Novel Circular RNA CircSLC2A13 Regulates Chicken Muscle Development by Sponging MiR-34a-3p.

The skeletal muscle is the major muscle tissue in animals, and its production is subject to a complex and strict regulation. The proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts are important factors determining chicken muscle development. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are endogenous RNAs that are widely present in various tissues of organisms. Recent studies have shown that circRNA plays key roles in the development of skeletal muscles. The solute carrier (SLC) family functions in the transport of metabolites such as amino acids, glucose, nucleotides, and essential nutrients and is widely involved in various basic physiological metabolic processes within the body. In this study, we have cloned a novel chicken circular RNA circSLC2A13 generated from the solute carrier family 2 member 13 gene (SLC2A13). Also, circSLC2A1 was confirmed by sequencing verification, RNase R treatment, and reverse transcription analysis. Currently, our results show that circSLC2A13 promoted the proliferation and differentiation of chicken myoblasts. The double luciferase reporter system revealed that circSLC2A13 regulated the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts by competitive binding with miR-34a-3p. In addition, results indicated that circSLC2A13 acts as a miR-34a-3p sponge to relieve its inhibitory effect on the target SMAD3 gene. In summary, this study found that chicken circSLC2A13 can bind to miR-34a-3p and weaken its inhibitory effect on the SMAD family member 3 gene (SMAD3), thereby promoting the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts. This study laid foundations for broiler industry and muscle development research.

Circular RNA circIGF2BP3 Promotes the Proliferation and Differentiation of Chicken Primary Myoblasts.

The quality and quantity of animal meat are closely related to the development of skeletal muscle, which, in turn, is determined by myogenic cells, including myoblasts and skeletal muscle satellite cells (SMSCs). Circular RNA, an endogenous RNA derivative formed through specific reverse splicing in mRNA precursors, has the potential to influence muscle development by binding to miRNAs or regulating gene expression involved in muscular growth at the transcriptional level. Previous high-throughput sequencing of circRNA in chicken liver tissue revealed a circular transcript, circIGF2BP3, derived from the gene encoding insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3). In this study, we confirmed the presence of the natural circular molecule of circIGF2BP3 through an RNase R enzyme tolerance assay. RT-qPCR results showed high circIGF2BP3 expression in the pectoral and thigh muscles of Yuexi frizzled feather chickens at embryonic ages 14 and 18, as well as at 7 weeks post-hatch. Notably, its expression increased during embryonic development, followed by a rapid decrease after birth. As well as using RT-qPCR, Edu, CCK-8, immunofluorescence, and Western blot techniques, we demonstrated that overexpressing circIGF2BP3 could promote the proliferation and differentiation of chicken primary myoblasts through upregulating genes such as proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), cyclin D1 (CCND1), cyclin E1 (CCNE1), cyclin dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), myosin heavy chain (MyHC), myoblast-determining 1 (MyoD1), myogenin (MyoG), and Myomaker. In conclusion, circIGF2BP3 promotes the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts in chickens. This study establishes a foundation for further investigation into the biological functions and mechanisms of circIGF2BP3 in myoblasts proliferation and differentiation.

Rational designs of structurally similar TADF and HLCT emitters with benzo- or naphtho-carbazole units as electron donors.

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and hybridized local and charge transfer (HLCT) emitters are two types of highly efficient electroluminescent materials which could improve their internal quantum efficiency (IQE) by converting triplet excitons to singlet ones. However, the molecular designs of TADF and HLCT materials are usually carried out separately because of their distinct emission mechanisms. In this work, we report a rational design strategy for the realization of switching between HLCT and TADF emissions in structurally similar donor-acceptor (D-A) type molecules, which are constructed with the same electron donors (benzo- or naphtho-carbazole) and acceptors with tunable electron-withdrawing abilities (benzonitrile (BN) and benzene-1,2,3,4,5-pentacarbonitrile (BPN)). Such switching of two types of emissions could be attributable to the modulation of the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) and twist between donor and acceptor units. In the theoretical framework of the state hybridization, the excited-state properties are analyzed to reveal the intrinsic structure-property relationships for the donor-based HLCT and TADF molecules. This work not only offers an in-depth understanding of the excited-state properties of HLCT/TADF molecules, but also provides theoretical guidelines for the designing and screening of highly efficient electroluminescent materials.

Establishment methods and research progress of livestock and poultry immortalized cell lines: A review.

An infinite cell line is one of the most favored experimental tools and plays an irreplaceable role in cell-based biological research. Primary cells from normal animal tissues undergo a limited number of divisions and subcultures in vitro before they enter senescence and die. On the contrary, an infinite cell line is a population of non-senescent cells that could proliferate indefinitely in vitro under the stimulation of external factors such as physicochemical stimulation, virus infection, or transfer of immortality genes. Cell immortalization is the basis for establishing an infinite cell line, and previous studies have found that methods to obtain immortalized cells mainly included physical and chemical stimulations, heterologous expression of viral oncogenes, increased telomerase activity, and spontaneous formation. However, some immortalized cells do not necessarily proliferate permanently even though they can extend their lifespan compared with primary cells. An infinite cell line not only avoids the complicated process of collecting primary cell, it also provides a convenient and reliable tool for studying scientific problems in biology. At present, how to establish a stable infinite cell line to maximize the proliferation of cells while maintaining the normal function of cells is a hot issue in the biological community. This review briefly introduces the methods of cell immortalization, discusses the related progress of establishing immortalized cell lines in livestock and poultry, and compares the characteristics of several methods, hoping to provide some ideas for generating new immortalized cell lines.

