Transcriptome profiling of Cysticercus Pisiformis provides insight into responses to host bile acids.

Bile acids in host intestine activate larvae of tapeworms and facilitate its invasion. However, the mechanism underlying this process is poorly understood. In order to better understand responses of tapeworms to host biles, we used RNA-Seq profiling method to study the transcriptomes of Cysticercus Pisiformis (larvae of Taenia Pisiformis) after host bile acid treatment. A total of 338.32 million high-quality clean reads were obtained by Illumina Hiseq platform. Totally, 62,009 unigenes were assembled, 38,382 of which were successfully annotated to known databases. A total of 9324 unigenes were identified as differentially expressed genes (DEGs), of which 5380 and 3944 genes were up- and down-regulated in the group treated with bile acids, respectively. Gene Ontology analysis revealed that biosynthesis and energy metabolism potential were significantly strengthened after host bile treatment in C. pisiformis. Similarly, KEGG pathway analysis revealed an enrichment of pathways related to lipid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism. Among them, 'AMPK signaling pathway' which is critical in balancing cellular energy, was significantly enriched after bile acids activation. In addition, pathways of 'Fatty acid biosynthesis', 'Fatty acid elongation', 'Starch and sucrose metabolism', and 'glycolysis gluconeogenesis' were also significantly changed after bile acid treatment. qRT-PCR analysis confirmed the differential abundances of some key genes in these pathways. Our data suggest that host bile acids remarkably promote the pathways of energy metabolism of this parasite and regulate the genes involved in balancing lipid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism. These findings provide new insights on the lifecycle of Taenia parasites.

Identification of wild soybean miRNAs and their target genes responsive to aluminum stress.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important regulatory roles in development and stress response in plants. Wild soybean (Glycine soja) has undergone long-term natural selection and may have evolved special mechanisms to survive stress conditions as a result. However, little information about miRNAs especially miRNAs responsive to aluminum (Al) stress is available in wild soybean. RESULTS: Two small RNA libraries and two degradome libraries were constructed from the roots of Al-treated and Al-free G. soja seedlings. For miRNA identification, a total of 7,287,655 and 7,035,914 clean reads in Al-treated and Al-free small RNAs libraries, respectively, were generated, and 97 known miRNAs and 31 novel miRNAs were identified. In addition, 49 p3 or p5 strands of known miRNAs were found. Among all the identified miRNAs, the expressions of 30 miRNAs were responsive to Al stress. Through degradome sequencing, 86 genes were identified as targets of the known miRNAs and five genes were found to be the targets of the novel miRNAs obtained in this study. Gene ontology (GO) annotations of target transcripts indicated that 52 target genes cleaved by conserved miRNA families might play roles in the regulation of transcription. Additionally, some genes, such as those for the auxin response factor (ARF), domain-containing disease resistance protein (NB-ARC), leucine-rich repeat and toll/interleukin-1 receptor-like protein (LRR-TIR) domain protein, cation transporting ATPase, Myb transcription factors, and the no apical meristem (NAM) protein, that are known to be responsive to stress, were found to be cleaved under Al stress conditions. CONCLUSIONS: A number of miRNAs and their targets were detected in wild soybean. Some of them that were responsive to biotic and abiotic stresses were regulated by Al stress. These findings provide valuable information to understand the function of miRNAs in Al tolerance.