<i>Cocconeis molesta</i> Kütz., <i>C. diaphana</i> W.Sm. and <i>C. dirupta</i> W.Greg. (Bacillariophyta): type material, ambiguities and possible synonymies

F.T. Kützing introduced Cocconeis molesta with only an uninformative description and a poor illustration: C. molesta has small, oblong valves and is an epiphyte. Another species, Cocconeis diaphana, described by William Smith, is said to have larger valves than C. molesta, with frustules that are relatively oblong. Smith described two forms: one with a distinct fascia on its raphe valve (var. β), the other without this feature. A third species, Cocconeis dirupta was described by Gregory, who expressed doubts that it differed from C. diaphana. Finally, Cocconeis molesta var. crucifera Grunow was first introduced in Van Heurck’s Atlas but was subsequently treated by Van Heurck as a synonym of C. molesta. No previous account has examined the type material of these species. In this paper, we undertake that task and examine type slides and raw material in order to discriminate these different taxa. We conclude by recognizing three species: Cocconeis molesta Kütz., C. diaphana W.Sm. and C. dirupta W.Greg. Cocconeis diaphana var. β is considered to be a synonym of C. dirupta and C. molesta var. crucifera is considered to be a synonym of C. molesta. Lectotypes are designated for C. diaphana and C. dirupta

Genome-wide association analysis identifies three new breast cancer susceptibility loci

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. To date, 22 common breast cancer susceptibility loci have been identified accounting for ∼8% of the heritability of the disease. We attempted to replicate 72 promising associations from two independent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in ∼70,000 cases and ∼68,000 controls from 41 case-control studies and 9 breast cancer GWAS. We identified three new breast cancer risk loci at 12p11 (rs10771399; P = 2.7 × 10(-35)), 12q24 (rs1292011; P = 4.3 × 10(-19)) and 21q21 (rs2823093; P = 1.1 × 10(-12)). rs10771399 was associated with similar relative risks for both estrogen receptor (ER)-negative and ER-positive breast cancer, whereas the other two loci were associated only with ER-positive disease. Two of the loci lie in regions that contain strong plausible candidate genes: PTHLH (12p11) has a crucial role in mammary gland development and the establishment of bone metastasis in breast cancer, and NRIP1 (21q21) encodes an ER cofactor and has a role in the regulation of breast cancer cell growth