No abstract

POAG is a disease of serious consequence and of low diagnosis and treatment rates in rural northeast China. Age, family history of glaucoma, systemic hypertension, and IOP remain as significant independent risk factors for POAG.

. Purpose:  To estimate the prevalence of primary angle‐closure glaucoma (PACG), primary angle closure (PAC) and primary angle‐closure suspect (PACS) and associated risk factors for PACG in a rural population in Northeast China. Methods:  A population‐based survey was conducted in Bin County, Harbin, Northeast China. Glaucoma was diagnosed using the International Society of Geographical and Epidemiological Ophthalmology (ISGEO) criteria. All subjects underwent a complete ophthalmic examination. Results:  A total of 4956 (86.01%) of 5762 subjects aged 40 years or older were examined. The mean intraocular pressure (IOP) of the right eyes was 14.0 mmHg. The mean vertical cup‐to‐disc ratio of the right and the left eyes was 0.31 and 0.31, respectively. The prevalence of PACG, PAC and PACS was 1.57% [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.469–1.671], 1.33% (95% CI, 1.236–1.424), and 4.68% (95% CI, 4.541–4.819), respectively. Among all PACG subjects, 42 (53.84%) had elevated IOP >21 mmHg in either eye and 37 (47.44%) had been treated by laser, surgical iridectomy or trabeculectomy. Sixty‐four subjects (82.05%) had vision impairment of varying degrees. Multivariate analysis revealed that old age, family history of PACG, constipation and IOP were significant independent risk factors. Conclusions:  Primary angle‐closure glaucoma was a disease of high prevalence in rural Northeast China. Old age, family history of PACG, constipation and IOP were significant independent risk factors for PACG.

Leaf color mutants in higher plants are ideal materials for investigating the structure and function of photosynthetic system. In this study, we identified a cucumber vyl (virescent-yellow leaf) mutant in the mutant library, which exhibited reduced pigment contents and delayed chloroplast development process. F2 and BC1 populations were constructed from the cross between vyl mutant and cucumber inbred line ‘Hazerd’ to identify that the vyl trait is controlled by a simply recessive gene designated as CsVYL. The CsVYL gene was mapped to a 3.8 cM interval on chromosome 4 using these 80 F2 individuals and BSA (bulked segregation analysis) approach. Fine genetic map was conducted with 1542 F2 plants and narrowed down the vyl locus to an 86.3 kb genomic region, which contains a total of 11 genes. Sequence alignment between the wild type (WT) and vyl only identified one single nucleotide mutation (C→T) in the first exon of gene Csa4G637110, which encodes a DnaJ-like zinc finger protein. Gene Expression analysis confirmed the differences in transcription level of Csa4G637110 between wild type and mutant plants. Map-based cloning of the CsVYL gene could accelerate the study of chloroplast development and chlorophyll synthesis of cucumber.

Rice is highly sensitive to salinity stress during the seedling establishment phase. Salt stress is widely occurring in cultivated areas and severely affects seed germination ability and seedling establishment, which may result in a complete crop failure. The objective of the present study is to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to salt tolerance of the germination and seedling stages in a rice backcross inbred line (BIL) population that was derived from a backcross of an Africa rice ACC9 as donor and indica cultivar Zhenshan97 (ZS97) as the recurrent parent. Under salt stress, ACC9 exhibited a higher germination percentage, but more repressed seedling growth than ZS97. Using the BIL population, 23 loci for germination parameters were detected at the germination stage and 46 loci were identified for several morphological and physiological parameters at the seedling stage. Among them, nine and 33 loci with the ACC9 alleles increased salt tolerance at the germination and seedling stages, respectively. Moreover, several major QTLs were found to be co-localized in the same or overlapping regions of previously reported genes for salt stress. These major loci will facilitate improving salt-tolerance rice in genome-breeding programs.