No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Functional oligosaccharides, known as prebiotics, and ordinary dietary fiber have important roles in modulating the structure of intestinal microbiota. To investigate their effects on the intestinal microecosystem, three kinds of diets containing different prebiotics were used to feed mice for 3 weeks, as follows: GI (galacto-oligosaccharides and inulin), PF (polydextrose and insoluble dietary fiber from bran), and a GI/PF mixture (GI and PF, 1:1), 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metabolic analysis of mice feces were then conducted. Compared to the control group, the different prebiotics diets had varying effects on the structure and diversity of intestinal microbiota. GI and PF supplementation led to significant changes in intestinal microbiota, including an increase of Bacteroides and a decrease of Alloprevotella in the GI-fed, but those changes were opposite in PF fed group. Intriguing, in the GI/PF mixture-fed group, intestinal microbiota had the similar structure as the control groups, and flora diversity was upregulated. Fecal metabolic profiling showed that the diversity of intestinal microbiota was helpful in maintaining the stability of fecal metabolites. Our results showed that a single type of oligosaccharides or dietary fiber caused the reduction of bacteria species, and selectively promoted the growth of Bacteroides or Alloprevotella bacteria, resulting in an increase in diamine oxidase (DAO) and/or trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) values which was detrimental to health. However, the flora diversity was improved and the DAO values was significantly decreased when the addition of nutritionally balanced GI/PF mixture. Thus, we suggested that maintaining microbiota diversity and the abundance of dominant bacteria in the intestine is extremely important for the health, and that the addition of a combination of oligosaccharides and dietary fiber helps maintain the health of the intestinal microecosystem.

Per2 regulates other molecular and biochemical processes beyond their established role in the regulation of the mammalian circadian clock, herein we investigated the growth inhibiting potential of Per2 in human K562 leukemia cells and the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that over-expression of Per2 induced not only cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase but also an increase in apoptosis, which was confirmed by characteristic morphological changes, FCM and evident DNA fragmentation. Further experiments confirmed both up-regulation of P53 and down-regulation of CylinB1and C-myc. On the other hand, while P53 was found to be down-regulated. CylinB1 and C-myc were up-regulated. after Per2 knockdown. In leukemia mice, Per2 transfection was shown to suppress cellular proliferation and accelerate apoptosis of K562 cells. Moreover, fewer leukemia cells were found to have infiltrated into the livers and spleens of the mice from the Per2 transfected group as compared with those from the control group. In summary, Per2 displayed a significant anti-tumor effect through cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induction in K562 cells. These data further support the emerging role of the circadian clock in critical aspects of cancer development and thorough research is underway on the mechanism of Per2 in the leukemia.

Plant height is a key morphological trait of rapeseed. In this study, we measured plant height of a rapeseed population across six environments. This population contains 476 inbred lines representing the major Chinese rapeseed genepool and 44 lines from other countries. The 60K Brassica Infinium® SNP array was utilized to genotype the association panel. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed via three methods, including a robust, novel, nonparametric Anderson–Darling (A–D) test. Consequently, 68 loci were identified as significantly associated with plant height (P < 5.22 × 10−5), and more than 70% of the loci (48) overlapped the confidence intervals of reported QTLs from nine mapping populations. Moreover, 24 GWAS loci were detected with selective sweep signals, which reflected the signatures of historical semi-dwarf breeding. In the linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay range up—and downstream of 65 loci (r2 > 0.1), we found plausible candidates orthologous to the documented Arabidopsis genes involved in height regulation. One significant association found by GWAS colocalized with the established height locus BnRGA in rapeseed. Our results provide insights into the genetic basis of plant height in rapeseed and may facilitate marker-based breeding.

No abstract

No abstract