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Abstract: Malus toringoides (Rehd.) Hughes was suggested to have originated from hybridization between Malus transitoria Schneid. and Malus kansuensis Rehd., followed by repeated backcrossing to one of the putative parents. [...]

The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) is one of the most used molecular characters in plant systematics. Our previous studies based on morphological analysis and ITS sequence variation suggested that Malus toringoides (Rehd.) Hughes is derived from hybridization between M. transitoria (Batal.) Schneid. and M. kansuensis (Batal.) Schneid. To further understand the variation pattern of ITS sequences in M. toringoides, and to elucidate the evolutionary processes that affect ITS sequence variation after hybridization, we sampled 99 accessions from multiple populations of the hybrid and parental species, and then obtained totally 254 ITS sequences by cloning and sequencing. Our ITS variation data demonstrates three outcomes of ITS repeats after hybrid speciation. ∼ 27-41% of M. toringoides have only M. transitoria type ITS sequence, ∼ 40-70% have M. transitoria type ITS sequence plus one or two chimeric ITS sequences generated by recombination between parental ITS sequences, and six accessions retain both parental type ITS sequences. The plausible evolutionary processes that created the observed ITS variations were inferred to be the joint actions of recombination, concerted evolution, pseudogenization and backcrossing. Our study provides further understandings of the variation model of ITS repeats after hybridization as well as the evolution of M. toringoides after its hybrid speciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fast estimation of leaf area index (LAI) is significant for learning the crops growth, monitoring the disease and insect, and assessing the yield of crops. This study used the hyperspectral compact airborne spectrographic imager (CASI) data of Zhangye city, in Heihe River basin, on July 7, 2012, and extracted the spectral reflectance accurately. The potential of broadband and red-edge vegetation index for estimating the LAI of crops was comparatively investigated by combined with the field measured data. On this basis, the sensitive wavebands for estimating the LAI of crops were selected and two new spectral indexes (NDSI and RSI) were constructed, subsequently, the spatial distribution of LAI in study area was analyzed. The result showed that broadband vegetation index NDVI had good effect for estimating the LAI when the vegetation coverage is relatively lower, the R2 and RMSE of estimation model were 0. 52, 0. 45 (p<0. 01) , respectively. For red-edge vegetation index, CIred edge took the different crop types into account fully, thus it gained the same estimation accuracy with NDVI. NDSI(569.00, 654.80) and RSI(597.60, 654.80) were constructed by using waveband combination algorithm, which has superior estimation results than NDVI and CIred edge. The R2 of estimation model used NDSI(569.00, 654.80) was 0. 77(p<0. 000 1), it mainly used the wavebands near the green peak and red valley of vegetation spectrum. The spatial distribution map of LAI was made according to the functional relationship between the NDSI(569.00, 654.80) and LAI. After analyzing this map, the LAI values were lower in the northwest of study area, this indicated that more fertilizer should be increased in this area. This study can provide technical support for the agricultural administrative department to learn the growth of crops quickly and make a suitable fertilization strategy.

Objective: To detect RET (REarranged during Transfection) protein by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in gastric cancer., Study Design: A total of 210 samples were employed, of which 197 specimens were from 91 surgical pieces of gastric adenocarcinoma, comprising 91 tumoral, 91 nontumoral, and 15 intramucosal dysplastic samples. Another 13 gastric mucosae were from cancer-free patients. Two RET antibodies (clones Ret01 and 3F8) were used separately for IHC., Results: Of the nontumoral samples from gastric cancers, 28 were positive (31%) with either antibody Ret01 or 3F8. The positive stains were often located in deep pyloric glands and associated with chronic inflammation patterns (p = 0.045). RET positivity correlated with phosphorylated epidermal growth factor receptor, which had been previously tested (p = 0.021). In tumoral samples RET was positive in 7 cases with antibody Ret01 (8%) and 9 cases with 3F8 (10%). In 15 intramucosal dysplastic samples RET was detected in 6 cases with antibody Ret01 and 8 cases with 3F8. There was an accordance between the IHC using antibodies Ret01 and 3F8 in tumoral, nontumoral, and intramucosal dysplastic samples (p = 0.500, 1.000, and 0.500). The 13 samples from cancer-free patients were always negative., Conclusion: Activation of RET proto-oncogene may be one of the molecular pathogeneses in gastric inflammatory and tumoral diseases.

