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Fulltext Rapid Emergency Medicine Score: A novel prognostic tool for predicting the outcomes of adult patients with hepatic portal venous gas in the emergency department

Seak CJ, Yen DH, Ng CJ, Wong YC, Hsu KH, Seak JC, et al.

PLoS One, 2017;12(9):e0184813.
PMID: 28915258 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184813

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the performance of Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS), Rapid Acute Physiology Score (RAPS), and Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) in ascertaining the severity of illness and predicting the mortality of adult hepatic portal venous gas (HPVG) patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). This will assist emergency physicians (EPs) in risk stratification.
METHODS: Data for 66 adult HPVG patients who visited the EDs of 2 research hospitals between October 1999 and April 2016 were analyzed. REMS, RAPS, and MEWS were calculated based on data in the ED, and probability of death was calculated for each patient based on these scores. The ability of REMS, RAPS, and MEWS to predict group mortality was assessed by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and calibration analysis.
RESULTS: The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for each scoring system were 92.1%, 89.3%, and 90.9% for REMS, 86.8%, 82.1%, and 84.8% for RAPS, and 78.9%, 89.3%, and 83.3% for MEWS respectively. In the ROC curve analysis, the areas under the curve for REMS, RAPS, and MEWS were 0.929, 0.877, and 0.856 respectively.
CONCLUSION: Our study is the largest series performed in a population of adult HPVG patients in the ED. The results from this study demonstrate that REMS is superior in predicting the mortality of these patients compared to RAPS and MEWS. We therefore recommend that REMS be used for outcome prediction and risk stratification of adult HPVG in the ED.
Hormones, polyamines, and cell wall metabolism during oil palm fruit mesocarp development and ripening

Teh HF, Neoh BK, Wong YC, Kwong QB, Ooi TE, Ng TL, et al.

J Agric Food Chem, 2014 Aug 13;62(32):8143-52.
PMID: 25032485 DOI: 10.1021/jf500975h

Oil palm is one of the most productive oil-producing crops and can store up to 90% oil in its fruit mesocarp. Oil palm fruit is a sessile drupe consisting of a fleshy mesocarp from which palm oil is extracted. Biochemical changes in the mesocarp cell walls, polyamines, and hormones at different ripening stages of oil palm fruits were studied, and the relationship between the structural and the biochemical metabolism of oil palm fruits during ripening is discussed. Time-course analysis of the changes in expression of polyamines, hormones, and cell-wall-related genes and metabolites provided insights into the complex processes and interactions involved in fruit development. Overall, a strong reduction in auxin-responsive gene expression was observed from 18 to 22 weeks after pollination. High polyamine concentrations coincided with fruit enlargement during lipid accumulation and latter stages of maturation. The trend of abscisic acid (ABA) concentration was concordant with GA₄ but opposite to the GA₃ profile such that as ABA levels increase the resulting elevated ABA/GA₃ ratio clearly coincides with maturation. Polygalacturonase, expansin, and actin gene expressions were also observed to increase during fruit maturation. The identification of the master regulators of these coordinated processes may allow screening for oil palm variants with altered ripening profiles.
Fulltext Global transcriptional analysis of Burkholderia pseudomallei high and low biofilm producers reveals insights into biofilm production and virulence

Chin CY, Hara Y, Ghazali AK, Yap SJ, Kong C, Wong YC, et al.

BMC Genomics, 2015;16:471.
PMID: 26092034 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-015-1692-0

Chronic bacterial infections occur as a result of the infecting pathogen's ability to live within a biofilm, hence escaping the detrimental effects of antibiotics and the immune defense system. Burkholderia pseudomallei, a gram-negative facultative pathogen, is distinctive in its ability to survive within phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells, to persist in vivo for many years and subsequently leading to relapse as well as the development of chronic disease. The capacity to persist has been attributed to the pathogen's ability to form biofilm. However, the underlying biology of B. pseudomallei biofilm development remains unresolved.
Fulltext Differential gene expression at different stages of mesocarp development in high- and low-yielding oil palm

Wong YC, Teh HF, Mebus K, Ooi TEK, Kwong QB, Koo KL, et al.

BMC Genomics, 2017 06 21;18(1):470.
PMID: 28637447 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-017-3855-7

BACKGROUND: The oil yield trait of oil palm is expected to involve multiple genes, environmental influences and interactions. Many of the underlying mechanisms that contribute to oil yield are still poorly understood. In this study, we used a microarray approach to study the gene expression profiles of mesocarp tissue at different developmental stages, comparing genetically related high- and low- oil yielding palms to identify genes that contributed to the higher oil-yielding palm and might contribute to the wider genetic improvement of oil palm breeding populations.
RESULTS: A total of 3412 (2001 annotated) gene candidates were found to be significantly differentially expressed between high- and low-yielding palms at at least one of the different stages of mesocarp development evaluated. Gene Ontologies (GO) enrichment analysis identified 28 significantly enriched GO terms, including regulation of transcription, fatty acid biosynthesis and metabolic processes. These differentially expressed genes comprise several transcription factors, such as, bHLH, Dof zinc finger proteins and MADS box proteins. Several genes involved in glycolysis, TCA, and fatty acid biosynthesis pathways were also found up-regulated in high-yielding oil palm, among them; pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 component Subunit Beta (PDH), ATP-citrate lyase, β- ketoacyl-ACP synthases I (KAS I), β- ketoacyl-ACP synthases III (KAS III) and ketoacyl-ACP reductase (KAR). Sucrose metabolism-related genes such as Invertase, Sucrose Synthase 2 and Sucrose Phosphatase 2 were found to be down-regulated in high-yielding oil palms, compared to the lower yield palms.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that a higher carbon flux (channeled through down-regulation of the Sucrose Synthase 2 pathway) was being utilized by up-regulated genes involved in glycolysis, TCA and fatty acid biosynthesis leading to enhanced oil production in the high-yielding oil palm. These findings are an important stepping stone to understand the processes that lead to production of high-yielding oil palms and have implications for breeding to maximize oil production.
Fulltext Diurnal biomarkers reveal key photosynthetic genes associated with increased oil palm yield

Neoh BK, Wong YC, Teh HF, Ng TLM, Tiong SH, Ooi TEK, et al.

PLoS One, 2019;14(3):e0213591.
PMID: 30856213 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213591

To investigate limiters of photosynthate assimilation in the carbon-source limited crop, oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), we measured differential metabolite, gene expression and the gas exchange in leaves in an open field for palms with distinct mesocarp oil content. We observed higher concentrations of glucose 1-phosphate, glucose 6-phosphate, sucrose 6-phosphate, and sucrose in high-oil content palms with the greatest difference being at 11:00 (p-value ≤0.05) immediately after the period of low morning light intensity. Three important photosynthetic genes were identified using differentially expressed gene analysis (DEGs) and were found to be significantly enriched through Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment: chlorophyll a-b binding protein (CAB-13), photosystem I (PSI), and Ferredoxin-NADP reductase (FNR), particularly for sampling points at non-peak light (11:00 and 19:00), ranging from 3.3-fold (PSI) and 5.6-fold (FNR) to 10.3-fold (CAB-13). Subsequent gas exchange measurements further supported increased carbon assimilation through higher level of internal CO2 concentration (Ci), stomatal conductance (gs) and transpiration rate (E) in high-oil content palms. The selection for higher expression of key photosynthesis genes together with CO2 assimilation under low light is likely to be important for crop improvement, in particular at full maturity and under high density planting regimes where light competition exists between palms.