miR-26b promotes granulosa cell apoptosis by targeting ATM during follicular atresia in porcine ovary.

More than 99% of ovarian follicles undergo atresia in mammals, but the mechanism of follicular atresia remains to be elucidated. In this study, we explored microRNA (miRNA) regulation of follicular atresia in porcine ovary. A miRNA expression profile was constructed for healthy, early atretic, and progressively atretic follicles, and the differentially expressed miRNAs were selected and analyzed.

[Reviews in comparative genomic research based on orthologs].

The orthologs have similar or even identical functions in different species, share the anological regulatory pathways, and play the close or even same role among species. Furthermore, the vast majority of the biological core functions were assumed to a considerable number of orthologous genes in organisms. Orthologs was the most reliable choices for functional annotation and analysis of genomic sequences, whose unique biological characteristics demonstrated that comparative genomics research based on orthologs will certainly provide clues for detecting the origin, expression, and loss of important functional genes during the biological evolution in different organisms.

[Biochemical methods for the analysis of DNA-protein interactions].

Investigation of DNA-protein interactions is fundamental to understand the mechanism underlying a variety of life processes. In this article, various types of biochemical methods in DNA-protein interaction study in vivo and in vitro at the level of DNA, protein, and the complex, respectively were briefly reviewed. Traditional assays including Nitrocellulose filter-binding assay, Footprinting, EMSA, and Southwestern blotting were summarized.

The correlation of reproduction-related gene expression with germ cell number in DM and PLL gilts.

In this study, the ovarian germ cell number was counted in 3-week-old Duroc x Meishan (DM, n=30) and PIC x (Landrace x Large White) (PLL, n=53) gilts, and the mRNA expression levels of four reproduction-related genes were investigated by quantitative RT-PCR. Correlation of germ cell number with the expression level of these genes was analyzed. Results showed that the germ cell number of DM was significantly higher than that of PLL gilts (P<0.

[Analysis of gene expression information in the fat and muscle tissues of pig].

An in silico study was developed to detect the gene expression profile of pig fat and muscle tissues by using the porcine EST resources and human gene sequences,and thus provided candidate information for basic genetic analysis in meat quality improvement of pig. In this study,a BLAST search was performed to identify homologies between the cDNA sequences of human genes and the ESTs sequences of pig,and the high homologous records were screened out. Four Java programs were developed to retrieve and collect sequences, and analyze the BLAST alignment results.