The inference of genome ancestry and the estimation of molecular relatedness are of great importance for breeding efficiency and association studies.Seventy SSR loci,evenly distributed in 10 chromosomes,were assayed f...The inference of genome ancestry and the estimation of molecular relatedness are of great importance for breeding efficiency and association studies.Seventy SSR loci,evenly distributed in 10 chromosomes,were assayed for polymorphism among 187 commonly used maize(Zea mays L.)inbreds which represent the genetic diversity in China.The identified 290 alleles served as raw data for estimating population structure using the coalescent linked loci,based on the ADMIXTURE model.Population number,K,has been inferred to be between five and seven.Specifying five subpopulations(K=5)led to a distinct decrease and specifying K to be greater than six resulted in only minimal increases in the likelihood value.Therefore,population number,K,has been inferred into six subpopulations,which are PA,BSSS(includes Reid),PB,Lan(Lancaster Sure Crop),LRC(Luda Reb Cob,a Chinese landrace,and its derivatives),and SPT(Si-ping-tou,a Chinese landrace and its derivatives).The Kullback-Leibler distance of pairwise subpopulation was also inferred as n×p(187×6)Q matrices,which gave a detailed percentage of genetic composition of six subpopulations and molecular relatedness of each line.The genome-wide linkage disequilibrium(LD)indicated that the asso-ciation studies in QTLs and/or candidate genes might avoid nonfunctional and spurious associations,as most of the LD blocks were broken among diverse germplasm.The defined population structure has given us a clear genetic structure of these lines for breeding practice and established a good basis for association analysis.展开更多
All human languages have words that can mean different things in different contexts, such words with multiple meanings are potentially “ambiguous”. The process of “deciding which of several meanings of a term is in...All human languages have words that can mean different things in different contexts, such words with multiple meanings are potentially “ambiguous”. The process of “deciding which of several meanings of a term is intended in a given context” is known as “word sense disambiguation (WSD)”. This paper presents a method of WSD that assigns a target word the sense that is most related to the senses of its neighbor words. We explore the use of measures of relatedness between word senses based on a novel hybrid approach. First, we investigate how to “literally” and “regularly” express a “concept”. We apply set algebra to WordNet’s synsets cooperating with WordNet’s word ontology. In this way we establish regular rules for constructing various representations (lexical notations) of a concept using Boolean operators and word forms in various synset(s) defined in WordNet. Then we establish a formal mechanism for quantifying and estimating the semantic relatedness between concepts—we facilitate “concept distribution statistics” to determine the degree of semantic relatedness between two lexically expressed con- cepts. The experimental results showed good performance on Semcor, a subset of Brown corpus. We observe that measures of semantic relatedness are useful sources of information for WSD.展开更多
Objective:This study aimed to explore the psychological needs of nurses caring for patients with coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)and to propose corresponding interventions.Methods:In-depth interviews were conducted ...Objective:This study aimed to explore the psychological needs of nurses caring for patients with coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)and to propose corresponding interventions.Methods:In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 nurses who cared for patients with COVID-19.Interview data were analyzed by category analysis from the perspective of the existence,relatedness,and growth theory(ERG).Results:The existence needs were mainly reflected in health and security needs,whereas the relatedness needs consisting mainly of interpersonal needs,humanistic concern needs,and family needs;further,the growth needs were mainly reflected as a strong need for knowledge.Existence needs were the main needs during the epidemic,with health and security needs influencing each other.Humanistic concern needs were the most important of the relatedness needs;interpersonal and family needs were also growing.Conclusion:It is found that the existence,relatedness,and growth needs coexist in clinical nurses.It is helpful to take effective interventions to meet their needs if the needs of nurses caring for COVID-19 patients could be perceived well.展开更多
Invasive species may pose significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem structure and functioning.The number of introduced species that have become invasive is substantial and is rapidly increasing.Identifying pot...Invasive species may pose significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem structure and functioning.The number of introduced species that have become invasive is substantial and is rapidly increasing.Identifying potentially invasive species and preventing their expansion are of critical importance in invasion ecology.Phylogenetic relatedness between invasive and native species has been used in predicting invasion success.Previous studies on the phylogenetic relatedness of plants at the transition from naturalization to invasion have shown mixed results,which may be because different methods were used in different studies.Here,I use the same method to analyze two comprehensive data sets from South Africa and China,using two phylogenetic metrics reflecting deep and shallow evolutionary histories,to address the question whether the probability of becoming invasive is higher for naturalized species distantly related to the native flora.My study suggests that the probability of becoming invasive is higher for naturalized species closely related to the native flora.The finding of my study is consistent with Darwin's preadaptation hypothesis.展开更多
