Comparing transcriptional responses to Fusarium crown rot in wheat and barley identified an important relationship between disease resistance and drought tolerance.

BACKGROUND: Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is a chronic disease in cereal production worldwide. The impact of this disease is highly environmentally dependant and significant yield losses occur mainly in drought-affected crops. RESULTS: In the study reported here, we evaluated possible relationships between genes conferring FCR resistance and drought tolerance using two approaches. The first approach studied FCR induced differentially expressed genes (DEGs) targeting two barley and one wheat loci against a panel of genes curated from the literature based on known functions in drought tolerance. Of the 149 curated genes, 61.0% were responsive to FCR infection across the three loci. The second approach was a comparison of the global DEGs induced by FCR infection with the global transcriptomic responses under drought in wheat. This analysis found that approximately 48.0% of the DEGs detected one week following drought treatment and 74.4% of the DEGs detected three weeks following drought treatment were also differentially expressed between the susceptible and resistant isolines under FCR infection at one or more timepoints. As for the results from the first approach, the vast majority of common DEGs were downregulated under drought and expressed more highly in the resistant isoline than the sensitive isoline under FCR infection. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study suggest that the resistant isoline in wheat was experiencing less drought stress, which could contribute to the stronger defence response than the sensitive isoline. However, most of the genes induced by drought stress in barley were more highly expressed in the susceptible isolines than the resistant isolines under infection, indicating that genes conferring drought tolerance and FCR resistance may interact differently between these two crop species. Nevertheless, the strong relationship between FCR resistance and drought responsiveness provides further evidence indicating the possibility to enhance FCR resistance by manipulating genes conferring drought tolerance.

[Effect of total prostate volume and transitional zone volume on the curative effect of transurethral resection of prostate in benign prostatic hyperplasia].

Objective: To compare the clinical effect of different total prostate volume (TPV) and different transitional zone volume (TZV) on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) treated with transurethral resection of prostate(TURP). Methods: Clinical data of 210 patients with BPH admitted to Guizhou provincial people's hospital from June 2016 to August 2018 were retrospectively collected and analyzed. All patients underwent transrectal ultrasonography, and they were divided into three groups according to TPV: 70 patients in group A:TPV<40mL, 98 patients in group B: 40 ml≤TPV<80 ml, and 42 patients in group C:TPV≥80 ml. Meanwhile, three groups were divided according to TZV: 88 patients in group a: TZV<20ml, 67 patients in group b: 20 ml≤TZV<40 ml, and 55 patients in group c:TZV≥40 ml. All of the patients with TURP were followed up for 6 months after surgery, and the data of international prostate symptom score (IPSS), storage symptoms IPSS (IPSS-S), voiding symptoms IPSS (IPSS-V), Quality of Life (QoL) index, and maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax) were collected before and after surgery. Finally, the effect of TPV and TZV on TURP was analyzed respectively by analysis of variance. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in preoperative IPSS, IPSS-V, IPSS-S, QoL and Qmax among the three groups of patients grouped by TPV (P>0.05), but the age of patients in group C(73.5±6.5) was significantly higher than that in group A (69.3±7.6) and group B (70.9±7.3) (P=0.015). Postoperative IPSS, IPSS-V, IPSS-S, QoL and Qmax of patients in groups A, B and C also showed no significant difference (P>0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in preoperative IPSS, IPSS-V, IPSS-S, QoL, and Qmax among the three groups of patients grouped according to TZV (P>0.05), while the age of patients in group a (69.2±7.6) was significantly lower than that of patients in group b (72.1±7.2) and group c (72.5±6.7) (P=0.017). There were statistically significant differences in IPSS (P=0.010), IPSS-V (P=0.037), IPSS-S (P=0.022), QoL (P=0.038) and Qmax (P=0.037) among the groups a, b, and c after surgery. Moreover, IPSS, IPSS-V, IPSS-S and QoL were negatively correlated with TZV, while Qmax was positively correlated with TZV. Postoperative IPSS, IPSS-V, IPSS-S, QoL and Qmax were significantly different from those before surgery in groups A, B, C and groups a, b, c (P<0.001). Conclusion: TPV and TZV may not be significantly correlated with BPH symptoms, but may be correlated with age. TURP is an effective treatment for patients with different TPV and TZV. There is no significant statistical difference in the surgical efficacy among patients with different TPV, but patients with larger TZV tended to have better outcome. TZV may be better than TPV in predicting the postoperative efficacy.

[Effect of transition zone index on the outcome after transurethral resection of prostate].

