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tissue degeneration caused by SDD.The environmental residue/sublethal doses of neonicotinoid insecticides are believed to generate a negative impact on pollinators, including honey bees. Here we report our recent investigation on how imidacloprid, one of the major neonicotinoids, affects worker bees by profiling the transcriptomes of various ages of bees exposed to different doses of imidacloprid during the larval stage. The results show that imidacloprid treatments during the larval stage severely altered the gene expression profiles and may induce precocious foraging. Differential expression of foraging regulators was found in 14-day-old treated adults. A high transcriptome similarity between larvae-treated 14-day-old adults and 20-day-old controls was also observed, and the similarity was positively correlated with the dose of imidacloprid. One parts per billion (ppb) of imidacloprid was sufficient to generate a long-term impact on the bee’s gene expression as severe as with 50 ppb imidacloprid. The disappearance of nurse bees may be driven not only by the hive member constitution but also by the neonicotinoid-induced precocious foraging behavior.Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), bisphenol A (BPA), lead (Pb), total mercury (THg), and methylmercury (MeHg) can affect fetal development. Factors influencing placental transfer rate of these toxins are poorly investigated. Whether prenatal exposure to pollutants has an effect on birth weight is incompletely understood. We therefore aimed (1) to determine placental transfer rates of PFAS, BPA, Pb, THg, and MeHg, (2) to analyze relationships between fetal exposure and birth outcome and (3) to analyze gene variants as mediators of placental transfer rates and birth outcome. Two hundred healthy pregnant women and their newborns participated in the study. BPA, 16 PFAS, THg, MeHg, and Pb were determined using HPLCMS/MS (BPA, PFAS), HPLC-CV-ICPMS (MeHg), CV-AFS (THg), and GF-AAS (Pb). Questionnaires and medical records were used to survey exposure sources and birth outcome. 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms and two deletion polymorphisms were determined by real-time PCR from both maternal and newborn blood. Genotype-phenotype associations were analyzed by categorical regression and logistic regression analysis. Specific gene variants were associated with altered placental transfer of PFAS (ALAD Lys59Asn, ABCG2 Gln141Lys), THg (UGT Tyr85Asp, GSTT1del, ABCC1 rs246221) and Pb (GSTP1 Ala114Val). A certain combination of three gene polymorphisms (ABCC1 rs246221, GCLM rs41303970, HFE His63Asp) was over-represented in newborns small for gestational age. see more 36% of Austrian and 75% of Slovakian mothers had levels exceeding the HBM guidance value I (2 μg/L) of the German HBM Commission for PFOA. 13% of newborns and 39% of women had Ery-Pb levels above 24 μg/kg, an approximation for the BMDL01 of 12 μg/L set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Our findings point to the need to minimize perinatal exposures to protect fetal health, especially those genetically predisposed to increased transplacental exposure.Understanding the genetics of drought tolerance can expedite the development of drought-tolerant cultivars in wheat. In this study, we dissected the genetics of drought tolerance in spring wheat using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between a drought-tolerant cultivar, ‘Reeder’ (PI613586), and a high-yielding but drought-susceptible cultivar, ‘Albany.’ The RIL population was evaluated for grain yield (YLD), grain volume weight (GVW), thousand kernel weight (TKW), plant height (PH), and days to heading (DH) at nine different environments. The Infinium 90 k-based high-density genetic map was generated using 10,657 polymorphic SNP markers representing 2,057 unique loci. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis detected a total of 11 consistent QTL for drought tolerance-related traits. Of these, six QTL were exclusively identified in drought-prone environments, and five were constitutive QTL (identified under both drought and normal conditions). One major QTL on chromosome 7B was idess of the origin, all QTL with significant drought tolerance could assist significantly in the development of drought-tolerant wheat cultivars, using genomics-assisted breeding approaches.As a pivotal research tool, genome-wide association study has successfully identified numerous genetic variants underlying distinct diseases. However, these identified genetic variants only explain a small proportion of the phenotypic variation for certain diseases, suggesting that there are still more genetic signals to be detected. One of the reasons may be that one-phenotype one-variant association study is not so efficient in detecting variants of weak effects. Nowadays, it is increasingly worth noting that joint analysis of multiple phenotypes may boost the statistical power to detect pathogenic variants with weak genetic effects on complex diseases, providing more clues for their underlying biology mechanisms. So a Weighted Combination of multiple phenotypes following Hierarchical Clustering method (WCHC) is proposed for simultaneously analyzing multiple phenotypes in association studies. A series of simulations are conducted, and the results show that WCHC is either the most powerful method or comparable with the most powerful competitor in most of the simulation scenarios. Additionally, we evaluated the performance of WCHC in its application to the obesity-related phenotypes from Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities, and several associated variants are reported.Background Osteomyelitis is an inflammatory process characterized by progressive bone destruction. Moreover, chronic bacterial osteomyelitis is regarded as a difficult-to-treat clinical entity due to its long-standing course and frequent infection recurrence. However, the role of genetic factors in the occurrence and development of bacterial osteomyelitis is poorly understood. Methods We performed a systematic review to assess the frequency of individual alleles and genotypes of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among patients with bacterial osteomyelitis and healthy people to identify whether the SNPs are associated with the risk of developing bacterial osteomyelitis. Then, gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genomes analyses were performed to identify the potential biological effects of these genes on the pathogenesis of bacterial osteomyelitis. Result Fourteen eligible studies containing 25 genes were analyzed. In this review, we discovered that the SNPs in IL1B, IL6, IL4, IL10, IL12B, IL1A, IFNG, TNF, PTGS2, CTSG, vitamin D receptor (VDR), MMP1, PLAT, and BAX increased the risk of bacterial osteomyelitis, whereas those in IL1RN and TLR2 could protect against osteomyelitis.