In-situ coating TiO2 surface by plant-inspired tannic acid for fabrication of thin film nanocomposite nanofiltration membranes toward enhanced separation and antibacterial performance.

A major issue hindering development of thin film nanocomposite (TFN) nanofiltration (NF) membrane is the interfacial defects induced by nanomaterial aggregation in top layer. Although various nanomaterials surface modification strategies have been developed to eliminate the interfacial defects, they usually involve extra modification steps and complex post-treatments. Inspired by the substrate-independent coating ability of tannic acid (TA) and the fact that the phenolic hydroxyl groups in TA can react with acyl chloride group in trimesoyl chloride, a TA coating solution containing TiO2 nanoparticles was used as an aqueous phase of interfacial polymerization to prepare interfacial modified TFN NF membranes in this study. Surface modification of TiO2 nanoparticles and interfacial polymerization can be carried out in a single step without any extra pre-modification step. It was found that the TA coating on TiO2 nanoparticles surface could decrease TiO2 aggregations and enhance interfacial compatibility between TiO2 and polyester matrix. The TFN NF membrane prepared at a TiO2 loading of 0.020 wt% exhibited a pure water flux of 28.8 L m-2 h-1 (284% higher than that of the controlled TFC membrane), and possessed enhanced NaCl and Na2SO4 rejections of 57.9% and 94.6%, respectively, breaking through the trade-off between permeability and selectivity.

Manipulating the mussel-inspired co-deposition of tannic acid and amine for fabrication of nanofiltration membranes with an enhanced separation performance.

Nanofiltration (NF) membranes with tannic acid (TA) based selective layers have been intensively studied in recent years, but they still suffer from poor inorganic salt rejection. This study provided a first report on mussel-inspired co-deposition of TA and amine to obtain high-performance NF membranes. The inorganic salt separation performance of the as-prepared NF membrane was significantly improved by optimising the amine molecular weight. The membranes prepared by TA and various amines were characterised by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), zeta potential, and water contact angle measurement. It was found that amines with low molecular weight, such as ethylenediamine (EDA) and diethylenetriamine (DETA) facilitated the co-deposition onto the membrane surface, while polyethylene polyamine (PEPA) and branched polyethylenimine 600 (PEI600) enhanced the precipitation in solution. The TA/DETA co-deposited membrane showed an MgCl2 rejection of 83.5% and a pure water permeance of 4.5 L m-2 h-1 bar-1. The rejection was higher than the reported TA based NF membranes in the literature. In addition to demonstrating a TA based NF membrane with the improved inorganic salt rejection, this study provided new insights into the mussel-inspired co-deposition for material surface engineering towards various applications.

Fabrication of high-performance composite nanofiltration membranes for dye wastewater treatment: mussel-inspired layer-by-layer self-assembly.

Inspired by the mussel adhesion mechanism, plant polyphenol tannic acid (TA) with abundant catechol groups and hydrophilic Jeffamine (JA) containing amino groups were used in a layer-by-layer (LBL) process to fabricate composite nanofiltration (NF) membranes in this study. Alternately immersing a polyacrylonitrile substrate into individual TA and JA buffer solutions could readily construct a NF membrane selective layer without any pre-treatment to the substrate. The optimised membrane showed a high pure water permeance of 37 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 whilst maintaining rejections higher than 90% towards various dyes with molecular weights ranging from 269 to 1017 g mol-1. Particularly, the obtained membrane exhibited excellent anti-fouling and long-term performance attributed to the hydrophilic membrane surface and covalent bonds in the selective layer. The novel strategy inherited the advantages of a mussel-inspired dopamine material but overcame its disadvantages. The results disclosed in this study not only provide a novel strategy to prepare composite NF membranes, but also facilitate the mussel-inspired LBL design of advanced materials for environmental applications.

Facile preparation of polyacrylonitrile-co-methylacrylate based integrally skinned asymmetric nanofiltration membranes for sustainable molecular separation: An one-step method.

While polyacrylonitrile (PAN) has been widely used to prepare membranes, it is still not handy to prepare PAN integrally skinned asymmetric (ISA) nanofiltration (NF) membrane via direct immersion precipitation phase inversion method. Herein, a low-cost and commercial polyacrylonitrile-co-methylacrylate, P(AN-co-MA), was demonstrated to prepare ISA NF membranes via a one-step immersion precipitation phase inversion process. It was found that increasing P(AN-co-MA) concentration in NMP can shift the membranes from ultrafiltration (UF) to NF range. The addition of a co-solvent in dope could further improve dye rejection. Effects of solvent (NMP or DMF)/co-solvent (THF and 1,4-dioxane) type and mass ratio in dope solution on membrane separation performance were further investigated. The membrane prepared from a 20% polymer concentration and a NMP/1,4-dioxane ratio of 3:1 showed 87.4% methyl orange (MO) rejection and 98.3% rose bengal (RB) rejection, and simultaneously a relatively high water permeance of 55.22 L m-2 h-1 bar-1. Increase in the content of co-solvent in solvent/co-solvent mixture would depress the formation of macrovoids, lead to a dense top layer and contribute to high dye rejections. The low-cost and one-step process to prepare P(AN-co-MA) ISA NF membranes disclosed in this study paved a new way for sustainable molecular separation.