Objective: To investgate the effect of properative transitional zone index (TZI) on the outcome of transurethral resection of prostate (TURP). Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 206 patients with TURP who were admitted to our hospital from January 2016 to September 2018. All patients underwent transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) to determine the total prostate volume (TPV) and the transition zone volume (TZV). Patients were divided into two groups according to TZI (TZV/TPV) (group A: TZI<0.5, group B: TZI≥0.5). We collected data 6-months after surgery including international prostate symptom score (IPSS), quality of life score (QOL), maximum flow rate (Qmax), and postvoiding residue (PVR) to compare the difference of the postoperative outcome of two groups, while the IPSS was subdivided into voiding (IPSS-v) and storage(IPSS-s) symptoms, and the changes of IPSS, IPSS-v, IPSS-s, QOL, Qmax and PVR before and after surgery were analyzed. The treatment efficacy was determined as the changes of IPSS (post/preoperative IPSS: %IPSS), QOL (preoperative QOL-postoperative QOL: ΔQOL) and Qmax(preoperative Qmax-postoperative Qmax: ΔQmax). Pearson linear correlation analysis was employed to estimate the correlation of TZI and %IPSS, ΔQOL and ΔQmax, respectively. Results: A total of 126 patients were in Group A, and 80 patients were in group B. 1. The preoperative clinical data of the two groups were compared. There were no significant differences regarding age, IPSS, IPSS-v, IPSS-s, QOL, Qmax, and PVR between two groups (all P>0.05). However, the TPV of patients in group B (74.57±29.25) ml was significantly larger than that in group A (46.25±24.56) ml, P<0.001. While the postoperative follow-up outcomes of the two groups were compared, we found that IPSS-s (P=0.079), QOL (P=0.710), and PVR (P=0.651) were not statistically different between the two groups, but the postoperative IPSS, IPSS-v, and Qmax (8.50±5.75 vs 6.38±4.36, 4.03±3.75 vs 2.63±2.5, and (16.54±4.43) ml/s vs (18.94±4.84) ml/s, all P<0.05) were significantly different between the two groups. 2. Postoperative IPSS, IPSS-v, IPSS-s, QOL, Qmax and PVR were significantly different from those before surgery in two groups, respectively. 3. Pearson linear correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between TZI and ΔQmax (r=0.32, P<0.01), a weaker negative correlation between TZI and %IPSS (r=-0.22, P<0.01), and no correlation between TZI and ΔQOL (r=0.08, P=0.238). Conclusion: There may be a correlation between the outcome of TURP and TZI, and the outcome of TURP may be better in patients with TZI ≥ 0.5.

DNAH6 is a novel candidate gene associated with sperm head anomaly.

Globozoospermia and acephalic spermatozoa are two rare sperm head anomalies associated with male infertility. Combination of the two phenotypes in the same patient is extremely rare, so the underlying pathogenesis of this disorder remains unclear. Here, we report a 35-year-old infertile male, who presented with 30% of sperm-lacked heads and 69% of sperm round-headed or small-headed with neck thickening in his ejaculate. Subsequent whole-exome sequencing (WES) analysis identified compound heterozygous variants within the DNAH6 gene. DNAH6 is a testis-specific-expressed protein that was localised to the neck region in the spermatozoa of normal control; however, immunofluorescent staining failed to detect DNAH6 protein in the patient's spermatozoa. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis also showed the complete absence of DNAH6 mRNA in the patient's spermatozoa. Moreover, two cycles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF)-assisted reproduction were carried out, but pregnancy was not achieved after embryo transfer. Therefore, rare sequence variants in DNAH6 might be susceptibility risks for human sperm head anomaly.

Albumin-bilirubin versus Child-Pugh score as a predictor of outcome after liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The Child-Pugh (CP) score is used widely to assess liver function and predict postoperative outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, the albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score has been validated as a predictor of overall survival in these patients. This study aimed to compare the ability of the ALBI and CP scores to predict outcomes in patients with HCC after liver resection with curative intent. METHODS: Consecutive patients who underwent liver resection with curative intent for HCC between January 2007 and July 2013 were included in this retrospective study. The performance of the ALBI score in predicting postoperative liver failure (PHLF) and long-term survival was compared with that of the CP score. RESULTS: A total of 1242 patients were enrolled. Of these, 166 (13·4 per cent) experienced PHLF. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the ALBI score for predicting PHLF was greater than that of the CP score (0·723 versus 0·607; P < 0·001). Similar to findings for CP grade, the incidence and severity of PHLF increased with increasing ALBI grade. The ALBI grade stratified patients into at least two distinct overall survival cohorts (P < 0·001), whereas the CP grade did not. The ALBI grade also classified patients with CP grade A disease into two distinct overall survival cohorts (P < 0·001), and overall survival rates in the group with poorer survival were similar to those in the majority of patients with CP grade B disease. Both CP and ALBI scores had low power in predicting disease-free survival. CONCLUSION: The ALBI grade predicted PHLF and overall survival in patients with HCC undergoing liver resection with curative intent more accurately than the CP grade.

