Procyanidin B2 improves developmental capacity of bovine oocytes via promoting PPARγ/UCP1-mediated uncoupling lipid catabolism during in vitro maturation.

Metabolic balance is essential for oocyte maturation and acquisition of developmental capacity. Suboptimal conditions of in vitro cultures would lead to lipid accumulation and finally result in disrupted oocyte metabolism. However, the effect and mechanism underlying lipid catabolism in oocyte development remain elusive currently. In the present study, we observed enhanced developmental capacity in Procyanidin B2 (PCB2) treated oocytes during in vitro maturation. Meanwhile, reduced oxidative stress and declined apoptosis were found in oocytes after PCB2 treatment. Further studies confirmed that oocytes treated with PCB2 preferred to lipids catabolism, leading to a notable decrease in lipid accumulation. Subsequent analyses revealed that mitochondrial uncoupling was involved in lipid catabolism, and suppression of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) would abrogate the elevated lipid consumption mediated by PCB2. Notably, we identified peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) as a potential target of PCB2 by docking analysis. Subsequent mechanistic studies revealed that PCB2 improved oocyte development capacity and attenuated oxidative stress by activating PPARγ mediated mitochondrial uncoupling. Our findings identify that PCB2 intricately improves oocyte development capacity through targeted activation of the PPARγ/UCP1 pathway, fostering uncoupling lipid catabolism while concurrently mitigating oxidative stress.

Broadband ASE source-enabled self-homodyne DA-RoF fronthaul using cascaded SOAs and a multicore fiber.

Broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light sources are recognized for their cost-effective generation. However, their inherent high-intensity noise and the stringent requirement for time delay matching limits their widespread application in coherent optical telecommunication. Here we propose a broadband ASE source-enabled digital-analog radio-over-fiber (DA-RoF) mobile fronthaul architecture, leveraging semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and multicore fiber in tandem. Our proposed system uses SOAs to suppress the intensity noise of the ASE carrier and transmits the DA-RoF signal alongside an unmodulated carrier through distinct cores of an 8-core, 1-km fiber. This setup significantly enhances the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by 19.4 dB, boosts capacity, and enables self-homodyne detection at the receiver end. We achieve an aggregated bandwidth of 35 GHz (7 cores × 5 GHz), supporting a 2.05-Tb/s CPRI-equivalent data rate with 1024-ary quadrature-amplitude-modulated (1024-QAM) signals. Additionally, we analyze the impact of chromatic dispersion on signal-to-noise ratio for broadband source coherent detection systems. This innovative scheme offers a pragmatic solution for integrating low-cost broadband sources into cost-sensitive fronthaul systems, providing both high capacity and fidelity in massive deployment scenarios.

Gradient-descent noise whitening techniques for short-reach IM-DD optical interconnects with severe bandwidth limitation.

Bandwidth limitation in optoelectrical components and the chromatic dispersion-induced power fading phenomenon cause severe inter-symbol interference (ISI) in high-speed intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD) optical interconnects. While the equalizer implemented in the receiver's digital signal processing procedure can mitigate ISI, it also inevitably enhances the noise located in the decayed frequency region, known as equalization-enhanced colored noise (EECN). Additionally, the nonlinear impairments of the modulator and photodetector also deteriorate the performance of the IM-DD system, especially for high-order modulation formats. In this work, we propose a gradient-descent noise whitening (GD-NW) algorithm to address EECN and extend it by introducing nonlinear kernels to simultaneously mitigate EECN and nonlinear impairments. The proposed algorithms are compared with conventional counterparts in terms of the achievable baud rate and the receiver optical power sensitivity. As a proof-of-concept experiment, we validate the principles of the proposed algorithms by successfully transmitting 360-GBd on-off-keying (OOK) and 180-GBd 4-level pulse-amplitude-modulation (PAM-4) signals in the back-to-back case under a 62-GHz brick-wall bandwidth limitation. 280-GBd OOK and 150-GBd PAM-4 transmissions are also demonstrated over 1-km standard single-mode fiber with a bit error rate below 7% hard-decision forward error correction aided by the proposed approach.

