The adventitious presence of transgenic crops in wild plant populations is of ecological and regulatory concern. In this context, their effects on non-target, below-ground organisms are not well understood. Here, we introduced, at various frequencies, Bt-transgenic oilseed rape (OSR, Brassica napus) into wild mustard (Brassica juncea) populations in the presence and absence of the target herbivore (Plutella xylostella). The impacts on soil nematode and microbial communities were assessed in this system. There were no significant changes on the number of nematode genera and abundance in proportions of OSR with mustard. Nonetheless, the Shannon-Wiener and Pielou evenness index was lowest in plant stands containing 50% of Bt-transgenic OSR. Among treatments, there was no significant variation for culturable soil microbes. There was a positive association between foliar herbivory and the abundance of plant parasitic (PP) and cp-3 nematodes, whereas there was no association between herbivory and soil microbial populations. There was no direct effects of the presence of Bt-transgenic OSR in wild mustard populations on the rhizosphere nematode and microbial communities, whereas its indirect effects via aboveground herbivory might be important to consider for biosafety assessments.
Edwardsiella ictaluri is a highly destructive pathogen in cultured yellow catfish, thus it was very necessary to study the immune response of yellow catfish against bacterial infection. In this study, RNA-Seq technology was used to study the immune response in two distinct tissues of yellow catfish at eight different time points (h) after E. ictaluri infection. The number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the spleen and liver was low at 3 h and 6 h post-infection, respectively. Afterwards, the most number of DEGs in the spleen was detected at 72 h, while the number of DEGs in the liver maintained a high level from 24 h to 120 h. The GO and KEGG enrichment analyses of DEGs at different time points uncovered that cytokines were continuously transcribed at 6 h to 120 h; whereas the liver is the main organ that secretes the components of the complement system, and metabolic regulation was activated from 12 h to 120 h. Moreover, an overview of the inflammation response of yellow catfish was exhibited including pattern-recognition receptors, inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, complements, and inflammation-related signal pathways. The similar expression tendency of nine genes by qRT-PCR validated the accuracy of transcriptome analyses. The different transcriptomic profiles obtained from the spleen and liver will help to better understand the dynamic immune response of fish against bacterial infection, and will provide basic information for establishing effective measures to prevent and control diseases in fish.
Exostoma gaoligongense is an endemic glyptosternine catfish distributed in the Nujiang River drainage, Yunnan Province, China, with few published genetic information. In this study, we sequenced and characterized the complete mitochondrial genome of E. gaoligongense, which was circular, 16529 bp in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, one replication origin and one control region. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that E. gaoligongense had the closest relationship with its congener E. labiatum. They clustered with the clade containing most genera of glyptosternine catfishes and then cluster with the more primitive genera Glaridoglanis and Glyptosternon.
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