Transcription factor EgGRP2A regulates EgFATA expression and promotes oleic acid accumulation in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis).

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is emerging as the world's most important and prolific oilseed crop, celebrated for its impressive oil yield. However, the molecular intricacies that govern lipid metabolism and fatty acid accumulation in oil palm fruits remain relatively underexplored. This study reveals a significant correlation between the expression of EgGRP2A, a transcription factor, and the expression of EgFATA in the oil palm. Yeast one-hybrid analysis and electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) reveal and confirm the binding interactions between EgGRP2A and the promoter region of EgFATA. Subsequent experiments in oil palm protoplasts show that transient overexpression of EgGRP2A leads to a marked upregulation of EgFATA expression. Conversely, downregulation of EgGRP2A in transgenic oil palm embryoids leads to a significant reduction in EgFATA expression. Metabolite profiling in the transgenic embryoids reveals a significant reduction in unsaturated fatty acids, particularly oleic acid. These findings promise profound insights into the regulatory orchestration of EgFATA and the synthesis of fatty acids, particularly oleic acid, in the oil palm. Furthermore, the results lay the foundation for future breeding and genetic improvement efforts aimed at increasing oleic acid content in oil palm varieties.

Streptomyces camelliae sp. nov., isolated from rhizosphere soil of Camellia oleifera Abel.

A novel actinobacterium strain, designated HUAS 2-6 T, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Camellia oleifera Abel collected from Taoyuan County, Northwestern Hunan Province, South China. This strain was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain HUAS 2-6 T is characterized by morphology typical of members of the genus Streptomyces, with deep purplish vinaceous aerial mycelia and deep dull lavender substrate mycelia. Strain HUAS 2-6 T, based on the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, exhibited the highest similarities to S. puniciscabiei S77T (99.31%), S. filipinensis NBRC 12860 T (99.10%), S. yaanensis CGMCC 4.7035 T (99.09%), S. fodineus TW1S1T (99.08%), S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T (98.76%), S. achromogenes JCM 4121 T (98.69%), S. barringtoniae JA03T (98.69%), and less than 98.70% with other validly species. In phylogenomic tree, strain HUAS 2-6 T was clustered together with S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T, suggesting that they were closely related to each other. However, average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridisation (dDDH) between them were much less than the species cutoff values (ANI 96.7% and dDDH 70%). Moreover, in phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain HUAS 2-6 T is distinct from S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T. On the basis of the polyphasic data, strain HUAS 2-6 T is proposed to represent a novel species, Streptomyces camelliae sp. nov. (= MCCC 1K04729T = JCM 35918 T).

High endothelial venules proportion in tertiary lymphoid structure is a prognostic marker and correlated with anti-tumor immune microenvironment in colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: High endothelial venules (HEV) and tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are associated with clinical outcomes of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). However, because HEV are components of TLS, there have been few studies of the role of the HEV proportion in TLS (HEV/TLS). This study investigated the role of the HEV/TLS and its relationship with the tumor immune microenvironment in CRC. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 203 cases of tissue pathologically diagnosed as CRC after general surgery was performed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University from January 2014 to July 2017. Paraffin sections were obtained from the paracancerous intestinal mucosal tissues. The area of HEV and TLS and immune cells were detected by immunohistochemistry. We further divided the positive HEV expression group into the high HEV/TLS group and the low HEV/TLS group by the average area of HEV/TLS. After grouping, the data were also analyzed using the chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier method, and univariate and multivariate Cox proportional risk regression analyses. A correlation analysis of the HEV/TLS and immune cells as well as angiogenesis was performed. RESULTS: Patients with a high HEV/TLS in CRC tissue were associated with longer OS, DFS and lower TNM stage. Meanwhile, CRC tissue with a high HEV/TLS showed a greater ability to recruit the CD3+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and M1 macrophages and correlated with less angiogenesis. Conclusively, high HEV/TLS links to the favorable prognosis of CRC patients and correlated with anti-tumor immune microenvironment, which can be a potential biomarker for prognosis of CRC patients. CONCLUSION: A high HEV/TLS is associated with a favorable prognosis for CRC and is correlated with the anti-tumor immune microenvironment. Therefore, it is a potential biomarker of the CRC prognosis.KEY MESSAGESHigh HEV/TLS is associated with a favorable prognosis for CRC.High HEV/TLS correlated with the anti-tumor immune microenvironment of CRC and can serve as a novel prognostic biomarker.

