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Here we report the complete mitochondrial genome of the Arctic fairy shrimp, Branchinecta paludosa (Müller, 1788) (Anostraca, Branchinectidae), which was collected in the High Arctic of North Greenland. A complete 16,059 bp mitochondrion of B. paludosa was sequenced and assembled with the Illumina next generation sequencing platform. The B. paludosa mitogenome contains 13 PCGs, 22 tRNAs and 2 rRNA genes that are commonly observed in most metazoans and shows the conserved gene arrangement pattern of Anostraca. Our results of the phylogenomic analysis are consistent with the previous phylogenetic relationship, based on nuclear 18S ribosomal DNA. The B. paludosa mitogenome will be useful for understanding the geographical distribution and phylogenetic relationship of anostracans.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Antarctic fairy shrimp Branchinecta gaini Daday, 1910 was sequenced, assembled and annotated using next-generation sequencing technology. The mitogenome of B. gaini is circular at 15,536 bp in length, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 23 tRNAs, two rRNAs and two major non-coding regions. In particular, there are two tRNAGly genes and one non-coding region between these two tRNAGly genes. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using concatenated amino acid sequences of 13 protein-coding genes. It reveals that B. gaini is clustered with the Anostraca group within the Branchiopoda clade. This study helps us understand the evolution of Anostraca.

The crocodile icefish

Cacopsylla burckhardti Luo, Li, Ma & Cai, 2012 (Hemiptera, Psylloidea, Psyllidae) is a pear psyllid species, distributed in the East Asia. The complete mitogenome of C. burckhardti is obtained in this study for the first time. The mitogenome of C. burckhardti is circular form and 14,798 bp long, which consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs and two rRNAs. The base composition is 38.80% for A, 34.89% for T, 9.99% for G and 16.33% for C, with the higher A + T contents (73.69%). The phylogenetic analysis, using 13 protein-coding genes, shows that C. burckhardti is clustered with other Cacopsylla species and nested in the Psyllidae clade within the superfamily Psylloidea.

The Muraenolepididae family of fishes, known as eel cods, inhabits continental slopes and shelves in the Southern Hemisphere. This family belongs to the Gadiformes order, which constitutes one of the most important commercial fish resources worldwide, but the classification of the fish species in this order is ambiguous because it is only based on the morphological and habitat characteristics of the fishes. Here, the genome of Patagonian moray cod was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq platform, and screened for microsatellite motifs. The genome was predicted to be 748.97 Mb, with a heterozygosity rate of 0.768%, via K-mer analysis (K = 25). The genome assembly showed that the total size of scaffolds was 711.92 Mb and the N50 scaffold length was 1522 bp. Additionally, 4,447,517 microsatellite motifs were identified from the genome survey assembly, and the most abundant motif type was found to be AC/GT. In summary, these data may facilitate the identification of molecular markers in Patagonian moray cod, which would be a good basis for further whole-genome sequencing with long read sequencing technology and chromosome conformation capture technology, as well as population genetics.

The Antarctic toothfish, Dissostichus mawsoni, belongs to the Nototheniidae family and is distributed in sub-zero temperatures below S60° latitude in the Southern Ocean. Therefore, it is an attractive model species to study the stenothermal cold-adapted character state. In this study, we successfully generated highly contiguous genome sequences of D. mawsoni, which contained 1 062 scaffolds with a N50 length of 36.98 Mb and longest scaffold length of 46.82 Mb. Repetitive elements accounted for 40.87% of the genome. We also inferred 32 914 protein-coding genes using in silico gene prediction and transcriptome sequencing and detected splicing variants using Isoform-Sequencing (Iso-Seq), which will be invaluable resource for further exploration of the adaptation mechanisms of Antarctic toothfish. This new high-quality reference genome of D. mawsoni provides a fundamental resource for a deeper understanding of cold adaptation and conservation of species.

The Antarctic toothfish, Dissostichus mawsoni, belongs to the Nototheniidae family and is distributed in sub-zero temperatures below S60° latitude in the Southern Ocean. Therefore, it is an attractive model species to study the stenothermal cold-adapted character state. In this study, we successfully generated highly contiguous genome sequences of D. mawsoni, which contained 1 062 scaffolds with a N50 length of 36.98 Mb and longest scaffold length of 46.82 Mb. Repetitive elements accounted for 40.87% of the genome. We also inferred 32 914 protein-coding genes using in silico gene prediction and transcriptome sequencing and detected splicing variants using Isoform-Sequencing (Iso-Seq), which will be invaluable resource for further exploration of the adaptation mechanisms of Antarctic toothfish. This new high-quality reference genome of D. mawsoni provides a fundamental resource for a deeper understanding of cold adaptation and conservation of species.

