The dyadic effects of social support on anxiety among family members during COVID-19: The mediating role of perceived family resilience.

Families have been suffering from huge financial loss and psychological distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most existing studies investigated the protective factors for anxiety at the individual level, while understandings from the perspective of family dyadic level were left unknown. Considering that social support could serve as a protective factor to reduce anxiety both at individual level and at dyadic level, the present study adopted dyadic data analysis approach to tackle this puzzle. In total, 2512 Chinese parent-adolescent dyads completed a survey with scales of anxiety, social support, and perceived family resilience on July 31 and August 1 of 2021. Results showed that: (1) adolescents' perceived social support had significant actor and partner effects on their own and parents' anxiety, whereas parents' perceived social support only had a significant actor effect on their own anxiety and (2) the actor mediating effects of social support on anxiety via one's own perceived family resilience were found in both adolescents and parents, and a partner mediating effect of adolescents' social support was significantly associated with parents' anxiety through parents' perceived family resilience. Findings emphasize that interventions aiming at increasing adolescents' support resources could generate a significant effect on reducing anxiety.

Genomic Basis of Adaptive Evolution: The Survival of Amur Ide (Leuciscus waleckii) in an Extremely Alkaline Environment.

The Amur ide (Leuciscus waleckii) is a cyprinid fish that is widely distributed in Northeast Asia. The Lake Dali Nur population inhabits one of the most extreme aquatic environments on Earth, with an alkalinity up to 50 mmol/L (pH 9.6), thus providing an exceptional model with which to characterize the mechanisms of genomic evolution underlying adaptation to extreme environments. Here, we developed the reference genome assembly for L. waleckii from Lake Dali Nur. Intriguingly, we identified unusual expanded long terminal repeats (LTRs) with higher nucleotide substitution rates than in many other teleosts, suggesting their more recent insertion into the L. waleckii genome. We also identified expansions in genes encoding egg coat proteins and natriuretic peptide receptors, possibly underlying the adaptation to extreme environmental stress. We further sequenced the genomes of 10 additional individuals from freshwater and 18 from Lake Dali Nur populations, and we detected a total of 7.6 million SNPs from both populations. In a genome scan and comparison of these two populations, we identified a set of genomic regions under selective sweeps that harbor genes involved in ion homoeostasis, acid-base regulation, unfolded protein response, reactive oxygen species elimination, and urea excretion. Our findings provide comprehensive insight into the genomic mechanisms of teleost fish that underlie their adaptation to extreme alkaline environments.

Genome Wide Identification, Phylogeny, and Expression of Aquaporin Genes in Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio).

BACKGROUND: Aquaporins (Aqps) are integral membrane proteins that facilitate the transport of water and small solutes across cell membranes. Among vertebrate species, Aqps are highly conserved in both gene structure and amino acid sequence. These proteins are vital for maintaining water homeostasis in living organisms, especially for aquatic animals such as teleost fish. Studies on teleost Aqps are mainly limited to several model species with diploid genomes. Common carp, which has a tetraploidized genome, is one of the most common aquaculture species being adapted to a wide range of aquatic environments. The complete common carp genome has recently been released, providing us the possibility for gene evolution of aqp gene family after whole genome duplication. RESULTS: In this study, we identified a total of 37 aqp genes from common carp genome. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that most of aqps are highly conserved. Comparative analysis was performed across five typical vertebrate genomes. We found that almost all of the aqp genes in common carp were duplicated in the evolution of the gene family. We postulated that the expansion of the aqp gene family in common carp was the result of an additional whole genome duplication event and that the aqp gene family in other teleosts has been lost in their evolution history with the reason that the functions of genes are redundant and conservation. Expression patterns were assessed in various tissues, including brain, heart, spleen, liver, intestine, gill, muscle, and skin, which demonstrated the comprehensive expression profiles of aqp genes in the tetraploidized genome. Significant gene expression divergences have been observed, revealing substantial expression divergences or functional divergences in those duplicated aqp genes post the latest WGD event. CONCLUSIONS: To some extent, the gene families are also considered as a unique source for evolutionary studies. Moreover, the whole set of common carp aqp gene family provides an essential genomic resource for future biochemical, toxicological, physiological, and evolutionary studies in common carp.

An ultra-high density linkage map and QTL mapping for sex and growth-related traits of common carp (Cyprinus carpio).

