The emerging roles of phosphatases in Hedgehog pathway

Hedgehog signaling is evolutionarily conserved and plays a pivotal role in cell fate determination, embryonic development, and tissue renewal. As aberrant Hedgehog signaling is tightly associated with a broad range of human diseases, its activities must be precisely controlled. It has been known that several core components of Hedgehog pathway undergo reversible phosphorylations mediated by protein kinases and phosphatases, which acts as an effective regulatory mechanism to modulate Hedgehog signal activities. In contrast to kinases that have been extensively studied in these phosphorylation events, phosphatases were thought to function in an unspecific manner, thus obtained much less emphasis in the past. However, in recent years, increasing evidence has implicated that phosphatases play crucial and specific roles in the context of developmental signaling, including Hedgehog signaling. In this review, we present a summary of current progress on phosphatase studies in Hedgehog pathway, emphasizing the multiple employments of protein serine/threonine phosphatases during the transduction of morphogenic Hedgehog signal in both Drosophila and vertebrate systems, all of which provide insights into the importance of phosphatases in the specific regulation of Hedgehog signaling

A sheep pangenome reveals the spectrum of structural variations and their effects on tail phenotypes

Structural variations (SVs) are a major contributor to genetic diversity and phenotypic variations, but their prevalence and functions in domestic animals are largely unexplored. Here we generated high-quality genome assemblies for 15 individuals from genetically diverse sheep breeds using Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) high-fidelity sequencing, discovering 130.3 Mb nonreference sequences, from which 588 genes were annotated. A total of 149,158 biallelic insertions/deletions, 6531 divergent alleles, and 14,707 multiallelic variations with precise breakpoints were discovered. The SV spectrum is characterized by an excess of derived insertions compared to deletions (94,422 vs. 33,571), suggesting recent active LINE expansions in sheep. Nearly half of the SVs display low to moderate linkage disequilibrium with surrounding single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and most SVs cannot be tagged by SNP probes from the widely used ovine 50K SNP chip. We identified 865 population-stratified SVs including 122 SVs possibly derived in the domestication process among 690 individuals from sheep breeds worldwide. A novel 168-bp insertion in the 5' untranslated region (5' UTR) of HOXB13 is found at high frequency in long-tailed sheep. Further genome-wide association study and gene expression analyses suggest that this mutation is causative for the long-tail trait. In summary, we have developed a panel of high-quality de novo assemblies and present a catalog of structural variations in sheep. Our data capture abundant candidate functional variations that were previously unexplored and provide a fundamental resource for understanding trait biology in sheep

Adsorption optimized of the coal-based material and application for cyanide wastewater treatment

Custom design of JMP software was used to optimize the iodine number of coal-based electrode materials. Taking the additive ratio (A), heating rate (B) and final pyrolysis temperature (C) into account and the significance sequence was C>B>A. Set the additive ratio as 0.2, the heating rate as 5°C/min and the final temperature as 900°C, the iodine number was improved to 403.14 mg·g-1, and the compressive strength was 2.01 MPa. Surface morphology of the coal-based electrode materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The functional group species were explored by Fourier infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR). Then applied the voltage of 4 V, coal-based adsorption materials were set as cathodes and anodes in a 3-dimensional electrode system with the commercial activated carbon as a particle electrode. After 5 h treatment for cyanide wastewater, the removal rate of most ions was achieved to 72% or more. It was the collaborative effect in the combined action of electro-adsorption and electrodeposition

Optimization for removal efficiency of fluoride using La(iii)–Al(iii)-activated carbon modified by chemical route

A simple chemical route was adopted for the preparation of adsorbent to remove fluoride in the simulation solution. In this study, commercially activated carbon (CAC) was used as the raw material, HNO3 (20 wt%), La(NO3)3·2H2O (0.05 mol/L), and Al(NO3)3 (0.10 mol/L) were employed as modification reagents to successfully prepare the CAC adsorbent loaded with the elements La and Al (La(iii)–Al(iii)–CAC). The modified adsorbent was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy measurements. The effects of variables such as solution pH, adsorption time, initial concentrations, and volume of solution were investigated on adsorption efficiency by the response surface method (RSM). Under optimum conditions, specified as a pH value of 6, an adsorption time of 1.2 h, an initial concentration of 30 mg/L, a solution volume of 25 mL, and the value of RF can reach at 74.11%. From the RSM analysis, the pH value was a significant factor in the adsorption process and the order for these key factors was as follows: pH > adsorption time > solution volume. Meanwhile, there were interactions among these factors. Chemical modification had an important role in pore structure generation and functional group of adsorbent to improve the adsorption efficiency. The removal performance of adsorbent on simulation solution of fluoride also showed the feasibility of adsorbent to be applied in industrial purposes

