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A high accuracy method for Xenon isotope abundance measurements was developed on a Helix MC Plus static gas mass spectrometer，in order to solve the problem that the mass difference of the nine stable isotopes of Xe is large (about 9.6%) and the mass spectrometry detector is difficult to accept, for get the abundance of all the stable isotopes of Xe quickly and accurately. The gas sample containing Xenon was purified and separated before introduced into the mass spectrometer analyzing chamber firstly, which helps reducing the influence on Xenon isotopic measurement brought by other noble gases and active components. Then, a measurement method combining peak hopping and multi reception was used to achieve high precision measurement of all stable isotopes of Xe at extremely small sample amount based on the Helix MC Plus static gas mass spectrometer. The measured data were corrected by referring to the Xenon isotopic reference gas finally. Results show that, under the condition of small sample amount (approximately 1.12×10-12 mol), the relative standard deviation (RSD) of the measured 129Xe/132Xe, 130Xe/132Xe, 131Xe/132Xe, 134Xe/132Xe, 136Xe/132Xe were within 0.24% by Faraday, and 124Xe/132Xe, 126Xe/132Xe were within 0.22% and 0.39% by counting method separately. This method achieves abundance ratio analysis of trace Xe stable isotopes with good stability and high accuracy.

The study aimed to investigate the effects of feeding mulberry leaf flavonoids on the serum amino acid metabolism, serum biochemical indexes, and lactation performance of lactating buffalo. Twenty buffalo with similar lactating yield were randomly divided into two groups with ten replicates in per group and one buffalo per replicate. The control group was fed with basic diet, while the experimental group was fed with basic diet + 45 g/(head·d) mulberry leaves flavonoids. The experiment period was five weeks. The results showed that feeding mulberry leaves flavonoids significantly decreased serum low density lipoprotein (P<0.05), significantly increased the serum insulin content (P<0.05), significantly decreased the contents of methionine in serum (P<0.05), and significantly increased the milk yield, milk protein content, and milk fat content (P<0.05). The study indicates that the mulberry leaves flavonoids can improve the lactating performance of buffalo by regulating the metabolism of amino acids and lipids in serum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important legume crop that is widely grown worldwide for human consumption and livestock feed. Despite extensive studies, the population genetic structure and classification of cultivated and wild pea (Pisum sp.) remain controversial. To characterize patterns of genetic and morphological variation and investigate the classification of Pisum, we conducted comprehensive population genetic analyses for 323 accessions from cultivated and wild pea, representing three species of Pisum and utilizing 34 morphological traits and 87 polymorphic simple sequence repeat markers. First, we identified three distinct genetic groups among all samples. Group I was primarily composed of Pisum fulvum, Pisum abyssinicum, and some wild P. sativum accessions, whereas Groups II and III consisted of the two genetic groups under P. sativum that represented different geographic distributions of cultivated pea. Analyses of morphological variation revealed significant differences among the three species. Second, among pea germplasms representing eight taxa of Pisum, P. fulvum and P. abyssinicum possessed unique genetic backgrounds and morphological characteristics, corroborating their independent species status. The intraspecific subdivisions of P. sativum described by some authors were not supported in this study, with the exception of several genotypes of P. sativum subsp. elatius that clustered with P. fulvum and P. abyssinicum. Finally, we confirmed that the Chinese pea germplasm was genetically distinct and could be divided into two genetic groups, each of which included both spring‐sowing and autumn‐sowing ecotypes. These results provide a robust foundation for understanding pea domestication and the utilization of wild genetic resources of pea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect and mechanism of dihydromyricetin (DHM) on Parkinson's disease (PD)-like lesions in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats. The T2DM model was established by feeding Sprague Dawley (SD) rats with high-fat diet and intraperitoneal injection of streptozocin (STZ). The rats were intragastrically administered with DHM (125 or 250 mg/kg per day) for 24 weeks. The motor ability of the rats was measured by balance beam experiment, the changes of dopaminergic (DA) neurons and the expression of autophagy initiation related protein ULK1 in the midbrains of the rats were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the protein expression levels of α-synuclein (α-syn), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), as well as AMPK activation level, in the midbrains of the rats were detected by Western blot. The results showed that, compared with normal control, the rats with long-term T2DM exhibited motor dysfunction, increased α-syn aggregation, down-regulated TH protein expression, decreased number of DA neurons, declined activation level of AMPK, and significantly down-regulated ULK1 expression in the midbrain. DHM (250 mg/kg per day) treatment for 24 weeks significantly improved the above PD-like lesions, increased AMPK activity, and up-regulated ULK1 protein expression in T2DM rats. These results suggest that DHM may improve PD-like lesions in T2DM rats by activating AMPK/ULK1 pathway.

