Publications by authors named "John McKay"

Article Synopsis
  • Breeding annual crops for deeper root depth and higher biomass can significantly enhance soil organic carbon (SOC) in croplands, offering a scalable and cost-effective solution for climate change mitigation compared to traditional management methods.* -
  • A two-year field experiment with maize, which has low root biomass mainly in the topsoil, showed that deeper root decomposition leads to increased formation of particulate organic matter (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM).* -
  • Modeling suggested that enhancing maize root traits could yield a modest increase in SOC of 0.05 to 0.15 Mg C per hectare annually, indicating limited direct impact on SOC accrual despite maize's widespread global cultivation.*
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Ancient whole-genome duplications are believed to facilitate novelty and adaptation by providing the raw fuel for new genes. However, it is unclear how recent whole-genome duplications may contribute to evolvability within recent polyploids. Hybridization accompanying some whole-genome duplications may combine divergent gene content among diploid species.

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Drought has a significant, negative impact on crop production; and these effects are poised to increase with climate change. Plants acclimate to drought and water stress through diverse physiological responses, primarily mediated by the hormone abscisic acid (ABA). Because plants lose the majority of their water through stomatal pores on aerial surfaces of plants, stomatal closure is one of the rapid responses mediated by ABA to reduce transpirational water loss.

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  • Fidanacogene elaparvovec is a genetic therapy for hemophilia B that showed promising results in a phase 1-2a study, maintaining high levels of factor IX activity.* -
  • In a phase 3 study involving men aged 18 to 65 with severe hemophilia B, the therapy led to a significant 71% reduction in bleeding episodes over 15 months compared to standard prophylactic treatment.* -
  • Despite some participants needing glucocorticoids for side effects, the therapy was generally safe, with no serious adverse infusion events reported.*
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Background:  Fidanacogene elaparvovec, an adeno-associated virus-based gene therapy vector expressing the high-activity factor IX (FIX) variant FIX-R338L, is in development for hemophilia B. One-stage clotting (OS) assays and chromogenic substrate (CS) assays are commonly used to measure FIX-R338L variant activity. Data from ongoing trials suggest FIX activity varies between different OS and CS assays.

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A bloom of Karenia papilionacea that occurred along the Delaware coast in late summer of 2007 was the first Karenia bloom reported on the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, USA). Limited spatial and temporal monitoring conducted by state agencies and citizen science groups since 2007 have documented that several Karenia species are an annual component of the coastal phytoplankton community along the Delmarva Peninsula, often present at background to low concentrations (100 to 10,000 cells L). Blooms of Karenia (> 10 cells L) occurred in 2010, 2016, 2018, and 2019 in different areas along the Delmarva Peninsula coast.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists are trying to understand how plants and animals adapt to different environments and how their genes affect their chances of survival.
  • They studied two groups of plants from Italy and Sweden to see how a specific gene affected their ability to survive cold temperatures.
  • They found that changes in this gene made survival harder, especially in Sweden, where plants survived less than before, showing that adapting to cold has its costs, especially with climate change happening.
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In the decades since the first cannabinoids were identified by scientists, research has focused almost exclusively on the function and capacity of cannabinoids as medicines and intoxicants for humans and other vertebrates. Very little is known about the adaptive value of cannabinoid production, though several hypotheses have been proposed including protection from ultraviolet radiation, pathogens, and herbivores. To test the prediction that genotypes with greater concentrations of cannabinoids will have reduced herbivory, a segregating F population of was leveraged to conduct lab- and field-based bioassays investigating the function of cannabinoids in mediating interactions with chewing herbivores.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The Maize GxE project, part of the Genomes to Fields Initiative, studies how different genetic types (genotypes) of maize interact with varying environmental conditions to improve resource use and predictability in crop performance.
  • - Data collected from 30 locations in the US and one in Germany during 2020-2021 include phenotypic details, soil and climate measurements, and other relevant metadata, all of which are being made publicly accessible.
  • - Collaborators at each site collected and submitted data, which was then verified and compiled by a coordination team, ensuring accuracy before releasing a minimally filtered version to the public.
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Objectives: The Genomes to Fields (G2F) 2022 Maize Genotype by Environment (GxE) Prediction Competition aimed to develop models for predicting grain yield for the 2022 Maize GxE project field trials, leveraging the datasets previously generated by this project and other publicly available data.

Data Description: This resource used data from the Maize GxE project within the G2F Initiative [1]. The dataset included phenotypic and genotypic data of the hybrids evaluated in 45 locations from 2014 to 2022.

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There is considerable evidence for local adaptation in nature, yet important questions remain regarding its genetic basis. How many loci are involved? What are their effect sizes? What is the relative importance of conditional neutrality versus genetic trade-offs? Here we address these questions in the self-pollinating, annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We used 400 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from two locally adapted populations in Italy and Sweden, grew the RILs and parents at the parental locations, and mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) for mean fitness (fruits/seedling planted).

