Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) Expressed Sequence Tag Project: Progress and Application

Many plant ESTs have been sequenced as an alternative to whole genome sequences, including peanut because of the genome size and complexity. The US peanut research community had the historic 2004 Atlanta Genomics Workshop and named the EST project as a main priority. As of August 2011, the peanut research community had deposited 252,832 ESTs in the public NCBI EST database, and this resource has been providing the community valuable tools and core foundations for various genome-scale experiments before the whole genome sequencing project. These EST resources have been used for marker development, gene cloning, microarray gene expression and genetic map construction. Certainly, the peanut EST sequence resources have been shown to have a wide range of applications and accomplished its essential role at the time of need. Then the EST project contributes to the second historic event, the Peanut Genome Project 2010 Inaugural Meeting also held in Atlanta where it was decided to sequence the entire peanut genome. After the completion of peanut whole genome sequencing, ESTs or transcriptome will continue to play an important role to fill in knowledge gaps, to identify particular genes and to explore gene function

Study on the Molecular Mechanisms of dlk1 Stimulated Lung Cancer Cell Proliferation

Background and objective The imprinted gene dlk1 has been recognized as a cancer related gene since it aberrantly expressed in a series of cancer tissues, but its role in lung cancer is still unknown. The aim of this study is to examine dlk1’s expression in non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) and investigate the molecular mechanism by which dlk1 could accelerate the proliferation of the cells in lung cancer cell lines (H520). Methods The relative expression of dlk1 among 30 NSCLC specimens and their adjacent normal lung tissues were analyzed by RT-PCR. A cell model that stably expressed exogenous dlk1 was established following that the dlk1 gene was cloned into a eukaryotic expression vector and then transfected into the lung cancer cells H520. CCK8 analysis and colony forming assay were employed to investigate the effect of dlk1 on cell proliferation. The expression of CyclinB1 was detected by Western blot. Results dlk1 aberrantly expressed in 36.7% (11/30) of the tumor tissues of NSCLC compared with their adjacent cancer lung tissues. CCK8 analysis showed that overexpression of dlk1 could promote the proliferation of H520 cells (P < 0.05) and the results was further confirmed by colony forming assay. Western blot analysis found that over expression of dlk1 could up-regulate the expression of CyclinB1 (P < 0.05). Conclusion dlk1 aberrantly expressed in NSCLCs. The Overexpression of dlk1 could accelerate the proliferation of lung cancer cells H520 in vitro, probably through up-regulating the expression of cell cycle protein CyclinB1

Physiological and transcriptomic analysis reveal the crucial factors in heat stress response of red raspberry ‘Polka’ seedlings

With global climate warming, recurring extreme heat and high temperatures irreversibly damage plants. Raspberries, known for their nutritional and medicinal value, are in high demand worldwide. Thus, it is important to study how high-temperature stress (HTS) affects raspberries. The physiological and biochemical responses and molecular genetic mechanisms of raspberry leaves to different HTS treatments were investigated: mild high temperature at 35°C (HT35), severe high temperature at 40°C (HT40), and the control at room temperature of 25°C (CK). The physiological results suggested that leaves in both the 35°C and 40°C treatments showed maximum relative conductivity at 4 d of stress, increasing by 28.54% and 43.36%, respectively, compared to CK. Throughout the stress period (0–4 d), malondialdehyde (MDA) and soluble protein contents of raspberry leaves increased under HT35 and HT40 treatments, while soluble sugar content first decreased and then increased. Catalase (CAT) activity increased, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity first increased and then decreased, and peroxidase (POD) activity gradually decreased. Photosynthetic and fluorescence responses of raspberry leaves showed the most severe impairment after 4 d of stress. Transcriptomics results revealed significant alterations in 42 HSP family genes, two SOD-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs), 25 POD-related DEGs, three CAT-related DEGs, and 38 photosynthesis-related DEGs under HTS. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis showed that these DEGs were mainly enriched in photosynthesis-antenna proteins, pentose and glucuronide interconversion, phenylpropane biosynthesis, and indole alkaloid biosynthesis. HTS induced excessive ROS accumulation in raspberry leaves, causing oxidative damage in plant cells and subsequently reducing photosynthesis in raspberry leaves. This reduction in photosynthesis, in turn, affects photosynthetic carbon fixation and starch and sucrose metabolism, which, combined with phenol propane biosynthesis, mitigates the HTS-induced damage

Null-Space-Based Multi-Player Pursuit-Evasion Games Using Minimum and Maximum Approximation Functions

In this article, pursuit and evasion policies are developed for multi-player pursuit–evasion games, while obstacle avoidance and velocity constraints are considered simultaneously. As minimum and maximum approximation functions are both differentiable, pursuit and evasion objectives can be transformed into solving the corresponding differential expressions. For obstacle avoidance, a modified null-space-based approach is designed, which can ensure that all pursuers and evaders of pursuit–evasions are safe to minimize pursuit objective and maximize evasion objective, respectively. Rigorous theoretical analyses are provided to design constrained pursuit and evasion policies with obstacle avoidance. Finally, the performance of proposed policies is demonstrated by simulation results in 3-dimensional space

Application of Molecular Marker Technologies in Stress Resistance Breeding of Rapeseed

Rapeseed is the largest source of China’s edible vegetable oil and plays a pivotal role in China's edible oil market. With global warming and frequent occurrence of various extreme climates, traditional hybrid breeding has been unable to meet the production requirements for rape yield and stress resistance. In recent years, the rapid development and maturity of molecular marker technologies have opened up new ways for stress resistance breeding in rape. This article mainly discusses several types of molecular marker technologies commonly used in rapeseed breeding, such as RFLP, SSR, and SNP, the advantages of molecular marker technologies over conventional breeding and other genetic marker technologies, as well as the application of molecular marker technologies in rapeseed disease resistance, drought resistance, cold resistance and lodging resistance breeding, the current problems and development prospects in breeding

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Rumex dentatus L. (Polygonaceae)

Rumex dentatus L. is a flowering plant with promising therapeutic effects. Here, we reported the complete chloroplast genome sequence of R. dentatus. The length of the complete genome is 159,103 bp, with a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRb/IRa, 30,628 bp) separated by a large single-copy (LSC, 84,848 bp) region and a small single-copy (SSC, 12,999 bp) region. The overall GC content of the genome was 37.6%, and the corresponding values in the LSC, SSC, and IR regions were 35.8%, 32.6%, and 41.1%, respectively. There are 129 genes, including 84 protein coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. Phylogenetic tree showed that R. dentatus was most relative to the species of R. nepalensis and R. crispus