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Myogenic factor 5 plays actively roles in the regulation of myogenesis. The aims of this study are to identify the evolution information of MYF5 protein among 10 domestic and mammalian animals, to uncover the expression patterns of MYF5 gene in calves and adults of Qinchuan cattle, and to expose the genetic variants of the MYF5 gene and explore its effect on cattle growth traits and beef quality traits in Qinchuan cattle. The bioinformatics results showed that the MYF5 proteins highly conserved in different mammalian or domestic animals apart from chicken. The expression level of MYF5 gene in the heart, muscle, lung, large intestine and liver was greater than that of other tissues. PCR amplicons sequencing identified four novel SNPs at g.5738AG, g.5785CT and g.5816AG in the 3rd exon region and g.6535AG in the 3' UTR. Genotypic frequencies of g.5785CT was harshly deviated from the HWE (P .05). Genetic diversity was low or intermediate for the four SNPs and those SNPs were in the weak linkage disequilibrium. Association analysis results indicated g.5785CT, g.5816AG and g.6535AG significant effect on growth performance and beef quality traits of Qinchuan cattle. H1H3 diplotype had greater body size and better beef quality. All the results implicate that the MYF5 gene might be applied as a promising candidate gene in Qinchuan cattle breeding.

The male infertility of cattleyak resulted from spermatogenic arrest has greatly restricted the effective utilization of the heterosis from crossbreeding of cattle and yak. Based on our previous studies, the significant divergences of the transcriptomic and proteomic sequencing between yak and cattleyak prompt us to investigate the critical roles of microRNAs in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression during spermatogenesis. TUNEL-POD analysis presented sharply decreased spermatogenic cell types and the increased apoptotic spermatogonia in cattleyak. The STA-PUT velocity sedimentation was employed to obtain spermatogonia and spermatocytes from cattle, yak and cattleyak and these spermatogenic cells were verified by the morphological and phenotypic identification. MicroRNA microarray showed that 27 differentially expressed miRNAs were simultaneously identified both in cattleyak vs cattle and in cattleyak vs yak comparisons. Further analysis revealed that the down-regulation of bta-let-7 families, bta-miR-125 and bta-miR-23a might impair the RA-induced differentiation of spermatogonia. Target gene analysis for differentially expressed miRNAs revealed that miRNAs targeted major players involved in vesicle-mediated transport, regulation of protein kinase activity and Pathways in cancer. In addition, spermatogonia transfection analysis revealed that the down-regulation of bta-miR-449a in the cattleyak might block the transition of male germ cells from the mitotic cycle to the meiotic program. The present study provided valuable information for future elucidating the regulatory roles of miRNAs involved in spermatogenic arrest of cattleyak.

Sirtuin 4 (SIRT4) belongs to the mitochondrial sirtuin class of NAD+-dependent protein deacylases. This gene plays an important role in the regulation of lipid metabolism, cellular growth, and metabolism in mammals. Here, potential polymorphisms were sought in the bovine SIRT4 gene, and the relationships between the detected polymorphisms and carcass quality in Qinchuan cattle were assessed. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified in the promoter region of the SIRT4 gene from the sequencing results of 452 individual cattle. A total of 8 different haplotypes were identified. Of these, the 3 most frequently observed haplotypes had frequencies of 35.0% (-CTG-), 18.3% (-CTA-), and 12.9% (-CCG-). The frequencies of g.-311C > T, g.-771C > T, and g.-1022G > A conformed to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in all the samples (chi-square test, P

This study aimed to investigate the effects of polymorphisms in growth hormone 1 (GH1) gene on the growth traits in Chinese indigenous yak. Using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-PFLP) approach, one novel single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), termed as g.1721GA, was identified in the exon 4 of GH1 gene in 423 individuals of yak population. Based on the chi-square (χ

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Chicken erythrocytes participated in immunity, but the role of erythrocytes in the immunity of Marek's disease virus (MDV) has not been reported related to the immunity genes. The purpose of this study was to screen and verify the immune-related genes of chicken erythrocytes which could be proven as a biomarker in MDV. The datasets (GPL8764-Chicken Gene Expression Microarray) were downloaded from the GEO profile database for control and MDV infected chickens to obtain differentially expressed genes (DEGs) through bioinformatics methods. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) was performed to find enriched pathways, including Gene Ontology (GO). Based on enriched pathways, the top 19 immune-related genes were screened-out and process further to construct the protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. The screened genes were validated on RT-PCR and qPCR. Results suggested that the mRNA transcription of Toll-like receptors 2, 3, 4, 6 (TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, TLR6), major histocompatibility complex-II (MHCII), interleukin-7 (IL-7), interferon-βeta (IFN-β), chicken myelomonocytic growth factor (cMGF) and myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88) were significantly up-regulated. The expression of toll-like receptor 5, 7 (TLR5, TLR7) interleukin-12 (IL-12 p40), interleukin-13 (IL-13), and interferon-αlpha (IFN-α) were significantly down-regulated in the erythrocytes of the infected group (P 0.05). In contrast, the expression of toll-like receptor-1, 15, 21 (TLR1, TLR15, TLR21), major histocompatibility complex I (MHCI) and Tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) were not significant. In conclusion, it has been verified on qRT-PCR results that 19 immune-related genes, which included TLRs, cytokines and MHC have immune functions in MDV infected chickens.

