Deficiency of lrp4 in zebrafish and human LRP4 mutation induce aberrant activation of Jagged-Notch signaling in fin and limb development.

Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 4 (LRP4) is a multi-functional protein implicated in bone, kidney and neurological diseases including Cenani-Lenz syndactyly (CLS), sclerosteosis, osteoporosis, congenital myasthenic syndrome and myasthenia gravis. Why different LRP4 mutation alleles cause distinct and even contrasting disease phenotypes remain unclear. Herein, we utilized the zebrafish model to search for pathways affected by a deficiency of LRP4. The lrp4 knockdown in zebrafish embryos exhibits cyst formations at fin structures and the caudal vein plexus, malformed pectoral fins, defective bone formation and compromised kidney morphogenesis; which partially phenocopied the human LRP4 mutations and were reminiscent of phenotypes resulting form a perturbed Notch signaling pathway. We discovered that the Lrp4-deficient zebrafish manifested increased Notch outputs in addition to enhanced Wnt signaling, with the expression of Notch ligand jagged1b being significantly elevated at the fin structures. To examine conservatism of signaling mechanisms, the effect of LRP4 missense mutations and siRNA knockdowns, including a novel missense mutation c.1117C > T (p.R373W) of LRP4, were tested in mammalian kidney and osteoblast cells. The results showed that LRP4 suppressed both Wnt/ß-Catenin and Notch signaling pathways, and these activities were perturbed either by LRP4 missense mutations or by a knockdown of LRP4. Our finding underscore that LRP4 is required for limiting Jagged-Notch signaling throughout the fin/limb and kidney development, whose perturbation representing a novel mechanism for LRP4-related diseases. Moreover, our study reveals an evolutionarily conserved relationship between LRP4 and Jagged-Notch signaling, which may shed light on how the Notch signaling is fine-tuned during fin/limb development.

[Development of resources, technologies and services at the China Zebrafish Resource Center].

With the rapid growth of the Chinese zebrafish community, there is an increasing demand for various types of zebrafish-related resources and technologies. The China Zebrafish Resource Center (CZRC, web: http://zfish.cn) was established at the Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2012. Till now, CZRC has built the largest zebrafish aquaculture unit in China, organized a resource bank containing more than 1200 zebrafish lines and more than 10 000 frozen sperm samples, among which over 200 mutant and transgenic lines were generated by CZRC. CZRC has established several technical supporting platforms, such as the zebrafish husbandry and health control program of international standard, a high-efficient gene manipulation technology platform, and a stable and efficient sperm cryopreservation technology platform. The main task of CZRC is to provide different types of services to zebrafish investigators in China and worldwide, such as resource services (e.g. zebrafish lines), technical services (e.g. gene knockout) and transgenic services, consultancy services (e.g. zebrafish husbandry and health consultation), and conference services [e.g. holding regular technical training courses and biennale Chinese Zebrafish Principal Investigator Meeting (CZPM)]. After five years' development, CZRC is now recognized as one of the three major resource centers in the global zebrafish community.

[A comparison of the knockout efficiencies of two codon-optimized Cas9 coding sequences in zebrafish embryos].

Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein(CRISPR/Cas9)system. In order to realize gene knockout with high efficiency and specificity in zebrafish, several labs have synthesized distinct Cas9 cDNA sequences which were cloned into different vectors. In this study, we chose two commonly used zebrafish-codon-optimized Cas9 coding sequences (zCas9_bz, zCas9_wc) from two different labs, and utilized them to knockout seven genes in zebrafish embryos, including the exogenous egfp and six endogenous genes (chd, hbegfa, th, eef1a1b, tyr and tcf7l1a). We compared the knockout efficiencies resulting from the two zCas9 coding sequences, by direct sequencing of PCR products, colony sequencing and phenotypic analysis. The results showed that the knockout efficiency of zCas9_wc was higher than that of zCas9_bz in all conditions.

Transcriptional factors smad1 and smad9 act redundantly to mediate zebrafish ventral specification downstream of smad5.

