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Gold-silica drug nanocapsules were fabricated via peptide photowrapping, which respond to an MMP-upregulated tumor microenvironment and achieve chemo-photothermal combination therapy.

This paper presents an interferometer based on a single-mode fiber-multimode fiber-thin-core fiber (SMF–MMF–TCF) Michelson interference structure that can be used for the measurements of coolant level and refractive index. Because of the different diameters of the cores of the individual fibers, optical excitation and coupling occur at the splicing points of the fibers. The multimode fibers are the couplers in the sensing structure, which allow the exciting light to enter the cladding of the thin-core fibers. The end face of the thin-core fiber is coated with a silver film to enhance the reflectivity of the light. The results show that the interference intensity first increases and then decreases with the length of TCF. When TCF is 4 cm, the interference light intensity is the strongest. The sensitivity of the sensor is 138.091 nm/RIU with the linearity of 0.977 over the refractive index of the coolant in the range of 1.3605–1.3880, and the temperature and time effects on the sensor are small. The proposed sensor has the advantages of simple fabrication, high repeatability, and good stability and it can be applied to the measurements of coolant level and refractive index in automotive engines.

Mitochondrial disorders are collectively common, genetically heterogeneous disorders in both pediatric and adult populations. They are caused by molecular defects in oxidative phosphorylation, failure of essential bioenergetic supply to mitochondria, and apoptosis. Here, we present three affected individuals from a consanguineous family of Pakistani origin with variable seizures and intellectual disability. Both females display primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), while the male shows abnormal sex hormone levels. We performed whole exome sequencing and identified a recessive missense variant c.694C > T, p.Arg232Cys in TFAM that segregates with disease. TFAM (mitochondrial transcription factor A) is a component of the mitochondrial replisome machinery that maintains mtDNA transcription and replication. In primary dermal fibroblasts, we show depletion of mtDNA and significantly altered mitochondrial function and morphology. Moreover, we observed reduced nucleoid numbers with significant changes in nucleoid size or shape in fibroblasts from an affected individual compared to controls. We also investigated the effect of tfam impairment in zebrafish; homozygous tfam mutants carrying an in-frame c.141_149 deletion recapitulate the mtDNA depletion and ovarian dysgenesis phenotypes observed in affected humans. Together, our genetic and functional data confirm that TFAM plays a pivotal role in gonad development and expands the repertoire of mitochondrial disease phenotypes.

Background Hearing loss is the most common sensory defect, and it affects over 6% of the population worldwide. Approximately 50–60% of hearing loss patients are attributed to genetic causes. Currently, more than 100 genes have been reported to cause non-syndromic hearing loss. It is possible and efficient to screen all potential disease-causing genes for hereditary hearing loss by whole exome sequencing (WES). Methods We collected 5 consanguineous pedigrees from Pakistan with hearing loss and applied WES in selected patients for each pedigree, followed by bioinformatics analysis and Sanger validation to identify the causal genes. Results Variants in 7 genes were identified and validated in these pedigrees. We identified single candidate variant for 3 pedigrees: GIPC3 (c.937 T > C), LOXHD1 (c.6136G > A) and TMPRSS3 (c.941 T > C). The remaining 2 pedigrees each contained two candidate variants: TECTA (c.4045G > A) and MYO15A (c.3310G > T and c.9913G > C) for one pedigree and DFNB59 (c.494G > A) and TRIOBP (c.1952C > T) for the other pedigree. The candidate variants were validated in all available samples by Sanger sequencing. Conclusion The candidate variants in hearing-loss genes were validated to be co-segregated in the pedigrees, and they may indicate the aetiologies of hearing loss in such patients. We also suggest that WES may be a suitable strategy for hearing-loss gene screening in clinical detection.

Hereditary Spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are heterogeneous group of degenerative disorders characterized by progressive weakness and spasticity of the lower limbs, combined with additional neurological features. This study aimed to identify causative gene variants in two nonrelated consanguineous Pakistani families segregating HSP. Whole exome sequencing (WES) was performed on a total of five individuals from two families including four affected and one phenotypically normal individual. The variants were validated by Sanger sequencing and segregation analysis. In family A, a novel homozygous variant c.604G > A (p.Glu202Lys) was identified in the CYP2U1 gene with clinical symptoms of SPG56 in 3 siblings. Whereas, a previously reported variant c.5769delT (p.Ser1923Argfs*28) in the SPG11 gene was identified in family B manifesting clinical features of SPG11 in 3 affected individuals. Our combined findings add to the clinical and genetic variability associated with CYP2U1 and SPG11 variants highlighting the complexity of HSPs. These findings further emphasize the usefulness of WES as a powerful diagnostic tool.

