Cloning and characterization of a novel GIGANTEA gene in sweet potato

Tang, W.,Yan, H.,Su, Z.x.,Park, S.C.,Liu, Y.j.,Zhang, Y.g.,Wang, X.,Kou, M.,Ma, D.f.,Kwak, S.S.,Li, Q. Gauthier-Villars ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2017 Vol. No.

<P>The transition from vegetative to reproductive growth, a key event in the lifecycle of a plant, is affected by environmental stresses. The flowering-time regulator GIGANTEA (GI) may be contributing to susceptibility of the regulation of photoperiodic flowering, circadian rhythm control, and abiotic stress resistance in Arabidopsis. However, the role of GI in sweet potato remains unknown. Here, we isolated and characterized a GI gene (IbGI) from sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [LI Lam). The IbGI cDNA sequence was isolated based on information from a sweet potato transcriptome database. IbGI mRNA transcript levels showed robust circadian rhythm control during the light-dark transition, and the expression of IbGI was stronger in leaves and roots than in stems. IbGI protein is predominantly localized to the nucleus. IbGI expression was upregulated by high temperature, drought, and salt stress but downregulated by cold stress. Overexpressing IbGI in the Arabidopsis gi-2 mutant background rescued its late flowering phenotype and reduced its salt tolerance. Taken together, these results indicate that IbGI shares functions in regulating flowering, the circadian rhythm, and tolerance to some stresses with other GI orthologs. (C) 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.</P>

Intramuscular Administration of Zinc Metallothionein to Preslaughter Stressed Pigs Improves Anti-oxidative Status and Pork Quality

Li, L.L.,Hou, Z.P.,Yin, Y.L.,Liu, Y.H.,Hou, D.X.,Zhang, B.,Wu, G.Y.,Kim, S.W.,Fan, M.Z.,Yang, C.B.,Kong, X.F.,Tang, Z.R.,Peng, H.Z.,Deng, D.,Deng, Z.Y.,Xie, M.Y.,Xiong, H.,Kang, P.,Wang, S.X. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2007 Animal Bioscience Vol.20 No.5

This study was conducted to determine the effects of exogenous zinc-metallothionein (Zn-MT) on anti-oxidative function and pork quality. After feeding a corn-soybean meal-based diet for two weeks, 48 pigs ($Duroc{\times}Landrace{\times}Chinese\;Black Pig$) were assigned randomly to four groups. Pigs in Group 1 were maintained under non-stress conditions, whereas pigs in Groups 2, 3 and 4 were aggressively handled for 25 min to produce stress. Pigs in Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 received intramuscular administration of saline (control group; CON), 0 (negative control group; NCON), 0.8 (low dose group; LOW), and 1.6 (high dose group; HIGH) mg rabbit liver Zn-MT per kg body weight, respectively. Pigs were slaughtered at 3 and 6 h post-injection. Zn-MT treatment increased (p<0.05) the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione-peroxidase (GSH-PX) while decreasing the concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver. These responses were greater (p<0.05) at 6 h than at 3 h post Zn-MT injection. Zn-MT treatment increased (p<0.05) hepatic SOD mRNA levels in a time and dose-dependent manner and decreased (p<0.05) serum glutamate-pyruvate transaminase and lactate dehydrogenase activities (indicators of tissue integrity). Zn-MT administration decreased (p<0.05) lactate concentration and increased (p<0.05) pH and water-holding capacity in the longissimus thorasis meat. Collectively, our results indicate that intramuscular administration of Zn-MT to pre-slaughter stressed pigs improved tissue anti-oxidative ability and meat quality.

Effects of Replacement of Soybean Meal by Fermented Cottonseed Meal on Growth Performance, Serum Biochemical Parameters and Immune Function of Yellow-feathered Broilers

Tang, J.W.,Sun, H.,Yao, X.H.,Wu, Y.F.,Wang, X.,Feng, J. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2012 Animal Bioscience Vol.25 No.3

