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Melatonin, a trace efficient natural plant signaling molecule, has been widely reported in plant growth and development, abiotic stress, and postharvest preservation and other aspects. In recent years, melatonin has been found to play a positive role in inducing disease resistance in fruits. This paper describes the effect of melatonin on pathogens in vitro and in infected fruits, with a focus on the mechanism by which melatonin induces fruit resistance to invasive diseases. Furthermore, this paper reveals that melatonin and plant signal transduction pathways constitute a regulation network to mediate disease resistance responses in fruits. We conclude this paper with an outlook on future research directions in order to provide a theoretical reference for further research on the mechanism by which melatonin induces disease resistance.

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) induce acute respiratory disease and cause severe epidemics and pandemics. Since IAVs exhibit antigenic variation and genome reassortment, the development of broad-spectrum influenza vaccines is crucial. The stem of the hemagglutinin (HA) is highly conserved across IAV strains and thus has been explored in broad-spectrum influenza vaccine studies. The present study aimed to identify viral epitopes capable of eliciting effective host immune responses, which can be explored for the development of broad-spectrum non-strain specific prophylactic options against IAV. In this study, a series of conserved linear sequences from the HA stem of IAV (H1N1) was recognized by sequence alignment and B/T-cell epitope prediction after being chemically coupled to the Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH) protein. The predicted linear epitopes were identified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) after animal immunization and then fused with ferritin carriers. Three predicted linear epitopes with relatively strong immunogenicity, P3, P6 and P8 were fused with ferritin carriers P3F, P6F and P8F, respectively to further improve their immunogenicity. Antibody titre of the sera of mice immunized with the recombinant immunogens revealed the elicitation of specific antibody-binding activities by the identified sequences. While hemagglutinin-inhibition activities were not detected in the antisera, neutralizing antibodies against the H1 and H3 virus subtypes were detected by the microneutralization assay. The linear epitopes fused with ferritin identified in this study can lay the foundation for future advancements in development of broad-spectrum subunit vaccine against IAV (H1N1), and give rise to the potential future applicability of ferritin-based antigen delivery nanoplatforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper is an essential element in living systems and plays an important role in human physiology; therefore, methods to detect the concentration of copper ions in living organisms are important. Herein, we report a highly water-soluble naphthalimide-based fluorescent probe that can be used for the detection of Cu 2+ . The probe, BNQ, has high selectivity and sensitivity. The fluorescence intensity of the probe at 520 nm was visible to the naked eye under a UV lamp; upon the gradual addition of Cu 2+ , there was a colour change from green to nearly colourless. Furthermore, the detection limit of BNQ for Cu 2+ was 45.5 nM. The detection mechanism was investigated using a Job's plot and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In addition, owing to great biocompatibility, we were able to successfully use BNQ to detect Cu 2+ in living HeLa cells with low toxicity., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)