Characterization of the Bioavailability of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Farmland Soils and the Factors Impacting Their Translocation to Edible Plant Tissues.

In this study, various crops and farmland soils were collected from the Fen-Wei Plain, China, to investigate the bioavailability of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), their accumulation in edible plant tissues, and the factors impacting their accumulation. PFAS were frequently detected in all of the crops, with total concentrations ranging from 0.61 to 35.8 ng/g. The results of sequential extractions with water, basic methanol, and acidic methanol indicate that water extraction enables to characterize the bioavailability of PFAS in soil to edible plant tissues more accurately, especially for the shorter-chain homologues. The bioavailability of PFAS was remarkably enhanced in the rhizosphere (RS) soil, with the strongest effect observed for leafy vegetables. The water-extracted Σ16PFAS in RS soil was strongly correlated with the content of dissolved organic carbon in the soil. Tannins and lignin, identified as the main components of plant root exudates by Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, were found to enhance the bioavailability of PFAS significantly. Redundancy analysis provided strong evidence that the lipid and protein contents in edible plant tissues play important roles in the accumulation of short- and long-chain PFAS, respectively. Additionally, the high water demand of these tissues during the growth stage greatly facilitated the translocation of PFAS, particularly for the short-chain homologues and perfluorooctanoic acid.

Study of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway in vitro and molecular docking analysis of periplocin inhibits cell cycle progression and induces apoptosis in MDA-MB-231.

Breast cancer mainly affects women and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Breast cancer affects women aged 15-59. The current study explored periplocin's anticancer activities against breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells by down-regulating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. The MTT assay assessed control-treated and periplocin (2.5-50 µM) treated MDA-MB-231 cell viability. ROS accumulation and apoptosis levels in periplocin-treated cells were examined using DAPI, dual staining, and Annexin V-FITC/PI assays. Caspase enzymes were studied using assay kits. Flow cytometry was used to measure cell cycle distributions. Periplocin-treated cells were analyzed using RT-PCR assays and insilico analyses for the expression of PI3K/Akt/mTOR molecules. The periplocin treatment remarkably reduced the viability of the MDA-MB-231 cells, with an IC50 concentration of 7.5 µM. The fluorescent staining assays revealed a substantial increase in ROS levels and apoptotic events in the periplocin-treated cells. The flow cytometry analysis revealed that periplocin triggered apoptosis and arrested the cell cycle in G0/G1 phases. Periplocin increased the caspase-3, -8, and -9 enzyme activities. In MDA-MB-231 cells, Periplocin decreased PI3K/Akt/mTOR activity, and in silico analysis, Periplocin was inhibited by CDK8-Cyclin C interactions. Periplocin has anticancer properties against breast cancer and may be an effective therapeutic agent for treating breast cancer.

Rapid detection of melamine by DNA Walker mediated SERS sensing technique based on signal amplification function.

A new method is proposed for detecting typical melamine dopants in food using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) biosensing technology. Melamine specific aptamer was used as the identification probe, and gold magnets (AuNPs@MNPs) and small gold nanoparticles (AuNPs@MBA) were used as the basis for Raman detection. The Raman signal of the detection system can directly detect melamine quantitatively. Under optimized conditions, the detection of melamine was carried out in the low concentration range of 0.001-500 mg/kg, the enhancement factor (EF) was 2.3 × 107, and the detection limit was 0.001 mg/kg. The method is sensitive and rapid, and can be used for the rapid detection of melamine in the field environment.

Application of DNA-fueled molecular machines in food safety testing.

Food is consumed by humans, which is indispensable to human life. Therefore, considerable attention of the whole society has been paid to food safety. Over the last few years, dramatic social development has brought new challenges to food safety, making developing new and quick methods for on-site food safety testing an important necessity. As a result, DNA-fueled molecular machines, characterized by high efficiency, accuracy, and sensitivity in testing, have come into the spotlight, based on which sensors can be constructed to detect toxic and harmful substances in food products. This study reviewed recent research on several DNA-fueled molecular machines, including DNA tweezers, DNA walkers, and DNA origami, for rapidly detecting toxic and harmful substances. Based on the above studies, the sensitivity and timeliness of several DNA molecular machines were summarized and compared, and the development prospect of DNA fuel molecular machines in the field of food safety detection was prospected.

Strain-Sensitive On-Surface Ladderization by Non-Dehydrogenative Heterocyclization.

