mRNA/microRNA Profile at the Metamorphic Stage of Olive Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus)

Flatfish is famous for the asymmetric transformation during metamorphosis. The molecular mechanism behind the asymmetric development has been speculated over a century and is still not well understood. To date, none of the metamorphosis-related genes has been identified in flatfish. As the first step to screen metamorphosis-related gene, we constructed a whole-body cDNA library and a whole-body miRNA library in this study and identified 1051 unique ESTs, 23 unique miRNAs, and 4 snoRNAs in premetamorphosing and prometamorphosing Paralichthys olivaceus. 1005 of the ESTs were novel, suggesting that there was a special gene expression profile at metamorphic stage. Four miRNAs (pol-miR-20c, pol-miR-23c, pol-miR-130d, and pol-miR-181e) were novel to P. olivaceus; they were characterized as highly preserved homologies of published miRNAs but with at least one nucleotide differed. Representative 24 mRNAs and 23 miRNAs were quantified during metamorphosis of P. olivaceus by using quantitative RT PCR or stem-loop qRT PCR. Our results showed that 20 of mRNAs might be associated with early metamorphic events, 10 of mRNAs might be related with later metamorphic events, and 16 of miRNAs might be involved in the regulation of metamorphosis. The data provided in this study would be helpful for further identifying metamorphosis-related gene in P. olivaceus

Eye location, cranial asymmetry, and swimming behavior of different variants of Solea senegalensis

Many flatfish species, such as Scophthalmus maximus, Paralichthys olivaceus, Solea senegalensis, are extensively cultured worldwide. In flatfishes, eye migration varies among different species and even within the same species. The genetic mechanism underlying eye migration is still unclear, and it is the key to improve metamorphosis in flatfish aquaculture and understand flatfish evolution. In this study, the high frequency of eye location variants in an artificial S. senegalensis population allowed us to investigate the eye preference during migration; completeness of the eye migration; and other related left-right asymmetric characteristics, such as asymmetrical skull remodeling and lying down on one side. The different frequencies of eye preference during migration, completeness of the eye migration, and settling side suggest that they are determined by different genotypes and imply independent evolutionary events during flatfish evolution. We found that the swimming time may be related to the completeness of eye migration, and further the migration of the eye, the more time the fish spent at the sea bottom. The left-right asymmetric degrees of not only the frontal bones and lateral ethmoids but also the jaw bone, including the premaxillary, maxillary, and dentary bones, depend on the completeness of eye migration. Finally, we proposed a hypothesis for the asymmetric origin of flatfish that provides reasonable explanations for the selective advantages of primitive flatfish species

Measurement of dielectron production in central Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV

The first measurement of dielectron (e+e−) production in central (0−10%) Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 2.76 TeV at the LHC is presented. The dielectron invariant-mass spectrum is compared to the expected contributions from hadron decays in the invariant-mass range 0<mee<3.5 GeV/c2. The ratio of data and the cocktail of hadronic contributions without vacuum ρ0 is measured in the invariant-mass range 0.15<mee<0.7 GeV/c2, where an excess of dielectrons is observed in other experiments, and its value is 1.40±0.28 (stat.)±0.08 (syst.)±0.27 (cocktail). The dielectron spectrum measured in the invariant mass range 0<mee<1 GeV/c2 is consistent with the predictions from two theoretical model calculations that include thermal dielectron production from both partonic and hadronic phases with in-medium broadened ρ0 meson. The fraction of direct virtual photons over inclusive virtual photons is extracted for dielectron pairs with invariant mass 0.1<mee<0.3 GeV/c2, and in the transverse-momentum intervals 1<pT,ee<2 GeV/c and 2<pT,ee<4 GeV/c. The measured fraction of virtual direct photons is consistent with the measurement of real direct photons by ALICE and with the expectations from previous dielectron measurements at RHIC within the experimental uncertainties

Λ+c production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV and in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

