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Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have a notable role in the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer. However, the associations between lncRNA-related hub genes (LRHGs) expression and the corresponding outcomes have not been fully understood in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Here, a total of 71 patients diagnosed with LUAD and 60 healthy volunteers at The First Affiliated Hospital of Huzhou University from April, 2023 to December, 2023 were enrolled in the present study. A LRHGs model was established using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator analyses of The Cancer Genome Atlas-LUAD datasets. The underlying mechanisms of the LRHGs were investigated via Gene Set Enrichment Analysis and Gene Set Variation Analysis. Additionally, the diagnostic role of serum HOXD cluster antisense RNA 2 (HOXD-AS2) was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Lastly, TCGA-LUAD samples were divided into high- and low-HOXD-AS2 expression groups based on the median expression. The associations between HOXD-AS2 expression and miR-4538 as well as Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Type II subunit Beta (CAMK2B) levels were conducted through Pearson correlation analysis. A comprehensive analysis identified 141 differentially expressed lncRNAs between 539 LUAD tissues and 59 normal samples. A prognostic marker for overall survival was established by constructing a predictive signature consisting of 9 LRHGs. Subsequently, 474 LUAD samples were categorized into a high or low-risk group based on the median of the risk score. An independent prognostic model was constructed to confirm the validity of this categorization. Further comparisons of the clinicopathological features and LRHG-related pathways were performed between the two groups. Examinations of LRHG expression in two LUAD clusters and of the association between LRHG expression and immune infiltration were also conducted. HOXD-AS2 expression was shown to be elevated in LUAD tissues compared with matched normal tissues, and the serum HOXD-AS2 level was also notably increased in LUAD samples compared with healthy controls. The results of the ROC analysis indicated that the sensitivity and specificity of HOXD-AS2 were higher than that of cytokeratin-19 fragment (CYFRA21-1), which is a serum marker for LUAD. Pearson analyses indicated that miR-4538 level was negatively associated with HOXD-AS2 expression, but CAMK2B level showed positive correlation in LUAD. The results of the present study therefore indicated that the constructed LRHG model, particularly HOXD-AS2, could independently diagnose and predict the prognosis of LUAD, which suggested the underlying mechanism of the HOXD-AS2/miR-4538/CAMK2B, and might offer efficient strategies for LUAD treatment., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The scarcity of up-to-date data on the distribution and dynamics of the Chinese pangolin ( Manis pentadactyla ) presented a significant challenge in developing effective conservation strategies and implementing protective measures within China. Currently, most of China's national-level nature reserves and administrative departments operate at the county level, thereby limiting the applicability of larger-scale analyses and studies for these administrative entities. This study employed 11 widely used modeling techniques created within the Biomod2 framework to predict suitable habitats for the pangolin at the county scale, while examining the correlation between environmental variables and pangolin distribution. The results revealed that highly suitable habitats in Mingxi County of China encompassed only 49 km 2 . Within the county-managed nature reserve, the proportion of highly suitable habitats reached as high as 52%. However, nearly half of these areas, both moderately and highly suitable habitats, remained inadequately addressed and conserved. We found nine administrative villages that necessitated prioritized conservation efforts. The study anticipated an overall expansion in suitable habitats over the ensuing two decades, with significant growth projected in the eastern regions of Xiayang and Hufang Town. This research offered a clear and applicable research paradigm for the specific administrative level at which China operates, particularly pertinent to county-level jurisdictions with established nature reserves., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to second-generation biofuels through enzymes is achieved at a high cost. Filamentous fungi through a combination of oxidative enzymes can easily disintegrate the glycosidic bonds of cellulose. The combination of cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) with lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) enhances cellulose degradation in many folds. CDH increases cellulose deconstruction via coupling the oxidation of cellobiose to the reductive activation of LPMOs by catalyzing the addition of oxygen to C-H bonds of the glycosidic linkages. Fungal LPMOs show different regio-selectivity (C1 or C4) and result in oxidized products through modifications at reducing as well as nonreducing ends of the respective glucan chain. T. reesei LPMOs have shown great potential for oxidative cleavage of cellobiose at C1 and C4 glucan bonds, therefore, the incorporation of heterologous CDH further increases its potential for biofuel production for industrial purposes at a reduced cost. We introduced CDH of Phanerochaete chrysosporium ( Pc CDH) in Trichoderma reesei (which originally lacked CDH). We purified CDH through affinity chromatography and analyzed its enzymatic activity, electron-donating ability to LPMO, and the synergistic effect of LPMO and CDH on cellulose deconstruction. The optimum temperature of the recombinant Pc CDH was found to be 45 °C and the optimum pH of Pc CDH was observed as 4.5. Pc CDH has high cello-oligosaccharide k cat , K m, and k cat /K m values. The synergistic effect of LPMO and cellulase significantly improved the degradation efficiency of phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC) when CDH was used as the electron donor. We also found that LPMO undergoes auto-oxidative inactivation, and when PcCDH is used an electron donor has the function of a C1-type LPMO electron donor without additional substrate increments. This work provides novel insights into finding stable electron donors for LPMOs and paves the way forward in discovering efficient CDHs for enhanced cellulose degradation.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of nursing intervention based on protection motivation theory (PMT) on patients with respiratory diseases in the context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic., Methods: A total of 74 patients with respiratory diseases who were hospitalized from June 2020 to February 2021 were enrolled and stratified into a control group (n = 37) and an experimental group (n = 37) according to a stratified random sampling method. The control group adopted a routine nursing intervention program of the respiratory department, whereas the experimental group received a PMT-based nursing intervention program on the basis of the control group. Chronic Disease Self-Management Study Measures (CDSMS) and Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Diseases 6-item Scale (SECD6) were used to evaluate the effect of PMT intervention before intervention, after 1 week, and after 4 weeks of intervention. The levels of forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were measured to evaluate pulmonary function., Results: Before the intervention, there were no significant differences in the scores of CDSMS and SECD6 scales and liver function indexes between the two groups (p > 0.05). After 1 and 4 weeks of intervention, the scores of CDSMS and SECD6 scales of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p < 0.0001). The indexes of pulmonary function of the experimental group were improved, but there was no significant difference compared with the control group (p > 0.05)., Conclusion: Nursing intervention based on PMT contributes to the improvement of self-management behaviors and self-efficacy, which is conducive to the prognoses of patients., (© 2023 The Authors. The Clinical Respiratory Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Developing a rational and cost-effective approach for designing highly-efficient and sustainable electrocatalysts is essential for clean and renewable hydrogen energy. Herein, we report nitrogen-doped CoP on two-dimensional ammoniated black phosphorus (BP) nanosheets (N-CoP/NH 2 -BP) as novel and highly-active heterostructure electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Using the reactive defects on the BP nanosheets as the original sites under NH 3 gas, N-doped CoP nanocrystals were grown on the surface of the BP nanosheets that were functionalized with NH 2 groups at their edge. The N-CoP/NH 2 -BP heterostructure exhibits low overpotentials of 90 and 246 mV at 10 and 200 mA cm -2 , respectively, in an alkaline electrolyte. The excellent HER activity should be attributed to the synergistic effect between N-doped CoP and NH 2 -functionalized BP, in which NH 2 -BP, with its high electron mobility and hydrophilicity, accelerates the charge transfer and offers more active sites, moreover, N-doped CoP modulates the electronic structure of CoP for enhanced HER activity. This work not only provides a novel and effective electrocatalyst, but also opens up a straightforward strategy for the design of phosphorene-based electrocatalysts for highly efficient hydrogen evolution and beyond.

