Mendel established the laws and laid the foundation of modern genetics through his famous hybridization experiments on seven pairs of classic traits in the garden pea (Pisum sativum). However, the molecular bases underlying these traits have only come into sharp focus in recent years. Leveraging advances in traditional map-based cloning, TILLING, long-read resequencing, population genetics, and GWAS, this article synthesizes current knowledge of ten genes governing seven traits—plant height, seed shape, flower color, seed color, pod color, pod morphology, and flower position—by summarizing each gene’s identity, chromosomal localization, and functional pathway. For plant height, the classical Le locus corresponds to PsGA3ox1, which encodes a gibberellin 3β-hydroxylase. Mutations at Le impede the biosynthesis of the bioactive hormone GA₁, and the resulting deficiency leads to a dwarf or reduced-stature phenotype. Seed shape is determined by R, identified as PsSBEI (starch-branching enzyme I). Insertion of a transposable element into R restricts amylopectin synthesis, perturbing endosperm starch architecture and resulting in the wrinkled seeds noted by Mendel. Flower color is specified by the coordinated action of A (a bHLH transcription factor) and A2 (a WD40 scaffold). Together, they assemble the canonical MYB-bHLH-WD40 (MBW) regulatory complex, which co-activates structural genes in the anthocyanin pathway to determine pigment accumulation and floral hue. Seed color is governed by I, which encodes PsSGR (STAY-GREEN), a magnesium dechelatase that catalyzes a key step in chlorophyll catabolism. Loss-of-function alleles at I block chlorophyll degradation, yielding “stay-green” seeds in which chlorophyll persists beyond normal developmental stages. Pod coloration maps to Gp, corresponding to ChlG (chlorophyll synthase). Either direct loss of ChlG function or readthrough-fusion transcriptional interference caused by a large upstream deletion suppresses chlorophyll biosynthesis in developing pods, resulting in the yellow-pod phenotype. Pod morphology depends on two convergent regulatory pathways. The P gene, PsCLE41, signals through the P-PXY-WOX/NAC axis to promote vascular differentiation and secondary-wall programs, while V encodes PsMYB26, a transcription factor that drives secondary wall thickening in fiber cells. Acting in concert, these modules ensure robust secondary-wall deposition in the fiber layer lining the inner pod wall; disruption of either component compromises wall thickening and leads to pleated or wrinkled pods. Flower position (inflorescence determinacy at the shoot apex) is controlled by FA, identified as PsCIK, which participates in the CLAVATA-WUSCHEL (CLV-WUS) feedback circuit that maintains shoot apical meristem homeostasis. Mutations in FA destabilize this self-regulatory loop and promote terminal flowers at the apex. The expressivity of this determinacy phenotype is further modulated by a recessive modifier, Mfa, which fine-tunes the outcome in the fa background. Across these loci, convergent evidence highlights the central role of structural variation in generating the classical Mendelian phenotypes. Building on this clarified molecular landscape, we outline practical implications for quality improvement and the deliberate “design” of traits. Looking ahead, we envisage a next generation of legume genetic improvement anchored on three mutually reinforcing pillars: high-quality reference genomes to deliver contiguous, structurally faithful assemblies; comprehensive pan-genomes to capture presence/absence variation and structural polymorphism across germplasm; and precise gene editing to target coding, regulatory, and structural features alike. Together, these tools chart a path toward mechanism-based breeding, enabling purposeful, design-driven trait improvement in peas and, by extension, other legumes.

Endotoxins are common exogenous pyrogens. Excessive endotoxins in medical devices and injections can lead to serious consequences such as sepsis, septic shock, and even death. Therefore, endotoxin detection plays a crucial role in medical, pharmaceutical, and food sectors. The wide application of Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) has led to a sharp decline in the number of horseshoe crabs. Moreover, the LAL assay has limitations such as interbatch variations and difficulty in quantification. The recombinant factor C (rFC) assay is stable between batches, highly sensitive, and capable of quantitation, and thus it can be used as an alternative for the LAL assay. However, the high cost and complex procedures involved in producing recombinant factor C have limited the widespread application of this method. In order to simplify the preparation and reduce the production cost of recombinant factor C, this study focuses on the production of recombinant factor C based on the baculovirus expression system. Multiple measures such as a high-yield and anti-apoptotic vector qBac-IIIG, the optimal signal peptide, and the optimized codon were used to reach the goal of endotoxin detection with cell supernatant. This method simplifies the steps of protein purification. The sensitivity of the supernatant reached 0.05 EU/mL in a 1-L fermentation system, and 500 000 detecting reactions can be supported per liter of fermentation broth. This study increases the yield and activity of recombinant factor C, simplifies the procedures of protein purification, and reduces the cost, laying a foundation for the promotion and application of recombinant factor C in endotoxin detection.
Animals ; Recombinant Proteins/genetics* ; Horseshoe Crabs/chemistry* ; Baculoviridae/metabolism* ; Endotoxins/analysis* ; Protein C/biosynthesis* ; Genetic Vectors/genetics* ; Arthropod Proteins/genetics* ; Enzyme Precursors ; Serine Endopeptidases

