No abstract

Grain size is one of the most important components of grain yield and selecting large seeds has been a main target during plant domestication. Surprisingly, the grain of African cultivated rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) typically is smaller than that of its progenitor, Oryza barthii. Here we report the cloning and characterization of a quantitative trait locus, GL4, controlling the grain length on chromosome 4 in African rice, which regulates longitudinal cell elongation of the outer and inner glumes. Interestingly, GL4 also controls the seed shattering phenotype like its orthologue SH4 gene in Asian rice. Our data show that a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation in the GL4 gene resulted in a premature stop codon and led to small seeds and loss of seed shattering during African rice domestication. These results provide new insights into diverse domestication practices in African rice, and also pave the way for enhancing crop yield to meeting the challenge of cereal demand in West Africa.

BackgroundCoagulation and fibrinolysis activation is frequently observed in cancer patients, and the tumors in these cases are thought to be associated with a higher risk of invasion, metastasis, and worse long-term outcome. The objective of this study was to elucidate the prognostic significance of blood coagulation tests and various clinicopathological characteristics in patients with gallbladder cancer (GBC) after surgical resection.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 115 patients with histologically confirmed GBC who underwent surgical resection in our department. The prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), thrombin time (TT), international normalized ratio (INR), fibrinogen levels, and platelet counts were measured pretreatment at the time of diagnosis. The predictive value of fibrinogen levels for tumor staging was evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Correlations between the preoperative hyperfibrinogenemia and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed, and univariate and multivariate survival analyses were performed to identify the factors associated with overall survival (OS). Cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro were examined to investigate the function of fibrinogen in GBC cell migration.ResultsThe plasma levels for all coagulation tests, with the exception of INR, were significantly different between the GBC patients and control patients (p < 0.001). Hyperfibrinogenemia (>402 mg/dL) was associated with poorly differentiated tumors, advanced tumor invasion, lymphatic metastasis, and advanced tumor stage (p < 0.001), and had a statistically significant adverse effect on survival (p = 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, hyperfibrinogenemia (p = 0.031) was independently associated with worse OS, tumor stage (p = 0.016), margin status (p < 0.001), and lymphatic metastasis (p = 0.035). Moreover, cell migration and invasion in vitro were significantly enhanced by fibrinogen.ConclusionsPreoperative plasma fibrinogen levels was associated with tumor progression and may be an independent marker of poor prognosis in GBC patients. Furthermore, fibrinogen may contribute to cell migration by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

GPS is superior to NLR with respect to its prognostic value for patients with GBC after surgery with curative intent. GPS is not only associated with tumor progression but is also an independent marker of poor prognosis.