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This study aimed to analyze element content, antioxidative response, and related gene expression in two new wheat (Tritium aestivum L.) cultivars Longchun 30 and Longchun 27 when exposed to different NaCl concentrations. Low NaCl concentration (25 mM) promoted root growth and decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) content and relative conductivity (REC) in Longchun 30. Differently, higher salinity stress (100 and 200 mM NaCl) inhibited root growth and increased MDA content and REC in both cultivars. Under salt stress, the increment of Na content in the roots and leaves and the reduction of Ca content in the roots were more remarkable in Longchun 27 than in Longchun 30. In contrast, the potassium content decreased in the roots but did not significantly change in the leaves in both cultivars under salinity. When the seedlings were exposed to salinity, the increases of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities in Longchun 27 roots were associated with high isoenzymes abundance and high TaCu/ZnSOD, TaMnSOD and TaCAT expression. Meanwhile, total peroxidase (POD) activity induced by NaCl treatment coincided with the changes of TaPOD expression and isoenzyme abundance in both cultivars. Besides, the inhibition of activities of apoplastic antioxidant enzymes, cell wall-bound POD, diamine oxidase, and polyamine oxidase was observed in salinity-stressed roots of both cultivars. Taken together, cv. Longchun 30 might be more suitable for growing in salinity environment in comparison with Longchun 27.

To find Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) strains with genetic variations of EBV latent membrane protein 1 (EBV-LMP1) from nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), the full-length DNA of LMP1 genes from 21 NPC biopsies obtained in Hunan province in southern China was amplified and sequenced. Our sequences were compared to those previously reported by the Clustal V method. Results showed that all 21 sequences displayed two amino acid changes most frequently in LMP1 of CD4+ T cell epitopes at codons 144 (F®I, 21/21) and 212 (G®S, 19/21) or (G®N, 2/21). We also show that type A EBV strain is prevalent in the cases of NPC from Hunan province with a 30-bp 18/21 deletion, and we highlight that this deletion resulted in loss of one of the CD4+ T cell-restricted epitopes. The other 3 sequences without this deletion all had a change at codon 344 (G®D). Furthermore, in the major epitope sequence of CD8+ T cells restricted by HLA-A2, all 21 sequences showed changes at codons 126 (L®F) and 129 (M®I). Our study discovered that one of the 21 sequence variations harbored a new change at codon 131 (W®C), and 5/21 specimens showed another novel change at codon 115 (G®A) in the major epitope sequence of CD8+ T cells restricted by HLA-A2. Our study suggests that these sequence variations of NPC-derived LMP1 may lead to a potential escape from host cell immune recognition, protecting latent EBV infection and causing an increase in tumorigenicity.

A simulated experiment of sheet forming based on improved contact searching algorithm is conducted with analysis of explicit finite element procedure. The efficiency of post-contact searching is enhanced with the introduction of a new contact territory definition.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of sunflower hulls (SH) to substitute guinea grass (GG), traditionally used as a fibre source in the diets of fattening rabbits, on production performance, coefficients of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of nutrients, gastrointestinal tract development and caecal fermentation. A total of 160 mixed sex Hyla commercial meat rabbits were allocated to 4 experimental groups (40 per treatment) differing in the SH level inclusion in the diet offered to rabbits from 40 to 90 d of age: 0, 30, 60 and 90 g/kg on as-fed basis: SH0, SH30, SH60 and SH90 groups, respectively. Growth performance was recorded from 47 to 90 d of age, CTTAD of nutrients from 86 to 90 d of age, and gastrointestinal tract development, caecal fermentation and carcass traits were determined at 90 d of age. Increasing substitutions of SH in the diet indicated effects on growth performance, as higher feed intake and lower feed efficiency were observed in SH90 compared with SH0 (P-linear

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of soybean hulls (SH) to substitute guinea grass (GG), traditionally used as fibre source in the diets of fattening rabbits on performance, coefficients of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of nutrients, gastrointestinal tract development and caecum fermentation. A total of 160 mixed sex Hyla commercial meat rabbits were allocated to 4 experimental groups (40 per treatment) differing in the SH level inclusion in the diet offered to rabbits from 40 to 90 d of age: 0, 50, 100 and 200 g/kg as-fed basis: SH0, SH50, SH100 and SH200 groups, respectively. Growth performance was recorded from 40 to 90 d of age, CTTAD of nutrients from 86 to 90 d of age, and gastrointestinal tract development, caecum fermentation and carcass traits were determined at 90 d of age. Average daily feed intake and the feed/gain ratio were lower in SH100 and SH200 groups than in SH0 group (P0.05). In conclusion, our results suggest that SH can substitute GG in the diets of fattening rabbits up to 200 g/kg in diet with no adverse effects on the growth performance, feed efficiency, carcass traits and meat quality.

Pollution reaches its most serious proportion in past few decades and adversely effect on animals and human health. Reduction of pollutant in the environment take place with microbial metabolism and remediation studies by microbes have proved their feasibility on clean up the contaminated environment. Thus, the present study reports the biodegradation of Micocystins (MC-LR) and antibiotics [Oxytetracycline (OTC) and Ampicillin (AMP)] by Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter ulcerans, Enterobacter sp. and Micrococcus sp. strains which were previously reported as potential crude oil degraders. A 0.5 ml of overnight starved bacterial suspensions was introduced into medium containing antibiotic (OTC, AMP) at 60 µg/ml and Microcystin-LR at 10 µg/ml respectively. Triplicate samples were incubated at 280C while shaking at 100 rpm. A 0.5 ml of aliquots was removed at 2 days interval for a period of 14 days and analysis was done by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The highest degradation of MC- LR was shown by Micrococcus sp. (97%) where as other stains; E. ulcerans (96 %), Enterobactor sp. (95 %) and B. cereus (88%) also showed comparative high degradation after 14 days of incubation. B. cereus, Enterobacter sp. and Micrococcus sp. were identified as AMP resistance bacteria and degraded AMP at 81%, 22% and 39% respectively. It was found that B. cereus was resistance to OTC and showed 56% reduction at 14 days of incubation. The results of the present study revealed that the bioremediation potential of harnessing microbes can cleanup of pollutant in the environment and use as eco friendly tool for removal of environmental pollutants. Keywords: Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter sp., Enterobacter ulcerans, Micrococcus sp., Antibiotics and Microcystin