As an evolutionarily conserved microRNA(miRNA),miR396 regulates plant growth by integrating developmental and environmental signals.In the present study,CsaWPRa4,a WEB1(Weak Chloroplast Movement under Blue Light 1)/PM...As an evolutionarily conserved microRNA(miRNA),miR396 regulates plant growth by integrating developmental and environmental signals.In the present study,CsaWPRa4,a WEB1(Weak Chloroplast Movement under Blue Light 1)/PMI2(Plastid Movement Impaired 2)-related protein(WPR)family member,was predicted to be a novel target gene of CsamiR396 in cucumbers.WPRa4 is a highly conserved protein in plants.Interestingly,bioinformatic analysis showed that WPRa4 acts as a conserved target gene ofmiR396 in cucumber and its related species in cucurbits,but not in other plants.ThemiR396 binding site is located within the coding region of the AAK(K/R)AVE motif in WPRa4,and it evolved by synonymous substitutions in cucurbits.Negative regulation of CsaWPRa4 by CsamiR396 was confirmed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR),luciferase assay,gene overexpression,and tobacco ringspot virus(TRSV)-based gene silencing analysis.The subcellular localization assay showed that CsaWPRa4 was localized to both the cell periphery and nuclear periphery.Thereafter,Csawpra4 mutants were generated using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing.Chloroplast-and flower morphogenesis-related genes were altered,resulting in altered photosynthetic traits and flower morphogenesis in Csawpra4 mutants.In summary,our results showed that WPRa4 evolved as a novel target ofmiR396 through synonymous substitutions in cucurbits,uncovering the role of synonymous substitutions in genome evolution and providing a new perspective on miRNA-target evolutionary processes in plants.展开更多
The study of synonyms based on corpus has become a hot topic in recent years,and the task of differentiating synonyms has always been a complex issue.The current study made an attempt to investigate the differences am...The study of synonyms based on corpus has become a hot topic in recent years,and the task of differentiating synonyms has always been a complex issue.The current study made an attempt to investigate the differences among English noun synonyms“opposition”,“resistance”and“defiance”from the perspective of frequency distribution,collocation and semantic prosody based on COCA.This research shows that in terms of frequency distribution,“opposition”and“resistance”are more frequently used than“defiance”.Both of the two are most commonly used in academic journals while“defiance”is most frequently used in fiction.All of these three words rarely appear in TV and movie subtitles.Second,from the perspective of collocation,“opposition”often collocates with words about politics and personal state,“resistance”usually appears with words concerning politics and medicine,and“defiance”mainly shows up in the fields of military,medicine,personal state and others.Third,from the dimension of semantic prosody,“opposition”presents negative semantic prosody,“resistance”has neutral semantic prosody,and“defiance”indicates mixed semantic prosody.The present study is able to enrich the relevant study on synonym differentiation,and highlight the importance of understanding the subtle differences among synonyms.展开更多
Apple(Malus×domestica) has been proposed as an important woody plant and the major cultivated fruit trees in temperate regions. Apple whole genome sequencing has been completed, which provided an excellent oppo...Apple(Malus×domestica) has been proposed as an important woody plant and the major cultivated fruit trees in temperate regions. Apple whole genome sequencing has been completed, which provided an excellent opportunity for genome-wide analysis of the synonymous codon usage patterns. In this study, a multivariate bioinformatics analysis was performed to reveal the characteristics of synonymous codon usage and the main factors affecting codon bias in apple. The neutrality, correspondence, and correlation analyses were performed by Codon W and SPSS(Statistical Product and Service Solutions) programs, indicating that the apple genome codon usage patterns were affected by mutational pressure and selective constraint. Meanwhile, coding sequence length and the hydrophobicity of proteins could also influence the codon usage patterns. In short, codon usage pattern analysis and determination of optimal codons has laid an important theoretical basis for genetic engineering, gene prediction and molecular evolution studies in apple.展开更多
For protecting the copyright of a text and recovering its original content harmlessly,this paper proposes a novel reversible natural language watermarking method that combines arithmetic coding and synonym substitutio...For protecting the copyright of a text and recovering its original content harmlessly,this paper proposes a novel reversible natural language watermarking method that combines arithmetic coding and synonym substitution operations.By analyzing relative frequencies of synonymous words,synonyms employed for carrying payload are quantized into an unbalanced and redundant binary sequence.The quantized binary sequence is compressed by adaptive binary arithmetic coding losslessly to provide a spare for accommodating additional data.Then,the compressed data appended with the watermark are embedded into the cover text via synonym substitutions in an invertible manner.On the receiver side,the watermark and compressed data can be extracted by decoding the values of synonyms in the watermarked text,as a result of which the original context can be perfectly recovered by decompressing the extracted compressed data and substituting the replaced synonyms with their original synonyms.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can extract the watermark successfully and achieve a lossless recovery of the original text.Additionally,it achieves a high embedding capacity.展开更多
