Abstract
As one of the major abiotic stresses restricting the development of global agriculture, saline–alkali stress causes osmotic stress, ion poisoning, ROS damage and high pH damage, which ...seriously restrict sustainable development of fruit industry. Therefore, it is essential to develop and cultivate saline–alkali‐resistant apple rootstocks to improve the yield and quality of apples in China.
Based on transcriptome data,
MhANR
(LOC114827797), which is significantly induced by saline–alkali stress, was cloned from
Malus halliana
. The physicochemical properties, evolutionary relationships and
cis
‐acting elements were analysed. Subsequently, the tolerance of
MhANR
overexpression in
Arabidopsis thaliana
, tobacco, and apple calli to saline–alkali stress was verified through genetic transformation.
Transgenic plants contained less Chl
a
, Chl
b
and proline, SOD, POD and CAT activity, and higher relative electrical conductivity (REC) compared to WT plants under saline–alkali stress. In addition, expression of saline–alkali stress‐related genes in overexpressed apple calli were also lower than in WT calli, including the antioxidant genes (
MhSOD
and
MhCAT
^), the Na
+
transporter genes (
MhCAX5
,
MhCAX5
,
MhSOS1
,
MhALT1
), and the H
+
‐ATPase genes (
MhAHA2
and
MhAHA8
), while expression of the K
+
transporter genes (
MhSKOR
and
MhNHX4
) were higher.
Expression of
MhANR
reduced tolerance of
A. thaliana
, tobacco, and apple calli to saline–alkali stress by regulating osmoregulatory substances, chlorophyll content, antioxidant enzyme activity, and expression of saline–alkali stress‐related genes. This research provides a theoretical basis for cultivating apple rootstocks with effective saline–alkali stress tolerance.
Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) acts as a major sensor of cellular energy status in cancers and is critically involved in cell sensitivity to anticancer agents. Here, we ...showed that AMPK was inactivated in lymphoma and related to the upregulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. AMPK activator metformin potentially inhibited the growth of B- and T-lymphoma cells. Strong antitumor effect was also observed on primary lymphoma cells while sparing normal hematopoiesis ex vivo. Metformin-induced AMPK activation was associated with the inhibition of the mTOR signaling without involving AKT. Moreover, lymphoma cell response to the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin and mTOR inhibitor temsirolimus was significantly enhanced when co-treated with metformin. Pharmacologic and molecular knock-down of AMPK attenuated metformin-mediated lymphoma cell growth inhibition and drug sensitization. In vivo, metformin induced AMPK activation, mTOR inhibition and remarkably blocked tumor growth in murine lymphoma xenografts. Of note, metformin was equally effective when given orally. Combined treatment of oral metformin with doxorubicin or temsirolimus triggered lymphoma cell autophagy and functioned more efficiently than either agent alone. Taken together, these data provided first evidence for the growth-inhibitory and drug-sensitizing effect of metformin on lymphoma. Selectively targeting mTOR pathway through AMPK activation may thus represent a promising new strategy to improve treatment of lymphoma patients.
Summary
Background
Various trials have been conducted on the management of male pattern hair loss (MPHL), but the outcomes often seem to be limited. Adjuvant therapies are urgently needed.
Aim
To ...evaluate the efficacy and safety of combined fractional radiofrequency microneedling (FRM) and 5% topical minoxidil in the treatment of male pattern hair loss.
Methods
In total, 19 Chinese men were enrolled in this randomized, controlled, split‐scalp trial. Participants received monotherapy with 5% topical minoxidil twice daily to one half of the scalp, while on the other half of the scalp the treatment with twice‐daily 5% topical minoxidil was combined with five sessions of FRM at 4‐week intervals. Mean hair count and hair thickness, global assessment by the investigators, subject self‐assessment and adverse effects were assessed.
Results
After 5 months of treatment, mean hair count increased from 44.12 ± 21.58 to 73.14 ± 25.45 on the combined‐therapy side and from 46.22 ± 18.77 to 63.21 ± 19.22 on the monotherapy side, while mean hair thickness increased from 53 ± 13 μm to 71 ± 15 μm and from 52 ± 16 μm to 66 ± 14 μm, respectively. Compared with the monotherapy side, the combined‐therapy side had a higher degree of improvement in both hair count (P = 0.01) and hair thickness (P = 0.02).
Conclusions
Combined treatment with fractional radiofrequency microneedle and 5% topical minoxidil could be an effective and safe treatment option for male pattern hair loss.
Aims
Plant tissues are the reservoirs of beneficial and harmful microbes that regulates plant growth. In the present study, we investigated the diversity, function and colonization of sugarcane roots ...associated with Bacillus spp.
Methods and Results
A total of 20 Bacillus strains were isolated and identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and their genetic diversity was examined by BOX, ERIC, REP, (GTG)5 PCR techniques. Among all Bacillus isolates, 65% showed indole acetic acid‐like compounds production, 50% solubilized phosphorus and 25% of the isolates were able to secrete siderophore. Moreover, all 20 Bacillus isolates showed antifungal activity against eight fungal pathogens and 11 of them (55%) antagonized tomato grey mold. Based on the plant growth‐promoting traits and antifungal potential, isolate Y8 was selected for root and plant tissue colonization assays and a greenhouse‐level sugarcane growth promotion study. Fluorescence microscopy results confirmed that isolate Y8 has a strong ability to colonize in the sugarcane root and leaves, and the root surface association of Y8 was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, greenhouse experimental results demonstrated that Y8 has a significant effect on enhancing sugarcane biomass and root length.
