Cyclodextrins (CDs), which are a class of cyclic oligosaccharides extracted from the enzymatic degradation of starch, are often utilized in molecular recognition and assembly constructs, primarily ...via host–guest interactions in water. In this review, recent progress in CD‐based supramolecular nanoassemblies that are sensitive to chemical, biological, and physical stimuli is updated and reviewed, and intriguing examples of the biological functions of these nanoassemblies are presented, including pH‐ and redox‐responsive drug and gene delivery, enzyme‐activated specific cargo release, photoswitchable morphological interconversion, microtubular aggregation, and cell–cell communication, as well as a geomagnetism‐controlled nanosystem for the suppression of tumor invasion and metastasis. Moreover, future perspectives and challenges in the fabrication of intelligent CD‐based biofunctional materials are also discussed at the end of this review, which is expected to promote the translational development of these nanomaterials in the biomedical field.
Recent progress in cyclodextrin‐based multistimuli‐responsive supramolecular assemblies is systematically reviewed, their biological functions are presented by selecting some representative examples, and future perspectives and challenges in this promising field are discussed.
In plants, male sterility can be caused either by mitochondrial genes with coupled nuclear genes or by nuclear genes alone; the resulting conditions are known as cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and ...genic male sterility (GMS), respectively. CMS and GMS facilitate hybrid seed production for many crops and thus allow breeders to harness yield gains associated with hybrid vigor (heterosis). In CMS, layers of interaction between mitochondrial and nuclear genes control its male specificity, occurrence, and restoration of fertility. Environment-sensitive GMS (EGMS) mutants may involve epigenetic control by noncoding RNAs and can revert to fertility under different growth conditions, making them useful breeding materials in the hybrid seed industry. Here, we review recent research on CMS and EGMS systems in crops, summarize general models of male sterility and fertility restoration, and discuss the evolutionary significance of these reproductive systems.
Porphyrinic metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising photosensitizers due to the lack of self‐aggregation of porphyrin in aqueous solution. However, how the topology of porphyrinic MOFs affects ...the generation of singlet oxygen (1O2) is unclear. Here, the effect of the topology of porphyrinic MOFs on their photodynamic performance is reported. Four porphyrinic zirconium MOFs (MOF‐525, MOF‐545, PCN‐223 and PCN‐224 with different topologies: ftw, csq, shp and she, respectively) were selected to study the influence of topology on the photodynamic antibacterial performance. The 1O2 generation and the photodynamic antibacterial performance followed an decreasing order of MOF‐545>MOF‐525>PCN‐224>PCN‐223. The results reveal that the pore size, the distance between porphyrin, and the number of porphyrin per Zr6O8 cluster in MOFs greatly affected 1O2 generation. This work provides guidance for designing new MOFs for efficient photodynamic sterilization.
Guide for designing photosensitizers: The effect of the topololgy of porphyrinic zirconium metal‐organic frameworks on 1O2 generation and photodynamic antibacterial performance was studied in four model MOFs. The number of porphyrin (TCPP) molecules per Zr6O8 cluster, the pore size and the distance between inter‐TCPP active sites, which are caused by variations in the MOF′s topology, play important roles in 1O2 generation.Thus, this work provides guidance for designing new MOFs as photosensitizers in photodynamic sterilization and therapy.
The construction of controlled biomacromolecular assemblies has become a thriving area of supramolecular chemistry. In this context, cucurbiturils (CBs), a class of macrocyclic receptors having ...robust skeletons, hydrophobic cavities, and carbonyl‐laced portals, have been drawn into the limelight because of their advantageous molecular recognition characteristics with a variety of biomacromolecules, including peptides, nucleic acids, and proteins. In this minireview, we focus on the impressive advances in CB‐based biomacromolecular assemblies, such as in biosensors and assays, the regulation of biochemical reactions, and the treatment of serious diseases. CB‐promoted subcellular bioimaging has also been demonstrated in different organelles. The case studies presented herein demonstrate the numerous applications, from fundamental research to translational applications, of diverse CB‐based supra/biomacromolecular architectures.
