No abstract

Adzuki bean (Vigna angularis), an important legume crop, is grown in more than 30 countries of the world. The seed of adzuki bean, as an important source of starch, digestible protein, mineral elements, and vitamins, is widely used foods for at least a billion people. Here, we generated a high-quality draft genome sequence of adzuki bean by whole-genome shotgun sequencing. The assembled contig sequences reached to 450 Mb (83% of the genome) with an N50 of 38 kb, and the total scaffold sequences were 466.7 Mb with an N50 of 1.29 Mb. Of them, 372.9 Mb of scaffold sequences were assigned to the 11 chromosomes of adzuki bean by using a single nucleotide polymorphism genetic map. A total of 34,183 protein-coding genes were predicted. Functional analysis revealed that significant differences in starch and fat content between adzuki bean and soybean were likely due to transcriptional abundance, rather than copy number variations, of the genes related to starch and oil synthesis. We detected strong selection signals in domestication by the population analysis of 50 accessions including 11 wild, 11 semiwild, 17 landraces, and 11 improved varieties. In addition, the semiwild accessions were illuminated to have a closer relationship to the cultigen accessions than the wild type, suggesting that the semiwild adzuki bean might be a preliminary landrace and play some roles in the adzuki bean domestication. The genome sequence of adzuki bean will facilitate the identification of agronomically important genes and accelerate the improvement of adzuki bean.adzuki bean | genome sequence | starch synthesis genes | fat synthesis genes | domestication

Abstract-The complex nature of hypertension makes identifying the pathophysiology and its genetic contributions a challenging task. One powerful approach for the genetic dissection of blood pressure regulation is studying inbred rat models of hypertension, as they provide natural allele variants but reduced heterogeneity (both genetic and etiologic). Furthermore, the detailed physiologic studies to which the rat is amenable allow for the determination of intermediate phenotypes.We have performed a total genome scan in offspring of an F 2 intercross between the Lyon hypertensive (LH) and Lyon normotensive rat strains to identify linkage of anthropometric, blood pressure, renal, metabolic, and endocrine phenotypes. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) regions involved in blood pressure regulation, end-stage organ damage, body and organ weight, and lipid metabolism in the LH rat were identified on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, and 17, with 2 phenotypes associated with the metabolic syndrome identified on chromosomes 1 and 17. Regions on chromosomes 2, 13, and 17 were revealed to be important for blood pressure regulation. Regions on chromosome 17 were found to significantly contribute to both metabolic homeostasis and blood pressure regulation; 2 aggregates of a total of 23 QTLs were identified, including several "intermediate phenotypes." These intermediate phenotypes may be used as closer surrogates to the mechanisms leading to hypertension and metabolic dysfunction in the LH rat. Key Words: genetics Ⅲ linkage analysis Ⅲ metabolism Ⅲ hypertension, genetic Ⅲ rats, inbred strains Ⅲ cardiovascular diseases H uman essential hypertension and associated cardiovascular diseases are multifactorial disorders with a complex etiology, resulting from the interaction between multiple genes and environmental factors. Despite development of new genetic and genomic technologies, the genetic determinants of multifactorial disorders remain unclear. The study of animal models in discovering pathophysologic and genetic determinants of polygenetic disorders such as hypertension provides a platform of reduced heterogeneity. Currently, there exist several different genetically hypertensive rat and mouse selection models. 1 Numerous linkage studies in rats have shown that each rat chromosome contains at least 1 blood pressure (BP) quantitative trait locus (QTL; http://rgd.mcw.edu/qtls).The Lyon hypertensive (LH) rat has many features common to the human metabolic syndrome, a group of metabolic risk factors including central obesity, atherogenic dyslipidemia, elevated BP, insulin resistance or glucose intolerance, and prothrombotic and proinflamatory states. 2 Interestingly, a control strain, the Lyon normotensive (LN) rat, has been simultaneously derived from a common ancestor of the LH; the LN is genetically quite similar to the LH (85% identical based on characterization of 4328 microsatellite markers; data not shown) but phenotypically very distinct. Compared with the LN, LH rats have mild salt-sensitive hypertension and reduced life ...

SUMMARY The basidiomycete Ustilago maydis is a ubiquitous pathogen of maize (Zea mays), one of the world’s most important cereal crops. Infection by this smut fungus triggers tumor formation in aerial plant parts within which the fungus sporulates. Using confocal microscopy to track U. maydis infection on corn anthers through 7 dpi (days post-injection), we found that U. maydis is located on the epidermis on the first two days and by 3 dpi has reached all anther lobe cell types. Fungal infection can alter cell fate specification events, cell division patterns, host cell expansion, and host cell senescence depending on the developmental stage and cell type. Fungal impacts on tassel and plant growth were also quantified. Transcriptome profiling using a dual organism microarray identified thousands of anther genes affected by fungal infection 3 dpi during the cell fate specification and rapid cell proliferation phases of anther development. 4147 (17%) of anther-expressed genes were altered by infection, 2018 fungal genes were expressed in anthers, and 206 fungal secretome genes may be anther-specific. The results confirm that U. maydis deploys distinctive genes to cause disease in specific maize organs and begins to chart the mechanisms by which the host plant is manipulated to generate a tumor.