Evaluation of Sweet Sorghum as a Feedstock by Multiple Harvests for Sustainable Bioenergy Production

Sweet sorghum has become an important feedstock for bioethanol production. Total sugar yield and multiple harvests can directly affect ethanol production cost. Little is known about stem traits and multiple harvests that contribute to sugar yield in sweet sorghum. Stem traits were evaluated from 25 sweet and grain sorghum accessions. Stems were harvested twice at the soft-dough stage and the stems were pressed with a hydraulic press. Sugars in the stem juice were quantified by high performance liquid chromatography. Sweet sorghum produced five times more fresh stem weight and dry stem mass (830 gand164 g) than grain sorghum (150 gand27g). Sweet sorghum produced a much higher volume of juice and higher yield of sugars (366 ml and42 g) per stem than grain sorghum (70 ml and4 g). Significant variability in fresh stem weight (72 - 1837 g), juice volume (31 - 753 ml), sugar yield (3 - 81 g), dry stem mass (14 - 383 g), and sugar yield/dry stem mass ratio (0.11 - 0.53) per stem was detected among sweet sorghum accessions. Stem sugar yield was significantly correlated with stem fresh weight and juice volume. Sorghum was harvested twice within one growing season resulting in some sweet sorghum accessions producing double amount of sugars. Sweet sorghum produced three times more dry mass weight (bagasse) than fermentable sugar weight. To reduce feedstock cost, methods have to be developed for efficiently utilizing bagasse. Our results showed high fresh stem weight, high ratio of sugar yield to dry stem mass, and double harvests are prime traits to boost sugar yield. Sweet sorghum may be suitable for multiple harvests in certain regions of theU.S.TheU.S.sweet sorghum collection needs to be screened for acces- sions that can be harvested twice with an extended feedstock-production season and used as a feedstock for sustainable and renewable bioenergy production.

Comparison of Stem Damage and Carbohydrate Composition in the Stem Juice between Sugarcane and Sweet Sorghum Harvested before and after Late Fall Frost

A late fall frost may significantly affect sugar crops’ stem sugar composition, yield and juice quality for biofuel and bioproduct manufacture. Research on the effects of late fall frost in sugarcane is well documented, but information is lacking for sweet sorghum. Three and six commercial cultivars of sugarcane and sweet sorghum, respectively, were selected and evaluated for exposure to a late fall frost (-2.8&degC) in Griffin, Georgia, USA. Under the same controlled environmental conditions in a screen house, the late fall frost induced more damage to sugarcane than sweet sorghum stems. The frost caused damage to sugarcane tissue and for juice to exude from stems, whereas similar behavior was not observed for sweet sorghum. In both sugarcane and sweet sorghum, the glucose/fructose ratio was significantly reduced, but this change may not be totally directly related to the frost effect. Overall, these initial results suggest that sweet sorghum may have a better tolerance to fall frost than sugarcane. Two sweet sorghum cultivars, Grassl and M81E, responded well to the late fall frost, and they can possibly be used as feedstocks for biofuel/bioproduct manufacture in areas susceptible to frosts including northern regions of the Southeastern US.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles with catalase-like nanozyme activity and near-infrared light response:A combination of effective photodynamic therapy,autophagy,ferroptosis,and antitumor immunity

We prepared biocompatible and environment-friendly zinc oxide nanoparticles(ZnO NPs)with upconversion properties and catalase-like nanozyme activity.Photodynamic therapy(PDT)application is severely limited by the poor penetration of UV-Visible light and a hypoxic tumor environment.Here,we used ZnO NPs as a carrier for the photosensitizer chlorin e6(Ce6)to construct zinc oxide-chlorin e6 nanoparticles(ZnO-Ce6 NPs),simultaneously addressing both problems.In terms of penetration,ZnO NPs convert 808 nm near-infrared light into 401 nm visible light to excite Ce6,achieving deep-penetrating photodynamic therapy under long-wavelength light.Interestingly,the ability to emit short-wavelength light under long-wavelength light is usually observed in upconversion nanoparticles.As nanozymes,ZnO NPs can catalyze the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in tumors,providing oxygen for photodynamic action and relieving hypoxia.The enhanced photodynamic action produces a large amount of reactive oxygen species,which overactivate autophagy and trigger immunogenic cell death(ICD),leading to antitumor immunotherapy.In addition,even in the absence of light,ZnO and ZnO-Ce6 NPs can induce ferroptosis of tumor cells and exert antitumor effects.

