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Plant height (PHT), stem and leaf fresh weight (SLFW), juice weight (JW) and sugar content of stem (Brix) are important traits for biofuel production in sweet Sorghum. QTL analysis of PHT, SLFW, JW and Brix was conducted with composite interval mapping using F 2 and F 2:3 populations derived from the cross between grain Sorghum (Shihong137) 9 sweet Sorghum (L-Tian). Three QTLs controlling PHT were mapped on SBI-01, SBI-07 and SBI-09 under four different environments. These QTLs could explain 10.16 to 45.29% of the phenotypic variance. Two major effect QTLs on SBI-07 and SBI-09 were consistently detected under four environments. Eight QTLs controlling SLFW were mapped across three environments and accounted for 5.49-25.36% of the phenotypic variance. One major QTL on SBI-09 located between marker Sb5-206 and SbAGE03 was observed under three environments. Four QTLs controlling Brix were identified under two environments and accounted for 11.03-17.65% of the phenotypic variance. Six QTLs controlling JW were detected under two environments, and explained 6.63-23.56% of the phenotypic variance. QTLs for JW on SBI-07 and SBI-09 were consistent in two environments showing higher environmental stability. In addition, two chromosome regions on SBI-07 and SBI-09 were identified in our study having major effect on PHT, SFLW and JW. The results would be useful for the genetic improvement of sweet Sorghum to be used for biofuel production.Keywords Brix Á Genetic linkage map Á Juice weight Á Plant height Á Stem and leaf fresh weight Á Sorghum bicolor Introductions

Memory deficits are considered to have a great influence on self-management, dietary restriction and therapeutic regimen for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with dialysis treatment. This study was aim to investigate the spontaneous brain activity and its relationship with memory performance in ESRD patients before dialysis (T1) and after 24 h (T2) during a single dialysis session. 23 ESRD patients and 25 matched healthy controls (HCs) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at T1, and all patients were also scanned at T2. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) methods were used to evaluate the spontaneous brain activity between two groups. The Auditory Verbal Learning Test-Huashan version (AVLT-H) was performed to assess memory function. Compared with HCs, ESRD group showed a significant decreases in the immediate recall total score (IR-S), short-term delayed recall score (SR-S), and long-term delayed recall score (LR-S) at T1. IR-S, SR-S, LR-S and recognition score (REC-S) were significantly increased at T2. Compared with HCs at T1, ESRD patients showed that the lower mean ALFF (mALFF) values were mainly located in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), medial frontal gyrus, and precuneus. Higher ReHo in the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus and left hippocampus and lower ReHo in the right precentral gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex were found at T1 too. The mALFF values of the DLPFC and precuneus were significantly increased during a dialysis session, while no significantly difference of ReHo region was found. Furthermore, the increased mALFF values of the DLPFC were significantly positively correlated with the improvement in the IR-S. Our results indicated that increased regional spontaneous activity of the DLPFC may reflect memory performance improvement after a single dialysis treatment, which may provide insight into the effect of hemodialysis on spontaneous brain function during a single dialysis session.

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We aimed to investigate the neurovascular coupling (NVC) dysfunction in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients related with cognitive impairment. Twenty-five ESRD patients and 22 healthy controls were enrolled. To assess the NVC dysfunctional pattern, resting-state functional MRI and arterial spin labeling were explored to estimate the coupling of spontaneous neuronal activity and cerebral blood perfusion based on amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF)-cerebral blood flow (CBF), fractional ALFF (fALFF)-CBF, regional homogeneity (ReHo)-CBF, and degree centrality (DC)-CBF correlation coefficients. Multivariate partial least-squares correlation and mediation analyses were used to evaluate the relationship among NVC dysfunctional pattern, cognitive impairment and clinical characteristics. The NVC dysfunctional patterns in ESRD patients were significantly decreased in 34 brain regions compared with healthy controls. The decreased fALFF-CBF coefficients in the cingulate gyrus (CG) were associated positively with lower kinetic transfer/volume urea (Kt/V) and lower short-term memory scores, and were negatively associated with higher serum urea. The relationship between Kt/V and memory deficits of ESRD patients was partially mediated by the fALFF-CBF alteration of the CG. These findings reveal the NVC dysfunction may be a potential neural mechanism for cognitive impairment in ESRD. The regional NVC dysfunction may mediate the impact of dialysis adequacy on memory function.