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Jie Yao

Publications and source records attributed to Jie Yao.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Unlocking the Full Potential of Spatial Omics in Plants: Practical Challenges, Solutions, and a Path Forward.

Spatial omics technologies are providing new opportunities for plant biology by enabling molecular profiling within structurally intact tissues, revealing spatially organised cell states, developmental gradients, and regulatory interactions. While spatial transcriptomics has driven early advances, the field is rapidly expanding toward integrated spatial multi-omics by combining single-cell and spatial transcriptomic, epigenomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data. These approaches offer new opportunities to study development, physiology, and plant biotic and abiotic interactions in spatially preserved cellular contexts. However, despite rapid adoption, the field remains constrained by plant-specific challenges when applying technologies largely developed for animal systems. Compared with animal systems, plant tissues pose additional challenges due to rigid cell walls, and diverse chemistries, complicating sample preparation, cell and subcellular segmentation, signal detection, and data integration. As a result, many studies rely on bespoke protocols and analysis pipelines that are often difficult to reproduce or generalise. Here, we provide a practical, solution-oriented synthesis of current bottlenecks across experimental and computational pipelines, highlight emerging strategies to overcome these limitations, and propose a roadmap for community-driven protocol sharing, benchmarking, and integration across spatial and multi-omics modalities. Addressing these challenges will be essential to establish spatial omics as a routine and scalable tool for plant biology.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2026

Mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 attenuates cryopreservation-induced damage in human sperm by stabilizing mitochondrial homeostasis†.

Human sperm cryopreservation is essential for sperm banking and assisted reproduction, yet freeze-thaw stress promotes oxidative injury that reduces motility and damages the acrosome and nuclear DNA. Here, we tested whether the mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 improves post-thaw human sperm quality and examined mechanisms linked to mitochondrial homeostasis. Ejaculates were cryopreserved using a standard protocol supplemented with graded concentrations of BAM15. After thawing, total and progressive motility and viability were assessed. Flow cytometry quantified the DNA fragmentation index and the proportion of high DNA stainability cells. Mitochondrial membrane potential, intracellular reactive oxygen species, and lipid peroxidation were measured to evaluate mitochondrial function and oxidative status. Ultrastructural preservation of the acrosome, plasma membrane, midpiece mitochondria, and flagellar axoneme was examined by transmission electron microscopy. Compared with untreated controls, BAM15 increased total and progressive motility and improved viability. BAM15 reduced DNA fragmentation and decreased high DNA stainability, indicating enhanced genomic integrity. Consistently, BAM15 improved mitochondrial membrane potential while suppressing intracellular reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation, supporting attenuation of freeze-thaw oxidative damage. Transmission electron microscopy further revealed more continuous acrosomal and plasma membranes, fewer swollen or vacuolated midpiece mitochondria, and improved preservation of axonemal architecture. Collectively, these findings identify BAM15 as a promising cryopreservation supplement that stabilizes mitochondrial homeostasis and improves the functional and structural quality of human sperm after thawing.

Humans↗
PubMed2025

Genome-wide association study of angiotensinogen levels and key single nucleotide polymorphism associations with blood pressure.

OBJECTIVE: The renin angiotensin aldosterone system plays a key role in circulatory homeostasis. We sought to identify genetic determinants of measured plasma angiotensinogen levels and subsequently evaluate the association of these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with blood pressure (BP) and hypertension in a multiethnic population. METHODS: Genome-wide association study (GWAS) of plasma angiotensinogen levels, measured using an enzyme-linked immunoassay, was conducted in 4899 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) participants (self-identified as White, n = 1865; Hispanic, n &#x200a;=&#x200a;1113; Black, n &#x200a;=&#x200a;1224; and Chinese, n &#x200a;=&#x200a;629). Linear and logistic models examined the association between SNPs with angiotensinogen and hypertension, respectively. Mediation analysis evaluated the effect of angiotensinogen on BP/hypertension through the top SNPs identified by GWAS. RESULTS: In the analysis utilizing all participants, 115 SNPs were associated with angiotensinogen ( P &#x200a;<&#x200a;5&#x200a;&#xd7;&#x200a;10 -8 ), including lead SNP rs4762(G>A) in exon 2 ( P &#x200a;=&#x200a;1.51E -100 ) and rs5050(T>G) in the promoter region ( P &#x200a;=&#x200a;2.26E -69 ) of the AGT gene. Race/ethnic-specific analyses identified rs4762(G>A) as the lead SNP for White and Hispanic participants, whereas Black and Chinese participants had rs5050(T>G) and rs16852311(G>C), respectively. Both rs4762(G>A) and rs5050(T>G) indirectly increased systolic BP, diastolic BP, and the odds of hypertension through its effect of increasing angiotensinogen. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate racial/ethnic differences in genetic effects on angiotensinogen levels across multiple SNPs. AGT rs4762(G>A) and rs5050(T>G) impact BP and hypertension through a mediated effect via angiotensinogen, though opposing direct effects may mask the overall association.

