Structure and Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Pig Uncoupling Protein 2 and 3 Genes

Uncoupling proteins (UCPs) are mitochondrial membrane transporters, acting as an uncoupler in oxidative phosphorylation. In this study, we designed 11 primer sets based on the human and mouse UCP2, UCP3 sequences and successfully amplified full regions of porcine UCP2 and UCP3 by polymerase chain reactions (PCR). Comparison of the UCP2 and UCP3 genic structures revealed a highly conservative region was putatively presented, showing the second transmembrane domain may be the UCPs' cardinal function region. Altogether 23 nucleotide polymorphisms of UCP2 and UCP3 genes were discovered in Yorkshire, Wuzhishan, and Lepinghua pigs. These polymorphisms included 3 missense mutations, 16 intronic substitutions, and 4 intronic deletions. The substitution of Ala-55-Val in UCP2 is actually the most common mutation in human. We also calculated genotypic frequencies of five polymorphisms in three pig breeds.     

The mechanism of RNA oxidation involved in the development of heart failure

Heart failure (HF) has become a global public health problem due to its unclear pathogenesis. Our previous studies have found that RNA oxidation is associated with the occurrence and development of a variety of chronic diseases in the elderly, but whether RNA oxidation is related to the pathogenesis of HF remains unclear. Male Dahl salt-sensitive rats (DSSR) were divided into 8% NaCl groups and 0.3% NaCl groups. The blood pressure of DSSR, HE staining of cardiac tissue, cardiac function index of colour Doppler echocardiography and plasma N-terminal probrain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-ProBNP) were used to evaluate the model making. The levels of 8-hydroxyguanosine (8-oxoGsn) and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-oxodGsn) in myocardium and urine of DSSR were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The expression of ERK-MAPK pathway and MTH1 was detected by Western blot (WB). Rats in the 8% NaCl group developed heart failure symptoms such as increased blood pressure, myocardial hypertrophy, decreased diastolic function, and increased plasma NT-ProBNP. The content of 8-oxoGsn in urine and heart tissue also increased, which was positively correlated with the related indicators of heart failure. This process is also accompanied by the sequential activation of ERK-MAPK pathway molecules and the increase of MTH1. The mechanism of RNA oxidation and inhibition is related to the occurrence and development of HF, which may be involved through ERK-MAPK pathway.     

Quantitative Ecological Risk Analysis by Evaluating China's Eco-Efficiency and Its Determinants

Industrial production can produce large amounts of harmful by-products, causing serious pollution and ecological risk. In addition, if government regulations are subjected into the industries, huge cost risk will be faced. This article adopts a two-stage slack-based undesirable-output data envelope analysis (DEA) model to measure the eco-efficiency of China. In the first stage, we analyze the eco-efficiency of each province of China, and in the second stage, we employed a truncated bootstrap method to understand the determinants of eco-efficiency. The results indicate that whereas the eco-efficiency of the eastern region was the highest, that of the western region was the lowest. The western region's economy lagged behind that of other regions, and its environment suffered from heavy pollution. It was found that the level of industrialization did not contribute to eco-efficiency. However, promotion of the service industry, investment for the environment, and regional innovation have positive effects on eco-efficiency.     

Granulation of activated sludge in a continuous flow airlift reactor by strong drag force

Most aerobic granule cultivation has been based on the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and then the factors that affect aerobic granulations were developed in the SBR. However, little work has been done to cultivate aerobic granules in a continuous-flow bioreactor with simple structure that is realistic for engineering. This work is the first to cultivate aerobic granules in a continuous flow airlift fluidized bed reactor (CAFB) possesses a very simple structure and without settling time and starvation time controlling. The configuration of CAFB was the simplest continuous-flow aerobic granular bioreactor reported by now. The majority of granules could be formatted in the CAFB after 12 days cultivation. The effluent COD concentration maintained at 50 ± 10 mg/L for the variable COD loading rate of 3.5 g COD/L/d and 4.8 g COD/L/d, which confirmed that the CAFB performed good anti-shock abilities. CAFB performed good nitrification ability, however, little denitrification was found under the operating conditions of this study. The shear stress acting on the solid phase were hundreds of times stronger in the CAFB than in the SBR at the same aeration strength. It seems CAFB is very efficient for granulation due to the strong shear-force exertion, which is promising for continuous-flow aerobic granular bioreactor. Protein, positive to the hydrophobicity, was predominant in extracellular polymeric substances in the granules, and favored the granules formation in the CAFB combined with the polysaccharides. However, filamentous bulking always happened in 35 days operation of the CAFB, thus further study on the stability of this bioreactor is urgently necessary.     

