Publications by authors named "Cencen Li"

HnRNPK, a prominent member of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) family, is widely expressed in mammalian tissues and plays a crucial role in animal development. Despite its well-established functions, limited information is available regarding its role in skeletal muscle development and regeneration. To elucidate the functional role of hnRNPK in skeletal muscle, we utilized ( pKO) mice as a model, isolated primary mouse skeletal muscle satellite cells (MuSCs), and induced hnRNPK knockout using 4-OTH.

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The obesity epidemic represents a critical public health issue worldwide, as it is a vital risk factor for many diseases, including type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease. Obesity is a complex disease involving excessive fat accumulation. Proper adipose tissue accumulation and function are highly transcriptional and regulated by many genes.

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Integrin proteins are important receptors connecting the intracellular skeleton of satellite cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM), playing an important role in the process of skeletal muscle development. In this research, the function of ITGβ6 in regulating the differentiation of satellite cells was studied. Transcriptome and proteome analysis indicated that is a key node connecting ECM-related proteins to the cytoskeleton, and it is necessary for the integrity of the membrane structure and stability of the cytoskeletal system, which are essential for satellite cell adhesion.

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HnRNPK is a heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) that has been firmly implicated in transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. However, the molecular mechanisms by which hnRNPK orchestrates transcriptional or post-transcriptional regulation are not well understood due to early embryonic lethality in homozygous knockout mice, especially in a tissue-specific context. Strikingly, in this study, we demonstrated that hnRNPK is strongly expressed in the mouse testis and mainly localizes to the nucleus in spermatogonia, spermatocytes, and round spermatids, suggesting an important role for hnRNPK in spermatogenesis.

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Due to serious adverse effects, many of the approved anti-obesity medicines have been withdrawn, and the selection of safer natural ingredients is of great interest. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is one of the major green tea catechins, and has been demonstrated to possess an anti-obesity function by regulating both white and brown adipose tissue activity. However, there are currently no publicly available studies describing the effects of EGCG on the two distinct adipose tissue transcriptomes.

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Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is specialized for energy expenditure, thus a better understanding of the regulators influencing BAT development could provide novel strategies to defense obesity. Many protein-coding genes, miRNAs, and lncRNAs have been investigated in BAT development, however, the expression patterns and functions of circRNA in brown adipogenesis have not been reported yet. This study determined the circRNA expression profiles across brown adipogenesis (proliferation, early differentiated, and fully differentiated stages) by RNA-seq.

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Article Synopsis
  • Obesity is a major global health issue, and circRNAs (circular RNAs) may play a crucial role in regulating the processes related to fat cell development, yet have been under-researched in white adipose tissue.* -
  • This study identified 3,771 circRNAs across different stages of fat cell formation, finding that nearly 10% of adipocyte-expressed genes also produce circRNAs, with many showing a high correlation in their expression levels.* -
  • The research highlighted 41 differentially expressed circRNAs during adipogenesis, suggesting they could influence their parent genes' function and may act as miRNA sponges, providing new insights into fat cell regulation.*
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Article Synopsis
  • * The study focuses on how the juvenile hormone (JH) affects brain development in domesticated silkworms, linking changes in the larval brain's morphology and behavior to their domestication process.
  • * Using CRISPR/Cas9 techniques, researchers found that knocking out the JH receptor led to developmental issues in the brain and changes in signaling pathways, highlighting the role of biochemical pathways in larval brain evolution and domestication in silkworms.
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Sperm cells are of unique elongated structure and function, the development of which is tightly regulated by the existing proteins and the posttranslational modifications (PTM) of these proteins. Based on the phylogenetic relationships of various swine breeds, Yorkshire boar is believed to be distinctly different from Duroc boar. The comprehensive differential proteomics and phosphoproteomics profilings were performed on spermatozoa from both Yorkshire and Duroc boars.

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G-quadruplex (G4) structures have been predicted in the genomes of many organisms and proven to play regulatory roles in diverse cellular activities. However, there is little information on the evolutionary history and distribution characteristics of G4s. Here, whole-genome characteristics of potential G4s were studied in 37 evolutionarily representative species.

