Association of polymorphisms in avian apoVLDL-II gene with body weight and abdominal fat weight

To investigate the association of avian apoVLDL-II gene polymorphism with body weight and fat, exactly 120 genetically fat (Anka) and lean (Rugao) chicken reared under the same environment andmanagement were selected. Blood samples from the respective populations were taken for DNA extraction, and then slaughter for fat determination. Polymorphism was detected by PCR-RFLP and PCR-SSCP techniques. Gene frequency was non significantly different between population at VLDL6 and VLDL10 loci. However, in VLDL9 and VLDL17 loci the gene frequency was differed significantly (

The effect of interaction between Lipoprotein Lipase and ApoVLDL-II genes on fat and serum biochemical levels

Body weight, abdominal fat weight and serum biochemical levels were determined from lean and fat chicken breeds at 12 weeks of age. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in apoVLDL-II and lipoprotein lipase genes was screened by PCR-SSCP and detected by direct sequencing. Lipoprotein lipase gene frequency was found to be significantly different (P < 0.01) in lean chicken whereas it was non-significantly different in fat chicken. SNP in apoVLDL-II and lipoprotein lipase genes significantly (P< 0.05) affected body weight and fat weight. Similarly their interaction significantly (P < 0.05) affected body weight and fat weight. However, no significant difference was observed in the percentage of abdominal fat. SNP in apoVLDL-II and lipoprotein lipase genes significantly (P < 0.05) affected total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein. More likely, the interaction of apoVLDL-II and lipoprotein lipase significantly affect total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein, very low density lipoprotein and low density lipoprotein

Study on relationship between microsatellite polymorphism and producing ability on litter size trait of Hu sheep in China

Four microsatellite loci (OarAE101, BM1329, BM143 and OarHH55) linked to FecB gene on chromosome 6 and one microsatellite locus (OarHH55) on chromosome 4 were selected to study their correlation with litter size of Hu sheep breed. The results showed that the average polymorphism information content (PIC), heterozygosity (He) and effective allele number (Ne) were 0.7214, 0.7558 and 4.4094, respectively, and all 5 microsatellite loci reached high polymorphism (PIC &gt; 0.5), and the five microsatellite loci can be used for genetic diversity evaluation in Hu sheep breed. The result of variance analysis showed that there were extreme significant differences among the different genotypes for the producing ability of litter size in OarAE101 locus and BM143 locus (P &lt; 0.01), and OarHH35 locus (0.01 &lt; P &lt; 0.05). However, there was no significant difference among the different genotypes for the producing ability of litter size in BM1329 and OarHH55 loci (P &gt; 0.05). Choosing by combining producing ability and special gene (gene type) will play an great role in improving selecting accuracy and breeding progress, and it is a wonderful and new analyzed thought in repeatable characters with low heritability which is affected by measuring frequencies. And this study will have an important role in MAS (marker-assistant selection) and molecular breeding in Hu sheep in future.Keywords: Hu sheep, microsatellite markers, litter size trait, producing ability of ewe

Detection of phylogenetic extraction of sheep populations in East and South Asia based on fuzzy discriminants analysis

No Abstract

Postnatal expression of myostain (MSTN) and myogenin (MYoG) genes in Hu sheep of China

The study of candidate genes is an important tool to identify genes associated with economic traits. Skeletal muscle development is an important physiological process in meat animals, and it directly affects meat production. The expression of myostain (MSTN) and myogenin (MYoG) genes in longissimus dorsi, during the early growth stage of Hu sheep, was studied by semi-quantitative Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results demonstrate that age and gender were playing a very important role in the expression of sheep muscle. MSTN and MYOG genes showed similar variation pattern for the male and female. The expression level of the MSTN and MYoG genes all showed a positive correlation with live weight, carcass weight and meat percentage, but only showed a significant relationship with meat percentage. MSTN gene showed an extreme significant positive relationship with MYoG.Key words: Sheep, myostain (MSTN), myogenin (MYoG), gene expression, muscle trait

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Transcriptional Regulation of N-Acetylglutamate Synthase

