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Titanium alloys represent a promising material in marine applications, focusing on high-stakes environments where their corrosion resistance and high specific strength offer significant benefits. However, they can still be vulnerable to localized corrosion, such as pitting corrosion and stress corrosion cracking, in the presence of aggressive chlorides. Here we report a lightweight titanium alloy that addresses these issues through conventional casting and thermal-mechanical processing. The alloy can generate a passive film showing distinct but stable electrochemical responses. It is found that the reaction of the passive film can shift from the slow accumulation in the passive region, to the rapid buildup of passive layers in extreme anodic potentials. Consequently, the alloy exhibits a pitting potential above 10 VSCE without being subjected to localized corrosion. Meanwhile, mechanical reliability is also achieved during stress corrosion tests, owing to the fast repair of the passive film that substantially constrains the crack propagation. Such virtual immunity to seawater corrosion qualifies this titanium alloy as a potential candidate for long-term cost savings and sustainability. Seawater corrosion can impact the lifespan and reliability of metallic materials for marine applications. This work develops a titanium alloy exhibiting active passivation behavior that ensures its electrochemical and mechanical stability in seawater-like environments.

Double-Layer Steamed Milk Custard (DLSMC) is a famous traditional Chinese dessert. This study aimed to analyze the flavor and the changes in metabolites during different stages of DLSMC preparation, including raw buffalo milk, thermo-processing, first and second-layer milk skin formation. Electronic nose and electronic tongue were employed to preliminarily assess the overall flavor characteristics between these stages. The results indicated that DLSMC demonstrated increased sweetness, saltiness, and umami compared to raw buffalo milk, along with heightened levels of nitrogen oxides, methane, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and sulfur-containing compounds. Thus, the thermo-processing and second-layer milk skin formation were pinpointed as critical for flavor alterations. Additionally, headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) detected a total of 46 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with 8 compounds identified as key flavor components. Untargeted metabolomics revealed 98 differential metabolites, including amino acids, lipids, and nucleotides, that were significantly linked to changes in key flavor compounds. Indeed, the fluctuations in the levels of amino acids, lipids, and nucleotides play a crucial role in influencing flavor changes during the production of DLSMC made from buffalo milk.

Background Buffalo is a globally important livestock species, but its reproductive performance is relatively low than cattles. At present, dominant follicle development specific process and mechanistic role of follicular growth related genes in water buffaloes are not well understood. Therefore, we comprehensively performed transcriptomics of granulosa cells and oocytes from different-sized follicles in water buffalo to identify key candidate genes that influence follicle development and diameter, and further explored the potential regulatory mechanisms of granulosa cells and oocytes in the process of water buffalo follicle development. Results In this study, we found918 granulosa cell transcripts and 1401 oocyte transcripts were correlated in follicles of different diameters, and the expression differences were significant. Subsequent enrichment analysis of the co-expressed differentially expressed transcripts identified several genes targeted by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and associated with follicular development. Notably, the upregulation of BUB1 regulated by MSTRG.41325.4 and interactive action of SMAD2 and SMAD7 might have key regulatory role in follicular development. Additionally, we also detected key differentially expressed genes that potentially influence follicular hormone metabolism and growth, like ID2 , CHRD , TGIF2 and MAD2L1 , and constructed an interaction network between lncRNA transcripts and mRNAs. Conclusions In summary, this study preliminarily revealed the differences in gene expression patterns among buffalo follicles of different sizes and their potential molecular regulatory mechanisms. It provides a new perspective for exploring the mechanism of buffalo follicular dominance and improving buffalo reproductive performance.

The buffalo was domesticated around 3000–6000 years ago and has substantial economic significance as a meat, dairy, and draught animal. The buffalo has remained underutilized in terms of the development of a well-annotated and assembled reference genome de novo. It is mandatory to explore the genetic architecture of a species to understand the biology that helps to manage its genetic variability, which is ultimately used for selective breeding and genomic selection. Morphological and molecular data have revealed that the swamp buffalo population has strong geographical genomic diversity with low gene flow but strong phenotypic consistency, while the river buffalo population has higher phenotypic diversity with a weak phylogeographic structure. The availability of recent high-quality reference genome and genotyping marker panels has invigorated many genome-based studies on evolutionary history, genetic diversity, functional elements, and performance traits. The increasing molecular knowledge syndicate with selective breeding should pave the way for genetic improvement in the climatic resilience, disease resistance, and production performance of water buffalo populations globally.

Fasciola gigantica and Fasciola hepatica are causative pathogens of fascioliasis , with the widest latitudinal, longitudinal, and altitudinal distribution; however, among parasites, they have the largest sequenced genomes, hindering genomic research. In the present study, we used various sequencing and assembly technologies to generate a new high-quality Fasciola gigantica reference genome. We improved the integration of gene structure prediction, and identified two independent transposable element expansion events contributing to (1) the speciation between Fasciola and Fasciolopsis during the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary mass extinction, and (2) the habitat switch to the liver during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, accompanied by gene length increment. Long interspersed element (LINE) duplication contributed to the second transposon-mediated alteration, showing an obvious trend of insertion into gene regions, regardless of strong purifying effect. Gene ontology analysis of genes with long LINE insertions identified membrane-associated and vesicle secretion process proteins, further implicating the functional alteration of the gene network. We identified 852 predicted excretory/secretory proteins and 3300 protein-protein interactions between Fasciola gigantica and its host. Among them, copper/zinc superoxide dismutase genes, with specific gene copy number variations, might play a central role in the phase I detoxification process. Analysis of 559 single-copy orthologs suggested that Fasciola gigantica and Fasciola hepatica diverged at 11.8 Ma near the Middle and Late Miocene Epoch boundary. We identified 98 rapidly evolving gene families, including actin and aquaporin, which might explain the large body size and the parasitic adaptive character resulting in these liver flukes becoming epidemic in tropical and subtropical regions.

