BackgroundDwarfing genes have widely been used in barley breeding program. More than 30 types of dwarfs or semidwarfs have been reported, but a few has been exploited in barley breeding because pleiotropic effects of dwarfing genes cause some undesired traits. The plant architecture of newly discovered dwarfing germplasm "Huaai 11" consisted of desirable agronomic traits such as shortened stature and early maturity. Genetic factor controlling the plant height in dwarf line Huaai 11 was investigated.ResultsThe Huaai 11 was crossed with tall varieties Monker, Mpyt, Zhenongda 3, Zaoshu 3, Advance, Huadamai 1, Huadamai 6, Hyproly and Ris01508. All the F1 plants displayed tall trait. Both tall and dwarf plants appeared in all the F2 populations with a 3:1 segregation ratio, suggesting that dwarfism of Huaai 11 is controlled by a single recessive gene, btwd1. Allelism test indicated that this dwarfing gene in the Huaai 11 is nonallelic with the gene br, uzu, sdw1 and denso. Using a double haploid population derived from a cross of Huadamai 6 and Huaai 11 and SSR markers the novel dwarfing gene was mapped onto the long arm of chromosome 7H, and closely linked to Bmac031 and Bmac167 with genetic distance of 2.2 cM.ConclusionHuaai 11 is a new source of dwarf for broadening the genetic base of dwarfism. This dwarf source was controlled by a recessive dwarfing gene btwd1, was mapped onto the long arm of chromosome 7H.

These findings suggest that A. Officinarum 80% alcohol extract can significantly relieve primary dysmenorrhea.

The stems of Nauclea officinalis have been utilized as a crude drug in China, so other parts of the plant are abandoned, resulting in a waste of traditional Chinese medicine resources. To determine the distribution and content of the alkaloids, phenolic acids and iridoid in different organs (stem, branch, leaf and bark) of this plant, a reliable method has been established using LC-MS/MS. Nine constituents, namely strictosamide, vincosamide, chlorogenic acid, sweroside, naucleamide B, protocatechuic acid, pumiloside, vanillic acid and cryptochlorogenic acid, were simultaneously determined in 6 min. Meanwhile, the antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities were evaluated for comparative analysis of the pharmacological activity of different parts of N. officinalis. The results showed that the content of active components in other organs of N. officinalis was higher than that in stems, and the pharmacological effects of branches and leaves were also better. The established approach could be helpful for the quality control of N. officinalis, and also provide necessary information for the rational utilization of resources.

The aim of the present study was to develop a rapid, specific and sensitive LC-MS/MS method for the determination of DPHB [7-(4″-hydroxy-3″-methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-4-hepten-3-one] in rat plasma using yakuchinone A as an internal standard (IS). n-Hexane was used for the extraction of DPHB from rat plasma. Chromatographic separation of DPHB was achieved using a Kinetex XB-C column (2.10 × 50 mm, 2.6 μm) at 40°C. The mobile phase consisted of water (containing 0.1‰ formic acid, A) and acetonitrile (containing 0.1‰ formic acid, B) under a gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.3 mL min . Positive electrospray ionization and multiple reaction monitoring mode were used for detection. The selected precursor ion to product ion pairs, m/z 311.3 → 137.0 for DPHB and m/z 313.1 → 137.0 for yakuchinone A, were monitored. Good linearity was observed over the concentration range from 2 to 2000 ng mL (r = 0.9969). The recovery efficiency of DPHB from rat plasma was 54.8-69.7%, while the matrix effect ranged from 99.7 to 113%. Intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy values were within ±15% at three different quality control concentration levels. This validated method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic studies in rats after a single p.o. or i.v. dose of DPHB solution. The route of administration significantly influenced systemic exposure to DPHB, and low bioavailability of DPHB was observed. The method developed here will be further improved and used in future pharmacokinetic studies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between glioma-associated oncogene homolog 1 ( GLI1 ) rs2228226 and rs10783826 polymorphisms and congenital heart disease (CHD) risk in a Chinese Han population. Genotyping for our interested polymorphisms was performed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism in 106 CHD patients and 112 healthy controls. Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium status in the control group was also checked via χ 2 test. Differences in genotype and allele frequencies between the case and control groups were analyzed adopting Chi-Squared test as well, and the relative risk of CHD resulting from GLI1 genetic variants was checked via calculating odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI). CC genotype of rs2228226 showed significantly higher frequency in CHD patients than in controls ( P = .011), indicating that it increased the disease risk (OR = 3.257, 95%CI = 1.280–8.287). Similarly, C allele of the polymorphism elevated CHD incidence by 1.609 folds, compared with G allele (OR = 1.609, 95%CI = 1.089–2.376). However, rs10783826 was not correlated with the occurrence of CHD. GLI1 rs2228226 polymorphism may be a risk factor for CHD in Chinese Han population, but not rs10783826.