Genome-wide identification and analysis of monolignol biosynthesis genes in Salix matsudana Koidz and their relationship to accelerated growth

Lignin plays an important role in plant growth and development.It serves as a raw material for the manufacture of paper,animal feed,and chemical fertilizers.However,the regulation of lignin biosynthesis genes and the composition of the relevant gene families remain unclear in many plant species.Here,we identified and characterized 11 families of monolignol biosynthesis genes in Salix matsudana Koidz.Based on phylogenetic analysis of lignin biosynthesis genes from nine angiosperm species(Arabidopsis thaliana,Oryza sativa,Zea mays,Solanum lycopersicum,S.suchowensis,S.purpurea,Populus euphratica,P.trichocarpa,and S.matsudana),the 11 gene families could be divided into two classes that differed in their apparent evolutionary history.We compared the distribution of lignin biosynthesis genes between the two sub-genomes(At and Bt)of S.matsudana and found that more duplicated genes were present in the Bt sub-genome.We analyzed RNA sequencing data from two parents of contrasting height and two of their F1 progeny,and detected 23 differentially expressed genes(DEGs)that may regulate accelerated growth.We analyzed the promoter regions of the lignin-related DEGs and identified several hormone-related(auxin,ethylene,and cytokinin)transcription factor binding sites.These results provide an important foundation for future studies on the molecular mechanisms and genetic regulation of lignin biosynthesis and its relationship to accelerated growth in forest trees.

Ga(X)N/Si nanoarchitecture:An emerging semiconductor platform for sunlight-powered water splitting toward hydrogen

Sunlight-powered water splitting presents a promising strategy for converting intermittent and virtually unlimited solar energy into energy-dense and storable green hydrogen.Since the pioneering discovery by Honda and Fujishima,considerable efforts have been made in this research area.Among various materials developed,Ga(X)N/Si(X=In,Ge,Mg,etc.)nanoarchitecture has emerged as a disruptive semiconductor platform to split water toward hydrogen by sunlight.This paper introduces the characteristics,properties,and growth/synthesis/fabrication methods of Ga(X)N/Si nanoarchitecture,primarily focusing on explaining the suitability as an ideal platform for sunlight-powered water splitting toward green hydrogen fuel.In addition,it exclusively summarizes the recent progress and development of Ga(X)N/Si nanoarchitecture for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting.Moreover,it describes the challenges and prospects of artificial photosynthesis integrated device and system using Ga(X)N/Si nanoarchitectures for solar water splitting toward hydrogen.

Timing of the formation of the Baiyinnuo'er skarn Zn–Pb deposit,NE China:evidence from sulfide Rb–Sr dating

The Baiyinnuo’er deposit in northern China is located in the south section of the Great Xing’an Range,and it is the largest skarn Zn–Pb deposit in the region.Skarn and Zn–Pb orebodies mainly occur between the different units of the Permian Huanggangliang Formation,or within the contact zone between the intrusive rocks and the marble.Although Baiyinnuo’er has been well investigated previously,the timing of the Zn–Pb mineralization is still controversial,largely due to the lack of appropriate ore or alteration minerals that could be directly used for isotopic dating.In this study,we report the results of Rb–Sr isotopic analysis for sphalerite and pyrite samples from the Baiyinnuo’er orebodies,which yielded two isochron ages of 137.4±3.4 and 140.0±7.8 Ma,respectively,constraining the Zn–Pb mineralization time of the deposit as the Early Cretaceous.The data are also consistent with the age of the granitoids in the mining area,indicating a potential genetic relationship between the Early Cretaceous magmatism and mineralization.Many other intrusion-related hydrothermal deposits(including the two typical skarns,Huanggang and Haobugao)in the southern Great Xing’an Range also share similar mineralization ages(i.e.,140–130 Ma).Together,these data suggest an Early Cretaceous mineralization event in this region,and this largescale mineralization could be related to the regional tectonic regime transition from compression to extension as a result of the rollback of the subducted Paleo-Pacific plate.The initial87 Sr/86 Sr ratios of the sphalerite and pyrite samples are 0.70569 and 0.70616,respectively,implying that the ore-forming material could have a significant contribution from the mantle components.The current study shows that sulfide Rb–Sr dating could be used in deciphering the timing of skarn deposit formation.

Photoisomerization,assembling and fluorescence photoswitching behaviors of a water-soluble stiff-stilbene with cucurbit[7]uril

Photoresponsive supramolecular systems have merited extensive attention for their applications in materials science and life science.Here,we synthesized a water-soluble stiff-stilbene molecular photoswitch,exhibiting outstanding photoisomerization reaction between its(E)-and(Z)-configurations upon irradiation at distinct light.The photoswitch can assemble with cucurbit[7]uril(CB[7])to form a superior fluorescent supramolecular complex(compared to the only guest)with excellent water solubility,which manifested dramatic photoluminescence enhancement caused by restriction of intramolecular rotation and remained good photochromic characteristics.Furthermore,introduction of CB[7]influence photoreaction quantum yield(Φ)of the stiff-stilbene,leading to reduction ofΦ_(E→Z) and increase ofΦ_(Z→E) of the stiff-stilbene.Importantly,the photoadjustable supramolecular assembly can act as a fluorescence switch,and the phototunable guest further selectively modulate G-quadruplex structure of Tel22 upon light irradiation or with addition of CB[7].The study provides a new simple way for accurately regulating photochromic properties of molecular switches and developing smart materials with potential applications in controlled modulation of G-quadruplex,targeted biological imaging and so on.

