Early Stress Causes Sex-Specific,Life-Long Changes in Behaviour,Levels of Gonadal Hormones,and Gene Expression in Chickens

Early stress can have long-lasting phenotypic effects. Previous research shows that male and female chickens differ in many behavioural aspects, and respond differently to chronic stress. The present experiment aimed to broadly characterize long-term sex differences in responses to brief events of stress experienced during the first weeks of life. Chicks from a commercial egg-laying hybrid were exposed to stress by inducing periods of social isolation during their first three weeks of life, followed by a broad behavioural, physiological and genomic characterization throughout life. Early stressed males, but not females, where more anxious in an open field-test, stayed shorter in tonic immobility and tended to have delayed sexual maturity, as shown by a tendency for lower levels of testosterone compared to controls. While early stressed females did not differ from non-stressed in fear and sexual maturation, they were more socially dominant than controls. The differential gene expression profile in hypothalamus was significantly correlated from 28 to 213 days of age in males, but not in females. In conclusion, early stress had a more pronounced long-term effect on male than on female chickens, as evidenced by behavioral, endocrine and genomic responses. This may either be attributed to inherent sex differences due to evolutionary causes, or possibly to different stress related selection pressures on the two sexes during commercial chicken breeding.     

转基因泡桐shiva-1基因遗传与表达分析

在分别获得转基因泡桐自交F-代、杂交F1代的基础上,利用PCR检测所获得的转基因后代群体。结果表明,外源基因在自交子代中分离比例为3：1;杂交子代中分离比例为1：1,符合孟德尔单基因遗传。所获得的无性繁殖子代均能够利用PCR检测到抗菌肽shiva-1基因的存在。RT-PCR证明随机挑选的转基因泡桐子代中shiva-1基因能够转录产生mRNA。     

cry1A基因在转基因玉米中的遗传与表达

通过Southern杂交、ELISA分析等方法, 研究了cry1A基因在转基因玉米中的遗传与表达.结果表明,cry1A基因在转基因玉米中呈单位点显性基因遗传.cry1A杀虫蛋白在转基因玉米不同株系中的表达量存在显著差异;在转基因玉米同一植株不同组织中的表达量也明显不同,在叶片、苞叶等绿色组织中的表达量显著高于在髓、花丝等非绿色组织中的表达量;在玉米叶片中的表达量随着发育期的推进有上升的趋势;在研究的3个转基因玉米株系中,cry1A杀虫蛋白的表达量在R2、R3、R4代之间无显著差异.     

cry1A基因在转基因玉米中的遗传与表达(英文)

通过Southern杂交、ELISA分析等方法 ,研究了cry1A基因在转基因玉米中的遗传与表达。结果表明 ,cry1A基因在转基因玉米中呈单位点显性基因遗传。cry1A杀虫蛋白在转基因玉米不同株系中的表达量存在显著差异 ;在转基因玉米同一植株不同组织中的表达量也明显不同 ,在叶片、苞叶等绿色组织中的表达量显著高于在髓、花丝等非绿色组织中的表达量 ;在玉米叶片中的表达量随着发育期的推进有上升的趋势 ;在研究的 3个转基因玉米株系中 ,cry1A杀虫蛋白的表达量在R2 、R3 、R4代之间无显著差异。     

Age-Correlated Gene Expression in Normal and Neurodegenerative Human Brain Tissues

Background

Human brain aging has received special attention in part because of the elevated risks of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer''s disease in seniors. Recent technological advances enable us to investigate whether similar mechanisms underlie aging and neurodegeneration, by quantifying the similarities and differences in their genome-wide gene expression profiles.

Principal Findings

We have developed a computational method for assessing an individual''s “physiological brain age” by comparing global mRNA expression datasets across a range of normal human brain samples. Application of this method to brains samples from select regions in two diseases – Alzheimer''s disease (AD, superior frontal gyrus), frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD, in rostral aspect of frontal cortex ∼BA10) – showed that while control cohorts exhibited no significant difference between physiological and chronological ages, FTLD and AD exhibited prematurely aged expression profiles.

