Comparative transcriptome analysis of atmospheric pressure cold plasma enhanced early seedling growth in Arabidopsis thaliana

The stimulatory effects of atmospheric pressure cold plasma(APCP)on plant growth have attracted much attention due to its great potential as a new approach to increase crop growth and production.However,the transcriptome changes of plants induced by APCP treatment are unknown.Herein,the comparative transcriptome analysis was performed to identify the transcriptional response of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings to APCP.Results showed that APCP exhibited a dual effect(stimulation or inhibition)on Arabidopsis seedling growth dependent on the treatment time and the maximum stimulatory effects were achieved by 1 min APCP treatment.The metabolic analysis of amino acid,glutathione(GSH)and phytohormone demonstrated that 1 min APCP treatment decreased most amino acids concentrations in Arabidopsis seedling,while the accumulations of GSH,gibberellins and cytokinin were significantly increased.The RNA-Seq analysis showed that a total of218 differentially expressed genes(DEGs)were identified in 1 min APCP-treated seedlings versus the control,including 20 up-regulated and 198 down-regulated genes.The DEGs were enriched in pathways related to GSH metabolism,mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK)signaling transduction and plant resistance against pathogens.Moreover,most of the DEGs were defense,stimuli or stressresponsive genes and encoded proteins with oxidoreductase activity.Expression determination of six randomly selected DEGs by quantitative real-time PCR demonstrated similar pattern with the RNASeq data.These results indicated that the moderate APCP treatment may regulate the expression of stimuli/stress-responsive genes involved in GSH,phytohormone/amino metabolism and plant defense against pathogens via MAPK signal transduction pathway,accordingly enhance Arabidopsis seedling growth.This study provides a theoretical basis for the application of APCP in agriculture.

Transcriptional search to identify and assess reference genes for expression analysis in Solanum lycopersicum under stress and hormone treatment conditions

Tomato(Solanum lycopersicum)is a model plant for research on fruit development and stress response,in which gene expression analysis is frequently conducted.Quantitative PCR(qPCR)is a widely used technique for gene expression analysis,and the selection of reference genes may affect the accuracy of results and even conclusions.Although there have been some frequently used reference genes in tomato,it has been shown that the expressions of some of these genes are not constant in different tissues and environmental conditions.Moreover,little information on genomic identification of reference genes is available in tomato.Here,we mined the publicly available transcriptional sequencing data and screened out fifteen candidate reference genes,and the expression stability of these candidate genes and seven traditionally used ones were evaluated under stress and hormone treatment.The results showed that over half of the selected candidate references were housekeeping genes in tomato cells.Among the candidate reference genes and the traditionally used ones,the most stably expressed genes varied under different treatments,and most of these genes were recommended as preferred reference genes at least once except Solyc04g009030 and Solyc07g066610,two traditionally used reference genes.This study provides some novel reference genes in tomato,and the preferred reference genes under different environmental stimuli,which may be useful for future research.Our study suggests that excavating stably expressed genes from transcriptome sequencing data is a reliable approach to screening reference genes for qPCR analysis.

Nodulin 26-like intrinsic protein Cs NIP2;2 is a silicon influx transporter in Cucumis sativus L.

Nodulin 26-like intrinsic proteins(NIPs) are a family of channel-forming transmembrane proteins that function in the transport of water and other small molecules.Some NIPs can mediate silicon transport across plasma membranes and lead to silicon accumulation in plants,which is beneficial for the growth and development of plants.Cucumber is one of the most widely consumed vegetables;however,the functions of NIPs in this crop are still largely unknown.Here,we report the functional characteristics of Cs NIP2;2.It was found that Cs NIP2;2 is a tandem repeat of Cs NIP2;1,which had been demonstrated to be a silicon influx transporter gene.Cs NIP2;2 has a selectivity filter composed of cysteine,serine,glycine and arginine(CSGR),which is different from all previously characterized silicon influx transporters in higher plants at the second helix position.Xenopus laevis oocytes injected with Cs NIP2;2 c RNA demonstrated a higher uptake of silicon than the control,and the uptake remained unchanged under low temperature.Cs NIP2;2 was found to be expressed in the root,stem,lamina and petiole,and exogenous silicon treatment decreased its expression in the stem but not in other tissues.Transient expression of Cs NIP2;2-e GFP fusion sequence in onion epidermal cells showed that Cs NIP2;2 was localized to the cell nucleus,plasma membrane and an unknown structure inside the cell.The results suggest that Cs NIP2;2 is a silicon influx transporter in cucumber,and its subcellular localization and the selectivity filter are different from those of the previously characterized silicon influx transporters in other plants.These findings may be helpful for understanding the functions of NIPs in cucumber plants.

