The plant vacuole is an important organelle for storing excess iron (Fe), though its contribution to increasing the Fe content in staple foods remains largely unexplored. In this study we report the ...isolation and functional characterization of two rice genes OsVIT1 and OsVIT2, orthologs of the Arabidopsis VIT1. Transient expression of OsVIT1:EGFP and OsVIT2:EGFP protein fusions revealed that OsVIT1 and OsVIT2 are localized to the vacuolar membrane. Ectopic expression of OsVIT1 and OsVIT2 partially rescued the Fe2+‐ and Zn2+‐sensitive phenotypes in yeast mutant Δccc1 and Δzrc1, and further increased vacuolar Fe2+, Zn2+ and Mn2+ accumulation. These data together suggest that OsVIT1 and OsVIT2 function to transport Fe2+, Zn2+ and Mn2+ across the tonoplast into vacuoles in yeast. In rice, OsVIT1 and OsVIT2 are highly expressed in flag leaf blade and sheath, respectively, and in contrast to OsVIT1, OsVIT2 is highly responsive to Fe treatments. Interestingly, functional disruption of OsVIT1 and OsVIT2 leads to increased Fe/Zn accumulation in rice seeds and a corresponding decrease in the source organ flag leaves, indicating an enhanced Fe/Zn translocation between source and sink organs, which might represent a novel strategy to biofortify Fe/Zn in staple foods.
Time-lapse microscopy plays critical roles in the studies of cellular dynamics. However, setting up a time-lapse movie experiments is not only laborious but also with low output, mainly due to the ...cell-losing problem (i.e., cells moving out of limited field of view), especially in a long-time recording. To overcome this issue, we have designed a cost-efficient way that enables cell patterning on the imaging surfaces without any physical boundaries. Using mouse embryonic stem cells as an example system, we have demonstrated that our boundary-free patterned surface solves the cell-losing problem without disturbing their cellular phenotype. Statistically, the presented system increases the effective-throughput of time-lapse microscopy experiments by an order of magnitude.
Owing to diverse abiotic stresses and global climate deterioration, the agricultural production worldwide is suffering serious losses. Breeding stress-resilient crops with higher quality and yield ...against multiple environmental stresses via application of transgenic technologies is currently the most promising approach. Deciphering molecular principles and mining stress-associate genes that govern plant responses against abiotic stresses is one of the prerequisites to develop stress-resistant crop varieties. As molecular switches in controlling stress-responsive genes expression, transcription factors (TFs) play crucial roles in regulating various abiotic stress responses. Hence, functional analysis of TFs and their interaction partners during abiotic stresses is crucial to perceive their role in diverse signaling cascades that many researchers have continued to undertake. Here, we review current developments in understanding TFs, with particular emphasis on their functions in orchestrating plant abiotic stress responses. Further, we discuss novel molecular mechanisms of their action under abiotic stress conditions. This will provide valuable information for understanding regulatory mechanisms to engineer stress-tolerant crops.
Aragonite CaCO3 whisker (CW) could improve the mechanical properties of cementitious composites. The microstructure of calcite is different from that of aragonite, but only a few studies reported ...different effects in cementitious composites between incorporating aragonite and calcite. In order to fully use CW as high-performance, low-cost microfiber and clearly understand different mechanisms between aragonite and calcite CW, in this study, the heat treatment method was used to convert aragonite CW to calcite CW, and the effect of calcite and aragonite on the hydration and strength of CW reinforced cement paste (CWRC) was studied to bridge the gaps in this area. The aragonite and calcite CWs exhibited the overall physical dilution effect in Portland cement, significantly decreasing the hydration heat of cement and the total amount of non-evaporable water and Ca(OH)2. Calcite CW presents a more significant nucleation effect than aragonite CW. Compared to aragonite CWRC, the hydration of silicon phase in calcite CWRC is faster and the hydration heat release is higher; however, there is no significant difference in the hydration of aluminum phase. The Ca(OH)2 content in calcite CWRC was more than that in aragonite CWRC. More hydration products formed on the surface of calcite CW than that on aragonite CW, improving the bonding strength between calcite CW and cement matrix. Hence, both the compressive strength and flexural strength of calcite CWRC are higher than those of aragonite CWRC. The rheological test of fresh aragonite and calcite CWRC proved that both aragonite and calcite CWs significantly decreased the flow of cement paste, presenting viscosity effect. Compared to aragonite CW, calcite CW improved the flowability of fresh cement paste, indicating the lubricant effect of calcite CW. Aragonite and calcite CW present chemical effect similar to limestone powders, i.e., aluminum phase in Portland cement interacted with CO32- dissolved from CW to form mono- and semi- carbonate. The Ca(OH)2 orientation indexes of cement decreased by the introduction of CWs. Aragonite and calcite CWs can also be used as microfiber and filler in cementitious composites. These effects improved the micro-structure, thus enhanced the flexural and compressive strength of cement paste.