The Tetraodontidae family are known to have relatively small and compact genomes compared to other vertebrates. The obscure puffer fish Takifugu obscurus is an anadromous species that migrates to freshwater from the sea for spawning. Thus the euryhaline characteristics of T. obscurus have been investigated to gain understanding of their survival ability, osmoregulation, and other homeostatic mechanisms in both freshwater and seawater. In this study, a high quality chromosome-level reference genome for T. obscurus was constructed using long-read Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) Sequel sequencing and a Hi-C-based chromatin contact map platform. The final genome assembly of T. obscurus is 381 Mb, with a contig N50 length of 3,296 kb and longest length of 10.7 Mb, from a total of 62 Gb of raw reads generated using single-molecule real-time sequencing technology from a PacBio Sequel platform. The PacBio data were further clustered into chromosome-scale scaffolds using a Hi-C approach, resulting in a 373 Mb genome assembly with a contig N50 length of 15.2 Mb and and longest length of 28 Mb. When we directly compared the 22 longest scaffolds of T. obscurus to the 22 chromosomes of the tiger puffer Takifugu rubripes, a clear one-to-one orthologous relationship was observed between the two species, supporting the chromosome-level assembly of T. obscurus. This genome assembly can serve as a valuable genetic resource for exploring fugu-specific compact genome characteristics, and will provide essential genomic information for understanding molecular adaptations to salinity fluctuations and the evolution of osmoregulatory mechanisms.

Trematomus loennbergii Regan, 1913, is an evolutionarily important marine fish species distributed in the Antarctic Ocean. However, its genome has not been studied to date. In the present study, whole genome sequencing was performed using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to characterize its genome and develop genomic microsatellite markers. The 25-mer frequency distribution was estimated to be the best, and the genome size was predicted to be 815,042,992 bp. The heterozygosity, average rate of read duplication, and sequencing error rates were 0.536%, 0.724%, and 0.292%, respectively. These data were used to analyze microsatellite markers, and a total of 2,264,647 repeat motifs were identified. The most frequent repeat motif was di-nucleotide with 87.00% frequency, followed by tri-nucleotide (10.45%), tetra-nucleotide (1.94%), penta-nucleotide (0.34%), and hexa-nucleotide (0.27%). The AC repeat motif was the most abundant motif among di-nucleotides and among all repeat motifs. Among microsatellite markers, 181 markers were selected and PCR technology was used to validate several markers. A total of 15 markers produced only one band. In summary, these results provide a good basis for further studies, including evolutionary biology studies and population genetics of Antarctic fish species.

Simple Summary The scaly rockcod (Trematomus loennbergii) is distributed in the Antarctic Ocean and this area is isolated by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. It is important region to study evolutionary diversity. Trematomus is the main genus, having 11 species, and their habit distribution is well known. However, their genetic and genomic information is not studied. In addition, some species have similar morphology. In this study, a genome survey of T. loennbergii and microsatellite motif analysis were conducted to obtain genomic profile. The fundamental data such as genome size, heterozygosity ratio, duplication ration and microsatellite motifs were obtained. These data will provide a foundation for further whole-genome sequencing and the development of new molecular markers of T. loennbergii. Abstract Trematomus loennbergii Regan, 1913, is an evolutionarily important marine fish species distributed in the Antarctic Ocean. However, its genome has not been studied to date. In the present study, whole genome sequencing was performed using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to characterize its genome and develop genomic microsatellite markers. The 25-mer frequency distribution was estimated to be the best, and the genome size was predicted to be 815,042,992 bp. The heterozygosity, average rate of read duplication, and sequencing error rates were 0.536%, 0.724%, and 0.292%, respectively. These data were used to analyze microsatellite markers, and a total of 2,264,647 repeat motifs were identified. The most frequent repeat motif was di-nucleotide with 87.00% frequency, followed by tri-nucleotide (10.45%), tetra-nucleotide (1.94%), penta-nucleotide (0.34%), and hexa-nucleotide (0.27%). The AC repeat motif was the most abundant motif among di-nucleotides and among all repeat motifs. Among microsatellite markers, 181 markers were selected and PCR technology was used to validate several markers. A total of 15 markers produced only one band. In summary, these results provide a good basis for further studies, including evolutionary biology studies and population genetics of Antarctic fish species.

