Publications by authors named "Bitao Qiu"

Article Synopsis
  • Ant colonies are complex groups with different types of ants, like queens and workers, that develop in unique ways.
  • A study looked at two types of ants and found that the genes controlling their different roles are really important during their growth stages.
  • The research shows that certain genes help determine if an ant will be a queen or a worker, and the hormones in their bodies help guide this process.
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Following the publication of our paper (Zhang et al., 2020), it has come to our attention that we erroneously listed two funding sources unrelated to this study in the "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS" section. Hereby, we wish to update the "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS" section as a correction.

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Caste differentiation happens early in development to produce gynes as future colony germlines and workers as present colony soma. However, gynes need insemination to become functional queens, a transition that initiates reproductive role differentiation relative to unmated gynes. Here, we analyze the anatomy and transcriptomes of brains during this differentiation process within the reproductive caste of Insemination terminated brain growth, whereas unmated control gynes continued to increase brain volume.

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Hypobaric hypoxia (HH) exposure can cause serious brain injury as well as life-threatening cerebral edema in severe cases. Previous studies on the mechanisms of HH-induced brain injury have been conducted primarily using non-primate animal models that are genetically distant to humans, thus hindering the development of disease treatment. Here, we report that cynomolgus monkeys ( ) exposed to acute HH developed human-like HH syndrome involving severe brain injury and abnormal behavior.

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Specialized queens and life-time unmated workers evolved once in the common ancestor of all ants, but whether caste development across ants continues to be at least partly regulated by a single core set of genes remains obscure. We analysed brain transcriptomes from five ant species (three subfamilies) and reconstructed the origins of genes with caste-biased expression. Ancient genes predating the Neoptera were more likely to regulate gyne (virgin queen) phenotypes, while the caste differentiation roles of younger, ant-lineage-specific genes varied.

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Social insect societies are long-standing models for understanding social behaviour and evolution. Unlike other advanced biological societies (such as the multicellular body), the component parts of social insect societies can be easily deconstructed and manipulated. Recent methodological and theoretical innovations have exploited this trait to address an expanded range of biological questions.

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Snakes have numerous features distinctive from other tetrapods and a rich history of genome evolution that is still obscure. Here, we report the high-quality genome of the five-pacer viper, Deinagkistrodon acutus, and comparative analyses with other representative snake and lizard genomes. We map the evolutionary trajectories of transposable elements (TEs), developmental genes and sex chromosomes onto the snake phylogeny.

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Introduction: Quercetin is widely distributed in plants and has been reported to have effects of anti-inflammation and anti-thrombosis. In this study, we evaluated the protective effect of quercetin on LPS-induced experimental DIC in rabbits, and tried to clarify its mechanism against DIC.

Materials And Methods: LPS-induced DIC model in rabbits was established through continuous infusion of 100 ug · kg(-1) · h(-1) LPS for a period of 6h.

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Hyperacute rejection (HAR) is a main barrier in xenotransplantation, which is mediated by the combination of natural antibody to the xenograft and complement activation. Current therapies have focus on the inhibition of complement by development of complement inhibitor and transgenic animal organ. Here, we investigated the effects of rFII, a recombinant fibrinogenase from Agkistrodon acutus venom, on complement and HAR.

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The incidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), which leads to multiple organ dysfunction and high mortality, has remained constant in recent years. At present, treatments of DIC have focused on preventing cytokine induction, inhibiting coagulation processes and promoting fibrinolysis. Recent clinical trials have supported the use of antithrombin and activated protein C supplementation in DIC.

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