Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) catalyzes the first step of the phenylpropanoid pathway, which produces precursors to a variety of important secondary metabolites. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) contains four PAL genes (PAL1-PAL4), but there has been no genetic analysis to assess the biological functions of the entire gene family. Here, we report the generation and analysis of combined mutations for the four Arabidopsis PAL genes. Contrary to a previous report, we found that three independent pal1 pal2 double mutants were fertile and generated yellow seeds due to the lack of condensed tannin pigments in the seed coat. The pal1 pal2 double mutants were also deficient in anthocyanin pigments in various plant tissues, which accumulate in wild-type plants under stress conditions. Thus, PAL1 and PAL2 have a redundant role in flavonoid biosynthesis. Furthermore, the pal1 pal2 double mutants were more sensitive to ultraviolet-B light but more tolerant to drought than wildtype plants. We have also generated two independent pal1 pal2 pal3 pal4 quadruple knockout mutants, which are stunted and sterile. The quadruple knockout mutants still contained about 10% of the wild-type PAL activity, which might result from one or more leaky pal mutant genes or from other unknown PAL genes. The quadruple mutants also accumulated substantially reduced levels of salicylic acid and displayed increased susceptibility to a virulent strain of the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. These results provide further evidence for both distinct and overlapping roles of the Arabidopsis PAL genes in plant growth, development, and responses to environmental stresses.

Our results demonstrated that H. pylori infection induced hepatic insulin resistance by the c-Jun/miR-203/SOCS3 signaling pathway and provide possible implications with regard to resolving insulin resistance.

The educational tradition of China has developed from traditional Chinese culture. Without an understanding of the cultural impact on traditional education, it is impossible to comprehend the educational tradition of China and to change its traditional educational ideas. There are fine traditions and feudal remains in Chinese culture which ought to be examined from the historical materialism perspective in order to tell the essence from the dross and to facilitate educational modernization in today's China. Traditional Chinese culture has forged the traditional education of ChinaThe traditional education of China is a concept parallel to traditional Chinese culture. It came into existence simultaneously with traditional Chinese culture and it refers to the education prior to the modern period. As education is an integral part of culture, the traditional education of China is also a component of traditional Chinese culture and it has been shaped by this culture. In traditional Chinese culture, the Confucian culture was the center. This was even more the case with the traditional education, ranging from its educational values to what and how it taught, with everything immersed in the spirit of Confucianism. It can be said, in some measure, that the traditional education of China is one that has inherited the Confucian culture; hence, this paper was intended to elaborate on the impact of traditional Chinese cultures on the traditional education of China from the following perspectives.

Knowledge of mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) with t(9;22)(q34;q11.2) and/or bcr-abl (Ph-positive MPAL) is limited. In this report, we review 21 adult patients with Ph-positive and/or bcr-abl positive MPAL. They were predominantly male, and presented with high WBC counts; 61.9% patients had WBC counts higher than 30 × 10(9)/L, and 33.3% patients had WBC counts higher than 100 × 10(9)/L. Electron microscopy (EM)-determined positivity for myeloperoxidase (MPO) should be considered for the classification of acute leukemia because MPO was positive by EM and flow cytometry only in 14.3% of cases in our study. Six cases (30.0%) had additional chromosome aberrations. Expression of p190(bcr-abl) was more common than that of p210(bcr-abl). There was no difference in characteristics between the p190(bcr-abl) positive and p210(bcr-abl) positive groups. The overall complete remission (CR) rate was 81.0%. Females, and patients with high WBC (>100 × 10(9)/L) at baseline had lower CR rate (57.1, 57.1%, respectively). The treatment outcome of Ph-positive MPAL is poor; the 1-year overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) rate were 28.0 and 18.0%, respectively. Imatinib and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can improve survival with Ph-positive MPAL.