Association mapping can quickly and efficiently dissect complex agronomic traits. Rapeseed is one of the most economically important polyploid oil crops, although its genome sequence is not yet published. In this study, a recently developed 60K Brassica Infinium® SNP array was used to analyse an association panel with 472 accessions. The single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the array were in silico mapped using ‘pseudomolecules’ representative of the genome of rapeseed to establish their hypothetical order and to perform association mapping of seed weight and seed quality. As a result, two significant associations on A8 and C3 of Brassica napus were detected for erucic acid content, and the peak SNPs were found to be only 233 and 128 kb away from the key genes BnaA.FAE1 and BnaC.FAE1. BnaA.FAE1 was also identified to be significantly associated with the oil content. Orthologues of Arabidopsis thaliana HAG1 were identified close to four clusters of SNPs associated with glucosinolate content on A9, C2, C7 and C9. For seed weight, we detected two association signals on A7 and A9, which were consistent with previous studies of quantitative trait loci mapping. The results indicate that our association mapping approach is suitable for fine mapping of the complex traits in rapeseed.

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SummaryDegenerative cartilage endplate (CEP) shows decreased chondrification and increased ossification. Cartilage endplate stem cells (CESCs), with the capacity for chondro-osteogenic differentiation, are responsible for CEP restoration. CEP is avascular and hypoxic, while the physiological hypoxia is disrupted in the degenerated CEP. Hypoxia promoted chondrogenesis but inhibited osteogenesis in CESCs. This tissue-specific differentiation fate of CESCs in response to hypoxia was physiologically significant with regard to CEP maintaining chondrification and refusing ossification. MIF, a downstream target of HIF1A, is involved in cartilage and bone metabolisms, although little is known about its regulatory role in differentiation. In CESCs, MIF was identified as a key point through which HIF1A regulated the chondro-osteogenic differentiation. Unexpectedly, unlike the traditionally recognized mode, increased nuclear-expressed MIF under hypoxia was identified to act as a transcriptional regulator by interacting with the promoter of SOX9 and RUNX2. This mode of HIF1A/MIF function may represent a target for CEP degeneration therapy.

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Southwest China has a high burden of spinal tuberculosis (TB). Few large case studies of spinal TB in southwest China have been conducted. This study investigated the features of 921 patients who were treated for spinal TB at a general hospital in southwest China between 2001 and 2016. Demographic data, clinical data, laboratory data, imaging findings, treatment methods, and outcomes of patients who were admitted to the hospital for spinal TB were reviewed retrospectively. The annual incidence of spinal TB increased throughout the study period. The greatest number of patients were 41 to 50 years old (22.04%). Local pain was the most common symptom (97.8%). A significant difference in the duration of symptoms was observed between rural populations (28.40 months) and urban populations (10.17 months) (P=.041). Of the patients, 32.68% had a normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate and 25.84% had a normal C-reactive protein level. The lumbar spine was the most commonly involved spinal site (44.77%), followed by the thoracic spine (43.60%). All of the patients underwent chemotherapy, and 77.10% of patients underwent surgery. Most of the patients were cured, with the exception of 2.19% of patients who discontinued chemotherapy after early improvement of clinical status. Spinal TB is still a major public health problem in southwest China. Chemotherapy and surgery can yield satisfactory outcomes with timely diagnosis and long-term treatment. It is urgent to increase the attention paid to spinal TB and improve knowledge of this disease among the general public, especially in southwest China. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(6):e1017-e1023.].

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Ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) materials glow persistently in the dark, which offers new exciting possibilities in the fields of anti-counterfeiting, photoelectric devices and biological imaging. However, the development of single-component UOP materials remains a great challenge. Herein, we develop a single component organic supramolecular zipper system with a lifetime up to 0.77 s. Owing to the introduction of a pyrazole ring into the diphenylsulfone group, the "V" shaped molecules were artfully self-assembled into supramolecular zippers via π-π and CÀ H•••π interactions, that is not only of significance in highly efficient generation of triplet excitons but also facilitates a Dexter energy transfer process within supramolecular zippers, that are responsible for alleviating radiative and nonradiative deactivation decay of triplet excitons, to finally boost the UOP. This finding not only gives a new set of guidelines for the design of single-component UOP molecules but also reveals the UOP mechanism from a new perspective.