The study of Mendelian diseases and the identification of their causative genes are of great significance in the field of genetics. The evaluation of the pathogenicity of genes and the total number of Mendelian disease genes are both important questions worth studying. However, very few studies have addressed these issues to date, so we attempt to answer them in this study.We calculated gene pathogenicity prediction (GPP) score by a machine learning approach (random forest algorithm) to evaluate the pathogenicity of genes. When we applied the GPP score to the testing gene set, we obtained accuracy of 80%, recall of 93% and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.87. Our results estimated that a total of 10,399 protein-coding genes were Mendelian disease genes. Furthermore, we found the GPP score was positively correlated with the severity of disease.Our results indicate that GPP score may provide a robust and reliable guideline to predict the pathogenicity of protein-coding genes. To our knowledge, this is the first trial to estimate the total number of Mendelian disease genes.

Aircraft sensors generate multivariate time series during flights, where each sensor corresponds to one variable. During normal operation mode, the associations (dependencies) among variables are mainly stationary. One type of flight anomaly that is of interest relates to variable association change. Detection and diagnosis of such type of anomaly need to pinpoint the time series, i.e., variables related to association change, which helps in understanding the underlying mechanisms of anomalies. However, it is hard to detect such change because the variable associations are usually unknown and complicated, and the anomalous samples are usually insufficient for learning the substandard association. In this work, we present a neural network that can 1) detect this type of anomalies given multivariate time series as input; 2) locate the association change by learning the nonlinear variable associations from both normal data and the detected anomalies. Specifically, we leverage the learned model from normal data to learn the faulty association of the anomalies. Experiments using simulated and real-world flight data show that our model outperforms existing methods in flight anomaly detection and diagnosis.

Lignocellulose is the most abundant renewable biomass resource in nature. Pretreatment of lignocellulose can improve the accessibility of cellulase to cellulose raw materials, reduce the ineffective adsorption of cellulase, reduce the crystallinity and obtain higher reducing sugar. In this paper, several practical pretreatment technologies of lignocellulose are summarized, and the methods, principles, advantages and disadvantages of each pretreatment technology are summarized, and then the development prospect of lignocellulose pretreatment methods is prospected.

With the development of LED light technology, LED dynamic lighting is on the way to become the mainstream of office lighting. This paper studied the impact of changing trends of dynamic lighting parameters on alertness in different periods, hoping to provide a reference for future office dynamic light design. 24 participants took part in the experiment using 9 conditions (4 conditions in the morning, 5 conditions in the afternoon) of dynamic light with each observing session lasting from 09:00 to 11:30 or from 13:00 to 17:00. Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) was used to evaluate the alertness of subjects. The results showed that participants felt more alert under the increasing illuminance and CCT oscillation in the morning, with a significant difference comparing with static light (dKSS = -0.56, p

Background Arecoline is an alkaloid natural product found in the areca nut that can induce oral submucous fibrosis and subsequent development of cancer. However, numerous studies have shown that arecoline may inhibit fibroblast proliferation and prevent collagen synthesis. Results High doses of arecoline (> 32 μg/ml) could inhibit human oral fibroblast proliferation, while low doses of arecoline ( Conclusions Egr-1 mediates the effect of low dose arecoline treatment on human oral mucosa fibroblast proliferation by transactivating the expression of Wnt5a. Therefore, Egr inhibitors and Wnt5a antibodies are potential therapies for treatment of oral submucosal fibrosis and oral cancer.

