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Apple Glomerella leaf spot (GLS) is a severe foliar disease of apples trees, prevalent in several countries including China, Brazil, and United States. Colletotrichum fructicolais a predominant pathogen responsible for global GLS outbreaks. C. fructicolainfects apple leaves through penetration pegs that are generated from melanized appressoria, and the melanization process is crucial for their proper functioning. Scytalone dehydratase is a key enzyme in melanin biosynthesis. The role of melanin in the biology and pathogenicity of C. fructicolais poorly understood up to nowadays. In the present study, we successfully identified the gene CfSCD1encoding scytalone dehydratase in C. fructicolaisolate 030206. The expression level of CfSCD1in germinated conidia exhibited a remarkable increase to approximately tenfold at 6 hpi, followed by a decrease to around five-fold at 12 hpi, and then stabilized from 12 to 24 hpi. The appressoria exhibited a complete morphology at 6 hpi, followed by deep melanization at 12 hpi and subsequent production of primary hyphae from the appressoria at 24 hpi. A CfSCD1deletion mutant was generated to further elucidate gene function, revealing a significant reduction in melanin content in the ΔCfSCD1strain. The growth of ΔCfSCD1mycelium was inhibited by UV irradiation, and no regular appressorium formatted from the germinated conidia of ΔCfSCD1. In addition, the germinated conidia hyphae of ΔCfSCD1exhibited a loss in their ability to invade apple leaves. CfSCD1was identified as a crucial gene associated with conidial invasion, and its expression level may serve as an indicator of C. fructicolaisolate pathogenicity.

Botryosphaeria dothideais a destructive fungal pathogen that causes Botryosphaeria canker and fruit ring rot on apple worldwide. Autophagy is a process of self-degradation that maintains intracellular homeostasis vialysosomal pathway. To date, the biological role of autophagy in B. dothidearemains unknown. In this study, we identified and characterized the autophagy-related gene BdATG8in B. dothidea. BdATG8was able to restore the defect in nitrogen starvation tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATG8deletion mutant. GFP-BdAtg8 was shown to be a useful marker for monitoring autophagy in B. dothidea. Target deletion of BdATG8(ΔBdAtg8) blocked autophagy and significantly impaired mycelial growth, conidiation and perithecium formation. In addition, ΔBdAtg8showed significantly increased sensitivity to phytoalexin and oxidative stress, suggesting that BdATG8plays critical roles in overcoming phytoalexin and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated plant immunity. Pathogenicity assays revealed that ΔBdAtg8almost lost ability to infect hosts. Overall, our results indicate that BdATG8plays an important role in fungal development, stress responses and pathogenesis in B. dothidea.

The combination of cancer immunotherapy with efficient functionalized nanosystems has emerged as a beneficial treatment strategy and its use has increased rapidly. The roles of stimuli-responsive nanosystems and nanomedicine-based cancer immunotherapy, a subsidiary discipline in the field of immunology, are pivotal. The present era is witnessing rapid advancements in the use of nanomedicine as a platform for investigating novel therapeutic applications and modern intelligent healthcare management strategies. The development of cancer nanomedicine has posthaste ratified the outcomes of immunotherapy to the subsequent stage in the current era of medical research. This review focuses on key findings with respect to the effectiveness of nanomedicine-based cancer immunotherapies and their applications, which include i) immune checkpoint inhibitors and nanomedicine, ii) CRISPR-Cas nanoparticles (NPs) in cancer immunotherapy, iii) combination cancer immunotherapy with core-shell nanoparticles, iv) biomimetic NPs for cancer immunotherapy, and v) CAR-T cells and cancer nanoimmunotherapy. By evaluating the state-of-the-art tools and taking the challenges involved into consideration, various aspects of the proposed nano-enabled therapeutic approaches have been discussed in this review.

The powder compact was directly sintered by a pack boride process to prepare an Fe-based material having a boride layer. The effects of process parameters such as sintering temperature and sintering time on the microstructure and quality of the layer were studied. The thickness of the layer, surface hardness, phase composition and properties of friction and wear were also studied. The results show that the boride layer was mainly composed of Fe2B, and its thickness is uniform and firmly bonded to the substrate. The thickness and hardness of the layer gradually increase with time and temperature. When the sintering temperature was higher than 1050°C, the more obvious holes and looseness would be appeared in the layer, which was not conducive to improve the properties of material. The thickness of the layer has the best value range with this method. Ensuring the thickness of the layer within a suitable range by controlling the sintering temperature, sintering time and other process parameters was beneficial to reduce the brittleness of the boride layer and improve the friction and wear properties of the material.

