The hist one varia nt SI_H2A.Z regulates carote noid biosynthesis and gene expression during tomato fruit ripening

The conserved histone variant H2A.Z is essential for transcriptional regulation;defense responses;and various biological processes in plants,such as growth,development,and flowering.However,little is known about how H2A.Z affects the developmental process and ripening of tomato fruits.Here,we utilized the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system to generate a sl_hta9 sl_hta11 double-mutant,designated sl_h2az,and found that these two mutations led to a signi fi cant reduction in the fresh weight of tomato fruits.Subsequent messenger RNA(mRNA)-seq results showed that dysfunction of SI_H2A.Z has profound effects on the reprogramming of genome-wide gene expression at different developmental stages of tomato fruits,indicating a ripening-dependent correlation between SI_H2A.Z and gene expression regulation in tomato fruits.In addition,the expression of three genes,SIPSY1,SlPDS,and SlVDE,encoding the key enzymes in the biosynthesis pathway of carotenoids,was signi fi cantly upregulated in the later ripening stages,which was consistent with the increased contents of carotenoids in sl_h2a.z double-mutant fruits.Overall,our study reveals a role of SI_H2A.Z in the regulation of carotenoids and provides a resource for the study of SI_H2A.Z-dependent gene expression regulation.Hence,our results provide a link between epigenetic regulation via histone variants and fruit development,suggesting a conceptual framework to understand how histone variants regulate tomato fruit quality.

Quantitative analysis of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance images:differentiation between prostate cancer and normal tissue based on a computer-aided diagnosis system

Diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI) is considered to be one of the dominant modalities used in prostate cancer(PCa) detection and the assessment of lesion aggressiveness,especially for peripheral zone(PZ) PCa.Computer-aided diagnosis(CAD),which is capable of automatically extracting and evaluating image features,can integrate multiple parameters and improve the detection of PCa.In this study,13 quantitative image features were extracted from DWI by CAD,and diagnostic efficacy was analyzed in both the PZ and transition zone(TZ).The results demonstrated that there was a significant difference(P<0.05) between PCa and non-PCa for nine of the 13 features in the PZ and five of the 13 features in the TZ.Besides,the prediction outcome of CAD had a strong correlation with the DWI scores that were graded by experienced radiologists according to the Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System Version 2(PI-RADS v2).

A new lignan and active compounds inhibiting NF-κB signaling pathway from Caulis Trachelospermi

A new dibenzylbutyrolactone lignan named matairesinol 4'-O-β-D-cellobioside(1),together with a known compound(7R,85)-dihydrodehydrodiconiferyl alcohol(2)was isolated from Caulis Trachelospermi.The extract of Caulis Trachelospermi,which was separated by 80% alcohol extraction and subsequent HP-20 macroporous resin column chromatography,and its main components trachelogenin(3),nortrachelogenin(4),matairesinol(5)showed moderate inhibiting activities on NF-κB signaling pathway induced by TNFα,with the IC_(50) values of 17.7μg/mL,17.9μM,49.4μM and 29.1μM,respectively.

Prioritization of liver MRI for distinguishing focal lesions

Liver cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide.Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) is a non-invasive imaging technique that is often used by radiologists for diagnosis and surgical planning.Analysis of a large amount of liver MRI data for each patient limits the radiologist's efficiency and may lead to misdiagnoses.The redundant MRI data,especially from dynamic contrast enhanced(DCE) sequences,is also a bottleneck in transmitting the images via the internet or PACS for remote consultancy in a reasonable amount of time.This study included 25 patients(aged between 20 and 70years) with liver cysts(seven cases),hemangiomas(eight cases),or hepatic cell carcinomas(10 cases).DCE T1 WI MRI was performed for all the patients.The diagnosis reference included typical MRI findings and post-surgery pathology.The methods were as follows:(i) MRI sequence pre-processing based on large vessels variation level set method to remove non-liver parts from MRI images;(ii) human visual model features(luminance,motion,and contour) extraction and fusion;(iii) anomaly-based MRI ranking;and(iv) methods assessment with the 25 patients' DCE MRI data.The prioritization methods applied to the DCE images could automatically assimilate and determine the content of the medical images,identifying the liver cysts,hemangiomas,and carcinomas.The average uniformity between radiologists and prioritization with the proposed method was 0.805,0.838,and0.818 for cysts,hemangiomas,and carcinomas,respectively,which indicates that the proposed method is an efficient method for liver DCE image prioritization.