Mitophagy in neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis

Mitochondria are critical cellular energy resources and are central to the life of the neuron.Mitophagy selectively clears damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria through autophagic machinery to maintain mitochondrial quality control and homeostasis.Mature neurons are postmitotic and consume substantial energy,thus require highly efficient mitophagy pathways to turn over damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria.Recent evidence indicates that mitophagy is pivotal to the pathogenesis of neurological diseases.However,more work is needed to study mitophagy pathway components as potential therapeutic targets.In this review,we briefly discuss the characteristics of nonselective autophagy and selective autophagy,including ERphagy,aggrephagy,and mitophagy.We then introduce the mechanisms of Parkin-dependent and Parkin-independent mitophagy pathways under physiological conditions.Next,we summarize the diverse repertoire of mitochondrial membrane receptors and phospholipids that mediate mitophagy.Importantly,we review the critical role of mitophagy in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease,Parkinson’s disease,and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Last,we discuss recent studies considering mitophagy as a potential therapeutic target for treating neurodegenerative diseases.Together,our review may provide novel views to better understand the roles of mitophagy in neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis.

The NAC transcription factor ONAC083 negatively regulates rice immunity against Magnaporthe oryzae by directly activating transcription of the RING-H2 gene OsRFPH2-6

NAC transcription factors(TFs) play critical roles in plant immunity by modulating the expression of downstream genes via binding to specific cis-elements in promoters. Here, we report the function and regulatory network of a pathogenand defense phytohormone-inducible NAC TF gene, ONAC083, in rice(Oryza sativa) immunity.ONAC083 localizes to the nucleus and exhibits transcriptional activation activity that depends on its C-terminal region. Knockout of ONAC083enhances rice immunity against Magnaporthe oryzae, strengthening pathogen-induced defense responses, and boosting chitin-induced pattern-triggered immunity(PTI), whereas ONAC083 overexpression has opposite effects. We identified ONAC083-binding sites in the promoters of 82genes, and showed that ONAC083 specifically binds to a conserved element with the core sequence ACGCAA. ONAC083 activated the transcription of the genes OsRFPH2-6, OsTrx1, and OsPUP4 by directly binding to the ACGCAA element. OsRFPH2-6, encoding a RING-H2 protein with an N-terminal transmembrane region and a C-terminal typical RING domain, negatively regulated rice immunity against M. oryzae and chitin-triggered PTI. These data demonstrate that ONAC083 negatively contributes to rice immunity against M. oryzae by directly activating the transcription of OsRFPH2-6 through the ACGCAA element in its promoter. Overall, our study provides new insight into the molecular regulatory network of NAC TFs in rice immunity.

Integrated energy view of wastewater treatment:A potential of electrochemical biodegradation

It has been more than one century since the activated sludge process was invented.Despite its proven stability and reliability,the energy(especially the electrical energy)use in wastewater treatment should evolve to meet the increasingly urgent demand of energy efficiency.This paper discusses how the energy utilized in conventional biological wastewater treatment can be altered by switching the indirect energy input to a direct electricity injection,which is achieved by the elecfrode integration providing extra thermodynamic driving force to biodegradation.By using electrodes instead of oxygen as terminal electron acceptors,the electrical energy can be utilized more efficiently,and the key of direct use of electrical energy in biodegradation is the development of highly active electroactive biofilm and the increase of electron transfer between microbes and the electrode.Furthermore,the synergy of different microbial electrochemical units has additional benefit in energy and resource recovery,making wastewater treatment more sustainable.

Single cell transcriptome revealed SARS-CoV-2 entry genes enriched in colon tissues and associated with coronavirus infection and cytokine production

Dear Editor,The novel COVID-19 coronavirus(SARS-CoV-2)endangers thousands of lives.Recently,nearly 10%COVID-19 patients with symptoms of the digestive tract were subsequently diagnosed in newly discovered SARS-CoV-2 infected cases,1 which indicates that SARSCoV-2 may infect people via digestive systems.The expression profile of angiotensin-converting enzyme homolog 2(ACE2)has been analyzed in gastrointestinal tract using external datasets.Unfortunately,most data of these datasets are not from Asian adults and the expression of other SARS-CoV-2 entry genes have not been detected in human gastrointestinal tract.Therefore,to provide more implications of viral transmission in clinical diagnosis and treatment,it is urgent to explore the expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in the gastrointestinal tract of Asian people.Here,we used single-cell RNA sequencing profiled~27,800 cells of intestinal tissues from six patients with basic intestinal disease of Renji hospital.