Transcriptomic analysis of pituitary in female and male spotted scat (Scatophagus argus) after 17ß-estradiol injection.

Spotted scat (Scatophagus argus) is a popular species of marine fish cultured in China. It shows normal sexual growth dimorphism. Female spotted scat grows quicker and bigger than males. Growth and reproduction are the most important traits in aquaculture. In vertebrates, the pituitary gland occupies an important position in the growth and reproduction axis. Estrogen is involved in regulating growth and reproduction in the pituitary gland in an endocrine fashion. Transcriptome sequencing of the pituitary was performed in female and male fish at 6 h after 17ß-estradiol injection (4.0 µg E2/g body weight, BW). Compared with the pituitary of female and male groups, 144 and 64 genes [|log2(fold change)| ≥ 1.0 and false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05] were significantly differentially expressed in E2-injected females and males, respectively (p < 0.05). Of these, 59 and 48 were up-regulated, and 85 and 16 were down-regulated. According to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) pathway analyses, DEGs were involved in signal pathways, such as growth, reproduction, oocyte meiosis and steroid biosynthesis. Of these, estrogen affected the expression of some sex steroid synthesis and receptor genes in the pituitary gland through feedback, such as hsd17b7, pgr and cyp19a1b, regulating the reproductive activities. Besides, some growth-related genes, such as gap43, junbb, mstn2 and insm1a responded to estrogen. E2 might affect the expression level of gh mRNA by regulating the expression levels of growth-related genes. Our results provide a theoretical basis for studying the molecular mechanism of growth and reproduction regulation at the pituitary level of spotted scat responded to E2.

Characterization, expression, and regulatory effects of nr0b1a and nr0b1b in spotted scat (Scatophagus argus).

Nuclear receptor subfamily 0 group B member 1 (Nr0b1) belongs to the nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily. It plays critical roles in sex determination, sex differentiation, and gonadal development in mammals. In this study, the duplicated genes nr0b1a and nr0b1b were identified in spotted scat (Scatophagus argus). Phylogenetic and synteny analyses revealed that, unlike nr0b1a, nr0b1b was retained in several species of teleosts after an nr0b1 gene duplication event but was secondarily lost in other fish species, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. In a sequence analysis, only 1.5 LXXLL-related repeat motifs were identified in spotted scat Nr0b1a, Nr0b1b, and non-mammalian Nr0b1a/Nr0b1, different from the 3.5 repeat motifs in mammalian Nr0b1. By qPCR, nr0b1a and nr0b1b were highly expressed in testes from stages IV to V and in ovaries from stages II to IV, respectively. Male-to-female sex reversal was induced in XY spotted scat by the administration of exogenous E2. A qPCR analysis showed that nr0b1b mRNA expression was higher in sex-reversed XY fish than in control XY fish, with no difference in nr0b1a. A luciferase assay showed that spotted scat Nr0b1a and Nr0b1b did not individually activate cyp19a1a gene transcription. As in mammals, spotted scat Nr0b1a suppressed Nr5a1-mediated cyp19a1a expression, despite containing only 1.5 LXXLL-related repeat motifs in its N-terminal region, while Nr0b1b stimulated Nr5a1-mediated cyp19a1a transcription. These results demonstrated that nr0b1a and nr0b1b in spotted scat have distinct expression patterns and regulatory effects and further indicate that nr0b1b might be involved in ovarian development by regulating Nr5a1-mediated cyp19a1a expression.

Plasma Activated Oil: Fast Production, Reactivity, Stability, and Wound Healing Application.

The "third-generation" cooking oil based drug, named plasma activated oil (PAO), is produced in cheap olive oil by a single-step, room temperature, energy-efficient, and environment-friendly dry plasma-enabled process. The streamer-surface discharge generates abundant energetic species, atomic oxygen at the plasma-oil interface. The otherwise challenging dissociation of C═C double bonds by energetic species and oxidation by the plasma generated atomic oxygen is the key mechanism to produce the H2O2 active species and carboxylic acid in the PAO. It is shown that the peroxide value and acid value of PAO are 7.5 times and 57% higher than those of the traditional ozonated oil, respectively. Different from plasma activated water whose shelf life was less than 1 week, PAO could be stored at room temperature for at least 3 months, and a shelf life of up to 1 year is expected. We further reveal that the PAO can not only sterilize the wound, but also promote more release of growth factor such as VEGF and CD34; therefore, the wound healing of PAO is 28.5% faster than that of the control group.