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Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells derive from the inner cell mass of an early embryo called blastocyst, making them promising resource for regenerative medicine. They possess two unique properties: self-renewal and pluripotency. Different ways can be used to assess which extracellular signal and factor inside ES cells has an impact on the pluripotency of ES cells. Nowadays, many extracellular signals and transcription factors have been identified, such as extracellular signals like LIF and transcription factors like Oct4. Studying the mechanism and function of these factors offers great insight and advance our understanding of pluripotency and self-renewal and thus shed light on regenerative medicine.

Avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a member of family Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, causes a highly contagious respiratory and sometimes urogenital disease of chickens that is characterized by respiratory signs, nephritis, [...]

Self-incompatibility (SI) is a mechanism used to prevent inbreeding and promote outcrossing in a wide variety of angiosperms. Camellia oleifera (Theaceae), is one of the most prominent wood oil plants. However, self-incompatibility results in a relatively low ratio of fruit/seed sets to flowers in C. oleifera. In this study, fluorescence microscopy and confocal microscopy were used to observe how pollen tube growth differed between cross- vs. self-pollination events. We found that self-pollen tubes appear twisted and clustered when growing to the base of the style and it is impossible for self-pollen tubes to reach the embryo sac to complete double fertilization. In contrast, pollen tubes from crossing events grow normally and reach the ovary to complete fertilization. We characterised candidate genes related to SI and investigated the underlying mechanisms regulating fertilization by performing RNA-seq on C. oleifera. In addition, we also conducted qRT-PCR on 20 unigenes to validate our RNA-seq data. We identified genes encoding protein kinases and phosphatases, Ca2+ signaling proteins, transcription factors, CYP family members, and defense-related proteins as candidate genes related to SI in C. oleifera. With these genes identified, more thorough studies of SI mechanisms in C. oleifera have become possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]