Explore the vast range of titles available.

Phylogenetic relationships in Rosaceae have long been problematic because of frequent hybridisation, apomixis and presumed rapid radiation, and their historical diversification has not been clarified. With 87 genera representing all subfamilies and tribes of Rosaceae and six of the other eight families of Rosales (outgroups), we analysed 130 newly sequenced plastomes together with 12 from GenBank in an attempt to reconstruct deep relationships and reveal temporal diversification of this family. Our results highlight the importance of improving sequence alignment and the use of appropriate substitution models in plastid phylogenomics. Three subfamilies and 16 tribes (as previously delimited) were strongly supported as monophyletic, and their relationships were fully resolved and strongly supported at most nodes. Rosaceae were estimated to have originated during the Late Cretaceous with evidence for rapid diversification events during several geological periods. The major lineages rapidly diversified in warm and wet habits during the Late Cretaceous, and the rapid diversification of genera from the early Oligocene onwards occurred in colder and drier environments. Plastid phylogenomics offers new and important insights into deep phylogenetic relationships and the diversification history of Rosaceae. The robust phylogenetic backbone and time estimates we provide establish a framework for future comparative studies on rosaceous evolution.

Phylogenomic analyses have helped resolve many recalcitrant relationships in the angiosperm tree of life, yet phylogenetic resolution of the backbone of the Leguminosae, one of the largest and most economically and ecologically important families, remains poor due to generally limited molecular data and incomplete taxon sampling of previous studies. Here, we resolve many of the Leguminosae’s thorniest nodes through comprehensive analysis of plastome-scale data using multiple modified coding and noncoding data sets of 187 species representing almost all major clades of the family. Additionally,we thoroughly characterize conflicting phylogenomic signal across the plastome in light of the family’s complex history of plastome evolution. Most analyses produced largely congruent topologies with strong statistical support and provided strong support for resolution of some long-controversial deep relationships among the early diverging lineages of the subfamilies Caesalpinioideae and Papilionoideae. The robust phylogenetic backbone reconstructed in this study establishes a framework for future studies on legume classification, evolution, and diversification. However, conflicting phylogenetic signal was detected and quantified at several key nodes that prevent the confident resolution of these nodes using plastome data alone.

A two-marker combination of plastid rbcL and matK has previously been recommended as the core plant barcode, to be supplemented with additional markers such as plastid trnH–psbA and nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS). To assess the effectiveness and universality of these barcode markers in seed plants, we sampled 6,286 individuals representing 1,757 species in 141 genera of 75 families (42 orders) by using four different methods of data analysis. These analyses indicate that (i) the three plastid markers showed high levels of universality (87.1–92.7%), whereas ITS performed relatively well (79%) in angiosperms but not so well in gymnosperms; (ii) in taxonomic groups for which direct sequencing of the marker is possible, ITS showed the highest discriminatory power of the four markers, and a combination of ITS and any plastid DNA marker was able to discriminate 69.9–79.1% of species, compared with only 49.7% with rbcL + matK; and (iii) where multiple individuals of a single species were tested, ascriptions based on ITS and plastid DNA barcodes were incongruent in some samples for 45.2% of the sampled genera (for genera with more than one species sampled). This finding highlights the importance of both sampling multiple individuals and using markers with different modes of inheritance. In cases where it is difficult to amplify and directly sequence ITS in its entirety, just using ITS2 is a useful backup because it is easier to amplify and sequence this subset of the marker. We therefore propose that ITS/ITS2 should be incorporated into the core barcode for seed plants.

Actinidiaceae is a well-known economically important plant family in asterids. To elucidate the chloroplast (cp) genome evolution within this family, here we present complete genomes of three species from two sister genera (Clematoclethra and Actinidia) in the Actinidiaceae via genome skimming technique. Comparative analyses revealed that the genome structure and content were rather conservative in three cp genomes in spite of different inheritance pattern, i.e.paternal in Actinidia and maternal in Clematoclethra. The clpP gene was lacked in all the three sequenced cp genomes examined here indicating that the clpP gene loss is likely a conspicuous synapomorphic characteristic during the cp genome evolution of Actinidiaceae. Comprehensive sequence comparisons in Actinidiaceae cp genomes uncovered that there were apparently heterogenous divergence patterns among the cpDNA regions, suggesting a preferred data-partitioned analysis for cp phylogenomics. Twenty non-coding cpDNA loci with fast evolutionary rates are further identified as potential molecular markers for systematics studies of Actinidiaceae. Moreover, the cp phylogenomic analyses including 31 angiosperm plastomes strongly supported the monophyly of Actinidia, being sister to Clematoclethra in Actinidiaceae which locates in the basal asterids, Ericales.

The Millettioid/Phaseoloid (MP) clade from the subfamily Papilionoideae (Leguminosae) consists of six tribes and ca. 3,000 species. Previous studies have revealed some plastome structural variations (PSVs) within this clade. However, many deep evolutionary relationships within the clade remain unresolved. Due to limited taxon sampling and few genetic markers in previous studies, our understanding of the evolutionary history of this clade is limited. To address this issue, we sampled 43 plastomes (35 newly sequenced) representing all the six tribes of the MP clade to examine genomic structural variations and phylogenetic relationships. Plastomes of the species from the MP clade were typically quadripartite (size ranged from 140,029 to 160,040 bp) and contained 109–111 unique genes. We revealed four independent gene losses ( ndhF , psbI , rps16 , and trnS-GCU ), multiple IR-SC boundary shifts, and six inversions in the tribes Desmodieae, Millettieae, and Phaseoleae. Plastomes of the species from the MP clade have experienced significant variations which provide valuable information on the evolution of the clade. Plastid phylogenomic analyses using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian methods yielded a well-resolved phylogeny at the tribal and generic levels within the MP clade. This result indicates that plastome data is useful and reliable data for resolving the evolutionary relationships of the MP clade. This study provides new insights into the phylogenetic relationships and PSVs within this clade.

