CHARACTERIZATION OF SIGNAL CONDUCTIONALONG DEMYELINATED AXONS BY ACTION-POTENTIAL-ENCODED SECOND HARMONICGENERATION

Action-potential encoded optical second harmonic generation(SHG)has been recently proposedfor use in det ecting the axonal damage in patients with demnyelinat ing diseases.In this study,thecharact erization of signal conduction along axons of two different levels of denyelination wasstudied via a modified Hodgkin Huxley model,because some types of demyelinating disease,i.e.primary progressive and secondary progesive multiple scleross,are dificult to be distinguishedby magnetic resonance imaging(MRI),we focused on the diferences in signal conduction between two diferent demyelinated axons,such as the first-level demyelination and the second.level demyelination.The spatio-temporal distribution of action potentials along denyelinatedaxons and conduction properties including the refractory period and frequency encoding in theset wo patterns were investigated.The results showed that denyelination could induce the decreaseboth in the amplitude of action potentials and the ability of frequency coding,Furthermore,t hesignal conduction velocity in the second-level dernyelination was about 21%slower than that inthe first-level demyelination.The refractory period in the second-level demyelination was about32%longer t han the first-level.Thus,detecting the signal conduction in demnyelinat ed axons byaction-potential encoded optical SHG could greatly improve the assessment of demyelinatingdisorders to classify the patients.This technique also offers a potential fast and noninvasiveoptical approach for monitoring membrane potential.

GenOrigin: A comprehensive protein-coding gene origination database on the evolutionary timescale of life

The origination of new genes contributes to the biological diversity of life. New genes may quickly build their network, exert important functions, and generate novel phenotypes. Dating gene age and inferring the origination mechanisms of new genes, like primate-specific genes, is the basis for the functional study of the genes. However, no comprehensive resource of gene age estimates across species is available. Here,we systematically date the age of 9,102,113 protein-coding genes from 565 species in the Ensembl and Ensembl Genomes databases, including 82 bacteria, 57 protists, 134 fungi, 58 plants, 56 metazoa, and 178 vertebrates, using a protein-family-based pipeline with Wagner parsimony algorithm. We also collect gene age estimate data from other studies and uniformly distribute the gene age estimates to time ranges in a million years for comparison across studies. All the data are cataloged into Gen Origin(http://genorigin.chenzxlab.cn/), a user-friendly new database of gene age estimates, where users can browse gene age estimates by species, age, and gene ontology. In Gen Origin, the information such as gene age estimates,annotation, gene ontology, ortholog, and paralog, as well as detailed gene presence/absence views for gene age inference based on the species tree with evolutionary timescale, is provided to researchers for exploring gene functions.