Simple Summary The brine shrimp Artemia is a promising model organism for ZW sex determination system, but the genes related to sex determination and differentiation of Artemia have not yet been examined in detail. In this study, the first isoform-level transcriptome sequencing was performed on female and male Artemia franciscana. By using PacBio Iso-Seq and Illumina RNA-Seq technologies, we found 39 candidate sex determination genes that showed sex-biased gene expression. The male-biased expressed genes included DMRT1 and Sad genes, which had three and seven isoforms, respectively. Among these, the Sad gene is an ecdysteroid biosynthetic pathway gene associated with arthropod molting and metamorphosis. We propose the importance and the necessity of further research on genes involved in ecdysteroid biosynthesis. These results will contribute to understand sex determination and differentiation of Artemia and other crustaceans having ZW systems. Abstract The brine shrimp Artemia has a ZW sex determination system with ZW chromosomes in females and ZZ chromosomes in males. Artemia has been considered a promising model organism for ZW sex-determining systems, but the genes involved in sex determination and differentiation of Artemia have not yet been identified. Here, we conducted transcriptome sequencing of female and male A. franciscana using PacBio Iso-Seq and Illumina RNA-Seq techniques to identify candidate sex determination genes. Among the 42,566 transcripts obtained from Iso-Seq, 23,514 were analyzed. Of these, 2065 (8.8%) were female specific, 2513 (10.7%) were male specific, and 18,936 (80.5%) were co-expressed in females and males. Based on GO enrichment analysis and expression values, we found 10 female-biased and 29 male-biased expressed genes, including DMRT1 and Sad genes showing male-biased expression. Our results showed that DMRT1 has three isoforms with five exons, while Sad has seven isoforms with 2–11 exons. The Sad gene is involved in ecdysteroid signaling related to molting and metamorphosis in arthropods. Further studies on ecdysteroid biosynthetic genes are needed to improve our understanding of Artemia sex determination. This study will provide a valuable resource for sex determination and differentiation studies on Artemia and other crustaceans with ZW systems.

The genus Pogonophryne is a speciose group that includes 28 species inhabiting the coastal or deep waters of the Antarctic Southern Ocean. The genus has been divided into five species groups, among which the P. albipinna group is the most deep-living group and is characterized by a lack of spots on the top of the head. Here, we carried out genome survey sequencing of P. albipinna using the Illumina HiSeq platform to estimate the genomic characteristics and identify genome-wide microsatellite motifs. The genome size was predicted to be ∼883.8 Mb by K-mer analysis (K = 25), and the heterozygosity and repeat ratio were 0.289 and 39.03%, respectively. The genome sequences were assembled into 571624 contigs, covering a total length of ∼819.3 Mb with an N50 of 2867 bp. A total of 2217422 simple sequence repeat (SSR) motifs were identified from the assembly data, and the number of repeats decreased as the length and number of repeats increased. These data will provide a useful foundation for the development of new molecular markers for the P. albipinna group as well as for further whole-genome sequencing of P. albipinna.

The crocodile icefish, Chionobathyscus dewitti, belonging to the family Channichthyidae, is an endemic species of the Southern Ocean. The study of its biological features and genetics is challenging as the fish inhabits the deep sea around Antarctic waters. The icefish, the sole cryopelagic species, shows unique physiological and genetic features, unlike other teleosts. It lacks hemoglobin and has evolved antifreeze proteins. Here, we report the genome sequencing data of crocodile icefish produced using the Illumina Novaseq 6000 platform. The estimated genome size was 0.88 Gb with a K-value of 19, and the unique sequence, heterozygosity, error, and duplication rates were 57.4%, 0.421%, 0.317%, and 0.738%, respectively. A genome assembly of 880.69 Mb, with an N50 scaffold length of 2401 bp, was conducted. We identified 2,252,265 microsatellite motifs from the genome assembly data, and dinucleotide repeats (1,920,127; 85.25%) had the highest rate. We selected 84 primer pairs from the genome survey assembly and randomly selected 30 primer pairs for validation. As a result, 15 primer pairs were validated as microsatellite markers.

Patient-specific cancer therapies can evolve by vitalizing the mother tissue-like cancer niche, cellular profile, genetic signature, and drug responsiveness. This evolution has enabled the elucidation of a key mechanism along with development of the mechanism-driven therapy. After surgical treatment, glioblastoma (GBM) patients require prompt therapy within 14 days in a patient-specific manner. Hence, this study approaches direct culture of GBM patient tissue (1 mm diameter) in a microchannel network chip. Cancer vasculature-mimetic perfusion can support the preservation of the mother tissue-like characteristic signatures and microenvironment. When temozolomide and radiation are administered within 1 day, the responsiveness of the tissue in the chip reflected the clinical outcomes, thereby overcoming the time-consuming process of cell and organoid culture. When the tissue chip culture is continued, the intact GBM signature gets lost, and the outward migration of stem cells from the tissue origin increases, indicating a leaving-home effect on the family dismantle. Nanovesicle production using GBM stem cells enables self-chasing of the cells that escape the temozolomide effect owing to quiescence. The anti-PTPRZ1 peptide display and temozolomide loading to nanovesicles awakes cancer stem cells from the quiescent stage to death. This study suggests a GBM clinic-driven avatar platform and mechanism-learned nanotherapy for translation.

The southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina is the largest member of the phocid seals and is a highly sexually dimorphic predator at circumpolar regions. In this study, we generated the first high-quality de novo assembly of the blood transcriptome of M. leonina using the Illumina MiSeq platform. A total of 40.5 million raw reads were obtained and assembled using the Oases assembly platform, resulting in 46,445 contigs with an N50 value of 634 bp. We performed functional gene annotations through pathway analyses of the Gene Ontology (GO), Eukaryotic Orthologous Groups (KOG), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases. Ortholog comparison revealed that a high proportion of the M. leonina blood transcriptome had significant sequence homology within pinnipeds. M. leonine, a deep and long-diving seal, is routinely exposed to progressive hypoxia during dives. KEGG analyses detected an intact hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) signaling pathway, which is a key metabolism pathway in the adaptive homeostatic responses to hypoxia. In the blood transcriptome, many essential genes involved in innate immunity were detected, which suggests that the blood serves as a host defense modulator against exogenous infections in M. leonina. This genomic resource will be useful for understanding adaptive metabolism upon repeated breath-hold dives and determining the health status of southern elephant seals without the need to sacrifice them in experiments.

Temperature is an important abiotic factor that directly influences the physiology of marine fish. The Antarctic bullhead notothen Notothenia coriiceps inhabits water with temperatures ranging from — 1.9 to 2°C at circumpolar regions. Thus, N. coriiceps is useful as a model animal for understanding the effects of temperature stress. To assess the transcriptional response of skin tissue to temperature changes, Antarctic bullhead notothen were exposed to two temperature stresses, 4°C and — 2°C, following acclimatization at 2°C. Twenty-four hours after the temperature change, skin transcriptomes were sequenced using the Illumina Hiseq 2000 platform and analyzed using a series of bioinformatics tools. Functional gene annotations through pathway analyses of the Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases revealed commonly or distinctively modulated transcriptional changes in skin. Both temperature stressors significantly upregulated the actin cytoskeleton regulation pathway and the skin’s water barrier function, while the stressors downregulated the metabolism involved in muscle contraction, choline receptor regulation, collagen regulation, and immunity. Cold stress caused significant downregulation of the mRNA expression of genes involved in vasopressin-regulated water reabsorption. Neither the heat- nor cold-stressed skin transcriptomes exhibited significant heat shock protein expression. Our results suggest that, as a first barrier for fish, the skin has complex metabolisms with high transcriptional sensitivity against environmental temperature stress. These results will be useful for understanding the skin-specific molecular mechanisms that Antarctic fish use to adapt to temperature fluctuations.

The Muraenolepididae family of fishes, known as eel cods, inhabits continental slopes and shelves in the Southern Hemisphere. This family belongs to the Gadiformes order, which constitutes one of the most important commercial fish resources worldwide, but the classification of the fish species in this order is ambiguous because it is only based on the morphological and habitat characteristics of the fishes. Here, the genome of Patagonian moray cod was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq platform, and screened for microsatellite motifs. The genome was predicted to be 748.97 Mb, with a heterozygosity rate of 0.768%, via K-mer analysis (K = 25). The genome assembly showed that the total size of scaffolds was 711.92 Mb and the N50 scaffold length was 1522 bp. Additionally, 4,447,517 microsatellite motifs were identified from the genome survey assembly, and the most abundant motif type was found to be AC/GT. In summary, these data may facilitate the identification of molecular markers in Patagonian moray cod, which would be a good basis for further whole-genome sequencing with long read sequencing technology and chromosome conformation capture technology, as well as population genetics.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Eaton’s skate Bathyraja eatonii was studied using the long-read technology, PacBio Sequel System. The complete mitochondrial genome form of B. eatonii was 16,698 bp and it’s comprised of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA and 2 rRNA. The base composition of B. eatonii is analyzed 31.94% for A, 33.94% for T, 13.49% for G, 20.64% for C, the result of GC content was 33.94%. Phylogenetic analysis showed that B. eatonii was closely related to Bathyraja meridionalis in Arhynchobatidae family, and this first mitochondrial genome of Antarctic skate would provide fundamental information to the evolutional relationship of Antarctic fishes

The complete mitochondrial genome of Macrourus witsoni was determined in this study by the Long-read Technology, such as PacBio Sequel System. The Long-read Technology, which can sequence continuously the whole vertebrate mitochondrial genome, allows more accurate genomes to be completed. The circular form of its mitochondrial genome was 16,714bp, which contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA, and 2 rRNA. The gene orders of M.witsoni was identical to that of the other species of Macrouridae family. Phylogenetic analysis indicated M. witsoni was mostly close to C.kishinouyei in the Macrouridae family.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Notothenia rossii was obtained using PacBio Sequel long-read sequencing platform. The mitogenome of N. rossii was circular form and 18,274 bp long, which consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 24 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs, and non-coding control region. Particularly, we found duplicated tRNAThr and tRNAPro in addition to the typical 22 tRNAs. The phylogenetic tree revealed that N. rossii was most closely related to N. coriiceps among species in the Nototheniidae clade within the suborder Notothenioidei.

The southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina is the largest phocid seal and one of the two species of elephant seals. They are listed as &lsquo, least concern&rsquo, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species 2015. Here, we have assembled the reference genome for M. leonina using the 10&times, chromium sequencing platform. The final genome assembly of M. leonina was 2.42 Gb long, with a contig N50 length of 54 Mb and a maximum length of 111.6 Mb. The M. leonina genome contained 20,457 predicted protein-coding genes and possessed 41.51% repeated sequences. The completeness of the M. leonina genome was evaluated using benchmarking universal single-copy orthologous genes (BUSCOs): the assembly was highly complete, containing 95.6% of the core set of mammalian genes. The high-quality genomic information on M. leonina will be essential for further understanding of adaptive metabolism upon repeated breath-hold dives and the exploration of molecular mechanisms contributing to its unique biochemical and physiological characteristics. The southern elephant seal genome project was deposited at NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) under BioProject number PRJNA587380.

The southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina is the largest phocid seal and one of the two species of elephant seals. They are listed as ‘least concern’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species 2015. Here, we have assembled the reference genome for M. leonina using the 10× chromium sequencing platform. The final genome assembly of M. leonina was 2.42 Gb long, with a contig N50 length of 54 Mb and a maximum length of 111.6 Mb. The M. leonina genome contained 20,457 predicted protein-coding genes and possessed 41.51% repeated sequences. The completeness of the M. leonina genome was evaluated using benchmarking universal single-copy orthologous genes (BUSCOs): the assembly was highly complete, containing 95.6% of the core set of mammalian genes. The high-quality genomic information on M. leonina will be essential for further understanding of adaptive metabolism upon repeated breath-hold dives and the exploration of molecular mechanisms contributing to its unique biochemical and physiological characteristics. The southern elephant seal genome project was deposited at NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) under BioProject number PRJNA587380.

Trematomus species (suborder Notothenioidei; family Nototheniidae) are widely distributed in the southern oceans near Antarctica. There are 11 recognized species in the genus Trematomus, and notothenioids are known to have high chromosomal diversity (2n = 24–58) because of relatively recent and rapid adaptive radiation. Herein, we report the chromosomal-level genome assembly of T. loennbergii, the first characterized genome representative of the genus Trematomus. The final genome assembly of T. loennbergii was obtained using a Pacific Biosciences long-read sequencing platform and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture technology. Twenty-three chromosomal-level scaffolds were assembled to 940 Mb in total size, with a longest contig size of 48.5 Mb and contig N50 length of 24.7 Mb. The genome contained 42.03% repeat sequences, and a total of 24,525 protein-coding genes were annotated. We produced a high-quality genome assembly of T. loennbergii. Our results provide a first reference genome for the genus Trematomus and will serve as a basis for studying the molecular taxonomy and evolution of Antarctic fish.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Trematomus loennbergii was studied using NGS technology with PacBio platform. The mitochondrial genome size was 19,374bp and it had 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs and 2 rRNAs. There were 4 types of stop codons which were TAA, TAG, AGG and T(AA) but start codon type was only one (ATG). The contents of GC were 44.09% and AT contents were 55.91%. To conduct phylogenetic analysis, 12 species in 3 families were used. The result suggested that T. loennbergii was close to Pagothenia borchgrevinki in Nototheniidae. This study would provide a fundamental data for molecular evolution of T. loennbergii.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Eaton’s skate Bathyraja eatonii was studied using the long-read technology, PacBio Sequel System. The complete mitochondrial genome form of B. eatonii was 16,69...

The brine shrimp Artemia has a ZW sex determination system with ZW chromosomes in females and ZZ chromosomes in males. Artemia has been considered a promising model organism for ZW sex-determining systems, but the genes involved in sex determination and differentiation of Artemia have not yet been identified. Here, we conducted transcriptome sequencing of female and male A. franciscana using PacBio Iso-Seq and Illumina RNA-Seq techniques to identify candidate sex determination genes. Among the 42,566 transcripts obtained from Iso-Seq, 23,514 were analyzed. Of these, 2065 (8.8%) were female specific, 2513 (10.7%) were male specific, and 18,936 (80.5%) were co-expressed in females and males. Based on GO enrichment analysis and expression values, we found 10 female-biased and 29 male-biased expressed genes, including DMRT1 and Sad genes showing male-biased expression. Our results showed that DMRT1 has three isoforms with five exons, while Sad has seven isoforms with 2–11 exons. The Sad gene is involved in ecdysteroid signaling related to molting and metamorphosis in arthropods. Further studies on ecdysteroid biosynthetic genes are needed to improve our understanding of Artemia sex determination. This study will provide a valuable resource for sex determination and differentiation studies on Artemia and other crustaceans with ZW systems.

