With the development of economy and society, more and more people are engaged in night shift jobs, and secondary sleep disorders and weakened immunity are becoming common in those people, seriously affecting their health. Many reports indicated that the biological rhythms have an interaction with sleep and immunity. Herein, the effects of circadian rhythm abnormalities caused by various reasons on individual sleep and their molecular mechanisms, pathways and molecular mechanisms of immunity regulation with the biological clock, effects of sleep- and immune-related factors on circadian rhythms, and the interaction be-tween sleep and immunity were reviewed. In addition, combined with previous research findings, the role of biological rhythms in human papilloma virus (HPV) clearance was briefly described. The review aims to pro-vide a theoretical basis for the prevention and treatment of sleep- and immune-related diseases, occupa-tional protection for female shift workers, and new ideas for biological clock interventions in the treatment of clinically relevant diseases.
Chronic pain not only causes painful experience, but also is accompanied by anxiety, depression and other negative emotions and cognitive dysfunction. It is one of the global public health and medical problems. The hippocampus, as a part of the limbic system, plays an important role in learning and memory. Recent research has indicated that the hippocampus undergoes a sequence of structural and functional changes during the occurrence and development of chronic pain. The changes include 1) abnormal structures in neuronal synaptic plasticity and grey matter volume, 2) abnormal alterations in white matter connectivity, electrophysiological characteristics, and neural circuits, and 3) abnormal expressions of cortisol, tumor necro-sis factor, endogenous cannabinoid system, purinergic ion channel receptors, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2, and histone deacetylase. Herein, a comprehensive review of the morphological structure, functional characteristics, and molecular mechanisms of the hippocampus in relation to chronic pain is presented, aiming to better understand the crucial roles of the hippocampus.
Based on three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting, gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) and collagen mixture were used as bioinks to simulate the extracellular matrix (ECM) of skin tissue, and standardized, high-preci-sion, and dynamic 3D models of human immortalized epidermal cells (HaCaT) and mouse melanoma cells (B16) were constructed. The 3D cell models were used to evaluate the moisturizing and whitening effects of two cosmetic samples. The results showed that the expression level of AQP3 gene in the sample group detected by the 3D HaCaT model was up-regulated by 1.08 times compared with that in the negative control group, and the melanin inhibition rate reached about 20% in the sample group using the 3D B16 model. The con-structed 3D cell models in this study proved to be with stable performance and good cell viability and may have great potential for application in efficacy testing in the cosmetics industry.
Epigenetics is one of the important research directions in both medicine and biology, with the goal of exploring the differences in the expression products without genetic changes. Forensic genetics is concerned with the judicial identification of biological materials related to the human body. The stability of biological materials is significantly affected by environmental conditions, and their values strongly depend on science and technology. Therefore, in complex situations, application of epigenetics in forensic identification will be helpful to better complete the task of forensic genetics. Herein, basic concepts of epigenetics such as DNA methylation, non-coding RNAs, X-chromosome inactivation, and chromatin remodeling were described, and the application progress of epigenetic theories and techniques in the field of forensic genetics such as age inference, tissue and body fluid source inference, and identical twin differentiation was reviewed, hoping to provide valuable information and ideas for related research and practice.
Optogenetics is a biologic technique used in neuroscience that allows for precise control of neu-rons at the single-cell and millisecond level. Sports, involving physical exercise and health care, offer a natu-ral and effective way to maintain and improve health conveniently, without invasion and side-effects. In re-cent years, optogenetic techniques have provided powerful tools for biological research due to their high spa-tiotemporal resolution, non-invasiveness, reversibility, specificity, wide applicability, and experimental flexi-bility, facilitating a deeper understanding of complex biological processes in cells and biological systems. Compared with traditional drug treatment and surgical intervention, physical exercise is a widely accepted non-invasive intervention method for treatment and rehabilitation. The application of optogenetic techniques in the field of sports has now played unique roles in coping with neurological diseases, enhancing athletic performance, promoting rehabilitation processes, and improving body control. This review primarily introduces the application of optogenetic tools in the research and treatment of neurological diseases and in the reco-very and enhancement of athletic abilities, and provides prospects of their future development.
In order to study the species composition and diversity of herbaceous communities in the forest-creek ecotone of Hunan Dehang Geopark, ninety quadrats along three distinct transects (including Jiulong Creek, Hangxia Creek, and Yuquan Creek) were selected and investigated for a comprehensive investigation by both transect and quadrat survey methods. The results showed that 1) In the forest-creek ecotone of the Dehang Geopark, there were a total of 141 species belonging to 102 genera and 51 families of herbaceous plants, with the Asteraceae family being the most dominant, followed by Urticaceae and Lamiaceae; 2) The herba-ceous species in the forest-creek ecotone were characterized by undivided, papery, medium-sized, simple, and alternate leaves. The leaves along Jiulong Creek transect were mostly hairless on both sides, while those along Hangxia Creek and Yuquan Creek transects were with trichomes on both sides. They all possessed the functional traits of typical subtropical plant leaves; 3) The herbaceous species had reproductive traits such as dioecious flowers, axillary and terminal inflorescences, cyme, achenes and capsules, and wind-dispersed seeds, with the flowering period mainly from April to September and the fruiting period mainly from July to October; 4) All the Shannon-Wiener, Simpson, and Pielou indices showed the highest values along the Jiulong Creek transect, followed by the Hangxia Creek transect, and then the Yuquan Creek transect; 5) Both the dissimilarity coefficient and Cody index displayed a consistent pattern, with the lowest values between the Jiulong Creek and Hangxia Creek transects, and the highest values between the Yuquan Creek and Jiulong Creek transects. All of these could provide theoretical basis for the conservation and rational utilization of herbaceous resources in Hunan Dehang Geopark.
