Effects of dietary oat supplementation on carcass traits, muscle metabolites, amino acid profiles, and its association with meat quality of Small-tail Han sheep.

Oat supplementation of the ruminant diet can improve growth performance and meat quality traits, but the role of muscle metabolites has not been evaluated. This study aimed to establish whether oat grass supplementation (OS) of Small-tail Han sheep improved growth performance and muscle tissue metabolites that are associated with better meat quality and flavor. After 90-day, OS fed sheep had higher live-weight and carcass-weight, and lower carcass fat. Muscle metabolomics analysis showed that OS fed sheep had higher levels of taurine, l-carnitine, inosine-5'-monophospgate, cholic acid, and taurocholic acid, which are primarily involved in taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, purine metabolism, and bile acid biosynthesis and secretion, decreased fat accumulation and they promote functional or flavor metabolites. OS also increased muscle levels of amino acids that are attributed to better quality and flavorsome mutton. These findings provided further evidence for supplementing sheep with oat grass to improve growth performance and meat quality.

Gene Coexpression Network Reveals Insights into the Origin and Evolution of a Theanine-Associated Regulatory Module in Non-Camellia and Camellia Species.

Theanine (thea) is one of the most important plant-derived characteristic secondary metabolites and a major healthcare product because of its beneficial biological activities, such as being an antianxiety agent, promoting memory, and lowering blood pressure. Thea mostly accumulates in Camellia plants and is especially rich in Camellia sinensis (tea plant). Although some functional genes (e.g., TS, GOGAT, and GS) attributed to thea accumulation have been separately well explored in tea plants, the evolution of a regulatory module (highly interacting gene group) related to thea metabolism remains to be elaborated. Herein, a thea-associated regulatory module (TARM) was mined by using a comprehensive analysis of a weighted gene coexpression network in Camellia and non-Camellia species. Comparative genomic analysis of 84 green plant species revealed that TARM originated from the ancestor of green plants (algae) and that TARM genes were recruited from different evolutionary nodes with the most gene duplication events at the early stage. Among the TARM genes, two core transcription factors of NAC080 and LBD38 were deduced, which may play a crucial role in regulating the biosynthesis of thea. Our findings provide the first insights into the origin and evolution of TARM and indicate a promising paradigm for identifying vital regulatory genes involved in thea metabolism.

A predicted protein functional network aids in novel gene mining for characteristic secondary metabolites in tea plant (Camellia sinensis).

Modeling a protein functional network in concerned species is an efficient approach for identifying novel genes in certain biological pathways. Tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is an important commercial crop abundant in numerous characteristic secondary metabolites (e.g., polyphenols, alkaloids, alkaloids) that confer tea quality and health benefits. Decoding novel genes responsible for tea characteristic components is an important basis for applied genetic improvement and metabolic engineering. Herein, a high-quality protein functional network for tea plant (TeaPoN) was predicted using cross-species protein functional associations transferring and integration combined with a stringent biological network criterion control. TeaPoN contained 31,273 nonredundant functional interactions among 6,634 tea proteins (or genes), with general network topological properties such as scale-free and small-world. We revealed the modular organization of genes related to the major three tea characteristic components (theanine, caffeine, catechin) in TeaPoN, which served as strong evidence for the utility of TeaPoN in novel gene mining. Importantly, several case studies regarding gene identification for tea characteristic components were presented. To aid in the use of TeaPoN, a concise web interface for data deposit and novel gene screening was developed (http://teapon.wchoda.com). We believe that TeaPoN will serve as a useful platform for functional genomics studies associated with characteristic secondary metabolites in tea plant.

Time-series transcriptomic analysis reveals novel gene modules that control theanine biosynthesis in tea plant (Camellia sinensis).

Theanine (thea) is a unique non-protein amino acid in tea plant (Camellia sinensis) and one of the most important small molecular compounds for tea quality and health effects. The molecular mechanism that maintains thea biosynthesis is not clear but may be reflected in complicated biological networks as other secondary metabolites in plants. We performed an integrative transcriptomic analysis of tea seedlings bud and leave over the time-course of ethylamine (EA) treatment that activated thea pathway. We identified 54 consistent differentially expressed genes (cDEGs, 25 upregulated and 29 downregulated) during thea activation. Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis of upregulated genes and downregulated genes showed that they may function as a cascade of biological events during their cooperative contribution to thea biosynthesis. Among the total cDEGs, a diversity of functional genes (e.g., enzymes, transcription factors, transport and binding proteins) were identified, indicating a hierarchy of gene control network underlying thea biosynthesis. A gene network associated with thea biosynthesis was modeled and three interconnected gene functional modules were identified. Among the gene modules, several topologically important genes (e.g., CsBCS-1, CsRP, CsABC2) were experimentally validated using a combined thea content and gene expression analysis. Collectively, we presented here for the first time a comprehensive landscape of the biosynthetic mechanism of thea controlled by a underling gene network, which might provide a theoretical basis for the identification of key genes that contribute to thea biosynthesis.

