Colorectal cancer is the fourth most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. In 2009, an estimated 106,100 new cases of colon and 40,870 cases of rectal cancer will occur. During the same year, it is estimated that 49,920 people will die from colon and rectal cancer. 1 Despite these statistics, mortality from colon cancer has decreased slightly over the past 30 years, possibly due to earlier diagnosis through screening and better treatment modalities. This manuscript summarizes the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for managing colon cancer. The guidelines begin with clinical presentation to the primary care physician or gastroenterologist and address diagnosis, patho-The NCCN

BackgroundChinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) is an important timber species that accounts for 20–30% of the total commercial timber production in China. However, the available genomic information of Chinese fir is limited, and this severely encumbers functional genomic analysis and molecular breeding in Chinese fir. Recently, major advances in transcriptome sequencing have provided fast and cost-effective approaches to generate large expression datasets that have proven to be powerful tools to profile the transcriptomes of non-model organisms with undetermined genomes.ResultsIn this study, the transcriptomes of nine tissues from Chinese fir were analyzed using the Illumina HiSeq™ 2000 sequencing platform. Approximately 40 million paired-end reads were obtained, generating 3.62 gigabase pairs of sequencing data. These reads were assembled into 83,248 unique sequences (i.e. Unigenes) with an average length of 449 bp, amounting to 37.40 Mb. A total of 73,779 Unigenes were supported by more than 5 reads, 42,663 (57.83%) had homologs in the NCBI non-redundant and Swiss-Prot protein databases, corresponding to 27,224 unique protein entries. Of these Unigenes, 16,750 were assigned to Gene Ontology classes, and 14,877 were clustered into orthologous groups. A total of 21,689 (29.40%) were mapped to 119 pathways by BLAST comparison against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. The majority of the genes encoding the enzymes in the biosynthetic pathways of cellulose and lignin were identified in the Unigene dataset by targeted searches of their annotations. And a number of candidate Chinese fir genes in the two metabolic pathways were discovered firstly. Eighteen genes related to cellulose and lignin biosynthesis were cloned for experimental validating of transcriptome data. Overall 49 Unigenes, covering different regions of these selected genes, were found by alignment. Their expression patterns in different tissues were analyzed by qRT-PCR to explore their putative functions.ConclusionsA substantial fraction of transcript sequences was obtained from the deep sequencing of Chinese fir. The assembled Unigene dataset was used to discover candidate genes of cellulose and lignin biosynthesis. This transcriptome dataset will provide a comprehensive sequence resource for molecular genetics research of C. lanceolata.

In 2009 an estimated 40,870 new cases of rectal cancer will occur in the United States (23,580 cases in men; 17,290 cases in women). During the same year, an estimated 49,920 people will die from rectal and colon cancers. 1 Although colorectal cancer is ranked as the fourth most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, mortality from colorectal cancer has decreased during the past 30 years. This decrease may be due to earlier diagnosis through screening and better treatment modalities. The recommendations in these clinical practice guidelines are classified as category 2A except where noted, meaning that there is uniform NCCN consensus, based on lower-level evidence (including The NCCN

Bamboo (Phyllostachys praecox) is one of the largest members of the grass family Poaceae, and is one of the most economically important crops in Asia. However, complete knowledge of bamboo development and its molecular mechanisms is still lacking. In the present study, the differences in anatomical structure among rhizome buds, rhizome shoots, and bamboo shoots were compared, and several genes related to the development of the bamboo rhizome bud were identified. The rice cross-species microarray hybridization showed a total of 318 up-regulated and 339 down-regulated genes, including those involved in regulation and signalling, metabolism, and stress, and also cell wall-related genes, in the bamboo rhizome buds versus the leaves. By referring to the functional dissection of the homologous genes from Arabidopsis and rice, the putative functions of the 52 up-regulated genes in the bamboo rhizome bud were described. Six genes related to the development of the bamboo rhizome bud were further cloned and sequenced. These show 66–90% nucleotide identity and 68–98% amino acid identity with the homologous rice genes. The expression patterns of these genes revealed significant differences in rhizome shoots, rhizome buds, bamboo shoots, leaves, and young florets. Furthermore, in situ hybridization showed that the PpRLK1 gene is expressed in the procambium and is closely related to meristem development of bamboo shoots. The PpHB1 gene is expressed at the tips of bamboo shoots and procambium, and is closely related to rhizome bud formation and procambial development. To our knowledge, this is the first report that uses rice cross-species hybridization to identify genes related to bamboo rhizome bud development, and thereby contributes to the further understanding of the molecular mechanism involved in bamboo rhizome bud development.

As a major family of plant-specific transcription factors, SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) genes play vital regulatory roles in plant growth, development and stress responses. In this study, 18 SPL genes were identified and cloned from Betula luminifera. Two zinc finger-like structures and a nuclear location signal (NLS) segments were existed in the SBP domains of all BlSPLs. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these genes were clustered into nine groups (group I-IX). The intron/exon structure and motif composition were highly conserved within the same group. 12 of the 18 BlSPLs were experimentally verified as the targets of miR156, and two cleavage sites were detected in these miR156-targeted BlSPL genes. Many putative cis-elements, associated with light, stresses and phytohormones response, were identified in the promoter regions of BlSPLs, suggesting that BlSPL genes are probably involved in important physiological processes and developmental events. Tissue-specific expression analysis showed that miR156-targeted BlSPLs exhibited a more differential expression pattern, while most miR156-nontargeted BlSPLs tended to be constitutively expressed, suggesting the distinct roles of miR156-targeted and nontargeted BlSPLs in development and growth of B. luminifera. Further expression analysis revealed that miR156-targeted BlSPLs were dramatically up-regulated with age, whereas mature BlmiR156 level was apparently declined with age, indicating that miR156/SPL module plays important roles in vegetative phase change of B. luminifera. Moreover, yeast two-hybrid assay indicated that several miR156-targeted and nontargeted BlSPLs could interact with two DELLA proteins (BlRGA and BlRGL), which suggests that certain BlSPLs take part in the GA regulated processes through protein interaction with DELLA proteins. All these results provide an important basis for further exploring the biological functions of BlSPLs in B. luminifera.