Objective: To explore the risk factors of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) in patients after coronary artery intervention., Methods: A total of 637 patients undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography or percutaneous coronary intervention were enrolled. They were divided into the CIN and non-CIN groups according to the changes in serum creatinine levels within 48 hours after coronary artery intervention. Then the relevant risk factors of CIN were analyzed., Results: Among them, CIN occurred in 49 patients with an incidence of 7.7%. The patients with diabetes and renal insufficiency had higher incidence of CIN at 15.5% and 22.5% respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk factors of CIN included advanced age, smoking, diabetes, renal insufficiency, hypercholesterolemia and hyperuricemia., Conclusion: For the patients of coronary artery intervention, the major risk factors of CIN are advanced age, diabetes and renal insufficiency.

Unlabelled: ERas activation and GKN2 reduction in gastric cancer has raised some notices in recent years, while nuclear beta-catenin positivity is considered as a tumoral marker. In this study, we compared immunohistochemistry of beta-catenin, GKN2 and ERas on tumoral and non-tumoral mucosae of 50 gastric carcinomas and 13 gastric samples of cancer-free patients. Nuclear positivity of beta-catenin was strong in 31 non-tumoral mucosae (62%) and 29 tumoral mucosae (58%). It was absent in samples of cancer-free patients. There was a correlation between non-tumoral and tumoral zones for nuclear beta-catenin positivity (P=0.013). ERas was positive in 35 non-tumoral tissues (70%) and 31 tumoral tissues (62%) but negatvie in samples of cancer-free patients. It was weak and spotty in non-tumoral mucosae but strong and diffuse in tumors. Positivity of ERas was age-related (P=0.028). However it had background staining effect. GKN2 was expressed in 33 non-tumoral mucosae (66%) and 35 tumoral mucosae (70%). Though GKN2 staining was moderate to strong in non-tumoral tissues and was comparatively weaker in tumors, their difference was minimal and difficult to discern., Conclusions: Beta-catenin nuclear location could be considered as a paraneoplastic pattern which is considerably tumor-related. ERas may be a potential biomarker for gastric cancer, but advanced studies are wanted. GKN2 reduction is indiscernible by immunostaining.

Cellular response to estrogen is mediated both by estrogen receptor (ER) binding to estrogen response element (ERE) and by non-nuclear actions like activation of signal transducing pathways. The main aims are to study if PI3K/Akt signaling pathway can be activated by 17beta-estradiol (E2) via non-nuclear action and to investigate the relationship of the action of E2 and ER in endometrial cancer cells expressing with different status of ER. The levels of phosphorylated Akt (Ser473) (P-Akt) and total Akt were examined by western blot and Akt kinase activity was measured in cells after stimulation with 1 microM E2 at different time points. Inhibitory role of LY294002 on activation of Akt induced by E2 and its estrogen antagonist, ICI182780 were also tested. P-Akt/Akt was used as a measure of activation of Akt. We found that maximum P-Akt/Akt and Akt kinase activity took place at 30 min in Ishikawa cells and 15 min in HEC-1A cells and the activation persisted for at least 2 h after stimulation with 1 microM E2. The activation of Akt elicited gradually with increasing doses of E2. PI3K inhibitor, LY294002, stopped the activating Akt in a dose-dependent manner and 50 microM LY294002 completely blocked the activation of Akt induced by E2. ICI182780 could block the activation of PI3K/Akt in ER-positive Ishikawa cells but not in HEC-1A cells with poor-expressed ER. This study demonstrated that E2 is able to promptly activate PI3K/Akt signal pathway in Ishikawa cells in an ER-dependent manner and ER-independent in HEC-1A cells. Blockage of PI3K/Akt cascade may become a potential and effective way to control endometrial carcinoma, especially in ER-negative cancers, which show no response to endocrinal therapy.