A novel peroxiredoxin from the antagonistic endophytic bacterium Enterobacter sp. V1 contributes to cotton resistance against Verticillium dahliae

Plant and Soil - [Aims] To reveal the molecular mechanism of endophytic bacteria in Verticillium wilt-resistant cottons and deeply understand the interaction between soil and plants. [Methods]...     

Serratia marcescens H30脂肪酶的重组可溶表达、固定化及其酶学性质

为了提高Serratia marcescens H30脂肪酶的可溶表达水平,分别将目的基因与p GEX-4T-1、p ET28a和p ET32a构建重组表达载体,转入大肠杆菌BL21(DE3),通过优化诱导过程,发现可溶性酶的最高活性可达25 000 U/L。再经Ni2+亲和柱纯化、LH-EP固定化后,固定化酶的比酶活为214 U/g(以1 g湿质量计),酶活回收率为51%。固定化后重组脂肪酶的最适温度由30℃提高到35℃,最适p H从7.0偏移至8.0左右,并且稳定性也有所增加。该固定化重组脂肪酶同样能够拆分消旋体反式-4-甲氧苯基缩水甘油酸甲酯,光学选择性没有改变。反应14 h,转化率为48.5%,底物的e.e.值为99.2%,表明该固定化脂肪酶能有效拆分消旋体反式-4-甲氧苯基缩水甘油酸甲酯,为工业生物催化制备地尔硫卓提供了可能。     

碳储存变化背景下东营市海岸带生态系统保护修复

生态修复是指在不同人为干预程度下,协助已遭受退化、损伤或破坏的生态系统恢复的过程。我国海岸带地区资源丰富、位置优越,但过度的开发建设活动严重破坏了当地的生态环境,急需对受损的海岸带生态系统进行保护和修复。以东营市海岸带地区为例,运用InVEST模型对其2005、2010、2015和2018年4个时间段的碳储存功能进行评估并分析碳储存及"碳源碳汇"的动态变化,以间接反映出区域生态系统的稳定性和健康程度。结果表明,2005-2018年东营市海岸带碳储存功能持续减弱,13年间碳储存总量减少了1.341×10⁶ t,生态系统碳储存功能受到严重破坏,其中有8.68×10⁴ hm²生态系统碳储存功能评价等级为差和极差,空间上受损最为严重的区域主要分布在岸线附近的北部、东北部和东南部。按照东营市海岸带碳损失空间差异和生态系统演替规律,从3个方面提出相应的修复方案,包括加强恢复区保护力度、稳定碳储存能力,整顿辅助区粗放模式、塑造碳储存廊道和退还重建区滨海湿地、扭转碳损失趋势,以期通过改善和恢复研究区海岸带生态系统碳储存功能,实现对受损生态系统的有效保护和修复。     

Epidemiological and clinical features in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 outside of Wuhan,China: Special focus in asymptomatic patients

ObjectivesIn December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan City and rapidly spread across the world. The clinical characteristics of affected patients in different regions and populations may differ. Thus, this study aimed to identify the characteristics of the disease to provide an insight about the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.MethodsData on the demographic characteristics and clinical findings of the patients admitted at the First Hospital of Changsha from January 1, 2020 to February 10, 2020 were assessed.ResultsIn this study, there were 8 (3.8%) asymptomatic, 21 (10.0%) mild upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), and 180 (86.1%) pneumonia cases. In total, 47 (22.5%) patients resided in Wuhan, and 45 (21.5%) had recently traveled to Wuhan before disease onset. Moreover, 19 (9.1%) had contact with people from Wuhan, and 69 (33.0%) were family cluster cases. The median incubation period was approximately 6.3 (range: 1.0–20.0) days. Fever and cough were the most common initial symptoms: 99 (49.3%) patients presented with fever, without cough; 59 (29.4%) with cough, without fever; and 33 (16.4%) with both fever and cough.ConclusionThe symptoms of patients with COVID-19 were relatively mild outside Wuhan, and family cluster was a remarkable epidemic characteristic. Special attention should be paid to asymptomatic patients.     

