Stable isotopes δ<SUP>15</SUP>N and δ<SUP>13</SUP>C) analysis of anadromous and non-anadromous Coilia nasus in the Yangtze River, China

Wenqiao TANG,Lei WANG,Choong-Hoon JEONG 한국수산과학회 양식분과 2014 한국수산과학회 양식분과 학술대회 Vol.2014 No.7

MHC-DQB1 Variation and Its Association with Resistance or Susceptibility to Cystic Echinococcosis in Chinese Merino Sheep

Hui, Wenqiao,Shen, Hong,Jiang, Song,Jia, Bin Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2012 Animal Bioscience Vol.25 No.12

Cystic echinococcosis (CE), one of the world's most geographically widespread diseases, still represents a considerable economic and public health significance, although a variety of methods has been used to control the disease. It has been demonstrated that genetic factors, especially variations in MHC loci, can influence the outcome of CE infection in the human population. The study described here was designed to determine whether variation in MHC-DQB1 was associated with susceptibility or resistance to CE in sheep. If so, it would lay a theoretical foundation for breeding disease resistance sheep in future. This study was carried out on 204 Chinese Merino sheep, including 101 CE sheep and 103 healthy controls. The polymorphism of MHC-DQB1 exon 2 was detected by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method, and $x^2$ test was used to compare genotype frequencies between CE sheep and healthy controls. A total of 22 alleles and 42 genotypes were identified in DQB1 exon 2 in Chinese Merino sheep. In addition, $x^2$ test showed that frequencies of DQB1-TaqIaa and DQB1-HaeIIInn genotypes were significantly higher in the healthy group (82.5% and 57.3%, respectively) than that in the CE group (57.4% and 28.9%, respectively) (both p values = 0, OR = 0.286, 0.303, respectively), suggesting that these genotypes appeared to be associated with resistance to CE. Whereas, frequencies of DQB1-TaqIab and DQB1-HaeIIImn genotypes were significantly higher in the CE group (36.9% and 32.0%, respectively), as compared with the healthy group (16.5% and 11.15%, respectively) (p = 0.001, 0.001 and OR = 2.963, 3.629, respectively), indicating that these genotypes might be associated with susceptibility to CE. It is concluded that the genetic polymorphism within MHC-DQB1 might influence immune responses to pathogens, thus leading to the development of CE or protection against CE in Chinese Merino sheep, which would pave the way for breeding disease resistance sheep in future.

De novo transcriptome analysis and antimicrobial peptides screening in skin of Paa boulengeri

Yusong Jiang,Wenqiao Fan,Jingming Xu 한국유전학회 2017 Genes & Genomics Vol.39 No.6

Secretion of amphibian skins contain bioactive peptides that considered being an enormous medicine resource pending further exploitation and utilization. In this study, we found the skin secretion of Paa boulengeri exhibited stronger bacteriostatic activity when compared to H. guentheri, R. nigromaculata, and R. chensinensis, particularly against Bacillus subtilis. To discover antibacterial related genes in P. boulengeri, the cDNA library of P. boulengeri skin was constructed and subjected to RNA sequencing analysis. The assembly of the Illumina datasets was optimized using various assembly programs and parameters. The final optimized assembly generated 94,108 transcripts with an average length of 1292 bp and N50 of 2257 bp, representing 121.6 Mb of the P. boulengeri transcriptome. Among the 94,108 transcripts, 38,584 (40.1%) transcripts were annotated and 29,260 (31.1%) were matched with unique protein accessions in the Nr database. A total of 3165 potential cDNA-derived simple sequence repeats were identified, which distributed among 3034 transcripts. In addition, 177 antibacterial peptides and nine different Toll-like receptors were identified in P. boulengeri skin based on this transcriptome dataset. Moreover, some AMPs exhibited high expressions in P. boulengeri, such as Japonicin, which reflects mutual evolution between P. boulengeri and environment. These results provide a comprehensive sequence resource and molecular basis for researches on functional genomics and pharmacological activities of P. boulengeri.

Identification of olfactory receptor genes in the Japanese grenadier anchovy Coilia nasus

Guoli Zhu,Liangjiang Wang,Wenqiao Tang,Xiaomei Wang,Cong Wang 한국유전학회 2017 Genes & Genomics Vol.39 No.5

Olfaction is essential for fish to detect odorant elements in the environment and plays a critical role in navigating, locating food and detecting predators. Olfactory function is produced by the olfactory transduction pathway and is activated by olfactory receptors (ORs) through the binding of odorant elements. Recently, four types of olfactory receptors have been identified in vertebrate olfactory epithelium, including main odorant receptors (MORs), vomeronasal type receptors (VRs), trace-amine associated receptors (TAARs) and formyl peptide receptors (FPRs). It has been hypothesized that migratory fish, which have the ability to perform spawning migration, use olfactory cues to return to natal rivers. Therefore, obtaining OR genes from migratory fish will provide a resource for the study of molecular mechanisms that underlie fish spawning migration behaviors. Previous studies of OR genes have mainly focused on genomic data, however little information has been gained at the transcript level. In this study, we identified the OR genes of an economically important commercial fish Coilia nasus through searching for olfactory epithelium transcriptomes. A total of 142 candidate MOR, 52 V2R/OlfC, 32 TAAR and two FPR putative genes were identified. In addition, through genomic analysis we identified several MOR genes containing introns, which is unusual for vertebrate MOR genes. The transcriptomescale mining strategy proved to be fruitful in identifying large sets of OR genes from species whose genome information is unavailable. Our findings lay the foundation for further research into the possible molecular mechanisms underlying the spawning migration behavior in C. nasus.