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are multifunctional growth factors that play crucial roles during embryonic development and cell fate determination. Nuclear transduction of BMP signals requires the receptor type Smad proteins, Smad1, Smad5, and Smad9. However, how these Smad proteins cooperate in vivo to regulate various developmental processes is largely unknown. In zebrafish, it was widely believed that the maternally expressed smad5 is essential for dorso-ventral (DV) patterning, and the zygotically transcribed smad1 is not required for normal DV axis establishment. In the present study, we have identified zygotically expressed smad9, which cooperates with smad1 downstream of smad5, to mediate zebrafish early DV patterning in a functional redundant manner. Although knockdown of smad1 or smad9 alone does not lead to visible dorsalization, double knockdown strongly dorsalizes zebrafish embryos, which cannot be efficiently rescued by smad5 overexpression, whereas the dorsalization induced by smad5 knockdown can be fully rescued by overexpression of smad1 or smad9. We have further revealed that the transcription initiations of smad1 and smad9 are repressed by each other, that they are direct transcriptional targets of Smad5, and that smad9, like smad1, is required for myelopoiesis. In conclusion, our study uncovers that smad1 and smad9 act redundantly to each other downstream of smad5 to mediate ventral specification and to regulate embryonic myelopoiesis.

Serum Levels of IL-6 and TNF-α May Correlate with Activity and Severity of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

BACKGROUND We aimed to investigate the association of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) through a meta-analysis. MATERIAL AND METHODS The case-control studies that investigated the association between RA and serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-α were retrieved strictly according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The statistical analysis was performed using STATA statistical software (Version 12.0, Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). RESULTS Fourteen studies were enrolled in our meta-analysis, with a total of 890 patients with RA and 441 healthy people as the controls. The results of this meta-analysis revealed that the serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels of RA patients were significantly higher than in the controls, and this difference was statistically significant (IL-6: SMD=2.40, 95% CI=1.57~3.24, P<0.001; TNF-α: SMD=1.93, 95% CI=1.23~2.64, P<0.001). According to ethnic subgroup analysis, the serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels of RA patients were also significantly higher compared with the controls in Asians and Caucasians (IL-6: Asians: SMD=3.64, 95% CI=2.16~5.12, P<0.001; Caucasians: SMD=0.75, 95% CI=0.47~1.02, P<0.001; TNF-α: Asians: SMD=2.74, 95%CI=1.58~3.91, P<0.001; Caucasians: SMD=0.81, 95% CI=0.50~1.11, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS IL-6 and TNF-α may play crucial roles in the activity and severity of RA.

Cross-species cloning: influence of cytoplasmic factors on development.

It is widely accepted that the crosstalk between naive nucleus and maternal factors deposited in the egg cytoplasm before zygotic genome activation is crucial for early development. This crosstalk may also exert some influence on later development. It is interesting to clarify the relative roles of the zygotic genome and the cytoplasmic factors in development. Cross-species nuclear transfer (NT) between two distantly related species provides a unique system to study the relative role and crosstalk between egg cytoplasm and zygotic nucleus in development. In this review, we will summarize the recent progress of cross-species NT, with emphasis on the cross-species NT in fish and the influence of cytoplasmic factors on development. Finally, we conclude that the developmental process and its evolution should be interpreted in a systemic way, rather than in a way that solely focuses on the role of the nuclear genome.

Graphene-based anticancer nanosystem and its biosafety evaluation using a zebrafish model.

In this paper, a facile strategy to develop graphene-based delivery nanosystems for effective drug loading and sustained drug release was proposed and validated. Specifically, biocompatible naphthalene-terminated PEG (NP) and anticancer drugs (curcumin or doxorubicin (DOX)) were simultaneously integrated onto oxidized graphene (GO), leading to self-assembled, nanosized complexes. It was found that the oxidation degree of GO had a significant impact on the drug-loading efficiency and the structural stability of nanosystems. Interestingly, the nanoassemblies resulted in more effective cellular entry of DOX in comparison with free DOX or DOX-loaded PEG-polyester micelles at equivalent DOX dose, as demonstrated by confocal microscopy studies. Moreover, the nanoassemblies not only exhibited a sustained drug release pattern without an initial burst release, but also significantly improved the stability of formulations which were resistant to drug leaking even in the presence of strong surfactants such as aromatic sodium benzenesulfonate (SBen) and aliphatic sodium dodecylsulfonate (SDS). In addition, the nanoassemblies without DOX loading showed negligible in vitro cytotoxicity, whereas DOX-loaded counterparts led to considerable toxicity against HeLa cells. The DOX-mediated cytotoxicity of the graphene-based formulation was around 20 folds lower than that of free DOX, most likely due to the slow DOX release from complexes. A zebrafish model was established to assess the in vivo safety profile of curcumin-loaded nanosystems. The results showed they were able to excrete from the zebrafish body rapidly and had nearly no influence on the zebrafish upgrowth. Those encouraging results may prompt the advance of graphene-based nanotherapeutics for biomedical applications.

[Nuclear transfer and reprogramming in fish].

