The complete mitochondrial genome of Fieberiella septentrionalis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of Fieberiella septentrionalis was annotated for the first time in the present study. The mitogenome was found to have circular shape, with 16,175 bp in size, containing 13 protein coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer-RNA genes, 2 ribosomal-RNA genes, and 1 non-coding region. The nucleotide composition biases toward A and T is 77.9% of the entirety, which is a typical structure of Cicadellidae. All PCGs have ATN as the start codon, TAA and single T as the stop codon. The resulting phylogenetic tree confirms that the F. septentrionalis belongs to the subfamily of Deltocephalinae and Fieberiellini as sister to the remaining tribes of this subfamily.

Inflammation-dependent downregulation of miR-532-3p mediates apoptotic signaling in human sarcopenia through targeting BAK1.

Inflammation and apoptosis are considered as two major pathological causes of human sarcopenia. The current understanding based on different models recognizes that apoptosis does not trigger inflammation, while emerging evidence indicates that inflammation can induce apoptosis. Here, we provide solid evidence to suggest that the inflammation-dependent downregulation of miR-532 causes apoptosis through targeting a proapoptotic gene BAK1 (BCL2 antagonist/killer 1). To identify miRNAs and genes that are aberrantly expressed in the muscle tissues of sarcopenia patients, we conducted two independent microarray analyses. In total, we identified 53 miRNAs and 69 genes with differential expression levels. Of these aberrantly expressed miRNAs, miR-532-3p showed the most obvious changes in sarcopenia tissues, and more importantly, it can be repressed by the well-known inflammatory inducer lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in vitro. According to gene-based microarray results and the predicted targets of miR-532-3p, we presumed that BAK1 was a putative target of miR-532-3p. Further in vitro and in vivo analyses verified that miR-532-3p could directly bind to the three prime untranslated region (3'-UTR) of BAK1 through the seed sequence CUCCCAC. In addition, we found that NFKB1 (also known as p50), a subunit of the transcription factor NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells), could specifically bind to the promoter region of miR-532-3p and repress its expression. Further analysis revealed that the activation of TLR4 (Toll-like receptor 4) signaling led to the translocation of p50 from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, where it repressed miR-532-3p expression and thus led to an increase of BAK1. The accumulated BAK1 activated its downstream apoptotic signaling pathways and resulted in apoptosis, eventually causing the pathogenesis underlying sarcopenia. Overall, our results uncovered a new mechanism by which the inflammation-dependent downregulation of miR-532-3p contributed to the pathogenesis of sarcopenia through mediating BAK1 expression.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Metidiocerus sp. (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Idiocerinae).

The species Metidiocerus sp. belonging to the subfamily Idiocerinae (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae). Here, we sequenced and annotated the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Metidiocerus sp. This mitogenome was 15,079 bp long and encoded 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and 2 ribosomal RNA unit genes (rRNAs), and one non-coding region. The nucleotide composition biases toward A and T, which together made up 77.4% of the entirety. All 13 PCGs were initiated by the ATN (ATG, ATT, ATA, and ATC) codon. All PCGs terminate with the stop codons TAA except for COX2, ND4, and ND1 ended with single T. A phylogenetic tree generated by the Bayesian method showed that Metidiocerus sp. is closely related to Idiocerus salicis and Idiocerus herrichii which enriched the mitochondrial genome data of Idiocerinae.

Complete mitochondrial genome of Populicerus confusus (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Idiocerinae).

In this study, we firstly reported the complete mitochondrial genome of Populicerus confuses. The complete mitochondrial genome was 16,395 bp in length which overall base composition was 41.43% A, 36.30% T, 11.54% C, and 10.73% G. It consisted of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes (12S and 16S rRNA), and a control region (D-loop region). The complete mitochondrial genomes of P. confuses and other 9 species were used for phylogenetic analysis using the Bayesian method. The resulting phylogenetic tree confirms that the Populicerus populi is most closely related to P. confuses. The mitogenome provided the valuable evidence on phylogenetic relationship of the Idiocerinae at the molecular level.