Hong-Quan Chen

This study profiled the rumen (RM), small intestine (SI), and large intestine (LI) of 24 samples collected from eight 6-month-old Qianqiu goats (body weight 28.40 ± 1.80 kg), with the samples equally divided into three groups. A combination of methods was used, including 16S rRNA sequencing, untargeted liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics, Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment, and weighted gene co-expression network analysis-based module detection (WGCNA) with network integration. An uncommon composition of organisms dominated the SI: the hydrogenotrophic methanogens Methanobrevibacter (SI 24.51%; RM 1.92%; LI 2.19%) and Methanosphaera (SI 0.43%; RM 0.02%; LI 0.02%), together with the acetogen Acetitomaculum (SI 1.58%; RM 0.34%; LI 0.11%), were markedly more abundant compared to the RM or LI. Correlation and pathway analyses indicated that Methanobrevibacter was positively correlated with a steroid-type lipid metabolite (r = 0.52, p < 0.05) and with bile-acid-related metabolites. Acetitomaculum was positively correlated with several metabolites: 4-Hydroxyphenyl 4-hydroxybenzoate (r = 0.79, p < 0.05), 2-Aminoethyl dihydrogen phosphate (r = 0.76, p < 0.05), 1-Myristoyl-2-stearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (r = 0.76, p < 0.05), and 1,2-Dioleoyl-sn-Glycero-3-Phosphocholine (r = 0.74, p < 0.05). Together, these data define a small-intestinal microbial–metabolite module in Qianqiu goats characterized by elevated abundances of specific methanogens and acetogens in the SI. Specific positive correlations were identified between these taxa and metabolites associated with lipids and bile acids.

China is rich in goat breeding resources. Officially recognized local goat breeds are mainly distributed in agro‐ecological regions. The population structure and matrilineal origin of native Chinese goats can be used to formulate protection and utilization strategies for these genetic resources. In this study, the genetic structure and maternal origin of native Chinese goats were investigated using mtDNA D‐loop sequences. A total of 329 goat samples from 25 Chinese indigenous goat populations and five introduced goat breeds from abroad were collected; these populations were distributed in four ecogroups designated as Southwest, South‐central, the North China Plain, and Foreign‐ecogroup. A larger average number of nucleotide differences and richer nucleotide diversity were observed in South‐central and Foreign‐ecogroup, whereas these were lower in Southwest. The 216 haplotypes divided into several haplogroups, of which HapA contained 99 haplotypes distributed in Southwest, the North China Plain, and Foreign‐ecogroup with high frequency (0.53–0.77), whereas the frequency of HapA in South‐central was <0.09. HapB was mostly found in South‐central (0.5538) and was distributed to the North China Plain (0.2667), while it was rare in Southwest (<0.08) and Foreign‐ecogroup (<0.07). According to the estimation of kinship and ancestry, HapA had five ancestors (A2, A3, A5, A10, and A12), HapB had a single maternal ancestor (A8), and HapC had two maternal ancestors (A1 and A4). This study showed that native Chinese goat breeds were mainly divided into three haplogroups (HapA, HapB, and HapC) and goat populations have expanded in the ecological regions.

Across the globe, many youths experience a problematic education-to-work transition, particularly episodes of being not in employment, education or training (NEET). Even though youth unemployment is low in East Asia in worldwide comparison, youth joblessness still represents an urgent topic of social inequality as youths are more affected than prime-aged workers (ILO, 2017). This study focuses on Taiwan, which experienced an increase in youth unemployment over the last decades (Craig et al., 2019; Huang, 2013). After long periods of economic growth and a successful transition to a service economy, Taiwan suffered from economic turmoil in the 1990s. Despite a quick recovery after the 1997 financial crisis there was an ...