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Objectives: This report provides information about the public release of the 2018-2019 Maize G X E project of the Genomes to Fields (G2F) Initiative datasets. G2F is an umbrella initiative that evaluates maize hybrids and inbred lines across multiple environments and makes available phenotypic, genotypic, environmental, and metadata information. The initiative understands the necessity to characterize and deploy public sources of genetic diversity to face the challenges for more sustainable agriculture in the context of variable environmental conditions.

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Climate change is a defining challenge of the 21st century, and this decade is a critical time for action to mitigate the worst effects on human populations and ecosystems. Plant science can play an important role in developing crops with enhanced resilience to harsh conditions (e.g.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study focuses on understanding how genomic variations in Cannabis sativa are influenced by factors like natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow, particularly comparing feral and domesticated lineages.
  • - Researchers used whole genome resequencing to analyze population structures and selection evidence, supporting the idea that C. sativa originated in Asia and highlighting specific chromosomal variations in U.S. feral plants.
  • - Key findings include loci related to stress response and disease resistance in feral populations, as well as genes associated with increased THC yield in the marijuana sub-population, indicating adaptations to environments and intentional cultivation practices.
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Primary central nervous system diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (PCNS-DLBCL) is a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, characterized by an aggressive disease course. While CNS relapse is common, systemic relapse is rare with no consensus on optimal treatment. This paper presents an unusual case of advanced PCNS-DLBCL with systemic relapse, including adrenal gland involvement.

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High-throughput, field-based characterization of root systems for hundreds of genotypes in thousands of plots is necessary for breeding and identifying loci underlying variation in root traits and their plasticity. We designed a large-scale sampling of root pulling force, the vertical force required to extract the root system from the soil, in a maize diversity panel under differing irrigation levels for two growing seasons. We then characterized the root system architecture of the extracted root crowns.

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Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) for indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (iNHL) including follicular and marginal zone lymphomas was a key therapeutic development that changed the natural history of these diseases. Rituximab, a chimeric anti-CD20 mAb, was the first immunotherapy ever used in cancer, and a current cornerstone of lymphoma therapies. Since, we saw development of humanized antibodies, next generations anti-CD20, mAbs targeting other markers on tumor cells (CD19 and CD22), its microenvironment (PD-1, CD47), antibody drug conjugates and bispecific T cell engagers.

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Understanding the genetic basis of complex traits is a fundamental goal of evolutionary genetics. Yet, the genetics controlling complex traits in many important species such as hemp (Cannabis sativa) remain poorly investigated. Because hemp's change in legal status with the 2014 and 2018 U.

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Identifying mechanisms and pathways involved in gene-environment interplay and phenotypic plasticity is a long-standing challenge. It is highly desirable to establish an integrated framework with an environmental dimension for complex trait dissection and prediction. A critical step is to identify an environmental index that is both biologically relevant and estimable for new environments.

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High-dimensional and high-throughput genomic, field performance, and environmental data are becoming increasingly available to crop breeding programs, and their integration can facilitate genomic prediction within and across environments and provide insights into the genetic architecture of complex traits and the nature of genotype-by-environment interactions. To partition trait variation into additive and dominance (main effect) genetic and corresponding genetic-by-environment variances, and to identify specific environmental factors that influence genotype-by-environment interactions, we curated and analyzed genotypic and phenotypic data on 1918 maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids and environmental data from 65 testing environments.

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Discoveries of adaptive gene knockouts and widespread losses of complete genes have in recent years led to a major rethink of the early view that loss-of-function alleles are almost always deleterious. Today, surveys of population genomic diversity are revealing extensive loss-of-function and gene content variation, yet the adaptive significance of much of this variation remains unknown. Here we examine the evolutionary dynamics of adaptive loss of function through the lens of population genomics and consider the challenges and opportunities of studying adaptive loss-of-function alleles using population genetics models.

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Unlabelled: is an important economic crop of the world; however, the narrow genetic base of this crop has tremendously decreased its crop productivity. As an ancestral species of , is of great importance in widening the genetic diversity of . In the present study, 42 SSR markers were employed to screen the genetic diversity among 83 , 16 , and other Brassica accessions.

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Introduction: 'Systems thinking' is often recommended in healthcare to support quality and safety activities but a shared understanding of this concept and purposeful guidance on its application are limited. Healthcare systems have been described as complex where human adaptation to localised circumstances is often necessary to achieve success. Principles for managing and improving system safety developed by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL; a European intergovernmental air navigation organisation) incorporate a 'Safety-II systems approach' to promote understanding of how safety may be achieved in complex work systems.

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Introduction: Double-hit (DHL) and triple-hit lymphomas (THL) have long been among the most clinically aggressive molecular subtypes of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. In the 2016 revised WHO classification, they represent a new entity called . Unlike most B-cell lymphomas, they have poor response to standard R-CHOP therapy, tend to quickly develop resistance to cytotoxic chemotherapies, and are associated with higher central nervous system (CNS) infiltration.

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