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Hemopexin as an acute-phase protein binds heme with a high affinity and participates in a variety of processes of physiology and pathology. Hemopexin plays an important role in regulating inflammatory response by regulating pro-/anti-inflammatory cytokines. In this study, the hemopexin gene was identified from black rockfish. The open reading frame of the black rockfish hemopexin (SsHPX) gene was predicted and amplified. The different expression patterns of SsHPX in microbial-challenged tissues and peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs) were analyzed by RT-qPCR. The results indicated that SsHPX showed high evolutionary conservations in sequence and structure. The expression of SsHPX was significantly induced in a time-dependent manner in black rockfish intestine after Edwardsiella piscicida infection, while the evidently down-regulations were observed in the PBLs following the stimulations of two microbial ligands. The recombinant SsHPX protein (rSsHPX) exhibited microbial binding ability. In addition, rSsHPX could reduce bacterial proliferation with effect, thereby alleviating the inflammatory responses induced by bacteria. Moreover, almost all the expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines (tnfα, il-1β, il-8 and il-17c) and anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) were inhibited in black rockfish intestine cells stimulated by the mixing solution of LPS + rSsHPX comparing with the group with LPS stimulation. Overall, this study provides a theoretical basis for investigating the key roles of an acute-phase protein hemopexin in bacteriostatic ability and inflammatory regulations in black rockfish during bacterial infection. These findings also contribute to a better understanding of the relatively stable and conserved biological function of hemopexin during species evolution.

How rigidly does innate architecture constrain function of developing cortex? What is the contribution of early experience? We review insights into these questions from visual cortex function in people born blind. In blindness, occipital cortices are active during auditory and tactile tasks. What ‘cross-modal’ plasticity tells us about cortical flexibility is debated. On the one hand, visual networks of blind people respond to higher cognitive information, such as sentence grammar, suggesting drastic repurposing. On the other, in line with ‘metamodal’ accounts, sighted and blind populations show shared domain preferences in ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC), suggesting visual areas switch input modality but perform the same or similar perceptual functions (e.g., face recognition) in blindness. Here we bring these disparate literatures together, reviewing and synthesizing evidence that speaks to whether visual cortices have similar or different functions in blind and sighted people. Together, the evidence suggests that in blindness, visual cortices are incorporated into higher-cognitive (e.g., fronto-parietal) networks, which are a major source long-range input to the visual system. We propose the connectivity-constrained experience-dependent account. Functional development is constrained by innate anatomical connectivity, experience and behavioral needs. Infant cortex is pluripotent, the same anatomical constraints develop into different functional outcomes.

The engagement of the cerebellum VI in reading was reported in both typically developing and dyslexic readers. However, it is still not clear how the cerebellum VI contributes to reading. Here we have examined the correlation of intrinsic cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity with two critical reading-related skills—phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN)—with fMRI technology. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that the cerebellum may contribute to reading either by phonological skills or by automatizing skills. We chose the left and right cerebellum VI as ROIs, and we calculated the intrinsic cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity during a resting state. We further explored whether and how cerebro-cerebellar resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) is associated with individuals’ reading-related skills including PA and RAN. The results showed that the functional connectivity between the left supramarginal gyrus and bilateral cerebellum VI was related to RAN, and the connectivity between the left insula and right cerebellum VI was related to PA. However, the effect of PA did not survive after the RAN was regressed out. Control analyses further confirmed that it was the intrinsic cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity rather than the local cerebellar functionality that associated with phonological awareness ability and rapid automatized naming ability. For the first time, the relationship between cerebro-cerebellar resting state functional connectivity and specific reading-related skills has been explored, and this has deepened our understanding of the way the cerebellum VI is involved in reading.

In this paper, we investigate some operator inequalities for the p-Schatten norm and obtain some other versions of these inequalities when parameters taking values in different regions. Let A1,…,An, B1,…,Bn∈BpH such that ∑i,j=1nAi∗Bj=0. Then, for p≥2, p≥λ>0, and 0

Increasing evidence suggests that non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) play an important role in a variety of biological life processes by regulating gene expression at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) has been threatened by various pathogens. In this study, the expression of circular RNAs (circRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and mRNA in the immune organs spleen of turbot infected with Aeromonas salmonicida was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing, and a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed, so as to explore the function of non-coding RNA in the immune system of teleost. Illumina sequencing was performed on the uninfected group and infected group. A total of 119 differential expressed circRNAs (DE-circRNAs), 140 DE-miRNAs, and 510 DE-mRNAs were identified in the four infected groups compared with the uninfected group. Most DE-mRNAs and the target genes of DE-ncRNAs were involved in immune-related pathways. The quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) results verified the reliability and accuracy of the high-throughput sequencing data. Ninety-six differentially expressed circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks were finally constructed. Among them, 15 circRNA-miRNA-mRNA were presented in the form of “up (circRNA)-down (miRNA)-up (mRNA)” or “down-up-down”. Immune-related genes gap junction CX32.2, cell adhesion molecule 3, and CC chemokine were also found in these networks. These results indicate that ncRNA may regulate the expression of immune-related genes through the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network and thus participate in the immune response of turbot spleen after pathogen infection.