In this study,a comparative analysis of the codon usage bias was performed in Aeropyrum pernix K1 and two other phylogenetically related Crenarchaeota microorganisms(i.e.,Pyrobaculum aerophilum str.IM2 and Sulfolobus ...In this study,a comparative analysis of the codon usage bias was performed in Aeropyrum pernix K1 and two other phylogenetically related Crenarchaeota microorganisms(i.e.,Pyrobaculum aerophilum str.IM2 and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius DSM 639).The results indicated that the synonymous codon usage in A.pernix K1 was less biased,which was highly correlated with the GC3s value.The codon usage patterns were phylogenetically conserved among these Crenarchaeota microorganisms.Comparatively,it is the species function rather than the gene function that determines their gene codon usage patterns.A.pernix K1,P.aerophilum str.IM2,and S.acidocaldarius DSM 639 live in differently extreme conditions.It is presumed that the hving environment played an important role in determining the codon usage pattern of these microorganisms.Besides,there was no strain-specific codon usage among these microorganisms.The extent of codon bias in A.pernix K1 and S.acidocaldarius DSM 639 were highly correlated with the gene expression level,but no such association was detected in P.aerophilum str.IM2 genomes.展开更多
The evolutionary suppression of synonymous codon sites is a controversial topic. Although some studies have indicated that synonymous substitution is under positive selection, most of these studies relied on compariso...The evolutionary suppression of synonymous codon sites is a controversial topic. Although some studies have indicated that synonymous substitution is under positive selection, most of these studies relied on comparison of homologous genes and/or a limited number of sequences. In the present work, we compared the selection strength at synonymous sites for two types of protein-encoding genes: genes encoding enzymes and protein genes encoding non-enzymes. Our method does not require assumptions concerning, for example, evolutionary equilibrium or population size. We compared -70 000 genes from the fully sequenced mammalian Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes, Mus musculus, and Rattus norvegicus genomes and found that the percentage of C and G in the third position of a codon positively correlates with the percentage of the G/C content within 4- 20 ooo nucleotides of the gene. More interestingly, we found that synonymous sites in mammalian genes encoding enzymes have undergone stronger selection than did such sites in genes encoding proteins that are not enzymes.展开更多
Objective:Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease(ADPKD)is mainly caused by the pathogenic mutation of PKD1 or PKD2 gene and usually affects bilateral kidneys.Synonymous mutations are generally assumed to be neut...Objective:Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease(ADPKD)is mainly caused by the pathogenic mutation of PKD1 or PKD2 gene and usually affects bilateral kidneys.Synonymous mutations are generally assumed to be neutral as they do not alter amino acids.Herein,we described an extremely rare ADPKD child caused by a heterozygous synonymous mutation of PKD2 gene accompanied by massive proteinuria and congenital solitary kidney.Methods:Clinical characteristics of the patients were summarized.Whole-exome sequencing was performed to screen the disease-causing gene mutation,and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)and Sanger sequencing were applied to analyze the impact of the identified mutation on gene transcription and splicing.Results:Polycystic changes were found in the solitary kidney of a girl initially presented with nephrotic-range proteinuria.Thereafter her mother and 2 other family members were diagnosed to be ADPKD.Whole-exome sequencing of the proband identified a heterozygous synonymous mutation(c.1716G>A,p.Lys572=)located in the splicing site of exon 7 in PKD2 gene,which was co-segregated with the PKD phenotype in the family.RT-PCR and direct sequencing of amplified products revealed that this heterozygous synonymous mutation led to exon7 skipping in PKD2 gene.Conclusion:We reported an extremely rare child case of ADPKD2 in combination with solitary kidney and nephrotic-range proteinuria,and firstly confirmed the pathogenicity of a heterozygous synonymous mutation(c.1716G>A)in PKD2 gene.The results indicate that synonymous mutations should not be excluded from disease-causing if they are located in splicing site of an exon.展开更多