Quality enhancement and microbial reduction of mung bean(Vigna radiata)sprouts by non-thermal plasma pretreatment of seeds

Mung bean(Vigna radiata)sprouts are widely consumed worldwide due to their high nutritional value.However,the low yield and microbial contamination of mung bean sprouts seriously reduces their economic value.This study investigates the effects of non-thermal plasma on the quality and microbial reduction of mung bean sprouts by pretreatment of seeds in water for different times(0,1,3 and 6 min).The quality results showed that short-time plasma treatment(1 and 3 min)promoted seed germination and seedling growth,whereas long-time plasma treatment(6 min)had inhibitory effects.Plasma also had a similar dose effects on the total flavonoid and phenolic contents of mung bean sprouts.The microbiological results showed that plasma treatment achieved a reduction of native microorganisms ranging from 0.54 to 7.09 log for fungi and 0.29 to 6.80 log for bacteria at 96 h incubation.Meanwhile,plasma treatment could also efficiently inactivate artificially inoculated Salmonella typhimurium(1.83–6.22 log)and yeast(0.53–3.19 log)on mung bean seeds.The results of seed coat permeability tests and scanning electron microscopy showed that plasma could damage the seed coat structure,consequently increasing the electrical conductivity of mung bean seeds.The physicochemical analysis of plasma-treated water showed that plasma generated various long-and short-lived active species[nitric oxide radicals(NO·),hydroxyl radicals(·OH),singlet oxygen(1O2),hydrogen peroxide(H_(2)O_(2)),nitrate(NO_(3)^(-)),and nitrite(NO_(2)^(-))]in water,thus the oxidizability,acidity and conductivity of plasma-treated water were all increased in a treatment timedependent manner.The result for mimicked chemical mixtures confirmed the synergistic effect of activity of H_(2)O_(2),NO_(3)^(-)and NO_(2)^(-)on bacterial inactivation and plant growth promotion.Taken together,these results imply that plasma pretreatment of mung bean seeds in water with moderate oxidizability and acidity is an effective method to improve the yield of mung bean sprouts and reduce microbial contamination.

Biomass-derived washable composites for accelerating the healing of infected wounds

Advanced sustainable biomedical materials are urgently needed for clinical applications;however,developing biomedical materials with exceptional mechanical and bactericidal properties as well as removable functionalities to reduce unintended secondary injury remains a challenge.Here,we report a biomass-derived composite consisting of water-soluble fish gelatin(FG)and antibacterial ZnO@silk fibroin(ZSF)microspheres for potential application as the wound dressing.The ZSF microspheres are embedded in a FG matrix to realize the stretchable,antibacterial,and removable ZSF/FG composites.By introducing glycerin as the plasticizer,ZSF/FG composites deliver a tensile strength of 4.5 MPa and stretchability of 550%.Acting as both the germicide and hydrophile components,ZSF microspheres endow the composites with excellent antibacterial capacity and water solubility.To prevent secondary injury,the ZSF/FG composites can be easily removed from the wounds by simply exposing them to excess water.Additionally,the ZSF/FG composites exhibit favorable biocompatibility and sustain high cell viability of over 100%.The full-thickness skin wound model on infected mice demonstrated an efficient rate of wound closure and a reduced inflammatory response.The ZSF/FG composite shows promise to hasten the healing of infected wounds and is expected a promising candidate as wound dressing for clinical therapy.

Near-infrared carbon nanodots for effective identification and inactivation of Gram-positive bacteria

An unacceptable increase in antibacterial resistance has arisen due to the abuse of multiple classes of broad-spectrum antibiotics.Therefore,it is significant to develop new antibacterial agents,especially those that can accurately identify and kill specific bacteria.Herein,we demonstrate a kind of perilla-derived carbon nanodots(CNDs),integrating intrinsic advantages of luminescence and photodynamic,providing the opportunity to accurately identify and kill specific bacteria.The CNDs have an exotic-doped andπ-conjugated core,vitalizing them near-infrared(NIR)absorption and emission properties with photoluminescence quantum yield of 21.1%;hydrophobic chains onto the surface of the CNDs make them to selectively stain Gram-positive bacteria by insertion into their membranes.Due to the strong absorption in NIR region,reactive oxygen species are in situ generated by the CNDs onto bacterial membranes under 660 nm irradiation,and 99.99%inactivation efficiency against Gram-positive bacteria within 5 min can be achieved.In vivo results demonstrate that the CNDs with photodynamic antibacterial property can eliminate the inflammation of the area affected by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA),and enabling the wound to be cured quickly.

Shape evolution of 72,74Kr with temperature in covariant density functional theory

The rich phenomena of deformations in neutron-deficient krypton isotopes, such as shape evolution with neutron number and shape coexistence, have attracted the interest of nuclear physicists for decades. It is interesting to study such shape phenomena using a novel way, e.g. by thermally exciting the nucleus. In this work, we develop the finite temperature covariant density functional theory for axially deformed nuclei with the treatment of pairing correlations by the BCS approach, and apply this approach for the study of shape evolution in 72,74Kr with increasing temperature. For 72Kr, with temperature increasing, the nucleus firstly experiences a relatively quick weakening in oblate deformation at temperature T-0.9 MeV, and then changes from oblate to spherical at T-2.1 MeV. For 74Kr, its global minimum is at quadrupole deformation β2--0.14 and abruptly changes to spherical at T-1.7 MeV. The proton pairing transition occurs at critical temperature 0.6 MeV following the rule Tc =0.6△p （0）, where △p（0） is the proton pairing gap at zero temperature. The signatures of the above pairing transition and shape changes can be found in the specific heat curve. The single-particle level evolutions with temperature are presented.