Summary
Necrosis‐ and ethylene‐inducing peptide 1 (Nep1)‐like proteins (NLPs) constitute a superfamily of proteins toxic to dicot plants, but the molecular basis of this toxicity remains obscure.
...Using quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis we investigated the genetic variation underlying ion leakage in Arabidopsis plants elicited with MoNLP1 derived from Magnaporthe oryzae. The QTL conditioning MoNLP1 toxicity was positionally cloned and further characterized to elucidate its mode of action.
MoNLP1‐triggered cell death varied significantly across > 250 Arabidopsis accessions and three QTLs were identified conferring the observed variation. The QTL on chromosome 4 was uncovered to encode a leucine‐rich repeat (LRR)‐only protein designated as NTCD4, which shares high sequence identity with a set of nucleotide‐binding LRR proteins. NTCD4 was secreted into the apoplast and physically interacted with multiple NLPs. Apoplastic NTCD4 facilitated the oligomerization of NLP, which was closely associated with toxicity in planta. The natural genetic variation causing D3N change in NTCD4 reduced the secretion efficiency of NTCD4 and the infection of Botrytis cinerea on Arabidopsis plants.
These observations demonstrate that the plant‐derived NTCD4 is recruited by NLPs to promote toxicity via facilitating their oligomerization, which extends our understanding of a key step in the toxic mode of action of NLPs.
Planar cell polarity (PCP) signalling specifies the orientation of epithelial cells and regulates directional beating of motile cilia of multiciliated epithelial cells. Clinically, defects in cilia ...function are associated with nasopharyngeal symptoms. The polarity of the nasopharyngeal epithelium is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated PCP in the nasopharyngeal epithelium. Multiciliated cells (MCCs) were uniformly aligned with their long axis parallel to the tissue axis of the nasopharynx (NP). In addition, PCP proteins exhibited an asymmetrical localisation between adjacent cells. Motile cilia were uniformly aligned in the same direction within both individual cells and neighbouring cells, which manifested as cilial polarity in MCCs. Mutation of Vangl2, a mammalian homologue of the Drosophila PCP gene, resulted in significant disruption of the orientation of epithelial cells. Finally, keratin‐5‐positive basal cells constantly replenished the luminal ciliated cells; the new dynamic ciliated cells were also oriented parallel to the tissue axis. These results indicate a role for the PCP pathway in the uniform orientation of dynamically replenished epithelial cells in the NP.
Planar cell polarity (PCP) signalling specifies the orientation of epithelial cells and regulates directional beating of motile cilia of multiciliated epithelial cells. Clinically, defects in cilia function are associated with nasopharyngeal symptoms. Here, we present that PCP governs the alignment of the nasopharyngeal epithelium. Our findings provide a complete understanding of PCP in the nasopharyngeal epithelium and reveal novel structural features which are likely crucial within diseases of the nasopharynx.
Zeolite membranes are emerging as attractive candidates for the separation of methanol/methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) mixtures, while the random deposition of silicon aluminum components on the ...surface of the support can lead to the poor quality of zeolite membranes, restricting the use of zeolite membranes in separation and purification applications. In this study, the deposition process of the silicon aluminum components was controlled, and compact NaX zeolite membranes with great pervaporation performance for methanol/MTBE mixtures were synthesized using water–organic solvent synthesis solutions. Systematic research showed the existence of a stable “liquid film” on the surface of the support controlling the formation environment of zeolite membranes during their synthesis; organic solvents that partly replaced water in the synthesis solution improved the quality of the zeolite membranes. The water–organic solvent system could not only decrease the nucleation and crystallization rate of zeolite particles in the main body of the synthesis solution and reduce the consumption of silicon aluminum components in the main body of the synthesis solution but also promote the migration of silicon aluminum components to the “liquid film” on the surface of the support from the main body of the synthesis solution, thus promoting the growth of zeolite membranes. The zeolite membrane synthesized in the 20(v) % 1,3-propanediol synthesis solution exhibited a MeOH/MTBE separation factor greater than 10,000 with a permeation flux of 1.6 kg·m–2·h–1, indicating that a compact zeolite membrane was grown on the support. In this work, the formation of zeolite membranes was controlled by adding an organic solvent to the synthesis solution to adjust the deposition process of silicon aluminum components to the support and a new method for the preparation of compact membranes was developed.
