Global distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroup C reveals the prehistoric migration routes of African exodus and early settlement in East Asia

The regional distribution of an ancient Y-chromosome haplogroup C-M130 (Hg C) in Asia provides an ideal tool of dissecting prehistoric migration events. We identified 465 Hg C individuals out of 4284 males from 140 East and Southeast Asian populations. We genotyped these Hg C individuals using 12 Y-chromosome biallelic markers and 8 commonly used Y-short tandem repeats (Y-STRs), and performed phylogeographic analysis in combination with the published data. The results show that most of the Hg C subhaplogroups have distinct geographical distribution and have undergone long-time isolation, although Hg C individuals are distributed widely across Eurasia. Furthermore, a general south-to-north and east-to-west cline of Y-STR diversity is observed with the highest diversity in Southeast Asia. The phylogeographic distribution pattern of Hg C supports a single coastal 'Out-of-Africa' route by way of the Indian subcontinent, which eventually led to the early settlement of modern humans in mainland Southeast Asia. The northward expansion of Hg C in East Asia started similar to 40 thousand of years ago (KYA) along the coastline of mainland China and reached Siberia similar to 15 KYA and finally made its way to the Americas. Journal of Human Genetics (2010) 55, 428-435; doi:10.1038/jhg.2010.40; published online 7 May 2010

Differential expression of the Brunol/CELF family genes during Xenopus laevis early development

The BRUNOL/CELF family of RNA-binding proteins plays important roles in post-transcriptional regulation and has been implicated in several developmental processes. In this study, we describe the cloning and expression patterns of five Brunol genes in Xenopus laevis. Among them, only Brunol2 is maternally expressed and the zygotic expression of the other four Brunol genes starts at different developmental stages. During Xenopus development, Brunol1, 4-5 are exclusively expressed in the nervous system including domains in the brain, spinal cord, optic and otic vesicles. Brunol2 and 3 are expressed in both the somatic mesoderm and the nervous system. Brunol2 is also extensively expressed in the lens. In transfected Hela cells, BRUNOL1, 2 and 3 proteins are localized in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus, while BRUNOL4 and 5 are only present in the cytoplasm, indicating their different functions.

The giant panda (Ailurapoda melanoleuca) somatic nucleus can dedifferentiate in rabbit ooplasm and support early development of the reconstructed egg

The giant panda skeletal muscle cells, uterus epithelial cells and mammary gland cells from an adult individual were cultured and used as nucleus donor for the construction of interspecies embryos by transferring them into enucleated rabbit eggs. All the three kinds of somatic cells were able to reprogram in rabbit ooplasm and support early embryo development, of which mammary gland cells were proven to be the Lest, followed by uterus epithelial cells and skeletal muscle cells. The experiments showed that direct injection of mammary gland cell into enucleated rabbit ooplasm, combined with in vivo development in ligated rabbit oviduct, achieved higher blastocyst development than in vitro culture after the somatic cell was injected into the perivitelline space and fused with the enucleated egg by electrical stimulation. The chromosome analysis demonstrated that the genetic materials in reconstructed blastocyst cells were the same as that in panda somatic cells. In addition, giant panda mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was shown to exist in the interspecies reconstructed blastocyst. The data suggest that (i) the ability of ooplasm to dedifferentiate somatic cells is not species-specific; (ii) there is compatibility between interspecies somatic nucleus and ooplasm during early development of the reconstructed egg.