Megalobrama pellegrini is a cyprinid fish endemic to upper reaches of the Changjiang(Yangtze)River,China,which is also an important economic species in the local area.In recent years,resources of this species have dec...Megalobrama pellegrini is a cyprinid fish endemic to upper reaches of the Changjiang(Yangtze)River,China,which is also an important economic species in the local area.In recent years,resources of this species have decreased sharply and its conservation has drawn great attention.In the present study,we collected 120 individuals from the Longxi River,a tributary isolated from the main channel of the Changjiang River,where M.pellegrini is still relatively abundant.Using two different molecular markers,mitochondrial cytochrome b(cyt b)gene,and nuclear microsatellite(simple sequence repeat,SSR),we analyzed the genetic diversity of this isolated population.The results show that sequence genetic diversity was low(Hd:0.290 and P i:0.000 77 for cyt b gene),while the SSR genetic diversity was high(Ho:0.824 4±0.147 2,He:0.823 5±0.145 1).Analysis indicated that this population had experienced a bottleneck,with inbreeding and small effective population size(around 50).Based on SSR data,relatedness analyzing revealed that the 120 samples were grouped into 10 completely independent clusters.It was inferred that the mating system of M.pellegrini was polygamy.We suggested that the low genetic diversity could be induced by the overfishing and inbreeding depression.Therefore,we suggested that the urgent conservation measures should be taken to control the overfi shing and give better conditions for the fish to grow and spawn,then to restore population size.展开更多
Ceiba species have high ornamental value and are widely cultivated in tropical regions.However,genetic background of cultivated Ceiba plants remains unclear.To understand the genetic relatedness of cultivated Ceiba pl...Ceiba species have high ornamental value and are widely cultivated in tropical regions.However,genetic background of cultivated Ceiba plants remains unclear.To understand the genetic relatedness of cultivated Ceiba plants and genetic basis of key horticultural traits,here we explored the genetic relatedness of 153 accessions of Ceiba plants cultivated in Southern China and identified SNPs associated with five horticultural traits,based on 11704 SNPs derived from double-digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing(ddRAD-seq).Clustering analysis revealed that these accessions were composed of three groups:C.speciosa group,C.insignis group,and hybrid group.The GWAS identified two,four,two,three,and four SNPs related to petal color,petal striation number,flowering time,trunk shape,and prickles on the trunk and branches,respectively.One to two candidate genes were found near the SNPs strongly associated with these traits.This study revealed the genetic relatedness in the Ceiba plants cultivated in Southern China and presented the first GWAS analysis for five horticultural traits for them,laying a foundation for phenotype-related marker selection and molecular breeding.展开更多
The estimation of genetic parameters has played an important role in animal selective breeding for growth traits.Recently studies show that molecular markers can be incorporated into genetic evaluations. In order to i...The estimation of genetic parameters has played an important role in animal selective breeding for growth traits.Recently studies show that molecular markers can be incorporated into genetic evaluations. In order to improve the performance of an incomplete pedigree（i.e, only parents are known） in the genetic evaluations, 12 microsatellite markers have been applied in the estimation of the genetic parameters for body weight in a farmed population（n=1 890） of juvenile turbot（Scophthalmus maximus L.）. A new relatedness called parental molecular relatedness（PMR） is estimated based on results of genotyping of 48 parents（31 males, 17 females） with microsatellites markers. The feasibility of PMR in estimation of genetic parameters is verified by comparison with pedigree related（PR） which is obtained from a complete pedigree. The results demonstrate that a high correlation（0.872） between them is found. Heritabilities are estimated using the PMR（0.52±0.13） and PR（0.55±0.22） with the same animal model. A cross-validation shows that the predictive abilities of models using the PMR and the PR are identical（0.81）. From that, a conclusion can be made that PMR and PR predicted genetic values equally well in a population of juvenile turbot. Therefore PMR can be applied as an alternative of the PR when only parents are known. However, for a better performance, more markers and more families should be included in a further study.展开更多
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of hospital infections and is intrinsically resistant to most antibiotics. Emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains has been reported in the world and poses a great chal...Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of hospital infections and is intrinsically resistant to most antibiotics. Emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains has been reported in the world and poses a great challenge in the management of infections associated with this species. While a substantial amount of research has been done on strains from most of other infection caused by this species in developed countries, little is known about the susceptibility profiles of strains recovered from African countries in general and Kenya in particular. Furthermore, there is paucity of data regarding strain, phenotype and genetic diversity of strains recoverable from wounds among patients in Kenya. The possible risk factors for acquisition of MDR strains and possible factors that could fuel clonal expansion in hospital and community settings remain undetermined. This cross-sectional study conducted in Tigoni Hospital, a rural area in Central Kenya sought to determine risk factors associated with carriage of MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa in wounds among rural population. We also analyzed antimicrobial resistance profiles among these isolates. Prevalence of P. aeruginosa in wounds was 28% with 85 isolates recovered from wounds of 299 participants. Most antimicrobial resistance prevalence was recorded towards Ceftazidime (64%) and Cefepime (52%) while Piperacillin-tazobactam was the most effective antimicrobial agent with a resistance prevalence rate of 20%. Resistance towards new classes of aminoglycosides such as Gentamicin was at 45% while that towards Amikacin was at 40%. Compared to other related studies, relatively lower resistance towards Ciprofloxacin (25%) and Meropenem (40%) were recorded. Some of the risk factors identified for carriages of MDR strains were self-medication (p: 0.001, C.I: 3.01 - 8.86, O.R: 5.17) and non-completion of dosage (p: 0.12, C.I: 0.9 - 2.5, O.R: 1.5).展开更多