G-triplexes have recently been identified as a new kind of DNA structures. They perhaps possess specific biological and chemical functions similar as identified G-quadruplex but can be formed by ...shorter G-rich sequences with only three G-tracts. However, until now, limited G-triplexes sequences have been reported, which might be due to the fact that their stability is one of the biggest concerns during their functional studies and application research. Herein, we found a G-rich sequence (5′-TGGGTAGGGCGGG-3′) which can form a stable G-triplex (Tm ∼ 60 °C) at room temperature. The stable G-triplex can combine with thioflavin T and function as an efficient fluorescence light-up probe. Comparing with the traditional G-quadruplex based probe, this triplex based probe was easy to be controlled and excited. Finally, the probe was successfully applied into constructing a label-free molecular beacon for miRNA detection. Taking advantage of these abilities of the G-triplex based fluorescent probe, the challenges faced during designing G-rich sequences based fluorescent biosensors can be efficiently solved. These findings provide important information for the future application of G-triplex.
Natural production of anti-cancer drug taxol from Taxus has proved to be environmentally unsustainable and economically unfeasible. Currently, bioengineering the biosynthetic pathway of taxol is an ...attractive alternative production approach. 10-deacetylbaccatin III-10-
O
-acetyl transferase (DBAT) was previously characterized as an acyltransferase, using 10-deacetylbaccatin III (10-DAB) and acetyl CoA as natural substrates, to form baccatin III in the taxol biosynthesis. Here, we report that other than the natural acetyl CoA (Ac-CoA) substrate, DBAT can also utilize vinyl acetate (VA), which is commercially available at very low cost, acylate quickly and irreversibly, as acetyl donor in the acyl transfer reaction to produce baccatin III. Furthermore, mutants were prepared via a semi-rational design in this work. A double mutant, I43S/D390R was constructed to combine the positive effects of the different single mutations on catalytic activity, and its catalytic efficiency towards 10-DAB and VA was successfully improved by 3.30-fold, compared to that of wild-type DBAT, while 2.99-fold higher than the catalytic efficiency of WT DBAT towards 10-DAB and Ac-CoA. These findings can provide a promising economically and environmentally friendly method for exploring novel acyl donors to engineer natural product pathways.
To identify the typical pattern of changes of vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) and explore the relationship between VEMPs and the anthropometry factors in patients with obstructive sleep ...apnea (OSA).
Patients diagnosed as OSA after overnight polysomnography (PSG) tests were enrolled as the study group. Healthy volunteers were recruited as the control group. Anthropometry data of the body shape and VEMPs results were collected completely. The correlation analysis was conducted among those parameters.
Forty-nine patients with OSA who were diagnosed in the Therapy Center of Sleep-disordered Breathing in our hospital and sex- and age-matched healthy controls as well. Significant changes in ocular and cervical VEMPs (oVEMP and cVEMP) in the study group were observed, which were reduced response rates, elevated thresholds, decreased amplitudes, and prolonged first wave latencies. In oVEMP, the first wave (n1) latency was significantly correlated with weight, body mass index (BMI), neck circumference, waist circumference, hip circumference, and apnea hypopnea index (AHI). In a tentative application, combined use of BMI and oVEMP n1 latency increased the detection rate during OSA screening prior to PSG.
OSA can negatively affect function of otolithic organs and their pathways. The first wave latency of the VEMPs waveform may be another important parameter to define peripheral nervous system lesions caused by systemic diseases as OSA.
•The relationship between VEMPs and the body habitus of OSA patients were explored.•The typical pattern of changes of VEMPs in patients with OSA was identified.•Measurements combining oVEMP and cVEMP were used to assess otolithic function in this study.•The variation of latency of VEMPs in OSA patients were described.•The first wave latency of VEMPs may be an important parameter to define peripheral nervous system lesions in OSA.
•Random forests is firstly applied to investigating similarity of six vegetable oils.•Proximities matrix is an efficient method for evaluating similarity between samples.•Multidimensional scaling is ...useful for visualizing similarity between samples.•Random forests provides a measure for variable importance in clustering.•With similar fatty acid profiles in EVOO, tea oil might be a good edible oil choice.
