Meta-analysis of TAFI polymorphisms and risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs) are common and have high rates of morbidity, mortality, and recurrence. Thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) is also known as carboxypeptidase B2 and is encoded by the CPB2 gene; CPB2 polymorphisms have been explored in a variety of studies, but their correlation to the risk of CCVDs remains ambiguous. We examined the hypothesized associations between CPB2 mutations and CCVDs in a general population. We searched, Embase, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Science Citation Index, and several Chinese databases without applying any language restrictions. Nine case-control studies were analyzed in the current meta-analysis, and odds ratios (ORs) with their 95% confidence intervals were calculated. The pooled ORs indicated that the CPB2 rs3742264 G>A polymorphism was associated with an increased risk of CCVDs in the allele model (all P values < 0.05). A similar result for the CPB2 rs1926447 C>T polymorphism and CCVDs risk was detected in the allele model (P < 0.05). Ethnicity subgroup analysis implied that the rs3742264 G>A polymorphism was more likely to lead to the development of cerebrovascular disease in Asians (all P values < 0.05), whereas rs1926447 C>T was associated with cardiovascular disease among Africans (all P values < 0.05). These data suggest that the polymorphisms investigated, especially rs3742264 G>A and rs1926447 C>T, have a modest effect on susceptibility to CCVDs.

Prognostic role of microRNA-100 in patients with bladder cancer.

We investigated the clinical significance and prognostic value of microRNA-100 (miR-100) in bladder cancer. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze the expression of miR-100 in 92 pairs of human bladder cancer and adjacent normal tissue samples. Overall survival (OS) curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method and were evaluated for statistical significance using a log-rank test. The significance of different variables with respect to survival was analyzed using the multivariate Cox proportional hazard model. The miR-100 expression level was significantly lower in bladder cancer tissues than in normal adjacent tissues (mean ± SD: 1.49 ± 0.52 vs 2.79 ± 0.59, P < 0.05). A low miR-100 expression level was correlated with tumor stage (P = 0.023), tumor grade (P = 0.031), and regional lymph node involvement (P = 0.16). Kaplan-Meier analysis with log-rank test indicated that low miR-100 expression had a significant impact on OS (35.1 vs 75.3%; P = 0.004). Multivariate analysis revealed that the miR-100 expression level was an independent prognostic factor for OS (HR = 2.768, 95%CI = 1.287-8.992; P = 0.009) in bladder cancer patients. The present study demonstrated that the downregulation of miR-100 was associated with advanced clinical features and poor prognosis for bladder cancer patients, suggesting that miR-100 downregulation may be used as an unfavorable prognostic biomarker in bladder cancer.

Drought-tolerant rice germplasm developed from an Oryza officinalis transformation-competent artificial chromosome clone.

Oryza officinalis has proven to be a natural gene reservoir for the improvement of domesticated rice as it carries many desirable traits; however, the transfer of elite genes to cultivated rice by conventional hybridization has been a challenge for rice breeders. In this study, the conserved sequence of plant stress-related NAC transcription factors was selected as a probe to screen the O. officinalis genomic transformation-competent artificial chromosome library by Southern blot; 11 positive transformation-competent artificial chromosome clones were subsequently detected. By Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, an indica rice variety, Huajingxian 74 (HJX74), was transformed with a TAC clone harboring a NAC gene-positive genomic fragment from O. officinalis. Molecular analysis revealed that the O. officinalis genomic fragment was integrated into the genome of HJX74. The transgenic lines exhibited high tolerance to drought stress. Our results demonstrate that the introduction of stress-related transformation-competent artificial chromosome clones, coupled with a transgenic validation approach, is an effective method of transferring agronomically important genes from O. officinalis to cultivated rice.

Abundance and diversity of sulfate-reducing bacteria in the sediment of the Zhou Cun drinking water reservoir in Eastern China.

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) play an important role in the sediments of bay areas, estuaries, and lakes. However, information regarding the genetic diversity of SRB in the sediments of drinking water reservoirs is scarce. In this study, we collected sediment samples from different sites in the Zhou Cun drinking water reservoir between April and June 2012. To explore the genetic diversity of SRB, we used the most-probable-number (MPN) method, polymerase chain reaction denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE), and a cloning approach. The average content of acid-volatile sulfide at the deepest sampling site was 205.87 µg/g sediment. This result is often associated with a large abundance of SRB in the associated sediment. The highest MPN estimate (1.15 x 10(5) cells/g sediment) was detected in May at the deepest sampling site. The PCR-DGGE fingerprints of SRB based on the dissimilatory sulfite reductase beta subunit (dsrB) gene varied according to the different sampling sites and dates. The highest abundance of SRB in the sediments was predominantly found at the deepest sampling sites, as expected from the acid-volatile sulfide content. The dominant species were Desulfobulbus sp, Desulfobacterium sp, and uncultured sulfate-reducing bacteria. Redundancy analysis revealed that organic matter and the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in the sediments were significantly correlated with the diversity of SRB communities present. The results of this study provide a better understanding of the sulfate-reducing microbial species in the sediments of the Zhou Cun drinking water reservoir.

Development of EST-SSR markers related to salt tolerance and their application in genetic diversity and evolution analysis in Gossypium.

Salt stress is becoming one of the major problems in global agriculture with the onset of global warming, an increasing scarcity of fresh water, and improper land irrigation and fertilization practices, which leads to reduction of crop output and even causes crop death. To speed up the exploitation of saline land, it is a good choice to grow plants with a high level of salt tolerance and economic benefits. As the leading fiber crop grown commercially worldwide, cotton is placed in the moderately salt-tolerant group of plant species, and there is promising potential to improve salt tolerance in cultivated cotton. To facilitate the mapping of salt-tolerant quantitative trait loci in cotton so as to serve the aims of salt-tolerant molecular breeding in cotton, it is necessary to develop salt-tolerant molecular markers. The objective of this research was to develop simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers based on cotton salt-tolerant expressed sequence tags. To test the efficacy of these SSR markers, their polymorphism and cross-species transferability were evaluated, and their value was further investigated on the basis of genetic diversity and evolution analysis.