As an emerging class of non-coding transcripts, circular RNAs (circRNAs) are proved to participate in the complex process of myogenesis in diverse species.  A previous study has identified circular RNA EDC3 (circEDC3) as a typical covalently closed circular RNA abundant in chicken skeletal muscle.  This study found that circEDC3 is a conservative circular RNA and performed functional analysis to investigate the role of circEDC3 in chicken muscle growth.  The results indicated that circEDC3 could inhibit (P<0.05) chicken skeletal muscle satellite cells (SMSCs) proliferation and differentiation but had no significant influence on SMSCs apoptosis.  Additionally, bioinformatics analysis showed that circEDC3 had promising coding potential.  The open reading frames (ORF) were found in circEDC3 in this study.  Furthermore, this study predicted that circEDC3 had internal ribosome entry sites (IRES) and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) motifs in different species, implying that circEDC3 might be translatable.  This study revealed that circEDC3 might be a negative regulator in chicken muscle development and suggested it has protein-coding potential in different species.

Water quality in China is becoming a severe challenge for agriculture and food safety, and it might also impact health of population via agriculture and food. Thus, it is causing widespread concern. Based on extensive literatures review and data mining, current situation of water pollution in China and its effects on food safety were analyzed. The 2nd National Water Resource Survey in China show that the surface water all over the country was under slight pollution and about 60% of groundwater is polluted. Drinking water quality is basically guaranteed in urban area but it is worrisome in rural areas. In addition, China is the largest consumer of fertilizer and pesticide in the world and the amounts of application still show increasing trends. Fertilizers and pesticides are the most important sources of pollution, which affect human health as persistent organic pollutants and environmental endocrine disruptors. Eutrophication of surface water and nitrate pollution of groundwater are serious threats to drinking water safety. Sewage irrigation is becoming a pollution source to China’s water and land because of lacking of effective regulations. Although, with the advance in technology and management level, control of nitrogen and phosphorus emissions and reducing water pollution is still a major challenge for China.