We report improved whole-genome shotgun sequences for the genomes of indica and japonica rice, both with multimegabase contiguity, or almost 1,000-fold improvement over the drafts of 2002. Tested against a nonredundant collection of 19,079 full-length cDNAs, 97.7% of the genes are aligned, without fragmentation, to the mapped super-scaffolds of one or the other genome. We introduce a gene identification procedure for plants that does not rely on similarity to known genes to remove erroneous predictions resulting from transposable elements. Using the available EST data to adjust for residual errors in the predictions, the estimated gene count is at least 38,000–40,000. Only 2%–3% of the genes are unique to any one subspecies, comparable to the amount of sequence that might still be missing. Despite this lack of variation in gene content, there is enormous variation in the intergenic regions. At least a quarter of the two sequences could not be aligned, and where they could be aligned, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rates varied from as little as 3.0 SNP/kb in the coding regions to 27.6 SNP/kb in the transposable elements. A more inclusive new approach for analyzing duplication history is introduced here. It reveals an ancient whole-genome duplication, a recent segmental duplication on Chromosomes 11 and 12, and massive ongoing individual gene duplications. We find 18 distinct pairs of duplicated segments that cover 65.7% of the genome; 17 of these pairs date back to a common time before the divergence of the grasses. More important, ongoing individual gene duplications provide a never-ending source of raw material for gene genesis and are major contributors to the differences between members of the grass family.

The outcomes of 293 patients with leukemia undergoing HLA-identical sibling (n ‫؍‬ 158) or related HLA-mismatched (n ‫؍‬ 135) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) performed during the same time period were compared. Patients received BUCY2 in HLA-identical sibling HCT or BUCY2 ؉ ATG in mismatched HCT as conditioning regimens, followed by unmanipulated marrow and/or peripheral blood (PB) transplantation. All patients achieved full engraftment. The cumulative incidences of grades II to IV acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) in the matched and mismatched cohorts were 32% (CI, 25%-39%) versus 40% (CI, 32%-48%, P ‫؍‬ .13), respectively, with the relative risk (RR) ‫؍‬ 0.64 (95% CI, 0.43-0.94), P ‫؍‬ .02. The incidence of chronic GVHD did not differ significantly between the cohorts (P ‫؍‬ .97). Two-year incidences of treatment-related mortality and relapse for matched versus mismatched were 14% (range, 9%-20%) versus 22% (range, 15%-29%) with P ‫؍‬ .10 and 13% (range, 8%-19%) versus 18% (range, 10%-27%) with P ‫؍‬ .40, respectively. Two-year adjusted leukemia-free survival (LFS) and overall survival were 71% (range, 63%-78%) versus 64% (range, 54%-73%) with P ‫؍‬ .27 and 72% (range, 64%-79%) versus 71% (range, 62%-77%) with P ‫؍‬ .72, respectively. Multivariate analyses showed that only advanced disease stage and a diagnosis of acute leukemia had increased risk of relapse, treatment failure, and overall mortality. In summary, HCT performed with related HLA-mismatched donors is a feasible approach with acceptable outcomes. (Blood. 2006;107:3065-3073)

Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly is a powerful means for fabricating multilayer thin films with controlled architecture and composition. This feature article discusses different types of methods for LbL assembly. On the one hand, some of the conventional LbL methods are introduced, which are driven by electrostatic interactions, hydrogen bonds, step-by-step reactions, sol-gel processes, molecular recognition, charge-transfer, stepwise stereocomplex assembly, and electrochemistry. On the other hand, some of the unconventional methods for fabricating of the building blocks which can not be assembled by conventional methods are also summarized. These unconventional methods usually involve the formation of supramolecular structures via one type of self-assembly. These structures can subsequently be used as building blocks in another type of self-assembly. To take advantage of these conventional and unconventional methods, a great number of building blocks can be fabricated into multilayer thin films with a defined sequence structure in a designed way. It has been demonstrated that LbL methods provide new horizons for surface molecular engineering.