The Use of RNAi Technology to Interfere with Zfx Gene Increases the Male Rates of Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Offspring.

Zinc finger protein X-linked (Zfx) was regarded to be a sex determination factor and plays a critical role in spermatogenesis. RNAi is an effective method of silencing Zfx mRNA expression. However, there has been little research on the use of RNAi technology to control the sex of the offspring of red deer (Cervus elaphus). The objective of this study was first to explore an efficient method to alter the red deer offspring sex-ratio by silencing the gene Zfx during spermatogenesis. Three recombinant expression vectors pLL3.7/A, pLL3.7/B, and pLL3.7/C were constructed to interrupt the Zfx gene. The results showed that the expression of Zfx mRNA was significantly silenced by pLL3.7/A (P < 0.01), compared with the control group. The group injected with pLL3.7/A produced 94 red deer, including 68 males and 26 females. The male rates (72.34%) were significantly higher than the control groups (P < 0.01). Our result suggests that Zfx siRNA is a useful approach to control offspring sex in red deer. This study further confirms that the Zfx gene plays a significant role in the process of X spermatogenesis.

The Effect of Taichi Practice on Attenuating Bone Mineral Density Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of practicing Taichi on attenuating bone mineral density (BMD) loss. Methods: Both electronic and manual searches were performed for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining Taichi for bone health. Two review authors independently performed study selection and data extraction according to inclusion criteria. A third party (Lin Luo) emerged to discuss with the two review authors and resolve a disagreement. Results: Twenty RCTs were found to meet the inclusion criteria and used for meta-analysis with a total effective sample of 1604. The aggregated results from this systematic review have shown significant benefits in favour of Taichi on BMD at lumbar spine (Standard Mean Difference, SMD) = 0.29; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.43; p < 0.0001), femur neck (SMD = 0.56; 95% CI 0.38 to 0.75; p < 0.00001), femur trochanter (SMD = 0.04; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.07; p = 0.007), total hip BMD (SMD = 0.46; 95% CI 0.16 to 0.76; p = 0.003). Conclusions: The aggregated results from this systematic review suggests that Taichi is effective on attenuating BMD loss at the regions of lumbar spine and proximal femur neck in special populations (e.g., older adults, perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, people with osteoarthritis, and cancer survivors). Researchers should further examine the effect of Taichi on the proximal femur trochanter and total hip so that a more definitive claim can be made regarding the beneficial effects for attenuating BMD loss in these musculoskeletal regions.

Analysis of genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship of red deer subspecies in XinJiang, China.

Polymorphisms for seven microsatellite loci in three red deer subspecies (9 populations) found in XinJiang were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), 12% nondenaturation polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and the Sanguinetti silver staining method. Numbers of alleles, average effective numbers of alleles (E) and the average rate of homozygosity, allelic frequencies of seven microsatellite loci, polymorphism information content (PIC), mean heterozygosity (H) and genetic distances among the populations were calculated for each population. Dendrograms were constructed based on genetic distances by the neighbor-joining method (NJ), utilizing molecular evolutionary genetics analysis software PHYLIP (3.6). The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on allelic frequencies using maximum likelihood (ML); the bootstrap value was estimated by bootstrap test in the tree. Lastly, phylogenesis was analyzed. The results showed that four of the seven microsatellite loci were highly polymorphic, but BMS2508 and Celjp0023 showed no polymorphism and BM5004 was a neutral polymorphism. It is our conclusion that the four microsatellite loci are effective DNA markers for the analysis of genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships among the three red deer subspecies. The mean PIC, H and E-values across the microsatellite loci were 0.5393, 0.5736 and 2.64, which showed that these microsatellite loci are effective DNA markers for the genetic analysis of red deer. C.e. songaricus populations from Regiment 104, 151 and Hami are clustered together. C.e. yarkandensis populations from Regiment 35, Xaya and Alaer are clustered together. These two clusters also cluster together. Lastly, C.e. sibiricus populations from Burqin, Regiment 188 and the first two clusters were clustered together. The phylogenetic relationship among different red deer populations is consistent with the known origin, history of breeding and geographic distributions of populations.