Skeletal muscle is one of the most important organs in animal, and the regulatory mechanism of skeletal muscle development is of great importance for the diagnosis of muscle-related diseases and the improvement of meat quality of livestock. The regulation of skeletal muscle development is a complex process, which is regulated by a large number of muscle secretory factors and signaling pathways. In addition, in order to maintain steady-state and maximum use of energy metabolism in the body, the body coordinates multiple tissues and organs to form the complex and sophisticated metabolic regulation network, which plays an important role for the regulation of skeletal muscle development. With the development of omics technologies, the underlying mechanism of tissue and organ communication has been deeply studied. This paper reviews the effects of crosstalk among adipose tissue, nerve tissue and intestinal tissue on skeletal muscle development, with the aim to provide a theoretical basis for targeted regulation of skeletal muscle development.
Animals ; Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism* ; Adipose Tissue/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction

The growth and development of skeletal muscle is an important factor affecting pork production and quality, which is elaborately regulated by many genetic and nutritional factors. MicroRNA (miRNA) is a non-coding RNA with a length of about 22 nt, which binds to the 3'UTR sequence of the mRNA of the target genes, and consequently regulates its post-transcriptional expression level. In recent years, a large number of studies have shown that miRNAs are involved in various life processes such as growth and development, reproduction, and diseases. The role of miRNAs in the regulation of porcine skeletal muscle development was reviewed, with the hope to provide a reference for the genetic improvement of pigs.
Swine ; Animals ; MicroRNAs/metabolism* ; Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism* ; Muscle Development/genetics*

【Objective】 To study the yielding rate and distribution of unexpected antibodies in blood transfusion children with thalassemia in Yunnan province, and to explore the blood transfusion strategies. 【Methods】 From January 2016 to December 2021, 298 children with thalassemia, who received blood transfusion treatment in Kunming, Xishuangbanna, Wenshan, Dehong, Yuxi and Baoshan hospitals across Yunnan Province, were selected. The unexpected antibodies of blood plasma were screened by microcolumn gel card. The samples with positive antibodies were identified for alloantibody specificity. 【Results】 Unexpected antibodies were yielded in 67 out of 298(22.48%) transfused children with thalassemia. The positive rates of unexpected antibodies in boys and girls were 16.55%(24/145) and 28.10%(43/153), respectively. The positive rates of unexpected antibodies in Han, Dai, Zhuang, Yi, Bulang, Jinuo and Miao people were 14.06%(18/128), 30.80%(32/104), 35.71%(10/28), 36.36%(8/22), 50.00%(4/8), 60.00%(3/5)and 66.67%(2/3), respectively, with statistically significant differences between each other. The positive rate of unexpected antibodies in ethnic minorities was higher than that in Han. The positive rates of unexpected antibodies in children who received the first transfusion at birth-one year old, 1~3 years old, 3~6 years old and above 6 years old were 12.50%(3/24), 10.14%(7/69), 24.54%(40/163)and 40.48%(17/42), respectively. The positive rates of unexpected antibodies in children with first transfusion after 3 years old were significantly higher than those before 3 years old. The positive rates of unexpected antibodies in children with one transfusion, 1~3, 3~10, 10~20 and more than 20 transfusions were 4.76%(1/21), 12.07%(7/58), 23.71%(23/97), 28.16%(29/103)and 36.84%(7/19), respectively, with statistically significant differences between each other. The number of blood transfusions was positively correlated with the unexpected antibody yielding. The yielding rate of unexpected antibodies in children with α thalassemia, βthalassemia, δ+ βthalassemia and untyped thalassemia was 7.50%(3/40), 17.62%(34/193), 53.70%(29/54)and 9.09%(1/11), respectively(P<0.05). The yielding rate of unexpected antibodies in transfused children with δ+ βthalassemia was the highest. And 57 unexpected antibodies of Rh blood group system were yielded, 6 anti-M antibodies, 2 anti-N antibodies and 2 undetermined. 【Conclusion】 The positive rate of unexpected antibodies in transfused children with thalassemia in Yunnan province is high. Routine antibody screening should be carried out for transfusion children with thalassemia, and blood units, compatible with ABO, Rh and MNS typing results, should be selected to ensure the safety and effectiveness of clinical blood use.