Somatic mutations of mitochondrial genome in early stage breast cancer

The complete mitochondrial genomes of the primary cancerous, matched paracancerous normal and distant normal tissues from 10 early-stage breast cancer patients were analyzed in this study, with special attempt (i) to investigate whether the reported high

Association of early growth response-1 gene polymorphisms with total IgE and atopy in asthmatic children

Early growth response-1 (Egr-1) is expressed in human airways and found to modulate tumor necrosis factor, immunoglobulin E (IgE), airway responsiveness, and interleukin-13-induced inflammation in mice. We investigated the effects of Chinese-tagging singl

Effects of Abnormal Early Rearing Environments on Fear Memory in Adult Rats

为了探讨早期饲养环境对成年后大鼠条件化恐惧的影响,实验采用巴氏恐惧条件化的方法对不同饲养环境下的大鼠进行了行为检测.具体操作为:把断奶后的大鼠饲养在3个不同的人工控制的环境中(丰富环境、社群环境和贫瘠环境);8周后进行恐惧条件化训练和测试(指标为僵直百分比),以及检测不同饲养环境下的大鼠的体重、自发活动和足部电击敏感性.结果显示:与社群组相比,丰富组的大鼠条件化僵直水平明显增加,而贫瘠组的明显减少;丰富和贫瘠环境明显的影响了大鼠的体重;不同环境对自发活动和足部电击敏感性没有影响.这些结果说明幼年期的丰富环境能提高成年后大鼠的由声音诱发的条件化恐惧反应,而贫瘠环境则削弱了这种反应.

Aging effects on early-stage face perception: An ERP study

We compared early stages of face processing in young and older participants as indexed by ERPs elicited by faces and non-face stimuli presented in upright and inverted orientations. The P1 and N170 components were larger in older than in young participant

Enriched environment experience overcomes the memory deficits and depressive-like behavior induced by early life stress

Stress in early life is believed to cause cognitive and affective disorders, and to disrupt hippocampal synaptic plasticity in adolescence into adult, but it is unclear whether exposure to enriched environment (EE) can overcome these effects. Here, we rep

Median network analysis of defectively sequenced entire mitochondrial genomes from early and contemporary disease studies

Sequence analysis of the mitochondrial genome has become a routine method in the study of mitochondrial diseases. Quite often, the sequencing efforts in the search of pathogenic or disease-associated mutations are affected by technical and interpretive pr

EARLY MOTHER-INFANT RELATIONSHIPS OF MACACA-THIBETANA AT MT-EMEI CHINA

Quantitative data on early mother-infant relationships in the Tibetan macaque was collected during the first 23 weeks of infant life in spring, 1987, at Mt. Emei, China. During the first week of life, infants spent 98.3% of their time in ventroventral contact with their mothers. This contact rapidly decreased to 33.8% by the 4th week and thereafter to 0.85% by the 23rd week. Nipple contact decreased relatively slowly from 89.7% to 62.9% within the first 4 weeks of infant life and to 19.8% by the 23rd week. Ventrolateral and ventrodorsal contact appeared by the 2nd week, mean-while, maternal restraining behavior appeared, and reached a peak by the 3rd week. The mother neither encouraged nor discouraged her infant's independence during 4-8th weeks. Maternal rejection of the infant was first observed when the infant was 11 weeks old and continued thereafter.

Using drift nets to capture early life stages and monitor spawning of the Yangtze River Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis)

P>A sampling system for capturing sturgeon eggs using a D-shaped bottom anchored drift net was used to capture early life stages (ELS) of Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser sinensis, and monitor annual spawning success at Yichang on the Yangtze River, 1996-2004, before and just after the Three Gorges Dam began operation. Captured were 96 875 ELS (early life stages: eggs, yolk-sac larvae = eleuthero embryos, and larvae); most were eggs and only 2477 were yolk-sac larvae. Most ELS were captured in the main river channel and inside the bend at the Yichang spawning reach. Yolk-sac larvae were captured for a maximum of 3 days after hatching began, indicating quick dispersal downstream. The back-calculated day of egg fertilization over the eight years indicated a maximum spawning window of 23 days (20 October-10 November). Spawning in all years was restricted temporally, occurred mostly at night and during one or two spawning periods, each lasting several days. The brief temporal spawning window may reduce egg predation by opportunistic predators by flooding the river bottom with millions of eggs. During 1996-2002, the percentage of fertilized eggs in an annual 20-egg sample was between 63.5 to 94.1%; however, in 2003 the percentage fertilized was only 23.8%. This sudden decline may be related to the altered environmental conditions at Yichang caused by operation of the Three Gorges Dam. Further studies are needed to monitor spawning and changes in egg fertilization in this threatened population.