This minireview highlights the recent progress in and emerging applications of cucurbituril‐based biomacromolecular assemblies with peptides, nucleic acids, and proteins. This rapidly developing area involves precise control over intermolecular communication at multidimensional levels and holds great promise for the creation of innovative biomaterials and therapeutic methods.
Near‐infrared (NIR) pure organic room‐temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials have received growing research interest due to their wide application in the fields of high‐resolution bioimaging and ...luminescent materials. In this work, the authors report a macrocycle‐confined pure organic RTP supramolecular assembly, which is constructed by diarylethene phenylpyridinium derivative (DTE‐TP) and cucurbit8uril (CB8). Compared with CB6 and CB7, the larger cavity of CB8 induces molecular folding and enhances the intramolecular charge transfer interactions, which leads to the obtained assembly emitting efficient NIR phosphorescence at 700 nm. Due to the photochromism of the diarylethene core, the NIR phosphorescence is reversibly regulated by light irradiation at wavelengths of 365 and >600 nm. Furthermore, cell‐based experiments show that this supramolecular assembly is located in the lysosomes and displays a NIR phosphorescence at 650–750 nm. In addition, by means of phosphorescence resonance energy transfer, the obtained assembly exhibits a red‐shifted NIR emission at 817 nm. This supramolecular phosphorescent switch provides a convenient path for the modular design of water‐soluble pure organic room‐temperature NIR phosphorescent materials.
Cucurbit8uril induces the folding of a diarylethene phenylpyridinium derivative to form a macrocycle‐confined supramolecular pure organic room‐temperature phosphorescence switch, which not only displays NIR emission at 700 nm, but is also successfully applied in photo‐controlled lysosome‐targeted cell imaging.
Rice blast is one of the most destructive diseases affecting rice worldwide. The adoption of host resistance has proven to be the most economical and effective approach to control rice blast. In ...recent years, sequence-specific nucleases (SSNs) have been demonstrated to be powerful tools for the improvement of crops via gene-specific genome editing, and CRISPR/Cas9 is thought to be the most effective SSN. Here, we report the improvement of rice blast resistance by engineering a CRISPR/Cas9 SSN (C-ERF922) targeting the OsERF922 gene in rice. Twenty-one C-ERF922-induced mutant plants (42.0%) were identified from 50 T0 transgenic plants. Sanger sequencing revealed that these plants harbored various insertion or deletion (InDel) mutations at the target site. We showed that all of the C-ERF922-induced allele mutations were transmitted to subsequent generations. Mutant plants harboring the desired gene modification but not containing the transferred DNA were obtained by segregation in the T1 and T2 generations. Six T2 homozygous mutant lines were further examined for a blast resistance phenotype and agronomic traits, such as plant height, flag leaf length and width, number of productive panicles, panicle length, number of grains per panicle, seed setting percentage and thousand seed weight. The results revealed that the number of blast lesions formed following pathogen infection was significantly decreased in all 6 mutant lines compared with wild-type plants at both the seedling and tillering stages. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between any of the 6 T2 mutant lines and the wild-type plants with regard to the agronomic traits tested. We also simultaneously targeted multiple sites within OsERF922 by using Cas9/Multi-target-sgRNAs (C-ERF922S1S2 and C-ERF922S1S2S3) to obtain plants harboring mutations at two or three sites. Our results indicate that gene modification via CRISPR/Cas9 is a useful approach for enhancing blast resistance in rice.
In rice (Oryza sativa L.), the varied activities of natural Wx alleles regulate different amylose contents (AC), gel consistency (GC) and pasting viscosity of grain starches; these factors together ...influence the grain appearance, cooking/eating quality and starch physical characters (Zhang et al., 2019). Disruption of promoter sequences by genome editing may change agronomic traits (Li et al., 2017; Rodríguez‐Leal et al., 2017). ...we selected a ca. 2.0‐kb upstream sequence of Wxa in TFB for targeting, which contains a 0.9‐kb promoter regulatory region and a 1.1‐kb intron‐containing 5’untranslation region (UTR) (Figure 1a). Improvement of rice grain quality by quantitative regulation of Wx expression via promoter and 5’UISS editing using CRISPR/Cas9. (a) Structure of Wxa and target sites at the promoter region (T1–T8 in four pairs), the intronic splicing site within the 5’untranslation region (5’UISS; T9) or a coding exon (T10). ...we observed that the major agronomic traits (1000‐grain weight, grain length, grain width, plant height and plant morphology) of these edited lines were similar to TFB, except for slightly decreased 1000‐grain weight in UISS‐1, UISS‐2 and UISS‐6 (93%–95% of TFB).
