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ABSTRACT. The goal of this study was to characterize the transcriptome of primary bovine mammalian epithelial cells (pBMECs) and to identify candidate genes for response and resistance to Staphylococcus aureus (strain S108), Escherichia coli (strain E23), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (strain K96) infection. Using Solexa sequencing, approximately 4.9 million total sequence tags were obtained from each of the three infected libraries and the control library. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis of the S108-infected pBMECs showed differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were significantly involved in metabolic processes. In E23-infected pBMECs, DEGs were predominantly associated with cell death and programmed cell death GO terms, while in K96-infected pBMECs, DEGs were primarily involved in metabolic processes and in utero embryonic development. Analysis of the cluster of orthologous groups of proteins showed that the S108-infected, E23-infected and K96-infected pBMECs were significantly involved in "Translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis", "General function prediction only" and "Replication, recombination and repair". The transcriptome sequences were also annotated for KEGG orthology, and it was found that DEGs in S108-infected pBMECs were significantly 16949 pBMEC gene expression after mastitis pathogen infection ©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 14 (4): 16948-16965 (2015) involved in oxidative phosphorylation and Parkinson's disease. The clustered pathway terms of the DEGs of the E23-infected pBMECs were found to involve the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway and oxidative phosphorylation, while those of the K96-infected pBMECs were primarily involved in oxidative phosphorylation and apoptosis. Our results have identified a number of immune-related genes that showed changes in gene expression after bacterial infection, and provided insight into the interactions between pBMECs and the bacteria.

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Probiotics are gaining attention due to their functions of regulating the intestinal barrier and promoting human health. The production of exopolysaccharide (EPS) is one of the important factors for probiotics to exert beneficial properties. This study aimed to screen exopolysaccharides-producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and evaluate the probiotic potential. we obtained three exopolysaccharide fractions (EPS1, EPS2, and EPS3) from Lactobacillus pantheris TCP102 and purified by a combination of ion-exchange chromatography and gel permeation chromatography. The structures of the fractions were characterized by FT-IR, UV, HPLC, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The Mw of EPS1, EPS2, and EPS3 were approximately 20.3, 23.0, and 19.3 kDa, and were mainly composed of galactose, glucose, and mannose, with approximate molar ratios of 2.86:1:1.48, 1.26:1:1, 1.58:1.80:1, respectively. Furthermore, SEM analysis demonstrated that the three polysaccharide fractions differ in microstructure and surface morphology. Additionally, preliminary results for immune-enhancing and anticancer activities reveal that these EPSs significantly induced the production of nitric oxide (NO), TNF-α, and IL-6 in Ana-1 cells and peritoneal macrophage cells. Meanwhile, the EPSs also significantly suppressed the proliferation of HCT-116, BCG-803, and particularly A-2780 cells. The results suggest that the three novel EPSs isolated from Lactobacillus pantheris TCP102 can be regarded as potential application value in functional food and natural antitumor drugs.

The existing network security assessment models have the problems of inadequate capacity of quantitative analysis and lacking for vulnerabilities correlation. To address these problems, a hierarchical network security evaluation model is proposed. The network is divided into vulnerability level, service level, equipment level and network level. The model uses attack graph to correlate the network vulnerabilities, and then calculates the probabilities of successfully exploiting the vulnerabilities. On this basis, the quantitative risks of each level are calculated. Since this model much more accords with the features of network structure, it is an effectively guidance for the network administrators to develop and improve the network security policies.