Application of Rice-Straw Biochar and Microorganisms in Nonylphenol Remediation: Adsorption-Biodegradation Coupling Relationship and Mechanism

Biochar adsorption presents a potential remediation method for the control of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) pollution in the environment. It has been found that HOCs bound on biochar become less bioavailable, so speculations have been proposed that HOCs will persist for longer half-life periods in biochar-amended soil/sediment. To investigate how biochar application affects coupled adsorption-biodegradation, nonylphenol was selected as the target contaminant, and biochar derived from rice straw was applied as the adsorbent. The results showed that there was an optimal dosage of biochar in the presence of both adsorption and biodegradation for a given nonylphenol concentration, thus allowing the transformation of nonylphenol to be optimized. Approximately 47.6% of the nonylphenol was biodegraded in two days when 0.005 g biochar was added to 50 mg/L of nonylphenol, which was 125% higher than the relative quantity biodegraded without biochar, though the resistant desorption component of nonylphenol reached 87.1%. All adsorptive forms of nonylphenol (f _rap, f _slow, f _r) decreased gradually during the biodegradation experiment, and the resistant desorption fraction of nonylphenol (f _r) on biochar could also be biodegraded. It was concluded that an appropriate amount of biochar could stimulate biodegradation, not only illustrating that the dosage of biochar had an enormous influence on the half-life periods of HOCs but also alleviating concerns that enhanced HOCs binding by biochar may cause secondary pollution in biochar-modified environment.     

环境变化对苔藓植物物种多样性的影响:以上海徐家汇地区为例

为了探讨区域环境变化对苔藓植物物种多样性的影响,作者通过文献查阅、实地调查、标本查检和鉴定,对20、21世纪初上海徐家汇地区苔藓植物种类组成进行了比较分析。结果表明,20世纪初该地区记载有24种苔藓植物,其中15种是以徐家汇为模式产地发表的新种,但目前仅有7种（包括6种1亚种）仍被接受;该地区现有21种苔藓植物分布。经历100年后,环境条件的改变对其苔藓植物物种多样性的影响并不显著,但却使其种类组成发生了根本性变化。20世纪初以徐家汇为模式产地的苔藓植物,目前除尖叶匍灯藓（Plagiomnium acutum）外,其余都已从其模式产地消失。而以葫芦藓科和真藓科为代表的土生苔藓植物数目明显增加。多种世界广布、抗干扰能力强的伴人苔藓植物成为主要种类。树附生苔藓植物的种类组成发生变化,种数也相对100年前明显减少。此外,作者对城市苔藓植物的保护提出了建议。     

Proteomic Profiling of Purified Rabies Virus Particles

While host proteins incorporated into virions during viral budding from infected cell are known to play essential roles in multiple process of the life cycle of progeny virus, these characteristics have been largely neglected in studies on rabies virus(RABV). Here, we purified the RABV virions with good purity and integrity, and analyzed their proteome by nano LC–MS/MS, followed by the confirmation with immunoblot and immuno-electronic microscopy. In addition to the 5 viral proteins, 49 cellular proteins were reproducibly identified to be incorporated into matured RABV virions. Function annotation suggested that 24 of them were likely involved in virus replication. Furthermore, cryo-EM was employed to observe the purified RABV virions, generating high-resolution pictures of the bullet-shaped virion structure of RABV. This study has provided new insights into the host proteins composition in RABV virion and shed the light for further investigation on molecular mechanisms of RABV infection, as well as the discovery of new anti-RABV therapeutics.     

LncRNA Bmp1 promotes the healing of intestinal mucosal lesions via the miR-128-3p/PHF6/PI3K/AKT pathway

