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The homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) transcription factor family is a key transcription factor family and unique to the plant kingdom. It consists of a homeodomain and a leucine zipper that serve in combination as a dimerization motif. The family can be classified into four subfamilies, and these subfamilies participate in the development of hormones and mediation of hormone action and are involved in plant responses to environmental conditions. However, limited information on this gene family is available for the important chrysanthemum ornamental species (Chrysanthemum morifolium). Here, we characterized 17 chrysanthemum HD-Zip genes based on transcriptome sequences. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that 17 CmHB genes were distributed in the HD-Zip subfamilies I and II and identified two pairs of putative orthologous proteins in Arabidopsis and chrysanthemum and four pairs of paralogous proteins in chrysanthemum. The software MEME was used to identify 7 putative motifs with E values less than 1e-3 in the chrysanthemum HD-Zip factors, and they can be clearly classified into two groups based on the composition of the motifs. A bioinformatics analysis predicted that 8 CmHB genes could be targeted by 10 miRNA families, and the expression of these 17 genes in response to phytohormone treatments and abiotic stresses was characterized. The results presented here will promote research on the various functions of the HD-Zip gene family members in plant hormones and stress responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AP2/ERF family of plant transcription factors (TFs) regulate a variety of developmental and physiological processes. Here, we report the isolation of six AP2/ERF TF family genes from Chrysanthemum nankingense. On the basis of sequence similarity, one of these belonged to the Ethylene Responsive Factor (ERF) subfamily and the other five to the Dehydration Responsive Element Binding protein (DREB) subfamily. A transient expression experiment showed that all six AP2/ERF proteins localized to the nucleus. A yeast-one hybrid assay demonstrated that CnDREB1-1, 1-2 and 1-3 all function /1741ansactivators, while CnERF1, CnDREB3-1 and 3-2 have no transcriptional activation ability. The transcription response of the six TFs in response to wounding, salinity and low temperature stress and treatment with abscisic acid (ABA), salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) showed that CnERF1 was up-regulated by wounding and low temperature stress but suppressed by salinity stress. The transcription of CnDREB1-1, 1-2 and 1-3 was down-regulated by ABA and JA to varying degrees. CnDREB3-1 and 3-2 was moderately increased or decreased by wounding and SA treatment, suppressed by salinity stress and JA treatment, and enhanced by low temperature stress and ABA treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WRKY transcription factors are known to function in a number of plant processes. Here we have characterized 15 WRKY family genes of the important ornamental species chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium). A total of 15 distinct sequences were isolated; initially internal fragments were amplified based on transcriptomic sequence, and then the full length cDNAs were obtained using RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) PCR. The transcription of these 15 genes in response to a variety of phytohormone treatments and both biotic and abiotic stresses was characterized. Some of the genes behaved as would be predicted based on their homology with Arabidopsis thaliana WRKY genes, but others showed divergent behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of admission to nursery on the incidence of acute upper respiratory infection (AURI) in healthy preschool children, analyse the aetiology of AURI, and provide reference for its clinical diagnosis and treatment. Material and methods: Pharyngeal swab samples were dynamically collected from 119 healthy preschool children who were first time admitted to a local public nursery for multiple etiological detection to explore the time of the first occurrence of AURI after admission to the nursery and the causes of infection. The effect of nursery on pathogen colonization in the pharynx in preschool children was also analysed. Results: A total of 91 children developed AURI in the nursery. There was a significant difference between genders (c2 = 4.078, p = 0.043). The common pathogens of AURI showed a concentrated distribution. The proportions of bacterial, mycoplasma, and viral infections were 51.65%, 15.38%, and 12.09%, respectively, of which the proportions of mixed infection of two bacteria and mixed infection of bacteria and non-bacteria were 5.50% and 5.50%, respectively. A total of 28 children did not develop AURI in the nursery. There was no significant difference in the number of pathogens in the pharynx between the results before and after admission to the nursery (t = 0.700, p = 0.488). Conclusions: Collective living in the nursery causes a concentrated incidence of AURI in preschool children and has no effect on pathogen colonization in the pharynx in uninfected children. Bacteria are the main pathogen of AURI. The health education of children in nurseries needs to be strengthened to avoid the cross-infection in the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground surface deformation must be monitored to understand and prevent geological hazards. Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) technology has been widely used in deformation monitoring; however, current GNSS station layout strategies are often subjective and lack theoretical guidance. Therefore, in this study, a GNSS deformation observation network optimization method was developed based on interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) prior to deformation assistance. This method considers the deformation distribution, cost, accuracy, topography, and actual monitoring requirements and uses kriging interpolation and multiscale iterative optimization to obtain the reference number, spatial distribution, and deformation capture accuracy of GNSS stations in areas experiencing deformation. Simulation experiments showed that the proposed method strengthened the spatial deformation monitoring ability of GNSS by 46%-68% compared with the traditional station layout methods, which ignore the distribution of the deformation. Then, based on the small baseline subset (SBAS) InSAR technology and applying the new method, we evaluated the number and location of the most suitable GNSS stations for a mining area and found that 89.6% of the error was less than 1.5 cm, which further illustrates the practicability and reliability of the proposed method. This method provides an effective supplement to station layouts for monitoring GNSS deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs, also known as MPKs) regulate diverse cellular and physiological functions, and dual-specificity MAPK phosphatases (MKPs) modulate MAPK signalling through MAPK dephosphorylation and inactivation. Due to lacking of overall understanding for the regulatory networks between Chrysanthemum morifolium MKPs (CmMKPs) and C. morifolium MAPKs (CmMPKs), we systematically studied the interactions between four groups of CmMPKs and eight identified CmMKPs in chrysanthemum and found that the interaction between the specific CmMKP and the specific CmMPK differed from those in other plants. Furthermore, the expression of CmMKP1 and CmMKP1-LIKE1 showed opposite trends during the development of chrysanthemum flower buds under salt treatment and Alternaria alternata inoculation, but these genes could interact with the same CmMPKs, providing insight into the subfunctionalization of paralogues. Amino acid variations (M87V, T277P and V6L) in dual-specificity protein phosphatases (DsPTP1)-LIKE1/2/3 changed the interactions of these proteins with the four CmMPK groups in chrysanthemum, providing evidence for the de/neofunctionalization of paralogues in polyploids, suggesting that we can identify the key functional sites of proteins by studying polyploid paralogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Karyotyping is the gold standard cytogenetic method for detection of ring chromosomes. In this study we report the molecular characterization of a novel ring 6 (r6) chromosome in a six-year-old girl with severe mental retardation, congenital heart disease and craniofacial abnormalities. Methods: Cytogenetic analysis was performed by conventional karyotyping. Molecular genetic analyses were performed using high-resolution chromosome microarray analysis (CMA) and next generation sequencing (NGS). OMIM, UCSC and PubMed were used as reference databases to determine potential genotype to phenotype associations. Results: Peripheral blood and skin fibroblast karyotyping revealed the presence of a dominant cell line, 46,XX,(r6)(p25.3;q27) and a minor cell line 45,XX,-6. Molecular karyotyping using NGS identified 6p25.3 and 6q27 subtelomeric deletions of 1.78 Mb and a 0.56 Mb, respectively. Based on the known genes located within the r6 deletion interval 6q25.3-pter, genotype to phenotype association studies found compelling evidence to suggest that hemizygous expression of disease genes FOXC1, FOXF2, IRF4 and GMDS was the main underlying cause of the patient's phenotype. We further speculate that the severity of the patient's symptoms may have been exacerbated by low-level instability of the r6 chromosome. Conclusion: This is the first report of a novel r6 chromosome characterized at the molecular level using NGS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common solid extracranial tumor in children. However, the molecular mechanism of NB remains to be elucidated. In the present study, reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction data demonstrated that the expression of Sam68 was significantly upregulated in NB tissues compared with their matched adjacent normal tissues. Furthermore, it was revealed that reduced expression of miR-203 and increased expression of Sam68 co-existed in NB tissues. Knockdown of Sam68 reduced the proliferation, migration and invasion of human SK-N-SH and SH-SY5Y NB cells. Similarly, overexpression of miR-203 also inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of these two cell lines. It was further demonstrated that the protein expression level of Sam68 was negatively mediated by miR-203 in the SK-N-SH and SH-SY5Y NB cells. Additionally, data from a dual luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-203 directly targeted Sam68 by binding to its 3'-untranslated region. In conclusion, the present study suggested for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that the aberrant downregulation of miR-203 may contribute to the aberrant upregulation of Sam68 in NB and that miR-203 has an inhibitory role in malignant progression of NB by targeting Sam68. The present study provided evidence to support miR-203/Sam68 as a novel diagnostic or therapeutic targets for NB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron (Fe) deficiency can represent a serious constraint on crop growth and productivity. A number of members of the bHLH transcription factor family are known to be involved in the plant Fe deficiency response. Plants have evolved two distinct uptake strategies when challenged by Fe deficiency: dicotyledonous and non-graminaceous species rely mostly on a reduction strategy regulated by bHLH transcription factors, whereas rice relies on a chelation strategy, also regulated by bHLH transcription factors. CmbHLH1, a bHLH transcription factor which is localized within the nucleus, was isolated from chrysanthemum. Its transcription was up-regulated both by Fe deficiency and by the exogenous application of abscisic acid. The roots of transgenic chrysanthemum plants in whichCmbHLH1 was up-regulated were better able than those of the wild type chrysanthemum cultivar to acidify their immediate external environment by enhancing the transcription of the H+-ATPase encoding geneCmHA. However, there was no effect of the transgene on the efficiency of uptake of either manganese or zinc. Here, Chrysanthemum