The high-quality Pinellia pedatisecta genome reveals a key role of tandem duplication in the expansion of its agglutinin genes

Dear Editor,Pinellia Tenore,a small genus of the monocot family Araceae,consists of only nine perennial herbaceous species and is mainly distributed in East Asia[1].Pinellia plants have been widely used as herbal medicines in Asia for over 2000 years.Among these species,P.ternata and P.pedatisecta are most widely used as traditional medicinal herbs[2].In China,the medicinal utilization of P.ternata and P.pedatisecta was first documented in the Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica(Chinese name:‘Shennong Bencao Jing’)during the Eastern Han dynasty(25–250 AD).Tubers produced by these plants have been traditionally utilized to treat vomiting,infection,and inf lammation[3].Modern pharmacological studies have indicated that the pharmacological effects of Pinellia plants are closely related to endogenous components,such as plant lectins,alkaloids,amino acids,nucleosides,and polysaccharides[2].P.ternata has been listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia as a common traditional Chinese medicine.However,to date no genomic resources have been reported in the genus Pinellia,which greatly limits further studies on this valuable resource.

Circular RNA circStag1 promotes bone regeneration by interacting with HuR

Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a common bone metabolic disorder characterized by deterioration of the bone microarchitecture,leading to an increased risk of fractures.Recently,circular RNAs(circ RNAs)have been demonstrated to play pivotal roles in regulating bone metabolism.However,the underlying functions of circ RNAs in bone metabolism in postmenopausal osteoporosis remain obscure.Here,we report that circ Stag1 is a critical osteoporosis-related circ RNA that shows significantly downregulated expression in osteoporotic bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)and clinical bone tissue samples from patients with osteoporosis.Overexpression of circ Stag1 significantly promoted the osteogenic capability of BMSCs.Mechanistically,we found that circ Stag1 interacts with human antigen R(Hu R),an RNA-binding protein,and promotes the translocation of Hu R into the cytoplasm.A high cytoplasmic level of Hu R led to the activation of the Wnt signaling pathway by stabilizing and enhancing low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5/6(Lrp5/6)andβ-catenin expression,thereby stimulating the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs.Furthermore,overexpression of circ Stag1 in vivo by circ Stag1-loaded adeno-associated virus(circ Stag1-AAV)promoted new bone formation,thereby preventing bone loss in ovariectomized rats.Collectively,we show that circ Stag1 plays a pivotal role in promoting the regeneration of bone tissue via Hu R/Wnt signaling,which may provide new strategies to prevent bone metabolic disorders such as postmenopausal osteoporosis.

Accelerated proportional degradation hazards-odds model in accelerated degradation test

An accelerated proportional degradation hazards-odds model is proposed. It is a non-parametric model and thus has path- free and distribution-free properties, avoiding the errors caused by faulty assumptions of degradation paths or distribution of degra- dation measurements. It is established based on a link function which combines the degradation cumulative hazard rate function and the degradation odds function through a transformation pa- rameter, and this makes the accelerated proportional degradation hazards model and the accelerated proportional degradation odds model special cases of it. Hypothesis tests are discussed, and the proposed model is applicable when some model assumptions are satisfied. This model is utilized to estimate the reliability of minia- ture bulbs under low stress levels based on the degradation data obtained under high stress levels to validate the effectiveness of this model.

East Asian Winter Monsoon record from the environmental sensitive grain size component of QF Old Red Sand, Haitan Island, China

