Differential protein input in the maternal diet alters the skeletal muscle transcriptome in fetal sheep

Mammalian Genome - Maternal nutrition during pregnancy is one of the major intrauterine environmental factors that influence fetal development by significantly altering the expression of genes that...     

A Prostate Cancer Model Build by a Novel SVM-ID3 Hybrid Feature Selection Method Using Both Genotyping and Phenotype Data from dbGaP

Through Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) many Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)-complex disease relations can be investigated. The output of GWAS can be high in amount and high dimensional, also relations between SNPs, phenotypes and diseases are most likely to be nonlinear. In order to handle high volume-high dimensional data and to be able to find the nonlinear relations we have utilized data mining approaches and a hybrid feature selection model of support vector machine and decision tree has been designed. The designed model is tested on prostate cancer data and for the first time combined genotype and phenotype information is used to increase the diagnostic performance. We were able to select phenotypic features such as ethnicity and body mass index, and SNPs those map to specific genes such as CRR9, TERT. The performance results of the proposed hybrid model, on prostate cancer dataset, with 90.92% of sensitivity and 0.91 of area under ROC curve, shows the potential of the approach for prediction and early detection of the prostate cancer.     

Influence of 8-Oxoguanosine on the Fine Structure of DNA Studied with Biasing-Potential Replica Exchange Simulations

Chemical modification or radiation can cause DNA damage, which plays a crucial role for mutagenesis of DNA, carcinogenesis, and aging. DNA damage can also alter the fine structure of DNA that may serve as a recognition signal for DNA repair enzymes. A new, advanced sampling replica-exchange method has been developed to specifically enhance the sampling of conformational substates in duplex DNA during molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The approach employs specific biasing potentials acting on pairs of pseudodihedral angles of the nucleic acid backbone that are added in the replica simulations to promote transitions of the most common substates of the DNA backbone. The sampled states can exchange with a reference simulation under the control of the original force field. The application to 7,8-dihydro-8oxo-guanosine, one of the most common oxidative damage in DNA indicated better convergence of sampled states during 10 ns simulations compared to 20 times longer standard MD simulations. It is well suited to study systematically the fine structure and dynamics of large nucleic acids under realistic conditions, including explicit solvent and ions. The biasing potential-replica exchange MD simulations indicated significant differences in the population of nucleic acid backbone substates in the case of 7,8-dihydro-8oxo-guanosine compared to a regular guanosine in the same sequence context. This concerns both the ratio of the B-DNA substates B_I and B_II associated with the backbone dihedral angles ε and ζ but also coupled changes in the backbone dihedral angles α and γ. Such differences may play a crucial role in the initial recognition of damaged DNA by repair enzymes.     

圈养塔里木马鹿白昼活动时间分配及行为格局的初步研究

2004年10月3日至12日,在新疆南部且末县塔特让乡塔里木马鹿人工饲养场对15只圈养塔里木马鹿的活动时间分配及种群的站立和运动、休息(静卧)、摄食和饮水、反刍等4种行为,采用目标及扫描取样方法进行了观察,并对各行为的发生率进行了统计分析．结果表明：圈养塔里木马鹿白天用大多数时间来休息和静卧,摄食集中于早晨和晚上,反刍行为出现在摄食后,通常在中午和下午的高温下,停止摄食活动,进行反刍．另外圈养塔里木马鹿对栖息地环境有明显的选择行为,其喜好程度依次为干土地、摄食区、沼泽地、水泥地、水沟．     

Phylogenetic relationships of nine mullet species (Mugilidae) in the Mediterranean Sea

Phylogenetic relationships among four genera and nine species (Mugil cephalus, Mugil soiuy, Liza ramada, Liza aurata, Liza abu, Liza saliens, Liza carinata, Chelon labrosus, Oedalechilus labeo) of the Mediterranean mullets (Mugilidae) were investigated by means of allozyme electrophoresis using a seven-enzyme system (CK*, GAPDH*, G3PDH*, IDHP*, ME*, MDH*, PGM*) comprising eleven putative loci. The highest genetic divergence was 1.299, detected between M. cephalus and L. aurata and the lowest (0.280) was found between L. carinata and L. saliens. The amount of genetic divergence between the genera Chelon and Oedalechilus did not appear to be high (0.285). In a UPGMA tree, all nine species were grouped in two main branchings. In the first branch, C. labrosus and O. labeo clustered as closest taxa and were sister group to L. ramada. The other four Liza species produced two sub-branching in this group; L. carinata branched together with L. saliens, and L. aurata branched together with L. abu. In the second branch the two species of the genus Mugil, M. cephalus and M. soiuy, clustered together and were clearly isolated from the other three genera.     

