Research Progress

• Genomic Attributes Explained by Certain Life History Traits in Neoavian Birds

  Mutations are the raw material of evolution. For example, a single change in an DNA base pair can cause a protein molecule to lose its function, with potentially major effects on the overall organism. However, mutations—and especially the ones that do not have major effects—can also provide a roadmap for understanding if there is a pattern of the evolution of genomic attributes such as nucleotide substitutions.

  Sep 05, 2022
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  Researchers Engineer A Novel Sustainable Karyotype In Mice

  Evolutionary chromosomal changes may take a million years in nature, but researchers are now reporting a novel technique enabling programmable chromosome fusion that has successfully produced mice with genetic changes that occur on a million-year evolutionary scale in the laboratory. The result may provide critical insight into how rearrangements of chromosomes – the tidy packages of organized genes, provided in equal number from each parent, which align and trade or blend traits to produce offspring – influence evolution. In results published today (Aug. 26) in Science, the researchers reveal that chromosome level engineering can be achieved in mammal, and they successfully derived laboratory house mouse with novel and sustainable karyotype, providing critical insight into how chromosomal rearrangements may influence evolution.

  Aug 26, 2022
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  Researchers Reveal the Balancing Mechanisms of Plant Immunity and Growth Mediated by lncRNAs

  In response to different biotic stresses, terrestrial plants have evolved complex and powerful immune systems. However, the persistent activation of the immune system would seriously damage plant development and growth. To balance immune responses and fitness costs, plant immunity is tightly controlled under normal conditions and quickly activated upon pathogen infection. The underlying molecular mechanisms in balancing plant immunity and growth are still poorly understood. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of RNAs (> 200 nt) that lack functional open reading frames (ORFs). Although the biological functions of a few lncRNAs in plant development have been revealed, how these lncRNAs with low expression effectively modulate diverse biological processes, including plant immune responses, remain largely unknown.

  Aug 07, 2022
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  IoZ/CAS found that the population of the Critically Endangered Hainan gibbon increased, but its reproductive potential is not fully realized

  Gibbons are our close relatives. Thus their living status is highly concerned to human beings. Hainan gibbon is an endemic species in China and is only distributed in the Bawangling area of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, China.

  Jul 14, 2022
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  Old Mice, Young Milieu: Understanding How Aged Stem Cells Are Revitalized for Systemic Rejuvenation

  Aging is a process of systemic degeneration involving a variety of tissues and organs in the whole body and is characterized by gradual reduction of regenerative ability and functional decline. In trying to understand the aging process, and more importantly, in pursuit to reverse it, scientists have developed a technique called heterochronic parabiosis (HP), which surgically connects the circulatory systems of a young and old animal, thus providing a unique paradigm for evaluating how tissues and organs respond to the opposite milieu at a systemic level.

  May 30, 2022
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  Increase in Chromatin Entropy Drives Cellular Aging, Say Researchers

  At the center of every cell, highly organized chromatin encodes the program of life with just one set of genes. This is possible because different genes are activated at different stages of life while remaining silent otherwise. Some genes for previous stage of life are buried deep at the nuclear periphery, while some manage to escape from repression.

  May 30, 2022
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  APOE destabilizes heterochromatin and drives senescence

  Prof. Guang-hui Liu and his colleagues from the Institute of Zoology and the Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have collaborated to reveal a novel role of APOE in destabilizing heterochromatin and driving senescence in human stem cells, which was published in Nature Aging on March 28th, 2022.

  Mar 29, 2022
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  Researchers Reveal a Novel Role of AGO Proteins in Regulating Protein Quality Control on ER

  The miRNA-mediated gene silencing and the ubiquitin-mediated protein quality control represent two fundamental mechanisms for controlling gene expression. However, little is about how these two processes are coupled to regulate gene expression. In the recent issue of Molecular Cell (11 a.m. ET on 23 March, 2022), Qinmiao Sun lab from Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dahua Chen lab from Yunnan University discovered that Argonaute proteins (AGOs) on the ER play a novel role in regulating protein quality control via lipid-mediated phase separation, substantially coupling post-transcriptional gene silencing and protein quality control processes to ensure efficient gene silencing.

  Mar 24, 2022
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  Researchers reveal a new role of circadian protein BMAL1 in antagonizing aging in primates

  Circadian rhythms regulate sleep-wake cycles, metabolism, immune function, and reproduction in mammals. These processes are coordinated by the circadian clock, a biochemical oscillator that integrates physiological input signals with distinct oscillatory phases to regulate rhythms in organismal physiology, behavior, and metabolism. Accumulating evidence indicates that aging in mammals is intricately linked with alterations in circadian rhythms. However, whether and how the circadian machinery directly regulates stem cell aging, especially in primates, remains poorly understood.

  Mar 16, 2022
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  Researchers identify an endogenous metabolite that promotes multiple tissue regeneration and delays aging

  Regeneration is an important process of rejuvenating or replacing damaged, diseased, or aged tissues. Regenerative capacity declines with evolution and age. For example, salamanders in lower animals have the complete regenerative capacity in limbs, while in most mammals including humans, limited regeneration and functional recovery capabilities reside in young tissues and decline with age. To date, the molecular mechanism underlying the declined regenerative capacity with evolution and age remains poorly understood. Unlike proteins that are biomacromolecules, the structure of metabolites is relatively similar between species, which makes metabolism an ideal research area for studying evolutionarily conserved biology. Yet, little is known about the small-molecule metabolites that potentially regulate aging and regeneration processes.

  Feb 07, 2022