Publications by authors named "Laixiang Xu"

The role of miRNAs in the regulation of seasonal reproduction in rodents, particularly in relation to photoperiod changes, is still poorly understood. Previous studies on miRNA transcriptomes of striped hamster (Cricetulus barabensis) testes have indicated that the photoperiodism of testes, especially apoptosis, may be influenced by miRNAs. As a functional miRNA, cba-miR-222-3p in striped hamster testes exhibits suppression under a short photoperiod.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The circadian clock in mammals regulates various behaviors and physiological processes, responding primarily to light signals, and is crucial for regulating reproductive cycles in seasonal breeders.
  • - A study on female striped hamsters under a 12L:12D light cycle showed significant daily rhythms in sleep-wake patterns and correlated changes in gene expression related to clock genes and metabolism.
  • - Findings suggest that both central and peripheral circadian clocks are essential for maintaining behavior and metabolic balance in hamsters, potentially offering insights for rodent pest control strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Typing analysis has become a popular approach to categorize individual differences in studies of animal gut microbial communities. However, previous definitions of gut microbial types were more understood as a passive reaction process to different external interferences, as most studies involve diverse environmental variables. We wondered whether distinct gut microbial types can also occur in animals under the same external environment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: Peanut is an essential food and oilseed crop. One of the most critical factors contributing to the low yield and destruction of peanut plant growth is leaf disease attack, which will directly reduce the yield and quality of peanut plants. The existing works have shortcomings such as strong subjectivity and insufficient generalization ability.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Photoperiod regulates the functions and development of gonadal organs of seasonally breeding animals, resulting in breeding peaks in specific seasons. miRNA plays an important role in the regulation of testicular physiological functions. However, the relationship between photoperiods and miRNA levels in testes has yet to be conclusively determined.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gut microbiota plays an important role in the health of the host and is usually associated with the physiological processes of animals. Both host-specific factors and environmental factors are involved in the shaping of the gut microbial community, and it is necessary to identify the host-dominated differences in gut microbiota among animal species to better explain how they affect the choice of life history strategies in hosts. Here, striped hamsters Cricetulus barabensis and Djungarian hamsters Phodopus sungorus were housed under the same controlled conditions, and fecal samples were collected to compare gut microbiota.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In , the relationship between pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) and its receptor (PAC1R), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and follicle development remains unclear. In this study, we found that the development of growing follicles and antral follicles were inhibited at low (8 °C, 14 °C) and high (29 °C) temperatures. Meanwhile, expression and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) serum concentration significantly decreased during ambient temperatures of 8 °C, 14 °C and 29 °C compared to 21 °C.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cervical cancer is a serious threat to the lives and health of women. The accurate analysis of cervical cell smear images is an important diagnostic basis for cancer identification. However, pathological data are often complex and difficult to analyze accurately because pathology images contain a wide variety of cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The photoperiod regulates the seasonal reproduction of mammals by affecting the follicle development, for which the granulosa cells provide nutrition. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, Djungarian hamsters () were raised under different photoperiods to study the ovarian status and explore the potential mechanism of the follicle development mediated by the FSH-Nodal/ALK7 signaling pathway.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this study, we investigated the mitochondrial energy supply capacity and molecular mechanisms of apoptosis, mitochondrial fission, and mitophagy in regulating mitochondrial degeneration in testis of striped dwarf hamsters (Cricetulus barabensis) under mild low temperature (15°C) and short daylight (10 h:14 h) conditions. Results showed that under moderate daylight and mild low temperature (ML), short daylight and moderate temperature (SM), short daylight and mild low temperature (SL) conditions, the mitochondria were swollen and cristae were disrupted. Compared with the moderate daylight & moderate temperature group (MM; 12 h:12 h, 22°C), the number of mitochondria was significantly decreased in the SM and SL groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of RFRP-3 synchronized with photoperiods on regulating the seasonal reproduction of striped hamsters. The striped hamsters were raised separately under long-day (LD; 16 h light/8 h dark), medium-day (MD; 12 h light/12 h dark) or short-day (SD; 8 h light/16 h dark) conditions for 8 weeks. RFRP-3 and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) mRNA levels in the hypothalamus, testis or ovaries in three groups were detected using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how the expression of prolactin receptor (PRLR) varies in the hypothalamus and gonads of striped hamsters throughout different seasons, focusing on its relationship with follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH).
  • It found that PRLR expression was highest in summer and winter, while FSH and LH levels were lower during these seasons, suggesting that PRLR may negatively impact reproductive activity based on seasonal changes.
