scholarly journals Metabolic Stimulation-Elicited Transcriptional Responses and Biosynthesis ofAcylated Triterpenoids in the Medicinal Plant Helicteres Angustifolia

Author(s):  
Yuying Huang ◽  
Wenli An ◽  
Zerui Yang ◽  
Chunzhu Xie ◽  
Shanshan Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Helicteres angustifolia has long been used in Chinese traditional medicine. It has multiple pharmacological benefits, including anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and anti-tumor effects. Its main active chemicals include betulinic acid, oleanolic acid, helicteric acid, helicterilic acid, and other triterpenoid sapions. It is worth noting that the acylation of triterpenoids, such as helicteric acid and helicterilic acid, are characteristic components of Helicteres and are relatively rare among other plants. However, reliance on natural plants as the only sources of these restricts the potential use of H. angustifolia. Therefore, engineering of its metabolic pathway is of high research value for enhancing the production of secondary metabolites. Unfortunately, little is known of the biosynthesis of acylated triterpenoids, hindering its further investigation. Here, the RNAs of different groups treated by metabolic stimulation were sequenced with an Illumina high-throughput sequencing platform, resulting in 121 gigabases of data. A total of 424,824 unigenes were obtained after the trimming and assembly of the raw data, and 22,430 unigenes were determined to be differentially expressed. In addition, three oxidized squalene cyclases (OSCs) and four Cytochrome P450 (CYP450s) were screened, of which one OSC (HaOSC1) and one CYP450 (HaCYPi3) achieved functional verification, suggesting that they could catalyze the production of lupeol and oleanolic acid, respectively. At the same time, we also screened two triterpenoid acetyl transferases (TATs) and one triterpenoid benzoyl transferase (TBT), as subsequent structural modificatory genes, their preliminary study laid a foundation for the acylation of triterpenoids. In a nutshell, these results shed light on the regulation of acylated triterpenoids biosynthesis.

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (9_suppl) ◽  
pp. 94S-103S ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Wang ◽  
Lijuan Cao ◽  
Guangying Sheng ◽  
Hongjie Shen ◽  
Jing Ling ◽  
...  

Inherited thrombocytopenia is a group of hereditary diseases with a reduction in platelet count as the main clinical manifestation. Clinically, there is an urgent need for a convenient and rapid diagnosis method. We introduced a high-throughput, next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform into the routine diagnosis of patients with unexplained thrombocytopenia and analyzed the gene sequencing results to evaluate the value of NGS technology in the screening and diagnosis of inherited thrombocytopenia. From a cohort of 112 patients with thrombocytopenia, we screened 43 patients with hereditary features. For the blood samples of these 43 patients, a gene sequencing platform for hemorrhagic and thrombotic diseases comprising 89 genes was used to perform gene detection using NGS technology. When we combined the screening results with clinical features and other findings, 15 (34.9%) of 43patients were diagnosed with inherited thrombocytopenia. In addition, 19 pathogenic variants, including 8 previously unreported variants, were identified in these patients. Through the use of this detection platform, we expect to establish a more effective diagnostic approach to such disorders.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254808
Author(s):  
Weiwei Wang ◽  
Fengtao Zhang ◽  
Jia Cui ◽  
Di Chen ◽  
Zhen Liu ◽  
...  

MicroRNA-like small RNAs (milRNAs) and their regulatory roles in the interaction between plant and fungus have recently aroused keen interest of plant pathologists. Trichoderma spp., one of the widespread biocontrol fungi, can promote plant growth and induce plant disease resistance. To investigate milRNAs potentially involved in the interaction between Trichoderma and tomato roots, a small RNA (sRNA) library expressed during the interaction of T. asperellum DQ-1 and tomato roots was constructed and sequenced using the Illumina HiSeqTM 2500 sequencing platform. From 13,464,142 sRNA reads, we identified 21 milRNA candidates that were similar to other known microRNAs in the miRBase database and 22 novel milRNA candidates that possessed a stable microRNA precursor hairpin structure. Among them, three milRNA candidates showed different expression level in the interaction according to the result of stem-loop RT-PCR indicating that these milRNAs may play a distinct regulatory role in the interaction between Trichoderma and tomato roots. The potential transboundary milRNAs from T. asperellum and their target genes in tomato were predicted by bioinformatics analysis. The results revealed that several interesting proteins involved in plant growth and development, disease resistance, seed maturation, and osmotic stress signal transduction might be regulated by the transboundary milRNAs. To our knowledge, this is the first report of milRNAs taking part in the process of interaction of T. asperellum and tomato roots and associated with plant promotion and disease resistance. The results might be useful to unravel the mechanism of interaction between Trichoderma and tomato.