Stimuli-responsive Pickering emulsions are recently being progressively utilized as advanced catalyzed systems for green and sustainable chemical conversion. Hierarchically porous metal-organic frameworks (H-MOFs) are regarded as promising candidates for the fabrication of Pickering emulsions because of the features of tunable porosity, high specific surface area and structure diversity. However, CO 2 -switchable Pickering emulsions formed by hierarchically porous zirconium-based MOFs have never been seen. In this work, a novel kind of the amine-functionalized hierarchically porous UiO-66-(OH) 2 (H-UiO-66-(OH) 2 ) has been developed using a post-synthetic modification of H-UiO-66-(OH) 2 by (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APTMS), 3-(2-aminoethylamino)propyltrimethoxysilane (AEAPTMS) and 3-[2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethylamino]propyl-trimethoxysilane (AEAEAPTMS), and employed as emulsifiers for the construction of Pickering emulsions. It was found that the functionalized H-UiO-66-(OH) 2 could stabilize a mixture of toluene and water to give an emulsion even at 0.25 wt % content. Interestingly, the formed Pickering emulsions could be reversibly transformed between demulsification and re-emulsification with alternate addition or removal of CO 2 . Spectral investigation indicated that the mechanism of the switching is attributed to the reaction of CO 2 with amino silane on the MOF and the generation of hydrophilic salts, leading to a reduction in MOF wettability. Based on this strategy, a highly efficient and controlled Knoevenagel condensation reaction has been gained by using the emulsion as a mini-reactor and the emulsifier as a catalyst, and the coupling of catalysis reaction, product isolation and MOF recyclability has become accessible for a sustainable chemical process.

The respiratory burst oxidase homolog (RBOH), as the key producer of reactive oxygen species (ROS), plays an essential role in plant development. In this study, a bioinformatic analysis was performed on 22 plant species, and 181 RBOH homologues were identified. A typical RBOH family was identified only in terrestrial plants, and the number of RBOHs increased from non-angiosperms to angiosperms. Whole genome duplication (WGD)/segmental duplication played a key role in RBOH gene family expansion. Amino acid numbers of 181 RBOHs ranged from 98 to 1461, and the encoded proteins had molecular weights from 11.1 to 163.6 kDa, respectively. All plant RBOHs contained a conserved NADPH&#95;Ox domain, while some of them lacked the FAD&#95;binding&#95;8 domain. Plant RBOHs were classified into five main subgroups by phylogenetic analysis. Most RBOH members in the same subgroup showed conservation in both motif distribution and gene structure composition. Fifteen ZmRBOHs were identified in maize genome and were positioned in eight maize chromosomes. A total of three pairs of orthologous genes were found in maize, including ZmRBOH6 / ZmRBOH8 , ZmRBOH4 / ZmRBOH10 and ZmRBOH15 / ZmRBOH2 . A Ka/Ks calculation confirmed that purifying selection was the main driving force in their evolution. ZmRBOHs had typical conserved domains and similar protein structures. cis -element analyses together with the expression profiles of the ZmRBOH genes in various tissues and stages of development suggested that ZmRBOH was involved in distinct biological processes and stress responses. Based on the RNA-Seq data and qRT-PCR analysis, the transcriptional response of ZmRBOH genes was examined under various abiotic stresses, and most of ZmRBOH genes were up-regulated by cold stress. These findings provide valuable information for further revealing the biological roles of ZmRBOH genes in plant development and abiotic stress responses.

