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Background: Currently, there are no useful biomarkers or prognostic risk markers for the diagnosis of kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC), although recent research has shown that both, the onset and progression of KIRC, are substantially influenced by immune-associated genes (IAGs). Objective: This work aims to create and verify the prognostic value of an immune risk score signature (IRSS) based on IAGs for KIRC using bioinformatics and public databases. Methods: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to the immune systems (IAGs) in KIRC tissues were identified from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. The DEGs between the tumor and normal tissues were identified using gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses. Furthermore, a prognostic IRSS model was constructed and its prognostic and predictive performance was analyzed using survival analyses and nomograms. Kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP) sets were utilized to further validate this model. Results: Six independent immunity-related genes (PAEP, PI3, SAA2, SAA1, IL20RB, and IFI30) correlated with prognosis were identified and used to construct an IRSS model. According to the Kaplan-Meier curve, patients in the high-risk group had significantly poorer prognoses than those of patients in the low-risk group in both, the verification set (p <0.049; HR = 1.84; 95% CI = 1.02-3.32) and the training set (p < 0.001; HR = 3.12, 95% CI = 2.23-4.37). The numbers of regulatory T cells (Tregs) were significantly positively correlated with the six immunity-related genes identified, with correlation coefficients were 0.385, 0.415, 0.399, 0.451, 0.485, and 0.333, respectively (p <0.001). Conclusion: This work investigated the association between immune infiltration, immunity-related gene expression, and severity of KIRC to construct and verify a prognostic risk model for KIRC and KIRP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: The Fas-activated serine/threonine kinase (FASTK) family of proteins has been recently found to be able to regulate mitochondrial gene expression post-transcriptionally. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of study about the role of the FASTK family in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). This study was conducted to explore the correlation of FASTK family genes with expression, prognosis, and immune infiltration in KIRC. METHODS: We collected the data from the UALCAN, GeneMANIA, STRING, CancerSEA, cBioPortal, Kaplan-Meier plotter, GEPIA, TISIDB and TIMER databases to evaluate the genetic alterations, differential expression, prognostic significance, and immune cell infiltration of FASTKs in patients with KIRC. RESULTS: In tumor tissues of KIRC, the mRNA expression level of FASTK and TBRG4 was elevated, whereas that of FASTKD1, FASTKD2, and FASTKD5 was lowered compared with normal tissues (P < .05). Patients with KIRC and high FASTK and Transforming growth factor β regulator 4 (TBRG4) expression had worse overall survival (OS) and disease specific survival (DFS), while those with lower expression of FASTKD2/3/5 had worse outcomes. FASTK was positively correlated with DNA damage. FASTKD1 was positively related to differentiation. FASTKD2 was inversely related to proliferation and FASTKD5 was inversely related to invasion and EMT in KIRC cells. FASTK expression in KIRC was inversely linked to the presence of several immune cells including Tgd, macrophages, Tcm, and Mast cells (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Our research provided fresh insight and in-depth analysis to the selection of prognostic biological markers of FASTK family members in KIRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nitrogen (N) nutrition index (NNI) is a reliable indicator of crop N status and there is an urgent need to develop efficient technologies for non-destructive estimation of NNI to support the practical applications of precision N management strategies. The objectives of this study were to: (i) validate a newly established critical N dilution curve for spring maize in Northeast China; (ii) determine the potential of using the GreenSeeker active optical sensor to non-destructively estimate NNI; and (iii) evaluate the performance of different N status diagnostic approaches based on estimated NNI via the GreenSeeker sensor measurements. Four field experiments involving six N rates (0, 60, 120,180, 240, and 300 kg·ha-1) were conducted in 2014 and 2015 in Lishu County, Jilin Province in Northeast China. The results indicated that the newly established critical N dilution curve was suitable for spring maize N status diagnosis in the study region. Across site-years and growth stages (V5-V10), GreenSeeker sensor-based vegetation indices (VIs) explained 87%-90%, 87%-89% and 83%-84% variability of leaf area index (LAI), aboveground biomass (AGB) and plant N uptake (PNU), respectively. However, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) became