Browsing by Author "Chen G"

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Author Correction: Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics.
(2021-04) Feng S; Stiller J; Deng Y; Armstrong J; Fang Q; Reeve AH; Xie D; Chen G; Guo C; Faircloth BC; Petersen B; Wang Z; Zhou Q; Diekhans M; Chen W; Andreu-Sánchez S; Margaryan A; Howard JT; Parent C; Pacheco G; Sinding M-HS; Puetz L; Cavill E; Ribeiro ÂM; Eckhart L; Fjeldså J; Hosner PA; Brumfield RT; Christidis L; Bertelsen MF; Sicheritz-Ponten T; Tietze DT; Robertson BC; Song G; Borgia G; Claramunt S; Lovette IJ; Cowen SJ; Njoroge P; Dumbacher JP; Ryder OA; Fuchs J; Bunce M; Burt DW; Cracraft J; Meng G; Hackett SJ; Ryan PG; Jønsson KA; Jamieson IG; da Fonseca RR; Braun EL; Houde P; Mirarab S; Suh A; Hansson B; Ponnikas S; Sigeman H; Stervander M; Frandsen PB; van der Zwan H; van der Sluis R; Visser C; Balakrishnan CN; Clark AG; Fitzpatrick JW; Bowman R; Chen N; Cloutier A; Sackton TB; Edwards SV; Foote DJ; Shakya SB; Sheldon FH; Vignal A; Soares AER; Shapiro B; González-Solís J; Ferrer-Obiol J; Rozas J; Riutort M; Tigano A; Friesen V; Dalén L; Urrutia AO; Székely T; Liu Y; Campana MG; Corvelo A; Fleischer RC; Rutherford KM; Gemmell NJ; Dussex N; Mouritsen H; Thiele N; Delmore K; Liedvogel M; Franke A; Hoeppner MP; Krone O; Fudickar AM; Milá B; Ketterson ED; Fidler AE; Friis G; Parody-Merino ÁM; Battley PF; Cox MP; Lima NCB; Prosdocimi F; Parchman TL; Schlinger BA; Loiselle BA; Blake JG; Lim HC; Day LB; Fuxjager MJ; Baldwin MW; Braun MJ; Wirthlin M; Dikow RB; Ryder TB; Camenisch G; Keller LF; DaCosta JM; Hauber ME; Louder MIM; Witt CC; McGuire JA; Mudge J; Megna LC; Carling MD; Wang B; Taylor SA; Del-Rio G; Aleixo A; Vasconcelos ATR; Mello CV; Weir JT; Haussler D; Li Q; Yang H; Wang J; Lei F; Rahbek C; Gilbert MTP; Graves GR; Jarvis ED; Paten B; Zhang G
In Supplementary Table 1 of this Article, 23 samples (B10K-DU-029-32, B10K-DU-029-33, B10K-DU-029-36 to B10K-DU-029-44, B10K-DU- 029-46, B10K-DU-029-47, B10K-DU-029-49 to B10K-DU-029-53, B10K-DU- 029-75 to B10K-DU-029-77, B10K-DU-029-80, and B10K-DU-030-03; styled in boldface in the revised table) were assigned to the incorrect institution. Supplementary Table 1 has been amended to reflect the correct source institution for these samples, and associated data (tissue, museum ID/source specimen ID, site, state/province, latitude, longitude, date collected and sex) have been updated accordingly. The original table is provided as Supplementary Information to this Amendment, and the original Article has been corrected online.
Environmental and occupational exposure to erionite and related health risks: Progress and prospects
(Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, 2025-08-01) Chen G; ‘t Mannetje A; Salmond JA; Douwes J
Objectives Erionite, a naturally occurring fibrous zeolite classified as a human carcinogen, is believed to be more potent than asbestos in causing mesothelioma. However, unlike asbestos, erionite has rarely been used for commercial purposes and, as a result, knowledge about exposure pathways is limited. This paper provides a narrative review of the current knowledge regarding the associations between erionite exposure, health effects and exposure circumstances. Methods Medline/PubMed and Scopus were systematically searched up to the end of 2024 using keywords related to erionite exposure and health outcomes. Results We identified 26 peer-reviewed journal articles reporting on the health effects of erionite exposure, specifically mesothelioma and lung cancer, with mesothelioma being the most extensively studied outcome. Of these, 12 studies focussed on erionite-exposed populations in Turkey, 8 examined health effects among Turkish migrants in northern Europe, and 6 investigated erionite-related health risks in North America (3 in the United States and 3 in Mexico). These studies showed a very high incidence of mesothelioma, often in relatively young individuals, from the Cappadocia region of Turkey, with well-documented environmental exposures to erionite, contributing to a high proportion of all deaths (21% to 51%) in affected villages. Evidence of lung cancer associated with erionite exposure was also found. There is also evidence of erionite exposure-associated mesothelioma in Guanajuato, central Mexico. In the United States, erionite exposure-associated health effects (not mesothelioma) have been reported among people occupationally exposed to erionite. Studies on environmental exposures have shown outdoor concentrations ranging from 0.001 f/ml to 0.3 f/ml, while indoor concentrations have ranged from 0.005 to 1.38 f/ml. Occupational exposure to erionite has been less studied, with only one study in forestry workers showing elevated exposures to erionite ranging from non-detectable to 0.36 f/cc. Erionite deposits have also been identified in other countries such as Italy and New Zealand, but exposures and associated health effects have not yet been studied in these regions. Conclusion There is clear evidence that environmental exposure to erionite in the Cappadocia region of Turkey, and Guanajuato in central Mexico are causally associated with the high mesothelioma rates observed in these areas. Evidence for other parts of the world where there is naturally occurring erionite is limited. This review has highlighted significant knowledge gaps, and advocates for further research on occupational exposure to erionite fibres and associated health effects.
