• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.800-811
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• 2022

The integration of metabolomics and transcriptomics may elucidate the correlation between the genotypic and phenotypic patterns in organisms. In equine physiology, various metabolite levels vary during exercise, which may be correlated with a modified gene expression pattern of related genes. Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic studies in horses have not been conducted to date. The objective of this study was to detect the effect of moderate exercise on the metabolomic and transcriptomic levels in horses. In this study, using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we analyzed the concentrations of metabolites in muscle and plasma; we also determined the gene expression patterns of branched chain (alpha) keto acid dehydrogenase kinase complex (BCKDK), which encodes the key regulatory enzymes in branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolism, in two breeds of horses, Thoroughbred and Jeju, at different time intervals. The concentrations of metabolites in muscle and plasma were measured by ¹H NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy, and the relative metabolite levels before and after exercise in the two samples were compared. Subsequently, multivariate data analysis based on the metabolic profiles was performed using orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), and variable important plots and t-test were used for basic statistical analysis. The stress-induced expression patterns of BCKDK genes in horse muscle-derived cells were examined using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to gain insight into the role of transcript in response to exercise stress. In this study, we found higher concentrations of aspartate, leucine, isoleucine, and lysine in the skeletal muscle of Jeju horses than in Thoroughbred horses. In plasma, compared with Jeju horses, Thoroughbred horses had higher levels of alanine and methionine before exercise; whereas post-exercise, lysine levels were increased. Gene expression analysis revealed a decreased expression level of BCKDK in the post-exercise period in Thoroughbred horses.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.195-211
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• 2022

In this study, we explored the meaning of astronomical observation activities of five earth science teachers through in-depth interviews. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after providing a questionnaire based on Seidman's three-step process of interview. By analyzing the interview transcript, the educational implications inherent in astronomical observation activities were extracted. Teachers have constructed systematic basis of observation and astronomy in the observational astronomy and laboratory class during their course in the teacher education institute. After they became in-service teachers, practical know-hows of astronomical observation activities in schools were developed with the help of colleagues. By designing and executing astronomical observation activities for students, teachers notice positive changes in the cognitive domain, affective domain, and career perception of the students. Hence, teachers consider that astronomical observation activities have great educational effects. In addition, astronomical activities appear to be very rewarding and satisfying experiences to teachers, by providing opportunities for having pride as an earth science teacher. However, teachers tend to find difficulties in operating astronomical observation activities in fields, due to both internal and external obstacles. It is found that the removal of internal obstacles is more important for teachers to attempt or to continue astronomical observation activities. In this sense, it is necessary to support teachers by providing timely training courses with related content, as well as opportunities to share their experiences within a peer group such as teachers' research society.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1512-1523
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• 2022

Objective: The growth of pigs involves multiple regulatory mechanisms, and modern molecular breeding techniques can be used to understand the skeletal muscle growth and development to promote the selection process of pigs. This study aims to explore candidate lncRNAs and mRNAs related to skeletal muscle growth and development among Duroc pigs with different average daily gain (ADG). Methods: A total of 8 pigs were selected and divided into two groups: H group (high-ADG) and L group (low-ADG). And followed by whole transcriptome sequencing to identify differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and mRNAs. Results: In RNA-seq, 703 DE mRNAs (263 up-regulated and 440 down-regulated) and 74 DE lncRNAs (45 up-regulated and 29 down-regulated) were identified. In addition, 1,418 Transcription factors (TFs) were found. Compared with mRNAs, lncRNAs had fewer exons, shorter transcript length and open reading frame length. DE mRNAs and DE lncRNAs can form 417 lncRNA-mRNA pairs (antisense, cis and trans). DE mRNAs and target genes of lncRNAs were enriched in cellular processes, biological regulation, and regulation of biological processes. In addition, quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis was used to detect the functions of DE mRNAs and lncRNAs, the most of DE mRNAs and target genes of lncRNAs were enriched in QTLs related to growth traits and skeletal muscle development. In single-nucleotide polymorphism/insertion-deletion (SNP/INDEL) analysis, 1,081,182 SNP and 131,721 INDEL were found, and transition was more than transversion. Over 60% of percentage were skipped exon events among alternative splicing events. Conclusion: The results showed that different ADG among Duroc pigs with the same diet maybe due to the DE mRNAs and DE lncRNAs related to skeletal muscle growth and development.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.207-207
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• 2022