The objective of this study was to investigate the cardiac protective effect of low-to-moderate intensity exercise training and the role of the Wnt signaling pathway in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). SHR and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats were randomly divided into 5 groups, namely hypertensive control (SHR-S), hypertensive plus exercise training (SHR-E), normal blood pressure control (WKY-S), normal blood pressure plus exercise training (WKY-E) and SHR-E plus Wnt agonist (SHR-E-Wnt). The rats in SHR-E and WKY-E groups underwent low-to-moderate intensity swimming for 16 weeks, and the rats in SHR-E-Wnt group were injected with Wnt agonist 1 through tail vein 4 weeks before the end of swimming. The blood pressure of rats was measured every week. After exercise training, the left ventricular wall thickness and ejection function were measured by ultrasound cardiogram, myocardial structure and collagen fiber changes were observed by HE staining and Masson staining, and the expression levels of β-catenin and Dishevelled-1 (DVL-1) mRNA and protein in left ventricular myocardium were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and Western blot, respectively. The results showed that the body weight was decreased (P < 0.05), blood pressure was increased (P < 0.01), heart weight and ventricular wall thickness were increased (P < 0.01), and the left ventricular ejection function was decreased (P < 0.05) in SHR-S group compared with those in WKY-S group. In addition, the heart structure was damaged, collagen fibers were significantly increased, and the mRNA and protein expressions of β-catenin and DVL-1 in the left ventricle were significantly up-regulated in SHR-S group compared with those in WKY-S group (P < 0.01). Compared with those in SHR-S group, the body weight of SHR-E group did not change significantly (P > 0.05), but the blood pressure was decreased (P < 0.01), heart weight and ventricular wall thickness were diminished, ejection function was increased (P < 0.01), myocardial structure injury was significantly improved, collagen fibers were significantly reduced, and mRNA and protein expression levels of β-catenin and DVL-1 in the left ventricle were significantly down-regulated (P < 0.01) in SHR-E group. Importantly, exercise-induced antihypertensive and cardioprotective effects in SHR were blunted by Wnt agonist. These results suggest that low-to-moderate intensity exercise training exerts cardioprotective effects in SHR, possibly through inhibiting the Wnt signaling pathway.

Existing research has shown that there are a large amount of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in organisms. Short open reading frames (sORFs) abundantly exist in molecular sequences inaccurately annotated as ncRNAs. Several sORFs can be transcribed and translated into evolutionarily conserved micropeptides, which were ignored in previous studies due to short sequence lengths and the limitations of research techniques. To date, sORF-encoded micropeptides with various functions have been found to play important roles in regulating vital biological activities. This article reviews the functional micropeptides which have been found in recent years, introduces the new micropeptide designated as MIAC that we have discovered and describes the related technologies for mining potential micropeptides, thereby providing insights and references for new micropeptide discovery for researchers.

The development of second-generation sequencing (NGS) technology is providing numerous data which shifts the focus of cancer research from the sequencing of multi-species to the analysis and comparison of select data via high-throughput sequencing. The NGS also facilitates the diversity of available genetic data analysis methods, the constant optimization and innovation of analytical approaches for high-throughput genomics as well as the rapid development of genetic data mining and analysis models. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database is a direct result of this work. The TCGA database provides a comprehensive record of genetic data collected from a tumor patient's sample, including its DNA sequence, transcriptional information, epigenetic modification and related. This review elaborates the latest progress in both the mining algorithm and analysis methods for tumor genomics. Specially, we introduce and review the TCGA database and data analysis approaches while demonstrating its applicability using representative cases. This review may shed light on new tumor-related targets discovery for researchers by means of bid data.

Omics data in life and health sciences are of fundamental significance for scientific research and biomedical technology development. However, there is yet to be a platform for biological data management and sharing in China, making it difficult to meet the development needs of biomedical and related fields and consequently leading to severe issues in big data management, sharing and translation. To address these issues, Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG) of Chinese Academy of Sciences founded the BIG Data Center (BIGD) in 2016, which is dedicated to establish a biological big data management platform and multi-omics databases, with a particular focus on national population healthcare and important strategic biological resources. In this paper, we describe core database resources in BIGD, including GSA (Genome Sequence Archive), GWH (Genome Warehouse), GVM (Genome Variation Map), GEN (Gene Expression Nebulas), MethBank (Methylation Bank), BioCode and Science Wikis. Taken together, all these resources provide a series of services for data deposition, integration and sharing, laying solid foundations for enhancing national biological science data management and further promoting the construction of national bioinformatics center.