Breeding and Evaluation of a New Sugarcane Variety,Guitang 46

Guitang 46 is an excellent sugarcane variety bred by the Sugarcane Research Institute of Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences under the ＂ FiveNursery＂ breeding program through regional trials and production experiments,which exhibits high yield,stable yield,and various excellent characters such as medium maturing,high sucrose content,good ratoon ability,more effective stems,uniform growth and strong resistance to smut. Moreover,Guitang 46 has strong lodging resistance and good defoliation ability,which is suitable for both mechanical management and harvesting,and manual operations. Therefore,Guitang 46 is a new variety with high promotion potential. In June 2015,Guitang 46 was approved by Guangxi Crop Variety Approval Committee[GSZ2015001]. At present,Guitang 46 has been cultivated within a certain area.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Main Traits of Sugarcane Germplasm Resources with High Sucrose Content

To evaluate main traits of sugarcane germplasm resources with high sucrose content and provide theoretical foundation for parental selection of sugarcane breeding,taking ROC22 as the control,the one-year plant and ratoon were planted in the field experiment with the collected 42 samples,and evaluation and survey were carried out on the agronomic traits.The results indicated that the effective stems of 35strains including GT07-104,GT08-743,and GT04-1029 were higher than that of ROC22,reaching the significant difference and reached extremely significant difference with GT08-1533.The average Brix of new ratoon of GT02-901,GT07-110 and GT09-53 was the highest in October,close to 21.89%,21.40%and 21.24%respectively,which was 17.3%higher than that of the control R22.The Brix weight of 39 samples including GT04-1001,GT08-898 and GT04-1029 was higher than that of the control group,but the Brix weight of GT02-901,GT08-221,GT07-548 and GT02-237 was lower.In conclusion,in 42 sugarcane germplasm samples with high sucrose,GT07-104,GT04-1029,GT04-1001,GT07-110,GT07-135,GT08-743 and GT07-5A have more effective stems,stronger ratoon ability,and excellent comprehensive earlymaturing traits.In view of characteristics of these samples,these germplasm resources can be used as parental crossing and combination ratio,to select target sugarcane varieties.

Effect and Analysis of Mechanized Production on Ratooning Ability of Guitang 47

[Objectives] This study was conducted to explore the effect of machine harvesting on ratooning ability of Guitang 47, and to provide basis for mechanized production of Guitang 47. [Methods] On the basis of mechanized planting and management of newly planted sugarcane Guitang 47, a comparative test of machine harvesting and manual harvesting was conducted, during which the plant generation rate, sugarcane yield, sucrose content and related agronomic traits of ratoon cane were continuously investigated in two years after machine harvesting of the newly planted sugarcane. [Results] There were no significant differences in the plant generation rate, plant height, stalk diameter, millable cane, sugarcane yield and sucrose content from manual harvesting of Guitang 47 in the first and second years after machine harvesting. In the second year after machine harvesting, the yields of ratoon cane and the sugar content reached 101.70 and 15.32 t/hm^2, respectively, which were equivalent to those of manual harvesting. [Conclusions] Guitang 47 has strong ratooning ability and lodging resistance and strong resistance to rolling and crushing, and is adaptive to full mechanized production. It should be promoted and accelerated in sugarcane areas lacking labor to reduce costs and increase benefits.

Evaluation of Lo＂wenstein-Jensen Medium Culture,MGIT 960 Culture and Different Specimen Types inDiagnosis of Bone and Joint Tuberculosis

Objective： The aim of this study was to evaluate L-J （Lo＂wenstein-Jensen） medium culture, MGIT 960 culture anddifferent specimen types in diagnosis of BJTB （bone and joint tuberculosis）. Methods：： Specimens of pus, caseous necrosis,tuberculous granuloma and sequestrum were collected from 52 BJTB patients. All specimens were cultured using both MGIT 960system and L-J medium; and all pus were amplified using real-time PCR to detect the presence of M. tuberculosis DNA. KeyFindings： A total of 191 specimens were collected. Granuloma had better chance to produce positive outcomes by L-J mediumculture, while for sequestrum MGIT 960 culture had higher yield, but there was no significant difference in the recovery rates amongdifferent types of specimen either by L-J culture （Z2 = 0.638, P = 0.888） or by MGIT960 culture （Z2 = 1.399, P = 0.706）. MGIT960culture had significantly higher recovery rate than L-J culture, With a combined culture and PCR-based test, the recovery rate of pusspecimen was significantly higher than that of either method alone （P 〈 0.05）. Conclusion： MGIT 960 culture is superior to L-Jculture in BJTB diagnosis; pus, sequestrum, granuloma and caseous necrosis are usable specimen for mycobacterial culture;combination of culture and molecular techniques can provide a better diagnostic significance.

Characteristics of distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineages in China

The genotyping methods of Mycobacterium tuberculosis would dramatically improve our understanding of the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis. 3,929 isolates, from a National Survey of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in 2007 in China, were successfully genotyped by large sequence polymorphisms and 15 loci variable number tandem repeats. We found that 2,905(2,905/3,929, 73.9%) cases belonged to Lineage 2, dominated in the east and central regions, 975 cases(975/3,929, 24.8%) were Lineage 4, highly prevailed in the west regions, and 36 and 13 cases were Lineage 3 and Lineage 1, respectively. We also explored the associations between lineages(Lineage 2 vs. Lineage 4) and clinical characteristics by logistic regression. For Lineage 2, the risk factors were Han-ethnicity population and fever. However, for Lineage 4, they were occupation(farmer), and degree of education(non-literate). Fully understanding of the distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineage and its risk factors would play a critical role in tuberculosis prevention, control, and treatment.

Clinical significance of germline copy number variation in susceptibility of human diseases

Germline copy number variation （CNV） is considered to be an important form of human genetic poly- morphisms. Previous studies have identified amounts of CNVs in human genome by advanced technologies, such as comparative genomic hybridization, single nucleotide genotyping, and high-throughput sequencing. CNV is speculated to be derived from multiple mechanisms, such as nonallelic homologous recombination （NAHR） and nonhomologous end-joining （NHEJ）. CNVs cover a much larger genome scale than single nucleotide polymorphisms （SNPs）, and may alter gene expression levels by means of gene dosage, gene fusion, gene disruption, and long-range regulation effects, thus affecting individual phenotypes and playing crucial roles in human pathogenesis. The number of studies linking CNVs with common complex diseases has increased dramatically in recent years. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the current understanding ofgermline CNVs, and summarize the association of germline CNVs with the susceptibility to a wide variety of human diseases that were identified in recent years. We also propose potential issues that should be addressed in future studies.