Humans↗
PubMed2025

Genetic study of von Willebrand factor antigen levels &#x2264; 50 IU/dL identifies variants associated with increased risk of von Willebrand disease and bleeding.

BACKGROUND: von Willebrand disease (VWD) is a common inherited bleeding disorder caused by low levels or activity of circulating von Willebrand factor (VWF). Genetic susceptibility to VWF antigen (VWF:Ag) below normal (&#x2264; 50 IU/dL) in the general population is underexplored. OBJECTIVES: To identify genetic variants influencing VWF:Ag levels &#x2264; 50 IU/dL. METHODS: We performed a genome-wide association study in 926 cases with VWF:Ag levels &#x2264; 50 IU/dL and 12 846 controls from 7 studies from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program. We then examined whether significant genome-wide findings were also associated with clinical diagnosis of VWD in 5 biobanks with 708 VWD cases and 1 286 069 controls, and with 6 bleeding and thrombotic disorders in FinnGen. RESULTS: Variants at 2 loci were associated (P < 5 &#xd7; 10-9) with VWF:Ag levels &#x2264; 50 IU/dL: ABO and VWF. The VWF index variant, p.Tyr1584Cys, is a rare (0.22%) missense variant with odds ratio (OR) of 78.58, while the ABO index variant is a common intronic variant with a smaller effect (OR = 2.52). Notably, both VWF (OR = 7.16) and ABO (OR = 1.57) variants were also associated (P < .025) with diagnosed VWD. Among p.Tyr1584Cys heterozygotes, the penetrance of VWF:Ag levels &#x2264; 50 IU/dL was 24.2% and the penetrance of diagnosed VWD was 0.3%. p.Tyr1584Cys was associated (P < .0042) with increased odds of heavy menstrual bleeding (OR = 1.27), iron deficiency anemia (OR = 1.55), and intrapartum hemorrhage (OR = 2.20), but decreased odds of deep vein thrombosis (OR = 0.54). CONCLUSIONS: Although there are currently conflicting interpretations of pathogenicity p.Tyr1584Cys, our results suggest that it is a low penetrance pathogenic variant that contributes to VWF:Ag levels &#x2264; 50 IU/dL, bleeding, and VWD.

Humans↗
PubMed2024

Association analysis between an epigenetic alcohol risk score and blood pressure.

BACKGROUND: Epigenome-wide association studies have identified multiple DNA methylation sites (CpGs) associated with alcohol consumption, an important lifestyle risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that an alcohol consumption epigenetic risk score (ERS) is associated with blood pressure (BP) traits. RESULTS: We implemented an ERS based on a previously reported epigenetic signature of 144 alcohol-associated CpGs in meta-analysis of participants of European ancestry. We found a one-unit increment of ERS was associated with eleven drinks of alcohol consumed per day, on average, across several cohorts (p&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.0001). We examined the association of the ERS with systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and hypertension (HTN) in 3,898 Framingham Heart Study (FHS) participants. Cross-sectional analyses in FHS revealed that a one-unit increment of the ERS was associated with 1.93&#xa0;mm Hg higher SBP (p&#x2009;=&#x2009;4.64E-07), 0.68&#xa0;mm Hg higher DBP (p&#x2009;=&#x2009;0.006), and an odds ratio of 1.78 for HTN (p&#x2009;<&#x2009;2E-16). Meta-analysis of the cross-sectional association of the ERS with BP traits in eight independent external cohorts (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;11,544) showed similar relationships with BP levels, i.e., a one-unit increase in ERS was associated with 0.74&#xa0;mm Hg (p&#x2009;=&#x2009;0.002) higher SBP and 0.50&#xa0;mm Hg (p&#x2009;=&#x2009;0.0006) higher DBP, but not with HTN. Longitudinal analyses in FHS (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;3260) and five independent external cohorts (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;4021) showed that the baseline ERS was not associated with a change in BP over time or with incident HTN. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that the ERS has potential clinical utility in assessing lifestyle factors related to cardiovascular risk, especially when self-reported behavioral data (e.g., alcohol consumption) are unreliable or unavailable.

Humans↗