Eating and cooking quality (ECQ) is one of the most complex quantitative traits in rice. The understanding of genetic regulation of transcript expression levels attributing to phenotypic variation in ECQ traits is limited. We integrated whole-genome resequencing, transcriptome, and phenotypic variation data from 84 Japonica accessions to build a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) based regulatory network. All ECQ traits showed a large phenotypic variation and significant phenotypic correlations among the traits. TWAS analysis identified a total of 285 transcripts significantly associated with six ECQ traits. Genome-wide mapping of ECQ-associated transcripts revealed 66,905 quantitative expression traits (eQTLs), including 21,747 local eQTLs, and 45,158 trans-eQTLs, regulating the expression of 43 genes. The starch synthesis-related genes (SSRGs), starch synthase IV-1 (SSIV-1), starch branching enzyme 1 (SBE1), granule-bound starch synthase 2 (GBSS2), and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase small subunit 2a (OsAGPS2a) were found to have eQTLs regulating the expression of ECQ associated transcripts. Further, in co-expression analysis, 130 genes produced at least one network with 22 master regulators. In addition, we developed CRISPR/Cas9-edited glbl mutant lines that confirmed the role of alpha-globulin (glbl) in starch synthesis to validate the co-expression analysis. This study provided novel insights into the genetic regulation of ECQ traits, and transcripts associated with these traits were discovered that could be used in further rice breeding.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.961-969
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• 2015

Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the main catechin in green tea, has been shown to have some beneficial effects against various human diseases, including diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, cardiovascular disease and obesity. To investigate the mechanism of the suppressive effects of EGCG on inflammatory response in macrophages, alterations on the levels of nitric oxide (NO) regulatory factors and inflammatory cytokines were measured in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW264.7 cells. No significant toxicity was detected in RAW264.7 cells treated with 100–400 μM EGCG. Moreover, the optimal concentration of LPS was determined to be 1 μg/ml based on the results of cell viability assay, NO assay and IL-6 enzyme-linked immunsorbent assay (ELISA). Furthermore, NO levels decreased significantly by 68.2% in the 400 μM EGCG/LPS treated group, while the level of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression decreased by 12-17% in the 200 and 400 μM EGCG/LPS treated group. A significant decrease in transcription of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF- α and IL-1β) and anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) was also detected in the EGCG/LPS treated group. However, IL-6 transcript and protein was maintained at a constant level when in the LPS treated group relative to the EGCG/LPS treated group. Overall, these results suggest that the differential regulation of inflammatory cytokines is an important factor influencing the suppressive effects of EGCG against LPS-activated inflammatory response in RAW264.7 cells.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.1180-1186
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• 2014

Autophagy, the lysosomal degradation pathway, is an intracellular recycling system that is necessary for the metabolic benefits of exercise and for producing lasting beneficial effects of exercise in various diseases. However, the most recent studies have only examined the effect of a single bout of exercise or resistance exercise on autophagic responses. To determine the differential effects of acute and chronic exercise on the expression of autophagy-related genes in D. melanogaster, white-eyed mutant D. melanogaster were assigned randomly to four groups: control, acute exercise, 2 hr chronic exercise, and 3 hr chronic exercise. The flies were exercised using a mechanized platform known as the Power Tower. Our results revealed that a single bout of exercise resulted in increased mRNA levels of the Atg8a gene (~20%, p<0.05). However, Atg1 and Atg6 mRNA expression were not induced by acute exercise. Transcript levels of Atg6 (~29%, p<0.05) related to the nucleation of autophagosomes were significantly induced by 2 hr of chronic exercise. However, this chronic exercise was not enough to increase Atg1 and Atg8a mRNA expression. On the other hand, 3 hr of exercise for 7 days significantly increased Atg1, Atg6, and Atg8a gene expression-about 57%, 37%, and 71%, respectively (p<0.05). These results suggest that a single bout of exercise is not enough to induce full activation of selected autophagy-related genes in D. melanogaster. Our results demonstrated that chronic regular exercise induced autophagy-related gene expression, suggesting that chronic regular exercise training might be required to activate autophagic responses important for producing beneficial effects of exercise in various diseases.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.189-198
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• 2006

