Characterization of the mitochondrial genome of the pathogenic fungus Scytalidium auriculariicola (Leotiomycetes) and insights into its phylogenetics

Scytalidium auriculariicola is the causative pathogen of slippery scar disease in the cultivated cloud ear fungus, Auricularia polytricha. In the present study, the mitogenome of S. auriculariicola was sequenced and assembled by next-generation sequencing technology. The circular mitogenome is 96,857 bp long and contains 56 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and 30 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs). The high frequency of A and T used in codons contributed to the high AT content (73.70%) of the S. auriculariicola mitogenome. Comparative analysis indicated that the base composition and the number of introns and protein-coding genes in the S. auriculariicola mitogenome varied from that of other Leotiomycetes mitogenomes, including a uniquely positive AT skew. Five distinct groups were found in the gene arrangements of Leotiomycetes. Phylogenetic analyses based on combined gene datasets (15 protein-coding genes) yielded well-supported (BPP = 1) topologies. A single-gene phylogenetic tree indicated that the nad4 gene may be useful as a molecular marker to analyze the phylogenetic relationships of Leotiomycetes species. This study is the first report on the mitochondrial genome of the genus Scytalidium, and it will contribute to our understanding of the population genetics and evolution of S. auriculariicola and related species.

A Jeffrey Fluid Model for a Porous-walled Channel: Application to Flat Plate Dialyzer

Creeping motion of a Jeffrey fluid in a small width porous-walled channel is presented with an application to flow in flat plate hemodialyzer. Darcy's law is used to characterize the fluid leakage through channel walls. Using suitable physical approximations, approximate analytical solution of equations of motion is obtained by employing perturbation method. Expressions for velocity field and the hydrostatic pressure are obtained. Effects of filtration coefficient, the inlet pressure and Jeffrey fluid parameters on the flow characteristics are discussed graphically. The derived results are used to study the flow of filtrate in a flat plat hemodialyzer. Using the derived solutions, theoretical values of the filtration rate and the mean pressure difference in the hemodialyzer are calculated. On comparing the computed results with the available experimental data, a reasonable agreement between the two is found. It is concluded that the presented model can be used to study the hydrodynamical aspects of the fluid flow in a flat plate hemodialyzer.

P5399microRNA-486 mediates exercise-induced cardiac growth and prevents cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury

Background

Molecules mediating exercise-induced physiological cardiac growth may be beneficial to prevent cardiac injury and remodeling. MicroRNA-486 (miR-486) is a muscle-enriched microRNA which was found to be increased in exercised heart. However, the role of miR-486 in exercise-induced cardiac growth is largely unknown.

Purpose

We aimed to study the function of miR-486 in exercise-induced cardiac growth, and to investigate its potential role in protection against cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury.

Methods

Male C57BL/6 adult mice were subjected to 3-week swimming exercise to induce physiological cardiac growth. Knockdown of miR-486 was performed by intramyocardial injection of miR-486 sponge to evaluate the role of miR-486 in exercise-induced cardiac growth. Moreover, intramyocardial injection of miR-486 overexpression lentivirus was performed to investigate whether miR-486 could reduce infarct size in mice suffered from acute I/R injury (30 min ligation and 24 hr reperfusion of left anterior descending coronary artery). Meanwhile, the functional role of miR-486 was evaluated in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs) treated with oxygen glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGDR) using Tunel staining. Finally, function-rescue assays were performed to identify target genes of miR-486.

Results

Exercise significantly upregulated miR-486 in the heart, which was reduced by intramyocardial injection of miR-486 sponge. Exercise induced-cardiac growth was abolished in mice with intramyocardial injection of miR-486 sponge, as evidenced by reduced heart weight/body weight ratio and heart weight/tibia length ratio compared to control exercised-mice, suggesting a potential role of miR-486 in mediating exercise-induced cardiac growth. Meanwhile, we found that intramyocardial injection of miR-486 overexpression lentivirus was able to reduce the infarct size as determined by TTC staining. Moreover, in OGDR-induced apoptosis of NRCMs, miR-486 mimics was able to reduce cardiomyocyte apoptosis, while miR-486 inhibitor performed the opposite. Finally, PTEN and FoxO1 were identified as target genes of miR-486 in the control of cardiomyocyte apoptosis.

Conclusions

miR-486 mediates exercise-induced cardiac growth and protects against cardiac I/R injury. Increasing miR-486 might serve as a potential target to reduce myocardial apoptosis upon I/R injury.

Acknowledgement/Funding

This work was supported by the grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China 81722008, 91639101 and 81570362 to JJ Xiao, 81770401 to Y Bei

Characterization of the complete mitochondrial genome of Corynespora cassiicola (Pleosporales: Dothideomycetes), with its phylogenetic analysis

Corynespora cassiicola is a well-known plant pathogen with a broad host range and diverse lifestyles. In this study, we presented the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of C. cassiicola for the first time. It has a total length of 40,752 bp, which encodes 17 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rRNA), and 27 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. The nucleotide composition of the mitogenome is: A (36.24%), T (34.62%), G (15.74%), and C (13.39%). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that C. cassiicola has a close relationship with Didymella pinodes from Didymellaceae.

Momentum Dependence of the Nematic Order Parameter in Iron-Based Superconductors

The momentum dependence of the nematic order parameter is an important ingredient in the microscopic description of iron-based high-temperature superconductors. While recent reports on FeSe indicate that the nematic order parameter changes sign between electron and hole bands, detailed knowledge is still missing for other compounds. Combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with uniaxial strain tuning, we measure the nematic band splitting in both FeSe and BaFe_{2}As_{2} without interference from either twinning or magnetic order. We find that the nematic order parameter exhibits the same momentum dependence in both compounds with a sign change between the Brillouin center and the corner. This suggests that the same microscopic mechanism drives the nematic order in spite of the very different phase diagrams.

