Bacterial Community Influences the Effects of Lactobacillus acidophilus on Lipid Metabolism, Immune Response, and Antioxidant Capacity in Dogs.

Lactobacillus acidophilus (L. acidophilus), the most prevalent probiotic, has demonstrated the ability to improve the relative abundance of intestinal microorganisms and boost immunity. However, the underlying mechanisms of these effects remain unclear. This study evaluated body weight, nutrient apparent digestibility, serum indices, and bacterial communities in Chinese rural dogs from a L. acidophilus supplementation group (Lactobacillus acidophilus, n = 6) and a control group (CON, n = 6). The results indicated that L. acidophilus had no significant impact on the body weight and apparent nutrient digestibility of Chinese rural dogs. In comparison with the CON group, L. acidophilus significantly reduced the levels of cholesterol (CHO) and increased the levels of IgA, IFN-α, and T-AOC. Bacterial diversity indices were significantly reduced in the LAC group compared to the CON groups, and MetaStat analysis demonstrated notable distinctions in 14 bacterial genera between the groups. These bacterial genera exhibited correlations with physiological indices such as CHO, IgA, IFN-α, and T-AOC. In conclusion, L. acidophilus can modulate lipid metabolism, immunity, and antioxidant capacity by regulating the relative abundance of specific bacterial communities, which helps dogs to adapt to today's lifestyle.

HSP90 and HSP70 Families in Lateolabrax maculatus: Genome-Wide Identification, Molecular Characterization, and Expression Profiles in Response to Various Environmental Stressors.

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a large class of highly conserved chaperons, which play important roles in response to elevated temperature and other environmental stressors. In the present study, 5 HSP90 genes and 17 HSP70 genes were systematically characterized in spotted seabass (Lateolabrax maculatus). The evolutionary footprint of HSP genes was revealed via the analysis of phylogeny, chromosome location, and gene copy numbers. In addition, the gene structure features and the putative distribution of heat shock elements (HSEs) and hypoxia response elements (HREs) in the promoter regions were analyzed. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analyses results indicated the potential transcriptional regulation between the heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) and HSPs and a wide range of interactions among HSPs. Furthermore, quantitative (q)PCR was performed to detect the expression profiles of HSP90 and HSP70 genes in gill, liver, and muscle tissues after heat stress, meanwhile, the expression patterns in gills under alkalinity and hypoxia stresses were determined by analyzing RNA-Seq datasets. Results showed that after heat stress, most of the examined HSP genes were significantly upregulated in a tissue-specific and time-dependent manners, and hsp90aa1.1, hsp90aa1.2, hsp70.1, and hsp70.2 were the most intense responsive genes in all three tissues. In response to alkalinity stress, 11 out of 13 significantly regulated HSP genes exhibited suppressed expression patterns. Alternatively, among the 12 hypoxia-responsive-expressed HSP genes, 7 genes showed induced expressions, while hsp90aa1.2, hsp70.1, and hsp70.2 had more significant upregulated changes after hypoxic challenge. Our findings provide the essential basis for further functional studies of HSP genes in response to abiotic stresses in spotted seabass.

Pool Boiling Performance of Multilayer Micromeshes for Commercial High-Power Cooling.

With the rapid development of electronics, thermal management has become one of the most crucial issues. Intense research has focused on surface modifications used to enhance heat transfer. In this study, multilayer copper micromeshes (MCMs) are developed for commercial compact electronic cooling. Boiling heat transfer performance, including critical heat flux (CHF), heat transfer coefficients (HTCs), and the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB), are investigated. The effect of micromesh layers on the boiling performance is studied, and the bubbling characteristics are analyzed. In the study, MCM-5 shows the highest critical heat flux (CHF) of 207.5 W/cm2 and an HTC of 16.5 W(cm2·K) because of its abundant micropores serving as nucleate sites, and outstanding capillary wicking capability. In addition, MCMs are compared with other surface structures in the literature and perform with high competitiveness and potential in commercial applications for high-power cooling.

Effects of Vibrio harveyi infection on serum biochemical parameters and expression profiles of interleukin-17 (IL-17) / interleukin-17 receptor (IL-17R) genes in spotted sea bass.

