Effect of Mulberry Leaf Powder Supplement on Growth,Slaughter Performance and Meat Quality of Wanxi White Goose

The effect of mulberry leaf powder on growth,slaughter performance and meat quality of Wanxi white goose was investigated by adding different proportions of mulberry leaf powder in the basal goose diet. After 125-day-old Wanxi white geese were fed with diets supplemented with 5%,8% and 11% mulberry leaf powder for consecutive 50 d,the average daily feed intake increased slightly,while the average daily weight gain decreased extremely（ P 〈 0. 01）,and the ratio of feed to gain increased significantly（ P 〈 0. 01） compared to control. The slaughter rate,semi-eviscerated rate and eviscerated rate of Wanxi white goose in experimental groups Ⅱ,Ⅲ and Ⅳ were higher than those in control group,and the slaughter rate was significantly higher than that in control group（ P 〈 0. 05）. Adding mulberry leaf powder in diet significantly reduced the abdominal fat rate of Wanxi white goose（ P 〈 0. 01）,but had no significant impact on pectoral muscle rate and limb muscle rate（ P 〉 0. 05）. Compared to control group,the contents of dry matter,fat,crude protein,saturated fatty acid and unsaturated fatty acid of Wanxi white geese in experimental groups decreased significantly（ P 〈 0. 05）,and the content of total amino acids also decreased slightly. The inosinic acid content in muscle of Wanxi white goose in groups Ⅱ and Ⅳ were slightly higher than that in control group. The thiamine content of Wanxi white goose in group Ⅳ was 52. 00%higher than that in control group（ P 〈 0. 05）. These results preliminarily showed that adding appropriate amount of mulberry leaf powder in diet could significantly improve the slaughter performance of Wanxi white goose,and improve the flavor of meat. But high amount of mulberry leaf powder should be avoided to ensure the palatability of diet.

Genome-wide analysis of microRNAs induced and regulated by colchicine in mulberry

A variety of plants were colchicine treated to double their chromosome number.Chromosomes are genetic carriers that determine the individual traits of organisms.The doubling of chromosomes will lead to modifications in plant morphology,physiology and genetics.To determine the response of mulberry trees induced by colchicine,using mulberry variety Yu-711 leaves as research materials,two small RNA libraries(control and experimental groups)were constructed.It was found that 45 known miRNA genes and 78 predicted novel miRNA genes in the sequence results.A comparison of data between the control group and the experimental group revealed 37 differentially expressed miRNA genes,19 genes of which were up-regulated and 18 genes of which were down-regulated.Eight miRNAs were selected from 37 differentially expressed miRNA genes.These miRNAs were verified by quantitative real-time PCR,and the expression levels of these miRNAs were found to be consistent with those obtained by sequencing,which proved the accuracy of sequencing results.The PsRNATarget software was used to predict the target genes of 8 miRNAs.The Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encycopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis were used to collect the functions of target genes and confirm that target genes are mainly involved in biological processes,cell components and molecular functions.novel-77 miRNA was selected from 37 differentially expressed miRNAs.What will serve as a fundamental data in understanding mulberry miRNAs function in molecular biology research and further provides the molecular mechanism of mulberry gene regulation as induced by colchicine is that the prediction of novel_77 precursor sequence and the target gene(XM_010104258.2),as well as the secondary structure analysis.

Response of MaHMA2 gene expression and stress tolerance to zinc stress in mulberry(Morus alba L.)

HMA2(heavy metal ATPase 2)plays a crucial role in extracellular and intracellular Zn^(2+)transport across biomembranes,maintaining ion homeostasis,and playing an important role in the normal physiological metabolism,growth,and development of plants.In our study,a novel HMA2 gene,named MaHMA2,was isolated and cloned from white mulberry(Morus alba L.).The gene sequence obtained was 1,342 bp long,with an open reading frame of 1,194 bp,encoding a protein of 397 amino acids,with a predicted molecular mass of 42.852 kD and an isoelectric point of 7.53.This protein belonged to the PIB-type ATPase transport protein family.We analyzed the expression of the MaHMA2 gene by quantitative real-time PCR.The results showed that the level of MaHMA2 gene expression decreased to a Zn concentration of 800 mg/kg.Malondialdehyde and proline levels increased and responded to increasing Zn when the MaHMA2 gene was silenced,whereas the activities of peroxidase and superoxide dismutase tended to increase in response to increasing Zn^(2+)ion stress concentrations but were lower in the gene-silenced plants.These findings suggested that the MaHMA2 gene played an active role in the tolerance response of mulberry to Zn stress.

Identifying disease feature genes based on cellular localized gene functional modules and regulation networks

Identifying disease-relevant genes and functional modules, based on gene expression pro- files and gene functional knowledge, is of high im- portance for studying disease mechanisms and sub- typing disease phenotypes. Using gene categories of biological process and cellular component in Gene Ontology, we propose an approach to selecting func- tional modules enriched with differentially expressed genes, and identifying the feature functional modules of high disease discriminating abilities. Using the differentially expressed genes in each feature module as the feature genes, we reveal the relevance of the modules to the studied diseases. Using three data- sets for prostate cancer, gastric cancer, and leukemia, we have demonstrated that the proposed modular approach is of high power in identifying functionally integrated feature gene subsets that are highly rele- vant to the disease mechanisms. Our analysis has also shown that the critical disease-relevant genes might be better recognized from the gene regulation network, which is constructed using the characterized functional modules, giving important clues to the concerted mechanisms of the modules responding to complex disease states. In addition, the proposed approach to selecting the disease-relevant genes byjointly considering the gene functional knowledge suggests a new way for precisely classifying disease samples with clear biological interpretations, which is critical for the clinical diagnosis and the elucidation of the pathogenic basis of complex diseases.