Assessment of FAE1 polymorphisms in three Brassica species using EcoTILLING and their association with differences in seed erucic acid contents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>FAE1 </it>(<it>fatty acid elongase1</it>) is the key gene in the control of erucic acid synthesis in seeds of <it>Brassica </it>species. Due to oil with low erucic acid (LEA) content is essential for human health and not enough LEA resource could be available, thus new LEA genetic resources are being sought for <it>Brassica </it>breeding. EcoTILLING, a powerful genotyping method, can readily be used to identify polymorphisms in <it>Brassica.</it></p> <p>Results</p> <p>Seven <it>B. rapa</it>, nine <it>B. oleracea </it>and 101 <it>B. napus </it>accessions were collected for identification of <it>FAE1 </it>polymorphisms. Three polymorphisms were detected in the two <it>FAE1 </it>paralogues of <it>B. napus </it>using EcoTILLING and were found to be strongly associated with differences in the erucic acid contents of seeds. In genomic <it>FAE1 </it>sequences obtained from seven <it>B. rapa </it>accessions, one SNP in the coding region was deduced to cause loss of gene function. Molecular evolution analysis of <it>FAE1 </it>homologues showed that the relationship between the <it>Brassica </it>A and C genomes is closer than that between the A/C genomes and <it>Arabidopsis </it>genome. Alignment of the coding sequences of these <it>FAE1 </it>homologues indicated that 18 <it>SNPs </it>differed between the A and C genomes and could be used as genome-specific markers in <it>Brassica</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study showed the applicability of EcoTILLING for detecting gene polymorphisms in <it>Brassica</it>. The association between <it>B. napus FAE1 </it>polymorphisms and the erucic acid contents of seeds may provide useful guidance for LEA breeding. The discovery of the LEA resource in <it>B. rapa </it>can be exploited in <it>Brasscia </it>cultivation.</p

Comparison of the Therapeutic Effects of Acupuncture at PC6 and ST36 for Chronic Myocardial Ischemia

We aimed to compare the differences of the effects on chronic myocardial ischemia (MI) of acupuncture at PC6 and ST36. The chronic MI model of minipigs was created by implanting an Ameroid constrictor on the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) and then two weeks’ acupuncture was stimulated at PC6 or ST36, respectively. The results showed that both acupoints’ stimulation decreased the serous cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and ischemia modified albumin (IMA) significantly and improved the ischemic ECG changes. The amplitude of pathological Q wave in the PC6 group decreased more significantly than that of the ST36 group. The cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) results showed that the decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was not improved obviously in both groups. The left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) and left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) enlarged progressively even after acupuncture. The left ventricular wall mass (LVWM) in the ST36 group increased more obviously than that of the PC6 group, which paralleled the decreasing angiotensin II (Ang II) concentration in the plasma. These results suggested that acupuncture at PC6 or ST36 was effective for protecting the myocardium from chronic ischemic injury, and the effect of PC6 seemed to be better

Serum Metabolomics Reveals Serotonin as a Predictor of Severe Dengue in the Early Phase of Dengue Fever

Effective triage of dengue patients early in the disease course for in- or out-patient management would be useful for optimal healthcare resource utilization while minimizing poor clinical outcome due to delayed intervention. Yet, early prognosis of severe dengue is hampered by the heterogeneity in clinical presentation and routine hematological and biochemical measurements in dengue patients that collectively correlates poorly with eventual clinical outcome. Herein, untargeted liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry metabolomics of serum from patients with dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) in the febrile phase (1.5) in the serum, among which are two products of tryptophan metabolism–serotonin and kynurenine. Serotonin, involved in platelet aggregation and activation decreased significantly, whereas kynurenine, an immunomodulator, increased significantly in patients with DHF, consistent with thrombocytopenia and immunopathology in severe dengue. To sensitively and accurately evaluate serotonin levels as prognostic biomarkers, we implemented stable-isotope dilution mass spectrometry and used convalescence samples as their own controls. DHF serotonin was significantly 1.98 fold lower in febrile compared to convalescence phase, and significantly 1.76 fold lower compared to DF in the febrile phase of illness. Thus, serotonin alone provided good prognostic utility (Area Under Curve, AUC of serotonin = 0.8). Additionally, immune mediators associated with DHF may further increase the predictive ability than just serotonin alone. Nine cytokines, including IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-8, G-CSF, MIP-1β, FGF basic, TNFα and RANTES were significantly different between DF and DHF, among which IFN-γ ranked top by multivariate statistics. Combining serotonin and IFN-γ improved the prognosis performance (AUC = 0.92, sensitivity = 77.8%, specificity = 95.8%), suggesting this duplex panel as accurate metrics for the early prognosis of DHF

Exometabolomic analysis of decidualizing human endometrial stromal and perivascular cells

