Corynebacterium glutamicum
has been widely used for bulk and fine chemicals fermentation these years. In this study, we developed a defined medium for this bacteria based on the widely used CGXII ...minimal medium. We evaluated the effects of different components in CGXII on cell growth of
C. glutamicum
ATCC 13032 and improved the medium through single-factor experiment and central composite design (CCD). Urea, K
2
HPO
4
and MgSO
4
were found to be significant factors. 7 out of the total 15 components were modified. (NH
4
)
2
SO
4
, KH
2
PO
4
, and protocatechuic acid were eliminated. Amounts of urea and MgSO
4
were increased, and concentrations of biotin and glucose were reduced. The resulting R2 medium was proved to be more suitable for cell growth, plasmid amplification and protein production than the original recipe. Remarkably, cell biomass accumulation in R2 increased by 54.36% than CGXII. Transcriptome analysis revealed alteration of carbon metabolism, cation transport and energy synthesis, which might be beneficial for cell growth in R2. Considering the high nitrogen content and availability of urea, the new medium is simplified and cost effective, which holds attractive potential for future study.
DD5 Ni-based single-crystal superalloy has presented a wide application prospect in aerospace, marine, nuclear reactor, and chemical industries due to its excellent comprehensive performances caused ...by the crystal boundary as the crack source complete elimination. However, because of the low thermal conductivity and strong adhesion characteristic, DD5 is difficult to machine and the research on this field is still blank. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the material machining mechanism and optimize the milling performance. Based on the DD5 metallographic structure characteristics, the directional cutting method was proposed firstly. Then, considering the wear characteristic and failure mode of the tools with different coating materials, the milling tool proper selection was executed. Moreover, combining with the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, slot milling experiments, and slip system theory, the best milling path was confirmed. In addition, considering the machining environmental sustainability, the milling performances acquired under the dry, minimal quantity lubrication (MQL) and water-based MQL conditions were evaluated and compared. Finally, in order to optimize the machining parameter sequence quantitatively and ascertain the milling and cooling interactive effect mechanism, response surface method (RSM), back-propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN), genetic algorithm (GA), and uniform design experiments were all adopted. With the anticipation to improve environmental sustainability and milling performance simultaneously, the milling experiments on the DD5 (001) crystal plane along the 110 crystal direction under the water-based MQL technology with PVD-TiAlN-coated tools were conducted and the parameters of main spindle linear speed
v
c
= 20 m/min, tool feed per tooth
f
= 8.97 μm, oil flow rate
Q
= 68.21 ml/h, the ratio of water and oil
R
= 0.94 and the air pressure
P
= 1.79 bar were used. Then, the better surface roughness
Sa
= 2.05 μm and the lower milling force
F
= 14.38 N can be acquired simultaneously based on the verification of the uniform design experiment results.
Sumoylation is one of the key regulatory mechanisms in eukaryotes. Our previous studies reveal that sumoylation plays indispensable roles during lens differentiation (Yan et al. 2010. Proc Natl Acad ...Sci USA. 107:21034–21039; Gong et al. 2014. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 111:5574–5579). Whether sumoylation is implicated in cataractogenesis, a disease largely derived from aging, remains elusive. In the present study, we have examined the changing patterns of the sumoylation ligases and de‐sumoylation enzymes (SENPs) and their substrates including Pax6 and other proteins in cataractous lenses of different age groups from 50 to 90 years old. It is found that compared with normal lenses, sumoylation ligases 1 and 3, de‐sumoylation enzymes SENP3/7/8, and p46 Pax6 are clearly increased. In contrast, Ubc9 is significantly decreased. Among different cataract patients from 50s to 70s, male patients express more sumoylation enzymes and p46 Pax6. Ubc9 and SENP6 display age‐dependent increase. The p46 Pax6 displays age‐dependent decrease in normal lens, remains relatively stable in senile cataracts but becomes di‐sumoylated in complicated cataracts. In contrast, sumoylation of p32 Pax6 is observed in senile cataracts and increases its stability. Treatment of rat lenses with oxidative stress increases Pax6 expression without sumoylation but promotes apoptosis. Thus, our results show that the changing patterns in Ubc9, SENP6, and Pax6 levels can act as molecular markers for senile cataract and the di‐sumoylated p46 Pax6 for complicated cataract. Together, our results reveal the presence of molecular signature for both senile and complicated cataracts. Moreover, our study indicates that sumoylation is implicated in control of aging and cataractogenesis.