Vitrification of Mammalian Oocytes: Recent Studies on Mitochondrial Dysfunction.

Vitrification of reproductive cells is definitely essential and integral in animal breeding, as well as in assisted reproduction. However, issues accompanied with this technology such as decreased oocyte competency and relatively low embryo survival rates appear to be a tough conundrum that has long perplexed us. As significant organelles in cell metabolism, mitochondria play pivotal roles in numerous pathways. Nonetheless, extensive evidence has demonstrated that vitrification can seriously impair mitochondrial function in mammalian oocytes. Thus, in this article, we summarize the current progress in oocyte vitrification and particularly outline the common mitochondrial abnormalities alongside subsequent injury cascades seen in mammalian oocytes following vitrification. Based on existing literature, we tentatively come up with the potential mechanisms related to mitochondrial dysfunction and generalize efficacious ways which have been recommended to restore mitochondrial function.

Antimicrobial resistance characteristics and phylogenetic relationships of pleuromutilin-resistant Enterococcus isolates from different environmental samples along a laying hen production chain.

Antimicrobial resistance in the laying hen production industry has become a serious public health problem. The antimicrobial resistance and phylogenetic relationships of the common conditional pathogen Enterococcus along the laying hen production chain have not been systematically clarified. 105 Enterococcus isolates were obtained from 115 environmental samples (air, dust, feces, flies, sewage, and soil) collected along the laying hen production chain (breeding chicken, chick, young chicken, and commercial laying hen). These Enterococcus isolates exhibited resistance to some clinically relevant antibiotics, such as tetracycline (92.4%), streptomycin (92.4%), and erythromycin (91.4%), and all strains had multidrug resistance phenotypes. Whole genome sequencing characterized 29 acquired antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) that conferred resistance to 11 classes of antibiotics in 51 pleuromutilin-resistant Enterococcus isolates, and lsa(E), which mediates resistance to pleuromutilins, always co-occurred with lnu(B). Alignments with the Mobile Genetic Elements database identified four transposons (Tn554, Tn558, Tn6261, and Tn6674) with several ARGs (erm(A), ant(9)-la, fex(A), and optrA) that mediated resistance to many clinically important antibiotics. Moreover, we identified two new transposons that carried ARGs in the Tn554 family designated as Tn7508 and Tn7492. A complementary approach based on conventional multi-locus sequence typing and whole genome single nucleotide polymorphism analysis showed that phylogenetically related pleuromutilin-resistant Enterococcus isolates were widely distributed in various environments on different production farms. Our results indicate that environmental contamination by antimicrobial-resistant Enterococcus requires greater attention, and they highlight the risk of pleuromutilin-resistant Enterococcus and ARGs disseminating along the laying hen production chain, thereby warranting effective disinfection.

LncRNA MIR200CHG inhibits EMT in gastric cancer by stabilizing miR-200c from target-directed miRNA degradation.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a heterogeneous disease, threatening millions of lives worldwide, yet the functional roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in different GC subtypes remain poorly characterized. Microsatellite stable (MSS)/epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) GC is the most aggressive subtype associated with a poor prognosis. Here, we apply integrated network analysis to uncover lncRNA heterogeneity between GC subtypes, and identify MIR200CHG as a master regulator mediating EMT specifically in MSS/EMT GC. The expression of MIR200CHG is silenced in MSS/EMT GC by promoter hypermethylation, associated with poor prognosis. MIR200CHG reverses the mesenchymal identity of GC cells in vitro and inhibits metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, MIR200CHG not only facilitates the biogenesis of its intronic miRNAs miR-200c and miR-141, but also protects miR-200c from target-directed miRNA degradation (TDMD) through direct binding to miR-200c. Our studies reveal a landscape of a subtype-specific lncRNA regulatory network, providing clinically relevant biological insights towards MSS/EMT GC.

