Summary
Plants are capable of coordination of their growth and development with ambient temperatures. EARLY FLOWERING3 (ELF3), an essential component of the plant circadian clock, is also involved in ...ambient temperature sensing, as well as in inhibiting the expression and protein activity of the thermoresponsive regulator phytochrome interacting factor 4 (PIF4). The ELF3 activity is subjected to attenuation in response to warm temperature; however, how the protein level of ELF3 is regulated at warm temperature remains less understood. Here, we report that the E3 ligase XB3 ORTHOLOG 5 IN ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA, XBAT35, mediates ELF3 degradation. XBAT35 interacts with ELF3 and ubiquitinates ELF3. Loss‐of‐function mutation of XBAT35 increases the protein level of ELF3 and confers a short‐hypocotyl phenotype under warm temperature conditions. Thus, our findings establish that XBAT35 mediates ELF3 degradation to lift the inhibition of ELF3 on PIF4 for promoting thermoresponsive hypocotyl growth in plants.
ELF3, an essential component of circadian clock, is also involved in inhibiting the key thermoregulator PIF4. The Arabidopsis E3 ligase, XBAT35, ubiquitinates and degrades ELF3 under warm temperature conditions to lift the inhibitory effects of ELF3 on PIF4, therefore, promoting thermoresponsive hypocotyl growth in plants.
Nowadays, phosphor converted white light-emitting diodes (pc-WLEDs) have been widely used in solid-state lighting and display areas due to their superior lifetime, efficiency, and reliability as well ...as significant reduction in power consumption. Phosphors are indispensable components of pc-WLED devices, and their luminescence properties determine the quality of WLED lighting and displays. In order to further achieve high luminous efficacy, chromatic stability, and color-rending properties in pc-WLEDs, much effort has been focused on improving current pc-WLED phosphors and developing novel pc-WLED phosphors recently. This review article concerns commonly used rare earth ion (Eu
2+
and Ce
3+
) activated inorganic phosphors, highlighting the important effect of spectral tuning
via
local structural variations on improving the luminescence performance of phosphors. The main spectral tuning strategies are discussed in detail and summarized, including (1) doping level control; (2) cationic substitution; (3) anionic substitution; (4) cationic-anionic substitution; (5) the crystal-site engineering approach; (6) mixing of nanophases.
This review is devoted to several approaches to realize spectral tuning for improving the luminescence performance of Ce
3+
and Eu
2+
-activated pc-WLED phosphors.
For high‐energy lithium–sulfur batteries, the poor volumetric energy density is a bottleneck as compared with lithium–ion batteries, due to the low density of both the sulfur active material and ...sulfur host. Herein, in order to enhance the volumetric energy density of sulfur cathode, a universal approach is proposed to fabricate a compact sulfur cathode with dense materials as sulfur host, instead of the old‐fashioned lightweight carbon nanomaterials. Based on this strategy, heavy lanthanum strontium manganese oxide (La0.8Sr0.2MnO3), with a high theoretical density of up to 6.5 g cm−3, is introduced as sulfur host. Meanwhile, the La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 host also acts as an efficient electrocatalyst to accelerate the diffusion, adsorption, and redox dynamics of lithium polysulfides in the charge–discharge processes. As a result, such S/La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 cathode presents high gravimetric/volumetric capacity and outstanding cycling stability. Moreover, an ultra‐high volumetric energy density of 2727 Wh L−1‐cathode is achieved based on the densification effect with higher density (1.69 g cm−3), which is competitive to the Ni‐rich oxide cathode (1800–2160 Wh L−1) of lithium–ion batteries. The current study opens up a path for constructing high volumetric capacity sulfur cathode with heavy and catalytic host toward practical applications of lithium–sulfur batteries.
Heavy metal oxides are more suitable than light carbon materials to fabricate compact cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries. Specifically, lanthanum strontium manganese oxide nanofibers, with the tap density of 2.59 g cm−3, display efficient catalytic activity toward lithium polysulfides, enhancing the volumetric energy density of sulfur cathode, which can even exceed lithium–ion batteries.
Plant development and pattern formation depend on diffusible signals and location cues. These developmental signals and cues activate intracellular downstream components through cell surface ...receptors that direct cells to adopt specific fates for optimal function and establish biological fitness. There may be a single-pole dual-control competing mode in controlling plant development and microbial infection. In plant development, paracrine signaling molecules compete with autocrine signaling molecules to bind receptors or receptor complexes, turn on antagonistic molecular mechanisms, and precisely regulate developmental processes. In the process of microbial infection, two different signaling molecules, competing receptors or receptor complexes, form their respective signaling complexes, trigger opposite signaling pathways, establish symbiosis or immunity, and achieve biological adaptation. We reviewed several "single-pole dual-control" competing modes, focusing on analyzing the competitive commonality and characterization of "single-pole dual-control" molecular mechanisms. We suggest it might be an economical protective mechanism for plants' sequentially and iteratively programmed developmental events. This mechanism may also be a paradigm for reducing internal friction in the struggle and coexistence with microbes. It provides extraordinary insights into molecular recognition, cell-to-cell communication, and protein-protein interactions. A detailed understanding of the "single-pole dual-control" competing mode will contribute to the discovery of more receptors or antagonistic peptides, and lay the foundation for food, biofuel production, and crop improvement.
Abstract
Conventional chemotherapy remains the primary treatment option for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the current chemotherapeutic drugs have limited effects on TNBC, and often ...lead to serious side effects as well as drug resistance. Thus, more effective therapeutic options are sorely needed. As c-MYC oncogene is highly expressed during TNBC pathogenesis, inhibiting c-MYC expression would be an alternative anti-TNBC strategy. In this study, we designed and synthesized a serial of quinoxaline analogs that target c-MYC promoter G-quadruplex (G4), which is believed to be a repressor of c-MYC transcription. Among them, a difluoro-substituted quinoxaline QN-1 was identified as the most promising G4-stabilizing ligand with high selectivity to c-MYC G4 over other G4s, which is distinguished from many other reported ligands. Intracellular studies indicated that QN-1 induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, repressed metastasis and inhibited TNBC cell growth, primarily due to the downregulation of c-MYC transcription by a G4-dependent mechanism. Notably, inhibition by QN-1 was significantly greater for c-MYC than other G4-driven genes. Cancer cells with c-MYC overexpression were more sensitive to QN-1, relative to normal cells. Furthermore, QN-1 effectively suppressed tumor growth in a TNBC mouse model. Accordingly, this work provides an alternative strategy for treating TNBC.
The tourism industry will continue to produce carbon emissions in the process of development, which will ultimately have an impact on the tourism environment. This article aims to study the effect of ...carbon emission pollution on the urban tourism environment. Taking Hebei Province from 2016 to 2020 as an example, the effect of carbon emission pollution on the local tourism environment was analyzed using the carbon emission model and tourism eco‐efficiency model. The local carbon emission increased in the process of developing the tourism industry; however, carbon emissions per unit in the accommodation, catering and shopping related to the tourism industry generated more tourism economic benefits. The authors suggest to strengthen the development of tourism transportation, increase local tourism promotion, enhance the diversity of tourism specialties, and improve the level of local catering and hotel services.
This article briefly introduces the tourism carbon emission model and eco‐efficiency model and makes an example analysis of the tourism industry in Hebei Province from 2016 to 2020. The results demonstrated that the development of tourism increased carbon emissions, especially transportation; accommodation, catering and shopping in the tourism industry in Hebei Province pulled more economic development per unit of carbon emissions. Finally, several recommendations are proposed based on carbon emissions and tourism eco‐efficiency. The limitation of this article is that only data related to Hebei Province from 2016 to 2020 were selected for the example analysis, which is limited in the size of the region and time span. Future research directions include expanding the scope of the study area and increasing the length in time.
Summary
Global warming has profound impact on growth and development, and plants constantly adjust their internal circadian clock to cope with external environment. However, how clock‐associated ...genes fine‐tune thermoresponsive growth in plants is little understood.
We found that loss‐of‐function mutation of REVEILLE5 (RVE5) reduces the expression of circadian gene EARLY FLOWERING 4 (ELF4) in Arabidopsis, and confers accelerated hypocotyl growth under warm‐temperature conditions.
Both RVE5 and CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED 1 (CCA1) accumulate at warm temperatures and bind to the same EE cis‐element presented on ELF4 promoter, but the transcriptional repression activity of RVE5 is weaker than that of CCA1. The binding of CCA1 to ELF4 promoter is enhanced in the rve5‐2 mutant at warm temperatures, and overexpression of ELF4 in the rve5‐2 mutant background suppresses the rve5‐2 mutant phenotype at warm temperatures.
Therefore, the transcriptional repressor RVE5 finetunes ELF4 expression via competing at a cis‐element with the stronger transcriptional repressor CCA1 at warm temperatures. Such a competition–attenuation mechanism provides a balancing system for modulating the level of ELF4 and thermoresponsive hypocotyl growth under warm‐temperature conditions.
See also the Commentary on this article by Balcerowicz, 237: 9–11.
•Plasma activated water was a novel method for the preservation of button mushrooms.•Plasma activated water could reduce the microbial counts throughout storage.•Plasma activated water soaking could ...delay mushrooms softening.•Little changed in the quality of mushrooms treated by plasma activated water.•Reactive species play a pivotal role in the sterilization of plasma activated water.
Non-thermal plasma is a new approach to improving microbiological safety while maintaining the sensory attributes of the treated foods. Recent research has reported that plasma activated water (PAW) can also efficiently inactivate a wide variety of microorganisms. This study invested the effects of plasma-activated water soaking on the postharvest preservation of button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) over seven days of storage at 20°C. Plasma activated water reduced the microbial counts by 1.5log and 0.5log for bacteria and fungi during storage, respectively. Furthermore, the corresponding physicochemical and biological properties were assessed between plasma activated water soaking groups and control groups. The results for firmness, respiration rate and relative electrical conductivity suggested that plasma activated water soaking can delay mushroom softening. Meanwhile, no significant change was observed in the color, pH, or antioxidant properties of A. bisporus treated with plasma activated water. Thus, plasma activated water soaking is a promising method for postharvest fresh-keeping of A. bisporus.
Objectives
The tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-sensitive mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene is essential in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma. To overcome the difficulty ...of EGFR gene test in situations where surgery and biopsy samples are too risky to obtain, we tried a noninvasive imaging method using radiomics features and random forest models.
Methods
Five hundred three lung adenocarcinoma patients who received surgery-based treatment were included in this study. The diagnosis and EGFR gene test were based on resections. TKI-sensitive mutations were found in 60.8% of the patients. CT scans before any invasive operation were gathered and analyzed to extract quantitative radiomics features and build random forest classifiers to identify EGFR mutants from wild types. Clinical features (sex and smoking history) were added to the image-based model. The model was trained on a set of 345 patients and validated on an independent test group (
n
= 158) using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity.
Results
The performance of the random forest model with 94 radiomics features reached an AUC of 0.802. Its AUC was further improved to 0.828 by adding sex and smoking history. The sensitivity and specificity are 60.6% and 85.1% at the best diagnostic decision point.
Conclusion
Our results showed that radiomics could not only reflect the genetic differences among tumors but also have diagnostic value and the potential to be a diagnostic tool.
Key Points
•
Radiomics provides a potential noninvasive method for the prediction of EGFR mutation status.
•
In situations where surgeries and biopsy are not available, CT image-based radiomics models could help to make treatment decisions.
•
The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity still need to be improved before the image-based EGFR identifier could be used in clinics.
The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disaster for human society. A convenient and reliable neutralization assay is very important for the development of vaccines and novel ...drugs. In this study, a G protein-deficient vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVdG) bearing a truncated spike protein (S with C-terminal 18 amino acid truncation) was compared to that bearing the full-length spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and showed much higher efficiency. A neutralization assay was established based on VSV-SARS-CoV-2-Sdel18 pseudovirus and hACE2-overexpressing BHK21 cells (BHK21-hACE2 cells). The experimental results can be obtained by automatically counting the number of EGFP-positive cells at 12 h after infection, making the assay convenient and high-throughput. The serum neutralizing titer measured by the VSV-SARS-CoV-2-Sdel18 pseudovirus assay has a good correlation with that measured by the wild type SARS-CoV-2 assay. Seven neutralizing monoclonal antibodies targeting the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein were obtained. This efficient and reliable pseudovirus assay model could facilitate the development of new drugs and vaccines.
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