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SU MMARYThe genetic effects, including genetic main effects and genotyperenvironment (GrE) interaction effects, for oleic acid content (OAC) and linoleic acid content (LAC) at five different developmental times/stages were studied using unconditional and conditional genetic models for seed quantitative traits in diploid plants. The unconditional analysis results revealed that both OAC and LAC were simultaneously controlled by diploid embryo nuclear genes, cytoplasmic genes and diploid maternal plant nuclear genes and their GrE interaction effects. Effects on the embryo and cytoplasm were found to be more important for OAC at different developmental times while maternal effects, in combination with cytoplasmic effects, were more important for LAC at most development times. The conditional analysis revealed that the net effect from expression of maternal genes was more important for both traits at most developmental stages. The total narrow-sense heritability was high for both OAC and LAC, with general heritabilities being more visible for OAC and GrE interaction heritability being more important for LAC at most development times. The predicted genetic effects indicated that while most parents (with the exception of Youcai 601, Zhongyou 821 and Eyouchangjia) could be used for improving OAC of offspring, Double 20-4 was the most appropriate for improving LAC due to its better stability and positive values across environments at most development times.

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Objective: To investigate the induction of antitumor immune response by vaccination with interleukin-18 (IL-18) gene-modi®ed, C215Fab-SEA-coated tumor cells. Materials: A B16-C215 cell clone stably expressing C215 antigen was established by transfecting the gene-encoding C215 antigen into B16 melanoma cells. The manipulated tumor cell vaccine was prepared with B16-C215 cells genetically modi®ed with the IL-18 gene, coated with the fusion protein of SEA and the Fab region of C215 mAb (C215Fab-SEA) which speci®cally binds to the C215 antigen and then irradiated. C57BL/6 mice were vaccinated with IL-18 gene-modi®ed, C215Fab-SEA-coated B16-C215 cells followed by tumor challenge. Tumor growth and survival time were observed. The expansion of CD4 + , CD8 + cells in lymphocytes derived from draining lymph node was detected by FACS. Induction of CTL activity by vaccination was measured by 51 Cr release assay. Results: IL-18 gene-modi®ed, C215Fab-SEA-coated B16-C215 cell vaccine eectively stimulated lymphocyte proliferation and CD4 + , CD8 + cell expansion in vitro. It was more immunogenic than B16-C215 cells genetically modi®ed with IL-18 gene alone or B16-C215 cells coated with C215Fab-SEA alone. Immunization of the mice with the manipulated vaccine elicited protective immunity against the following tumor challenge of parental B16-C215 and wild-type B16 cells. Signi®cant expansion of CD4 + , CD8 + T cells was observed in the draining lymph node of the immunized mice when compared with that in unvaccinated mice. Higher CTL activity was induced in vaccinated mice than that in unvaccinated mice. Conclusion: Vaccination with IL-18 gene-modi®ed, C215Fab-SEA-coated tumor cells elicited potent antitumor response through induction of tumor-speci®c immune response.Keywords Interleukin 18 á Superantigen Vaccination á Antitumor eect á Gene therapyAbbreviations IL-18 interleukin 18 á SAgs Superantigens á SEA staphylococcal enterotoxin A á MOI multiplicity of infection á CTL cytotoxic T lymphocytes á NK natural killer cells á DCs dendritic cells tumor-suppressive cytokines (Litton et al