Vibrio harveyi is regarded as serious pathogen for marine fishes. To evaluate the physiological responses of spotted sea bass (Lateolabrax maculatus) after V. harveyi infection, four biochemical biomarkers including alanine amino transferase (ALT), albumin (ALB), total protein (TP) and glucose (GLU) were measured in serum. Our results showed that V. harveyi infection significantly influenced the concentration of ALT, ALB and GLU. Additionally, five interleukin-17 (IL-17) and five IL-17 receptors (IL-17R) genes were identified in spotted sea bass and their gene structures were characterized. Furthermore, the expression patterns of IL-17 and IL-17R genes were determined by qPCR in liver, intestine, spleen and head kidney after V. harveyi infection. All IL-17 and IL-17R genes exhibited time- and tissue-dependent expressions. Several tested genes were dramatically induced by V. harveyi treatment, particularly IL-17A/F1 in liver and head kidney, IL-17A/F2 in head kidney, IL-17RC in spleen with more than 10-fold increases, which suggested their potential essential roles against bacterial infection.

Alternative splicing (AS) mechanism plays important roles in response to different salinity environments in spotted sea bass.

Salinity represents a critical environmental factor for fishes, and it can directly influence their survival. Transcriptomic analysis at the gene expression level has been extensively conducted to identify functional genes or pathways involved in salinity adaptation in numerous euryhaline fishes. However, the post-transcriptional regulation mechanism in response to salinity changes remains largely unknown. Alternative splicing (AS), the main mechanism accounting for the complexity of the transcriptome and proteome in eukaryotes, plays essential roles in determining organismal responses to environmental changes. In this study, RNA-Seq datasets were used to examine the AS profiles in spotted sea bass (Lateolabrax maculatus), a typical euryhaline fish species. The results showed that 8618 AS events were identified in spotted sea bass. Furthermore, a total of 501 and 162 differential alternative splicing (DAS) events were characterized in the gill and liver under low- and high-salinity environments, respectively. Based on GO enrichment results, DAS genes in both the gill and liver were commonly enriched in 8 GO terms, and their biological functions were implicated in many stages of gene expression regulation, including transcriptional regulation and post-transcriptional regulation. Sanger sequencing and qPCR validations provided additional evidence to ensure the accuracy and reliability of our bioinformatic results. This is the first comprehensive view of AS in response to salinity changes in fish species, providing insights into the post-regulatory molecular mechanisms of euryhaline fishes in salinity adaptation.

Characterization of Full-Length Transcriptome Sequences and Splice Variants of Lateolabrax maculatus by Single-Molecule Long-Read Sequencing and Their Involvement in Salinity Regulation.

Transcriptome complexity plays crucial roles in regulating the biological functions of eukaryotes. Except for functional genes, alternative splicing and fusion transcripts produce a vast expansion of transcriptome diversity. In this study, we applied PacBio single-molecule long-read sequencing technology to unveil the whole transcriptome landscape of Lateolabrax maculatus. We obtained 28,809 high-quality non-redundant transcripts, including 18,280 novel isoforms covering 8,961 annotated gene loci within the current reference genome and 3,172 novel isoforms. A total of 10,249 AS events were detected, and intron retention was the predominant AS event. In addition, 1,359 alternative polyadenylation events, 3,112 lncRNAs, 29,609 SSRs, 365 fusion transcripts, and 1,194 transcription factors were identified in this study. Furthermore, we performed RNA-Seq analysis combined with Iso-Seq results to investigate salinity regulation mechanism at the transcripts level. A total of 518 transcripts were differentially expressed, which were further divided into 8 functional groups. Notably, transcripts from the same genes exhibited similar or opposite expression patterns. Our study provides a comprehensive view of the transcriptome complexity in L. maculatus, which significantly improves current gene models. Moreover, the diversity of the expression patterns of transcripts may enhance the understanding of salinity regulatory mechanism in L. maculatus and other euryhaline teleosts.

Colossal Permittivity and Low Dielectric Loss of Thermal Oxidation Single-Crystalline Si Wafers.

In this work, thin SiO2 insulating layers were generated on the top and bottom surfaces of single-crystalline silicon plates (n type) by thermal oxidation to obtain an insulator/semiconductor/insulator (ISI) multilayer structure. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern and scanning electron microscope (SEM) pictures implied that all of the synthesized SiO2 layers were amorphous. By controlling the thermal oxidation times, we obtained SiO2 layers with various thicknesses. The dielectric properties of silicon plates with different thicknesses of SiO2 layers (different thermal oxidation times) were measured. The dielectric properties of all of the single-crystalline silicon plates improved greatly after thermal oxidation. The dielectric constant of the silicon plates with SiO2 layers was approximately 104, which was approximately three orders more than that of the intrinsic single-crystalline silicon plate (11.9). Furthermore, both high permittivity and low dielectric loss (0.02) were simultaneously achieved in the single-crystalline silicon plates after thermal oxidation (ISI structure).