A pair of G-type lectin receptor-like kinases modulates nlp20-mediated immune responses by coupling to the RLP23 receptor complex

Plant cells recognize microbial patterns with the plasma-membrane-localized pattern-recognition receptors consisting mainly of receptor kinases(RKs) and receptor-like proteins(RLPs). RKs, such as bacterial flagellin receptor FLS2, and their downstream signaling components have been studied extensively. However, newly discovered regulatory components of RLP-mediated immune signaling, such as the nlp20 receptor RLP23, await identification. Unlike RKs, RLPs lack a cytoplasmic kinase domain, instead recruiting the receptor-like kinases(RLKs) BAK1 and SOBIR1. SOBIR1 specifically works as an adapter for RLP-mediated immunity. To identify new regulators of RLP-mediated signaling, we looked for SOBIR1-binding proteins(SBPs) in Arabidopsis thaliana using protein immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry,identifying two G-type lectin RLKs, SBP1 and SBP2, that physically interacted with SOBIR1.SBP1 and SBP2 showed high sequence similarity,were tandemly repeated on chromosome 4, and also interacted with both RLP23 and BAK1. sbp1 sbp2 double mutants obtained via CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing showed severely impaired nlp20-induced reactive oxygen species burst, mitogenactivated protein kinase(MAPK) activation, and defense gene expression, but normal flg22-induced immune responses. We showed that SBP1 regulated nlp20-induced immunity in a kinase activityindependent manner. Furthermore, the nlp20-induced the RLP23–BAK1 interaction, although not the flg22-induced FLS2–BAK1 interaction, was significantly reduced in sbp1 sbp2. This study identified SBPs as new regulatory components in RLP23 receptor complex that may specifically modulate RLP23-mediated immunity by positively regulating the interaction between the RLP23 receptor and the BAK1 co-receptor.

Application of transfer learning and ensemble learning in image-level classification for breast histopathology

Background Breast cancer has the highest prevalence among all cancers in women globally.The classification of histopathological images in the diagnosis of breast cancers is an area of clinical concern.In computer-aided diagnosis,most traditional classification models use a single network to extract features,although this approach has significant limitations.Moreover,many networks are trained and optimized on patient-level datasets,ignoring lower-level data labels.Methods This paper proposed a deep ensemble model based on image-level labels for the binary classification of breast histopathological images of benign and malignant lesions.First,the BreaKHis dataset was randomly divided into training,validation,and test sets.Then,data augmentation techniques were used to balance the numbers of benign and malignant samples.Third,based on their transfer learning performance and the complementarity between networks,VGG16,Xception,ResNet50,and DenseNet201 were selected as base classifiers.Results In a ensemble network model with accuracy as the weight,the image-level binary classification achieved an accuracy of 98.90%.To verify the capabilities of our method,it was experimentally compared with the latest transformer and multilayer perception(MLP)models on the same dataset.Our ensemble model showed a 5%-20%advantage,emphasizing its far-reaching abilities in classification tasks.Conclusions This research focuses on improving the performance of a classification model with an ensemble algorithm.Transfer learning has an essential role in classification of small datasets,improving training speed and accuracy.Our model may outperform many existing approaches with respect to accuracy and has applications in the field of auxiliary medical diagnosis.

伊森伯格管理学院商业创新中心

位于马萨诸塞州艾摩斯特市的商业创新中心外墙为覆铜设计,极具现代艺术之感。该建筑为伊森伯格管理学院(全美排名前30的公立商学院)增加了7万sq.ft(约为0.6万m2)的超协作研究与社交空间。此次扩建和部分翻新使得伊森伯格管理学院的既有空间几乎扩大了一倍,不仅能够满足该学院在过去十年间的快速发展需求,同时也为学院150多名教职人员和5000名本科、硕士及博士生引进了新的设施。

Polyp-Canal Reconstruction Reveals Evolution Toward Complexity in Corals

Modern scleractinian corals are classified into robust,complex,and basal clades through comparative molecular studies.However,only few morphological or biological criteria can systematically determine the evolutionary trajectories of these major scleractinian coral clades.Here,we obtained the structural information of 21 scleractinian coral species representing robust and complex clades:High-resolution micro-computed tomography was used to reconstruct the polyp-canal systems in their colonies and to visualize the dynamic polyp growth processes.We found that the emergence of mesh-like canals may distinguish representatives of complex and robust clades.The differences in polyp-canal connections suggest distinct evolutionary trajectories among coral species:The formation of the canal network promoted the development of more complex coral structures,and coral polyps within this network formed calices of very similar volume,following precise axial growth directions.The influence of individual polyps on the coral colony becomes less significant as coral structures become more complex,and coral species with more complicated polyp-canal systems occupied niches more efficiently.This work supplements current evolutionary studies on reef-building corals,providing insight for further studies on coral growth patterns.

