Brassinosteroids (BRs) are important phytohormones that play a vital role in plant drought tolerance, but their mechanisms in cotton (
Gossypium hirsutum
L.) are poorly understood. Numerous basic ...helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family genes are involved in the responses to both BRs and drought stress.
GhBEE3-Like
, a bHLH transcription factor, is repressed by both 24-epi-BL (an active BR substance) and PEG8000 (drought simulation) treatments in cotton. Moreover, GhBZR1, a crucial transcription factor in BR signaling pathway, directly binds to the E-box element in
GhBEE3-Like
promoter region and inhibits its expression, which has been confirmed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and dual luciferase reporter assay. Functional analysis revealed that
Arabidopsis
with
GhBEE3-Like
overexpression had drought sensitive phenotype, while
GhBEE3-Like
knock-down cotton plants obtained by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) technology were more tolerant to drought stress. Furthermore, the expression levels of three stress-related genes,
GhERD10
,
GhCDPK1
and
GhRD26
, were significantly higher in
GhBEE3-Like
knock-down cotton than in control cotton after drought treatment. These results suggest that
GhBEE3-Like
is inhibited by BRs which elevates the expressions of stress-related genes to enhance plant drought tolerance. This study lays the foundation for understanding the mechanisms of BR-regulated drought tolerance and establishment of drought-resistant cotton lines.
During the measurement of friction force, the measured signal generally contains noise. To remove the noise and preserve the important features of the signal, a hybrid filtering method is introduced ...that uses the mutual information and a new waveform. This new waveform is the difference between the original signal and the sum of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), which are obtained by empirical mode decomposition (EMD) or its improved versions. To evaluate the filter performance for the friction signal, ensemble EMD (EEMD), complementary ensemble EMD (CEEMD), and complete ensemble EMD with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) are employed in combination with the proposed filtering method. The combination is used to filter the synthesizing signals at first. For the filtering of the simulation signal, the filtering effect is compared under conditions of different ensemble number, sampling frequency, and the input signal-noise ratio, respectively. Results show that CEEMDAN outperforms other signal filtering methods. In particular, this method is successful in filtering the friction signal as evaluated by the de-trended fluctuation analysis (DFA) algorithm.
A novel laser self-mixing interferometry vibration measurement algorithm based on the local maximum detection technique is proposed, that can reconstruct micro vibrations rapidly and easily. In this ...article, the principles of the local maximum detection algorithm are analyzed in detail, and the process of solving the window function is emphasized. The major advantage of the method is that it does not involve any complicated calculations and removes the need for optical/electromechanical components. The validity of the presented method is confirmed by means of simulated signals and demonstrated via several experiments for harmonic and aleatory motion.
The effects of intravenous glucocorticoids on postoperative delirium (POD) in adult patients undergoing major surgery remain controversial. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to assess ...whether intravenous glucocorticoids can decrease POD incidence in the entire adult population undergoing major surgery and its association with patients age, type of surgery, and type of glucocorticoid.
We searched the relevant literature published before November 3, 2023, through Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science. The primary outcome was POD incidence. The risk ratio for the primary outcome was calculated using the Mantel-Haenszel method. The secondary outcomes included 30-day mortality, length of hospital stay, ICU duration, mechanical ventilation duration, and occurrence of glucocorticoid-related adverse effects (e.g., infection and hyperglycemia). This meta-analysis was registered in PROSPERO: CRD42022345997.
We included eight randomized controlled studies involving 8972 patients. For the entire adult population undergoing major surgery, intravenous glucocorticoids reduced the POD incidence (risk ratio = 0.704, 95% confidence interval, 0.519-0.955; P = 0.024). However, subgroups defined by type of surgery showed differential effects of glucocorticoids on POD. Intravenous glucocorticoids can not reduce POD incidence in adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery (risk ratio = 0.961, 95% confidence interval, 0.769-1.202; P = 0.728), with firm evidence from trial sequential analysis. However, in major non-cardiac surgery, perioperative intravenous glucocorticoid reduced the incidence of POD (risk ratio = 0.491, 95% confidence interval, 0.338-0.714; P < 0.001), which warrants further studies due to inconclusive evidence by trial sequence analysis. In addition, the use of glucocorticoids may reduce the mechanical ventilation time (weighted mean difference, -1.350; 95% confidence interval, -1.846 to -0.854; P < 0.001) and ICU duration (weighted mean difference = -7.866; 95% confidence interval, -15.620 to -0.112; P = 0.047).
For the entire adult population undergoing major surgery, glucocorticoids reduced the POD incidence. However, the effects of glucocorticoids on POD appear to vary according to the type of surgery. In patients receiving major non-cardiac surgery, glucocorticoid may be an attractive drug in the prevention of POD, and further studies are needed to draw a definitive conclusion. In cardiac surgery, intravenous glucocorticoids have no such effect.
