Genetic Analysis and Molecular Breeding Applications of Malting Quality QTLs in Barley

Malting quality is an important determinant of the value of barley grain used in malting and brewing. With recent sequencing and assembling of the barley genome, an increasing number of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genes related to malting quality have been identified and cloned, which lays a good molecular genetic basis for barley quality improvement. In this review, we describe the following indicators of malting quality: malt extract (ME), diastatic power (DP), kolbach index (KI), wort viscosity (VIS), free amino nitrogen (FAN) content, soluble protein (SP) content, wort β-glucan (WBG) content, and protein content (PC), and have list related QTLs/genes with high phenotypic variation in multiple populations or environments. Meanwhile, the correlations among the quality parameters and parts of significant indicators suitable for improvement are discussed based on nutrient composition and content required for high-quality malt, which will provide reference for molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) of malting quality in barley

Spatial epidemiology and spatial ecology study of worldwide drug-resistant tuberculosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is a major public health problem caused by various factors. It is essential to systematically investigate the epidemiological and, in particular, the ecological factors of DR-TB for its prevention and control. Studies of the ecological factors can provide information on etiology, and assist in the effective prevention and control of disease. So it is of great significance for public health to explore the ecological factors of DR-TB, which can provide guidance for formulating regional prevention and control strategies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Anti-TB drug resistance data were obtained from the World Health Organization/International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (WHO/UNION) Global Project on Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance, and data on ecological factors were collected to explore the ecological factors for DR-TB. Partial least square path modeling (PLS-PM), in combination with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, as well as geographically weighted regression (GWR), were used to build a global and local spatial regression model between the latent synthetic DR-TB factor ("DR-TB") and latent synthetic risk factors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>OLS regression and PLS-PM indicated a significant globally linear spatial association between "DR-TB" and its latent synthetic risk factors. However, the GWR model showed marked spatial variability across the study regions. The "TB Epidemic", "Health Service" and "DOTS (directly-observed treatment strategy) Effect" factors were all positively related to "DR-TB" in most regions of the world, while "Health Expenditure" and "Temperature" factors were negatively related in most areas of the world, and the "Humidity" factor had a negative influence on "DR-TB" in all regions of the world.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In summary, the influences of the latent synthetic risk factors on DR-TB presented spatial variability. We should formulate regional DR-TB monitoring planning and prevention and control strategies, based on the spatial characteristics of the latent synthetic risk factors and spatial variability of the local relationship between DR-TB and latent synthetic risk factors.</p

MCP-1 levels in astrocyte-derived exosomes are changed in preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease

BackgroundAlzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in older adults. There is accumulating evidence that inflammatory processes play a critical role in AD pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated whether inflammatory factors in plasma and astrocyte-derived exosomes (ADEs) from plasma are differentially expressed in the early stages of AD and their potential role in pathological processes in the AD continuum.MethodWe included 39 normal controls (NCs), 43 participants with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), and 43 participants with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI)/AD. IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 in plasma and ADEs from plasma were evaluated using a commercial multiplex Luminex-based kit.ResultsPairwise comparisons between the groups showed no significant differences in plasma levels of IL-6, IL-8, or MCP-1. However, ADEs in the SCD group showed an increase in MCP-1 levels compared to the NC group. To differentiate the preclinical group, discriminant analysis was performed using sex, age, years of education, and genotype. This revealed a difference between the SCD and NC groups (area under the curve: 0.664). A Spearman correlation analysis of MCP-1 in plasma and ADEs showed no or weak correlation in the SCD (R = 0.150, p = 0.350) and aMCI/AD (R = 0.310, p = 0.041) groups, while a positive correlation in the NC group (R = 0.360, p = 0.026).ConclusionPlasma IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 levels were not significantly different. However, the concentration of MCP-1 in ADEs is slightly altered during the preclinical phase of AD, which could be a potential role of the central neuron system (CNS) immune response in the AD continuum.Clinical trial registrationwww.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03370744

Identification and expression pattern analysis of the OsSnRK2 gene family in rice

Sucrose non-fermenting-1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2) is a class of plant-specific serine/threonine (Ser/Thr) protein kinase that plays an important role in rice stress tolerance, growth and development. However, systematic bioinformatics and expression pattern analysis have not been reported. In the current study, ten OsSnRK2 genes were identified in the rice genome and located on 7 chromosomes, which can be classified into three subfamilies (I, II, and III). Many cis-regulatory elements were identified in the promoter region of OsSnRK2 genes, including hormone response elements, defense and stress responsive elements, indicating that the OsSnRK2 family may play a crucial role in response to hormonal and abiotic stress. Quantitative tissue analysis showed that OsSnRK2 genes expressed in all tissues of rice, but the expression abundance varied from different tissues and showed varietal variability. In addition, expression pattern of OsSnRK2 were analyzed under abiotic stress (salt, drought, salt and drought) and showed obvious difference in diverse abiotic stress. In general, these results provide useful information for understanding the OsSnRK2 gene family and analyzing its functions in rice in response to ABA, salt and drought stress, especially salt-drought combined stress

Discovery of the Consistently Well-Performed Analysis Chain for SWATH-MS Based Pharmacoproteomic Quantification

