Purification and characterization of α-glucosidase from Aspergillus carbonarious

Summary An -glucosidase was purified from Aspergillus carbonarious CCRC 30414 over 20 fold with 37 % recovery. Its molecular mass was estimated to be 328 kDa by gel filtration with an optimum pH from 4.2 to 5.0, and pI=5.0. The optimum temperature is at 60°C over 40 min. The enzyme was partially inhibited by 5 mM Ag⁺, Hg²⁺, Ba²⁺, Pb²⁺, and Aso₄ ⁺.     

A Rapid Determination of 30 Prohibited Pesticide Residues in Lycii Fructus by UPLC-MS/MS

Prohibited pesticide residues have become one of the main factors affecting the quality and safety of Lycii Fructus, However, rarely studies focus on the rapid determination of these residues. Here, a total of 30 kinds of prohibited pesticide residues were determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) in five different process ways. Pretreatment methods, chromatographic separation and detection conditions in mass spectrometry were all optimized accordingly. Among the five different pretreatment methods, the first and third solid phase extraction failed to provide high recoveries of sulfosulfuron compounds (both lower than 60%). Recovery of chlorphenamidine by the Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged and Safe multiresidue method (QuEChERS) was lower than 60%, which did not meet the requirements of trace determination. The concentrations of 30 prohibited pesticides residues treated by straightforward and solid phase extraction showed good linearity in their corresponding ranges, with correlation coefficients over 0.99. The average recoveries of straightforward ranged from 78.13% to 110.9%, while RSD ranged from 1.3% to 16.9%, albeit poor purification was observed. The recovery yield from solid phase extraction was between 67.75% and 103.08% with RSD value from 0.8% to 14.0%, which met the requirements of trace determination, this method has good precision and stability. These results could be employed to other Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs) in detecting prohibited pesticide residues.     

ε-聚赖氨酸抑菌性能的研究进展

ε-聚赖氨酸(ε-poly-L-lysine,ε-PL)是抑菌谱广泛的天然抑菌剂,由通过α-羧基与ε-氨基连接的25–35个赖氨酸聚合而成。ε-PL主要由白色链霉菌发酵生产所得,比化学生产更加高效和环保。ε-PL具有水溶性好、耐热和对环境无污染等特点,具有良好的应用前景。本文从发酵生产入手,着重综述了ε-PL对各种微生物抑菌性能、抑菌机制及抑菌机制模型的研究进展。推测ε-PL是通过对细胞膜的破坏而改变细胞的通透性,或者作用到细胞内引起活性氧(reactive oxygen species, ROS)胁迫而影响调节基因的表达,从而起到抑菌作用。根据这2种抑菌方式分别建立了相应的抑菌模型,即毡毯模型和ROS诱导细胞凋亡模型。本文可为ε-PL对微生物抑制性能的深入研究提供依据,同时也提出了ε-PL抑菌机制的新模型,为扩展ε-PL应用领域提供了一定的参考。     

Fulvic Acid,Brassinolide, and Uniconazole Mediated Regulation of Morphological and Physiological Traits in Maize Seedlings Under Water Stress

Water stress is one of the most important factors limiting sustainable crop production. Therefore, the effects of the plant growth regulators (PGRs) fulvic acid (FA), brassinolide (BR), and uniconazole (Uni) on seedling growth and physiology of two maize (Zea mays L.) varieties were evaluated under???0.7 MPa water stress induced by polyethylene glycol-6000. Under drought stress, the PGRs promoted seedling growth, altered the root-to-shoot ratio, and significantly increased root biomass, length, surface area, diameter, and volume. In addition, depending on the PGR, net photosynthesis rate, SPAD value (indicating chlorophyll content), and water use efficiency increased significantly, under drought stress, whereas transpiration rate decreased. The PGRs also significantly increased antioxidant enzyme activities and significantly decreased malondialdehyde accumulation in leaves and roots under drought stress. Zhengdan958 showed greater variation in physiological responses and stronger drought resistance than Xundan20. In alleviating drought stress in maize seedlings, FA had the greatest effects on shoot growth and leaf physiology; Uni exerted its effects by regulating root structure, and BR effects were intermediate. Under drought stress, the three PGRs increased maize seedling growth, which reduced drought stress-induced damage and improved plant ability to resist the adversity. Based on a comprehensive analysis of physiological indices of drought resistance, Uni is recommended as the best PGR to improve maize seedlings resistance to drought.

     

Benzotriazole-Based Polymer Acceptor for High-Efficiency All-Polymer Solar Cells with High Photocurrent and Low Voltage Loss

The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) have already exceeded 17%. However, the limited absorption range of an all-polymer system results in significantly reduced short-circuit current density (J_sc), which eventually influences the PCE improvement. To broaden the light absorption of polymer acceptors, herein, benzotriazole is introduced in the core unit of small molecule acceptors and thus two narrow-bandgap polymer acceptors named PTz-BO and PTz-C11 featuring the same molecular backbone and different side-chain length are synthesized. Compared with PTz-C11, the PTz-BO based-all PSCs deliver a slightly reduced J_sc, a large open-circuit voltage (V_oc) and a low voltage loss below 0.50 V. Moreover, ternary all-PSCs are constructed by introducing PTz-C11 as a guest component. Benefiting from the reduced recombination, improved exciton generation and dissociation, and balanced charge transport, a high efficiency of 16.58% is obtained for the ternary all-PSCs, with a high J_sc over 25 mA cm⁻² without sacrificing the V_oc. Such result represents the highest efficiency reported for benzotriazole-based all-PSCs in the literature thus far. This work demonstrates the great potential of benzotriazole for the synthesis of efficient narrow-bandgap polymer acceptors.