As sessile organisms, plants are constantly exposed to a variety of environmental stresses and have evolved adaptive mechanisms, including transcriptional reprogramming, in order to survive or ...acclimate under adverse conditions. Over the past several decades, a large number of gene-specific transcription factors have been identified in the transcriptional regulation of plant adaptive responses. The Mediator complex plays a key role in transducing signals from gene-specific transcription factors to the transcription machinery to activate or repress target gene expression. Since its first purification about 15 years ago, plant Mediator complex has been extensively analyzed for its composition and biological functions. Mutants of many plant Mediator subunits are not lethal but are compromised in growth, development and response to biotic and abiotic stress, underscoring a particularly important role in plant adaptive responses. Plant Mediator subunits also interact with partners other than transcription factors and components of the transcription machinery, indicating the complexity of the regulation of gene expression by plant Mediator complex. Here, we present a comprehensive discussion of recent analyses of the structure and function of plant Mediator complex, with a particular focus on its roles in plant adaptive responses to a wide spectrum of environmental stresses and associated biological processes.
Transcription factor IIB (TFIIB) is a general transcription factor for RNA polymerase II, exerting its influence across various biological contexts. In the majority of eukaryotes, TFIIB typically has ...two homologs, serving as general transcription factors for RNA polymerase I and III. In plants, however, the TFIIB-related protein family has expanded greatly, with 14 and 9 members in Arabidopsis and rice, respectively. BRP5/pollen-expressed transcription factor 2 (PTF2) proteins belong to a subfamily of TFIIB-related proteins found only in plants and algae. The prior analysis of an Arabidopsis atbrp5 mutant, characterized by a T-DNA insertion at the 5′ untranslated region, demonstrated the essential role of BRP5/PTF2 during the process of pollen germination and embryogenesis in Arabidopsis. Using a rice transformation system based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology, we have generated transgenic rice plants containing loss-of-function frameshift mutations in the BRP5/PTF2 gene. Unlike in the Arabidopsis atbrp5 mutant, the brp5/ptf2 frameshift mutations were not transmitted to progeny in rice, indicating an essential role of BRP5/PTF2 in both male and female gamete development or viability. The silencing of rice BRP5/PTF2 expression through RNA interference (RNAi) had little effect on vegetative growth and panicle formation but strongly affected pollen development and grain formation. Genetic analysis revealed that strong RNAi silencing of rice BRP5/PTF2 was still transmissible to progeny almost exclusively through female gametes, as found in the Arabidopsis atbrp5 knockdown mutant. Thus, reduced rice BRP5/PTF2 expression impacted pollen preferentially by interfering with male gamete development or viability. Drawing upon these findings, we posit that BRP5/PTF2 assumes a distinct and imperative function in the realm of plant sexual reproduction.
The
(
)
(
) gene family is a little-known gene family characterized by a conserved LOR domain in the proteins. Limited research in
showed that
family members played important roles in
(
) defense. ...Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research investigating the role of the
gene family towards their responses to abiotic stresses and hormone treatments. This study encompassed a comprehensive survey of 56
genes in
, which is a prominent oilseed crop that holds substantial economic significance in China, Europe, and North America. Additionally, the study evaluated the expression profiles of these genes in response to salinity and ABA stress. Phylogenetic analysis showed that 56
could be divided into 3 subgroups (8 clades) with uneven distribution on 19 chromosomes. 37 out of 56
members have experienced segmental duplication and 5 of them have undergone tandem repeats events with strong evidence of purifying selection. Cis-regulatory elements (CREs) analysis indicated that
involved in process such as light response, hormone response, low temperature response, heat stress response, and dehydration response. The expression pattern of
family members revealed tissue specificity. RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR were used to validate
gene expression under temperature, salinity and ABA stress, revealing that most
showed inducibility. This study enhanced our comprehension of the
gene family and could provide valuable information for identifying and selecting genes for stress resistant breeding.
Due to their beneficial effects on human health, antioxidant peptides have attracted much attention from researchers. However, the structure-activity relationships of antioxidant peptides have not ...been fully understood. In this paper, quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) models were built on two datasets, i.e., the ferric thiocyanate (FTC) dataset and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) dataset, containing 214 and 172 unique antioxidant tripeptides, respectively. Sixteen amino acid descriptors were used and model population analysis (MPA) was then applied to improve the QSAR models for better prediction performance. The results showed that, by applying MPA, the cross-validated coefficient of determination (Q²) was increased from 0.6170 to 0.7471 for the FTC dataset and from 0.4878 to 0.6088 for the FRAP dataset, respectively. These findings indicate that the integration of different amino acid descriptors provide additional information for model building and MPA can efficiently extract the information for better prediction performance.
This short note elaborates a concise protocol for the synthesis of two novel vicinal haloethers bearing a malonontrile group, 2-bromo-2-(methoxy(phenyl)methyl)malononitrile (1) and ...2-iodo-2-(methoxy(phenyl)methyl)malononitrile (2). The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by 1H, 13C-NMR spectroscopy. The final products indicate that methanol not only acts as solvent but also participates in and dominates the reaction result.
The Barcelona Historical Marriage Database (BHMD) gathers records of the more than 600,000 marriages celebrated in the Diocese of Barcelona and their taxation registered in Barcelona Cathedral's ...so-called Marriage Licenses Books for the long period 1451–1905 and the BALL Demographic Database brings together the individual information recorded in the population registers, censuses and fiscal censuses of the main municipalities of the county of Baix Llobregat (Barcelona). In this ongoing collection 263,786 individual observations have been assembled, dating from the period between 1828 and 1965 by December 2020. The two databases started as part of different interdisciplinary research projects at the crossroads of Historical Demography and Computer Vision. Their construction uses artificial intelligence and computer vision methods as Handwriting Recognition to reduce the time of execution. However, its current state still requires some human intervention which explains the implemented crowdsourcing and game sourcing experiences. Moreover, knowledge graph techniques have allowed the application of advanced record linkage to link the same individuals and families across time and space. Moreover, we will discuss the main research lines using both databases developed so far in historical demography.
