Unraveling the Transcriptomic Profiles of Large and Small Donkey Follicles.

Background: The diameter of mature follicles in donkeys is several times larger than in cattle and sheep, but the key genes responsible for maintaining follicular development and preventing apoptosis remain unclear.

Methods: This study observed the process of donkey follicular development using ultrasound and analyzed the changes in common reproductive hormones in serum. Granulosa cells (GCs) were collected from large (mature follicles, diameter ≥ 37 mm) and small (atretic follicles, diameter 10-25 mm) follicles for sequencing to screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and signaling pathways influencing the development of mature follicles.

Modeling the removal of Cd(II) and Pb(II) from aqueous solutions by biochar derived from arsenic hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata.

This study explored the feasibility of utilizing biochar derived from Pteris vittata, an arsenic (As)-hyperaccumulating plant, for cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) adsorption. Biochars were produced from P. vittata with high and low As accumulation and compared with biochar derived from uncontaminated corn straw.

Effect of Enhanced Uterine Involution on Reproductive Performance in Multiparous Ewes.

Rapid uterus involution is essential for minimising interpartum intervals, enhancing reproductive performance, and optimising production in ewes. This study aimed to accelerate the uterine involution of postpartum ewes through a relatively simple hormone treatment approach. In this study, 96 Dorper × Hu F1 ewes were assigned to three groups.

Effects of Chlorogenic Acid on In Vitro Maturation and Vitrification Cryopreservation of Sheep Oocytes.

Chlorogenic acid (CGA) has strong antioxidant properties. In order to improve the low maturation rate and poor vitrification freezing effect of sheep oocytes caused by oxidative stress. In this study, oocytes from 200 2-3-year-old Kazakh sheep were collected, and different concentrations of CGA were added to the maturation medium and vitrification freezing solution to study the effects of CGA on the maturation rate, cleavage rate, blastocyst rate, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glutathione (GSH) levels, mitochondrial membrane potential, and the expression levels of oxidation and apoptosis-related genes in sheep oocytes.

Effects of cloprostenol and oxytocin on ultrasonographic changes of uterine horns in postpartum primiparous Hu sheep.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of exogenous hormones on postpartum ultrasonographic changes of uterine horn in Hu sheep. 90 nulliparous Hu sheep were divided into three groups according to the number of lambs. Each group was further randomly subdivided into three groups (n = 10), a control group (sodium chloride), a PG group (cloprostol), and a PG+OT group (cloprostol + oxytocin).

Effects of Exogenous Regulation of PPARγ on Ovine Oocyte Maturation and Embryonic Development In Vitro.

Lactating oocytes consume a lot of energy during maturation, a large part of which comes from lipid metabolism. PPARγ is a key regulator of lipid metabolism. In this study, rosiglitazone (RSG), an activator of PPARγ, was added to a mature medium to investigate its effects on the levels of spindle and the chromosome arrangement, lipid deposition, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and glutathione (GSH) levels, oocyte secretion factors, apoptosis and lipid metabolism-related gene expression, and subsequent embryonic development during the maturation of sheep oocytes.

Decoding molecular features of bovine oocyte fate during antral follicle growth via single-cell multi-omics analysis†.

Antral follicle size is a useful predictive marker of the competency of enclosed oocytes for yielding an embryo following in vitro maturation and fertilization. However, the molecular mechanisms underpinning oocyte developmental potential during bovine antral follicle growth are still unclear. Here, we used a modified single-cell multi-omics approach to analyze the transcriptome, DNA methylome, and chromatin accessibility in parallel for oocytes and cumulus cells collected from bovine antral follicles of different sizes.

Potential in treating arsenic-contaminated water of the biochars produced from hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata and its environmental safety.

In this study, biochar derived from pyrolyzed aboveground parts of Pteris vittata (P. vittata) was modified with iron(Fe) and applied to aqueous solutions containing arsenite (As[III]) or arsenate (As[V]) for remediation purposes. The adsorption efficiency, biochar characteristics pre- and post-adsorption, microscopic As distribution, and As morphology were analyzed.

Coking exhaust contributes to airborne particulate matter in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Coking was regarded as a predominant source of air pollution. Despite the adoption of more environmentally friendly equipment, whether the coking enterprises in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region are still causing regional air pollution is worthy of study, which is essential for the control of coking enterprises in this area. To improve the prediction accuracy of large-scale air pollutant distribution, the air particle distribution in the BTH region was simulated via land use regression (LUR) combined with Bayesian maximum entropy (BME); then, the distribution was correlated with the exhaust gas emitted from coking enterprises.

Effects of Leonurine on oocyte maturation and parthenogenetic embryo development in sheep.

Leonurine (LEO), an alkaloid isolated from Leonurus spp., has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects and can prevent damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS). These properties suggest that it can improve the maturation rate of oocytes and developmental ability of embryos, which are key parameters in animal breeding.

Intercropping of Pteris vittata and maize on multimetal contaminated soil can achieve remediation and safe agricultural production.

Soil contamination by multimetals is widespread. Hyperaccumulator-crop intercropping has been confirmed to be an effective method for arsenic (As)- or cadmium (Cd)-contaminated soil that can achieve soil cleanup and agricultural production. However, the influencing factors and response of hyperaccumulator-crop intercropping to multimetal-contaminated soil are still unclear.

YOLO-SCL: a lightweight detection model for citrus psyllid based on spatial channel interaction.