Efficient degradation of aqueous dichloromethane by an enhanced microbial electrolysis cell:Degradation kinetics,microbial community and metabolic mechanisms

Dichloromethane(DCM)has been listed as a toxic and harmful water pollutant,and its re moval needs attention.Microbial electrolysis cells(MECs)are viewed as a promising alterna tive for pollutant removal,which can be strengthened from two aspects:microbial inocula tion and acclimation.In this study,the MEC for DCM degradation was inoculated with the ac tive sludge enhanced by Methylobacterium rhodesianum H13(strain H13)and then acclimated in the form of a microbial fuel cell(MFC).Both the introduction of strain H13 and the initi ation in MFC form significantly promoted DCM degradation.The degradation kinetics were fitted by the Haldane model,with V_(max),K_(h),K_(i)and v_(max)values of 103.2 mg/L/hr,97.8 mg/L268.3 mg/L and 44.7 mg/L/hr/cm^(2),respectively.The cyclic voltammogram implies that DCM redox reactions became easier with the setup of MEC,and the electrochemical impedance spectrogram shows that the acclimated and enriched microbes reduced the charge transfe resistance from the electrode to the electrolyte.In the biofilm,the dominant genera shifted from Geobacter to Hyphomicrobium in acclimation stages.Moreover,Methylobacterium played an increasingly important role.DCM metabolism mainly occurred through the hydrolytic glutathione S-transferase pathway,given that the gene dcmA was identified rather than the dhlA and P450/MO.The exogenous electrons facilitated the reduction of GSSG,directly o indirectly accelerating the GSH-catalyzed dehalogenation.This study provides support fo the construction of an efficient and stable MEC for DCM removal in water environment.

The key role of myostatin b in somatic growth in fishes derived from distant hybridization

The basic mechanism of heterosis has not been systematically and completely characterized.In previous studies,we obtained three economically important fishes that exhibit rapid growth,WR(WCC♀×RCC♂),WR-Ⅱ(WR♀×WCC♂),and WR-Ⅲ(WR-Ⅱ♀×4nAU♂),through distant hybridization.However,the mechanism underlying this rapid growth remains unclear.In this study,we found that WR,WR-Ⅱ,and WR-Ⅲshowed muscle hypertrophy and higher muscle protein and fat contents compared with their parent species(RCC and WCC).Candidate genes responsible for this rapid growth were then obtained through an analysis of 12 muscle transcriptomes.Notably,the mRNA level of mstnb(myostatin b),which is a negative regulator of myogenesis,was significantly reduced in WR,WR-Ⅱ,and WR-Ⅲcompared with the parent species.To verify the function of mstnb,a mstnb-deficient mutant RCC line was generated using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique.The average body weight of mstnb-deficient RCC at 12 months of age was significantly increased by 29.57%compared with that in wild-type siblings.Moreover,the area and number of muscle fibers were significantly increased in mstnb-deficient RCC,indicating hypertrophy and hyperplasia.Furthermore,the muscle protein and fat contents were significantly increased in mstnb-deficient RCC.The molecular regulatory mechanism of mstnb was then revealed by transcription profiling,which showed that genes related to myogenesis(myod,myog,and myf5),protein synthesis(PI3K-AKT-mTOR),and lipogenesis(pparγand fabp3)were highly activated in hybrid fishes and mstnb-deficient RCC.This study revealed that low expression or deficiency of mstnb regulates somatic growth by promoting myogenesis,protein synthesis,and lipogenesis in hybrid fishes and mstnb-deficient RCC,which provides evidence for the molecular mechanism of heterosis via distant hybridization.

Optimal Designs for Genomic Selection in Hybrid Crops

Improved capacity of genomics and biotechnology has greatly enhanced genetic studies in different areas. Genomic selection exploits the geno type-to-phe no type relationship at the whole-ge nome level and is being implemented in many crops? Here we show that design-thinking and data-mining techniques can be leveraged to optimize genomic prediction of hybrid performance? We phenotyped a set of 276 maize hybrids generated by crossing founder inbreds of nested association mapping populations for flowering time, ear height, and grain yield? With 10 296 310 SNPs available from the parental inbreds, we explored the pat? terns of genomic relati on ships and phenotypic variation to establish training samples based on clustering, graphic n etwork analysis, and genetic mating scheme ? Our analysis showed that training set desig ns outperformed random sampling and earlier methods that either minimize the mean of prediction error variance or maximize the mean of generalized coefficient of determination. Additional analyses of 2556 wheat hybrids from an early-stage hybrid breeding system and 1439 rice hybrids from an established hybrid breeding system validated the approaches. Together, we dem on strated that effective genomic predicti on models can be established with a training set 2%-13% of the size of the whole set, enabling an efficient exploration of enormous inf ere nee space of gen etic combi nations.

