Structural characterization and applications of ITS2 from rice leaffolders Cnaphalocrocis medinalis and Marasmia patnalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Yajun Yang,ZhihongWu,Xu-Song Zheng,Zhong-Xian Lu,Hong-Xing Xu 한국응용곤충학회 2017 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.20 No.2

Cnaphalocrocis medinalis and Marasmia patnalis are important rice insect pests in Asia and have similarmorphologic features and same feeding patterns. Understanding the molecular difference of the two leaffolders is helpful to their identification and clarification of their phylogenetic class in the Pyraloidea. In this study, we determined and analyzed the nucleotide sequences of nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) in the two rice leaffolders from 9 populations (six C. medinalis populations collected from China, Philippine, Thailand, and Vietnam, and threeM. patnalis populations from Philippine, Thailand, and Vietnam) and compared interspecies variation of IST2 among different geographic populations and intraspecies variation of ITS2 from Pyraloidea. Phylogenetic trees were constructed on the two leaffolders and other Pyraloidea species using Maximum Parsimony method. Results showed that the ITS2 sequences differed in the two leaffolders. Compared to C. medinalis, ITS2 ofM. patnalis had small deletion at the sites of 41, 72, 81, 304 and an insertion at the site of 337. Interspecies variation results showed that three C. medinalis populations fromSoutheast Asia (VN, PH, and TH) arewith small divergence compared to NJ andHZ, and small divergencewas observed among threeM. patnalis populations (VN, PH, and TH). Intraspecies variation results showed that two leaffolderswere with close relationship compared to the other Pyraloidea. Phylogenetic trees showed that two leaffolderswere grouped togetherwithMaruca vitrata. These results indicated that the ITS2 sequences differed in the two leaffolders could potentially be used in the distinguishing of the two rice leaffolders and the determination on the phylogeny of species.

Inhibition of MicroRNA-92a Improved Erectile Dysfunction in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats via Suppressing Oxidative Stress and Endothelial Dysfunction

Tang Zhe,Song Jingyu,Yu Zhe,Cui Kai,Ruan Yajun,Liu Yang,Wang Tao,Wang Shaogang,Liu Jihong,Yang Jun 대한남성과학회 2023 The World Journal of Men's Health Vol.41 No.1

Purpose: To determine whether microRNA could be a therapy target of erectile dysfunction (ED) and the underlying mecha-nisms. Materials and Methods: Eight-week-old fasting male SD rats were intraperitoneally injected with streptozotocin to construct diabetic rat models. Diabetic ED rats were treated with miRNA-92a inhibitor. The cavernous nerves were electrically stimu-lated to measure the intracavernous pressure and mean arterial pressure of rats in each group. After the detection, the penile cavernous tissues are properly stored for subsequent experiments. Rat aortic endothelial cells were used in in vitro studies. Results: The expression of miR-92a was significantly increased in the corpus cavernosum of Streptozocin (STZ)-induced di- abetic rats and injection of miR-92a antagomir into the corpus cavernosum of diabetic rats significantly increased eNOS/NO/ cGMP signaling pathway activities, cavernous endothelial cell proliferation, endothelial cell-cell junction protein expression and decreased the levels of oxidative stress. These changes restored erectile function in STZ-induced diabetic rats. Moreover, in vitro study demonstrated that the miR-92a expression increased significantly in endothelial cells treated with high glucose, inhibiting AMPK/eNOS and AMPK/Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathways in rat aortic endothelial cells via targeting Prkaa2, causing endothelial dysfunction and overactive oxidative stress, miR-92a inhibitor can improve the above parameters. Conclusions: miRNA-92a inhibitor could exert an inhibition role on oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction to improve diabetic ED effectively.