Intestinal mucosal injuries are directly or indirectly related to many common acute and chronic diseases. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are expressed in many diseases, including intestinal mucosal injury. However, the relationship between lncRNAs and intestinal mucosal injury has not been determined. Here, we investigated the functions and mechanisms of action of lncRNA Bmp1 on damaged intestinal mucosa. We found that Bmp1 was increased in damaged intestinal mucosal tissue and Bmp1 overexpression was able to alleviate intestinal mucosal injury. Bmp1 overexpression was found to influence cell proliferation, colony formation, and migration in IEC-6 or HIEC-6 cells. Moreover, miR-128-3p was downregulated after Bmp1 overexpression, and upregulation of miR-128-3p reversed the effects of Bmp1 overexpression in IEC-6 cells. Phf6 was observed to be a target of miR-128-3p. Furthermore, PHF6 overexpression affected IEC-6 cells by activating PI3K/AKT signaling which was mediated by the miR-128-3p/PHF6 axis. In conclusion, Bmp1 was found to promote the expression of PHF6 through the sponge miR-128-3p, activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway to promote cell migration and proliferation.Subject terms: Cell growth, Cell migration     

An Improved Li–SeS2 Battery with High Energy Density and Long Cycle Life

Selenium–sulfur solid solutions are a class of potential cathode materials for high energy batteries, since they have higher theoretical capacities than selenium and improved conductivity over sulfur. Here, a high‐performance cathode material by confining 70 wt% of SeS₂ in a highly ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK‐3) framework with a polydopamine (PDA) protection sheath for novel Li–Se/S batteries is reported. With a relatively high SeS₂ mass loading of 2.6–3 mg cm^?2, the CMK‐3/SeS₂@PDA cathode exhibits a high capacity of >1200 mA h g^?1 at 0.2 A g^?1, excellent C‐rate capability of 535 mA h g^?1 at 5 A g^?1, and prolonged life over 500 cycles. Benefitting from the unique advantages of SeS₂ and the rationally designed host framework, this new cathode material demonstrates a feasible strategy to overcome the bottlenecks of current Li–S systems for high energy density rechargeable batteries.     

A transwell assay that excludes exosomes for assessment of tunneling nanotube-mediated intercellular communication

Background

Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are naturally-occurring filamentous actin-based membranous extensions that form across a wide spectrum of mammalian cell types to facilitate long-range intercellular communication. Valid assays are needed to accurately assess the downstream effects of TNT-mediated transfer of cellular signals in vitro. We recently reported a modified transwell assay system designed to test the effects of intercellular transfer of a therapeutic oncolytic virus, and viral-activated drugs, between cells via TNTs. The objective of the current study was to demonstrate validation of this in vitro approach as a new method for effectively excluding diffusible forms of long- and close-range intercellular transfer of intracytoplasmic cargo, including exosomes/microvesicles and gap junctions in order to isolate TNT-selective cell communication.

Methods

We designed several steps to effectively reduce or eliminate diffusion and long-range transfer via these extracellular vesicles, and used Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis to quantify exosomes following implementation of these steps.

Results

The experimental approach outlined here effectively reduced exosome trafficking by >95%; further use of heparin to block exosome uptake by putative recipient cells further impeded transfer of these extracellular vesicles.

Conclusions

This validated assay incorporates several steps that can be taken to quantifiably control for extracellular vesicles in order to perform studies focused on TNT-selective communication.

     

Glutaredoxin-2 Is Required to Control Proton Leak through Uncoupling Protein-3

Glutathionylation has emerged as a key modification required for controlling protein function in response to changes in cell redox status. Recently, we showed that the glutathionylation state of uncoupling protein-3 (UCP3) modulates the leak of protons back into the mitochondrial matrix, thus controlling reactive oxygen species production. However, whether or not UCP3 glutathionylation is mediated enzymatically has remained unknown because previous work relied on the use of pharmacological agents, such as diamide, to alter the UCP3 glutathionylation state. Here, we demonstrate that glutaredoxin-2 (Grx2), a matrix oxidoreductase, is required to glutathionylate and inhibit UCP3. Analysis of bioenergetics in skeletal muscle mitochondria revealed that knock-out of Grx2 (Grx2^−/−) increased proton leak in a UCP3-dependent manner. These effects were reversed using diamide, a glutathionylation catalyst. Importantly, the increased leak did not compromise coupled respiration. Knockdown of Grx2 augmented proton leak-dependent respiration in primary myotubes from wild type mice, an effect that was absent in UCP3^−/− cells. These results confirm that Grx2 deactivates UCP3 by glutathionylation. To our knowledge, this is the first enzyme identified to regulate UCP3 by glutathionylation and is the first study on the role of Grx2 in the regulation of energy metabolism.