Optimize the Communication Cost of 5G Internet of Vehicles through Coherent Beamforming Technology

Edge computing, which sinks a large number of complex calculations into edge servers, can effectively meet the requirement of low latency and bandwidth efficiency and can be conducive to the development of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV). However, a large number of edge servers mean a big cost, especially for the 5G scenario in IoV, because of the small coverage of 5G base stations. Fortunately, coherent beamforming (CB) technology enables fast and long-distance transmission, which gives us a possibility to reduce the number of 5G base stations without losing the whole network performance. In this paper, we try to adopt the CB technology on the IoV 5G scenario. We suppose we can arrange roadside nodes for helping transferring tasks of vehicles to the base station based on the CB technology. We first give the mathematical model and prove that it is a NP-hard model that cannot be solved directly. Therefore, we design a heuristic algorithm for an Iterative Coherent Beamforming Node Design (ICBND) algorithm to obtain the approximate optimal solution. Simulation results show that this algorithm can greatly reduce the cost of communication network infrastructure

Comparison of seven complete mitochondrial genomes from Lamprologus and Neolamprologus (Chordata, Teleostei, Perciformes) and the phylogenetic implications for Cichlidae

In this study, mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of seven cichlid species (Lamprologus kungweensis, L. meleagris, L. ornatipinnis, Neolamprologus brevis, N. caudopunctatus, N. leleupi, and N. similis) are characterized for the first time. The newly sequenced mitogenomes contained 37 typical genes [13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs) and 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs)]. The mitogenomes were 16,562 ~ 16,587 bp in length with an A + T composition of 52.1~58.8%. The cichlid mitogenomes had a comparable nucleotide composition, A + T content was higher than the G + C content. The AT-skews of most mitogenomes were inconspicuously positive and the GC-skews were negative, indicating higher occurrences of C than G. Most PCGs started with the conventional start codon, ATN. There was no essential difference in the codon usage patterns of these seven species. Using Ka/Ks, we found the fastest-evolving gene were atp8. But the results of p-distance indicated that the fastest-evolving gene was nad6. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that L. meleagris did not cluster with Lamprologus species, but with species from the genus Neolamprologus. The novel information obtained about these mitogenomes will contribute to elucidating the complex relationships among cichlid species

Differential Expression of <i>KCNJ12</i> Gene and Association Analysis of Its Missense Mutation with Growth Traits in Chinese Cattle

The potassium inwardly rectifying channel, subfamily J, member 12 (KCNJ12) gene is a promising candidate for economic traits because of its crucial roles in myoblast development. Here, a missense mutation (Cys &gt; Arg) was first detected to be located in exon 3 of KCNJ12 from three Chinese cattle breeds by DNA-pool sequencing. Then, we performed an association analysis of this single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) with stature in three Chinese cattle populations (n = 820). A significantly positive correlation was revealed by a reduced animal general linear model and the CC genotype was the most favorable in three breeds. Further, we measured the expression profile of the KCNJ12 gene in various cattle tissues and primary bovine skeletal muscle cells. Ubiquitous expression with high abundance in muscle was observed. Further, in primary bovine skeletal muscle cells, the KCNJ12 mRNA expression was gradually up-regulated in differentiation medium (DM) compared with that in growth medium (GM), suggesting that the KCNJ12 gene is involved in bovine myocyte differentiation. Conclusively, the KCNJ12 gene is a functional candidate gene which can be used as a molecular marker for cattle breeding

Accurate Monitoring Technology of Core Body Temperature of "yunwentie" Human Body Based on TRIZ Theory

Novel coronavirus pneumonia is a new type of core body temperature measurement product. Methods using TRIZ theory, the problems of existing temperature measurement methods in China were analyzed. Using the corresponding invention principle, solve the relevant problems of thermometer in clinical use, and put forward innovative solutions. Results according to the innovative design idea of TRIZ theory, it was applied to the new human core temperature measurement product. Novel coronavirus pneumonia is difficult to achieve the current core temperature monitoring of new crown pneumonia epidemic. Conclusion the application of TRIZ theory to the research and development of new human core thermometer products defines the improvement direction of thermometer, and puts forward a feasible scheme for the design and development of new human core thermometer products