Association between miR-137 polymorphism and risk of schizophrenia: a meta-analysis.

miR-137, a brain-enriched microRNA, is involved in the control of neuronal proliferation, differentiation, and dendritic arborization, all of which are important for proper neurogenesis and relevant to schizophrenia. miR-137 is also known to regulate many genes implicated in schizophrenia risk. Although reports have associated the miR-137 polymorphism rs1625579 with this disease, their results have been inconsistent. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the relationship between rs1625579 and schizophrenia. Data were obtained from an electronic database, and pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were used to test the association using the RevMan 5.3 software. Twelve case-control studies comprising 11,583 cases and 14,315 controls were included. An estimated lambda value of 0.46 was recorded, suggesting that a codominant model of inheritance was most likely. A statistically significant association was established under allelic (T vs G: OR = 1.15, 95%CI = 1.10-1.21, P < 0.001) and homogeneous codominant models (TT vs GG: OR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.13-1.54, P < 0.001), but no such relationship was detected using the heterogeneous codominant model (GT vs GG: OR = 1.14, 95%CI = 0.97-1.34, P = 0.11). This meta-analysis demonstrates that the rs1625579 miR-137 genetic variant significantly increases schizophrenia risk.

Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers for Osmanthus fragrans (Oleaceae) using 454 sequencing technology.

Osmanthus fragrans (Oleaceae) is an evergreen shrub or small tree that grows in south China. In this study, Roche 454 FLX+ sequencing combined with the magnetic bead enrichment method was used to isolate microsatellite markers from the genome of O. fragrans. A total of 1471 microsatellites that contained enough flanking sequences for primer pair design were identified from 89,633 raw sequencing reads. One hundred primer pairs were randomly chosen to test primer amplification efficiency. Among these tested primer pairs, 20 yielded polymorphic amplification products across 16 individuals from the Albus, Luteus, and Aurantiacus groups. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 6, with an average of 3.7. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 0.813, with an average of 0.460. Shannon's information index ranged from 0.463 to 1.707, with an average of 0.975. Six loci (Of 05, Of 06, Of 08, Of 12, Of 15, and Of 19) deviated significantly from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P < 0.05), which was due to an excess of homozygotes or heterozygotes. Nine pairs of loci (Of 01 and Of 05; Of 04 and Of 05; Of 01 and Of 06; Of 04 and Of 12; Of 02 and Of 13; Of 04 and Of 13; Of 12 and Of 13; Of 04 and Of 19; Of 05 and Of 19) showed significant linkage disequilibrium, which indicated significant allelic association between the loci. This set of microsatellite markers will be valuable for molecular marker-assisted breeding in O. fragrans.