Analysis of Fcgrt gene polymorphism in indigenous Chinese sheep and its association with colostrum IgG concentration

The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) plays an important role in regulating IgG homeostasis in the body and passive protection to the offspring. Changes in FcRn expression levels caused by genetic polymorphisms of Fcgrt, which encodes FcRn, may lead to inter-individual differences in colostrum IgG levels in sheep. In this study, we sequenced the FcRn partial heavy chain from 179 sheep from Xinjiang Province, China, and detected the differences in colostrum IgG levels and Fcgrt genotypes to identify the correlation between the Fcgrt genotype and colostrum IgG levels in 4 sheep breeds. The DNA sequencing of a 680-bp fragment of the Fcgrt gene revealed various patterns depending on the single-strand conformation in the Suffolk breed. Sequencing analysis revealed a total of 3 patterns, AA, BB, AB, in this fragment, among which the absence of AB and BB genotype acted as a marker for breed identification and characterization, while the AA genotype was shared by Suffolk and 3 other breeds. The only allele found in all 4 breeds was allele A, indicating that natural selection may be favoring the AB and BB genotypes in general and B allele in particular, as the colostrum IgG concentration was relatively higher in the Suffolk breed compared to the other 3 breeds.

First Report of Pseudonectria buxi Causing Volutella Blight on Boxwood (Buxus sp.) in Beijing, China

Pseudonectria buxi (also called Volutella buxi) is a fungal pathogen that causes a disease of boxwood (Buxus spp.). This disease has been reported in several countries in Europe and North America, and has been traditionally considered the primary cause of boxwood decline (1), although box blight caused by Cylindrocladium buxicola has claimed notoriety because of its recent introduction to North America. In August 2013, symptoms resembling Volutella blight were observed at a park in Haidian District, Beijing, China, on leaves and stems of Korean boxwood (B. sinica var. insularis). The plants were still alive, but diseased leaves and twigs were yellowed and showed dieback. Symptoms were common on boxwood throughout this park, and the disease was also seen in other nearby areas. Pink sporodochia were observed on some yellowed leaves and stems. Diseased tissues (stems and leaves) were collected, cut into 1 mm² pieces, surface sterilized in 1% sodium hypochlorite for 1 min, and placed on potato dextrose agar. After 3 days of incubation at room temperature, white fluffy mycelia were seen. The middle of the colonies turned pink by 7 days, and conidia produced on verticillately branched conidiophores in these pink areas were elliptical, 6 to 9 × 2 to 2.5 μm. DNA was extracted from one colony containing spores and mycelium, and a portion of the beta-tubulin gene was amplified using primers designed from highly conserved regions (5'-AACAACTGGGCCAAGGGTC, 5'-GAAGAGTTCTTGTTCTGGA) (3). The 676-bp amplicon was sequenced (GenBank Accession No. KJ755987), and the top matches were two isolates of P. buxi (KC819609 and DQ522522) with identities of 566/567 bp (99.8%) and 551/567 bp (97.2%), respectively. The next best matches were at 92% for Fusarium spp. For inoculation, four pots of 2-year-old healthy B. sinica var. insularis × B. sempervirens cv. Green Velvet were used. As wounds are required for the infection process (2,3), two parallel light scratches were made using needles on adaxial surface of three leaves per plant. One plant was only sprayed with water until runoff, while the other three plants were sprayed with a spore suspension (10⁶ spores/ml) of P. buxi until runoff, covered with plastic bags, and placed at 25°C. After 3 days, pink sporodochia were observed on inoculated wounded leaves, but not on non-wounded leaves. By 10 days, inoculated wounded leaves turned yellow and became covered with sporodochia all over the adaxial surface, and on wound sites on the adaxial surfaces. No signs or symptoms were observed on either non-wounded inoculated leaves or on plants sprayed only with water. P. buxi was re-isolated from the diseased leaves but not the water-treated leaves, to successfully complete Koch's postulates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of P. buxi causing Volutella blight on boxwood in China. References: (1) J. L. Bezerra. Acta Botanica Neerlandica 12:58, 1963. (2) B. Henricot et al. Plant Pathol. 49:805, 2000. (3) F. Shi and T. Hsiang. Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 138:763, 2014.

Association between an alternative promoter polymorphism and sperm deformity rate is due to modulation of the expression of KATNAL1 transcripts in Chinese Holstein bulls

Katanin p60 subunit A-like 1 (KATNAL1) is an ATPase that regulates Sertoli cell microtubule dynamics and sperm retention. We evaluated one novel splice variant and characterized the promoter and a functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the bovine KATNAL1 gene to explore its expression pattern, possible regulatory mechanism and relationship with semen traits in Chinese Holstein bulls. A novel splice variant, KATNAL1 transcript variant 2 (KATNAL1-TV2) of the retained 68 bp in intron 2, was identified by RT-PCR and compared with KATNAL1 transcript variant 1 (KATNAL1-TV1, NM 001192918.1) in various tissues. Bioinformatics analyses predicted that KATNAL1 transcription was regulated by two promoters: P1 in KATNAL1-TV1 and P2 in KATNAL1-TV2. Results of qRT-PCR revealed that KATNAL1-TV1 had higher expression than did KATNAL1-TV2 in testes of adult bulls (P < 0.05). Promoter luciferase activity analysis suggested that the core sequences of P1 and P2 were mapped to the region of c.-575˜c.-180 and c.163-40˜c.333+59 respectively. One novel SNP (c.163-210T>C, ss836312085) located in intron 1 was found using sequence alignment. The SNP in P2 resulted in the presence of the DeltaE binding site, improving its basal promoter activity (P < 0.05); and we observed a greater sperm deformity rate in bulls with the genotype CC than in those with the genotype TT (P < 0.05), which indicated that different genotypes were associated with the bovine semen traits. Bioinformatics analysis of the KATNAL1 protein sequence predicted that the loss of the MIT domain in the KATNAL1-TV2 transcript resulted in protein dysfunction. These findings help us to understand that a functional SNP in P2 and subsequent triggering of expression diversity of KATNAL1 transcripts are likely to play an important role with regard to semen traits in bull breeding programs.

