Project description:Pyrosequencing analysis of the school children salivary microbiome from Han, Tibetan, and Hui ethnics in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau
Project description:Global warming substantially changes precipitation patterns in the Tibetan plateau, with projection of increased precipitation in southern and northern Tibet but decreased precipitation in the center. Understanding mechanisms of such changes in greenhouse gas emissions is of vital importance in predicting ecosystem feedbacks to climate changes. Nonetheless, it has been hampered by limited knowledge in soil microbial communities, one of the major drivers of greenhouse gas emission. Here, we report a field experiment simulating drying and wetting conditions in the Tibetan grassland. Our field site is located at the Haibei Alpine Grassland Ecosystem Research Station in the northeast of Tibet Plateau, China, and we employed GeoChip 5.0 180K to analyze microbial responses. 18 samples were collected from 3 plots in Haibei Station, with 6 replicates in each plot
Project description:Global warming substantially changes precipitation patterns in the Tibetan plateau, with projection of increased precipitation in southern and northern Tibet but decreased precipitation in the center. Understanding mechanisms of such changes in greenhouse gas emissions is of vital importance in predicting ecosystem feedbacks to climate changes. Nonetheless, it has been hampered by limited knowledge in soil microbial communities, one of the major drivers of greenhouse gas emission. Here, we report a field experiment simulating drying and wetting conditions in the Tibetan grassland. Our field site is located at the Haibei Alpine Grassland Ecosystem Research Station in the northeast of Tibet Plateau, China, and we employed GeoChip 5.0 180K to analyze microbial responses.
Project description:We tested a hypothesis that prenatal alcohol exposure may lead to epigenetic alterations to the DNA resulting in attentional and cognitive alterations of the children. 6-9 year old children school children of the Franconian Cognition and Emotion Studies (FRANCES) cohort which were tested for an objective marker of PAE, ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in meconium at birth. 32 newborns were found to be exposed to alcohol with a threshold above 30 ng/g (EtG+) but without a FAS diagnosis. DNA for methylation analysis was extracted from buccal cells, DNA methylation was analyzed using the Infinium Human Methylation 450K BeadChip array (Illumina).
Project description:Injury occurring during critical periods of development may have long-term effects on inflammatory responses. Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) is the most common cause of cerebral palsy (CP) in preterm infant. Activated leukocytes are the main source of inflammatory cytokines that give rise to white matter damage and CP in preterm infant. Here, we tested the hypothesis that inflammation profiles as pathogenic mediators for the occurrence of PVL in the neonatal period may persist in preterm children with CP at school age. Five preterm children with PVL-induced CP and gestational age-matched five preterm children with normal neurodevelopment were recruited from follow up clinics. Proinflammatory gene expression in the PBMCs from preterm children were determined by Superarray PCR study.
Project description:Injury occurring during critical periods of development may have long-term effects on inflammatory responses. Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) is the most common cause of cerebral palsy (CP) in preterm infant. Activated leukocytes are the main source of inflammatory cytokines that give rise to white matter damage and CP in preterm infant. Here, we tested the hypothesis that inflammation profiles as pathogenic mediators for the occurrence of PVL in the neonatal period may persist in preterm children with CP at school age.
Project description:Tibetan's adaptation to high-altitude environment at the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau represents a remarkable case of natural selection during recent human evolution. We generated time series paired RNAseq, ATACseq and Hi-C data in Tibetan and Han Chinese's umbilical endothelial cells from normoxia to hypoxia condition. Our results provide a broad resource of genome-wide hypoxia regulatory network to characterize the effect of genetic variation in high-altitude adaptation, and indicates large-scale maps of variants need proper cell types to understand its act on gene regulation.
Project description:<p>Due to a unique adaptation to high altitude, the Tibetan Plateau population has been the subject of much research interest. In this study, we conducted whole genome sequencing of 27 Tibetan individuals. Through our analysis, we inferred a detailed history of demography and revealed the natural selection of Tibetan population. We provided evidence of genetic separation between the two subpopulations of Han and Tibetans as early as 44 to 58 thousand years ago, replicated previously reported high altitude adaptation genes, including <i>EPAS1</i> and <i>EGLN1</i>, and reported three new candidate genes, including <i>PTGIS</i>, <i>VDR</i>, and <i>KCTD12</i>.</p>