Primula , well known for its heterostyly, is the largest genus in the family Primulaceae with more than 500 species. The considerable species number has introduced a huge challenge for taxonomy. The phylogenetic relationships among Primula still maintain unresolved due to frequent hybridization and introgression between closely related species. In this study, we sequenced and assembled the complete chloroplast genomes of Primula wilsonii Dunn, which is a PSESP (plant species with extremely small populations), using Illumina sequencing and compared its genomic sequences with those of four related Primula species. The chloroplast genomes of Primula species were similar in the basic structure, gene order, and GC content. The detected 38 SSRs (simple sequence repeats) loci and 17 hypervariable regions had many similarities in P. wilsonii , P. anisodora , P. miyabeana , and P. poissonii , but showed a significant difference compared with those in P. secundiflora . Slight variations were observed among Primula chloroplast genomes, in consideration of the relatively stable patterns of IR (inverted repeats) contraction and expansion. Phylogenetic analysis based on chloroplast genomes and protein-coding genes confirmed three major clades in Chinese Primula , but the infrageneric sections were not in accordance with morphological traits. The P. poissonii complex was confirmed here and P. anisodora was the most closely related species to P. wilsonii . Overall, the chloroplast genome sequences provided useful genetic and evolutionary information for phylogeny and population genetics on Chinese Primula species., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding publication of this paper., (© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Striatin interacting protein 2 (STRIP2) is a core component of the striatin-interacting phosphatase and kinase (STRIPAK) complexes, which is involved in tumor initiation and progression via the regulation of cell contractile and metastasis. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of STRIP2 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) progression remain largely unknown., Methods: The expressions of STRIP2 and IGF2BP3 in human NSCLC specimens and NSCLC cell lines were detected using quantitative RT-PCR, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analyses. The roles and molecular mechanisms of STRIP2 in promoting NSCLC progression were investigated in vitro and in vivo., Results: Here, we found that STRIP2 expression was significantly elevated in NSCLC tissues and high STRIP2 expression was associated with a poor prognosis. Knockdown of STRIP2 suppressed tumor growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo, while STRIP2 overexpression obtained the opposite effect. Mechanistically, P300/CBP-mediated H3K27 acetylation activation in the promoter of STRIP2 induced STRIP2 transcription, which interacted with insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) and upregulated IGF2BP3 transcription. In addition, STRIP2-IGF2BP3 axis stimulated m6A modification of TMBIM6 mRNA and enhanced TMBIM6 stability. Consequently, TMBIM6 involved NSCLC cell proliferation, migration and invasion dependent on STRIP2 and IGF2BP3. In NSCLC patients, high co-expression of STRIP2, IGF2BP3 and TMBIM6 was associated with poor outcomes., Conclusions: Our findings indicate that STRIP2 interacts with IGF2BP3 to regulate TMBIM6 mRNA stability in an m6A-dependent manner and may represent a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for NSCLC., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease that seriously endangers the health of middle-aged and elderly people. MicroRNA (miRNA) regulation is associated with several diseases, including OA. This study aimed to explore the role and mechanism of miR-3680-3p in regulating OA progression., Methods: GSE105027 and GSE143514 were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and differentially expressed miRNAs between control and OA-affected cartilage were obtained by R software. GSE55235 gene expression profile was downloaded and analyzed the differentially expressed genes. In vitro study, chondrocyte was administrated by interleukin-1β (IL-1β) to mimic an in vitro model of OA. The apoptotic and cell cycle arrest were assessed by flowcytometry. IL-6 and TNF-α expressions were measured by the enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). Moreover, the OA rat model was established to explore the function of miR-3680-3p/OGG1 axis in vivo., Results: GSE105027 identified 266 differentially expressed miRNAs and GSE143514 identified 160 differentially expressed miRNAs. MiR-3680-3p was significantly upregulated in OA samples in comparison to normal cartilage samples. IL-1β significantly reduced the cell viability than control chondrocytes, this effect was reversed by miR-3680-3p antagomir. Treatment with miR-3680-3p antagomir could partially reversed the IL-1β-induced promotion of apoptosis of chondrocytes. IL-1β increased the expression of MMP1 and MMP13, while the expression of matrix related protein, such as aggrecan, was significantly downregulated in IL-1β-treated chondrocytic cells. Inhibition of miR-3680-3p expression by an antagomir could reverse this phenotype. OGG1 was predicted and verified as a direct target of miR-3680-3p. Moreover, our in vivo study found that after knockdown of miR-3680-3p alleviated the development of OA in rat models., Conclusion: Inhibition of miR-3680-3p reversed the IL-1β induced chondrocytes injury and delayed the progression of OA via targeting OGG1., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

With the tendency toward economic and strategy decoupling between China and the United States and amidst the anti-globalization trend, enterprises are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. In this study, we reveal how the agile intuition (AI) of top managers with respect to the external environment affects enterprise innovation behavior (IB) based on the cognition-behavior framework. Strategic learning (SL) is considered a moderator, and knowledge sharing (KS) is considered a mediator. The survey sample consists of 305 managers from 47 enterprises in China during the COVID-19 period. The empirical results show that top management agile intuition significantly promotes enterprise IB; knowledge sharing (KS) partially mediates the relationship between top manager AI and enterprise IB; and SL suppresses the promotion effect of top manager AI on enterprise IB to a certain extent, hindering blind innovation. In a surprising result, we find that strategic guidance by an external consultant does not significantly affect the enterprise IB in China., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: This study aimed to explore the correlation between circular RNA&#95;0000190 (circ&#95;0000190) and microRNA-767-5p (miR-767-5p), and their correlations with biochemical indices, risk stratification, treatment response, and survival in multiple myeloma (MM) patients., Methods: Bone marrow (BM) plasma cells of 86 MM patients (during standard diagnostic procedures) and 30 healthy donors (HDs) (examination of the eligibility for BM transplantation) were obtained, among which circ&#95;0000190 and miR-767-5p expressions were detected using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In MM patients, Durie-Salmon stage and International Staging System (ISS) stage were assessed. Clinical responses (including complete response (CR) and objective response rate (ORR)) were assessed. The progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated., Results: Circ&#95;0000190 was decreased, but miR-767-5p was increased in MM patients compared with HDs. Circ&#95;0000190 was negatively correlated with miR-767-5p in both HDs and MM patients. In MM patients, circ&#95;0000190 was negatively correlated with ISS stage, serum creatinine, beta-2-microglobulin, and lactate dehydrogenase but was positively correlated with albumin. Whereas an opposite trend in miR-767-5p was observed. Regarding clinical response, circ&#95;0000190 had the value for predicting increased ORR, while miR-767-5p had the value for predicting decreased CR and ORR. Circ&#95;0000190 high expression was correlated with better PFS and OS, while miR-767-5p high expression was correlated with worse PFS and OS. Multivariate Cox's analyses revealed circ&#95;0000190 high expression as an independent factor predicting better OS., Conclusion: Circ&#95;0000190 and its target miR-767-5p are dysregulated, and they are related to risk stratification and prognosis in MM patients., (© 2021. Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.)

In this article, we present a novel lightweight path for deep residual neural networks. The proposed method integrates a simple plug-and-play module, i.e., a convolutional encoder-decoder (ED), as an augmented path to the original residual building block. Due to the abstract design and ability of the encoding stage, the decoder part tends to generate feature maps where highly semantically relevant responses are activated, while irrelevant responses are restrained. By a simple elementwise addition operation, the learned representations derived from the identity shortcut and original transformation branch are enhanced by our ED path. Furthermore, we exploit lightweight counterparts by removing a portion of channels in the original transformation branch. Fortunately, our lightweight processing does not cause an obvious performance drop but brings a computational economy. By conducting comprehensive experiments on ImageNet, MS-COCO, CUB200-2011, and CIFAR, we demonstrate the consistent accuracy gain obtained by our ED path for various residual architectures, with comparable or even lower model complexity. Concretely, it decreases the top-1 error of ResNet-50 and ResNet-101 by 1.22% and 0.91% on the task of ImageNet classification and increases the mmAP of Faster R-CNN with ResNet-101 by 2.5% on the MS-COCO object detection task. The code is available at https://github.com/Megvii-Nanjing/ED-Net.

