Repeated pre-training sleep restriction in adolescent rats impaired spatial performance

Sleep and Biological Rhythms - Chronic sleep deprivation (SD) is an overwhelming problem in young students. Firstly, we investigated whether different levels of pre-training SD had effects on...     

Comparative Analysis of Endogenous Hormones and Metabolite Profiles in Early-Spring Flowering Plants and Unflowered Plants Revealing the Strategy of Blossom

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Early-spring plants are a special type of plant that complete their life cycle promptly in cold, early spring. Very little effort has been made into researching...     

Genome‐wide detection of CNVs associated with beak deformity in chickens using high‐density 600K SNP arrays

Beak deformity (crossed beaks) is found in several indigenous chicken breeds including Beijing‐You studied here. Birds with deformed beaks have reduced feed intake and poor production performance. Recently, copy number variation (CNV) has been examined in many species and is recognized as a source of genetic variation, especially for disease phenotypes. In this study, to unravel the genetic mechanisms underlying beak deformity, we performed genome‐wide CNV detection using Affymetrix chicken high‐density 600K data on 48 deformed‐beak and 48 normal birds using penncnv . As a result, two and eight CNV regions (CNVRs) covering 0.32 and 2.45 Mb respectively on autosomes were identified in deformed‐beak and normal birds respectively. Further RT‐qPCR studies validated nine of the 10 CNVRs. The ratios of six CNVRs were significantly different between deformed‐beak and normal birds (P < 0.01). Within these six regions, three and 21 known genes were identified in deformed‐beak and normal birds respectively. Bioinformatics analysis showed that these genes were enriched in six GO terms and one KEGG pathway. Five candidate genes in the CNVRs were further validated using RT‐qPCR. The expression of LRIG2 (leucine rich repeats and immunoglobulin like domains 2) was lower in birds with deformed beaks (P < 0.01). Therefore, the LRIG2 gene could be considered a key factor in view of its known functions and its potential roles in beak deformity. Overall, our results will be helpful for future investigations of the genomic structural variations underlying beak deformity in chickens.     

The Neural Basis of Responsibility Attribution in Decision-Making

Social responsibility links personal behavior with societal expectations and plays a key role in affecting an agent’s emotional state following a decision. However, the neural basis of responsibility attribution remains unclear. In two previous event-related brain potential (ERP) studies we found that personal responsibility modulated outcome evaluation in gambling tasks. Here we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to identify particular brain regions that mediate responsibility attribution. In a context involving team cooperation, participants completed a task with their teammates and on each trial received feedback about team success and individual success sequentially. We found that brain activity differed between conditions involving team success vs. team failure. Further, different brain regions were associated with reinforcement of behavior by social praise vs. monetary reward. Specifically, right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) was associated with social pride whereas dorsal striatum and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were related to reinforcement of behaviors leading to personal gain. The present study provides evidence that the RTPJ is an important region for determining whether self-generated behaviors are deserving of praise in a social context.     

Effect of the recombinant vaccinia viruses that express HTLV-I envelope gene on HTLV-I infection.

The human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is etiologically linked to adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). To develop a vaccine against ATL, we constructed recombinant vaccinia viruses containing the envelope gene of HTLV-I in the vaccinia virus hemagglutinin (HA) gene, a new site where foreign genes can be inserted. A single inoculation of the recombinant virus induced antibodies to the env proteins of HTLV-I in rabbits and had a protective effect against HTLV-I infection.     

Mutagenicity of the reaction products of carbazole in the presence of nitrogen dioxide and nitrocarbazole

The mutagenicity of the photochemical reaction products of carbazole in the presence of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nitrocarbazole was investigated using a high-pressure mercury lamp (100 W). Samples extracted from the photochemical reaction products of carbazole with NO2 were more mutagenic than those of acridine and phenazine with NO2 for Salmonella typhimurium strain TA98 in the absence of S9 mix with a trend toward detoxification in the presence of the metabolic system. The mutagenicity of the photochemical reaction products of carbazole with NO2 were higher than those of the reaction products of carbazole with a mixture of NO2 and sulfur dioxide (SO2) and no irradiation. Mononitro- and dinitro-carbazole in the samples extracted from the reaction products were analyzed by mass spectrometry. It was suggested that mononitrocarbazole, which seemed to be weakly mutagenic, and dinitrocarbazole were readily formed by the reaction of carbazole with NO2, and that the other high-potency mutagens were formed by the photochemical reaction of carbazole with NO2 with irradiation by light.     

人体小卫星DNA探针的制备

根据人体小卫星DNA核心顺序,化学合成长23碱基寡核苷酸探针,筛选人体基因组文库,旨在获得能用作遗传分析探针的小卫星顺序。结果得到15个含小卫星的阳性重组子。随机取其一(C_(35.9))作探针,试做群体分析。所有个体均可检出多条杂交带。其中某些带具有多态性。在一定检测条件下,检出的DNA图谱在有限的个体内具有个体特异性。结果表明筛选文库得到的小卫星顺序可用于小卫星多态性的检测。其它小卫星探针的筛选和应用性研究正在进行。