Sucrose is produced in mesophyll cells and transferred into phloem cells before it is delivered long-distance to sink tissues. However, little is known about how sucrose transport is regulated in plants. Here, we identified a T-DNA insertional mutant of Oryza sativa DNA BINDING WITH ONE FINGER 11 (OsDOF11), which is expressed in the vascular cells of photosynthetic organs and in various sink tissues. The osdof11 mutant plants are semi-dwarf and have fewer tillers and smaller panicles as compared with wild-type (WT) plants. Although sucrose enhanced root elongation in young WT seedlings, this enhancement did not occur in osdof11 seedlings due to reduced sucrose uptake. Sugar transport rate analyses revealed that less sugar was transported in osdof11 plants than in the WT. Expression of four Sucrose Transporter (SUT) genes-OsSUT1, OsSUT3, OsSUT4, and OsSUT5-as well as two Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporters (SWEET) genes, OsSWEET11 and OsSWEET14, was altered in various organs of the mutant, including the leaves. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed that OsDOF11 directly binds the promoter regions of SUT1, OsSWEET11, and OsSWEET14, indicating that the expression of these transporters responsible for sucrose transport via apoplastic loading is coordinately controlled by OsDOF11. We also observed that osdof11 mutant plants were less susceptible to infection by Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae, suggesting that OsDOF11 participates in sugar distribution during pathogenic invasion. Collectively, these results suggest that OsDOF11 modulates sugar transport by regulating the expression of both SUT and SWEET genes in rice.

Several studies have proved transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) is efficient in the evaluation of patients with hematospermia, but the numbers of patients were less than 60 in each of the previous reports. Herein, a total of 270 patients with hematospermia were evaluated by TRUS to assess its efficacy in the etiologic diagnosis of hematospermia. The age of patients ranged from 15 to 75 years (x, 41.2 years), and the duration of symptoms was 1 day to 8 years (x, 3.4 months). Abnormalities were revealed by TRUS in 256 patients (94.8%). The percentages of pathological conditions located in the seminal vesicles, in the ejaculatory ducts, in the prostate, and in the bladder were 46.3% (125 cases), 29.6% (80 cases), 55.2% (149 cases), and 0.4% (1 case), respectively. The number of patients older than 40 years old and 40 years old or younger were 126 and 144, respectively. Our results show significantly higher percentages for malignant diseases, prostatic calcification and benign prostatic hyperplasia in the group of patients more than 40 years old compared with the group of patients 40 years old or less. Eight of 270 patients (3.0%) had malignant tumors, and all of the 8 malignancies occurred in patients more than 40 years old. TRUS is a noninvasive, reliable tool for the investigation of causes of hematospermia. Hematospermia is generally a benign symptom in younger patients. Special attention should be paid to elderly patients to exclude malignancy.

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Aging is the single most significant risk factor for cancer development. However, the potential impact of aging on cancer microenvironment remains poorly understood. Here, we performed a pan-cancer transcriptome analysis to identify aging-specific molecular patterns across 18 cancer types. Strikingly, aging-specific molecular features define human cancers into two types, including the strong and weak aging-effect groups. Significant aging associated molecular signature was observed in 16 cancer types (strong aging-effect group) such as breast invasive carcinoma and acute myeloid leukemia. In such 16 cancer types, old patients showed obvious poor survival compared to young patients, but this observation was not found in the weak aging-effect cancers. Aging-associated cancer-relevant molecules significantly enriched in 23 pathways including EMT and KRAS signaling. More interestingly, in cancer microenvironment, aging significantly restrains adaptive immunity, but strikingly, increases the number of infiltrated innate immune cells. Further analysis shows that the expression of immune checkpoints including PD-1, PD-L1, PD-L2, and CTLA-4 are mostly correlated with age. In general, cancer cells in elderly patients show a more aggressive phenotype and their surrounding microenvironment is under a more immune suppression status compared with young patients. Our study provides a systematic understanding of aging-associated molecular features in pan-cancer and indicates a clinical requirement to develop aging-specific therapeutic strategies in a majority of cancer types. Furthermore, aging-altered immune cells and immune checkpoints should be considered in cancer immunotherapy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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Nitrogen is one of the most important mineral elements for plant growth. We studied the functional roles of Oryza sativa DNA BINDING WITH ONE FINGER 18 (OsDOF18) in controlling ammonium uptake. The growth of null mutants of OsDOF18 was retarded in a medium containing ammonium as the sole nitrogen source. In contrast, those mutants grew normally in a medium with nitrate as the sole nitrogen source. The gene expression was induced by ammonium but not by nitrate. Uptake of ammonium was lower in osdof18 mutants than in the wild type, while that of nitrate was not affected by the mutation. This indicated that OsDOF18 is involved in regulating ammonium transport. Among the 10 ammonium transporter genes examined here, expression of OsAMT1;1, OsAMT1;3, OsAMT2;1, and OsAMT4;1 was reduced in osdof18 mutants, demonstrating that the ammonium transporter genes function downstream of OsDOF18. Genes for nitrogen assimilation were also affected in the mutants. These results provide evidence that OsDOF18 mediates ammonium transport and nitrogen distribution, which then affects nitrogen use efficiency.