Pathogens ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 628
Author(s):  
Morgane Guégan ◽  
Edwige Martin ◽  
Claire Valiente Moro

The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus is a major pathogen vector and one of the world’s most invasive species. In recent years, the study of mosquito-associated microbiota has received growing interest for reducing transmission of mosquito-borne pathogens. Most of studies on mosquito microbiota mainly focused on the gut bacteria. However, microorganisms can also colonize other organs and are not restricted to bacteria. In mosquitoes, the crop is the primary storage organ for sugars from the nectar feeding before it is transferred into the midgut for digestion. No study has yet investigated whether this organ can harbor microorganisms in Ae. albopictus. By using high-throughput sequencing, this study is the first to describe the microbiota including both bacteria and fungi in sugar-fed Ae. albopictus males and females. The results showed the presence of diverse and rich bacterial and fungal communities in the crop of both sexes that did not strongly differ from the community composition and structure found in the gut. Altogether, our results provide a thorough description of the crop-associated microbiota in Ae. albopictus which can open new avenues for further studies on trophic interactions between the mosquito and its microbiota.


GigaScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Sandoval-Velasco ◽  
Juan Antonio Rodríguez ◽  
Cynthia Perez Estrada ◽  
Guojie Zhang ◽  
Erez Lieberman Aiden ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Hi-C experiments couple DNA-DNA proximity with next-generation sequencing to yield an unbiased description of genome-wide interactions. Previous methods describing Hi-C experiments have focused on the industry-standard Illumina sequencing. With new next-generation sequencing platforms such as BGISEQ-500 becoming more widely available, protocol adaptations to fit platform-specific requirements are useful to give increased choice to researchers who routinely generate sequencing data. Results We describe an in situ Hi-C protocol adapted to be compatible with the BGISEQ-500 high-throughput sequencing platform. Using zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) as a biological sample, we demonstrate how Hi-C libraries can be constructed to generate informative data using the BGISEQ-500 platform, following circularization and DNA nanoball generation. Our protocol is a modification of an Illumina-compatible method, based around blunt-end ligations in library construction, using un-barcoded, distally overhanging double-stranded adapters, followed by amplification using indexed primers. The resulting libraries are ready for circularization and subsequent sequencing on the BGISEQ series of platforms and yield data similar to what can be expected using Illumina-compatible approaches. Conclusions Our straightforward modification to an Illumina-compatible in situHi-C protocol enables data generation on the BGISEQ series of platforms, thus expanding the options available for researchers who wish to utilize the powerful Hi-C techniques in their research.


2004 ◽  
Vol 183 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Michel ◽  
Andrew M. Fried ◽  
Shamyshree Sinha ◽  
John Willson ◽  
Eric Bensadoun ◽  
...  

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimeles Tilahun ◽  
Han Ryul Choi ◽  
Hyok Kwon ◽  
Sung Min Park ◽  
Do Su Park ◽  
...  

Fruit ripening involves changes in physical, physiological and metabolic activities through the actions of enzymes and regulatory genes. This study was initiated to identify the genes related to the ripening of kiwifruit. Gold ‘Haegeum’ kiwifruit is a yellow-fleshed kiwifruit cultivar usually used for fresh marketing. The fruit is harvested at a physiologically mature but unripe stage for proper storage, marketing distribution and longer shelf life. To identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during ripening, fruit treated with ethylene were compared with control fruit that ripened naturally without ethylene treatment. Firmness, respiration rate, ethylene production rate, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), brix acid ratio (BAR) and overall acceptability were taken during the study as fruit ripening indicators. Total mRNAs were sequenced by Illumina high-throughput sequencing platform and the transcriptome gene set was constructed by de novo assembly. We identified 99,601 unigenes with an average length of 511.77 bp in transcriptome contigs. A total of 28,582 differentially expressed unigenes were identified in the ethylene treatment vs. control. Of these 28,582 unigenes, 13,361 and 15,221 genes were up- and downregulated, respectively, in the treated fruit. The results also showed that 1682 and 855 genes were up- and downregulated, respectively, more than 2-fold at p < 0.05 in fruit treated with ethylene as compared with the control fruit. Moreover, we identified 75 genes showing significantly different expression; 42 were upregulated, and 33 were downregulated. A possible category of the identified ripening-related genes was also made. The findings of this study will add to the available information on the effect of ethylene treatment on ripening and the related changes of kiwifruit at the genomic level, and it could assist the further study of genes related to ripening for kiwifruit breeding and improvement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2179-2183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Prost ◽  
Malte Petersen ◽  
Martin Grethlein ◽  
Sarah Joy Hahn ◽  
Nina Kuschik-Maczollek ◽  
...  