The urea cycle converts toxic ammonia to urea within the liver of mammals. At least 6 enzymes are required for ureagenesis, which correlates with dietary protein intake. The transcription of urea cycle genes is, at least in part, regulated by glucocorticoid and glucagon hormone signaling pathways. N-acetylglutamate synthase (NAGS) produces a unique cofactor, N-acetylglutamate (NAG), that is essential for the catalytic function of the first and rate-limiting enzyme of ureagenesis, carbamyl phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1). However, despite the important role of NAGS in ammonia removal, little is known about the mechanisms of its regulation. We identified two regions of high conservation upstream of the translation start of the NAGS gene. Reporter assays confirmed that these regions represent promoter and enhancer and that the enhancer is tissue specific. Within the promoter, we identified multiple transcription start sites that differed between liver and small intestine. Several transcription factor binding motifs were conserved within the promoter and enhancer regions while a TATA-box motif was absent. DNA-protein pull-down assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation confirmed binding of Sp1 and CREB, but not C/EBP in the promoter and HNF-1 and NF-Y, but not SMAD3 or AP-2 in the enhancer. The functional importance of these motifs was demonstrated by decreased transcription of reporter constructs following mutagenesis of each motif. The presented data strongly suggest that Sp1, CREB, HNF-1, and NF-Y, that are known to be responsive to hormones and diet, regulate NAGS transcription. This provides molecular mechanism of regulation of ureagenesis in response to hormonal and dietary changes

Transcriptional and Linkage Analyses Identify Loci that Mediate the Differential Macrophage Response to Inflammatory Stimuli and Infection

Macrophages display flexible activation states that range between pro-inflammatory (classical activation) and anti-inflammatory (alternative activation). These macrophage polarization states contribute to a variety of organismal phenotypes such as tissue remodeling and susceptibility to infectious and inflammatory diseases. Several macrophage- or immune-related genes have been shown to modulate infectious and inflammatory disease pathogenesis. However, the potential role that differences in macrophage activation phenotypes play in modulating differences in susceptibility to infectious and inflammatory disease is just emerging. We integrated transcriptional profiling and linkage analyses to determine the genetic basis for the differential murine macrophage response to inflammatory stimuli and to infection with the obligate intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii. We show that specific transcriptional programs, defined by distinct genomic loci, modulate macrophage activation phenotypes. In addition, we show that the difference between AJ and C57BL/6J macrophages in controlling Toxoplasma growth after stimulation with interferon gamma and tumor necrosis factor alpha mapped to chromosome 3, proximal to the Guanylate binding protein (Gbp) locus that is known to modulate the murine macrophage response to Toxoplasma. Using an shRNA-knockdown strategy, we show that the transcript levels of an RNA helicase, Ddx1, regulates strain differences in the amount of nitric oxide produced by macrophage after stimulation with interferon gamma and tumor necrosis factor. Our results provide a template for discovering candidate genes that modulate macrophage-mediated complex traits

Global, regional, and national burden of neurological disorders during 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Background Comparable data on the global and country-specific burden of neurological disorders and their trends are crucial for health-care planning and resource allocation. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) Study provides such information but does not routinely aggregate results that are of interest to clinicians specialising in neurological conditions. In this systematic analysis, we quantified the global disease burden due to neurological disorders in 2015 and its relationship with country development level. Methods We estimated global and country-specific prevalence, mortality, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), years of life lost (YLLs), and years lived with disability (YLDs) for various neurological disorders that in the GBD classification have been previously spread across multiple disease groupings. The more inclusive grouping of neurological disorders included stroke, meningitis, encephalitis, tetanus, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease, migraine, tension-type headache, medication overuse headache, brain and nervous system cancers, and a residual category of other neurological disorders. We also analysed results based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a compound measure of income per capita, education, and fertility, to identify patterns associated with development and how countries fare against expected outcomes relative to their level of development. Findings Neurological disorders ranked as the leading cause group of DALYs in 2015 (250·7 [95% uncertainty interval (UI) 229·1 to 274·7] million, comprising 10·2% of global DALYs) and the second-leading cause group of deaths (9·4 [9·1 to 9·7] million], comprising 16·8% of global deaths). The most prevalent neurological disorders were tension-type headache (1505·9 [UI 1337·3 to 1681·6 million cases]), migraine (958·8 [872·1 to 1055·6] million), medication overuse headache (58·5 [50·8 to 67·4 million]), and Alzheimer's disease and other dementias (46·0 [40·2 to 52·7 million]). Between 1990 and 2015, the number of deaths from neurological disorders increased by 36·7%, and the number of DALYs by 7·4%. These increases occurred despite decreases in age-standardised rates of death and DALYs of 26·1% and 29·7%, respectively; stroke and communicable neurological disorders were responsible for most of these decreases. Communicable neurological disorders were the largest cause of DALYs in countries with low SDI. Stroke rates were highest at middle levels of SDI and lowest at the highest SDI. Most of the changes in DALY rates of neurological disorders with development were driven by changes in YLLs. Interpretation Neurological disorders are an important cause of disability and death worldwide. Globally, the burden of neurological disorders has increased substantially over the past 25 years because of expanding population numbers and ageing, despite substantial decreases in mortality rates from stroke and communicable neurological disorders. The number of patients who will need care by clinicians with expertise in neurological conditions will continue to grow in coming decades. Policy makers and health-care providers should be aware of these trends to provide adequate services

Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe