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To improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys, superhydrophobic coatings were prepared by employing fluorinated attapulgite@SiO2 (F‐ATP@SiO2) particles and silanes via a facile one‐step spraying technique in this study. Surface morphology, chemical compositions, roughness and wettability of the coatings were comprehensively investigated by Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), 3D optical microscope and contact angle techniques, respectively. Corrosion resistance of the coatings was evaluated by potentiodynamic polarization test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Results indicated that the coatings exhibited superhydrophobicity due to its micron scale mastoid structure and low surface energy of F‐ATP@SiO2 particles. The superhydrophobicity and anticorrosion performance of the coatings increased with the dosage increase of F‐ATP@SiO2 particles. The water contact angle of the prepared surface can reach as high as 161° with sliding angle of 4°. Icorr of the coatings can reach 5.519×10−8 A cm−2, decreased by 3 orders of magnitude compared to bare AZ31, which showed excellent anticorrosion performance. With the prolongation of immersion time, the EIS analysis indicated that the anticorrosion property of the coating degraded gradually. Based on the electrochemical analysis, the corrosion protection mechanism of the superhydrophobic coating was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is a major crop and the main source of natural fiber worldwide. Because various abiotic and biotic stresses strongly influence cotton fiber yield and quality, improved stress resistance of this crop plant is urgently needed. In this study, we used Gateway technology to construct a normalized full‐length cDNA overexpressing (FOX) library from upland cotton cultivar ZM12 under various stress conditions. The library was transformed into Arabidopsis to produce a cotton‐FOX‐Arabidopsis library. Screening of this library yielded 6,830 transgenic Arabidopsis lines, of which 757 were selected for sequencing to ultimately obtain 659 cotton ESTs. GO and KEGG analyses mapped most of the cotton ESTs to plant biological process, cellular component, and molecular function categories. Next, 156 potential stress‐responsive cotton genes were identified from the cotton‐FOX‐Arabidopsis library under drought, salt, ABA, and other stress conditions. Four stress‐related genes identified from the library, designated as GhCAS, GhAPX, GhSDH, and GhPOD, were cloned from cotton complementary DNA, and their expression patterns under stress were analyzed. Phenotypic experiments indicated that overexpression of these cotton genes in Arabidopsis affected the response to abiotic stress. The method developed in this study lays a foundation for high‐throughput cloning and rapid identification of cotton functional genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is one of the most commonly employed clinical measures for screening of fetal aneuploidy. Fetal Fraction (ff) has been demonstrated to be one of the key factors affecting the performance of NIPT. Accurate quantification of ff plays vital role in NIPT. Methods: In this study, we present a new approach, the accurate Quantification of Fetal Fraction with Shallow‐Coverage sequencing of maternal plasma DNA (FF‐QuantSC), for the estimation of ff in NIPT. The method employs neural network model and utilizes differential genomic patterns between fetal and maternal genomes to quantify ff. Results: Our results show that the predicted ff by FF‐QuantSC exhibit high correlation with the Y chromosome–based method on male pregnancies, and achieves the highest accuracy compared with other ff estimation approaches. We also demonstrate that the model generates statistically similar results on both male and female pregnancies. Conclusion: FF‐QuantSC achieves high accuracy in ff quantification. The method is suitable for application in both male and female pregnancies. Since the method does not require additional information upon NIPT routines, it can be easily incorporated into current NIPT settings without causing extra costs. We believe that FF‐QuantSC shall provide valuable additions to NIPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To re-examine the correlation between mt DNA variability and longevity, we examined mt DNAs from samples obtained from over 2200 ultranonagenarians (and an equal number of controls) collected within the framework of the GEHA EU project. The samples were categorized by high-resolution classification, while about 1300 mt DNA molecules (650 ultranonagenarians and an equal number of controls) were completely sequenced. Sequences, unlike standard haplogroup analysis, made possible to evaluate for the first time the cumulative effects of specific, concomitant mt DNA mutations, including those that per se have a low, or very low, impact. In particular, the analysis of the mutations occurring in different OXPHOS complex showed a complex scenario with a different mutation burden in 90+ subjects with respect to controls. These findings suggested that mutations in subunits of the OXPHOS complex I had a beneficial effect on longevity, while the simultaneous presence of mutations in complex I and III (which also occurs in J subhaplogroups involved in LHON) and in complex I and V seemed to be detrimental, likely explaining previous contradictory results. On the whole, our study, which goes beyond haplogroup analysis, suggests that mitochondrial DNA variation does affect human longevity, but its effect is heavily influenced by the interaction between mutations concomitantly occurring on different mt DNA genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To re-examine the correlation between mtDNA variability and longevity, we examined mtDNAs from samples obtained from over 2200 ultranonagenarians (and an equal number of controls) collected within the framework of the GEHA EU project. The samples were categorized by high-resolution classification, while about 1300 mtDNA molecules (650 ultranonagenarians and an equal number of controls) were completely sequenced. Sequences, unlike standard haplogroup analysis, made possible to evaluate for the first time the cumulative effects of specific, concomitant mtDNA mutations, including those that per se have a low, or very low, impact. In particular, the analysis of the mutations occurring in different OXPHOS complex showed a complex scenario with a different mutation burden in 90+ subjects with respect to controls. These findings suggested that mutations in subunits of the OXPHOS complex I had a beneficial effect on longevity, while the simultaneous presence of mutations in complex I and III (which also occurs in J subhaplogroups involved in LHON) and in complex I and V seemed to be detrimental, likely explaining previous contradictory results. On the whole, our study, which goes beyond haplogroup analysis, suggests that mitochondrial DNA variation does affect human longevity, but its effect is heavily influenced by the interaction between mutations concomitantly occurring on different mtDNA genes., (© 2013 The Authors. Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)