Search

Precise adjustment of the pore size, damage repair, and efficient cleaning is all challenges for the wider application of inorganic membranes. This study reports a simple strategy of combining dry‐wet spinning and electrosynthesis to fabricate stainless‐steel metal–organic framework composite membranes characterized by customizable pore sizes, targeted reparability, and high catalytic activity for membrane cleaning. The membrane pore size can be precisely customized in the range of 14–212 nm at nanoscale, and damaged membranes can be repaired by targeted treatment in 120 s. In addition, advanced oxidation processes can be used to quickly clean the membrane and achieve 98% flux recovery. The synergistic actions of the membrane matrix and the selective layer increase the adsorption energy of active sites to oxidant, shorten the electron transfer cycle, and enhance the overall catalytic performance. This study can provide a new direction for the development of advanced membranes for water purification and high‐efficiency membrane cleaning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moderate stimuli in mitochondria improve wide‐ranging stress adaptability in animals, but whether mitochondria play similar roles in plants is largely unknown. Here, we report the enhanced stress adaptability of S‐type cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS‐S) maize and its association with mild expression of sterilizing gene ORF355. A CMS‐S maize line exhibited superior growth potential and higher yield than those of the near‐isogenic N‐type line in saline fields. Moderate expression of ORF355 induced the accumulation of reactive oxygen species and activated the cellular antioxidative defense system. This adaptive response was mediated by elevation of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide concentration and associated metabolic homeostasis. Metabolome analysis revealed broad metabolic changes in CMS‐S lines, even in the absence of salinity stress. Metabolic products associated with amino acid metabolism and galactose metabolism were substantially changed, which underpinned the alteration of the antioxidative defense system in CMS‐S plants. The results reveal the ORF355‐mediated superior stress adaptability in CMS‐S maize and might provide an important route to developing salt‐tolerant maize varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Salt stress is a major devastating abiotic factor that affects the yield and quality of maize. However, knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of the responses to salt stress in maize is limited. To elucidate the genetic basis of salt tolerance traits, a genome‐wide association study was performed on 348 maize inbred lines under normal and salt stress conditions using 557 894 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The phenotypic data for 27 traits revealed coefficients of variation of >25%. In total, 149 significant SNPs explaining 6.6%–11.2% of the phenotypic variation for each SNP were identified. Of the 104 identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs), 83 were related to salt tolerance and 21 to normal traits. Additionally, 13 QTLs were associated with two to five traits. Eleven and six QTLs controlling salt tolerance traits and normal root growth, respectively, co‐localized with QTL intervals reported previously. Based on functional annotations, 13 candidate genes were predicted. Expression levels analysis of 12 candidate genes revealed that they were all responsive to salt stress. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology targeting three sites was applied in maize, and its editing efficiency reached 70%. By comparing the biomass of three CRISPR/Cas9 mutants of ZmCLCg and one zmpmp3 EMS mutant with their wild‐type plants under salt stress, the salt tolerance function of candidate genes ZmCLCg and ZmPMP3 were confirmed. Chloride content analysis revealed that ZmCLCg regulated chloride transport under sodium chloride stress. These results help to explain genetic variations in salt tolerance and provide novel loci for generating salt‐tolerant maize lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive dysfunction is one of the complications of diabetes. Unfortunately, there is no effective methods to block its progression currently. One of the pathophysiological mechanisms is synaptic protein damage and neuronal signal disruption because of glucose metabolism disorder. Dystroglycan protein, located in the post‐synaptic membrane of neurons, links the intracellular cytoskeleton with extracellular matrix. Abnormal expression of dystroglycan protein affects neuronal biological functions and leads to cognitive impairment. However, there are no relevant studies to observe the changes of β‐dystroglycan protein in diabetes rat brain and in primary neurons under high glucose exposure. Our data demonstrated the alterations of cognitive abilities in the diabetic