The aim of this study was to investigate the role of NLRP3 inflammasome in heat stress injury in geese. Twenty-seven goslings were divided into three groups: A, B and C. The ambient temperature of group A (control group) was set at 25 ℃, and the heat treatment of group B and C was conducted at 38 ℃ and 40 ℃ for 1 h respectively. The brain, liver, spleen, lung, jejunum tissues of gosling in each group were collected. The tissues of group A and group C were sliced for pathological observation, and RNA was extracted from all tissues in each group. After reverse transcription, the expression levels of NLRP3 signaling pathway related genes and downstream inflammatory factors were detected by fluorescent quantitative PCR, and the A, B, C groups of gosling venous blood collection, using ELISA to detect the concentration of serum IL-1β. The results of tissue sections showed that the liver, spleen, lung, jejunum tissues in the 40 ℃ heat stress group showed obvious microstructure damage and increased accumulation of inflammatory cells. Fluorescence quantitative results showed that heat stress promoted the expression of HSP70 and HSP90 genes. The expression levels of NLRP3, ASC and Caspase-1 in spleen in the 38 ℃ stress group were significantly higher than those in control group (P<0.05). The expression levels of IL-1β in lung were significantly higher than those in control group (P<0.05). The concentration of IL-1β in serum also increased significantly (P<0.05). The results showed that heat stress induced tissue inflammation of gosling, and NLRP3 inflammasome may participate in the inflammatory injury process of spleen and lung induced by heat stress.

Bathing pool water is an important part of waterfowl breeding environment. At present, little is known about the specific impact of bathing pool water pollution on the growth and development of waterfowl. As bone development is an important factor affecting the growth performance of geese, 20-day-old Magang geese were used as the experimental objects, and different water-changing frequencies were set to investigate bathing pool water pollution on tibia development. The results showed that different water-changing frequency significantly affected the total number of bacterial colonies in the water. Water pollution of bathing pool also significantly reduced the tibia diameter and medulla thickness of goslings at 27 days of age, and the bone thickness of tibia at 34 days of age. This study provides a useful reference for increasing geese growth performance by improving breeding environment.

The aim of this study was to clone goose androgen receptor (AR) gene and understand its expression in different tissues. Shitou goose was used as experimental material, hypothalamus and testis tissue were collected for RNA extraction and reverse transcription, the AR gene was clone and RACE was used amplify its full-length cDNA sequence. Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to detect the expression of AR gene in various tissues. The full-length cDNA sequence of the AR gene was cloned and 4 transcripts were obtained. The amino acid sequence homology analysis showed that AR gene of Shitou goose had high homology in birds and mammals, which indicated that AR gene was evolutionarily conserved in birds and mammals. The results of qPCR showed that AR gene was expressed in all 12 tissues of Shitou geese, among which the expression level was higher in leg muscles, breast muscle and testis, indicating that AR gene may be involved in regulating muscle growth and reproduction of male geese.

Exosomes are vesicles secreted by cells, rich in nucleic acids and proteins, which play an important role in the transmission of information and the regulation of immune function. In this study, macrophages and dendritic cells were cultured, the supernatant was collected, and the exosomes were extracted by the kit method and ultracentrifugation method, and the exosomes were identified by the TEM electron microscope method and the Western blot method. The extracted exosomes were transfected with fluorescent markers and incubated with lymphocytes for 24 h；miR-155 containing fluorescent markers was used to transfect macrophages and dendritic cells respectively, and the exosomes from the cell supernatant were extracted and combined with the lymphocytes and were incubated together for 24 h. The results showed that the exosomes extracted by ultracentrifugation were more pure, but the exosomes extracted by the SBI kit were more suitable for the next experiment. After the exosomes secreted by macrophages and dendritic cells were co-cultured with lymphocytes with fluorescent labels, the fluorescence of lymphocytes increased. Co-culture of fluorescently labeled miR-155 exosomes and lymphocytes can increase the fluorescence of lymphocytes. This study confirmed that the exosomes secreted by dendritic cells and macrophages and the miR-155 contained therein can act on lymphocytes and participate in the communication between immune cells, laying a theoretical foundation for further elucidating the mechanism of exosomes.