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A carbon monoxide (CO) sensor based on a Michelson interferometer combined with α-Fe2O3/reduced graphene oxide quantum dots (rGOQDs) composite film is proposed and fabricated. First, a waist-enlarged taper is formed between the single-mode fiber (SMF) and the no-core fiber (NCF), then the other end of the NCF is spliced with a section of thin-core fiber (TCF). The end of the TCF is coated with a layer of silver film to enhance the reflection. Thus, a Michelson interferometer comprising SMF–NCF–TCF is formed. The α-Fe2O3/rGOQDs composite film is deposited on the outside surface of the TCF. The specific adsorption of CO by the composite film leads to a change in the sensor’s effective refractive index, realizing the detection of CO. The results show that the interference intensity of the monitoring valley decreases with increase in the concentration of CO. The sensitivity of the sensor is 0.057 dBm ppm−1, the detection limit of the sensor is 105 ppb and the response time and recovery time are 70 s and 100 s, respectively. The sensor has the advantages of high sensitivity, high selectivity and simple structure, and it is expected to be used for the detection of low concentrations of CO gas.

Light has been found to affect the circadian clock of the human body. This study aims at exploring the proper light scheme for improving performance and alleviating the negative effects of phase-advance jet lag. Herein, the light intervention intensity during an 8-h working time after a simulated eastward flight is set as a variable. 27 healthy young adults participate in a 7-day circadian phase control and 4-day closed circadian conversion experiment. Participants are assigned to three groups according to lighting conditions: (1) control lighting group (CLG), (2) low-intervention group (LIG), and (3) high-intervention group (HIG). The alertness, sleep quality, and circadian phases of the participants are measured during the closed circadian conversion stage. Statistical analysis results show that, compared to CLG, HIG can effectively reduce the effect of the phase-advance jet lag syndrome on alertness during daytime (p = .028), improve short-term memory task performance (p 0.99.

Hepatic adverse reaction associated with Polygoni Multiflori Radix (PMR) has been frequently reported in recent years. Highly-enriched anthraquinones (AQs) in PMR, such as emodin, chrysophanol and physcion, have been found to be hepatotoxic. In the present study, sandwich-cultured rat hepatocytes (SCRHs) were employed to investigate the effect of individual and combined AQs on the disposition of endogenous bile acids (BAs) and exogenous probe substrates including deuterium-labeled taurocholate (d5-TCA), glycochenodeoxycholic acid (d4-GCDCA) and 5 (and 6)-carboxy-2',7'-dichlorofluorescein (CDF). Emodin and chrysophanol significantly inhibited bile salt export pump and multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (Mrp2), respectively, as evidenced by decreased biliary excretion index (BEI) of d5-TCA and CDF. Moreover, basolateral efflux transporters were inhibited by all individual and combined AQs. As a result, cellular accumulation of total and specific endogenous BAs were significantly elevated by individual AQs, alone or combined. In addition, down-regulation of Mrps in both gene and protein levels by AQs served as another critical contributing factor for BA accumulation in SCRHs. To be noted, subsequent adaptive gene regulation, including reduced Ntcp expression, upregulated Bsep levels, and downregulated Cyp8b1, alleviated, to a certain extent, but not prevented from toxic BA accumulation. In summary, all three AQs of interest are likely to alter BA disposition through direct inhibition of BA transporters as well as regulated expression of BA transporters and enzymes.

With the continuous development of EMU technology, the role of light rail trains in cities is becoming more and more important. A good overall light environment is of great significance for the safe and efficient operation of light rail trains. This experiment is based on the purpose of exploring the evaluating the train light environment method. In this study, we adopted the method of first using optical software DIALux and TracePro simulation, then conducting physical test and subsequent ergonomics experimental verification. By comparing the simulation results with the experimental results, we gave the suggestion about the final evaluation of the train light environment. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide a scientific method and basis for the design of the light environment of the train cab and passenger compartment in the future.