The subfamily Cercidoideae is an early-branching legume lineage, which consists of 13 genera distributed in the tropical and warm temperate Northern Hemisphere. A previous study detected two plastid genomic variations in this subfamily, but the limited taxon sampling left the overall plastid genome (plastome) diversification across the subfamily unaddressed, and phylogenetic relationships within this clade remained unresolved. Here, we assembled eight plastomes from seven Cercidoideae genera and conducted phylogenomic-comparative analyses in a broad evolutionary framework across legumes. The plastomes of Cercidoideae all exhibited a typical quadripartite structure with a conserved gene content typical of most angiosperm plastomes. Plastome size ranged from 151,705 to 165,416 bp, mainly due to the expansion and contraction of inverted repeat (IR) regions. The order of genes varied due to the occurrence of several inversions. In species, a plastome with a 29-bp IR-mediated inversion was found to coexist with a canonical-type plastome, and the abundance of the two arrangements of isomeric molecules differed between individuals. Complete plastome data were much more efficient at resolving intergeneric relationships of Cercidoideae than the previously used selection of only a few plastid or nuclear loci. In sum, our study revealed novel insights into the structural diversification of plastomes in an early-branching legume lineage, and, thus, into the evolutionary trajectories of legume plastomes in general.

To investigate the relation of inflammation-related parameters and pregnancy outcome in women with the early threatened abortion. 630 women with early threatened abortion were divided into two groups based on the pregnancy outcome. All of them had the blood routine examination before treating. The differences between two groups were analyzed by the Chi-squared test, Student T test, Mann-Whitney U test, Binary Logistic Regression, Marginal Structural Model and Threshold effect analysis. We found that there is no significant difference in the pregnancy outcome for NLR (OR:0.92, CI95%:0.72, 1.17) and PLR (OR:1.00, CI%:0.99, 1.01). However, a difference had a statistical significance in the pregnancy outcome when LMR less than 2.19 (OR:0.39, CI95%:0.19,0.82). This study suggested that higher LMR was related to the lower risk of miscarriage in the women with early threatened abortion in a way.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy can improve the survival of cancer patients with a high tumor mutation burden (TMB-H) or deficiency in DNA mismatch repair (dMMR) in their tumors. However, most cancer patients without TMB-H and dMMR do not benefit from ICB therapy. The inhibition of ATM can increase DNA damage and activate the interferon response, thus modulating the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) and the efficacy of ICB therapy. In this study, we showed that ATM inhibition activated interferon signaling and induced interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) in cisplatin-resistant and parent cancer cells. The ISGs induced by ATM inhibition were correlated with survival in cancer patients who received ICB therapy. In oral cancer, high expressions of ISG15, IFI27, and OASL were associated with low expressions of ATM, the activation of inflamed immune pathways, and increased tumor-infiltrating scores of CD8+ T, natural killer, and dendritic cells. The high expressions of ISG15, IFI27, and OASL were also correlated with complete remission in patients with cervical cancer treated with cisplatin. These results suggest that ATM inhibition can induce the interferon response and inflamed TIME, which may benefit ICB therapy.

Zenia insignis Chun, from the subfamily Dialioideae of the family Fabaceae, is a tree species of significant economic and ecological values. It is a near threatened species as per the IUCN Red List. In this study, we generated a reference genome for Z. insignis , with a contig N50 of 6.02 Mb, a total length of 352.84 Mb, and 97.71% of the sequences assembled into 14 pseudo-chromosomes. The BUSCO assessment score for completeness is 97.30%, and the LAI index assessment score for continuity is 14.57. The present study contributes to provide a reference genome for the subfamily Dialioideae. The reference genome will provide a valuable resource for the phylogenomic studies of the family Fabaceae and facilitate further research on Z. insignis .

Results,Sub-section Phylogenetic Relationships of the MP Clade. According to this study, with the exception of the loss of the clpP introns 1 and 2 in a single species of S. vestita (Desmodieae) and the loss of ndh A and ndh B intron 1 in a single species of L. domingensis (Millettieae), two other introns (rps16 and rps12) have experienced multiple independent loss during the plastome evolution of the species from the MP clade. According to this study, with the exception of the loss of the clpP introns 1 and 2 in a single species of S. vestita (Phaseoleae) and the loss of ndh A and ndh B intron 1 in a single species of L. domingensis (Millettieae), two other introns (rps16 and rps12) have experienced multiple independent loss during the plastome evolution of the species from the MP clade. Discussion,Sub-section Phylogenetic Relationships in the MP Clade. Discussion,Sub-section Phylogenetic Relationships in the MP Clade. [...]we expect that future phylogenetic studies would improve the understanding of the phylogenetic relationships of the genus Shuteria within the clade. “Phylogenetic relationships in Phaseoleae: evidence from chloroplast DNA restriction site characters,”inAdvances in legume systematics, Part 7.