The study was conducted to examine the effects of partially replacing soybean meal (SBM) by solid-state fermented cottonseed meal (FCSM) on growth performance, serum biochemical parameters and immune function of broilers. After inoculated with Bacillus subtilis BJ-1 for 48 h, the content of free gossypol in cottonseed meal was decreased from 0.82 to 0.21 g/kg. A total of 600, day-old male yellow-feathered broilers were randomly divided into four groups with three replicates of 50 chicks each. A corn-SBM based control diet was formulated and the experimental diets included 4, 8 or 12% FCSM, replacing SBM. Throughout the experiment, broilers fed 8% FCSM had higher (p<0.05) body weight gain than those fed 0, 4 and 12% FCSM. The feed intake in 8% FCSM group was superior (p<0.05) to other treatments from d 21 to 42. On d 21, the concentration of serum immunoglobin M in the 4% and 8% FCSM groups, as well as the content of complements (C3, C4) in 8% FCSM group were greater (p<0.05) than those in the SBM group. Besides, birds fed 8% FCSM had increased (p<0.05) serum immunoglobin M, immunoglobulin G and complement C4 levels on d 42 compared with bird fed control diet. No differences (p>0.05) were found between treatments regarding the serum biochemical parameters and the relative weights of immune organs. In conclusion, FCSM can be used in broiler diets at up to 12% of the total diet and an appropriate replacement of SBM with FCSM may improve growth performance and immunity in broilers.

Phospholipase C delta 1 is a novel 3p22.3 tumor suppressor involved in cytoskeleton organization, with its epigenetic silencing correlated with high-stage gastric cancer

Hu, X -T,Zhang, F -B,Fan, Y -C,Shu, X -S,Wong, A H Y,Zhou, W,Shi, Q -L,Tang, H -M,Fu, L,Guan, X -Y,Rha, S Y,Tao, Q,He, C Macmillan Publishers Limited 2009 Oncogene Vol.28 No.26

Located at the important tumor suppressor locus, 3p22, PLCD1 encodes an enzyme that mediates regulatory signaling of energy metabolism, calcium homeostasis and intracellular movements. We identified PLCD1 as a downregulated gene in aerodigestive carcinomas through expression profiling and epigenetic characterization. We found that PLCD1 was expressed in all normal adult tissues but low or silenced in 84% (16/19) gastric cancer cell lines, well correlated with its CpG island (CGI) methylation status. Methylation was further detected in 62% (61/98) gastric primary tumors, but none of normal gastric mucosa tissues. PLCD1 methylation was significantly correlated with tumor high stage. Detailed methylation analysis of 37 CpG sites at the PLCD1 CGI by bisulfite genomic sequencing confirmed its methylation. PLCD1 silencing could be reversed by pharmacological demethylation with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine, indicating a direct epigenetic silencing. Ectopic expression of PLCD1 in silenced gastric tumor cells dramatically inhibited their clonogenicity and migration, possibly through downregulating MMP7 expression and hampering the reorganization of cytoskeleton through cofilin inactivation by phosphorylation. Thus, epigenetic inactivation of PLCD1 is common and tumor-specific in gastric cancer, and PLCD1 acts as a functional tumor suppressor involved in gastric carcinogenesis.Oncogene (2009) 28, 2466–2475; doi:10.1038/onc.2009.92; published online 18 May 2009

Effects of the Chicken Sex-linked Dwarf Gene on Growth and Muscle Development

Chen, C.F.,Chen, Y.H.,Tixier-Boichard, M.,Cheng, P.Y.,Chang, C.S.,Tang, P.C.,Lee, Y.P. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2009 Animal Bioscience Vol.22 No.7

The aim of this study was to analyze the effects on growth and muscle development during the growing period of the sex-linked dwarf gene in the background of a Taiwan Country chicken strain, L2, selected for egg production. Eight crossbred males, heterozygous for the DW*DW mutation, were each backcrossed to six females of the L2 strain to produce two genotypes of BC females, either normal (DW*N+/-) or dwarf (DW*DW/-). The experiment included 251 normal and 207 dwarf pullets. The effect of the dwarf gene on body weight and shank length was highly significant from 2 weeks of age. The reduction of body weight by the dwarf gene reached 34.8% and 37.4% as compared to normal sibs at 16 and 20 weeks of age, respectively. Parameters of the growth curve were estimated: the age at inflection (TI) was higher in normal pullets (66.9 days) than in dwarf pullets (61.2 days). A significant effect of the dwarf gene on single muscle fiber cross-section area was found from 12 weeks of age onwards, whereas the dwarf gene had no effect on the total number of muscle fibers. Comparing the effect of the dwarf gene on shank length at different ages revealed an earlier effect on skeleton growth, observed from 2 weeks of age, than on muscle development, which was affected from 8 to 12 weeks of age.