Bladder cancer is the fourth common cancer among men and more than 70% of the bladder cancer is nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Because of its high recurrence rate, NMIBC brings to patients physical agony and high therapy costs to the patients’ family and society. It is imperative to seek a natural compound to inhibit bladder cancer cell growth and prevent bladder cancer recurrence. Cell proliferation is one of the main features of solid tumor development, and the rapid tumor cell growth usually leads to hypoxia due to the low oxygen environment. In this study we found that sulforaphane, a natural chemical which was abundant in cruciferous vegetables, could suppress bladder cancer cells proliferation in hypoxia significantly stronger than in normoxia (p< 0.05): 20 μM sulforaphane inhibited bladder cancer cell proliferation by 26.1 ± 4.1% in normoxia, while it inhibited cell proliferation by 39.7 ± 5.2% in hypoxia in RT112 cells. Consistently, sulforaphane inhibited cell proliferation by 29.7 ± 4.6% in normoxia, while it inhibited cell proliferation by 48.3 ± 5.2% in hypoxia in RT4 cells. Moreover, we revealed that sulforaphane decreased glycolytic metabolism in a hypoxia microenvironment by downregulating hypoxia-induced HIF-1α and blocking HIF-1α trans-localization to the nucleus in NMIBC cell lines. This study discovered a food sourced compound inhibiting bladder cancer cells proliferation and provided experimental evidence for developing a new bladder cancer preventive and therapeutic strategy.

The urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), a glycoprotein localized on the cell surface with a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor, plays a crucial role in cell invasion, and the metastasis of several cancers, including bladder cancer, and its expression are significantly negatively correlated with patient survival rates. Apigenin, a naturally produced phytochemical compound found in fruits, vegetables, and plant leaves, has been shown to mediate a variety of cancer-metastasis-related molecules in various cancers. The effect of apigenin on uPAR expression is still unknown. In this study, we examined the effects of apigenin on IL-1β-induced uPAR expression and investigated its potential mechanisms. We discovered in this study that IL-1β could remarkably induce uPAR expression in bladder cancer T24 cells and that apigenin-inhibited IL-1β could induce uPAR expression concentration-dependently. Interestingly, NF-κB and AP-1 transcription factors were critically required for IL-1β-induced high uPAR expression. Apigenin suppressed the transcriptional activity of both AP-1 and NF-κB by inhibiting ERK1/2 and JNK signaling pathways. These results suggest that apigenin can exert anti-invasion effects by inhibiting uPAR expression via mediating (ERK1/2, JNK)/AP-1 and (ERK1/2, JNK)/NF-κB signaling pathways in human T24 cells. Our present study generated novel and valuable biological insight into anti-invasion through treatment with a small native compound.

Glomerella leaf spot (GLS) caused by Glomerella cingulatais a destructive disease that results in severe defoliation and fruit spots in apples worldwide. The compound of pyraclostrobin and tebuconazole was registered in 2018 in China to control GLS. In 2020, the high-level resistance of G. cingulatato pyraclostrobin was found in the field in Shandong Province, with a resistance frequency of 4.8%. Except for a significant decrease in virulence, there was no fitness penalty in mycelial growth, sporulation, and stress tolerance of G. cingulataassociated with the resistance to pyraclostrobin. No cross-resistance was detected between pyraclostrobin and tebuconazole or bromothalonil. The point mutation GGT (G) → GCT (A) at codon 143 in the Cytochrome b(Cytb) gene was identified in the pyraclostrobin-resistant isolates. Molecular docking analysis suggested that G143A significantly alters the affinity of pyraclostrobin to the Cytb protein. Based on the point mutation (G143A) in the Cytb gene, a cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences method was developed to detect pyraclostrobin resistance in G. cingulatapopulations. Results of this study will provide valuable information for the scientific management of GLS.

In recent years, microdrill becomes a very important element in the process of drilling apertures of PCB integrated circuits. But different material property will often generate collapse or fracture of the drill tip. This study is about to establish a finite element model (FEM) and to get the buckling stress analysis of the microdrill by ANSYS software. Since the microdrill is a structural brittle material and easy to be broken, force over buckling critical load is employed to explore the structural weakness and to analyze its stress damage. In addition, vibration, occurred at high-speed micro drilling, could easily lead to the excessive deflection or feeding amount of the drill tip, cause the collapse or rupture of the microdrill, and lower the quality by reaming the machining object. Poor geometric aspect ratio of the drill tip will generate different loads in different parts. How to manage the pressure for the microdrill to apply the force stably and to avoid the breakage and destruction is very important both for the tool life and the cost control. Therefore, how to overcome the buckling of tiny structure component under loading becomes a great issue to be explored.