Comparison of the Photo-thermal Energy Conversion Behavior of Polar Bear Hair and Wool of Sheep

The unique photo-thermal energy conversion property of polar bear hairs has long been regarded as an essential element to enable this creature to survive in extremely cold conditions.However,the relevant research was ineffectual to provide sufficient evidence of its solar energy harvesting property.In this paper,the properties of polar bear hairs were analyzed and compared systematically with those of domestic sheep wool through the measurements in the aspects of photo-thermal conversion efficiency,scanning electron microscope,fluorescence spectral and transmission of UV-visible spectra.Moreover,this study was much more focused on exploring ultraviolet utilization property of polar bear hair than previous research.The research results demonstrated that the photo-thermal property of polar bear hair was superior to those of wool fiber,especially in harvesting ultraviolet part.The potential benefits of this research lie in the development of bionic solar energy collective devices,especially in artificial solar energy collection fibers and textile products.     

Oxidative stress-resistance assay for screening yeast strains overproducing heterologous proteins

Many natural proteins have been developed into drugs and produced for direct application. Identifying improved hosts to achieve high-level heterologous protein production is a challenge in the study of heterologous protein expression in recombinant yeast. In this study, a novel high-throughput assay to screen such overproducing Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains was systematically developed. The protocol designed was based on screening host strain derivatives with increased superoxide dismutase dependent resistance to oxidative stress. Yeast cells transformed with recombinant plasmid carrying SOD1 gene as a reporter responded exquisitely to oxidative stress induced by elevated concentrations of paraquat. Improved yeast strains resulting from screening clones subjected to genome shuffling through selective pressure argue for a more effective screening system compared with traditonal selection. Moreover, this approach can be employed in general biochemical analysis without utilization of flow cytometry or well plate reader. Therefore, it is expected that the high-throughput assay would make superior strains producing heterologous proteins.     

Development and application of photoautotrophic micropropagation plant system

Research has revealed that most chlorophyllous explants/plants in vitro have the ability to grow photoautotrophically (without sugar in the culture medium), and that the low or negative net photosynthetic rate of plants in vitro is not due to poor photosynthetic ability, but to the low CO₂ concentration in the air-tight culture vessel during the photoperiod. Moreover, numerous studies have been conducted on improving the in vitro environment and investigating its effects on growth and development of cultures/plantlets on nearly 50 species since the concept of photoautotrophic micropropagation was developed more than two decades ago. These studies indicate that the photoautotrophic growth in vitro of many plant species can be significantly promoted by increasing the CO₂ concentration and light intensity in the vessel, by decreasing the relative humidity in the vessel, and by using a fibrous or porous supporting material with high air porosity instead of gelling agents such as agar. This paper reviews the development and characteristics of photoautotrophic micropropagation systems and the effects of environmental conditions on the growth and development of the plantlets. The commercial applications and the perspective of photoautotrophic micropropagation systems are discussed.     

Data-Driven Modeling to Assess Receptivity for Rift Valley Fever Virus

Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV) is an enzootic virus that causes extensive morbidity and mortality in domestic ruminants in Africa, and it has shown the potential to invade other areas such as the Arabian Peninsula. Here, we develop methods for linking mathematical models to real-world data that could be used for continent-scale risk assessment given adequate data on local host and vector populations. We have applied the methods to a well-studied agricultural region of California with 1 million dairy cattle, abundant and competent mosquito vectors, and a permissive climate that has enabled consistent transmission of West Nile virus and historically other arboviruses. Our results suggest that RVFV outbreaks could occur from February–November, but would progress slowly during winter–early spring or early fall and be limited spatially to areas with early increases in vector abundance. Risk was greatest in summer, when the areas at risk broadened to include most of the dairy farms in the study region, indicating the potential for considerable economic losses if an introduction were to occur. To assess the threat that RVFV poses to North America, including what-if scenarios for introduction and control strategies, models such as this one should be an integral part of the process; however, modeling must be paralleled by efforts to address the numerous remaining gaps in data and knowledge for this system.     

Tunable Triple-Band Plasmonically Induced Transparency Effects Based on Double π-Shaped Metamaterial Resonators

Tunable triple-peaks with the transmission intensity of more than 90% plasmonically induced transparency metamaterial resonator based on nested double π-shaped metallic structure is proposed at the terahertz frequency region, which is consisted of three sets of gold nanorods with different sizes placed on a dielectric substrate of SiO₂. The coupling effect of localized electric field between different parts of the proposed structure can be used to explain the physical mechanism of three transparent windows. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) is used to study the spectral properties of the proposed structure, and the influence of the size of the nanorods and the relative distance between them on the spectral characteristics are also discussed. It can be seen that some obvious shift phenomena occur in the spectra with the change of these nanorods. These results indicate that the proposed structure opens up new avenues in many related applications, especially for multi-channel filters, optical switches, and sensors.