Evaluation and validation of reference genes for SYBR Green qRT-PCR normalization in Sesamia inferens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Yanhui Lu,Xu-Song Zheng,Qi Liang,Hong-Xing Xu,Yajun Yang,Junce Tian,Xiaochan He,Zhong-Xian Lu 한국응용곤충학회 2015 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.18 No.4

The pink stemborer, Sesamia inferens (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), has gradually become amajor threat to rice production in Asian rice growth area. Using reverse-transcription quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to investigate gene expression of S. inferens under different conditions is a popular technique. However, numerous studies demonstrate that the experimental conditions affect the stability of reference genes. Thus, it is necessary to normalize qRT-PCR data under a specific condition using a stable reference gene as an internal control. In the present study, five algorithms (Delta Ctmethod, Bestkeeper, geNorm,Normfinder, and RefFinder) and seven candidate reference genes were evaluated to find out the most suitable reference genes under different biotic and abiotic conditions including different tissues and developmental stages, exposure to insecticides, different rice varieties, and different diets. Our results showed that the more stable series of reference genes were as follows: GAPDH, RPL10, and RPS3 for different tissues;GAPDH and RPS3 for developmental stages; RPS3 and EF1 for larval insecticide exposure; RPS3 and RPL10 for larvae reared on different rice varieties; RPS3 and ACTB for larvae fed on different diets. Hence, a combination of the best sets of reference genes for normalization of expression analysis will increase the accuracy and reliability of qRT-PCR data in S. inferens. In addition, these results establish the basis for selection of reference genes in other lepidopterous insect species.

Long non-coding RNA RP11-6O2.4 indicates poor prognosis and suppresses cell cycle progression through the p38-MAPK signaling pathway in gastric cancer

Yang Feng,Zhiming Fu,Yajun Luo,Wang Tan,Zilin Liu,Pengcheng Ye,Fei Lu,Wanping Xiang,Linghan Tang,Lin Yao,Mengyun Song,Qingmei Huang,Yilun Liu,Jiangwei Xiao 대한독성 유전단백체 학회 2019 Molecular & cellular toxicology Vol.15 No.3

Backgrounds: The role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) in gastric cancer (GC) has been highlighted in studies conducted over the past decade. However, the potential clinical value and the mechanisms of action of RP11-6O2.4 in GC have not been thoroughly elucidated to date. The specific aim of the present study was to assess RP11-6O2.4 and to explore its role in human GC. Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was performed to analyze the expression levels of RP11-6O2.4 in GC tissues, paired adjacent noncancerous tissues (ANTs) and GC cell lines. In addition, the correlation between RP11-6O2.4 expression and the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with GC was statistically analyzed. The effects of RP11- 6O2.4 on the GC cell cycle transformation through the p38-MAPK signaling pathway were explored by flow cytometry, qPCR and Western blot analysis after treatment with SB203580, a p38MAPK specific inhibitor, in vitro. Results: The expression levels of RP11-6O2.4 in GC tissues were significantly lower than the paired ANTs (P<0.05). In addition, RP11-6O2.4 expression was significantly lower in cases with older age, longer maximum tumor diameter, higher ASA grade and deeper invasive depth (P<0.05). RP11-6O2.4 expression was significantly higher in cases with well/middle differentiation than poor/no differentiation; higher in cases without lymph node metastasis than in lymph node metastasis; and higher in cases in stage Ⅰ/Ⅱ than in stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ. An in vitro assay showed that RP11-6O2.4 induced G0/ G1 phase cell cycle arrest, likely by regulating the p38- MAPK signaling pathway. Conclusion: The above mentioned data suggested that RP11-6O2.4 was a tumor-suppressor gene in GC. RP11- 6O2.4 might play an important role in the cell cycle transformation by regulating the p38-MAPK signaling pathway, thereby representing a specific biomarker and a potential molecular target for the treatment of GC.

Secured Green Communication Scheme for Interference Alignment Based Networks

Zhibin Xie,Xinquan Geng,Yunfei Chen,Kening Song,Benjamin Panful,Yajun Wang,Yinjie Su,Zhenkai Zhang,Ying Hu 한국통신학회 2020 Journal of communications and networks Vol.22 No.1

In this paper, a new security and green communicationscheme is proposed to the interference-alignment (IA) based networks. To achieve a secured communication, full-duplex receiversare utilized to transmit artificial noise (AN). Both the signals andthe ANs are used to harvest energy to realize green communication. For these reasons, the feasible conditions of this scheme areanalyzed first. Secondly, the average transmission rate, the secrecyperformance and the harvested energy are investigated. Thirdly,an optimization scheme of simultaneous wireless information andpower transfer (SWIPT) is given to optimize the information transmissionand the energy harvesting efficiency. Meanwhile, an improvedIA iteration algorithm is designed to eliminate both the ANand the interference. Furthermore, relay cooperation is consideredand its system performance is analyzed. The simulations show thatthe target average transmission rate is not affected by AN, whilethe secrecy performance can be greatly improved. The energy harvestingefficiency is also better than the traditional schemes. Asexpected, the average transmission rate further is improved withthe relay cooperation.