Top online luxury apparel and accessories retailers: what are they doing right?

Wenzhao Mu,Sharron J. Lennon,Wenqiao Liu 한국의류학회 2020 Fashion and Textiles Vol.7 No.1

Many luxury firms have successfully adopted online sales and online sales growth has outperformed offline sales growth. As online luxury sales continue to grow, service expectations in digital and instore channels are also expected to grow. To add to the research literature, the top performing 46 luxury apparel and accessories websites identified in the Luxury e-Commerce Report from Internet Retailer were content analyzed to determine the state of the art in top performing luxury retail websites in providing needed information (international customer service attributes). Those top performing websites were then compared to 44 randomly selected similar websites on the same attributes to determine how the two groups of websites compared in terms of international customer service attributes. Although top performing luxury retail websites are providing important customer service information that facilitates online purchasing, there is room for improvement. In comparing the two groups of online luxury merchants, each group had strengths and weaknesses. Overall, merchants performed at a suboptimal level on provision of many customer service attributes, need improvement on others, and performed well on a few attributes. These luxury fashion online retailers are at an early stage in providing important customer service attributes on their websites.

Comparative Analysis of Nkx2-5/GATA4/TBX5 Expression in Chicken, Quail and Chicken-quail Hybrids during the Early Stage of Cardiac Development in Embryos

Ban, Qian,Liu, Xiaojun,Hui, Wenqiao,Chen, Danying,Zhao, Zongsheng,Jia, Bin Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2013 Animal Bioscience Vol.26 No.4

The present study makes an investigation into expression of genes related to cardiac development in chicken, quail and chicken-quail hybrids during the early stage of embryogenesis. Real-time PCR was used to detect mRNA expressions of Nkx2-5, GATA4 and TBX5 in the heart of chicken, quail and chicken-quail hybrids embryos during the 3rd to 7th days of incubation. Results showed that NKX2-5 mRNA displayed a similar expression trend in chicken, quail and chicken-quail hybrids. The initial and highest expression of Nkx2-5 was focused on the 3rd day of incubation, then it declined till 5th day of incubation, thereafter, it fluctuated. Expression of Nkx2-5 gene in quail was significantly higher than in chicken and chicken-quail hybrids, and no significant difference was observed between the two latter species. GATA4 mRNA showed a similar expression trend between chicken and quail, which displayed a steady increase from 3rd to 6th d, then, the expression level decreased. However, GATA4 mRNA expression in chicken-quail hybrids was significantly higher than that in chicken and quail from 3rd to 5th d (p<0.01), but significantly lower than that in chicken and quail during the later stage of the experiment (p<0.05), due to the dramatic drop from 5th d onwards (p<0.01). TBX5 mRNA expression in chicken and quail showed the same trend as GATA4 expressed in the two species. Furthermore, TBX5 expression in chicken-quail hybrids was significantly higher than that in chicken and quail during the whole course of experiment, although relatively lower TBX5 expression was detected in the early stage. In conclusion, Nkx2-5, GATA4 and TBX5 genes showed dynamic changes during the process of cardiac development in chicken, quail and their hybrids embryos. In addition, the expression trend in chicken was similar to that in quail, and there was no significant difference for gene expression level, except NKX2-5. However, expression of these genes in chicken-quail hybrids was significantly different from their parents, the difference mechanism needs to be further explored.

Transcriptomic Features of Echinococcus granulosus Protoscolex during the Encystation Process

Junjie Fan,Hongye Wu,Kai Li,Xunuo Liu,Qingqing Tan,Wenqiao Cao,Bo Liang,Bin Ye 대한기생충학ㆍ열대의학회 2020 The Korean Journal of Parasitology Vol.58 No.3

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a zoonotic infection caused by Echinococcus granulosus larvae. It seriously af- fects the development of animal husbandry and endangers human health. Due to a poor understanding of the cystic fluid formation pathway, there is currently a lack of innovative methods for the prevention and treatment of CE. In this study, the protoscoleces (PSCs) in the encystation process were analyzed by high-throughput RNA sequencing. A total of 32,401 transcripts and 14,903 cDNAs revealed numbers of new genes and transcripts, stage-specific genes, and differ- ently expressed genes. Genes encoding proteins involved in signaling pathways, such as putative G-protein coupled re- ceptor, tyrosine kinases, and serine/threonine protein kinase, were predominantly up-regulated during the encystation process. Antioxidant enzymes included cytochrome c oxidase, thioredoxin glutathione, and glutathione peroxidase were a high expression level. Intriguingly, KEGG enrichment suggested that differentially up-regulated genes involved in the va- sopressin-regulated water reabsorption metabolic pathway may play important roles in the transport of proteins, carbo- hydrates, and other substances. These results provide valuable information on the mechanism of cystic fluid production during the encystation process, and provide a basis for further studies on the molecular mechanisms of growth and de- velopment of PSCs.