Transcriptome analysis of Ginkgo biloba kernels

Ginkgo biloba is a dioecious species native to China with medicinally and phylogenetically important characteristics; however, genomic resources for this species are limited. In this study, we performed the first transcriptome sequencing for Ginkgo kernels at five time points using Illumina paired-end sequencing. Approximately 25.08-Gb clean reads were obtained, and 68,547 unigenes with an average length of 870 bp were generated by de novo assembly. Of these unigenes, 29,987 (43.74%) were annotated in publicly available plant protein database. A total of 3869 genes were identified as significantly differentially expressed, and enrichment analysis was conducted at different time points. Furthermore, metabolic pathway analysis revealed that 66 unigenes were responsible for terpenoid backbone biosynthesis, with up to 12 up-regulated unigenes involved in the biosynthesis of ginkgolide and bilobalide. Differentially expressed genes analysis together with real-time PCR experiments indicated that the synthesis of bilobalide may have interfered with the ginkgolide synthesis process in the kernel. These data can remarkably expand the existing transcriptome resources of Ginkgo, and provide a valuable platform to reveal more on developmental and metabolic mechanisms of this species

Mismatch negativity (MMN) latency as a biomarker of amnestic mild cognitive impairment in Chinese rural elders

The aim was to evaluate the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) component, a correlate of the automatic detection of changes in the acoustic environment, in healthy adults and adults with aMCI. 43 mild amnestic cognitive impairment (aMCI) subjects and 43 healthy Chinese older adults were arranged into experimental group and control group respectively. Their MMN amplitude and latency were measured at the FZ, FCZ and CZ electrode sites under a passive auditory oddball task. The results showed that the latencies obtained from the FZ, FCZ and CZ electrode sites were significantly longer in the aMCI adults than in the control adults (P<0.01) while there were no significant differences in MMN amplitude between two groups(P＞0.05). The MMN latency was found to be a sensitive and specific biomarker of aMCI