Even though multiple factors are involved in the high fluctuation of voriconazole (VCZ) plasma concentration, little is known regarding the influence of proinflammatory cytokines on VCZ concentration. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of proinflammatory cytokines, namely, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-18, interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α, and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 on VCZ trough concentration (VCZ-Cmin ) in Chinese patients with different forms of hematologic disorders. A total of 250 plasma samples from 113 patients were analyzed for VCZ-Cmin and proinflammatory cytokines using a validated liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods, respectively. Patient demographics and clinical characteristics were obtained from hospital records. VCZ-Cmin was significantly correlated with IL-18 in acute myeloid leukemia (r = 0.456; P ˂ .0001), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r = 0.317; P = .019), and chronic myeloid leukemia (r = 0.737; P = .004) while VCZ-Cmin and TGF-β1 were correlated (r = 0.436; P ˂ .001) in acute myeloid leukemia patients only. VCZ-Cmin at different concentration range showed significant inhibitory effect of IL-6. A backward multiple linear regression model revealed patient age (coefficient [β] = 0.025; P = .04), gamma-glutamyl transferase (β = 0.003; P = .023), IL-6 (β = -0.001; P = .024), proton pump inhibitor coadministration (β = 1.518; P = .002), and cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C19 polymorphism as predictors of VCZ-Cmin ; however, these factors explained only 29% of VCZ-Cmin variation. In conclusion, IL-18 and TGF-β1 have correlation with VCZ-Cmin in Chinese patients with leukemia. Apparently, VCZ may have an inhibitory effect on IL-6 levels. Furthermore, patient age, gamma-glutamyl transferase, IL-6, PPI coadministration, and cytochrome P450 2C19 polymormorphism partially predicted the VCZ-Cmin . Therapeutic drug monitoring of VCZ in Chinese patients is highly encouraged.

In this study, the average removal rate of cadmium, copper and nickel ions was used as the response value. The initial concentration of heavy metal, culture temperature and initial pH were used as the influencing factors. The response surface experiment was carried out by Box-Benhnken’s central combination design. Based on this, a quadratic regression equation prediction model was established, and the optimal process conditions for the treatment of three heavy metal ions by Microcystis aeruginosa were obtained. Based on the above experimental results, under the optimal conditions for the removal of three metal ions by Microcystis aeruginosa, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to obtain the changes of surface morphology of algal cells before and after removal of heavy metals by algae cells; fourier infrared was used. Combined with the above physical and chemical indicators, the adsorption kinetics model was used to comprehensively analyze and infer the mechanism of treatment of heavy metal ions by Microcystis aeruginosa, and the actual metal wastewater was collected to verify.

In view of the difficulty in controlling the stable operation of autotrophic nitrogen removal system, this study plans to design a DO intelligent control system based on artificial neural network control, which can intelligently and accurately control dissolved oxygen in liquid phase according to the water inflow and operation state of the system. Firstly, the autotrophic nitrogen removal system was constructed step by step, and the influence of dissolved oxygen with different concentrations was explored by using the characteristics of system microbes sensitive to dissolved oxygen. Then, the dissolved oxygen intelligent control system based on artificial neural network was developed. Finally, the operation mode of autotrophic nitrogen removal process optimized by the dissolved oxygen intelligent control system based on artificial neural network was explored and the key parameters of system operation were put forward. The single-stage autotrophic nitrogen removal system equipped with DO precise control system was tested by artificial simulated wastewater. Under various load conditions, the total nitrogen removal rate of the system was more than 86%, and the system was efficient and stable.

Window glare is a common phenomenon in current office environment, which can easily affect office efficiency, causing visual fatigue, eye discomfort and other issues. At present, there are two types of experiments in window glare study: real window environment and artificial window simulation. In this paper, the effects of window glare on human were studied by artificially simulated by LED light source, using the luminance and color temperature of window glare as variables, then use the subjective and objective human data as standard to evaluate five kinds of glare metrics, DGP, DGI, UGR, VCP, and DGI. The experiment found that the luminance of the window glare had a very significant influence on the subjective evaluation of the subjects reflected in the De Bore scale (p=0.000 $(\mathrm{p}\leq 0.05)$ , and DGP shows the best performance.

In this paper, we consider the use of structure learning methods for probabilistic graphical models to identify statistical dependencies in high-dimensional physical processes. Such processes are often synthetically characterized using PDEs (partial differential equations) and are observed in a variety of natural phenomena, including geoscience data capturing atmospheric and hydrological phenomena. Classical structure learning approaches such as the PC algorithm and variants are challenging to apply due to their high computational and sample requirements. Modern approaches, often based on sparse regression and variants, do come with finite sample guarantees, but are usually highly sensitive to the choice of hyper-parameters, e.g., parameter $\lambda$ for sparsity inducing constraint or regularization. In this paper, we present ACLIME-ADMM, an efficient two-step algorithm for adaptive structure learning, which estimates an edge specific parameter $\lambda_{ij}$ in the first step, and uses these parameters to learn the structure in the second step. Both steps of our algorithm use (inexact) ADMM to solve suitable linear programs, and all iterations can be done in closed form in an efficient block parallel manner. We compare ACLIME-ADMM with baselines on both synthetic data simulated by partial differential equations (PDEs) that model advection-diffusion processes, and real data (50 years) of daily global geopotential heights to study information flow in the atmosphere. ACLIME-ADMM is shown to be efficient, stable, and competitive, usually better than the baselines especially on difficult problems. On real data, ACLIME-ADMM recovers the underlying structure of global atmospheric circulation, including switches in wind directions at the equator and tropics entirely from the data., Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, International Conference on Data Mining 2017