Highly luminescent hybrid SiO2‐coated CdTe quantum dots: synthesis and properties

Novel hybrid SiO₂‐coated CdTe quantum dots (QDs) were created using CdTe QDs coated with a hybrid SiO₂ shell containing Cd²⁺ ions and a sulfur source via a sol–gel process in aqueous solution. Aqueous CdTe QDs with tunable emitting color created through a reaction between cadmium chloride and sodium hydrogen telluride was used as cores for the preparation of hybrid SiO₂‐coated CdTe QDs. In our experiments we found that the surface state of the cores and preparation conditions that affect the formation of the hybrid SiO₂ shell also greatly affect photoluminescence of the hybrid SiO₂‐coated CdTe QDs. The generation of CdS‐like clusters in the vicinity of the CdTe QDs, caused the quantum size effect of the QDs to be greatly reduced, which changes photoluminescence properties of the hybrid QDs fundamentally. Namely, the novel hybrid SiO₂ shell played an important role in generating a series of specific optical properties. In addition, the novel hybrid SiO₂ shell can be created if no CdTe QD is added. In order to gain an insight into the inter structure of the hybrid shell, we characterized the hybrid SiO₂‐coated CdTe QDs using X‐ray diffraction analysis and discuss the formation mechanism of such a hybrid structure. This work is significant because the novel hybrid SiO₂‐coated CdTe QDs with its excellent properties can be used in many applications, such as biolabeling and optoelectronic devices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MicroRNA-92a Upholds Bmp Signaling by Targeting noggin3 during Pharyngeal Cartilage Formation

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Highlights? mir92a inactivation leads to loss of pharyngeal cartilages in zebrafish embryos ? mir92a is required for chondrogenic progenitor proliferation and survival ? Bmp signaling is positively regulated by mir92a in the pharyngeal region ? nog3 mRNA is degraded by mir92a to maintain Bmp activity     

MiRNA-181b suppresses IGF-1R and functions as a tumor suppressor gene in gliomas

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded, 18- to 23-nt RNA molecules that function as regulators of gene expression. Previous studies have shown that microRNAs play important roles in human cancers, including gliomas. Here, we found that expression levels of miR-181b were decreased in gliomas, and we identified IGF-1R as a novel direct target of miR-181b. MiR-181b overexpression inhibited cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and tumorigenesis by targeting IGF-1R and its downstream signaling pathways, PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK1/2. Overexpression of IGF-1R rescued the inhibitory effects of miR-181b. In clinical specimens, IGF-1R was overexpressed, and its protein levels were inversely correlated with miR-181b expression. Taken together, our results indicate that miR-181b functions in gliomas to suppress growth by targeting the IGF-1R oncogene and that miR-181b may serve as a novel therapeutic target for gliomas.     

The impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

With a pace of about twice the observed rate of global warming, the temperature on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau (Earth's ‘third pole’) has increased by 0.2 °C per decade over the past 50 years, which results in significant permafrost thawing and glacier retreat. Our review suggested that warming enhanced net primary production and soil respiration, decreased methane (CH₄) emissions from wetlands and increased CH₄ consumption of meadows, but might increase CH₄ emissions from lakes. Warming‐induced permafrost thawing and glaciers melting would also result in substantial emission of old carbon dioxide (CO₂) and CH₄. Nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission was not stimulated by warming itself, but might be slightly enhanced by wetting. However, there are many uncertainties in such biogeochemical cycles under climate change. Human activities (e.g. grazing, land cover changes) further modified the biogeochemical cycles and amplified such uncertainties on the plateau. If the projected warming and wetting continues, the future biogeochemical cycles will be more complicated. So facing research in this field is an ongoing challenge of integrating field observations with process‐based ecosystem models to predict the impacts of future climate change and human activities at various temporal and spatial scales. To reduce the uncertainties and to improve the precision of the predictions of the impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles, efforts should focus on conducting more field observation studies, integrating data within improved models, and developing new knowledge about coupling among carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles as well as about the role of microbes in these cycles.     

The New Perspectives on Genetic Studies of Type 2 Diabetes and Thyroid Diseases

Recently, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have led to the discovery of hundreds of susceptibility loci that are associated with complex metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and hyperthyroidism. The majority of the susceptibility loci are common across different races or populations; while some of them show ethnicity-specific distribution. Though the abundant novel susceptibility loci identified by GWAS have provided insight into biology through the discovery of new genes or pathways that were previously not known, most of them are in introns and the associated variants cumulatively explain only a small fraction of total heritability. Here we reviewed the genetic studies on the metabolic disorders, mainly type 2 diabetes and hyperthyroidism, including candidate genes-based findings and more recently the GWAS discovery; we also included the clinical relevance of these novel loci and the gene-environmental interactions. Finally, we discussed the future direction about the genetic study on the exploring of the pathogenesis of the metabolic diseases.