The reindeer is an Arctic species that exhibits distinctive biological characteristics, for which the underlying genetic basis remains largely unknown. We compared the genomes of reindeer against those of other ruminants and nonruminant mammals to reveal the genetic basis of light arrhythmicity, high vitamin D metabolic efficiency, the antler growth trait of females, and docility. We validate that two reindeer vitamin D metabolic genes (CYP27B1 and POR) show signs of positive selection and exhibit higher catalytic activity than those of other ruminants. A mutation upstream of the reindeer CCND1 gene endows an extra functional binding motif of the androgen receptor and thereby may result in female antlers. Furthermore, a mutation (proline-1172→threonine) in reindeer PER2 results in loss of binding ability with CRY1, which may explain circadian arrhythmicity in reindeer.

For a character χ of a finite group G, the number a(χ) := |G : ker χ |/χ (1) is called the co-degree of χ . The object of this paper is to study the connection between the structure of a finite group and the co-degrees of its irreducible characters.

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Deer antlers are unique mammalian appendages in that each year they are cast and fully regenerate from permanent bony protuberances, called pedicles. In a previous study, we found that there is a difference in the degree of association between pedicle bone and its enveloping skin: tight at the distal third and loose at the proximal two thirds of a pedicle stump. The distal part has been termed the "potentiated" region, and the proximal part the "dormant" region. In the present study, pedicle stumps were artificially created in yearling sika deer by cutting off the tissue distal to either the potentiated or the dormant region. A piece of impermeable membrane was then inserted into the space between the bone and the skin of each treated pedicle stump, while the control pedicles had the same surgery without membrane insertion. The results showed that the inserted membrane blocked pedicle skin participation in the process of antler regeneration. All three potentiated bony pedicle stumps regenerated skin-less antlers; whereas, one of the three dormant bony pedicle stumps failed to regenerate any antler tissue. The other two dormant stumps eventually regenerated normal antlers; however, this only occurred after loss of the inserted membrane. No antler tissue regenerated from the dormant stumps while the inserted membrane remained in place (up to 55 days). All control pedicle stumps regenerated normal antlers. Therefore, we conclude that it is the pedicle bone, but not pedicle skin, that gives rise to regenerating antlers, and that pedicle bone can acquire the potential to regenerate an antler only when it is primed via interaction with its enveloping skin.

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Depression is highly prevalent in individuals with diabetes, and depressive symptoms are less responsive to current antidepressant therapies. Oxidative stress plays a major role both in the pathogenesis of diabetes and in major depression and anxiety disorders. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), the third gaseous mediator, is a novel signaling molecule in the brain that has both antioxidative activity and antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like effects. We hypothesized that H2S could produce antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like effects in diabetic patients through its antioxidative effect. To test this hypothesis, we generated streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. We found that H2S alleviated depressive-like behaviors of STZ-induced diabetic rats in the forced swimming and tail suspension tests and reduced their anxiety-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze test. We also found that H2S significantly reduced levels of malondialdehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal and elevated levels of superoxide dismutase and reduced glutathione in the hippocampus of STZ-induced diabetic rats. The results provide evidence for antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like effects of H2S in STZ-induced diabetic rats and suggest that the therapeutic effects may result from inhibition of hippocampal oxidative stress. These findings suggest that elevating H2S signaling is a potential target for treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders related to diabetes.

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