The effect of clinical-grade retinal pigment epithelium derived from human embryonic stem cells using different transplantation strategies

Dear Editor, Many forms of sight-threatening diseases, including retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are caused by the dysfunction, degeneration and loss of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)(Strauss, 2005). RPE cell transplantation may potentially recover or halt disease progression, in which human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) could serve as an unlimited donor source for RPE differentiation, and a few clinical trials have shown the safety and effective of transplantation of hESCs-derived RPE (hESC-RPE) for AMD patients (Schwartz et al., 2012;Schwartz etal., 2015;Song etal., 2015;da Cruz et al., 2018;Kashani et al., 2018;Liu et al., 2018).     

The post-genomics era of cotton

正As one of the important industrial crops and also an excellent model organism for studying cell elongation,cell wall biosynthesis as well as polyploidy evolution,cotton has always been in the limelight of the world(Shi et al.,2006;Qin and Zhu,2011).With the publication of the allotetraploid Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense genomes this year(Li et al.,2015;Zhang et al.,2015;Liu et al.,2015),all three important cotton genomes,including the two ancestor diploid Gossypium raimondii(DD)(Wang et al.,2012;Paterson et al.,2012)and Gossypium arboreum(AA)(Li et al.,2014)have been successfully sequenced by scientists from China and from the United States of America.Since functional studies of Arabidopsis thaliana and     

Breeding cotton with superior fiber quality: identification and utilization of multiple elite loci and exotic genetic resources

正In the last decade, cotton genomics had great progress in genome assembling(Li et al., 2015; Huang et al., 2020) and agriculturally important locus identification(Du et al., 2018;Ma et al., 2018; Li et al., 2021).Upland cotton(Gossypium hirsutum) is one of the most important cash crops cultivated worldwide. The fiber quality of cotton directly determines its economic value, and therefore enhancing fiber quality is always the primary task in cotton breeding practices(Xia et al., 2019; Huang et al.,2021).     

SOCS-3 contributes to bisphenol a exposure-induced insulin resistance in hepatocytes

<正>Dear Editor,Bisphenol A (BPA), a common and widely used monomer in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin,(Healy et al., 2015; De Filippis et al., 2018) has been defined as an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) associated with the etiology of insulin resistance (IR)(Gioiosa et al., 2015;Wei et al., 2017) and metabolic disorders (Padmanabhan et al., 2010; Fang et al., 2015; Balistrieri et al., 2018). However,     

Improving the Cpf1-mediated base editing system by combining dCas9/dead sgRNA with human APOBEC3A variants

正Base editor-mediated C-to-T base conversion obviates the requirements of double-strand breaks, thereby showing promise as a tool for disease modeling and gene therapy (Gaudelli et al., 2017;Rees and Liu 2018). The most actively used base editor comprises a Cas9 nickase (nCas9) with cytidine deaminase and fused uracil DNA glycosylase inhibitor at the carboxy terminus of nCas9 to inhibit uracil N-glycosylase effects (Pearl, 2000; Kunz et al., 2009;     

Unexpected complexity of multidrug resistance in the mcr-1-harbouring Escherichia coli

正Dear Editor,The discovery that the mobile colistin resistance gene(mcr-1)is encoded by plasmids and is prevalent in food animals and human beings worldwide(Hasman et al.,2015;Liu et al.,2015)has challenged greatly our traditional idea that polymyxin(consisting of two isoforms:polymyxin B and polymyxin E(colistin))acts as an ultimate line of refuge in the clinical treatment against the severe infections by the multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens(Nation et al.,2015;Paterson and Harris,2015).To make matters     

SAA-Cas9: A tunable genome editing system with increased bio-safety and reduced off-target effects

The site-specific nature and ease of handling of clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeat(CRISPR)/Cas9 has fulfilled the decades-long goal of genome engineering,and thus has pushed the biological sciences into a new era in which site-directed manipulation of DNA is no longer a short slab(Doudna and Charpentier,2014).The incomparable power of this system also enabled unprecedented new opportunities for practical applications in agriculture,ecosystem and human health(Liu,2017).However,with the extremely rapid development and application of CRISPR system,concerns about its bio-safety have been increasing(Caplan et al.,2015;Taning et al.,2017).While multiple studies have addressed this issue,alternative options for regulating Cas9 are of great interest.As has been proved by increasing evidences,another well?known concern is the off-target effects,which could not only confound research experiments or breeding,but also cause unwanted side effects in the forthcoming therapeutic uses(Fu et aL,2013;Taning et al.,2017;Zhang et al.,2018).     