Word similarity(WS)is a fundamental and critical task in natural language processing.Existing approaches to WS are mainly to calculate the similarity or relatedness of word pairs based on word embedding obtained by ma...Word similarity(WS)is a fundamental and critical task in natural language processing.Existing approaches to WS are mainly to calculate the similarity or relatedness of word pairs based on word embedding obtained by massive and high-quality corpus.However,it may suffer from poor performance for insufficient corpus in some specific fields,and cannot capture rich semantic and sentimental information.To address these above problems,we propose an enhancing embedding-based word similarity evaluation with character-word concepts and synonyms knowledge,namely EWS-CS model,which can provide extra semantic information to enhance word similarity evaluation.The core of our approach contains knowledge encoder and word encoder.In knowledge encoder,we incorporate the semantic knowledge extracted from knowledge resources,including character-word concepts,synonyms and sentiment lexicons,to obtain knowledge representation.Word encoder is to learn enhancing embedding-based word representation from pre-trained model and knowledge representation based on similarity task.Finally,compared with baseline models,the experiments on four similarity evaluation datasets validate the effectiveness of our EWS-CS model in WS task.展开更多
In this work,an approach is proposed to acquire synonymous attribute phrases of named entities(NEs) from an online encyclopedia.Synonymous attribute phrases are the phrases that express the same attribute with differe...In this work,an approach is proposed to acquire synonymous attribute phrases of named entities(NEs) from an online encyclopedia.Synonymous attribute phrases are the phrases that express the same attribute with different surface forms for a class of NEs.Specifically,the proposed approach is composed of three stages.Firstly,the entries related to a given NE class are automatically selected from an online encyclopedia.Secondly,attribute phrases are extracted based on the statistics of phrase frequency.Thirdly,synonymous attributes are identified in a pairwise manner through a classification framework combining multiple features.The proposed approach is applied on Baidu Baike,a Chinese online encyclopedia,for four different NE classes.Experimental results show that the approach obtains an average precision of 74%and an average F-value of 65%for the four NE classes.In particular,thousands of synonymous attribute phrase pairs are acquired for each class,which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.展开更多
Based on comparison of the type specimens, Parapolytrechus [sic] flavotarsus Wang & Zheng, 2002 is a new junior synonym ofNeoxenicotela mausoni Breuning, 1947.
A comparative analysis of the codon usage bias was conducted in Methanosarcina mazei str. Goel and two related Euryarchaeota microorganisms (Picrophilus torridus str. DSM 9790 and Natronomonas pharaonis str. DSM 2160...A comparative analysis of the codon usage bias was conducted in Methanosarcina mazei str. Goel and two related Euryarchaeota microorganisms (Picrophilus torridus str. DSM 9790 and Natronomonas pharaonis str. DSM 2160). Results revealed that synonymous codon usage in Methanosarcina mazei str. Goel was less biased, which was highly correlated with the GC3S value. And the codon usage patterns were phylogenetically conserved among those Euryarchaeota microorganisms. By employing a hierarchical clustering analysis, it can be seen that it is more the species than the gene function that determines their gene codon usage pattems. Considering that those microorganisms live in different environments where the pH conditions vary quite a lot, it can be presumed that their living environments, especially the pH conditions, play an important role in determining those microorganisms' codon usage pattems.展开更多
With the verification of the type specimen by six experts from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, the specimen of Xianfengella prima He and Yang, 1982 described by Qian (Qian, 2001, flge2: la-c) is...With the verification of the type specimen by six experts from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, the specimen of Xianfengella prima He and Yang, 1982 described by Qian (Qian, 2001, flge2: la-c) is confirmed to be the holotype specimen (NIGP. 84430) of Yangtzedonta primitiva Yu, 1985, and consequently, Yu Wen's view that they are not the same specimen is impractical. This fact demonstrates that Yangtzedonta primitiva Yu, 1985 is undoubtedly a junior synonym of Xianftngella prima He and Yang, 1982, and is invalid. Qian's conclusion (Qian, 2001 ) that no bivalve appeared in the early Meishucunian Stage of the Early Cambrian is rational.展开更多
Four new synonyms in the stag-beetle genus Aegus MacLeay from Chinese fauna are proposed and discussed based on their type specimens: A. pichoni Didier 1931, syn. nov. = A. laevicollis Saunders 1854; A. beauchenei Bo...Four new synonyms in the stag-beetle genus Aegus MacLeay from Chinese fauna are proposed and discussed based on their type specimens: A. pichoni Didier 1931, syn. nov. = A. laevicollis Saunders 1854; A. beauchenei Boileau 1902, syn. nov. and A. caprinus Didier, 1928, syn. nov. =A. taurus Boileau, 1899; A. dispar Dider 1931, syn. nov. =A. kuangtungensis Nagel, 1925. A species checklist with fifteen species of this genus from China is given, including two new record species, A. labilis Westwood, 1864 from Xizang and A. coomani Didier, 1926 from Guangxi.展开更多