Ever decreasing costs along with advances in sequencing and library preparation technologies enable even small research groups to generate chromosome-level assemblies today. Here we report the generation of an improved chromosome-level assembly for the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) that was carried out during a practical university master’s course. The Siamese fighting fish is a popular aquarium fish and an emerging model species for research on aggressive behavior. We updated the current genome assembly by generating a new long-read nanopore-based assembly with subsequent scaffolding to chromosome-level using previously published Hi-C data. The use of ∼35x nanopore-based long-read data sequenced on a MinION platform (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) allowed us to generate a baseline assembly of only 1,276 contigs with a contig N50 of 2.1 Mbp, and a total length of 441 Mbp. Scaffolding using the Hi-C data resulted in 109 scaffolds with a scaffold N50 of 20.7 Mbp. More than 99% of the assembly is comprised in 21 scaffolds. The assembly showed the presence of 96.1% complete BUSCO genes from the Actinopterygii dataset indicating a high quality of the assembly. We present an improved full chromosome-level assembly of the Siamese fighting fish generated during a university master’s course. The use of ∼35× long-read nanopore data drastically improved the baseline assembly in terms of continuity. We show that relatively in-expensive high-throughput sequencing technologies such as the long-read MinION sequencing platform can be used in educational settings allowing the students to gain practical skills in modern genomics and generate high quality results that benefit downstream research projects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Ran ◽  
Peixin Jiao ◽  
Ousama AlZahal ◽  
Xiaolai Xie ◽  
Karen A Beauchemin ◽  
...  

Abstract Our previous study suggested that supplementation of high-grain diets with ruminally protected and non-protected active dried yeast (ADY) may potentially reduce manure pathogen excretion by feedlot cattle. We hypothesized that feeding ruminally protected ADY might change the fecal bacterial community of finishing cattle. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of feeding ruminally protected and non-protected ADY to finishing beef steers on their fecal bacterial community. Fresh fecal samples were collected on day 56 from 50 steers fed one of five treatments: 1) control (no monensin, tylosin, or ADY), 2) antibiotics (ANT, 330 mg monensin + 110 mg tylosin·steer−1d−1), 3) ADY (1.5 g·steer−1d−1), 4) encapsulated ADY (EDY; 3 g·steer−1d−1), and 5) a mixture of ADY and EDY (MDY; 1.5 g ADY + 3 g EDY·steer−1d−1). Bacterial DNA was extracted from fecal samples and sequenced using a MiSeq high-throughput sequencing platform. A total number of 2,128,772 high-quality V4 16S rRNA sequences from 50 fecal samples were analyzed, and 1,424 operational taxonomic units (OTU) were detected based on 97% nucleotide sequence identity among reads, with 769 OTU shared across the five treatments. Alpha diversity indices, including species observed, Chao estimate, abundance-based coverage estimator, Shannon, Simpson, and coverage, did not differ among treatments, and principal coordinate analysis revealed a high similarity among treatments without independent distribution. Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were dominant phyla in the fecal bacterial community for all treatments, with a tendency (P &lt; 0.10) for greater relative abundance of Bacteroidetes but lesser Firmicutes with ANT, EDY, and MDY compared with control steers. Prevotella was the dominant genus in all treatments and steers supplemented with ANT, EDY, and MDY had greater (P &lt; 0.05) relative abundance of Prevotella than control steers, but lesser (P &lt; 0.03) relative abundance of Oscillospira. No differences between ADY and control were observed for the aforementioned variables. Fecal starch contents were not different among treatments, but the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, as well as Prevotella at genera level, tended (P &lt; 0.06) to be positively correlated to fecal starch content. We conclude that supplementing ruminally protected or non-protected ADY or ANT had no effect on diversity and richness of fecal bacteria of finishing beef cattle, whereas feeding protected ADY or ANT to finishing beef steers altered the dominant fecal bacteria at phylum and genus levels. Therefore, supplementation of ruminally protected ADY may potentially improve intestinal health by stimulating the relative abundance of Prevotella.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document