Plant spacing in tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum ) production refers to the distance between plants within and between rows in the field. Variations in plant spacing often affect secondary growth of tobacco stems. NtHB8 and NtNST3 genes, which have transcriptional activation activity, were upregulated during tobacco stem secondary growth. Plants spaced 60 cm apart had significantly higher levels of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose; cambium activity; vascular bundle thickness; accumulation of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the shoot; and expression levels of NtHB8sy , NtHB8to, and NtNST3sy compared to plants spaced 30 cm apart. The promoters of NtHB8 and NtNST3 genes were found to be rich in light-response elements, suggesting that light may be the main environmental factor involved in regulating secondary stem growth that is impacted by plant spacing. Our results highlight the utility of tobacco as a model plant for the study of secondary growth and wood formation.
Treatment of peritoneal macrophages with geraniin, isolated from Geranium funbergii, markedly induced the phagocytosis of living yeasts. Marked increases in phagocytosis and acid phosphatase activity in macrophage lysates were observed 24 hr after the beginning of geraniin treatment. As observed by electron microscopy, macrophages that had been treated for 24 hr with geraniin had a markedly thickened surface layer which was positive to ruthenium red, compared to the control cells. In addition, geraniin treatment of macrophages appeared to induce remarkably large mitochondria, more coated pits and prominent lysosomal granules. In conclusion, the stimulation of phagocytosis and acid phosphatase activity of macrophages by geraniin treatment may involve alterations of the plasma membrane and cytoplasmic reorganization.
Numerous studies have found an association between autoimmune diseases of the nervous system (ADNS) and schizophrenia (SCZ), but the findings remain controversial. We conducted the first meta-analysis to summarize the current evidence from cohort studies that evaluated the association between ADNS and SCZ.PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase were comprehensively searched until May 30, 2022 for articles on the association between ADNS and SCZ. Every included study was reported effect size with 95% CIs for the association between ADNS and SCZ. Meta-regression and subgroup analysis were used to assess the heterogeneity.A total of 8 cohort studies with 12 cohorts were included in the meta-analysis. We observed a significant association between ADNS and SCZ (RR = 1.42; 95%CI, 1.18-1.72). Subgroup analysis showed that the risk of SCZ was significantly increased when ADNS were used as exposure factors (RR = 1.48; 95%CI, 1.15-1.89), whereas with SCZ did not observe an increased risk of subsequent ADNS (RR = 1.33; 95%CI, 0.92-1.92); multiple sclerosis (MS) was positively associated with SCZ (RR = 1.36; 95%CI, 1.12-1.66), but no significant association was found between Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and SCZ (RR = 1.90; 95%CI, 0.87-4.17). Meanwhile, we found location was the source of heterogeneity.High heterogeneity was observed (I2 = 92.0%), and only English literature was included in the meta-analysis.We found a positive association between ADNS and SCZ, and the association was different across the different types of ADNS. The results of the study are helpful for clinicians to carry out targeted preventive measures for ADNS and SCZ.
So far, Google Trend data have been used for influenza surveillance in many European and American countries; however, there are few attempts to apply the low-cost surveillance method in Asian developing countries. To investigate the correlation between the search trends and the influenza activity in Asia, we examined the Google query data of four Asian developing countries.
