Development and application of Single Primer Enrichment Technology (SPET) SNP assay for population genomics analysis and candidate gene discovery in lettuce.

Single primer enrichment technology (SPET) is a novel high-throughput genotyping method based on short-read sequencing of specific genomic regions harboring polymorphisms. SPET provides an efficient and reproducible method for genotyping target loci, overcoming the limits associated with other reduced representation library sequencing methods that are based on a random sampling of genomic loci. The possibility to sequence regions surrounding a target SNP allows the discovery of thousands of closely linked, novel SNPs.

Melanoma: Prognostic Factors and Factors Predictive of Response to Therapy.

Background: A better understanding of prognostic factors and biomarkers that predict response to treatment is required in order to further improve survival rates in patients with melanoma. Prognostic Factors: The most important histopathological factors prognostic of worse outcomes in melanoma are sentinel lymph node involvement, increased tumor thickness, ulceration and higher mitotic rate. Poorer survival may also be related to several clinical factors, including male gender, older age, axial location of the melanoma, elevated serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase and S100B.

Solanum torvum responses to the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita.

Background: Solanum torvum Sw is worldwide employed as rootstock for eggplant cultivation because of its vigour and resistance/tolerance to the most serious soil-borne diseases as bacterial, fungal wilts and root-knot nematodes. The little information on Solanum torvum (hereafter Torvum) resistance mechanisms, is mostly attributable to the lack of genomic tools (e.g.

Aging and environmental factors: an estimation of the health state of the elderly population residing in industrialized vs. rural areas.

The possibilities have already been discussed that the environment of the living beings may influence the aging process, by causing alterations of the homeostatic capacities to such an extent that definitive pathologies will come into being. Therefore, the aim of the present study was at estimating the effective impact of the environmental pollution on the health state of the subjects residing in highly industrialized areas. For this purpose, we compared 2 populations over the age of 56 years, one from the industrialized areas and the other of agricultural character.

Elevated chromogranin A (CgA) serum levels in the patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

The neuroendocrine differentiation in PC could potentially represent a new finding with diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic implications. This study aimed at evaluating the clinical usefulness of CgA as a neuroendocrine (NE) serum-marker. We investigated the role of the serum concentration of CgA in a study group of patients with PC.