Effects of experimental warming on the dynamics of soil gravimetrical water at different elevation of subalpine and alpine forests in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

<p>Error bars indicate standard error. *<i>P</i> < 0.05. <i>n</i> = 5. Abbreviations: OL, organic soil layer; ML, mineral soil layer; A1, 3000 m; A2 3300 m; A3, 3600 m.</p

Effects of experimental warming on the ratios of soil microbial biomass C to N (MBC/MBN) at different elevations of subalpine and alpine forests in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

<p>Error bars indicate standard error. *<i>P</i> < 0.05. <i>n</i> = 5. Abbreviations: OL, organic soil layer; ML, mineral soil layer; A1, 3000 m; A2 3300 m; A3, 3600 m.</p

Daily mean air temperature and soil temperature at organic soil layer and mineral soil layer at different elevation of subalpine and alpine forests in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

<p>Daily mean air temperature and soil temperature at organic soil layer and mineral soil layer at different elevation of subalpine and alpine forests in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.</p

Effects of experimental warming on the dynamics of soil microbial biomass N (MBN) at different elevations of subalpine and alpine forests in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

<p>Error bars indicate standard error. *<i>P</i> < 0.05. <i>n</i> = 5. Abbreviations: OL, organic soil layer; ML, mineral soil layer; A1, 3000 m; A2 3300 m; A3, 3600 m.</p

Effects of experimental warming on the dynamics of soil microbial biomass C (MBC) at different elevation of subalpine and alpine forests in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

<p>Error bars indicate standard error. *<i>P</i> < 0.05. <i>n</i> = 5. Abbreviations: OL, organic soil layer; ML, mineral soil layer; A1, 3000 m; A2 3300 m; A3, 3600 m.</p

Basic chemical properties of soil in the soil organic layer (OL) and mineral soil layer (ML) of the fir forest.

<p>^# Data in parentheses are the standard deviation.</p><p>Abbreviations: OL, organic soil layer; ML, mineral soil layer.</p><p>Basic chemical properties of soil in the soil organic layer (OL) and mineral soil layer (ML) of the fir forest.</p

Novel Missense Variants of ZFPM2/FOG2 Identified in Conotruncal Heart Defect Patients Do Not Impair Interaction with GATA4

<div><p>Conotruncal heart defect (CTD) is a complex form of congenital heart disease and usually has a poor prognosis. <i>ZFPM2/FOG2</i> encodes a transcription cofactor that interacts with GATA4 to regulate cardiac development. This regulation has been established in knockout mouse models that display a range of heart malformations, especially CTD. Although previous studies have identified several missense variants in <i>ZFPM2/FOG2</i> that may cause CTD, it remains unclear whether they are involved in CTD pathogenesis because the study populations were limited and the functional status was unknown. In this report, we screened a larger CTD population, which comprised 145 tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), 37 double-outlet ventricle outflow (DORV), and 18 transposition of the great artery (TGA), to investigate exon mutations as well as copy number variations in <i>ZFPM2/FOG2</i>. Four variants (p.V339I in one DORV, p.A426T in one DORV, p.M703L in three TOF, p.T843M in one TOF) were found in six patients, of which two are reported here for the first time. No copy number variations of the gene were detected. GST pull-down assays demonstrated that all potentially deleterious variants, including those previously reported, did not impair the interaction with GATA4, except for variant p.M544I and p.K737E, which subtly impaired the binding. Thus, these missense variants may be involved in other mechanisms underlying CTD or may be unrelated to CTD occurrence.</p></div

Interactions between Zfpm2 variants and Gata4 assessed by GST pull-down assays.

<p>Coomassie blue staining indicated the amounts of GST fusions pulled down in the assays. The relatively band intensities compared with the wild type are shown in the bottom. Molecular mass standards (kDa) are indicated at the left. Lane 1, GST; Lane 2, GST-Zfpm2 wild type; Lane 3, GST-Zfpm2 p.M703L; Lane 4, GST-Zfpm2 T843M; Lane 5, GST-Zfpm2 E30G; Lane 6, GST-Zfpm2 I227V; Lane 7, GST-Zfpm2 K737E; Lane 8, GST-Zfpm2 S402R; Lane 9, GST-Zfpm2 M544I.</p

Locations of mutations identified and sequence alignments in ZFPM2/FOG2.

<p>Top, the N-terminal transcriptional repression domain is indicated in red; the eight zinc-finger motifs are represented by blue; the nuclear localization signal is indicated in yellow; the putative CtBP-binding site is represented by green. Variants identified in this study are shown underneath the protein structure; variants reported in previous studies are shown above. Bottom, multiple alignment of partial amino acid sequences of human ZFPM2/FOG2 and its homologs from other species. Variant residues are boxed. Accession numbers of the sequences used are as follows: Homo, NP_036214.2; Pan, XP_001158075.1; Canis, XP_539118.2; Mus, NP_035896.1; Rattus, XP_235253.4; Gallus, XP_418380.2; Danio, NP_001034724.1.</p

Sequencing chromatograms of four heterozygous missense variants.

<p>(A) Each arrow indicates the position of the nucleotide variant that results in the substitution of wild-type Val with Ile at codon 339. (B) Substitution of wild-type Ala with Thr at codon 426. (C) Substitution of wild-type Met with Leu at codon 703. (D) Substitution of wild-type Thr with Met at codon 843.</p