Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

The Phytogeography of Nebraska

From the preface we learn that this work is the result of nearly five years of active study of the floral covering of Nebraska, carried on by the members of the Botanical Seminar in the Botanical Survey of the State of Nebraska. The systematic study of the vegetation of Nebraska was begun by Dr. Bessey in 1884, and has since been carried on by him and his students, all previous collecting having been more or less desultory and unreliable. The Botanical Survey was organized in 1892, and its work has been directed to the collecting of specimens and observations for a series of reports in which the floral covering of the state should be treated from the phytogeographical standpoint and for a series of monographs of the flora of Nebraska. A beginning has been made by the publication of three parts of the flora of the state, and the present work is the first part of the first series. The authors realize that so much yet remains to be done in many directions that a complete phytogeography of the state will be impossible for many years to come, but the work of the survey has progressed far enough to enable them to present the general facts of its phytogeography in an adequate manner and to deal with details in many of the more important subjects

A System of Nomenclature for Phytogeography

By Frederic E. Clement

Rocky Mountain Flowers

AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE FOR PLANT-LOVERS AND PLANT-USERS WITH TWENTY-FIVE PLATES IN COLOR AND TWENTY-TWO PLATES IN BLACK AND WHITE The present book is an endeavor to present the materials of the Rocky Mountain flora in preliminary form from the standpoint of the experimental ecologist. The latter is concerned primarily with the relationships of species and their subdivisions as an organic expression or measure of habitat differences, and of the competitive relations of the various formations. Whatever the taxonomic value of the numerous segregates of the last decade or two, the fact that the binomial form conceals the relationship to the original species, and that the segregate itself is based not at all or only slightly upon habitat relations, makes them of little value to the ecologist. This condition is emphasized by the extreme difficulty of their field determination and recognition. No attempt has been made to pass upon the merits of segregates as such, but similarity and relationship have been taken as determining the units used, with the conviction that the differences will appear all the more clearly when habitat and formation have been thoroughly studied experimentally. To the ecologist, ifr seems certain that such experimental analysis of the unit must carry with it the regular use of the trinomial, leaving binomials only for the unit as a whole, whether capable of analysis or not. In spite of some quantitative study of the origin of new forms by adaptation to the habitat, and some statistical study of variation from habitat to habitat, during the past decade, the authors recognize clearly the tentative nature of the units employed. While the latter agree in the main with the species of Linne, and of Gray and the earlier American botanists, the initial test of continuous variation or discontinuous adaptation has merged a considerable number of these, and must be expected to unite still more. The questions of a species, its inherited constancy, etc., have not been raised, as this seems futile without continued experiment. The units employed may be species or not, but at present they mean nothing more than that the individuals or groups of individuals in a unit are more nearly related to each other than to any other group. In fact, whenever the curve of variation is continuous, it is felt that a unit is indicated, regardless of the height of the modes

Contributions to the Histogenesis of the Caryophyllales. I

Volume: 20Start Page: 97End Page: 16

Greek and Latin in biological nomenclature

"The following treatise is intended to serve as a compendium of the principles of word-formation in Greek and Latin of sufficient thoroughness to enable the biologist to construct in proper manner any derivative desired."--p. 321.Bibliography: p. 85.Mode of access: Internet

Plant succession; an analysis of the development of vegetation,

Bibliography: p. 473-498.Mode of access: Internet