CpG methylated ribosomal RNA genes in relation to wing polymorphism in the rice pest Sogatella furcifera

Shi-Ke Liang,Zi-Qiang Liang,Xiao-Sui Zhou,Jia-Lin Chen,Guang-Hong Li,Fang-Hai Wang 한국응용곤충학회 2015 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.18 No.3

Sogatella furcifera is amajor rice pest that exhibits wing dimorphism. The methylation-sensitive representational difference analysis (MS-RDA) is widely used in plants and some animals to identify methylation differences in genomic DNA regions. However the method has been applied to insects very less. The objective of the current research was tomonitor differential cytosine methylations at CCGG sequences inmacropterous and brachypterous adults of female S. furcifera to determine the association between gene methylation and wing phenotypes using MS-RDA. After the second subtractive hybridization, two differentially methylated DNA fragments were obtained. These DNA fragments were then cloned into the pGEM-T vector and sequenced. One fragment fromthe positive hybridization was 464 bp, and highly similar to the 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes from some animals. Another fragment from the reverse hybridization was 453 bp, and homologous to the 28S rRNA gene of S. furcifera with a similarity rate as high as 99%. These results provide potential evidence that DNA methylation of rRNA genes may be related to wing phenotype variations in S. furcifera, and will facilitate future studies on the epigenetic mechanisms of insect wing polymorphism.

Determining Osteogenic Differentiation Efficacy of Pluripotent Stem Cells by Telomerase Activity

Siqi Zhang,Yuhua Sun,Yi Sui,Yan Li,Zuyuan Luo,Xiao Xu,Ping Zhou,Shicheng Wei 한국조직공학과 재생의학회 2018 조직공학과 재생의학 Vol.15 No.6

BACKGROUND: Bone tissue engineering based on pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) is a new approach to deal with bone defects. Protocols have been developed to generate osteoblasts from PSCs. However, the low efficiency of this process is still an important issue that needs to be resolved. Many studies have aimed to improve efficiency, but developing accurate methods to determine efficacy is also critical. Studies using pluripotency to estimate efficacy are rare. Telomerase is highly associated with pluripotency. METHODS: We have described a quantitative method to measure telomerase activity, telomeric repeat elongation assay based on quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). To investigate whether this method could be used to determine the efficiency of in vitro osteogenic differentiation based on pluripotency, we measured the pluripotency pattern of cultures through stemness gene expression, proliferation ability and telomerase activity, measured by QCM. RESULTS: We showed that the pluripotency pattern determined by QCM was similar to the patterns of proliferation ability and gene expression, which showed a slight upregulation at the late stages, within the context of the general downregulation tendency during differentiation. Additionally, a comprehensive gene expression pattern covering nearly every stage of differentiation was identified. CONCLUSION: Therefore, this assay may be powerful tools for determining the efficiency of differentiation systems based on pluripotency. In this study, we not only introduce a new method for determining efficiency based on pluripotency, but also provide more information about the characteristics of osteogenic differentiation which help facilitate future development of more efficient protocols.

Anti-metastasis Activity of Black Rice Anthocyanins Against Breast Cancer: Analyses Using an ErbB2 Positive Breast Cancer Cell Line and Tumoral Xenograft Model

Luo, Li-Ping,Han, Bin,Yu, Xiao-Ping,Chen, Xiang-Yan,Zhou, Jie,Chen, Wei,Zhu, Yan-Feng,Peng, Xiao-Li,Zou, Qiang,Li, Sui-Yan Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.15

