BackgroundSheep are valuable resources for the animal fibre industry. Therefore, identifying genes which regulate wool growth would offer strategies for improving the quality of fine wool. In this study, we employed Agilent sheep gene expression microarray and proteomic technology to compare the gene expression patterns of the body side (hair-rich) and groin (hairless) skins of Aohan fine wool sheep (a Chinese indigenous breed).ResultsComparing the body side to the groin skins (S/G) of Aohan fine wool sheep, the microarray study revealed that 1494 probes were differentially expressed, including 602 more highly expressed and 892 less highly expressed probes. The microarray results were verified by means of quantitative PCR. Cluster analysis could distinguish the body side skin and the groin skin. Based on the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID), 38 of the differentially expressed genes were classified into four categories, namely regulation of receptor binding, multicellular organismal process, protein binding and macromolecular complex. Proteomic study revealed that 187 protein spots showed significant (p < 0.05) differences in their respective expression levels. Among them, 46 protein entries were further identified by MALDI-TOF/MS analyses.ConclusionsMicroarray analysis revealed thousands of differentially expressed genes, many of which were possibly associated with wool growth. Several potential gene families might participate in hair growth regulation. Proteomic analysis also indentified hundreds of differentially expressed proteins.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-014-0144-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
The development of highly efficient and cost‐effective hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts is highly desirable to efficiently promote the HER process, especially under alkaline condition. Herein, a polyoxometalates‐organic‐complex‐induced carbonization method is developed to construct MoO2/Mo3P/Mo2C triple‐interface heterojunction encapsulated into nitrogen‐doped carbon with urchin‐like structure using ammonium phosphomolybdate and dopamine. Furthermore, the mass ratio of dopamine and ammonium phosphomolybdate is found critical for the successful formation of such triple‐interface heterojunction. Theoretical calculation results demonstrate that such triple‐interface heterojunctions possess thermodynamically favorable water dissociation Gibbs free energy (ΔGH2O) of ‐1.28 eV and hydrogen adsorption Gibbs free energy (ΔGH*) of ‐0.41 eV due to the synergistic effect of Mo2C and Mo3P as water dissociation site and H* adsorption/desorption sites during the HER process in comparison to the corresponding single components. Notably, the optimal heterostructures exhibit the highest HER activity with the low overpotential of 69 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 60.4 mV dec−1 as well as good long‐term stability for 125 h. Such remarkable results have been theoretically and experimentally proven to be due to the synergistic effect between the unique heterostructures and the encapsulated nitrogen‐doped carbon.
Introducing nitrogen vacancies is an effective method to improve the catalytic performance of g-C 3 N 4 -based photocatalysts, whereas understanding how nitrogen vacancies types affect the catalytic performance remains unclear. Herein, two different types of nitrogen vacancies were successfully introduced into g-C 3 N 4 by pyrolysis of melamine under argon and ammonia atmosphere with subsequent HNO 3 oxidation. The pyrolysis atmosphere is found to have a significant influence on the introduced nitrogen vacancies type, where tertiary nitrogen groups (N 3 C) and sp 2 -hybridized nitrogen atoms (N 2 C) were the preferred sites for the formation of nitrogen vacancies under ammonia and argon pyrolysis, respectively. Moreover, nitrogen vacancies from N 3 C are experimentally and theoretically demonstrated to facilitate the narrowed band gap and the improved oxygen absorption capability. As expected, the optimal catalyst exhibits high H 2 O 2 yield of 451.8 µM, which is 3.8 times higher than the pristine g-C 3 N 4 (119.0 µM) after 4 h and good stability after10 photocatalytic runs.
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