Molecular evolution of pancreatic ribonuclease gene(RNase1) in Rodentia

<正>Pancreatic ribonuclease,which is encoded by RNase1,is a digestive enzyme secreted by the pancreas of vertebrates,and has been recognized to be a classic example for molecular evolutionary studies due to the frequent occurrence of gene duplication and functional divergence in organisms(Zhang et al.,2002,2006;Yu and Zhang,2006;Yu et al.,2010;Xu et al.,2013;Liu et al.,2014).RNase1 has been extensively studied in many mammals,including     

Asthma-associated polymorphisms in 17q12-21 locus modulate methylation and gene expression of GSDMA in naive CD4~+ T cells

正The 17q12-21 locus harboring ORMDL sphingolipid biosynthesis regulator 3 (ORMDL3) and Gasdermin B (GSDMB) genes exhibits one of the most significant and replicated associations with asthma[MIM:600807](Stein et al.,2018).Several studies explored the complex interactions between SNPs,gene expression and epigenetic modifications at this locus,primarily focusing on the levels of expressed ORMDL3 and GSDMB (Stein et al.,2018).Given that DNA methylation and gene expression signals are cell-type specific(Reinius et al.,2012),isolated materials such as lymphocytes from blood and,to a lesser extent,bronchial epithelial cells from biopsies of bronchi or bronchoalveolar lavages have been used in a number of studies to investigate such interactions (Stein et al.,2018).None     

Fecal microbiota transplantation: standardization or diversification?

<正>Call for standardization of fecal microbiota transplantation(FMT)The gut microbiota plays an important role in human health and disease. Dysbiosis is often recognized in patients with diseases of the digestive and other systems(Blaser, 2019; Li et al., 2018 b; Qin et al., 2018). FMT refers to the administration of fecal material containing distal gut microbiota from a healthy person(donor) to a patient(recipient) to restore the gut microecology of the recipient(Kelly et al., 2015). Clinical guidelines have strongly recommended FMT for the     

Genomic characterizations of H4 subtype avian influenza viruses from live poultry markets in Sichuan province of China, 2014–2015

正Dear Editor,Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) have posed a serious threat to poultry production and public health. To date, more than fourteen AIV subtypes that are able to infect human beings have been documented. Also, it is suggested that new subtypes may be reported in the future, owing to the migration of wild birds and live poultry transportation (Gao, 2018).Poultry may act as a potential incubator for novel subtypes of avian influenza virus (Bi et al., 2016a; Bi et al., 2016b; Liu et al., 2014a; Su et al., 2017). Up to date, the H7N9 AIV emerged in February 2013 has caused 1,567 human cases,with a fatality rate of 39.2%(http://www.who.int/influenza/     

DPB3 and DPB4 proteins regulate Medicago flowering and leaf anthocyanin biosynthesis

<正>As important subunits of the leading-strand DNA polymerase epsilon,chromatin remodeling,and histone acetylation complexes,the H2A/H2B-like histone-fold domain-containing proteins DNA PO-LYMERASE II SUBUNIT B3 (DPB3) and DPB4 play key roles in nucleosome assembly and heterochromatin maintenance during DNA replication in yeast,Drosophila,and mammals (He et al.,2017;Bellelli et al.,2018;Yu et al.,2018;Casari et al.,2021).     

TCMSTD 1.0: a systematic analysis of the traditional Chinese medicine system toxicology database

<正>Dear Editor,The safety and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are significant concerns for users’ lives and health. Recently, the adverse effects caused by TCM and traditional nontoxic TCM have been frequently reported (Joo et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2021). As the safety of TCM continues to attract widespread attention, many researchers have been investigating the toxicity of TCM in regard to the toxic ingredients, effects, mechanisms, and detoxification strategies in TC...     

