Enlightening the taxonomy darkness of human gut microbiomes with a cultured biobank.

Background: In gut microbiome studies, the cultured gut microbial resource plays essential roles, such as helping to unravel gut microbial functions and host-microbe interactions. Although several major studies have been performed to elucidate the cultured human gut microbiota, up to 70% of the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome species have not been cultured to date. Large-scale gut microbial isolation and identification as well as availability to the public are imperative for gut microbial studies and further characterizing human gut microbial functions.

Male Fertility Potential Molecular Mechanisms Revealed by iTRAQ-Based Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of the Epididymis from Wip1 Mice.

Proteomics and postgenomic technologies have found growing recent applications in reproductive biology and fertility research. Mice deficient in the wild-type p53-induced phosphatase 1 (WIP1) exhibit defects in reproductive organs. In this study, we aimed to understand how Wip1 deficiency affects spermatogenesis and sperm maturation using the Wip1 mouse model and gel-free isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry quantitative proteomic analysis of the whole epididymis, including somatic tissue and sperm.

Integrative Proteomic and Phosphoproteomic Profiling of Testis from Wip1 Phosphatase-Knockout Mice: Insights into Mechanisms of Reduced Fertility.

Mice lacking wild-type p53-induced phosphatase 1 (Wip1) display male reproductive defects including smaller testes, subfertility and spermatogenesis defects at the round- and elongating-spermatid stages. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these abnormalities remain unclear. Here we examined the proteome and phosphoproteome of testes from -knockout mice using a quantitative proteomic approach.

Effect of polymorphisms in the GBP1, Mx1 and CD163 genes on host responses to PRRSV infection in pigs.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is the most economically important disease to the swine industry, and effective prevention strategy for this disease is still required. Guanylate-binding protein 1 (GBP1) and myxovirus resistance protein 1 (Mx1) are two important proteins belonging to the GTPase superfamily that have been previously described to show antiviral effects. CD163 is considered the most important receptor for PRRSV attachment and internalization.

Molecular characterization of porcine MMP19 and MMP23B genes and its association with immune traits.

MMP19 and MMP23B belong to the Matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) family, which are zinc-binding endopeptidases that are capable of degrading various components of the extracellular matrix. They are thought to play important roles in embryonic development, reproduction and tissue remodeling, as well as in cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, angiogenesis, apoptosis and host defense. However, they are poorly understood in pigs.