• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.311-317
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• 2021

The present study reports a rare case of Taenia saginata infection, which was initially diagnosed as acute cholecystitis in a Tibetan patient at the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau pastoral area, China. A 45-year-old female was initially diagnosed with acute cholecystitis at a hospital in China. She had a slight fever, weight loss and constipation and complained of pain in the upper abdomen and left back areas. Increase of monocyte, eosinophil and basophil levels were shown. Taenia sp. eggs were detected in a fecal examination. An adult tapeworm approximately 146 cm in length, whitish-yellow color, was collected from the patient after treatment with traditional Chinese medicine. The adult tapeworm had a scolex and proglottids with genital pores. The scolex was rectangular shape with 4 suckers and rostellum without hooklet. The cox1 gene sequence shared 99.5-99.8% homology with that of T. saginata from other regions in China. The patient was diagnosed finally infected with T. saginata by morphological and molecular charateristics.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.645-652
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• 2016

Toxocara vitulorum has been rarely reported in yaks at high altitudes and remote areas of Sichuan Province of Tibetan Plateau of China. The current study was designed to investigate the prevalence, associated risk factors, and phylogenetic characteristics of T. vitulorum in yak calves on the Qinghai Tibetan plateau. Fecal samples were collected from 891 yak calves and were examined for the presence of T. vitulorum eggs by the McMaster technique. A multivariable logistic regression model was employed to explore variables potentially associated with exposure to T. vitulorum infection. T. vitulorum specimens were collected from the feces of yaks in Hongyuan of Sichuan Province, China. DNA was extracted from ascaris. After PCR amplification, the sequencing of ND1 gene was carried out and phylogenetic analyses was performed by MEGA 6.0 software. The results showed that 64 (20.1%; 95% CI 15.8-24.9%), 75 (17.2; 13.8-21.1), 29 (40.9; 29.3-53.2), and 5 (7.6; 2.5-16.8) yak calves were detected out to excrete T. vitulorum eggs in yak calve feces in Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, and Gansu, respectively. The present study revealed that high infection and mortality by T. vitulorum is wildly spread on the Qinghai Tibetan plateau, China by fecal examination. Geographical origin, ages, and fecal consistencies are the risk factors associated with T. vitulorum prevalence by logistic regression analysis. Molecular detection and phylogenetic analysis of ND1 gene of T. vitulorum indicated that T. vitulorum in the yak calves on the Qinghai Tibetan plateau are homologous to preveiously studies reported.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.429-442
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• 2017

Dry bridges have been widely applied in the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) to minimize the thermal disturbance of engineering to the permafrost. However, because the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is an area with a high potential occurrence of earthquakes, seismic action can easily destroy the dry bridges. Therefore, a three-dimensional numerical model, with consideration of the soil-pile interactions, is established to investigate the thermal characteristics and their impact on the seismic response of the dry bridge in permafrost region along the QTR. The numerical results indicate that there exist significant differences in the lateral displacement, shear force, and bending moment of the piles in different thermal conditions under seismic action. When the active layer become from unfrozen to frozen state, the maximum displacement of the bridge pile reduces, and the locations of the zero and peak values of the shear force and bending moment also change. It is found that although the higher stiffness of frozen soil confines the lateral displacement of the pile, compared with unfrozen soil, it has an adverse effect on the earthquake energy dissipation capacity.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2023.04a
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• pp.15-15
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• 2023

The chloroplast (cp) is an autonomous plant organelle with an individual genome that codes for essential cellular functions. The architecture and gene content of the cp genome is highly conserved in angiosperms. The plastome of Corydalis belongs to the Papaveraceae family, and the genome is comprised of unusual rearrangements and gene content. Thus far, no extensive comparative studies have been carried out to understand the evolution of Corydalis chloroplast genomes. Therefore, the Corydalis platycarpa cp genome was sequenced, and wide-scale comparative studies were conducted using publicly available twenty Corydalis plastomes. Comparative analyses showed that an extensive genome rearrangement and IR expansion occurred, and these events evolved independently in the Corydalis species. In addition, the protein-coding genes accD and the ndh gene loss events occurred in the common ancestor of the Corydalis and sub-clade of the Corydalis lineage, respectively. The gene ndh lost in the Corydalis-sub clade species is distributed predominantly in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau (QTP) region. The molecular clock analysis suggests that the divergence time of all the ndh gene lost Corydalis sub-clade species occurred in the 44.31 - 15.71 mya. These results coincide very well with the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the Oligocene and Miocene periods, and maybe during this period, it probably triggered the radiation of the Corydalis species. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first large-scale comparative study of Corydalis plastomes and their evolution. The present study may provide insights into the plastome architecture and the molecular evolution of Corydalis species.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2015

Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) play a pivotal role in regulating cellular hypoxic response. In this study, we cloned and characterized the genes encoding IGF-1 and IGFBP-1 to improve the current knowledge on their roles in highland Bos grunniens (Yak). We also compared their expression levels in the liver and kidney tissues between yaks and lowland cattle. We obtained full-length 465 bp IGF-1 and 792 bp IGFBP-1, encoding 154 amino acids (AA) IGF-1, and 263 AA IGFBP-1 protein, respectively using reverse transcriptase-polyerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technology. Analysis of their corresponding amino acid sequences showed a high identity between B. grunniens and lowland mammals. Moreover, the two genes were proved to be widely distributed in the examined tissues through expression pattern analysis. Real-time PCR results revealed that IGF-1 expression was higher in the liver and kidney tissues in B. grunniens than in Bos taurus (p<0.05). The IGFBP-1 gene was expressed at a higher level in the liver (p<0.05) of B. taurus than B. grunniens, but it has a similar expression level in the kidneys of the two species. These results indicated that upregulated IGF-1 and downregulated IGFBP-1 are associated with hypoxia adaptive response in B. grunniens.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.137-148
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• 2000

This paper is based on the 9 goat colonies along the middle and lower Yellow River valley and 7 local goat colonies in the Northeast, Tibet and the Yangtze valley. After collecting the same data about the 22 goat colonies in China and other countries, it establishes and composes the matrix of fuzzy similarity relation describing the genetic similarities of different colonies. It also clusters 38 colonies according to their phylogenetic relationship. The establishment of the matrix and the cluster are effected in terms of the frequency of 18 loci and 43 allelomorphs in blood enzyme and other protein variations. The study proves that the middle Yellow River valley is one of the taming and disseminating centers of domestic goats in the South and East of Central Asia. Compared with other goat populations in this vast area, the native goat populations in the west of Mongolian Plateau, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the middle Yellow River valley share the same origin. The colonies in the lower Yellow River valley and those in the middle valley, however, are relatively remote in their phylogenetic relationship. The native goat colonies in the southeast of Central Asia can be classified into two genetic groups: "East Asia" and "South Asia" and the colonies in Southeast Asia belong to either group.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.97-109
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• 2022

Species are facing strong selection pressures to adapt to inhospitable high-altitude environments. Yaks are a valuable species and an iconic symbol of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Extensive studies of high-altitude adaptation have been conducted, but few have focused on metabolism. In the present study, we determined the differences in the serum metabolomics between yaks and the closely related species of low-altitude yellow cattle and dairy cows. We generated high-quality metabolite profiling data for 36 samples derived from the three species, and a clear separation trend was obtained between yaks and the other animals from principal component analysis. In addition, we identified a total of 63 differentially expressed metabolites among the three species. Functional analysis revealed that differentially expressed metabolites were related to the innate immune activation, oxidative stress-related metabolism, and energy metabolism in yaks, which indicates the important roles of metabolites in high-altitude adaptation in yaks. The results provide new insights into the mechanism of adaptation or acclimatization to high-altitude environments in yaks and hypoxia-related diseases in humans.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.504-520
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• 2020

