Publications by authors named "Wen-jing Cai"

Previous studies have shown that at least six genera of the Cheilanthoideae, a subfamily of the fern family Pteridaceae, may not be monophyletic. In these non-monophyletic genera, the Old-World genus Paragymnopteris including approximately five species have long been controversial. In this study, with an extensive taxon sampling of Paragymnopteris, we assembled 19 complete plastomes of all recognized Paragymnopteris species, plastomes of Pellaea (3 species) and Argyrochosma (1 species), as well as transcriptomes from Paragymnopteris (6 species) and Argyrochosma (1 species).

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Gibberellins (GAs) play a pivotal role in modulating plant growth and development. Glucose-conjugated gibberellins (Glc-GAs), a prevalent conjugated form of GAs, regulate intracellular GA levels by the coupling and decoupling of glucose groups. However, the diversity of Glc-GAs identified within individual species remains limited, hinting at a multitude of yet undiscovered gibberellin metabolites.

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Improving carbohydrate utilization can contribute to sustainability of aquaculture. In order to explore the feedback mechanism of glucose homeostasis in fish, one control diet (25% carbohydrate and 40% protein), one relatively high carbohydrate diet named HG (42% carbohydrate and 40% protein), and one high dietary carbohydrate coupled with relatively low protein diet named HGP (42% carbohydrate and 25% protein) were fed to grass carp for 40 days. After the feeding trial, HG group impeded the food intake and growth performance of fish compared with the other two groups.

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Gibberellins (GAs) play crucial roles in plant growth and development, and their regulatory functions rely on complex metabolic networks and signaling pathways. Therefore, the exploration of GAs metabolic network is of great importance. However, limited GAs have been found in given plant species, which makes it difficult to comprehensively study the GAs metabolic network.

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Leptin affects food intake regulation and energy homeostasis in mammals, as opposed to mammals who have a single leptin gene, fish have duplicated leptin gene paralogues. Until now, most functional studies on fish focused on the first reported paralogue without much explanation on specific gene paralogue. This study successfully expressed two homologous recombinant mandarin fish leptin genes (LepA and LepB) for the first time.

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Although studies have determined that epigenetics plays an essential role in regulating metabolism in mammals, research on nutrition-related DNA methylation remains to be lacking in teleosts. In the present study, we provided a hepatic whole-genome DNA methylation analysis in grass carp fed with moderate- or excessive-carbohydrate-level diet. Although a high-carbohydrate (HC) diet significantly changed the mRNA expression levels of metabolic genes, it did not affect the global genomic DNA methylation levels in grass carp liver.

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Mandarin fishes (Sinipercidae) are piscivores that feed solely on live fry. Unlike higher vertebrates, teleosts exhibit feeding behavior driven mainly by genetic responses, with no modification by learning from parents. Mandarin fishes could serve as excellent model organisms for studying feeding behavior.

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Background: Taste is fundamental to diet selection in vertebrates. Genetic basis of sweet taste receptor in the shaping of food habits has been extensively studied in mammals and birds, but scarcely studied in fishes. Grass carp is an excellent model for studying vegetarian adaptation, as it exhibits food habit transition from carnivory to herbivory.

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Monosaccharides play important roles in plant growth and development, and their biofunctions are closely related to their endogenous contents. Therefore, the determination of monosaccharides is beneficial for the further study of monosaccharide biofunction. In this work, we developed a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analytical method assisted by a post-column derivatization technique (LC-PCD-MS) for the fast and automatic determination of 16 monosaccharides in samples.

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It is clear that 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases have critical functions in salicylic acid (SA) metabolism in plants, yet their role in SA biosynthesis is poorly understood. Here, we report that two dioxygenase-encoding genes, SLENDER AND CRINKLY LEAF1 (SLC1) and SLC2, play essential roles in shoot development and SA production in rice. Overexpression of SLC1 (SLC1-OE) or SLC2 (SLC2-OE) in rice produced infertile plants with slender and crinkly leaves.

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Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are one class of bacterial metabolites mainly formed by gut microbiota from undigested fibers and proteins. These molecules are able to mediate signal conduction processes of cells, acting as G protein-coupled receptors (GPR) activators and histone deacetylases (HDAC) inhibitors. It was reported that SCFAs were closely associated with various human diseases.

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Phytohormones play crucial roles in every aspect of plant life, and their regulatory functions rely on complex crosstalk networks among the different classes of phytohormones in an antagonistic or synergistic manner. Therefore, the simultaneous determination of multiclass phytohormones is important for studies of phytohormone functions and networks. However, due to the heterogeneity of the sensitivity resulting from structural diversity and the low content in the plant samples, simultaneous determination of multiclass phytohormones is challenging, especially in very tiny plant tissues or organs.