In this study, the effects of cage and floor rearing system on the survival rate, growth performance and blood antioxidant indexes of Magang goose during the growth period were tested. The aim was to reveal the effect of cage rearing system on the output return of meat goose. The results showed that during the whole trial period, the death and culling rate of goose in the cage group was 17%, which was significantly higher than that in the floor group (9%). Before 3 weeks of age, the growth performance of the cage group was similar to that of the floor group, and the cage group was slightly better than the floor group. The mean body weight and feed conversion rate of the cage group were also higher than those of the floor group within 3 weeks. However, after 3 weeks, its growth performance was significantly inhibited, and the body weight gain, feed conversion rate and most body measurements were significantly lower than those in the floor group. In the cage group, the levels of blood antioxidant Glutathione reductase (GR), Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Malondialdehyde (MDA) were increased, compared to those in flat culture while Catalase (CAT) was reduced. The results showed that the cage rearing system was more beneficial to the growth performance and feed conversion of goose than the floor rearing system before 3 weeks.After three weeks of age,affected by space constraints and environmental stress, the floor rearing system had more obvious advantages on the growth performance of meat goose compared to the cage rearing system.

Myostatin (MSTN) is an important gene regulating muscle growth and development. The aim of this study is to analyze the sequence and expression differences of MSTN between two indigenous goose breeds-Wuzong goose and Shitou goose from Guangdong province. Full-length sequence of MSTN gene mRNA of two goose breeds were cloned by rapid amplification of cDNA ends(RACE) technology, analyzed using bioinformatic methods, and detected in different tissues, as well as the leg muscle expression of MSTN in embryo day 15, day 23 and 1st day after birth. The results showed that the ORF region and 3′UTR region of MSTN gene from the two goose breeds were highly conserved, while 5′UTR region were more different and there was 35 bp deletion in 5′UTR region in Shitou geese. The DNA and amino acid sequences of MSTN were highly conserved among the two geese, Zhejiang white goose, green head duck and chicken, with more than 94.77% of DNA sequence consistency and more than 98.40% amino acid sequence consistency. MSTN was highly expressed in the leg muscles of two goose breeds, but not in the heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney and small intestine on the 1st day after birth. The expression of MSTN increased gradually from the 15th day of embryonic period to the 1st day after birth. From the 23rd day of embryonic period, the expression of MSTN in the leg muscle of Wuzong geese was significantly higher than that of Shitou geese. This study laid a foundation for further exploring the different regulatory functions of MSTN gene during muscle development of two goose breeds.

In recent years, a new type gout with a high lethality has outbreak in gosling in China, which featured with urate deposition in joint and viscera, leading to huge economic loss. Several researches show that, a novel Goose Astrovirus (GoAstV) is the pathogen for this gout outbreak. In order to know about the epidemic and variation of GoAstV in Guangdong province, epidemiology of GoAstV in gosling in Guangdong was performed. The results show that the positive rate of GoAstV in gosling is 40%, which indicates that GoAstV is epidemic in gosling. The evolutionary analysis shows that GoAstV-DBN shares highest homology with AHAU2/2018, and no obvious variation was observed in GoAstV in Guangdong. However, Y36V and L540Q amino acid mutation in Cap protein occurred in GoAstV-DBN. This study provides a basis and reference for the prevention of GoAstV in Guangdong province.