Interaction between Bms1 and Rcl1,two ribosome biogenesis factors,is evolutionally conserved in zebrafish and human

正Ribosomes are large RNA and protein complexes that function as the machinery for translation protein synthesis(Boisvert et al.,2007;Ben-Shem et al.,2011;Henras et al.,2015;Khatter et al.,2015;McCann et al.,2015).The eukaryotic ribosome is composed of two subunits,the 60S large subunit(LSU)and the 40S small subunit(SSU),which collectively comprise of four different ribosomal RNA(rRNA)species and more than 70 proteins(Ben-Shem et al.,2011;Henras et al.,2015;Khatter et al.,2015).The LSU contains     

In vivo tunable CRISPR mediates efficient somatic mutagenesis to generate tumor models

Dear Editor, CRISPR/Cas9 has revolutionized genome editing technology due to its simplicity and robustness (Mali et al., 2013). Several inducible CRISPR/Cas9 systems recently developed make spatiotemporal genome editing possible (Kon ermann et al., 2013;Balboa et al., 2015;Dow et al., 2015;Zetsche et al., 2015;Liu et al., 2016;Kleinjan et al., 2017;Maji et al.. 2017;Senturk et al., 2017;Lu et al., 2018).     

Conservation planning beyond giant pandas: the need for an innovative telecoupling framework

正Meeting human needs while sustaining ecosystems and the benefits they provide is a global challenge.A major barrier to achieve sustainable development goals is the lack of sufficient knowledge on the complex relationships between humans and nature(Loucks et al.,2001;Liu et al.,2007).Different parts of the world have never been as closely connected through all means of flows(e.g.information,labor,     

Mutations in TP53, ZNF750, and RB1 typify ocular sebaceous carcinoma

<正>Sebaceous carcinoma(SC) of the eyelid is a rare but aggressive malignancy, accounting for 3%e5% of eyelid malignancies in the United States, and up to 35% in Asian populations(Deprez and Uffer, 2009; Xu et al., 2018; Yu et al., 2018). It is frequently mistaken for benign conditions or less aggressive malignancies such as basal cell carcinoma(Muqit et al., 2013), and the effects of delay in diagnosis can be devastating to patients. Aggressive surgical resection is the primary treatment of these tumors and often involves orbital     

Resident endothelial cells generate hepatocytes through cell fusion in adult mouse liver

正Unravelling lineage plasticity and cellular contribution to hepatocytes provides valuable information for understanding sources that fuel homeostatic renewal of the liver(Miyajima et al.,2014).In the adult stage,hepatocytes are mainly self-renewed through cell division(Schaub et al.,2014;Tarlow et al.,2014;Yanger et al.,2014).Under severe injury or when hepatocyte proliferation is significantly impaired,cholangiocytes or biliary epithelial cells contribute to hepatocytes(Raven et al.,2017;Deng et al.,2018).It     

A unified deep-learning network to accurately segment insulin granules of different animal models imaged under different electron microscopy methodologies

Insulin is important for body metabolism regulation and glucose homeostasis,and its dysregulation often leads to metabolic syndrome(MS)and diabetes.Insulin is normally stored in large dense-core vesicles(LDCVs)in pancreatic beta cells,and significant reductions in the number,size,gray level and density of insulin granules confer diabetes both in mice(Xue et al.,2012)and humans(Masini et al.,2012).     

A modified high-efficiency thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR method for amplifying long unknown flanking sequences

<正>Rapid and efficient isolation of unknown flanking DNA sequences adjacent to known regions is important for molecular biology research.For this purpose,several PCR-based methods have been reported,including inverse PCR(Uchiyama and Watanabe,2006),ligation-mediated PCR(Yan et al.,2003;Ballester et al.,2005;Wang et al.,2007;Trinh et al.,2012)and randomly primed PCR(Liu and Whittier,1995;Liu et al.,1995;Antal et al."2004;Liu and Chen,2007;Reddy et al.,2008;Wang