The target of rapamycin (TOR) signalling network plays a pivotal role in regulating sugar metabolism and life-span in yeast, plants and mammals, in which TOR functions as a crucial protein. In plants, the TOR complex comprises TOR, RAPTOR (regulatory-associated protein of TOR) and LST8 (lethal with SEC13 protein 8). Factors like light, auxin, glucose, sucrose and amino acid can activate TOR protein as upstream signals to further phosphorylate downstream factors of TOR which promote cell proliferation and growth in plants. In this review, we analyse the TOR signalling network in plants and discuss the relationship between glucose and TOR, as well as the dynamic balance between TOR and sucrose-non-fermenting-related protein kinases (SnRKs). Given that 63 novel TOR-regulated proteins have been identified in previous studies, we also believe there are many unknown functions of TOR that need to be further investigated.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of non-coding small RNA of ~ 22 nucleotides in length. They play important roles in gene regulation in animals and plants. The machine learning approach has become an important way to discover miRNAs, which is complement to experimental approaches. Feature selection is the key step of machine learning approaches to discover miRNA precursors. The performance and generalization ability of classifier is affected by the feature set. Features of miRNA precursors used in machine learning approaches were summarized in this review. According to the properties of features to distinguish the miRNA precursors and the non-miRNA precursors, features were categorized into three classes: sequence features, structure features, structure sequence features.
The study on the numerical distribution of halotolerant and halophil ic bacteria in Tainan salt field of Lianyungang was carried out in the three of season of winter,sping and summer in from 2001 to 2002,and a lot of water and so il samples were collected in brine pan containing different salinity(6.6%-32 .3% ).The results showed that the number of halotolerant and halophilic bacteri a changed in different season and sampling site,the greatest amount of them app ears in summer,was mostly Halomonas,Marinococcus,Salinicoccus,etc.The amount of halotolerant bacteria was greater than that of halophilic bacteria from water sa mples in low salt pond(6.6%-9.9% ),as much as in medium salt pond(13.8%-17.4% ),extreme halophiles was preponderant bacteria in high salt pond(20.2%-32.3% ).In addition,compared with the water samples,there were always more t han the number of halotolerant and halophilic bacteria in soil samples.
Abstract Background: To explore the value of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II) in diagnosis of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and their relationship with vascular invasion, tumor differentiation and size. Methods: A total of 433 participants were enrolled in this study including 266 cases with HCC, 87 cases with liver cirrhosis and 80 healthy individuals. Then we explored the correlation between AFP, PIVKA-II serum level and several pathological features such as vascular invasion, tumor differentiation and size. The value of these two markers used singly or jointly in diagnosing HCC was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The ROC curve was also plotted to identify AFP, PIVKA-II serum cut-off values that would best distinguish HCC patients with and without vascular invasion. Results: The level of AFP and PIVKA-II in HCC group was significantly higher (Z was 7.428, 11.243 respectively, all P<0.01). When AFP and PIVKA-II were used as the individual tumor marker, the areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of HCC diagnosis were 0.765 (95% CI, 0.713～0.8170) for AFP, 0.901 (95% CI, 0.868～0.935) for PIVKA-II, and 0.917 (95% CI, 0.886～0.948) for AFP and PIVKA-II simultaneously. The serum levels of AFP and PIVKA-II were positively correlated with tumor differentiation and size. High AFP and PIVKA-II expression was significantly associated with the presence of vascular invasion (P was 0.007 and 0.014 respectively). The AFP level >64.4ng/ml or PIVKA-II level >957.61mAU/ml was the best critical value to predict the presence of vascular invasion. Conclusion: The diagnostic value of AFP and PIVKA-II combined detection or single assay of PIVKA-II is higher than that of separate assay of AFP. And the proper concentration has important clinical value for judging tumor size, tumor cell differentiation and vascular invasion. Above results validate that AFP and PIVKA-II play a significant role in the diagnosis of HCC.
Spodoptera litura is an important pest that seriously affects Asparagus officinalis production. To clarify the population characteristics and feeding preference of S. litura on different asparagus tissues, asparagus stems and leaves were selected as the research objects, related studies were conducted by constructing the life table and the feeding preference experiment. The results showed that S. litura could complete its development and reproduction normally on asparagus stems or leaves. Although the adult longevity and fecundity of S. litura on the two types of tissues were not significantly different, the development duration of larvae and pupae, and total preoviposition period on leaves were significantly longer than those raised on stems. The intrinsic rate of increase and finite rate of increase were 0.186 d-1 and 1.204 d-1 on stems, which were significantly higher than those fed on leaves (0.161 d-1 and 1.175 d-1). The mean generation time on stems (32.88 d) was significantly lower than on leaves (36.88 d). It indicated that stems were more suitable for its population growth. In the feeding preference, the third and fifth instar larvae preferred to feed on leaves, and other instar larvae (except for the sixth instar of 2.5 h) had no significant difference. These results will provide a theoretical reference for further research and forecasting and integrated control.
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