On-surface cyclodehydrogenation recently became an important reaction to planarize π-conjugated molecules and oligomers. However, the high-activation barrier to cleave the C-H bond often requires high-temperature annealing, consequently restricting structures of precursor molecules and/or leading to random fusion at their edges. Here, we present a synthesis of pyrrolopyrrole-bridged ladder oligomers from 11,11,12,12-tetrabromo-1,4,5,8-tetraaza-9,10-anthraquinodimethane molecules on Ag(111) with bond-resolved scanning tunnelling microscopy. This non-dehydrogenative cyclization between pyrazine and ethynylene/cumulene groups has a low-activation barrier for forming intermediary dimeric oligomer containing dipyrazinopyrrolopyrrolopyrazine units, thus giving new insight into the strain-sensitive in ladder-oligomer formation.

Behavior Evolution of Droplets Suspended in Castor Oil under Alternating Current Electric Field.

Electric fields, which can promote the approach of droplets and break the liquid film, are extensively used in the separation of the water phase in water-in-oil emulsions. However, there is an evolution of droplet behavior under an electric field. After the two droplets meet with each other, the electric force becomes undesirable, which would even cause breakup of the merged droplet. When the electric field strength E reaches a particular value, the final behavior of droplets is made, which goes against coalescence, and there are lots of behavior evolution types. Several research studies have studied on whether droplets coalesce and the critical condition, but few works have focused on the classification and mechanism of non-coalescence behaviors. In this paper, the behavior evolution of two single droplets suspended in castor oil under an alternating current electric field is studied by a high-speed camera. Six distinct behavior evolution modes are observed and summarized: coalescence, bounce, partial coalescence, partial rupture, coalescence-rupture, and rupture. The behavior evolution mode is influenced by the initial separation distance s0 between droplets and the electric field strength. Moreover, there exist critical electric field strengths among different behavior evolution modes. As E gradually increases, two water droplets go through coalescence, partial coalescence, and coalescence-rupture in sequence when s0 is small and coalescence, bounce, partial rupture, and rupture when s0 is large. The mechanisms of behavior evolution are revealed by investigating the confrontation between electric force and capillary force in the condition with liquid bridge or pressure difference from the surrounding fluid and electric force in the condition without a liquid bridge. In addition, a cone-dimple mode of water droplets in castor oil is found, demonstrating the rationality of electric force theory.

Multiple molecular interactions between alkyl groups and dissociated bromine atoms on Ag(111).

Multiple intermolecular interactions offer a high degree of controllability of on-surface molecular assemblies. Here, two kinds of molecular networks were formed by depositing 11,11,12,12-tetrabromo-1,4,5,8-tetraaza-9,10-anthraquinodimethane derivatives with two different alkyl groups in length (C4 and C8) on clean Ag(111) surfaces under ultrahigh vacuum. The detailed structures of each network before and after the cleavage of the C-Br bonds were investigated with high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy at low temperature. We found that the diffusion of the Br atoms by high-temperature annealing plays a role in the formation of Br-mediated self-assembly. While dissociated Br atoms interacted with alkyl groups by hydrogen bonding through C-H⋯Br contacts in both systems, the different strengths of the van der Waals interactions between the alkyl groups resulted in the formation of different structures.

On-Surface Synthesis of Porphyrin-Complex Multi-Block Co-Oligomers by Defluorinative Coupling.

On-surface chemical reaction has become a very powerful technique to synthesize nanostructures by linking small molecules in the bottom-up approach. Given the fact that most reactants are simultaneously activated at certain temperatures, a sequential reaction in a controlled way has remained challenging. Here, we present an on-surface synthesis of multi-block co-oligomers from trifluoromethyl (CF3 ) substituted porphyrin metal complexes. The oligomerization on Au(111) is demonstrated with a combination of bond-resolved scanning probe microscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Even after the first oligomerization of single monomer unit, the termini of the oligomer keep the CF3 group, which can be used as a reactant for further coupling in a sequential order. Consequently, copper, cobalt, and palladium complexes of bisanthracene-fused porphyrin oligomers were linked with each other in a designed order.

