Sequence analysis of the lactoferrin gene and variation of g.7605C→T in 10 Chinese indigenous goat breeds.

Much attention has been focused on the study of lactoferrin at the protein or nucleotide level in mice, humans, and cattle, but little is known about it in goats. The goat LF gene from 5' UTR to exon 17 was amplified, and the variation of g.7605C→T in 10 Chinese indigenous goat breeds was analyzed. Among the three ruminant species (cattle, sheep, and goats), the intron-exon distribution pattern was similar, and all the exons had the same length, but the length of introns varied greatly due to insertions or deletions. The frequency of allele T at g.7605C→T (50.12%) was a little higher than that of allele C (49.88%), and the genotype distribution differed greatly between goat populations. The g.7605C→T site showed higher genetic diversity in goat populations. The genetic differentiation was 0.0783, and gene flow was 2.9433 among the 10 Chinese indigenous goat populations.

Direct degradation of cellulosic biomass to bio-hydrogen from a newly isolated strain Clostridium sartagoforme FZ11.

A mesophilic hydrogen-producing strain, Clostridium sartagoforme FZ11, had been newly isolated from cow dung compost acclimated using microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) for at least 30 rounds in an anaerobic bioreactor, and identified by the 16S rDNA gene sequencing, which could directly utilized various carbon sources, especially cellulosic biomass, to produce hydrogen. The maximum hydrogen yields from MCC (10 g/l) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC, 10 g/l) were 77.2 and 64.6 ml/g, separately. Furthermore, some key parameters of affecting hydrogen production from raw corn stalk were also optimized. The maximal hydrogen yield and substrate degradation rate from raw corn stalk were 87.2 ml/g and 41.2% under the optimized conditions with substrate concentration of 15 g/l, phosphate buffer of 0.15 M, urea of 6 g/l and initial pH of 6.47 at 35 °C. The result showed that the strain FZ11 would be an ideal candidate to directly convert cellulosic biomass into bio-hydrogen without substrate pretreatment.

Effective conversion of maize straw wastes into bio-hydrogen by two-stage process integrating H2 fermentation and MECs.

The enhanced H2 production from maize straw had been achieved through the two-stage process of integrating H2 fermentation and microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) in the present work. Several key parameters affecting hydrolysis of maize straw through subcritical H2O were optimized by orthogonal design for saccharification of maize straw followed by H2 production through H2 fermentation. The maximum reducing sugar (RS) content of maize straw reached 469.7 mg/g-TS under the optimal hydrolysis condition with subcritical H2O combining with dilute HCl of 0.3% at 230 °C. The maximum H2 yield, H2 production rate, and H2 content was 115.1 mL/g-TVS, 2.6 mL/g-TVS/h, and 48.9% by H2 fermentation, respectively. In addition, the effluent from H2 fermentation was used as feedstock of MECs for additional H2 production. The maximum H2 yield of 1060 mL/g-COD appeared at an applied voltage of 0.8 V, and total COD removal reached about 35%. The overall H2 yield from maize straw reached 318.5 mL/g-TVS through two-stage processes. The structural characterization of maize straw was also carefully investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra.

Genetic variation of major histocompatibility complex BLB2 gene exon 2 in Hebei domestic chicken.

Genetic variation of MHC BLB2 gene exon 2 in Hebei domestic chicken was investigated, after PCR and sequencing of a 374bp fragment (containing entire exon 2 (270bp) of BLB2 gene) in 76 individuals. The results showed that along this fragment, there were 69 variable sites, of which 18 were novel variations, and 82 estimated haplotypes with the diversity of 0.960. In Hebei domestic chicken, the nucleotide diversity (π), the average number of nucleotide differences (k), the average number of nucleotide diversity of synonymous substitution (π(s)) and non-synonymous substitution (π(a)) in BLB2 gene exon 2 were 0.098, 24.688, 0.075, and 0.106, respectively; nine non-synonymous substitutions was exclusively found in the peptide-binding sites (PBS) region of BLB2 gene exon 2, inferring that these unique substitutions might be helpful to resist some special bacteria and pathogens. The higher genetic diversity of MHC BLB2 gene exon 2 in Hebei domestic chicken might be consistent with its more robust disease resistance.