Impact of multiple policy interventions on the screening and diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis patients: a cascade analysis on six prefectures in China.

BACKGROUND: The detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is a major health concern in China. We aim to summarize interventions related to the screening and detection of DR-TB in Jiangsu Province, analyse their impact, and highlight policy implications for improving the prevention and control of DR-TB. METHODS: We selected six prefectures from south, central and north Jiangsu Province. We reviewed policy documents between 2008 and 2019, and extracted routine TB patient registration data from the TB Information Management System (TBIMS) between 2013 and 2019. We used the High-quality Health System Framework to structure the analysis. We performed statistical analysis and logistic regression to assess the impact of different policy interventions on DR-TB detection. RESULTS: Three prefectures in Jiangsu introduced DR-TB related interventions between 2008 and 2010 in partnership with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation). By 2017, all prefectures in Jiangsu had implemented provincial level DR-TB policies, such as use of rapid molecular tests (RMT), and expanded drug susceptibility testing (DST) for populations at risk of DR-TB. The percentage of pulmonary TB cases confirmed by bacteriology increased from 30.0% in 2013 to over 50.0% in all prefectures by 2019, indicating that the implementation of new diagnostics has provided more sensitive testing results than the traditional smear microscopy. At the same time, the proportion of bacteriologically confirmed cases tested for drug resistance has increased substantially, indicating that the intervention of expanding the coverage of DST has reached more of the population at risk of DR-TB. Prefectures that implemented interventions with support from the Global Fund and the Gates Foundation had better detection performance of DR-TB patiens compared to those did not receive external support. However, the disparities in DR-TB detection across prefectures significantly narrowed after the implementation of provincial DR-TB polices. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of new diagnostics, including RMT, have improved the detection of DR-TB. Prefectures that received support from the Global Fund and the Gates Foundation had better detection of DR-TB. Additionally, the implementation of provincial DR-TB polices led to improvements in the detection of DR-TB across all prefectures.

Joint Generalized Coherence Factor and Minimum Variance Beamformer for Synthetic Aperture Ultrasound Imaging.

The delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer is the most commonly used method in medical ultrasound imaging. Compared with the DAS beamformer, the minimum variance (MV) beamformer has an excellent ability to improve lateral resolution by minimizing the output of interference and noise power. However, it is hard to overcome the tradeoff between satisfactory lateral resolution and speckle preservation performance due to the fixed subarray length of covariance matrix estimation. In this study, a new approach for MV beamforming with adaptive spatial smoothing is developed to address this problem. In the new approach, the generalized coherence factor (GCF) is used as a local coherence detection tool to adaptively determine the subarray length for spatial smoothing, which is called adaptive spatial-smoothed MV (AMV). Furthermore, another adaptive regional weighting strategy based on the local signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and GCF is devised for AMV to enhance the image contrast, which is called GCF regional weighted AMV (GAMV). To evaluate the performance of the proposed methods, we compare them with the standard MV by conducting the simulation, in vitro experiment, and the in vivo rat mammary tumor study. The results show that the proposed methods outperform MV in speckle preservation without an appreciable loss in lateral resolution. Moreover, GAMV offers excellent performance in image contrast. In particular, AMV can achieve maximal improvements of speckle signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by 96.19% (simulation) and 62.82% (in vitro) compared with MV. GAMV achieves improvements of contrast-to-noise ratio by 27.16% (simulation) and 47.47% (in vitro) compared with GCF. Meanwhile, the losses in lateral resolution of AMV are 0.01 mm (simulation) and 0.17 mm (in vitro) compared with MV. Overall, this indicates that the proposed methods can effectively address the inherent limitation of the standard MV in order to improve the image quality.

PD-L1 and prognosis in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma: a meta-analysis and bioinformatics study.

