Aberrant allelic-switch of antisense lncRNA IRAIN may be an early diagnostic marker in laryngeal cancer.

Laryngeal carcinoma is a common head and neck malignancy, however, the molecular mechanism of the disease has not yet been elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate the role of IGF1R antisense imprinted non-protein coding RNA (IRAIN) long non-coding (lnc)RNA in laryngeal carcinoma. In total, specimens of healthy pharynx tissue from 6 healthy individuals, carcinoma tissue and paracancerous tissue from 37 patients with laryngeal carcinoma were used in this study. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs8034564 was used to distinguish the two parental alleles of IRAIN. DNA and RNA were extracted from tissue specimens and the IRAIN allelic gene was sequenced. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was used to determine the expression levels of IRAIN and Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) in laryngeal carcinoma and paracancerous tissue. Bisulfite genomic sequencing was used to determine IRAIN promoter DNA methylation status in laryngeal carcinoma tissue. The expression of IRAIN was di-allelic in healthy pharynx tissue, laryngeal carcinoma tissue and paracancerous tissue. Moreover, IRAIN expression in laryngeal carcinoma tissue was lower compared with paracancerous tissue (P<0.05). IRAIN expression was not associated with age, histological type, tumor stage and grade and lymph node metastasis. IRAIN allelic expression imbalance was present in laryngeal carcinoma and paracancerous tissue, but not in healthy pharynx tissue. SNP analysis (rs8034564) indicated there was an allelic-switch of the two parental alleles. Furthermore, epigenetic analysis revealed no extensive DNA methylation of CpG islands in the IRAIN gene promoter of laryngeal carcinoma. Therefore, it was suggested that IRAIN allele was non-imprinted in laryngeal carcinoma and healthy pharynx tissue. It was also demonstrated that IRAIN may be a potential tumor suppressor in laryngeal carcinoma, and that DNA methylation is not involved in the regulation of IRAIN gene immobilization in laryngeal carcinoma tissue. Thus, detection of IRAIN allelic expression imbalance and aberrant allele-switch may serve as an early diagnostic marker of laryngeal carcinoma.

[Molecular identification and detection of moon jellyfish (Aurelia sp.) based on partial sequencing of mitochondrial 16S rDNA and COI].

Taking the moon jellyfish Aurelia sp. commonly found in our coastal sea areas as test object, its genome DNA was extracted, the partial sequences of mt-16S rDNA (650 bp) and mt-COI (709 bp) were PCR-amplified, and, after purification, cloning, and sequencing, the sequences obtained were BLASTn-analyzed. The sequences of greater difference with those of the other jellyfish were chosen, and eight specific primers for the mt-16S rDNA and mt-COI of Aurelia sp. were designed, respectively. The specificity test indicated that the primer AS3 for the mt-16S rDNA and the primer AC3 for the mt-COI were excellent in rapidly detecting the target jellyfish from Rhopilema esculentum, Nemopilema nomurai, Cyanea nozakii, Acromitus sp., and Aurelia sp., and thus, the techniques for the molecular identification and detection of moon jellyfish were preliminarily established, which could get rid of the limitations in classical morphological identification of Aurelia sp. , being able to find the Aurelia sp. in the samples more quickly and accurately.

[Research advances in the effects of environmental factors on the growth and development of Aurelia spp].

Aurelia spp. is a cosmopolitan coastal species, and also, one dominant species of large jellyfish in the coastal waters of China. In recent years, Aurelia spp. bloom events occur frequently in the world, causing severe damage to marine ecosystems, coastal economy, and society development. Aurelia spp. has a complicated life history comprising a benthic asexually-reproducing polyp generation and a sexually-reproducing medusa generation, and various vegetative reproduction (budding, strobilation, and podocyst production) and sexual reproduction. Surrounding physical and biological factors affect each growth stage of Aurelia spp., especially the juvenile stage of planktonic-benthic life cycle, which has major effect on the population dynamics of Aurelia spp. This paper reviewed the research advances in the effects of environmental factors on Aurelia spp. at its different growth and development stages, and discussed some problems worthy of further study, aimed to provide useful reference for the research of the key factors controlling the jellyfish blooms in coastal waters of China.