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As a novel environmental pollutant, the impacts of nanoplastics on crops have attracted more and more attention. To explore the response of soybean to polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) at physiological and gene expression levels, this experiment used hydroponics to determine the phenotype and physiological indexes of soybean seedlings after exposure to 50 mg/L 100 nm PS-NPs for 10 days, and carried out transcriptome sequencing analysis of soybean seedling root system. The results showed that the growth of the soybean seedlings was inhibited, the root morphology changed significantly, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) increased to a certain extent, the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased significantly, and the content of soluble sugar decreased after PS-NPs exposure. Transcriptome analysis showed that a total of 2112 differentially expressed genes were generated by PS-NPs exposure treatment, GO and KEGG analysis showed that they were mainly enriched in pathways related to redox reaction, reaction to ethylene and abscisic acid, amino acid metabolism and synthesis of other secondary metabolites. It was noted that 250 transcription factors were differentially expressed, mainly including the ERF, WRKY, NAC, bHLH and MYB transcription factor families. This experiment lays a foundation for further exploring the impact of nanoplastics on crops such as soybeans and its molecular mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the definition of data mining, the paper introduced concepts and advantages and disadvantages of neural network algorithm, decision tree algorithm, genetic algorithm, rough set method, fuzzy set method and association rule method of data mining, summarized domestic and international research situation and focus of data mining in details, and pointed out the development trend of data mining.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the long‐term sexual function of patients with cervical cancer who underwent treatment and to explore influential factors. Methods: This retrospective cross‐sectional study was conducted at Peking University First Hospital in (Beijing, China). A total of 207 patients, who were diagnosed with Stage IA‐IIA cervical cancer and had undergone surgical treatment (some patients had also been treated with adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy) between January 2010 and August 2020, completed questionnaires via telephone. The median time since diagnosis was 54 (range, 13–138) months. Sexual function was assessed using the validated short form of Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ‐12). The multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine factors influencing sexual function after treatment. Results: The mean preoperative PISQ‐12 score was 39.42 ± 3.922, and the mean postoperative PISQ‐12 score was 32.60 ± 6.592, indicating a significant decrease in postoperative PISQ‐12 score compared with preoperation (p < 0.001). In total, 49.8% of the patients had sexual dysfunction after treatment. According to the results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis, longer follow‐up (months), ovariectomy, lack of hormone replacement therapy after ovariectomy and adjuvant radiotherapy were significantly associated with sexual dysfunction after treatment (p < 0.05). There was no significant correlation among surgical method, tumor stage, adjuvant chemotherapy, and sexual dysfunction after treatment. Conclusions: The sexual function of cervical cancer survivors significantly decreased after treatment, which was related to the length of follow‐up, ovariectomy, and adjuvant radiotherapy. Hormone replacement therapy after ovariectomy can help patients to improve their sexual function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), a member of the genus Closterovirus within the family Closteroviridae, is the causal agent of citrus tristeza disease. Previous studies revealed that the negative selection, RNA recombination and gene flow were the most important forces that drove CTV evolution. However, the CTV codon usage was not studied and thus its role in CTV evolution remains unknown. Results A detailed comparative analysis of CTV codon usage pattern was done in this study. Results of the study show that although in general CTV does not have a high degree of codon usage bias, the codon usage of CTV has a high level of resemblance to its host codon usage. In addition, our data indicate that the codon usage resemblance is only observed for the woody plant-infecting closteroviruses but not the closteroviruses infecting the herbaceous host plants, suggesting the existence of different virus-host interactions between the herbaceous plant-infecting and woody plant-infecting closteroviruses. Conclusion Based on the results, we suggest that in addition to RNA recombination, negative selection and gene flow, host plant codon usage selection can also affect CTV evolution.

Smoking is a well-known major risk factor in development of esophageal cancer, but few studies have reported the association between smoking status and prognosis of these patients. We conduct the present study to summarize current evidence. A computerized search of the PubMed and EMBASE was performed up to April 30, 2015. Eight studies, containing 4,286 patients, were analyzed. In the grouping analysis, among esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma patients, current and former smokers, compared to those who have never smoked, seemed to have a poorer prognosis (HR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.22–1.64, and HR = 1.35, 95% CI 0.92–1.97, resp.). In the subgroup analysis, adverse effects on current smoker compared with never smoker were also observed in China and the other countries (HR = 1.5, 95% CI 1.18–1.92, and HR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.12–1.65, resp.). In the group that ever smoked, we could not get a similar result. No significantly increased risk was found in esophageal adenocarcinoma patients compared to the squamous-cell histology ones. In the smoking intensity analysis, heavy smoking was associated with poor survival in esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma. Our pooled results supported the existence of harmful effects of smoking on survival after esophagus cancer diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The genetic diversity of the genus Dendrobium is not well known and the phylogenetic relationship of Dendrobium species are mainly determined by studies of the comparative vegetative anatomy and plant systematics. In the present study, we used the technique of inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) to evaluate genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship among 31 Dendrobium species from Yunnan region of China. In total, 2368 bands were amplified by 17 ISSR primers, resulting from 278 ISSR loci with 100% polymorphism at genus level. Thirty-one species were unequivocally distinguished based on ISSR fingerprinting. Species-specific ISSR markers were identified in nine of 31 tested Dendrobium species. Unweighted pair-group mean analysis (UPGMA) showed that 31 Dendrobium species were grouped into six clusters, indicating the genus was polyphyletic with several well-supported lineages. The high polymorphism and reliable amplification across species demonstrated the utility of ISSR marker for species diagnosis and genetic diversity study of the genus Dendrobium. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Based on the study of the relationships between economic growth and industrial pollutant discharge of Suzhou City in 1991-2005, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) of the City was estimated by several kinds of function, with the cause analyzed. The results showed that the EKC of Suzhou was not a typical one. The industrial pollution of the City increased dramatically by scale effect of economic growth and the clear environmental benefit of industrial structure adjustment was not received obviously, while generalized discharge reduction technologies showed great results. In general terms, the pollution increase was comparatively slower than the GDP growth. As a whole, the environmental policy of Suzhou was in effect. However, the relationships between economic growth and industrial pollutant discharge had not been a benign development yet. In order to achieve win-win situation of economic growth and pollution reduction, Suzhou needed to optimize its industry structure, push the energy conservation and discharge reduction policy deeply, increase environmental investment, and enforce the strictest environmental and industrial policy. In doing these, Suzhou could turn the traditional ∩-shaped EKC into Λ-shaped EKC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We isolated and developed 13 novel microsatellite makers from expressed sequence tag sequences of endangered Chinese endemic herb Dendrobium officinale and examined them for 38 individuals from Jinhua, Zhejiang, Chian. These loci displayed the mean number of 4. 31 alleles per locus, and with expected heterozygosity ( H) and observed heterozygosity ( H) per locus ranged from 0.4438 to 0.6842 and from 0 to 0.4211, respectively. These markers have potential for application in germplasm appraisal, genetic diversity study, genetic mapping, and molecular breeding in D. officinale and other congeneric species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants use various secondary chemicals in their chemical defense against herbivores. While botanical insecticides are crucial for reducing the reliance on chemical pesticides, the development of plant-derived insecticides remains limited. In this study, we fed Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata with three different host plants (Solanum nigrum, Solanum tuberosum, and Physalis floridana) and observed that feeding on P. floridana led to changes in the body size and a significantly high mortality rate. Through transcriptome analysis, it was found that the trehalose metabolism pathway of H. vigintioctopunctata changed significantly under different host feeding conditions, especially since the expression level of the trehalase gene was extremely different. We subsequently identified eight transcripts of HvTREs and analyzed their evolution and structure. Among them, significant differences are observed in the relative expression levels of HvTRE1-5 in H. vigintioctopunctata after the fourth instar and were affected by different plant diets. Compared with the natural host S. nigrum, the larvae that fed on P. floridana significantly reduced the contents of trehalose, glucose and glycogen and significantly affected the trehalase activity. Knockdown of HvTRE1-5 by RNAi increased mortality at the H. vigintioctopunctata prepupation stage, suggesting that HvTRE1-5 is important for H. vigintioctopunctata pupation. This study provides new insights into developing of green control methods for H. vigintioctopunctata and offers a valuable example for understanding the interaction between host plants and herbivorous insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chrysanthemum morifolium plants are important commercial herbs in China, widely used in ornamental horticulture and traditional medicine. In this study, start codon targeted (SCoT) polymorphic markers were applied to assess genetic relationships among 32 populations of C. morifolium . Thirty-two SCoT primers produced 872 loci, 90% (785) of which showed polymorphism. Average polymorphism information content of the SCoT primers was 0.987 (0.950–0.993), showing that plenty of genetic diversity exists among Chinese C. morifolium cultivars. Cluster analysis of SCoT markers (based on UPGMA and PCoA method) grouped all the cultivars of C. morifolium into two clusters. The partition of clusters in the dendrogram and PCoA plot was similar and large degree of grouping according to their origin and ecological distribution. Our results will provide much more useful information for C. morifolium germplasm resource protection and will also useful to improve the current plant breeding programs. Our results also indicated that SCoT markers are informative and could be used to evaluate genetic diversity of Chinese medicinal C. morifolium cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A full-length D. nobile cDNA library was constructed and 1835 ESTs were obtained. [•] One hundred seventy novel EST-SSRs were developed in D. nobile. [•] A set of 142 EST-SSRs showed robust transferability among 31 Dendrobium species. [•] The genetic diversity showed wide genetic differentiation of section Dendrobium. [•] The phylogeny analysis revealed different genetic architecture among sections. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The genome organization of Dendrobium species remains largely unexplored. An F1 family derived from the controlled interspecific hybridization between Dendrobium moniliforme and D. officinale were used to create genetic linkage maps of parental Dendrobiums using double pseudo-testcross strategy. A total of 422 markers, including 66 EST-SSR, 126 SRAP, 74 ISSR, and 156 RAPD markers, showed expected Mendelian segregation ratio and were used for genetic map construction. Genetic linkage groups with Kosambi genetic distances were constructed using a LOD score≥4 and a recombination threshold of 0.4. The map of D. moniliforme was 1127.9cM in total length with 165 marker loci distributed in 17 linkage groups; and the D. officinale map consisted of 19 genetic linkage groups with a total length of 1210.9cM positioned by 169 marker loci. The genetic maps constructed in this study can serve as a reference linkage map of Dendrobium species for efficient studies of comparative genetics, genetic mapping of traits with economic interest, and marker-assisted selection in horticultural breeding. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]