Background: Increasing evidence from animal, epidemiological and clinical investigations suggest that dietary anthocyanins have potential to prevent chronic diseases, including cancers. It is also noteworthy that human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ErbB2) protein overexpression or ErbB2 gene amplification has been included as an indicator for metastasis and higher risk of recurrence for breast cancer. Materials and Methods: The present experiments investigated the anti-metastasis effects of black rice anthocyanins (BRACs) on ErbB2 positive breast cancer cells in vivo and in vitro. Results: Oral administration of BRACs (150 mg/kg/day) reduced transplanted tumor growth, inhibited pulmonary metastasis, and decreased lung tumor nodules in BALB/c nude mice bearing ErbB2 positive breast cancer cell MDA-MB-453 xenografts. The capacity for migration, adhesion, motility and invasion was also inhibited by BRACs in MDA-MB-453 cells in a concentration dependent manner, accompanied by decreased activity of a transfer promoting factor, urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA). Conclusions: Together, our results indicated that BRACs possess anti-metastasis potential against ErbB2 positive human breast cancer cells in vivo and in vitro through inhibition of metastasis promoting molecules.

Different genomic DNA methylation patterns between male and female adults of white-backed planthoppers Sogatella furcifera

Mei Zhang,Jia-Lin Chen,Xiao-Sui Zhou,Shi-Ke Liang,Guang-Hong Li,Fang-Hai Wang 한국응용곤충학회 2014 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.17 No.4

DNAmethylation plays a key role in gene regulation and phenotype variation in many organisms. The aimof thisstudy was to survey the frequency and variation of cytosine methylation at CCGG sequences in adult male andfemale planthoppers Sogatella furcifera, a major rice pest in Asia, and to determine the occurrence ofmethylationchanges associatedwith sexual dimorphismusingmethylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism. 1131DNAfragments including CCGG siteswere amplified using 36 pairs of selective primers: about 191methylated bandswere identified. Inmale planthoppers,we got a total of 581 bands, including 40 fully-methylated bands, 65 hemimethylatedbands and 476 none-methylated bands, so the fully-methylated ratio, hemi-methylated ratio andtotal methylated ratio were 6.88%, 11.19% and 18.07%, respectively. In the female planthopper, there were atotal of 550 bands, including 44 fully-methylated bands, 42 hemi-methylated bands and 464 none-methylatedbands. The fully-methylated ratio was 7.64% in female planthoppers, which was slightly higher than in themale planthoppers, however, the hemi-methylated ratio was lower (8.00%) in the female compared with themale planthopper. Altogether, 46 DNA bands displayed variable cytosine methylation patterns between maleand female samples: 20 of themoccurred only inmale samples and 26 only in female samples. Thus, the genomemethylation patterns are different between male and female adults. The results suggest that DNA methylationmight be related to sexual differentiation and development in S. furcifera.

Blending of Soybean Oil with Selected Vegetable Oils: Impact on Oxidative Stability and Radical Scavenging Activity

Li, Yang,Ma, Wen-Jun,Qi, Bao-Kun,Rokayya, Sami,Li, Dan,Wang, Jing,Feng, Hong-Xia,Sui, Xiao-Nan,Jiang, Lian-Zhou Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.6

Background: Soybean oil may protect against cancer of the breast and prostate. It may also exert beneficial influence in combination with other oils. Here, blends (20%, v/v) of sea buckthorn oil (SEBO), camellia oil (CAO), rice bran oil (RBO), sesame oil (SEO) and peanut oil (PEO) with soybean oil (SBO) were formulated. Materials and Methods: Oxidative stability (OS) and radical scavenging activity (RSA) of SBO and blends stored under oxidative conditions ($60^{\circ}C$) for 24 days were studied. By blending with different kinds oils, levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) decreased, while monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content increased. Progression of oxidation was followed by measuring peroxide value (PV), p-anisidine (PAV), conjugated dienes (CD) and conjugated trienes (CT). Results: Inverse relationships were noted between PV and OS at termination of storage. Levels of CD and CT in SBO, and blends, increased with increase in time. The impact of SEO as additives on SBO oxidation was the strongest followed by RBO, CAO, SEBO and PNO. Conclusions: Oxidative stability of oil blends was better than SBO, most likely as a consequence of changes in fatty acids and tocopherols' profile, and minor bioactive lipids found in selected oils. The results suggest that these oil blends could contribute as sources of important antioxidant related to the prevention of chronic diseases associated to oxidative stress, such as in cancer and coronary artery disease.