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Background Soil salinization is a major threat to wheat production. It is essential to understand the genetic basis of salt tolerance for breeding and selecting new salt-tolerant cultivars that have the potential to increase wheat yield. Result In this study, a panel of 191 wheat accessions was subjected to genome wide association study (GWAS) to identify SNP markers linked with adult-stage characters. The population was genotyped by Wheat660K SNP array and eight phenotype traits were investigated under low and high salinity environments for three consecutive years. A total of 389 SNPs representing 11 QTLs were significantly associated with plant height, spike number, spike length, grain number, thousand kernels weight, yield and biological mass under different salt treatments, with the phenotypic explanation rate ( R 2 ) ranging from 9.14 to 50.45%. Of these, repetitive and pleiotropic loci on chromosomes 4A, 5A, 5B and 7A were significantly linked to yield and yield related traits such as thousand kernels weight, spike number, spike length, grain number and so on under low salinity conditions. Spike length-related loci were mainly located on chromosomes 1B, 3B, 5B and 7A under different salt treatments. Two loci on chromosome 4D and 5A were related with plant height in low and high salinity environment, respectively. Three salt-tolerant related loci were confirmed to be important in two bi-parental populations. Distribution of favorable haplotypes indicated that superior haplotypes of pleiotropic loci on group-5 chromosomes were strongly selected and had potential for increasing wheat salt tolerance. A total of 14 KASP markers were developed for nine loci associating with yield and related traits to improve the selection efficiency of wheat salt-tolerance breeding. Conclusion Utilizing a Wheat660K SNPs chip, QTLs for yield and its related traits were detected under salt treatment in a natural wheat population. Important salt-tolerant related loci were validated in RIL and DH populations. This study provided reliable molecular markers that could be crucial for marker-assisted selection in wheat salt tolerance breeding programs.

The genome sequence and its analysis of the diploid wild wheat Triticum urartu (progenitor of the wheat A genome) represent a tool for studying the complex, polyploid wheat genomes and should be a valuable resource for the genetic improvement of wheat. An A to D of wheat genomes The hexaploid genome of bread wheat Triticum aestivum , designated AABBDD, evolved as a result of hybridization between three ancestral grasses. Two papers published in the issue of Nature present genome sequences and analysis of two of these wheat progenitors. First, the genome sequence of the diploid wild wheat T. urartu (ancestor of the A genome), which resembles cultivated wheat more strongly than either Aegilops speltoides (the B ancestor) or Ae. tauschii (the D donor). And second, the Ae. tauschii genome, together with an analysis of its transcriptome. These genomes and their analyses will be powerful tools for the study of complex, polyploid wheat genomes and a valuable resource for genetic improvement of wheat. Bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum, AABBDD) is one of the most widely cultivated and consumed food crops in the world. However, the complex polyploid nature of its genome makes genetic and functional analyses extremely challenging. The A genome, as a basic genome of bread wheat and other polyploid wheats, for example, T. turgidum (AABB), T. timopheevii (AAGG) and T. zhukovskyi (AAGGA m A m ), is central to wheat evolution, domestication and genetic improvement 1 . The progenitor species of the A genome is the diploid wild einkorn wheat T. urartu 2 , which resembles cultivated wheat more extensively than do Aegilops speltoides (the ancestor of the B genome 3 ) and Ae. tauschii (the donor of the D genome 4 ), especially in the morphology and development of spike and seed. Here we present the generation, assembly and analysis of a whole-genome shotgun draft sequence of the T. urartu genome. We identified protein-coding gene models, performed genome structure analyses and assessed its utility for analysing agronomically important genes and for developing molecular markers. Our T. urartu genome assembly provides a diploid reference for analysis of polyploid wheat genomes and is a valuable resource for the genetic improvement of wheat.