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Brassinosteroids (BRs) are endogenous plant growth-promoting hormones affecting growth and development during the entire life cycle of plants. Naturally occurring BRs can be classified into C-, C-, or C-BRs based on the nature of the alkyl groups occupying the C-24 position in the side chain of the 5a-cholestane carbon skeleton. However, while C-BRs exhibit similar bioactivities to C- and C-BRs, the biosynthetic pathways of C-BRs in plants have not yet been clearly characterized.

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Two isostructural lanthanide-based MOFs [Ln(HL)L]·H2O (1-Ln, Ln = Eu, Dy, H2L = 5-((pyridin-4-ylthio)methyl)isophthalic acid) were successfully obtained via the solvothermal reaction. 1-Eu exhibits high fluorescence quenching efficiency for C2O72- and Fe3+, which can be potentially used as a luminescent probe; 1-Dy behaves as a typical single-molecule magnet with an energy barrier (ΔUeff) of 54(2) K.

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Characterization of the melatonin (MLT) biosynthesis pathway in plants is still limited. Additionally, a metabolomic analysis of MLT biosynthesis in plants is still a challenge due to analyte structural and chemical diversity, low analyte abundances, and plant matrix complexities. Herein, a sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method enabling the simultaneous determination of seven plant MLT biosynthetic metabolites was developed.

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Brassinosteroids (BRs) play crucial roles in a variety of physiological processes in plants. The full elucidation of the functions of RBs relies on sensitive detection and accurate measurement of BRs in plants. However, the identification and quantification of BRs are challenging due to their low abundance as well as poor ionization efficiencies during mass spectrometry-based analysis.

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Abscisic acid (ABA), indoleacetic acid (IAA) and jasmonic acid (JA) are plant hormones that were reported to play indispensable roles during seed germination. However, the interactions between these plant hormones during rice seed germination have still not been explored clearly. A sensitive method for determination of these plant hormones would be beneficial for the exploration of such interactions.

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Aim: To respectively evaluate macular morphological features and functional parameters by using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and macular integrity assessment (MAIA) in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME).

Methods: This prospective, non-controlled, open study included 61 eyes of 38 consecutive patients with DME. All patients underwent best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) measurement, MAIA microperimetry, and SD-OCT.

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Honey exhibits various nutritional and medicinal functions, which are highly related to the active components; thus, the exploration of new compounds in honey is of great importance. Because honey is a byproduct of flower nectar, which is rich in phytohormones, the existence of phytohormones in honey is anticipated. In this research, a method for comprehensive profiling of 49 phytohormones in honey was developed by sequential liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

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Background: Phytohormones play crucial roles in almost all stages of plant growth and development. Accurate and simultaneous determination of multiple phytohormones enabled us to better understand the physiological functions and the regulatory networks of phytohormones. However, simultaneous determination of multiple phytohormones in plant is still a challenge due to their low concentrations, structural and chemical diversity, and complex matrix of plant tissues.

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Numerous studies have been focused on the replacement of fish meal by other alternative protein sources. However, little is currently known about the molecular mechanism of utilization of diets with different protein sources in fish. Grass carp is a typical herbivorous fish.

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In the wild, mandarin fish (Siniperca chuatsi) only feed on live prey fish, refusing dead prey. When reared in ponds, training will result in some mandarin fish accepting artificial diets. However, little is currently known about the molecular mechanism of the individual difference.

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A highly sensitive method was developed for the detection of phytochelatins (PCs) in rice by stable isotope labeling coupled with liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (IL-LC-ESI-MS/MS) analysis. A pair of isotope-labeling reagents [ω-bromoacetonylquinolinium bromide (BQB) and BQB-d(7)] were used to label PCs in plant sample and standard PCs, respectively, and then combined prior to LC/MS analysis. The heavy labeled standards were used as the internal standards for quantitation to minimize the matrix and ion suppression effects in MS analysis.

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Background: Although feeding behavior and food habit are ecologically and economically important properties, little is known about formation and evolution of herbivory. Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is an ecologically appealing model of vertebrate herbivore, widely cultivated in the world as edible fish or as biological control agents for aquatic weeds. Grass carp exhibits food habit transition from carnivory to herbivory during development.

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The growth hormone secretagogue-receptor (GHS-R) is an endogenous receptor for the gut hormone ghrelin. Here we report the identification and characterization of GHS-R1a in grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idellus. The full-length GHS-R1a cDNA contained a 1803-bp coding domain sequence which encoded a peptide of 360 amino acid residues.

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