Fungi regulate the response of the N2O production process to warming and grazing in a Tibetan grassland
(Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2018-07-20) Zhong L; Wang S; Xu X; Wang Y; Rui Y; Zhou X; Shen Q; Wang J; Jiang L; Luo C; Gu T; Ma W; Chen G; Kuzyakov Y
Lack of understanding of the effects of warming and winter grazing on soil fungal contribution to the nitrous oxide (N2O) production process has limited our ability to predict N2O fluxes under changes in climate and land use management, because soil fungi play an important role in driving terrestrial N cycling. A controlled warming and winter grazing experiment that included control (C), winter grazing (G), warming (W) and warming with winter grazing (WG) was conducted to investigate the effects of warming and winter grazing on soil N2O production potential in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results showed that soil bacteria and fungi contributed 46 ± 2% and 54 ± 2% to nitrification, and 37 ± 3% and 63 ± 3% to denitrification in the control treatment, respectively. We conclude that soil fungi could be the main source of N2O production potential for the Tibetan alpine grasslands. In our results, neither warming nor winter grazing affected the activity of enzymes responsible for overall nitrification and denitrification. However, warming significantly increased the enzyme activity of bacterial nitrification and potential of N2O production from denitrification to 53 ± 2% and 55 ± 3%, respectively, but decreased them to 47 ± 2% and 45 ± 3%, respectively. Winter grazing had no such effects. Warming and winter grazing may not affect the soil N2O production potential, but climate warming can alter biotic pathways responsible for N2O production process. These findings confirm the importance of soil fungi in the soil N2O production process and how they respond to environmental and land use changes in alpine meadow ecosystems. Therefore, our results provide some new insights into ecological controls on the N2O production process and contribute to the development of an ecosystem nitrogen cycle model.
Serum biomarkers of neuroinflammation and blood-brain barrier leakage in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(BioMed Central Ltd, 2022-12) Cao MC; Cawston EE; Chen G; Brooks C; Douwes J; McLean D; Graham ES; Dragunow M; Scotter EL
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable and rapidly progressive neurological disorder. Biomarkers are critical to understanding disease causation, monitoring disease progression and assessing the efficacy of treatments. However, robust peripheral biomarkers are yet to be identified. Neuroinflammation and breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) are common to familial and sporadic ALS and may produce a unique biomarker signature in peripheral blood. Using cytometric bead array (n = 15 participants per group (ALS or control)) and proteome profiling (n = 6 participants per group (ALS or control)), we assessed a total of 106 serum cytokines, growth factors, and BBB breakdown markers in the serum of control and ALS participants. Further, primary human brain pericytes, which maintain the BBB, were used as a biosensor of inflammation following pre-treatment with ALS serum. Principal components analysis of all proteome profile data showed no clustering of control or ALS sera, and no individual serum proteins met the threshold for statistical difference between ALS and controls (adjusted P values). However, the 20 most changed proteins between control and ALS sera showed a medium effect size (Cohen's d = 0.67) and cluster analysis of their levels together identified three sample subsets; control-only, mixed control-ALS, and ALS-only. These 20 proteins were predominantly pro-angiogenic and growth factors, including fractalkine, BDNF, EGF, PDGF, Dkk-1, MIF and angiopoietin-2. S100β, a protein highly concentrated in glial cells and therefore a marker of BBB leakage when found in blood, was unchanged in ALS serum, suggesting that serum protein profiles were reflective of peripheral rather than CNS biofluids. Finally, primary human brain pericytes remained proliferative and their secretome was unchanged by chronic exposure to ALS serum. Our exploratory study suggests that individual serum cytokine levels may not be robust biomarkers in small studies of ALS, but that larger studies using multiplexed analysis of pro-angiogenic and growth factors may identify a peripheral signature of ALS pathogenesis.