During 2022 to 2023, the diversity of amphibians and reptiles was investigated in the Gaowangjie National Nature Reserve of Hunan Province by the sample line method, and their faunal characteristics were analyzed. A total of 60 species of amphibians and reptiles were recorded, belonging to 44 genera, 19 fami-lies, and 3 orders, among which one species was identified as a new record for Hunan Province and one species was recognized as a novel species. The faunal composition was dominated by Oriental species, fo-llowed by widespread species. Further analysis showed that the Shannon-Wiener index, Pielou index, and Simpson index of amphibians and reptiles in the Gaowangjie National Nature Reserve were all low, sugges-ting that the protection of these organisms urgently needs to be strengthened. Through this survey, a deeper grasp of the current status of amphibian and reptile resources in Gaowangjie National Nature Reserve was obtained, benefiting systematic geographic research and protection of the animals.
In order to understand and grasp the status of amphibian and reptile resources in Xinshao County, a series of field surveys and literature inquiries were carried out from May 2022 to April 2023. A total of 21 species of amphibians belonging to 2 orders and 7 families, and 28 species of reptiles belonging to 1 order and 8 families were recorded. Among them, there were 27 Oriental species, accounting for 55.10%, and there were 22 widespread species, accounting for 44.90%. What’s more, the reptile Tropidophorus guangxien-sis hongjiangensis and Achalinus sheni were recorded in this investigation, indicating that Xinshao County is another distribution area of the two species (subspecies). This would contribute to the study of the taxonomic systematics and phylogeography of the two species (subspecies). The study reported the basic resource status of amphibians and reptiles in Xinshao County and could provide data support for the relevant departments to carry out subsequent biodiversity conservation and development program.
The source of the high levels of plant hormones in gall-inducing insects remains unknown at pre-sent. In order to explore the potential effect of bacteria on auxin synthesis in Drycosmusk kuriphilus, two strains of bacteria in D. kuriphilus, namely Bacillus sp. and Sphingobacterium sp. respectively, were isolated by the agar plate culture method. The whole genome sequence of Bacillus strain DK01 was determined and assembled using the second-generation sequencing (Illumina HiSeq) and third-generation single-molecule sequencing (PacBio), and the genes related to auxin synthesis were analyzed. The results showed that the to-tal length of the Bacillus DK01 genome was 4 244 232 bp with a 64.53% GC content. There were 3 773 protein-coding regions in the genome, and the auxin synthesis-related enzymes including aldehyde dehydro-genase, amidase, and nitrile hydrolase proved to be encoded.
Medical microbiology is the core course of medical specialty, with abundant theoretical and prac-tical knowledge. And the course content is also rich in ideological and political elements and many valuable knowledge points for morality education. According to the graduation standards required by the curriculum and combined with the student feedback, the concept of outcome-based education (OBE) was introduced into the ideological and political teaching of this course. The reform consisted of three aspects: setting up teaching objectives based on learning outcomes, changing teaching strategies to achieve learning outcomes, and evalua-ting learning outcomes to promote continuous improvement, thus forming a closed-loop ideological and po-litical education system based on OBE. The teaching results showed that the students’ satisfaction with the teaching content, method and assessment exceeded 85%. This teaching model may be used in the teaching reform of other professional courses, so as to expand to a “professional course ideological and political tea-ching group” to improve the universality of the ideological and political education in class.
Bioproducts is a new independent discipline centered on modern biotechnology, and research achievements in the field of bioproducts have played an important role in the prevention, treatment and diag-nosis of serious and epidemic diseases worldwide. In order to cultivate innovative biotechnology talents, a combined flipped classroom and team-based learning (FC-TBL) teaching mode was explored in the course bioproducts, which contained “independent exploration + team cooperation + teacher-student discussion” based on the internet plus learning platform. Herein, the experience of teaching practice is summarized from three aspects, including teaching design, construction of teaching resource platform and establishment of teaching evaluation system, hoping to provide reference for relevant teaching research.
As an important basic course for biology major, microbiology plays an important role in the training system of biological engineering talents in colleges and universities. In order to meet the needs of training international engineering talents, it is important to improve the teaching effect in microbiology course, and make students skilled enough in research and practice to keep up with the pace of discipline development. In the course of microbiology teaching, a set of teaching methods were constructed, including learning achievement testing, continuous feedback and improvement, and teaching method reform, which are based on outcome-based education (OBE) concept and focused on the learning outcomes and needs of students them-selves. The established curriculum training system proved initially effective.
With the rapid development of technology and the increasing integration of biological knowledge and social environment, it is necessary to constantly update teaching content and methods for adapting to the changes and needs of the times in high school biology teaching. Herein, the teaching strategy of introducing the Toulmin’s argument model into the teaching of socioscientific issues (SSI) (issues regarding science, tech-nology and society) in high school biology is discussed, aiming to improve teaching effectiveness and culti-vate students’ core competencies. Through a carefully designed teaching framework that combines SSI with the Toulmin’s argument model, a stable and efficient teaching mode was established. The application of this teaching framework is described in detail using “organ transplantation” as a specific case. The established teaching method proved to provide valuable reference for high school biology teaching, helping students gain science literacy in biology and improve comprehensive capabilities.
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