rats; β‐dystroglycan protein degradation occurred in hippocampal and cortical tissues in diabetic rat brain. We further explored the mechanisms underlying of this phenomenon. When neurons are exposed to high glucose environment in long‐term period, microRNA‐132 (miR‐132) would be down‐regulated in neurons. Matrix Metalloproteinases‐9 (MMP‐9) mRNA, as a target of miR‐132, could be up‐regulated; higher expression and overlay activity of MMP‐9 protein could increase β‐DG protein degradation. In this way, β‐DG degradation may affect structure and functions among the synapses, which related to cognition decline. It may provide some theoretical basis for elucidating the molecular mechanism of diabetes‐induced cognitive dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: High‐throughput phenotyping is increasingly becoming an important tool for rapid advancement of genetic gain in breeding programmes. Manual phenotyping of vascular bundles is tedious and time‐consuming, which lags behind the rapid development of functional genomics in maize. More robust and automated techniques of phenotyping vascular bundles traits at high‐throughput are urgently needed for large crop populations. In this study, we developed a standard process for stem micro‐CT data acquisition and an automatic CT image process pipeline to obtain vascular bundle traits of stems including geometry‐related, morphology‐related and distribution‐related traits. Next, we analysed the phenotypic variation of stem vascular bundles between natural population subgroup (480 inbred lines) based on 48 comprehensively phenotypic information. Also, the first database for stem micro‐phenotypes, MaizeSPD, was established, storing 554 pieces of basic information of maize inbred lines, 523 pieces of experimental information, 1008 pieces of CT scanning images and processed images, and 24 192 pieces of phenotypic data. Combined with genome‐wide association studies (GWASs), a total of 1562 significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) were identified for 30 stem micro‐phenotypic traits, and 84 unique genes of 20 traits such as VBNum, VBAvArea and PZVBDensity were detected. Candidate genes identified by GWAS mainly encode enzymes involved in cell wall metabolism, transcription factors, protein kinase and protein related to plant signal transduction and stress response. The results presented here will advance our knowledge about phenotypic trait components of stem vascular bundles and provide useful information for understanding the genetic controls of vascular bundle formation and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In higher plants, many mitochondrial genes contain group II-type introns that are removed from RNAs by splicing to produce mature transcripts that are then translated into functional proteins. However, the factors involved in the splicing of mitochondrial introns and their biological functions are not well understood in maize. Here, we isolated an empty pericarp 10 ( emp10) mutant and identified the underlying gene by map-based cloning. Emp10 encodes a P-type mitochondria-targeted pentatricopeptide repeat ( PPR) protein with 10 PPR motifs. Loss of Emp10 function results in splicing defect of the first intron of nad2, a gene encoding subunit 2 of NADH dehydrogenase (also called complex I). The emp10 mutant has undetectable activity of complex I and has arrested development of embryo and endosperm, and thus defective seeds with empty pericarp. Additionally, the basal endosperm transfer layer cells were severely affected, indicating the deficiency of cell wall ingrowths in the emp10 kernels. Moreover, the alternative respiratory pathway involving alternative oxidase was significantly induced in the emp10 mutant. These results suggest that EMP10 is specifically required for the cis-splicing of mitochondrial nad2 intron 1, embryogenesis and endosperm development in maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In maize, high grain moisture ( GM) at harvest causes problems in harvesting, threshing, artificial drying, storage, transportation and processing. Understanding the genetic basis of GM will be useful for breeding low- GM varieties. A quantitative genetics approach was used to identify quantitative trait loci ( QTL) related to GM at harvest in field-grown maize. The GM of a double haploid population consisting of 240 lines derived from Xianyu335 was evaluated in three planting seasons and a high-density genetic linkage map covering 1546.4 cM was constructed. The broad-sense heritability of GM at harvest was 71.0%. Using composite interval mapping, six QTL for GM at harvest were identified on five chromosomes (Chr). Two QTL located on Chr1, qgm1-1 and qgm1-2, explained 5.0% and 10.8% of the phenotypic variation in GM at harvest, respectively. The QTL qgm2, qgm3, qgm4 and qgm5 accounted for 3.3%, 8.3%, 5.4% and 11.0% of the mean phenotypic variation, respectively. Because of their