Enantioselective biodistribution studies of 1-[4-(2-methoxyethyl)phenoxy]-3-[2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)ethylamino]-2-propanol hydrochloride (TJ0711), a novel antihypertensive agent, require the accurate and precise quantification of each TJ0711 enantiomer in biological fluids and tissues. Here we report a simple and sensitive liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method for simultaneous determination of (R)-TJ0711 and (S)-TJ0711 in rat plasma and tissue samples using protein precipitation. The influence of column type, temperature, mobile phase composition, and flow rate on the retention and enantioselectivity was evaluated. The separation of the TJ0711 enantiomers was ultimately achieved on a SUMICHIRAL OA-2500 column in 15 min using isocratic elution with ethanol/hexane (40:60) at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. Good linearities of spiked analyte concentration from 5 to 2000 ng/mL were achieved and the correlation coefficients (R) were greater than 0.99. The intra- and inter-day accuracy and precision for both analytes were less than 15% at all concentration levels, and the extraction recoveries were consistent among the five quality control concentrations. This assay was successfully applied to quantify plasma and tissue concentrations of TJ0711 enantiomers in a preclinical study. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Background Several retinal dystrophies are associated with syndromic features including such conditions as Bardet–Biedl and Joubert syndromes. Cohen syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder associated with multiple clinical manifestations including developmental delay, acquired microcephaly, myopia, pigmentary retinopathy, joint hypermobility, truncal obesity, friendly disposition and intermittent neutropenia. In young patients, diagnosis is difficult, because several of the characteristic features may not be present until school age or later years and the intermittent neutropenia is not always detectable. Design This was a prospective study using whole exome sequencing in syndromic retinal dystrophy. It was undertaken in a hospital and research institute setting. Participants Participants in this study were members of a consanguineous Australian family of Lebanese ethnicity with two siblings with retinal dystrophy, microcephaly and developmental delay. Methods Detailed clinical evaluation was undertaken. Whole exome capture and sequencing of patient genomic DNA samples was followed by sequence alignment, variant detection, comparison and prioritization. Main Outcome Measures Pathogenic variant identification in the disease-causing gene in affected individuals. Results We identified a novel homozygous deletion leading to a frameshift mutation in VPS13B, c.11327del, p.(Asn3776Thrfs*102), the disease gene associated with Cohen syndrome. Conclusions This report emphasizes the value of a broad-based whole exome sequencing approach in disease gene identification in the syndromic retinal dystrophies, where all disease characteristics may not be present in young patients to allow a clinical diagnosis. This facilitates improved prognostic and genetic information for patients and families.

Glyphosate is one of the most commonly used herbicides worldwide due to its broad spectrum of activity and reported low toxicity to humans. Glyphosate has an amino acid-like structure that is highly polar and shows low bioavailability following oral ingestion and low systemic toxicity following intravenous exposures. Spray applications of glyphosate in agricultural or residential settings can result in topical or inhalation exposures to the herbicide. Limited systemic exposure to glyphosate occurs following skin contact, and pulmonary exposure has also been reported to be low. The results of nasal inhalation exposures, however, have not been evaluated. To investigate the mechanisms of glyphosate absorption across epithelial tissues, the permeation of glyphosate across Caco-2 cells, a gastrointestinal epithelium model, was compared with permeation across nasal respiratory and olfactory tissues excised from cows. Saturable glyphosate uptake was seen in all three tissues, indicating the activity of epithelial transporters. The uptake was shown to be ATP and Na(+) independent, and glyphosate permeability could be significantly reduced by the inclusion of competitive amino acids or specific LAT1/LAT2 transporter inhibitors. The pattern of inhibition of glyphosate permeability across Caco-2 and nasal mucosal tissues suggests that LAT1/2 play major roles in the transport of this amino-acid-like herbicide. Enhanced uptake into the epithelial cells at barrier mucosae, including the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, may result in more significant local and systemic effects than predicted from glyphosate's passive permeability, and enhanced uptake by the olfactory mucosa may result in further CNS disposition, potentially increasing the risk for brain-related toxicities.

