Transcriptome Profile Reveals that Pu-Erh Tea Represses the Expression of Vitellogenin Family to Reduce Fat Accumulation in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Due to misbalanced energy surplus and expenditure, obesity has become a common chronic disorder that is highly associated with many metabolic diseases. Pu-erh tea, a traditional Chinese beverage, has been believed to have numerous health benefits, such as anti-obesity. However, the underlying mechanisms of its anti-obesity effect are yet to be understood. Here, we take the advantages of transcriptional profile by RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) to view the global gene expression of Pu-erh tea. The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans was treated with different concentrations of Pu-erh tea water extract (PTE, 0 g/mL, 0.025 g/mL, and 0.05 g/mL). Compared with the control, PTE indeed decreases lipid droplets size and fat accumulation. The high-throughput RNA-Sequence technique detected 18073 and 18105 genes expressed in 0.025 g/mL and 0.05 g/mL PTE treated groups, respectively. Interestingly, the expression of the vitellogenin family (vit-1, vit-2, vit-3, vit-4 and vit-5) was significantly decreased by PTE, which was validated by qPCR analysis. Furthermore, vit-1(ok2616), vit-3(ok2348) and vit-5(ok3239) mutants are insensitive to PTE triggered fat reduction. In conclusion, our transcriptional profile by RNA-Sequence suggests that Pu-erh tea lowers the fat accumulation primarily through repression of the expression of vit(vitellogenin) family, in addition to our previously reported (sterol regulatory element binding protein) SREBP-SCD (stearoyl-CoA desaturase) axis.

Dissecting high from low responders in a vitamin D3 intervention study.

Vitamin D3 is a pleiotropic signaling molecule that has via activation of the transcription factor vitamin D receptor (VDR) a direct effect on the expression of more than 100 genes. The aim of this study was to find transcriptomic and clinical biomarkers that are most suited to identify vitamin D3 responders within 71 pre-diabetic subjects during a 5-month intervention study (VitDmet). In hematopoietic cells, the genes ASAP2, CAMP, CD14, CD97, DUSP10, G0S2, IL8, LRRC8A, NINJ1, NRIP1, SLC37A2 and THBD are known as primary vitamin D targets. We demonstrate that each of these 12 genes carries a conserved VDR binding site within its genomic region and is expressed in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The changes in the expression of these genes in human PBMCs at the start and the end of the vitamin D-intervention were systematically correlated with the alteration in the circulating form of vitamin D3, 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3). Only 39-44 (55-62%) of the study subjects showed a highly significant response to vitamin D3, i.e., we considered them as "responders". In comparison, we found for 37-53 (52-75%) of the participants that only 12 biochemical and clinical parameters, such as concentrations of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and insulin, or computed values, such as homeostatic model assessment and insulin sensitivity index, show a correlation with serum 25(OH)D3 levels that is as high as that of the selected VDR target genes. All 24 parameters together described the pleiotropic vitamin D response of the VitDmet study subjects. Interestingly, they demonstrated a number of additional correlations that define a network, in which PTH plays the central role. In conclusion, vitamin D3-induced changes in human PBMCs can be described by transcriptomic and serum biomarkers and allow a segregation into high and low responders. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled '17th Vitamin D Workshop' .

Up-regulation of CatSper genes family by selenium.

BACKGROUND: CatSper1-4 are a unique family of sperm cation channels, which are exclusively expressed in the testis and play an important role in sperm motility and male fertility. Despite their vital role in male fertility, almost nothing is known about the factors regulating their expression. Here, we investigated the effects of selenium (Se) on the expression of CatSper genes and sperm parameters in aging versus young male mice. METHODS: Forty 11-13 months aging male mice and forty 2-3 months young adult male mice were used. The animals were divided in two experimental groups: first group including aging males and second group comprising of young adult males, both treated with Se. The experimental groups were injected intra-peritoneally with Se (0.2 mg/kg) daily, for up to 5 weeks. Two other groups, aging and young adult mice without Se treatment were used as controls. All the animals were rapidly sacrificed by cervical dislocation on the days 21, 28, 35 and 42 after Se treatment. Subsequently, the morphology of the collected sperms was analyzed, and one of the testes from each mouse used for semi-quantitative RT-PCR. The significancy of the data was analyzed using ANOVA. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Our data revealed that there was a significant up-regulation of CatSper genes in the experimental groups compared to the control ones. Furthermore, the results of sperm analysis showed that the sperm parameters were improved in the aging as well as young adult male mice following Se treatment. CONCLUSION: Se treatment in the aging subjects could up-regulate the expression of CatSper genes, and therefore results in elevation of sperm motility. Furthermore, Se treatment improved sperm parameters, especially morphology and viability rates.

The promise of genomics to identify novel therapeutic targets.

The cataloguing of the human genome has provided an unprecedented prospectus for target identification and drug discovery. A current analysis indicates that slightly more than 3000 unique protein encoding loci are potentially amenable to pharmacological intervention (the 'druggable genome', which can be queried at http://function.gnf.org/druggable). However, the assessment of genome sequence data has not resulted in the anticipated acceleration of novel therapeutic developments. The basis for this shortfall lies in the significant attrition rates endemic to preclinical/clinical development, as well as the often underestimated complexity of gene function in higher order biological systems. To address the latter issue, a number of strategies have emerged to facilitate genomics-driven target identification and validation, including cellular profiling of gene function, in silico modelling of gene networks, and systematic analyses of protein complexes. The expectation is that the integration of these and other systems-based technologies may enable the conversion of potential genomic targets into functionally validated molecules, and result in practicable gene-based drug discovery pipelines.

Sequence organization and the mechanism of interstitial deletion clustering in a plant genome (Vicia faba).

Intercalary deletions and duplication-deletions are types of chromatid aberrations typical of the aberration spectrum observed in the first mitosis of plant cells after mutagen treatment. They are the results of error-prone recombination repair and arise when reunion is not prevented by inhibition of DNA synthesis. Both types of aberrations are nearly exclusively located in chromosome regions composed of tandemly arranged highly repetitive DNA sequences (e.g. FokI elements). The data discussed in the present paper make it possible to arrive at a simple mechanistic interpretation of the origin of these aberration types.