The microbial synthesis of paclitaxel is attractive for its short-cycle, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. However, low paclitaxel productivity, depleted capacity during subculture and storage, ...and unclear biosynthesis mechanisms restrain industrial microbial synthesis. Along with the isolation of various paclitaxel-producing microorganisms and the development of versatile molecular tools, tremendous promises for microbial paclitaxel synthesis have become increasingly prominent. In this review, we summarize the progress of microbial synthesis of paclitaxel in recent years, focusing on paclitaxel-producing endophytes and representative engineering microorganism hosts that were used as chassis for paclitaxel precursor synthesis. Numerous wide-type microbes can manufacture paclitaxel, and fermentation process optimization and strain improvement can greatly enhance the productivity. Engineered microbes can efficiently synthesize precursors of paclitaxel by introducing exogenous synthetic pathway. Mining paclitaxel synthetic pathways and genetic manipulation of endophytes will accelerate the construction of microbial cell factories, indefinitely contributing to paclitaxel mass production by microbes. This review emphasizes the potential and provides solutions for efficient microbial paclitaxel mass production.
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•Paclitaxel-producing microbes have the potential for paclitaxel mass production.•Process optimization will promote microbial productivity and stability.•Rewiring synthetic pathway is feasible for paclitaxel heterogeneous production.•Engineered endophytic microorganisms are promising paclitaxel microbial cell factories.
Fat infiltration (FI) of the deep neck extensor muscles has been shown to be associated with poor outcomes in cervical injury, mechanical neck pain, and axial symptoms after cervical spine surgery. ...However, information is scarce on the severity of FI in cervical extensors associated with different clinical syndromes in patients with cervical spondylosis.
To investigate the relationship between the severity of FI in the cervical multifidus musculature and its clinical correlates in the syndromes and sagittal alignment of patients with cervical spondylosis.
This study was conducted as a retrospective study of twenty-eight healthy volunteers (HV) together with sixty-six patients who underwent cervical radiculopathy (CR), degenerative myelopathy (DM), and axial joint pain (AJP) from January 2020 to March 2022. MRI was used to measure the fat cross-sectional area (FCSA), functional muscle cross-sectional area (FMCSA), total muscle cross-sectional area (TMCSA), FI ratio of the cervical multifidus musculature at each cervical level from the C3 to C6 segments and the cervical lordosis angle in the included subjects.
The difference in the FCSA and FI ratio in patient groups with cervical spondylosis was significantly greater than that of the HV group (P < 0.05), and the Cobb angle of the DM group, AJP group and HV group was significantly greater than that of the CR group (P < 0.05). The FI ratio comparison showed no significant difference by sex, and the comparison of FCSA, FMCSA, TMCSA and FI ratio showed no significant difference by age range from 35 to 69 in the included subjects. The FCSA and TMCSA in patients with cervical spondylosis were positively related to the Cobb angle (r
= 0.336, P = 0.006, r
=0.319, P = 0.009, respectively), and the FI ratio was inversely correlated with the Cobb angle (r
= -0.285, P = 0.020) and positively correlated with age (r
=0.261, P = 0.034). In the HV group, FMCSA was inversely correlated with age (r
= -0.400, P = 0.035), while the FI ratio had a positive correlation with age (r
= -0.423, P = 0.025).
Compared with healthy subjects, a more severe degree of FI in the multifidus musculature and sagittal imbalance were found in patients with cervical spondylosis. These two imaging features are considered to be important concomitant phenomena of cervical spondylosis, and the more severe FI is, the worse the sagittal imbalance. However, each syndrome had no obvious difference in FI in the multifidus musculature.
Serine hydroxymethyltransferase (
) plays a pivotal role in cellular one-carbon, photorespiration pathways and it influences the resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the function of ...SHMT proteins in wheat remains largely unexplored. In the present study,
genes in five
species,
, and four dicotyledon species were identified based on whole genome information. The origin history of the target gene was traced by micro-collinearity analysis. Gene expression patterns of
in different tissues, various biotic stresses, exogenous hormones, and two biotic stresses were determined by Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The function of the selected
was studied by barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing in common wheat Bainong207. A total of 64
members were identified and further classified into two main classes based on the structure of SHMT proteins. The gene structure and motif composition analyses revealed that
kept relatively conserved within the same subclasses. Interestingly, there was a gene,
, on chromosome 7B of
, but there was no
gene on chromosome 7 of other analyzed
species;
had fewer exons and conserved motifs than the genes in the same subclass, suggesting that the gene of
has a notable evolutionary progress. The micro-collinearity relationship showed that no homologs of
and its two neighboring genes were found in the collinearity region of
, and there were 27 genes inserted into the collinearity region of
.
