Effect of polysaccharides extracted from <i>Sipunculus nudus</i> (SNP) on the lifespan and immune damage repair of <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> exposed to Cd (VI)

<p>The water-soluble polysaccharides extracted from <i>Sipunculus nudus</i> (SNP) was investigated on the lifespan and immune damage repair of <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> exposed to Cd (VI). SNP increased superoxyde dismutase (SOD), nitrogen monoxide (NO), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and total anti-oxidation competence (T-AOC), with decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) on <i>D. melanogaster</i> demonstrated that SNP could <i>attenuate</i> <i>oxidative damage of D. melanogaster Exposed to Cd (VI).</i> Real-time PCR and western blot analysis showed that SNP enhanced the gene expression of Diptericin, Drosomycin, Defensin, PGRP-LC and the protein level of Toll, p-JNK and Relish， that suggested the promoting effect of SNP on the immune damage repair of <i>D. melanogaster</i> exposed to Cd (VI). The increased level of Indy, Parkin and AMPK indicated the regulated effect of SNP on the longevity-related pathways through ageing-related moleculars of <i>D. melanogaster</i> exposed to Cd (VI). These results suggested that SNP could also improve the lifespan of <i>D. melanogaster</i> exposed to Cd (VI).</p

The primary data and results for selection and phylogenetic analysis

In the manuscript, we have made a selection and phylogenetic analysis for MHC genes(DQB and DRB) in the Endangered Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin (Sousa chinensis).FUBAR software and CODENL program were used to test for the evidence of positive selection, and phylogenetic trees were reconstructed using MrBayes 3.1.2. The best-fit evolution model for MHC was selected on the basis of the Akaike Information Criterion(AIC) using MODELTEST 3.7. All the data underlying these analyses was submitted in a zip file(Data for Dryad)

LiMn₂O₄ Nanotube as Cathode Material of Second-Level Charge Capability for Aqueous Rechargeable Batteries

LiMn₂O₄ nanotube with a preferred orientation of (400) planes is prepared by using multiwall carbon nanotubes as a sacrificial template. Because of the nanostructure and preferred orientation, it shows a superfast second-level charge capability as a cathode for aqueous rechargeable lithium battery. At the charging rate of 600C (6 s), 53.9% capacity could be obtained. Its reversible capacity can be 110 mAh/g, and it also presents excellent cycling behavior due to the porous tube structure to buffer the strain and stress from Jahn–Teller effects

Co₃O₄@MWCNT Nanocable as Cathode with Superior Electrochemical Performance for Supercapacitors

Using a simple hydrothermal procedure, cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) with preferred orientation along (220) planes is in situ prepared and coated on MWCNT. The prepared Co₃O₄@MWCNT nanocable shows superior electrochemical performance as cathode material for aqueous supercapacitors in 0.5 M KOH solution. Its redox peaks retain the well-defined shapes even when the scan rate increases to 200 mV/s. Its specific capacitance is high, 590 F/g at 15 A/g and 510 F/g even at 100 A/g within the potential range from −0.2 to 0.58 V (vs SCE). There is no capacitance fading after 2000 full cycles. This excellent performance is superior to the pristine and the reported Co₃O₄, which is ascribed to the unique nanocable structure with orientation

OCTA-KONG vibration operation.

<p>During vibration, the pile and hammer are rigidly connected (A). The OCTA-KONG was a tandem combination of 8× APE 600 (B), with each APE600 composed of a suppressor housing, a vibrator gearbox and a clamping attachment (C).</p

Descriptive statistics of the SPL_zp, SPL_rms and SEL_ws of the ambient noise.

<p>Parameters are given as the mean ±SD, with ranges denoting minimum and maximum values. SEL_ss was identical to SPL_rms, Means with different lowercase superscripts refer to post hoc Duncan's multiple-comparison tests that yielded significant results (p<0.05) for OCTA-KONG pile driving. Subscript 'a' denotes sound recorded by the BS recording system, 'b' denotes sound recorded by the SM2M recording system and 'c' denotes the combined results of the BS and SM2M recording systems.</p><p>Descriptive statistics of the SPL_zp, SPL_rms and SEL_ws of the ambient noise.</p

Wave form of the OCTA-KONG SSP₂₂ #32 vibration sound and ambient noise.