BACKGROUND: The prognostic value of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) has been controversial according to previous investigations. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the potential prognostic significance of PD-L1 expression in MPM. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library were thoroughly searched for relevant original articles published before 9 April 2020. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were calculated. The results of the meta-analysis were verified using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. RESULTS: In total 16 studies were included in our meta-analysis. A high PD-L1 expression was associated with a poor OS (HR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.28-1.83, p < 0.001), but not a grave PFS (HR = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.82-1.39, p = 0.643) in MPM. Furthermore, the PD-L1 expression correlated with the sarcomatoid + biphasic type of MPM (odds ratio = 4.32, 95% CI = 2.16-8.64, p < 0.001). TCGA data indicated that PD-L1 was a significant prognostic factor for OS (HR = 2.069, 95% CI = 1.136-3.769, p = 0.0175), but not for PFS (HR = 1.205, 95% CI = 0.572-2.539, p = 0.624), which was in accordance with the results of the meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: A high PD-L1 expression is a significant prognostic factor for poor OS of patients with MPM. We therefore suggest that PD-L1 expression levels can be used to predict the clinical outcomes of patients with MPM in the future.

Construction of ceRNA Coexpression Network and Screening of Molecular Targets in Colorectal Cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To screen some RNAs that correlated with colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: Differentially expressed miRNAs, lncRNAs, and mRNAs between cancer tissues and normal tissues in CRC were identified using data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and protein-protein interactions (PPIs) were performed to do the functional enrichment analysis. And a lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed which correlated with CRC. RNAs in this network were subjected to analyze the relationship with the patient prognosis. RESULTS: A total of 688, 241, and 103 differentially expressed genes (diff-mRNA), diff-lncRNA, and diff-miRNA were obtained between cancer tissues and normal tissues. A total of 315 edges were obtained in the ceRNA network. lncRNA RP11-108K3.2 and mRNA ONECUT2 correlated with prognosis. CONCLUSION: The identified RNAs and constructed ceRNA network could provide great sources for the researches of therapy of the CRC. And the lncRNA RP11-108K3.2 and mRNA ONECUT2 may serve as a novel prognostic predictor of CRC.

Silencing SUMO2 promotes protection against degradation and apoptosis of nucleus pulposus cells through p53 signaling pathway in intervertebral disc degeneration.

OBJECTIVE: Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), as a common cause of back pain, is related to the promotion of cellular senescence and reduction in proliferation. Based on recent studies, small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) proteins have been implicated in various biological functions. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the effects of SUMO2 on proliferation and senescence of nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) via mediation of p53 signaling pathway in rat models of IDD. METHODS: After the establishment of rat models of IDD for the measurement of positive expression of SUMO2/3 protein, the mRNA and protein levels of SUMO2, molecular phenotype [matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α)] and p53 signaling pathway-related genes [p21, murine double minute-2 (MDM2), growth arrest and DNA-damage-inducible protein 45 α (GADD45α), cyclin-dependent kinase 2/4 (CDK2/4), and CyclinB1] were determined, followed by the detection of cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, and cell senescence. RESULTS: The rat models of IDD were successfully constructed. The results obtained showed that there was a higher positive expression of SUMO2/3 protein in IDD rats. Moreover, the silencing of the SUMO2 gene decreases the levels of SUMO2, p53, p21, MDM2, GADD45α, MMP-2, and HIF-1α expressions and p53 phosphorylation level while it increases the levels of CDK2/4 and CyclinB1 expressions. In addition, SUMO2 gene silencing enhances proliferation and suppresses apoptosis and cell senescence of NPCs. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, SUMO2 gene silencing promotes proliferation, and inhibits the apoptosis and senescence of NPCs in rats with IDD through the down-regulation of the p53 signaling pathway. Thus, SUMO2 is a potential target in the treatment of IDD.

Caffeic acid phenethyl ester attenuates ionize radiation-induced intestinal injury through modulation of oxidative stress, apoptosis and p38MAPK in rats.

Caffeic acid phenyl ester (CAPE) is a potent anti-inflammatory agent and it can eliminate the free radicals. This study aimed to investigate the radioprotective effects of CAPE on X-ray irradiation induced intestinal injury in rats. Rats were intragastrically administered with 10 µmol/kg/d CAPE for 7 consecutive days before exposing them to a single dose of X-ray irradiation (9Gy) to abdomen. Rats were sacrificed 72 h after exposure to radiation. We found that pretreatment with CAPE effectively attenuated intestinal pathology changes, apoptosis, oxidative stress, bacterial translocation, the content of nitric oxide and myeloperoxidase as well as the concentration of plasma tumor necrosis factor-α. Pretreatment with CAPE also reversed the activation of p38MAPK and the increased expression of intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 induced by radiation in intestinal mucosa. Taken together, these results suggest that pretreatment with CAPE could be a promising candidate for treating radiation-induced intestinal injury.