Efficient and accurate detection and providing early warning for citrus psyllids is crucial as they are the primary vector of citrus huanglongbing. In this study, we created a dataset comprising images of citrus psyllids in natural environments and proposed a lightweight detection model based on the spatial channel interaction. First, the YOLO-SCL model was based on the YOLOv5s architecture, which uses an efficient channel attention module to perform local channel attention on the inputs in the recursive gated convolutional modules to achieve a combination of global spatial and local channel interactions, improving the model's ability to express the features of the critical regions of small targets.

Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Regulates Lipid Metabolism in Sheep Trophoblast Cells through mTOR Pathway-Mediated Autophagy.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR) is a key nuclear receptor transcription factor that is highly expressed in trophoblastic cells during embryonic attachment and is accompanied by rapid cell proliferation and increased lipid accumulation. We previously showed that the autophagy pathway is activated in cells after activation of PPAR, accompanied by increased lipid accumulation. In this study, we used PPAR agonist rosiglitazone and inhibitor GW9662, as well as autophagy activator rapamycin and inhibitor 3-methyladenine, to unravel the probable mechanism of PPAR engaged in lipid metabolism in sheep trophoblast cells (STCs).

PPARγ regulates lipid metabolism and viability of sheep trophoblast cells.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is highly expressed in trophoblast tissues in pregnancy during which the protein participates in diverse events, including embryo implantation and placental formation. However, little is known about the role of PPARγ in embryonic development. This study investigated the function of PPARγ in sheep trophoblast cells.

Strain GG (LGG) Regulate Gut Microbial Metabolites, an In Vitro Study Using Three Mature Human Gut Microbial Cultures in a Simulator of Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME).

In the present research, we investigated changes in the gut metabolome that occurred in response to the administration of the strain GG (LGG). The probiotics were added to the ascending colon region of mature microbial communities established in a human intestinal microbial ecosystem simulator. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing and metabolome analysis suggested that the changes in microbial community composition corresponded with changes to metabolic output, and we can infer linkages between some metabolites and microorganisms.

The influence of diverse fertilizer regimes on the phytoremediation potential of Pteris vittata in an abandoned nonferrous metallic mining site.

Organic waste comprises a large amount of hydrocarbon containing organic substances, which is regarded as a potential resource rather than simply a waste. A field experiment was conducted in a poly-metallic mining area to investigate the potential of organic waste to facilitate the soil remediation process. Different organic wastes and a commonly used commercial fertilizer were added to heavy metal contaminated soil, which was under phytoremediation using the As hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata.

Expanded catalogue of metagenome-assembled genomes reveals resistome characteristics and athletic performance-associated microbes in horse.

Background: As a domesticated species vital to humans, horses are raised worldwide as a source of mechanical energy for sports, leisure, food production, and transportation. The gut microbiota plays an important role in the health, diseases, athletic performance, and behaviour of horses.

Results: Here, using approximately 2.

Composition of Three Common Chinese Herbal Medicines and the Influence of Preparation Types on the Bioaccessibility of Trace Elements.

The high concentration of trace elements in Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is an important research topic for quality control. This study investigated the total concentration of trace elements in three herbs used as both medicine and supplementary food, including , , and Further, the effects of different preparation ways, such as decoct, granule, and oral liquid, on the bioaccessibility of trace elements in CHM were disclosed. Results indicated that the total concentrations of trace elements in these three herbs were lower than the medical standards, but the concentrations of As and Pb in CHMs were higher than the standards for supplementary food.

An interpolation method incorporating the pollution diffusion characteristics for soil heavy metals - taking a coke plant as an example.

The existing spatial interpolation methods in the prediction of soil heavy metal distribution are generally based on spatial auto correlation theory, rarely considering the pollution patterns. By contrast, in polluted sites, heavy metals have a strong heterogeneity even within a very small area, which is not exactly in line with auto correlation theory. This contradiction may lead to inaccuracy in spatial prediction.

Apportionment and location of heavy metal(loid)s pollution sources for soil and dust using the combination of principal component analysis, Geodetector, and multiple linear regression of distance.

The accurate identification of sources for soil heavy metal(loid) is difficult, especially for multi-functional parks, which include multiple pollution sources. Aiming to identify the apportionment and location of heavy metal(loid)s pollution sources, this study established a method combining principal component analysis (PCA), Geodetector, and multiple linear regression of distance (MLRD) in soil and dust, taking a multi-functional industrial park in Anhui Province, China, as an example. PCA and Geodetector were used to determine the type and possible location of the source.

Occurrence, distribution, source identification, and risk assessment of organophosphate esters in the coastal waters of Beibu Gulf, South China Sea: Impacts of riverine discharge and fishery.

As emerging pollutants, the environmental geochemistry of organophosphate esters (OPEs) in the coastal zone with multiple functional areas are still less recognized. This study investigated spatiotemporal distribution, sources and risks of 11 widely used OPEs in surface waters from seagoing rivers and multiple coastal functional areas of the Beibu Gulf. The results indicated that significantly higher ∑OPEs (total concentrations of 11 OPEs, ng/L) occurred in summer (34.

Changes in the concentration, distribution, and speciation of arsenic in the hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata at different growth stages.

The arsenic (As) hyperaccumulator has become a model plant for the study of the interaction between plants and trace elements. However, the change in As concentration, distribution and speciation of hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata at different growth stages, especially with the aging process remains unknown. We collected P.