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Micro-light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) with outstanding performance are promising candidates for next-generation displays. To achieve the application of high-resolution displays such as meta-displays, virtual reality, and wearable electronics, the size of LEDs must be reduced to the micro-scale. Thus, traditional technology cannot meet the demand during the processing of micro-LEDs. Recently, lasers with short-duration pulses have attracted attention because of their unique advantages during micro-LED processing such as noncontact processing, adjustable energy and speed of the laser beam, no cutting force acting on the devices, high efficiency, and low cost. Herein, we review the techniques and principles of laser-based technologies for micro-LED displays, including chip dicing, geometry shaping, annealing, laser-assisted bonding, laser lift-off, defect detection, laser repair, mass transfer, and optimization of quantum dot color conversion films. Moreover, the future prospects and challenges of laser-based techniques for micro-LED displays are discussed.

Abstract The immune system can monitor tumor development, and DNA methylation is involved in the body’s immune response to tumors. In this work, we investigate whether DNA methylation alterations in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) could be used as markers for early detection of breast cancer (BC) from the perspective of tumor immune alterations. We identify four BC-specific methylation markers by combining Infinium 850 K BeadChips, pyrosequencing and targeted bisulfite sequencing. Based on the four methylation markers in PBMCs of BC, we develop an efficient and convenient multiplex methylation-specific quantitative PCR assay for the detection of BC and validate its diagnostic performance in a multicenter cohort. This assay was able to distinguish early-stage BC patients from normal controls, with an AUC of 0.940, sensitivity of 93.2%, and specificity of 90.4%. More importantly, this assay outperformed existing clinical diagnostic methods, especially in the detection of early-stage and minimal tumors.

The evolution of next-generation cellular networks is aimed at creating faster, more reliable solutions. Both the next-generation 6G network and the metaverse require high transmission speeds. Visible light communication (VLC) is deemed an important ancillary technology to wireless communication. It has shown potential for a wide range of applications in next-generation communication. Micro light-emitting diodes (μLEDs) are ideal light sources for high-speed VLC, owing to their high modulation bandwidths. In this review, an overview of μLEDs for VLC is presented. Methods to improve the modulation bandwidth are discussed in terms of epitaxy optimization, crystal orientation, and active region structure. Moreover, electroluminescent white LEDs, photoluminescent white LEDs based on phosphor or quantum-dot color conversion, and μLED-based detectors for VLC are introduced. Finally, the latest high-speed VLC applications and the application prospects of VLC in 6G are introduced, including underwater VLC and artificial intelligence-based VLC systems.

Diacylglycerol kinase (DGK) is a lipid kinase that phosphorylates diacylglycerol (DAG) to generate phosphatidic acid (PA). Based on converting one important signaling molecule (DAG) to another (PA), DGK plays an important role in plant responses to abiotic stress, including waterlogging stress. However, no studies have been reported on the characterization of the DGK gene family in the waterlogging-tolerant kiwifruit germplasm Actinidia valvata Dunn. In this study, we identified 18 AvDGK genes in the A. valvata genome. The phylogenetic analysis showed that AvDGKs can be classified into three clusters, and members within the same cluster have similar domain distributions, exon-intron structures, and conserved motif compositions. The chromosome localization analysis revealed that all AvDGK genes are located across 18 different chromosomes. There were 29 duplicated gene pairs in A. valvata and all had undergone purifying selection during evolution. The promoter cis-element analysis revealed that the cis-elements within AvDGK genes are associated with multiple functions, including phytohormone signal transduction, stress responses, and plant growth and development. The expression pattern analyses indicated that AvDGKs play important roles in fruit development and plant responses to waterlogging stress. The AvDGK gene family in the tetraploid A. valvata genome might promote PA synthesis and subsequent signal transduction both under short- and long-term waterlogging stresses. These results provide information regarding the structural characteristics and potential function of AvDGK genes within A. valvata and lay a fundamental basis for further research into breeding to enhance the kiwifruit’s tolerance to waterlogging stress.

