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Sequence-indexed insertional libraries are important resources for functional gene study in model plants. However, the maize (Zea mays) UniformMu library covers only 36% of the annotated maize genes. Here, we generated a new sequence-indexed maize Mutator insertional library named ChinaMu through high-throughput sequencing of enriched Mu-tagged sequences. A total of 2,581 Mu F2 lines were analyzed, and 311,924 nonredundant Mu insertion sites were obtained. Based on experimental validation, ChinaMu contains about 97,000 germinal Mu insertions, about twice as many as UniformMu. About two-thirds (66,565) of the insertions are high-quality germinal insertions (positive rate. 90%), 89.6% of which are located in genic regions. Furthermore, 45.7% (20,244) of the 44,300 annotated maize genes are effectively tagged and about two-thirds (13,425) of these genes harbor multiple insertions. We tested the utility of ChinaMu using pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) genes. For published PPR genes with defective kernel phenotypes, 17 out of 20 were tagged, 11 of which had the previously reported mutant phenotype. For 16 unstudied PPR genes with both Mu insertions and defective kernel phenotypes, 6 contained insertions that cosegregated with the mutant phenotype. Our sequence-indexed Mu insertional library provides an important resource for functional genomics study in maize.

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Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most effective angiogenic factors that promote generation of tumor vasculature. VEGF is usually up-regulated in multiple cancers including osteosarcoma and glioma. To further explore the potential molecular mechanism that inhibits tumor growth induced by interference of VEGF expression, we constructed a Lv-shVEGF vector and assessed the efficiency of VEGF silencing and its influence in U2OS cells. The data demonstrate that Lv-shVEGF has high inhibition efficiency on VEGF expression, which inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of U2OS cells in vitro. Our results also indicate that inhibition of VEGF expression suppresses osteosarcoma tumor growth in vivo and reduces osteosarcoma angiogenesis. We also found that the activations of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and protein kinase B (AKT) were considerably reduced after osteosarcoma cells were treated with Lv-shVEGF. Taken together, our data demonstrate that VEGF silencing suppresses cell proliferation, promotes cell apoptosis, and reduces osteosarcoma angiogenesis through inactivation of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

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