Cattle and the draught force provided by its skeletal muscle have been integral to agro‐ecosystems of agricultural civilization for millennia. However, relatively little is known about the cattle muscle functional genomics (including protein coding genes, non‐coding RNA, etc.). Circular RNAs (circRNAs), as a new class of non‐coding RNAs, can be effectively translated into detectable peptides, which enlightened us on the importance of circRNAs in cattle muscle physiology function. Here, RNA‐seq, Ribosome profiling (Ribo‐seq), and peptidome data are integrated from cattle skeletal muscle, and detected five encoded peptides from circRNAs. It is further identified and functionally characterize a 907‐amino acids muscle‐specific peptide that is named circNEB‐peptide because derived by the splicing of Nebulin (NEB) gene. This peptide localizes to the nucleus and cytoplasm and directly interacts with SKP1 and TPM1, key factors regulating physiological activities of myoblasts, via ubiquitination and myoblast fusion, respectively. The circNEB‐peptide is found to promote myoblasts proliferation and differentiation in vitro, and induce muscle regeneration in vivo. These findings suggest circNEB‐peptide is an important regulator of skeletal muscle regeneration and underscore the possibility that more encoding polypeptides derived by RNAs currently annotated as non‐coding exist. CircNEB is a circular RNA that encode a protein in bovine skeletal muscle filtered through RNA‐seq, Ribo‐seq, and LC‐MS‐MS. The circNEB‐protein promote myoblast proliferation through the ubiquitination and activates PI3K‐Akt pathway to regulates cell differentiation. The expression of circNEB in vivo have shown that it promotes muscle repair in mice and tree shrews, as well as stimulates the regeneration of muscle in aging rabbits.

Background During mammalian pre-implantation embryonic development (PED), the process of maternal-to-zygote transition (MZT) is well orchestrated by epigenetic modification and gene sequential expression, and it is related to the embryonic genome activation (EGA). During MZT, the embryos are sensitive to the environment and easy to arrest at this stage in vitro. However, the timing and regulation mechanism of EGA in buffaloes remain obscure. Results Buffalo pre-implantation embryos were subjected to trace cell based RNA-seq and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) to draw landscapes of transcription and DNA-methylation. Four typical developmental steps were classified during buffalo PED. Buffalo major EGA was identified at the 16-cell stage by the comprehensive analysis of gene expression and DNA methylation dynamics. By weighted gene co-expression network analysis, stage-specific modules were identified during buffalo maternal-to-zygotic transition, and key signaling pathways and biological process events were further revealed. Programmed and continuous activation of these pathways was necessary for success of buffalo EGA. In addition, the hub gene, CDK1 , was identified to play a critical role in buffalo EGA. Conclusions Our study provides a landscape of transcription and DNA methylation in buffalo PED and reveals deeply the molecular mechanism of the buffalo EGA and genetic programming during buffalo MZT. It will lay a foundation for improving the in vitro development of buffalo embryos. Graphical Abstract

Rolled Zn-0.8Li-0.2Ag(wt%) alloy as candidates for biodegradable materials. The biodegradable behavior of Zn-0.8Li-0.2Ag alloy in different solutions (Ringer's, DMEM, SBF and DMEMp) was investigated. The cytotoxicity of Zn-0.8Li-0.2Ag alloy and its antibacterial properties against staphylococcus aureus, enterobacter faecalis and candida albicans were evaluated. The results showed that Zn-0.8Li-0.2Ag alloy consists of zinc matrix and a LiZn4 secondary phase. The presence of Cl− causes locally corroded of Zn-0.8Li-0.2Ag alloy in Ringer's solution, and its corrosion resistance is lower than that of the alloy which is uniformly corroded in other solutions containing CO32− and PO43−. Zn-0.8Li-0.2Ag alloy is non-toxic and exhibits better antibacterial properties than the experimental reference group without silver.

Heat-shock proteins (HSP) are conserved chaperones crucial for protein degradation, maturation, and refolding. These adenosine triphosphate dependent chaperones were classified based on their molecular mass that ranges between 10–100 kDA, including; HSP10, HSP40, HSP70, HSP90, HSPB1, HSPD, and HSPH1 family. HSPs are essential for cellular responses and imperative for protein homeostasis and survival under stress conditions. This study performed a computational analysis of the HSP protein family to better understand these proteins at the molecular level. Physiochemical properties, multiple sequence alignment, and phylogenetic analysis were performed for 64 HSP genes in the Bubalus bubalis genome. Four genes were identified as belonging to the HSP90 family, 10 to HSP70, 39 to HSP40, 8 to HSPB, one for each HSPD, HSPH1, and HSP10, respectively. The aliphatic index was higher for HSP90 and HSP70 as compared to the HSP40 family, indicating their greater thermostability. Grand Average of hydropathicity Index values indicated the hydrophilic nature of HSP90, HSP70, and HSP40. Multiple sequence alignment indicated the presence of highly conserved consensus sequences that are plausibly significant for the preservation of structural integrity of proteins. In addition, this study has expanded our current knowledge concerning the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relatedness of HSPs of buffalo with other mammalian species. The phylogenetic tree revealed that buffalo is more closely related to Capra hircus and distantly associated with Danio rerio. Our findings provide an understanding of HSPs in buffalo at the molecular level for the first time. This study highlights functionally important HSPs and indicates the need for further investigations to better understand the role and mechanism of HSPs.