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Circular RNA (circRNA) is a novel class of non-coding RNA generated by pre-mRNA back splicing, which is characterized by a closed-loop structure. Although circRNAs were firstly reported decades ago, their regulatory roles have not been discovered until recently. In this review, we discussed the putative biogenesis pathways and regulatory functions of circRNAs.

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Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNPK), a ubiquitously occurring RNA-binding protein (RBP), can interact with numerous nucleic acids and various proteins and is involved in a number of cellular functions including transcription, translation, splicing, chromatin remodelling, etc. Through its abundant biological functions, hnRNPK has been implicated in cellular events including proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, DNA damage repair and the stress and immune responses. Thus, it is critical to understand the mechanism of hnRNPK regulation and its downstream effects on cancer and other diseases.

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Like other domesticates, the efficient utilization of nitrogen resources is also important for the only fully domesticated insect, the silkworm. Deciphering the way in which artificial selection acts on the silkworm genome to improve the utilization of nitrogen resources and to advance human-favored domestication traits, will provide clues from a unique insect model for understanding the general rules of Darwin's evolutionary theory on domestication. Storage proteins (SPs), which belong to a hemocyanin superfamily, basically serve as a source of amino acids and nitrogen during metamorphosis and reproduction in insects.

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The emerging data indicates that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) epresent more than the "junk sequences" of the genome. Both miRNAs and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in fundamental biological processes, and their deregulation may lead to oncogenesis and other diseases. As an important RNA-binding protein (RBP), heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNPK) is known to regulate gene expression through the RNA-binding domain involved in various pathways, such as transcription, splicing, and translation.

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Aim: We aimed to identify previously unreported long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) in the porcine liver, an important metabolic tissue, and further illustrate the epigenomic landscapes and the evolution of lincRNAs.

Materials & Methods: We used porcine omics data and comprehensively analyzed and identified lincRNAs and their methylation, expression and evolutionary patterns during pig domestication.

Results: LincRNAs exhibit highly methylated promoter and downstream regions, as well as lower expression levels and higher tissue specificity than protein-coding genes.

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Alternative splicing (AS) and fusion transcripts produce a vast expansion of transcriptomes and proteomes diversity. However, the reliability of these events and the extend of epigenetic mechanisms have not been adequately addressed due to its limitation of uncertainties about the complete structure of mRNA. Here we combined single-molecule real-time sequencing, Illumina RNA-seq and DNA methylation data to characterize the landscapes of DNA methylation on AS, fusion isoforms formation and lncRNA feature and further to unveil the transcriptome complexity of pig.

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Aim: Integrated analysis of methylome and transcriptome may help understand the molecular basis of the different breeds with different traits of commercial interest.

Materials & Methods: We obtained the first genome-wide methylome with single-base resolution, miRNAome and transcriptome from three swine breeds.

Results: We displayed the landscape of the three omics in the whole-genome level.

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Myoblast differentiation is a highly complex process that is regulated by proteins as well as by non-coding RNAs. Circular RNAs have been identified as an emerging new class of non-coding RNA in the modulation of skeletal muscle development, whereas their expression profiles and functional regulation in myoblast differentiation remain unknown. In the present study, we performed deep RNA-sequencing of C2C12 myoblasts during cell differentiation and uncovered 37,751 unique circular RNAs derived from 6943 hosting genes.

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Intramuscular fat (IMF) content is an important trait that can affect pork quality. Previous studies have identified many genes that can regulate IMF. Long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are emerging as key regulators in various biological processes.

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Identification of genomic signatures that help reveal mechanisms underlying desirable traits in domesticated pigs is of significant biological, agricultural and medical importance. To identify the genomic footprints left by selection during domestication of the Enshi black pig, a typical native and meat-lard breed in China, we generated about 72-fold coverage of the pig genome using pools of genomic DNA representing three different populations of Enshi black pigs from three different locations. Combining this data with the available whole genomes of 13 Chinese wild boars, we identified 417 protein-coding genes embedded in the selected regions of Enshi black pigs.

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Background: The domestic pig Sus scrofa domesticus originated from the wild boar S. scrofa about 10,000 years ago. During domestication, drastic morphological, physiological, and behavioral changes developed between domestic pigs and wild boars through artificial and natural selection.

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