consistent detection over multiple planting seasons, the detected QTL appear to be robust and reliable for the breeding of low- GM varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aimed to establish a comprehensive and practical quality evaluation system for Shenmaidihuang pills. A simple and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detection method was developed both for fingerprint analysis and quantitative determination. In fingerprint analysis, relative retention time and relative peak area were used to identify the common peaks in 18 samples for investigation. Twenty one peaks were selected as the common peaks to evaluate the similarities of 18 Shenmaidihuang pills samples with different manufacture dates. Furthermore, similarity analysis was applied to evaluate the similarity of samples. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis were also performed to evaluate the variation of Shenmaidihuang pills. In quantitative analysis, linear regressions, injection precisions, recovery, repeatability and sample stability were all tested and good results were obtained to simultaneously determine the seven identified compounds, namely, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, morroniside, loganin, paeonol, paeoniflorin, psoralen, isopsoralen in Shenmaidihuang pills. The contents of some analytes in different batches of samples indicated significant difference, especially for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. So, it was concluded that the chromatographic fingerprint method obtained by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detection associated with multiple compounds determination is a powerful and meaningful tool to comprehensively conduct the quality control of Shenmaidihuang pills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The RNA-binding glycine-rich protein (RB-GRP) family is characterized by the presence of a glycine-rich domain arranged in (Gly)n-X repeats and an RNA-recognition motif (RRM). RB-GRPs participate in varied physiological and biochemical processes especially in the stress response of plants. In this study, a total of 23 RB-GRPs distributed on 10 chromosomes were identified in maize ( Zea mays L.), and they were divided into four subgroups according to their conserved domain architecture. Five pairs of paralogs were identified, while none of them was located on the same chromosomal region, suggesting that segmental duplication is predominant in the duplication events of the RB-GRPs in maize. Comparative analysis of RB-GRPs in maize, Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana L.), rice ( Oryza sativa L.), and wheat ( Triticum aestivum) revealed that two exclusive subgroups were only identified in maize. Expression of eight ZmRB-GRPs was significantly regulated by at least two kinds of stresses. In addition, cis-elements predicted in the promoter regions of the ZmRB-GRPs also indicated that these ZmRB-GRPs would be involved in stress response of maize. The preliminary genome-wide analysis of the RB- GRPs in maize would provide useful information for further study on the function of the ZmRB-GRPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previous study has shown that PTEN-induced novel kinase 1 ( PINK1) knocking down significantly induced mitochondrial fragmentation. Although PINK1 is proved to be associated with autosomal recessive parkinsonism and its function in this chronic pathological process is widely studied, its role in acute energy crisis such as ischemic stroke is poorly known. In this study by employing an oxygen-glucose deprivation ( OGD) neuronal model, we explored the function of PINK1 in cerebral ischemia. Human PINK1, two PINK1 mutants W437X and K219M, or Pink1 sh RNA were transduced before OGD using lentiviral delivery. Our results showed that over-expression of wild-type PINK1 significantly ameliorated OGD induced cell death and energy disturbance including reduced ATP generation and collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential. PINK1 over-expression also reversed OGD increased mitochondrial fragmentation, and suppressed the translocation of the mitochondrial fission protein dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) from the cytosol to the mitochondria. Transduction of the mutant PINK1 failed to provide any protective effect, while knockdown of Pink1 significantly increased the severity of OGD-induced neuronal damage. Importantly, inhibition of Drp1 reversed the effects of knocking down Pink1 on neuronal death and ATP production in response to OGD. This study demonstrates that PINK1 prevents ischemic damage in neurons by attenuating mitochondrial translocation of Drp1, which maintains mitochondrial function and inhibits ischemia-induced mitochondrial fission. These novel findings implicate a pivotal role of PINK1 regulated mitochondrial dynamics in the pathology of ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]