Differentiation of endometrial fibroblasts into specialized decidual cells controls embryo implantation and transforms the cycling endometrium into a semi-permanent, immune-protective matrix that accommodates the placenta throughout pregnancy. This process starts during the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle with decidual transformation of perivascular cells (PVC) surrounding the terminal spiral arterioles and endometrial stromal cells (EnSC) underlying the luminal epithelium. Decidualization involves extensive cellular reprogramming and acquisition of a secretory phenotype, essential for coordinated placental trophoblast invasion. Secreted metabolites are an emerging class of signalling molecules. Here, we used liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to characterise the dynamic changes in metabolite secretion (exometabolome) of primary PVC and EnSC decidualized over 8 days. We identified 79 annotated metabolites differentially secreted upon decidualization, including prostaglandin, sphingolipid, and hyaluronic acid metabolites. Secreted metabolites encompassed 21 metabolic pathways, most prominently glycerolipid and pyrimidine metabolism. Although temporal exometabolome changes were comparable between decidualizing PVC and EnSC, 32 metabolites were differentially secreted across the decidualization time-course. Further, targeted metabolomics demonstrated a conspicuous difference in xanthine secretion between decidualized PVC and EnSC. Taken together, our findings indicate that the metabolic footprints generated by different decidual subpopulations encode spatiotemporal information that may be important for optimal embryo implantation

Incorporating pleiotropic quantitative trait loci in dissection of complex traits: seed yield in rapeseed as an example

© The Author(s) 2017 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Most agronomic traits of interest for crop improvement (including seed yield) are highly complex quantitative traits controlled by numerous genetic loci, which brings challenges for comprehensively capturing associated markers/ genes. We propose that multiple trait interactions underlie complex traits such as seed yield, and that considering these component traits and their interactions can dissect individual quantitative trait loci (QTL) effects more effectively and improve yield predictions. Using a segregating rapeseed (Brassica napus) population, we analyzed a large set of trait data generated in 19 independent experiments to investigate correlations between seed yield and other complex traits, and further identified QTL in this population with a SNP-based genetic bin map. A total of 1904 consensus QTL accounting for 22 traits, including 80 QTL directly affecting seed yield, were anchored to the B. napus reference sequence. Through trait association analysis and QTL meta-analysis, we identified a total of 525 indivisible QTL that either directly or indirectly contributed to seed yield, of which 295 QTL were detected across multiple environments. A majority (81.5%) of the 525 QTL were pleiotropic. By considering associations between traits, we identified 25 yield-related QTL previously ignored due to contrasting genetic effects, as well as 31 QTL with minor complementary effects. Implementation of the 525 QTL in genomic prediction models improved seed yield prediction accuracy. Dissecting the genetic and phenotypic interrelationships underlying complex quantitative traits using this method will provide valuable insights for genomics-based crop improvement.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Copper binding to soil fulvic and humic acids: NICA-Donnan modeling and conditional affinity spectra

Binding of Cu(II) to soil fulvic acid (JGFA), soil humic acids (JGHA, JLHA), and lignite-based humic acid (PAHA) was investigated through NICA-Donnan modeling and conditional affinity spectrum (CAS). It is to extend the knowledge of copper binding by soil humic substances (HS) both in respect of enlarging the database of metal ion binding to HS and obtaining a good insight into Cu binding to the functional groups of FA and HA by using the NICA-Donnan model to unravel the intrinsic and conditional affinity spectra. Results showed that Cu binding to HS increased with increasing pH and decreasing ionic strength. The amount of Cu bound to the HAs was larger than the amount bound to JGFA. Milne&rsquo;s generic parameters did not provide satisfactory predictions for the present soil HS samples, while material-specific NICA-Donnan model parameters described and predicted Cu binding to the HS well. Both the &lsquo;low&rsquo; and &lsquo;high&rsquo; concentration fitting procedures indicated a substantial bidentate structure of the Cu complexes with HS. By means of CAS underlying NICA&nbsp;isotherm, which was scarcely used, the nature of the binding at different solution conditions for a given sample and the differences in binding mode were illustrated. It was indicated that carboxylic group played an indispensable role in Cu binding to HS in that the carboxylic CAS had stronger conditional affinity than the phenolic distribution due to its large degree of proton dissociation. The fact was especially true for JGFA and JLHA which contain much larger amount of carboxylic groups, and the occupation of phenolic sites by Cu was negligible. Comparable amounts of carboxylic and phenolic groups on PAHA and JGHA, increased the occupation of phenolic type sites by Cu. The binding strength of PAHA-Cu and JGHA-Cu was stronger than that of JGFA-Cu and JLHA-Cu. The presence of phenolic groups increased the chance of forming more stable complexes, such as the salicylate-Cu or catechol-Cu type structures.</p

The First Solution for the Helical Flow of a Generalized Maxwell Fluid within Annulus of Cylinders by New Definition of Transcendental Function BNrrn

Most articles choose the transcendental function B1rrn to define the finite Hankel transform, and very few articles choose B0rrn. The derivations of B0rrn and B1rrn are also considered the same. In this paper, we find that the derivative formulas for the transcend function BNrrn are different and prove the derivative formulas for B0rrn and B1rrn. Based on the exact formulas of B0rrn and B1rrn, we keep on studying the helical flow of a generalized Maxwell fluid between two boundless coaxial cylinders. In this case, the inner and outer cylinders start to rotate around their axis of symmetry at different angular frequencies and slide at different linear velocities at time t=0+. We deduced the velocity field and shear stress via Laplace transform and finite Hankel transform and their inverse transforms. According to generalized G and R functions, the solutions we obtained are given in the form of integrals and series. The solution of ordinary Maxwell fluid has been also obtained by solving the limit of the general solution of fractional Maxwell fluid

Performance analysis of life insurance industry in Singapore.

This research project aims to analyze the performance of the life insurance industry in Singapore. In the later part of the project, a projection of the new business sales is carried out for years 2006 to 2010, assuming the absence of significant influence. A descriptive analysis on the effects of potential threats and opportunities for Singapore's life insurance industry will also be studied