Band-Resolved Imaging of Photocurrent in a Topological Insulator

We study the microscopic origins of photocurrent generation in the topological insulator Bi_{2}Se_{3} via time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We image the unoccupied band structure as it evolves following a circularly polarized optical excitation and observe an asymmetric electron population in momentum space, which is the spectroscopic signature of a photocurrent. By analyzing the rise times of the population we identify which occupied and unoccupied electronic states are coupled by the optical excitation. We conclude that photocurrents can only be excited via resonant optical transitions coupling to spin-orbital textured states. Our work provides a microscopic understanding of how to control photocurrents in systems with spin-orbit coupling and broken inversion symmetry.

[The application of accurate clinical diagnosis and treatment with T-MIST in tinnitus patients]

Objective: To analyze the advantages and application value of tinnitus multielement integration sound therapy(T-MIST) in the diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus.Method: Collect 172 patients with subjective tinnitus and 54 non-tinnitus subjects, record history through T-MIST, observe the distribution of the tinnitus patients, an illness population characteristics, precise detection in patients with tinnitus related status indicators and analysis of gender, age, hearing loss, and the correlation of frequency of hearing loss and tinnitus, at the same time in surgical treatment and analysis of its curative effect. Result: The incidence of hypertension, sleep disturbance, diabetes, chronic noise exposure, rhinitis, colds and cervical spondylosis during tinnitus was high, and the frequency of tinnitus and hearing loss were high. There was no statistically significant difference between tinnitus and gender, age and hearing loss(P>0.05). As for the bivariate correlation analysis of tinnitus frequency and hearing loss frequency, tinnitus frequencywas positively correlated with hearing loss frequency(r =0.545). The effective rate of acoustic T-MIST treatment was 64.5%. Conclusion: T-MIST can record the patients' medical history synchronously, accurately detect their tinnitus and hearing condition, and conduct targeted treatment, which is more comprehensive and accurate than traditional treatment..

Prediction of incident vertebral fracture using CT-based finite element analysis

Prior studies show vertebral strength from computed tomography-based finite element analysis may be associated with vertebral fracture risk. We found vertebral strength had a strong association with new vertebral fractures, suggesting that vertebral strength measures identify those at risk for vertebral fracture and may be a useful clinical tool.

INTRODUCTION

We aimed to determine the association between vertebral strength by quantitative computed tomography (CT)-based finite element analysis (FEA) and incident vertebral fracture (VF). In addition, we examined sensitivity and specificity of previously proposed diagnostic thresholds for fragile bone strength and low BMD in predicting VF.

METHODS

In a case-control study, 26 incident VF cases (13 men, 13 women) and 62 age- and sex-matched controls aged 50 to 85 years were selected from the Framingham multi-detector computed tomography cohort. Vertebral compressive strength, integral vBMD, trabecular vBMD, CT-based BMC, and CT-based aBMD were measured from CT scans of the lumbar spine.

RESULTS

Lower vertebral strength at baseline was associated with an increased risk of new or worsening VF after adjusting for age, BMI, and prevalent VF status (odds ratio (OR) = 5.2 per 1 SD decrease, 95% CI 1.3-19.8). Area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve comparisons revealed that vertebral strength better predicted incident VF than CT-based aBMD (AUC = 0.804 vs. 0.715, p = 0.05) but was not better than integral vBMD (AUC = 0.815) or CT-based BMC (AUC = 0.794). Additionally, proposed fragile bone strength thresholds trended toward better sensitivity for identifying VF than that of aBMD-classified osteoporosis (0.46 vs. 0.23, p = 0.09).

CONCLUSION

This study shows an association between vertebral strength measures and incident vertebral fracture in men and women. Though limited by a small sample size, our findings also suggest that bone strength estimates by CT-based FEA provide equivalent or better ability to predict incident vertebral fracture compared to CT-based aBMD. Our study confirms that CT-based estimates of vertebral strength from FEA are useful for identifying patients who are at high risk for vertebral fracture.

Investigating fetal growth restriction and perinatal risks in appropriate for gestational age infants: using cohort and within-sibling analyses

OBJECTIVE

Fetal growth restriction refers to fetuses that fail to reach their growth potential. Studies within siblings may be useful to disclose fetal growth restriction in appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants. We analysed associations between birthweight percentiles and perinatal risks in AGA infants, using both population-based and within-sibling analyses.

DESIGN

Population-based cohort study.

SETTING AND SAMPLE

Using nation-wide Swedish registries (1987-2012), we identified 2 134 924 singleton AGA births (10th-90th birthweight percentile for gestational age), of whom 1 377 326 were full siblings.

METHODS

Unconditional Poisson regression was used for population analyses, and conditional (matched) Poisson regression for within-sibling analyses. We estimated associations between birthweight percentiles and stillbirth, neonatal mortality, and morbidity, using incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

RESULTS

Stillbirth and neonatal mortality risks declined with increasing birthweight percentiles, but the declines were larger in within-sibling analyses. Compared with the reference group (40th to <60th percentile), IRRs (95% CIs) of stillbirth for the lowest and highest percentile groups (10th to <25th and 75th-90th percentiles, respectively) were 1.87 (1.72-2.03) to 0.76 (0.68-0.85) in population analysis and 2.60 (2.27-2.98) and 0.43 (0.36-0.50) in within-sibling analysis. Neonatal morbidity risks in term non-malformed infants with low birthweight percentiles were generally only increased in within-sibling analyses.

CONCLUSION

Using birthweight information from siblings may help to define fetal growth restriction in AGA infants.

TWEETABLE ABSTRACT

Size of siblings helps to detect growth-restricted infants with seemingly normal birthweights.