TeaCoN: a database of gene co-expression network for tea plant (Camellia sinensis).

BACKGROUND: Tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is one of the world's most important beverage crops due to its numerous secondary metabolites conferring tea quality and health effects. However, only a small fraction of tea genes (especially for those metabolite-related genes) have been functionally characterized to date. A cohesive bioinformatics platform is thus urgently needed to aid in the functional determination of the remaining genes. DESCRIPTION: TeaCoN, a database of gene co-expression network for tea plant, was established to provide genome-wide associations in gene co-expression to survey gene modules (i.e., co-expressed gene sets) for a function of interest. TeaCoN featured a comprehensive collection of 261 high-quality RNA-Seq experiments that covered a wide range of tea tissues as well as various treatments for tea plant. In the current version of TeaCoN, 31,968 (94% coverage of the genome) tea gene models were documented. Users can retrieve detailed co-expression information for gene(s) of interest in four aspects: 1) co-expressed genes with the corresponding Pearson correlation coefficients (PCC-values) and statistical P-values, 2) gene information (gene ID, description, symbol, alias, chromosomal location, GO and KEGG annotation), 3) expression profile heatmap of co-expressed genes across seven main tea tissues (e.g., leaf, bud, stem, root), and 4) network visualization of co-expressed genes. We also implemented a gene co-expression analysis, BLAST search function, GO and KEGG enrichment analysis, and genome browser to facilitate use of the database. CONCLUSION: The TeaCoN project can serve as a beneficial platform for candidate gene screening and functional exploration of important agronomical traits in tea plant. TeaCoN is freely available at http://teacon.wchoda.com .

[Discussion on high quality development and authentication system construction of Dao-di herbs based on blockchain].

Dao-di herbs are an important part of clinical medicine in traditional Chinese medicine. They are also precious wealth left to human beings from history, which contain deep traditional Chinese cultural connotations and play an important role in supporting and serving the Chinese medicine business. The relevant policy documents introduced by various national ministries and commissions have many contents and requirements related to the promotion of Dao-di herbs protection and industrial development. Due to the Dao-di herbs industry has a series of characteristics, such as a long chain, many involved links, long cycles, multiple production entities, multiple locations, and various types, the high-quality development of the industry has put forward higher requirements on the linkage between upstream and downstream, production entities, traceability of the whole process and information sharing. This article takes Dao-di herbs certification work as an application scenario and entry point, and discusses it from the perspective of block chain and information technology. It proposes the following work ideas: establish multi-party consensus from the macro-organizational management, business, and operational technical levels, and unblock channels for data and information, to achieve institutionalization of certification; establish certification-related standards and specifications to achieve certification standardization; build a certification hardware system to achieve certification networking; build a certification software system to develop functions for specific information content such as identity, origin, production, production process, quality, product and brand of authentic medicinal material production interactively, and realize certification programmatic; data security and sharing of related production activities to achieve socialization of certification. Make full use of modern technologies such as blockchain, the internet of things, big data and information technology, and through the joint participation of management, production, use and the public, the whole process information of Daodi herbs is integrated to form an interconnected information sharing application mode, thus, to serve and promote the high-quality development of Dao-di herbs industry.

Identification of MYB Transcription Factors Regulating Theanine Biosynthesis in Tea Plant Using Omics-Based Gene Coexpression Analysis.