High density genetic linkage maps are essential for QTL fine mapping, comparative genomics and high quality genome sequence assembly. In this study, we constructed a high-density and high-resolution genetic linkage map with 28,194 SNP markers on 14,146 distinct loci for common carp based on high-throughput genotyping with the carp 250 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array in a mapping family. The genetic length of the consensus map was 10,595.94 cM with an average locus interval of 0.75 cM and an average marker interval of 0.38 cM. Comparative genomic analysis revealed high level of conserved syntenies between common carp and the closely related model species zebrafish and medaka. The genome scaffolds were anchored to the high-density linkage map, spanning 1,357 Mb of common carp reference genome. QTL mapping and association analysis identified 22 QTLs for growth-related traits and 7 QTLs for sex dimorphism. Candidate genes underlying growth-related traits were identified, including important regulators such as KISS2, IGF1, SMTLB, NPFFR1 and CPE. Candidate genes associated with sex dimorphism were also identified including 3KSR and DMRT2b. The high-density and high-resolution genetic linkage map provides an important tool for QTL fine mapping and positional cloning of economically important traits, and improving common carp genome assembly.

Genome-wide identification, phylogeny, and expression of fibroblast growth genes in common carp.

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are a large family of polypeptide growth factors, which are found in organisms ranging from nematodes to humans. In vertebrates, a number of FGFs have been shown to play important roles in developing embryos and adult organisms. Among the vertebrate species, FGFs are highly conserved in both gene structure and amino-acid sequence. However, studies on teleost FGFs are mainly limited to model species, hence we investigated FGFs in the common carp genome. We identified 35 FGFs in the common carp genome. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that most of the FGFs are highly conserved, though recent gene duplication and gene losses do exist. By examining the copy number of FGFs in several vertebrate genomes, we found that eight FGFs in common carp have undergone gene duplications, including FGF6a, FGF6b, FGF7, FGF8b, FGF10a, FGF11b, FGF13a, and FGF18b. The expression patterns of all FGFs were examined in various tissues, including the blood, brain, gill, heart, intestine, muscle, skin, spleen and kidney, showing that most of the FGFs were ubiquitously expressed, indicating their critical role in common carp. To some extent, examination of gene families with detailed phylogenetic or orthology analysis verified the authenticity and accuracy of assembly and annotation of the recently published common carp whole genome sequences. Gene families are also considered as a unique source for evolutionary studies. Moreover, the whole set of common carp FGF gene family provides an important genomic resource for future biochemical, physiological, and phylogenetic studies on FGFs in teleosts.

Use of pro-/synbiotics as prophylaxis in patients undergoing colorectal resection for cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

AIMS: To estimate the efficacy of pro-/synbiotics treatment in patients undergoing colorectal resection, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was conducted. METHODS: An electronic search of PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Academic Search Premier, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure was performed, and RevMan 5.0 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Six studies including 361 patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery were retrieved. The combined analysis revealed that perioperative pro-/synbiotics administration had a positive effect on the incidence of diarrhea (OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.62, P=0.001), the incidence of symptomatic intestinal obstructions (OR 0.39, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.78, P=0.008), the incidence of operative total infections (OR 0.39, 95% CI: 0.22 to 0.68, P=0.0010), and pneumonia infection (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.93, P=0.04). The regimen increased the numbers of Lactobacillus (MD 2.66, 95% CI: 2.13 to 3.18; P<0.00001), and decreased the counts of Enterobacteriaceae (MD -1.52, 95% CI: -1.93 to -1.11, P<0.00001). No significant differences were found between the two groups in septic morbidity, incision infection, perineal infection, intraabdominal infection, anastomotic leak, the first defecation time, length of hospital stay, mesenteric lymph nodes for bacterial translocation. No mortality related to pro-/synbiotics treatment was revealed in all studies. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the meta-analysis, perioperatively use pro-/synbiotics as prophylaxis in patients undergoing colorectal resection improved clinical outcomes. The best preventive strategy (including species and the optimal dose) of pro-/synbiotics should be considered in future meta-analyses.

[Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor in human prostate cancer and its significance].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate expressions of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in primary prostate cancer and its clinical significance. METHODS: Expressions of COX-2 and VEGF were detected by immunohistochemical assay in tissues of 40 prostate cancer and 10 benign prostatic hyperplasia samples. RESULTS: COX-2 and VEGF levels in prostate cancer were much higher than those in BPH. The degrees of cancer malignancy and invasion positively correlated with the expressions of COX-2 and VEGF. COX-2 level positively correlated with VEGF level. CONCLUSION: The abnormal expression of COX-2 plays an important role in the development of primary prostate cancer. COX-2 and VEGF are good molecular markers of prostate cancer which are hopeful to be used for the assistant diagnosis and the prediction of prognosis of prostate cancer.