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Curated genome annotation of Oryza sativa ssp. japonica and comparative genome analysis with Arabidopsis thaliana

We present here the annotation of the complete genome of rice Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cultivar Nipponbare. All functional annotations for proteins and non-protein-coding RNA (npRNA) candidates were manually curated. Functions were identified or inferred in 19,969 (70%) of the proteins, and 131 possible npRNAs (including 58 antisense transcripts) were found. Almost 5000 annotated protein-coding genes were found to be disrupted in insertional mutant lines, which will accelerate future experimental validation of the annotations. The rice loci were determined by using cDNA sequences obtained from rice and other representative cereals. Our conservative estimate based on these loci and an extrapolation suggested that the gene number of rice is ~32,000, which is smaller than previous estimates. We conducted comparative analyses between rice and Arabidopsis thaliana and found that both genomes possessed several lineage-specific genes, which might account for the observed differences between these species, while they had similar sets of predicted functional domains among the protein sequences. A system to control translational efficiency seems to be conserved across large evolutionary distances. Moreover, the evolutionary process of protein-coding genes was examined. Our results suggest that natural selection may have played a role for duplicated genes in both species, so that duplication was suppressed or favored in a manner that depended on the function of a gene

Separation Properties of Wastewater Containing O/W Emulsion Using Ceramic Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration (MF/UF) Membranes

Washing systems using water soluble detergent are used in electrical and mechanical industries and the wastewater containing O/W emulsion are discharged from these systems. Membrane filtration has large potential for the efficient separation of O/W emulsion for reuses of treated water and detergent. The separation properties of O/W emulsions by cross-flow microfiltration and ultrafiltration were studied with ceramic MF and UF membranes. The effects of pore size; applied pressure; cross-flow velocity; and detergent concentration on rejection of O/W emulsion and flux were systematically studied. At the condition achieving complete separation of O/W emulsion the pressure-independent flux was observed and this flux behavior was explained by gel-polarization model. The O/W emulsion tended to permeate through the membrane at the conditions of larger pore size; higher emulsion concentration; and higher pressure. The O/W emulsion could permeate the membrane pore structure by destruction or deformation. These results imply the stability of O/W emulsion in the gel-layer formed on membrane surface play an important role in the separation properties. The O/W emulsion was concentrated by batch cross-flow concentration filtration and the flux decline during the concentration filtration was explained by the gel- polarization model

<S3-1> Carbon allocation of tropical rainforest in Lambir, Borneo

This proceeding is a compilation of findings and progress activities of research collaboration between the Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) and the Japan Research Consortium for Tropical Forests in Sarawak (JRCTS). To highlight the research findings, An International Symposium entitled "Frontier in Tropical Forest Research: Progress in Joint Projects between the Forest Department Sarawak and the Japan Research Consortium for Tropical Forests in Sarawak" was ii held in Kuching, Sarawak on 21-22 September 2015.It is important to understand the characteristics of carbon cycling in tropical rainforests in order to quantify global carbon cycling. Knowledge about carbon allocation, that is, how much of the carbon assimilated by photosynthesis is allocated to aboveground and belowground tissues, and how much is used for biomass production and respiration on an annual time scale and on an ecosystem scale, can improve our ability to predict the effects of global climate changes on carbon dynamics. Recently, studies on carbon allocation in the Neotropics have been increasing, while there are few such studies in Asian tropical rainforests. There are important biotic and abiotic differences between the tropical rainforests in Borneo and Neotropical rainforests, such as higher stand density of large trees, larger biomass, and absence of distinct dry seasons in the rainforests in Borneo. These factors may cause differences in the carbon allocation patterns between Borneo and the Neotropics. The goal of this study is to clarify characteristics of carbon allocation in Lambir Hills National Park, which is covered with typical Bornean mature tropical rainforests. We estimated above-ground net primary production (ANPP), woody tissue respiration (Rwood), foliage respiration (Rfoliage), total below-ground carbon flux (TBCF) and gross primary production (GPP) in the Lambir Hills tropical rainforest, and compared the values with those from Neotropical tropical rainforests. We found that the aboveground biomass (AGB) in the Lambir Hills tropical rainforest was approximately twice higher than that in Neotropical rainforests. ANPP, Rwood and Rfoliage were comparable despite the higher biomass. The comparable Rwood despite higher aboveground biomass was partly caused by higher stand density of large trees in the Lambir Hills tropical rainforest. TBCF in the Lambir Hills tropical rainforest was much higher than those of Neotropical forests. This was unexpected, since the higher water availability in the Bornean tropical rainforest would suggest less fine root competition for water, giving higher ANPP and lower TBCF. Low nutrient availability may explain the comparable ANPP and higher TBCF. Our results suggested that large trees and belowground resources considerably affected carbon cycling

Alkaline phosphatase flare with hyperostosis of bone metastases in lung adenocarcinoma treated with gefitinib

Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) flare has been reported to occur during cancer treatment as a favorable event, particularly in the presence of bone metastasis. There have been only a few reports in lung cancer and associated radiographic findings have seldom been described. The authors observed ALP flare in a female patient with lung adenocarcinoma soon after the initiation of gefitinib. Moreover, on computed tomography, metastatic lesions of the rib and thoracic spine showed marked hyperostosis, with sizes larger than the original bone structure, suggesting efficacy of gefitinib. The significance of such hyperostosis should be elucidated