As an important sub-field in the study of animal cloning, fish nuclear transfer was first established in the early 1960s by Chinese embryologists. Due to its advantages, zebrafish has become a unique animal model to study the mystery of reprogramming in nuclear transfer. This article summarizes the history and current situation in fish nuclear transfer technology and discusses the factors that may influence the development of the cloned embryos. A comprehensive understand-ing of the mechanism for epigenetic modification following nuclear transfer, such as genomic DNA methylation and histone acetylation and/or methylation, will likely increase the success rate and eventually lead to the future freedom of cloning technique.

Depletion of stearoyl-CoA desaturase (scd) leads to fatty liver disease and defective mating behavior in zebrafish.

Stearyl coenzyme A desaturase (SCD), also known as delta-9 desaturase, catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the formation of monounsaturated fatty acids. In mammals, depletion or inhibition of SCD activity generally leads to a decrease in triglycerides and cholesteryl esters. However, the endogenous role of scd in teleost fish remains unknown. Here, we generated a zebrafish scd mutant (scd-/-) to elucidate the role of scd in lipid metabolism and sexual development. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) showed that the scd-/- mutants had increased levels of saturated fatty acids C16:0 and C18:0, and decreased levels of monounsaturated fatty acids C16:1 and C18:1. The mutant fish displayed a short stature and an enlarged abdomen during development. Unlike Scd-/- mammals, the scd-/- zebrafish showed significantly increased fat accumulation in the whole body, especially in the liver, leading to hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction and severe cell apoptosis. Mechanistically, srebf1, a gene encoding a transcriptional activator related to adipogenesis, acc1 and acaca, genes involved in fatty acid synthesis, and dgat2, a key gene involved in triglyceride synthesis, were significantly upregulated in mutant livers to activate fatty acid biosynthesis and adipogenesis. The scd-/- males exhibited defective natural mating behavior due to defective genital papillae but possessed functional mature sperm. All defects in the scd-/- mutants could be rescued by ubiquitous transgenic overexpression of scd. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that scd is indispensable for maintaining lipid homeostasis and development of secondary sexual characteristics in zebrafish.

The germ cell nuclear proteins hnRNP G-T and RBMY activate a testis-specific exon.

The human testis has almost as high a frequency of alternative splicing events as brain. While not as extensively studied as brain, a few candidate testis-specific splicing regulator proteins have been identified, including the nuclear RNA binding proteins RBMY and hnRNP G-T, which are germ cell-specific versions of the somatically expressed hnRNP G protein and are highly conserved in mammals. The splicing activator protein Tra2beta is also highly expressed in the testis and physically interacts with these hnRNP G family proteins. In this study, we identified a novel testis-specific cassette exon TLE4-T within intron 6 of the human transducing-like enhancer of split 4 (TLE4) gene which makes a more transcriptionally repressive TLE4 protein isoform. TLE4-T splicing is normally repressed in somatic cells because of a weak 5' splice site and surrounding splicing-repressive intronic regions. TLE4-T RNA pulls down Tra2beta and hnRNP G proteins which activate its inclusion. The germ cell-specific RBMY and hnRNP G-T proteins were more efficient in stimulating TLE4-T incorporation than somatically expressed hnRNP G protein. Tra2b bound moderately to TLE4-T RNA, but more strongly to upstream sites to potently activate an alternative 3' splice site normally weakly selected in the testis. Co-expression of Tra2beta with either hnRNP G-T or RBMY re-established the normal testis physiological splicing pattern of this exon. Although they can directly bind pre-mRNA sequences around the TLE4-T exon, RBMY and hnRNP G-T function as efficient germ cell-specific splicing co-activators of TLE4-T. Our study indicates a delicate balance between the activity of positive and negative splicing regulators combinatorially controls physiological splicing inclusion of exon TLE4-T and leads to modulation of signalling pathways in the testis. In addition, we identified a high-affinity binding site for hnRNP G-T protein, showing it is also a sequence-specific RNA binding protein.

[Estimating total nitrogen content in wetland vegetation based on measured reflectance spectra].

