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Abstract Background High-quality genomic datasets from under-representative populations are essential for population genetic analysis and medical relevance. Although the Tujia are the most populous ethnic minority in southwestern China, previous genetic studies have been fragmented and only partially reveal their genetic diversity landscape. The understanding of their fine-scale genetic structure and potentially differentiated biological adaptive features remains nascent. Objectives This study aims to explore the demographic history and genetic architecture related to the natural selection of the Tujia people, focusing on a meta-Tujia population from the central regions of the Yangtze River Basin. Results Population genetic analyses conducted on the meta-Tujia people indicate that they occupy an intermediate position in the East Asian North-South genetic cline. A close genetic affinity was identified between the Tujia people and neighboring Sinitic-speaking populations. Admixture models suggest that the Tujia can be modeled as a mixture of northern and southern ancestries. Estimates of f 3 /f 4 statistics confirmed the presence of ancestral links to ancient Yellow River Basin millet farmers and the BaBanQinCen-related groups. Furthermore, population-specific natural selection signatures were explored, revealing highly differentiated functional variants between the Tujia and southern indigenous populations, including genes associated with hair morphology (e.g., EDAR) and skin pigmentation (e.g., SLC24A5). Additionally, both shared and unique selection signatures were identified among ethnically diverse but geographically adjacent populations, highlighting their extensive admixture and the biological adaptations introduced by this admixture. Conclusions The study unveils significant population movements and genetic admixture among the Tujia and other ethno-linguistically diverse East Asian groups, elucidating the differentiated adaptation processes across geographically diverse populations from the current genetic landscape.

Sequestration of CO2 in the unmineable coal seams is not only one of the most ideal options for reducing greenhouse gas effects, but also the only way for the coal industry to reduce CO2 emissions and achieve low carbonization sustainable development. However, the key unresolved issues regarding the CO2 geo-sequestration in coal seams is: “how long does CO2 injected into a coal seam remain in the seam?”. In this regard, on the basis of clarifying the hysteresis law of CO2 desorption in coals, this paper reveals the mechanism of supercritical CO2 desorption hysteresis, establishes a quantitative model for the geological storage of CO2, and explores the use of desorption hysteresis to achieve a long-term safe storage of CO2 in coal seams. The study results shows that the degree of desorption hysteresis of supercritical CO2 in coal is greater than that of subcritical CO2, and a stable hysteresis characteristic similar to a “parallel line” in the supercritical phase is formed between the adsorption and desorption isotherm. The fundamental reason for the desorption hysteresis is that the micro and nano sized pores in coal form curved surfaces due to their hydrophilicity, which generate strong capillary pressure following the Laplace’s equation, absorb liquid water, truncate and fix the supercritical CO2 fluid, and ultimately form CO2 residual trapping. For example, the cylindrical inorganic pores with a diameter of 40–10 nm in coal can generate a capillary pressure of 7.30–29.12 MPa, which is sufficient to block supercritical CO2. Taking the desorption isotherm of Jiulishan coal as an example, using the quantitative model for the geological storage of CO2 established in this study, it has been estimated that the total trapping capacity of the No.21 coal seam at depths of 900–1 500 m is stable at 35–37 m3/t. Among them, the adsorption trapping capacity accounts for about 80%, residual trapping capacity accounts for about 15%, and structural trapping capacity only accounts for 5%. Desorption hysteresis suggests that some measures should be taken to increase the proportion of CO2 residual trapping in coal seams as much as possible, the reason is that the residual CO2 sealed by capillary blockage is safer and has no risk of leakage compared to the free and adsorbed CO2 sealed by surrounding rock. The physical parameters such as ash content, moisture content, pore size, and morphology of coal seams are the main factors affecting the residual trapping efficiency.