The molecular signatures for both senile cataract and complicated cataract. Upregulation of sumoylation ligases Ubc9 and PIAS1, and de‐sumoylation enzyme SENP6, and SUMO1 conjugation of p32 Pax6 are molecular markers for senile cataract. Di‐sumoylation of p46 Pax6 is the molecular marker for complicated cataract.
The scale factor drifts and other long-term instability drifts of Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) inertial sensors are the main contributors of the position and orientation errors in high ...dynamic environments. In this paper, a novel high dynamic micro vibrator, which could provide high acceleration and high angular rate rotation with integrated optical displacement detector, is proposed. Commercial MEMS inertial sensors, including 3-axis accelerometer and 6-axis inertial measurement unit which is about 3 mm * 3 mm * 1 mm with 19 mg, could be bonded on the vibration platform of the micro vibrator to perform in-situ during the self-calibration procedure. The high dynamic micro vibrator is fabricated by a fully-integrated MEMS process, including lead zirconate titanate (PZT) film deposition, PZT and electrodes patterning, and structural ion etching. The optical displacement detector, using vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) and photoelectric diodes (PD), is integrated on the top of the package to measure the 6-DOF vibrating displacement with the detecting resolution of 150 nm in the range of 500 μm. The maximum out-of-plane acceleration of the z-axis vibrating platform loaded with commercial 3-axis accelerometer (H3LIS331DL) achieves above 16 g and the maximum angular velocity achieves above 720°/s when the driving voltage is ±6 V.
The sole and integrated effects of N rates and cropping patterns on grain yield advantage (a-c), and carbon emission efficiency advantage (d-f). Notes: CEE, the carbon emission efficiency; N1-150, ...N2-225, and N3-300 represented three N levels of 150, 225 and 300 kg ha−1, respectively.
Display omitted
•Soybean intercropped with wheat or maize promoted LER, showing plant facilitation.•Plant facilitation increased LER and reduced nitrogen application by increasing NUE.•Facilitation promoted carbon emission (CE) with C&N degradation enzyme activity.•Wheat-maize intercropping showed opposite trend due to interspecific competition.•Plant facilitation increased carbon emission efficiency (yield/CE) but lowered N application.
It is critical to reduce carbon (C) emission and nitrogen (N) input in agroecosystems under a changing climate. If crop diversification is introduced, interspecific plant–plant interactions as an effective pathway may achieve this goal. However, the related process and its mechanism are poorly understood. A two-year field study was conducted to explore the effects of intercropping systems including soybean-maize, soybean- wheat and maize-wheat on the land equivalent ratio (LER), nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), seasonal carbon emission, and soil properties in a typical semiarid environment. Three N rates (N1: 150 kg ha−1, N2: 225 kg ha−1, N3: 300 kg ha−1) were applied. The result indicated that the intercropping with soybean significantly increased system productivity with LER > 1, showing a typical plant–plant facilitation. However, the LER of maize–wheat intercropping was significantly lower than 1, representing interspecific competition. With the increasing N rate, the productivity of monoculture wheat or maize was evidently promoted. Particularly, the productivity under N2 and N3 remained at a similar level due to interspecific facilitation. This trend was mechanically driven by the improved N uptake (NLER > 1) and NUE under the presence of interspecific facilitation. Critically, interspecific facilitation was observed to promote carbon emissions (CE) by 4.0%-6.3%, since root input, microbial activities and the C&N decomposition enzyme activities were significantly enhanced. To say, interspecific facilitation evidently enhanced carbon emission efficiency (Yield/CE) whereas interspecific competition turned to lower it. To sum up, plant facilitation improved crop productivity and carbon emission efficiency by reducing N input. Our findings provided a new insight into the exploration of green solution in terms of reducing emissions and increasing efficiency, as well as lowering N fertilizer application in the natural and agricultural ecosystems.
Fungal secreted proteins that contain the Common in Fungal Extracellular Membrane (CFEM) domain are important for pathogenicity. The hemibiotrophic fungus Colletotrichum graminicola causes the ...serious anthracnose disease of maize. In this study, we identified 24 CgCFEM proteins in the genome of C. graminicola. Phylogenic analysis revealed that these 24 proteins (CgCFEM1—24) can be divided into 2 clades based on the presence of the trans-membrane domain. Sequence alignment analysis indicated that the amino acids of the CFEM domain are highly conserved and contain 8 spaced cysteines, with the exception that CgCFEM1 and CgCFEM24 lack 1 and 2 cysteines, respectively. Ten CgCFEM proteins with a signal peptide and without the trans-membrane domain were considered as candidate effectors and, thus were selected for structural prediction and functional analyses. The CFEM domain in the candidate effectors can form a helical-basket structure homologous to the Csa2 protein in Candida albicans, which is responsible for haem acquisition and pathogenicity. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that these effectors accumulate in the cell membrane, nucleus, and cytosolic bodies. Additionally, 5 effectors, CgCFEM6, 7, 8, 9 and 15, can suppress the BAX-induced programmed cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana with or without the signal peptide. These results demonstrate that these 10 CgCFEM candidate effectors with different structures and subcellular localizations in host cells may play important roles during the pathogenic processes on maize plants.