Nanoparticles are finding increasing applications in diagnostics, imaging and therapeutics in medicine. Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONs) have received significant interest of scientific community due to their distinctive properties. For the first time, we have delivered IONs into germ cells in any species. Our results showed that sturgeon primordial germ cells (PGCs) delivered with IONs could be detected until seven days post fertilization (dpf) under fluorescent microscope and at 22 dpf by micro-CT. Delivery of IONs into cells could be helpful for studying germ cell biology and the improvement of germ cell-based bio-technologies as isolation of PGCs using magnetic activated cell sorting or application of hyperthermia for a host sterilization purpose. Intriguingly, in our study, we did not find any toxic effects of IONs on the survival and hatching rates of sturgeon embryos when compared with embryos injected with FITC-dextran only.

The expression of genes related to the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) signaling pathway were determined. Group A, B and C fed with basal diet and group D, E and F induced TD by feeding a basal diet containing 100 mg·kg-1 thiram. rGSTA3 protein was injected at 20 μg·kg-1 in group B, E and at 50 μg·kg-1 in C, F. Results suggested that lameness and death of chondrocytes were significant on day 14. TLRs signaling pathway related genes were screened based on the transcriptome enrichment, and validated on qPCR. IL-7, TLR2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 15, MyD88, MHC-II, MDA5 and TRAF6 were significantly (p < 0.05) expressed in group E and F as compared to group D on day 14 and 23. IL-7, MHCII, TRAF6, TLR3, TLR5, TLR7, and TLR15 determined insignificant in group D compared to group A on day 23. TD occur in an early phase and alleviated in the later period. rGSTA3 protein can prevent apoptosis and repair degraded chondrocytes.

Background Cattleyak are the hybrid offspring between cattle and yak and combine yak hardiness with cattle productivity. Much attempt has been made to examine the mechanisms of male sterility caused by spermatogenic arrest, but yet there is no research systematically and precisely elucidated testis gene expression profiling between cattleyak and yak. Methods To explore the higher resolution comparative transcriptome map between the testes of yak and cattleyak, and further analyze the mRNA expression dynamics of spermatogenic arrest in cattleyak. We characterized the comparative transcriptome profile from the testes of yak and cattleyak using high-throughput sequencing. Then we used quantitative analysis to validate several differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in testicular tissue and spermatogenic cells. Results Testis transcriptome profiling identified 6477 DEGs (2919 upregulated and 3558 downregulated) between cattleyak and yak. Further analysis revealed that the marker genes and apoptosis regulatory genes for undifferentiated spermatogonia were upregulated, while the genes for differentiation maintenance were downregulated in cattleyak. A majority of DEGs associated with mitotic checkpoint, and cell cycle progression were downregulated in cattleyak during spermatogonial mitosis. Furthermore, almost all DEGs related to synaptonemal complex assembly, and meiotic progression presented no sign of expression in cattleyak. Even worse, dozens of genes involved in acrosome formation, and flagellar development were dominantly downregulated in cattleyak. Conclusion DEGs indicated that spermatogenic arrest of cattleyak may originate from the differentiation stage of spermatogonial stem cells and be aggravated during spermatogonial mitosis and spermatocyte meiosis, which contributes to the scarcely presented sperms in cattleyak.

Cattleyak are interspecific hybrids between cattle and yak, exhibiting the same prominent adaptability as yak and much higher performances than yak. However, male infertility of cattleyak resulted from spermatogenic arrest has greatly restricted their effective utilization in yak breeding. In past decades, much work has been done to investigate the mechanisms of spermatogenic arrest, but little is known about the differences of the post-transcriptional regulators between cattleyak and yak, which may contribute to the impaired spermatogenesis. MiRNAs, a class of endogenous non-coding small RNA, were revealed to play crucial roles in regulating gene expression at post-transcriptional level. In the present study, we identified 50 differentially expressed (DE) known miRNAs and 11 novel miRNAs by using Illumina HISeq and bioinformatic analysis. A total of 50 putative target sites for the 13 DE known miRNAs and 30 for the 6 DE novel miRNAs were identified, respectively. GO and KEGG analyses were performed to reveal the functions of target genes for DE miRNAs. In addition, RT-qPCR was performed to validate the expression of the DE miRNAs and its targets. The identification of these miRNAs may provide valuable information for a better understanding of spermatogenic arrest in cattleyak.