Abstract Background The underrepresentation of human genomic resources from Southern Chinese populations limited their health equality in the precision medicine era and complete understanding of their genetic formation, admixture, and adaptive features. Besides, linguistical and genetic evidence supported the controversial hypothesis of their origin processes. One hotspot case was from the Chinese Guangxi Pinghua Han people (GPH), whose language was significantly similar to Southern Chinese dialects but whose uniparental gene pool was phylogenetically associated with the indigenous Tai-Kadai (TK) people. Here, we analyzed genome-wide SNP data in 619 people from four language families and 56 geographically different populations, in which 261 people from 21 geographically distinct populations were first reported here. Results We identified significant population stratification among ethnolinguistically diverse Guangxi populations, suggesting their differentiated genetic origin and admixture processes. GPH shared more alleles related to Zhuang than Southern Han Chinese but received more northern ancestry relative to Zhuang. Admixture models and estimates of genetic distances showed that GPH had a close genetic relationship with geographically close TK compared to Northern Han Chinese, supporting their admixture origin hypothesis. Further admixture time and demographic history reconstruction supported GPH was formed via admixture between Northern Han Chinese and Southern TK people. We identified robust signatures associated with lipid metabolisms, such as fatty acid desaturases (FADS) and medically relevant loci associated with Mendelian disorder (GJB2) and complex diseases. We also explored the shared and unique selection signatures of ethnically different but linguistically related Guangxi lineages and found some shared signals related to immune and malaria resistance. Conclusions Our genetic analysis illuminated the language-related fine-scale genetic structure and provided robust genetic evidence to support the admixture hypothesis that can explain the pattern of observed genetic diversity and formation of GPH. This work presented one comprehensive analysis focused on the population history and demographical adaptative process, which provided genetic evidence for personal health management and disease risk prediction models from Guangxi people. Further large-scale whole-genome sequencing projects would provide the entire landscape of southern Chinese genomic diversity and their contributions to human health and disease traits.

Abstract Background The underrepresentation of Hmong-Mien (HM) people in Asian genomic studies has hindered our comprehensive understanding of the full landscape of their evolutionary history and complex trait architecture. South China is a multi-ethnic region and indigenously settled by ethnolinguistically diverse HM, Austroasiatic (AA), Tai-Kadai (TK), Austronesian (AN), and Sino-Tibetan (ST) people, which is regarded as East Asia’s initial cradle of biodiversity. However, previous fragmented genetic studies have only presented a fraction of the landscape of genetic diversity in this region, especially the lack of haplotype-based genomic resources. The deep characterization of demographic history and natural-selection-relevant genetic architecture of HM people was necessary. Results We reported one HM-specific genomic resource and comprehensively explored the fine-scale genetic structure and adaptative features inferred from the genome-wide SNP data of 440 HM individuals from 33 ethnolinguistic populations, including previously unreported She. We identified solid genetic differentiation between HM people and Han Chinese at 7.64‒15.86 years ago (kya) and split events between southern Chinese inland (Miao/Yao) and coastal (She) HM people in the middle Bronze Age period and the latter obtained more gene flow from Ancient Northern East Asians. Multiple admixture models further confirmed that extensive gene flow from surrounding ST, TK, and AN people entangled in forming the gene pool of Chinese coastal HM people. Genetic findings of isolated shared unique ancestral components based on the sharing alleles and haplotypes deconstructed that HM people from the Yungui Plateau carried the breadth of previously unknown genomic diversity. We identified a direct and recent genetic connection between Chinese inland and Southeast Asian HM people as they shared the most extended identity-by-descent fragments, supporting the long-distance migration hypothesis. Uniparental phylogenetic topology and network-based phylogenetic relationship reconstruction found ancient uniparental founding lineages in southwestern HM people. Finally, the population-specific biological adaptation study identified the shared and differentiated natural selection signatures among inland and coastal HM people associated with physical features and immune functions. The allele frequency spectrum of cancer susceptibility alleles and pharmacogenomic genes showed significant differences between HM and northern Chinese people. Conclusions Our extensive genetic evidence combined with the historical documents supported the view that ancient HM people originated from the Yungui regions associated with ancient “Three-Miao tribes” descended from the ancient Daxi-Qujialing-Shijiahe people. Then, some have recently migrated rapidly to Southeast Asia, and some have migrated eastward and mixed respectively with Southeast Asian indigenes, Liangzhu-related coastal ancient populations, and incoming southward ST people. Generally, complex population migration, admixture, and adaptation history contributed to the complicated patterns of population structure of geographically diverse HM people.

Pathogen‒host adaptative interactions and complex population demographical processes, including admixture, drift, and Darwen selection, have considerably shaped the Neolithic-to-Modern Western Eurasian population structure and genetic susceptibility to modern human diseases. However, the genetic footprints of evolutionary events in East Asia remain unknown due to the underrepresentation of genomic diversity and the design of large-scale population studies. We reported one aggregated database of genome-wide SNP variations from 796 Tai-Kadai (TK) genomes, including that of Bouyei first reported here, to explore the genetic history, population structure, and biological adaptative features of TK people from southern China and Southeast Asia. We found geography-related population substructure among TK people using the state-of-the-art population genetic structure reconstruction techniques based on the allele frequency spectrum and haplotype-resolved phased fragments. We found that the northern TK people from Guizhou harbored one TK-dominant ancestry maximized in the Bouyei people, and the southern TK people from Thailand were more influenced by Southeast Asians and indigenous people. We reconstructed fitted admixture models and demographic graphs, which showed that TK people received gene flow from ancient southern rice farmer-related lineages related to the Hmong-Mien and Austroasiatic people and from northern millet farmers associated with the Sino-Tibetan people. Biological adaptation focused on our identified unique TK lineages related to Bouyei, which showed many adaptive signatures conferring Malaria resistance and low-rate lipid metabolism. Further gene enrichment, the allele frequency distribution of derived alleles, and their correlation with the incidence of Malaria further confirmed that CR1 played an essential role in the resistance of Malaria in the ancient ''Baiyue'' tribes.