Comparative transcriptome analysis and de novo short-read assembly of S. aureus Newman strains revealed significant transcriptional changes in response to the exposure to triple-acting staphylolytic peptidoglycan hydrolase (PGH) 1801. Most altered transcriptions were associated with the membrane, cell wall, and related genes, including amidase, peptidase, holin, and phospholipase D/transphosphatidylase. The differential expression of genes obtained from RNA-seq was confirmed by reverse transcription quantitative PCR. Moreover, some of these gene expression changes were consistent with the observed structural perturbations at the DNA and RNA levels. These structural changes in the genes encoding membrane/cell surface proteins and altered gene expressions are the candidates for resistance to these novel antimicrobials. The findings in this study could provide insight into the design of new antimicrobial agents.

Overexpression of discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) is known to enhance the malignancy of breast cancer considerably. This study reports the identification of a potent DDR1 inhibitor, nilotinib, for the treatment of breast cancer. MTT assay was used to evaluate the inhibitory activity of nilotinib and meantime we used flow cytometry to evaluate the pro-apoptotic activity of nilotinib in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Expression of DDR1 was manipulated in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines with low-level DDR1 expression by transfecting with plasmids containing shRNA. The effect of DDR1 or treatment with nilotinib on cell migration was assayed. The expression of p-DDR1, DDR1, p-ERK1/2, ERK1/2 and E-cadherin, Vimentin, Snail1, and caspase 3 were detected by western blot and immunofluorescent staining. Nilotinib in MCF-7 (IC50=0.403 μM) and MDA-MB-231 (IC50=0.819 μM) also indicated induced apoptotic cell death. After co-culturing with nilotinib (500 nM), apoptosis rate is 29.60±2.19% and 18.75±2.30%, respectively. Moreover, nilotinib effectually blocked the cellular migration of MCF-7 cells. Interestingly, the knock-down DDR1 could significantly block the migration of breast cancer, while the sensitivity of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells to nilotinib was reduced. Targeting DDR1 therapeutically could potentially affect survival and influence metabolism in breast cancer, and nilotinib could be used as a candidate for the treatment of breast cancer.

In this study, immunoregulation and desensitization therapies were jointly applied in the treatment of asthma, in which chitosan (CS) nanoparticles were used. BALB/c mice were selected and mouse models of asthma were constructed. Mice were divided into 7 groups. A double-chamber plethysmograph, MTT, hematoxylin-eosin staining, and ELISA were used. The expression levels of IL-4 and IL-5 in lung tissue cells were detected. CS-BCG-PSN-OVA sustained-release vaccines significantly alleviated airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in asthmatic mice. The numbers of total lymphocytes and eosinophils in BALF were remarkably reduced. The expression levels of IL-4 and IL-5 in lung tissue cells of the treatment groups were dramatically decreased. CS-BCG-PSN-OVA was found in vitro to be able to inhibit OVA-induced T-cell proliferation and upregulate the proportion of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ T cells. CS-BCG-PSN-OVA sustained-release vaccine could significantly attenuate AHR and airway inflammation in asthmatic mice. Thus, it has a promising application prospect for the treatment of bronchial asthma., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The present work aims to develop novel glyceryl monooleate (GMO)-modified corn fiber gum (CFG) emulsifiers (GMO-CFG) and investigate the role of the interfacial properties on emulsion stability. GMO-CFG with different degrees of substitution (DS) were prepared, and their interfacial rheology and emulsification were appraised for potential applications in stabilizing oil/water emulsions. Various oil/water interfacial properties (i.e., adsorption kinetics, viscoelasticity, and adsorbed amount) were determined as a function of DS by using interfacial shear rheology and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring techniques. Hydrophobically modified CFG provides an increased capacity to produce fine droplets and stable emulsions. Esterification and its degree exert non-negligible effects on the critical micelle concentration, interfacial tension, interfacial adsorbed amount, and viscoelasticity of the interfacial layer. The rheological properties of the interfacial layers play an important role in macroscopic emulsion stability., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Primula wilsonii Dunn is a perennial herb in section Proliferae Pax of Primula L. with small population sizes in the field. Here, we constructed the complete plastome of the P. wilsonii using Illumina sequencing technology. The circular plastome was 151,677 bp in size, and comprises a large single-copy (LSC) region of 83,510 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 17,765 bp, and a pair of inverted repeats (IR) of 25,201 bp. The GC content was 36.99% overall, with 34.89%, 30.18%, and 42.87% for the LSC, SSC, and IR regions, respectively. The plastome comprised 130 unique genes including 84 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNAs, and 8 rRNAs. The ML phylogenetic analysis based on 17 plastomes in Primulaceae showed a strong sister relationship with P. anisodora in section Proliferae., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Hypothesis: The structural modification of natural emulsifiers may greatly impact their interfacial behaviours and bulk properties. The relationship between the microscopic interfacial viscoelasticity and the macroscopic emulsion stability in emulsifiers with different degrees of modification can be clarified using a multiscale approach., Experiments: A polysaccharide emulsifier of corn fibre gum (CFG) with different octenyl succinate anhydride (OSA) contents was used to obtain a broad variety of interfacial properties. Interfacial adsorption kinetics and viscoelastic responses were measured by combining interfacial shear rheology and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring, and the emulsion properties (droplet size and physical stability) at other scales were evaluated., Findings: Compared with native CFG, esterified CFG formed thick interfacial films with higher elasticity and viscosity, and their corresponding emulsions showed greater stability. There exists a satisfactory correlation between interfacial rheological properties and emulsion stability. However, such a satisfactory correlation can not be established among the degree of esterification of CFG, interfacial viscoelasticity and stability since depletion flocculation might occur in the emulsion stabilized by the OSA-CFG with the highest OSA content, which induced inferior bulk stability but exerted no impact on the measured interfacial properties. We propose that the depletion flocculation is responsible for this imperfection and provide detailed explanations., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Pollen limitation occurs widely and has an important effect on flowering plants. The East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains region is a global biodiversity hotspot. However, to our knowledge, no study has synthetically assessed the degree of pollen limitation in this area. The present study aims to reveal the degree of pollen limitation for the flowering plants growing on East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains and to test whether the reproductive features or the elevation is closely correlated with the degree of pollen limitation in this area., Results: We complied data from 76 studies, which included 96 species and 108 independent data records. We found that the flowering plants in this area undergo severe pollen limitation [overall Hedges' d = 2.004, with a 95% confidence interval (1.3264, 2.6743)] that is much higher than that of the flowering plants growing in many other regions around the world. The degree of pollen limitation was tested to determine the correlation with the capacity for autonomous self-reproduction and with the pollination pattern (generalized vs. specialized pollination) of plants. In addition, we found a clear relationship between elevation and the degree of pollen limitation, which indicates that plants might undergo more severe pollen limitation in relatively high places., Conclusions: This paper is the first to address the severe pollen limitation of the flowering plants growing in East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains region. Moreover, we reveal the positive correlation between elevation and the degree of pollen limitation.

