Study on lactation performance and development of KASP marker for milk traits in Xinjiang donkey (Equus asinus).

Donkey milk has high nutritional and medicinal value, but there are few researches in donkey milk traits, especially on genome. The whole lactation of 89 donkeys was recorded and it was found that Xinjiang donkey had good lactation performance while great differences among individuals. In our previous study, four genes including LGALS2, NUMB, ADCY8 and CA8 were identified as milk-associated with Chinese Kazakh house, based on Equine 670k Chip genomic analysis. And then 15 SNPs of the four key genes were conducted for genotyping in Xinjiang donkey in this study, one of Chinese indigenous breed, 14 SNPs were successful classified. And those SNPs were correlation analysis with milk yield of Xinjiang donkeys. The results showed that NUMB g.46709914T > G was significantly correlated with daily milk yield of Xinjiang donkey in the early, middle, and late periods, while ADCY8 g.48366302T > C, CA8 g.89567442T > G and CA8 g.89598328T > A were significantly correlated with lactation in the late periods. These results indicate that NUMB g.46709914T > G can be as markers of candidate genes for lactating traits in donkeys, SNPs of ADCY8 and CA8 as potential. Our findings will not only help confirm key genes for donkey milk traits, but also provide future for genomic selection in donkeys.

Multivalent S-sialoside protein conjugates block influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase.

A new class of S-sialoside Human Serum Albumin (HSA) and Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) conjugates were prepared to enhance the binding affinity to hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). The valency of glycoconjugates was controlled by the reaction ratio of the S-sialoside monomer and protein. Hemagglutination inhibition assay showed that these synthetic glycoproteins have higher affinity to HA than the small clusters of sialosides with lower valency, due to multivalent effect and optimized three dimensional presentation of sialosides on the protein platform. The results of fluorescent NA inhibition assay showed that some of the conjugates have moderate NA inhibitory activity, in comparison to the monomer and low valent conjugates with weak or none inhibitory activity. These synthetic sialylated proteins were not cytotoxic with concentrations up to 100 µM, since the sialylation did not change the secondary structure of protein. This new kind of conjugates can be used as lead compounds for antiviral drug design and the construction of pseudo sialoside-protein conjugates library to investigate the carbohydrate-HA/NA recognition process and a platform for the influenza virus capturing.

Intra-host dynamics of Ebola virus during 2014.

Since 2013, West Africa has encountered the largest Ebola virus (EBOV) disease outbreak on record, and Sierra Leone is the worst-affected country, with nearly half of the infections. By means of next-generation sequencing and phylogeographic analysis, the epidemiology and transmission of EBOV have been well elucidated. However, the intra-host dynamics that mainly reflect viral-host interactions still need to be studied. Here, we show a total of 710 intra-host single nucleotide variations (iSNVs) from deep-sequenced samples from EBOV-infected patients, through a well-tailored bioinformatics pipeline. We present a comprehensive distribution of iSNVs during this outbreak and along the EBOV genome. Analyses of iSNV and its allele frequency reveal that VP40 is the most conserved gene during this outbreak, and thus it would be an ideal therapeutic target. In the co-occurring iSNV network, varied iSNV sites present different selection features. Intriguingly, the T-to-C substitutions at the 3'-UTR of the nucleoprotein (NP; positions 3008 and 3011), observed in many patients, result in the upregulation of the transcription of NP through an Ebola mini-genome reporting system. Additionally, no iSNV enrichment within B-cell epitopes of GP has been observed.