Upregulation of lncRNA FER1L4 suppresses the proliferation and migration of the hepatocellular carcinoma via regulating PI3K/AKT signal pathway.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the potential function of FER1L4 in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma and uncover its underlying molecular mechanism. METHODS: In the current study, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was conducted to determine the expression profile of FER1L4 in normal liver tissues and hepatocellular carcinoma tissues of human, as well as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines including HL-7702[L-02], HepG-2, Hep3b, and SMMC-7721. Then, HepG-2 cells were transfected with pcDNA3.1-FER1L4 (pcDNA3.1-empty as negative control) for gain-of-function analysis, followed with cell functional abnormality tests. Specifically, colony formation analysis and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide experiment were taken advantage to measure the cell proliferation, while cell migration and invasion were evaluated by wound healing assay and transwell experiment respectively. Additionally, cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. Moreover, the effect of FER1L4 on PI3K/AKT signal pathway activation was investigated through analyzing phosphorylation of related proteins, p-AKT/AKT and p-PI3K/PI3K, via Western blot assay. RESULTS: Downregulation of FER1L4 in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and cells was demonstrated by qRT-PCR analysis. Besides, FER1L4 overexpression evidently attenuated the cell proliferation, migration and invasion, but prompted cell apoptosis. Importantly, Western blot assays revealed that PII3K/AKT signal pathway were involved in mediating the progression regulation role of FER1L4 in HCC cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested that FER1L4 might alleviate progression of hepatocellular carcinoma via blocking PI3K/AKT pathway, which encourages a better understanding of the pathogenesis of HCC and may provide a novel potential therapeutic target for clinical treatment.

Effects of wastewater treatment plant effluent on microbial risks of pathogens and their antibiotic resistance in the receiving river.

The increase in effluent discharge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) into urban rivers has raised concerns about the potential effects on pathogen risks. This study utilized metagenomic sequencing combined with flow cytometry to analyze pathogen concentrations and antibiotic resistance in a typical effluent-receiving river. Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) was employed to assess the microbial risks of pathogens. The results indicated obvious spatial-temporal differences (i.e., summer vs. winter and effluent vs. river) in microbial composition. Microcystis emerged as a crucial species contributing to these variations. Pathogen concentrations were found to be higher in the river than in the effluent, with the winter exhibiting higher concentrations compared to the summer. The effluent discharge slightly increased the pathogen concentrations in the river in summer but dramatically reduced them in winter. The combined effects of cyanobacterial bloom and high temperature were considered key factors suppressing pathogen concentrations in summer. Moreover, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance of pathogens in the river was inferior to that in the effluent, with higher levels in winter than in summer. Three high-concentration pathogens (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were selected for QMRA. The results showed that the risks of pathogens exceeded the recommended threshold value. Escherichia coli posed the highest risks. And the fishing scenario posed significantly higher risks than the walking scenario. Importantly, the effluent discharge helped reduce the microbial risks in the receiving river in winter. The study contributes to the management and decision-making regarding microbial risks in the effluent-receiving river.

Application of DNA Nanotweezers in biosensing: Nanoarchitectonics and advanced challenges.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a carrier of genetic information. DNA hybridization is characterized by predictability, diversity, and specificity owing to the strict complementary base-pairing assembly mode, which stimulates the use of DNA to build a variety of nanomachines, including DNA tweezers, motors, walkers, and robots. DNA nanomachines have become prevalent for signal amplification and transformation in the field of biosensing, providing a new method for constructing highly sensitive sensing analysis strategies. DNA tweezers have exhibited unique advantages in biosensing applications owing to their simple structures and fast responses. The two-state conformation of DNA tweezers, the open and closed states, enable them to open and close autonomously after stimulation, thus facilitating the quick detection of corresponding signal changes of different targets. This review discusses the recent progress in the application of DNA nanotweezers in the field of biosensing, and the trends in their development for application in the field of biosensing are summarized.

MGML: Multigranularity Multilevel Feature Ensemble Network for Remote Sensing Scene Classification.

Remote sensing (RS) scene classification is a challenging task to predict scene categories of RS images. RS images have two main issues: large intraclass variance caused by large resolution variance and confusing information from large geographic covering area. To ease the negative influence from the above two issues. We propose a multigranularity multilevel feature ensemble network (MGML-FENet) to efficiently tackle the RS scene classification task in this article. Specifically, we propose multigranularity multilevel feature fusion branch (MGML-FFB) to extract multigranularity features in different levels of network by channel-separate feature generator (CS-FG). To avoid the interference from confusing information, we propose a multigranularity multilevel feature ensemble module (MGML-FEM), which can provide diverse predictions by full-channel feature generator (FC-FG). Compared to previous methods, our proposed networks have the ability to use structure information and abundant fine-grained features. Furthermore, through the ensemble learning method, our proposed MGML-FENets can obtain more convincing final predictions. Extensive classification experiments on multiple RS datasets (AID, NWPU-RESISC45, UC-Merced, and VGoogle) demonstrate that our proposed networks achieve better performance than previous state-of-the-art (SOTA) networks. The visualization analysis also shows the good interpretability of MGML-FENet.