The shape effect of gold (Au) nanomaterials on the efficiency of cancer radiotherapy has not been fully elucidated. To address this issue, Au nanomaterials with different shapes but similar average ...size (∼50 nm) including spherical gold nanoparticles (GNPs), gold nanospikes (GNSs), and gold nanorods (GNRs) were synthesized and functionalized with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) molecules. Although all of these Au nanostructures were coated with the same PEG molecules, their cellular uptake behavior differed significantly. The GNPs showed the highest cellular responses as compared to the GNSs and the GNRs (based on the same gold mass) after incubation with KB cancer cells for 24 h. The cellular uptake in cells increased in the order of GNPs > GNSs > GNRs. Our comparative studies indicated that all of these PEGylated Au nanostructures could induce enhanced cancer cell-killing rates more or less upon X-ray irradiation. The sensitization enhancement ratios (SERs) calculated by a multitarget single-hit model were 1.62, 1.37, and 1.21 corresponding to the treatments of GNPs, GNSs, and GNRs, respectively, demonstrating that the GNPs showed a higher anticancer efficiency than both GNSs and GNRs upon X-ray irradiation. Almost the same values were obtained by dividing the SERs of the three types of Au nanomaterials by their corresponding cellular uptake amounts, indicating that the higher SER of GNPs was due to their much higher cellular uptake efficiency. The above results indicated that the radiation enhancement effects were determined by the amount of the internalized gold atoms. Therefore, to achieve a strong radiosensitization effect in cancer radiotherapy, it is necessary to use Au-based nanomaterials with a high cellular internalization. Further studies on the radiosensitization mechanisms demonstrated that ROS generation and cell cycle redistribution induced by Au nanostructures played essential roles in enhancing radiosensitization. Taken together, our results indicated that the shape of Au-based nanomaterials had a significant influence on cancer radiotherapy. The present work may provide important guidance for the design and use of Au nanostructures in cancer radiotherapy.
•The preferential adsorption of CO2 over CH4 improves with coal rank.•Pore structure of coal affects the thermodynamics of adsorption of CO2 and CH4.•Adsorbed CO2 has a more ordered configuration ...than CH4 on different rank coals.
In this paper, the pore structures of three different rank coals sampled from China (anthracite, bituminous coal and lignite) were characterized by CO2 and N2 adsorption. The isothermal adsorption curves of CO2 and CH4 on three samples were measured by gravimetric method and fitted by Langmuir model. The preferential selectivity (αCO2/CH4) was calculated using the Langmuir parameters of CO2 and CH4, and the Henry’s coefficient (KH) was obtained with the help of virial equation. More importantly, a comparative analysis of adsorption thermodynamics of CO2 and CH4 on three different rank coals, including surface potential (Ω), Gibbs free energy change (ΔG) and entropy loss (ΔS), was presented according to the adsorption data. It is found that the uptakes of CO2 and CH4 on anthracite are the largest, followed by lignite and bituminous coal in sequence. αCO2/CH4 increases with the increase of coal rank. Low temperature helps injected CO2 to displace pre-adsorbed CH4. The KH values on anthracite are the biggest, while KH values on bituminous coal are the smallest. Ω, ΔG and ΔS of CO2 and CH4 all exhibit a U-shaped function with maturity. Anthracite has the highest Ω, ΔG and ΔS, while bituminous coal has the lowest Ω, ΔG and ΔS. The thermodynamics parameters of Ω, ΔG and ΔS are affected by pore size distributions of three coals. Ω, ΔG and ΔS of CH4 are smaller than those of CO2. CO2 adsorption on coal is more favorable and spontaneous, and adsorbed CO2 molecules form a more efficient packing on coal.
Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can manifest as a viral-induced hyperinflammation with multiorgan dysfunction. It has been documented that severe COVID-19 is associated with higher levels ...of inflammatory mediators than a mild disease, and tracking these markers may allow early identification or even prediction of disease progression. It is well known that C-reactive protein (CRP) is the acute-phase protein and the active regulator of host innate immunity, which is highly predictive of the need for mechanical ventilation and may guide escalation of treatment of COVID-19-related uncontrolled inflammation. There are numerous causes of an elevated CRP, including acute and chronic responses, and these can be infectious or non-infectious in etiology. CRP are normally lacking in viral infections, while adaptive immunity appears to be essential for COVID-19 virus clearance, and the macrophage activation syndrome may explain the high serum CRP contents and contribute to the disease progression. Nevertheless, for the assessment of host inflammatory status and identification of viral infection in other pathologies, such as bacterial sepsis, the acute-phase proteins, including CRP and procalcitonin, can provide more important information for guiding clinical diagnosis and antibiotic therapy. This review is aimed to highlight the current and most recent studies with regard to the clinical significance of CRP in severe COVID-19 and other viral associated illnesses, including update advances on the implication of CRP and its form specifically on the pathogenesis of these diseases. The progressive understanding in these areas may be translated into promising measures to prevent severe outcomes and mitigate appropriate treatment modalities in critical COVID-19 and other viral infections.
Recently, circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to be microRNA sponges and play essential roles in cancer development. This study aimed to evaluate whether circulating circRNAs could be used as ...diagnostic biomarkers for lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD).
The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset was used to investigate differentially expressed circRNAs (DEcircRNAs) in paired LUAD tissues and adjacent nontumor tissues. The expression levels of the host genes were analyzed in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-LUAD dataset, and the prognostic value was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier plotter. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to validate the expression of candidate circRNAs in the LUAD plasma and cells. The CCK8 assay was used to measure the function of circRNAs in cell proliferation. Competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network, gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were performed to predict the possible mechanisms and functions of circRNAs in LUAD.
Two upregulated and two downregulated circRNAs were identified as candidate circRNAs using bioinformatics analysis. qRT-PCR demonstrated that hsa_circ_0005962 was upregulated in LUAD plasma and cells, whereas hsa_circ_0086414 was downregulated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis confirmed that a signature comprising the two circRNAs had good diagnostic potential, with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.81 (P < 0.0001). In addition, we observed that overexpression of plasma hsa_circ_0086414 was related to EGFR mutations (P = 0.001). Plasma hsa_circ_0005962 displayed significantly different expression before and after surgery in patients with LUAD (P < 0.0001). In vitro experiments suggested that hsa_circ_0005962 promoted LUAD cell proliferation. For future studies, we predicted the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network for hsa_circ_0005962. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that hsa_circ_0005962 might be involved in LUAD development.
A circRNA signature was identified as a potential noninvasive biomarker for LUAD diagnosis.
In this paper we study a nonlinear reaction–diffusion system which models an infectious disease caused by bacteria such as those for Cholera. One of the significant features in this model is that a ...certain portion of the recovered human hosts may lose a lifetime immunity and could be infected again. Another important feature in the model is that the mobility for each species is allowed to be dependent upon both the location and time. With the whole population assumed to be susceptible with the bacteria, the model is a strongly coupled nonlinear reaction–diffusion system. We prove that the nonlinear system has a unique solution globally in any space dimension under some natural conditions on the model parameters and the given data. Moreover, the long-time behavior and stability analysis for the solutions are carried out rigorously. In particular, we characterize the precise conditions on variable parameters about the stability or instability of all steady-state solutions. These new results provide the answers to several open questions raised in the literature.
Accumulating evidence implies that N6‐methyladenosine (m6A) methylation participated in the tumorigenesis of gastric cancer (GC). Here we synthetically analyzing the prognostic value and expression ...profile of seven m6A methylation‐relevant genes through silico analysis of sequencing data downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas, Kaplan–Meier plotter, and Gene Expression Omnibus database. We explored the methyltransferase‐like 3 (METTL3) expression in GC cell line and tumor tissues by reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis. The m6A methylation status of total RNA was measured by m6A RNA methylation quantification kit. Small interfering RNA was used to establish METTL3 knockdown cell lines. We also measure the proliferation and migration capability GC cell. Furthermore, we detect the epithelial cell mesenchymal transition marker and m6A methylation level after METTL3 knock down. Our result revealed that METTL3 was significantly increased in GC tissues compared with control in big crowd data sets. Survival analysis showed that METTL3 serve as a poor prognostic factor for GC patients. The expression level of METTL3 gradually increased with the progress of tumor stage and grade. GFI1 is an important transcription factor associated with METTL3. We verified the up‐trend of METTL3 in messenger RNA and protein expression and observed a significant increase in the m6A methylation status of total RNA in the GC cells and tissues. METTL3 knockdown inhibited total RNA m6A methylation level, as well as cell proliferation and migration capacity. Moreover, METTL3 knockdown decreased α‐smooth muscle actin. Taken together, our finding revealed that m6A methylation writer METTL3 serve as an oncogene in tumorigenesis of GC.
Identify METTL3 as the main research target molecule.
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