<p>The fundamental frequency of the vibration sound was 15 Hz.</p

Overview of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin leucocytes transcriptome assembly.

<p>(A) The size distribution of the contigs obtained from <i>de novo</i> assembly of high-quality clean reads. (B) The size distribution of the unigenes produced from further assembly of contigs. (C) The size distribution of the CDS produced by searching unigene sequences against various protein databases (NR, Swiss-Prot, KEGG and COG, in order) using BLASTX (E-value<10⁻⁵). (D) Size distributions of the ESTs obtained from the ESTScan results. For unigene CDS that had no hits in the databases (NR, Swiss-Prot, KEGG and COG), the BLAST results were subjected to ESTScans and then converted into peptide sequences.</p

<i>De novo</i> Assembly of the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin Leucocyte Transcriptome to Identify Putative Genes Involved in the Aquatic Adaptation and Immune Response

<div><p>Background</p><p>The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (<i>Sousa chinensis</i>), a marine mammal species inhabited in the waters of Southeast Asia, South Africa and Australia, has attracted much attention because of the dramatic decline in population size in the past decades, which raises the concern of extinction. So far, this species is poorly characterized at molecular level due to little sequence information available in public databases. Recent advances in large-scale RNA sequencing provide an efficient approach to generate abundant sequences for functional genomic analyses in the species with un-sequenced genomes.</p><p>Principal Findings</p><p>We performed a <i>de novo</i> assembly of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin leucocyte transcriptome by Illumina sequencing. 108,751 high quality sequences from 47,840,388 paired-end reads were generated, and 48,868 and 46,587 unigenes were functionally annotated by BLAST search against the NCBI non-redundant and Swiss-Prot protein databases (E-value<10⁻⁵), respectively. In total, 16,467 unigenes were clustered into 25 functional categories by searching against the COG database, and BLAST2GO search assigned 37,976 unigenes to 61 GO terms. In addition, 36,345 unigenes were grouped into 258 KEGG pathways. We also identified 9,906 simple sequence repeats and 3,681 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms as potential molecular markers in our assembled sequences. A large number of unigenes were predicted to be involved in immune response, and many genes were predicted to be relevant to adaptive evolution and cetacean-specific traits.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>This study represented the first transcriptome analysis of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, an endangered species. The <i>de novo</i> transcriptome analysis of the unique transcripts will provide valuable sequence information for discovery of new genes, characterization of gene expression, investigation of various pathways and adaptive evolution, as well as identification of genetic markers.</p></div

Bioaccumulation and Potential Endocrine Disruption Risk of Legacy and Emerging Organophosphate Esters in Cetaceans from the Northern South China Sea

Despite the increasing health risks shown by the continuous detection of organophosphate esters (OPEs) in biota in recent years, information on the occurrence and potential risks of OPEs in marine mammals remains limited. This study conducted the first investigation into the body burdens and potential risks of 10 traditional OPEs (tOPEs) and five emerging OPEs (eOPEs) in 10 cetacean species (n = 84) from the northern South China Sea (NSCS) during 2005–2021. All OPEs, except for 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPHP), were detected in these cetaceans, indicating their widespread occurrence in the NSCS. Although the levels of the ∑10tOPEs in humpback dolphins remained stable from 2005 to 2021, the concentrations of the ∑5eOPEs showed a significant increase, suggesting a growing demand for these new-generation OPEs in South China. Dolphins in proximity to urban regions generally exhibited higher OPE concentrations than those from rural areas, mirroring the environmental trends of OPEs occurring in this area. All OPE congeners, except for EHDPHP, in humpback dolphins exhibited a maternal transfer ratio >1, indicating that the dolphin placenta may not be an efficient barrier for OPEs. The observed significant correlations between levels of OPEs and hormones (triiodothyronine, thyroxine, and testosterone) in humpback dolphins indicated that OPE exposures might have endocrine disruption effects on the dolphin population