Conclusions

This study establishes a quantitative scale for measuring premature aging in neurodegenerative disease cohorts, and it identifies specific physiological mechanisms common to aging and some forms of neurodegeneration. In addition, accelerated expression profiles associated with AD and FTLD suggest some common mechanisms underlying the risk of developing these diseases.     

Statistical Analysis of Multiplex Brain Gene Expression Images

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to investigate 9,000 gene expression patterns from brains of both normal mice and mice with a pharmacological model of Parkinson's disease (PD). The data set was obtained using voxelation, a method that allows high-throughput acquisition of 3D gene expression patterns through analysis of spatially registered voxels (cubes). This method produces multiple volumetric maps of gene expression analogous to the images reconstructed in biomedical imaging systems. The ANOVA model was compared to the results from singular value decomposition (SVD) by using the first 42 singular vectors of the data matrix, a number equal to the rank of the ANOVA model. The ANOVA was also compared to the results from non-parametric statistics. Lastly, images were obtained for a subset of genes that emerged from the ANOVA as significant. The results suggest that ANOVA will be a valuable framework for insights into the large number of gene expression patterns obtained from voxelation.     

Adrenalectomy Potentiates Immediate Early Gene Expression in Rat Brain

Administration of kainate or pentylenetetrazole increased c-fos, c-jun, junB, and junD mRNA levels in rat brain in a dose-dependent manner. Kainate increased these mRNA levels predominantly in the hippocampus, and pentylenetetrazole was more effective in the cortex. Adrenalectomy (3 days) was used to eliminate endogenous glucocorticoid hormones. Adrenalectomy significantly potentiated kainate-induced increases, compared with increases caused by kainate (4 mg/kg) alone, in the hippocampal mRNA levels of c-fos and junB by 6.5-fold and of junD by twofold and tended to augment c-jun mRNA. Corticosterone administration blocked the potentiated stimulation of these mRNA levels caused by adrenalectomy. Adrenalectomy also significantly increased pentylenetetrazole-induced levels of c-fos mRNA in the cortex. These results demonstrate that glucocorticoids modulate immediate early gene expression in the brain, raising the possibility that this interaction contributes to interneuronal and interindividual differences in responses to stimuli and to the effects of stress- or disease-induced changes in glucocorticoid concentrations.     

大鼠脑组织中胆囊收缩素基因表达与发育的关系

研究CCK基因在不同日龄大鼠脑中转录水平上的表达。取出生后不同日龄Wistar大鼠脑组织,提取总RNA,甲醛凝胶电泳,Northern印迹与α-32P标记CCKcDNA的探针杂交,放射自显影后,经激光扫描测定自显影图中斑点光密度,以估量CCKmRNA表达的相对水平。结果表明,刚出生的大鼠脑中CCK的mRNA含量甚低,随着鼠龄增长,浓度增高,20日龄时CCKmRNA浓度急剧升高,40日龄CCKmRNA的水平稍降低。CCK基因在转录水平的表达与个体发育有关。 Abstract：In this paper the clone was used as probe to study its expression for revealing the relationship between the level of CCK mRNA and the brain development.Total RNA from Wistar rats of various stages of development was isolated by acid guanidinium-thiocyanate phenol-chloroform extraction,followed by formaldehyde gel-electrophoresis.Northern blot,hybridization with a32P-labeled CCK cDNA probe,autoradiography and quantitation were performed by the laser density scanning.It was concluded from the results that the quantites of CCK mRNA in rat brain increased during development.From those mentioned above,it can be said that brain CCK mRNA may serve as a marker for the brain development.     

Gene Expression of Tyrosine Hydroxylase in the Developing Fetal Brain

Tyrosine hydroxylase, aromatic L-amino-acid decarboxylase, and dopamine beta-hydroxylase activities were studied in the developing fetal rat brain. A delay of 2-3 days between the detection of the tyrosine hydroxylase and the aromatic L-amino-acid decarboxylase and dopamine beta-hydroxylase activities was observed. For this reason, the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA was studied. Tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA was visualized in the whole brain from 13 days of gestation, but the largest increase of the expression was observed in the hypothalamus. These results are discussed in terms of the relative gene expressions of the three enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of catecholamines and phenolamines in nervous tissues.