Upgrading the genome of an elite japonica rice variety Kongyu 131 for lodging resistance improvement

Developing a new rice variety requires tremendous efforts and years of input. To improve the defect traits of the excellent varieties becomes more cost and time efficient than breeding a completely new variety. Kongyu 131 is a high-performing japonica variety with early maturity, high yield, wide adaptability and cold resistance, but the poor-lodging resistance hinders the industrial production of Kongyu 131 in the Northeastern China. In this study, we attempted to improve the lodging resistance of Kongyu 131 from perspectives of both gene and trait. On the one hand, by QTL analysis and fine mapping we discovered the candidate gene loci. The following CRISPR/Cas9 and transgenic complementation study confirmed that Sd1 dominated the lodging resistance and favourable allele was mined for precise introduction and improvement. On the other hand, the Sd1 allelic variant was identified in Kongyu 131 by sequence alignment, then introduced another excellent allelic variation by backcrossing. Then, the two new resulting Kongyu 131 went through the field evaluation under different environments, planting densities and nitrogen fertilizer conditions. The results showed that the plant height of upgraded Kongyu 131 was 17%–26% lower than Kongyu 131 without penalty in yield. This study demonstrated a precise and targeted way to update the rice genome and upgrade the elite rice varieties by improving only a few gene defects from the perspective of breeding.     

Avicularin alleviates acute liver failure by regulation of the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB and Nrf2/HO-1/GPX4 pathways to reduce inflammation and ferroptosis

Acute liver failure (ALF) is an inflammation-mediated hepatocyte death process associated with ferroptosis. Avicularin (AL), a Chinese herbal medicine, exerts anti-inflammatory and antioxidative effects. However, the protective effect of AL and the mechanism on ALF have not been reported. Our in vivo results suggest that AL significantly alleviated lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/D-galactosamine (D-GalN)-induced hepatic pathological injury, liver enzymes, inflammatory cytokines, reactive oxygen species and iron levels and increased the antioxidant enzyme activities (malondialdehyde and glutathione). Our further in vitro experiments demonstrated that AL suppressed inflammatory response in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells via blocking the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/myeloid differentiation protein-88 (MyD88)/nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. Moreover, AL attenuated ferroptosis in D-GalN-induced HepG2 cells by activating the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1)/glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) pathway. Therefore, AL can alleviate inflammatory response and ferroptosis in LPS/D-GalN-induced ALF, and its protective effects are associated with blocking TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway and activating Nrf2/HO-1/GPX4 pathway. Moreover, AL is a promising therapeutic option for ALF and should be clinically explored.     

LEP and LEPR are possibly a double-edged sword for wound healing

Wound healing is a complex and error-prone process. Wound healing in adults often leads to the formation of scars, a type of fibrotic tissue that lacks skin appendages. Hypertrophic scars and keloids can also form when the wound-healing process goes wrong. Leptin (Lep) and leptin receptors (LepRs) have recently been shown to affect multiple stages of wound healing. This effect, however, is paradoxical for scarless wound healing. On the one hand, Lep exerts pro-inflammatory and profibrotic effects; on the other hand, Lep can regulate hair follicle growth. This paper summarises the role of Lep and LepRs on cells in different stages of wound healing, briefly introduces the process of wound healing and Lep and LepRs, and examines the possibility of promoting scarless wound healing through spatiotemporal, systemic, and local regulation of Lep levels and the binding of Lep and LepRs.     

Elastic priors to dynamically borrow information from historical data in clinical trials

Use of historical data and real-world evidence holds great potential to improve the efficiency of clinical trials. One major challenge is to effectively borrow information from historical data while maintaining a reasonable type I error and minimal bias. We propose the elastic prior approach to address this challenge. Unlike existing approaches, this approach proactively controls the behavior of information borrowing and type I errors by incorporating a well-known concept of clinically significant difference through an elastic function, defined as a monotonic function of a congruence measure between historical data and trial data. The elastic function is constructed to satisfy a set of prespecified criteria such that the resulting prior will strongly borrow information when historical and trial data are congruent, but refrain from information borrowing when historical and trial data are incongruent. The elastic prior approach has a desirable property of being information borrowing consistent, that is, asymptotically controls type I error at the nominal value, no matter that historical data are congruent or not to the trial data. Our simulation study that evaluates the finite sample characteristic confirms that, compared to existing methods, the elastic prior has better type I error control and yields competitive or higher power. The proposed approach is applicable to binary, continuous, and survival endpoints.     