Computationally efficient composite triple beat cancellation for DML-based DA-RoF fronthaul.

The digital-analog radio-over-fiber (DA-RoF) scheme offers a high-fidelity and spectrally efficient solution for future mobile fronthaul. However, to be implemented in the low-cost directly modulated laser with direct detection (DML-DD) link, both the digital and analog parts in DA-RoF modulation would suffer from the composite second-order (CSO) and composite triple beat (CTB) caused by the chirp-dispersion interaction. In this Letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a computationally efficient composite triple beat cancellation (CTB-C) algorithm for DA-RoF fronthaul in the dispersion-uncompensated C-band DML-DD link. The CSO and CTB are suppressed at the receiver-side DSP based on the theoretical model of these nonlinear distortions. In the proof-of-concept experiment, a 1.2-dB improvement in the recovered signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is obtained with 5.5-GHz 1024-QAM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal after 10-km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) transmission. The proposed CTB-C technique does not require the training process and performs close to the Volterra-based feed-forward equalizer (VFE) under the complexity constraint.

Fast polarization state tracking for dual-polarization direct detection with Jones-space field recovery.

Direct detection system is expected to possess the phase and polarization diversity in order to achieve high spectral efficiency and fiber impairment compensation such as chromatic dispersion and polarization rotation. In this Letter, we theoretically extend the concept of the proposed Jones-space field recovery (JSFR) to include a dynamic polarization rotation matrix and experimentally demonstrate the rapid polarization state tracking ability of the JSFR receiver based on a 3 × 3 optical coupler. Under a rotation of the state of polarization at a rate of 1 Mrad/s, we successfully transmit 59-GBd dual-polarization 16-ary quadrature-amplitude-modulation signals over an 80-km standard single-mode fiber based on a decision-directed least mean square (DD-LMS) or a recursive least square (DD-RLS), with a bit-error rate below the 14% hard-decision forward error correction threshold of 1 × 10-2. The experimental results indicate that the legacy polarization tracking algorithms designed for coherent optical communication are also applicable for this direct detection scheme. To our best knowledge, this work demonstrates the first polarization rotation-tolerant direct detection system with phase and polarization diversity, providing a low-cost and high-speed solution for short-reach communications.

Digital pre-distortion using a Gauss-Newton-based direct learning architecture for coherent optical transmitters.

Digital pre-distortion (DPD) is a powerful technique to mitigate transmitter nonlinear distortion in optical transmissions. In this Letter, the identification of DPD coefficients based on the direct learning architecture (DLA) using the Gauss-Newton (GN) method is applied in optical communications for the first time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the DLA has been realized without training an auxiliary neural network to mitigate optical transmitter nonlinear distortion. We describe the principle of the DLA using the GN method and compare the DLA with the indirect learning architecture (ILA) that uses the least-square (LS) method. Extensive numerical and experimental results indicate that the GN-based DLA is superior to the LS-based ILA, especially in a low signal-to-noise ratio scenario.

Deciphering risks of resistomes and pathogens in intensive laying hen production chain.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and pathogens derived from food animals and their associated environments have emerged as challenging threats to humans from a health perspective, but our understanding of these risks and their key prevention and control points in the current intensive breeding industry remains poor. By creating an integral composition and risk profile of the resistome and microbiome through metagenomics in feces, flies, dust, sewage, and soil along the four-stage laying hen production chain, we found that the whole production chain is a hotspot for antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) with 374 known subtypes and pathogens, including 157 human pathogenic bacteria (HPB). Feces and flies were identified as major risk sources for these contaminations. Also, we confirmed a twin-risk of AMR and pathogenicity prevailing throughout the chain, but with different frequencies in each stage; thus, high-risk ARGs in the young chicken stage and highly prioritized HPB in the chick stage contributed 37.33 % to the total AMR risk and 36.36 % to the pathogenic risks, respectively, thus rendering the two stages to be the key prevention points. Moreover, the prevalence of 112 binned ARG supercarriers (for example, Klebsiella pneumoniae harboring 20 ARGs) was unraveled along the production chain, especially in feces, flies, and dust, and 87 potential hosts exhibited high pathogenic risk, high-risk AMR, or both, with 262 ARGs and 816 virulence factor genes. Overall, this study provides first-hand comprehensive data on high-risk ARGs and their pathogenic hosts in the intensive laying hen production chain, and thus is fundamentally important for developing new measures to help control the global AMR crisis induced through the animal-environment-human pathway.