The discrimination of synonyms has always been the key and difficult points in language learning.By using the British Na⁃tional Corpus(BNC)to retrieve the standard frequency,registers and collocations of the three com...The discrimination of synonyms has always been the key and difficult points in language learning.By using the British Na⁃tional Corpus(BNC)to retrieve the standard frequency,registers and collocations of the three common words,DESTORY,RUIN and DEMOLISH,this paper analyzes their similarities and differences.Besides,this paper demonstrates the strong ancillary func⁃tion of corpus in synonyms discrimination as well as in English teaching and learning.展开更多
To investigate how synonymous codons have been adapted to the formation of ribonucleic acid(RNA)G-quadruplex(rG4)structure,a computational searching algorithm G4Hunter was applied to detect rG4 structures in protein-c...To investigate how synonymous codons have been adapted to the formation of ribonucleic acid(RNA)G-quadruplex(rG4)structure,a computational searching algorithm G4Hunter was applied to detect rG4 structures in protein-coding sequences of mRNAs in five eukaryotic species.The native sequences forming rG4s were then compared with randomized sequences to evaluate selection on synonymous codons.Factors that may influence the formation of rG4 were also investigated,and the selection pressures of rG4 in different gene regions were compared to explore its potential roles in gene regulation.The results show universal selective pressure acts on synonymous codons in rG4 regions to facilitate rG4 formation in five eukaryotic organisms.While G-rich codon combinations are preferred in the rG4 structural region,C-rich codon combinations are selectively unfavorable for rG4 formation.Gene's codon usage bias,nucleotide composition,and evolutionary rate can account for the selective variations on synonymous codons among rG4 structures within a species.Moreover,rG4 structures in the translational initiation region showed significantly higher selective pressures than those in the translational elongation region.展开更多
Distinguishing the meanings of near synonyms always seems to be a challenging task for Chinese EFL learners,as is the case with bring about and give rise to be exemplified in the paper.I will use a corpus approach to ...Distinguishing the meanings of near synonyms always seems to be a challenging task for Chinese EFL learners,as is the case with bring about and give rise to be exemplified in the paper.I will use a corpus approach to unveil some implied semantic patterns and pragmatic features of the two phrases,and generalize their semantic prosodies as used by native English speakers by analyzing what kinds of nouns tend to co-occur with them,and also discuss whether there is a transfer of negative semantic prosody from the word cause to the two phrases under discussion.展开更多
Trogloneta yuensis Lin&Li,2013 is one of interesting member in morphology of the spider family Mysmenidae,and it should be possible for it to be widespread in the Southern China based on the currently known field ...Trogloneta yuensis Lin&Li,2013 is one of interesting member in morphology of the spider family Mysmenidae,and it should be possible for it to be widespread in the Southern China based on the currently known field survey records.Phricotelus yangaciong Lin&Li,2024 is a recent described mysmenid species.Through detailed morphological comparison,we firmly believe that it belongs to the same species as Trogloneta yuensis.According to the principle of priorty law of the Internation Code of Zoological nomenclature,a new synonymy,Phricotelus yangaiong Lin&Li,2024 syn.nov.,is formally proposed for Trogloneta yuensis Lin&Li,2013,and provided a brief retrospect for the genus Trogloneta in this paper.展开更多
Semantic prosody has been one of the most important topics in corpus linguistics.Synonyms are difficult for English learners to learn.Traditional teaching methods mostly distinguish them in terms of their meaning,not ...Semantic prosody has been one of the most important topics in corpus linguistics.Synonyms are difficult for English learners to learn.Traditional teaching methods mostly distinguish them in terms of their meaning,not their usage.This study uses a corpus-based approach to illustrate how to distinguish and employ the synonyms.This study uses the British Academic Written English(BAWE)Corpus,and chooses“lead to”and“result in”to explore their usage from the perspective and semantic prosody.The approach can help learners to understand and use those words or phrases with the same or similar meanings.展开更多
Distinguishing synonyms is invariably an important and difficult point in language learning. The author analyzes the sens-es, colligation, grammar and collocation of a pair of synonyms, ill and sick, and explores thei...Distinguishing synonyms is invariably an important and difficult point in language learning. The author analyzes the sens-es, colligation, grammar and collocation of a pair of synonyms, ill and sick, and explores their differences by adopting the corpus-based approach. Language learners and teachers are suggested to realize the significance of using corpus widely as an effective wayof distinguishing synonyms so as to promote their learning and teaching.展开更多