. Furthermore, qRT-PCR results showed that
was responsive to abiotic stresses (NaCl and cold), abscisic acid, methyl jasmonate, and hydrogen peroxide. Significantly, upon
infection, the expression of
was highly upregulated in resistant cultivar Sumai3. More importantly, silencing of
compromises Fusarium head blight resistance in common wheat Bainong207. Our new findings suggest that the
gene in wheat plays an important role in resistance to Fusarium head blight. This provides a valuable reference for further study on the function of this gene family.
Shanghai is the major city on the north shore of Hangzhou Bay, and the administrative regions adjacent to Hangzhou Bay are the Jinshan district, Fengxian district, and Pudong new area (Nanhui ...district), which are the main intersection areas of manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture in Shanghai. In this paper, we collected a total of 75 topsoil samples from six different functional areas (agricultural areas (19), roadside areas (10), industrial areas (19), residential areas (14), education areas (6), and woodland areas (7)) in these three administrative regions, and the presence of 10 heavy metals (manganese(Mn), zinc(Zn), chromium(Cr), nickel(Ni), lead(Pb), cobalt(Co), cadmium(Cd), mercury(Hg), copper(Cu), and arsenic(As)) was investigated in each sample. The Nemerow pollution index (NPI), pollution load index (PLI), and potential ecological risk index (PERI) were calculated to assess the soil pollution levels. The hazard quotient (HQ) and carcinogenic risk (CR) assessment models were used to assess the human health risks posed by the concentrations of the heavy metals. The CR and HQ for adults and children in different functional areas descended in the following order: industrial areas > roadside areas > woodland areas > residential areas > education areas > agricultural areas. The HQ of Mn for children in industrial areas was higher than 1, and the risk was within the acceptable range.
Abstract
Background
Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common complication after hip fracture surgery that is associated with various short- and long-term outcomes. The mechanism of POD may be ...associated with the oxidative stress process. Uric acid has been shown to provide a neuroprotective effect in various neurodegenerative diseases through its antioxidant properties. However, it is unclear whether lower preoperative serum uric acid levels are associated with the development of POD after hip fracture surgery. Therefore, this study assessed the association of lower preoperative uric acid levels in patients with POD during hospitalization.
Methods
This is a matched retrospective case-control study that included 96 older patients (≥65 y) who underwent hip fracture surgery. POD was diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Patients diagnosed with POD (cases) were matched 1:1 with patients without POD (controls) on the basis of age, sex, and anesthesia type. The relationship between preoperative uric acid and POD was analyzed by multivariable analysis.
Results
The POD and non-POD groups each had 48 patients. In the univariate analysis, lower log preoperative serum uric acid value, higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and cerebrovascular disease were more likely in patients with POD than in those with no POD. Multivariable conditional logistic regression analysis showed that lower log preoperative serum uric acid (adjusted odds ratio aOR, 0.028; confidence interval CI, 0.001–0.844;
p
= 0.040), higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (aOR, 1.314; 95% CI, 1.053–1.638;
p
= 0.015), and increased surgery duration (aOR, 1.034; 95% CI, 1.004–1.065;
p
= 0.024) were associated with increased risk of POD.
Conclusions
Lower preoperative serum uric acid levels may be an independent risk factor for POD after adjustment for possible confounding factors. However, large prospective studies are needed to confirm this finding.
The seed microbiomes of staple food crops Sun, Zhongke; Adeleke, Bartholomew Saanu; Shi, Yini ...
Microbial biotechnology,
December 2023, Volume:
16, Issue:
12
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The scientific community increasingly recognized that seed microbiomes are important for plant growth and nutrition. The versatile roles and modulating properties that microbiomes hold in the context ...of seeds seem to be an inherited approach to avert adverse conditions. These discoveries attracted extensive interest, especially in staple food crops (SFCs) where grain was consumed as food. Along with the rapid expansion of population and industrialization that posed a severe challenge to the yield of SFCs, microbiologists and botanists began to explore and engineer seed microbiomes, for safer and more fruitful grain production. To utilize seed microbiomes, we present an overall review of the most updated scientific literature on three representative SFCs (wheat, rice and maize) using the 5W1H (Which, Where, What, Why, When and How) method that provides a comprehensive understanding of the issue. These include which factors determine the composition of seed microbiomes? Where do seed microbiomes come from? What are these seed microbes? Why do these microbes choose seeds as their destination and when do microbes settle down and become seed communists? In addition, how do seed microbiomes work and can be manipulated effectively? Therefore, answering the aforementioned questions regarding SFCs seed microbiomes remain fundamental in bridging endophytic research gaps and harnessing their ecological services.
To explore and engineer seed microbiomes for safer and more fruitful grain production, the article presented an updated scientific literature review of staple food crop seed microbiomes based on three representative (wheat, rice, and maize) using the 5W1H (Which, Where, What, Why, When, and How) method,
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