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The fish pathogen Aeromonas hydrophila causes gastrointestinal tract infections and hemorrhagic septicemia and represents a widespread risk in aquaculture. This study aimed to determine whether compound probiotics could improve the intestinal barrier, immunity, and meat quality of common carp infected by A. hydrophila by feeding them compound probiotics. Carp were assigned to one of four groups: (1) control (no infection, no probiotics); (2) control + probiotic; (3) A. hydrophila infected; and (4) the A. hydrophila + probiotic group. At the beginning of the experiment, the carp were injected with either saline (0.86%) or A. hydrophila (4.87 × 107 CFU/mL). After 2 weeks of the feeding regime, results suggested that in A. hydrophila infected carp, dietary probiotics regulated the intestinal microflora as evidenced by a reduced abundance of Proteobacteria and increased amounts of Firmicutes and Fusobacteria in the intestine. In addition, dietary probiotics ameliorated both villus swelling and the decrease in villus height induced by A. hydrophila (P

The specific roles of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) regulatory genes in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) have not been fully elucidated. In present study, a novel risk signature was constructed by five m6A-related genes (including METTL3, METTL14, KIAA1429, ALKBH5 and YTHDF1) and was identified as an independent prognostic factor (HR = 13.192) via TCGA (185 samples) databases. The immune abundances of 22 leukocyte subtypes in each PAAD sample were exhibited via the CIBERSORT algorithm. High risk group promoted infiltration levels of Macrophages M0 and M2 cells and decreased that of B cells naive, T cells CD8 and T regulatory cells.

Ferroptosis, a new form of programmed cell death, provides a new option for anti-tumor treatment. However, the roles of ferroptosis-related (FR) genes in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) were not fully elaborated. In the present study, 185 TCGA samples and 81 ICGC samples were used as training and validation cohorts, respectively. A novel FR risk signature (ALOX5, ALOX12, PTGS2, SAT1, STEAP3 and SQLE) was constructed via the Lasso regression analysis. In TCGA cohort, the risk signature was identified as an independent prognostic factor. Decision curve analysis (DCA) indicated that FR risk score could increase the net benefit when making clinical-decision. In addition, we constructed a nomogram to predict the overall survival rate (OSR) of individual at 1,2,3 year. Meanwhile, the prognostic value was partly validated in ICGC cohort. Through immune analyses, we found that high FR risk could affect the immune abundances of five lymphocytes but not effectively affect the activities of immune-related pathways. The expressions of most FR risk genes did not correlate with that of PD-L1(CD274) and CTLA4. Further, through RT-qPCR tests, the expressions of PTGS2 and SQLE were proven to be significantly upregulated in normal pancreatic duct epithelia cell (HPDE6-C7) compared to pancreatic cancer cells (SW1990 and BxPC-3). MTT, wound-healing and transwell assays revealed that silencing PTGS2 and SQLE could inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells. Besides, western-blot assays showed that blocking PTGS2 and SQLE expressions could suppress the protein expressions of cyclin D1 and N-cadherin, but facilitate that of E-cadherin, which suggested that they were involved in the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Collectively, FR risk signature provides an important complement for PAAD prognostic analysis. High FR risk level can adversely affect anti-tumor immune process, but may not serve as a predictive marker of ICIs efficacy. PTGS2 and SQLE are proven to possess cancer-promoting abilities in PAAD.

The Sox (SRY-related HMG-box) family of transcription factors is involved in the regulation of embryonic development and determination of cell fate. Sox proteins serve as transcriptional regulators that are complexed with other proteins. For this study, we initially cloned and characterized the full-length cDNAs, DNA sequences, and 5′-flanking regions of the common carp Cyprinus carpio Sox30. The sequence analysis suggested that Ccsox30 carried a distinct HMG-box of the Sox family within Cyprinus carpio. Phylogenetic and gene structure analysis revealed that sox30 was homologous to mammalian Sox30, whereas chromosome synteny analysis demonstrated that the position of Cyprinus carpio Sox30 in the genome was different from that of other vertebrates. This might have been due to the split of the Sox30 flanking gene by several genes not yet found near the Ccsox30 in evolution, or because the genome sequencing data was not annotated. The results of Real Tim Quantitative-PCR (RT-qPCR) revealed that Sox30 expression was high in the testes, and the expression was traced in other tissues by researching the tissue distribution of C. carpio and ontogeny of Ccsox30 expression in the gonads. This expression pattern suggested that Ccsox30 may be involved in spermatogonial differentiation and spermatogenesis.

Few reports exist on QTL mapping of the important economic traits of hawthorn. We hybridized the cultivars 'Shandongdamianqiu' (female parent) and 'Xinbinruanzi' (male parent), and 130 F1 individuals and the two parents were used for RAD-seq, SNP development, and high-density linkage map construction. Three genetic maps were obtained, one for each of the parents and an integrated one. In these three maps, 17 linkage groups were constructed. The female and male parent maps contained 2657 and 4088 SNP markers, respectively, and had genetic distances of 2689.65 and 2558.41 cM, respectively, whereas the integrated map was 2470.02 cM, and contained 6,384 SNP markers. QTL mapping based on six agronomic traits, namely fruit transverse diameter, vertical diameter, single fruit weight, pericarp brittleness, pericarp puncture hardness, and average sarcocarp firmness were conducted, and 25 QTLs were detected in seven linkage groups. Explained phenotypic variation rate ranged from 17.7% to 35%. This genetic map contains the largest number of molecular markers ever obtained from hawthorn and will provide an important future reference for fine QTL mapping of economic traits and molecular assisted selection of hawthorn.

Although the toxicity of Aeromonas hydrophila infection to common carp has been characterized, the mechanisms underlying this toxicity have not been fully explored. The present study assessed the effects of A. hydrophila infection on oxidative stress, nonspecific immunity, autophagy, and apoptosis in the common carp (Cyprinus carpio). We measured the effects of 7.55 × 105 CFU/mL and 4.87 × 107 CFU/mL A. hydrophila on carp after 1, 3, 5, and 7 d of infection. GSH and SOD activity levels in the serum, liver, intestine, and gills generally increased during the early stage of infection, but significantly decreased (P