Publicly available tumor gene expression datasets are widely reanalyzed, but it is unclear how representative they are of clinical populations. Estimations of molecular subtype classification and prognostic gene signatures were calculated for 16,130 patients from 70 breast cancer datasets. Collated patient demographics and clinical characteristics were sparse for many studies. Considerable variations were observed in dataset size, patient/tumor characteristics, and molecular composition. Results were compared with Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) figures. The proportion of basal subtype tumors ranged from 4 to 59%. Date of diagnosis ranged from 1977 to 2013, originating from 20 countries across five continents although European ancestry dominated. Publicly available breast cancer gene expression datasets are a great resource, but caution is required as they tend to be enriched for high grade, ER-negative tumors from European-ancestry patients. These results emphasize the need to derive more representative and annotated molecular datasets from diverse populations., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

Rhamnus globosa Bunge is a small shrub that can be used in the treatment of swollen poison, because of the antimicrobial activity. Here, we constructed the complete chloroplast genome of the R. globosa using Illumina sequencing technology. The circular cp genome was 160,642 bp in size, and comprises a large single-copy (LSC) region of 88,889 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,897 bp, and a pair of inverted repeats (IR) of 26,428 bp. The GC content was 37.14% overall, with 35.01%, 31.42%, and 42.75% for the LSC, SSC, and IR regions, respectively. The plastome comprised 129 unique genes including 81 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNAs, and 4 rRNAs. The ML phylogenetic analysis based on 44 chloroplast genomes in Rosales showed a strong sister relationship with Berchemia species., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Sorbus amabilis Cheng ex Yü, a small excellent ornamental tree species, is only distributed in Eastern China. In this study, we assembled and annotated the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of the species using the next-generation sequencing for the first time. The cp genome was 160,006 bp in size, consisting of two copies of invert repeat (IR) regions of 26,405 bp, one large single-copy (LSC) region of 87,870bp, and one small single-copy (SSC) region of 19,326 bp. The overall GC content of the genome was 36.55%. The genome was predicted to contain 128 genes, including 88 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis of 25 chloroplast genomes in Rosaceae indicated that S . amabilis is most closely related to S . commixta . These findings may provide useful information to the phylogeny of the genus Sorbus ., (© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Structured lipids (SLs) refer to a new type of functional lipids obtained by chemically, enzymatically, or genetically modifying the composition and/or distribution of fatty acids in the glycerol backbone. Due to the unique physicochemical characteristics and health benefits of SLs (for example, calorie reduction, immune function improvement, and reduction in serum triacylglycerols), there is increasing interest in the research and application of novel SLs in the food industry. The chemical structures and molecular architectures of SLs define mainly their physicochemical properties and nutritional values, which are also affected by the processing conditions. In this regard, this holistic review provides coverage of the latest developments and applications of SLs in terms of synthesis strategies, physicochemical properties, health aspects, and potential food applications. Enzymatic synthesis of SLs particularly with immobilized lipases is presented with a short introduction to the genetic engineering approach. Some physical features such as solid fat content, crystallization and melting behavior, rheology and interfacial properties, as well as oxidative stability are discussed as influenced by chemical structures and processing conditions. Health-related considerations of SLs including their metabolic characteristics, biopolymer-based lipid digestion modulation, and oleogelation of liquid oils are also explored. Finally, potential food applications of SLs are shortly introduced. Major challenges and future trends in the industrial production of SLs, physicochemical properties, and digestion behavior of SLs in complex food systems, as well as further exploration of SL-based oleogels and their food application are also discussed., (© 2020 Institute of Food Technologists®.)

Background: Lung cancer is a severe cancer with a high death rate. The 5-year survival rate for stage III lung cancer is much lower than stage I. Early detection and intervention of lung cancer patients can significantly increase their survival time. However, conventional lung cancer-screening methods, such as chest X-rays, sputum cytology, positron-emission tomography (PET), low-dose computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging, and gene-mutation, -methylation, and -expression biomarkers of lung tissue, are invasive, radiational, or expensive. Liquid biopsy is non-invasive and does little harm to the body. It can reflect early-stage dysfunctions of tumorigenesis and enable early detection and intervention., Methods: In this study, we analyzed RNA-sequencing data of tumor-educated platelets (TEPs) in 402 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and 231 healthy controls. A total of 48 biomarker genes were selected with advanced minimal-redundancy, maximal-relevance, and incremental feature-selection (IFS) methods., Results: A support vector-machine (SVM) classifier based on the 48 biomarker genes accurately predicted NSCLC with leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and Matthews correlation coefficients of 0.925, 0.827, 0.889, and 0.760, respectively. Network analysis of the 48 genes revealed that the WASF1 actin cytoskeleton module, PRKAB2 kinase module, RSRC1 ribosomal protein module, PDHB carbohydrate-metabolism module, and three intermodule hubs ( TPM2 , MYL9 , and PPP1R12C ) may play important roles in NSCLC tumorigenesis and progression., Conclusion: The 48-gene TEP liquid-biopsy biomarkers will facilitate early screening of NSCLC and prolong the survival of cancer patients., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary malignant tumor affecting the human brain. Despite improvements in therapeutic technologies, patients with GBM have a poor clinical result and the molecular mechanisms responsible for the development of GBM have not yet been fully elucidated. 3-phosphoinositide dependent protein kinase 1 (PDK1) is upregulated in various tumors and promotes tumor invasion. In glioma, transforming growth factor-β (TGF‑β) promotes cell invasion; however, whether TGF‑β directly regulates PDK1 protein and promotes proliferation and invasion is not yet clear. In this study, PDK1 levels were measured in glioma tissues using tissue microarray (TMA) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and RT‑qPCR. Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to calculate the survival rate of patients with glioma. In vitro, U251 and U87 glioma cell lines were used for functional analyses. Cell proliferation and invasion were analyzed using siRNA transfection, MTT assay, RT‑qPCR, western blot analysis, flow cytometry and invasion assay. In vivo, U251 glioma cell xenografts were established. The results revealed that PDK1 protein was significantly upregulated in glioma tissues compared with non-tumorous tissues. Furthermore, the higher PDK1 levels were associated with a large tumor size (>5.0 cm), a higher WHO grade and a shorter survival of patients with GBM. Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that PDK1 was an independent prognostic factor. In vivo, PDK1 promoted glioma tumor xenograft growth. In vitro, functional analyses confirmed that TGF‑β upregulated PDK1 protein expression and PDK1 promoted cell migration and invasion, and functioned as an oncogene in GBM, by upregulating c‑Jun protein and inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). c‑Jun protein were overexpressed in glioma tissues and positively correlated with PDK1 levels. Moreover, our findings were further validated by the online Oncomine database. On the whole, the findings of this study indicate that in GBM, PDK1 functions as an oncogene, promoting proliferation and invasion.