Two different geographical populations of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides from Guangdong and Taiwan were randomly selected. The differences in morphological traits and their effects on body weights between the two populations were analyzed by multivariate analysis. Results showed that the significant differences were observed in the middle and back sections of fish body. The contribution rates of the first three principal components were 95.8%. In the scatter plot of the scores of the first two principal components, the two populations could be completely distinguished due to the low overlap area. The morphological traits of Guangdong population and Taiwan population had similar effects on the body weights. The significantly direct effects were found in body height, length from origin of pectoral to dorsal fin, length from origin of anal to dorsal fin, length from origin of anal fin to terminus of dorsal fin, and length from terminus of dorsal fin to origin of tail fin, which were the crucial factors affecting the body weights of the two geographical populations of Micropterus salmoides. A theoretical basis for body weight selection of Micropterus salmoides was provided.

To investigate the availability of using COⅠ sequences as DNA barcodes to identify Lethrinus species, partial sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit Ⅰ (CO Ⅰ) gene of 10 Lethrinus speices from South China Sea were obtained by PCR amplification and sequencing. Combining with COⅠ gene sequence of 2 Lethrinus species from GenBank, a total of 37 individuals COⅠ sequences of 12 Lethrinus species were obtained. The phylogenetic of the sequence was calculated using MEGA5.0, and the molecular phylogenetic relationships were constructed and analyzed using maximum likelihood method.The results showed that intra-specific genetic distance within the 12 Lethrinus species were between 0.000 to 0.005 with the average genetic distance was 0.002, lower than the minimum inter-specific genetic distance of 0.020(2%) for species identification. The inter-species genetic distances among species were 0.074-0.210, with the average genetic distance was 0.155, which was 77.5 times of intra-specific genetic distance, Indicating that the COⅠ gene could be used as the barcode gene for the Lethrinus identification. In the molecular phylogenetic tree, 12 Lethrinus species mainly formed 4 groups. Specie Lethrinus miniatus was first seperated and located at the base of the tree (branch Ⅳ). Following was Lethrinus miniatus which also fromed a single branch (branch Ⅲ). The rest of Lethrinus species were divided into two branches: Branch Ⅰ contained 5 Lethrinus species, most of which were low-bodied and conical teeth; Branch Ⅱ contained 5 Lethrinus species with higher bodies and molariform and submolariform teeth. Results were consistent with the previous studies that Lethrinus species were mainly divided into two groups: one was high bodied with mortar teeth feature and another was low-bodied with conical teeth. It also supported the previous conclusion that the two different types of Lethrinus(low-ied with conical teeth and low-bodied with conical teeth)both evolved from a high-bodied, conical-toothed ancestor like species Lethrinus miniatus.

Due to the increasing antibiotic resistance, it's urgent to develop new antibacterial drugs. Water-soluble silica has attracted much attention because of high stability, no drug resistance, and good antibacterial effects. However, the application of it has not been reported in aquatic field in detail. In this paper, five aquatic bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Aeromonas hydrophila and Staphylococcus aureus) were selected to study the antibacterial effects of water-soluble silicon. The results showed that water-soluble silica had significant growth inhibitory effects on five bacteria when the concentration is higher than 500 mg/L, and the inhibitory effects were different according to the different bacteria. Furthermore, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to analysis the morphological changes of Aeromonas hydrophila and Staphylococcus aureus after the water-soluble silica treatment. The results showed that the water-soluble silica treatment could cause shrinkage, adhesion, and structural destruction of bacteria. The present study provides a new reference for “non-anti” drugs.

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a type of single-stranded, covalently closed-loop RNA produced by reverse splicing of initial transcription RNA. Because of the lack of 5′ cap and 3′ poly-A tail, circRNA is not easy to be degraded by RNA exonuclease or ribonuclease, and has higher stability than linear RNA. In this paper, the production mechanism, biological function and role of circRNA in animal reproduction were reviewed, and the research progress of circRNA in animal reproduction in recent years was summarized, aiming to provide some theoretical basis and new ideas for the research of circRNA in animals.

Ferroptosis is a newly discovered form of programmed cell death that causes oxidative stress in the animal organism and affects animal breeding production. The mechanisms of ferroptosis, the effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on ferroptosis, diseases caused by it, and treatment strategies were reviewed in this paper. The purpose is to provide new ideas for animal production and animal disease control.