Single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) based thin-film transistors (TFTs) are promising candidates for future electronic devices because of their excellent properties. However, device-to-device ...performance variability of TFTs can pose challenging problems, which is rooted in the randomness of CNT networks, the variation in individual CNT properties due to change in chirality, and the fabrication imperfections. This paper presents a systematic study of variability in I - V characteristics through a combination of experimental and theoretical analysis of the major sources that cause performance variation. The sources of variation including the percentage of metallic CNTs (m-CNTs), threshold voltage, CNT mean length, and CNT network density have been studied separately. The analysis shows that the presence of m-CNTs is a major source contributing to the performance variation for short channel TFTs, but its effect reduces for large channel length transistors. The threshold voltage is found to be the major source of variation for long channel TFTs. A better consistency in performance can be guaranteed for TFTs with larger channel area, which ensures a smaller variation in CNT network density and CNT mean length. These results provide key insights into the variability estimation of I - V characteristics of CNT-based devices, which is vital for reliability studies of CNT-TFTs based circuits for different electronic applications.
•Spatial-temporal variations of FC concentration in the Tuojiang River were observed.•Health risks of FC for drinking water were evaluated by QMRA and DALY.•Potential health risks were increasing in ...the basin especially in upstream areas.•Variation of health risks presumably was associated with regional development.
Fecal coliform (FC) indicators are commonly used to evaluate microbial or fecal contamination in surface water. As an important tributary of the Yangtze River in China, the Tuojiang River not only receives polluted water but is also a source of drinking water. Previous studies have reported the presence of conventional chemical pollutants, but the contamination and human health risk of FC in this watershed have usually been ignored. In this study, monthly FC concentration data from 2008 to 2018 were utilized to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution and to assess human health risk for daily drinking water by quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) and disability adjusted life year (DALY) models. The results showed that there were significant monthly variations in the concentrations of FC, and the concentrations in May to August were significantly higher than those in other months. The annual concentration in the whole watershed increased slowly from 2008 to 2018. The annual probability of falling ill (Pill_year) caused by FC upstream, midstream and downstream was 4.30 ± 3.92 × 10−5, 1.38 ± 0.49 × 10−5 and 3.38 ± 2.72 × 10−5, respectively. It was found that 5.82% of the DALY values were greater than the limit of 10−6 per person per year (pppy) and could be defined as high health risk points. A total of 37.3% of samples could be deemed potential risk points whose DALY values were between 10−7 and 10−6 pppy. There were significant spatial differences in FC concentrations and health risk among upstream, midstream, and downstream regions. With the rising health-risk value, the high-risk region has transferred from downstream to upstream since 2015. Furthermore, we found that domestic wastewater and livestock sewerage were deemed to be primary sources of FC in the Tuojiang watershed. Moreover, the increasing health risk faced by the local people in the watershed should receive more attention from the public and government. The results of this study could provide insight into the management of FC pollution and health risks, such as sewage treatment, livestock manure management, and personal dietetic hygiene.
•Flower-like In2O3 microspheres with high specific surface area was prepared.•The specific surface area is as high as 77.38 m2/g.•The unmodified pure In2O3 material can detect 5 ppb of isoprene at ...190 °C.•The sensor is expected to be used for rapid screening of chronic liver disease.
Isoprene is a typical biomarker for advanced fibrosis and can be used to screen and grade chronic liver disease (CLD). To detect trace isoprene, the high specific surface area (77.38 m2/g), porous flower-like In2O3 hierarchical microsphere material was prepared by simple hydrothermal method. In addition, the sensor based on synthetic flower-like In2O3 microspheres was prepared and gas sensing properties were investigated. The results showed that flower-like In2O3 nanomaterials had the highest response to isoprene at 190 °C. The response time was 53 s and repeatability was good. The relatively low operating temperature (190 °C) could extend the working life and also facilitate the portable application of the sensor. Meanwhile, the sensor exhibited selectivity over other typical biomarkers (ammonia, ethanol, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide). The unmodified pure flower-like In2O3 material could detect 5 ppb of isoprene at 190 °C and the logarithm of the response had good linear relationship with the logarithm of the concentration. Thus, this flower-like In2O3 material was promising to be developed into the portable breath isoprene detector that could be integrated into a micro system for noninvasive rapid screening and grading of CLD.
Isoprene is a typical biomarker for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and can be used for early screening in breath diagnosis. In this study, a simple hydrothermal synthesis of flower-like ...Cr2O3-doped In2O3 nanorods clusters materials for ultra-low isoprene detection was reported. This special flower-like nanorods clusters structure has the large specific surface area and the Cr2O3 doping improves in the distribution of different oxygen components, crystallite size, and carrier concentration, which synthetically contributes to the enhanced isoprene sensing performance. The results show that among all the sensors, the 1 wt% Cr2O3-doped In2O3 sensor exhibits reliable ppb-level detection ability with a concentration less than 5 ppb. Meanwhile, the sensor shows good long-term stability for 4 weeks and considerable selectivity over other common breathing gases (benzene, acetone, octane, pentane, ethanol, ammonia, and nitrogen dioxide). Furthermore, the sensor has good humidity resistance under different ambient humidity (0–92% RH). Thus, we believe the sensor based on the flower-like Cr2O3-doped In2O3 nanorods clusters has a potential application value for the detection of trace isoprene in breath analysis.
The flower-like Cr2O3-doped In2O3 nanorods clusters materials for ultra-low isoprene detection are synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method. Display omitted
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