The full-length mitochondrial genome of Muraenolepis orangiensis (Vaillant, 1888) was studied using PacBio platform and it is first report in a Muraenolepididae family. The circular form of mitochondria genome is 16,833 bp including 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA, and 22 tRNA. Start codon of 13 protein-coding genes was only ATG but three types of stop codons (TAA, T(AA), and TAG) were detected. To evaluate evolutionary position of M. orangiensis, the phylogenetic tree with other 13 Antarctic fishes belonged to five families were showed that M. orangiensis is unique cluster as a Muraenolepididae family and this study would provide fundamental data to understand the evolutionary relationship of fishes founded in Antarctic area.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Notothenia rossii was obtained using PacBio Sequel long-read sequencing platform. The mitogenome of N. rossii was circular form and 18,274 bp long, which consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 24 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs, and non-coding control region. Particularly, we found duplicated tRNAThr and tRNAPro in addition to the typical 22 tRNAs. The phylogenetic tree revealed that N. rossii was most closely related to N. coriiceps among species in the Nototheniidae clade within the suborder Notothenioidei.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Macrourus witsoni was determined in this study by the Long-read Technology, such as PacBio Sequel System. The Long-read Technology, which can sequence continuously the whole vertebrate mitochondrial genome, allows more accurate genomes to be completed. The circular form of its mitochondrial genome was 16,714bp, which contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA, and 2 rRNA. The gene orders of M.witsoni was identical to that of the other species of Macrouridae family. Phylogenetic analysis indicated M. witsoni was mostly close to C.kishinouyei in the Macrouridae family.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a disease without any definite cure. Numerous approaches have been tested in efforts to conquer this brain disease, but patients invariably experience recurrence or develop resistance to treatment. New surgical tools, carefully chosen samples, and experimental methods are enabling discoveries at single-cell resolution. The present article reviews the cell-of-origin of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-wildtype GBM, beginning with the historical background for focusing on cellular origin and introducing the cancer genesis patterned on firework. The authors also review mutations associated with the senescence process in cells of the subventricular zone (SVZ), and biological validation of somatic mutations in a mouse SVZ model. Understanding GBM would facilitate research on the origin of other cancers and may catalyze the development of new management approaches or treatments against IDH-wildtype GBM.

The chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and gentoo (P. papua) penguins are distributed throughout Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. In this study, high-quality de novo assemblies of blood transcriptomes from these penguins were generated using the Illumina MiSeq platform. A total of 22.2 and 21.8 raw reads were obtained from chinstrap and gentoo penguins, respectively. These reads were assembled using the Oases assembly platform and resulted in 26,036 and 21,854 contigs with N50 values of 929 and 933 base pairs, respectively. Functional gene annotations through pathway analyses of the Gene Ontology, EuKaryotic Orthologous Groups, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases were performed for each blood transcriptome, resulting in a similar compositional order between the two transcriptomes. Ortholog comparisons with previously published transcriptomes from the Adélie (P. adeliae) and emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri) penguins revealed that a high proportion of the four penguins’ transcriptomes had significant sequence homology. Because blood and tissues of penguins have been used to monitor pollution in Antarctica, immune parameters in blood could be important indicators for understanding the health status of penguins and other Antarctic animals. In the blood transcriptomes, KEGG analyses detected many essential genes involved in the major innate immunity pathways, which are key metabolic pathways for maintaining homeostasis against exogenous infections or toxins. Blood transcriptome studies such as this may be useful for checking the immune and health status of penguins without sacrifice.

Limited functional recovery can be achieved through rehabilitation after incomplete spinal cord injury. Eliminating the function of a repulsive Wnt receptor, Ryk, in mice and rats by either conditional knockout in the motor cortex or monoclonal antibody infusion resulted in increased corticospinal axon collateral branches with presynaptic puncta in the spinal cord and enhanced recovery of forelimb reaching and grasping function following a cervical dorsal column lesion. Using optical stimulation, we observed that motor cortical output maps underwent massive changes after injury and that hindlimb cortical areas were recruited to control the forelimb over time. Furthermore, a greater cortical area was dedicated to controlling the forelimb in Ryk conditional knockout mice than in controls (wild-type or heterozygotes). In the absence of weekly task-specific training, recruitment of ectopic cortical areas was greatly reduced and there was no significant functional recovery even in Ryk conditional knockout mice. Our study provides evidence that maximal circuit reorganization and functional recovery can be achieved by combining molecular manipulation and targeted rehabilitation.