CmbHLH1 contributed to Fe uptake via H+-ATPase mediated acidification of the rhizosphere. ABA may be positively involved in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To study the pathogen distribution, antimicrobial susceptibility and risk factors of postoperative nosocomial infections among children with congenital heart disease. Methods:Three hundreds children with congenital heart disease admitted to our hospital to receive surgeries from February 2010 to February 2013 were selected. Results: A total of 120 children were tested as positive by sputum culture, with the infection rate of 40.0%. The top five most common pathogenic microorganisms included Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans. S. epidermidis, S. aureus and Enterococcus were highly resistant to penicillin, azithromycin and erythromycin, moderately susceptible to levofloxacin and cefazolin, and completely susceptible to vancomycin. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that hospitalization stay length, combined use of antibiotics, systemic use of hormones, mechanical ventilation and catheter indwelling were the independent risk factors of postoperative nosocomial infections (P < 0.05). Conclusion:Nosocomial infection, which was the most frequent postoperative complication of pediatric congenital heart disease, was predominantly induced by Gram-positive bacteria that were highly susceptible to cephalosporins and vancomycin. Particular attention should be paid to decrease relevant risk factors to improve the prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have demonstrated that the presence of Hox transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) is correlated with poor survival in several types of cancer, including breast cancer, and promotes tumor metastasis. Currently, little is known regarding the correlation between HOTAIR and chemoresistance in cancer. The current study aimed to investigate the role of HOTAIR in epithelial ovarian cancer, and the correlation between HOTAIR and cisplatin resistance. Reverse transcription- quantitative polymerase chain reaction was conducted to detect HOTAIR expression in the ovarian specimens and ovarian carcinoma cell lines. The results indicated that the expression level of HOTAIR was higher in epithelial ovarian cancer tissues than the level in the benign ovarian tissues. The expression level was also higher in late-stage malignant ovarian tumors compared with the level in early-stage tumors. Levels of HOTAIR were also higher in the SKOV-3CDDP/R cisplatin-resistant ovarian carcinoma cell line than in the SKOV-3 cisplatin-sensitive cell line. The knockdown of HOTAIR using siRNAs with transfection reagent suppressed cell proliferation, reduced the invasion ability of the cells and notably, it restored cisplatin-sensitivity of the cisplatin-resistant cells specifically by enhancing cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis in SKOV-3CDDP/R cells. In conclusion, HOTAIR may be used in the development of novel treatments for ovarian cancer, particularly those that are resistant to conventional therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To identify the markers contributing to genetic susceptibility to asthma in Chinese Han children. Methods This study examined the potential association between childhood asthma and seven single nucleotide polymorphisms of Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor ( BDNF) - SNPs, rs16917204, rs6265, rs7103873, rs16917237, rs56164415, rs13306221 and rs10767664 - using the Mass ARRAY system. The participants, recruited between May 2009 and July 2012, were 319 children with asthma (mean age 9.82 ± 1.57 years) recruited from a hospital paediatric department and 309 healthy controls (mean age 10.25 ± 1.36 years), recruited from the medical examination centre at the same hospital. Results We observed a significant association for rs6265 (χ2 = 9.851, p = 0.002, OR = 1.427, 95% CI = 1.143-1.783), located in exon 4 of the BDNF. Another potential association was observed for rs13306221 (χ2 = 4.316, p = 0.038, OR = 1.604, 95% CI = 1.024-2.512) in the promoter region of the BDNF. Strong linkage disequilibrium was observed in block 1 (D' > 0.9). Significantly more G- G- G haplotypes in block 1 were found in children with asthma. Conclusions These findings point to a role for BDNF polymorphisms in Chinese Han children with asthma and may inform future genetic or biological studies on childhood asthma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endostatin is the most potent inhibitor of tumor angiogenesis. However, endostatin protein has a short half-time and virus-mediated endostatin gene therapy has serious toxicity, which limits the application of endostatin in clinical therapy. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered to be able to accumulate at the site of cancers with high specificity and may be used as a new delivery of endostatin. The MSCs from the human bone marrow were transfected with recombinant adenovirus encoding endostatin and EGFP (MSC-EN cells). The tropism capacity of MSCs was quantitatively assayed in vitro using the Millicell system. To investigate the impact of secreted endostatin on cancer cells, SKOV3 cells were co-cultured with MSC-EN cells in Millicell for 48 h, then apoptosis and cell cycle were analyzed on a flow cytometer. In contrast with 293 cells and saline, SKOV3 cells significantly stimulated migration of MSCs, the number reached 919.67 ± 19.96 ( P < 0.05). The endostatin produced by MSC-EN cells made 13.08 ± 0.21% SKOV3 cells undergo early stage apoptosis (control 3.23 ± 0.73%, P < 0.05) and 82.05 ± 2.65% SKOV3 cells accumulate in the G0/G1 phase (control 66.51 ± 2.91%, P < 0.05). We found that MSCs possessed great migratory capacity in vitro and the human ovarian adenocarcinoma cell line SKOV3 could significantly induce the migration of MSCs. Our results provided evidence that MSCs could be utilized as a powerful delivery system of endostatin. The endostatin produced by MSC-EN cells could inhibit the proliferation of SKOV3 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]