Background This retrospective study explored the relationship between hormone receptor (HR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status, and bone involvement in the first distant metastases (DM) of Chinese breast cancer (BC) patients who lacked the HER2 targeted therapy. Such therapy was rarely received due to its lag approval or high cost in China compared with the developed countries. Methods All eligible women with primary unilateral stage I – III BC and first DM diagnosed in 2008—2018 at one cancer center were identified for enrollment. Based on chart records, a full or no/partial compliance status of endocrine therapy (ET) was assigned for HR-positive patients. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the adjusted odd ratio (aOR), its 95%CI and p value. Results Four hundred eighteen patients had an average age of 50.7 years and median disease-free survival of 27.1 months at DM. Bone, lung, liver and brain metastasis rates in patients were 55.7%, 34.7%, 33.0% and 8.1%, respectively. Compared to HR-negative patients, HR-positive patients with the full and non/partial compliance of ET were significantly associated with higher risk of bone involvement with an aOR of 2.329 (1.316 – 1.741, p  =  0.004 ) and 2.317 (1.330 – 4.036, p  =  0.003 ), respectively. No difference of such risk was found between the two groups of ET compliance ( p  =  0.984 ) nor between HER2-negative and HER2-positive patients (aOR 0.827, p  =  0.431 ). Stratified analyses further indicated that HR-positive was associated with bone involvement only in HER2-negative BC patients ( p  =  0.006—0.015 ). Conclusions HR-positive tumors are significantly associated with bone involvement in HER2-negative metastatic BC patients. ET does not appear to impact this association. HER2 status per se is not associated with such risk.

Background Acute lung injury (ALI) is a life-threatening clinical syndrome typically triggered by sepsis or severe trauma lacking effective treatment options. Alveolar macrophages (AMs), representing the most abundant immune cell population in pulmonary tissue, exhibited functional abnormalities that were closely associated with ALI pathogenesis. Notably, elevated pulmonary lactate secretion served not only as a characteristic pathological feature of ALI but also participated in disease progression through modulation of AMs activity. Trained immunity was found to activate innate immune cells including macrophages, regulating metabolic adaptations that alleviated ALI, though the precise mechanisms remained unclear. Methods We used β-glucan and LPS to establish both in vivo and in vitro models of trained immunity and ALI, enabling investigation of trained immunity effects on AMs immunoregulatory functions. Results The results demonstrated that trained immunity effectively attenuated ALI severity by up-regulating glycolytic activity in AMs, thereby potentiating their immune responsiveness, and primarily enabled alveolar macrophages to sustain immune responses in high-lactate environments through the AKT2-PDK1 axis, an effect that was abolished by relevant inhibitors. Conclusions We concluded that β-glucan induced trained immunity could enhance alveolar macrophage immune activity and improve lactate metabolic tolerance, offering a novel therapeutic approach for acute lung injury (ALI).

Abstract Background: There are discrepancies of olfactory impairment between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Olfactory deficits may be a potential marker for early and differential diagnosis of AD. We aimed to assess olfactory functions in patients with AD and other neurodegenerative disorders, to further evaluate the smell tests using subgroup analysis, and to explore moderating factors affecting olfactory performance. Methods: Cross-sectional studies relating to olfactory assessment for both AD and other neurodegenerative disorders published before July 27, 2022 in English, were searched on PubMed, Embase and Cochrane. After literature screening and quality assessment, meta-analyses were conducted using stata14.0 software. Results: Forty-two articles involving 12 smell tests that evaluated 2569 AD patients were included. It was revealed that smell tests could distinguish AD from mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Lewy body disease (LBD), depression, and vascular dementia (VaD), but not from diseases such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Our finding indicated that in discriminating AD from MCI, the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) was most frequently used (95%CI: -1.12 to -0.89), while the Brief Smell Identification Test (B-SIT), was the most widely used method in AD versus LBD group. Further subgroup analyses indicated that the methods of smell test used contributed to the heterogeneity in olfactory threshold and discrimination scores in group AD versus MCI. While the moderating variables including age, MMSE scores, education years in AD versus LBD, were account for heterogeneity across studies. Conclusion: Our finding suggests smell tests have potential value in early differential diagnosis of AD. UPSIT and its simplified variant, B-SIT, are widely used methods in the analyses.