Objective:To explore the correlation of miRNA-509 (miR-509) expression level with the clinical characteristics and prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients.Methods:The RNA-seq expression data and clinical data of 162 newly diagnosed AML patients (non-M 3 subtype) based on the World Health Organization (WHO) classification were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database (Project ID:TCGA-LAML). The final follow-up time was April 30th, 2013. According to the different treatment methods, all cases were firstly divided into the chemotherapy group and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) group. Each group was subdivided into high miR-509 group and low miR-509 group according to the median relative expression of miR-509, respectively; the clinical characteristics of both groups were analyzed. The effects of miR-509 relative expression level on overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) of AML patients in chemotherapy group and allo-HSCT group were compared. On the other hand, cases were divided into two groups based on the median relative expression level of miR-509, then each group were further divided into the chemotherapy subgroup and allo-HSCT subgroup according to different treatment methods. The differences of OS and EFS of AML patients with different miR-509 expression in chemotherapy and allo-HSCT subgroups were compared. Results:All the 162 AML patients were firstly divided into chemotherapy group (90 cases) and allo-HSCT group (72 cases). Each group was subdivided into high miR-509 and low miR-509 group according to the median relative expression of miR-509 (chemotherapy group: 14.07, allo-HSCT group: 14.85), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the proportion of patients with gender, white blood cell count at initial diagnosis, bone marrow blast/naive cells ratio, peripheral blood blast/naive cells ratio and France-America-British (FAB) subtype between high miR-509 and low miR-509 subgroups in chemotherapy subgroup and allo-HSCT subgroup (all P > 0.05). In the chemotherapy group, low miR-509 group comprised more cases with intermediate prognosis compared to high miR-509 group[68.9% (31/45) vs. 42.2% (19/45), χ2 = 6.48, P = 0.011]. No significant differences in the proportion of patients with other risk stratification were found between both subgroups (all P > 0.05). Of the 90 cases in chemotherapy group, the median OS time in low miR-509 group (45 cases) and high miR-509 group (45 cases) was 10.2 months and 6.7 months, respectively. The 5-year OS rates of the two subgroups in chemotherapy group were 17.9% and 17.0%, and the 5-year EFS rates were 16.9% and 18.2%.There were no significant differences in OS and EFS of low miR-509 group and high miR-509 group ( P = 0.575, P = 0.436). In the allo-HSCT group (72 cases), longer OS and EFS were observed in low miR-509 group compared with high miR-509 group, and the differences were statistically significant ( P = 0.006, P = 0.022). All the 162 cases were divided into low miR-509 group (81 cases) and high miR-509 group (81 cases) based on the median expression level of miR-509 (14.19). In the low miR-509 expression group, cases administered allo-HSCT had a better OS in comparison with those administered chemotherapy ( P<0.001). The EFS of the allo-HSCT group was better than that of chemotherapy group, but the difference was not statistically significant ( P = 0.079). In the high miR-509 expression group, the allo-HSCT group had a better OS compared with that of the chemotherapy group ( P = 0.043). There was no significant difference in the EFS between the allo-HSCT group and chemotherapy group in high miR-509 group ( P = 0.154). Conclusions:The expression level of miR-509 may be helpful in the treatment selection of AML patients. Allo-HSCT can improve the prognosis of patients with low expression of miR-509.

Insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 2 (IGF2BP2, also called IMP2) plays an essential role in the development and maturation of germ cells and embryos and is a candidate gene for goat litter size, based on a previous genome-wide selective sweep analysis. In this study, the mRNA expression level of IGF2BP2 was found to be significantly higher in a single-lamb group than in a multi-lamb group. Insertions/deletions (indels) within the goat IGF2BP2 gene, including P4-Ins-13bp and P5-Del-12bp, were verified in 918 Shaanbei White Cashmere (SBWC) female goats. The minor allelic frequencies (MAFs) of P4-Ins-13bp and P5-Del-12bp loci were 0.349 and 0.295, respectively. Analysis using the Chi-square (χ2) test showed that the genotype (χ2=14.479, P=0.006) distribution of P4-Ins-13bp was significantly different between the single-lamb and multi-lamb groups. Correlation analysis demonstrated that P4-Ins-13bp was significantly associated with goat litter size (P=0.022), and individual goats with the homozygous deletion/deletion (DD) genotype produced more litters than other goats. Therefore, considered as a potential molecular marker significantly related to lambing traits, the P4-Ins-13bp mutation of the goat IGF2BP2 gene can be used in goat breeding with practical molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) to optimize female reproduction and improve economic efficiency in the goat industry.

Inthomycins are polyketide antibiotics which contain a terminal carboxamide group and a triene chain. Inthomycin B (1) and its two new analogues 2 and 3 were isolated from the crude extract of Streptomyces pactum L8. Identification of the gene cluster for inthomycin biosynthesis as well as the N-labeled glycine incorporation into inthomycins are described. Combined with the gene deletion of the rare P450 domain in the NRPS module, a formation mechanism of carboxamide moiety in inthomycins was proposed via an oxidative release of the assembly chain assisted by the P450 domain.

MicroRNA (miRNA) is a type of highly conserved nucleotide sequence composed of 18 to 25 nucleotides, which can specifically bind to the 3'-noncoding regions of mRNA, and then play a negative regulatory role in degrading mRNA or inhibiting translation. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is a type of nucleotide sequence that exceeds 200 nucleotides in length and cannot encode proteins or can only encode protein peptides. It regulates gene expression at the levels of epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional. As an important energy storage organ, fat plays an important role in regulating the energy balance of animals, and is closely related to meat production traits such as meat production and meat quality. And the disorder of fat function can lead to hyperlipidemia, type 2 diabetes and a series of cardiovascular diseases, so the molecular regulation mechanism of animal fat deposition has attracted more attention. In recent years, more and more studies have found that miRNA and lncRNA play a crucial role in animal fat deposition. We review here the current research progresses in the role of miRNA and lncRNA in animal fat deposition, to provide theoretical guidance and new ideas for further revealing the molecular regulation mechanism of animal fat deposition.

The interaction of endophytes and host plant is an effective mean to regulate the growth and secondary metabolism of medicinal plants. Here we want to elucidate the effects and mechanism of Phoma herbarum D603 on the root development and tanshinone synthesis in root of Salvia miltiorrhiza by endophyte-plant coculture system. The mycelium of P. herbarum D603 was colonized in the root tissue space, and formed a stable symbiotic relationship with host plant. The in vitro activities analysis showed that the concentration of IAA produced by D603 can reach(6.45±0.23) μg·mL~(-1), and this strain had some abilities of phosphorus solubilization and siderophore production activities. The coculture experiment showed that strain D603 can significantly promote the synthesis and accumulation of tanshinones in the root of S. miltiorrhiza, in which after 8 weeks of treatment with D603, the content of tanshinone Ⅱ_A in the roots reached up to(1.42±0.59) mg·g~(-1). By the qRT-PCR analysis results, we found that D603 could improve the expression levels of some key genes(DXR, DXS, GGPP, HMGR, CPS) of tanshinone biosynthesis pathway in host plant S. miltiorrhiza, but the promoting effect mainly occurred in the early stage of the interaction, and the enzyme activity level decreased in varying degrees of the later stage. In summary, seed-associated endophyte P. herbarum D603 can promote the growth and root development of S. miltiorrhiza by producing hormones, promoting nutrient absorption and siderophore production, and promote the synthesis and accumulation of tanshinones by regulating the expression level of key genes in the synthetic pathway in S. miltiorrhiza.
Abietanes/biosynthesis* ; Ascomycota/growth & development* ; Endophytes/growth & development* ; Plant Roots/microbiology* ; Salvia miltiorrhiza/microbiology* ; Seeds/microbiology*