Abstract Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that the macrophage phenotype switch from M0 to M1 is critical in the clearance of intracellular mycobacteria during Mycobacterium bovis infection. In this study, the entire gene expression profiles of M1 bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) induced by interferon-gamma and lipopolysaccharide, M2 BMDMs induced by interleukin (IL) - 4 and IL-13, M0 BMDMs, and M0 BMDMs after 6 h of infection with M. bovis were subjected to bioinformatics analysis. Forty-eight candidate genes associated with M. bovis infection and involved in M1 polarized macrophages were screened. Thirteen hub genes were subsequently identified based on connectivity degree analysis and multiple external validations. Among these hub genes, Guanylate binding protein 2b (GBP2b) was selected as a key gene for further investigation. In vivo validation results showed significant expression of GBP2b in the tissues of M. bovis -infected mice. For in vitro validation, the RAW264.7 cell line was transfected with GBP2b-specific small interfering RNA and GBP2b plasmid expression vector. Cellular experimental studies confirm that GBP2b was a novel regulatory molecule that promotes M1 macrophage polarization during M. bovis infection and was also an antimicrobial protein that promotes intracellular bacterial clearance. Furthermore, gene co-expression analysis and further experiments showed that GBP2b regulates M1 polarization through activation of Toll-like receptor 4 and nuclear factor-κBp65 protein. These findings expand the understanding of GBP2b for the regulation of inflammatory responses and suggest that GBP2b may be a potential target for the treatment of diseases caused by M. bovis.
OF DISSERTATION Genetic and functional analysis of host genes involved in pathogenic and symbiotic legume-microbe interactions Legumes form symbiotic and pathogenic interactions with microbes. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the legume-microbe interactions would help us to improve crop production in a sustainable manner. This thesis covers two independent research projects. The first project was to study the role of alternative splicing in RCT1mediated disease resistance. RCT1 is a TIR-NBS-LRR-type plant resistance (R) gene in Medicago truncatula that confers broad-spectrum resistance to Colletotrichum trifolii, a fungal pathogen that causes anthracnose disease in Medicago. RCT1 undergoes alternative splicing at both coding and 3'-untranslated regions, thereby producing multiple transcript variants in its expression profile. Alternative splicing of RCT1 in the coding region results from the retention of intron 4. The transcript with retention of intron 4 is predicted to encode a truncated protein lacking the C-terminal domain of the fulllength protein. We showed that the RCT1 function requires the combined presence of the regular and alternative transcripts. This study, in addition to the reports on the tobacco N and Arabidopsis RPS4 genes, adds another significant example showing the involvement of alternative splicing in R gene-mediated plant immunity. The second project was to study the symbiotic specificity in the soybean-rhizobial interaction. It is well known that legume plants can make their own nitrogen fertilizer by forming a root nodule symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria, called rhizobia. One remarkable property of this symbiosis is its high level of specificity, which occurs at both interand intra-species levels and takes place at multiple phases of the interaction, ranging from initial bacterial infection and nodulation to late nodule development associated with nitrogen fixation. In this study, we performed fine mapping of the Rj4 gene that controls nodulation specificity in soybean. The Rj4 allele prevents the host plant from nodulation with many strains of Bradyrhizobium elkanii, which are frequently present in soils of the southeastern USA. Since B. elkanii strains are poor symbiotic partners of soybean, cultivars containing an Rj4 allele are considered favorable. We have delimited the Rj4 locus within a 47-kb genomic region on soybean chromosome 1 and identified the candidate genes. We are in the process to validate the candidate genes.
Spindle cell carcinoma (SpCC) is a rare tumor type with poor prognosis, and standard treatment modalities are not available yet. However, large-scale studies on this topic are sparse. In this study, data from the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) database were used to determine cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates of SpCC and to investigate the impact of different therapeutic strategies including surgery with or without chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or chemoradiotherapy on patient outcome.A total of 665 cases of SpCC, diagnosed from 1996 to 2015, were extracted from the SEER database. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank tests were used to assess CSS rates and differences on survival curves. Multiple COX-proportional hazards models were used to analyze the association between various treatments and prognosis of SpCC patients classified by organs or systems.Different treatments for SpCC in different organ or system were associated with prognosis of SpCC patients. Surgery alone exhibits survival benefit, whereas adjuvant therapy fails to show survival benefit for patients with SpCC.The prognosis of SpCC patients varied significantly with different clinical treatments. Adjuvant radiotherapy or chemotherapy did not show survival benefit, even increasing the risk of mortality for SpCC patients.
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