Comparative analysis of mitochondrial genome of a deepsea crab Chaceon granulates reveals positive selection and novel genetic features

Deep-sea organisms survive in an extremely harsh environment.There must be some genetic adaptation mechanisms for them.We systematically characterized and compared the complete mitochondrial genome(mitogenome) of a deep-sea crab(Chaceon granulates) with those of shallow crabs.The mitogenome of the crab was 16 126 bp in length,and encoded 37 genes as most of a metazoan mitogenome,including 13 protein-coding genes(PCGs),22 transfer RNA(tRNA) genes,and 2 ribosomal RNA(rRNA) genes.The gene arrangement and orientation was conserved in the crabs.However,a unique mitogenome element regulator,the origin of light-strand replication(O L),was firstly predicted in the present crab mitogenome.In addition,further positive selection analysis showed that two residues(33 S in ND3 and 502 I in ND5) in C.granulates mitogenome were positively selected,indicated the selective evolution of the deep-sea crab.Therefore,the mitogenome of deep-sea C.granulates showed a unique O_L element and positive selection.These special features would influence the mitochondrial energy metabolism,and be involved in the adaptation of deepsea environment,such as oxygen deficits and low temperatures.     

The role of phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway in regulating serotonin-induced oocyte maturation in Mercenaria mercenaria

Serotonin (5-HT) has been found to stimulate meiotic maturation of oocytes in many molluscs. During maturation, several signaling pathways are involved, especially the phosphatidylinositol and cAMP pathways. In order to examine the possible role of the phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway in regulating oocyte maturation in Mercenaria mercenaria, the effects of the activator/inhibitor of phospholipase (PLC) and protein kinase C (PKC) on serotonin-induced maturation were studied. Results show that high-concentrations of neomycin (inhibitor of PLC) blocked oocyte maturation, while 9, 10-dimethyl-1, 2-benzanthracene (DMBA, activator of PLC) promoted oocyte maturation in the presence of serotonin. It was also found that in the presence of serotonin, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA, activator of PKC) inhibited oocyte maturation, while sphingosine (inhibitor of PKC) stimulated oocyte maturation. These results indicate that serotonin-induced oocyte maturation requires the activation of the phosphatidylinositol pathway. Decrease of PLC inhibited serotonin-induced oocyte maturation, whereas a decrease of PKC stimulated the maturation. Thus, our study indicates that serotonin promotes maturation of M. mercenaria oocytes through PLC stimulated increase in calcium ion concentration via inositol-1, 4, 5-trisphosphate (IP3) but not PKC.     

Rural coping and adaptation strategies for climate change by Himalayan communities in Nepal

Climate change has major impacts on the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. The unpredictable weather conditions in rural Nepal have been attributed to a changing climate. This study explored the climate change adaptation and coping strategies that rural communities adopt for the conservation of natural resources and livelihoods in the mid-hills of Nepal. This paper explored major climatic hazards, assessed different coping and adaptation measures, and barrier faced to climate change adaptation based on perceptions by forest-dependent communities. We conducted focus group discussions, questionnaire surveys, and semistructured interviews with local communities and stakeholders. The results showed that rural communities had experienced significant impacts of climate change and variability. In response, they are practicing diverse coping and adaptation strategies,including the construction of bioengineering structures and planting different species that grow quickly and establish promptly.     

Ecology of macrozoobenthic communities in two plateau lakes of Southwest China

The original version of this article contains a mistake in font setting on p.350. The last part of Table 3 note, i.e. "biomass…molluscs (Liang et al., 1995)" should belong to the paper body. Therefore, the last sentence in     

Evaluation of body weight of sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus by computer vision

