Genetic diversity and population structure of the amylolytic yeast Saccharomycopsis fibuligera associated with Baijiu fermentation in China

Wang Ju-Wei,Han Pei-Jie,Han Da-Yong,Zhou Sen,Li Kuan,He Peng-Yu,Zhen Pan,Yu Hui-Xin,Liang Zhen-Rong,Wang Xue-Wei,Bai Feng-Yan 한국미생물학회 2021 The journal of microbiology Vol.59 No.8

The amylolytic yeast Saccharomycopsis fibuligera is a predominant species in starters and the early fermentation stage of Chinese liquor (Baijiu). However, the genetic diversity of the species remains largely unknown. Here we sequenced the genomes of 97 S. fibuligera strains from different Chinese Baijiu companies. The genetic diversity and population structure of the strains were analyzed based on 1,133 orthologous genes and the whole genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Four main lineages were recognized. One lineage contains 60 Chinese strains which are exclusively homozygous with relatively small genome sizes (18.55–18.72 Mb) and low sequence diversity. The strains clustered in the other three lineages are heterozygous with larger genomes (21.85–23.72 Mb) and higher sequence diversity. The genomes of the homozygous strains showed nearly 100% coverage with the genome of the reference strain KPH12 and the sub-genome A of the hybrid strain KJJ81 at the above 98% sequence identity level. The genomes of the heterozygous strains showed nearly 80% coverage with both the sub-genome A and the whole genome of KJJ81, suggesting that the Chinese heterozygous strains are also hybrids with nearly 20% genomes from an unidentified source. Eighty-three genes were found to show significant copy number variation between different lineages. However, remarkable lineage specific variations in glucoamylase and α-amylase activities and growth profiles in different carbon sources and under different environmental conditions were not observed, though strains exhibiting relatively high glucoamylase activity were mainly found from the homozygous lineage.

Transiting Exoplanet Monitoring Project (TEMP). IV. Refined System Parameters, Transit Timing Variations, and Orbital Stability of the Transiting Planetary System HAT-P-25

Wang, Xian-Yu,Wang, Songhu,Hinse, Tobias C.,Li, Kai,Wang, Yong-Hao,Laughlin, Gregory,Liu, Hui-Gen,Zhang, Hui,Wu, Zhen-Yu,Zhou, Xu,Zhou, Ji-Lin,Hu, Shao-Ming,Wu, Dong-Hong,Peng, Xi-Yan,Chen, Yuan-Yuan Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2018 Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pa Vol.130 No.988

Serum Tumor Marker Levels might have Little Significance in Evaluating Neoadjuvant Treatment Response in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer

Wang, Yu-Jie,Huang, Xiao-Yan,Mo, Miao,Li, Jian-Wei,Jia, Xiao-Qing,Shao, Zhi-Min,Shen, Zhen-Zhou,Wu, Jiong,Liu, Guang-Yu Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.11

