Rice is the principal food for over half of the population of the world. With its genome size of 430 megabase pairs (Mb), the cultivated rice species Oryza sativa is a model plant for genome research. Here we report the sequence analysis of chromosome 4 of O. sativa, one of the first two rice chromosomes to be sequenced completely. The finished sequence spans 34.6 Mb and represents 97.3% of the chromosome. In addition, we report the longest known sequence for a plant centromere, a completely sequenced contig of 1.16 Mb corresponding to the centromeric region of chromosome 4. We predict 4,658 protein coding genes and 70 transfer RNA genes. A total of 1,681 predicted genes match available unique rice expressed sequence tags. Transposable elements have a pronounced bias towards the euchromatic regions, indicating a close correlation of their distributions to genes along the chromosome. Comparative genome analysis between cultivated rice subspecies shows that there is an overall syntenic relationship between the chromosomes and divergence at the level of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and insertions and deletions. By contrast, there is little conservation in gene order between rice and Arabidopsis.

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BackgroundThe present study aims to summarize the clinical and genetic characteristics of ZTTK syndrome.MethodsThe clinical and genetic data of a Chinese girl with severe growth and development delay, intellectual disability, and facial features were analyzed. Original articles on ZTTK syndrome published up to November 20l8 were identified from PubMed, Human Gene Mutation Database, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and WanFang databases using the keywords “ZTTK syndrome” and “SON”.ResultsThe patient was born small for gestational age, and had poor academic performance, delayed language development, and motor retardation. The patient's height was 113 cm (less than −3 SD), and had moles on the back skin and possessed facial features. A novel heterozygous mutation c.394C>T (p.Q132X) of SON was found in this patient, but the parents were normal.ConclusionThe patient's clinical phenotype was consistent with ZTTK syndrome. The novel heterozygous mutation c.394C>T (p.Q132X) of SON was its pathogenic mutation, which has not been reported at home and abroad.

BackgroundMeropenem exhibits time-dependent antimicrobial activity and prolonged infusion (PI) (extended infusion or continuous infusion, EI or CI) of meropenem can better achieve pharmacodynamics target when comparing with intermittent bolus (IB). However, the clinical outcomes between two groups remain inconclusive.ObjectiveTo evaluate current published literatures by meta-analysis to ascertain whether PI of meropenem can improve clinical outcomes.MethodsMedline, Cochrane database and EMBASE were searched. Randomized control trails (RCT) and observational studies which compared the clinical outcomes of PI and IB groups were included and evaluated for quality. The data of studies were extracted and meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.3 software.ResultsSix RCTs and 4 observation studies with relatively high quality were included in this analysis. Compared to IB group, PI group had a higher clinical success rate (odd ratio 2.10, 95% confidence interval 1.31–3.38) and a lower mortality (risk ratio 0.66, 95% confidence interval 0.50–0.88). The sensitivity analysis showed the results were stable.ConclusionPI of meropenem was associated with a higher clinical improvement rate and a lower mortality. It is recommended for patients with severe infection or infected by less sensitive microbial.