Honey vesicle-like nanoparticles protect aged liver from non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH),an advanced form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD),has emerged as the leading cause of liver failure and related death.Currently,no medication is specifically approved to treat NAFLD or NASH.Here we report that oral administration of honey vesiclelike nanoparticles(H-VLNs)to naturally aged mice protects the liver from NASH development.H-VLNs are dominantly taken up by Kupffer cells in the liver and suppress hepatic chronic inflammation and further development of fibrosis and nodule formation in aged mice.Besides their reported antiinflammasome function,H-VLNs are found to inhibit the transcriptional activities of C-JUN and nuclear factor-kappa B(NF-κB).MicroRNAs miR5119 and miR5108 and phenolic compound luteolin in H-VLNs are identified in suppressing both the C-JUN and NF-kB pathways.Collectively,oral intake of H-VLNs represents a promising new user-friendly modality to prevent the development of NASH.

Characterization of novel Brown midrib 6 mutations affecting lignin biosynthesis in sorghum

The presence of lignin reduces the quality of lignocellulosic biomass for forage materials and feedstock for biofuels. In C4 grasses, the brown midrib phenotype has been linked to mutations to genes in the monolignol biosynthesis pathway. For example, the Bmr6 gene in sorghum （Sorghum bicolor） has been previously shown to encode cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase （CAD）, which catalyzes the final step of the monolignol biosynthesis pathway. Mutations in this gene have been shown to reduce the abundance of lignin, enhance digestibility, and improve saccharification efficiencies and ethanol yields. Nine sorghum lines harboring five different bmr6 alleles were identified in an EMS-mutagenized TILLING population. DNA sequencing of Bmr6 revealed that the majority of the mutations impacted evolutionarily conserved amino acids while three-dimensional structural modeling predicted that all of these alleles interfered with the enzyme＇s ability to bind with its NAPPH cofactor. All of the new alleles reduced in vitro CAD activity levels and enhanced glucose yields following saccharification. Further, many of these lines were associated with higher reductions in acid detergent lignin compared to lines harboring the previously characterized bmr6-ref allele. These bmr6 lines represent new breeding tools for manipulating biomass composition to enhance forage and feedstock quality.

Scientific case studies in land-use driven soil erosion in the central United States: Why soil potential and risk concepts should be included in the principles of soil health

Despite recent improvements in overall soil health gained through conservation agriculture, which has become a global priority in agricultural systems, soil and water-related externalities (e.g., wind and water erosion) continue to persist or worsen. Using an inductive, systems approach, we tested the hypothesis that such externalities persist due to expansion of cultivation onto areas unsuitable for sustained production. To test this hypothesis, a variety of data sources and analyses were used to uncover the land and water resource dynamics underlying noteworthy cases of soil erosion (either wind or water) and hydrological effects (e.g., flooding, shifting hydrographs) throughout the central United States. Given the evidence, we failed to reject the hypothesis that cultivation expansion is contributing to increased soil and water externalities, since significant increases in cultivation on soils with severe erosion limitations were observed everywhere the externalities were documented. We discuss the case study results in terms of land use incentives (e.g., policy, economic, and biophysical), developing concepts of soil security, and ways to utilize case studies such as those presented to better communicate the value of soil and water resource conservation. Incorporating the tenets of soil potential and soil risk into soil health evaluations and cultivation decision-making is needed to better match the soil resource with land use and help avoid more extreme soil and water-related externalities.