BBOF1 is required for sperm motility and male fertility by stabilizing the flagellar axoneme in mice.

The sperm flagellum is a specialized type of motile cilium composed of a typical "9 + 2" axonemal structure with peri-axonemal structures, such as outer dense fibers (ODFs). This flagellar arrangement is crucial for sperm movement and fertilization. However, the association of axonemal integrity with ODFs remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that mouse BBOF1 could interact with both MNS1, an axonemal component, and ODF2, an ODF protein, and is required for sperm flagellar axoneme maintenance and male fertility. BBOF1 is expressed exclusively in male germ cells from the pachytene stage onwards and is detected in sperm axoneme fraction. Spermatozoa derived from Bbof1-knockout mice exhibit a normal morphology, however, reduced motility due to the absence of certain microtubule doublets, resulting in the failure to fertilize mature oocytes. Furthermore, BBOF1 is found to interact with ODF2 and MNS1 and is also required for their stability. Our findings in mice suggest that Bbof1 could also be essential for human sperm motility and male fertility, thus is a novel potential candidate gene for asthenozoospermia diagnosis.

Identification of wheat seedling varieties based on MssiapNet.

Introduction: In the actual planting of wheat, there are often shortages of seedlings and broken seedlings on long ridges in the field, thus affecting grain yield and indirectly causing economic losses. Variety identification of wheat seedlings using physical methods timeliness and is unsuitable for universal dissemination. Recognition of wheat seedling varieties using deep learning models has high timeliness and accuracy, but fewer researchers exist. Therefore, in this paper, a lightweight wheat seedling variety recognition model, MssiapNet, is proposed. Methods: The model is based on the MobileVit-XS and increases the model's sensitivity to subtle differences between different varieties by introducing the scSE attention mechanism in the MV2 module, so the recognition accuracy is improved. In addition, this paper proposes the IAP module to fuse the identified feature information. Subsequently, training was performed on a self-constructed real dataset, which included 29,020 photographs of wheat seedlings of 29 varieties. Results: The recognition accuracy of this model is 96.85%, which is higher than the other nine mainstream classification models. Although it is only 0.06 higher than the Resnet34 model, the number of parameters is only 1/3 of that. The number of parameters required for MssiapNet is 29.70MB, and the single image Execution time and the single image Delay time are 0.16s and 0.05s. The MssiapNet was visualized, and the heat map showed that the model was superior for wheat seedling variety identification compared with MobileVit-XS. Discussion: The proposed model has a good recognition effect on wheat seedling varieties and uses a few parameters with fast inference speed, which makes it easy to be subsequently deployed on mobile terminals for practical performance testing.

Implementation of a "County-Township-Village" Allied HIV Prevention and Control Intervention in Rural China.

In China, rural areas are a weak link of HIV/AIDS prevention and control. From September 2011, an innovative "county-township-village" allied intervention was implemented in Longzhou County, Guangxi, which assigned the tasks of HIV/AIDS prevention and control to the county Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), township hospitals, and village clinics, respectively, instead of traditional intervention in which the county CDC undertook the entire work. A 6-year consecutive cross-sectional survey, including 3-year traditional intervention (2009-2011) and 3-year innovative intervention (2012-2014), was conducted to evaluate the effects of the new intervention. Compared to traditional intervention, the innovative intervention achieved positive effects in decreasing risky behaviors. Among female sex workers, condom use rate in the last month increased from 72.06% to 96.82% (p < 0.01). Among drug users, having commercial sex rate in the last year reduced from 17.20% to 5.94% and condom use rate increased from 14.06% to 76.09% (p < 0.01). The risk ratio of HIV infection during innovative intervention was 0.631 (95% confidence interval 0.549-0.726) compared with traditional one. Cost-effectiveness analysis indicates that innovative intervention restores each disability-adjusted life year costing an average of $124.26. Taken together, Longzhou's innovative intervention has achieved good effects on HIV/AIDS prevention and control and provides a good reference for rural China.

