Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of m6A Writers, Erasers, and Readers in Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.).

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification is the most prevalent type of RNA methylation and plays a pivotal role in the development of plants. However, knowledge of the m6A modification in litchi remains limited. In this study, a complete analysis of m6A writers, erasers, and readers in litchi was performed and 31 litchi m6A regulatory genes were identified in total, including 7 m6A writers, 12 m6A erases, and 12 readers. Phylogeny analysis showed that all three of the kinds of litchi m6A regulatory proteins could be divided into three groups; domains and motifs exhibited similar patterns in the same group. MiRNA target site prediction showed that 77 miRNA target sites were located in 25 (80.6%) litchi m6A regulatory genes. Cis-elements analysis exhibited that litchi m6A regulatory genes were mainly responsive to light and plant hormones, followed by environmental stress and plant development. Expression analysis revealed litchi m6A regulatory genes might play an important role during the peel coloration and fruit abscission of litchi. This study provided valuable and expectable information of litchi m6A regulatory genes and their potential epigenetic regulation mechanism in litchi.

Meat differentiation between pasture-fed and concentrate-fed sheep/goats by liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry combined with metabolomic and lipidomic profiling.

Animal feeding method is a crucial factor in influencing meat quality. Consumers would preferentially select meat obtained from pasture-fed animals. In this study, an untargeted metabolomic and lipidomic method based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) combined with chemometric analysis was utilized to investigate the differences between meat from free-range and intensively-fed sheep/goats. Distinct separation between these two kinds of sheep/goats meat obtained were identified by principal component analysis. Analysis of variance, fold change and orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis were then conducted to determine specific potential markers. A total of 46 potential markers were selected according to online chemical databases. The support vector machine (SVM) method was used to process the responses of the selected potential markers, and the results of metabolomics and lipidomics from an additional 59 samples revealed the discrimination rate of 89.3% and 98.3%. These findings provided a basis for differentiation of meat from sheep/goats fed in the two methods.

Rapid Immobilization of Simulated Radioactive Soil Waste Using Self-Propagating Synthesized Gd2Ti2O7 Pyrochlore Matrix.

A rapid and effective method is necessary in the disposal of severely radioactive contaminated soil waste. Simulated Ce-bearing radioactive soil waste was immobilized by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) within 5 min in this study. The main work includes the rapid synthesis of soil waste forms, the analysis of phase composition, microstructure and chemical durability. These results show that the simulated nuclide Ce was successfully immobilized into the pyrochlore-rich waste matrice, whose main phases are SiO2, pyrochlore (Gd2Ti2O7) and Cu. The normalized leaching rates of Si and Na on the 42nd day are 1.86 × 10-3 and 1.63 × 10-2 g·m-2·d-1, respectively. And the normalized leaching rate of Ce also remains at low level (10-5-10-6 g·m-2·d-1) within 42 days.

Novel miRNA-based biomarker panel for detection ß2-agonists in goats.

miRNA sequencing was applied in this work to screen miRNA biomarkers related to ß2-agonists from the test and control goat samples. A total of 10 selected miRNAs were proven by qRT-PCR to be able to separate treatment cell groups from the control. With previously reported differentially expressed genes (DEGs), we used target gene prediction to build a miRNA-mRNA regulatory network related to ß2-agonists, which validated the miRNA biomarkers and provided a reference for identifying the mechanism of ß2-agonists. Our subsequent in vivo experiments revealed that the regulation trends of the miRNAs were the same as in vitro experiments. DD-SIMCA and heatmap analysis also indicated concordant separation effects with the 10 miRNAs, which could therefore be used as biomarkers to monitor illegal use of ß2-agonists in goats.