Measuring relatedness of two papers is an issue which arises in many applications, e.g., recommendation, clustering and classification of papers. In this paper, a digital library is modeled as a directed graph;each no...Measuring relatedness of two papers is an issue which arises in many applications, e.g., recommendation, clustering and classification of papers. In this paper, a digital library is modeled as a directed graph;each node representing three different types of entities: papers, authors, and venues, and each edge representing relationships between these entities. Based on this graph model, six different types of relations are considered between two papers, and a new metric is proposed for evaluating relatedness of the papers. This metric only focuses on the relational features, and does not consider textual features. We have used it in combination with a textual similarity measure in the context of citation recommendation systems. Experimental results show that using this metric can successfully improve the quality of the recommendations.展开更多
Compared to terrestrial plants whose diversity is more directly influenced by climate,aquatic plant diversity is considered to be more dependent on water environments.Therefore,it could be predicted that the phylogene...Compared to terrestrial plants whose diversity is more directly influenced by climate,aquatic plant diversity is considered to be more dependent on water environments.Therefore,it could be predicted that the phylogenetic relatedness of terrestrial plants is more susceptible to climate filtering than that of aquatic plants.We compiled a comprehensive distribution dataset of herbaceous angiosperms in China,including both terrestrial and aquatic species.We compared the phylogenetic relatedness and its environmental correlation of the two groups,using the standardized effect size of phylogenetic diversity(PD_(ses))and the standardized effect size of mean phylogenetic distance(MPD_(ses)),which reflect shallow and deep evolutionary histories,respectively.We also use the deviation of PD_(ses)(ΔPD_(ses))and MPD_(ses)(ΔMPD_(ses))between terrestrial and aquatic plants to reflect differences in the phylogenetic relatedness between terrestrial and aquatic plants.Our results showed that the geographical patterns of PD_(ses)and MPD_(ses)between aquatic and terrestrial plants are roughly consistent.ΔPD_(ses)andΔMPD_(ses)between terrestrial and aquatic plants vary across the geographical scale and environmental gradient.Environmental variables(current climate,historical climate change and topography)explained more of the variation in PD_(ses)and MPD_(ses)of terrestrial plants than that of aquatic plants,with the current climate explaining more ofΔPD_(ses)andΔMPD_(ses)between terrestrial and aquatic plants.Our results reveal the differential impacts of large-scale environmental factors on the phylogenetic relatedness of terrestrial versus aquatic plant communities,providing a new perspective for understanding the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of these two distinct plant assemblages.展开更多
Mycorrhizal symbioses are prevalent in terrestrial ecosystems and play essential roles in plant nutrition and health.However,the relative importance of plant evolutionary history,physiology,and eco-geographical factor...Mycorrhizal symbioses are prevalent in terrestrial ecosystems and play essential roles in plant nutrition and health.However,the relative importance of plant evolutionary history,physiology,and eco-geographical factors in shaping mycorrhizal fungal community assembly remains poorly understood.Here,we investigate how plant phylogeny,trophic mode,biogeographic distribution and environmental niche collectively influence the diversity and composition of mycorrhizal fungal communities across the Orchidaceae,spanning broad phylogenetic and ecological scales.By using family-wide orchid-fungal associations and global occurrence data,our analyses showed that the variation in fungal diversity and community structure can be partially explained by orchids’trophic mode,biogeographic distribution and environmental niche,but not by their overall phylogenetic relatedness.Among trophic modes,partially mycoheterotrophic orchids exhibited the highest level of fungal diversity(the lowest level of fungal specificity)in association with a broad range of phylogenetically dispersed fungal partners.Between biogeographical regions,a significantly higher level of fungal specificity was found for orchid species distributed in Australia than those in Eurasia and Africa.Furthermore,multivariate analyses showed that a small portion of the variation in fungal community structure was significantly related to broad climate,soil and vegetation variables,indicating the existence of large-scale habitat filtering on orchid mycorrhizal communities.Altogether,our findings indicate that mycorrhizal communities in the orchid family are likely shaped by multiple,intertwined factors related to orchid ecophysiology and biogeography on a global scale.展开更多
In this paper, we analyze and compare nest composition and architecture as well as worker relatedness in three related species of slave-making ants： Rossomyrmex anatolicus, R. minuchae, and R. quandratinodum. Colony ...In this paper, we analyze and compare nest composition and architecture as well as worker relatedness in three related species of slave-making ants： Rossomyrmex anatolicus, R. minuchae, and R. quandratinodum. Colony structure within nests is an important trait in ants, especially in the case of mixed societies, when host and parasite coexist in the same nest. Data for their respective free-living hosts, Proformica korbi, P.. longiseta and P. sp., are also provided. For our study, we integrated a meticulous excava- tion procedure with a genetic method. We conclude that the average number of parasites, as well as of slaves, is species-specific, whereas nest depth depends on the nest archi- tecture of the host. The genus Rossomyrmex seems to be monogynous and monandrous, whereas Proformica shows differences in the number of queens and mating frequency. R. quandratinodum shows different traits in nest composition （host/parasite ratio： P/R） and architecture. The difference in traits may account for some differences in parasitism： raid process or avoidance of parasitism.展开更多
