Susceptibility to <Emphasis Type="Italic">Fusarium </Emphasis>head blight is associated with the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rht-D1b</Emphasis> semi-dwarfing allele in wheat

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is an important disease of wheat worldwide. The cultivar Spark is more resistant than most other UK winter wheat varieties but the genetic basis for this is not known. A mapping population from a cross between Spark and the FHB susceptible variety Rialto was used to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with resistance. QTL analysis across environments revealed nine QTL for FHB resistance and four QTL for plant height (PH). One FHB QTL was coincident with the Rht-1D locus and accounted for up to 51% of the phenotypic variance. The enhanced FHB susceptibility associated with Rht-D1b is not an effect of PH per se as other QTL for height segregating in this population have no influence on susceptibility. Experiments with near-isogenic lines supported the association between susceptibility and the Rht-D1b allele conferring the semi-dwarf habit. Our results demonstrate that lines carrying the Rht-1Db semi-dwarfing allele are compromised in resistance to initial infection (type I resistance) while being unaffected in resistance to spread within the spike (type II resistance).     

Fine needle aspiration biopsy of three cases of squamous cell carcinoma presenting as a thyroid mass: cytological findings and differential diagnosis

M. Rosa and K. Toronczyk Fine needle aspiration biopsy of three cases of squamous cell carcinoma presenting as a thyroid mass: cytological findings and differential diagnosis Objective: Primary squamous cell carcinomas of the thyroid gland are extremely rare, comprising about 1% of thyroid malignancies. Although squamous cell carcinomas are readily identified as such on aspiration cytology in the majority of cases, the differentiation of primary versus metastatic tumour might not always be easy. Herein, we report three cases of squamous cell carcinomas involving the thyroid gland. Methods: Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was performed in three patients with a thyroid mass using standard guidelines. Smears were stained with Diff‐Quik and Papanicolaou stains. Results: Two patients were male and one was female, aged 59, 45 and 35 years, respectively. In all three patients a thyroid mass was present. FNAC smears in all cases showed cytological features of squamous cell carcinoma including keratinization and necrosis. After clinical and cytological correlation, one case appeared to be primary, one case metastatic, and in the third case no additional clinical information or biopsy follow‐up was available for further characterization. Conclusions: Because primary squamous cell carcinoma of the thyroid is a rare finding, metastatic squamous cell carcinoma should always be excluded first. Metastatic disease usually presents in the setting of widespread malignancy, therefore a dedicated clinical and radiological investigation is necessary in these cases. In both clinical scenarios the patient’s prognosis is poor.     

脑部磁刺激场的理论模型

作为脑部磁刺激研究的一项基础工作,建立了刺激磁场中的球形头模型、对方形线圈在其内产生的时变磁场和感应电场进行了理论研究.导出(?).(?).(?)的解析表达式,分析了场的特性和刺激强度的分布规律.为进一步探索时变磁场对人脑的最佳刺激方式和作用机理提供了初步的理论基础.     

Human body mass estimation: a comparison of "morphometric" and "mechanical" methods

In the past, body mass was reconstructed from hominin skeletal remains using both "mechanical" methods which rely on the support of body mass by weight-bearing skeletal elements, and "morphometric" methods which reconstruct body mass through direct assessment of body size and shape. A previous comparison of two such techniques, using femoral head breadth (mechanical) and stature and bi-iliac breadth (morphometric), indicated a good general correspondence between them (Ruff et al. [1997] Nature 387:173-176). However, the two techniques were never systematically compared across a large group of modern humans of diverse body form. This study incorporates skeletal measures taken from 1,173 Holocene adult individuals, representing diverse geographic origins, body sizes, and body shapes. Femoral head breadth, bi-iliac breadth (after pelvic rearticulation), and long bone lengths were measured on each individual. Statures were estimated from long bone lengths using appropriate reference samples. Body masses were calculated using three available femoral head breadth (FH) formulae and the stature/bi-iliac breadth (STBIB) formula, and compared. All methods yielded similar results. Correlations between FH estimates and STBIB estimates are 0.74-0.81. Slight differences in results between the three FH estimates can be attributed to sampling differences in the original reference samples, and in particular, the body-size ranges included in those samples. There is no evidence for systematic differences in results due to differences in body proportions. Since the STBIB method was validated on other samples, and the FH methods produced similar estimates, this argues that either may be applied to skeletal remains with some confidence.     