Background: Runs of homozygosity (ROH) are continuous homozygous regions typically located in the DNA sequence of diploid organisms. Identifications of ROH that lead to reduced performance can provide valuable insight into the genetic architecture of complex traits. Here, we systematically investigated the population genetic structure of five Anhui indigenous pig breeds (AHIPs), and compared them to those of five Western commercial pig breeds (WECPs). Furthermore, we examined the occurrence and distribution of ROHs in the five AHIPs and estimated the inbreeding coefficients based on the ROHs (F_ROH) and homozygosity (F_HOM). Finally, we identified genomic regions with high frequencies of ROHs and annotated candidate genes contained therein. Results: The WECPs and AHIPs were clearly differentiated into two separate clades consistent with their geographical origins, as revealed by the population structure and principal component analysis. We identified 13,530 ROHs across all individuals, of which 4,555 and 8,975 ROHs were unique to AHIPs and WECPs, respectively. Most ROHs identified in our study were short (< 10 Mb) or medium (10–20 Mb) in length. WECPs had significantly higher numbers of short ROHs, and AHIPs generally had longer ROHs. F_ROH values were significantly lower in AHIPs than in WECPs, indicating that breed improvement and conservation programmes were successful in AHIPs. On average, F_ROH and F_HOM values were highly correlated (0.952–0.991) in AHIPs and WECPs. A total of 27 regions had a high frequency of ROHs and contained 17 key candidate genes associated with economically important traits in pigs. Among these, nine candidate genes (CCNT2, EGR2, MYL3, CDH13, PROX1, FLVCR1, SETD2, FGF18, and FGF20) found in WECPs were related to muscular and skeletal development, whereas eight candidate genes (CSN1S1, SULT1E1, TJP1, ZNF366, LIPC, MCEE, STAP1, and DUSP) found in AHIPs were associated with health, reproduction, and fatness traits. Conclusion: Our findings provide a useful reference for the selection and assortative mating of pig breeds, laying the groundwork for future research on the population genetic structures of AHIPs, ultimately helping protect these local varieties.

The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is caused by a new coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2)) first reported in Wuhan City, China. From there, it has been rapidly spreading to many cities inside and outside China. Nowadays, more than 110 million cases with deaths surpassing 2 million have been recorded worldwide, thus representing a major health and economic issues. Rapid development of a protective vaccine against COVID-19 is therefore of paramount importance. Here, we demonstrated that the recombinantly expressed receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein can be coupled to immunologically optimized virus-like particles derived from cucumber mosaic virus (CuMV_TT). The RBD displayed CuMV_TT bound to ACE2, the viral receptor, demonstrating proper folding of RBD. Furthermore, a highly repetitive display of the RBD on CuMV_TT resulted in a vaccine candidate that induced high levels of specific antibodies in mice, which were able to block binding of the spike protein to ACE2 and potently neutralize SARS-CoV-2 virus in vitro.

Wandong (WD) cattle has recently been identified as a new Chinese native cattle breed by the National Commission for Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources. The population size of this breed is less than 10,000. WD cattle and Dabieshan (DB) cattle are sympatric but are raised in different ecological environments, on mountains and plains, respectively, and the body sizes of these two breeds are markedly different. Blood samples were obtained from 8 adult female WD cattle and 7 adult female DB cattle (24 months old). The total RNA was extracted from leukocyte cells, and sequencing experiments were conducted on the Illumina HiSeq^TM 4000 platform. After the removal of one outlier sample from the WD cattle breed as determined by principal component analysis (PCA), phylogenetic and population structure analyses indicated that WD and DB cattle formed a distinct Central China cattle group and showed evidence of hybridization between Bos. taurus and Bos. indicus. The immune-regulator CD48 (P = 1.3E-6) was associated with breed-specific traits according to loss-of-function variant enrichment analysis. In addition, 113 differentially expressed genes were identified between the two breeds, many of which are associated with the regulation of body growth, which is the major difference between the two breeds. This study showed that WD cattle belong to the group of hybrids between Bos. Taurus and Bos. indicus, and one novel gene associated with breed traits and multiple differentially expressed genes between these two closely related breeds was identified. The results provide insights into the genetic mechanisms that underlie economically important traits, such as body size, in cattle.