Paeoniflorin promotes intestinal stem cell-mediated epithelial regeneration and repair via PI3K-AKT-mTOR signalling in ulcerative colitis.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic and immune-mediated inflammatory disorder characterized by abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and haematochezia. The goal of clinical therapy for UC is mucosal healing, accomplished by regenerating and repairing the intestinal epithelium. Paeoniflorin (PF) is a natural ingredient extracted from Paeonia lactiflora that has significant anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory efficacy. In this study, we investigated how PF could regulate the renewal and differentiation of intestinal stem cells (ISCs) to improve the regeneration and repair of the intestinal epithelium in UC. Our experimental results showed that PF significantly alleviated colitis induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) and ameliorated intestinal mucosal injury by regulating the renewal and differentiation of ISCs. The mechanism by which PF regulates ISCs was confirmed to be through PI3K-AKT-mTOR signalling. In vitro, we found that PF not only improved the growth of TNF-α-induced colon organoids but also increased the expression of genes and proteins related to the differentiation and regeneration of ISCs. Furthermore, PF promoted the repair ability of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced IEC-6 cells. The mechanism by which PF regulates ISCs was further confirmed and was consistent with the in vivo results. Overall, these findings demonstrate that PF accelerates epithelial regeneration and repair by promoting the renewal and differentiation of ISCs, suggesting that PF treatment may be beneficial to mucosal healing in UC patients.

On-surface synthesis of disilabenzene-bridged covalent organic frameworks.

Substituting carbon with silicon in organic molecules and materials has long been an attractive way to modify their electronic structure and properties. Silicon-doped graphene-based materials are known to exhibit exotic properties, yet conjugated organic materials with atomically precise Si substitution have remained difficult to prepare. Here we present the on-surface synthesis of one- and two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks whose backbones contain 1,4-disilabenzene (C4Si2) linkers. Silicon atoms were first deposited on a Au(111) surface, forming a AuSix film on annealing. The subsequent deposition and annealing of a bromo-substituted polyaromatic hydrocarbon precursor (triphenylene or pyrene) on this surface led to the formation of the C4Si2-bridged networks, which were characterized by a combination of high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy supported by density functional theory calculations. Each Si in a hexagonal C4Si2 ring was found to be covalently linked to one terminal Br atom. For the linear structure obtained with the pyrene-based precursor, the C4Si2 rings were converted into C4Si pentagonal siloles by further annealing.

Fabrication of Ag3PO4/polyaniline-activated biochar photocatalyst for efficient triclosan degradation process and toxicity assessment.

Triclosan (TCS) is a typical environmental pollutant, which seriously threatens the health of humans and organisms. A novel strategy of biochar/Ag3PO4/polyaniline (PANI) composite photocatalyst was synthesized by a facile chemical precipitation method to efficiently degrade TCS. XRD, Raman, ESR, etc. were used to reveal the effective associations among physiochemistry, photochemistry and photocatalytic properties of the composite. It was proved the synergistic effects of biochar (T-Bio) and PANI resulted in the decrease of Ag3PO4 particle size, the enhancement of adsorption, the improvement of light utilization, the increase of photogenerated carrier separation and the promotion of reactive species. The photocatalytic mechanism showed h+ was the main active species, O2- and OH played minor roles. Under the irradiation of visible light, the optimal photocatalyst (1.0% T-Bio/AP/1.0% PANI) displayed excellent photocatalytic activity with the removal rate of 85.21% for TCS within 10 min, and the apparent rate constant K' was 2.38 times of Ag3PO4. 11 main intermediates for TCS degradation were identified, and their toxicity was significantly reduced. The possible degradation pathways were proposed. This work is the first systematic study on the degradation behavior of TCS by Ag3PO4-based photocatalyst, and it provides a new approach to fabricate photocatalysts with synergistic effects and amazing photocatalytic activity by biochar.

Normal ranges of non-invasive left ventricular myocardial work indices in healthy young people.

