Global public health crisis response:A roundtable discussion with Professor George Fu Gao,Professor Jules A Hoffmann,Professor Chris Walzer and Professor Jiahai Lu

Four heavyweight guests in the field of public health gathered together.No-bel Laureate Jules A Hoffmann,Academician George Fu Gao,Professor Chris Walzer and Professor Jiahai Lu discussed how to deal with global public health crises,such as the recent coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic,as well as the role of international organizations.The concept of“One Health”emerged as the latest approach to disease prevention and control.This concept emphasizes the intertwined health of humans,animals and the environment.The experts shared their thoughts and insights on how humanity can address emerging global public health crises through international cooperation.

Conserved Cytochrome P450 Evolved in Seed Plants Regulates Flower Maturation

Global inspection of plant genomes identifies genes maintained in low copies across taxa and under strong purifying selection, which are likely to have essential functions. Based on this rationale, we investigated the function of the low-duplicated CYP715 cytochrome P450 gene family that appeared early in seed plants and evolved under strong negative selection. Arabidopsis CYP715A 1 showed a restricted tissue-specific expres- sion in the tapetum of flower buds and in the anther filaments upon anthesis, cyp715a1 insertion lines showed a strong defect in petal development, and transient alteration of pollen intine deposition. Comparative expres- sion analysis revealed the downregulated expression of genes involved in pollen development, cell wall biogenesis, hormone homeostasis, and floral sesquiterpene biosynthesis, especially TPS21 and several key genes regulating floral development such as MYB21, MYB24, and MYC2. Accordingly, floral sesquiterpene emission was suppressed in the cyp715a1 mutants. Flower hormone profiling, in addition, indicated a modi- fication of gibberellin homeostasis and a strong disturbance of the turnover of jasmonic acid derivatives. Petal growth was partially restored by the active gibberellin GA3 or the functional analog of jasmonoyl-isoleucine, coronatine. CYP715 appears to function as a key regulator of flower maturation, synchronizing petal expan- sion and volatile emission. It is thus expected to be an important determinant of flower-insect interaction.

Affine processes under parameter uncertainty

We develop a one-dimensional notion of affine processes under parameter uncertainty,which we call nonlinear affine processes.This is done as follows:given a setof parameters for the process,we construct a corresponding nonlinear expectation on the path space of continuous processes.By a general dynamic programming principle,we link this nonlinear expectation to a variational form of the Kolmogorov equation,where the generator of a single affine process is replaced by the supremum over all corresponding generators of affine processes with parameters in.This nonlinear affine process yields a tractable model for Knightian uncertainty,especially for modelling interest rates under ambiguity.We then develop an appropriate Ito formula,the respective term-structure equations,and study the nonlinear versions of the Vasiˇcek and the Cox–Ingersoll–Ross(CIR)model.Thereafter,we introduce the nonlinear Vasicek–CIR model.This model is particularly suitable for modelling interest rates when one does not want to restrict the state space a priori and hence this approach solves the modelling issue arising with negative interest rates.

hLife:Linking basic research and clinical applications

Scientific journals are platforms for communication between authors and readers,and also among readers and the wider public.To promote health science and related medical science fields,we are pleased to announce the launch of a transdisciplinary journal named hLife,which combines the ideas of a healthier,happier and harmonious life together.hLife is a peer-reviewed,open-access monthly journal published online,sponsored by the Institute of Microbiology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,in cooperation with the Chinese Society of Biotechnology and the Shanghai Immune Therapy Institute.The editorial board consists of around 60 scientists from 12 countries or regions worldwide,among them two Nobel Laureates.Now,hLife is one of the“high starting point journals”of the Chinese Action Plan for Journal Excellence.