Constraints on crustal compositional architecture across the North China-Altaids transition and implications for craton margin reworking.

The phase of secular evolution of continents is manifested as the degree of compositional differentiation, modification and maturation of continental crusts, which is vital in understanding the mechanism of continental evolution but is difficult to quantify. Here we use integrated passive- and active-source seismic profiling to conduct joint analysis and inversion and derive Vs and Vp/Vs section models across the North China Craton (NCC) to southeastern Altaids boundary zone that bears a tectonic transition from a reworked ancient craton margin to a Phanerozoic accretionary orogen. We systematically exploited the imaged multiple physical properties as precise and delicate proxies to constrain the compositional architecture in the crust across this important tectonic transition subject to various crustal evolutional phases. Our Vs and Vp/Vs imaging, together with the existing isotopic data, characterizes the Yin Shan-Yan Shan belt as the northern NCC margin with layered homogeneous compositions that point to an evolved crust. However, the lower-crustal low-Vs/high-Vp/Vs signature that overlaps the shallowly dipping to horizontal reflective fabrics suggests that the crust of the northern NCC margin has undergone considerable reworking through lower-crustal-stretching-assisted melt migration and mixing since the late Paleozoic to Mesozoic eras. The process probably involved crust-mantle interaction and thus resulted in a compositionally modified ancient crustal basement. On the contrary, the southeastern Altaids domain manifests crustal complexity in compositions and structures inferred to be indicative of a juvenile crust of the Phanerozoic accretionary orogen. Our results provide deep physical-property constraints that shed new light on the crustal evolution of a complex craton margin.

Genetic polymorphism association analysis of SNPs on the species conservation genes of Tan sheep and Hu sheep.

For further understanding the genetic control mechanisms of growth and development in Tan sheep, and culturing good traits on meat performance, which is very important to both in developing local species and improving economic efficaciously. In our study, we recruited a total of 250 Tan sheep and 174 healthy Hu sheep to detect 32 SNPs in GH, GHR, NPY, Leptin, H-FABP, MSTN, and CAST by using direct sequencing techniques, in order to explore genetic marking loci which were an association with growth characters. From the results, we found different SNPs with an obvious difference for the growth traits. In the different genetic model analysis, we found SNP12, SNP29, SNP41, SNP8, SNP34, SNP35, SNP9, SNP10, SNP36, SNP45, and SNP39 were a significantly negative association with the two kinds of sheep. And SNP46, SNP42, and SNP69 with the positive association between the different trait in sheep were analyzed. From the LD and haplotype analysis, we found three blocks with the positive association in growth traits between Tan sheep and Hu sheep. The block of SNP29, SNP32, SNP34, SNP35, SNP36, SNP39, SNP41, SNP42, SNP45, and SNP46 with the genotype "AATCTACTTA" is the most significantly association with the traits. In summary, the study initially explored the genes for growth and reproduction between Tan sheep and Hu sheep and found some statistically significant results which demonstrate that there are genetic differences. These differential molecular markers may provide a scientific theoretical basis for the preferred species of Tan sheep which with good meat performance and better utilization of species resources.

Generation of NERCe003-A-3, a p53 compound heterozygous mutation human embryonic stem cell line, by CRISPR/Cas9 editing.

p53 is a tumor suppressor gene involved mainly in the regulation of the G1/S cell cycle phase, DNA repair, and senescence. Although p53 is frequently altered in human cancer, the consequences of its depletion in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are unknown. We generated NERCe003-A-3, a p53 knockout hESC line, from the normal NERCe003-A hESC line by using CRISPR/Cas9 editing. This cell line maintained a normal 46, XY karyotype. Further analysis suggested that the cells expressed pluripotency-related markers and had the capacity to differentiate in vitro into derivatives of all three germ layers.

Genome-wide detection of copy number variation in Chinese indigenous sheep using an ovine high-density 600 K SNP array.

Copy number variants (CNVs) represent a form of genomic structural variation underlying phenotypic diversity. In this study, we used the Illumina Ovine SNP 600 K BeadChip array for genome-wide detection of CNVs in 48 Chinese Tan sheep. A total of 1,296 CNV regions (CNVRs), ranging from 1.2 kb to 2.3 Mb in length, were detected, representing approximately 4.7% of the entire ovine genome (Oar_v3.1). We combined our findings with five existing CNVR reports to generate a composite genome-wide dataset of 4,321 CNVRs, which revealed 556 (43%) novel CNVRs. Subsequently, ten novel CNVRs were randomly chosen for further quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) confirmation, and eight were successfully validated. Gene functional enrichment revealed that these CNVRs cluster into Gene Ontology (GO) categories of homeobox and embryonic skeletal system morphogenesis. One CNVR overlapping with the homeobox transcription factor DLX3 and previously shown to be associated with curly hair in sheep was identified as the candidate CNV for the special curly fleece phenotype in Tan sheep. We constructed a Chinese indigenous sheep genomic CNV map based on the Illumina Ovine SNP 600 K BeadChip array, providing an important addition to published sheep CNVs, which will be helpful for future investigations of the genomic structural variations underlying traits of interest in sheep.