Socially parasitic ants of the formicoxenine genus Myrmoxenus exhibit considerable diversity in colony structure and life history.While some species are active slave-makers with many workers and others are workerless...Socially parasitic ants of the formicoxenine genus Myrmoxenus exhibit considerable diversity in colony structure and life history.While some species are active slave-makers with many workers and others are workerless‘murder-parasites,’Myrmoxenus kraussei is considered as a‘degenerate slave-maker’because of its very low worker numbers.Here,we document that Temnothorax recedens host workers in single colonies of M.kraussei from Lago di Garda,Italy,exhibit significantly more genetic diversity than workers in unparasitized colonies.This raises the possibility that,despite its low worker numbers,M.kraussei may actively engage in slave raids in nature.展开更多
Epigenome-wide association studies(EWAS)are susceptible to widespread confounding caused by population structure and genetic relatedness.Nevertheless,kinship estimation is challenging in EWAS without genotyping data.H...Epigenome-wide association studies(EWAS)are susceptible to widespread confounding caused by population structure and genetic relatedness.Nevertheless,kinship estimation is challenging in EWAS without genotyping data.Here,we proposed MethylGenotyper,a method that for the first time enables accurate genotyping at thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs)directly from commercial DNA methylation microarrays.We modeled the intensities of methylation probes near SNPs with a mixture of three beta distributions corresponding to different genotypes and estimated parameters with an expectation-maximization algorithm.We conducted extensive simulations to demonstrate the performance of the method.When applying MethylGenotyper to the Infinium EPIC array data of 4662 Chinese samples,we obtained genotypes at 4319 SNPs with a concordance rate of 98.26%,enabling the identification of 255 pairs of close relatedness.Furthermore,we showed that MethylGenotyper allows for the estimation of both population structure and cryptic relatedness among 702 Australians of diverse ancestry.We also implemented MethylGenotyper in a publicly available R package(https://github.com/Yi-Jiang/MethylGenotyper)to facilitate future large-scale EWAS.展开更多
Paralichthys adspersus is a native species from the Pacific coast of South America that is of great economic importance for Peruvian aquaculture.Even though establishing sustainable farming depends on avoiding irrever...Paralichthys adspersus is a native species from the Pacific coast of South America that is of great economic importance for Peruvian aquaculture.Even though establishing sustainable farming depends on avoiding irreversible damage to the population gene pool due to processes such as inbreeding,studies focusing on genetically characterizing farmed stocks are yet to be documented.By using ten microsatellite loci on captive and wild individuals of P.adspersus,we successfully characterized the only commercial broodstock of this species in Peru by means of determining the genetic diversity and inferring relatedness.Although most microsatellite loci showed deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium,the genetic diversity levels in the commercial broodstock were considered healthy compared to those obtained for a wild population,with an average number of alleles of 17.40,an effective number of alleles of 9.14,and an observed and expected heterozygosity of 0.49 and 0.87.No significant differences between the broodstock and the wild population in terms of genetic diversity were observed.The fixation index and analysis of molecular variance also indicated a low rate of differentiation between both populations.In relatedness estimation,the analysis based on five method-of-moment estimators and a maximum-likelihood estimator showed the category“unrelated”as being the most probable relationship among the individuals within the commercial broodstock.Our findings reveal the conservation of genetic diversity in this population and outline potential breeding strategies that hatchery managers could use to minimize the loss of genetic diversity and long-term inbreeding.This could help establish proper genetic management in captive populations of P.adspersus and should apply to other captive stocks where pedigree information is lacking.展开更多
According to the 2024 global cancer data from GLOBOCAN,liver cancer ranks the 6th most common malignancy and the 3rd leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide[1].Among these cases,hepatocellular carcinoma(HC...According to the 2024 global cancer data from GLOBOCAN,liver cancer ranks the 6th most common malignancy and the 3rd leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide[1].Among these cases,hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)accounts for approximately 85%−90%[2,3].Its incidence and mortality rates remain persistently high worldwide.However,China has the highest incidence and mortality rates of the disease in the world[4].And the majority of patients are diagnosed at intermediate or advanced stages.Thus,identifying novel tumor biomarkers for early detection and implementing precision therapy has long been a key focus of research.展开更多
Aging,mitochondria,and neurodegenerative diseases:Aging is often viewed as the buildup of changes that lead to the gradual transformations associated with getting older,along with a rising likelihood of disease and mo...Aging,mitochondria,and neurodegenerative diseases:Aging is often viewed as the buildup of changes that lead to the gradual transformations associated with getting older,along with a rising likelihood of disease and mortality.Although organis m-wide deterioration is observed during aging,organs with high metabolic demand,such as the brain,are more vulnerable.展开更多
Brown spot(BS)of rice,caused by Bipolaris oryzae,is a serious concern that not only causes quantitative losses but also affects grain quality.To manage this disease,the use of resistant genetic sources and QTLs is an ...Brown spot(BS)of rice,caused by Bipolaris oryzae,is a serious concern that not only causes quantitative losses but also affects grain quality.To manage this disease,the use of resistant genetic sources and QTLs is an eco-friendly and economical option.In the current study,F_(3) progenies derived from a cross of susceptible parent PMS-18-B(PAU 10845-1-1-1-1)×resistant parent RP Path 77(RP patho-17)were used to identify potential QTLs linked to BS resistance and to associate this resistance with a temporal spike in defense-related enzymes.展开更多
