Publications by authors named "Beijuan Hu"

Article Synopsis
  • Hibernation helps animals conserve energy by lowering their metabolic rate and aids survival in tough conditions, but the details of energy adaptation in hibernating ectotherms are still debated.
  • The study found decreased lipid levels and metabolism-related gene expression during hibernation, leading to reduced fat cell sizes and lipid content in the liver, along with lower serum lipid levels and increased glucose.
  • Transcriptomic and lipidomic analyses showed a suppression of lipid metabolism pathways and genes tied to fat breakdown (lipolysis) during hibernation, enhancing our understanding of how these animals adapt their energy use for survival.
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Pearls are deeply cherished for their rich color and gorgeous luster, and their quality directly affects their value. Currently, the evaluation of pearl quality is mainly based on four aspects: color, shape, size and smoothness. The quality of pearls is influenced by a variety of factors, categorized into internal factors, such as the structural composition of the nacreous layer and genetic factors of the mussels, and external factors, including the aquaculture environment.

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Eutrophication pollution has become an important ecological problem in China. Biological treatment is a common means to repair eutrophication pollution. Therefore, based on the biological manipulation technology, we put forward a fishing scheme for the Xiaoxiangshan and Shizishan reservoirs in Dongxiang District, which have been in a serious eutrophication pollution level for a long time, that is, to improve the quality and control water by operating fish, mussel, algae, and bacteria.

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Ethylhexyl salicylate (EHS) is an organic UV filter commonly used in sunscreens to protect people from the UV radiation. The widespread use of EHS will enter the aquatic environment along with human activities. EHS readily accumulates in adipose tissue as a lipophilic compound, but its toxic effects on lipid metabolism and cardiovascular system of aquatic organisms have not been studied.

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Background: The gut microbiota of fish confers various effects on the host, including health, nutrition, metabolism, feeding behaviour, and immune response. Environment significantly impacts the community structure of fish gut microbiota. However, there is a lack of comprehensive research on the gut microbiota of bighead carp in culture systems.

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The Betta fish displays a remarkable variety of phenotypes selected during domestication. However, the genetic basis underlying these traits remains largely unexplored. Here, we report a high-quality genome assembly and resequencing of 727 individuals representing diverse morphotypes of the Betta fish.

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The freshwater mussel is a cultured bivalve in China, and the quality of the pearls produced is affected by the type of gonads. However, because of the lack of a published genome and the complexity of sex determination, research on sex reversal and development of this species is limited. In this study, Illumina RNA-seq and PacBio Isoform Sequencing (Iso-Seq) were combined to analyze the gonads of .

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Article Synopsis
  • - Algal biotechnology, combined with nitrogen-fixing organisms, is emerging as a valuable agricultural tool for enhancing crop growth.
  • - The research highlights the benefits of using nitrogen-fixing algae, particularly in improving the yield and quality metrics of hawthorn, such as sugar and polyunsaturated fatty acid content.
  • - The paper provides a comparison of traditional methods versus algal biotechnologies, showcasing their potential advantages in agricultural practices.
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  • The study explored how different aquaculture systems—rice-fish culture (RFC) and intensive pond culture (IPC)—affect the microbiomes of juvenile Chinese softshell turtles.
  • RFC showed higher microbial diversity and functional redundancy compared to IPC, with the gut microbiome being most influenced by the aquaculture system.
  • Key changes in gut metabolites were identified, linking specific microbes to important biological processes, and highlighting the significant effects of these systems on the turtles' health and body shape.
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Pigment cell composition, pigment content, tyrosinase content and activity analysis were investigated on three kinds of loaches Misgurnus anguillicaudatus: big blackspot loaches (BBL), small blackspot loaches (SBL) and non-blackspot loaches (NBL), from Poyang Lake. Results showed that there were three types of skin pigment cells, namely melanophores, xanthophores and iridophores. Melanophores in dorsum were more than those in abdomen.

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To explore the differences in the nutritional quality of the muscles of bighead carp from different environments and aquaculture systems, we investigated three types of water bodies typically used for aquaculture: A common culture pond (NC), a natural lake (PY), and a cold water reservoir (XHK). Parameters affecting quality were evaluated, including muscle microstructure, fatty acid profiles, amino acid profiles, and volatile compounds. Fish from the XHK reservoir had the smallest muscle fiber diameter and the highest muscle fiber density (25.

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Background: Sub-lakes are important for the maintenance of the ecosystem integrity of Lake Poyang, and zooplankton play an important role in its substance and energy flow.

Methods: A seasonal investigation of zooplankton was conducted in spring (April), summer (July), autumn (October) and winter (January of the following year) from 2012 to 2016 in a sub-lake of Lake Poyang. The aim of the present study was to understand the seasonal dynamics and interannual variation of zooplankton communities and their relationship to environmental factors.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Research using iTRAQ revealed that methane production decreases and protein folding/degradation increases at high (71°C) and low (4°C) temperatures.
  • * Key proteins linked to environmental processing and cell structure may be crucial for methane formation and temperature adaptation, with predictive analysis indicating 32 gene clusters involved in these responses.
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To investigate the regulation of genes of , 1,121-bp and 1,270-bp regions of the and promoters were cloned and analyzed, respectively. The two promoters shared partially conserved features and possessed distinct characteristics such as the number or position of metal response elements (MREs). Further analysis of the and promoters was performed by the reporter assay using the luciferase gene.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cyclophilin D (HsCypD) was isolated from the freshwater pearl mussel, identified with a full-length cDNA of 2,671 bp that encodes a 367-amino-acid protein.
  • HsCypD is characterized as a hydrophilic intracellular protein with 10 phosphorylation sites, four tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domains, and lacks a signal peptide.
  • Phylogenetic analysis suggests a common ancestry for CypD across species, with HsCypD most closely related to that from the sea snail Lottia gigantea, and its mRNA expression shows tissue-specific patterns peaking in the intestines.
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Topmouth culter (C. alburnus) is an important commercial fish in China. We compared the nucleotide variations in the mtDNA genomes among three geographical groups of Culter alburnus: Liangzi Lake, Hubei Province (referred to as LZH); Taihu Lake, Jiangsu Province (TH); and Poyang Lake, Jiangxi Province (PYH).

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Two metallothionein genes (HsMT1 and HsMT2) were first identified and described from Hyriopsis schlegelii. The open reading frame of HsMT1 and HsMT2 were 216 and 222 bp, encoding a protein of 71 and 73 amino acid residues. The deduced amino acid sequences showed they contained parts of typical MT characteristics, apart from HsMT2 lacked Cys-Cys motifs.

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