Introduction: Transcription factors (TFs) and cis-regulatory elements (CREs) control gene transcripts involved in various biological processes. We hypothesize that TFs and CREs can be effective molecular tools for De Novo regulation designs to engineer plants. Objectives: We selected two Arabidopsis TF types and two tobacco CRE types to design a De Novo regulation and evaluated its effectiveness in plant engineering. Methods: G-box and MYB recognition elements (MREs) were identified in four Nicotiana tabacum JAZs (NtJAZs) promoters. MRE-like and G-box like elements were identified in one nicotine pathway gene promoter. TF screening led to select Arabidopsis Production of Anthocyanin Pigment 1 (PAP1/MYB) and Transparent Testa 8 (TT8/bHLH). Two NtJAZ and two nicotine pathway gene promoters were cloned from commercial Narrow Leaf Madole (NL) and KY171 (KY) tobacco cultivars. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), cross-linked chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), and dual-luciferase assays were performed to test the promoter binding and activation by PAP1 (P), TT8 (T), PAP1/TT8 together, and the PAP1/TT8/Transparent Testa Glabra 1 (TTG1) complex. A DNA cassette was designed and then synthesized for stacking and expressing PAP1 and TT8 together. Three years of field trials were performed by following industrial and GMO protocols. Gene expression and metabolic profiling were completed to characterize plant secondary metabolism. Results: PAP1, TT8, PAP1/TT8, and the PAP1/TT8/TTG1 complex bound to and activated NtJAZ promoters but did not bind to nicotine pathway gene promoters. The engineered red P + T plants significantly upregulated four NtJAZs but downregulated the tobacco alkaloid biosynthesis. Field trials showed significant reduction of five tobacco alkaloids and four carcinogenic tobacco specific nitrosamines in most or all cured leaves of engineered P + T and PAP1 genotypes. Conclusion: G-boxes, MREs, and two TF types are appropriate molecular tools for a De Novo regulation design to create a novel distant-pathway cross regulation for altering plant secondary metabolism.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life-threatening disease and there is currently a lack of effective treatment to prevent it rupturing. ScRNA-seq studies of AAA are still lacking. In the study, we analyzed the published AAA scRNA-seq datasets from the mouse elastase-induced model, CaCl2 treatment model, Ang II-induced model and human by using bioinformatic approaches and in silico analysis. A total of 26 cell clusters were obtained and 11 cell types were identified from multiple mouse AAA models. Also, the proportion of Mφ/Mo increased in the AAA group and Mφ/Mo was divided into seven subtypes. There were significant differences in transcriptional regulation patterns of Mφ/Mo in different AAA models. The enrichment pathways of upregulated or downregulated genes from Mφ/Mo in the three mouse datasets were different. The actived regulons of Mφ/Mo had strong specificity and the repressed regulons showed high consistency. The co-upregulated genes as well as actived regulons and co-downregulated genes as well as repressed regulons were closely correlated and formed regulatory networks. Mφ/Mo from human AAA dataset was divided into five subtypes. The proportion of three macrophage subpopulations increased but the proportion of two monocyte subpopulations decreased. In the AAA group, the upregulated or downregulated genes of Mφ/Mo were enriched in different pathways. After further analyzing the genes in Mφ/Mo of both mouse and human scRNA-seq datasets, two genes were upregulated in the four datasets, IL-1B and THBS1. In conclusion, in silico analysis of scRNA-seq revealed that Mφ/Mo and their regulatory related genes as well as interaction networks played an important role in the pathogenesis of AAA.

Cancer-cell-released exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) are important mediators of cell-cell communication in the tumor microenvironment. In this study, we sequenced serum exosome miRNAs from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients and identified high expression of miR-320b to be closely associated with peritumoral lymphangiogenesis and lymph node (LN) metastasis. Functionally, miR-320b could be enriched and transferred by ESCC-released exosomes directly to human lymphatic endothelial cells (HLECs), promoting tube formation and migration in vitro and facilitating lymphangiogenesis and LN metastasis in vivo as assessed by gain- and loss-of-function experiments. Furthermore, we found programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) as a direct target of miR-320b through bioinformatic prediction and luciferase reporter assay. Re-expression of PDCD4 could rescue the effects induced by exosomal miR-320b. Notably, the miR-320b-PDCD4 axis activates the AKT pathway in HLECs independent of vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C). Moreover, overexpression of miR-320b promotes the proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition progression of ESCC cells. Finally, we demonstrate that METTL3 could interact with DGCR8 protein and positively modulate pri-miR-320b maturation process in an N6-methyladenosine (m6A)-dependent manner. Therefore, our findings uncover a VEGF-C-independent mechanism of exosomal and intracellular miR-320b-mediated LN metastasis and identify miR-320b as a novel predictive marker and therapeutic target for LN metastasis in ESCC.

