BackgroundPokkah boeng disease caused by the Fusarium species complex results in significant yield losses in sugarcane. Thus, the rapid and accurate detection and identification of the pathogen is urgently required to manage and prevent the spreading of sugarcane pokkah boeng.MethodsA total of 101 isolates were recovered from the pokkah boeng samples collected from five major sugarcane production areas in China throughout 2012 and 2013. The causal pathogen was identified by morphological observation, pathogenicity test, and phylogenetic analysis based on the fungus-conserved rDNA-ITS. Species-specific TaqMan real-time PCR and conventional PCR methods were developed for rapid and accurate detection of the causal agent of sugarcane pokkah boeng. The specificity and sensitivity of PCR assay were also evaluated on a total of 84 isolates of Fusarium from China and several isolates from other fungal pathogens of Sporisorium scitamineum and Phoma sp. and sugarcane endophyte of Acremonium sp.ResultTwo Fusarium species (F. verticillioides and F. proliferatum) that caused sugarcane pokahh boeng were identified by morphological observation, pathogenicity test, and phylogenetic analysis. Species-specific TaqMan PCR and conventional PCR were designed and optimized to target their rDNA-ITS regions. The sensitivity of the TaqMan PCR was approximately 10 pg of fungal DNA input, which was 1,000-fold over conventional PCR, and successfully detected pokkah boeng in the field-grown sugarcane.Conclusions/SignificanceThis study was the first to identify two species, F. verticillioides and F. proliferatum, that were causal pathogens of sugarcane pokkah boeng in China. It also described the development of a species-specific PCR assay to detect and confirm these pathogens in sugarcane plants from mainland China. This method will be very useful for a broad range of research endeavors as well as the regulatory response and management of sugarcane pokkah boeng.

Ovarian cancer is one of the common female malignant tumors globally. However, exactly mechanism of ovarian cancer remained unknown. HOTAIR, a lncRNA in the mammalian HOXC locus, has been fully explored for its genetic variants, expression level and carcinogenesis, development and progression of multiple cancers, except for ovarian cancer. In this study, we hypothesized that abnormal expression of HOTAIR and common variants of HOTAIR are associated with risk of Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). We first evaluated the HOTAIR levels in 100 paired tissues of EOC patients and corresponding normal tissues. Results showed that the expression level of HOTAIR in EOC tissues was significantly higher than that in corresponding normal tissues. Then the genotyping analyses of HOTAIR gene was conducted in a Chinese population. The results indicated that rs4759314 and rs7958904 were significantly associated with EOC susceptibility. For rs4759314, the difference between the G allele (as the reference) and the A allele was statistically significant (adjusted OR, 1.34; 95% CI: 1.08–1.65; P = 6.8 × 10−3). For rs7958904, C allele was associated a significantly decreased EOC risk when compared with G allele (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.67–0.89; P = 4.2 × 10−4). The study identified that HOTAIR variants could be a useful biomarker for the predisposition to EOC and for the early diagnosis of the disease.

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BackgroundThe present of malignant transformation in struma ovarii is exceedingly rare. Malignant struma ovarii is usually asymptomatic and infrequently diagnosed preoperatively. Because of its rarity, there is no consensus about diagnosis and management in the literature.Case presentationA 40-year-old female presented for her obstetric examination with an incidental finding of a pelvic mass. Patient was asymptomatic at presentation. A follow-up ultrasound confirmed the presence of a 3-cm mass in the left adnexa. Patient underwent a cytoreductive surgery (hysterectomy, bilateral salpingectomy and oophorectomy, omentectomy, appendectomy, and pelvic lymphadenectomy). Histopathology revealed a malignant struma ovarii with a focus of papillary thyroid carcinoma and the omentum metastasis. The patient with stage FIGO IIIc received 6 cycles of paclitaxel/carboplatin regimen after surgery. The patient subsequently had a thyroid scan that was normal with normal thyroid function. At a follow-up of 12 months, she is alive, in good clinical condition, and disease-free.ConclusionsBecause of the rarity of these tumors and their lack of firm prognostic factors, treatment decisions should be made individually, based on pathologic and clinical parameters.

Silkworms (Bombyx mori) reared on artificial diets have great potential applications in sericulture. However, the mechanisms underlying the enhancement of metabolic utilization by altering silkworm nutrition are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the poor development and low silk protein synthesis efficiency of silkworms fed artificial diets. After multi-generational selection of the ingestive behavior of silkworms to artificial diets, we obtained two strains, one of which developed well and another in which almost all its larvae starved to death on the artificial diets. Subsequently, we analyzed the metabolomics of larval hemolymph by gas chromatography/liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, and the results showed that vitamins were in critically short supply, whereas the nitrogen metabolic end product of urea and uric acid were enriched substantially, in the hemolymph of the silkworms reared on the artificial diets. Meanwhile, amino acid metabolic disorders, as well as downregulation of carbohydrate metabolism, energy metabolism, and lipid metabolism, co-occurred. Furthermore, 10 male-dominant metabolites and 27 diet-related metabolites that differed between male and female silkworms were identified. These findings provide important insights into the regulation of silkworm metabolism and silk protein synthesis when silkworms adapt to an artificial diet.

Artificial diets for silkworms have many potential applications and they are important in sericulture.

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Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is an important crop for sugar production and bioenergy worldwide. In this study, we performed transcriptome sequencing for six contrasting sugarcane genotypes involved in leaf abscission, tolerance to pokkah boeng disease and drought stress. More than 465 million high-quality reads were generated, which were de novo assembled into 93,115 unigenes. Based on a similarity search, 43,526 (46.74%) unigenes were annotated against at least one of the public databases. Functional classification analyses showed that these unigenes are involved in a wide range of metabolic pathways. Comparative transcriptome analysis revealed that many unigenes involved in response to abscisic acid and ethylene were up-regulated in the easy leaf abscission genotype, and unigenes associated with response to jasmonic acid and salicylic acid were up-regulated in response to the pokkah boeng disease in the tolerance genotype. Moreover, unigenes related to peroxidase, antioxidant activity and signal transduction were up-regulated in response to drought stress in the tolerant genotype. Finally, we identified a number of putative markers, including 8,630 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 442,152 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Our data will be important resources for future gene discovery, molecular marker development, and genome studies in sugarcane.