ABSTRACTIdentification and the time since deposition (TsD) estimation of body fluid stains from a crime scene could provide valuable information for solving the cases and are always difficult for forensics. Microbial characteristics were considered as a promising biomarker to address the issues. However, changes in the microbiota may damage the specific characteristics of body fluids. Correspondingly, incorrect body fluid identification may result in inaccurate TsD estimation. The mutual influence is not well understood and limited the codetection. In the current study, saliva, semen, vaginal secretion, and menstrual blood samples were exposed to indoor conditions and collected at eight time points (from fresh to 30 days). High-throughput sequencing based on the 16S rRNA gene was performed to characterize the microbial communities. The results showed that a longer TsD could decrease the discrimination of different body fluid stains. However, the accuracies of identification still reached a quite high value even without knowing the TsD. Correspondingly, the mean absolute error (MAE) of TsD estimation significantly increased without distinguishing the types of body fluids. The predictive TsD of menstrual blood reached a quite low MAE (1.54 ± 0.39 d). In comparison, those of saliva (6.57 ± 1.17 d), semen (6.48 ± 1.33 d), and vaginal secretion (5.35 ± 1.11 d) needed to be further improved. The great effect of individual differences on these stains limited the TsD estimation accuracy. Overall, microbial characteristics allow for codetection of body fluid identification and TsD estimation, and body fluids should be identified before estimating TsD in microbiome-based stain analyses.IMPORTANCEEmerged evidences suggest microbial characteristics could be considered a promising tool for identification and time since deposition (TsD) estimation of body fluid stains. However, the two issues should be studied together due to a potential mutual influence. The current study provides the first evidence to understand the mutual influence and determines an optimal process for codetection of identification and TsD estimation for unknown stains for forensics. In addition, we involved aged stains into our study for identification of body fluid stains, rather than only using fresh stains like previous studies. This increased the predictive accuracy. We have preliminary verified that individual differences in microbiotas limited the predictive accuracy of TsD estimation for saliva, semen, and vaginal secretion. Microbial characteristics could provide an accurate TsD estimation for menstrual blood. Our study benefits the comprehensive understanding of microbiome-based stain analyses as an essential addition to previous studies.

Prolonged inactivity and disuse conditions, such as those experienced during spaceflight and prolonged bedrest, are frequently accompanied by detrimental effects on the motor system, including skeletal muscle atrophy and bone loss, which greatly increase the risk of osteoporosis and fractures. Moreover, the decrease in glucose and lipid utilization in skeletal muscles, a consequence of muscle atrophy, also contributes to the development of metabolic syndrome. Clarifying the mechanisms involved in disuse-induced musculoskeletal deterioration is important, providing therapeutic targets and a scientific foundation for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders under disuse conditions. Skeletal muscle, as a powerful endocrine organ, participates in the regulation of physiological and biochemical functions of local or distal tissues and organs, including itself, in endocrine, autocrine, or paracrine manners. As a motor organ adjacent to muscle, bone tissue exhibits a relative lag in degenerative changes compared to skeletal muscle under disuse conditions. Based on this phenomenon, roles and mechanisms involved in the communication between skeletal muscle and bone, especially from muscle to bone, under disuse conditions have attracted widespread attention. In this review, we summarize the roles and regulatory mechanisms of muscle-derived myokines and extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the occurrence of muscle atrophy and bone loss under disuse conditions, as well as discuss future perspectives based on existing research.

