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  1. Asghar A, Huichun L, Fang Q, Khan NA, Shahid M, Rui W, et al.
    Plant Foods Hum Nutr, 2024 Feb 16.
    PMID: 38363439 DOI: 10.1007/s11130-024-01151-4
    Red dragon fruit is gaining popularity globally due to its nutritional value and bioactive components. The study aimed to assess the phytochemical, nutritional composition, antioxidant, antibacterial, and cytotoxic properties of extracts from the South Chinese red dragon fruit peel, flesh, and seeds. Extract fractions with increasing polarity (ethyl acetate
  2. Zhou H, Liu L, Li R, Qin Y, Fang Q, Balasubramaniam VR, et al.
    Virol J, 2017 08 17;14(1):156.
    PMID: 28814340 DOI: 10.1186/s12985-017-0823-4
    BACKGROUND: Astroviruses (AstVs) have been reported to infect and cause gastroenteritis in most animal species. Human AstVs were regarded the causative agent of viral diarrhea in children. In dogs, little is known about the epidemiology and clinical significance of AstV infection.

    FINDINGS: In this study, we collected and tested 253 rectal swabs from pet dogs; of which 64 samples (25.3%) tested positive for AstVs with diarrhea and 15 more samples (5.9%) also was identified as AstVs, however without any clinical signs. Phylogenetic analysis of 39 partial ORF1b sequences from these samples revealed that they are similar to AstVs, which can be subdivided into three lineages. Interestingly, out of the 39 isolates sequenced, 16 isolates are shown to be in the Mamastrovirus 5/canine astrovirus (CAstV) lineage and the remaining 23 isolates displayed higher similarities with known porcine astrovirus (PoAstV) 5 and 2. Further, analysis of 13 capsid sequences from these isolates showed that they are closely clustered with Chinese or Italy CAstV isolates.

    CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that CAstVs commonly circulate in pet dogs, and our sequencing results have shown the genomic diversity of CAstVs leading to increasing number of clusters.

  3. Tao ZY, Liu WP, Dong J, Feng XX, Yao DW, Lv QL, et al.
    Trop Biomed, 2020 Dec 01;37(4):911-918.
    PMID: 33612745 DOI: 10.47665/tb.37.4.911
    The purification of parasite-infected erythrocytes from whole blood containing leucocytes is crucial for many downstream genetic and molecular assays in parasitology. Current methodologies to achieve this are often costly and time consuming. Here, we demonstrate the successful application of a cheap and simple Non-Woven Fabric (NWF) filter for the purification of parasitized red blood cells from whole blood. NWF filtration was applied to the malaria-parasitized blood of three strains of mice, and one strain of rat, and to Babesia gibsoni parasitized dog blood. Before and after filtration, the white blood cell (WBC) removal rates and red blood cell (RBC) recovery rates were measured. After NWF filter treatment of rodent malaria-infected blood, the WBC removal rates and RBC recovery rates were, for Kunming mice: 99.51%±0.30% and 86.12%±8.37%; for BALB/C mice: 99.61%±0.15% and 80.74%±7.11%; for C57 mice: 99.71%±0.12% and 84.87%±3.83%; for Sprague-Dawley rats: 99.93%±0.03% and 83.30%±2.96%. Microscopy showed WBCs were efficiently removed from infected dog blood samples, and there was no obvious morphological change of B. gibsoni parasites. NWF filters efficiently remove leukocytes from malaria parasite-infected mouse and rat blood, and are also suitable for filtration of B. gibsoni-infected dog blood.
  4. Gelabert P, Sandoval-Velasco M, Serres A, de Manuel M, Renom P, Margaryan A, et al.
    Curr Biol, 2020 01 06;30(1):108-114.e5.
    PMID: 31839456 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.066
    As the only endemic neotropical parrot to have recently lived in the northern hemisphere, the Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) was an iconic North American bird. The last surviving specimen died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918 [1]. The cause of its extinction remains contentious: besides excessive mortality associated to habitat destruction and active hunting, their survival could have been negatively affected by its range having become increasingly patchy [2] or by the exposure to poultry pathogens [3, 4]. In addition, the Carolina parakeet showed a predilection for cockleburs, an herbaceous plant that contains a powerful toxin, carboxyatractyloside, or CAT [5], which did not seem to affect them but made the birds notoriously toxic to most predators [3]. To explore the demographic history of this bird, we generated the complete genomic sequence of a preserved specimen held in a private collection in Espinelves (Girona, Spain), as well as of a close extant relative, Aratinga solstitialis. We identified two non-synonymous genetic changes in two highly conserved proteins known to interact with CAT that could underlie a specific dietary adaptation to this toxin. Our genomic analyses did not reveal evidence of a dramatic past demographic decline in the Carolina parakeet; also, its genome did not exhibit the long runs of homozygosity that are signals of recent inbreeding and are typically found in endangered species. As such, our results suggest its extinction was an abrupt process and thus likely solely attributable to human causes.
  5. Feng S, Stiller J, Deng Y, Armstrong J, Fang Q, Reeve AH, et al.
    Nature, 2021 Apr;592(7856):E24.
    PMID: 33833441 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03473-8
  6. Feng S, Stiller J, Deng Y, Armstrong J, Fang Q, Reeve AH, et al.
    Nature, 2020 11;587(7833):252-257.
    PMID: 33177665 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2873-9
    Whole-genome sequencing projects are increasingly populating the tree of life and characterizing biodiversity1-4. Sparse taxon sampling has previously been proposed to confound phylogenetic inference5, and captures only a fraction of the genomic diversity. Here we report a substantial step towards the dense representation of avian phylogenetic and molecular diversity, by analysing 363 genomes from 92.4% of bird families-including 267 newly sequenced genomes produced for phase II of the Bird 10,000 Genomes (B10K) Project. We use this comparative genome dataset in combination with a pipeline that leverages a reference-free whole-genome alignment to identify orthologous regions in greater numbers than has previously been possible and to recognize genomic novelties in particular bird lineages. The densely sampled alignment provides a single-base-pair map of selection, has more than doubled the fraction of bases that are confidently predicted to be under conservation and reveals extensive patterns of weak selection in predominantly non-coding DNA. Our results demonstrate that increasing the diversity of genomes used in comparative studies can reveal more shared and lineage-specific variation, and improve the investigation of genomic characteristics. We anticipate that this genomic resource will offer new perspectives on evolutionary processes in cross-species comparative analyses and assist in efforts to conserve species.
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