Coherent digital-analog radio-over-fiber (DA-RoF) system with a CPRI-equivalent data rate beyond 1 Tb/s for fronthaul.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a coherent digital-analog radio-over-fiber (DA-RoF) system and achieve the transmission of Tb/s common public radio interface (CPRI)-equivalent data rate for fronthaul. The proposed coherent DA-RoF system includes DA-RoF modulation, demodulation and DA-RoF compatible coherent digital signal processing (DSP) blocks. A theoretical analysis of the DA-RoF scheme together with parameter optimization is accomplished as well. In the experiment, a 25 Gbaud DA-RoF signal with 1 Tb/s CPRI-equivalent data rate is transmitted in the system, satisfying the error vector magnitude (EVM) requirement for 256-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal transmission. With the symbol rate reduced to 10 Gbaud, an EVM below 2.5% is achieved, which meets the requirement for 1024-QAM transmission. The experimental results show that the coherent DA-RoF system is a promising solution for future fronthaul.

Air-gap Fabry-Pérot cavity filtered 30 nm broadband electro-optic frequency combs for high-order coherent communications.

Broadband electro-optic (EO) frequency combs, which have flexible and high repetition frequencies, are prospective light sources for dense-wavelength-division-multiplexed coherent optical communications. In most cases, nonlinear spectral broadening and amplification procedures are needed to achieve broadband and high-power EO frequency combs. This leads to a low optical carrier-to-noise ratio (OCNR) for comb lines, limiting the transmission capacity. Here, we propose to use an air-gap Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavity to improve the OCNR for all the comb lines covering a 30 nm broadband spectrum. A 12 dB OCNR (0.1 nm bandwidth) improvement is obtained experimentally via using an FP cavity with ∼790 MHz bandwidth. We apply a 150-channel filtered EO comb with 25 GHz channel spacing and load 20 GBaud signals on each comb line to demonstrate the effect of OCNR improvement. The 137/150 channels have a bit error rate below the threshold of soft-decision forward error correction when using the 128 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) format. However, none of these channels can support this modulation format without cavity filtering. We also investigate dispersion tolerance and the long-term stability when using an air-gap FP cavity, highlighting its advantages. Our results show a practical solution to boost the transmission capacity when applying broadband EO combs in optical communications.

Cascaded digital-analog radio-over-fiber for efficient SNR scaling at >10†dB per extra bandwidth.

Efficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and spectral efficiency (SE) trade-off can offer fundamental guiding law for future large-capacity and high-fidelity mobile fronthaul. In this Letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a cascaded digital-analog radio-over-fiber (CDA-RoF) scheme, which transmits digitized and analog segments using time-division-multiplexing aggregation. Specifically, multiple digital parts generated by a rounding function describe the main features of the original waveform, while the residual error is magnified and delivered as analog RoF with SE advantage. Based on a 20-GHz O-band directly modulated laser (DML), an SNR enhancement of >10 dB is observed for each extra bandwidth. Up to 70.4-dB SNR is also achieved for a 3.5-GHz 1048576-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (1048576-QAM) signal after 20-km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) transmission.

Direct detection transmission of a PAM signal with power fading mitigation based on Alamouti coding and dual-drive MZM.

