Construction of a cDNA Library of Vitis pseudoreticulata Native to China Inoculated with Uncinula necator and the Analysis of Potential Defence-related Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs)

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) constitute a rapid and informative strategy for studying the gene expression profilesof specific stages of annual and perennial plant species. In the study undertaken for this report, a cDNA library wasconstructed from the young leaves of Chinese wild Vitis pseudoreticulata inoculated with Uncinula necator (Schwein.)Burrill. The leaves were harvested at various times after inoculation for total RNA extraction, which was used togenerate ESTs. In our study, 107 cDNA clones were sequenced from either the 5’ or 3’ end of the cDNAs. Of these,60 unigenes (56.1%) were functionally characterised by the BLASTX matches to known-function proteins, and 20unigenes (18.7%) matched significantly with proteins with unknown function in the public databases. The remaining27 unigenes (25.2%) failed to show significant homology to any proteins in the public databases, suggesting that theyrepresented novel sequences. Some functional genes identified from the cDNA library and their potential with plantdefence system is discussed

Perturbation theory of von Neumann Entropy

In quantum information theory, von Neumann entropy plays an important role. The entropies can be obtained analytically only for a few states. In continuous variable system, even evaluating entropy numerically is not an easy task since the dimension is infinite. We develop the perturbation theory systematically for calculating von Neumann entropy of non-degenerate systems as well as degenerate systems. The result turns out to be a practical way of the expansion calculation of von Neumann entropy.Comment: 7 page

Symmetries and Lie algebra of the differential-difference Kadomstev-Petviashvili hierarchy

By introducing suitable non-isospectral flows we construct two sets of symmetries for the isospectral differential-difference Kadomstev-Petviashvili hierarchy. The symmetries form an infinite dimensional Lie algebra.Comment: 9 page

Insecticide-Mediated Up-Regulation of Cytochrome P450 Genes in the Red Flour Beetle (Tribolium castaneum)

Citation: Liang, X., Xiao, D., He, Y. P., Yao, J. X., Zhu, G. N., & Zhu, K. Y. (2015). Insecticide-Mediated Up-Regulation of Cytochrome P450 Genes in the Red Flour Beetle (Tribolium castaneum). International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 16(1), 2078-2098. doi:10.3390/ijms16012078Some cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes are known for their rapid up-regulation in response to insecticide exposures in insects. To date, however, limited information is available with respect to the relationships among the insecticide type, insecticide concentration, exposure duration and the up-regulated CYP genes. In this study, we examined the transcriptional response of eight selected CYP genes, including CYP4G7, CYP4Q4, CYP4BR3, CYP12H1, CYP6BK11, CYP9D4, CYP9Z5 and CYP345A1, to each of four insecticides in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) revealed that CYP4G7 and CYP345A1 can be significantly up-regulated by cypermethrin (1.97- and 2.06-fold, respectively), permethrin (2.00- and 2.03-fold) and lambda-cyhalothrin (1.73- and 1.81-fold), whereas CYP4BR3 and CYP345A1 can be significantly up-regulated by imidacloprid (1.99- and 1.83-fold) when 20-day larvae were exposed to each of these insecticides at the concentration of LC20 for 24 h. Our studies also showed that similar levels of up-regulation can be achieved for CYP4G7, CYP4BR3 and CYP345A1 by cypermethrin, permethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin or imidacloprid with approximately one fourth of LC20 in 6 h. Our study demonstrated that up-regulation of these CYP genes was rapid and only required low concentrations of insecticides, and the up-regulation not only depended on the CYP genes but also the type of insecticides. Our results along with those from previous studies also indicated that there were no specific patterns for predicting the up-regulation of specific CYP gene families based on the insecticide classification

Lycium barbarum polysaccharide attenuates alcoholic cellular injury through TXNIP-NLRP3 inflammasome pathway

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Abnormal temporal coupling of tactile perception and motor action in Parkinson's disease

Evidence shows altered somatosensory temporal discrimination threshold (STDT) in Parkinson's disease in comparison to normal subjects. In healthy subjects, movement execution modulates STDT values through mechanisms of sensory gating. We investigated whether STDT modulation during movement execution in patients with Parkinson's disease differs from that in healthy subjects. In 24 patients with Parkinson's disease and 20 healthy subjects, we tested STDT at baseline and during index finger abductions (at movement onset "0", 100, and 200 ms thereafter). We also recorded kinematic features of index finger abductions. Fifteen out of the 24 patients were also tested ON medication. In healthy subjects, STDT increased significantly at 0, 100, and 200 ms after movement onset, whereas in patients with Parkinson's disease in OFF therapy, it increased significantly at 0 and 100 ms but returned to baseline values at 200 ms. When patients were tested ON therapy, STDT during index finger abductions increased significantly, with a time course similar to that of healthy subjects. Differently from healthy subjects, in patients with Parkinson's disease, the mean velocity of the finger abductions decreased according to the time lapse between movement onset and the delivery of the paired electrical stimuli for testing somatosensory temporal discrimination. In conclusion, patients with Parkinson's disease show abnormalities in the temporal coupling between tactile information and motor outflow. Our study provides first evidence that altered temporal processing of sensory information play a role in the pathophysiology of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease

Prognostic value of PDCD-1 and CTLA-4 in ovarian cancer patients

Therapeutic effectiveness of treatments for ovarian cancer is not optimal. PDCD-1 and CTLA-4 offers the potential as a prognostic marker in addition to being a target for therapy. To assess the prognostic roles of PDCD-1 and CTLA-4 Gene in ovarian cancer, we utilized the Kaplan Meier plotter, a biomarker assessment tool with large quantities of data. The relationship between PDCD-1 and overall survival (OS) as well as CTLA-4 and OS were presented using Hazard Ratio, 95% CI and logrank P value. Then gene expression level was compared using H-Test and U test. The results were as follows: PDCD-1 and CTLA-4 gene expressions among 1582 ovarian cancer patients were shown with median gene expression value as the cut-off. Expression of PDCD-1 and CTLA-4 did not differ with regard to stages and P53 gene mutation. But the expression of CTLA-4 was higher in endometrioid than in serous cancer patients. Different grades of both PDCD-1 and CTLA-4 had different mean values. Higher expression of the PDCD-1 was not significantly correlated with better OS with HR 0.88 (95% CI: 0.77-1.01, P=0.061) but higher CTLA-4 was associated with better survival with HR 0.84 (95% CI: 0.73-0.96, P=0.0099) on the transcriptome level. In conclusion, lower expression of CTLA-4, but not PDCD-1 predicts worse survival