More and more urban wetlands have been supplied with reclaimed water. And monitoring the growth condition of large-area wetland vegetation is playing a very important role in wetland restoration and reconstruction. Recently, remote sensing technology has become an important tool for vegetation growth monitoring. The South Wetland in the Olympic Park, a typical wetland using reused water, was selected as the research area. The leaf reflectance spectra and were acquired for the main wetland plants reed (Phragmites australis) and cattail (Typha angustifolia) with an ASD FieldSpec 3 spectrometer (350 2 500 nm). The total nitrogen (TN) content of leaf samples was determined by Kjeldahl method subsequently. The research established univariate models involving simple ratio spectral index (SR) model and normalized difference spectral index (ND) model, as well as multivariate models including stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) model and partial least squares regression (PLSR) model. Moreover, the accuracy of all the models was tested through cross-validated coefficient of determination (R2(CV)) and cross-validated root mean square error (RMSE(CV)). The results showed that (1) comparing different types of wetland plants, the accuracy of all established prediction models using Phragmites australis reflectance spectra was higher than that using Typha angustifolia reflectance spectra. (2) compared with univariate techniques, multivariate regressions improved the estimation of TN concentration in leaves. (3) among the various investigated models, the accuracy of PLSR model was the highest (R2(CV) = 0.80, RMSE(CV) = 0.24). PLSR provided the most useful explorative tool for unraveling the relationship between spectral reflectance and TN consistence of leaves. The result would not only provide a scientific basis for remote sensing retrieval of biochemical variables of wetland vegetation, but also provide a strong scientific basis for the monitoring and management of urban wetlands using recycled water.

Activation of GH signaling and GH-independent stimulation of growth in zebrafish by introduction of a constitutively activated GHR construct.

Growth hormone (GH) gene transfer can markedly increase growth in transgenic fish. In the present study we have developed a transcriptional assay to evaluate GH-signal activation (GHSA) in zebrafish embryos. By analyzing the transcription of c-fos and igf1, and the promoter activity of spi2.1, in zebrafish embryos injected with different constructs, we found that overexpression of either GH or growth hormone receptor (GHR) resulted in GHSA, while a synergetic overexpression of GH and GHR gave greater activation. Conversely, overexpression of a C-terminal truncated dominant-negative GHR (ΔC-GHR) efficiently blocked GHSA epistatic to GH overexpression, demonstrating the requirement for a full GHR homodimer in signaling. In view of the importance of signal-competent GHR dimerization by extracellular GH, we introduced into zebrafish embryos a constitutively activated GHR (CA-GHR) construct, which protein products constitutively dimerize the GHR productively by Jun-zippers to activate downstream signaling in vitro. Importantly, overexpression of CA-GHR led to markedly higher level of GHSA than the synergetic overexpression of GH and GHR. CA-GHR transgenic zebrafish were then studied in a growth trial. The transgenic zebrafish showed higher growth rate than the control fish, which was not achievable by GH transgenesis in these zebrafish. Our study demonstrates GH-independent growth by CA-GHR in vivo which bypasses normal IGF-1 feedback control of GH secretion. This provides a novel means of producing growth enhanced transgenic animals based on molecular protein design.

Comparative expression of zebrafish lats1 and lats2 and their implication in gastrulation movements.

Large tumor suppressor (Lats) is a Ser/Thr kinase, and it presents an important function in tumor suppression. lats was originally identified in Drosophila and recently in mammals. In mammals, it contains two homologues, lats1 and lats2. In the present study, lats1 and lats2 were characterized from zebrafish (Danio rerio), which is the first report of lats in a nonmammalian vertebrate. The primary structure, genomic organization, and phylogenesis of lats from different species were studied, and the results suggest that lats1 is the direct descendant of invertebrate lats, whereas lats2 is formed by genome duplication. In zebrafish, both lats genes are maternally expressed, while they show distinctly different expression profiles during gastrulation. lats1 is almost ubiquitously expressed through development, and lats2 is more prominently expressed in the non-neural ectoderm region of zebrafish gastrula. Most intriguingly, as revealed by cell tracing and gene expression analysis, morpholino-mediated knockdown of either lats1 or lats2 led to obvious defects of cell migration in gastrulation, indicating the functional significance of lats in gastrulation movements.

Identification of a novel gene K23 over-expressed in fish cross-subfamily cloned embryos.

A novel gene-K23, differentially expressed in cross-subfamily cloned embryos, was isolated by RACE-PCR technique. It had 2580 base pairs (bp) in length, with a 1,425 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative protein of 474 amino acids (aa). Bioinformatic analysis indicated that K23 had 22 phosphorylation sites, but it had no signal peptides. Developmental expression analysis in zebrafish showed that K23 transcripts were maternally expressed in ovum and the amount of K23 transcripts increased gradually from zygote to pharyngula period. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that K23 protein was homogeneously distributed both in nuclei and cytoplasm. Taken together, our findings indicate that K23 gene is a novel gene differentially expressed in fish cross-subfamily cloned embryos.

Identification and characterization of a novel gene differentially expressed in zebrafish cross-subfamily cloned embryos.