Objective: We previously described that Diva is highly expressed in matured metaphase II (MII) oocytes compared to immature germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes in mouse. We report here that the expression of Diva transcript as well as protein is oocyte-specific. To elucidate its physiological role in oocyte, the binding partner(s) of Diva has been identified by using immunoprecipitation (IP) followed by Mass Spectrometry. Methods: NIH/3T3 cells were transiently transfected for 24 h with either empty vector for control or FLAG-tagged mouse Diva construct, and IP was performed with anti-FLAG antibody. The immuno-isolated complexes were resolved by SDS-PAGE on a 12% gel followed by Coomassie Blue staining. For in-gel digestion, 15 bands of interest were excised manually and digested with trypsin. All mass spectra were acquired at a positive reflector mode by a 4700 Proteomics Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Framingham, MA). Proteins were identified by searching the NCBI nonredundant database using MASCOT Peptide Mass Fingerprint software (Matrixscience, London). Results: Diva-associated complexes were formed in FLAG-tagged mouse Diva-overexpressed NIH/3T3 cells via IP using anti-FLAG-conjugated beads. Among the excised 15 bands, actin and actin-binding proteins such as tropomyosin, tropomodulin 3, and ${\alpha}$-actinin were identified. Binding between Diva and actin or tropomyosin was confirmed by IP followed by Western blot analysis. Both bindings were also detected endogenously in mouse ovaries, indicating that Diva works with actin and tropomyosin. Conclusions: This is the first report that immuno-isolated Diva-associated complexes are related to actin filament of the cytoskeletal system. When we consider the association of Diva with actin and tropomyosin, oocyte-specific Diva may play a role in modulating the cytoskeletal system during oocyte maturation.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.81-102
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• 2014

In 1978, there was an investigation before the repair of the pagoda in Suzhou Ruiguangsi (蘇州 瑞光寺) and many Buddhist literatures were found in the center of pagoda's 3rd floor. This study is the analysis of the forms and values of the literatures. Since there were 123 ea of precious literatures made from Tang (唐) period to early North Sung (北宋) period among the found Buddhist literatures, they have very important meaning in the bibliography for the time. Suzhou Reiguangsi (蘇州 瑞光寺) was built by the first king of Wu (吳), Sun Quan (孫權). He built this Buddhist temple to meet Monk Xingkang (性康) from Kangjuguo (康居國). When it had been first built, it had been called Puji Chanyuan (普濟禪院) and it was renamed as current Ruiguangsi (瑞光寺) after the major expansion in the early period of North Sung (北宋). The Ruiguangta (瑞光塔) was built by Sun Quan (孫權) in A.D. 247 immediately after the temple had been built. Sun Quan built this pagoda as a 13-floor pagoda to pray for the easy passage into eternity of his mother, national prosperity and welfare of the people. As time passed by, the pagoda was largely damaged and it was newly built in A.D. 1017 (天禧 1) of early North Sung (北宋) period; while it was named as Duobaota (多寶塔). The literatures found in Ruiguangta consist of 107 ea of 3 sets dharani (陀羅尼) scripture and 16 volumes of 5 books, total 123 ea. Especially, there were 7 books of full set transcript of Lotus Sutra (法華經) in relatively complete form. This sutra written in gilt lettering on dark blue paper was made in Middle Tang (中唐) period and it is believed to be the only one existing in East Asia as a scripture written in gilt lettering on dark blue paper (紺紙金字寫經). There were also 6 books of small letter edition of Lotus Sutra (法華經) in complete form, which was published during the early North Sung (北宋) period. This specific edition is incorrectly stated in most general reference books published in China as having been engraved in early Tang period (初唐) since a Japanese scholar wrongly introduced it as having been engraved together with Nakamura edition (中村本). It is meaningful that this error can be corrected by the finding of this study.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.618-628
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• 1999