Both surface and bulk properties on hydration reaction and proton conduction of Nd and Y co-doped BaZrO3(BZNY) were investigated for the first time by first-principles calculations. The effects of Nd and Y on oxygen vacancies in BaZrO3are opposite to those in BaCeO3, which allows us to break away from the traditional misunderstanding that the larger the radius of the doped ion, the easier it is to form oxygen vacancies. We can also infer from the calculation that the hydration reaction has a negative correlation with the formation of oxygen vacancies. Both oxygen vacancies and protons were calculated to have a tendency to accumulate on the BZNY surface, which facilitates promoting surface hydration reaction. It is worth noting that Nd and Y reduce the difference in proton stability of the layers near the surface, therefore promote proton transmission. Unexpectedly, Y3+(0.900 Å) was calculated to be more likely to segregate in BZNY than Nd3+(0.983 Å), which subverts our traditional view that doped ions with larger radius are easier to segregate. Moreover, for proton transport though the grain boundaries, the segregation of Nd and Y were also predicted to have beneficial effects in BZNY.

For hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts, compared with experimental research, theoretical research, especially that based on strain, is scarce, and even some of the results are contradictory. In this paper, strain and transition-metal doping effects on high-performance HER catalysts Mo2C, MoP, and Ni2P were calculated. We found that applying a certain amount of strain (1 and 3% tensile strain for Mo2C, 3% compressive and 1 and 3% tensile strain for MoP, and 1% compressive and 1% tensile strain for Ni2P) can enhance the HER catalytic performance. H coverage can affect the HER catalytic performance, especially that of the P-terminated surface of MoP, the ΔGof which is very close to 0 with 7/9 H coverage. Compared with the experimental data, we inferred that the actual catalytic sites in the experiment may not be the sites where the Gibbs free energy is closest to 0. This may be attributed to the weak adsorption ability of the latter. We have also found that for Mo2C and MoP certain doping (Fe > Mn > Co > Ni for Mo2C, Fe > Mn for MoP) can enhance the HER catalytic performance; however, for Ni2P, these improvements are not obvious. Our article reveals the performance changes of HER catalysts from the perspective of strain and doping and would be helpful for the further development of HER catalysts.

The adzuki bean (Vigna angularis), a member of the family Fabaceae, is widely grown in Asia, from East Asia to the Himalayas. The adzuki bean is known as an ingredient that adds sweetness to diverse desserts made in Eastern Asian countries. Libraries prepared from two V. angularisvarieties referred to as Taejin Black and Taejin Red were paired-end sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 system. The raw data in this study can be available in NCBI SRA database with accession numbers of SRR3406660 and SRR3406553. After de novotranscriptome assembly using Trinity, we obtained 324,219 and 280,056 transcripts from Taejin Black and Taejin Red, respectively. We predicted a total of 238,321 proteins and 179,519 proteins for Taejin Black and Taejin Red, respectively, by the TransDecoder program. We carried out BLASTP on the predicted proteins against the Swiss-Prot protein sequence database to predict the putative functions of identified proteins. Taken together, we provide transcriptomes of two adzuki bean varieties by RNA-Seq, which might be usefully applied to generate molecular markers.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), also known as great millet, is one of the most popular cultivated grass species in the world. Sorghum is frequently consumed as food for humans and animals as well as used for ethanol production. In this study, we conducted de novotranscriptome assembly for sorghum variety Taejin by next-generation sequencing, obtaining 8.748GB of raw data. The raw data in this study can be available in NCBI SRA database with accession number of SRX1715644. Using the Trinity program, we identified 222,161 transcripts from sorghum variety Taejin. We further predicted coding regions within the assembled transcripts by the TransDecoder program, resulting in a total of 148,531 proteins. We carried out BLASTP against the Swiss-Prot protein sequence database to annotate the functions of the identified proteins. To our knowledge, this is the first transcriptome data for a sorghum variety derived from Korea, and it can be usefully applied to the generation of genetic markers.

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) belonging to the family Poaceae is an important millet that is widely cultivated in East Asia. Of the cultivated millets, the foxtail millet has the longest history and is one of the main food crops in South India and China. Moreover, foxtail millet is a model plant system for biofuel generation utilizing the C4photosynthetic pathway. In this study, we carried out de novotranscriptome assembly for the foxtail millet variety Taejin collected from Korea using next-generation sequencing. We obtained a total of 8.676GB raw data by paired-end sequencing. The raw data in this study can be available in NCBI SRA database with accession number of SRR3406552. The Trinity program was used to de novoassemble 145,332 transcripts. Using the TransDecoder program, we predicted 82,925 putative proteins. BLASTP was performed against the Swiss-Prot protein sequence database to annotate the functions of identified proteins, resulting in 20,555 potentially novel proteins. Taken together, this study provides transcriptome data for the foxtail millet variety Taejin by RNA-Seq.

