Milk is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals including humans. The nutritional value of milk is mainly attributable to fats and proteins fractions. In comparison to cow milk, goat milk contains greater amounts of total fat, including much higher levels of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a well-defined group of small RNAs containing about 22 nucleotides (nt), participate in various metabolic processes across species. However, little is known regarding the role of miRNAs in regulating goat milk composition. In the present study, we performed high-throughput sequencing to identify mammary gland-enriched miRNAs in lactating goats. We identified 30 highly expressed miRNAs in the mammary gland, including miR-103. Further studies revealed that miR-103 expression correlates with the lactation. Further functional analysis showed that over-expression of miR-103 in mammary gland epithelial cells increases transcription of genes associated with milk fat synthesis, resulting in an up-regulation of fat droplet formation, triglyceride accumulation, and the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids. This study provides new insight into the functions of miR-103, as well as the molecular mechanisms that regulate milk fat synthesis.

Periodontal tissue damage, accompanied by the degradation and destruction of periodontal tissue collagen, is one of the most clinically common complications and difficulty self-repair in patients with diabetes. Human periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSC) are the undifferentiated mesenchymal cells that persist in the periodontal ligament after development of periodontal tissue and the ability of PDLSC osteogenic differentiation is responsible for repairing periodontal tissue defects. However, the reasons of high glucose environment in diabetic patients inhibiting PDLSC to repair periodontal tissues are unclear. To address these issues, we propose exposing PDLSC to high-sugar mimics the diabetic environment and investigating the activity of osteogenic differentiation and adipogenic differentiation of PDLSC. At the cellular level, high glucose can promote the adipogenic differentiation and inhibit osteogenic differentiation to decrease the self-repair ability of PDLSC in periodontal tissues. Mechanistically at the molecular level, these effects are elicited via regulating the mRNA and protein expression of C/EBPβ, PPAR-γ.

Conjugation in Tetrahymena thermophila involves a developmental program consisting of three prezygotic nuclear divisions, pronuclear exchange and fusion, and postzygotic and exconjugant stages. The conjugation junction structure appears during the initiation of conjugation development, and disappears during the exconjugant stage. Many structural and functional proteins are involved in the establishment and maintenance of the junction structure in T. thermophila. In the present study, a zinc finger protein-encoding gene ZFR1 was found to be expressed specifically during conjugation and to localize specifically to the conjugation junction region. Truncated Zfr1p localized at the plasma membrane in ordered arrays and decorated Golgi apparatus located adjacent to basal body. The N-terminal zinc finger and C-terminal hydrophobic domains of Zfr1p were found to be required for its specific conjugation junction localization. Conjugation development of ZFR1 somatic knockout cells was aborted at the pronuclear exchange and fusion conjugation stages. Furthermore, Zfr1p was found to be important for conjugation junction stability during the prezygotic nuclear division stage. Taken together, our data reveal that Zfr1p is required for the stability and integrity of the conjugation junction structure and essential for the sexual life cycle of the Tetrahymena cell.