Very small “window of opportunity” for generating CO oxidation-active Au_<i>n</i> on TiO₂

Tang, X.,Schneider, J.,Dollinger, A.,Luo, Y.,Wö,rz, A. S.,Judai, K.,Abbet, S.,Kim, Y. D.,Gantefö,r, G. F.,Fairbrother, D. H.,Heiz, U.,Bowen, K. H.,Proch, S. The Royal Society of Chemistry 2014 Physical chemistry chemical physics Vol.16 No.14

<P>Recent research in heterogeneous catalysis, especially on size-selected model systems under UHV conditions and also in realistic catalytic environments, has proved that it is necessary to think in terms of the exact number of atoms when it comes to catalyst design. This is of utmost importance if the amount of noble metal, gold in particular, is to be reduced for practical reactions like CO oxidation. Here it is shown that on TiO<SUB>2</SUB> only Au<SUB>6</SUB> and Au<SUB>7</SUB> clusters are active for CO oxidation which holds for the single crystal, thin films, and titania clusters deposited on HOPG. Size-selected cluster deposition and TPD methods have been employed to investigate the CO oxidation activity of Au<SUB><I>n</I></SUB>/TiO<SUB>2</SUB> systems which are compared to recent results reported by Lee <I>et al.</I> to form a consistent picture in which only two species can be regarded as “active”. The efficiency of investigated Au<SUB><I>n</I></SUB>/(TiO<SUB>2</SUB>)<SUB>93</SUB>/HOPG composite materials is attributed to carbon-assisted oxygen spillover from gold to support particles and across grain boundaries.</P> <P>Graphic Abstract</P><P>The probability of creating CO oxidation-active species on TiO<SUB>2</SUB> is very small since only Au<SUB>6</SUB> and Au<SUB>7</SUB> are catalytically active. <IMG SRC='http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images/RSCpubs.ePlatform.Service.FreeContent.ImageService.svc/ImageService/image/GA?id=c4cp00160e'> </P>

Effect of tannins and cellulase on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, blood profiles, intestinal morphology and carcass characteristics in Hu sheep

M.D. Zhao,L.F. Di,Z.Y. Tang,W. Jiang,C.Y. Liang 아세아·태평양축산학회 2019 Animal Bioscience Vol.32 No.10

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of tannins and cellulase on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood profiles, intestinal morphology, and carcass characteristics in Hu sheep. Methods: A total of 48 three-month-old meat Hu sheep (25.05±0.9 kg) were blocked based on body weight, and randomly allotted to 4 treatments with 3 replicates of 4 sheep each. The experiment lasted for 80 d, and dietary treatments were as follows: i) CON, control diet; ii) TAN, CON+0.1% tannins; iii) CEL, CON+0.1% cellulase; iv) TAN+CEL, CON+0.1% tannins and 0.1% cellulase. Results: Compared with CON, CEL, and TAN+CEL had greater (p<0.05) final body weight (FBW) and average daily gain but lower (p<0.05) feed conversion ratio, while FBW of TAN+ CEL was lower (p<0.05) than that of CEL. The apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter in TAN, CEL, and TAN+CEL groups were higher (p<0.05) than that in CON. CEL and TAN+CEL groups had greater (p<0.05) ATTD of crude fiber compared with TAN and CON, while TAN group had lower (p<0.05) ATTD of crude protein than other treatments. TAN, CEL, and TAN+CEL groups increased (p<0.05) serum globulin and alkaline phosphatase but decreased (p<0.05) albumin/globulin. Serum total protein was greatest for TAN+CEL, intermediate for TAN and CEL and least for CON (p<0.05). TAN+CEL group increased (p<0.05) dressing percentage compared with CON, while the backfat thickness of CEL was lower (p<0.05) than that of CON. The villus height of jejunum and ileum in CEL and TAN+CEL groups were greater (p<0.05) than that in CON, and the crypt depth and villus height: crypt depth of jejunum were increased (p<0.05) in TAN, CEL, and TAN+CEL groups. Conclusion: The addition of tannins and cellulase together promoted nutrient digestion, liver protein synthesis and intestinal development and thus improved growth performance and carcass characteristics.

