Diverse genetic mechanisms underlie worldwide convergent rice feralization

Background: Worldwide feralization of crop species into agricultural weeds threatens global food security. Weedy rice is a feral form of rice that infests paddies worldwide and aggressively outcompetes cultivated varieties. Despite increasing attention in recent years, a comprehensive understanding of the origins of weedy crop relatives and how a universal feralization process acts at the genomic and molecular level to allow the rapid adaptation to weediness are still yet to be explored. Results: We use whole-genome sequencing to examine the origin and adaptation of 524 global weedy rice samples representing all major regions of rice cultivation. Weed populations have evolved multiple times from cultivated rice, and a strikingly high proportion of contemporary Asian weed strains can be traced to a few Green Revolution cultivars that were widely grown in the late twentieth century. Latin American weedy rice stands out in having originated through extensive hybridization. Selection scans indicate that most genomic regions underlying weedy adaptations do not overlap with domestication targets of selection, suggesting that feralization occurs largely through changes at loci unrelated to domestication. Conclusions: This is the first investigation to provide detailed genomic characterizations of weedy rice on a global scale, and the results reveal diverse genetic mechanisms underlying worldwide convergent rice feralization

Comparative pharmacokinetics of zolpidem tartrate in five ethnic populations of China

The objective of this study was to evaluate the difference in the pharmacokinetics of zolpidem tatrate in subjects from five Chinese ethnicities (Han, Mongolian, Uigur, Korean and Hui). Healthy subjects (10 Hans, 10 Mongolians, 10 Uigurs, 10 Koreans and 9 Huis) were recruited and each received a 10 mg tablet-dose of zolpidem tatrate. A total of 12 plasma samples were collected over a 12 h period after administration. The concentrations of zolpidem in plasma were determined by an HPLC-FLU method, after which the pharmacokinetic parameters were determined using DAS 2.0 software and analyzed by SPSS 16.0 software. After normalization by weight, no differences were noted in the pharmacokinetic parameters of zolpidem tatrate among the five ethnic groups (P>0.05). However, there were statistically significant differences between males and females for the pharmacokinetic parameters (P<0.05). The metabolism of zolpidem tatrate in males was faster than in females. Results indicate that ethnicity has no significant impact on the pharmacokinetics of zolpidem tatrate after a single oral dose in healthy Chinese subjects. However, an effect of gender on the pharmacokinetics of zolpidem tatrate can be noted

New Predictor of Organ Failure in Acute Pancreatitis: CD4+ T Lymphocytes and CD19+ B Lymphocytes

Objective. Lymphocytes are one of the main effector cells in the inflammatory response of acute pancreatitis (AP). The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether peripheral blood lymphocyte (PBL) subsets at admission change during AP based on clinical outcomes and to explore whether these changes vary by aetiology of AP. Hence, we performed a prospective study to find a predictor in lymphocyte subsets that might allow easier, earlier, and more accurate prediction of clinical outcomes. Methods. Patients with AP were enrolled from December 2017 to June 2018 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. Age, sex, clinical and biochemical parameters, and aetiology of AP were obtained at admission. PBL counts were assessed within 24 hours after admission. Clinical outcomes were observed as endpoints. The areas under the curve (AUCs) of different predictors were calculated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results. Overall, 133 patients were included. Patients (n=24) with organ failure (OF) had significantly lower CD4+ T lymphocyte levels than those (n=109) with No OF (NOF) (39.60 (33.94-46.13) vs. 32.41 (26.51-38.00), P=0.004). The OF group exhibited significantly higher CD19+ B lymphocytes than the NOF group (16.07 (10.67-21.06) vs. 23.78 (17.84-29.45), P=0.001). Of the AP cases, 68.8% were caused by gallstones; 10.1% were attributed to alcohol; 16.5% were due to hyperlipidaemia; and 4.6% had other causes. Across all aetiologies, a lower CD4+ T lymphocyte level was significantly related to OF (P<0.05). However, CD19+ B lymphocytes were significant only in gallstone pancreatitis (P<0.05). The ROC curve results showed that the AUC values of CD4+T lymphocytes, CD19+ B lymphocytes, and combined CD4+T lymphocytes and CD19+ B lymphocytes were similar to those of traditional scoring systems, such as APACHEII and Ranson. Conclusions. CD4+ T and CD19+ B lymphocytes during the early phase of AP can predict OF

Depressive patient‐derived GABA interneurons reveal abnormal neural activity associated with HTR2C

Abstract Major depressive disorder with suicide behavior (sMDD) is a severe mood disorder, bringing tremendous burden to family and society. Although reduced gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) level has been observed in postmortem tissues of sMDD patients, the molecular mechanism by which GABA levels are altered remains elusive. In this study, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from five sMDD patients and differentiated the iPSCs to GABAergic interneurons (GINs) and ventral forebrain organoids. sMDD GINs exhibited altered neuronal morphology and increased neural firing, as well as weakened calcium signaling propagation, compared with controls. Transcriptomic sequencing revealed that a decreased expression of serotoninergic receptor 2C (5‐HT2C) may cause the defected neuronal activity in sMDD. Furthermore, targeting 5‐HT2C receptor, using a small molecule agonist or genetic approach, restored neuronal activity deficits in sMDD GINs. Our findings provide a human cellular model for studying the molecular mechanisms and drug discoveries for sMDD

Additional file 1: of Expression and prognostic value of cell-cycle-associated genes in gastric adenocarcinoma

Table S1. Gene listed in KEGG cell cycle pathway (hsa04110). Table S2. Comparison of Survival Curves of each cluster by Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. Table S3. Comparison of individual gene expressions of each cluster. Table S4. Correlation between Cluster-specific genes expression and tumor stages. (DOCX 24 kb)