Allergic diseases and asthma in the family predict the persistence and onset-age of asthma: a prospective cohort study

BackgroundFamily history of asthma and other allergic diseases have been linked to the risk of childhood asthma previously, but little is known about their effect on the age-of-onset and persistency of asthma until young adulthood.MethodsWe assessed the effect of the family history of asthma and allergic diseases on persistent vs. transient, and early- vs. late-onset persistent asthma in The Espoo Cohort Study 1991–2011, a population-based cohort study of 1623 subjects (follow-up rate 63.2%). The determinants were any family history (any parent or sibling); maternal; paternal; siblings only; parents only; and both siblings and parents. Analyses were conducted separately for asthma and allergic diseases while taking the other disease into account as a confounding factor. The outcomes were persistent, transient, early-onset persistent (<13 years) and late-onset persistent asthma. Adjusted risk ratios (RR) were calculated applying Poisson regression. Q-statistics were used to assess heterogeneity between RRs.ResultsFamily history was associated with the different subtypes but the magnitude of effect varied quantitatively. Any family history of asthma was a stronger determinant of persistent (adjusted RR = 2.82, 95% CI 1.99-4.00) than transient asthma (1.65, 1.03-2.65) (heterogeneity: P = 0.07) and on early-onset than late-onset persistent asthma. Also any family history of allergic diseases was a stronger determinant of persistent and early-onset asthma. The impact of paternal asthma continued to young adulthood (early-onset: 3.33, 1.57-7.06 vs. late-onset 2.04, 0.75-5.52) while the influence of maternal asthma decreased with age (Early-onset 3.94, 2.11-7.36 vs. Late-onset 0.88, 0.28-2.81). Paternal allergic diseases did not follow the pattern of paternal asthma, since they showed no association with late-onset asthma. Also the effect estimates for other subtypes were lower than in other hereditary groups (persistent 1.29, 0.75-2.22 vs. transient 1.20, 0.67-2.15 and early-onset 1.86, 0.95-3.64 vs. late-onset 0.64, 0.22-1.80).ConclusionsFamily history of asthma and allergic diseases are strong determinants of asthma, but the magnitude of effect varies according to the hereditary group so that some subtypes have a stronger hereditary component, and others may be more strongly related to environmental exposures. Our results provide useful information for assessing the prognosis of asthma based on a thorough family history.     

大豆多小叶类型遗传规律初探*

利用合丰25×东农7296系谱法经5个世代选育获得多小叶突变体,并以其作为父本分别与4个小叶正常的栽培大豆配制杂交组合的F1、F2为试验材料,进行多小叶类型的遗传分析。结果表明:小叶数正常的不同大豆亲本与多小叶大豆杂交(3叶×5叶),F1全部植株均表现为5叶,说明5叶性状是受显性核基因控制;不同组合3片叶、3+4片叶、3+5片叶、3+4+5片叶、4+5片叶和5片叶类型组成遗传分离模式存在显著差异,而在3片叶和>3片叶的遗传分离模式相同。杂交F2单株复叶为3片叶和>3片叶的个体分离的比例呈1∶3,符合1对显性单基因的遗传规律。因此,该多小叶突变体牡5796-3的复叶数受1对显性基因控制,该多小叶突变体可作为新种质用于大豆遗传育种及基因克隆和功能研究。     

The Inheritance of Features

Since the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA, the standard account of the inheritance of features has been in terms of DNA-copying and DNA-transmission. This theory is just a version of the old theory according to which the inheritance of features is explained by the transfer at conception of some developmentally privileged material from parents to offspring. This paper does the following things: (1) it explains what the inheritance of features is; (2) it explains how the DNA-centric theory emerged; (3) it clarifies the relation between the DNA-centric theory and the ‘unfolding’ theory of development; (4) it argues that (given what we now know about developmental processes and genetic activity) the DNA-centric theory should be abandoned in favour of a pluralistic (but not holistic) theory of the inheritance of features. According to this pluralistic theory, the reliable reoccurrence of phenotypes must be explained by appealing not only to processes responsible for the reliable reoccurrence of genetic developmental factors but also to processes responsible for the reliable reoccurrence (or persistence) of nongenetic developmental factors.     