The first mitochondrial genome for the superfamily Hagloidea and implications for its systematic status in Ensifera

Hagloidea Handlirsch, 1906 was an ancient group of Ensifera, that was much more diverse in the past extending at least into the Triassic, apparently diminishing in diversity through the Cretaceous, and now only represented by a few extant species. In this paper, we report the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Tarragoilus diuturnus Gorochov, 2001, representing the first mitogenome of the superfamily Hagloidea. The size of the entire mitogenome of T. diuturnus is 16144 bp, containing 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes and one control region. The order and orientation of the gene arrangement pattern is identical to that of D. yakuba and most ensiferans species. A phylogenomic analysis was carried out based on the concatenated dataset of 13 PCGs and 2 rRNA genes from mitogenome sequences of 15 ensiferan species, comprising four superfamilies Grylloidea, Tettigonioidae, Rhaphidophoroidea and Hagloidea. Both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses strongly support Hagloidea T. diuturnus and Rhaphidophoroidea Troglophilus neglectus as forming a monophyletic group, sister to the Tettigonioidea. The relationships among four superfamilies of Ensifera were (Grylloidea, (Tettigonioidea, (Hagloidea, Rhaphidophoroidea))).

First Report of Sclerotinia homoeocarpa from the Sedge Trichophorum cespitosum in Eastern Canada, Which Causes Dollar Spot Disease on Lolium perenne and Poa pratensis but not on Agrostis stolonifera

Sclerotinia homoeocarpa is a fungal pathogen that causes dollar spot disease on more than 40 plant species, mostly in the family Poaceae (1), and is considered the most widespread pathogen of golf course turfgrasses in the St. Lawrence River Region. In June 2011, lesions were observed on tufted bulrush, Trichophorum cespitosum (Poales, Cyperaceae), on the sea shore near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada. Single bunches had up to 40% of the leaves affected. The foliar symptoms resembled large hourglass lesions, up to 5 cm long, with a straw colored portion capped at two ends by dark zone lines on surrounding green foliar tissue. Leaf segments were taken, surface sterilized, and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA). After 3 days of incubation at room temperature, white fluffy mycelia covered the entire petri dish. Brown columnar structures formed in the colony centers after 7 days and cultures became cinnamon colored after 14 days. Dark brown or black substratal stroma were formed on or in the agar, and cultures appeared dark brown from the bottom. DNA was extracted and amplified using primers ITS1 and ITS4 (2), and the amplicon sequenced (GenBank Accession No. KF447776). The sequence showed a top match of 522/524 bp identity with the ITS of an isolate of S. homoeocarpa, with the next 40 top matches also identified as S. homoeocarpa. Two-week-old seedlings of Agrostis stolonifera cv. Penncross, Poa pratensis cv. Touchdown, and Lolium perenne cv. Express were inoculated by placing 5-mm-diameter mycelial plugs from 5-day-old PDA cultures onto the leaves of plants grown in small containers, and incubating under enclosed humid conditions throughout the test. White aerial hyphae on the leaves and straw-colored leaf lesions were observed by 7 days after inoculation on P. pratensis and L. perenne, but no lesions or hyphal growth were observed on A. stolonifera. No signs or symptoms were observed on leaves where sterile agar plugs were used as inoculum. These tests were repeated three times with the same results, and a positive control was included by using an S. homoeocarpa isolate known to be pathogenic to A. stolonifera under the same test conditions. Disease was observed on A. stolonifera with the control isolate. S. homoeocarpa was re-isolated from the lesions on P. pratensis and L. perenne to satisfy Koch's postulates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of S. homoeocarpa on T. cespitosum worldwide, an isolate that was found to cause disease on P. pratensis and L. perenne, but was not pathogenic to A. stolonifera in vitro. The original host was not used in pathogenicity tests because it is considered an endangered species in many locations. References: (1) B. Walsh et al. HortScience 34:13, 1999. (2) T. J. White et al. PCR protocols, a guide to methods and applications 18:315, 1990.

A new species of the genus Interphasma Chen & He, 2008 (Phasmida: Clitumninae: Medaurini) from Sichuan, China

Chen and He erected the genus Interphasma in 2008 (Chen & He, 2008). Thirteen species are recognized in this Chinese endemic genus which is distributed in eastern to south-western China (Chen & He, 2008; Chen & Zhang, 2008; Xu et al., 2010). In this paper, a new species, I. lizipingense sp. nov., is described and illustrated from Sichuan, China. A key to the species of the genus is given. The types are deposited in the Museum of Hebei University (HBU) and Hong Kong Entomological Society (HKEM). Full measurements are given to all the types in millimeter (mm.).

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy on a (5-nanometer)3 sample volume

Application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to nanoscale samples has remained an elusive goal, achieved only with great experimental effort at subkelvin temperatures. We demonstrated detection of NMR signals from a (5-nanometer)(3) voxel of various fluid and solid organic samples under ambient conditions. We used an atomic-size magnetic field sensor, a single nitrogen-vacancy defect center, embedded ~7 nanometers under the surface of a bulk diamond to record NMR spectra of various samples placed on the diamond surface. Its detection volume consisted of only 10(4) nuclear spins with a net magnetization of only 10(2) statistically polarized spins.