To investigate the quantitative characteristics and major subtypes of local structural connectomes for medial temporal lobe (MTL) parcellations. The Q-Space Diffeomorphic Reconstruction (QSDR) method was used to track white matter fibers for the ROIs within MTL based on the integrating high-resolution T1 structural MR imaging and diffusion MR imaging of 100 adult Chinese individuals. Graph theoretical analysis was employed to construct the local structural connectome models for ROIs within MTL and acquire the network parameters. These connectivity matrices of these connectomes were classified into major subtypes undergoing hierarchical clustering. (1) In the local brain connectomes, the overall network features exhibited a low characteristic path length paired with moderate to high global efficiency, suggesting the effectiveness of the local brain connectome construction. The amygdala connectomes exhibited longer characteristic path length and weaker global efficiency than the ipsilateral hippocampus and parahippocampal connectomes. (2) The hubs of the amygdala connectomes were dispersed across the ventral frontal, olfactory area, limbic, parietal regions and subcortical nuclei, and the hubs the hippocampal connectomes were mainly situated within the limbic, parietal, and subcortical regions. The hubs distribution of the parahippocampal connectomes resembled the hippocampal structural connectomes, but lacking interhemispheric connections and connectivity with subcortical nuclei. (3) The subtypes of the brain local structural connectomes for each ROI were classified by hierarchical clustering, The subtypes of the bilateral amygdala connectomes were the amygdala-prefrontal connectome; the amygdala-ipsilateral or contralateral limbic connectome and the amygdala-posterior connectome. The subtypes of the bilateral hippocampal connectomes primarily included the hippocampus-ipsilateral or contralateral limbic connectome and the anterior temporal-hippocampus-ventral temporal-occipital connectome in the domain hemisphere. The subtypes of the parahippocampal connectomes exhibited resemblances to those of the hippocampus. We have constructed the brain local connectomes of the MTL parcellations and acquired the network parameters to delineate the hubs distribution through graph theory analysis. The connectomes can be classified into different major subtypes, which were closely related to the functional connectivity.

Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is common among Chinese breast cancer (BC) patients following surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy (RT). Understanding the prevalence and impact of FCR, particularly during the RT period, on anxiety, depression, and quality of life may inform strategies to manage patient distress. From July 2015 to December 2016, 486 women undergoing RT for BC at the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, China, were prospectively enrolled in the study. Anxiety, depression, and quality-of-life changes were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer's Quality-of-Life questionnaires (QLQ-C30, QLQ-BR23) before and after RT. FCR was assessed using a modified question from the QLQ-BR23, which demonstrated the satisfactory construct validity and reliability in a prior pilot study. ANOVA, multivariate linear regressions, and ordinal logistic regressions were performed to evaluate odds ratio (OR) and values. Pain and sleep disturbance were included as covariates in secondary models. Of the 486 women enrolled, 23 (4.7%) patients declined participation. Of the 463 analyzed patients, the mean age was 47 years old. 386 patients (83.4%) elected for mastectomies. FCR levels prior to RT were reported as \" \" (29.4%), \" \" (51.2%), \" \" (12.1%), and \" \" (7.3%). Increased FCR severity was associated with elevated median anxiety score (1.5, 5.0, 7.0, 8.5) and increased rates of clinically significant anxiety (anxiety score ≥ 11; 0%, 3.4%, 12.5%, 26.5%). Similarly, median depression scores (2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 6.5) rose with FCR severity, accompanied by higher prevalence of atypical depression (depression score ≥ 11; 2.2%, 3.4%, 5.4%, 17.7%) (all < 0.001). Compared to the reference \" each unit increase of FCR severity was independently associated with one category (\" ,\" \" ,\" and \" \") of increased anxiety with OR ( ) of 2.593 ( = 0.011), 5.889 ( ), and 14.621 ( ) and increased depression with OR ( ) of 2.406 ( ), 3.045 ( ), and 7.210 ( ), respectively. FCR severity was negatively associated with most quality-of-life domains ( < 0.05). Similar associations persisted post RT. FCR is a significant contributor to psychological distress and reduced quality of life among Chinese breast cancer patients during the RT period. Routine screening for anxiety and depression and targeted intervention for FCR should be prioritized in this population.