The complete genome sequence data of S. aureus SJTUF&#95;J27 isolated from seaweed in China is reported here. The size of the genome is 2.8 Mbp with 32.9% G + C content, consisting of 2614 coding sequences and 77 RNAs. A number of virulence factors, including antimicrobial resistance genes (fluoroquinolone, beta-lactams, fosfomycin, mupirocin, trimethoprim, and aminocoumarin) and the egc enterotoxin cluster, were found in the genome. In addition, the genes encoding metal-binding proteins and associated heavy metal resistance were identified. Phylogenetic data analysis, based upon genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and comparative genomic evaluation with BLAST Ring Image Generator (BRIG) were performed for SJTUF&#95;J27 and four S. aureus strains isolated from food. The completed genome data was deposited in NCBI׳s GenBank under the accession number CP019117, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/CP019117.

The organoiridium(III) complex (Ir(III)) [(η 5 -Cp xbiph )Ir(phpy) (py)]PF 6 containing π-bonded biphenyltetramethylcyclopentadienyl(Cp xbiph ), C∧N-chelated phenylpyridine(phpy), and pyridine (py) ligands has more potent antitumor activity as a new generation of drug than cisplatin toward various cancer cells. However, poor site-specific delivery, low solubility, and poor tumor penetration are common limitations of chemotherapy drugs. To develop CD44-targetable, pH-, and reduction-responsive drug delivery systems for Ir(III) drugs, the amphiphilic hyaluronan (HA)-based conjugates of HA-cystamin-pyrenyl (HA-ss-Py) containing disulfide bonds and HA-pyrenyl (HA-Py) were designed. The Ir(III) drug was readily loaded into these two amphiphilic conjugates and nanoparticles were formed. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) studies showed that the micelles formed from HA-ss-Py were sufficiently stable under physiological conditions, but were prone to rapid dissociation in reducing environments (20 mM glutathione (GSH)). In subsequent confocal microscopy analyses, A549 cancer cells efficiently internalized HA-based micelles. Moreover, in vitro cytotoxicity assays in A549 cells demonstrat that Ir-loaded HA-based nanoparticles have higher cytotoxicity than the free Ir(III) anticancer drug. Finally, systemic administration of Ir(III)-loaded HA-ss-Py nanoparticles enhanced tumor inhibition in vivo, and the corresponding biodistribution experiments showed that HA-ss-Py micelles accumulate in tumors. Overall, our results suggest that HA-ss-Py micelles have a great potential to be used as an effective Ir(III) drug carrier for targeted cancer therapy.

Motivation: Biomedical researchers often search through massive catalogues of literature to look for potential relationships between genes and diseases. Given the rapid growth of biomedical literature, automatic relation extraction, a crucial technology in biomedical literature mining, has shown great potential to support research of gene-related diseases. Existing work in this field has produced datasets that are limited both in scale and accuracy., Results: In this study, we propose a reliable and efficient framework that takes large biomedical literature repositories as inputs, identifies credible relationships between diseases and genes, and presents possible genes related to a given disease and possible diseases related to a given gene. The framework incorporates name entity recognition (NER), which identifies occurrences of genes and diseases in texts, association detection whereby we extract and evaluate features from gene-disease pairs, and ranking algorithms that estimate how closely the pairs are related. The F1-score of the NER phase is 0.87, which is higher than existing studies. The association detection phase takes drastically less time than previous work while maintaining a comparable F1-score of 0.86. The end-to-end result achieves a 0.259 F1-score for the top 50 genes associated with a disease, which performs better than previous work. In addition, we released a web service for public use of the dataset., Availability and Implementation: The implementation of the proposed algorithms is publicly available at http://gdr-web.rwebox.com/public&#95;html/index.php?page=download.php The web service is available at http://gdr-web.rwebox.com/public&#95;html/index.php CONTACT: jenny.wei@astrazeneca.com or kzhu@cs.sjtu.edu.cn Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.)

The infections of Mycoplasmas and Chlamydiae are still severe in patients with genital tract diseases and antimicrobial resistance for these organisms has been changing in recent years. In this study, we reported the prevalence status of Ureaplasma urealyticum, Mycoplasma hominis and Chlamydia trachomatis in 965 patients with genital tract infection in Shanghai from January 2011 to December 2014 and analyzed the antimicrobial resistance of U. urealyticum and M. hominis to 12 kinds of antimicrobial drugs by using commercial kits and SPSS13.0 software. Here, we found the infection of U. urealyticum was the most frequent among these three organisms. The total infection rate for containing any organisms of them was 49.5%, and it has been increasing in recent 4 years. Positive rate in female (53.3%) was higher than male's (34.8%), and the high risk population was 20-39 years old (56.7%). Besides, U. urealyticum and M. hominis displayed relative lower resistance rates to minocycline, doxycycline, josamycin and gatifloxacin (6.5%, 7.2%, 13.5% and 8.6%, respectively). However, for erythromycin, roxithromycin, thiamphenicol and clindamycin, the resistance rates were relatively high (41.9%, 47.2%, 62.3% and 74.9%, respectively). U. urealyticum and M. hominis displayed a declined trend of the antimicrobial resistance to 12 kinds of drugs detected in this study. In total, these preliminary data showed the prevalence of Mycoplasmas and Chlamydiae in patients and the antimicrobial resistance status of Mycoplasmas, which has use for reference on both prevention and treatment of diseases caused by them., (Copyright © 2016 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a facile one-pot process for the synthesis of hierarchical VS2/graphene nanosheets (VS2/GNS) composites based on the coincident interaction of VS2 and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide is developed for the first time. The nanocomposites possess a hierarchical structure of 50 nm VS2 sheets in thickness homogeneously anchored on graphene. The VS2/GNS nanocomposites exhibit an impressive high-rate capability and good cyclic stability as a cathode material for Li-ion batteries, which retain 89.3% of the initial capacity 180.1 mAh g(-1) after 200 cycles at 0.2 C. Even at 20 C, the composites still deliver a high capacity of 114.2 mAh g(-1) corresponding to 62% of the low-rate capacity. Expanded studies show that VS2/GNS, as an anode material, also has a good reversible performance with 528 mAh g(-1) capacity after 100 cycles at 200 mA g(-1). The excellent electrochemical performance of the composites for reversible Li+ storage should be attributed to the exceptional interaction between VS2 and GNS that enabled fast electron transport between graphene and VS2, facile Li-ion diffusion within the electrode. Moreover, GNS provides a topological and structural template for the nucleation and growth of two-dimensional VS2 nanosheets and acted as buffer matrix to relieve the volume expansion/contraction of VS2 during the electrochemical charge/discharge, facilitating improved cycling stability. The VS2/GNS composites may be promising electrode materials for the next generation of rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