Synonym differentiation has always been a difficulty in English learning. Traditionally, definitions and examples from dictionaries are taken to illustrate shades of differences between synonyms, which fails to provid...Synonym differentiation has always been a difficulty in English learning. Traditionally, definitions and examples from dictionaries are taken to illustrate shades of differences between synonyms, which fails to provide a comprehensive description of these differences for students to differ synonyms. However, with the large volume, authentic materials, fast and convenient retrieval provided by corpus, the corpus-based synonym differentiation method can make a comprehensive description of synonyms in terms of their distinctive features in frequency distribution, collocation, colligation and semantic prosody. A corpus-based method will be employed to analyze the differences among the three English synonyms"conquer""overcome"and"surmount"based on the data collected from COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English), so as to throw new light on synonym differentiation, offering a new way to study synonyms, and to provide references for lexical teaching and second language acquisition.展开更多
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hangzhou City(2025SZRJJ0025)the Major Project of Science and Technology Innovation 2025 of Ningbo(2021Z006)the Key Science Project of Vegetable Breeding in Zhejiang(2021C02065).
摘要As an evolutionarily conserved microRNA(miRNA),miR396 regulates plant growth by integrating developmental and environmental signals.In the present study,CsaWPRa4,a WEB1(Weak Chloroplast Movement under Blue Light 1)/PMI2(Plastid Movement Impaired 2)-related protein(WPR)family member,was predicted to be a novel target gene of CsamiR396 in cucumbers.WPRa4 is a highly conserved protein in plants.Interestingly,bioinformatic analysis showed that WPRa4 acts as a conserved target gene ofmiR396 in cucumber and its related species in cucurbits,but not in other plants.ThemiR396 binding site is located within the coding region of the AAK(K/R)AVE motif in WPRa4,and it evolved by synonymous substitutions in cucurbits.Negative regulation of CsaWPRa4 by CsamiR396 was confirmed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR),luciferase assay,gene overexpression,and tobacco ringspot virus(TRSV)-based gene silencing analysis.The subcellular localization assay showed that CsaWPRa4 was localized to both the cell periphery and nuclear periphery.Thereafter,Csawpra4 mutants were generated using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing.Chloroplast-and flower morphogenesis-related genes were altered,resulting in altered photosynthetic traits and flower morphogenesis in Csawpra4 mutants.In summary,our results showed that WPRa4 evolved as a novel target ofmiR396 through synonymous substitutions in cucurbits,uncovering the role of synonymous substitutions in genome evolution and providing a new perspective on miRNA-target evolutionary processes in plants.
摘要The study of synonyms based on corpus has become a hot topic in recent years,and the task of differentiating synonyms has always been a complex issue.The current study made an attempt to investigate the differences among English noun synonyms“opposition”,“resistance”and“defiance”from the perspective of frequency distribution,collocation and semantic prosody based on COCA.This research shows that in terms of frequency distribution,“opposition”and“resistance”are more frequently used than“defiance”.Both of the two are most commonly used in academic journals while“defiance”is most frequently used in fiction.All of these three words rarely appear in TV and movie subtitles.Second,from the perspective of collocation,“opposition”often collocates with words about politics and personal state,“resistance”usually appears with words concerning politics and medicine,and“defiance”mainly shows up in the fields of military,medicine,personal state and others.Third,from the dimension of semantic prosody,“opposition”presents negative semantic prosody,“resistance”has neutral semantic prosody,and“defiance”indicates mixed semantic prosody.The present study is able to enrich the relevant study on synonym differentiation,and highlight the importance of understanding the subtle differences among synonyms.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31401822)
摘要Apple(Malus×domestica) has been proposed as an important woody plant and the major cultivated fruit trees in temperate regions. Apple whole genome sequencing has been completed, which provided an excellent opportunity for genome-wide analysis of the synonymous codon usage patterns. In this study, a multivariate bioinformatics analysis was performed to reveal the characteristics of synonymous codon usage and the main factors affecting codon bias in apple. The neutrality, correspondence, and correlation analyses were performed by Codon W and SPSS(Statistical Product and Service Solutions) programs, indicating that the apple genome codon usage patterns were affected by mutational pressure and selective constraint. Meanwhile, coding sequence length and the hydrophobicity of proteins could also influence the codon usage patterns. In short, codon usage pattern analysis and determination of optimal codons has laid an important theoretical basis for genetic engineering, gene prediction and molecular evolution studies in apple.
