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Background Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that plays an important part in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. A high level of MIF has been detected in plaques of psoriasis and the sera of patients with psoriasis. Polymorphisms associated with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases exist in the promoter region of MIF and alter its expression. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential relationship between functional polymorphisms of MIF and psoriasis in a Han population in northeastern China. Methods Two-hundred-and-forty psoriasis patients and a control group of 269 healthy volunteers were included in this study. We genotyped MIF-173G/C using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). MIF-794CATT5–8 microsatellite polymorphism was genotyped by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). Results No significant difference in the distributions of alleles, genotypes and haplotypes was observed between patients and controls. When patients were divided into subtypes according to sex, family history and age of onset, distribution of the MIF-173C allele between male and female patients was significantly different (P = 0.04). MIF-173C allelic distribution between late onset psoriasis patients and controls was also different (P = 0.02), as well as late onset patients and early onset subjects (P = 0.04). Conclusions These results suggested a preliminary association between the MIF-173C allele and male psoriasis and late onset psoriasis in the studied population. In addition, the distributions of the two polymorphisms in Asian populations were quite different from the other continental populations.

Hemoglobin Chongqing is a new slowly-moving and unstable hemoglobin variant with a high oxygen affinity, that was discovered in five members of a Chinese family in the suburb of Chongqing. Hemoglobin Harbin is another new rapidly-moving hemoglobin variant with slightly reduced stability and slightly increased oxygen affinity, found in a Chinese woman living in Harbin. The relative amounts of these two variants in the propositi were about 9% and 18%, respectively. Sequence analyses identified a Leu----Arg substitution at position alpha 2(NA2) of Hb Chongqing, and a Lys----Met substitution at position alpha 16(A14) of Hb Harbin.

Background Verticillium wilt, caused by the fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae, is the most severe disease in cotton (Gossypium spp.), causing great lint losses worldwide. Disease management could be achieved in the field if genetically improved, resistant plants were used. However, the interaction between V. dahliae and cotton is a complicated process, and its molecular mechanism remains obscure. To understand better the defense response to this pathogen as a means for obtaining more tolerant cultivars, we monitored the transcriptome profiles of roots from resistant plants of G. barbadense cv. Pima90-53 that were challenged with V. dahliae. Results In all, 46,192 high-quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated from a full-length cDNA library of G. barbadense. They were clustered and assembled into 23126 unigenes that comprised 2661 contigs and 20465 singletons. Those unigenes were assigned Gene Ontology terms and mapped to 289 KEGG pathways. A total of 3027 unigenes were found to be homologous to known defense-related genes in other plants. They were assigned to the functional classification of plant–pathogen interactions, including disease defenses and signal transduction. The branch of "SA→NPR1→TGA→PR-1→Disease resistance" was first discovered in the interaction of cotton–V. dahliae, indicating that this wilt process includes both biotrophic and necrotrophic stages. In all, 4936 genes coding for putative transcription factors (TF) were identified in our library. The most abundant TF family was the NAC group (527), followed by G2-like (440), MYB (372), BHLH (331), bZIP (271) ERF, C3H, and WRKY. We also analyzed the expression of genes involved in pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) recognition, the activation of effector-triggered immunity, TFs, and hormone biosynthesis, as well as genes that are pathogenesis-related, or have roles in signaling/regulatory functions and cell wall modification. Their differential expression patterns were compared among mock-/inoculated- and resistant/susceptible cotton. Our results suggest that the cotton defense response has significant transcriptional complexity and that large accumulations of defense-related transcripts may contribute to V. dahliae resistance in cotton. Therefore, these data provide a resource for cotton improvement through molecular breeding approaches. Conclusions This study generated a substantial amount of cotton transcript sequences that are related to defense responses against V. dahliae. These genomics resources and knowledge of important related genes contribute to our understanding of host–pathogen interactions and the defense mechanisms utilized by G. barbadense, a non-model plant system. These tools can be applied in establishing a modern breeding program that uses marker-assisted selections and oligonucleotide arrays to identify candidate genes that can be linked to valuable agronomic traits in cotton, including disease resistance.