Background: To determine the potential value of serum tumor markers in predicting pCR (pathological complete response) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively monitored the pro-, mid-, and post-neoadjuvant treatment serum tumor marker concentrations in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (stage II-III) who accepted pre-surgical chemotherapy or chemotherapy in combination with targeted therapy at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center between September 2011 and January 2014 and investigated the association of serum tumor marker levels with therapeutic effect. Core needle biopsy samples were assessed using immunohistochemistry (IHC) prior to neoadjuvant treatment to determine hormone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER2), and proliferation index Ki67 values. In our study, therapeutic response was evaluated by pCR, defined as the disappearance of all invasive cancer cells from excised tissue (including primary lesion and axillary lymph nodes) after completion of chemotherapy. Analysis of variance of repeated measures and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were employed for statistical analysis of the data. Results: A total of 348 patients were recruited in our study after excluding patients with incomplete clinical information. Of these, 106 patients were observed to have acquired pCR status after treatment completion, accounting for approximately 30.5% of study individuals. In addition, 147patients were determined to be Her-2 positive, among whom the pCR rate was 45.6% (69 patients). General linear model analysis (repeated measures analysis of variance) showed that the concentration of cancer antigen (CA) 15-3 increased after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in both pCR and non-pCR groups, and that there were significant differences between the two groups (P=0.008). The areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) of pre-, mid-, and post-treatment CA15-3 concentrations demonstrated low-level predictive value (AUC=0.594, 0.644, 0.621, respectively). No significant differences in carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or CA12-5 serum levels were observed between the pCR and non-pCR groups (P=0.196 and 0.693, respectively). No efficient AUC of CEA or CA12-5 concentrations were observed to predict patient response toward neoadjuvant treatment (both less than 0.7), nor were differences between the two groups observed at different time points. We then analyzed the Her-2 positive subset of our cohort. Significant differences in CEA concentrations were identified between the pCR and non-pCR groups (P=0.039), but not in CA15-3 or CA12-5 levels (p=0.092 and 0.89, respectively). None of the ROC curves showed underlying prognostic value, as the AUCs of these three markers were less than 0.7. The ROC-AUCs for the CA12-5 concentrations of inter-and post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the estrogen receptor negative HER2 positive subgroup were 0.735 and 0.767, respectively. However, the specificity and sensitivity values were at odds with each other which meant that improving either the sensitivity or specificity would impair the efficiency of the other. Conclusions: Serum tumor markers CA15-3, CA12-5, and CEA might have little clinical significance in predicting neoadjuvant treatment response in locally advanced breast cancer.

Taxol Produced from Endophytic Fungi Induces Apoptosis in Human Breast, Cervical and Ovarian Cancer Cells

Wang, Xin,Wang, Chao,Sun, Yu-Ting,Sun, Chuan-Zhen,Zhang, Yue,Wang, Xiao-Hua,Zhao, Kai Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.1

Currently, taxol is mainly extracted from the bark of yews; however, this method can not meet its increasing demand on the market because yews grow very slowly and are a rare and endangered species belonging to first-level conservation plants. Recently, increasing efforts have been made to develop alternative means of taxol production; microbe fermentation would be a very promising method to increase the production scale of taxol. To determine the activities of the taxol extracted from endophytic fungus N. sylviforme HDFS4-26 in inhibiting the growth and causing the apoptosis of cancer cells, on comparison with the taxol extracted from the bark of yew, we used cellular morphology, cell counting kit (CCK-8) assay, staining (HO33258/PI and Giemsa), DNA agarose gel electrophoresis and flow cytometry (FCM) analyses to determine the apoptosis status of breast cancer MCF-7 cells, cervical cancer HeLa cells and ovarian cancer HO8910 cells. Our results showed that the fungal taxol inhibited the growth of MCF-7, HeLa and HO8910 cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner. IC50 values of fungal taxol for HeLa, MCF-7 and HO8910 cells were $0.1-1.0{\mu}g/ml$, $0.001-0.01{\mu}g/ml$ and $0.01-0.1{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The fungal taxol induced these tumor cells to undergo apoptosis with typical apoptotic characteristics, including morphological changes for chromatin condensation, chromatin crescent formation, nucleus fragmentation, apoptotic body formation and G2/M cell cycle arrest. The fungal taxol at the $0.01-1.0{\mu}g/ml$ had significant effects of inducing apoptosis between 24-48 h, which was the same as that of taxol extracted from yews. This study offers important information and a new resource for the production of an important anticancer drug by endofungus fermentation.

Robust Secure UAV Relay-Assisted Cognitive Communications with Resource Allocation and Cooperative Jamming

Zhen Wang,Jichang Guo,Zhiqiong Chen,Zhiqiong Chen,Lisu Yu,Yuhao Wang,Hong Rao 한국통신학회 2022 Journal of communications and networks Vol.24 No.2