Power-fading impairment induced by fiber dispersion and photodiode detection imposes a fundamental limitation on the intensity-modulation direct-detection (IM-DD) transmission systems. In this work, we propose a cost-effective pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) signal transmission scheme with power-fading mitigation enabled by Alamouti coding and dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DDMZM). By interleaving the symbol blocks in the time domain for upper- and lower-arm of the DDMZM, flat end-to-end frequency response can be obtained without spectral nulls after combining the photocurrents at odd and even time slots. For single channel demonstration, we experimentally transmit up to 160Gb/s PAM-4, 140Gb/s PAM-6, and 108Gb/s PAM-8 signals over 80 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) with bit-error rates (BERs) below the 20% soft-decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) threshold of 2.0×10-2. For wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmission, 8λ×150Gb/s PAM-4 signals spacing at 100 GHz can also achieve 80 km reach. Moreover, we compare the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) sensitivity with single sideband (SSB) scheme and evaluate the tolerance of bias deviation in numerical simulation. The proposed Alamouti coding-based scheme provides a hardware-efficient and dispersion-tolerant candidate for high-speed inter-data center interconnect (DCI) applications.

Dynamic changes of miRNAs in skeletal muscle development at New Zealand rabbits.

BACKGROUND: miRNA is one of the crucial roles in the complex and dynamic network that regulates the development of skeletal muscle. The landscape of skeletal muscle miRNAs from fetus to adult in New Zealand rabbits has not been revealed yet. RESULTS: In this study, nine RNA-seq libraries of fetus, child and adult rabbits' leg muscles were constructed. A total of 278 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) were identified. In the fetus vs. child group, the main functional enrichments were involved in membrane and transport. Pathway enriched terms of up-regulated DEmiRNAs were connected with the differentiation and hypertrophy of skeletal muscle, and down-regulated ones were related to muscle structure and metabolic capacity. In the child vs. adult group, functions were associated to positioning and transportation, and pathways were relevant to ECM, muscle structure and hypertrophy. Finally, ocu-miR-185-3p and ocu-miR-370-3p, which had the most target genes, were identified as hub-miRNAs in these two groups. CONCLUSIONS: In short, we summarized the highly expressed and uniquely expressed DEmiRNAs of fetus, child and adult rabbits' leg muscles. Besides, the potential functional changes of miRNAs in two consecutive stages have been explored. Among them, the ocu-miR-185-3p and ocu-miR-370-3p with the most target genes were selected as hub-miRNAs. These data improved the understanding of the regulatory molecules of meat rabbit development, and provided a novel perspective for molecular breeding of meat rabbits.

Glutamine supplementation affected the gut bacterial community and fermentation leading to improved nutrient digestibility in growth-retarded yaks.

This study evaluated the effects of glutamine supplementation on nutrient digestibility, immunity, digestive enzyme activity, gut bacterial community and fermentation of growth-retarded yaks. A total of 16 growth-retarded yaks were randomly allocated to two groups: negative control (GRY) and glutamine supplementation group (GLN). Another eight growth-normal yaks were used as a positive control (GNY). Compared with GRY group, the crude protein digestibility was higher in GLN and GNY animals and the neutral detergent fiber digestibility was increased in GLN yaks. The concentrations of serum IgA, IgG, IgM and IL-10, as well as butyrate concentration and cellulase activity in the rumen and cecum were higher in GLN yaks compared to those in GRY animals. Supplementation with glutamine enhanced the chymotrypsin activity and increased the relative abundances of unclassified Peptostreptococcaceae and Romboutsia while decreased the relative abundances of unclassified Chitinophagaceae and Bacteroides in the jejunum and ileum of growth-retarded yaks. In the cecum, the relative abundance of unclassified Muribaculaceae was higher in GLN group than that in GRY group. The findings in this study suggest that the improved nutrient digestibility and immunity of growth-retarded yaks with glutamine supplementation may be through its potential impact on the lower gut host and microbial functions.