  • Additionally, PRLR levels were significantly higher in female stripped hamsters compared to males, hinting that the effects of PRLR on reproduction may vary by sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Small mammals exhibit limited glucose use and glycogen accumulation during hypothermia. Huddling is a highly evolved cooperative behavioral strategy in social mammals, allowing adaptation to environmental cooling. However, it is not clear whether this behavior affects the utilization of glycogen in cold environments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The social behavior mechanisms have not been thoroughly reported in the solitary female striped dwarf hamster (). In this study, the handling bag test and neutral arena measurements were used to detect the changes of aggression in the face of rivals of different genders of wild striped dwarf hamsters. We found that female hamsters had the highest aggressive performance in proestrus, followed by estrus, and the lowest in metestrus and the dioestrus, and the increased aggression during the proestrus or estrus period was low-intensity aggression such as intimidation, shock, boxing and counterattack, or even ritualized non-harmful behaviors to drive away opponents.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prolactin (PRL) plays critical roles in regulation of biological functions with the binding of specific prolactin receptor (PRLR). Revealing the expression patterns of PRLR at different developmental stages is beneficial to better understand the role of PRL and its mechanism of action in striped hamsters. In this study, the cDNA sequence of PRLR (2866-base-pairs) was harvested from the pituitary of mature female striped hamsters (Cricetulus barabensis) that contains an 834-base-pair 5'-untranslated region (1-834 bp), a 1848-base-pair open reading frame (835-2682 bp), and a 184-base-pair 3'-untranslated region (2683-2866).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Harderian gland (HG) plays an important role in the physiological adaptation to terrestrial life, however, the mechanisms underlying the changes in the structure and function of the HG during aging remain unclear. This study investigated autophagy and apoptosis in the HG of striped dwarf hamsters (Cricetulus barabensis) of different ages (sub-adult, adult and aged groups) in both males and females. The results showed that LC3II/LC3I and puncta of LC3 were significantly higher in adult and aged individuals than sub-adults, whereas P62 decreased with age.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Photoperiod is an important factor of mammalian seasonal rhythm. Here, we studied morphological differences in the Harderian gland (HG), a vital photosensitive organ, in male striped dwarf hamsters (Cricetulus barabensis) under different photoperiods (short photoperiod, SP; moderate photoperiod, MP; long photoperiod, LP), and investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms related to these morphological differences. Results showed that carcass weight and HG weight were lower under SP and LP conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Photoperiod regulates the seasonal reproductive rhythms of mammals by influencing the development and function of sexual organs; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. We examined the morphology and functioning of the main sex organs of striped dwarf hamsters (Cricetulus barabensis) under different photoperiods (short daylight [SD], moderate daylight [MD], and long daylight [LD]) and further investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms. There was an inverse correlation between blood melatonin levels and photoperiod in the order SD > MD > LD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Reduced ambient temperature has a damaging effect on mammalian myocardium. Huddling as a cooperative behavior has evolved in social mammals as a strategy to maximize adaptation to environmental cooling. Here, we studied the effects of huddling behavior on mitochondrial morphology, number, and function in the myocardia of Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii) under cool environmental temperatures (15 °C).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Photoperiod is an important factor of mammalian seasonal rhythm. The Harderian gland (HG) appears to act as a "standby" structure of the retinal-pineal axis, mediating light signals and neuroendocrine regulation ; however, the effect of photoperiod on the HG is not clear. Here, we studied morphological differences in the HG of female striped dwarf hamsters (), a small mammal that experiences an annual rhythm, under different photoperiods (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Kisspeptins and G protein coupled receptor (GPR54) play significant roles in regulating reproductive activity among seasonally reproductive animals; however, the mechanisms of KiSS-1 and GPR54 gene affecting the seasonal reproduction in striped hamster are still unknown. In this study, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was employed to examine the expression profiles of KiSS-1 and GPR54 in the hypothalamus, ovaries, testes, uterus and epididymis of striped hamsters across 4 different seasons. Our results showed that, across different seasons, the KiSS-1 expression mode of male striped hamsters and the GPR54 expression mode of female striped hamsters were consistent with the seasonal photoperiod in the hypothalamus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

RFamide-related peptides (RFRPs) are orthologous to gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH) inhibiting gonadotropin release. There are only two RFRP sequences (RFRP-1 and RFRP-3) encoded in rodents. RFRP-3, which was considered as a hypothetical inhibitor on GnRH, shows a stimulatory effect on the male Syrian and male Siberian hamster in short days.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dispersal is a fundamental process in ecology influencing the genetic structure and the viability of populations. Understanding how variable factors influence the dispersal of the population is becoming an important question in animal ecology. To date, geographic distance and geographic barriers are often considered as main factors impacting dispersal, but their effects are variable depending on different conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genetic diversity is essential for persistence of animal populations over both the short- and long-term. Previous studies suggest that genetic diversity may decrease with population decline due to genetic drift or inbreeding of small populations. For oscillating populations, there are some studies on the relationship between population density and genetic diversity, but these studies were based on short-term observation or in low-density phases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this work, 4-(2-fluorobenzylideneamino)antipyrine (FBIAAP) was synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, XRD, FT-IR, FT-Raman and UV-Vis techniques as well as density functional calculations. The studied molecule adopts a trans configuration about the imine CN bond, and adjacent molecules are linked through two kinds of weak hydrogen bonds to form supramolecular layered structures along the ab plane. Vibrational spectral analyses show that the benzene moiety directly attached to the central pyrazoline shows good vibrational isolation from the other moiety of pyrazole-imino-benzene presenting good vibrational resonances.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF