The present study examined the relationship between Holistic processing (HP), a well-established perceptual-expertisephenomenon for visual-object recognition, and Chinese literacy ability in Hong Kong preschoolers. The literacy abilityof participants was assessed by The Hong Kong Reading Ability Screening Test for Preschool Children (RAST-K); whileHP of Chinese characters was measured by adopting the complete composite paradigm from Hsiao & Cottrell (2009). Inline with the previous findings, preschoolers also showed HP in Chinese character perception, with a negative correlationbetween HP and writing ability when other measurements were controlled. This study provides a theoretical contributionon the study of Chinese writing difficulties among preschoolers. Educational implications will also be discussed.

Abstract Background The large serine recombinase phiC31 from broad host range Streptomyces temperate phage, catalyzes the site-specific recombination of two recognition sites that differ in sequence, typically known as attachment sites attB and attP. Previously, we characterized the phiC31 catalytic activity and modes of action in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Results In this work, the phiC31 recombinase gene was placed under the control of the Arabidopsis OXS3 promoter and introduced into Arabidopsis harboring a chromosomally integrated attB and attP-flanked target sequence. The phiC31 recombinase excised the attB and attP-flanked DNA, and the excision event was detected in subsequent generations in the absence of the phiC31 gene, indicating germinal transmission was possible. We further verified that the genomic excision was conservative and that introduction of a functional recombinase can be achieved through secondary transformation as well as manual crossing. Conclusion The phiC31 system performs site-specific recombination in germinal tissue, a prerequisite for generating stable lines with unwanted DNA removed. The precise site-specific deletion by phiC31 in planta demonstrates that the recombinase can be used to remove selectable markers or other introduced transgenes that are no longer desired and therefore can be a useful tool for genome engineering in plants.

Expert face recognition has been marked by holistic processingand left-side bias/right hemisphere involvement. Hencerecognition for Chinese characters, sharing many visualperceptual properties with face perception, was thought toinduce stronger holistic processing and left-side bias effect.However, Hsiao & Cottrell (2009) showed that expertise inChinese character recognition involved reduced holisticprocessing, while Tso, Au & Hsiao (2014) suggested this effectmay be modulated by writing experiences; in contrast, left-sidebias was found to be a consistent expertise marker regardlessof writing experiences. Here we examine holistic processingand left-side bias effect of Chinese character recognitionbetween adolescents with and without dyslexia. Students withdyslexia were found to recognize Chinese characters with astronger holistic processing effect than the typical controls.However, compared with the controls, dyslexics showed amore reduced left-side bias in processing mirror-symmetricChinese characters. The theoretical and educationalimplications of these results were discussed.

Visual-spatial attention has been shown to influence literacy development, yet studies investigating its influence on readingin non-alphabetic scripts such as Chinese are scarce, despite recent studies demonstrating orthographic and visuo-spatialskills to be key deficits in people with dyslexia in Chinese. Here, we investigate visual-spatial processing skills in Chi-nese adolescents by measuring their 1) exogenous and endogenous attentional orienting, and 2) holistic processinga phe-nomenon typically demonstrated in face perceptionin Chinese character recognition. Compared with typically developingstudents, Chinese high-school students with dyslexia showed deficits in both endogenous and exogenous visual-spatialattention. Dyslexics also perceived characters more holistically than the controls, suggesting that they selectively attendedto individual components within Chinese characters less readily. These results demonstrated irregularities in visual-spatialprocessing skills in students in dyslexia. This study provides implications for reading intervention programs in order tofacilitate selective attention to character components to enhance literacy.

Abstract Background The mycobacteriophage large serine recombinase Bxb1 catalyzes site-specific recombination between its corresponding attP and attB recognition sites. Previously, we and others have shown that Bxb1 has catalytic activity in various eukaryotic species including Nicotiana tabacum, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, insects and mammalian cells. Results In this work, the Bxb1 recombinase gene was transformed and constitutively expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana plants harboring a chromosomally integrated attP and attB-flanked target sequence. The Bxb1 recombinase successfully excised the target sequence in a conservative manner and the resulting recombination event was heritably transmitted to subsequent generations in the absence of the recombinase transgene. In addition, we also show that Bxb1 recombinase expressing plants can be manually crossed with att-flanked target transgenic plants to generate excised progeny. Conclusion The Bxb1 large serine recombinase performs site-specific recombination in Arabidopsis thaliana germinal tissue, producing stable lines free of unwanted DNA. The precise site-specific deletion produced by Bxb1 in planta demonstrates that this enzyme can be a useful tool for the genetic engineering of plants without selectable marker transgenes or other undesirable exogenous sequences.

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are highly effective at identifying common risk variants for schizophrenia. Rare risk variants are also important contributors to schizophrenia etiology but, with the exception of large copy number variants, are difficult to detect with GWAS. Exome and genome sequencing, which have accelerated the study of rare variants, are expensive so alternative methods are needed to aid detection of rare variants. Here we re-analyze an Irish schizophrenia GWAS dataset (n = 3,473) by performing identity-by-descent (IBD) mapping followed by exome sequencing of individuals identified as sharing risk haplotypes to search for rare risk variants in coding regions. We identified 45 rare haplotypes (>1 cM) that were significantly more common in cases than controls. By exome sequencing 105 haplotype carriers, we investigated these haplotypes for functional coding variants that could be tested for association in independent GWAS samples. We identified one rare missense variant in PCNT but did not find statistical support for an association with schizophrenia in a replication analysis. However, IBD mapping can prioritize both individual samples and genomic regions for follow-up analysis but genome rather than exome sequencing may be more effective at detecting risk variants on rare haplotypes.