Comparative study of growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and ruminal and fecal bacterial community between yaks and cattle-yaks raised by stall-feeding.

The experiment was conducted to compare the growth performance, rumen fermentation, nutrient digestibility, and ruminal and fecal bacterial community between yaks and cattle-yaks. Ten male yaks (36-month-old) were used as the yak (YAK) group and 10 male cattle-yaks with similar age were selected as the cattle-yak (CAY) group. All the animals were fed same ration and the experiment lasted for 60 days. The results showed that the average daily gain and dry matter intake of CAY group were higher (P < 0.05) than those of YAK group. The ruminal concentrations of total volatile fatty acids, acetate, and butyrate were higher (P < 0.05) in CAY group than those in YAK group. However, the neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber digestibility exhibited an opposite between two groups. In the rumen, the relative abundances of Prevotella 1 and Prevotellaceae UCG-001 were higher (P < 0.05) and Succiniclasticum and Butyrivibrio 2 were lower (P < 0.05) in YAK group compared to CAY group. In the feces, the unclassified Lachnospiraceae, Lachnospiraceae NK4A136 group, and Lachnospiraceae AC2044 group were significantly enriched (P < 0.05) in YAK group, whereas the Ruminococcaceae UCG-010, Ruminococcaceae UCG-013, and Succiniclasticum were significantly enriched (P < 0.05) in CAY group. Overall, under the same diet, the yaks have higher fiber utilization and cattle-yaks have higher energy utilization.

Comparative study of the bacterial communities throughout the gastrointestinal tract in two beef cattle breeds.

Investigation of the compositional and functional characteristics of the gastrointestinal bacterial community in beef cattle breeds can improve our understanding of the influence of gastrointestinal tract (GIT) regions and host breeds on the bacterial community. In this study, 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene amplicon sequencing was used to characterize the bacterial communities in the rumen, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, caecum, and colon of Xuanhan yellow cattle (XHC) and Simmental crossbred cattle (SXC). The results showed that the diversity of the bacterial population was different in GIT regions of XHC and SXC (P < 0.05). In total, ten bacterial phyla, sixteen bacterial genera, and nine metabolic pathways were identified in the core bacteria. The phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria were predominant, but their proportions were different in GIT regions (P < 0.05). The diversity, structure, and composition of the bacteria in the rumen were similar between the breeds (P > 0.05), and the indices in the intestine showed significant differences (P < 0.05). Moreover, the composition and structure of the bacterial communities in the rumen, small intestine, and large intestine were different regardless of the breed. Thus, the bacterial communities were different among the gastrointestinal regions in each breed, and the bacterial community in the rumen had more stable characteristics than that in the intestine between two breeds. Further studies may focus on the minor microbial communities and the functions of GIT bacteria to better understand gut-microbe interactions. KEY POINTS: • Differences in bacteria among gastrointestinal regions differ in cattle breeds. • Differences between the breeds in the ruminal bacteria are less pronounced than differences in the intestinal bacteria.

Time skew enabled vestigial sideband modulation for dispersion-tolerant direct-detection transmission.

Fiber dispersion and square-law detection-induced power fading is a fundamental obstacle in intensity modulation with direct detection links. In this Letter, we propose a hardware-efficient vestigial sideband (VSB) transmitter to suppress such an impairment. By introducing an appropriate time skew between the differential arms of the Mach-Zehnder modulator, a VSB signal can be generated based on a single digital-to-analog convertor without optical filtering. At the receiver, a Volterra equalizer is utilized to mitigate the inter-symbol interference. In the proof-of-concept experiment, 32 Gbaud 4/6/8-ary pulse amplitude modulation signals can be successfully transmitted over an 80 km standard single-mode fiber with bit-error rates below the KP4, 7% hard-decision and 20% soft-decision forward error correction thresholds, respectively. The proposed scheme provides a promising and low-cost solution for high-speed metro and data center interconnect applications.