We have produced a draft sequence of the rice genome for the most widely cultivated subspecies in China, Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica , by whole-genome shotgun sequencing. The genome was 466 megabases in size, with an estimated 46,022 to 55,615 genes. Functional coverage in the assembled sequences was 92.0%. About 42.2% of the genome was in exact 20-nucleotide oligomer repeats, and most of the transposons were in the intergenic regions between genes. Although 80.6% of predicted Arabidopsis thaliana genes had a homolog in rice, only 49.4% of predicted rice genes had a homolog in A. thaliana . The large proportion of rice genes with no recognizable homologs is due to a gradient in the GC content of rice coding sequences.

Several retinal dystrophies are associated with syndromic features including such conditions as Bardet-Biedl and Joubert syndromes. Cohen syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder associated with multiple clinical manifestations including developmental delay, acquired microcephaly, myopia, pigmentary retinopathy, joint hypermobility, truncal obesity, friendly disposition and intermittent neutropenia. In young patients, diagnosis is difficult, because several of the characteristic features may not be present until school age or later years and the intermittent neutropenia is not always detectable.This was a prospective study using whole exome sequencing in syndromic retinal dystrophy. It was undertaken in a hospital and research institute setting.Participants in this study were members of a consanguineous Australian family of Lebanese ethnicity with two siblings with retinal dystrophy, microcephaly and developmental delay.Detailed clinical evaluation was undertaken. Whole exome capture and sequencing of patient genomic DNA samples was followed by sequence alignment, variant detection, comparison and prioritization.Pathogenic variant identification in the disease-causing gene in affected individuals.We identified a novel homozygous deletion leading to a frameshift mutation in VPS13B, c.11327del, p.(Asn3776Thrfs*102), the disease gene associated with Cohen syndrome.This report emphasizes the value of a broad-based whole exome sequencing approach in disease gene identification in the syndromic retinal dystrophies, where all disease characteristics may not be present in young patients to allow a clinical diagnosis. This facilitates improved prognostic and genetic information for patients and families.

The sequence of the rice genome holds fundamental information for its biology, including physiology, genetics, development, and evolution, as well as information on many beneficial phenotypes of economic significance. Using a "whole genome shotgun" approach, we have produced a draft rice genome sequence of Oryza sativa ssp. indica, the major crop rice subspecies in China and many other regions of Asia. The draft genome sequence is constructed from over 4.3 million successful sequencing traces with an accumulative total length of 2214.9 Mb. The initial assembly of the non-redundant sequences reached 409.76 Mb in length, based on 3.30 million successful sequencing traces with a total length of 1797.4 Mb from an indica variant cultivar 93-11, giving an estimated coverage of 95.29% of the rice genome with an average base accuracy of higher than 99%. The coverage of the draft sequence, the randomness of the sequence distribution, and the consistency of BIG-ASSEMBLER, a custom-designed software package used for the initial assembly, were verified rigorously by comparisons against finished BAC clone sequences from both indica and japanica strains, available from the public databases. Over all, 96.3% of full-length cDNAs, 96.4% of STS, STR, RFLP markers, 94.0% of ESTs and 94.9% unigene clusters were identified from the draft sequence. Our preliminary analysis on the data set shows that our rice draft sequence is consistent with the comman standard accepted by the genome sequencing community. The unconditional release of the draft to the public also undoubtedly provides a fundamental resource to the international scientific communities to facilitate genomic and genetic studies on rice biology.

A senescence-inhibition chimeric gene containing the specific promoter of SAG12 and IPT gene was transferred into rice with the biolistic method. Results of PCR, Dot blotting and Southern blotting indicated that the chimeric gene had been integrated into rice genome. Analyses of GUS activity and cytokinin content in transgenic plants of rice and the observation of T1 generation plant at grain formation stage indicated that the foreign gene was expressed.