The pT-differential production cross section of prompt Λ+c charmed baryons was measured with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV and in p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV at midrapidity. The Λ+c and Λ¯¯¯¯−c were reconstructed in the hadronic decay modes Λ+c→pK−π+, Λ+c→pK0S and in the semileptonic channel Λ+c→e+νeΛ (and charge conjugates). The measured values of the Λ+c/D0 ratio, which is sensitive to the c-quark hadronisation mechanism, and in particular to the production of baryons, are presented and are larger than those measured previously in different colliding systems, centre-of-mass energies, rapidity and pT intervals, where the Λ+c production process may differ. The results are compared with the expectations obtained from perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics calculations and Monte Carlo event generators. Neither perturbative QCD calculations nor Monte Carlo models reproduce the data, indicating that the fragmentation of heavy-flavour baryons is not well understood. The first measurement at the LHC of the Λ+c nuclear modification factor, RpPb, is also presented. The RpPb is found to be consistent with unity and with that of D mesons within the uncertainties, and consistent with a theoretical calculation that includes cold nuclear matter effects and a calculation that includes charm quark interactions with a deconfined medium

Inclusive J/ψ\psi production in Xe–Xe collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.44 TeV

Inclusive J/$\psi$ production is studied in Xe-Xe interactions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}= 5.44$ TeV, using the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. The J/$\psi$ meson is reconstructed via its decay into a muon pair, in the centre-of-mass rapidity interval $2.5<y<4$ and down to zero transverse momentum. In this Letter, the nuclear modification factors $R_{\rm AA}$ for inclusive J/$\psi$, measured in the centrality range 0-90% as well as in the centrality intervals 0-20% and 20-90% are presented. The $R_{\rm AA}$ values are compared to previously published results for Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}= 5.02$ TeV and to the calculation of a transport model. A good agreement is found between Xe-Xe and Pb-Pb results as well as between data and the model

Real-time data processing in the ALICE High Level Trigger at the LHC

International audienceAt the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, atomic nuclei are collided at ultra-relativistic energies. Many final-state particles are produced in each collision and their properties are measured by the ALICE detector. The detector signals induced by the produced particles are digitized leading to data rates that are in excess of 48 GB/s. The ALICE High Level Trigger (HLT) system pioneered the use of FPGA- and GPU-based algorithms to reconstruct charged-particle trajectories and reduce the data size in real time. The results of the reconstruction of the collision events, available online, are used for high level data quality and detector-performance monitoring and real-time time-dependent detector calibration. The online data compression techniques developed and used in the ALICE HLT have more than quadrupled the amount of data that can be stored for offline event processing

Anisotropic flow in Xe-Xe collisions at sNN=5.44\mathbf{\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 5.44} TeV

The first measurements of anisotropic flow coefficients vn for mid-rapidity charged particles in Xe–Xe collisions at sNN=5.44 TeV are presented. Comparing these measurements to those from Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV, v2 is found to be suppressed for mid-central collisions at the same centrality, and enhanced for central collisions. The values of v3 are generally larger in Xe–Xe than in Pb–Pb at a given centrality. These observations are consistent with expectations from hydrodynamic predictions. When both v2 and v3 are divided by their corresponding eccentricities for a variety of initial state models, they generally scale with transverse density when comparing Xe–Xe and Pb–Pb, with some deviations observed in central Xe–Xe and Pb–Pb collisions. These results assist in placing strong constraints on both the initial state geometry and medium response for relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Energy dependence of exclusive J/ψ\mathrm {J}/\psi photoproduction off protons in ultra-peripheral p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02\sqrt{s_{\mathrm {\scriptscriptstyle NN}}} = 5.02 TeV

International audienceThe ALICE Collaboration has measured the energy dependence of exclusive photoproduction of $\mathrm {J}/\psi$ vector mesons off proton targets in ultra–peripheral p–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV. The e$^+$ e$^-$ and $\mu ^+\mu ^-$ decay channels are used to measure the cross section as a function of the rapidity of the $\mathrm {J}/\psi$ in the range $-2.5< y < 2.7$ , corresponding to an energy in the $\gamma$ p centre-of-mass in the interval $40< W_{\gamma \mathrm {p}}<550$ GeV. The measurements, which are consistent with a power law dependence of the exclusive $\mathrm {J}/\psi$ photoproduction cross section, are compared to previous results from HERA and the LHC and to several theoretical models. They are found to be compatible with previous measurements