新城疫病毒HN和F基因遗传变异相关性的研究

选取国内1999~2005年发生的NDV毒株,经CEF蚀斑纯化和SPF鸡胚增殖,对其融合蛋白(F)和血凝素-神经氨酸酶(HN)基因分别进行克隆测序,结合在GenBank中发表的具有F和HN基因的NDV序列,利用DNAStar软件,对其不同毒株的F或HN基因片段和全长、F和HN基因全长分别进行遗传变异的研究,利用统计学软件SPSS8.0进行同源性相关分析。结果表明:不同NDV毒株F或HN基因片段与其全长之间,核甘酸r≥0.973,氨基酸:0.911≤r≤0.968,遗传变异高度相关,但F与HN基因全长之间核甘酸的遗传变异呈现弱相关(r=0.312)。国内NDV野毒株之间HN核甘酸高度同源(同源率97%以上),而与La Sota同源率仅为79.2%~80.7%,且显示出明显的地域性。     

中国鹿类动物遗传相关试验分析研究简述

介绍了国内学者对中国鹿类动物与遗传相关的试验研究的基本情况,涉及血液蛋白等分析、性状相关分析、染色体和线粒体相关分析等方面,对各项内容的总体及各项所采用的技术和方法、部分研究成果进行概述,并对其发展趋势进行展望。     

Human Genetics and Politics as Mutually Beneficial Resources: The Case of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics During the Third Reich

This essay analyzes one of Germany’s former premier research institutions for biomedical research, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics (KWIA) as a test case for the way in which politics and human heredity served as resources for each other during the Third Reich. Examining the KWIA from this perspective brings us a step closer to answering the questions at the heart of most recent scholarship concerning the biomedical community under the swastika: (1) How do we explain why the vast majority of German human geneticists and eugenicists were willing to work for the National Socialist state and, at the very least, legitimized its exterminationist racial policy; and (2) what accounts for at least some of Germany’s most renowned medically trained professionals’ involvement in forms of morally compromised science that wholly transcend the bounds of normal scientific practice? Although a complete answer to this question must await an examination of other German biological research centers, the present study suggests that during the Nazi period the symbiotic relationship between human genetics and politics served to radicalize both. The dynamic between the science of human heredity and Nazi politics changed the research practice of some of the biomedical sciences housed at the KWIA. It also simultaneously made it easier for the Nazi state to carry out its barbaric racial program leading, finally, to the extermination of millions of so-called racial undesirables.     

植物生态型分类研究进展*

综述了国内外植物生态型分类的研究进展,介绍了一些常用的分类指标:形态指标--外部形态指标和内部形态指标,生理指标--光合速率和内源激素,生育期指标,化学成分,抗逆性--逆境和受污染环境,遗传指标--同工酶和随即扩增的多态DNA(RAPD)等,并根据国内外植物生态型分类研究进展,结合我国生态型分类研究现状,对我国植物生态型分类的研究前景进行了展望。     

谷子产量和品质相关性状的杂种优势及遗传特性分析

为了解谷子(Setaria italica)两系杂交后代的产量和品质相关性状的杂种优势,以3个高度雄性不育系为母本(A1、A2和A3),6个抗除草剂恢复系为父本(R1、R2、R3、R4、R5和R6),采用不完全双列杂交(NCⅡ)设计配制了18个组合,分析组合的株高、粒重和蛋白含量等11个性状的配合力和杂种优势特性.结果...     

Some secular changes in the growth of American-born and native Japanese children

Three hundred and sixteen (35%) of the American-born Japanese children whose height, weight, and skeletal age were recorded in 1956–57 were reexamined as young adults between 1968 and 1974, when they were found to be taller, heavier, and shorter legged than men and women in Japan who were born in the same years as they. These differences between the American-born and the native Japanese adults were relatively smaller than they had been during childhood, due to both an acceleration in the growth rate of the native Japanese and a concomitant decline in that of the American-born Japanese during the intervening years. A comparison of our 1956–57 data with Kondo and Eto's findings in Los Angeles in 1971 shows that there has been very little increase in the size of California-Japanese children since 1956. The curves of average heights of native Japanese children 6 to 20 years of age, at 10-year intervals from 1900 to 1970, disclosed the changing rate at which they grew during different decades of that period. Those curves and other data discussed in this paper provide additional evidence of the biological superiority of the human female as compared with the male.