BACKGROUND While varices and variceal bleeds are well-known and feared complications of advanced cirrhosis and portal hypertension,omental variceal bleed are a rare sequala even in patients with known esophageal or ga...BACKGROUND While varices and variceal bleeds are well-known and feared complications of advanced cirrhosis and portal hypertension,omental variceal bleed are a rare sequala even in patients with known esophageal or gastric varices.While rare,omental varices pose a risk for hemoperitoneum if ruptured,which is a lifethreatening complication with high mortality rates despite surgical intervention.CASE SUMMARY This report reviews the case of a patient 36-year-old female with alcohol related cirrhosis decompensated by ascites,but no history of varices admitted for hemorrhagic shock from spontaneous rupture of omental varices requiring emergency surgery.She underwent the first documented successful orthotopic liver transplantation the same admission.CONCLUSION This case report and literature review stresses the importance of early consideration and identification of intraabdominal variceal sources in cirrhotic patients with refractory shock.展开更多
文摘The inference of genome ancestry and the estimation of molecular relatedness are of great importance for breeding efficiency and association studies.Seventy SSR loci,evenly distributed in 10 chromosomes,were assayed for polymorphism among 187 commonly used maize(Zea mays L.)inbreds which represent the genetic diversity in China.The identified 290 alleles served as raw data for estimating population structure using the coalescent linked loci,based on the ADMIXTURE model.Population number,K,has been inferred to be between five and seven.Specifying five subpopulations(K=5)led to a distinct decrease and specifying K to be greater than six resulted in only minimal increases in the likelihood value.Therefore,population number,K,has been inferred into six subpopulations,which are PA,BSSS(includes Reid),PB,Lan(Lancaster Sure Crop),LRC(Luda Reb Cob,a Chinese landrace,and its derivatives),and SPT(Si-ping-tou,a Chinese landrace and its derivatives).The Kullback-Leibler distance of pairwise subpopulation was also inferred as n×p(187×6)Q matrices,which gave a detailed percentage of genetic composition of six subpopulations and molecular relatedness of each line.The genome-wide linkage disequilibrium(LD)indicated that the asso-ciation studies in QTLs and/or candidate genes might avoid nonfunctional and spurious associations,as most of the LD blocks were broken among diverse germplasm.The defined population structure has given us a clear genetic structure of these lines for breeding practice and established a good basis for association analysis.
文摘All human languages have words that can mean different things in different contexts, such words with multiple meanings are potentially “ambiguous”. The process of “deciding which of several meanings of a term is intended in a given context” is known as “word sense disambiguation (WSD)”. This paper presents a method of WSD that assigns a target word the sense that is most related to the senses of its neighbor words. We explore the use of measures of relatedness between word senses based on a novel hybrid approach. First, we investigate how to “literally” and “regularly” express a “concept”. We apply set algebra to WordNet’s synsets cooperating with WordNet’s word ontology. In this way we establish regular rules for constructing various representations (lexical notations) of a concept using Boolean operators and word forms in various synset(s) defined in WordNet. Then we establish a formal mechanism for quantifying and estimating the semantic relatedness between concepts—we facilitate “concept distribution statistics” to determine the degree of semantic relatedness between two lexically expressed con- cepts. The experimental results showed good performance on Semcor, a subset of Brown corpus. We observe that measures of semantic relatedness are useful sources of information for WSD.
文摘Objective:This study aimed to explore the psychological needs of nurses caring for patients with coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)and to propose corresponding interventions.Methods:In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 nurses who cared for patients with COVID-19.Interview data were analyzed by category analysis from the perspective of the existence,relatedness,and growth theory(ERG).Results:The existence needs were mainly reflected in health and security needs,whereas the relatedness needs consisting mainly of interpersonal needs,humanistic concern needs,and family needs;further,the growth needs were mainly reflected as a strong need for knowledge.Existence needs were the main needs during the epidemic,with health and security needs influencing each other.Humanistic concern needs were the most important of the relatedness needs;interpersonal and family needs were also growing.Conclusion:It is found that the existence,relatedness,and growth needs coexist in clinical nurses.It is helpful to take effective interventions to meet their needs if the needs of nurses caring for COVID-19 patients could be perceived well.
文摘Invasive species may pose significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem structure and functioning.The number of introduced species that have become invasive is substantial and is rapidly increasing.Identifying potentially invasive species and preventing their expansion are of critical importance in invasion ecology.Phylogenetic relatedness between invasive and native species has been used in predicting invasion success.Previous studies on the phylogenetic relatedness of plants at the transition from naturalization to invasion have shown mixed results,which may be because different methods were used in different studies.Here,I use the same method to analyze two comprehensive data sets from South Africa and China,using two phylogenetic metrics reflecting deep and shallow evolutionary histories,to address the question whether the probability of becoming invasive is higher for naturalized species distantly related to the native flora.My study suggests that the probability of becoming invasive is higher for naturalized species closely related to the native flora.The finding of my study is consistent with Darwin's preadaptation hypothesis.
