Calcineurin B-like protein-interacting protein kinase (CIPK) plays a key regulatory role in the growth, development, and stress resistance of plants by combining with phosphatase B subunit-like protein. In the present study, CIPK genes were identified in the whole genomes of diploid cottons and their sequences were subjected to bioinformatic analyses. The results demonstrated that the CIPK gene family was unevenly distributed in two diploid cotton genomes. Forty-one CIPKs were identified in the D genome, mainly located on chromosomes 9 and 10, whereas thirty-nine CIPKs were identified in the A genome, mainly located on chromosomes 8 and 11. Based on the gene structures, CIPKs in cotton could be classified into two types: one that is intron-rich and the other that has few introns. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the CIPK gene family members in cotton had close evolutionary relationships with those of the dicotyledonous plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana and poplar. The analysis of transcriptome sequence data demonstrated that there were differences in gene expression in different tissues, indicating that the expression of the CIPKs in cotton had spatio-temporal specificity. The expression analysis of CIPKs under abiotic stresses (drought, salt, and low temperature) in different tissues at trefoil stage demonstrated that these stresses induced the expression of CIPKs.

1. Over the past decade, rapid advancement in isolation methods for identifying markers of the once elusive intestinal stem cell (ISC) populations has laid the foundation for unravelling their complex interrelationships during homeostasis. Study on ISC in avian intestinal tissue might play a pivotal foundation for further studies on the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in gastrointestinal disease and cell-based therapy as well as intestinal tissue engineering. 2. The following experiment isolated a population of fibroblast-like, plastic adhering cells derived from chick embryo intestine, showing a strong self-renewing and proliferative ability, which was maintained in vitro up to passage 25. The findings included growth characteristics, detected expression of cell surface markers and characterised the capability of these cells to differentiate towards the osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic cell lineages. 3. RT-PCR analysis showed that these cells from chick embryos expressed mesenchymal stromal cell markers CD44, CD90 and VIMENTIN as well as ISC-specific genes LGR5, MI1, SMOC2, BMI1, and HOPX. Immunofluorescence and flow cytometry confirmed this biology characterisation further. 4. In conclusion, cells were isolated from the intestine of 18-day-old chicken embryos that exhibited the biological characteristics of mesenchymal stromal cells as well as markers of intestinal stem cells. Our findings may provide a novel insight for in vitro cell culture and characteristics of ISCs in avian species, which may also indicate a benefit for obtaining cell source for intestinal tissue engineering as well as cell-based investigation for gastrointestinal disease and treatment.