Ciliates are a diverse species group of the Protozoa, and nuclear and mitochondrial genes have been utilized to discover new species and discriminate closely related species. The mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene has been used to discriminate metazoan species and has also been applied for some groups in the phylum Ciliophora. However, it is difficult to produce a universal primer as a standard barcode, because unlike metazoans, mitochondrial DNA sequences of ciliates are long and highly variable. Therefore, to design the new primer set, we sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of two pseudokeronopsids in the class Spirotrichea using next-generation sequencing technology (HiSeq™ 2000). Based on putative CO1 gene fragments of the pseudokeronopsids, we designed the new primer set and successfully sequenced the CO1 of 69 populations representing 47 species (five orders, 14 families, and 27 genera). We found that CO1 showed higher resolution for separating congeneric species than did nuclear SSU rRNA gene sequences, and we identified some putative cryptic species.

Background Randomized clinical trials have shown the efficacy and safety of short-acting exenatide in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The aim of this observational study was to investigate the effectiveness and safety of exenatide twice a day in Korean patients with T2DM who are suboptimally controlled with oral hypoglycemic agents. Methods This study was a post hoc analysis of multi-center (71 centers), prospective, observational, single-arm, post-marketing study of short-acting exenatide 5 to 10 μg twice a day from March 2008 to March 2014 and analyzed those who finished the follow-up over 20 weeks of medication. Changes of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and body weight values before and after exenatide treatment were analyzed. Adverse events and adverse drug reactions were estimated in patients who were treated with exenatide at least once and for whom follow-up for safety has been completed. Results After 20 weeks treatment with exenatide, mean HbA1c and body weight were significantly reduced from 8.4% to 7.7% and from 83.4 kg to 80.2 kg, respectively (both p

Two new species of Bakuella, B. (B.) incheonensis n. sp. and B. (Pseudobakuella) litoralis n. sp., were discovered in brackish water near Aamdo Shore Park, Incheon, South Korea. We conducted a morphological study based on live observations and protargol-impregnated specimens, and a molecular analysis using nuclear SSU rRNA gene sequences. Bakuella (B.) incheonensis is diagnosed by: body size 70-105 × 20-40 μm in vivo, 21-25 adoral membranelles, three or four frontoterminal cirri, midventral complex composed of 7-10 midventral pairs with one or two rows and terminating at about 62% of body length, 20-28 left and 25-32 right marginal cirri, 58-87 macronuclear nodules, and yellowish cortical granules. Bakuella (Pseudobakuella) litoralis is diagnosed by: body size 90-125 × 30-40 μm in vivo, 25-33 adoral membranelles, 3-5 buccal cirri, midventral complex composed 10-15 midventral pairs with one or two rows and terminated at 70% of body length, one or two pretransverse cirri, 3-6 transverse cirri, 26-39 left and 29-47 right marginal cirri, 49-84 macronuclear nodules, and two types of cortical granules. Molecular phylogeny using SSU rRNA gene sequences shows a nonmonophyletic relationship among Bakuella species and emphasizes the need for further morphogenetic studies of this genus and other related hypotrichs.

The institutions and ethic committeeâ s reference number of this study. (DOCX 23Â kb)

The simultaneous occurrence of the structural and magnetic phase transitions observed in MnV2O4 is one clear example of strong interplay among the spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom. The structure of MnV2O4 is switched by the magnetic field and the linear magnetostriction is very high. The orbital order mediates the interaction between the spin and the lattice generating these phenomena. In this work, we present experimental evidence of an orbital order in MnV2O4 and its reorientation under a rotating magnetic field as obtained by nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR). The shift in the resonance frequency of the V NMR spectrum is symmetrical with respect to 45° as an external magnetic field of 7 T rotates from the c-axis to the b-axis, indicating that the initial easy axis flips to the orthogonal direction most parallel to the field direction. The spectrum of V3+ ions splits into four peaks with a maximum shift of 40 MHz. Our analysis revealed that this is the combined effect of the anisotropic hyperfine field due to an ordered orbital and the dipolar hyperfine field. Reorientation of the orbital order in response to an external magnetic field accompanies the macroscopically observed magnetostriction in MnV2O4.

The spin state of FeCl 3 was measured by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) as a function of temperature and magnetic field. The sublattice magnetization obtained from the 57 Fe NMR spectrum fits well with the theoretical prediction for an antiferromagnet with a magnetic anisotropy field of less than 70 mT in the ab -plane. The field dependence of the 57 Fe NMR spectrum shows that a spin rotation plane of helical order starts to align perpendicularly to the external field direction as the field increases from 0 and ends around 4 T with no phase transition. From the spin tilting angle analysis, we obtained the quantitative relation among the exchange coupling constants.

The chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and gentoo (P. papua) penguins are distributed throughout Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. In this study, high-quality de novo assemblies of blood transcriptomes from these penguins were generated using the Illumina MiSeq platform. A total of 22.2 and 21.8 raw reads were obtained from chinstrap and gentoo penguins, respectively. These reads were assembled using the Oases assembly platform and resulted in 26,036 and 21,854 contigs with N50 values of 929 and 933 base pairs, respectively. Functional gene annotations through pathway analyses of the Gene Ontology, EuKaryotic Orthologous Groups, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases were performed for each blood transcriptome, resulting in a similar compositional order between the two transcriptomes. Ortholog comparisons with previously published transcriptomes from the Adélie (P. adeliae) and emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri) penguins revealed that a high proportion of the four penguins’ transcriptomes had significant sequence homology. Because blood and tissues of penguins have been used to monitor pollution in Antarctica, immune parameters in blood could be important indicators for understanding the health status of penguins and other Antarctic animals. In the blood transcriptomes, KEGG analyses detected many essential genes involved in the major innate immunity pathways, which are key metabolic pathways for maintaining homeostasis against exogenous infections or toxins. Blood transcriptome studies such as this may be useful for checking the immune and health status of penguins without sacrifice.

In this study, we determined the complete chloroplast (cp) genomes from two varieties of Cannabis sativa. The genome sizes were 153,848 bp (the Korean non-drug variety, Cheungsam) and 153,854 bp (the African variety, Yoruba Nigeria). The genome structures were identical with 131 individual genes [86 protein-coding genes (PCGs), eight rRNA, and 37 tRNA genes]. Further, except for the presence of an intron in the rps3 genes of two C. sativa varieties, the cp genomes of C. sativa had conservative features similar to that of all known species in the order Rosales. To verify the position of C. sativa within the order Rosales, we conducted phylogenetic analysis by using concatenated sequences of all PCGs from 17 complete cp genomes. The resulting tree strongly supported monophyly of Rosales. Further, the family Cannabaceae, represented by C. sativa, showed close relationship with the family Moraceae. The phylogenetic relationship outlined in our study is well congruent with those previously shown for the order Rosales.

The ${}^{55}$Mn nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum for the spinel oxide Mn${}_{3}$O${}_{4}$ was measured at low temperature to investigate the spin structure in the ground state. The spectrum consists of three peaks in the frequency range of 250--265 MHz, which corresponds to the hyperfine field range of 24--25 T. The temperature dependence of the spectrum and the rf enhancement factor show that Mn${}^{3+}$ ions have two different magnetic moments, one of which is strongly related to the commensurate-incommensurate phase transition. This is consistent with the picture of two magnetic moments $R$ and $S$ claimed from the results of a neutron experiment. Comparison with a heat-treated sample suggests a relation between the two different magnetic moments and the occupation sites of manganese ions, the tetrahedral and octahedral sites. Theoretical estimations of the dipolar hyperfine field and the observed peak splitting predict that the magnetic moments of $R$ and $S$ differ by 5$%$ at maximum. The spin-spin relaxation time has a frequency dependence that induces spectrum broadening and further splitting of the peak coming from $S$, indicating that the Suhl-Nakamura interaction is the major relaxation mechanism in Mn${}_{3}$O${}_{4}$.

The magnetoelectric properties of hexaferrite Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2Fe12O22 are significantly improved by Al substitution and thermal annealing. Measuring the enhancement factor of 57Fe NMR, we found direct microscopic evidence that the magnetic moments of the L and S blocks are rotated by a magnetic field in such a way as to increase the net magnetic moment of a magnetic unit, even after the field is removed. Al substitution makes magnetoelectric property arise easily by suppressing the easy-plane anisotropy. The effect of thermal annealing is to stabilize the multiferroic state by reducing the number of pinning sites and the electron spin fluctuation. The transverse conic structure gradually changes to the alternating longitudinal conic structure where spins fluctuate more severely.

The zero-field 55 Mn nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra for antiferromagnetic -Mn2O3 were obtained at low temperatures. The Gaussian- shaped spectrum was positioned around 314MHz in the zero-temperature limit, and the linewidth was about 5MHz. The magnetic moment estimated from the resonance frequency was 2.6µB per Mn 3+ ion, which corresponds to 65% of 4µB, which is expected when only the contribution of spin to the magnetic moment is considered. The temperature dependence of the sublattice magnetization does not fit Bloch's T 2 law well but instead fits the exponential form applicable when there is an initial energy gap in the dispersion relation of the spin wave. From the fitting, we obtained an energy gap of 1.82meV and an anisotropy energy of 0.22meV. The spin-spin relaxation time measured as a function of frequency shows that the Suhl-Nakamura interaction is suppressed by this energy gap. The line broadening is mostly influenced by the dipolar hyperfine interaction.