农田周围生态保留带中普通田鼠的种群生态学：种群数量动态及结构

于2003年5月~2004年11月,采用标志重捕法对栖息在生态保留带的普通田鼠种群结构和数量动态进行了跟踪研究。结果表明,两年中种群密度夏季最大分别达到410个体/hm2和641个体/hm2,春季最少分别达到166个体/hm2和153个体/hm2,种群数量从7月份开始增长,8月份种群密度减少并于11月份开始重新增长。种群中雌性个体数量比较多,雌性在种群中的居留时间较长,同时存活率比雄性高,这导致种群数量的季节变化。种群周转率比较高,在两个捕鼠期间种群中的80%个体被更新,这表明普通田鼠在生态保留带中的活动非常频繁,不断与周围的其他种群进行交流,提高了种群对环境的适应能力。种群中雌雄个体的巢区之间没有年间变化,活动巢区比较小,巢区长度2003年平均为11 m,最长为37.5 m,2004年平均为13 m,最长为52 m。Pearson相关指数表明种群数量和生态保留带年龄、覆盖率和高度之间没有相关性。     

新疆塔里木马鹿粪便激素含量季节性变化的初步研究

目的:检测雄性塔里木马鹿的睾酮,雌鹿的雌二醇、雌三醇、孕酮等粪便激素含量,并比较不同月份之间的变化。方法:利用放射免疫分析法(RIA)在且末和尉犁县马鹿场采集塔里木马鹿粪便,检测了2004年2～12月间塔里木马鹿粪便中的激素水平。结果:粪便性激素水平有明显的季节变化(P<0.05)。雄鹿粪便睾酮水平月间差异显著(P<0.05),浓度在8月有2个高峰。雌鹿粪便雌二醇在3月和6月有2个高峰;粪便孕酮水平在3月有2个高峰,在8月有1个高峰;雌三醇差异不显著,但4月的最高值也显著高于其他各时间点(P<0.05)。结论:利用动物粪便研究激素具有对保护动物完全无伤害、材料收集容易等优点,并且有助于评估动物青春期的健康状况、判断动物排卵方式、早孕检查、产前预测等,因而是目前研究野生珍稀动物性激素的一种较为理想的方法。     

新疆褐家鼠种群生命表及其在干旱区的生存能力分析

从2000年至今,曾于野外捕捉的褐家鼠3 837只,其中雌鼠2 685只,雄鼠1 152只,经鉴定划分为幼年组(Ⅰ)、亚成年组(Ⅱ)、成年Ⅰ组(Ⅲ)、成年Ⅱ组Ⅳ、老年组(Ⅴ)等5个年龄组,其年龄结构探讨种群数量动态,结果表明,种群中Ⅱ龄的平均生命期望值最高1.0357,其次为Ⅲ龄0.9488。该种群中1龄个体占优势地位,种群属于增长性种群,种群内禀增长率rm为0.2789/年,年周限增长率λ为1.3217,世代时间T为2.623年,种群经一世代的净增殖率R0为2.0782。     

Reverse Relationship Between Blood Boron Level and Body Mass Index in Humans: Does It Matter for Obesity?

The exact role of boron in humans is not known although its supplementation causes several important metabolic and inflammatory changes. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of an association between blood boron level and obesity in normal, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese subjects. A total number of 80 subjects, categorized into four groups based on their body mass index as normal, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese, were enrolled in this study. Age, sex, body mass index, and blood boron levels were recorded for each subject. Although the distribution of female and male subjects and blood boron levels were similar between groups, the mean age of normal subjects was significantly lower than the others (p?=?0.002). There was a significant relationship between age and quantitative values of body mass index for each subject (β?=?0.24; p?=?0.003). In addition, between blood boron levels and quantitative values of body mass index for each subject, a significant reverse relationship was detected (β?=??0.16; p?=?0.043). Although age seemed to be an important variable for blood boron level and body mass index, blood boron levels were shown to be lower in obese subjects in comparison to non-obese subjects.     

Length–weight relationships of freshwater fishes from the western part of Anatolia,Turkey

Length–weight relationships were calculated for nine freshwater fish species belonging to two families using 1020 specimens from 15 water sources in the western part of Anatolia, Turkey. This study is the first reference on length–parameters for these species, eight of which are endemic, and with new maximum length records for three of the species.