Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history

British population history has been shaped by a series of immigrations, including the early Anglo-Saxon migrations after 400 CE. It remains an open question how these events affected the genetic composition of the current British population. Here, we present whole-genome sequences from 10 individuals excavated close to Cambridge in the East of England, ranging from the late Iron Age to the middle Anglo-Saxon period. By analysing shared rare variants with hundreds of modern samples from Britain and Europe, we estimate that on average the contemporary East English population derives 38% of its ancestry from Anglo-Saxon migrations. We gain further insight with a new method, rarecoal, which infers population history and identifies fine-scale genetic ancestry from rare variants. Using rarecoal we find that the Anglo-Saxon samples are closely related to modern Dutch and Danish populations, while the Iron Age samples share ancestors with multiple Northern European populations including Britain

A genetic contribution from the Far East into Ashkenazi Jews via the ancient Silk Road

Contemporary Jews retain a genetic imprint from their Near Eastern ancestry, but obtained substantial genetic components from their neighboring populations during their history. Whether they received any genetic contribution from the Far East remains unknown, but frequent communication with the Chinese has been observed since the Silk Road period. To address this issue, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation from 55,595 Eurasians are analyzed. The existence of some eastern Eurasian haplotypes in eastern Ashkenazi Jews supports an East Asian genetic contribution, likely from Chinese. Further evidence indicates that this connection can be attributed to a gene flow event that occurred less than 1.4 kilo-years ago (kya), which falls within the time frame of the Silk Road scenario and fits well with historical records and archaeological discoveries. This observed genetic contribution from Chinese to Ashkenazi Jews demonstrates that the historical exchange between Ashkenazim and the Far East was not confined to the cultural sphere but also extended to an exchange of genes

Optimization of RAPD-PCR reaction system for genetic relationships analysis of 15 camellia cultivars

With orthogonal analysis by L27(36), the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR optimization reaction system for camellia were obtained. Results showed that the optimization system was 10×PCR Buffer (2.5 L), 25 mM MgCl2 (2.5 L), 2.5 mM dNTPs (2.0 L), 20 M primer (1.0 L), Tag (1.5 U), temple DNA (40 ng or so) and added ddH2O to the total volume 25 uL; suitable annealing temperature was 36°C. With the optimized system and fifteen 10 nt random primers, we analyzed 15 camellia cultivars and observed 102 clear amplified loci, in which polymorphic loci were 79 while the percentage of polymorphic loci were 77.54%. Cluster analysis showed that the four groups were divided at the point 0.75 of similarity coefficient, indicating relatively high genetic diversity. We also found that the gene controlling petal color may play an important role in RAPD analysis. Moreover, genetic diversities based on RAPD analysis could be clearly reflected by morphological traits among 15 camellia cultivars. This study showed the RAPD optimization system was suitable and RAPD molecular marker was effective and useful tool for detection of genetic relationships among camellia cultivars

A simple method for estimating the convectiondispersion equation parameters of solute transport in agricultural ecosystem

The convection-dispersion equation (CDE) is the classical approach for modeling solute transport in porous media. So, estimating parameters became a key problem in CDE. For statistical method, some problems such as parameter uniqueness are still unsolved because of more factors. Due to the advantage of clear physical concept and unique parameter values, the simple deterministic method became very useful alternatives. In this paper, a simple method was proposed to estimate both D and R, and the validity was verified by experiment, which can be applied in agriculture and environmental fields for predicting soil quality property.Key words: Convection-dispersion equation (CDE), parameters estimation, agricultural system

WNT signalling in prostate cancer

Genome sequencing and gene expression analyses of prostate tumours have highlighted the potential importance of genetic and epigenetic changes observed in WNT signalling pathway components in prostate tumours-particularly in the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer. WNT signalling is also important in the prostate tumour microenvironment, in which WNT proteins secreted by the tumour stroma promote resistance to therapy, and in prostate cancer stem or progenitor cells, in which WNT-β-catenin signals promote self-renewal or expansion. Preclinical studies have demonstrated the potential of inhibitors that target WNT receptor complexes at the cell membrane or that block the interaction of β-catenin with lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 and the androgen receptor, in preventing prostate cancer progression. Some WNT signalling inhibitors are in phase I trials, but they have yet to be tested in patients with prostate cancer

Recent changes of water discharge and sediment load in the Yellow River basin, China

The Yellow River basin contributes approximately 6% of the sediment load from all river systems globally, and the annual runoff directly supports 12% of the Chinese population. As a result, describing and understanding recent variations of water discharge and sediment load under global change scenarios are of considerable importance. The present study considers the annual hydrologic series of the water discharge and sediment load of the Yellow River basin obtained from 15 gauging stations (10 mainstream, 5 tributaries). The Mann-Kendall test method was adopted to detect both gradual and abrupt change of hydrological series since the 1950s. With the exception of the area draining to the Upper Tangnaihai station, results indicate that both water discharge and sediment load have decreased significantly (p<0.05). The declining trend is greater with distance downstream, and drainage area has a significant positive effect on the rate of decline. It is suggested that the abrupt change of the water discharge from the late 1980s to the early 1990s arose from human extraction, and that the abrupt change in sediment load was linked to disturbance from reservoir construction.Geography, PhysicalGeosciences, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)43ARTICLE4541-5613

Hominin occupation of the Chinese Loess Plateau since about 2.1 million years ago

Considerable attention has been paid to dating the earliest appearance of hominins outside Africa. The earliest skeletal and artefactual evidence for the genus Homo in Asia currently comes from Dmanisi, Georgia, and is dated to approximately 1.77-1.85 million years ago (Ma)(1). Two incisors that may belong to Homo erectus come from Yuanmou, south China, and are dated to 1.7 Ma(2); the next-oldest evidence is an H. erectus cranium from Lantian (Gongwangling)-which has recently been dated to 1.63 Ma(3) and the earliest hominin fossils from the Sangiran dome in Java, which are dated to about 1.5-1.6 Ma(4). Artefacts from Majuangou III5 and Shangshazui(6) in the Nihewan basin, north China, have also been dated to 1.6-1.7 Ma. Here we report an Early Pleistocene and largely continuous artefact sequence from Shangchen, which is a newly discovered Palaeolithic locality of the southern Chinese Loess Plateau, near Gongwangling in Lantian county. The site contains 17 artefact layers that extend from palaeosol S15-dated to approximately 1.26 Ma-to loess L28, which we date to about 2.12 Ma. This discovery implies that hominins left Africa earlier than indicated by the evidence from Dmanisi

A new photovoltaic material and a novel technology for solar cells

2001-2002 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

Experimental studies of e + e -→ some charmless processes containing K S0 at √s = 3.773 and 3.65 GeV

We measure the observed cross sections for the charmless processes e + e -→K S0 K - K - K + π ++ c.c., K S0 K - π + η+c.c., K S0 K - π + π + π - η+c.c., K S0 K - K - K + π + η+c.c., K S0 K - K - K + π + π 0+c.c., K S0 K - ρ ++c.c. and K S0 K - π + ρ 0+c.c. We also extract upper limits on the branching fractions for ψ(3770) decays into these final states at 90% C.L. Analyzed data samples correspond to 17.3 pb-1 and 6.5 pb-1 integrated luminosities registered, respectively, at √s = 3.773 and 3.65 GeV, with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider. © 2009 Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201