A meta-analysis on morphological,physiological and biochemical responses of plants with PGPR inoculation under drought stress

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can help plants to resist drought stress. However, the mechanisms of how PGPR inoculation affect plant status under drought remain incompletely understood. We performed a meta-analysis of plant response to PGPR inoculation by compiling data from 57 PGPR-inoculation studies, including 2, 387 paired observations on morphological, physiological and biochemical parameters under drought and well-watered conditions. We compare the PGPR effect on plants performances among different groups of controls and treatments. Our results reveal that PGPR enables plants to restore themselves from drought-stressed to near a well-watered state, and that C4 plants recover better from drought stress than C3 plants. Furthermore, PGPR is more effective underdrought than well-watered conditions in increasing plant biomass, enhancing photosynthesis and inhibiting oxidant damage, and the responses of C4 plants to the PGPR effect was stronger than that of C3 plants under drought conditions. Additionally, PGPR belonging to different taxa and PGPR with different functional traits have varying degrees of drought-resistance effects on plants. These results are important to improve our understanding of the PGPR beneficial effects on enhanced drought-resistance of plants.     

Effects of ROS and caspase-3-like protein on the growth and aerenchyma formation of Potamogeton perfoliatus stem

Protoplasma - Aerenchyma formation plays an important role in the survival of Potamogeton perfoliatus in submerged environment. To understand the regulatory role of reactive oxygen species (ROS)...     

Comment on “Is Yuan in China’s Three Gorges a Gibbon or a Langur?”

International Journal of Primatology -     

Effect of light intensity and ammonium-N on carotenogenesis ofTrentepohlia odorata andDunaliella bardawil

AxenicTrentepohlia odorata was cultured at three different NH₄Cl levels (3.5 × 10^–2, 3.5 × 10^–3, 3.5 × 10^–4 M) and three different light intensities (48, 76, 122 µmol m^–2 s^–1). Chloride had no effect on growth over this range of concentration. High light intensity and high NH₄Cl concentration enhanced the specific growth rate. The carotenoid content increased under a combination of high light intensity and low N concentration. WhenD. bardawil was exposed to the same combination of growth conditions, there was an increase in its carotenoid content. The light saturation and the light inhibition constants (K _s andK _i, respectively) for growth, and the saturation constant (K _m) for NH₄Cl were determined. TheK _s andK _i values were higher inT. odorata (66.7 and> 122 mol m^–2 s^–1, respectively) than inD. bardawil (5.1 and 14.7 µmol m^–2 s^–1, respectively). TheK _m value determined at 122 µmol m^–2 s^–1, however, was lower inT. odorata (0.048 µM) than inD. bardawil (0.062 µM).Author for correspondence     

粮食上木霉菌的分离鉴定及其生防效果

【背景】粮食在生长和收储期极易受到病原真菌或产毒真菌的污染,造成严重的损失。众多实践证明木霉属(Trichoderma)可以有效防治植物病原真菌。【目的】鉴定和筛选能有效抑制粮食常见危害真菌的木霉生防菌株,开发生防菌剂,保障粮食生产安全。【方法】从粮食上分离筛选出35株木霉,通过多基因系统发育分析和形态学观察方法进行菌种鉴定,利用平板对峙试验筛选出对粮食常见危害真菌有抑制作用的菌株。【结果】35株木霉分属于8个种,分别为非洲哈茨木霉(Trichodermaafroharzianum)、类棘孢木霉(Trichodermaasperelloides)、 Trichoderma amoenum、近深绿木霉(Trichoderma paratroviride)、Trichoderma obovatum、长枝木霉(Trichoderma longibrachiatum)、东方木霉(Trichodermaorientale)和深绿木霉(Trichodermaatroviride)。对峙试验结果表明,这8种木霉对于粮食上分离到的10种危害真菌均具有较好的抑制效果。非洲哈茨木霉(T.afroharzi...     

酿酒酵母合成木栓酮及其衍生物的研究现状及展望

木栓酮及其衍生物在植物中普遍存在且种类繁多,具有丰富的生理药理学活性。木栓酮衍生物是以木栓酮为骨架经细胞色素氧化酶P450(cytochromeP450,CYP450)及UDP葡萄糖醛酸转移酶(UDP-glucuronosyltransferase, UGT)修饰而来。植物中天然木栓酮及其衍生物的含量极低,传统的萃取分离和化学合成效率低、能耗高且污染环境,因此,利用酿酒酵母作为宿主菌生产木栓酮及其衍生物是一种高效且环保的策略。本文从增加前体含量、提高酶活性和产物合成的亚细胞定位等方面介绍并展望了木栓酮在酿酒酵母中高效生产的策略,并介绍了目前几种常见的木栓酮衍生物研究现状,从根据碳骨架相似性挖掘CYP450、蛋白质工程改造CYP450和合成代谢基因簇的挖掘等方面展望了木栓酮衍生物的合成途径解析的新思路。