Project description:Fish in use in aquaculture display large variation in gamete biology. To reach better understanding around this issue, this study aims at identifying if “egg life history traits” can be hidden in egg transcriptomes. To pursue this, salmon and cod eggs were selected due to their largely differencing phenotypes (size, robustness, fresh/marine). An oligo microarray analysis was performed on ovulated eggs from cod (~23 000 genes, n=8) and salmon (~44 000 genes, n=7). The arrays were normalized to a similar spectrum for both arrays. Both arrays were re-annotated based on official gene symbol to retrieve an orthologous KEGG annotation, in salmon and cod arrays this represented 14009 and 7437 genes respectively. The probe linked to the highest gene expression for that particular KEGG annotation was used to compare expression between species. Differential expression was calculated for genes that had an annotation with score > 300, resulting in a total of 2354 KEGG annotations (genes) being differently expressed between the species. The most differentially expressed genes in salmon and cod (FD≥2), were used to reveal pathways that were overrepresented in the eggs of each species. This analysis revealed that immune, signal transduction, and excretory related pathways were overrepresented in salmon compared to cod. The most overrepresented pathways in cod were related to regulation of genetic information processing and metabolism. To conclude this analysis clearly point at some distinct transcriptome repertoires for cod and salmon and that these differences may explain some of the species-specific biological features for salmon and cod eggs.
Project description:Expanded polystyrene (EPS) bead lightweight soil composites are a new type of artificial geotechnical material with low density and high strength characteristics that can be widely used in engineering projects. To promote the wide application of EPS bead lightweight soil in engineering, when slag is used to replace part of the cement as a binding agent, it can better improve the effect of soil and reduce engineering costs. The mechanical properties of EPS lightweight soil mixed with slag were analyzed by conducting an unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test and triaxial test on lightweight soil with different EPS bead contents and slag contents. The particle sizes of the EPS beads are 1~3 mm, the EPS contents are 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4%, and the slag-cement composite binding agents are 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%. The results show that the UCS decreases significantly with increasing EPS bead content at different EPS bead contents and slag contents; the UCS of the specimen with 30% slag content is the largest; and the UCS of lightweight soil without slag is comparable to that of lightweight soil with a slag content of approximately 60%. The peak stress in triaxial increases with increasing confining pressure, and the modulus of deformation decreases linearly with increasing EPS bead content. the slag-cement composite binding agent has a significantly better reinforcing effect than single mixed cement. The stress‒strain curves of EPS lightweight soil mixed with slag exhibits hardening and softening characteristics. EPS bead content and slag content determine the stress‒strain characteristics of the EPS lightweight soil mixed with slag. The macromechanical properties based on the microscopic mechanism of the EPS lightweight soil mixed with slag shows that different slag contents affect the failure pattern of EPS lightweight soil mixed with slag. The research results can provide a reference for engineering design and application.
Project description:Fish in use in aquaculture display large variation in gamete biology. To reach better understanding around this issue, this study aims at identifying if M-bM-^@M-^\egg life history traitsM-bM-^@M-^] can be hidden in egg transcriptomes. To pursue this, salmon and cod eggs were selected due to their largely differencing phenotypes (size, robustness, fresh/marine). An oligo microarray analysis was performed on ovulated eggs from cod (~23M-BM- 000 genes, n=8) and salmon (~44M-BM- 000 genes, n=7). The arrays were normalized to a similar spectrum for both arrays. Both arrays were re-annotated based on official gene symbol to retrieve an orthologous KEGG annotation, in salmon and cod arrays this represented 14009 and 7437 genes respectively. The probe linked to the highest gene expression for that particular KEGG annotation was used to compare expression between species. Differential expression was calculated for genes that had an annotation with score > 300, resulting in a total of 2354 KEGG annotations (genes) being differently expressed between the species. The most differentially expressed genes in salmon and cod (FDM-bM-^IM-%2), were used to reveal pathways that were overrepresented in the eggs of each species. This analysis revealed that immune, signal transduction, and excretory related pathways were overrepresented in salmon compared to cod. The most overrepresented pathways in cod were related to regulation of genetic information processing and metabolism. To conclude this analysis clearly point at some distinct transcriptome repertoires for cod and salmon and that these differences may explain some of the species-specific biological features for salmon and cod eggs. 16 samples
Project description:In this project we establish the unit cell of fibrin polymer network by using of XL-MS methods and modelling approaches. With shotgun proteomics approach we estimate the ratio of proteins in the purified Fibrin Clots and ratio of Albumin inter- and intralinks
Project description:Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) play a crucial role in the aggregation of partial denitrification (PD) consortia, as EPS is closely linked to bioreactor performance. However, the structural and compositional properties of EPS from PD consortia have not yet been investigated. In this study, photometric measurements indicated that PD consortia contained significantly more EPS (168.81 ± 2.10 mg/g VSS) compared to conventional activated sludge (79.79 mg/g VSS). The EPS of PD consortia exhibited a significant predominance of proteins over polysaccharides, with a protein/polysaccharide ratio of 1.43 ± 0.10. FTIR analysis revealed that the EPS of PD consortia contained fewer hydrophilic functional groups, particularly carboxyl and carbonyl groups, indicating a high aggregation potential. The content comparison of EPS and functional groups across three stratified EPS subfractions from PD consortia consistently followed the sequence: TB-EPS > LB-EPS > S-EPS. XPS results corroborated the FTIR findings and the protein/polysaccharide ratio determined by photometric measurements, all of which suggested that the EPS of PD consortia exhibited a higher abundance of hydrophobic functional groups. However, the higher α-helix/(β-sheet + random coil) ratio (0.99) suggested that the proteins in PD consortia had a compact structure, making inner hydrophobic groups difficult to expose. This compact protein structure could limit aggregation among bacterial cells, indicating the need for process optimization to enhance sludge aggregation in PD-related processes. Overall, understanding the aggregation characteristics of PD consortia could improve the application of PD-based processes.
Project description:The aim of the exposure was to study the effects of activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), by injecting the fish with the compounds WY-14,643 and GW501516. Using luciferase reporter assay in vitro, we have shown that WY-14,643 activate Atlantic cod Ppara1 and Ppara2, while GW501516 activate Ppara1, Ppara2, and Pparb. The experimental set-up was as follows: Immature cod were injected at day 0 and day 4 with either high dose (40 mg/kg WY-14,643 and 4.0 mg/kg GW501516), low dose (4.0 mg/kg WY-14,643 and 0.4 mg/kg GW501516), or solvent control (10 % DMSO, 90 % teleost saline (2.41 mM KCl, 133.5 mM NaCl, 1.5 mM CaCl2, 0.79 mM MgSO4, 1 mM NaHCO3, 0.5 mM Na2HPO4)). At day 11, liver samples were collected from 9-12 male fish from each group (total of 50 samples). Total RNA was isolated from 50 mg of each sample using TRI reagent (Sigma), and 0.4 μg RNA were sequenced at the Genomics Core Facility at the University of Bergen on Illumina HiSeq 4000 (Illumina, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA).