As prospective alternatives for natural enzymes, catalytically active nanomaterials, known as "nanozymes" have attracted considerable interest over the past decade owing to their obvious

Catfish represent 12% of teleost or 6.3% of all vertebrate species, and are of enormous economic value. Here we report a high-quality reference genome sequence of channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), the major aquaculture species in the US. The reference genome sequence was validated by genetic mapping of 54,000 SNPs, and annotated with 26,661 predicted protein-coding genes. Through comparative analysis of genomes and transcriptomes of scaled and scaleless fish and scale regeneration experiments, we address the genomic basis for the most striking physical characteristic of catfish, the evolutionary loss of scales and provide evidence that lack of secretory calcium-binding phosphoproteins accounts for the evolutionary loss of scales in catfish. The channel catfish reference genome sequence, along with two additional genome sequences and transcriptomes of scaled catfishes, provide crucial resources for evolutionary and biological studies. This work also demonstrates the power of comparative subtraction of candidate genes for traits of structural significance.

Advancing the production efficiency and profitability of aquaculture is dependent upon the ability to utilize a diverse array of genetic resources. The ultimate goals of aquaculture genomics, genetics and breeding research are to enhance aquaculture production efficiency, sustainability, product quality, and profitability in support of the commercial sector and for the benefit of consumers. In order to achieve these goals, it is important to understand the genomic structure and organization of aquaculture species, and their genomic and phenomic variations, as well as the genetic basis of traits and their interrelationships. In addition, it is also important to understand the mechanisms of regulation and evolutionary conservation at the levels of genome, transcriptome, proteome, epigenome, and systems biology. With genomic information and information between the genomes and phenomes, technologies for marker/causal mutation-assisted selection, genome selection, and genome editing can be developed for applications in aquaculture. A set of genomic tools and resources must be made available including reference genome sequences and their annotations (including coding and non-coding regulatory elements), genome-wide polymorphic markers, efficient genotyping platforms, high-density and high-resolution linkage maps, and transcriptome resources including non-coding transcripts. Genomic and genetic control of important performance and production traits, such as disease resistance, feed conversion efficiency, growth rate, processing yield, behaviour, reproductive characteristics, and tolerance to environmental stressors like low dissolved oxygen, high or low water temperature and salinity, must be understood. QTL need to be identified, validated across strains, lines and populations, and their mechanisms of control understood. Causal gene(s) need to be identified. Genetic and epigenetic regulation of important aquaculture traits need to be determined, and technologies for marker-assisted selection, causal gene/mutation-assisted selection, genome selection, and genome editing using CRISPR and other technologies must be developed, demonstrated with applicability, and application to aquaculture industries.Major progress has been made in aquaculture genomics for dozens of fish and shellfish species including the development of genetic linkage maps, physical maps, microarrays, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays, transcriptome databases and various stages of genome reference sequences. This paper provides a general review of the current status, challenges and future research needs of aquaculture genomics, genetics, and breeding, with a focus on major aquaculture species in the United States: catfish, rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, tilapia, striped bass, oysters, and shrimp. While the overall research priorities and the practical goals are similar across various aquaculture species, the current status in each species should dictate the next priority areas within the species. This paper is an output of the USDA Workshop fo...

normal cells and is more sensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS) elevation has attracted considerable attention. [1] From this perspective, ROS-generating approaches have been widely explored as a weapon to directly or indirectly kill cancer cells; these include photodynamic therapy (PDT), [2] radiodynamic therapy (RT), [3] sonodynamic therapy (SDT), [4] and chemodynamic therapy (CDT). [5] Promoted by recent advancements in nanochemistry and nanocatalysis, a variety of nanosystems with enzyme-like activities, also called "nanozymes," have been successfully fabricated and applied in various biomedical applications. [6] Among these applications, nanozyme-initiated CDT (NCDT) is emerging as a novel cancer treatment strategy with the potential to mitigate undesired side effects. NCDT is a highly tumor-specific modality for cancer therapy triggered by peroxidase (POD)-like nanozyme-mediated chemical reactions, that is, in situ catalysis of endogenous hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) into highly toxic hydroxyl radicals ( • OH) to induce cell apoptosis and necrosis. Although many nanomaterials, including ferromagnetic nanoparticles (γ-Fe 2 O 3 or Fe 3 O 4 ), [7] vanadium oxides, [8] copper oxide, [9] and cerium oxide (CeO 2 ), [10] have revealed POD-like activity for cancer diagnosis Clinical applications of nanozyme-initiated chemodynamic therapy (NCDT) have been severely limited by the poor catalytic efficiency of nanozymes, insufficient endogenous hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) content, and its off-target consumption. Herein, the authors developed a hollow mesoporous Mn/Zrco-doped CeO 2 tandem nanozyme (PHMZCO-AT) with regulated multi-enzymatic activities, that is, the enhancement of superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like and peroxidase (POD)-like activities and inhibition of catalase (CAT)-like activity. PHMZCO-AT as a H 2 O 2 homeostasis disruptor promotes H 2 O 2 evolution and restrains off-target elimination of H 2 O 2 to achieve intensive NCDT. PHMZCO-AT with SOD-like activity catalyzes endogenous superoxide anion (O 2 •− ) into H 2 O 2 in the tumor region. The suppression of CAT activity and depletion of glutathione by PHMZCO-AT largely weaken the off-target decomposition of H 2 O 2 to H 2 O. Elevated H 2 O 2 is then catalyzed by the downstream POD-like activity of PHMZCO-AT to generate toxic hydroxyl radicals, further inducing tumor apoptosis and death. T 1 -weighted magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray computed tomography imaging are also achieved using PHMZCO-AT due to the existence of paramagnetic Mn 2+ and the high X-ray attenuation ability of elemental Zr, permitting in vivo tracking of the therapeutic process. This work presents a typical paradigm to achieve intensive NCDT efficacy by regulating multi-enzymatic activities of nanozymes to perturb the H 2 O 2 homeostasis.The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under

Temperature is one of the most prominent abiotic factors affecting ectotherms. Most fish species, as ectotherms, have extraordinary ability to deal with a wide range of temperature changes. While the molecular mechanism underlying temperature adaptation has long been of interest, it is still largely unexplored with fish. Understanding of the fundamental mechanisms conferring tolerance to temperature fluctuations is a topic of increasing interest as temperature may continue to rise as a result of global climate change. Catfish have a wide natural habitat and possess great plasticity in dealing with environmental variations in temperature. However, no studies have been conducted at the transcriptomic level to determine heat stress-induced gene expression. In the present study, we conducted an RNA-Seq analysis to identify heat stress-induced genes in catfish at the transcriptome level. Expression analysis identified a total of 2,260 differentially expressed genes with a cutoff of twofold change. qRT-PCR validation suggested the high reliability of the RNA-Seq results. Gene ontology, enrichment, and pathway analyses were conducted to gain insight into physiological and gene pathways. Specifically, genes involved in oxygen transport, protein folding and degradation, and metabolic process were highly induced, while general protein synthesis was dramatically repressed in response to the lethal temperature stress. This is the first RNA-Seq-based expression study in catfish in response to heat stress. The candidate genes identified should be valuable for further targeted studies on heat tolerance, thereby assisting the development of heat-tolerant catfish lines for aquaculture.