Objective: Accumulating literatures suggested that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were involved in tumorigenesis and cancer progression in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the precise regulatory mechanism of lncRNA Lung cancer-associated transcript 1 (LUCAT1) in LUAD is not well defined. In this study, we aimed to investigate the biological function and mechanism of lncRNA LUCAT1 in regulating tumor migration and glycolysis of LUAD.Methods: High throughput sequencing was performed to identify differentially expressed lncRNAs between LUAD patients and healthy controls. The expression levels of LUCAT1 in LUAD clinical specimens or cell lines were evaluated by In situ hybridization (ISH) and quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR). Functional experiments, including wound-healing, transwell invasion assays, glucose absorption, lactate metabolism and tumor xenograft experiments were conducted to identify the biological functions of LUCAT1 in LUAD. Silencing of LUCAT1, over-expression of LUCAT1 and miR-4316 were generated in LUAD cell lines to verify the regulatory mode of LUCAT1-mir-4316-VEGFA axis.Results: Our findings revealed that lncRNA LUCAT1 was significantly up-regulated in LUAD serum exosomes, tumor tissues, and LUAD cells in comparison with corresponding controls. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis indicated that the area under the curve (AUC) value of serum exosomal LUCAT1 reached 0.852 in distinguishing LUAD patients from healthy individuals. High expression of LUCAT1 in LUAD patient tissues was associated with enhanced Lymph Node Metastasis (LNM), advanced Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) stage and poorer clinical outcome in LUAD patients. Knockdown of LUCAT1 inhibited LUAD cell metastasis and glycolysis in vitro as well as tumor metastasis in vivo, while overexpression of LUCAT1 induced a promoted LUAD metastasis and glycolysis. Furthermore, mechanistic investigations revealed that LUCAT1 elevated LUAD cell metastasis and glycolysis by sponging miR-4316, which further led to the upregulation of VEGFA. Finally, the regulatory axis LUCAT1-miR-4316-VEGFA was verified in LUAD.Conclusion: Our present research suggested that LUCAT1 facilitate LUAD cell metastasis and glycolysis via serving as a competing endogenous RNA to regulate miR-4316/VEGFA axis, which provided a novel diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for LUAD patients.

The molecular mechanism of AAA formation is still poorly understood and has not been fully elucidated. The study was designed to identify the immune-related genes, immune-RAS in AAA using bioinformatics methods. The GSE175683 datasets were downloaded from the GEO database. The DEseq2 software was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). SUVA pipeline was used to quantify AS events and RAS events. KOBAS 2.0 server was used to identify GO terms and KEGG pathways to sort out functional categories of DEGs. The CIBERSORT algorithm was used with the default parameter for estimating immune cell fractions. Nine samples from GSE175683 were used to construct the co-disturbed network between expression of SFs and splicing ratio of RAS events. PCA analysis was performed by R package factoextra to show the clustering of samples, and the pheatmap package in R was used to perform the clustering based on Euclidean distance. The results showed that there were 3,541 genes significantly differentially expressed, of which 177 immune-related genes were upregulated and 48 immune-related genes were downregulated between the WT and WTA group. Immune-RAS events were mainly alt5P and IR events, and about 60% of it was complex splicing events in AAA. The WT group and the WTA group can be clearly distinguished in the first principal component by using the splicing ratio of immune-RAS events. Two downregulated genes, Nr4a1 and Nr4a2, and eight upregulated genes, Adipor2, Akt2, Bcl3, Dhx58, Pparg, Ptgds, Sytl1, and Vegfa were identified among the immune-related genes with RAS and DEGs. Eighteen differentially expressed SFs were identified and displayed by heatmap. The proportion of different types of cells and ratio of the average ratio of different cells were quite different. Both M1 and M2 types of macrophages and plasma cells were upregulated, while M0 type was downregulated in AAA. The proportion of plasma cells in the WTA group had sharply increased. There is a correlation between SF expression and immune cells/immune-RAS. Sf3b1, a splicing factor with significantly different expression, was selected to bind on a mass of immune-related genes. In conclusion, our results showed that immune-related genes, immune-RAS, and SFs by genome-wide identification were involved in AAA.

Kiwifruit bacterial canker, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa), is a catastrophic disease affecting kiwifruit worldwide. As no effective cure has been developed, planting Psa-resistant cultivars is the best way to avoid bacterial canker in kiwifruit cultivation. However, the differences in the mechanism of resistance between cultivars is poorly understood. In the present study, five local kiwifruit cultivars were used for Psa resistance evaluation and classified into different resistance categories, tolerant (T), susceptible (S), and highly susceptible (HS), based on their various symptoms of lesions on the cane. Susceptible and highly susceptible varieties had a higher sucrose concentration, and a greater decrease in sucrose content was observed after Psa inoculation in phloem than in tolerant varieties. Three invertase activities and their corresponding gene expressions were detected in the phloem with lesions and showed the same trends as the variations in sucrose concentration. Meanwhile, after Psa inoculation, enzyme activities involved in antioxidant defense responses, such as PAL, POD, and CAT, were also altered in the phloem of the lesion position. With no differences among cultivars, PAL and POD activities in phloem first increased and then decreased after Psa inoculation. However, great differences in CAT activities were observed between T and S/HS categories. Our results demonstrate that sucrose content was negatively correlated with the disease resistance of different cultivars and that the increase in immune response enzymes is likely caused by increased sucrose metabolism in the phloem.