Theanine (thea) is the most abundant free amino acid in tea plant (Camellia sinensis) and one of the most important secondary metabolites conferring tea quality and health benefits. Great effort has recently been made to functionally dissect enzyme genes (e.g., GS, GDH, GOGAT) responsible for in vivo thea accumulation. However, the transcriptional regulation of its biosynthesis remains to be explored. Starting from publicly available (condition-independent) tea transcriptome data, we performed an exhaustive coexpression analysis between transcription factor (TF) genes and thea enzyme genes in tea plant. Our results showed that two typical plant-specialized (secondary) metabolites related TF families, such as MYB, bHLH, together with WD40 domain proteins, were prominently involved, suggesting a potential MYB-bHLH-WD40 (MBW) complex-mediated regulatory pattern in thea pathway. Aiming at the most involved MYB family, we screened seven MYB genes as thea candidate regulators through a stringent multistep selection (e.g., filtering with condition-specific nitrogen-treated transcriptome data). The control of MYB regulators in thea biosynthesis was further demonstrated using an integrated analysis of thea accumulation and MYB expression in several major tea tissues, including leave, bud, root, and stem. Our investigation aided tea researchers in having a comprehensive view of transcriptional regulatory landscape in thea biosynthesis, serving as the first platform for studying molecular regulation in thea pathway and a paradigm for understanding the characteristic components biosynthesis in nonmodel plants.

Green Analysis: High Throughput Analysis of Emerging Pollutants in Plant Sap by Freeze-Thaw-Centrifugal Membrane Filtration Sample Preparation-HPLC-MS/MS Analysis.

Emerging and fugitive contaminants (EFCs) released to our biosphere have caused a legacy and continuing threat to human and ecological health, contaminating air, water, and soil. Polluted media are closely linked to food security through plants, especially agricultural crops. However, measuring EFCs in plant tissues remains difficult, and high-throughput screening is a greater challenge. A novel rapid freeze-thaw/centrifugation extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) analysis was developed for high-throughput quantification of 11 EFCs with diverse chemical properties, including estriol, codeine, oxazepam, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine, bisphenol A, triclosan, caffeine, carbamazepine, lincomycin, and DEET, in three representative crops, corn, tomato, and wheat. The internal aqueous solution, i.e., sap, is liberated via a freeze/thaw cycle, and separated from macromolecules utilizing molecular weight cutoff membrane centrifugal filtration. Detection limits ranged from 0.01 µg L-1 to 2.0 µg L-1. Recoveries of spiked analytes in three species ranged from 83.7% to 109%. Developed methods can rapidly screen EFCs in agriculture crops and can assess pollutant distribution at contaminated sites and gain insight on EFCs transport in plants to assess transmembrane migration in vascular organisms. The findings contribute significantly to environmental research, food security, and human health, as it assesses the first step of potential entry into the food chain, that being transmembrane migration and plant uptake, the primary barrier between polluted waters or soils and our food.

[Chinese herbal medicine Euphorbia esula extract induces apoptosis and inhibits the proliferation, migration and invasion of multidrug resistant gastric carcinoma cells].

This paper aims to study the effects of traditional Chinese medicine Euphorbia esula on multidrug resistant human gastric cancer cells in the cell proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis, and to study the apoptosis-inducing pathway. Different dilutions of Euphorbia esula extract were used to process human multidrug resistant gastric cancer SGC7901/ADR cells. Cell proliferation inhibition phenomenon was determined by MTT experiment. Nuclear morphological changes of apoptotic cells and apoptotic indexes were observed and determined by Hochest33528 staining followed with fluorescence microscope observing. Flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis rate. Cell migration and invasion ability were observed and determined by Transwell method. Spectrophotometry was used to detect caspase-3 and caspase-9 enzyme activity. Western blotting was used to detect subcellular distribution of cytochrome c. The results showed that Euphorbia esula extract had obvious inhibition effect on proliferation of gastric cancer multidrug resistant SGC7901/ADR cells, which was time- and concentration-dependent. After processing multidrug resistant gastric cancer SGC7901/ADR cells with Euphorbia esula extract, the apoptotic index and apoptosis rate were significantly increased than those in the control group, which showed a time- and dose-dependent mode; but if a caspase inhibitor was added, apoptosis index was not obviously increased. Transwell method showed that migration and invasion ability of the Euphorbia esula extract-processed SGC7901/ADR cells dropped significantly. Spectrophotometry showed that in Euphorbia esula extract-processed SGC7901/ADR cells, caspase-3 and caspase-9 expression were increased, which had significant differences with the control group. Western blotting test showed that the distribution of cytochrome c decreased in mitochondria, while increased in the cytoplasm (i.e., cytochrome c escaped from mitochondria to the cytoplasm). In conclusion, Euphorbia esula extract could inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion, and induce apoptosis in human gastric cancer multidrug resistant SGC7901/ADR cells; and cytochrome c, caspase-9 and caspase-3 might be involved in cell apoptosis induced by Euphorbia esula extract, suggesting endogenous or mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.