The accurate identification of a driver’s braking intention is crucial to the formulation of regenerative braking control strategies for electric vehicles. In this paper, a braking intention recognition model based on the sample entropy of the braking signal and a probabilistic neural network (PNN) is proposed to achieve the accurate recognition of different braking intentions. Firstly, the brake pedal travel signal is decomposed to extract the effective components via variational modal decomposition (VMD); then, the features of the decomposed signal are extracted using sample entropy to obtain the multidimensional feature vector of the braking signal; finally, the sparrow search algorithm (SSA) and probabilistic neural network are combined to optimize the smoothing factor with the sparrow search algorithm and the cross-entropy loss function as the fitness function to establish a braking intention recognition model. The experimental validation results show that combining the sample entropy features of the braking signal with the probabilistic neural network can effectively identify the braking intention, and the SSA-PNN algorithm has higher recognition accuracy compared with the traditional machine learning algorithm.

Thinopyrum ponticum (Podp.) Barkworth and D.R. Dewey is a decaploid species that has served as an important genetic resource for improving wheat for the better part of a century. The wheat– Th. ponticum 4Ag (4D) disomic substitution line Blue 58, which was obtained following the distant hybridization between Th. ponticum and common wheat, has been stably resistant to powdery mildew under field conditions for more than 40 years. The transfer of 4Ag into the susceptible wheat cultivar Xiaoyan 81 resulted in powdery mildew resistance, indicating the alien chromosome includes the resistance locus. Irradiated Blue 58 pollen were used for the pollination of the recurrent parent Xiaoyan 81, which led to the development of four stable wheat– Th. ponticum 4Ag translocation lines with diverse alien chromosomal segments. The assessment of powdery mildew resistance showed that translocation line L1 was susceptible, but the other three translocation lines (WTT139, WTT146, and WTT323) were highly resistant. The alignment of 81 specific-locus amplified fragments to the Th. elongatum genome revealed that 4Ag originated from a group 4 chromosome. The corresponding physical positions of every 4Ag-derived fragment were determined according to a cytogenetic analysis, the amplification of specific markers, and a sequence alignment. Considering the results of the evaluation of disease resistance, the Pm locus was mapped to the 3.79–97.12 Mb region of the short arm of chromosome 4Ag. Because of its durability, this newly identified Pm locus from a group 4 chromosome of Th. ponticum may be important for breeding wheat varieties with broad-spectrum disease resistance.

Tall wheatgrass, a perennial forage grass renowned for its salt–alkali tolerance, has recently been proposed as a key species for planting in coastal saline–alkaline lands to establish a “Coastal Grass Belt”. Highly salt-tolerant and high-yielding varieties are essential to achieve this objective. To enhance breeding efficiency, a method integrating seed germination, seedling emergence, and seedling growth was established to evaluate salt tolerance in tall wheatgrass. Germination tests revealed that under 250 mM NaCl, 150 mM Na2SO4, 150 mM NaHCO3, or 100 mM Na2CO3, the relative seed germination rates were 31.5%, 65.4%, 68.2%, and 32.6%, respectively, compared to the non-stress condition. Germination tests can use 250 mM NaCl and 100 mM Na2CO3 to assess tall wheatgrass tolerance to neutral and sodic salt stress, respectively. In addition, 250 mM NaCl or saline water with ECw = 6.6 dS m−1 resulted in relative seedling emergence rates of 52% and 59.8%, respectively, compared to the non-stress condition. Seedling hydroponic culture demonstrated that exposure to 300 mM NaCl resulted in relative total dry weight, shoot dry weight, and root dry weight of 38.2%, 35.7% and 50%, respectively, compared to the non-stress condition. Salt-response genes exhibited differential expression in tall wheatgrass under long-term and short-term salt stress. Interestingly, the expression levels of NHX7.1 and NCL1 were significantly higher in salt-tolerant lines compared to salt-sensitive lines. Based on an integrated evaluation of seed germination, seedling emergence, and seedling growth, five out of the 28 tall wheatgrass lines were identified as salt-tolerant. Additionally, two Tritipyrum lines, derived from the cross of Triticum aestivum cv. Xinong 6028 and Thinopyrum ponticum line Zhongyan 1, were found to inherit salt tolerance from tall wheatgrass. Collectively, this work provided an integrated method for salt tolerance testing in a tall wheatgrass breeding program.