Animal Gene最新文献

The use of plastics burgeoned in the last decades to become an essential component of our society. An environment friendly method to dispose of plastic waste is not available yet, to the outcome that these accumulate in landfills or are scattered as microplastics. New researches reported that some coleopteran species are able to destroy plastics thanks to their chewing mouthparts and the metabolic activity of their gut microbiota. This study shows that the lesser mealworm Alphitobius diaperinus is capable of feeding on, and apparently degrading, polystyrene. The gut microbiota of polystyrene-fed larvae was characterized using an NGS metagenomic approach, targeting both bacteria and fungi. Several microbe taxa emerged as differentially abundant between treatment and control groups (Cronobacter, Kocuria and Pseudomonas as bacteria, Aspergillus, Hyphodermella, Trichoderma as fungi). Some of them have been found in association with plastic compounds and/or have been proposed to be capable of plastic degradation. This research supports the notion that, although synthetic molecules, unlike most natural compounds, do not generally enter the natural food chain to be degraded by the environmental microbiota, some microbial communities may be able to decompose plastics. We speculate that, once identified, such communities may open to the possibility of devising bioreactors for plastic degradation.

Type two taste receptors (Tas2r) are the only taste receptors that distinguish bitter-tasting compounds. Human Tas2r genes have been extensively studied and have been associated with dietary preferences, health, substance dependence, and other diseases. Sheep are an important livestock species known for grazing vast rangelands with variable ecology and plant communities. However, the limited work related to Tas2r gene repertoires in the reference genomes of grazing animals creates a challenge for understanding how these genes influence diet selection preferences. Tas2r genes typically cluster on two regions of the genome. In the second cluster of the sheep (OAR_rambouillet_1.0), goat (ARS1), and cattle (ARS-UCD1.2) reference genomes, there are six, nine, and two Tas2r genes that were not annotated, respectively. Comparative genomic strategies were used to cross-reference sheep Tas2r genes in cattle, goat, human, dog, and mice for the proposed annotations. A nucleotide similarity comparison of the whole Tas2r repertoires for the three grazing species suggested that goat and cattle are similar to sheep (≥ 95.5% and ≥ 91.9% similarity, respectively). Several Tas2r genes found in sheep, cattle, and goat are likely not found in human, dog, or mice and may be reserved to ruminants or animals of similar feeding ecology. Using a comparative genomics approach, this paper proposes annotations for sheep, cattle, and goat Tas2r genes. Further research is needed to better understand how Tas2r genes may influence diet selection in grazing ruminant species, which could provide more insight into management of western rangelands through grazing strategies.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the expression of casp9, Bax, Bcl2 Hsp70 and Hsp27 genes in Braford steers differing in finishing strategies. Thirty Braford steers grazing on summer pasture were used for the study. For 120 days fifteen animals were supplemented with corn silage at 1% of body weight per head per day whereas the remaining 15 steers only received pasture. Supplemented steers showed higher WBSF (p = .03) than Control group. Gene expression was measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Expression of the casp9, Bax, Bcl2 genes did not differ between groups. Expression of Hsp70 and Hsp27 genes was up-regulated in Suppl group (p < .05). These results suggest a gene by diet interaction in Hsp70 and Hsp27 chaperones and these interaction impact in Warner Bratzler Shear Force in Braford longissimus dorsi muscle.