Role of short-wavelength filtering lenses in delaying myopia progression and amelioration of asthenopia in juveniles

AIM： To evaluate the positive effects of blue-violet light filtering lenses in delaying myopia and relieving asthenopia in juveniles. METHODS： Sixty ametropia juveniles （aged range, 11-15y） were randomized into two groups： the test group （30 children, 60 eyes）, wearing blue-violet light filtering lenses; and the control group （30 children, 60 eyes）, wearing ordinary aspherical lenses. Baseline refractive power of the affected eyes and axial length of the two groups was recorded. After 1-year, the patients underwent contrast sensitivity （glare and non-glare under bright and dark conditions）, accommodation-related testing, asthenopia questionnaire assessment, and adverse reaction questionnaire assessment. RESULTS： After ly of wearing the filtering lenses, changes in refractive power and axial length were not significantly different between the two groups （P〉0.05）. Under bright conditions, the contrast sensitivities at low and medium- frequency grating （vision angles of 6.3, 4.0, and 2.5） with glare in the test group were significantly higher than in the control group （P〈0.05）, while the contrast sensitivity at low-frequency grating （vision angles of 6.3 and 4.0） in the absence of glare in the test group was higher than in the control group （P〈0.05）. Under glare and non-glare dark conditions, the contrast sensitivities of various frequencies in the test group did not show significant differences compared with those in the control group （P〉0.05）. In the test group, the amplitude of accommodation, accommodative lag, and accommodative sensitivity of patients wearing glasses for 6 and 12mo were significantly elevated （P〈0.05）, while the asthenopia gratings were significantly decreased （P〈0.05）. Nevertheless, in the control group,the amplitude of accommodation, accommodative lag, and accommodative sensitivity after 12mo were not significantly altered compared with baseline （P〉0.05）, and the asthenopia grating was not significantly decreased （P〉0.05）. In addition, after wearing glasses for 6 to 12mo, the asthenopia grating of patients in the test group decreased significantly compared with the control group （P〈0.05）. At 12mo, the constituent ratio of adverse reactions did not show significant difference between the two groups （P〉0.05）. CONCLUSION： A l-year follow-up reveal that compare with ordinary glasses, short-wavelength filtering lenses （blue/ violet-light filters） increase the low- and medium-frequency contrast sensitivity under bright conditions and improved accommodation. They effectively relieved asthenopia without severe adverse reactions, suggesting potential for clinical application. However, no significant advantages in terms of refractive power or axial length progression were found compared with ordinary aspheric lenses.

Influence of outliers on QTL mapping for complex traits

A method was proposed for the detection of outliers and influential observations in the framework of a mixed linear model, prior to the quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping analysis. We investigated the impact of outliers on QTL mapping for complex traits in a mouse BXD population, and observed that the dropping of outliers could provide the evidence of additional QTL and epistatic loci affecting the 1stBrain-OB and the 2ndBrain-OB in a cross of the abovementioned population. The results could also reveal a remarkable increase in estimating heritabilities of QTL in the absence of outliers. In addition, simulations were conducted to investigate the detection powers and false discovery rates (FDRs) of QTLs in the presence and absence of outliers. The results suggested that the presence of a small proportion of outliers could increase the FDR and hence decrease the detection power of QTLs. A drastic increase could be obtained in the estimates of standard errors for position, additive and additive× environment interaction effects of QTLs in the presence of outliers.

Natural variation and evolutionary dynamics of transposable elements in Brassica oleracea based on next-generation sequencing data

Brassica oleracea comprises various economically important vegetables and presents extremely diverse morphological variations.They provide a rich source of nutrition for human health and have been used as a model system for studying polyploidization.Transposable elements(TEs)account for nearly 40%of the B.oleracea genome and contribute greatly to genetic diversity and genome evolution.Although the proliferation of TEs has led to a large expansion of the B.oleracea genome,little is known about the population dynamics and evolutionary activity of TEs.A comprehensive mobilome profile of 45,737 TE loci was obtained from resequencing data from 121 diverse accessions across nine B.oleracea morphotypes.Approximately 70%(32,195)of the loci showed insertion polymorphisms between or within morphotypes.In particular,up to 1221 loci were differentially fixed among morphotypes.Further analysis revealed that the distribution of the population frequency of TE loci was highly variable across different TE superfamilies and families,implying a diverse expansion history during host genome evolution.These findings provide better insight into the evolutionary dynamics and genetic diversity of B.oleracea genomes and will potentially serve as a valuable resource for molecular markers and association studies between TE-based genomic variations and morphotype-specific phenotypic differentiation.