Effects of sediment anoxia and light on turion germination and early growth of Potamogeton crispus

Potamogeton crispus is a cosmopolitan aquatic species and is widely used as a pioneer species for vegetation restoration of eutrophic lakes. However, many restoration projects applying P. crispus turions have not been successful. Earlier studies focused on effects of light and temperature on turion germination. The purpose of this study was to determine whether sediment anoxia and light interactively affected the turion germination and early growth of P. crispus. Anoxic conditions in the experiment were produced by adding sucrose to the sediment. The germination rate of the turions was 68-73% lower in the highly anoxic condition treatment than in the control. Medium light intensity (10% of natural light at the water surface) was more favorable for germination under slightly anoxic conditions than either low or high light intensity. The growth of newly-formed sprouts was also significantly inhibited by sediment anoxia. Photosynthesis and shoot biomass were reduced under sediment anoxia, whereas total chlorophyll content, root biomass, and soluble protein content were highest in the low anoxic condition treatment. Medium light improved net photosynthesis and biomass production of the sprouts. We conclude that turion germination and sprout growth can be significantly inhibited by sediment anoxia. Medium light intensity may alleviate this inhibition by anoxia, but light has little effect when sediment anoxia is severe. For the purposes of vegetation restoration, more attention should be paid to the role of sediment anoxia, and it is necessary to improve sediment and light conditions for turion germination and early growth of P. crispus in eutrophic lakes. These results will contribute to a more complete understanding of turion germination dynamics of P. crispus and will be useful for future restoration programs.

Rana grylio virus thymidine kinase gene: an early gene of iridovirus encoding for a cytoplasmic protein

The presence of thymidine kinase (TK) is a feature of many large DNA viruses. Here, a TK gene homologue was cloned and characterized from Rana grylio virus (RGV), a member of family Iridoviridae. RGV TK encodes a protein of 195 aa with a predicted molecular mass of 22.1 kDa. Homologues of the protein were present in all the currently sequenced iridoviruses, and phylogenetic analysis showed that it was much close to cellular TK type 2 (TK2), deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) and deoxyguanosine kinase (dGK). Subsequently, Western blotting revealed TK expression increased with time from 6 h post-infection in RGV-infected cells. Using drug inhibition analysis by protein synthesis inhibitor (cycloheximide) and DNA replication inhibitor (cytosine arabinofuranoside), RGV TK was classified as the early expression gene during in vitro infection. Subcellular localization by TK-GFP fusion protein expression and immunofluorescence staining showed RGV TK was an exclusively cytoplasmic protein in fish cells. Collectively, current data indicate that RGV TK was an early gene of iridovirus which encoded a cytoplasmic protein in fish cells.

Transport-determined early growth and development of jack mackerel Trachurus japonicus juveniles immigrating into Sagami Bay, Japan

Oceanographic conditions and transport processes are often critical factors that affect the early growth, survival and recruitment of marine fishes. Sagittal otoliths were analysed to determine age and early growth for 381 jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) juveniles from Sagami Bay on the Pacific coast of Japan. Two separate hatching periods ( December and February-March) were identified. They originated from the spawning grounds in the East China Sea. Early growth and developmental rates of December-hatching fish were lower than those for February-March-hatching fish. It is likely that these differences were determined in the Kuroshio Current during transport from the spawning grounds to Sagami Bay, and the lower December water temperatures in the bay. Origin and hatch dates of juveniles in Sagami Bay were in contrast to previous research on Fukawa Bay, where April-or-later-hatching fish from spawning grounds in the coastal waters of southern Japan constituted about half of the juvenile population. Management of these two jack mackerel stocks needs to consider these differences in hatch date composition and spawning origins, as these differences could affect early growth and subsequent mortality.