[Influential factors analysis on the survival time of patients infected with tuberculosis and HIV].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the predictors that reduced the survival time on HIV positive TB patients during their first year's anti-TB therapy. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted to review 519 TB/HIV co-infection patients from an Internet based TB surveillance system. We collected information of demography, HIV status, CD4+ lymphocytes count, antiretroviral therapy (ART), sputum smear results of diagnosis and around 2 months' initiation of anti-TB therapy, et al. Wilconxon rank sum test was used to compare the difference of age and CD4+ lymphocytes, count and Cox Uni-variable, and Multi-variable analysis were used to compare the different distribution of rest of risk elements between the groups of death and survival; survival function also has been used to evaluate the top 4 risk elements that have made negative impact on the survival time of HIV positive TB patients during their first year's anti-TB therapy. RESULTS: Among 519 TB/HIV patients, 84 (16.18%) were dead, 435 (83.82%) survived. Median age (P50 (P25-P75)) in survival was 51.0 (41.0-65.0), while in death was 45.0 (35.0-60.0) (U=-2.68, P=0.007). There was significant difference between survival and death. Median CD4+ lymphocyte count in survival and death (P50 (P25-P75)) were 69.00 (26.00-131.20) and 114.50 (35.00-245.00), respectively, significant difference also has been observed. Based on the Cox analysis, patients with less than 2 months' intensive anti-TB therapy, poor treatment adherence, less than 4 months continue anti-TB therapy and sputum smear positive around 2 months initiation of anti-TB therapy had higher risk of death, the Relative Risk value (RR) were 1 100.40 (95% CI: 105.62-11,470.00), 52.91 (95% CI: 27.42-102.13), 49.43 (95% CI: 6.38-382.81), and 15.83 (95% CI: 2.55-98.40), respectively. Log-rank test results showed that there were significant difference between survival and death groups with anti-TB intensive therapy duration (Log-Rank value was 236.0, P<0.001), adherence (Log-Rank value was 302.9, P<0.001), and sputum smear results around 2 months' anti-TB initiation (Log-Rank value was 7.55, P=0.006). CONCLUSION: Known HIV positive, less CD4+ lymphocyte count, not initiation of ART, sputum smear positive, around 2 months' initiation of anti-TB therapy, not enough anti-TB therapy duration of intensive and continue period and poor treatment adherence were the predictors of death of HIV positive TB patients in the first year's anti-TB therapy.

QTL mapping of adult-plant resistance to stripe rust in a population derived from common wheat cultivars Naxos and Shanghai 3/Catbird.

Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. tritici Erikss., is a severe foliar disease of common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) worldwide. Use of adult-plant resistance (APR) is an efficient approach to provide long-term protection of crops from the disease. The German spring wheat cultivar Naxos showed a high level of APR to stripe rust in the field. To identify the APR genes in this cultivar, a mapping population of 166 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was developed from a cross between Naxos and Shanghai 3/Catbird (SHA3/CBRD), a moderately susceptible line developed by CIMMYT. The RILs were evaluated for maximum disease severity (MDS) in Sichuan and Gansu in the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 cropping seasons. Composite interval mapping (CIM) identified four QTL, QYr.caas-1BL.1RS, QYr.caas-1DS, QYr.caas-5BL.3 and QYr.caas-7BL.1, conferring stable resistance to stripe rust across all environments, each explaining 1.9-27.6, 2.1-5.8, 2.5-7.8 and 3.7-9.1 % of the phenotypic variance, respectively. QYr.caas-1DS flanked by molecular markers XUgwm353-Xgdm33b was likely a new QTL for APR to stripe rust. Because the interval between flanking markers for each QTL was less than 6.5 cM, these QTL and their closely linked markers are potentially useful for improving resistance to stripe rust in wheat breeding.

Identification of genomic regions controlling adult-plant stripe rust resistance in Chinese landrace Pingyuan 50 through bulked segregant analysis.