Campylobacter jejuni, commonly found in poultry and meat products, causes gastroenteritis in humans. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of a C. jejuni strain, YH001, isolated from retail beef liver. The genome is 1,712,361 bp and has a 30.5% G+C content and two plasmids of 46.5 kb and 4.4 kb., (Copyright © 2015 He et al.)

Objectives: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share common etiological factors and pathophysiological pathways and have overlapping clinical features. Only few studies have directly compared early auditory information processing in the two disorders. The objective of this study was to investigate the M100 and M200 auditory responses in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and compare them with healthy controls using magnetoencephalography (MEG)., Methods: Whole-head MEG data were acquired during an auditory oddball paradigm in 24 schizophrenia patients, 26 bipolar I disorder patients, and 31 healthy controls. The strengths and latencies of M100 and M200 in both hemispheres and the dipole source localizations were investigated from the standard stimuli., Results: The M100 and M200 dipolar sources were localized to the left and right posterior portion of the superior temporal gyrus (STG) in all the subjects. An asymmetric pattern of M100 and M200 auditory response with more anterior sources in the right STG was observed in the healthy controls. However, both the schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients showed a symmetric M100 and M200 source pattern. When compared with the healthy control group, both patient groups showed significantly reduced M100 and M200 source strength in both hemispheres., Conclusions: Our study suggests that early auditory information processing deficits may be similar in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and may be related to abnormalities of the STG., (Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Shiga toxins 1 and 2 (Stx1 and Stx2) from Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) bacteria were simultaneously detected with a newly developed, high-throughput antibody microarray platform. The proteinaceous toxins were immobilized and sandwiched between biorecognition elements (monoclonal antibodies) and pooled horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated monoclonal antibodies. Following the reaction of HRP with the precipitating chromogenic substrate (metal enhanced 3,3-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride or DAB), the formation of a colored product was quantitatively measured with an inexpensive flatbed page scanner. The colorimetric ELISA microarray was demonstrated to detect Stx1 and Stx2 at levels as low as ~4.5 ng/mL within ~2 h of total assay time with a narrow linear dynamic range of ~1-2 orders of magnitude and saturation levels well above background. Stx1 and/or Stx2 produced by various strains of STEC were also detected following the treatment of cultured cells with mitomycin C (a toxin-inducing antibiotic) and/or B-PER (a cell-disrupting, protein extraction reagent). Semi-quantitative detection of Shiga toxins was demonstrated to be sporadic among various STEC strains following incubation with mitomycin C; however, further reaction with B-PER generally resulted in the detection of or increased detection of Stx1, relative to Stx2, produced by STECs inoculated into either axenic broth culture or culture broth containing ground beef.

Objectives: Auditory sensory gating deficits have been reported in subjects with bipolar disorder, but the hemispheric and neuronal origins of this deficit are not well understood. Moreover, gating of the auditory evoked components reflecting early attentive stage of information processing has not been investigated in bipolar disorder. The objectives of this study were to investigate the right and left hemispheric auditory sensory gating of the M50 (preattentive processing) and M100 (early attentive processing) in patients diagnosed with bipolar I disorder by utilizing magnetoencephalography (MEG)., Methods: Whole-head MEG data were acquired during the standard paired-click paradigm in 20 bipolar I disorder patients and 20 healthy controls. The M50 and the M100 responses were investigated, and dipole source localizations were also investigated. Sensory gating were determined by measuring the strength of the M50 and the M100 response to the second click divided by that of the first click (S2/S1)., Results: In every subject, M50 and M100 dipolar sources localized to the left and right posterior portion of superior temporal gyrus (STG). Bipolar I disorder patients showed bilateral gating deficits in M50 and M100. The bilateral M50 S2 source strengths were significantly higher in the bipolar I disorder group compared to the control group., Limitations: The sample size was relatively small. More studies with larger sample sizes are warranted. Bipolar subjects were taking a wide range of medications that could not be readily controlled for., Conclusions: These findings suggest that bipolar I disorder patients have auditory gating deficits at both pre-attentive and early attentive levels, which might be related to STG structural abnormality., (© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is the most applied and effective genetic typing method for epidemiological studies and investigation of foodborne outbreaks caused by different pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus. The technique relies on analysis of large DNA fragments generated by the cleavage of intact bacterial chromosomes with a rare cutting restriction enzyme, subsequently resolved by pulsed-field electrophoresis with periodic changes of the orientation of the electrical field across the gel. The high discriminatory power, improved reproducibility due to standardization of experimental protocols and data interpretation guidelines, and establishment of a national PFGE database of S. aureus profiles have made it a valuable means for global tracking of S. aureus infection sources and determination of genetic relatedness of outbreak isolates.

Background: Whether schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are the clinical outcomes of discrete or shared causative processes is much debated in psychiatry. Several studies have demonstrated anomalous structural and functional superior temporal gyrus (STG) symmetries in schizophrenia. We examined bipolar patients to determine if they also have altered STG asymmetry., Methods: Whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings of auditory evoked fields were obtained for 20 subjects with schizophrenia, 20 with bipolar disorder, and 20 control subjects. Neural generators of the M100 auditory response were modeled using a single equivalent current dipole for each hemisphere. The source location of the M100 response was used as a measure of functional STG asymmetry., Results: Control subjects showed the typical M100 asymmetrical pattern with more anterior sources in the right STG. In contrast, both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients displayed a symmetrical M100 source pattern. There was no significant difference in the M100 latency and strength in bilateral hemispheres within three groups., Conclusions: Our results indicate that disturbed asymmetry of temporal lobe function may reflect a common deviance present in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, suggesting the two disorders might share etiological and pathophysiological factors.