BACKGROUND: Cross-species nuclear transfer has been shown to be a potent approach to retain the genetic viability of a certain species near extinction. However, most embryos produced by cross-species nuclear transfer were compromised because that they were unable to develop to later stages. Gene expression analysis of cross-species cloned embryos will yield new insights into the regulatory mechanisms involved in cross-species nuclear transfer and embryonic development. RESULTS: A novel gene, K31, was identified as an up-regulated gene in fish cross-subfamily cloned embryos using SSH approach and RACE method. K31 complete cDNA sequence is 1106 base pairs (bp) in length, with a 342 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative protein of 113 amino acids (aa). Comparative analysis revealed no homologous known gene in zebrafish and other species database. K31 protein contains a putative transmembrane helix and five putative phosphorylation sites but without a signal peptide. Expression pattern analysis by real time RT-PCR and whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH) shows that it has the characteristics of constitutively expressed gene. Sub-cellular localization assay shows that K31 protein can not penetrate the nuclei. Interestingly, over-expression of K31 gene can cause lethality in the epithelioma papulosum cyprinid (EPC) cells in cell culture, which gave hint to the inefficient reprogramming events occurred in cloned embryos. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our findings indicated that K31 gene is a novel gene differentially expressed in fish cross-subfamily cloned embryos and over-expression of K31 gene can cause lethality of cultured fish cells. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the determination of novel genes involved in nucleo-cytoplasmic interaction of fish cross-subfamily cloned embryos.

Determination of propylthiouracil and methylthiouracil in human serum using high-performance liquid chromatography with chemiluminescence detection.

Based on the sensitizing effect of formaldehyde on the chemiluminescence (CL) reaction of propylthiouracil (PTU) and methylthiouracil (MTU) with acidic potassium permanganate and the combination technique of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), a sensitive, selective and simple post-column CL detection method for determining PTU and MTU is described. The optimal conditions for the CL detection and HPLC separation were carried out. The linear ranges were 0.1-20 microg mL(-1) for MTU and 0.1-10 microg mL(-1) for PTU, the detection limits were 0.03 microg mL(-1) for PTU, 0.03 microg mL(-1) for MTU and the quantification limits were 0.1 microg mL(-1) for PTU, 0.1 microg mL(-1) for MTU. The method has been satisfactorily applied for the determination of MTU and PTU in human serum samples.

Cloning and characterization of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COXI) in Gobiocypris rarus.

In study of gene expression profile in cloned embryos which derived from D. rerio embryonic nuclei and G. rarus enucleated eggs, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COXI) of G. rarus, exhibiting difference at expression level between cloned embryos and zebrafish embryo, was cloned. Its full cDNA length is 1654 bp and contains a 1551 bp open reading frame, encoding a 5.64 kDa protein of 516 amino acids. The alignment result shows that mitochondrion tRNAser is co-transcripted with COXI, which just was the 3'-UTR of COXI. Molecular phylogenic analysis based on COXI indicates G. rarus should belong to Gobioninae, which was not in agreement with previous study according to morphological taxonomy. Comparison of DNA with cDNA shows that RNA editing phenomenon does not occur in the COXI of G. rarus.

A novel method to identify hub pathways of rheumatoid arthritis based on differential pathway networks.

The aim of the current study was to identify hub pathways of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using a novel method based on differential pathway network (DPN) analysis. The present study proposed a DPN where protein­protein interaction (PPI) network was integrated with pathway­pathway interactions. Pathway data was obtained from background PPI network and the Reactome pathway database. Subsequently, pathway interactions were extracted from the pathway data by building randomized gene­gene interactions and a weight value was assigned to each pathway interaction using Spearman correlation coefficient (SCC) to identify differential pathway interactions. Differential pathway interactions were visualized using Cytoscape to construct a DPN. Topological analysis was conducted to identify hub pathways that possessed the top 5% degree distribution of DPN. Modules of DPN were mined according to ClusterONE. A total of 855 pathways were selected to build pathway interactions. By filtrating pathway interactions of weight values >0.7, a DPN with 312 nodes and 791 edges was obtained. Topological degree analysis revealed 15 hub pathways, such as heparan sulfate/heparin­glycosaminoglycan (HS­GAG) degradation, HS­GAG metabolism and keratan sulfate degradation for RA based on DPN. Furthermore, hub pathways were also important in modules, which validated the significance of hub pathways. In conclusion, the proposed method is a computationally efficient way to identify hub pathways of RA, which identified 15 hub pathways that may be potential biomarkers and provide insight to future investigation and treatment of RA.