We hypothesized that soil phosphorus (P) utilization might be tightly associated with interspecific interactions. To clarify this issue, a maize-grass pea intercropping system was investigated in a ...rainfed field with P addition (P0 and P +), water (rain-fed and plastic film mulching) and isolation (root barrier and root intermingling) treatments. The data indicated that total net effect was higher than 0 under all the conditions, displaying facilitative effects of biodiversity on agroecosystem productivity. The dynamics of total land equivalent ratio demonstrated that the intensity of plant-plant facilitation became greater under P-deficient condition. Maize was the facilitated species consistently, while grass pea changed from facilitated species under low soil P and moisture to facilitator under high soil P and moisture. The driving mechanism was associated with soil acidification and microbial community promotion effect under P-deficient condition. Intercropped rhizosphere soil phosphatase activity was increased by 4.9–17.2%, and Olsen-P availability was evidently enhanced relative to monoculture. Interestingly, drought stress significantly enhanced this trend. Critically, root isolation confirmed that plant-plant facilitation was briefly driven by interspecific rhizosphere interactions. Conclusively, this study confirmed the context-dependent facilitation shift in agroecosystem and provided a novel insight into the importance of rhizosphere interaction on soil P availability and utilization.
Display omitted
•Plant-plant facilitation was observed in the maize-grass pea intercropping system.•The intensity of facilitation decreased from low to high P and water gradients.•P deficiency promotes rhizosphere phosphatase activity and acidification process.•Drought and P deficiency led to the optimal soil microbial biomass and activities.•Intercropped grass pea fostered soil P mineralization and resource use efficiency.
The composite powders, Sn nanoparticles embedded into the porous hydrogel-derived carbon (Sn@PHDC), were successfully prepared by polymerization and calcination processes, and the characterization ...results confirmed that Sn nanoparticles were homogeneously dispersed in the porous hydrogel-derived pyrolytic carbon. The coin cell assembled with the Sn@PHDC-50 composite electrode presented good cyclic stability and rate performance when the weight ratio of Sn nanoparticles to hydrogel-derived pyrolytic carbon was maintained at 1:1. Moreover, the Sn@PHDC-50 electrode manifested a lower charge transfer resistance of 58.57 Ω and a higher lithium ions diffusion coefficient of 1.117 × 10
–14
cm
2
·s
−1
than pure Sn and other Sn@PHDC electrodes. Those improvements can be partly ascribed to the fact that the hydrogel-derived pyrolytic carbon matrix can release the volume strain and enhance the electronic conductivity of the composite electrode, and partly to the fact that the porous hydrogel-derived pyrolytic carbon matrix can suppress agglomerations of Sn nanoparticles and shorten Li
+
diffusion paths. This work may provide a new approach for the improvement of Sn-based anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.
Graphical abstract
Summary
Aims
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders involving deficits in social interaction and communication. Unfortunately, autism remains a scientific and ...clinical challenge owing to the lack of understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying it. This study aimed to investigate the pathophysiological mechanism underlying leukocyte‐endothelial adhesion in autism‐related neurovascular inflammation.
Methods
Male BTBR T+tf/J mice were used as an autism model. The dynamic pattern of leukocyte‐endothelial adhesion in mouse cerebral vessels was detected by two‐photon laser scanning microscopy (TPLSM). Using FACS, RT‐PCR, and Western blotting, we explored the expression of cell adhesion molecules, the mRNA expression of endothelial chemokine, the protein levels of cathepsin B, and inflammatory mediators.
Results
We found a significant increase in leukocyte‐endothelial adhesion in BTBR mice, accompanied by elevated expression of the adhesion molecule neutrophils CD11b and endothelial ICAM‐1. Our data further indicate that elevated neutrophil cathepsin B levels contribute to elevated endothelial chemokine CXCL7 levels in BTBR mice. The pharmacological inhibition of cathepsin B reverses the enhanced leukocyte‐endothelial adhesion in the cerebral vessels of autistic mice.
Conclusion
Our results revealed the prominent role of cathepsin B in modulating leukocyte‐endothelial adhesion during autism‐related neurovascular inflammation and identified a promising novel approach for autism treatment.
PDF
