Rabies is a serious public health issue in Kazakhstan, with high economic impact and social burden.  As part of a routine surveillance, 31 rabies-positive brain specimens taken from livestock (cattle) and carnivores (dogs, foxes, and cats) during 2013–2021 were subject to viral sequencing.  Phylogenetic and Bayesian analysis were performed using obtained rabies virus (RABV) sequences.  All 31 strains of RABV candidate belonged to the Cosmopolitan clade, of which 30 strains belonged to steppe-type subclade, and 1 dog strain belonged to Other subclade.  The 31 strains did not diverge from RABV strains in Kazakhstan and neighboring countries, including Russia, Mongolia, and China, suggesting that animal rabies has close relationship and transmission between borders.  Fox-originated strains and cattle strains shared similar sequence signature, and some animal rabies cases had space–time intersection, showing that infected foxes were a major transmission source of cattle rabies in different Kazakhstan regions.  Besides, free-roaming dogs played a pivotal role in rabies epizootics of cattle in Kazakhstan.  The recent spread of animal rabies presents an increasing threat to public health, and provides updated information for improving current control and prevention strategies at the source for Kazakhstan and neighboring countries.

Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression assays are a convenient alternative to stable expression because they are simple, easy to perform, and achieve gene expression rapidly.  This study investigated the factors affecting transient gene expression efficiency in citrus by observing the cryo-sectioning of leaf samples under a laser confocal microscope.  These factors included the composition of the infiltration buffer, the Agrobacterium cell density, the leaf development stage, the incubation temperature, and plant genotype.  The highest transient expression level of yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) was detected in Mexican lime (Citrus aurantifolia) on the third day after the intermediate-aged leaves were infiltrated with the improved infiltration buffer 1 (15 mmol L^-1 2-(N-morpholino) ethanesulfonic acid, 10 mmol L^-1 MgCl₂, and 200 μmol L^-1 acetosyringone), which had an optical density of 0.8 and was incubated at 22°C.  Additionally, this transient expression assay was applied to other citrus genotypes.  Of note, trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) and kumquat (Fortunella obovate) had higher expression efficiency than other six genotypes of the Citrus genus.  Our study provides research basis for the selection of optimization strategies in transient gene expression and improves the method for available genome investigation in citrus.

Chemical composition, physico-chemical properties and fatty acid composition of breast and drumstick meat from capons (castrated male cockerels) fed cereals were studied. Three groups of capons were reared. One group was fed ad libitum the same commercial diet until the 4th mon of life. The last month of its life, the capons of this group were fed corn. The second and third group of capons were fed the same diet from caponization. The second group was fed mixture of corn (50%) and wheat (50%). The third group of capons was fed 2/3 corn and 1/3 mixture of corn (50%) and barley (50%). Capons were reared under free-range conditions and slaughtered at 150 d of age. Caponization was performed at 48 d. No significant effects of feeding in chemical composition, pH, water holding capacity, drip and cooking losses and texture of the meat were observed. The meat of the third group (capons fed 83% corn) was more yellow and showed higher content of C18:2 than that of the other capons.

Due to evolving molecular and informatics technologies, modern genome sequencing projects have more different characteristics than what most biologists have become accustomed to during the capillary-based sequencing era. In this paper, we explore the characteristics that made past insect genome projects successful and place them in the context of next-generation sequencing. By taking into account the intricacies of whitefly biology and the community, we present a roadmap for whitefly-omics, which focuses on the formation of an international consortium, deployment of informatic platforms and realistic generation of reference sequence data.