Project description:Atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM2.5) causes severe haze in China and is regarded as a threat to human health. The health effects of PM2.5 vary location by location due to the variation in size distribution, chemical com position, and sources. In this study, the cytotoxicity effect, oxidative stress, and gene expression regulation of PM2.5 in Chengdu and Chongqing, two typical urban areas in southern China, were evaluated. Urban PM2.5 in summer and winter significantly inhibited cell viability and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in A549 cells. Notably, PM2.5 in winter exhibited higher cytotoxicity and ROS level than summer. Moreover, in this study, PM2.5 commonly induced cancer-related gene expression such as cell adhesion molecule 1(PECAM1), interleukin 24 (IL24), and cytochrome P450 (CYP1A1); meanwhile, PM2.5 commonly acted on cancer-related biological functions such as cell-substrate junction, cell-cell junction, and focal adhesion. In partic ular, PM2.5 in Chengdu in summer had the highest carcinogenic potential among PM2.5 at the two sites in summer and winter. Importantly, cancer-related genes were uniquely targeted by PM2.5, such as epithelial splicing regu latory protein 1 (ESRP1) and membrane-associated ring-CH-type finger 1 (1-Mar) by Chengdu summer PM2.5; collagen type IX alpha 3 chain (COL9A3) by Chengdu winter PM2.5; SH2 domain-containing 1B (SH2D1B) by Chongqing summer PM2.5; and interleukin 1 receptor-like 1 (IL1RL1) and zinc finger protein 42 (ZNF423) by Chongqing winter PM2.5. Meanwhile, important cancer-related biological functions were specially induced by PM2.5, such as cell cycle checkpoint by Chengdu summer PM2.5; macromolecule methylation by Chengdu win ter PM2.5; endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi intermediate compartment membrane by Chongqing summer PM2.5;and cellular lipid catabolic process by Chongqing winter PM2.5. Conclusively, in the typical urban areas of southern China, both summer and winter PM2.5 illustrated significant gene regulation effects. This study contrib utes to evaluating the adverse health effects of PM2.5 in southern China and providing public health suggestions for policymakers.

Project description:Air pollutants including particulate matter (PM) and chemicals adsorbed onto PM pose a serious threat to human health. In this study, we analyzed the ability of PM to induce diverse gene expression profile modulation after chronic exposure in subjects living in two regions of the Czech Republic differing in levels and sources of the air pollution. We also considered impact of different seasonal conditions on concentrations and compositions of PM. Blood samples of 312 subjects from polluted Ostrava city and 154 controls from Prague city were collected in winter 2009, summer 2009 and winter 2010. The highest concentrations of air pollutants were detected in winter 2010 when the subjects were exposed to: PM of aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 M-BM-5m (70 vs. 44.9 M-BM-5g/m3); benzo[a]pyrene (9.02 vs. 2.56 ng/m3) and benzene (10.2 vs. 5.5 M-BM-5g/m3) in Ostrava and Prague, respectively. Global gene expression analysis of total RNA extracted from leukocytes was performed using whole genome microarrays (Illumina). The expression of selected genes was verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Despite lower concentrations of air pollutants we found a higher number of differentially expressed genes and affected KEGG pathways in subjects from Prague. In both locations we observed differences between seasons. The qRT-PCR analysis showed a significant decrease in expression of APEX, ATM, FAS, GSTM1, IL1B and RAD21 in subjects from Ostrava, in a comparison of winter 2010 and summer 2009. In Prague, an increase in gene expression was observed for GADD45A and PTGS2. In conclusion, high concentrations of pollutants in Ostrava do not increase the number of differentially expressed genes. This may be explained by adaption of humans to chronic exposure to air pollution. Total RNA was extracted from leukocytes of total of 154 control subjects and 312 subjects exposed to heavy air pollution. The samples were collected in three seasons (winter 2009, summer 2009, winter 2010) with different levels of air pollution. Most of the subjects were sampled repeatedly; however, some of them joined the study in summer 2009 or winter 2010.

Project description:Winter survival and maintenance strategy is crucial in temperate woody plants. Here, we demonstrate novel aspects of the transcriptional regulations adopted by perennial tree species in winter/dormancy, employing a biochemical and whole transcriptome analysis. As expected, genes related to cold hardiness and defense are over-represented. Interestingly, carbohydrate biosynthesis and transport-related genes were very actively expressed in winter/dormancy. Further biochemical analyses verified the dormancy/winter transcription phenotype. Furthermore, dormancy/winter preferential expression of genes involved in the cell wall biosynthesis/modification, circadian rhythm, the indirect transcriptional regulation (RNA metabolism), and chromatin modification/remodeling were identified. Taken together, regulation of gene expression in the winter survival and maintenance may include not only controlled by promoter binding transcription factors but may also be regulated at the post-transcriptional and chromatin levels. In the first step towards the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying the winter survival and maintenance of perennial trees, we examined the characteristics of transcription phenotype of the dormancy/winter stem compared to the active growth/summer stem by using a whole transcriptome analysis (GeneChip Poplar Genome Array; Affymetrix). Poplar Genome Array has a total of 61,251 probe sets, representing 57,423 poplar gene models, and allows us to interrogate a total of 41,558 unique gene models because of the probe set redundancy. Slight redundancy of the probe sets within a single chip gave us a unique opportunity to have internal comparisons of the particular genes. Very high reproducibility (R2 > 0.97) between the replicated samples was found. Further confirmation of the GeneChip data was made by semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis using several genes showing the summer or winter biased expression. Based on these results, further analysis of winter stem transcriptome against summer stem was performed.

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Soil metagenome

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