Conclusions
Endophytic Bacillus strains have growth‐promoting properties and anti‐fungal ability that can enhance plant fitness in an eco‐friendly manner.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Endophytic Bacillus strains would be a potential alternative to chemical fertilizer as well as a biocontrol agent in the future.
The synchronization of geodesic acoustic modes (GAMs) and magnetic fluctuations is identified in the edge plasmas of the HL-2A tokamak. Mesoscale electric fluctuations (MSEFs) having components of a ...dominant GAM, and m/n=6/2 potential fluctuations are found at the same frequency as that of the magnetic fluctuations of m/n=6/2 (m and n are poloidal and toroidal mode numbers, respectively). The temporal evolutions of the MSEFs and the magnetic fluctuations clearly show the frequency entrainment and the phase lock between the GAM and the m/n=6/2 magnetic fluctuations. The results indicate that GAMs and magnetic fluctuations can transfer energy through nonlinear synchronization. Such nonlinear synchronization may also contribute to low-frequency zonal flow formation, reduction of turbulence level, and thus confinement regime transitions.
Through the development of unnatural base pairs that are compatible with native DNA and RNA polymerases and the ribosome, we have expanded the genetic alphabet and enabled in vitro and in vivo ...production of proteins containing noncanonical amino acids. However, the absence of assays to characterize transcription has prevented the deconvolution of the contributions of transcription and translation to the reduced performance of some unnatural codons. Here we show that RNA containing the unnatural nucleotides is efficiently reverse transcribed into cDNA, and we develop an assay to measure the combined fidelity of transcription and reverse transcription. With this assay, we examine the performance of a wide variety of unnatural codons, both in vitro and in the in vivo environment of a semisynthetic organism. We find that transcription is generally efficient, decoding at the ribosome is generally more challenging, and, correspondingly, sequence-dependent translation efficiency is the origin of variable codon performance.
Abstract
Ultrafast control of material physical properties represents a rapidly developing field in condensed matter physics. Yet, accessing the long-lived photoinduced electronic states is still in ...its early stages, especially with respect to an insulator to metal phase transition. Here, by combining transport measurement with ultrashort photoexcitation and coherent phonon spectroscopy, we report on photoinduced multistage phase transitions in Ta
2
NiSe
5
. Upon excitation by weak pulse intensity, the system is triggered to a short-lived state accompanied by a structural change. Further increasing the excitation intensity beyond a threshold, a photoinduced steady new state is achieved where the resistivity drops by more than four orders at temperature 50 K. This new state is thermally stable up to at least 350 K and exhibits a lattice structure different from any of the thermally accessible equilibrium states. Transmission electron microscopy reveals an in-chain Ta atom displacement in the photoinduced new structure phase. We also found that nano-sheet samples with the thickness less than the optical penetration depth are required for attaining a complete transition.
High-β_{θe} (a ratio of the electron thermal pressure to the poloidal magnetic pressure) steady-state long-pulse plasmas with steep central electron temperature gradient are achieved in the ...Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. An intrinsic current is observed to be modulated by turbulence driven by the electron temperature gradient. This turbulent current is generated in the countercurrent direction and can reach a maximum ratio of 25% of the bootstrap current. Gyrokinetic simulations and experimental observations indicate that the turbulence is the electron temperature gradient mode (ETG). The dominant mechanism for the turbulent current generation is due to the divergence of ETG-driven residual flux of current. Good agreement has been found between experiments and theory for the critical value of the electron temperature gradient triggering ETG and for the level of the turbulent current. The maximum values of turbulent current and electron temperature gradient lead to the destabilization of an m/n=1/1 kink mode, which by counteraction reduces the turbulence level (m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode number, respectively). These observations suggest that the self-regulation system including turbulence, turbulent current, and kink mode is a contributing mechanism for sustaining the steady-state long-pulse high-β_{θe} regime.
We studied the electronic Raman spectra of (Li1−xFex) OHFeSe as a function of light polarization and temperature. In the B1g spectra alone we observe the redistribution of spectral weight expected ...for a superconductor and two well-resolved peaks below Tc. The nearly resolution-limited peak at 110 cm−1 (13.6 meV) is identified as a collective mode. The peak at 190 cm−1 (23.6 meV) is presumably another collective mode since the line is symmetric and its energy is significantly below the gap energy observed by single-particle spectroscopies. Given the experimental band structure of (Li1−xFex) OHFeSe , the most plausible explanations include conventional spin-fluctuation pairing between the electron bands and the incipient hole band and pairing between the hybridized electron bands. The absence of gap features in A1g and B2g symmetry favors the second case. Thus, in spite of various differences between the pnictides and chalcogenides, this Letter demonstrates the proximity of pairing states and the importance of band structure effects in the Fe-based compounds.
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