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Soluble starch synthases (SSs) play important roles in the synthesis of cassava starch. However, the expression characteristics of the cassava SSs genes have not been elucidated. In this study, the MeSSIII-1 gene and its promoter, from SC8 cassava cultivars, were respectively isolated by PCR amplification. MeSSIII-1 protein was localized to the chloroplasts. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that the MeSSIII-1 gene was expressed in almost all tissues tested, and the expression in mature leaves was 18.9 times more than that in tuber roots. MeSSIII-1 expression was induced by methyljasmonate (MeJA), abscisic acid (ABA), and ethylene (ET) hormones in cassava. MeSSIII-1 expression patterns were further confirmed in proMeSSIII-1 transgenic cassava. The promoter deletion analysis showed that the −264 bp to −1 bp MeSSIII-1 promoter has basal activity. The range from −1228 bp to −987 bp and −488 bp to −264 bp significantly enhance promoter activity. The regions from −987 bp to −747 bp and −747 bp to −488 bp have repressive activity. These findings will provide an important reference for research on the potential function and transcriptional regulation mechanisms of the MeSSIII-1 gene and for further in-depth exploration of the regulatory network of its internal functional elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many high-dimensional microarray classification problems, an important task is to identify subsets of genes that best discriminate the classes. Nevertheless, existing gene selection methods for microarray classification cannot identify which classes are discriminable by these selected genes. In this paper, we propose an improved linear discriminant analysis (LDA) method that simultaneously selects important genes and identifies the discriminable classes. Specifically, a pairwise fusion penalty for LDA was used to shrink the differences of the class centroids in pairs for each variable and fuse the centroids of indiscriminable classes altogether. The numerical results in analyzing 2 gene expression profiles demonstrate the proposed approach help improve the interpretation of important genes in microarray classification problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, the expression of Cripto-1 and the role of macrophage polarization in immune response after allogeneic transfusion were analyzed by constructing a mouse model of allogeneic transfusion. In order to analyze the effects of miR-449a on the PI3K/AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway and the expression of downstream related regulatory factors under normal and abnormal conditions, we adopt in vitro and in vivo experiments separately. The molecular mechanism of PI3K/AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway was analyzed by blocking or activating gene expression and western blotting. Experiment in vitro has confirmed that inhibition of miR-449a increased the protein expression of Cripto-1. In vivo experiments confirmed that allogeneic transfusion reduced the expression of Cripto-1, which further inhibited NF-κB signaling pathway through AKT/PI3K phosphorylation, regulated macrophage polarization, inhibited M1 polarization of macrophages, promoted M2 polarization, and thus affected immune response of the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Angiostrongylus cantonensis causes eosinophilic meningitis and eosinophilic pleocytosis in humans and is of significant socio-economic importance globally. microRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small non-coding RNAs that play crucial roles in gene expression regulation, cellular function and defense, homeostasis and pathogenesis. They have been identified in a diverse range of organisms. The objective of this study was to determine and characterize miRNAs of female and male adults of A. cantonensis by Solexa deep sequencing. A total of 8861,260 and 10,957,957 high quality reads with 20 and 23 conserved miRNAs were obtained in females and males, respectively. No new miRNA sequence was found. Nucleotide bias analysis showed that uracil was the prominent nucleotide, particularly at positions of 1, 10, 14, 17 and 22, approximately at the beginning, middle and the end of the conserved miRNAs. To our knowledge, this is the first report of miRNA profiles in A. cantonensis, which may represent a new platform for studying regulation of genes and their networks in A. cantonensis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In recent years, among all patients with colorectal cancer, the proportion of young patients has been gradually increasing. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in colorectal cancer in the young are largely unknown. In the present study the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets were integrated to elucidate the key gene biomarkers in these patients. The GSE41657 and GSE41258 datasets were downloaded from the GEO database. By screening for differentially expressed genes, Gene Ontology analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis, protein-protein interaction analysis, hub gene screening and survival analysis, two key genes, CXCL8 and VEGFA, which were enriched in cancer pathways, were obtained. Reverse transcription-quantitative (RT-q)PCR was performed to verify the outcome obtained by bioinformatics analysis. In conclusion, the present study identified two key genes using bioinformatics analysis and RT-qPCR validation. These results indicated that the candidate genes may be involved in the progression of colorectal cancer in young people, and these two genes may act as ideal prognostic indicators or therapeutic targets for colorectal cancer in the youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]