Aberrant methylation of genes in sputum samples as diagnostic biomarkers for non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to comprehensively review the evidence for using sputum DNA to detect non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, Chinese Biological Medicine (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Vip Databases and Google Scholar from 2003 to 2013. The meta-analysis was carried out using a random-effect model with sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odd ratios (DOR), summary receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC curves), area under the curve (AUC), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) as effect measurements. RESULTS: There were twenty-two studies meeting the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. Combined sensitivity and specificity were 0.62 (95%CI: 0.59-0.65) and 0.73 (95%CI: 0.70-0.75), respectively. The DOR was 10.3 (95%CI: 5.88-18.1) and the AUC was 0.78. CONCLUSIONS: The overall accuracy of the test was currently not strong enough for the detection of NSCLC for clinical application. Discovery and evaluation of additional biomarkers with improved sensitivity and specificity from studies rated high quality deserve further attention.

Intra-operative hydrotubation improves fertility of women with distal tubal occlusion after reproductive surgery.

PURPOSE: Hydrotubation has been considered to be a complimentary procedure to reproductive surgery, usually being conducted after surgery. The objective of this work was to assess the potential value of intra-operative hydrotubation in improving fertility of tubal infertile women. METHODS: 180 tubal infertile women were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: intra-operative hydrotubation (IH), post-operative hydrotubation (PH) or control group. In IH group, the hydrotubation was performed immediately after adhesiolysis during the surgery process, while in PH group it was performed within 3-7 days after the first post-operative menstruation. The incidence of post-operative pelvic infection and average hospitalization length were recorded. The post-operative pregnancy outcomes, including intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) rate and incidence of ectopic pregnancy, were recorded at 2 years follow-up. RESULTS: No significant difference was found among the three groups, either in the incidence of pelvic infection (P = 0.877) or in the average hospitalization length (P = 0.596). At 2 years of follow-up, the rate of IUP in IH group was significantly higher than that in either PH or control group (P = 0.017 and 0.039, respectively), but no difference was observed between PH and control group (P = 0.752). No significant difference in the incidence of ectopic pregnancy was showed among three groups (P = 0.947). CONCLUSIONS: The appropriate use of intra-operative hydrotubation can improve the post-operative IUP rate, serving as a complementary procedure for the surgical treatment of fertility reversal.

Osteopontin's colocalization with the adhesion molecule CEACAM5 in cytoplasm of carcinoma of tongue and its correlation with the invasion of that diease.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 5 (CEACAM5) and correlate it with OPN expression and function in squamous carcinoma of tongue.Paraffin were sections of 80 samples with squamous carcinoma of tongue and 40 samples with normal tissue of tongue for benign lesion having undergone surgery. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to study the distribution of CEACAM5 and OPN, and double-labeling immunohistochemistry was used to observe the relationship between CEACAM5 and OPN expression.CEACAM5 and OPN are found in normal tissue of tongue, but with different expression pattern. CEACAM5 expression mainly with membranous staining is restricted on the superficial epithelium. However, OPN expression with mainly cytoplasmic staining is restricted on the deep epithelium. No colocalization of CEACAM5 and OPN have been observed in normal tissue of tongue. In squamous carcinoma of tongue, CEACAM5 expression with cytoplasmic staining is different from normal tongue tissue with membranous staining, and the transformation of CEACAM5 distribution from membrane to cytoplasm is an important incident for the invasion and differentiation of tumor. CEACAM5 and OPN are colocalized in cytoplasm, and a significant correlation was observed between the positive colocalization and the negative colocalization in the depth of invasion and the differentiation of the tumor.

Cantrell syndrome with complex cardiac malformations: a case report.