Crocetin Potentiates Neurite Growth in Hippocampal Neurons and Facilitates Functional Recovery in Rats with Spinal Cord Injury

Crocetin is an ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine and has therapeutic potential in various diseases due to its pharmacological properties, such as neuroprotection, anti-oxidative stress, and anti-inflammation. These properties might benefit the treatment of spinal cord injury.In the present study, we tested the effect of crocetin on neurite growth and sensorimotor dysfunction in a rat model of spinal cord injury. We evaluated the viability of cultured hippocampal neurons with tetrazolium dye and lactate dehydrogenase assays, visualized neurites and axons with antibody staining, and monitored motor and sensorimotor functions in rats with spinal cord injury using the Basso,Beattie, and Bresnahan assay and the contact plantar placement test, respectively, and measured cytokine expression using enzyme-linked immuno-absorbent assays.We found that crocetin(1) did not alter the viability of cultured hippocampal neurons;(2) accelerated neurite growth with preference for the longest process in individual hippocampal neurons;(3) reversed the inhibition of neurite growth by chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and Nogo A;(4) facilitated the recovery of motor and sensorimotor functions after spinal cord injury; and(5) did not inhibit pro-inflammatory responses, but restored the innervation of the descending 5-HT system in injured spinalcord. Crocetin promotes neurite growth and facilitates the recovery of motor and sensorimotor functions after spinal cord injury, likely through repairing neuronal connections.

《生物多样性公约》资金问题最新进展及展望

资金问题对于《生物多样性公约》履约和新达成的《昆明-蒙特利尔全球生物多样性框架》(简称《昆蒙框架》)的实施都至关重要,在《生物多样性公约》第十五次缔约方大会(COP15)通过的一揽子成果文件中,与资金问题有关的主要是《昆蒙框架》及关于《资源调动》的决定。《昆蒙框架》提出了逐步缩小每年7,000亿美元的生物多样性资金缺口、到2030年每年至少筹集2,000亿美元的资源量等明确的数量目标。关于《资源调动》的决定包含了历史性地设立全球生物多样性框架基金、通过新的资源调动战略、成立资源调动咨询委员会等重要制度安排。这些目标相关承诺和制度安排如何尽快落地是重中之重。本文系统梳理了COP15资金问题相关决定,综合分析了当前关于生物多样性资金问题的系列重要报告,概述了全球履约资金的现状和问题,分析了国际履约的最新资金要求,展望了未来履约的资金安排,并对中国如何加强履约资金的调动提出了应继续争取用好多双边国际赠款、提供持续稳定的财政资金支持、拓宽生态产品价值实现机制、建立遗传资源获取与惠益分享制度以及建立和完善生物多样性补偿和损害赔偿制度等建议。

光驱动Rh/InGaN_(1-x)O_(x)纳米组装体甲烷干重整制合成气

Light-driven dry reforming of methane toward syngas presents a proper solution for alleviating climate change and for the sustainable supply of transportation fuels and chemicals.Herein,Rh/InGaN_(1-x)O_(x) nanowires supported by silicon wafer are explored as an ideal platform for loading Rh nanoparticles,thus assembling a new nanoarchitecture for this grand topic.In combination with the remarkable photothermal synergy,the O atoms in Rh/InGaN_(1-x)O_(x) can significantly lower the apparent activation energy of dry reforming of methane from 2.96 eV downward to 1.70 eV.The as-designed Rh/InGaN_(1-x)O_(x) NWs nanoarchitecture thus demonstrates a measurable syngas evolution rate of 180.9 mmol g_(cat)^(-1) h^(-1) with a marked selectivity of 96.3% under concentrated light illumination of 6 W cm^(-2).What is more,a high turnover number(TON)of 4182 mol syngas per mole Rh has been realized after six reuse cycles without obvious activity degradation.The correlative 18O isotope labeling experiments,in-situ irradiated X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(ISI-XPS)and in-situ diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy characterizations,as well as density functional theory calculations reveal that under light illumination,Rh/InGaN_(1-x)O_(x) NWs facilitate releasing^(*)CH_(3) and H^(+)from CH_(4) by holes,followed by H_(2) evolution from H^(+)reduction with electrons.Subsequently,the O atoms in Rh/InGaN_(1-x)O_(x) can directly participate in CO generation by reacting with the ^(*)C species from CH_(4) dehydrogenation and contributes to the coke elimination,in concurrent formation of O vacancies.The resultant O vacancies are then replenished by CO_(2),showing an ideal chemical loop.This work presents a green strategy for syngas production via light-driven dry reforming of methane.