油菜主序优势及其利用初析

油菜具有主序优势,主要表现在结角数上,在角粒数、千粒重及品质上也很显著。不同类型其优势强弱不同,白菜型和甘蓝型优势明显,芥菜型几乎不具有优势。在甘蓝型油菜中因品种、密度不同优势差异显著。增加密度可使主序在产量中的比例增加,在５万株／亩时可达７３．０５％．主序具有结角率高、成熟早等优点,通过选育优势强的品种,适当增加密度,合理调整布局,有望使油菜产量有较大幅度地提高     

Localisation of Ig heavy chain mRNA positive cells in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhuaL.) tissues; identified byin situhybridisation

Localisation of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) producing cells was determined in sections from head kidney, spleen, thymus, gills, gut, skin, heart and liver from the Atlantic cod. In general, IgH mRNA positive cells were detected in all organs examined and were mainly located to the connective tissue surrounding the vascular system in these organs. In the head kidney and spleen, IgH mRNA positive cells appeared as single distributed cells or as dense clusters, whereas in the thymus only single distributed positive cells were observed. The percentage of Ig heavy chain mRNA positive (plasma) cells in the head kidney, spleen and thymus was estimated at about 1% of the total cell mass. The number of IgH mRNA positive cells was lower than this in all the other organs examined.     

A possible strategy against head and neck cancer: in silico investigation of three-in-one inhibitors

Overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Her2, and uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (UROD) occurs in a variety of malignant tumor tissues. UROD has potential to modulate tumor response of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, and EGFR and Her2 are common drug targets for the treatment of head and neck cancer. This study attempts to find a possible lead compound backbone from TCM Database@Taiwan (http://tcm.cmu.edu.tw/) for EGFR, Her2, and UROD proteins against head and neck cancer using computational techniques. Possible traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) lead compounds had potential binding affinities with EGFR, Her2, and UROD proteins. The candidates formed stable interactions with residues Arg803, Thr854 in EGFR, residues Thr862, Asp863 in Her2 protein, and residues Arg37, Arg41 in UROD protein, which are key residues in the binding or catalytic domain of EGFR, Her2, and UROD proteins. Thus, the TCM candidates indicated a possible molecule backbone for evolving potential inhibitors for three drug target proteins against head and neck cancer.

An animated interactive 3D complement (I3DC) is available in Proteopedia at http://proteopedia.org/w/Journal:JBSD:35     

小麦PAL基因的克隆及赤霉菌诱导下的表达分析

利用苯丙氨酸解氨酶(PAL,phenylalanine ammonia-lyase)基因保守区域从小麦抗赤霉病材料苏麦3号中克隆获得4个PAL基因,分别命名为Ta PAL1、Ta PAL2、Ta PAL3、Ta PAL4。4个基因的开放阅读框(ORF,open reading frame)长度分别为2142 bp、2016 bp、2118 bp和2139 bp,分别编码714个、672个、706个和713个氨基酸。基因序列比对发现其相似性达到88.35%,所编码的氨基酸相似性为91.92%,氨基酸序列分析表明4个基因都包含HAL-PAL结构域及PAL结构域。通过接种禾谷镰刀菌,利用荧光定量PCR对PAL基因进行表达分析发现,4个PAL基因全部为上调表达,其中Ta PAL2、Ta PAL3和Ta PAL4最为明显。PAL基因的上调表达,说明PAL基因在小麦抵抗赤霉病菌侵染的机制中可能起着重要作用。