This paper considers a novel scenario, where a physicallayer security issue is studied in unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)-assisted cognitive relay system. A secondary unmannedaerial vehicle (SUAV) relay delivers information from multiplesecondary Internet of things (IoT) devices to a secondary user(SU) under the spectrum sharing with primary users (PUs). Inthe processing of the information transmission of the SUAV relay,a secondary eavesdropper (SE) wiretaps the information transmittedby the UAV relay with imperfect location information. Inorder to confuse the SE, a friendly SUAV jammer is employedto transmit jamming signals to the SE. To prevent the SEwiretapping information as much as possible, we aim to maximizeaverage worst-case secrecy rate of the secondary relay networkby jointly optimizing robust trajectories and power of the SUAVrelay and jammer under the power, trajectories, informationcausality and multiple interference temperature (IT) thresholdconstraints. Thus, we formulate the original problem whichis a challenging non-convex problem. We propose an effectivealgorithm to solve the original problem and attain locally optimalsolution based on the successive convex approximation (SCA)technology and the alternate optimization method. Simulationsare offered to demonstrate that our proposed resource allocationscheme can effectively improve the security performance ofthe SUAV relay network in comparison with other benchmarkschemes.

Long Noncoding RNA Cytoskeleton Regulator RNA Suppresses Apoptosis in Hepatoma Cells by Modulating the miR-125a-5p/HS1-Associated Protein X-1 Axis to Induce Caspase-9 Inactivation

Wu Zhen-Yu,Wang Yumin,Hu Hao,Ai Xiang-Nan,Zhang Qiang,Qin Yu-Gang 거트앤리버 소화기연관학회협의회 2023 Gut and Liver Vol.17 No.6

Background/Aims: The involvement of long noncoding RNAs in the carcinogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been well documented by substantial evidence. However, whether cytoskeleton regulator RNA (CYTOR) could affect the progression of HCC remains unclear. Methods: The relative expression of CYTOR, miR-125a-5p and HS1-associated protein X-1 (HAX-1) mRNA in HCC cells were determined via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The viability of treated HCC cells was measured by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. Cell apoptosis was estimated by flow cytometry analysis, assessment of caspase-9 activity and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling staining, and Western blot of apoptosis-related proteins. The interplay between CYTOR or HAX-1 and miR-125a-5p was validated by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Results: CYTOR was upregulated and miR-125a-5p was downregulated in HCC cells. CYTOR silencing inhibited cell proliferation and promoted cell apoptosis in HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells. miR-125a-5p was sponged and negatively regulated by CYTOR, and HAX-1 was directly targeted and negatively modulated by miR-125a-5p. Overexpression of miR-125a-5p enhanced the repressive effects of CYTOR knockdown on HCC cells, and knockdown of HAX-1 enhanced the inhibitory effects of miR-125a-5p mimics on HCC cells. Conclusions: CYTOR silencing facilitates HCC cell apoptosis in vitro via the miR-125a-5p/HAX-1 axis.

SIMULTANEOUS PRODUCTION OF HIGH YIELDS OF FURFURAL AND CELLULOSE-DERIVED SUGARS FROM CORN COB UNDER EXTREMELY LOW WATER SOLID RATIOS

Qiong WANG,Wen WANG,Yu ZHANG,Noppol LEKSAWASDI,Xin Shu ZHUANG,Wei QI,Qiang YU,Zhen Hong YUAN 한국신재생에너지학회 2017 AFORE Vol.2017 No.11

Whole Cell-mediated Biocatalytic Synthesis of Helicid Cinnamylate and Its Biological Evaluation as a Novel Tyrosinase Inhibitor

Rong-ling Yang,Xi Chen,Yu-ye Song,Qian-lin Zhu,Muhammad Bilal,Yu Wang,Zheng Tong,Ting-ting Wu,Zhao-Yu Wang,Hong-zhen Luo,Xiang-jie Zhao,Ting-ting He 한국생물공학회 2022 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.27 No.3