Background: Cell growth is a balance between cell proliferation and cell death. Insulin-like growth factor-I(IGF-I), which binds IGF-I receptor(IGF-IR), mediates cellular proliferation as a potent mitogen. IGF binding protein-3(IGFBP-3) as a circulating major IGFBP can inhibit or enhance the effects of IGF-I on cellular growth by binding IGFs. Methods: We investigated the expressions of mRNA of IGF-I and IGF-IR by northern blot and phosphorylation of IGF-IR with the treatment of IGF-I by western blot in 3T3 fibroblast cells. The cellular proliferations of 3T3 cells with the treatments of IGF-I were evaluated using $^3H$-thymidine incorporation and MTT assay. Also to observe the effect of IGFBP-3 on cellular proliferation, 3T3 cells were treated with anti-IGFBP-3 and ${\alpha}IR_3$(monoclonal antibody to IGF-IR) alone or in combination. Results: Our results demonstrated that 3T3 cells showed mRNA expressions of IGF-I and IGF-IR and the IGF-I increased phosphorylation of IGF-IR. The treatments of 3T3 cells with IGF-I increased cellular proliferation in 5 % and 1 % seruma-containing media, not in serum-free media. The addition of anti-IGFBP-3 to neutralize IGFBP-3 showed 2-fold increase of cellular proliferation, and also co-incubation of anti-IGFBP-3 and ${\alpha}IR_3$ together showed similar increase of cellular proliferation in 3T3 cells. Interestingly, when the cells were pretreated with ${\alpha}IR_3$ for 4 hr, prior to the simultaneous addition of ${\alpha}IR_3$ and anti-IGFBP-3, anti-IGFBP-3-mediated cellular proliferation was decreased to control level. All of these results suggest that free IGF-I released from IGF-I/IGFBP-3 complex would be involved in the cellular proliferation. Conclusion: IGF-I is a mitogen through the activation of IGF-IR in 3T3 cells, and IGFBP-3 could be a potent inhibitor for IGF-I action by binding IGF-I.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.215-222
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• 2015

The radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is an important Brassicaceae root vegetable crop worldwide. Several studies have been conducted concerning radish breeding. There are major challenges to prevent premature bolting in spring plantings. Here, we performed the characterization of two inbred radish lines which vary in bolting time. "Late bolting radish" (NH-JS1) and "early bolting radish" (NH-JS2) were generated by a conventional breeding approach. The two inbred lines showed different bolting phenotypes depending on vernalization time at $4^{\circ}C$. NH-JS1, the late bolting radish, was less sensitive to cold treatment and the less sensitivity was inversely proportional to the duration of the vernalization. We also measured gene expression levels of the major bolting time related genes in the NH-JS1 and NH-JS2 lines. RsFLC1 plays a central role in the timing of flowering initiation. It is a strong repressor and it's transcript is highly expressed in NH-JS1 compared to NH-JS2 under no treatment and vernalization conditions. RsFRI, a positive regulator of RsFLC, is also highly expressed in NH-JS1 compared to NH-JS2 regardless of vernalization. In contrast, RsSOC1, suppressed by FLC as a floral integrator gene, showed the most difference, a 5-fold increase, between NH-JS1 and NH-JS2 under vernalization conditions. From these results, we conclude that NH-JS1 showed a late flowering phenotype after cold treatment due to the expression differences of flowering time regulator genes rather than difference sensitivity to cold. These results may be useful to understand the control mechanisms of flowering time and may help identify molecular markers for selecting late bolting trait in radish.