Bioinformatic analysis of potential candidates for therapy of inflammatory bowel disease.

OBJECTIVE: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) increased the risk for developing colorectal cancer. However, there is no effective therapy for IBDs. The aim of this study was to identify potential therapeutic targets for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and explore the possible mechanism underlying this disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Gene expression profile GSE6731 was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database, which included 9 UC samples and 19 CD samples. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between affected colon tissues and non-affected tissues were identified in UC and CD group. Then, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways analysis of DEGs were performed. Modules in the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were identified, and significant node genes were selected. RESULTS: Total 619 DEGs including 285 up-regulated genes and 334 down-regulated genes were identified in UC group and total 1159 DEGs of CD including 585 up-regulated genes and 574 down-regulated genes were selected. Module was selected from PPI network. From the PPI network and module, DEGs of mitogen-activated protein kinase 3 (MAPK3), N-myc downstream regulated 1 (NDRG1) and major histocompatibility complex, class II, DR alpha (HLA-DRA) have high degree. CONCLUSIONS: MAPK3, NDRG1 and HLA-DRA may play key roles in the progression and development of IBD. They may be used as specific therapeutic targets in the treatment of IBD. However, further experiments are still needed to confirm our results.

Protective effects of water extract of clam on normal and CCl4-induced damage in primary cultured rat hepatocytes.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of various concentrations and incubation times of water extract of clam (WEC) on glutathione, its antioxidant and the detoxification defense systems in normal and CCl4-induced oxidative damaged primary rat hepatocytes. This study showed that when the hepatocytes were treated with WEC (0.14 ~ 1.68 mg/ml), the intracellular glutathione (GSH) levels, GSH/GSSG ratio, and the activities of GSH-related enzymes (GPx, GRd, and GST) were higher than those in the control at 24 or 48 hour treatments. However, the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage and microscopic observations did not differ from those of the control. Yet, when the hepatocytes were pretreated with various concentrations of WEC for 24 hours and then exposed to 5 mM carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) for 1 hour, at concentrations of WEC between 0.42 ~ 1.68 mg/ml, the viabilities, intracellular GSH level, and activities of GST and GPx were significantly increased compared to those of the CCl4-treated control group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, WEC could improve the viability and the capabilities of detoxification and antioxidation in hepatocytes by increasing the GSH level and the activities of GSH-related enzymes.

Heavy metal concentrations in soils and plant accumulation in a restored manganese mineland in Guangxi, South China.

Heavy metal contamination of metal-mined soils is a widespread problem in China. In the restored (over 20 years) Lipu manganese mineland, 36 plant species from 22 families were found colonizing, some of which were planted agronomic ones. Heavy metal concentrations in tailings were very high. Minesoils were basically unpolluted, but soils in the remaining mining area and in the vicinity of tailings dumps were polluted by Cd and Mn. Measurements of metal contents in dominant plants showed they were close to those of other mineland plants. Plants tended to have a higher Cd accumulation (as reflected by Biological Accumulation Coefficient) from soil, but have a higher Mn translocation (as indicated by Biological Transfer Coefficient) to aboveground parts. The Chinese chestnut and sugarcane cultivated on the reclaimed mineland were not safe for human consumption, and this agricultural restoration pattern should be carefully reconsidered.

Geometric and statistical properties of the mean-field hydrophobic-polar model, the large-small model, and real protein sequences.

Lattice models, for their coarse-grained nature, are best suited for the study of the "designability problem," the phenomenon in which most of the about 16 000 proteins of known structure have their native conformations concentrated in a relatively small number of about 500 topological classes of conformations. Here it is shown that on a lattice the most highly designable simulated protein structures are those that have the largest number of surface-core switchbacks. A combination of physical, mathematical, and biological reasons that causes the phenomenon is given. By comparing the most foldable model peptides with protein sequences in the Protein Data Bank, it is shown that whereas different models may yield similar designabilities, predicted foldable peptides will simulate natural proteins only when the model incorporates the correct physics and biology, in this case if the main folding force arises from the differing hydrophobicity of the residues, but does not originate, say, from the steric hindrance effect caused by the differing sizes of the residues.

Mean-field HP model, designability and alpha-helices in protein structures.

Analysis of the geometric properties of a mean-field HP model on a square lattice for protein structure shows that structures with a large number of switchbacks between surface and core sites are chosen favorably by peptides as unique ground states. Global comparison of model (binary) peptide sequences with concatenated (binary) protein sequences listed in the Protein Data Bank and the Dali Domain Dictionary indicates that the highest correlation occurs between model peptides choosing the favored structures and those portions of protein sequences containing alpha helices.