Abstract Background Gynostemma pentaphyllum is an important perennial medicinal herb belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae. Aerial stem-to-rhizome transition before entering the winter is an adaptive regenerative strategy in G. pentaphyllum that enables it to survive during winter. However, the molecular regulation of aerial stem-to-rhizome transition is unknown in plants. Here, integrated transcriptome and miRNA analysis was conducted to investigate the regulatory network of stem-to-rhizome transition. Results Nine transcriptome libraries prepared from stem/rhizome samples collected at three stages of developmental stem-to-rhizome transition were sequenced and a total of 5428 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. DEGs associated with gravitropism, cell wall biosynthesis, photoperiod, hormone signaling, and carbohydrate metabolism were found to regulate stem-to-rhizome transition. Nine small RNA libraries were parallelly sequenced, and seven significantly differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were identified, including four known and three novel miRNAs. The seven DEMs targeted 123 mRNAs, and six pairs of miRNA-target showed significantly opposite expression trends. The GpmiR166b-GpECH2 module involved in stem-to-rhizome transition probably promotes cell expansion by IBA-to-IAA conversion, and the GpmiR166e-GpSGT-like module probably protects IAA from degradation, thereby promoting rhizome formation. GpmiR156a was found to be involved in stem-to-rhizome transition by inhibiting the expression of GpSPL13A/GpSPL6, which are believed to negatively regulate vegetative phase transition. GpmiR156a and a novel miRNA Co.47071 co-repressed the expression of growth inhibitor GpRAV-like during stem-to-rhizome transition. These miRNAs and their targets were first reported to be involved in the formation of rhizomes. In this study, the expression patterns of DEGs, DEMs and their targets were further validated by quantitative real-time PCR, supporting the reliability of sequencing data. Conclusions Our study revealed a comprehensive molecular network regulating the transition of aerial stem to rhizome in G. pentaphyllum. These results broaden our understanding of developmental phase transitions in plants.

Abstract The weighting method of the traditional fixed combination forecasting model is the only criterion considered to improve accuracy, which has some limitations. In order to improve the comprehensive prediction performance of the combined model, hierarchical structure of the combined model by selecting some parameters which can reflect the performance of the model (including prediction accuracy, robustness, sensitivity, and the amount of fitting data) is established and a kind of multiple factor and multiple criteria weighting method of combination forecasting model is put forward. Based on SVR model, GM (1, 1) model, and ARIMA model, a combination forecasting model based on Improved Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is constructed and applied to a foundation pit. The experimental results show that the combined forecasting model based on improved AHP are better than the single model in precision and robustness; it also has good effect in sensitivity, which has more comprehensive prediction performance than the single models, and has good engineering and practical value.

Gynostemma pentaphyllum is a kind of shade–tolerant plants. It can synthesize and accumulate gypenosides in large amounts. The gypenosides are a valuable medicine. To develop effective cultivation techniques of the plant, effects of light quality on growth, accumulation of total gypenosides and photosynthesis in G. pentaphyllum were investigated in this study. Results showed that light quality had remarkable effect on plant growth. White light had a significant effect on the increase in growth, especially in highest biomass, stem diameter and newly sprouted leaves. Red light accelerated stem length, new leaf formation and biomass when compared with blue and green lights. By contrast, green light had influence on inhibiting the increase of growth and biomass. And moreover, the content of total gypenosides was different in seedlings under different lights. The content of total gypenosides was the highest rank under red and white lights, followed by the content under blue light. The content was the least under green light. The diurnal variation of net photosynthetic rate exhibited a typical double-peak curve when the plant grown under white, red and blue lights respectively, while that under green light presented a single-peak curve. The net photosynthetic rate (Pn) under red light was higher than those under either blue or green lights, but obviously lower than that under white light. The diurnal variation curve of stomatal conductance closely paralleled to that of transpiration rate curve, whereas the curve of intercellular CO2 concentration exhibited an opposite trend to that of Pn under any of the four lights. It was suggested that the influence of monochromatric light quality on growth and the accumulation of total gypenosides was associated with photosynthesis efficiency.