Methyltransferase-like 3-mediated N6-methyladenosine modification of miR-7212-5p drives osteoblast differentiation and fracture healing

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification has been reported in various diseases and implicated in increasing numbers of biological processes. However, previous studies have not focused on the role of m6A modification in fracture healing. Here, we demonstrated that m6A modifications are decreased during fracture healing and that methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) is the main factor involved in the abnormal changes in m6A modifications. Down-regulation of METTL3 promotes osteogenic processes both in vitro and in vivo, and this effect is recapitulated by the suppression of miR-7212-5p maturation. Further studies have shown that miR-7212-5p inhibits osteoblast differentiation in MC3T3-E1 cells by targeting FGFR3. The present study demonstrated an important role of the METTL3/miR-7212-5p/FGFR3 axis and provided new insights on m6A modification in fracture healing.     

High‐Efficiency CsPbI2Br Perovskite Solar Cells with Dopant‐Free Poly(3‐hexylthiophene) Hole Transporting Layers

CsPbI₂Br is emerging as a promising all‐inorganic material for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to its more stable lattice structure and moisture resistance compared to CsPbI₃, although its device performance is still much behind this counterpart. Herein, a preannealing process is developed and systematically investigated to achieve high‐quality CsPbI₂Br films by regulating the nucleation and crystallization of perovskite. The preannealing temperature and time are specifically optimized for a dopant‐free poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT)‐based device to target dopant‐induced drastic performance degradation for spiro‐OMeTAD‐based devices. The resulting P3HT‐based device exhibits comparable power conversion efficiency (PCE) to spiro‐OMeTAD‐based devices but much enhanced ambient stability with over 95% PCE after 1300 h. A diphenylamine derivative is introduced as a buffer layer to improve the energy‐level mismatch between CsPbI₂Br and P3HT. A record‐high PCE of 15.50% for dopant‐free P3HT‐based CsPbI₂Br PSCs is achieved by alleviating the open‐circuit voltage loss with the buffer layer. These results demonstrate that the preannealing processing together with a suitable buffer layer are applicable strategies for developing dopant‐free P3HT PSCs with high efficiency and stability.     

Efficient Organic Solar Cell with 16.88% Efficiency Enabled by Refined Acceptor Crystallization and Morphology with Improved Charge Transfer and Transport Properties

Single‐layered organic solar cells (OSCs) using nonfullerene acceptors have reached 16% efficiency. Such a breakthrough has inspired new sparks for the development of the next generation of OSC materials. In addition to the optimization of electronic structure, it is important to investigate the essential solid‐state structure that guides the high efficiency of bulk heterojunction blends, which provides insight in understanding how to pair an efficient donor–acceptor mixture and refine film morphology. In this study, a thorough analysis is executed to reveal morphology details, and the results demonstrate that Y6 can form a unique 2D packing with a polymer‐like conjugated backbone oriented normal to the substrate, controlled by the processing solvent and thermal annealing conditions. Such morphology provides improved carrier transport and ultrafast hole and electron transfer, leading to improved device performance, and the best optimized device shows a power conversion efficiency of 16.88% (16.4% certified). This work reveals the importance of film morphology and the mechanism by which it affects device performance. A full set of analytical methods and processing conditions are executed to achieve high efficiency solar cells from materials design to device optimization, which will be useful in future OSC technology development.     

Affinity Laminated Chromatography Membrane Built‐in Electrodes for Suppressing Polysulfide Shuttling in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are promising candidates for energy storage, but suffer from capacity and cycling challenges caused by the serious shuttling effect of polysulfide (PS) ions. To address these issues, a sodium alginate (SA)‐derived affinity laminated chromatography membrane built‐in electrode is designed. This is the first attempt to utilize this type of membrane, which is widely used for the selective adsorption of proteins, in the battery field. An ordered multilayer structure throughout the electrode can easily be obtained, and the number of membrane layers can be also conveniently controlled by varying the cross‐linking time of SA. The PS shuttling effect is efficiently suppressed and the permeability of PSs is reduced by enveloping the carbon/sulfur powder in ultrathin laminated chromatography membranes. As a result, these designed electrodes deliver a superhigh initial capacity of 1492 mA h g^?1, with a capacity retention almost 20% higher than the contrast. This low‐cost and easily mass‐producible strategy inspired by affinity chromatography is expected to effectively solve the PS shuttling problem toward high‐loading and long‐lifetime Li–S batteries in practice.     

Upscale production of (R)-mandelic acid with a stereospecific nitrilase in an aqueous system

(R)-Mandelic acid (R-MA) is a key precursor for the synthesis of semi-synthetic penicillin, cephalosporin, anti-obesity drugs, antitumor agents, and chiral resolving agents for the resolution of racemic alcohols and amines. In this study, an enzymatic method for the large-scale production of R-MA by a stereospecific nitrilase in an aqueous system was developed. The nitrilase activity of the Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)/pET-Nit whole cells reached 138.6 U/g in a 20,000-L fermentor. Using recombinant E. coli cells as catalyst, 500 mM R,S-mandelonitrile (R,S-MN) was resolved into 426 mM (64.85 g/L) R-MA within 8 h, and the enantiomeric excess (ee) value of R-MA reached 99%. During the purification process, pure R-MA with a recovery rate of 78.8% was obtained after concentration and crystallization. This study paved the foundation for the upscale production of R-MA using E. coli whole cells as biocatalyst.

     

水稻根系遗传育种研究进展

根系作为水稻(Oryza sativa)植株的重要组成部分, 在水稻生长发育过程中发挥多种作用, 包括植物的固定、水分和营养物质的获取以及氨基酸和激素的生物合成等, 其形态结构和生理功能与水稻产量和稻米品质以及抗性等密切相关。目前, 通过遗传及生化等诸多手段, 已挖掘到较多水稻根系QTLs与控制基因。该文综述了水稻根系QTL和基因的研究进展, 并对未来根系研究进行展望, 以期为进一步克隆水稻根系基因和完善水稻理想株型模型提供参考。     

Loci and candidate gene identification for soybean resistance to Phytophthora root rot race 1 in combination with association and linkage mapping

Molecular Breeding - Northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) is one of the main diseases of maize, which greatly reduces production and causes millions of dollars in losses worldwide annually....