An integrated framework reinstating the environmental dimension for GWAS and genomic selection in crops

Identifying mechanisms and pathways involved in gene–environment interplay and phenotypic plasticity is a long-standing challenge.It is highly desirable to establish an integrated framework with an environmental dimension for complex trait dissection and prediction.A critical step is to identify an environmental index that is both biologically relevant and estimable for new environments.With extensive field-observed complex traits,environmental profiles,and genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms for three major crops(maize,wheat,and oat),we demonstrated that identifying such an environmental index(i.e.,a combination of environmental parameter and growth window)enables genome-wide association studies and genomic selection of complex traits to be conducted with an explicit environmental dimension.Interestingly,genes identified for two reaction-norm parameters(i.e.,intercept and slope)derived from flowering time values along the environmental index were less colocalized for a diverse maize panel than for wheat and oat breeding panels,agreeing with the different diversity levels and genetic constitutions of the panels.In addition,we showcased the usefulness of this framework for systematically forecasting the performance of diverse germplasm panels in new environments.This general framework and the companion CERIS-JGRA analytical package should facilitate biologically informed dissection of complex traits,enhanced performance prediction in breeding for future climates,and coordinated efforts to enrich our understanding of mechanisms underlying phenotypic variation.

Conversion characteristics and mechanism analysis of gaseous dichloromethane degraded by a VUV light in different reaction media

The photodegradation of gaseous dichloromethane （DCM） by a vacuum ultraviolet （VUV） light in a spiral reactor was investigated with different reaction media and initial concentrations. Through the combination of direct photolysis, O3 oxidation and HO. oxidation, DCM was ultimately mineralized into inorganic compounds （such as HC1, CO2, H20, etc.） in the air with relative humidity （RH） of 75%-85%. During the photodegradation process, some small organic acids （including formic acid, acetic acid） were also detected and the intermediates were more soluble than DCM, providing a possibility for its combination with subsequent biodegradation. Based on the detected intermediates and the confirmed radicals, a photodegradation pathway of DCM by VUV was proposed. With RH 75%- 80% air as the reaction medium, the DCM removal followed the second-order kinetic model at inlet concentration of 100-1000 mg/m3. Kinetic analysis showed that the reaction media affected the kinetic constants of DCM conversion by a large extent, and RH 80% air could cause a much lower half-life for its conversion. Such results supported the possibility that VUV photodegradation could be used not only for the mineralization of DCM but also as a pretreatment before biodegradation.

Transcriptome and Regulatory Network Analyses of CD19-CAR-T Immunotherapy for B-ALL

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has exhibited dramatic anti-tumor effi-cacy in clinical trials. In this study,we reported the transcriptome profiles of bone marrow cells in four B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) patients before and after CD19-specific CAR-T therapy. CD19-CAR-T therapy remarkably reduced the number of leukemia cells,and three patients achieved bone marrow remission (minimal residual disease negative). The efficacy of CD19-CAR-T therapy on B-ALL was positively correlated with the abundance of CAR and immune cell subpopulations,e.g.,CD8+T cells and natural killer (NK) cells,in the bone marrow. Additionally,CD19-CAR-T therapy mainly influenced the expression of genes linked to cell cycle and immune response pathways,including the NK cell mediated cytotoxicity and NOD-like recep-tor signaling pathways. The regulatory network analyses revealed that microRNAs (e.g.,miR-148a-3p and miR-375),acting as oncogenes or tumor suppressors,could regulate the crosstalk between the genes encoding transcription factors (TFs,e.g.,JUN and FOS) and histones (e.g.,HIST1H4A and HIST2H4A) involved in CD19-CAR-T therapy. Furthermore,many long non-coding RNAs showed a high degree of co-expression with TFs or histones (e.g.,FOS and HIST1H4B) and were associated with immune processes. These transcriptome analyses provided important clues for fur-ther understanding the gene expression and related mechanisms underlying the efficacy of CAR-T immunotherapy.

Enzyme-electrolytic degradation of dichloromethane: Efficiency, kinetics and mechanism

Enzymatic electrolysis cell(EEC)has advantages over microbial electrolysis cell(MEC)due to the needless of microbe inoculation and high-efficiency of enzymatic reaction.In this study,an EEC was first applied to achieve the effective degradation of halogenated organic pollutants and dichloromethane(CH2Cl2)was utilized as a model pollutant.The results indicate that the degradation efficiency of CH2Cl2 after 2 hr reaction in the EEC was almost100%,which was significantly higher than that with enzyme(51.1%)or current(19.0%).The current induced the continuous regeneration of reduced glutathione(GSH),thus CH2Cl2 was degraded under the catalysis of GSH-dependent dehalogenase through stepwise dechlorination,and successively formed monochloromethane(CH3Cl)and methane(CH4).The kinetic result shows that with a current of 15 mA,the maximum specific degradation rate of CH2Cl2(3.77×10-3 hr-1)was increased by 5.7 times.The optimum condition for CH2Cl2 dechlorination was also obtained with pH,current and temperature of 7.0,15 mA and 35°C,respectively.Importantly,this study helps to understand the behavior of enzymes and the fate of halogenated organic pollutants with EEC,providing a possible treatment technology for halogenated organic pollutants.

