ABSTRACT
This study aimed to analyze the effects of the transformation from natural alpine grassland (NAG) to mixed artificial grassland (MAG) on the characteristics of soil microbial community. We used Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing technology to investigate the soil microbial community of natural grassland and mixed artificial grassland. The results showed that plant diversity and the content of soil organic matter decreased significantly from NAG to MAG. In total, 29 and 11 phyla bacteria and fungi were detected, respectively. Compared with that in NAG, the Shannon indexes of the bacterial community increased significantly in MAG (from 9.51 to 9.89), whereas these differences were not significant between the NAG and MAG fungal community. The structure and composition of the soil microbial community showed significant differences between NAG and MAG. In addition, Mantel test results suggested that soil total organic matter, total nitrogen, and soil moisture were significantly correlated with variations in the bacterial community, and soil total organic matter and soil moisture were significantly correlated with variations in fungal community. The results of linear discriminant analysis (LEfSe) indicated that Atribacteria and Ascomycota microorganisms could be considered as the indicator groups for NAG, whereas Gemmata and Trichocomaceae microorganisms could be considered as the indicator groups for MAG. Tax4Fun2 results showed that the transition from NAG to MAG affected the utilization of different carbon sources by bacteria.
Subject(s)
Grassland , Microbiota , Soil/chemistry , Soil Microbiology , Bacteria/geneticsABSTRACT
Esophageal cancer is considered as one of the leading malignancies. MicroRNA-574-3p (miR-574-3p) was used as a postoperative prognostic indicator in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. However, the underlying mechanism miR-574-3p involvement in esophageal cancer remains unclear. In this study, the expression of miR-574-3p was reduced in esophageal cancer tissues and cells. In vitro, miR-574-3p mimics and inhibitor were transfected into esophageal cancer cells (TE-1 and TE-8 cells) to up- or downregulating of miR-574-3p. miR-574-3p inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion, and promoted apoptosis in esophageal cancer cells. In addition, miR-574-3p was confirmed to target family with sequence similarity 3 member C (FAM3C) and mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1). miR-574-3p suppressed phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) and rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma (Raf)/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling via regulating FAM3C and MAPK1. In vivo, overexpression of miR-574-3p suppressed tumor growth in mice. Our findings indicated that miR-574-3p repressed proliferation and invasion of esophageal cancer via regulation of FAM3C and MAPK1, which provides a new biomarker for esophageal cancer treatment.
Subject(s)
Cytokines/metabolism , Esophageal Neoplasms/genetics , Esophageal Neoplasms/pathology , MicroRNAs/metabolism , Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 1/metabolism , Neoplasm Proteins/metabolism , Animals , Base Sequence , Cell Line, Tumor , Cell Movement/genetics , Cell Proliferation/genetics , Cytokines/genetics , Female , Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic , Humans , MAP Kinase Signaling System , Male , Mice, Inbred BALB C , MicroRNAs/genetics , Middle Aged , Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 1/genetics , Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases/metabolism , Neoplasm Invasiveness , Neoplasm Proteins/genetics , Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/metabolism , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/metabolismABSTRACT
AIM: To investigate the inhibitory and anti-metastatic effect of mutant p27 gene (p27mt) on the growth of colorectal cancer xenografts in nude mice and its underlying mechanism. METHODS: Inhibitory effect of p27mt gene on the growth of colorectal cancer xenografts was determined by measurement of tumor size before and after direct intra-tumoral injection of Ad-p27mt in a pre-established transplantation model of human colorectal cancer in nude mice. Cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry performed on single-cell suspension from an isolated tumor. Expression of MMP-9 in tumor tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The average sizes of transplantation tumors were 1.94 +/- 0.67 cm(3), 2.75 +/- 0.83 cm(3) and 3.01 +/- 0.76 cm(3) in the Ad-p27mt, Ad-LacZ and control groups, respectively (P < 0.05). The average proliferation rates were 37.34% +/- 1.45%, 53.16% +/- 3.27% and 54.48% +/- 2.43%, in the Ad-p27mt, Ad-LacZ and control groups, respectively (P < 0.05). The average apoptosis rates were 19.79% +/- 3.32%, 6.38% +/- 4.91% and 7.25% +/- 5.20% in the Ad-p27mt, Ad-LacZ and control groups, respectively (P < 0.01). The average MMP-9 expression rates were 20%, 75% and 66.7% in the Ad-p27mt, Ad-LacZ and control groups, respectively (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: p27mt inhibits the growth of transplanted tumor by blocking the proliferation of cancer xenografts and by promoting apoptosis of transplantated tumor cells, as well as decrease transpl-anted tumor metastasis.