Objectives: Echocardiographic global myocardial work (GMW) indices recently emerged to non-invasively evaluate left ventricular (LV) myocardial performance with less load-dependence than LV ejection fraction (LVEF) or global longitudinal strain (GLS). Yet, few data exist on the descriptions of LV GMW indices in young people. We therefore aimed to provide normal reference values of LV GMW in a healthy young cohort, and simultaneously to investigate factors associated with non-invasive GMW indices. Materials and methods: A total of 155 healthy young people (age 10-24 years, 59% male) underwent transthoracic echocardiography were recruited and further stratified for age groups and divided by gender. Two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) were performed to determine LV GLS, peak strain dispersion (PSD) and GMW indices, which include global work index (GWI), global constructive work (GCW), global wasted work (GWW), and global work efficiency (GWE). LV peak systolic pressure was assumed to be equal to the systolic brachial artery cuff blood pressure. Results: Age and gender specific normal ranges for LV GMW indices were presented. On multivariable analysis, GWI and GCW correlated more closely with systolic blood pressure (SBP) than LV GLS, while both GWW and GWE independently correlated with PSD (P < 0.05 for all). There were no associations between any of the GMW indices with age, sex, body mass index, heart rate, left ventricular mass index as well as LV sizes or LVEF. Of noted, LV GMW indices had good intra-observer and inter-observer reproducibility. Conclusion: We reported echocardiographic reference ranges for non-invasive LV GMW indices in a large group of healthy young subjects, which are reproducible and reliable, and thus can be further used when assessing subclinical dysfunction in young people with myocardial diseases.

Effects of fenugreek seed extracts on growth performance and intestinal health of broilers.

The purpose of this experiment was to study the effects of fenugreek seed extract (FSE) on the growth performance, intestinal morphology, intestinal immunity and cecal micro-organisms in yellow-feathered broilers. A total of 240 one-day-old male yellow-feathered broilers were selected and randomly assigned to four treatments with 6 replicates per group and ten broilers per replicate. Started from the third day, birds were fed with basal diet (CON group) or basal diet supplemented with 30 mg/kg Zinc bacitracin (ZB group), or basal diet supplemented with 50 (D-FSE group) or 100 (H-FSE group) mg/kg FSE, respectively. The experiment lasted for 56 d. The results showed that dietary FSE supplementation improved average daily weight gain (ADG) and ratio of feed to weight gain (F: G) (P < 0.01), increased intestinal villus height (VH), villus height to crypt depth ratio (V/C) (P < 0.05), serum concentrations of IL-10, and the contents of secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) (P < 0.05), as well as decreased the activity of iNOS (P < 0.05). The high-throughput sequencing results showed that dietary FSE supplementation increased the alpha diversity of cecal microbes, and Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia and Proteobacteria taken up 95% of all phyla detected, FSE significantly reduced Campylobacter, Synergistes, and Lachnoclostridium abundance (P ≤ 0.05). There were significant difference in more than 30 KEGG pathways between FSE added group and control group or ZB group. FSE supplementation, in other words, maintained gut microbiota homeostasis while improving broiler growth performance. As a result, FSE has the potential to replace prophylactic antibiotic use in poultry production system.

The enhancement mechanism of ultra-active Ag3PO4 modified by tungsten and the effective degradation towards phenolic pollutants.

A novel strategy of W modification was applied to overcome the disadvantages of Ag3PO4. Ultra-active Ag3PO4 with different W doping ratios were successfully synthesized by facile chemical precipitation method, among which 0.5%W-AP showed the best results. Meanwhile, the stability and yield were enhanced. XRD, Raman and ESR etc. were employed to investigate the morphology, structure and optical properties of samples. It was proved W6+ entered into the Ag3PO4 lattice, occupied the position of P5+ and doped in the form of WO42-. The significant improvement of photocatalytic performance of W doped Ag3PO4 was attributed to the change of morphology, the decrease of particle size, the increase of crystallinity, the shrink of band gap energy and the reduction of photo-induced carriers recombination rate with W doping. The photocatalytic mechanism analysis showed h+ was the main oxidative species in the photocatalytic process, •O2- and •OH played minor roles. Under visible light irradiation, the impacts of the important operating parameters on the typical phenolic pollutants, phenol and bisphenol A, were evaluated with 0.5%W-AP. It was confirmed that 68% and 82% of phenol and bisphenol A were respectively degraded within 15 min and 40 min under optimized photocatalytic parameters: 0.4 g/L catalyst dosage, 20 mg/L pollutant concentration, pH 5.7 and 125 mW/cm2 irradiation intensity, and the corresponding K' were 2.14 and 5.50 times of undoped samples. This work provides a new approach for effective degradation towards phenolic pollutants by Ag3PO4 with ultra-high photocatalytic activity, high applicability and enhanced stability and yield.