The ＂Old Red Sand＂ is widely distributed along the coast of Fujian Province, China. Most studies have been carried out from as- pects of the origin, age and laterization of the ＂Old Red Sand＂, but this paper focused on reconstructing the history of the Asian Winter Monsoon change. On the basis of granulometric analysis of high-resohition samples, we have obtained environmental sen- sitive grain size component （ESGSC） from the Qingfeng （QF） profile by using the grain size-standard deviation method, which proves that the selected ESGSC is an important climate proxy. The mean grain size of this ESGSC could be used to reconstruct the East Asian Winter Monsoon （EAWM） intensity. As such, the history of the EAWM change since 44.0 ka reconstructed here reveals three main phases based on chronology dates of previous researches： （1） 44.0-25.5 ka B.P., the EAWM is relatively weak but increases gradually with fluctuations; （2） 25.5-15.5 ka B.P., relatively strong with high frequency fluctuations; （3） 15.5-7.1 ka B.P., with a weaker winter monsoon, but during 11-10 ka B.P. is remarkably enhanced. The EAWM recorded by mean grain size of the two neighboring sections have a better repeatability, so the millennial scales oscillation should be a reliable signal of the EAWM intensity. The climate recorded by ESGSC of the QF ＂Old Red Sand＂ compared to 6-80 of Huhi Cave stalagmites and Greenland GISP2 ice cores shows a good consistency, especially in detail, the YD event and four Heinrich events are all recorded, but the signal of D-O cycles was relatively weak.

Onset electric field of soil ionisation around grounding electrode under lightning

Onset electric field of soil ionisation is one of the basic parameters to analyse the lightning impulse performance of a grounding electrode,which has been fully investigated based on experiments on hemispherical electrode or rod-to-rod gap.Until now,there has been lack of onset electric field of rod-to-plane gap,which is the real situation for grounding electrode.In this study,the soil ionisation around the grounding electrode is studied by experiment.Method to judge the start of ionisation is discussed.Both the effect of the soil resistivity and that of the radius of the grounding electrode on the onset electric field of soil ionisation are investigated.It shows that the onset electric field decreases as the radius of the electrode increases,while increases as the soil resistivity increases.A formula to predict the onset field with respect to soil resistivity and the radius of the grounding electrode is proposed.

中国海菜花属植物隐种多样性

近20年来,随着分子生物学的兴起,越来越多的证据表明生命之树的各个分支中都存在大量的隐种多样性,占据未被发现的生物多样性的极高比例。准确地评估濒危类群的隐种多样性水平,不仅能更好地理解物种形成在生物多样性式样及过程中的异质性作用,而且也更有利于生物多样性的有效保护及管理。海菜花属(Ottelia)是我国二级重点保护植物,为泛热带水生植物类群,我国云贵高原及其邻近区域为该属重要的物种多样性中心之一。由于该属具有高度的表型可塑性,缺少明确的鉴别特征,致使其属下分类一直未能很好解决,这极大限制了相关保护措施的制定。因此,本研究在对我国海菜花属植物广泛采样的基础上,利用多位点联合贝叶斯方法对其进行物种划分研究。结果表明:我国海菜花属植物至少包括14种,分子证据支持将海菜花种下3个变种提升为种,同时海菜花(O.acuminata)和靖西海菜花(O.jingxiensis)内存在隐种现象。喀斯特地区的异质性生境及西南地区水系间的地理隔离可能是我国海菜花属特有类群快速分化的主要原因。基于本研究结果,我们建议将各分类群(包括存疑类群)分别作为独立单元就地保护。

Inhibition of MALT1 paracaspase activity improves lesion recovery following spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury(SCI) is a devastating traumatic injury that causes persistent, severe motor and sensory dysfunction. Immune responses are involved in functional recovery after SCI. Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation 1(MALT1) has been shown to regulate the survival and differentiation of immune cells and to play a critical role in many diseases, but its function in lesion recovery after SCI remains unclear. In this paper, we generated KI(knock in) mice with a point mutation(C472 G) in the active center of MALT1 and found that the KI mice exhibited improved functional recovery after SCI.Fewer macrophages were recruited to the injury site in KI mice and these macrophages differentiated into anti-inflammatory macrophages. Moreover, macrophages from KI mice exhibited reduced phosphorylation of p65, which in turn resulted in decreased SOCS3 expression and increased pSTAT6 levels.Similar results were obtained upon inhibition of MALT1 paracaspase with the small molecule inhibitor‘‘MI-2' or the more specific inhibitor ‘‘MLT-827'. In patients with SCI, peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMC) displayed increased MALT1 paracaspase. Human macrophages showed reduced proinflammatory and increased anti-inflammatory characteristics following the inhibition of MALT1 paracaspase. These findings suggest that inhibition of MALT1 paracaspase activity in the clinic may improve lesion recovery in subjects with SCI.