@article{XiaCaoDaietal.2012, author = {Xia, Haiyan and Cao, Yun and Dai, Xiaoman and Marelja, Zvonimir and Zhou, Di and Mo, Ran and Al-Mahdawi, Sahar and Pook, Mark A. and Leimk{\"u}hler, Silke and Rouault, Tracey A. and Li, Kuanyu}, title = {Novel Frataxin Isoforms May Contribute to the Pathological Mechanism of Friedreich Ataxia}, series = {PLOS ONE}, volume = {7}, journal = {PLOS ONE}, number = {10}, publisher = {PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE}, address = {SAN FRANCISCO}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0047847}, pages = {11}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by frataxin (FXN) deficiency. The nervous system and heart are the most severely affected tissues. However, highly mitochondria-dependent tissues, such as kidney and liver, are not obviously affected, although the abundance of FXN is normally high in these tissues. In this study we have revealed two novel FXN isoforms (II and III), which are specifically expressed in affected cerebellum and heart tissues, respectively, and are functional in vitro and in vivo. Increasing the abundance of the heart-specific isoform III significantly increased the mitochondrial aconitase activity, while over-expression of the cerebellum-specific isoform II protected against oxidative damage of Fe-S cluster-containing aconitase. Further, we observed that the protein level of isoform III decreased in FRDA patient heart, while the mRNA level of isoform II decreased more in FRDA patient cerebellum compared to total FXN mRNA. Our novel findings are highly relevant to understanding the mechanism of tissue-specific pathology in FRDA.}, language = {en} } @article{HerzschuhCaoLaeppleetal.2019, author = {Herzschuh, Ulrike and Cao, Xianyong and Laepple, Thomas and Dallmeyer, Anne and Telford, Richard J. and Ni, Jian and Chen, Fahu and Kong, Zhaochen and Liu, Guangxiu and Liu, Kam-Biu and Liu, Xingqi and Stebich, Martina and Tang, Lingyu and Tian, Fang and Wang, Yongbo and Wischnewski, Juliane and Xu, Qinghai and Yan, Shun and Yang, Zhenjing and Yu, Ge and Zhang, Yun and Zhao, Yan and Zheng, Zhuo}, title = {Position and orientation of the westerly jet determined Holocene rainfall patterns in China}, series = {Nature Communications}, volume = {10}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-09866-8}, pages = {8}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Proxy-based reconstructions and modeling of Holocene spatiotemporal precipitation patterns for China and Mongolia have hitherto yielded contradictory results indicating that the basic mechanisms behind the East Asian Summer Monsoon and its interaction with the westerly jet stream remain poorly understood. We present quantitative reconstructions of Holocene precipitation derived from 101 fossil pollen records and analyse them with the help of a minimal empirical model. We show that the westerly jet-stream axis shifted gradually southward and became less tilted since the middle Holocene. This was tracked by the summer monsoon rain band resulting in an early-Holocene precipitation maximum over most of western China, a mid-Holocene maximum in north-central and northeastern China, and a late-Holocene maximum in southeastern China. Our results suggest that a correct simulation of the orientation and position of the westerly jet stream is crucial to the reliable prediction of precipitation patterns in China and Mongolia.}, language = {en} }