ABSTRACT Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is one of the most widespread and destructive wheat diseases worldwide. Growing resistant cultivars with adult-plant resistance (APR) is an effective approach for the control of the disease. In this study, 540 simple sequence repeat markers were screened to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) for APR to stripe rust in a doubled haploid (DH) population of 137 lines derived from the cross Pingyuan 50 x Mingxian 169. The DH lines were planted in randomized complete blocks with three replicates in Gansu and Sichuan provinces during the 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08 cropping seasons, providing data for four environments. Artificial inoculations were carried out in Gansu and Sichuan with the prevalent Chinese race CYR32. Broad-sense heritability of resistance to stripe rust for maximum disease severity was 0.91, based on the mean value averaged across four environments. Inclusive composite interval mapping detected three QTL for APR to stripe rust on chromosomes 2BS, 5AL, and 6BS, designated QYr.caas-2BS, QYr.caas-5AL, and QYr.caas-6BS, respectively, separately explaining from 4.5 to 19.9% of the phenotypic variation. QYr.caas-5AL, different from QTL previously reported, was flanked by microsatellite markers Xwmc410 and Xbarc261, and accounted for 5.0 to 19.9% of phenotypic variance. Molecular markers closely linked to the QTL could be used in marker-assisted selection for APR to stripe rust in wheat breeding programs.

[Variation analysis on the grain yield and main agronomic traits of spring wheat in rainfed regions of China].

Based on the grain yield data of spring wheat from the 2002-2005 regional trials with 13 cultivars (lines) on the rainfed farmlands at 18 locations of China, and by using variance analysis and GGE (genotype main effect plus genotype-by-environment interaction) biplot, this paper studied the effects of genotype, environment, and genotype x environment interaction (GEI) on the yield variation of spring wheat and the yield stability of different cultivars (lines). Comparing with genotype and GEI, the environment had much more contribution on the yield variation, accounting for 87.5%-92.0% of the total. In the GEI items, genotype x location had the greatest effect, whereas genotype x year had the smallest one. The average yield of modern spring wheat genotypes across years and locations in China was 2550 kg x hm(-2). Among the three yield components, thousand kernel weight (TKW) had the least variation under environmental change. The main environment factors affecting the yield variation were annual accumulated temperature ( > or =10 degrees C), precipitation in growth season, mean air temperature, altitude, annual precipitation, and frost-free period. The grain yield had significant positive correlations with spike number per unit area (SPU) (r = 0.675**), TKW (r = 0.456**), and kernels per spike (KPS) (r = 0.581**), and the SPU, KPS and TKW also had positive correlations (r = 0.244-0.480**) with each other, implying that these three yield components might be increased or improved synchronously.

QTL mapping for adult-plant resistance to stripe rust in Italian common wheat cultivars Libellula and Strampelli.

Italian common wheat cultivars Libellula and Strampelli, grown for over three decades in Gansu province of China, have shown effective resistance to stripe rust. To elucidate the genetic basis of the resistance, F(3) populations were developed from crosses between the two cultivars and susceptible Chinese wheat cultivar Huixianhong. The F(3) lines were evaluated for disease severity in Beijing, Gansu and Sichuan from 2005 to 2008. Joint- and single-environment analyses by composite interval mapping identified five quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in Libellula for reduced stripe rust severity, designated QYr.caas-2DS, QYr.caas-4BL, QYr.caas-5BL.1, QYr.caas-5BL.2 and QYr.caas-7DS, and explained 8.1-12.4, 3.6-5.1, 3.4-8.6, 2.6 and 14.6-35.0%, respectively, of the phenotypic variance across four environments. Six interactions between different pairs of QTLs explained 3.2-7.1% of the phenotypic variance. The QTLs QYr.caas-4BL, QYr.caas-5BL.1 and QYr.caas-7DS were also detected in Strampelli, explaining 4.5, 2.9-5.5 and 17.1-39.1% of phenotypic variance, respectively, across five environments. Three interactions between different pairs of QTLs accounted for 6.1-35.0% of the phenotypic variance. The QTL QYr.caas-7DS flanked by markers csLV34 and Xgwm295 showed the largest effect for resistance to stripe rust. Sequence analyses confirmed that the lines with the QYr.caas-7DS allele for resistance carried the resistance allele of the Yr18/Lr34 gene. Our results indicated that the adult-plant resistance gene Yr18 and several minor genes confer effective durable resistance to stripe rust in Libellula and Strampelli.