Degradation of dichloromethane by an isolated strain Pandoraea pnomenusa and its performance in a biotrickling filter

A strain Pandoraea pnomenusa LX-1 that uses dichloromethane （DCM） as sole carbon and energy source has been isolated and identified in our laboratory. The optimum aerobic biodegradation of DCM in batch culture was evaluated by response surface methodology. Maximum biodegradation （5.35 mg/（L.hr）） was achieved under cultivation at 32.8℃, pH 7.3, and 0.66% NaC1. The growth and biodegradation processes were well fitted by Haldane＇s kinetic model, yielding maximum specific growth and degradation rates of 0.133 hr^-1 and 0.856 hr^-1, respectively. The microorganism efficiently degraded a mixture of DCM and coexisting components （benzene, toluene and chlorobenzene）. The carbon recovery （52.80%-94.59%） indicated that the targets were predominantly mineralized and incorporated into cell materials. Electron acceptors increased the DCM biodegradation rate in the following order： mixed 〉 oxygen 〉 iron 〉 sulfate 〉 nitrate. The highest dechlorination rate was 0.365 mg C1-/（hr.mg biomass）, obtained in the presence of mixed electron acceptors. Removal was achieved in a continuous biotrickling filter at 56%-85% efficiency, with a mineralization rate of 75.2%. Molecular biology techniques revealed the predominant strain as P. pnomenusa LX-1. These results clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of strain LX-1 in treating DCM-containing industrial effluents. As such, the strain is a strong candidate for remediation of DCM coexisting with other organic compounds.

Genetics-inspired data-driven approaches explain and predict crop performance fluctuations attributed to changing climatic conditions

Dear Editor,Genetics-focused approaches have been widely used to uncover major genetic variants associated with performance variation.Selecting,manipulating,and editing genetic variants significantly improve crop performance.Meanwhile,the genetic component explains a portion of performance variation,and the environ-mental component contributes to the remaining,often large,portion(Laidig et al.,2017;Bonecke et al.,2020;Li et al.,2021).To ensure superior and robust performance,elite varieties are extensively tested across multiple years and locations.These extensive performance records,coupled with climatic profiles,could be leveraged to understand climate's impact on agriculture through approaches parallel to quantitative genetics approaches(Figure 1A).

Synthesis,characterization,and photocatalytic activity of porous La–N–co-doped TiO_2 nanotubes for gaseous chlorobenzene oxidation

The photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous chlorobenzene（CB） by the 365 nm-induced photocatalyst La/N–Ti O2, synthesized via a sol–gel and hydrothermal method, was evaluated. Response surface methodology（RSM） was used to model and optimize the conditions for synthesis of the photocatalyst. The optimal photocatalyst was 1.2La/0.5N–Ti O2（0.5） and the effects of La/N on crystalline structure, particle morphology, surface element content, and other structural characteristics were investigated by XRD（X-ray diffraction）, TEM（Transmission Electron Microscopy）, FTIR（Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy）, UV–vis（Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy）, and BET（Brunauer Emmett Teller）. Greater surface area and smaller particle size were produced with the co-doped Ti O2 nanotubes than with reference Ti O2. The removal of CB was effective when performed using the synthesized photocatalyst,though it was less efficient at higher initial CB concentrations. Various modified Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic models involving the adsorption of chlorobenzene and water on different active sites were evaluated. Fitting results suggested that competitive adsorption caused by water molecules could not be neglected, especially for environments with high relative humidity. The reaction intermediates found after GC–MS（Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry） analysis indicated that most were soluble, low-toxicity, or both. The results demonstrated that the prepared photocatalyst had high activity for VOC（volatile organic compounds） conversion and may be used as a pretreatment prior to biopurification.

Retrofitting elite cultivars with an ancestral allele for sustainable agriculture

Gene and environment interplay has always been a fascinating topic in biology and evolution.Although the consensus has gradually emerged that what we observe is not decided by one side alone,there is still debate on the relative magnitude of individual contribution,or whether our understanding of the whole system,assuming achievable eventually,can be approximated by some findings of the parts.

Unraveling the sorghum domestication

Sorghum,the fifth major cereal crop,was domesticated in Africa and expanded globally.As with many other crops,this process can be generally separated into two stages:the first stage from wild ancestors to landraces,and the second stage from land-races to improved cultivars.

Streamline unsupervised machine learning to survey and graph indel-based haplotypes from pan-genomes

Dear Editor,Pan-genomes with high quality de novo assemblies are shifting the paradigm of biology research in genome evolution,speciation,and function annotation(Shi et al.,2023).An all-vs.-all comparison across assemblies potentially overcomes the limitation of mapping short reads to a single assembly in cataloging polymorphisms,especially large insertions and deletions(indels)contributing to phenotypic variations through altering gene structure or expression(Chen et al.,2021).