基金This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61202439)partly supported by Scientific Research Foundation of Hunan Provincial Education Department of China(No.16A008)partly supported by Hunan Key Laboratory of Smart Roadway and Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems(No.2017TP1016).
摘要For protecting the copyright of a text and recovering its original content harmlessly,this paper proposes a novel reversible natural language watermarking method that combines arithmetic coding and synonym substitution operations.By analyzing relative frequencies of synonymous words,synonyms employed for carrying payload are quantized into an unbalanced and redundant binary sequence.The quantized binary sequence is compressed by adaptive binary arithmetic coding losslessly to provide a spare for accommodating additional data.Then,the compressed data appended with the watermark are embedded into the cover text via synonym substitutions in an invertible manner.On the receiver side,the watermark and compressed data can be extracted by decoding the values of synonyms in the watermarked text,as a result of which the original context can be perfectly recovered by decompressing the extracted compressed data and substituting the replaced synonyms with their original synonyms.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can extract the watermark successfully and achieve a lossless recovery of the original text.Additionally,it achieves a high embedding capacity.
基金The work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.60121101).
摘要In this study,a comparative analysis of the codon usage bias was performed in Aeropyrum pernix K1 and two other phylogenetically related Crenarchaeota microorganisms(i.e.,Pyrobaculum aerophilum str.IM2 and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius DSM 639).The results indicated that the synonymous codon usage in A.pernix K1 was less biased,which was highly correlated with the GC3s value.The codon usage patterns were phylogenetically conserved among these Crenarchaeota microorganisms.Comparatively,it is the species function rather than the gene function that determines their gene codon usage patterns.A.pernix K1,P.aerophilum str.IM2,and S.acidocaldarius DSM 639 live in differently extreme conditions.It is presumed that the hving environment played an important role in determining the codon usage pattern of these microorganisms.Besides,there was no strain-specific codon usage among these microorganisms.The extent of codon bias in A.pernix K1 and S.acidocaldarius DSM 639 were highly correlated with the gene expression level,but no such association was detected in P.aerophilum str.IM2 genomes.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. NSFC-51308373).
摘要The evolutionary suppression of synonymous codon sites is a controversial topic. Although some studies have indicated that synonymous substitution is under positive selection, most of these studies relied on comparison of homologous genes and/or a limited number of sequences. In the present work, we compared the selection strength at synonymous sites for two types of protein-encoding genes: genes encoding enzymes and protein genes encoding non-enzymes. Our method does not require assumptions concerning, for example, evolutionary equilibrium or population size. We compared -70 000 genes from the fully sequenced mammalian Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes, Mus musculus, and Rattus norvegicus genomes and found that the percentage of C and G in the third position of a codon positively correlates with the percentage of the G/C content within 4- 20 ooo nucleotides of the gene. More interestingly, we found that synonymous sites in mammalian genes encoding enzymes have undergone stronger selection than did such sites in genes encoding proteins that are not enzymes.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.81873596).
摘要Objective:Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease(ADPKD)is mainly caused by the pathogenic mutation of PKD1 or PKD2 gene and usually affects bilateral kidneys.Synonymous mutations are generally assumed to be neutral as they do not alter amino acids.Herein,we described an extremely rare ADPKD child caused by a heterozygous synonymous mutation of PKD2 gene accompanied by massive proteinuria and congenital solitary kidney.Methods:Clinical characteristics of the patients were summarized.Whole-exome sequencing was performed to screen the disease-causing gene mutation,and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)and Sanger sequencing were applied to analyze the impact of the identified mutation on gene transcription and splicing.Results:Polycystic changes were found in the solitary kidney of a girl initially presented with nephrotic-range proteinuria.Thereafter her mother and 2 other family members were diagnosed to be ADPKD.Whole-exome sequencing of the proband identified a heterozygous synonymous mutation(c.1716G>A,p.Lys572=)located in the splicing site of exon 7 in PKD2 gene,which was co-segregated with the PKD phenotype in the family.RT-PCR and direct sequencing of amplified products revealed that this heterozygous synonymous mutation led to exon7 skipping in PKD2 gene.Conclusion:We reported an extremely rare child case of ADPKD2 in combination with solitary kidney and nephrotic-range proteinuria,and firstly confirmed the pathogenicity of a heterozygous synonymous mutation(c.1716G>A)in PKD2 gene.The results indicate that synonymous mutations should not be excluded from disease-causing if they are located in splicing site of an exon.
