genes related to CNS function, Synaptotagmin-7 and Synaptophysin. Lastly, we demonstrated that O. vulgaris may have a vertebrate-like Blood-Brain Barrier based on bioinformatic analysis. Conclusion: This study provides a mass of molecular information that will contribute to further molecular biology research on O. vulgaris. In our presentation of the first CNS transcriptome analysis of O. vulgaris, we hope to accelerate the study of functional molecular neurobiology and comparative evolutionary biology.National fund for oceanography research in Public Interest [201005013]; National Key Technology RD Program [2011BAD13

Does the Tax Cuts Policy Lower Firm Survival Risk? Evidence from China

This paper examines the effect of tax cuts policy on firm survival risk. We analyze a panel data of China’s listed companies over the period 20082021 based on two different techniques: Kaplan-Meier survival estimator and the Cox proportional hazards model. Our findings reveal that the tax cuts policy has positive and significant effect on improving firms’ survival probabilities. Moreover, compared with the income tax cuts, the value-added tax cuts play a more effective role on improving firms’ survival probability. By dividing firm locations into different regions, we also find that the tax cuts policy exerts a positive influence on firms’ survival probabilities in eastern region, while the positive effect in the central and western regions is relatively weaker. From the perspective of profitability heterogeneity, the results show that the beneficial effect from tax cuts policy on firm survival is more pronounced for firms with weaker profitability

Mussel-Inspired Fabrication of Konjac Glucomannan/Poly (Lactic Acid) Cryogels with Enhanced Thermal and Mechanical Properties

Three-dimensional nanofibers cryogels (NFCs) with both thermally-tolerant and mechanically-robust properties have potential for wide application in biomedical or food areas; however, creating such NFCs has proven to be extremely challenging. In this study, konjac glucomannan (KGM)/poly (lactic acid) (PLA)-based novel NFCs were prepared by the incorporation of the mussel-inspired protein polydopamine (PDA) via a facile and environmentally-friendly electrospinning and freeze-shaping technique. The obtained KGM/PLA/PDA (KPP) NFCs were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and compressive and tensile test. The results showed that the hierarchical cellular structure and physicochemical properties of KPP NFCs were dependent on the incorporation of PDA content. Moreover, the strong intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions among KGM, PLA and PDA also gave KPP NFCs high thermostability and mechanically-robust properties. Thus, this study developed a simple approach to fabricate multifunctional NFCs with significant potential for biomedical or food application

List of alignment results of proteins related to TJ and AJ.

<p>T stands for the sequence eligible the conditions and F stands for the opposite.</p>*<p>, indicated this gene had been predicted by BLASTx searches in Swissprot/NR protein database. OV<i>: O. vulgaris</i>, AC<i>: A. californica</i>, SG<i>: S. gregaria</i>, HM<i>: H. medicinalis</i>.</p

Primers for 14 target genes and β-actin gene used for Real-time PCR.

<p>Primers for 14 target genes and β-actin gene used for Real-time PCR.</p

Length distribution of contigs obtained from <i>O. vulgaris</i> central nervous system (CNS) transcriptome library.

<p>Length distribution of contigs obtained from <i>O. vulgaris</i> central nervous system (CNS) transcriptome library.</p

Comparison between the <i>O. vulgaris</i> CNS dataset and <i>L. stagnalis</i> CNS dataset using BLASTn and tBLASTx.

<p>The number in each bracket shows the number of genes after removed redundant sequences.</p

Phylogenetic tree of synaptotagmin-7.

<p>Phylogenetic tree of synaptotagmin-7.</p

List of top 20 sequences sorted by reads.

<p>List of top 20 sequences sorted by reads.</p

GO categories with highest number of sequences corresponding to CNS function.

<p>GO categories with highest number of sequences corresponding to CNS function.</p