Deletion of BACH1 alleviates ferroptosis and protects against LPS-triggered acute lung injury by activating Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway.

Multiple lines of evidences have unraveled the emerging role of ferroptosis in the pathophysiological process of acute lung injury (ALI). In this study, we aimed to decipher the role of BACH1 in the onset and progression of ALI with a focus on ferroptosis and elucidated potential molecular mechanism. We observed that BACH1 expression was drastically elevated in BEAS-2B cells upon exposure to LPS. In the functional aspect, BACH1 deletion exerted an anti-inflammatory property, featured by decreased the secretion of several cytokines including TNF-α, IL-1ß and IL-6 in the face of LPS challenge. What's more important, BACH1 knockout evidently repressed LPS-triggered oxidative stress damage, as evidenced by reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and malondialdehyde (MDA) generation, accompanied with the elevated the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), GSH-Px and CAT. Meanwhile, ablation of BACH1 restrained LPS-elicited ferroptosis, as characterized by decreased iron content and PTGS2 expression, accompanied with increased expression of SLC7A11 and GPX4. In terms of mechanism, Nrf2/HO-1 signaling inhibitor effectively abrogated the beneficial effects of BACH1 inhibition on LPS-stimulated inflammation, oxidative damage and ferroptosis. Taken together, these preceding outcomes strongly illuminated that BACH1 was a novel regulator of LPS-evoked injury through regulation of inflammation response, oxidative stress and ferroptosis via activation Nrf2/HO-1 signaling, indicating that BACH1 may represent as a promising novel therapeutic candidate for ALI treatment.

Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals physiological responses in liver tissues of Epinephelus coioides under acute hypoxia stress.

Hypoxia is a common stressor for aquatic animals, including Epinephelus coioides, with a considerable impact on sustainable aquaculture. E. coioides is a widely consumed fish in China owing to its high nutritious value and taste. However, water hypoxia caused by high density culture process has become a great threat to E. coioides culture, and its response to hypoxia stress has not been discussed before. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the response of E. coioides to acute hypoxia using transcriptomic techniques. To this end, RNA sequencing was performed on the liver tissues of fish exposed to normoxic and hypoxic conditions for 1 h. The results presented 503 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the liver tissue of fish exposed to hypoxic condition compared with those in the normoxic group. Enrichment analysis using the Gene Ontology database showed that the DEGs were mainly enriched for functions related to cell apoptosis signaling pathways, insulin resistance, antioxidant enzymes, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis signaling pathways. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that HIF-1, PI3K-AKT, IL-17, NF-kappa B, and MAPK signaling pathways were significantly enriched by the DEGs. The DEGs were mainly involved in immune response, inflammatory response, cell apoptosis regulation, energy metabolism, and substance metabolism. Additionally, the hypoxia response in E. coioides was mainly regulated via the PI3K-AKT-HIF-1 signaling axis. Overall, the findings of this study contribute to the understanding of hypoxia stress response in E. coioides, and provides target genes for breeding hypoxia-tolerant Epinephelus spp.

Guidelines for Regulated Cell Death Assays: A Systematic Summary, A Categorical Comparison, A Prospective.

Over the past few years, the field of regulated cell death continues to expand and novel mechanisms that orchestrate multiple regulated cell death pathways are being unveiled. Meanwhile, researchers are focused on targeting these regulated pathways which are closely associated with various diseases for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. However, the complexity of the mechanisms and the difficulties of distinguishing among various regulated types of cell death make it harder to carry out the work and delay its progression. Here, we provide a systematic guideline for the fundamental detection and distinction of the major regulated cell death pathways following morphological, biochemical, and functional perspectives. Moreover, a comprehensive evaluation of different assay methods is critically reviewed, helping researchers to make a reliable selection from among the cell death assays. Also, we highlight the recent events that have demonstrated some novel regulated cell death processes, including newly reported biomarkers (e.g., non-coding RNA, exosomes, and proteins) and detection techniques.

Complete plastome sequence of Ardisia bullata G. H. Huang & G. Hao, an endemic species in Hainan.

Ardisia bullata G. H. Huang & G. Hao is a small shrubs of Primulaceae. It is only distributed in Hainan provinces of China. It is a plant medicinal value. There is no study on the genome of A. bullata so far. Here, we report and characterize the complete plastid genome sequence of A. bullata in an order to provide genomic resources useful for promoting its conservation. The complete chloroplast genome of A. bullata is 160,176 bp in length with a typical quadripartite structure, consisting of a large single-copy region (LSC, 89,710 bp), a single-copy region (SSC, 18,357 bp), and a pair of inverted repeats (IRs, 26,054 bp). There are 133 genes annotated, including 83 unique protein-coding genes, eight unique ribosomal RNA genes, and 37 transfer RNA genes. The overall G/C content in the plastome of A. bullata is 36.0%. The complete plastome sequence of A. bullata will provide a useful resource for the conservation genetics of this species as well as for phylogenetic studies in Apocynaceae.

