Foshan University

About: Foshan University is a education organization based out in Foshan, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Adsorption. The organization has 3906 authors who have published 4171 publications receiving 40027 citations.

Age and sex differences in microRNAs expression during the process of thymus aging.

Abstract: The gender-biased thymus involution and the importance of microRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) expression in modulating the thymus development have been reported in many studies. However, how males and females differ in so many ways in thymus involution remains unclear. To address this question, we investigated the miRNA expression profiles in both untreated 3- and 12-month-old female and male mice thymuses. The results showed that 7 and 18 miRNAs were defined as the sex- and age-specific miRNAs, respectively. The expression of miR-181c-5p, miR-20b-5p, miR-98b-5p, miR-329-3p, miR-341-5p, and miR-2137 showed significant age-difference in mice thymus by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. High expression levels of miR-2137 were detected in mice thymic epithelial cells and gradually increased during the process of thymus aging. MiR-27b-3p and miR-378a-3p of the female-biased miRNAs were confirmed as the sex- and estrogen-responsive miRNAs in mice thymus in vivo. Their potential target genes and the pathway were identified by the online software. Possible regulation roles of sex- and age-specific miRNA expression during the process of thymus aging were discussed. Our results suggested that these miRNAs may be potential biomarkers for the study of sex- and age-specific thymus aging and involution.

Effect of Curvature on the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction of Graphene

Abstract: Graphene has been widely studied as an electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, pure flat graphene is catalytically inert in HER. In this work, we investigate the effect of curvature on the improvement in the catalytic activity of pure and doped graphenes. We find that the HER performance can be dramatically improved on waved-graphene due to localized chemical potential and Pt-analogous activity can be achieved at suitable compression. (1) For pure graphene, the calculated HER performance increases more than 50% as tuned by curvature due to reduced calculated Gibbs free energies. (2) For B- and N-doped graphene, their optimal HER catalytic ability occurs at low curvature conditions. (3) For metal-doped graphene, Mo-doped graphene exhibits excellent catalytic ability in HER at certain compressions. (4) For nitrogen-metal co-doped graphene, N–Ni and N–V co-doped graphenes can be tuned by curvature to show outstanding performance in HER with their exothermal formation energies. Our cal...

Evolution of rapid blue-light response linked to explosive diversification of ferns in angiosperm forests.

Abstract: Ferns appear in the fossil record some 200 Myr before angiosperms. However, as angiosperm‐dominated forest canopies emerged in the Cretaceous period there was an explosive diversification of modern (leptosporangiate) ferns, which thrived in low, blue‐enhanced light beneath angiosperm canopies. A mechanistic explanation for this transformative event in the diversification of ferns has remained elusive. We used physiological assays, transcriptome analysis and evolutionary bioinformatics to investigate a potential connection between the evolution of enhanced stomatal sensitivity to blue light in modern ferns and the rise of angiosperm‐dominated forests in the geological record. We demonstrate that members of the largest subclade of leptosporangiate ferns, Polypodiales, have significantly faster stomatal response to blue light than more ancient fern lineages and a representative angiosperm. We link this higher sensitivity to levels of differentially expressed genes in blue‐light signaling, particularly in the cryptochrome (CRY) signaling pathway. Moreover, CRYs of the Polypodiales examined show gene duplication events between 212.9–196.9 and 164.4–151.8 Ma, when angiosperms were emerging, which are lacking in other major clades of extant land plants. These findings suggest that evolution of stomatal blue‐light sensitivity helped modern ferns exploit the shady habitat beneath angiosperm forest canopies, fueling their Cretaceous hyperdiversification.