Physiological and visible injury responses in different growth stages of winter wheat to ozone stress and the protection of spermidine

AbstractThe open top chamber (OTC) method was used in a farmland to study the influence of different levels of O3 concentrations (40 ppb, 80 ppb and 120 ppb) on the enzymatic activity and metabolite contents of the antioxidation system of the winter wheat leaves during the jointing, heading and milk stage. The protective effect of exogenous spermidine (Spd) against the antioxidation of winter wheat under the O3 stress was investigated. With the increasing O3 concentrations and fumigation time, the injuries of the winter wheat leaves were observed to be more serious. For instance, when the O3 concentration reached 120 ppb, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and nitrate reductase (NR) in the jointing stage decreased by 50.3%, 64.9%, 75.5% and 92.9%, respectively; peroxidase (POD) and glutathione reductase (GR) increased by 45.1% and 80.5%, respectively; the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), ascorbic acid (AsA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) increased by 314.3%, 8.4% and 31.7%, respectively; and the soluble protein (SP) content decreased by 47.5%. The O3 stress also had significant impact on the contents of proline (Pro), NO3––N and NH4+–N of the winter wheat leaves. During the heading stage, when the O3 concentration was 40 ppb and 80 ppb, the content of Pro was 163.9% and 173.2% higher than that in the control group, respectively. But under 120 ppb, it was decreased by 42.4%. Exogenous application of Spd increased the activities of SOD, POD, CAT, APX and GR, as well as the contents of GSH and SP, but decreased the contents of MDA and AsA. This indicates that Spd is an effective antioxidant to relieve the O3 stress on winter wheat leaves, thereby might be applicable to protect winter wheat from the harm of O3

Transcriptome Profiling of Testis during Sexual Maturation Stages in Eriocheir sinensis Using Illumina Sequencing

The testis is a highly specialized tissue that plays dual roles in ensuring fertility by producing spermatozoa and hormones. Spermatogenesis is a complex process, resulting in the production of mature sperm from primordial germ cells. Significant structural and biochemical changes take place in the seminiferous epithelium of the adult testis during spermatogenesis. The gene expression pattern of testis in Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) has not been extensively studied, and limited genetic research has been performed on this species. The advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies enables the generation of genomic resources within a short period of time and at minimal cost. In the present study, we performed de novo transcriptome sequencing to produce a comprehensive transcript dataset for testis of E. sinensis. In two runs, we produced 25,698,778 sequencing reads corresponding with 2.31 Gb total nucleotides. These reads were assembled into 342,753 contigs or 141,861 scaffold sequences, which identified 96,311 unigenes. Based on similarity searches with known proteins, 39,995 unigenes were annotated based on having a Blast hit in the non-redundant database or ESTscan results with a cut-off E-value above 10−5. This is the first report of a mitten crab transcriptome using high-throughput sequencing technology, and all these testes transcripts can help us understand the molecular mechanisms involved in spermatogenesis and testis maturation

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Construction and realization of information platform for geological disaster monitoring and early warning in Qinghai Province

Under the influence of global changes, the frequency of geological disasters in Qinghai Province, which is located in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, has increased significantly. It is important to build a geological disaster monitoring and early warning information platform in Qinghai Province to reduce the safety of life and property in the area. In this paper, the process of construction and realization of the information platform for geological disaster monitoring and early warning in Qinghai Province is described in terms of equipment deployment, system construction, platform function and operation status. At present, the information platform of geological disaster monitoring and early warning in Qinghai Province has been able to achieve the unified management and dynamic update of disaster information of different sources and batches of geological disasters, and achieve data integration, result visualization, information synthesis and system integration. The information platform of geological disaster monitoring and early warning in Qinghai Province includes 10 modules such as geological disaster investigation and evaluation system, geological disaster monitoring and early warning system, and geological disaster meteorological early warning system. At this stage, all universal monitoring data can be sent to the national geological disaster monitoring data platform synchronously, which can support the work of geological disaster early warning efficiently. The monitoring and early warning information platform can automatically analyze the monitoring data collected in real time and support a variety of early warning models to discriminate; when the monitoring data changes and touches the preset discriminating models, it can automatically send geohazard early warning information. Through the trial run of the system, there have been cases of results monitoring and early warning, and the data is reliable enough to meet the needs of monitoring and early warning

NIPTL-Novo: Non-isobaric peptide termini labeling assisted peptide de novo sequencing