Tyrosinase inhibitors are clinically effective for treating some dermatological disorders related to melanin hyperpigmentation. Accordingly, the discovery and development of tyrosinase inhibitors have great value in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. Here, a novel tyrosinase inhibitor, 6′-O-cinnamoyl-helicid (helicid cinnamylate) was successfully synthesized by a simple and effective biocatalytic approach with Aspergillus oryzae cells. Investigation of the effects of several key variables on helicid cinnamylate synthesis found that the reaction conversion, reaction rate and regioselectivity reached 99%, 9.40 mM/h and > 99%, respectively, at the optimal conditions with anhydrous acetone as the solvent, whole-cell concentration of 40 mg/mL, and the molar ratio of vinyl cinnamate to helicid of 10 at 45°C. The whole-cells retained 68.87% of its initial activity after reusing for seven batches, indicating a potent application potential in non-aqueous biocatalytic systems. It was worth noting that helicid cinnamylate demonstrated a more potent tyrosinase inhibitory activity with an IC50 value of 3.55 mM than helicid (IC50 = 4.48 mM) and arbutin (IC50 = 5.48 mM), which suggest that helicid cinnamylate could be developed as a more potential tyrosinase inhibitor. In conclusion, this study provides a novel whole-cell catalytic approach for the synthesis of helicid cinnamylate and insight into its application as a tyrosinase inhibitor.

Metastasis associated genomic aberrations in stage II rectal cancer

Hong Zhao,Zhi-Zhou Shi,Rui Jiang,Dong-Bing Zhao,Hai-Tao Zhou,Jian-Wei Liang,Xin-Yu Bi,Jian-Jun Zhao,Zhi-Yu Li,Jian-Guo Zhou,Zhen Huang,Ye-Fan Zhang,Jian Wang,Xin Xu,Yan Cai,Ming-Rong Wang,Yu Zhang 한국유전학회 2016 Genes & Genomics Vol.38 No.11

Genomic aberrations of rectal carcinoma, especially DNA copy number changes associated with metastasis were largely unclear. We aim to identify the metastasis associated biomarkers in stage II rectal cancer. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded primary tumor tissues of stage II rectal carcinoma were analyzed by array-based comparative genomic hybridization, and genomic aberrations were identified by Genomic Workbench and SAM software. Copy number changes and mRNA expressions were validated by Real-time PCR in an independent rectal cancer samples. The results showed that the most frequent gains in stage II rectal cancer were at 1q21.2-q23.1, 3p21.31, 11q12.2-q23.3, 12q24.11-q24.31, 12q13.11-q14.1 and losses in 18q11.2-q23, 17q21.33-q22, 13q31.1-q31.3, 21q21.1-q21.3, 8p23.3-p23.1 and 4q22.1-q23. Twenty-two amplifications and five homozygous deletions were also identified. We further found that S100A1 (1q21.3-q23.1), MCM7 (7q22.1) and JUND (19p13.11) were amplified and overexpressed in stage II rectal cancer. Interestingly, the genomic aberrations affected 14 signaling pathways including VEGF signaling pathway and fatty acid metabolism. Most importantly, loss of 13q31.1-q34 and gain of 1q44 were associated with distant metastasis. Our results indicated that these metastasis associated genomic changes may be useful to reveal the pathogenesis of rectal cancer metastasis and identify candidate biomarkers.

Effects of Celecoxib on Cycle Kinetics of Gastric Cancer Cells and Protein Expression of Cytochrome C and Caspase-9

Wang, Yu-Jie,Niu, Xiao-Ping,Yang, Li,Han, Zhen,Ma, Ying-Jie Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.4

Objective: This investigation aimed to determine effects of celecoxib on the cell cycle kinetics of the gastric cancer cell line MGC803 and the mechanisms involved by assessing expression of cytochrome C and caspase-9 at the protein level. Methods: Cell proliferation of MGC803 was determined by MTT assay after treatment with celecoxib. Apoptosis was assessed using fluorescence staining and cell cycle kinetics by flow cytometry. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of caspase-9 protein and of cytochrome C protein in cell cytosol and mitochondria. Results: Celecoxib was able to restrain proliferation and induce apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner, inducing G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, release of cytochrome C into the cytosol, and cleavage of pro-caspase-9 into its active form. Conclusion: Celecoxib can induce apoptosis in MGC803 cells through a mechanism involving cell cycle arrest, mitochondrial cytochrome C release and caspase activation.