Proliferation of shrubs at the expense of native forage in pastures has been associated with large changes in dry-matter intake and dietary components for grazing ruminants. These changes can also affect the animals' physiology and metabolism. However, little information is available concerning the effect of pastoral-shrub grazing on the rumen bacterial community. To explore rumen bacteria composition in grazing yaks and the response of rumen bacteria to increasing shrub coverage in alpine meadows, 48 yak steers were randomly assigned to four pastures with shrub coverage of 0%, 5.4%, 11.3%, and 20.1% (referred as control, low, middle, and high, respectively), and ruminal fluid was collected from four yaks from each pasture group after 85 days. Rumen fermentation products were measured and microbiota composition determined using Ion S5™ XL sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and similarity analysis indicated that the degree of shrub coverage correlated with altered rumen bacterial composition of yaks grazing in alpine shrub meadows. At the phyla level, the relative abundance of Firmicutes in rumen increased with increasing shrub coverage, whereas the proportions of Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria and Verrucomicrobia decreased. Yaks grazing in the high shrub-coverage pasture had decreased species of the genus Prevotellaceae UCG-001, Lachnospiraceae XPB1014 group, Lachnospiraceae AC2044 group, Lachnospiraceae FCS020 group and Fretibacterium, but increased species of Christensenellaceae R-7 group, Ruminococcaceae NK4A214 group, Ruminococcus 1, Ruminococcaceae UCG-002, Ruminococcaceae UCG-005 and Lachnospiraceae UCG-008. These variations can enhance the animals' utilization efficiencies of cellulose and hemicellulose from native forage. Meanwhile, yaks grazed in the high shrub-coverage pasture had increased concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N) and branched-chain volatile fatty acids (isobutyrate and isovalerate) in rumen compared with yaks grazing in the pasture without shrubs. These results indicate that yaks grazing in a high shrub-coverage pasture may have improved dietary energy utilization and enhanced resistance to cold stress during the winter. Our findings provide evidence for the influence of shrub coverage on the rumen bacterial community of yaks grazing in alpine meadows as well as insights into the sustainable production of grazing yaks on lands with increasing shrub coverage on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.1027-1036
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• 2020

Stipa purpurea is a unique and dominant herbaceous plant species in the alpine steppe and meadows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). In this work, we analyzed the composition and diversity of the culturable endophytic fungi in S. purpurea according to morphological and molecular identification. Then, we investigated the bioactivities of these fungi against plant pathogenic fungi and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACCD) deaminase activities. A total of 323 fungal isolates were first isolated from S. purpurea, and 33 fungal taxa were identified by internal transcribed spacer primers and grouped into Ascomycota. The diversity of endophytic fungi in S. purpurea was significantly higher in roots as compared to leaves. In addition, more than 40% of the endophytic fungi carried the gene encoding for the ACCD gene. The antibiosis assay demonstrated that 29, 35, 28, 37 and 34 isolates (43.9, 53.1, 42.4, 56.1, and 51.5%) were antagonistic to five plant pathogenic fungi, respectively. Our study provided the first assessment of the diversity of culture-depending endophytic fungi of S. purpurea, demonstrated the potential application of ACCD activity and antifungal activities with potential benefits to the host plant, and contributed to high biomass production and adaptation of S. purpurea to an adverse environment.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1466-1478
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• 2021

Objective: Ruminants are completely dependent on their microbiota for rumen fermentation, feed digestion, and consequently, their metabolism for productivity. This study aimed to evaluate the rumen bacteria of lactating yaks with different milk protein yields, using high-throughput sequencing technology, in order to understand the influence of these bacteria on milk production. Methods: Yaks with similar high milk protein yield (high milk yield and high milk protein content, HH; n = 12) and low milk protein yield (low milk yield and low milk protein content, LL; n = 12) were randomly selected from 57 mid-lactation yaks. Ruminal contents were collected using an oral stomach tube from the 24 yaks selected. High-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene was used. Results: Ruminal ammonia N, total volatile fatty acids, acetate, propionate, and isobutyrate concentrations were found to be higher in HH than LL yaks. Community richness (Chao 1 index) and diversity indices (Shannon index) of rumen microbiota were higher in LL than HH yaks. Relative abundances of the Bacteroidetes and Tenericutes phyla in the rumen fluid were significantly increased in HH than LL yaks, but significantly decreased for Firmicutes. Relative abundances of the Succiniclasticum, Butyrivibrio 2, Prevotella 1, and Prevotellaceae UCG-001 genera in the rumen fluid of HH yaks was significantly increased, but significantly decreased for Christensenellaceae R-7 group and Coprococcus 1. Principal coordinates analysis on unweighted UniFrac distances revealed that the bacterial community structure of rumen differed between yaks with high and low milk protein yields. Furthermore, rumen microbiota were functionally enriched in relation to transporters, ABC transporters, ribosome, and urine metabolism, and also significantly altered in HH and LL yaks. Conclusion: We observed significant differences in the composition, diversity, fermentation product concentrations, and function of ruminal microorganisms between yaks with high and low milk protein yields, suggesting the potential influence of rumen microbiota on milk protein yield in yaks. A deeper understanding of this process may allow future modulation of the rumen microbiome for improved agricultural yield through bacterial community design.