Ginseng, which contains ginsenosides as bioactive compounds, has been regarded as an important traditional medicine for several millennia. However, the genetic background of ginseng remains poorly understood, partly because of the plant's large and complex genome composition. We report the entire genome sequence of Panax ginseng using next-generation sequencing. The 3.5-Gb nucleotide sequence contains more than 60% repeats and encodes 42 006 predicted genes. Twenty-two transcriptome datasets and mass spectrometry images of ginseng roots were adopted to precisely quantify the functional genes. Thirty-one genes were identified to be involved in the mevalonic acid pathway. Eight of these genes were annotated as 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductases, which displayed diverse structures and expression characteristics. A total of 225 UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) were identified, and these UGTs accounted for one of the largest gene families of ginseng. Tandem repeats contributed to the duplication and divergence of UGTs. Molecular modeling of UGTs in the 71st, 74th, and 94th families revealed a regiospecific conserved motif located at the N-terminus. Molecular docking predicted that this motif captures ginsenoside precursors. The ginseng genome represents a valuable resource for understanding and improving the breeding, cultivation, and synthesis biology of this key herb.

The complete chloroplast genome of Artemisia annua (Asteraceae), the primary source of artemisinin, was sequenced and analyzed. The A. annua cp genome is 150,995 bp, and harbors a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRa and IRb), of 24,850 bp each that separate large (LSC, 82,988 bp) and small (SSC, 18,267 bp) single-copy regions. Our annotation revealed that the A. annua cp genome contains 113 genes and 18 duplicated genes. The gene order in the SSC region of A. annua is inverted; this fact is consistent with the sequences of chloroplast genomes from three other Artemisia species. Fifteen (15) forward and seventeen (17) inverted repeats were detected in the genome. The existence of rich SSR loci in the genome suggests opportunities for future population genetics work on this anti-malarial medicinal plant. In A. annua cpDNA, the rps19 gene was found in the LSC region rather than the IR region, and the rps19 pseudogene was absent in the IR region. Sequence divergence analysis of five Asteraceae species indicated that the most highly divergent regions were found in the intergenic spacers, and that the differences between A. annua and A. fukudo were very slight. A phylogenetic analysis revealed a sister relationship between A. annua and A. fukudo. This study identified the unique characteristics of the A. annua cp genome. These results offer valuable information for future research on Artemisia species identification and for the selective breeding of A. annua with high pharmaceutical efficacy.

Human microRNA-9 (miR-9) has been reported to be involved in the metastasis of several malignancies including brain breast cancer. However, its role in the metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC) remains to be revealed. Here, we evaluated miR-9 expression in metastatic CRC and investigated its effects on the motility and proliferation of RKO cells. The expressions of miR-9 in 15 primary CRC specimens without distant metastasis (NM group) and 10 primary CRC specimens (M group) with distant metastasis (M group) were determined by quantitative real-time PCR. The alternations in the motility and morphology of RKO cells before and after miR-9 transfection were analyzed by migration assay and F-actin staining. The relationship between miR-9 and α-catenin was identified by Western blotting. Cell growth was examined by MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazoliumbromide) assay. Significant difference of miR-9 expression was observed in M group compared to the NM group (P < 0.001). Ectopic expression of miR-9 enhanced the motility of RKO cells as well as changed their morphological appearance, while cell growth remained unchanged. The overexpression of miR-9 could also down-regulate α-catenin expression. These data suggest that miR-9 may potentially participate in the metastatic process of CRC though facilitating cell motility.

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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 31271605 and 31471404), and the National Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China (Grant 31401274), and Science Foundation of First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University for Yong Scientists. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

A schematic for the mechanism of accelerating the assembly of intercalated discs (IDs) in cardiac myocytes regulated by gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) is presented. AuNPs with local nanoscale stiffness in the substrate activate β1-integrin signaling, which mediates the activation of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) and its downstream signal kinase by stimulating expression of the transcription factors GATA4 and MEF-2c.

BackgroundPrevious molecular genetic studies of physiology and pigmentation of sheep skin have focused primarily on a limited number of genes and proteins. To identify additional genes that may play important roles in coat color regulation, Illumina sequencing technology was used to catalog global gene expression profiles in skin of sheep with white versus black coat color.ResultsThere were 90,006 and 74,533 unigenes assembled from the reads obtained from white and black sheep skin, respectively. Genes encoding for the ribosomal proteins and keratin associated proteins were most highly expressed. A total of 2,235 known genes were differentially expressed in black versus white sheep skin, with 479 genes up-regulated and 1,756 genes down-regulated. A total of 845 novel genes were differentially expressed in black versus white sheep skin, consisting of 107 genes which were up-regulated (including 2 highly expressed genes exclusively expressed in black sheep skin) and 738 genes that were down-regulated. There was also a total of 49 known coat color genes expressed in sheep skin, from which 13 genes showed higher expression in black sheep skin. Many of these up-regulated genes, such as DCT, MATP, TYR and TYRP1, are members of the components of melanosomes and their precursor ontology category.ConclusionThe white and black sheep skin transcriptome profiles obtained provide a valuable resource for future research to understand the network of gene expression controlling skin physiology and melanogenesis in sheep.

Six new highly oxygenated polycyclic cyathane-xylosides, named striatoids A-F (1-6), were isolated from the cultures of the basidiomycete Cyathus striatus. Their structures were established by comprehensive spectroscopic analysis including 2D NMR (HMBC, HSQC, ROESY, (1)H-(1)H-COSY) and HRESIMS experiments. Compounds 2 and 3 possess an unusual 15,4'-ether ring system. The isolated compounds dose-dependently enhanced nerve growth factor (NGF)-mediated neurite outgrowth in rat pheochromocytoma (PC-12) cells.