Apostichopus japonicus(Holothuroidea,Echinodermata) is an ecological and economic species in East Asia.Conventional biometric monitoring method includes diving for samples and weighing above water,with highly variable in weight measurement due to variation in the quantity of water in the respiratory tree and intestinal content of this species.Recently,video survey method has been applied widely in biometric detection on underwater benthos.However,because of the high flexibility of A.japonicus body,video survey method of monitoring is less used in sea cucumber.In this study,we designed a model to evaluate the wet weight of A.japonicus,using machine vision technology combined with a support vector machine(SVM) that can be used infield surveys on the A.japonicus population.Continuous dorsal images of free-moving A.japonicus individuals in seawater were captured,which also allows for the development of images of the core body edge as well as thorn segmentation.Parameters that include body length,body breadth,perimeter and area,were extracted from the core body edge images and used in SVM regression,to predict the weight of A.japonicus and for comparison with a power model.Results indicate that the use of SVM for predicting the weight of 33 A.japonicus individuals is accurate(R~2=0.99) and compatible with the power model(R~2=0.96).The image-based analysis and size-weight regression models in this study may be useful in body weight evaluation of A.japonicus in lab and field study.     

飞云江、鳌江流域的淡水贝类

报告了 １９８４ 年在飞云江、鳌江流域淡水贝类的调查结果。标本经鉴定有 ４９ 种（含未定种 ５种）,其中腹足纲３２ 种（含未定种２ 种）,瓣鳃纲１７ 种（含未定种 ３ 种）。分析了该流域的常见种和偶见种,广生种和狭生种。探讨了该流域淡水贝类的分布区划和经济意义。     

PI3K/Akt/mTOR Signaling as Targets for Developing Anticancer Agents from Marine Organisms

The PI3 K/Akt/m TOR signaling pathway is one of the most frequently dysregulated pathways in cancer. Targeting the PI3 K-mediated pathway has been an important strategy for developing novel anticancer agents. In the past decades, more than 40 inhibitors of the PI3 K/Akt/m TOR pathway have been developed at different clinical stages. Temsirolimus, everolimus, idelalisib, and copanlisib have been approved for clinical use by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States(FDA). However, the toxicity and drug resistance limit their efficiency in the treatment. Novel compounds with greater potency and selectivity, as well as improved therapeutic indices with reduced toxicity, are clearly required. Over the past three decades, a lot of bioactive ingredients with anticancer effects by affecting the PI3 K-mediated pathways have been found from marine organisms. In the present mini-review, anticancer compounds from marine source that target the PI3 K/Akt/m TOR signaling were reviewed. The molecular entities and their modes of action were presented. The marine compounds targeting special factors of the PI3 K/Akt/m TOR were highlighted.     

Genetic variation in parthenogeneticArtemia from the Shandong Peninsula,P.R.C.

Results are presented of a survey of isozyme frequencies in parthenogeneticArtimia from six salterns in the Shandong Peninsula, P.R.C. Three of the eleven enzymes we scored using polyacryamide gel electrophoresis proved to be useful for analysis of electromorph frequency variation. These enzymes are tetrazolium oxidase (TO), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and malate dehydrogenase (MDH). Each of these systems showed extensive isozyme variation both within and between salterns. In addition, we have examined the possibility that electromorph frequencies may vary as the result of natural selection for adaptation to specific salinity, or salinity-associated environmental conditions. An indication of clinal variation was found in two series of ponds differing in salinity, however more extensive data are needed before it is possible to conclude that these patterns are the result of natural selection. Finally, the use of isozyme analyses such as ours, for unraveling taxonomic problems inArtemia is discussed.     

Phylogenetic diversity of dinoflagellates in polar regions

Because of the limitations of sampling and seasonal study in polar regions, knowledge of dinoflagellate diversity, distribution and ecology are limited. Dinoflagellates have been incidentally reported from polar regions during some seasons and some populations have been reported as components of microalgae. Surveys of molecular diversity link the genotype of dinoflagellates from polar regions with environmental adaptation. In this study, 37 positive clones of dinoflagellates collected from different sites were used for genotype analysis, providing new insights into the biodiversity and distribution of these species based on 18S rRNA sequencing. Diverse genotypes were recorded for the summer season in Kongsfjorden (high Arctic) whilst a single novel genotype of dinoflagellate was recorded from winter samples from the Antarctic Ocean. Data from ice cores suggests that this single dinoflagellate genotype was adapted to extreme cold and clone library screening found that it was occasionally the only microbial eukaryotic genotype found in winter ice cores. The findings of this study could improve our understanding of the diverse dinoflagellate genotypes occurring in these perennially cold microbial ecosystems.     