Summary
Rice (Oryza sativa) is a short‐day (SD) plant originally having strong photoperiod sensitivity (PS), with SDs promoting and long days (LDs) suppressing flowering. Although the evolution of PS ...in rice has been extensively studied, there are few studies that combine the genetic effects and underlying mechanism of different PS gene combinations with variations in PS.
We created a set of isogenic lines among the core PS‐flowering genes Hd1, Ghd7 and DTH8 using CRISPR mutagenesis, to systematically dissect their genetic relationships under different day‐lengths. We investigated their monogenic, digenic, and trigenic effects on target gene regulation and PS variation.
We found that Hd1 and Ghd7 have the primary functions for promoting and repressing flowering, respectively, regardless of day‐length. However, under LD conditions, Hd1 promotes Ghd7 expression and is recruited by Ghd7 and/or DTH8 to form repressive complexes that collaboratively suppress the Ehd1‐Hd3a/RFT1 pathway to block heading, but under SD conditions Hd1 competes with the complexes to promote Hd3a/RFT1 expression, playing a tradeoff relationship with PS flowering. Natural allelic variations of Hd1, Ghd7 and DTH8 in rice populations have resulted in various PS performances.
Our findings reveal that rice PS flowering is controlled by crosstalk of two modules – Hd1–Hd3a/RFT1 in SD conditions and (Hd1/Ghd7/DTH8)–Ehd1–Hd3a/RFT1 in LD conditions – and the divergences of these genes provide the basis for rice adaptation to broad regions.
The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-associated protein9 (Cas9) genome editing system (CRISPR/Cas9) is adapted from the prokaryotic type II adaptive immunity system. ...The CRISPR/Cas9 tool surpasses other programmable nucleases, such as ZFNs and TALENs, for its simplicity and high efficiency. Various plant-specific CRISPR/Cas9 vector systems have been established for adaption of this technology to many plant species. In this review, we present an overview of current advances on applications of this technology in plants, emphasizing general considerations for establishment of CRISPR/Cas9 vector platforms, strategies for multiplex editing, methods for analyzing the induced mutations, factors affecting editing efficiency and specificity, and features of the induced mutations and applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in plants. In addition, we provide a perspective on the challenges of CRISPR/Cas9 technology and its significance for basic plant research and crop genetic improvement.
To review the fast development of the CRISPR/Cas9 tool in plant, here we summarize various established CRISPR/Cas9 platforms, mutation analyzing strategies, mutation features, and the applications of CRISPR/Cas9 in plant. In addition, the perspective and challenges of CRISPR/Cas9 for both basic plant research and crop breeding are discussed.
Rechargeable zinc-manganese dioxide batteries that use mild aqueous electrolytes are attracting extensive attention due to high energy density and environmental friendliness. Unfortunately, manganese ...dioxide suffers from substantial phase changes (e.g., from initial α-, β-, or γ-phase to a layered structure and subsequent structural collapse) during cycling, leading to very poor stability at high charge/discharge depth. Herein, cyclability is improved by the design of a polyaniline-intercalated layered manganese dioxide, in which the polymer-strengthened layered structure and nanoscale size of manganese dioxide serves to eliminate phase changes and facilitate charge storage. Accordingly, an unprecedented stability of 200 cycles with at a high capacity of 280 mA h g
(i.e., 90% utilization of the theoretical capacity of manganese dioxide) is achieved, as well as a long-term stability of 5000 cycles at a utilization of 40%. The encouraging performance sheds light on the design of advanced cathodes for aqueous zinc-ion batteries.
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