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Animal gut microbiota begins to colonize after birth and is functionally indispensable for maintaining the health of the host. It has been reported that gender and age influence the composition of the intestinal microbiome. However, the effects of gender and age on the intestinal microorganism of forest musk deer (FMD) remain unclear. The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between the structure and composition of fecal microbiota of male and female forest musk deer with age. Here, Illumina Miseq 300PE sequencing platform targeting 16S rRNA V3-V4 hypervariable region applied to define the fecal microbiota of male and female FMD with two age groups, juvenile (age 1-2 years) and adult (age 4-10 years). Alpha diversity index did not show significant difference in bacterial diversity between the males and females or among age groups. The intestinal microbiota of FMD was dominated by three phyla, the Firmicutes , Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes regardless of gender and different ages. Higher proportions of Proteobacteria were found in adult male and juvenile female individuals. The composition of Bacteroidetes was stable with the gender and age of FMD. Interestingly, the relative abundance of genera Clostridiales and Bacteroidales were higher in the juvenile FMD. Conversely, proportions of Pseudomonas and Lachnospiraceae were abundant in the adult FMD. Higher proportions of Ruminococcaceae, Dore , and 5-7N15 were found in the juvenile male groups. They may reflect the different immune resistance of male and female individuals at different stages of development. This study explored the fecal microbiota composition of forest musk deer in relation to gender and age, which may provide an effective strategy for developing intestinal microecological preparations and potential musk deer breeding., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2019 Guijun Zhao et al.)

Background: The transcriptional profiles of mammals during brain development and ageing have been characterized. However the global expression patterns of transcriptome in the chicken brain have not been explored. Here, we systematically investigated the temporal expression profiles of lncRNAs and mRNAs across 8 stages (including 3 embryonic stages, 2 growth stages and 3 adult stages) in the female chicken cerebrum., Results: We identified 39,907 putative lncRNAs and 14,558 mRNAs, investigated the temporal expression patterns by tracking a set of age-dependent genes and predicted potential biological functions of lncRNAs based on co-expression network. The results showed that genes with functions in development, synapses and axons exhibited a progressive decay; genes related to immune response were up-regulated with age., Conclusions: These results may reflect changes in the regulation of transcriptional networks and provide non-coding RNA gene candidates for further studies and would contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms of chicken development and may provide insights or deeper understanding regarding the regulatory mechanisms of age-dependent protein coding and non-protein coding genes in chicken. In addition, as the chicken is an important model organism bridging the evolutionary gap between mammals and other vertebrates, these high resolution data may provide a novel evidence to improve our comprehensive understanding of the brain transcriptome during vertebrate evolution.

We aim to analyse economic empowerment and gender equality among the older adult people in India using financial autonomy and gender inequality indices and compare different states of India for these indices across time and space. We used data from the 42nd and 52nd rounds of the National Sample Surveys for the present study. We propose two indicators namely the management of owned property and owned assets to evaluate financial autonomy. Gender inequality was estimated using the gender inequality index proposed by the UNDP. Financial autonomy has increased while the gender inequality index has decreased with time across most of the states of India. Living arrangements of the older adult population are changing. Old-aged people suffering from locomotor and cognitive disabilities are less likely to manage properties and assets. Promoting healthy aging by investing more in physical and mental health and encouraging gender equality can minimize the looming demographic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging constitutes progressive physiological changes in an organism. These changes alter the normal biological functions, such as the ability to manage metabolic stress, and eventually lead to cellular senescence. The process itself is characterized by nine hallmarks: genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, deregulated nutrient sensing, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, and altered intercellular communication. These hallmarks are risk factors for pathologies, such as cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer. Emerging evidence has been focused on examining the genetic pathways and biological processes in organisms surrounding these nine hallmarks. From here, the therapeutic approaches can be addressed in hopes of slowing the progression of aging. In this review, data have been collected on the hallmarks and their relative contributions to aging and supplemented with in vitro and in vivo antiaging research experiments. It is the intention of this article to highlight the most important antiaging strategies that researchers have proposed, including preventive measures, systemic therapeutic agents, and invasive procedures, that will promote healthy aging and increase human life expectancy with decreased side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]