Novel SNPs in IL-17F and IL-17A genes associated with somatic cell count in Chinese Holstein and Inner-Mongolia Sanhe cattle

Background： Bovine mastitis is the most common and costly disease of lactating cattle worldwide. Apart from milk somatic cell count（SCC） and somatic cell score（SCS）, serum cytokines such as interleukin-17（IL-17） and interleukin-4（IL-4） may also be potential indicators for bovine mastitis. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms（SNPs） in bovine IL-17 F and IL-17 A genes on SCC, SCS and serum cytokines in Chinese Holstein and Inner-Mongolia Sanhe cattle, and to compare the m RNA expression variations of the cows with different genotypes.Results： A total of 464 lactating cows（337 Holstein and 127 Inner-Mongolia Sanhe cattle） were screened for SNPs identification and the data were analyzed using fixed effects of herd, parity, season and year of calving by general linear model procedure. The results revealed that SNP g.24392436 C ＆gt; T in IL-17 F and SNP g.24345410 A ＆gt; G in IL-17 A showed significant effects on SCC and IL-4 in Holstein（n = 337） and on IL-17 and IL-4 in Sanhe cattle（n = 127）. The homozygous GG genotype of SNP g.24345410 A ＆gt; G had significantly higher m RNA expression compared with the heterozygous AG genotype.Conclusions： The results indicate that IL-17 F and IL-17 A could be powerful candidate genes of mastitis resistance and the significant SNPs might be useful genetic markers against mastitis in both dairy and dual purpose cattle.

Effects of Hypoxia Stress and Different Level of Mn2+ on Antioxidant Enzyme of Tomato Seedlings

The changes of antioxidant enzyme activities and related genes expression of tomato seedlings were evaluated under hypoxia stress with different levels of Mn2+. Activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxide (APX), glutathione reductase (GR), catalase (CAT), the contents of H2O2, ascorbic (AsA) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were studied to investigate how active oxygen damaged the membrane lipid under hypoxia stress. With 10-200 μmol?L-1 Mn2+, the activities of SOD, POD, APX, GR and the contents of H2O2, AsA, MDA of leaves and roots increased significantly, which indicated that low Mn2+ could eliminate the active oxygen and protect the membrane lipid from hurt. But the activities of catalase (CAT) decreased evidently in the root. When the concentration of Mn2+ reached 400-600 μmol?L-1 under hypoxia stress, the activities of SOD, POD, APX, GR and ASA content decreased remarkably. However, the contents of H2O2 and MDA increased contrarily. A series of resistance genes level achieved peak value with 10 μmol?L-1 Mn2+. The expression level of SOD, CAT, APX, POD, GR were 6.28, 2.19, 5.66, 5.21 and 6.79 times compared to control respectively. These results illustrated appropriate amount of Mn2+ could reduce the damage of active oxygen under hypoxia stress, but reversely, high level of Mn2+ just aggravated the already serious damage to the tomato seedlings.

Nanoencapsulation of arsenate with nanoscale zero-valent iron(nZVI):A 3D perspective

The principal forces driving the efficient enrichment and encapsulation of arsenic(As) into nanoscale zero-valent iron(nZVI) are the disordered arrangement of the atoms and the gradient chemical potentials within the core-shell interface. The chemical compositions and the fine structure of nZVI are characterized with a combination of spherical aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy(Cs-STEM), X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy(XEDS), electron energy loss spectroscopy(EELS), and high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(HR-XPS). Atomically resolved EELS at the oxygen K-edge unfolds that the Fe species in nZVI are well stratified from Fe(Ⅲ) oxides in the outermost periphery to a mixed Fe(Ⅲ)/Fe(Ⅱ) interlayer, then Fe(Ⅱ) oxide and the pure Fe(0) phase. Reactions between As(Ⅴ)and nZVI suggest that a well-structured local redox gradient exists within the shell layer, which serves as a thermodynamically favorable conduit for electron transfer from the iron core to the surface-bound As(Ⅴ). HR-XPS with ion sputtering shows that arsenic species shift from As(Ⅴ), As(Ⅲ)/As(Ⅴ) to As(Ⅴ)/As(Ⅲ)/As(0) from the iron oxide shell–water interface to the Fe(0) core. Results reinforce previous work on the efficacy of nZVI for removing and remediating arsenic while the analytical TEM methods are also applicable to the study of environmental interfaces and surface chemistry.