Coherent-trapped helical mode in parity-time symmetric metamaterials.

Coaxial optical subwavelength elements support helical modes Lm with different topological indexes m. Here we propose to couple the two bright L±1 modes with the dark one L0 via a parity-time (PT) symmetric perturbation. We show that the cascading coupled configuration is similar to a three-level atomic system, and supports a special hybridized mode Lc via a classic analog of coherent-population-trapping effect. Resonant frequency of Lc is independent of the PT-symmetric perturbation. Populations in L±1 can be manipulated by tuning the PT-symmetric perturbation, and no population is trapped in L0. Since the L±1 modes are associated with optical waves of opposite circular polarizations, the polarization of transmitted wave is independent of the polarization of incidence but solely determined by the PT-symmetric perturbation. Such an effect can be utilized to manipulate the polarization state of light. Numerical simulation in a well-designed coaxial metamaterial verifies our analysis.

Antibiotic resistance monitoring in heterotrophic bacteria from anthropogenic-polluted seawater and the intestines of oyster Crassostrea hongkongensis.

A total of 1,050 strains of heterotrophic bacteria isolated from farming seawater and the intestines of oyster species Crassostrea hongkongensis were tested for resistance to 10 antibiotics by the Kirby-Bauer diffusion method. The resistant rates of seawater-derived bacteria to chloramphenicol, enrofloxacin, and ciprofloxacin were low (less than 20%), whereas the bacteria obtained from oysters showed low resistance to chloramphenicol and enrofloxacin. Many strains showed high resistant rates (more than 40%) to furazolidone, penicillin G, and rifampin. A total of 285 strains from farming seawater and oysters were resistant to more than three antibiotics. Several strains showed resistance to more than nine antibiotics. Furthermore, the peak resistant rates of the seawater-derived strains to multiple antibiotics overlapped in April, June, September, and November, and those of oyster-derived strains overlapped during April, July, and September. The multi-resistant rate patterns of strains from farming seawater and oyster intestines were similar.

Functional annotation of an expressed sequence tag library from Haliotis diversicolor and analysis of its plant-like sequences.

The small abalone, Haliotis diversicolor, is a widely distributed and cultured species in the subtropical coastal area of China. To identify and classify functional genes of this important species, a normalized expressed sequence tag (EST) library, including 7069 high quality ESTs from the total body of H. diversicolor, was analyzed. A total of 4781 unigenes were assembled and 2991 novel abalone genes were identified. The GC content, codon and amino acid usage of the transcriptome were analyzed. For the accurate annotation of the abalone library, different influencing factors were evaluated. The gene ontology (GO) database provided a higher annotation rate (69.6%), and sequences longer than 800bp were easily subjected to a BLAST search. The taxonomy of the BLAST results showed that lancelet and invertebrates are most closely related to abalone. Sixty-seven identified plant-like genes were further examined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and sequencing, only seven of these were real transcripts in abalone. Phylogenic trees were also constructed to illustrate the positions of two Cystatin sequences and one Calmodulin protein sequence identified in abalone. To perform functional classification, three different databases (GO, KEGG and COG) were used and 60 immune or disease-related unigenes were determined. This work has greatly enlarged the known gene pool of H. diversicolor and will have important implications for future molecular and genetic analyses in this organism.

[Effects of abrupt salinity stress on osmoregulation of juvenile Rachycentron canadum].

Rachycentron canadum is a thriving mariculture species for offshore cage in southern Mainland and Taiwan of China, due to its rapid growth rate and high quality flesh. In this paper, the gill Na(+)-K+ ATPase (NKA) activity and iono- and osmoregulation of juvenile R. canadum were investigated in a 12 h stress of ambient salinities (0-45), and the results showed that after an abrupt transfer to the salinities of 0, 5, 15, 25, 37 (control) and 45, the death of juvenile R. canadum only occurred in salinity 0, with a mortality of 100% by the end of the experiment. In all treatments, the gill NKA activity and serum osmolality fluctuated in first 3 h, and then changed smoothly. The NKA activity varied with salinity grade in U shape, being significantly (P < 0.05) higher in salinity 5 and the lowest in salinity 15 in 12 h, while the serum osmolality (ranged 293-399 mOsmol x kg(-1)) presented a positive correlation with salinity. Serum [Na+] and [Cl-] concentration slightly increased with salinity within the period of 3-12 h, while serum [K+] displayed a reverse pattern. The isosmotic point was estimated as 328.2 mOsm x kg(-1) and corresponded to salinity 11.48. The isoionic points for serum [Na+], [K+] and [Cl-] were estimated as 155.2, 6.16, and 137.1 mmol x L(-1), which corresponded to the salinities of 10.68, 20.44 and 8.41, respectively. It was concluded that R. canadum could be characterized physiologically as a "higher-NKA-in-hyposmotic media" marine euryhaline teleost with the capability of rapid and effective hyper/hypo iono- and osmoregulation.