基金This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61801440),the High-quality and Cutting-edge Disciplines Construction Project for Universities in Beijing(Internet Information,Communication University of China),State Key Laboratory of Media Convergence and Communication(Communication University of China),and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
摘要Word similarity(WS)is a fundamental and critical task in natural language processing.Existing approaches to WS are mainly to calculate the similarity or relatedness of word pairs based on word embedding obtained by massive and high-quality corpus.However,it may suffer from poor performance for insufficient corpus in some specific fields,and cannot capture rich semantic and sentimental information.To address these above problems,we propose an enhancing embedding-based word similarity evaluation with character-word concepts and synonyms knowledge,namely EWS-CS model,which can provide extra semantic information to enhance word similarity evaluation.The core of our approach contains knowledge encoder and word encoder.In knowledge encoder,we incorporate the semantic knowledge extracted from knowledge resources,including character-word concepts,synonyms and sentiment lexicons,to obtain knowledge representation.Word encoder is to learn enhancing embedding-based word representation from pre-trained model and knowledge representation based on similarity task.Finally,compared with baseline models,the experiments on four similarity evaluation datasets validate the effectiveness of our EWS-CS model in WS task.
基金Supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Programme of China(No.2008AA01Z144)the National NaturalScience Foundation of China(No.61073126,61073129)
摘要In this work,an approach is proposed to acquire synonymous attribute phrases of named entities(NEs) from an online encyclopedia.Synonymous attribute phrases are the phrases that express the same attribute with different surface forms for a class of NEs.Specifically,the proposed approach is composed of three stages.Firstly,the entries related to a given NE class are automatically selected from an online encyclopedia.Secondly,attribute phrases are extracted based on the statistics of phrase frequency.Thirdly,synonymous attributes are identified in a pairwise manner through a classification framework combining multiple features.The proposed approach is applied on Baidu Baike,a Chinese online encyclopedia,for four different NE classes.Experimental results show that the approach obtains an average precision of 74%and an average F-value of 65%for the four NE classes.In particular,thousands of synonymous attribute phrase pairs are acquired for each class,which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31000967,31010103913)
摘要Based on comparison of the type specimens, Parapolytrechus [sic] flavotarsus Wang & Zheng, 2002 is a new junior synonym ofNeoxenicotela mausoni Breuning, 1947.
摘要A comparative analysis of the codon usage bias was conducted in Methanosarcina mazei str. Goel and two related Euryarchaeota microorganisms (Picrophilus torridus str. DSM 9790 and Natronomonas pharaonis str. DSM 2160). Results revealed that synonymous codon usage in Methanosarcina mazei str. Goel was less biased, which was highly correlated with the GC3S value. And the codon usage patterns were phylogenetically conserved among those Euryarchaeota microorganisms. By employing a hierarchical clustering analysis, it can be seen that it is more the species than the gene function that determines their gene codon usage pattems. Considering that those microorganisms live in different environments where the pH conditions vary quite a lot, it can be presumed that their living environments, especially the pH conditions, play an important role in determining those microorganisms' codon usage pattems.
基金This work was supported by the Major State Basic Research Project(Grant No.G200007 7700)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.40572006 and 40232020).
摘要With the verification of the type specimen by six experts from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, the specimen of Xianfengella prima He and Yang, 1982 described by Qian (Qian, 2001, flge2: la-c) is confirmed to be the holotype specimen (NIGP. 84430) of Yangtzedonta primitiva Yu, 1985, and consequently, Yu Wen's view that they are not the same specimen is impractical. This fact demonstrates that Yangtzedonta primitiva Yu, 1985 is undoubtedly a junior synonym of Xianftngella prima He and Yang, 1982, and is invalid. Qian's conclusion (Qian, 2001 ) that no bivalve appeared in the early Meishucunian Stage of the Early Cambrian is rational.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31071954,31201745,31572311)
摘要Four new synonyms in the stag-beetle genus Aegus MacLeay from Chinese fauna are proposed and discussed based on their type specimens: A. pichoni Didier 1931, syn. nov. = A. laevicollis Saunders 1854; A. beauchenei Boileau 1902, syn. nov. and A. caprinus Didier, 1928, syn. nov. =A. taurus Boileau, 1899; A. dispar Dider 1931, syn. nov. =A. kuangtungensis Nagel, 1925. A species checklist with fifteen species of this genus from China is given, including two new record species, A. labilis Westwood, 1864 from Xizang and A. coomani Didier, 1926 from Guangxi.