Peach (Prunus persica) is one of the most popular stone fruits worldwide. Next generation sequencing (NGS) has facilitated genome and transcriptome analyses of several stone fruit trees. In this study, we conducted de novotranscriptome analyses of two peach cultivars grown in Korea. Leaves of two cultivars, referred to as Jangtaek and Mibaek, were harvested and used for library preparation. The two prepared libraries were paired-end sequenced by the HiSeq2000 system. We obtained 8.14GB and 9.62GB sequence data from Jangtaek and Mibaek (NCBI accession numbers: SRS1056585 and SRS1056587), respectively. The Trinity program was used to assemble two transcriptomes de novo, resulting in 110,477 (Jangtaek) and 136,196 (Mibaek) transcripts. TransDecoder identified possible coding regions in assembled transcripts. The identified proteins were subjected to BLASTP search against NCBI's non-redundant database for functional annotation. This study provides transcriptome data for two peach cultivars, which might be useful for genetic marker development and comparative transcriptome analyses.

Plum is a globally grown stone fruit and can be divided into several species. In particular, the Prunus salicina, which is native to China, is widely grown in many fruit orchards in Korea and Japan, as well as the United States and Australia. The transcriptome data for Prunus salicinahas not been reported to our knowledge. In this study, we performed de novotranscriptome assembly for two selected P. salicinacultivars referred to as Akihime and Formosa (commercially important plum cultivars in Korea) using next generation sequencing. We obtained a total of 9.04GB and 8.68GB raw data from Akihime and Formosa, respectively. De novotranscriptome assembly using Trinity revealed 155,169 and 160,186 transcripts for Akihime and Formosa. Next, we identified 121,278 and 116,544 proteins from Akihime and Formosa using TransDecoder. We performed BLASTP against the NCBI non-redundant (nr) dataset to annotate proteins. Taken together, this is the first transcriptome data for P. salicinato our knowledge.

Apricot (Prunus armeniaca) belonging to the Prunusspecies is a popular kind of stone fruit tree. Apricot is native to Armenia and is currently cultivated in many countries with climates adaptable for apricot growth. In general, fresh fruits as well as dried apricot are produced. However, the information associated with genes and genetic markers for apricot is very limited. In this study, we carried out de novotranscriptome assembly for two selected apricot cultivars referred to as Harcot and Ungarische Beste, which are commercially important apricot cultivars in the world, using next generation sequencing. We obtained a total of 9.31GB and 8.88GB raw data from Harcot and Ungarische Beste (NCBI accession numbers: SRX1186946 and SRX1186893), respectively. De novotranscriptome assembly using Trinity identified 147,501 and 152,235 transcripts for Harcot and Ungarische Beste, respectively. Next, we identified 113,565 and 126,444 proteins from Harcot and Ungarische Beste using the TransDecoder program. We performed BLASTP against an NCBI non-redundant (nr) dataset to annotate identified proteins. Taken together, we provide transcriptomes of two different apricot cultivars by RNA-Seq.

Prunus mume, belonging to the Prunusgenus, is an Asian tree, and its common names are Chinese plum and Japanese plum. P. mumeare cultivated for fruit production as well as ornamental purposes. In this study, we conducted de novotranscriptome assembly for two selected P. mumecultivars referred to as Takada and Wallyoung (commercially important cultivars for fruit production and ornamental trees, respectively) by RNA-sequencing. We obtained 9.14GB and 9.48GB sequence data from Takada and Wallyoung (NCBI accession numbers: SRX1187101 and SRX1187169), respectively. De novotranscriptome assembly identified 130,989 and 116,941 transcripts for Takada and Wallyoung, respectively. In addition, we identified 96,681 and 91,429 proteins from Takada and Wallyoung, respectively, by TransDecoder program. We performed BLASTP against the NCBI non-redundant (nr) datasets to annotate identified proteins. This study provides transcriptomes and proteomes for two different P. mumecultivars, which might be useful for comparative transcriptome analyses and assist development of genetic markers.

Sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) in the genus Prunusin the family Rosaceaeis one of the most popular stone fruit trees worldwide. Of known sour cherry cultivars, the Schattenmorelle is a famous old sour cherry with a high amount of fruit production. The Schattenmorelle was selected before 1650 and described in the 1800s. This cultivar was named after gardens of the Chateau de Moreille in which the cultivar was initially found. In order to identify new genes and to develop genetic markers for sour cherry, we performed a transcriptome analysis of a sour cherry. We selected the cultivar Schattenmorelle, which is among commercially important cultivars in Europe and North America. We obtained 2.05GB raw data from the Schattenmorelle (NCBI accession number: SRX1187170). De novotranscriptome assembly using Trinity identified 61,053 transcripts in which N50 was 611bp. Next, we identified 25,585 protein coding sequences using TransDecoder. The identified proteins were blasted against NCBI's non-redundant database for annotation. Based on blast search, we taxonomically classified the obtained sequences. As a result, we provide the transcriptome of sour cherry cultivar Schattenmorelle using next generation sequencing.