基金Supported by the Research Project of China Three Gorges Corporation(No.0799570)the Special Funds for Young Scholars of Taxonomy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.ZSBR-005)
文摘Megalobrama pellegrini is a cyprinid fish endemic to upper reaches of the Changjiang(Yangtze)River,China,which is also an important economic species in the local area.In recent years,resources of this species have decreased sharply and its conservation has drawn great attention.In the present study,we collected 120 individuals from the Longxi River,a tributary isolated from the main channel of the Changjiang River,where M.pellegrini is still relatively abundant.Using two different molecular markers,mitochondrial cytochrome b(cyt b)gene,and nuclear microsatellite(simple sequence repeat,SSR),we analyzed the genetic diversity of this isolated population.The results show that sequence genetic diversity was low(Hd:0.290 and P i:0.000 77 for cyt b gene),while the SSR genetic diversity was high(Ho:0.824 4±0.147 2,He:0.823 5±0.145 1).Analysis indicated that this population had experienced a bottleneck,with inbreeding and small effective population size(around 50).Based on SSR data,relatedness analyzing revealed that the 120 samples were grouped into 10 completely independent clusters.It was inferred that the mating system of M.pellegrini was polygamy.We suggested that the low genetic diversity could be induced by the overfishing and inbreeding depression.Therefore,we suggested that the urgent conservation measures should be taken to control the overfi shing and give better conditions for the fish to grow and spawn,then to restore population size.
基金supported by the Guangzhou Landscaping Company(Grant No.2018–69).
文摘Ceiba species have high ornamental value and are widely cultivated in tropical regions.However,genetic background of cultivated Ceiba plants remains unclear.To understand the genetic relatedness of cultivated Ceiba plants and genetic basis of key horticultural traits,here we explored the genetic relatedness of 153 accessions of Ceiba plants cultivated in Southern China and identified SNPs associated with five horticultural traits,based on 11704 SNPs derived from double-digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing(ddRAD-seq).Clustering analysis revealed that these accessions were composed of three groups:C.speciosa group,C.insignis group,and hybrid group.The GWAS identified two,four,two,three,and four SNPs related to petal color,petal striation number,flowering time,trunk shape,and prickles on the trunk and branches,respectively.One to two candidate genes were found near the SNPs strongly associated with these traits.This study revealed the genetic relatedness in the Ceiba plants cultivated in Southern China and presented the first GWAS analysis for five horticultural traits for them,laying a foundation for phenotype-related marker selection and molecular breeding.
基金The National High Technology Research and Development Program of China under contract No.2012AA10A408-7Special Scientific Research Funds for Central Non-profit Institute,Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences+2 种基金the Compare of Genome-wide Association Study Models in Turbot under contract 20603022013026Shandong Provincial Department of Agriculture,the Taishan scholar program for seed industryMinistry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China,Agricultural Science and Technology Achievements Transformation Fund "Propagation and promotion of seawater breeding new varieties of turbot ‘Danfa turbot’ "under contract No.2013GB2A200036
文摘The estimation of genetic parameters has played an important role in animal selective breeding for growth traits.Recently studies show that molecular markers can be incorporated into genetic evaluations. In order to improve the performance of an incomplete pedigree（i.e, only parents are known） in the genetic evaluations, 12 microsatellite markers have been applied in the estimation of the genetic parameters for body weight in a farmed population（n=1 890） of juvenile turbot（Scophthalmus maximus L.）. A new relatedness called parental molecular relatedness（PMR） is estimated based on results of genotyping of 48 parents（31 males, 17 females） with microsatellites markers. The feasibility of PMR in estimation of genetic parameters is verified by comparison with pedigree related（PR） which is obtained from a complete pedigree. The results demonstrate that a high correlation（0.872） between them is found. Heritabilities are estimated using the PMR（0.52±0.13） and PR（0.55±0.22） with the same animal model. A cross-validation shows that the predictive abilities of models using the PMR and the PR are identical（0.81）. From that, a conclusion can be made that PMR and PR predicted genetic values equally well in a population of juvenile turbot. Therefore PMR can be applied as an alternative of the PR when only parents are known. However, for a better performance, more markers and more families should be included in a further study.
文摘Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of hospital infections and is intrinsically resistant to most antibiotics. Emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains has been reported in the world and poses a great challenge in the management of infections associated with this species. While a substantial amount of research has been done on strains from most of other infection caused by this species in developed countries, little is known about the susceptibility profiles of strains recovered from African countries in general and Kenya in particular. Furthermore, there is paucity of data regarding strain, phenotype and genetic diversity of strains recoverable from wounds among patients in Kenya. The possible risk factors for acquisition of MDR strains and possible factors that could fuel clonal expansion in hospital and community settings remain undetermined. This cross-sectional study conducted in Tigoni Hospital, a rural area in Central Kenya sought to determine risk factors associated with carriage of MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa in wounds among rural population. We also analyzed antimicrobial resistance profiles among these isolates. Prevalence of P. aeruginosa in wounds was 28% with 85 isolates recovered from wounds of 299 participants. Most antimicrobial resistance prevalence was recorded towards Ceftazidime (64%) and Cefepime (52%) while Piperacillin-tazobactam was the most effective antimicrobial agent with a resistance prevalence rate of 20%. Resistance towards new classes of aminoglycosides such as Gentamicin was at 45% while that towards Amikacin was at 40%. Compared to other related studies, relatively lower resistance towards Ciprofloxacin (25%) and Meropenem (40%) were recorded. Some of the risk factors identified for carriages of MDR strains were self-medication (p: 0.001, C.I: 3.01 - 8.86, O.R: 5.17) and non-completion of dosage (p: 0.12, C.I: 0.9 - 2.5, O.R: 1.5).
