Clay nanosheet-mediated delivery of recombinant plasmids expressing artificial miRNAs via leaf spray to prevent infection by plant DNA viruses

Whitefly-transmitted begomoviruses are economically important plant pathogens that cause severe problems in many crop plants,such as tomato,papaya,cotton,and tobacco.Tomato yellow leaf curl virus(TYLCV)is a typical monopartite begomovirus that has been extensively studied,but methods that can efficiently control begomoviruses are still scarce.In this study,we combined artificial microRNA(amiRNA)-mediated silencing technology and clay nanosheetmediated delivery by spraying and developed a method for efficiently preventing TYLCV infection in tomato plants.We designed three amiRNAs that target different regions of TYLCV to silence virus-produced transcripts.Three plant expression vectors expressing pre-amiRNAs were constructed,and recombinant plasmid DNAs(pDNAs)were loaded onto nontoxic and degradable layered double hydroxide(LDH)clay nanosheets.LDH nanosheets containing multiple pDNAs were sprayed onto plant leaves.We found that the designed amiRNAs were significantly accumulated in leaves 7 days after spraying,while the pDNAs were sustainably detected for 35 days after the spray,suggesting that the LDH nanosheets released pDNAs in a sustained manner,protected pDNAs from degradation and efficiently delivered pDNAs into plant cells.Importantly,when the LDH nanosheets coated with pDNAs were sprayed onto plants infected by TYLCV,both the disease severity and TYLCV viral concentration in sprayed plants were significantly decreased during the 35 days,while the levels of H_(2)O_(2) were significantly increased in those plants.Taken together,these results indicate that LDH nanosheets loaded with pDNAs expressing amiRNAs can be a sustainable and promising tool for begomovirus control.

Integrative analysis of tumor stemness and immune microenvironment deciphers novel molecular subtypes in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is a highly heterogeneous tumor,with dynamic equilibrium and complex interplay between its intricate tumor nature and ambient tumor immune microenvironment(TIME).1 Elegant research has indicated that cancer stem cells,a small subset of neoplastic cells confined within dedicated niches,display stem cell-like properties and interact with cells in TIME,thereby imparting an indelible impact on stemness regulation,tumor heterogeneity,and cancer cell plasticity.2 Previous taxonomies solely from the perspective of stemness or TIME may introduce some degree of bias in the comprehension of HCC carcinogenesis,3,4 and thus it is of paramount importance to systematically consider tumor stemness and TIME as a whole to truly portray the biological landscape of HCC.

An aptamer-based shear horizontal surface acoustic wave biosensor with a CVD-grown single- layered graphene film for high-sensitivity detection of a label-free endotoxin

The thickness of the sensitive layer has an important influence on the sensitivity of a shear horizontal surface acoustic wave(SH-SAW)biosensor with a delay-line structure and lower layer numbers of graphene produce better sensitivity for biological detection.Therefore,a label-free and highly sensitive SH-SAW biosensor with chemical vapor deposition(CVD-)-grown single-layered graphene(SLG)for endotoxin detection was developed in this study.With this methodology,SH-SAW biosensors were fabricated on a 36°Y-90°X quartz substrate with a base frequency of 246.2MHz,and an effective detection cell was fabricated using acrylic material.To increase the surface hydrophilicity,chitosan was applied to the surface of the SLG film.Additionally,the aptamer was immobilized on the surface of the SLG film by cross-linking with glutaraldehyde.Finally,the sensitivity was verified by endotoxin detection with a linear detection ranging from 0 to 100 ng/mL,and the detection limit(LOD)was as low as 3.53 ng/mL.In addition,the stability of this type of SH-SAW biosensor from the air phase to the liquid phase proved to be excellent and the specificity was tested and verified by detecting the endotoxin obtained from Escherichia coli(E.coli),the endotoxin obtained from Pseudomonas aeruginosa(P.aeruginosa),and aflatoxin.Therefore,this type of SH-SAW biosensor with a CVD-grown SLG film may offer a promising approach to endotoxin detection,and it may have great potential in clinical applications.

Dissipative preparation of Bell states with parallel quantum Zeno dynamics

We propose a new mechanism, parallel quantum Zeno dynamics, to dissipatively prepare all Bell entangled states of the twoqubit system in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics. This mechanism can provide two transition channels between ground states and two different dark states simultaneously, which efficiently speeds up the stabilization of the entanglement and suppresses the adverse influence of surrounding environments. In addition, there is no need for the initialization of quantum states and the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality can be violated in a finite temperature bath. The experimental feasibility is also studied by the state-of-the-art technique and a high fidelity about 99% can be achieved.

Loss-induced phase transition in mid-infrared plasmonic metamaterials for ultrasensitive vibrational spectroscopy

Metamaterials have proven their ability to possess extraordinary physical properties distinct from naturally available materials,leading to exciting sensing functionalities and applications.However,metamaterial-based sensing applications suffer from severe performance limitations due to noise interference and design constraints.Here,we propose a dual-phase strategy that leverages loss-induced different Fano-resonant phases to access both destructive and constructive signals of molecular vibration.When the two reverse signals are innovatively combined,the noise in the detection system is effectively suppressed,thereby breaking through the noise-related limitations.Additionally,by utilizing loss optimization of the plasmon-molecule coupling system,our dual-phase strategy enhances the efficiency of infrared energy transfer into the molecule without any additional fabrication complex,thereby overcoming the trade-off dilemma between performance and fabrication cost.Thanks to the pioneering breakthroughs in the limitations,our dual-phase strategy possesses an overwhelming competitive advantage in ultrasensitive vibrational spectroscopy over traditional metamaterial technology,including strong signal strength(×4),high sensitivity(×4.2),effective noise suppression(30%),low detection limit(13 ppm),and excellent selectivity among CO_(2),NH_(3),and CH_(4) mixtures.This work not only opens the door to various emerging ultrasensitive detection applications,including ultrasensitive in-breath diagnostics and high-information analysis of molecular information in dynamic reactions,but also gains new insights into the plasmon-molecule interactions in advanced metamaterials.