Statures in Han populations of China

<正>Dear Editor,Shortly after initiating the"Physical Anthropological Research on Han Chinese"research project,we applied uniform sampling methods as well as methods and instruments of measurement to obtain a complete set of measurements of physical anthropological indicators among Han populations across China.Among these measurements,body stature was a key indicator.Currently,there should be reliable     

A new chapter for China's public health security——aids offered to Africa to combat Ebola

<正>As one of the most deadly diseases,the outbreak of Ebola virus disease(EVD)is causing panic in West Africa and posing alarms globally.Since the re-emergence of EVD,China authority has been consistently providing support for Africa in its fight against Ebola.On September 16,2014,a laboratory testing team and a medical team,consisting of 59public health experts and medical staffers,were dispatched to assist local hospitals in West African countries to set up lab screening and clinical treatment of EVD(http://www.taiwan.cn/xwzx/Technology/201409/t20140917_7354545.     

An Effective Method for Raising Antisera Against β-defensins: Double-copy Protein Expression of mBin1b in E. coli

Defensins are a family of evolutionarily relatedvertebrate antimicrobial peptides with a characteristicβ-sheet-rich fold and a framework of six disulphide-linkedcysteines. The two main defensin subfamilies, α- andβ-defensin, differ in the length of pep…     

Book Review书评

由沈阳农业大学王小奇、方红、张治良教授主编的《辽宁甲虫原色图鉴》于2012年由辽宁科学技术出版社出版,以图鉴形式记述了分布于辽宁的鞘翅目昆虫71科829种,其中31个中国新记录种,124个辽宁省新记录种。全书分为两部分,第一部分是甲虫成虫的形态特征,简要概述了甲虫头、胸、腹部的外部形态特征;第二部分是分类,包括成虫的分科检索表和按科排列的各论部分。书     

The impact of special issues

With support from many authors from many different scientific fields,Zoological Research(ZR)successfully released eight special issues from 2011 to 2014 on various topics,including Animal Ecology and Resources,Animal Genetic Diversity,Development and Evolution,Fish Diversity and Primates and Animal Models of Human Diseases.These special issues strongly align with our aims and scope,which have been     

Genetic divergence among geographical populations of the migratory locust in China

The migratory locust, Locusta migratoria L., which is distributed widely in the East Hemisphere, has long been regarded as the most important agricultural pest and a model insect. Its distribution ranges from thetropic and the subtropical zone, to the temperate zone, and to the cold-temperate zone. Because of the wide geographical distribution and adaptations, many geo- graphical populations of the migratory locust dis- played apparent variation in morphology, life history, physiology, and ot…     

Alien DNA introgression and wheat DNA rearrangements in a stable wheat line derived from the early generation of distant hybridization

In general, it requires five or more generations to develop a stable line by the traditional breeding method of cultivar hybrids in self-pollinated crops, such as wheat, barley, and rice. No doubt, the breeding period will be shortened and thus the breeding effi-ciency will be improved if the hybrids can stabilize in early generation. The method of haploid breeding, that is, obtaining stable pure lines (DH lines) of cultivar hybrids with the aid of anther culture and then chro-mosome doubling,…     

Human pescadillo induces large-scale chromatin unfolding

Pescadillo was initially identified in a genetic screen for mutations that affect embryonic develop-ment of the zebrafish Daniorerio[1]. Pescadillo-/- ze-brafish mutants showed abnormal embryonic devel-opment such as reduced brain, eye size and a lack of extension of the jaw on developmental day 3. Further study showed that the Pescadillo protein is mainly distributed in tissues containing a significant number of proliferating cells and dramatically elevated in ma-lignant human astrocytomas an…     

Multi-locus association study of schizophrenia susceptibility genes with a posterior probability method

Schizophrenia is a serious neuropsychiatric illness affecting about 1% of the world’s population. Family, twin and adoption studies have demonstrated that 65%―85% of the susceptibility to schizophrenia can be attributed to genes. On the basis of genetic model-ing of epidemiological data and recent results of a number of whole-genome screens for susceptibility genes, schizophrenia has been considered a complex disorder. A number of genes with small to moderate effects are involved in combinat…     

Effects of Temperature Acclimation Pretreatment on the Ultrastructure of Mesophyll Cells in Young Grape Plants （Vitis vinifera L. cv. Jingxiu） Under Cross-Temperature Stresses

Leaves from annual young grape plants （Vitis vinifera L. cv. Jingxiu） were used as experimental materials. The ultrastructural characteristics of mesophyll cells in chilling-treated plants after heat acclimation （HA） and in heat-treated plants after cold acclimation （CA） were observed and compared using transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that slight injury appeared in the ultrastructure of mesophyll cells after either HA （38℃ for 10 h） or CA （8℃ for 2.5 d）, but the tolerance to subsequent extreme temperature stress was remarkably improved by HA or CA pretreatment. The increases in membrane permeability and malondialdehyde concentration under chilling （0℃） or heat （45℃） stress were markedly inhibited by HA or CA pretreatment. The mesophyll cells of plants not pretreated with HA were markedly damaged following chilling stress. The chloroplasts appeared irregular in shape, the arrangement of the stroma lamellae was disordered, and no starch granules were present. The cristae of the mitochondria were disrupted and became empty. The nucleus became irregular in shape and the nuclear membrane was digested. In contrast, the mesophyll cells of HA-pretreated plants maintained an intact ultrastructure under chilling stress. The mesophyll cells of control plants were also severely damaged under heat stress. The chloroplast became round in shape, the stroma lamellae became swollen, and the contents of vacuoles formed clumps. In the case of mitochondria of control plants subjected to heat stress, the outer envelope was digested and the cristae were disrupted and became many small vesicles. Compared with cellular organelles in control plants, those in CA plant cells always maintained an integrated state during whole heat stress, except for the chloroplasts, which became round in shape after 10 h heat stress. From these data, we suggest that the stability of mesophyll cells under chilling stress can be increased by HA pretreatment. Similarly, CA pretreatment can protect chloroplasts, mitochondria, and the nucleus against subsequent heat stress; thus, the thermoresistance of grape seedlings was improved. The results obtained in the present study are the first, to our knowledge, to offered cytological evidence of cross-adaptation to temperature stresses in grape plants.