Sequence analysis and mRNA expression of prolactin receptor gene isoforms in different tissues of sheep during lactation and the post-weaning period.

Few studies on mRNA expression of the prolactin receptor (PRLR) isoforms in different tissues of sheep were reported. The objective of this study was to analyze the gene sequence and mRNA expression of PRLR isoforms in the uterus, mammary gland, ovary, spleen and lymph tissue of ewes during the lactation and post-weaning periods. Ten lactating crossbred ewes (Dorper×Hu sheep) with twin lambs were used in this study. Five ewes were chosen randomly and slaughtered at mid-lactation (35 days after lambing). The remaining five ewes were slaughtered on the 5th day after weaning. Samples of uterus, mammary gland, ovary, spleen and lymph tissue were collected from each ewe to determine the mRNA expression of long PRLR (L-PRLR) and short PRLR (S-PRLR) by RT-qPCR. The physical and chemical properties, the similarity of the nucleotides L-PRLR and S-PRLR genes and the secondary and tertiary structure of the L-PRLR and S-PRLR proteins of sheep were analyzed. The results indicated that the predicted protein molecular weights of L-PRLR and S-PRLR are 65235.36 KD and 33847.48 KD, respectively, with isoelectric points of 5.12 and 8.34, respectively. The secondary protein structures of L-PRLR and S-PRLR are different. For L-PRLR these include alpha helix, extended strand and random coils and ß-turns for which the content was 16.01%, 21%, 59.55% and 3.44%, respectively, whereas the secondary protein structures of S-PRLR contain only alpha helices, extended strand and random coils, comprising 18.24%, 30.07% and 48.99%, respectively. The L-PRLR and S-PRLR genes of the sheep (Ovis aries) had nucleotide sequences showing much similarity among ruminants. In these sheep, mRNA expression of L-PRLR and S-PRLR was highest in the uterus and differed between the uterus, ovary, mammary gland, spleen and lymph tissue. The mRNA expression of L-PRLR in lymph tissue was higher during lactation than in the post-weaning period (P < 0.01), whereas mRNA expression of S-PRLR in the uterus and the mammary gland was lower during lactation than during the post-weaning period (P < 0.01). In the uterus, mRNA expression of L-PRLR was higher than that of S-PRLR during lactation (P < 0.01) but there were no significant differences (P < 0.05) for the other five tissues. This study that the L-PRLR and S-PRLR proteins in ewes are mainly composed of extended fragments and random coils. The data also indicate that mRNA expression of L-PRLR and S-PRLR genes varies among different tissues in sheep and is higher in the uterus than in the ovary, spleen, mammary gland and lymph tissue throughout lactation and the post-weaning period.

Dietary resveratrol supplement improves carcass traits and meat quality of Pekin ducks.

With the increase of consumer demand for high-quality animal protein, it becomes imperative to improve meat quality through nutritional strategy. Resveratrol is a plant polyphenol that exists in grapes and grape products, and it has been considered as a potential functional feed additive. Here, we aimed to explore the optimal dose of resveratrol in Pekin ducks' diet and its effect on improving meat quality. A total of 432 male Pekin ducks (1-day-old) were selected and randomly allotted to 4 treatment groups, with each group containing 6 replicates. Four different levels of resveratrol were evaluated (0, 150, 300, and 450 mg/kg) for 42 d. The carcass traits, meat quality, and muscle fiber characteristics of Pekin ducks were investigated. Results showed that a∗24h, b∗24h, intramuscular fat, crude protein, total flavor amino acid content of duck breast muscle, and a∗45min of duck leg muscle were increased (P < 0.05) by resveratrol. Resveratrol also reduced abdominal fat deposition, shear force, L∗45min of breast muscle and drip loss, shear force, and L∗45min of leg muscle. In addition, the breast muscle fibers of resveratrol-fed ducks had lower diameter and cross-sectional area and higher density (P < 0.05). Overall, we conclude that dietary resveratrol supplement can effectively improve Pekin duck meat quality, the optimal additional range in diet being 300 to 450 mg/kg. Its underlying mechanism might be partly through stimulation of intramuscular fat and flavor amino deposition and alteration of muscle fiber characteristics.