Developmental Fates of Axillary Buds as a Major Determinant for the Pattern of Life History in Lolium

The architecture of a grass population is determined by the spatial distribution and morphology of tillers. The demographic and phase changes of tillers were compared between an annual-like (Progrow) and perennial (Ruanui) lines of Loliumspecies. We investigated the developmental fate of axillary buds for 57 weeks after germination (WAG) under a constant condition. In general, a high production of seeds is positively correlated with the annual habit in plants. A high production of seeds was highly associated with % reproductive tillers in annual¬like Progrow, which resulted from the death of non-reproductive or vegetative tillers before heading. However, no such tendency was observed in perennial Ruanui. This showed that the death of tillers is genetically regulated to contribute to the maximum success in fitness depending on the longevity. In addition, % reproductive tillers was distinctly reduced during the following regrowth in Ruanui, suggesting that a phase change in the tiller system took places during the growth. Microscopic observations of quiescent axillary buds showed that a phase change from reproductive to vegetative occurred at maturity in Ruanui but not in Progrow. As a result, numerous ears developed in Ruanui plants only when they were vernalized after first maturation (30 WAG), showing that the vernalized state gradually diminishes with time in Ruanui. Thus, the present results confirmed that the differential regulation in the develop¬mental fate of axillary buds actually plays a role for determining the pattern of life history in Lolium

Anti-PM/Scl antibodies are found in Japanese patients with various systemic autoimmune conditions besides myositis and scleroderma

Introduction: Anti-PM/Scl antibodies are associated with polymyositis (PM)/systemic scleroderma (SSc) overlap syndromes and are also found in other systemic autoimmune diseases. Although anti-PM/Scl reactivity is found in 3-11% of PM or SSc patients and in approximately 25% of PM/SSc overlap patients, previous large studies of Japanese patients with scleroderma reported that anti-PM/Scl are not found in Japanese patients at all. The PM/Scl autoantigen complex comprises 11-16 different polypeptides; ELISA with PM1-α peptide, which is a major epitope of the PM/Scl complex, has frequently been used for the detection of these antibodies in recent studies. However, no ELISA kit is commercially available in Japan. Methods: In this study, we developed an immunoassay for measuring antibodies against recombinant PM/Scl-100 and PM/Scl-75 polypeptides, which are the two major targets of the complex, and we investigated their presence in 600 Japanese patients with various systemic autoimmune conditions. Immunoprecipitation analysis using the recombinants in addition to traditional radiolabeled cell extracts were also applied to ELISA-positive sera. Results: In ELISA, 11 patients were positive for anti-PM/Scl-100 antibodies and 7 of these 11 patients were also positive for anti-PM/Scl-75 antibodies. Immunoprecipitation analysis using the recombinants in addition to traditional radiolabeled cell extracts confirmed that 9 out of these 11 patients immunoprecipitated the typical sets of PM/Scl proteins. In total, 4/16 (25%) undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) patients, 3/126 (2.4%) dermatomyositis patients, 1/223 (0.4%) SSc patients, 1/88 (1.1%) Sjögren's syndrome patients, 0/123 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, 0/17 patients with overlap syndrome and 0/7 patients with PM were judged to be positive for anti-PM/Scl antibodies. Conclusions: This is the first report of Japanese autoimmune patients with anti-PM/Scl antibodies. In Japanese patients, anti-PM/Scl antibodies are only very rarely found, and they are not always specific for dermatomyositis (DM) or SSc; they are also present in various autoimmune conditions with the highest prevalence being in UCTD. All anti-PM/Scl-positive DM cases are complicated with interstitial lung disease and/or cancer, while no life-threatening involvement was found in other anti-PM/Scl-positive cases. Further studies on larger cohorts are necessary to define the clinical significance of anti-PM/Scl antibodies in autoimmune diseases