Characterization of the duck enteritis virus UL55 protein

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Characteration of the newly identified duck enteritis virus UL55 gene product has not been reported yet. Knowledge of the protein UL55 can provide useful insights about its function.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The newly identified duck enteritis virus UL55 gene was about 561 bp, it was amplified and digested for construction of a recombinant plasmid pET32a(+)/UL55 for expression in Escherichia coli. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed the recombinant protein UL55(pUL55) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21 host cells after induction by 0.2 mM IPTG at 37°C for 4 h and aggregated as inclusion bodies. The denatured protein about 40 KDa named pUL55 was purified by washing five times, and used to immune rabbits for preparation of polyclonal antibody. The prepared polyclonal antibody against pUL55 was detected and determined by Agar immundiffusion and Neutralization test. The results of Wstern blotting assay and intracellular analysis revealed that pUL55 was expressed most abundantly during the late phase of replication and mainly distributed in cytoplasm in duck enteritis virus infected cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this study, the duck enteritis virus UL55 protein was successfully expressed in prokaryotic expression system. Besides, we have prepared the polyclonal antibody against recombinant prtein UL55, and characterized some properties of the duck enteritis virus UL55 protein for the first time. The research will be useful for further functional analysis of this gene.</p

Characterization of duck enteritis virus UL53 gene and glycoprotein K

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Most of the previous research work had focused on the epidemiology and prevention of duck enteritis virus (DEV). Whilst with the development of protocols in molecular biology, nowadays more and more information about the genes of DEV was reported. But little information about DEV UL53 gene and glycoprotein K(gK) was known except our reported data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In our paper, the fluorescent quantitative real-time PCR(FQ-RT-PCR) assay and nucleic acid inhibition test were used to study the transcription characteristic of the DEV UL53 gene. Except detecting the mRNA of DEV UL53 gene, the product gK encoded by UL53 gene was detected through the expression kinetics of UL53 gene by the purified rabbit anti-UL53 protein polyclonal antibodies. Western-blotting and indirect immunofluorescence assays were used to detect gK. From the results of these experiments, the UL53 gene and gK were respectively identified as a late gene and a really late protein. On the other hand, the indirect immunofluorescence assay provided another information that the intracellular localization of DEV gK was mainly distributed in cytoplasm.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>By way of conclusions, we conceded that DEV UL53 gene is a really late gene, which is coincident with properties of UL53 homologs from other herpesvirus, such as ILTV(Infectious Laryngotracheitis virus) and HSV-1(Herpes simplex virus type 1). The properties of intracellular localization about gK protein provided a foundation for further functional analysis and further studies will be focused on constructing of the UL53 gene DEV mutant.</p

High performance perovskite sub-module with sputtered SnO2 electron transport layer

Hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSC) have gained stupendous achievement in single/tandem solar cell, semitransparent solar cell and flexible devices. Aiming for potential commercialization of perovskite photovoltaic technology, up scalable processing is crucial for all function layers in PSC. Herein we present a study on room temperature magnetron sputtering of tin oxide electron transporting layer (ETL) and apply it in a large area PSC for low cost and continues manufacturing. The SnO2 sputtering targets with varied oxygen and deposition models are used. Specifically, the working gas ratio of Ar/O2 during the radio frequency sputtering process plays a crucial role to obtain optimized SnO2 film. The sputtered SnO2 films demonstrate similar morphological and crystalline properties, but significant varied defect states and carrier transportation roles in the PSC devices. With further modification of thickness of SnO2, the PSCs based on sputtered SnO2 ETL shows a champion efficiency of 18.20% in small area and an efficiency of 14.71% in sub-module with an aperture area of 16.07 cm2, which is the highest efficiency of perovskite sub module with sputtered ETLs

Identification and Characterization of PIWI-Interacting RNAs in Spinyhead Croakers <i>(Collichthys lucidus)</i> by Small RNA Sequencing

PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are an emerging class of small RNAs which protect the animal germline genome against deleterious transposable elements. Nevertheless, the characteristics and sex-related expression patterns of piRNA in Collichthys lucidus remain unknown. In this study, we first performed systematic next-generation high-throughput sequencing in C. lucidus ovaries and testes. We identified 3,027,834 piRNAs across six gonad libraries. Of these, 2225 piRNAs were differently expressed between testes and ovaries; 1195 were upregulated and 1030 downregulated in the testes. Interestingly, the potential target genes of 208 differentially expressed piRNAs had sex-related functions, including germ cell development, gonad development, ovarian follicle development, gamete generation, spermatid development, and spermatogenesis. Moreover, these target genes are involved in the TGF-β, Wnt, MAPK, mTOR, VEGF, and PI3K-Akt pathways. Further, 10 piRNAs were derived from Nectin2 and Mea1, which play important roles in sexual reproduction, male gamete generation, and germ cell development. We also identified 5482 piRNA clusters across the gonads, among which 139 piRNA clusters were uniquely expressed in the testes and 98 in the ovaries. The expression of core sex-related piRNA was validated by real-time PCR. Overall, our findings provide significant insights into C. lucidus’ sex-related piRNAs