OBJECTIVETo investigate the molecular subtypes of 73 strains of Yersinia enterocolitica biotype 1A isolated in Shandong province by PFGE, and thereby to analyze the relationship between PFGE typing and biological characteristics.

METHODSSeventy-three strains of Yersinia enterocolitica biotype 1A were isolated from animal feces and meat products in Gaomi city and Wulian county in Shandong province from 2008 to 2009. Motility test, serum agglutination and virulent genes detection by PCR were used to learn the biological characteristics of the isolated strains. The molecular subtypes were determined by PFGE, whose relationships with motility, serotypes and virulent genotypes were also analyzed.

RESULTSOut of the 73 strains of Yersinia enterocolitica, 5 showed medium-active motility while the other 68 showed well-active motility. The dominated serotypes were O:5(17/73) and O:8(14/73), followed by O:9(5/73) and O:7, 8(1/73), and there was no O:3 serotype found. Meanwhile, 36 strains couldn't be serotyped. All the strains were negative with the gene ail, ystA, yadA and virF, yet the positive rate of ystB gene was 72.6% (53/73). The 73 strains of Yersinia enterocolitica isolated could be subtyped into 54 PFGE patterns (K6GN11SD0001-K6GN11SD0054), most of which only had 1 or 2 isolated strains, and no pattern was dominant. The strains in the same or similar cluster were from different hosts; each serotype and toxic genotype scattered in the clustering trees, without specific correlation with PFGE subtypes. 4 out of 5 strains, which showed medium-active motility, belonged to one branch, with the similarity coefficient at 80.9% - 100.0%; while all the toxic genotype belonged to type B.

CONCLUSIONBiotype 1A Yersinia enterocolitica has many clones, whose PFGE types had relations with motility, but no relations with virulent genotype and host.

Bacterial Typing Techniques ; DNA, Bacterial ; genetics ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Genes, Bacterial ; Genotype ; Meat Products ; microbiology ; Yersinia enterocolitica ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of Chinese medicine (CM) treatment on survival time and quality of life (QOL) in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). METHODS: This was an exploratory and prospective clinical observation. Patients diagnosed with SCLC receiving CM treatment were included and followed up every 3 months. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS), and the secondary outcomes were progression-free survival (PFS) and QOL. RESULTS: A total of 136 patients including 65 limited-stage SCLC (LS-SCLC) patients and 71 extensive-stage SCLC (ES-SCLC) patients were analyzed. The median OS of ES-SCLC patients was 17.27 months, and the median OS of LS-SCLC was 40.07 months. The survival time was 16.27 months for SCLC patients with brain metastasis, 9.83 months for liver metastasis, 13.43 months for bone metastasis, and 18.13 months for lung metastasis. Advanced age, pleural fluid, liver and brain metastasis were risk factors, while longer CM treatment duration was a protective factor. QOL assessment indicated that after 6 months of CM treatment, scores increased in function domains and decreased in symptom domains. CONCLUSION CM treatment might help prolong OS of SCLC patients. Moreover, CM treatment brought the trend of symptom amelioration and QOL improvement. These results provide preliminary evidence for applying CM in SCLC multi-disciplinary treatment.

Saposhnikovia divaricata is a commonly used bulk medicinal plant. To explore the key enzyme genes and their expression in the biosynthesis of chromone and coumarin, the key active components, we carried out transcriptome sequencing(Illumina HiSeq) and bioinformatics analysis for the 1-year-old(S1) and 2-year-old(S2) plants of S. divaricata. A total of 40.8 Gb data was obtained. After the sequence assembly via Trinity, 110 732 transcripts and 86 233 unigenes were obtained, which were aligned and annotated with NR, Swiss-Prot, GO, KEGG, and PFAM. Daucus carota and S. divaricata had the highest sequence homology. KEGG pathway enrichment showed that the differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched in plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways. A total of 27 differentially expressed unigenes, including 13 enzyme genes, were identified in the pathways related to the synthesis of active ingredients in S. divaricata. Compared with S1 plant, S2 plant showed up-regulated expression of PAL, BGL, C4H, 4CL, CYP98A, CSE, REF, and CCoAOMT and down-regulated expression of CHS, CAD, and COMT. HCT and POD had both up-regulated and down-regulated unigenes. Among them, PAL, C4H, 4CL, BGL, and CHS can be used as candidate genes for the synthesis of the active ingredients in S. divaricata. The four key enzyme genes were verified by RT-qPCR, which showed the results consistent with transcriptome sequencing. This study enriches the genetic information of S. divaricata and provides support for the identification of candidate genes in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites.
Apiaceae/genetics* ; Chromones ; Coumarins ; Flavonoids ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods* ; Plant Growth Regulators ; Transcriptome