Thermonuclease is known as a specific virulence factor in Staphylococcus aureus. It is widely used as a genetic marker for detection of S. aureus in various types of food. Previous studies have revealed the existence of two functional thermostable nucleases encoded by two different genes (nuc1 and nuc2) in S. aureus. To identify the expression characteristics of these two genes, comparative mRNA analysis of nuc1 and nuc2 was carried out by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Distinct expression patterns were observed at different growth stages, and expression was under the control of the sae regulatory system in strain RN4220. The maximum level of nuc1 transcripts was at the post-exponential growth phase, and expression was notably down-regulated in a sae mutant. In contrast, nuc2 transcript levels declined after the early exponential phase, and they were slightly up-regulated in the sae mutant. Furthermore, unlike the expression of nuc1, which varied in three different S. aureus clinical strains, the transcription of nuc2 remained relatively constant. The nuc1 transcription level correlated well with thermonuclease activity results, which suggests that nuc1 plays a primary role in thermonuclease activity in S. aureus. This information will be useful for understanding thermonuclease gene function and alterations of regulation for pathogenesis and diagnosis of S. aureus.

The occurrence of outbreaks of Vibrio parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis in China highlights the need for strain characterization and subtyping of this pathogenic species. A total of 56 epidemiologically-unrelated strains of V. parahaemolyticus were isolated from clinical samples, seafood and various environmental sites in the middle-east coastline of China from 2006 to 2008. The isolates were characterized using four molecular typing methods, including ribotyping, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR), pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and sequence analysis of the gyrB gene. Genetic profiles of cluster analysis from these molecular typing tests clearly showed that there were differences in potential pathogenicity among isolates from seafood and its environments. Genetic characterization of two isolates (F13 and QS2) that originated from seafood demonstrated that they were potentially pathogenic. Discriminatory indices of four typing methods for the 56 V. parahaemolyticus isolates were differentiated by Simpson's Index of Diversity. The discriminatory index of ERIC-PCR typing was maximal (D=0.942), while that of sequence analysis of the gyrB gene was minimal (D=0.702). The discriminatory ability was greatly enhanced (D=0.966) when ERIC-PCR was coupled with sequence analysis of the gyrB gene. These results suggest that ERIC-PCR combined with sequence analysis of gyrB gene may be a reliable, rapid typing strategy for V. parahaemolyticus strains., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: An oncogenic capacity of aquaporins (AQPs) has been recently proposed. They are channel-forming membrane proteins that function as osmotically driven transepithelial and transcellular water. Most recently, overexpression of several AQPs has been reported in different types of human cancer, which indicates that AQPs may play an important role in human carcinogenesis., Methods: In this study, we were going to elucidate the involvement of aquaporin 1 and 4 (AQP1,4) in the metastasis of lung cancer., Results: Expression of AQP1,4 was examined by immunohistochemistry on the twenty lung cancer tissues. AQP1,4 were overexpressed in 65% (13 of 20) and 70% (14 of 20) of adenocarcinoma, while the normal lung tissues were negative. We next investigated the roles of AQP1,4 in the invasion of lung cancer cells by transwell migration assays. It is indicated that migration cells of the AQP1-shRNA or AQP4-shRNA were reduced significantly in comparison to the controls (AQP1- shRNA vs. AQP1-CTL, 5.6% vs. 15.9%, p < 0.05; AQP4- shRNA vs. AQP4-CTL, 8.9% vs. 14.8%, p < 0.05). From this study, we found AQP1 and AQP4 in lung cancer cell extravasation and spread, which may provide a functional explanation for the expression of AQP1 and AQP4 in lung cancer tissues and lung cancer cell lines., Conclusions: Although further details on the molecular function of AQP1 or 4 related to tumorigenesis remain to be elucidated, our results suggest a potential role of AQP1 or 4 as novel therapeutic targets for the management of lung cancer.

The antibacterial effect of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles on Campylobacter jejuni was investigated for inhibition and inactivation of cell growth. The results showed that C. jejuni was extremely sensitive to treatment with ZnO nanoparticles. The MIC of ZnO nanoparticles for C. jejuni was determined to be 0.05 to 0.025 mg/ml, which is 8- to 16-fold lower than that for Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis and Escherichia coli O157:H7 (0.4 mg/ml). The action of ZnO nanoparticles against C. jejuni was determined to be bactericidal, not bacteriostatic. Scanning electron microscopy examination revealed that the majority of the cells transformed from spiral shapes into coccoid forms after exposure to 0.5 mg/ml of ZnO nanoparticles for 16 h, which is consistent with the morphological changes of C. jejuni under other stress conditions. These coccoid cells were found by ethidium monoazide-quantitative PCR (EMA-qPCR) to have a certain level of membrane leakage. To address the molecular basis of ZnO nanoparticle action, a large set of genes involved in cell stress response, motility, pathogenesis, and toxin production were selected for a gene expression study. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) showed that in response to treatment with ZnO nanoparticles, the expression levels of two oxidative stress genes (katA and ahpC) and a general stress response gene (dnaK) were increased 52-, 7-, and 17-fold, respectively. These results suggest that the antibacterial mechanism of ZnO nanoparticles is most likely due to disruption of the cell membrane and oxidative stress in Campylobacter.

A total of 108 S. aureus isolates from 16 major hospitals located in 14 different provinces in China were characterized for the profiles of 18 staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes, 3 exfoliatin genes (eta, etb and etd), and the toxic shock syndrome toxin gene (tsst) by PCR. The genomic diversity of each isolate was also evaluated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and accessory gene regulator (agr) typing. Of these strains, 90.7% (98/108) harbored toxin genes, in which tsst was the most prevalent toxin gene (48.1%), followed by sea (44.4%), sek (42.6%) and seq (40.7%). The see and etb genes were not found in any of the isolates tested. Because of high-frequency transfer of toxin gene-containing mobile genetic elements between S. aureus strains, a total of 47 different toxin gene combinations were detected, including a complete egc cluster in 19 isolates, co-occurrence of sea, sek and seq in 38 strains, and sec and sel together in 11 strains. Genetic typing by PFGE grouped all the strains into 25 clusters based on 80% similarity. MLST revealed 25 sequence types (ST) which were assigned into 16 clonal complexes (CCs) including 2 new singletons. Among these, 11 new and 6 known STs were first reported in the S. aureus strains from China. Overall, the genotyping results showed high genetic diversity of the strains regardless of their geographical distributions, and no strong correlation between genetic background and toxin genotypes of the strains. For genotyping S. aureus, PFGE appears to be more discriminatory than MLST. However, toxin gene typing combined with PFGE or MLST could increase the discriminatory power of genotyping S. aureus strains.