Cantrell syndrome is a rare condition of congenital defects of 5 developmentally associated structures: the abdominal wall, sternum, diaphragm, pericardium, and heart. Few patients survive, and even fewer survive with good outcomes of quality of life. We present a case with the pentalogy and profound cardiac malformations. Despite repeated life-threatening conditions, the boy survived to have his first operation at 5 months old. The operation reduced the heart within the thoracoabdominal area, repaired the abdominal wall defect, and released multiple stenoses of the heart and great vessels. The patient recovered uneventfully. At 4.5 years old, he is healthy and developed normally.

Resection and drainage of hilar cholangiocarcinoma: an 11-year experience of a single center in mainland China.

The purpose of this study is to provide appropriate approaches for resection and drainage of hilar cholangiocarcinomas. Surgical approaches and postoperative survival rates of the patients were analyzed retrospectively. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year cumulative survival rates for patients who underwent resection were 76.6, 36.2, and 10.6 per cent, which was higher than those of 60, 14.3, and 0 per cent, respectively, in palliative operation. Moreover, the 1-, 3-, and 5-year cumulative survival rates for patients who underwent R0 were 88.9, 44.4, and 13.9 per cent, which was improved compared with those of 36.4, 9.1, and 0 per cent, respectively, in nonR0 resection. In addition, the overall survival time of patients who underwent R0 resection combined with hemihepatectomy and caudate lobe resection was longer than of those who underwent R0 without this extra operation, especially within 3 years after operation. After endoscopic metal biliary endoprothesis for patients who were intolerant of resection, liver function was improved at 2 weeks postoperation and the 1-, 3-, and 5-year cumulative survival rates for these patients were 72.7, 18.2, and 0 per cent, respectively. Treatment should be personalized. Resection is the most efficacious therapy, and negative histologic margins should be achieved in radical operation and "skeletonized" surgical operation is the basic requirement of radical treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Portal vein resection is beneficial to long-term survival and R0 resection combined with caudate lobe resection and hemihepatectomy is more efficacious for patients with Bismuth-Corlette type III hilar cholangiocarcinoma. The preferred approach of drainage in palliative operation is endoscopic metal biliary endoprothesis, which is more appropriate than tumor resection for the patients who suffer from serious comorbidities.

Cloning of high molecular weight gluten subunit promoter and study on its function in wheat

The aim of this work was to study the cloning and characterization of HMW-GS 1Dx2 promoter from Triticum aestivum. A 1050 bp partial promoter fragment including a putative TATA box and 5' encoding sequence of the gene was cloned by amplifying the upstream sequences using the nest-PCR with appropriate primers. The analysis of the promoter sequence against the PLACE (Plant cis-acting Regulatory DNA Elements) database showed the presence of certain putative endosperm-specific regulatory cis-elements in the sequence along with the TATA and CAAT boxes. The histochemical method detected the transient expressions of GUS in the seeds of wheat. The results showed that HMW-GS 1Dx2 promoter had the endosperm-specific transcription activity in the wheat seeds.

Large-scale identification of novel mitosis-specific phosphoproteins.

Systematic identification of phosphoproteins is essential for understanding cellular signalling pathways since phosphorylation plays important roles in cellular regulation. Monoclonal antibody MPM-2 recognizes a discrete set of mitosis-specific phosphoproteins and constitutes a specific tool to investigate the significance of phosphorylation in cell cycle. However, due to the difficulties in identifying antigens revealed on immunoblot membrane, only minority of MPM-2 antigens have been identified. Here we originated proteomics approaches for large-scale identification of MPM-2 phosphoproteins. Mitotic extracts were run on several two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D) in parallel, and stained by Coomassie Blue. Each individual spot on one of the gels was excised, and proteins in it were further resolved by regular SDS-electrophoresis and blotted on membrane for MPM-2 stain. Counterparts of the positive proteins were selected on another parallel 2D gel and identified by mass-spectrometry. Using this strategy, 100 spots were excised from Coomassie-stained 2D gel and screened by 1D immunoblots for MPM-2 reactivity, and 22 proteins containing potential MPM-2 epitope were identified in addition to a known MPM-2 antigen, laminin-binding protein. These results were further validated by immunofluorescence, co-immunoprecipitation and in vitro phosphorylation assay. The identification of an unprecedented number of potential MPM-2 phosphoprotein antigens gives new insight into the range of proteins involved in the regulation of the early stages of cell division. Meanwhile, this strategy could be used wherever unknown antigens are explored, especially for antibodies that can recognize more than one antigen.