Negative regulation of AMPK signaling by high glucose via E3 ubiquitin ligase MG53

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Decreased dengue cases attributable to the effect of COVID-19 in Guangzhou in 2020

The dengue fever epidemic in Guangzhou may have been affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The number of dengue cases dropped drastically in 2020, and there have been only 2 local cases, suggesting that dengue has not become endemic in Guangzhou.

Guangzhou is located on the southeast coast of China and is the country’s third largest city. Since 1978, outbreaks of dengue fever have occurred intermittently in this city. In the past decade, the number of reported dengue cases reached more than 1,000 in 2013, 2014, 2018, and 2019, with 37,385 cases reported in 2014 alone. Therefore, dengue fever is a major public health concern in Guangzhou, and there is a continuing argument that it is endemic in Guangzhou [1–3].The numbers of dengue cases from 2017 to 2020 are shown in Table 1. In 2020, the total and local case numbers dropped dramatically compared to the previous years. With a high proportion of imported cases (n = 32, 94.12%), the proportion of local cases (n = 2, 5.88%) was considerably low in 2020. All the prevention and control strategies for dengue, including issuing public education messages, preventing further mosquito bites in patients, cleaning vector breeding sites, and using pesticides, were similar during these years. Additionally, dengue, as a mosquito-borne viral infectious disease, is closely related to mosquito density. The mosquito ovitrap index (MOI), which is the proportion of positive mosquito ovitraps, is usually used to indicate mosquito density. The MOI in 2017, 2018, and 2019 was 7.073 ± 1.016, 9.657 ± 1.307, and 8.464 ± 0.961, respectively. The average MOI was 8.398 ± 0.648 from 2017 to 2019 in Guangzhou. The MOI in 2020 was 7.135 ± 0.786, which remained at the median risk level. Therefore, the abnormal decline in dengue cases could not be attributed to the change in mosquito density in 2020.Table 1Numbers and percentages of dengue cases from 2017 to 2019.

Chromate and selenate hydrocalumite solid solutions and their applications in waste treatment

Hydrocalumite, a calcium aluminate hydrate phase, consists of positively-charged structure units, and is therefore an ideal candidate for accommodating anionic contaminants. In this study, a series of batch experiments was carried out to examine the uptake of chromate and selenate by hydrocalumite. To determine the uptake capacity and long-term stability, hydro-calumite solid solutions between chromate/selenate and hydroxyl were synthesized over a reaction time of more than one year. At a ratio of water to initial solids added (CaAl2O4+CaO) of 75 : 1, the maximum uptake capacities were over 77 and 114 g/kg for Cr and Se, respectively. These values are very close to the theoretical uptake capacities of chromate and selenate hydrocalumite end-members (81 and 118 g/kg, respectively). The oxyanion removal efficiency from solution was above 95%. Due to the high uptake capacity and anion removal efficiency of hy-drocalumites, their application in wastewater treatment is promising. Hydrocalumites are also impor     

Vertical Distribution of Bacterivorous Nematodes under Different Land Uses

The vertical distribution of dominant genera of bacterivorous nematodes to 150-cm depth in an aquic brown soil was compared after 14 years of four contrasting land uses, i.e., cropland-rice (CR), cropland-maize (CM), abandoned cropland (AC), and woodland (WL). The study was conducted at the Shenyang Experimental Station of Ecology, a Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN) site in Northeast China. Data were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance with land use and depth as independent variables. More than 70% of Chiloplacus, Eucephalobus, and Monhystera spp. were present in the uppermost soil layer (0 to 5 cm) in the CR treatment. In contrast, Chiloplacus and Prismatolaimus spp. were distributed down to 100-cm depth in the AC and CM treatments, respectively. Differences in numbers of Acrobeles, Acrobeloides, Cephalobus, Chiloplacus, Eucephalobus, Monhystera, Plectus, and Prismatolaimus were found among land uses and at various depths. Soil C and N were correlated positively with numbers of Monhystera and Plectus in the CR treatment, Acrobeloides in the CM treatment, and Acrobeles and Acrobeloides in the AC treatment. Soil pH was correlated negatively with Monhystera, Plectus (CR), and Acrobeloides (CM, AC). The relationship of pH with Acrobeles depended on land use: positive in the WL treatment and negative in the AC treatment. Our results suggested that Cephalobus and Prismatolaimus in the CR treatment, and Chiloplacus and Prismatolaimus in the WL treatment, were insensitive to soil properties measured. Differences in vertical distribution should be considered when studying dominant bacterivorous nematode genera among land uses.     

Using soil profiles of seeds and molecular markers as proxies for sawgrass and wet prairie slough vegetation in Shark Slough, Everglades National Park

We measured the abundance of Cladium jamaicense (Crantz) seeds and three biomarkers in freshwater marsh soils in Shark River Slough (SRS), Everglades National Park (ENP) to determine the degree to which these paleoecological proxies reflect spatial and temporal variation in vegetation. We found that C. jamaicense seeds and the biomarkers Paq, total lignin phenols (TLP) and kaurenes analyzed from surface soils were all significantly correlated with extant aboveground C. jamaicense biomass quantified along a vegetation gradient from a C. jamaicense to a wet prairie/slough (WPS) community. Our results also suggest that these individual proxies may reflect vegetation over different spatial scales: Paq and kaurenes correlated most strongly (R ² = 0.88 and 0.99, respectively) with vegetation within 1 m of a soil sample, while seeds and TLP reflected vegetation 0–20 m upstream of soil samples. These differences in the spatial scale depicted by the different proxies may be complementary in understanding aspects of historic landscape patterning. Soil profiles of short (25 cm) cores showed that downcore variation in C. jamaicense seeds was highly correlated with two of the three biomarkers (Paq, R ² = 0.84, p<0.005; TLP, R ² = 0.97, p<0.0001), and all four of the proxies indicated a recent increase in C. jamaicense biomass at the site. Using a preliminary depth-to-age relationship based on matching charcoal peaks with available ENP fire records (1980-present) specific to our coring site, we found that peak-depths in C. jamaicense seed concentration appeared to correspond to recent minimum water levels (e.g., 1989 and 2001), and low seed abundance corresponded to high water levels (e.g., 1995), consistent with the known autecology of C. jamaicense. In summary, the combination of C. jamaicense seeds and biomarkers may be useful for paleoecological reconstruction of vegetation change and ultimately in guaging the success of ongoing efforts to restore historic hydrologic conditions in the South Florida Everglades.     

Highly enantioselective oxidation of phenyl methyl sulfide and its derivatives into optically pure (S)-sulfoxides with Rhodococcus sp. CCZU10-1 in an n-octane–water biphasic system

Enantiopure sulfoxides can be prepared via the asymmetric oxidation of sulfides using sulfide monooxygenases. The n-octane–water biphasic system was chosen for the bio-oxidation of a water-insoluble phenyl methyl sulfide (PMS) by Rhodococcus sp. CCZU10-1. In this n-octane–water system, the optimum reaction conditions were obtained. (S)-phenyl methyl sulfoxide ((S)-PMSO) with >99.9 % enantiomeric excess formed at 55.3 mM in the n-octane–water biphasic system. Using fed-batch method, a total of 118 mM (S)-PMSO accumulated in 1-L reaction mixture after the 7th feed, and no (R)-PMSO and sulfone were detected. Moreover, Rhodococcus sp. CCZU10-1 displayed fairly good activity and enantioselectivity toward other sulfides. In conclusion, Rhodococcus sp. CCZU10-1 is a promising biocatalyst for synthesizing highly optically active sulfoxides.     

Purification of clinical-grade disulfide stabilized antibody fragment variable—Pseudomonas exotoxin conjugate (dsFv-PE38) expressed in Escherichia coli

Immunotoxins are rationally designed cancer targeting and killing agents. Disulfide stabilized antibody Fv portion—toxin conjugates (dsFv-toxin) are third generation immunotoxins containing only the antibody fragment variable portions and a toxin fused to the V_H or V_L. Pseudomonas exotoxin fragment (PE-38) is a commonly used toxin in immunotoxin clinical trials. dsFv-toxin purification was previously published, but the recovery was not satisfactory. This report describes the development of a cGMP production process of the dsFv-toxin that incorporated a novel purification method. The method has been successfully applied to the clinical manufacturing of two dsFv-PE38 immunotoxins, MR1-1 targeting EGFRvIII and HA22 targeting CD22. The two subunits, V_L and V_H PE-38 were expressed separately in Escherichia coli using recombinant technology. Following cell lysis, inclusion bodies were isolated from the biomass harvested from fermentation in animal source component-free media. The dsFv-toxin was formed after denaturation and refolding, and subsequently purified to homogeneity through ammonium sulfate precipitation, hydrophobic interaction and ion-exchange chromatography steps. It was shown, in a direct comparison experiment using MR1-1 as model protein, that the recovery from the new purification method was improved three times over that from previously published method. The improved recovery was also demonstrated during the clinical production of two dsFv-PE38 immunotoxins—MR1-1 and HA22.     

Insect protein digestion improves purity of Steinernema carpocapsae in vitro culture and reduces culture period

Insect protein, used for in vitro culture media for entomopathogenic nematode, produces nematodes of high quality. However, the time-consuming culture and poor purity of nematodes hinder the commercial application of insect protein media. We show that hydrolyzed insect protein improves nematode purity in in vitro culture. The results revealed that nematode purity was increased by more than 90 %, and the culture period was reduced by 6 days. Estimated economic efficiency of using hydrolyzed insect protein medium was increased by 44.25 % over that obtained with non-hydrolyzed insect medium.     

Protoplasts: a useful research system for plant cell biology, especially dedifferentiation

As protoplasts have the characteristics of no cell walls, rapid population growth, and synchronicity, they are useful tools for research in many fields, especially cellular biology (Table 1). This article is an overview that focuses on the application of protoplasts to investigate the mechanisms of dedifferentiation, including changes in hormone signals, epigenetic changes, and organelle distribution during the dedifferentiation process. The article also emphasizes the wide range of uses for protoplasts in studying protein positions and signaling during different stresses. The examples provided help to show that protoplast systems, for example the mesophyll protoplast system of Arabidopsis, represent promising tools for studying developmental biology. Meanwhile, specific analysis of protoplast, which comes from different tissue, has specific advantages and limitations (Table 2), and it can provide recommendations to use this system.