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A new genus of gelidioid red algae, Gelidiophycus, is described. Separated from Gelidium on the basis of a molecular phylogeny and morphological characters, it contains two species, Gelidiophycus freshwateri sp. nov. and G. divaricatus comb, nov., distributed in East Asia. Our rbcL and coxl phylogenies revealed close relationships of Gelidiophycus with the Capreolia group in Australasia and unidentified taxa in Chile. Gelidiophycus is characterized by repent thalli and lateral branches arising at almost right angles. The occurrence of tetrasporophytes, male and female gametophytes, and carposporophytes in the field indicate that both species have the triphasic type life history, different from Capreolia. Gelidiophycus freshwateri occurs in Korea, China, and Japan, and G. divaricatus is found in Hong Kong. We discuss Gelidiophycus and its two species and provide keys, descriptions, and illustrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronary artery disease (CAD) has become a major health problem in many countries because of its increasing prevalence and high mortality. Recently, an association of a functional sequence variation, −8C>G, in the human proteasome subunit α type 6 gene (PSMA6) with the susceptibility to CAD was reported. To validate the association, we investigated a total of 1330 cases and 2554 controls from Japanese and Korean populations for PSMA6 genotypes, and no evidence of the association was obtained in both Japanese (odds ratio (OR)=1.03, 95% confidence interval (CI); 0.90–1.19, P=0.66, allele count model) and Korean populations (OR=1.00, 95% CI; 0.86–1.17, P=0.95, allele count model). However, when a meta-analysis of data from this study and previously reported six replication studies was done, OR was 1.08 for the G allele (95% CI; 1.02–1.14, P=0.0057), suggesting that the contribution of PSMA6 to CAD was not large enough to be readily replicated. Further studies are required to establish the contribution of this variant in the susceptibility to CAD.Journal of Human Genetics (2009) 54, 248–251; doi:10.1038/jhg.2009.22; published online 13 March 2009 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]