TIANXIANG ZHANG^1,#, MEISHAN ZHANG^1,#, MINGHUI SHI^1,#, WEIJIANG JIN^1,#, SHUMIAO ZHANG^2,#, MENGYUAN FAN³, YIMENG LI¹, YUPING MENG², XUELIN TIAN⁴, SHUQIANG LIU^1,*, DEFU HU^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 281-306, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.010277

Abstract Male muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus L.) secrete musk from their scent glands during musk secretion season. Musk plays an important role as a communication pheromone during the breeding season. In this study, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was used to analyze the main components of musk. The GC–MS results after methyl esterification showed that 71.55% of the musk is composed of fatty acids. The other components of muskrat musk include cholesterol (9.31%) and other organics. Transcriptome comparison between musk secretion and non-secretion seasons showed significant changes in the scent glands for 53 genes involved in fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis and metabolism… More >

MD. ROBYUL ISLAM^1,4, TAHIA NAZNIN², DIPALI RANI GUPTA³, MD. ASHRAFUL HAQUE¹, MIRZA HASANUZZAMAN^3,*, MD. MOTIAR ROHMAN^4,*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.4, pp. 713-730, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.011812

Abstract The current study investigated the comparative oxidative damage in two maize seedlings induced by saline, drought, and combined stress and the ameliorative role of two different doses (20 and 80 µM) of 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) against the above-mentioned stresses. Hydroponically grown 10-day-old maize (Zea mays, var. BARI Hybrid Maize-7 (BHM-7) and BARI Hybrid Maize-9 (BHM-9)) seedlings were exposed to 12 dS/m of saline solution, 200 mM mannitol-induced drought stress alone and their combined stress for 7 days. Result revealed that individual stresses retard the plant growth to some degrees; however, their combined stress has more detrimental effects, which might be… More >

MEI LAN^#, JINGFENG HU^#, HONGLI YANG, LIQIN ZHANG, XUEZHONG XU, JIANGMING HE^*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.4, pp. 751-767, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.012954

Abstract Clubroot of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis), caused by the obligate parasite Plasmodiophora brassicae, accounts for serious yield losses. The aim of our study was to explore the phytohormone levels and metabolome changes in the roots of resistant and susceptible B. rapa genotypes at a late stage of infection, i.e., 28 days post-infection. Both genotypes showed decreased auxin levels after P. brassicae infection except for indole-3-acetic acid. Overall, the susceptible genotype had higher auxin and cytokinin levels after infection, with the exception of trans-zeatin and 3- indolebutyric acid as compared to the resistant genotype. Jasmonic acid levels declined… More >

REN FANG^#, WEIXIONG HUANG^#, JINYAN YAO, XING LONG, JI ZHANG, SHUANGYUN ZHOU, BIAO DENG, WENZHONG TANG, ZHENYU AN^*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.4, pp. 737-750, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.012933

Abstract Annona squamosa is a multipurpose fruit tree employed in nutritional, medicinal, and industrial fields. Its fruit is significantly enriched in sugars, making it an excellent species to study sugar accumulation in fruit. However, the scarcity of genomic resources hinders genetic studies in this species. This study aimed at generating large-scale genomic resources in A. squamosa and deciphering the molecular basis of its high sugar content. Herein, we sequenced and characterized the full-length transcriptome of A. squamosa fruit using PacBio Iso-seq. In addition, we analyzed the changes in sugar content over five fruit growth and ripening stages, and we applied RNA-sequencing… More >

LINNA TAN^1,2, YUYONG TAN^1,2, DELIANG LIU^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.4, pp. 535-543, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.09171

Abstract ULK1 (unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase 1), a mammalian serine/threonine kinase, is a key component of autophagy initiation complex and helps to induce all types of autophagy. Canonical autophagy is a process in which, through the interactions of a series of autophagy-related proteins, damaged organelles or misfolded proteins are engulfed by autophagosomes and then merged with lysosomes to be degraded. Thus, canonical autophagy is an important constituent part of the cellular “quality control.” Besides, accumulating evidence indicates that ULK1 exerts autophagy-independent effects in a cell-specific manner. For example, ULK1 facilitates neurite elongation through the regulation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER)–Golgi trafficking… More >

