OrchidBase 5.0: updates of the orchid genome knowledgebase.

Containing the largest number of species, the orchid family provides not only materials for studying plant evolution and environmental adaptation, but economically and culturally important ornamental plants for human society. Previously, we collected genome and transcriptome information of Dendrobium catenatum, Phalaenopsis equestris, and Apostasia shenzhenica which belong to two different subfamilies of Orchidaceae, and developed user-friendly tools to explore the orchid genetic sequences in the OrchidBase 4.0.

[Advance in research of poultry major histocompatibility complex-structure].

The structure of poultry major histocompatibility complex(MHC) is closely associated with avianimmunology and avian disease control. This review summaried the structures of poultry MHC, including chicken, turkey, duck, goose, and quail. It was suggested that there were some common characteristics among these MHCs: all of them have conservative MHC region containing MHC I, MHC II, and unknown functional genes; they are simple and contracted; the lengths of introns of MHC I gene are shorter than those of mammals; all have 8 exons and 7 introns in MHC I genes in chicken, turkey, duck, and goose; all have 6 exons and 5 introns in MHC II genes; the structure patterns of BG genes in chicken, turkey, and quail are identical; and all have microsatellite repetitive motifs.