Functional identification of lncRNAs in sweet cherry(Prunus avium)pollen tubes via transcriptome analysis using single-molecule long-read sequencing

Sweet cherry(Prunus avium)is a popular fruit with high nutritional value and excellent flavor.Although pollen plays an important role in the double fertilization and subsequent fruit production of this species,little is known about its pollen tube transcriptome.In this study,we identified 16,409 transcripts using single-molecule sequencing.After filtering 292 transposable elements,we conducted further analyses including mRNA classification,gene function prediction,alternative splicing(AS)analysis,and long noncoding RNA(lncRNA)identification to gain insight into the pollen transcriptome.The filtered transcripts could be matched with 3,438 coding region sequences from the sweet cherry genome.GO and KEGG analyses revealed complex biological processes during pollen tube elongation.A total of 2043 AS events were predicted,7 of which were identified in different organs,such as the leaf,pistil and pollen tube.Using BLASTnt and the Coding-Potential Assessment Tool(CPAT),we distinguished a total of 284 lncRNAs,among which 154 qualified as natural antisense transcripts(NATs).As the NATs could be the reverse complements of coding mRNA sequences,they might bind to coding sequences.Antisense transfection assays showed that the NATs could regulate the expression levels of their complementary sequences and even affect the growth conditions of pollen tubes.In summary,this research characterizes the transcripts of P.avium pollen and lays the foundation for elucidating the physiological and biochemical mechanisms underlying sexual reproduction in the male gametes of this species.

Direction controllable inverse transition radiation from the spatial dispersion in a graphene-dielectric stack

Transition radiation(TR) induced by electron–matter interaction usually demands vast accelerating voltages, and the radiation angle cannot be controlled. Here we present a mechanism of direction controllable inverse transition radiation(DCITR) in a graphene-dielectric stack excited by low-velocity electrons. The revealed mechanism shows that the induced hyperbolic-like spatial dispersion and the superposition of the individual bulk graphene plasmons(GPs) modes make the fields, which are supposed to be confined on the surface, radiate in the stack along a special radiation angle normal to the Poynting vector. By adjusting the chemical potential of the graphene sheets, the radiation angle can be controlled. And owing to the excitation of bulk GPs, only hundreds of volts for the accelerating voltage are required and the field intensity is dramatically enhanced compared with that of the normal TR. Furthermore, the presented mechanism can also be applied to the hyperbolic stack based on semiconductors in the infrared region as well as noble metals in the visible and ultraviolet region.Accordingly, the presented mechanism of DCITR is of great significance in particle detection, radiation emission,and so on.