A simple and effective de novo sequencing strategy assisted by non-isobaric peptide termini labeling, NIPTL-Novo, was established. The y-series ions and b-series ions of peptides can be clearly distinguished according to the different mass tags incorporated in N-terminus and C-terminus. This is helpful for improving the accuracy of peptide sequencing and increasing the sequencing speed. For the spectra commonly identified by both de novo sequencing and database searching software (Mascot or Maxquant), NIPTL-Novo gave identical result to more than 85% of these spectra. Furthermore, the quantitative profiling of the sample can be performed simultaneously along with de novo sequencing. Finally, this strategy can be applied to discover the peptides with potential mutation sites by combining with mass-defect based isotopic labeling

Antihypertensive Effects of Two Novel Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme (ACE) Inhibitory Peptides from Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis (Rhodophyta) in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHRs)

A variety of biologically active products have been isolated from Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis. In the present study, two novel angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides, FQIN [M(O)] CILR, and TGAPCR, were screened and identified from G. lemaneiformis protein hydrolysates by LC-MS/MS. The IC50 values of FQIN [M(O)] CILR and TGAPCR were 9.64 &plusmn; 0.36 &mu;M and 23.94 &plusmn; 0.82 &mu;M, respectively. In the stability study, both peptides showed stabilities of pH, temperature, simulated gastrointestinal digestion, and ACE hydrolysis. The Lineweaver&ndash;Burk plot showed that the two peptides were noncompetitive inhibitors of ACE. Molecular docking simulated the intermolecular interactions of two peptides and ACE, and the two peptides formed hydrogen bonds with the active pockets of ACE. However, FQIN [M(O)] CILR was more closely linked to the active pockets of ACE, thereby exerting better ACE inhibition. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were studied with an oral dose of 10 mg/kg body weight. Both peptides reduced systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in SHRs, of which FQIN [M(O)] CILR was able to reduce the systolic blood pressure by 34 mmHg (SBP) (p &lt; 0.05). Therefore, FQIN [M(O)] CILR was an excellent ACE inhibitory peptide

A Multiplex Fragment-Ion-Based Method for Accurate Proteome Quantification

Multiplex proteome quantification with high accuracy is urgently required to achieve a comprehensive understanding of dynamic cellular and physiological processes. Among the existing quantification strategies, fragment-ion based methods can provide highly accurate results, but the multiplex capacity is limited to 3-plex. Herein, we developed a multiplex pseudo-isobaric dimethyl labeling (m-pIDL) method to extend the capacity of the fragment-ion-based method to 6-plex by one-step dimethyl labeling with several millidalton and dalton mass differences between precursor ions and enlarging the isolation window of precursor ions to 10 m/z during data acquisition. m-pIDL showed high quantification accuracy within the 20-fold dynamic range. Notably, the ratio compression was 1.13-fold in a benchmark two-proteome model (5:1 mixed E. coli proteins with HeLa proteins as interference), indicating that by m-pIDL, the ratio distortion of isobaric labeling approaches and the approximate 40% ratio shift of the label free quantification strategy could be effectively eliminated. Additionally, m-pIDL did not show ratio variation among post translational modifications (CV = 6.66%), which could benefit the measurement of universal protein properties for proteomic atlases. We further employed m-pIDL to monitor the time-resolved responses of the TGF-beta-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in lung adenocarcinoma A549 cell lines, which facilitated the finding of new potential regulatory proteins. Therefore, the 6-plex quantification of m-pIDL with the remarkably high accuracy might create new prospects for comprehensive proteome analysis

Advances in exosome isolation methods and their applications in proteomic analysis of biological samples

Exosomes are membrane-bound vesicles secreted by cells, and contain various important biological molecules, such as lipids, proteins, messenger RNAs, microRNAs, and noncoding RNAs. Emerging evidence demonstrates that proteomic analysis of exosomes is of great significance in studying metabolic diseases, tumor metastasis, immune regulation, and so forth. However, exosome proteomic analysis has high requirements with regard to the purity of collected exosomes. Here recent advances in the methods for isolating exosomes and their applications in proteomic analysis are summarized

Ionic liquid-based method for direct proteome characterization of velvet antler cartilage

The cartilage zone of the velvet antler is richly vascularized, this being a major difference to the classical cartilage, in which there are no blood vessels. Angiogenesis and rapid growth of vasculature in velvet antler cartilage (VAC) make it an ideal model for discovering the novel angiogenic regulatory factors. However, the proteomic analysis of VAC is challenging due to the serious interference of proteoglycans (PGs) and collagens. To achieve a comprehensive proteome characterization of VAC, herein, we developed an ionic liquid-based method using 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C12-mim]Cl) for selective extraction of cellular proteins from VAC. Compared with the previous cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC)-based method, the developed [C12-mim]Cl-based method takes much less processing time, shows facile preparation procedure and good compatibility towards downstream proteomic analysis, leading to the identification of more protein groups (1543 vs 753), membrane proteins (663 vs 279) and trans membrane proteins (217 vs 58). (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V