文摘Measuring relatedness of two papers is an issue which arises in many applications, e.g., recommendation, clustering and classification of papers. In this paper, a digital library is modeled as a directed graph;each node representing three different types of entities: papers, authors, and venues, and each edge representing relationships between these entities. Based on this graph model, six different types of relations are considered between two papers, and a new metric is proposed for evaluating relatedness of the papers. This metric only focuses on the relational features, and does not consider textual features. We have used it in combination with a textual similarity measure in the context of citation recommendation systems. Experimental results show that using this metric can successfully improve the quality of the recommendations.
基金National Science Foundation of China(32260046)Thousand Talents Program of Jiangxi Province(jxsq2023101079).
文摘Compared to terrestrial plants whose diversity is more directly influenced by climate,aquatic plant diversity is considered to be more dependent on water environments.Therefore,it could be predicted that the phylogenetic relatedness of terrestrial plants is more susceptible to climate filtering than that of aquatic plants.We compiled a comprehensive distribution dataset of herbaceous angiosperms in China,including both terrestrial and aquatic species.We compared the phylogenetic relatedness and its environmental correlation of the two groups,using the standardized effect size of phylogenetic diversity(PD_(ses))and the standardized effect size of mean phylogenetic distance(MPD_(ses)),which reflect shallow and deep evolutionary histories,respectively.We also use the deviation of PD_(ses)(ΔPD_(ses))and MPD_(ses)(ΔMPD_(ses))between terrestrial and aquatic plants to reflect differences in the phylogenetic relatedness between terrestrial and aquatic plants.Our results showed that the geographical patterns of PD_(ses)and MPD_(ses)between aquatic and terrestrial plants are roughly consistent.ΔPD_(ses)andΔMPD_(ses)between terrestrial and aquatic plants vary across the geographical scale and environmental gradient.Environmental variables(current climate,historical climate change and topography)explained more of the variation in PD_(ses)and MPD_(ses)of terrestrial plants than that of aquatic plants,with the current climate explaining more ofΔPD_(ses)andΔMPD_(ses)between terrestrial and aquatic plants.Our results reveal the differential impacts of large-scale environmental factors on the phylogenetic relatedness of terrestrial versus aquatic plant communities,providing a new perspective for understanding the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of these two distinct plant assemblages.
基金the funding provided by the China Scholarship Council(Grant No.201804910634)the Ecology Fund of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences(KNAWWF/807/19039)to Deyi Wang.
文摘Mycorrhizal symbioses are prevalent in terrestrial ecosystems and play essential roles in plant nutrition and health.However,the relative importance of plant evolutionary history,physiology,and eco-geographical factors in shaping mycorrhizal fungal community assembly remains poorly understood.Here,we investigate how plant phylogeny,trophic mode,biogeographic distribution and environmental niche collectively influence the diversity and composition of mycorrhizal fungal communities across the Orchidaceae,spanning broad phylogenetic and ecological scales.By using family-wide orchid-fungal associations and global occurrence data,our analyses showed that the variation in fungal diversity and community structure can be partially explained by orchids’trophic mode,biogeographic distribution and environmental niche,but not by their overall phylogenetic relatedness.Among trophic modes,partially mycoheterotrophic orchids exhibited the highest level of fungal diversity(the lowest level of fungal specificity)in association with a broad range of phylogenetically dispersed fungal partners.Between biogeographical regions,a significantly higher level of fungal specificity was found for orchid species distributed in Australia than those in Eurasia and Africa.Furthermore,multivariate analyses showed that a small portion of the variation in fungal community structure was significantly related to broad climate,soil and vegetation variables,indicating the existence of large-scale habitat filtering on orchid mycorrhizal communities.Altogether,our findings indicate that mycorrhizal communities in the orchid family are likely shaped by multiple,intertwined factors related to orchid ecophysiology and biogeography on a global scale.
文摘In this paper, we analyze and compare nest composition and architecture as well as worker relatedness in three related species of slave-making ants： Rossomyrmex anatolicus, R. minuchae, and R. quandratinodum. Colony structure within nests is an important trait in ants, especially in the case of mixed societies, when host and parasite coexist in the same nest. Data for their respective free-living hosts, Proformica korbi, P.. longiseta and P. sp., are also provided. For our study, we integrated a meticulous excava- tion procedure with a genetic method. We conclude that the average number of parasites, as well as of slaves, is species-specific, whereas nest depth depends on the nest archi- tecture of the host. The genus Rossomyrmex seems to be monogynous and monandrous, whereas Proformica shows differences in the number of queens and mating frequency. R. quandratinodum shows different traits in nest composition （host/parasite ratio： P/R） and architecture. The difference in traits may account for some differences in parasitism： raid process or avoidance of parasitism.
基金We thank Daniela Schulz for technical assistance and DFG(He1623/24)for financial support.
文摘Socially parasitic ants of the formicoxenine genus Myrmoxenus exhibit considerable diversity in colony structure and life history.While some species are active slave-makers with many workers and others are workerless‘murder-parasites,’Myrmoxenus kraussei is considered as a‘degenerate slave-maker’because of its very low worker numbers.Here,we document that Temnothorax recedens host workers in single colonies of M.kraussei from Lago di Garda,Italy,exhibit significantly more genetic diversity than workers in unparasitized colonies.This raises the possibility that,despite its low worker numbers,M.kraussei may actively engage in slave raids in nature.
