Biology subjects

Huan, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Huan, L..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

A microbial-sensory axis drives Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced mechanical itch

Cutaneous bacterial infections frequently elicit severe pruritus, prominently featuring alloknesis, a pathological state where innocuous touch provokes intense itch. However, the peripheral mechanisms translating microbial cues into touch-evoked pruritus remain unresolved. Here, we establish an epicutaneous Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection model that robustly isolates mechanical alloknesis from spontaneous scratching. We identify bacterial flagellin as the critical virulence factor driving this specific sensory modality via Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) activation exclusively within Calb1+ A{beta} rapidly adapting low-threshold mechanoreceptors (RA-LTMRs). Mechanistically, pathogen-driven TLR5 signaling depletes intracellular PIP2, which suppresses KCNQ4-mediated M-currents and dismantles the biophysical brake on LTMR excitability. Our findings define a distinct microbial-neuronal axis that directly converts tactile stimuli into itch at the peripheral entry point, providing an infection-based framework for dissecting pathogen-sensory neuron interactions and uncovering precise therapeutic targets for chronic, touch-evoked pruritus. TEASER A bacterial flagellin-sensing touch neuron pathway converts innocuous touch into itch during skin infection.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Research on Crop Phenotype Prediction Methods Based on SNP-context and Whole-genome Features Embedding

Modern agriculture demands precise genomic prediction to accelerate elite crop breeding, yet traditional genomic prediction approaches, such as genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) and Bayesian methods, focus primarily on the cumulative effect of individual SNPs, thus neglecting the concerted influence that the surrounding sequence context has on the phenotype. To overcome these limitations, we propose two novel feature embedding modes (SNP-context and whole-genome) based on DNABERT-2, a cross-species genomic foundation model that uses self-attention mechanisms and transfer learning to automatically identify conserved sequence features across diverse evolutionary lineages without prior biological assumptions. The whole-genome feature embedding aggregates genomic information at a global scale by pooling vectors from chunked sequences processed by DNABERT-2, whereas the context feature embedding captures local information by directly encoding variable-length (500--3000 bp) sequences centered on target SNPs. To reduce noise in the high-dimensional feature embeddings, we employed principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) to project the features into a lower-dimensional space. We generated two kinds of feature embedding for three crop datasets (rice413, rice395, and maize301), investigated the impact of 500--3000 bp flanking SNP contexts on phenotypic prediction, and compared prediction accuracy variations across algorithms at 4--768 feature dimensions among the PCA, PLS, and no dimensionality reduction strategies. The results demonstrate that machine learning (ML) algorithms operating under the SNP-context embedding mode achieve greater accuracy and lower mean absolute errors (MAEs) than traditional SNP features do at specific context lengths, particularly for traits with low-to-moderate heritability (h2[isin](0.2, 0.7]). In contrast, using whole-genome embeddings as input for ML can further improve the prediction accuracy for highly heritable traits (h2[isin](0.7, 1.0]), even outperforming state-of-the-art deep learning models (such as DNNGP and ResGS) that rely on SNP markers. Our code is available on https://github.com/oliveSpring/Crop_DNA_Embedding.git

genetics↗

bioRxiv2023

DSPE-PEG-CeO2 inhibits tumor cell proliferation by inducing oxidative stress and cell death

SUMMARYCeO2 can consume intracellular reducing power, but its poor biocompatibility limits its application in tumor therapy. In this study, we designed and synthesized DSPE-PEG-CeO2, which is easy to enter cells, and showed that DSPE-PEG-CeO2 can induce the increase of ROS levels in tumor cells, thereby inducing tumor cell apoptosis and DNA damage. This suppresses the appearance and development of tumor cells. This provides a new idea for the application of inorganic nanomaterials.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Genetic evidence for functions of Chloroplast CA in Pyropia yezoensis: decreased CCM but increased starch accumulation

To adapt to the change of intertidal environment, intertidal macroalgae have evolved complicated Ci utilization mechanism. However, our knowledge regarding the CO2 concentrating mechanism (CCM) of macroalgae is limited. Carbonic anhydrase (CA), a key component of CCM, plays important roles in many physiological reactions in various organisms. While there are a large number of genes encoding CA in the Pyropia yezoensis genome, the exact function of specific CA in P. yezoensis remains elusive. To explore the specific function of chloroplast CA in intertidal macroalgae, we produced chloroplast-localized {beta}CA1 knockdown mutants of P. yezoensis through RNA interference, and Pyca1i mutants showed a notable decrease in leaf area and overall biomass, as well as decreased soluble protein and unsaturated fatty acid content under different DIC conditions. However, Pyca1i mutants showed relatively higher starch content compared to the wild-type. The activity of enzymes involved in Calvin cycle, photorespiration, Pentose-phosphate pathway and floridean starch synthesis of P.yezoensis indicated an effective starch accumulation pathway after interference of {beta}CA1. All results suggest that the decreased activity of Py{beta}CA1 impaired the CCM and development of thalli of P.yezoensis, but stimulated starch accumulation in the cytoplasm through feedback to the photorespiration pathway and PP pathway to replenish intermediates for the Calvin cycle. This study is the first to explore the specific function of chloroplast CA in intertidal macroalgae using genomic technology. The results provide valuable insights into the adaption mechanisms of intertidal macroalgae to their environment.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Comparative genetic architectures of schizophrenia in East Asian and European populations

Author summarySchizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with a lifetime risk of about 1% world-wide. Most large schizophrenia genetic studies have studied people of primarily European ancestry, potentially missing important biological insights. Here we present a study of East Asian participants (22,778 schizophrenia cases and 35,362 controls), identifying 21 genome-wide significant schizophrenia associations in 19 genetic loci. Over the genome, the common genetic variants that confer risk for schizophrenia have highly similar effects in those of East Asian and European ancestry (rg=0.98), indicating for the first time that the genetic basis of schizophrenia and its biology are broadly shared across these world populations. A fixed-effect meta-analysis including individuals from East Asian and European ancestries revealed 208 genome-wide significant schizophrenia associations in 176 genetic loci (53 novel). Trans-ancestry fine-mapping more precisely isolated schizophrenia causal alleles in 70% of these loci. Despite consistent genetic effects across populations, polygenic risk models trained in one population have reduced performance in the other, highlighting the importance of including all major ancestral groups with sufficient sample size to ensure the findings have maximum relevance for all populations.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2017

Sugar metabolism changes in response to the ultraviolet B irradiation of peach (Prunus persica L.)

The protected cultivation of peach (Prunuspersica L.) trees is more economical and efficient than traditional cultivation, resulting in increased farmers incomes, but the peach sugar contents are lower than in open planting. In the greenhouse, a high-sugar variety of peach Lumi 1 was irradiated with 1.44 KJ{middle dot}m-2.d-1 intensity ultraviolet B radiation. The soluble sugar contents in fruit, peel and leaf were quantified using liquid chromatography. Overall, sucrose and sorbitol increased before the second fruit-expansion period. To further understand the mechanisms regulating sucrose and sorbitol accumulation in peach fruit, expression profiles of genes involved in sugar metabolism and transport were measured. The activity and translocation protein contents of these enzymes were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The increased sucrose synthase activity and sucrose transporter level in the pericarp promoted the synthesis of sucrose and intake of sucrose into fruit. Sorbitol transport into fruit was promoted by the increased sorbitol transporter protein levels in leaves. In summary, greenhouse the sucrose and sorbitol contents were increased when supplemented with 1.44 kJ{middle dot}m-2{middle dot}d-1 ultraviolet B radiation before the second fruit-expansion period of peach.

plant biology↗