17β-雌二醇注射雌性金钱鱼下丘脑转录组分析

【目的】通过转录组测序分析雌激素(17β-Estradiol,E₂)对雌性金钱鱼下丘脑中基因表达的影响。【方法】E₂体注射后进行雌性金钱鱼下丘脑转录组测序,基因功能注释,差异基因筛选、鉴定,GO(Gene Ontology annotation)和KEGG(Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes)信号通路富集分析,并利用实时定量PCR(Real-time quantitative PCR,qPCR)检测E₂体注射后雌性金钱鱼下丘脑中相关基因的表达。【结果】雌性金钱鱼下丘脑转录组测序共测得Clean reads为190909756,注释到17687个基因,筛选和鉴定了22个差异表达基因,包括prl、erf3α、pgr和cyp19a1b等11个表达上调基因和chsy1、muc17l、prf1和hla-α等11个下调基因。通过KEGG功能富集分析发现差异基因涉及13个代谢通路。转录组和qPCR结果显示,与对照雌鱼相比,E₂注射组雌鱼下丘脑中prl、pgr、cyp19a1b和3β-HSDI的表达显著上调,而生长轴相关基因ghrh、sst1、sst3、sst5和sst6的表达未受影响。【结论】E₂通过反馈作用调节下丘脑中部分性类固醇激素合成通路相关基因的表达,但不影响生长相关基因的表达。     

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in intron 1 and intron 2 of Larimichthys crocea growth hormone gene are correlated with growth traits

The growth hormone gene (GH) affects animal growth and is a potential target for genetic studies of variation related to growth traits. In this study, we analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in GH intron regions and their associations with growth traits in large yellow croaker, Larimichthys crocea, from Zhejiang and Fujian stocks. The results of PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism showed two haplotypes of intron 1, named AA and AB genotypes, in Zhejiang stock. AB exhibited an SNP at position 196 (G A) that was negatively correlated with body height and positively correlated with standard length/body height (P 0.05). Two different genotypes, CC and CD, were identified in intron 2 in Fujian stock, with CD showing an SNP at position 692 (T C). The CD genotype had a significantly positive correlation with both weight and total length (P 0.01). These basic data highlight the potential for using GH as a genetic marker of fish growth in marker assisted selection.     

Transcriptome Analysis of Crassostrea sikamea (♀) × Crassostrea gigas (♂) Hybrids Under and After Thermal Stress

Crossbreeding is an effective approach to manage the genetic decline in aquaculture.One-way hybrids of Crassostrea sikamea(♀)and Crassostrea gigas(♂)have advantages in growth traits and adaptation to high temperature.Here,we used high-throughput sequencing to analyze the molecular processes in the hybrids under and after thermal stress.The hybrids were cultured in the seawater with an increasing temperature from 25℃to 40℃during 10 hours,which is regarded as the thermal stress stage.Then the temperature decreased from 40℃to 25℃within 2 h,which is regarded as the recovery stage.In this study,1293 significant diffe-rentially expressed genes(DEGs)were obtained under thermal stress,of which 576 were upregulated and 717 were downregulated,and 740 significant differentially expressed genes(DEGs)were obtained in the recovery stage,of which the number of upregulated and downregulated genes was 409 and 331,respectively.The antigen processing and presentation,NOD-like,and NF-kappa B path-ways were significantly enriched during the thermal stress stage.The MAPK and PPAR signaling pathways were significantly enrich-ed during the recovery stage.The HSP70,HSP90,and CANX genes were strongly and rapidly upregulated in the control/thermal stress groups but were slightly less upregulated in the thermal stress/recovery group.These results indicate that the innate immune system or nonspecific immunity was deployed to protect interior tissues from thermal stress.In addition,85%of the mutual DEGs were involved in bidirectional regulation(up/down or down/up)when the oysters were removed from the thermal stress to recover.This study provides preliminary insight into the molecular response of C.sikamea(♀)and C.gigas(♂)hybrids to thermal stress and provides a basis for future studies on temperature-adaptation and the possible expansion of hybrid breeding.