基金supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.82325044 and 82021005)the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(Grant No.2021M701318)+2 种基金the Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Hubei Province,China(Grant No.2022CFA046)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(Grant Nos.2019kfyXJJS036 and 2023BR030 of HUST)funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia(Grant Nos.GNT1161706 and GNT1151854).
文摘Epigenome-wide association studies(EWAS)are susceptible to widespread confounding caused by population structure and genetic relatedness.Nevertheless,kinship estimation is challenging in EWAS without genotyping data.Here,we proposed MethylGenotyper,a method that for the first time enables accurate genotyping at thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs)directly from commercial DNA methylation microarrays.We modeled the intensities of methylation probes near SNPs with a mixture of three beta distributions corresponding to different genotypes and estimated parameters with an expectation-maximization algorithm.We conducted extensive simulations to demonstrate the performance of the method.When applying MethylGenotyper to the Infinium EPIC array data of 4662 Chinese samples,we obtained genotypes at 4319 SNPs with a concordance rate of 98.26%,enabling the identification of 255 pairs of close relatedness.Furthermore,we showed that MethylGenotyper allows for the estimation of both population structure and cryptic relatedness among 702 Australians of diverse ancestry.We also implemented MethylGenotyper in a publicly available R package(https://github.com/Yi-Jiang/MethylGenotyper)to facilitate future large-scale EWAS.
文摘Paralichthys adspersus is a native species from the Pacific coast of South America that is of great economic importance for Peruvian aquaculture.Even though establishing sustainable farming depends on avoiding irreversible damage to the population gene pool due to processes such as inbreeding,studies focusing on genetically characterizing farmed stocks are yet to be documented.By using ten microsatellite loci on captive and wild individuals of P.adspersus,we successfully characterized the only commercial broodstock of this species in Peru by means of determining the genetic diversity and inferring relatedness.Although most microsatellite loci showed deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium,the genetic diversity levels in the commercial broodstock were considered healthy compared to those obtained for a wild population,with an average number of alleles of 17.40,an effective number of alleles of 9.14,and an observed and expected heterozygosity of 0.49 and 0.87.No significant differences between the broodstock and the wild population in terms of genetic diversity were observed.The fixation index and analysis of molecular variance also indicated a low rate of differentiation between both populations.In relatedness estimation,the analysis based on five method-of-moment estimators and a maximum-likelihood estimator showed the category“unrelated”as being the most probable relationship among the individuals within the commercial broodstock.Our findings reveal the conservation of genetic diversity in this population and outline potential breeding strategies that hatchery managers could use to minimize the loss of genetic diversity and long-term inbreeding.This could help establish proper genetic management in captive populations of P.adspersus and should apply to other captive stocks where pedigree information is lacking.
基金supported by a grant from the Central Level Public Welfare Research Institutes Basic Research Expenses of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences(No.2023-RW320-05)。
文摘According to the 2024 global cancer data from GLOBOCAN,liver cancer ranks the 6th most common malignancy and the 3rd leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide[1].Among these cases,hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)accounts for approximately 85%−90%[2,3].Its incidence and mortality rates remain persistently high worldwide.However,China has the highest incidence and mortality rates of the disease in the world[4].And the majority of patients are diagnosed at intermediate or advanced stages.Thus,identifying novel tumor biomarkers for early detection and implementing precision therapy has long been a key focus of research.
文摘Aging,mitochondria,and neurodegenerative diseases:Aging is often viewed as the buildup of changes that lead to the gradual transformations associated with getting older,along with a rising likelihood of disease and mortality.Although organis m-wide deterioration is observed during aging,organs with high metabolic demand,such as the brain,are more vulnerable.
基金supported by Punjab Agricultural University,Ludhiana,India,for providing the infrastructure and other facilities for conducting experiments.All other forms of support and financial assistance are duly acknowledged.
文摘Brown spot(BS)of rice,caused by Bipolaris oryzae,is a serious concern that not only causes quantitative losses but also affects grain quality.To manage this disease,the use of resistant genetic sources and QTLs is an eco-friendly and economical option.In the current study,F_(3) progenies derived from a cross of susceptible parent PMS-18-B(PAU 10845-1-1-1-1)×resistant parent RP Path 77(RP patho-17)were used to identify potential QTLs linked to BS resistance and to associate this resistance with a temporal spike in defense-related enzymes.
文摘BACKGROUND While varices and variceal bleeds are well-known and feared complications of advanced cirrhosis and portal hypertension,omental variceal bleed are a rare sequala even in patients with known esophageal or gastric varices.While rare,omental varices pose a risk for hemoperitoneum if ruptured,which is a lifethreatening complication with high mortality rates despite surgical intervention.CASE SUMMARY This report reviews the case of a patient 36-year-old female with alcohol related cirrhosis decompensated by ascites,but no history of varices admitted for hemorrhagic shock from spontaneous rupture of omental varices requiring emergency surgery.She underwent the first documented successful orthotopic liver transplantation the same admission.CONCLUSION This case report and literature review stresses the importance of early consideration and identification of intraabdominal variceal sources in cirrhotic patients with refractory shock.