Inbreeding and Genetic Diversity in Three Imported Swine Breeds in China Using Pedigree Data

Tang, G.Q.,Xue, J.,Lian, M.J.,Yang, R.F.,Liu, T.F.,Zeng, Z.Y.,Jiang, A.A.,Jiang, Y.Z.,Zhu, L.,Bai, L.,Wang, Z.,Li, X.W. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2013 Animal Bioscience Vol.26 No.6

The accumulation of inbreeding and the loss of genetic diversity is a potential problem in the modern swine breeds in China. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the pedigrees of Chinese Duroc (CD), Landrace (CL) and Yorkshire (CY) swine to estimate the past and current rates of inbreeding, and to identify the main causes of genetic diversity loss. Pedigree files from CD, CL and CY containing, 4529, 16,776 and 22,600 records, respectively, were analyzed. Pedigree completeness indexes of the three breeds, accounting for one generation back, were 83.72, 93.93 and 93.59%, respectively. The estimated average annual inbreeding rates for CD, CL and CY in recent three years were 0.21, 0.19 and 0.13%, respectively. The estimated average percentage of genetic diversity loss within each breed in recent three years was about 8.92, 2.19, and 3.36%, respectively. The average relative proportion of genetic diversity loss due to unequal contributions of founders in CD, CL and CY was 69.09, 57.95 and 60.57%, and due to random genetic drift was 30.91, 42.05 and 39.43%, respectively. The estimated current effective population size for CD, CL and CY was 76, 117 and 202, respectively. Therefore, CD has been found to have lost considerable genetic diversity, demanding priority for optimizing the selection and mating to control future coancestry and inbreeding. Unequal contribution of founders was a major cause of genetic diversity loss in Chinese swine breeds and random genetic drift also showed substantial impact on the loss of diversity.

100KW DC Arc Plasma of CVD System for Low Cost Large Area Diamond Film Deposition

Lu, F.X.,Zhong, G.F.,Fu, Y.L.,Wang, J.J.,Tang, W.Z.,Li, G.H.,Lo, T.L.,Zhang, Y.G.,Zang, J.M.,Pan, C.H.,Tang, C.X.,Lu, Y.P. The Korean Ceramic Society 1996 The Korean journal of ceramics Vol.2 No.4

In the present paper, a new type of DC arc plasma torch is disclosed. The principles of the new magnetic and fluid dynamic controlled large orifice long discharge tunnel plasma torch is discussed. Two series of DC Plasma Jet diamond film deposition equipment have been developed. The 20kW Jet equipped with a $\Phi$70 mm orifice torch is capable of deposition diamond films at a growth rate as high as 40$\mu\textrm{m}$/h over a substrate area of $\Phi$65 mm. The 100kW high power Jet which is newly developed based on the experience of the low power model is equipped with a $\Phi$120 mm orifice torch, and is capable of depositing diamond films over a substrate area of $\Phi$110 mm at growth rate as high as 40 $\mu\textrm{m}$/h, and can be operated at gas recycling mode, which allows 95% of the gases be recycled. It is demonstrated that the new type DC plasma torch can be easily scaled up to even higher power Jet. It is estimated that even by the 100kW Jet, the cost for tool grade diamond films can be as low as less than $4/carat.

Influence of elastic T-stress on the growth direction of two parallel cracks

Li, X.F.,Tang, B.Q.,Peng, X.L.,Huang, Y. Techno-Press 2010 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.34 No.3

This paper studies fracture initiation direction of two parallel non-coplanar cracks of equal length. Using the dislocation pile-up modelling, singular integral equations for two parallel cracks subjected to mixed-mode loading are derived and the crack-tip field including singular and non-singular terms is obtained. The kinking angle is determined by using the maximum hoop stress criterion, or the ${\sigma}_{\theta}$-criterion. Results are presented for simple uniaxial tension and biaxial loading. The biaxiality ratio has a noticeable influence on crack growth direction. For the case of biaxial tension, when neglecting the T-stress the crack branching angle is overestimated for small crack inclination angles relative to the largest applied principal stress direction, and underestimated for large crack inclination angles.