ABSTRACT
Pomegranate has a unique evolutionary history given that different cultivars have eight or nine bivalent chromosomes with possible crossability between the two classes. Therefore, it is important to study chromosome evolution in pomegranate to understand the dynamics of its population. Here, we de novo assembled the Azerbaijani cultivar "Azerbaijan guloyshasi" (AG2017; 2n = 16) and re-sequenced six cultivars to track the evolution of pomegranate and to compare it with previously published de novo assembled and re-sequenced cultivars. High synteny was observed between AG2017, Bhagawa (2n = 16), Tunisia (2n = 16), and Dabenzi (2n = 18), but these four cultivars diverged from the cultivar Taishanhong (2n = 18) with several rearrangements indicating the presence of two major chromosome evolution events. Major presence/absence variations were not observed as >99% of the five genomes aligned across the cultivars, while >99% of the pan-genic content was represented by Tunisia and Taishanhong only. We also revisited the divergence between soft- and hard-seeded cultivars with less structured population genomic data, compared to previous studies, to refine the selected genomic regions and detect global migration routes for pomegranate. We reported a unique admixture between soft- and hard-seeded cultivars that can be exploited to improve the diversity, quality, and adaptability of local pomegranate varieties around the world. Our study adds body knowledge to understanding the evolution of the pomegranate genome and its implications for the population structure of global pomegranate diversity, as well as planning breeding programs aiming to develop improved cultivars.
ABSTRACT
In this study, we compared the weight of the prostate specimen removed after robotic radical prostatectomy with the prostate weight measured pre-operatively by four different imaging modalities. Pre-operative prostate weight before robotic radical prostatectomy was measured by Transabdominal Ultrasonography (TAUS), Transrectal Ultrasonography (TRUS), Abdominal Tomography (CT) and MultiparametricProstate Magnetic Resonance imaging (mpMRI). Of the 170 patients enrolled in the study, the mean age was 65.2 ± 7.08 (46-84) years and mean prostate-specific antigen (PSA) 9.6 ± 7.7 (1.8-50). The mean post-operative actual prostate weight was 63.1 ± 30 gr. The mean pre-operative prostate volumes measured by TAUS, TRUS, CT and MPMRI were 64.5 ± 28.5, 49.1 ± 30.6, 54.5 ± 30.5 and 68.7 ± 31.7 ml, respectively (p < .001). Post-operative actual prostate weight correlated with prostate weight measured by TAUS, TRUS, CT and mpMRI (r coefficient 0.776, 0.802, 0.768 and 0.825 respectively). The best of these was mpMRI. Although prostate weight measured by different imaging methods has a high correlation to predict actual prostate weight, actual prostate weight is best predicted by measurements with mpMRI. However, errors and deviations that may occur with these imaging methods should be taken into consideration.