摘要The discrimination of synonyms has always been the key and difficult points in language learning.By using the British Na⁃tional Corpus(BNC)to retrieve the standard frequency,registers and collocations of the three common words,DESTORY,RUIN and DEMOLISH,this paper analyzes their similarities and differences.Besides,this paper demonstrates the strong ancillary func⁃tion of corpus in synonyms discrimination as well as in English teaching and learning.
基金The National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2018YFC1314900,2018YFC1314902)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61571109)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.2242017K3DN04).
摘要To investigate how synonymous codons have been adapted to the formation of ribonucleic acid(RNA)G-quadruplex(rG4)structure,a computational searching algorithm G4Hunter was applied to detect rG4 structures in protein-coding sequences of mRNAs in five eukaryotic species.The native sequences forming rG4s were then compared with randomized sequences to evaluate selection on synonymous codons.Factors that may influence the formation of rG4 were also investigated,and the selection pressures of rG4 in different gene regions were compared to explore its potential roles in gene regulation.The results show universal selective pressure acts on synonymous codons in rG4 regions to facilitate rG4 formation in five eukaryotic organisms.While G-rich codon combinations are preferred in the rG4 structural region,C-rich codon combinations are selectively unfavorable for rG4 formation.Gene's codon usage bias,nucleotide composition,and evolutionary rate can account for the selective variations on synonymous codons among rG4 structures within a species.Moreover,rG4 structures in the translational initiation region showed significantly higher selective pressures than those in the translational elongation region.
摘要Distinguishing the meanings of near synonyms always seems to be a challenging task for Chinese EFL learners,as is the case with bring about and give rise to be exemplified in the paper.I will use a corpus approach to unveil some implied semantic patterns and pragmatic features of the two phrases,and generalize their semantic prosodies as used by native English speakers by analyzing what kinds of nouns tend to co-occur with them,and also discuss whether there is a transfer of negative semantic prosody from the word cause to the two phrases under discussion.
基金supported by the Nationa Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC-31972870,31772410).
摘要Trogloneta yuensis Lin&Li,2013 is one of interesting member in morphology of the spider family Mysmenidae,and it should be possible for it to be widespread in the Southern China based on the currently known field survey records.Phricotelus yangaciong Lin&Li,2024 is a recent described mysmenid species.Through detailed morphological comparison,we firmly believe that it belongs to the same species as Trogloneta yuensis.According to the principle of priorty law of the Internation Code of Zoological nomenclature,a new synonymy,Phricotelus yangaiong Lin&Li,2024 syn.nov.,is formally proposed for Trogloneta yuensis Lin&Li,2013,and provided a brief retrospect for the genus Trogloneta in this paper.
摘要Semantic prosody has been one of the most important topics in corpus linguistics.Synonyms are difficult for English learners to learn.Traditional teaching methods mostly distinguish them in terms of their meaning,not their usage.This study uses a corpus-based approach to illustrate how to distinguish and employ the synonyms.This study uses the British Academic Written English(BAWE)Corpus,and chooses“lead to”and“result in”to explore their usage from the perspective and semantic prosody.The approach can help learners to understand and use those words or phrases with the same or similar meanings.
摘要Distinguishing synonyms is invariably an important and difficult point in language learning. The author analyzes the sens-es, colligation, grammar and collocation of a pair of synonyms, ill and sick, and explores their differences by adopting the corpus-based approach. Language learners and teachers are suggested to realize the significance of using corpus widely as an effective wayof distinguishing synonyms so as to promote their learning and teaching.
摘要Synonym differentiation has always been a difficulty in English learning. Traditionally, definitions and examples from dictionaries are taken to illustrate shades of differences between synonyms, which fails to provide a comprehensive description of these differences for students to differ synonyms. However, with the large volume, authentic materials, fast and convenient retrieval provided by corpus, the corpus-based synonym differentiation method can make a comprehensive description of synonyms in terms of their distinctive features in frequency distribution, collocation, colligation and semantic prosody. A corpus-based method will be employed to analyze the differences among the three English synonyms"conquer""overcome"and"surmount"based on the data collected from COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English), so as to throw new light on synonym differentiation, offering a new way to study synonyms, and to provide references for lexical teaching and second language acquisition.