Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization, and Expression Analysis of Glutamate Receptor-like Gene (GLR) Family in Sugarcane.

The plant glutamate receptor-like gene (GLR) plays a vital role in development, signaling pathways, and in its response to environmental stress. However, the GLR gene family has not been comprehensively and systematically studied in sugarcane. In this work, 43 GLR genes, including 34 in Saccharum spontaneum and 9 in the Saccharum hybrid cultivar R570, were identified and characterized, which could be divided into three clades (clade I, II, and III). They had different evolutionary mechanisms, the former was mainly on the WGD/segmental duplication, while the latter mainly on the proximal duplication. Those sugarcane GLR proteins in the same clade had a similar gene structure and motif distribution. For example, 79% of the sugarcane GLR proteins contained all the motifs, which proved the evolutionary stability of the sugarcane GLR gene family. The diverse cis-acting regulatory elements indicated that the sugarcane GLRs may play a role in the growth and development, or under the phytohormonal, biotic, and abiotic stresses. In addition, GO and KEGG analyses predicted their transmembrane transport function. Based on the transcriptome data, the expression of the clade III genes was significantly higher than that of the clade I and clade II. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated that the expression of the SsGLRs was induced by salicylic acid (SA) treatment, methyl jasmonic acid (MeJA) treatment, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment, suggesting their involvement in the hormone synthesis and signaling pathway. Taken together, the present study should provide useful information on comparative genomics to improve our understanding of the GLR genes and facilitate further research on their functions.

An Inexact Penalty Decomposition Method for Sparse Optimization.

The penalty decomposition method is an effective and versatile method for sparse optimization and has been successfully applied to solve compressed sensing, sparse logistic regression, sparse inverse covariance selection, low rank minimization, image restoration, and so on. With increase in the penalty parameters, a sequence of penalty subproblems required being solved by the penalty decomposition method may be time consuming. In this paper, an acceleration of the penalty decomposition method is proposed for the sparse optimization problem. For each penalty parameter, this method just finds some inexact solutions to those subproblems. Computational experiments on a number of test instances demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method in accurately generating sparse and redundant representations of one-dimensional random signals.

Genome-wide identification, characterization and expression analysis of the carotenoid cleavage oxygenase (CCO) gene family in Saccharum.

Carotenoid cleavage oxygenases (CCOs) play crucial roles in plant growth and development, as well as in the response to phytohormonal, biotic and abiotic stresses. However, comprehensive and systematic research on the CCO gene family has not yet been conducted in Saccharum. In this study, 47 SsCCO and 14 ShCCO genes were identified and characterized in Saccharum spontaneum and Saccharum spp. R570 cultivar, respectively. The SsCCOs consisted of 38 SsCCDs and 9 SsNCEDs, while ShCCOs contained 11 ShCCDs and 3 ShNCEDs. The SsCCO family could be divided into 7 groups, while ShCCO family into 5 groups. The genes/proteins contained similar compositions within the same group, and the evolutionary mechanisms differed between S. spontaneum and R570. Gene Ontology annotation implied that CCOs were involved in many physiological and biochemical processes. Additionally, 41 SsCCOs were regulated by 19 miRNA families, and 8 ShCCOs by 9 miRNA families. Cis-regulatory elements analysis suggested that CCO genes functioned in the process of growth and development or under the phytohormonal, biotic and abiotic stresses. qRT-PCR analysis indicated that nine CCO genes from different groups exhibited similar expression patterns under abscisic acid treatment, while more divergent profiles were observed in response to Sporisorium scitamineum and cold stresses. Herein, comparative genomics analysis of the CCO gene family between S. spontaneum and R570 was conducted to investigate its evolution and functions. This is the first report on the CCO gene family in S. spontaneum and R570, thus providing valuable information and facilitating further investigation into its function in the future.

Combined hyperactive dysfunction syndrome of the cranial nerves complicated by essential hypertension: A case report.

RATIONALE: Combined hyperactive dysfunction syndrome (HDS) refers to a special type of HDS characterized by a combination of trigeminal neuralgia (TN), hemi facial spasm (HFS), and/or gloss pharyngeal neuralgia (GPN). Rostra ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) plays a crucial role in central cardiovascular regulation, and neurovascular compression of the RVLM has been identified as a contributor to essential hypertension. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 65-year-old female with a facial tic and pain located in the root of the tongue and throat on the same side; the systolic and diastolic blood pressure was approximately 170 and 100 mmHg. DIAGNOSIS: The patient was diagnosed with combined HDS (HFS-GPN) and essential hypertension. Brain magnetic resonance 3-dimensional time-of-flight imaging and digital subtraction angiography revealed vertebrobasilar artery compressed the left RVLM and contacted with the root entry zones of multiple cranial nerves. INTERVENTIONS: The patient was treated with microvascular decompression surgery OUTCOMES:: The symptoms were completely relieved, and blood pressure was well-controlled. LESSONS: The pathological association of hypertension and HDS should be highlighted, and microvascular decompression is an effective approach for relieving the hypertension.