Soft sweep development of resistance in Escherichia coli under fluoroquinolone stress

Xianxing Xie,Ruichen Lv,Chao Yang,Yajun Song,Yanfeng Yan,Yujun Cui,Ruifu Yang 한국미생물학회 2019 The journal of microbiology Vol.57 No.12

We employed a stepwise selection model for investigating the dynamics of antibiotic-resistant variants in Escherichia coli K-12 treated with increasing concentrations of ciprofloxacin (CIP). Firstly, we used Sanger sequencing to screen the variations in the fluoquinolone target genes, then, employed Illumina NGS sequencing for amplicons targeted regions with variations. The results demonstrated that variations G81C in gyrA and K276N and K277L in parC are standing resistance variations (SRVs), while S83A and S83L in gyrA and G78C in parC were emerging resistance variations (ERVs). The variants containing SRVs and/or ERVs were selected successively based on their sensitivities to CIP. Variant strain 1, containing substitution G81C in gyrA, was immediately selected following ciprofloxacin exposure, with obvious increases in the parC SRV, and parC and gyrA ERV allele frequencies. Variant strain 2, containing the SRVs, then dominated the population following a 20× increase in ciprofloxacin concentration, with other associated allele frequencies also elevated. Variant strains 3 and 4, containing ERVs in gyrA and parC, respectively, were then selected at 40× and 160× antibiotic concentrations. Two variants, strains 5 and 6, generated in the selection procedure, were lost because of higher fitness costs or a lower level of resistance compared with variants 3 and 4. For the second induction, all variations/indels were already present as SRVs and selected out step by step at different passages. Whatever the first induction or second induction, our results confirmed the soft selective sweep hypothesis and provided critical information for guiding clinical treatment of pathogens containing SRVs.

Effects of SRBSDV-infected rice plants on the fitness of vector and non-vector rice planthoppers

Hong-Xing Xu,Hong-Xing Xu,Xu-Song Zheng,Yajun Yang,Jue-Feng Zhang Zhang,Zhong-Xian Lu 한국응용곤충학회 2016 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.19 No.3

Southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV) is a new member of the genus Fijivirus and transmitted by whitebacked planthopper (WBPH), Sogatella furcifera (Horváth). The rice area affected by SRBSDV and the subsequent damages are increasing rapidly. In current study, we evaluated the effects of SRBSDV-infected plants on the ecological fitness and the tolerance to adverse environmental factors of vector WBPH and non-vector brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stål). Our study revealed that the fitness of WBPH and BPH were both influenced by feeding on SRBSDV-infected rice. Fecundity ofWBPH feeding on the SRBSDV-infected rice plants were higher than those on healthy plants, nymphal duration of male WBPH prolonged markedly by 0.77 d (P b 0.05), while the weight of brachypterous female adults significantly decreased (P b 0.05), and the average survival time shortened both at 26 °C and 31 °C, respectively. Median lethal time of WBPH on SRBSDV-infected and healthy rice plants were 80 h and 112 h at 26 °C, 64 h and 88 h at 31 °C, respectively. As for non-vector BPH, nymph survival rate decreased significantly by 11.22% (P b 0.05) and the longevity of female adults also shortened (P b 0.05), while hatchability of BPH eggs increased (P b 0.05). Survival time of BPH feeding on healthy rice at 26 °Cwas significant longer than those feeding on healthy and infected rice at 31 °C. The above results imply that the vectorWBPH suffers much stronger effects than non-vector BPH fromfeeding on SRBSDVinfected rice plants.