Chinese and imported pig breeds differ in fat production potential, which is associated with the polymorphisms in the 5′ proximal regulating region (5′PRR) of thyroid hormone responsive gene (THRSP). In three Chinese breeds (Dingyuan, CDY; Wannanhua, CWH; and Jixi, CJX) and one introduced breed (Yorkshire, YKS), three variant sites were located at T/C-400, A/G-376, and G/A-98 in the 5′PRR. Chinese pig breeds had higher C-400 allele frequencies than YKS. The frequencies of A-376 in CDY and G-376 in CWH were about 0.8. G-98 allele frequencies in CWH and YKS were 0.8617 and 0.8149, respectively. TGG was the dominant haplotype in YKS, CGG in CWH and CJX, and CAA in CDY. According to haplotype frequency, four breeds were clustered into three types, which was consistent with the geographical distribution of the breeds. In CDY, the average backfat thickness (BFT) was the highest with the CC-400 genotype, followed by CT-400 and TT-400 genotypes. In YKS, the pigs with CC-400 or CT-400 genotypes had higher BFT and average daily weight gain, whereas those with CC-400 or TT-400 genotypes had larger lion-eye area. No significant difference was observed in carcass traits among different genotypes at the A/G-376 and G/A-98 loci. The mRNA abundance of THRSP expression for the CCAGAG genotype was significantly higher than that for CTAGAG or TTAGAG genotype. These results indicated that the polymorphisms and genotype distribution of THRSP were closely related to the potential for fat production in pig breeds, which were the result of adaptation to artificial selection and natural selection.

Metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) is a major cause of death associated with nonmelanoma skin cancer. The involvement of homeobox B7 ( HOXB7) in cancers has been reported. Thus, the current study intends to explore the effect of HOXB7 on CSCC and its relationship with the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Initially, microarray-based gene expression profiling of CSCC was performed, and HOXB7 was identified as an upregulated gene based on the microarray data of GSE66359 . Following this, the experimental results indicated that HOXB7 and β-catenin formed a composite, demonstrating that endogenous HOXB7 binds to β-catenin. Subsequently, CSCC cells were treated with siRNA against HOXB7 or an inhibitor of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to analyze any underlying regulatory mechanism of HOXB7 on the CSCC cells. Tumor growth involving xenografts in nude mice was also observed so as to explore whether or not HOXB7 could regulate subcutaneous tumor growth through in vivo culturing. To investigate the potential effects of HOXB7 on the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, we determined the expression of HOXB7 and downstream genes of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Notably, siRNA-mediated knockdown of HOXB7 inhibited the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, thereby impeding the progression of cell viability, migration, and invasion as well as of the tumor growth, although contrarily facilitating cell apoptosis. Taken together, silencing of the HOXB7 has the mechanism of inactivating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, thereby accelerating cell apoptosis and suppressing cell migration and invasion in CSCC, which could provide a candidate target for the CSCC treatment.

Pleiotrophin (PTN) is a secreted cytokine that is expressed in various cancer cell lines and human tumor such as colon cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer and melanoma. It plays significant roles in angiogenesis, metastasis, differentiation and cell growth. The expression of PTN in the adult is limited to the hippocampus in an activity-dependent manner, making it a very attractive target for cancer therapy. RNA interference (RNAi) offers great potential as a new powerful therapeutic strategy based on its highly specific and efficient silencing of a target gene. However, efficient delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) in vivo remains a significant hurdle for its successful therapeutic application. In this study, we first identified, on a cell-based experiment, applying a 1:1 mixture of two PTN specific siRNA engenders a higher silencing efficiency on both mRNA and protein level than using any of them discretely at the same dose. As a consequence, slower melanoma cells growth was also observed for using two specific siRNA combinatorially. To establish a robust way for siRNA delivery in vivo and further investigate how silence of PTN affects tumor growth, we tested three different methods to deliver siRNA in vivo: first non-targeted in-vivo delivery of siRNA via jetPEI; second lung targeted delivery of siRNA via microbubble coated jetPEI; third tumor cell targeted delivery of siRNA via transferrin-polyethylenimine (Tf-PEI). As a result, we found that all three in-vivo siRNAs delivery methods led to an evident inhibition of melanoma growth in non-immune deficiency C57BL/6 mice without a measureable change of ALT and AST activities. Both targeted delivery methods showed more significant curative effect than jetPEI. The lung targeted delivery by microbubble coated jetPEI revealed a comparable therapeutic effect with Tf-PEI, indicating its potential application for target delivery of siRNA in vivo.