Maternal Genetic Diversity Analysis of Guanling Cattle by Mitochondrial Genome Sequencing.

Owing to the unique geography and the isolated environment, Guanling cattle, which is one of five local cattle breeds in Guizhou, China, has developed unique characteristics. The number of pure Guanling cattle decreased markedly because of the hybridization with foreign breeds. In the present study, the maternal genetic diversity of 58 Guanling bulls was assessed by whole mitochondrial genome sequencing.

Genetic variation analysis of Guanling cattle based on whole-genome resequencing.

Objective: The objective of this study was to unravel the genetic traits of Guanling cattle, pinpoint genes advantageous for muscle growth, and lay a foundation for the preservation of genetic diversity and further analysis of regulation mechanism of important economic traits in local cattle breed.

Methods: In this study, we sequenced the whole genome of 3 Guanling cattle in Guizhou province using the Illumina HiSeq cBo sequencing platform. And, high- multiplex polymerase chain reaction technology was employed to detect high-quality single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites of other 55 Guanling cattle.

Research Progress on Estimation of Postmortem Interval Based on Ocular Tissues Structure.

Estimation of postmortem interval (PMI) is one of the important research contents in forensic pathology, and it has always been the focus and hot spot of research work. In recent years, scholars at home and abroad have made some research progress in estimating PMI by using ocular tissue. After death, the changes of cornea, aqueous humor, iris, lens, vitreous humor and retina all show time sequence change rule highly related to PMI.

Beetle-Inspired Dual-Directional Janus Pumps with Interfacial Asymmetric Wettability for Enhancing Fog Harvesting.

Fog-harvesting devices (FHDs) have been widely explored and applied to alleviate the shortage of fresh water. However, during the fog collection process, how to maintain a balance between fog capture and water removal behaviors to enhance the water collection rate still remains a challenge. Herein, inspired by the beetle, we combined a beetle-like Janus surface and the conventional cross-sectional Janus structure together, developed a simple spray-and-dry strategy to obtain three types of biomimetic asymmetric meshes, and explored the working modes for atmospheric fog collection.

Tributyrin administration improves intestinal development and health in pre-weaned dairy calves fed milk replacer.

Butyrate and its derivatives possess various nutritional and biological benefits for mammals, whereas its effects on dairy calves have not been well characterized. This study evaluated the effects of tributyrin administration on blood immune, intestinal immune and barrier functions, and microbial composition of pre-weaned dairy calves. Twenty newborn Holstein bull calves were randomly assigned into a control group (no tributyrin supplementation, CON;  = 10) or a treatment group (supplemented with tributyrin at 2 g/L of milk, TRB;  = 10).