Abiotic/biotic stresses pose a major threat to agriculture and food security by impacting plant growth, productivity and quality. The discovery of extensive transcription of large RNA transcripts that do not code for proteins, termed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) with sizes larger than 200 nucleotides in length, provides an important new perspective on the centrality of RNA in gene regulation. In plants, lncRNAs are widespread and fulfill multiple biological functions in stress response. In this paper, the research advances on the biological function of lncRNA in plant stress response were summarized, like as Natural Antisense Transcripts (NATs), Competing Endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) and Chromatin Modification etc. And in plants, lncRNAs act as a key regulatory hub of several phytohormone pathways, integrating abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonate (JA), salicylic acid (SA) and redox signaling in response to many abiotic/biotic stresses. Moreover, conserved sequence motifs and structural motifs enriched within stress-responsive lncRNAs may also be responsible for the stress-responsive functions of lncRNAs, it will provide a new focus and strategy for lncRNA research. Taken together, we highlight the unique role of lncRNAs in integrating plant response to adverse environmental conditions with different aspects of plant growth and development. We envisage that an improved understanding of the mechanisms by which lncRNAs regulate plant stress response may further promote the development of unconventional approaches for breeding stress-resistant crops.

The Hyers–Ulam stability of multi-coefficients Pexider additive functional inequalities in Banach spaces is investigated. In order to do this, the fixed point method and the direct method are used.

The phytochrome-interacting factor (PIF) proteins are part of a subfamily of basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) transcription factors that integrate with phytochromes (PHYs) and are known to play important roles in adaptive changes in plant architecture. However, the characterization and function of PIFs in potatoes are currently poorly understood. In this study, we identified seven PIF members in potatoes and named them StPIF01-1, StPIF01-2, StPIF03, StPIF06-1, StPIF06-2, StPIF07, and StPIF09 based on their location in potato chromosomes. The chromosomal location, gene structures, physicochemical characteristics, phylogenetic tree, and tissue-specific expression of StPIFs were also analyzed. RT-qPCR analysis revealed that the StPIF3 gene was highly induced by shade and may play a crucial regulatory role in potato responses to shade stress. Also, multiple cis-regulatory elements involved in light response were detected in the promoter of the StPIF genes. Subcellular localization analysis indicated that the StPIF3-encoding protein is mainly localized in the nucleus. Transgenic overexpression of StPIF3 in potatoes increased stem length, chlorophyll accumulation, and enhanced shade-avoidance symptoms, whereas the StPIF3-interfering lines had a lower plant height and more chlorophyll accumulation. These findings enhance our comprehension of StPIF gene roles, potentially advancing potato yield and quality research. This study provides detailed information about StPIFs and identifies the function of StPIF3, which is involved in shade-avoidance syndrome.

DNA-binding with one finger (Dof) proteins comprise a large family that play central roles in stress tolerance by regulating the expression of stress-responsive genes via the DOFCORE element or by interacting with other regulatory proteins. Although the Dof TF has been identified in a variety of species, its systemic analysis in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is lacking and its potential role in abiotic stress responses remains unclear. A total of 36 potential Dof genes in potato were examined at the genomic and transcriptomic levels in this work. Five phylogenetic groups can be formed from these 36 Dof proteins. An analysis of cis-acting elements revealed the potential roles of Dofs in potato development, including under numerous abiotic stress conditions. The cycling Dof factors (CDFs) might be the initial step in the abiotic stress response signaling cascade. In potato, five CDFs (StCDF1/StDof19, StCDF2/StDof4, StCDF3/StDof11, StCDF4/StDof24, and StCDF5/StDof15) were identified, which are homologs of Arabidopsis CDFs. The results revealed that these genes were engaged in a variety of abiotic reactions. Moreover, an expression analysis of StDof genes in two potato cultivars (‘Long10′ (drought tolerant) and ‘DXY’ (drought susceptible)) of contrasting tolerances under drought stress was carried out. Further, a regulatory network mediated by lncRNA and its target Dofs was established. The present study provides fundamental knowledge for further investigation of the roles of Dofs in the adaptation of potato to drought stress, aiming to provide insights into a viable strategy for crop improvement and stress-resistance breeding.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous, non-coding small-molecule RNAs that usually regulate the expression of target genes at the post-transcriptional level. miR156 is one of a class of evolutionarily highly conserved miRNA families. SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) transcription factor is one of the target genes that is regulated by miR156. SPL transcription factors are involved in regulating plant growth and development, hormone response, stress response, and photosynthesis. In the present study, transgenic potato plants with overexpressed miR156 were obtained via the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method. The results showed that the expression levels of the target gene, StSPL9, were all downregulated in the transgenic plants with overexpressed Stu-miR156. Compared with those of the control plants, the plant height and root length of the transgenic plants were significantly decreased, while the number of lateral roots was significantly increased. These results revealed that the miR156/SPLs module was involved in regulating potato plant height and root growth.