Objective: To identify Persicae Semen and its sibling species, and to secure the quality and clinical safety of this medicinal material. Methods: The internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA of Persicae Semen and its sibling species were amplified and bidirectionally sequenced by DNA barcoding. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation were performed by the CodonCode Aligner 4.1. The genetic distances were computed by MEGA 5.0 in accordance with the Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model, and the phylogenetic tree constructed by the neighbor-joining (NJ) method. Results: The length of ITS2 sequences of the two origin plants of Persicae Semen was between 212 bp to 213 bp. Their intraspecific genetic distance was much lower than the interspecific genetic distance with their sibling species. The ITS2 sequence possessed the character of good stability and low intra-specific sequence variation. In the NJ tree, both Prunus persica and P. davidiana were clustered into one large branch, and clearly separated with their sibling species. Conclusion: ITS2 can be used to effectively distinguish Persicae Semen from its sibling species, which can provide a reference for the iden-tification of other Chinese medicine and its sibling species.

Objective: This study aimed to discriminate between Eupatorii Herba and its adulterants in order to guarantee the quality and clinical curative effect of this medicinal material. Methods: Genomic DNA extracted from Eupatorii Herba was used as templates. The internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA was amplified. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation were performed by CodonCode Aligner. The intraspecific and interspecific genetic distances of Eupatorii Herba and its adulterants were computed by MEGA5 and the phylogenetic tree was constructed using the neighbor-joining (NJ) method. Results: The length of ITS2 sequence of Eupatorii Herba was 218 bp. The maximum intraspecific genetic distance (K2P distance) of Eupatorii Herba was 0.0092. The minimum interspecific genetic distance of Eupatorii Herba and its adulterants was 0.024. The NJ trees showed that the ITS2 sequence would be used to identify Eupatorii Herba and its adulterants. Con-clusion: ITS2 sequence was able to identify Eupatorii Herba and its adulterants correctly and it provided a new technique to ensure clinical safety in utilization of traditional Chinese medicines.

Objective To probe timely diagnosis and surgical intervention of traumatic diaphragmatic rupture(TDR). Methods The clinical data of 161 patients with TDR treated surgically in our department during the past 17 years were analyzed retrospectively in respects of diagnostic methods,accuracy of preoperative judgment of TDR,incidence of diaphragmatic hernia,surgical procedures and outcome,etc. Results There were 139 males and 22 females at a mean age of 32.4 years(9-84 years),with average ISS of 27.8 points(13-66 points).Of all patients,65.2%had shock at admission.For these 161 patients,36 suffered from blunt injuries and 125 from penetrating injuries.For diaphragmatic injury.preoperative diagnostic rate was 88.9%for blunt injuries and 78.4%for penetrating injuries (P＞0.01).The incidence of diaphragmatic hernia was 94.4%in blunt injuries and 14.4%in penetrating injuries(P＜0.05).In this series,thoracotomy was performed in 30 patients,laparotomy in 106,thoracotomy plus laparotomy in 18 and combined thoraco-laparotomy in 7,with overall fatality rate of 10.6%and a mean ISS of 41.6 points.The mortality rate was 22.2%in blunt injuries and 7.2%in penetrating injuries(P＜0.01).The main causes for death were hemorrhagic shock and septic complications; Conclusions Blunt diaphragmatic injury can be diagnosed by radiographic signs of diaphragmatic hernia.According to"offside sign",which implies a thoracic wound with positive physical or radiological signs in the abdomen or in the thorax,penetrating diaphragmatic injury can be recognized.To deal with diaphragmatic hernia,it is important to judge the vitality of viscera.Penetrating injury has a relatively good prognosis.

Objective: To identify Xanthii Fructus and secure its quality and safety in medication. Methods: Total ge-nomic DNA was extracted from Xanthii Fructus and its adulterants. ITS2 sequences were amplified, and purified PCR products were sequenced. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation were performed using the CodonCode Aligner V 4.2. The Kimura 2-Parameter (K2P) distances were calculated using MEGA 5.0. The neigh-bor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic trees were constructed. Results: The intraspecific genetic distances of Xanthii Fructus were 0. The interspecific genetic distances between Xanthii Fructus and its adulterants were ranged from 0.009 to 0.542. The NJ tree showed that Xanthii Fructus could differ from its adulterants obviously. Conclusion: ITS2 can be used to identify Xanthii Fructus from its adulterants effectively, and our study further confirmed the effectiveness of ITS2 to identify traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

Germ cells make two major decisions when they move from an indeterminate state to their final stage of gamete production. One decision is sexual commitment for sperm or egg production, and the other is to maintain mitotic division or entry into meiosis. It is unclear whether the two decisions are made as a single event or separate events, because there has been no evidence for the presence of germ cell sex prior to meiosis. Here we report direct evidence in the fish rainbow trout that gonia have distinct sexuality. We show that dazl expression occurs in both male and female gonia but exhibits differential intracellular distribution. More strikingly, we show that boule is highly expressed in male gonia but absent in female gonia. Therefore, mitotic gonia possess sex, sperm/egg decision and mitosis/meiosis decision are two independent events, and sperm/egg decision precedes mitosis/meiosis decision in rainbow trout, making this organism a unique vertebrate model for mechanistic understanding of germ cell sex differentiation and relationship between the two decisions.
Animals ; Female ; Fish Proteins ; genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation ; Male ; Meiosis ; Oncorhynchus mykiss ; genetics ; physiology ; Ovary ; cytology ; metabolism ; Ovum ; cytology ; metabolism ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; RNA-Binding Proteins ; genetics ; Sex Determination Processes ; Spermatozoa ; cytology ; metabolism ; Testis ; cytology ; metabolism