saturated when LAI > 2 m²·m-2, AGB > 3 t·ha-1 or PNU > 80 kg·ha-1. The GreenSeeker-based VIs performed better for estimating LAI, AGB and PNU at V5-V6 and V7-V8 than the V9-V10 growth stages, but were very weakly related to plant N concentration. The response index calculated with GreenSeeker NDVI (RI-NDVI) and ratio vegetation index (R² = 0.56-0.68) performed consistently better than the original VIs (R² = 0.33-0.55) for estimating NNI. The N status diagnosis accuracy rate using RI-NDVI was 81% and 71% at V7-V8 and V9-V10 growth stages, respectively. We conclude that the response indices calculated with the GreenSeeker-based vegetation indices can be used to estimate spring maize NNI non-destructively and for in-season N status diagnosis between V7 and V10 growth stages under experimental conditions with variable N supplies. More studies are needed to further evaluate different approaches under diverse on-farm conditions and develop side-dressing N recommendation algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the grain-filling period in maize (Zea mays L.), increasing photosynthesis per unit plant N, namely photosynthetic N-use efficiency (PNUE) is a potential way to increase N-utilization efficiency (NUtE). This study aimed to understand whether the spatial distribution of PNUE within the canopy is optimized under low N conditions as a method of maximizing canopy productivity. Maize plants were grown in the field for 2 yr with three N levels (0, 180, 240 kg N ha-1). Changes in specific leaf N (SLN), net photosynthetic rate (PN), PNUE (calculated as PN/SLN), stomatal conductance (gs), green leaf area (GLA), and light interception of leaves at different positions were measured every 10 d after silking (DAS). Significant differences in SLN, PN, gs, and PNUE occurred among leaves at different positions: upper leaf ≥ ear leaf > lower leaf. A positive correlation was found between the spatial difference in gs and that in PNUE and in PN. Compared with the average of N180 and N240 across 2 yr, grain yield (GY) decreased by 56% but physiological NUtE increased by 22% without N (N0). Correspondingly, PNUE increased by 44, 25, and 35% in the lower, ear, and upper leaves, respectively. Light interception by the middle leaves was unchanged with N0. We concluded that the vertical distribution of PNUE was optimized with the light distribution pattern in the canopy. The greater whole-plant NUtE we found with N0 may be explained by the overall increase in PNUE in the leaves and the continued interception of light by middle leaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) belongs to the most important leguminous plants in Asia. It is a very popular and highly nutritious food. However, small pod size and low yield limit its agricultural use. Through irradiation mutagenesis of dry lentil seeds by 12C6+ ion beam, we found some lines with excellent agricultural traits in M2 progeny at doses of 90 Gy (grey), such as height increase and improvement of the number of branches and three-seed pods as well as seeds with increased grain yield. Six generations of irradiated lentils were screened for these traits. In the M8 generation, the grain yield of three high-yielding lentil lines (lines hyl-1, hyl-2, and hyl-3) reached 212.4%, 195.3% and 190.8%, respectively, of the non-irradiated controls. The results indicated that crop improvement was stable inherited across the generations. Statistical analysis revealed that the increase in grain yield was due to increased total pod number and seeds per pod. Fortunately, adverse effects of irradiation (e.g. reduced germination rates and poor pollen vitality) disappeared over the eight generations. In conclusion, we present a practical method for the improvement of lentils through radiation breeding, leading to high yielding cultivars, which could support the use of this crop in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  This study describes a reliable protocol for callus induction and rapid mass propagation of the ecologically important plant, Zygophyllum xanthoxylon (Bunge) Maxim. The optimum callus induction medium was Murashige and Skoog (MS) supplemented with 4.4 μM 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 2.7 μM α-naphthalene–acetic acid (NAA), on which the callus induction frequencies from different seedling explants were all 100%. However, seedling-derived callus did not form regenerated shoots. In order to achieve shoot multiplication, shoots were developed from cultured plumules, at an average of 3.1 shoots per explant, and the regenerated shoot tips were further multiplied by subculture. The best shoot multiplication from shoot tips was achieved on MS supplemented with 5.4 μM NAA and 22.2 μM BAP after 40 d of culture. Seventy-three percent of regenerated shoots formed roots when cultured on MS supplemented with 8.6 μM IAA after 4 wk of culture. The plants that acclimatized successfully in sand flourished the following year, with normal morphology and growth characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]