Lin Feng¹, Ziming Gong^1,*, Guofeng Liu², Yanli Liu¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.90, No.1, pp. 65-73, 2021, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2020.012303

Abstract Tea (Camellia sinensis [L.] O. Kuntze.) is an important cash crop, which mainly uses tender shoots and young leaves for manufacturing. Due to the marketing characteristic that earlier made tea has higher price, the time of the breaking of winter dormancy buds in spring is extremely important in tea industry. Strigolactones are a group of carotenoids-derived metabolites which regulates bud outgrowth, shoot branching, tiller angle and environmental stress responses. The role of strigolactones in tea plant was briefly summarized in the current review, with an emphasis of the association of strigolactones on bud ecodormancy and shoot branching. The involvement of… More >

Shengwen Guo, Yuanyuan Tong, Liting Bai, Peiyao Zhang, Xin Duan^*, Jinping Liu^*

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.15, No.5, pp. 275-285, 2020, DOI:10.32604/CHD.2020.011894

Abstract Objective: Serum ferritin has been identified as a prognostic marker in patients with a variety of diseases. In the present study we aim to determine the prevalence of risk factors and outcomes for hyperferritinemia in children undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass for congenital heart defects. Methods: The serum ferritin levels of 457 children between the ages of twentyeight days and three years undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery between June 1, 2017 and June 1, 2018 were analyzed. The prevalence of early postoperative hyperferritinemia was investigated; hyperferritinemia was defined as a ferritin level ≥250 ng/ml. Multivariable regression models including candidate risk… More >

XINGXING ZHU^1,2, TIANFENG HUA^1,2, MINGFEI WU³, JIATIAN WU^1,2, JIANCHAO HONG^1,2, MIN YANG^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.3, pp. 431-441, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.010323

Abstract Post-resuscitation myocardial dysfunction (PRMD) is the most severe myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI) and is characterized by difficult treatment and poor prognosis. Research has shown the protective effects of the rational use of ivabradine (IVA) against PRMD; however, the molecular mechanisms of IVA remain unknown. In this study, an ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) model was established using hypoxic chambers. The results demonstrated that pretreatment with IVA reduced IRI-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis. IVA attenuated mitochondrial damage, eliminated excess reactive oxygen species (ROS), suppressed IRI-induced ATP and NAD⁺ , and increased the AMP/ATP ratio. We further found that IVA increased the mRNA levels of… More >

HAZAEL RAMIRO CEJA-GÁLVEZ¹, ERANDIS DHENI TORRES-SÁNCHEZ¹, JUAN HERIBERTO TORRES-JASSO², ARTURO VILLALOBOS ORNELAS¹, JOEL SALAZAR-FLORES^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.3, pp. 363-370, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.09147

Abstract Paraoxonase-1 (PON1) is an important enzyme in various pathologies such as pesticide poisoning, diabetes, atherosclerosis, neuronal disorders, and cancer, due to its multifunctional activity since it acts on different metabolites. However, one of its main functions is the hydrolysis of organophosphate (OP) compounds from pesticides that cause fatal poisoning at the level of the central nervous system (CNS). The objective of this review was to investigate whether the structure, genetics, and function of PON1 affect the metabolism of organophosphate pesticides or other abnormalities. Information was selected from articles in the database PubMed–NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/) with a publication date between 2011… More >

Cansu Altuntaş¹, Rabiye Terzi^1,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.89, No.3, pp. 487-495, 2020, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2020.08919

Abstract The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an organelle in the cell where proteins are created and folded. Folding is a very elaborate process that is often interrupted by various biotic and abiotic stresses, leading to the formation of unfolded and misfolded proteins called ER stress. Dithiothreitol (DTT)-induced unfolded protein response (UPR) in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) has been recently reported in plants. Also, previous studies demonstrated that treatment with polyethylene glycol (PEG₆₀₀₀) could stimulate water deficit in crops. However, further researches should be conducted to elucidate the molecular mechanism of ER stress response and the relationship between water deficiency and ER. In… More >