In order to discriminate premium quality from inexpensive edible oils, the fatty acid profiles of tea, rapeseed, corn, sunflower and sesame oil were compared with the ones from extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). Fatty acid methyl esters were quantified by GC/MS. Principal component analysis (PCA) and random forests (RF) were applied to cluster the samples. RF showed a better ability of discrimination and also revealed the contribution of each variable to the clustering model. The multidimensional scaling (MDS) plot of the RF proximity matrix demonstrated that tea oil was similar to EVOO. Meanwhile, it was observed that the total content of cis-monounsaturated fatty acids (79.48%) in tea oil was close to EVOO (80.71%), especially the oleic acid (77.38% and 77.45%, respectively). The results suggest that tea oil might be a good edible oil choice, considering the high oleic acid content and similar fatty acid profiles compared to those of EVOO.
Objectives
To identify genes that are related to delayed endolymphatic hydrops (DEH) in patients by RNA‐Seq analysis.
Design
Observational study.
Setting
Eye & ENT Hospital, Fudan University ...(Shanghai, China).
Participants
We collected the entire vestibular system from four patients with DEH who underwent labyrinthectomy. Three control samples were collected from patients with acoustic neuroma or facial neuroma treated via the translabyrinthine approach. High‐throughput RNA‐Seq analysis was performed to investigate gene expression in the pathological vestibular system.
Main outcome measures
Our bioinformatic analysis identified 17 genes that were upregulated and eight genes that were downregulated in patients with DEH compared with the controls.
Results
The altered gene expression profile suggested that DEH is closely related to neuropathy and autoimmune disease. In addition, many of the differentially regulated genes were involved in cell adhesion, suggesting a role of cell adhesion in DEH. Immunofluorescence analysis confirmed the expression of PMP2 and CLDN19 in the cytoplasm of hair cells and scattered expression of MPZ at cell junctions. The protein expression levels were higher in specimens from patients with Ménière's disease and DEH compared with controls.
Conclusions
The protein expression profile of vestibular organs in patients with endolymphatic hydrops exhibited a degree of similarity to that of Ménière's disease. Endolymphatic hydrops is characterised by autoimmune abnormalities. DEH and Ménière's disease are likely to be different manifestations of the same disease, with disparate clinical symptoms. RNA‐Seq is a useful analytical tool to characterise the vestibular pathology based on its transcriptome.
•Proposed a consensus mechanism of blockchain based on quantum zero-knowledge proof.•Our scheme has low energy consumption, low time delay and high throughput.•It eliminates the defect that ...traditional blockchain cannot withstand 51% attack.
Referring to the consensus mechanisms of traditional blockchain, a new consensus mechanism of quantum blockchain is designed based on the randomness and the irreversibility of quantum measurement and quantum zero-knowledge proof. This new consensus mechanism does not involve a great deal of computing resources and hence has fewer energy consumption, shorter time delay and higher throughput. Furthermore, the new consensus mechanism could withstand 51% attack.
The high selectivities of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry make liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry one of the most popular tools for quantitative analysis in complex chemical, ...biological, and environmental systems, while the potential mathematical selectivity of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry is rarely investigated. This work discussed the mathematical selectivity of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry by three‐way calibration based on the trilinear model, with an application to quantitative analysis of coeluting aromatic amino acids in human plasma. By the trilinear decomposition of the constructed liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry‐sample trilinear model and individual regression of the decomposed relative intensity versus concentration, the proposed three‐way calibration method successfully achieved quantitative analysis of coeluting aromatic amino acids in human plasma, even in the presence of uncalibrated interferent(s) and a varying background. This analytical method can ease the requirements for sample preparation and complete chromatographic separation of components, reduce the use of organic solvents, decrease the time of chromatographic separation, and increase the peak capacity of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. As a “green analytical method”, the liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry three‐way calibration method can provide a promising tool for direct and fast quantitative analysis in complex systems containing uncalibrated spectral interferents, especially for the situation where the coelution problem is difficult to overcome.