Sequential windowed acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion mass spectra (SWATH-MS) has emerged as one of the most popular techniques for label-free proteome quantification in current pharmacoproteomic research. It provides more comprehensive detection and more accurate quantitation of proteins comparing with the traditional techniques. The performance of SWATH-MS is highly susceptible to the selection of processing method. Till now, ≥27 methods (transformation, normalization, and missing-value imputation) are sequentially applied to construct numerous analysis chains for SWATH-MS, but it is still not clear which analysis chain gives the optimal quantification performance. Herein, the performances of 560 analysis chains for quantifying pharmacoproteomic data were comprehensively assessed. Firstly, the most complete set of the publicly available SWATH-MS based pharmacoproteomic data were collected by comprehensive literature review. Secondly, substantial variations among the performances of various analysis chains were observed, and the consistently well-performed analysis chains (CWPACs) across various datasets were for the first time generalized. Finally, the log and power transformations sequentially followed by the total ion current normalization were discovered as one of the best performed analysis chains for the quantification of SWATH-MS based pharmacoproteomic data. In sum, the CWPACs identified here provided important guidance to the quantification of proteomic data and could therefore facilitate the cutting-edge research in any pharmacoproteomic studies requiring SWATH-MS technique

Determining the Balance Between Drug Efficacy and Safety by the Network and Biological System Profile of Its Therapeutic Target

One of the most challenging puzzles in drug discovery is the identification and characterization of candidate drug of well-balanced profile between efficacy and safety. So far, extensive efforts have been made to evaluate this balance by estimating the quantitative structure–therapeutic relationship and exploring target profile of adverse drug reaction. Particularly, the therapeutic index (TI) has emerged as a key indicator illustrating this delicate balance, and a clinically successful agent requires a sufficient TI suitable for it corresponding indication. However, the TI information are largely unknown for most drugs, and the mechanism underlying the drugs with narrow TI (NTI drugs) is still elusive. In this study, the collective effects of human protein–protein interaction (PPI) network and biological system profile on the drugs' efficacy–safety balance were systematically evaluated. First, a comprehensive literature review of the FDA approved drugs confirmed their NTI status. Second, a popular feature selection algorithm based on artificial intelligence (AI) was adopted to identify key factors differencing the target mechanism between NTI and non-NTI drugs. Finally, this work revealed that the targets of NTI drugs were highly centralized and connected in human PPI network, and the number of similarity proteins and affiliated signaling pathways of the corresponding targets was much higher than those of non-NTI drugs. These findings together with the newly discovered features or feature groups clarified the key factors indicating drug's narrow TI, and could thus provide a novel direction for determining the delicate drug efficacy-safety balance

Advances in the Genetic Basis and Molecular Mechanism of Lesion Mimic Formation in Rice

Plant lesion mutation usually refers to the phenomenon of cell death in green tissues before senescence in the absence of external stress, and such mutants also show enhanced resistance to some plant pathogens. The occurrence of lesion mimic mutants in rice is affected by gene mutation, reactive oxygen species accumulation, an uncontrolled programmed cell death system, and abiotic stress. At present, many lesion mimic mutants have been identified in rice, and some genes have been functionally analyzed. This study reviews the occurrence mechanism of lesion mimic mutants in rice. It analyzes the function of rice lesion mimic mutant genes to elucidate the molecular regulation pathways of rice lesion mimic mutants in regulating plant disease resistance

Leveraging Interactive Knowledge and Unlabeled Data in Gender Classification with Co-training

Abstract. Conventional approaches to gender classification much rely on a large scale of labeled data, which is normally hard and expensive to obtain. In this paper, we propose a co-training approach to address this problem in gender classification. Specifically, we employ both non-interactive and interactive texts, i.e., the message and comment texts, as two different views in our cotraining approach to well incorporate unlabeled data. Experimental results on a large data set from micro-blog demonstrate the appropriateness of leveraging interactive knowledge in gender classification and the effectiveness of the proposed co-training approach in gender classification

Female Writer's Maternal Family Writing in Taiwan

朱云霞，文学博士,中国矿业大学文学与法政学院讲师，主要从事台湾文学研究、女性文学研究。徐学，厦门大学台湾研究院教授，主要致力于现当代文学、海外华文文学、台湾文学研究。【中文摘要】近年来，台湾女作家的家族书写渐趋成为热点，论文通过分析代表性文本，探讨女性家史书写如何发现沉默的女性为其代言发声，展现母亲们在何种语境中成为独立的自我，作为女儿的“我”如何通过母系的历史寻找自我并进一步辩证思考母亲、父亲在家族中的位置，系统杭理女作家建构母系家史的方式及写作特征，有助于思考台湾女性书写的整体面貌。 【Abstract】In recent years,female writer's family writing gradually become a hot spot in Taiwan. This paper illustrates the female writer's family writing how explore and restore the image of the silent mothers, in their works the process of mothers to be themselves is be reproduced with Feminist opinion. The female writers seek the way to construct women's subjectivity and have a dialogue between paternal and maternal in the family by writing family. Study the way and the writing of women writers construct matrilineal family history feature, can help to think about the overall condition of female writing in Taiwan.本文系江苏省哲学社会科学规划项目“台湾文学中的家族书写研究”阶段性成果，项目编号 15ZWC005