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Alkaloids are a class of nitrogen-containing alkaline organic compounds found in nature, with significant biological activity, and are also important active ingredients in Chinese herbal medicine. Amaryllidaceae plants are rich in alkaloids, among which galanthamine, lycorine, and lycoramine are representative. Since the difficulty and high cost of synthesizing alkaloids have been the major obstacles in industrial production, particularly the molecular mechanism underlying alkaloid biosynthesis is largely unknown. Here, we determined the alkaloid content in Lycoris longituba, Lycoris incarnata, and Lycoris sprengeri, and performed a SWATH-MS (sequential window acquisition of all theoretical mass spectra)-based quantitative approach to detect proteome changes in the three Lycoris. A total of 2193 proteins were quantified, of which 720 proteins showed a difference in abundance between Ll and Ls, and 463 proteins showed a difference in abundance between Li and Ls. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that differentially expressed proteins are distributed in specific biological processes including amino acid metabolism, starch, and sucrose metabolism, implicating a supportive role for Amaryllidaceae alkaloids metabolism in Lycoris. Furthermore, several key genes collectively known as OMT and NMT were identified, which are probably responsible for galanthamine biosynthesis. Interestingly, RNA processing-related proteins were also abundantly detected in alkaloid-rich Ll, suggesting that posttranscriptional regulation such as alternative splicing may contribute to the biosynthesis of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids. Taken together, our SWATH-MS-based proteomic investigation may reveal the differences in alkaloid contents at the protein levels, providing a comprehensive proteome reference for the regulatory metabolism of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dried stigmas of Crocus sativus, commonly known as saffron, are consumed largely worldwide because it is highly valuable in foods and has biological activities beneficial for health. Saffron has important economic and medicinal value, and thus, its planting area and global production are increasing. Petals, which are a by-product of the stigmas, have not been fully utilized at present. We compared the metabolites between the stigmas and petals of C. sativus using a non-targeted metabolomics method. In total, over 800 metabolites were detected and categorized into 35 classes, including alkaloids, flavonoids, amino acids and derivatives, phenols and phenol esters, phenylpropanoids, fatty acyls, steroids and steroid derivatives, vitamins, and other metabolites. The metabolite composition in the petals and stigmas was basically similar. The results of the study showed that the petals contained flavonoids, alkaloids, coumarins, and other medicinal components, as well as amino acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, and other nutritional components. A principal components analysis (PCA) and an orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were performed to screen the different metabolic components. A total of 339 differential metabolites were identified, with 55 metabolites up-regulated and 284 down-regulated. The up-regulated metabolites, including rutin, delphinidin-3-O-glucoside, isoquercitrin, syringaresinol-di-O-glucoside, dihydrorobinetin, quercetin, and gallocatechin, were detected in the petals. The down-regulated metabolites were mainly glucofrangulin B, acetovanillone, daidzein, guaiazulene, hypaphorine, indolin-2-one, and pseudouridine. KEGG annotation and enrichment analyses of the differential metabolites revealed that flavonoid biosynthesis, amino acids biosynthesis, and arginine and proline metabolism were the main differentially regulated pathways. In conclusion, the petals of C. sativus are valuable for medicine and foods and have potential utility in multiple areas such as the natural spice, cosmetic, health drink, and natural health product industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power extraction has become a critical consideration in tidal stream turbine (TST) systems. In practice, the lumped disturbances under varying tidal current conditions may deteriorate the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) performance and cumulate fatigue damage over-rated power. Besides, the conventional pitch controllers are sensitive to parameter uncertainties of the nonlinear TST system. In this paper, a novel output power internal control strategy based on pseudo-tip-speed ratio and adaptive genetic algorithm (PTSR-AGA) is proposed to improve the anti-interference ability and reliability. The proposed control scheme consists of two parts. The first part proposes the PTSR method for MPPT to predict the TST's operating point which contributes reducing the logical errors assigned to swell disturbances. The second part designed an AGA for the optimization of the pitch controller to conduct its angle delay. A reduced pitch control strategy is applied to the preprocessing of the pitch controller to reduce the mechanical wear over the rated power. The comparative simulation results validate the TST system can obtain a higher power efficiency of energy capture and a smoother power output with the proposed control strategies at full range of tidal current speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amaryllidaceae alkaloid galanthamine (Gal) in Lycoris longituba is a secondary metabolite that has been used to treat Alzheimer's disease. Plant secondary metabolism is affected by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) exposure, although the regulatory mechanisms of MeJA on L. longituba seedlings remains largely unknown. In the present study, 75, 150, and 300 μM MeJA were used as treatments on L. longituba seedlings for 7, 14, 21, and 28 days, while 0 μM MeJA was used as the control (MJ-0). The effect of exogenous MeJA on Gal synthesis in L. longituba was then investigated using transcriptomic sequencing and metabolite profiling via GC-MS and LC-MS analysis. Galanthamine (Gal), lycorine (Lyc), and lycoramine (Lycm) abundances were 2. 71-, 2. 01-, and 2.85-fold higher in 75 μM MeJA (MJ-75) treatment plants compared to MJ-0 treatment plants after 7 days of cultivation. Transcriptomic analysis further showed that MJ-75 treatment significantly induced the expression of norbelladine synthase (NBS) and norbelladine 4′-O-methyltransferase (OMT), which are involved in the Gal biosynthesis pathway. In addition, increased expression was observed in MJ-75 treatment plants for genes in the JA synthesis and JA signaling pathways including those of allene oxide cyclase (AOC), 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid reductase (OPR), jasmonic acid amino acid synthase (JAR), and transcription factor MYC. The L. longituba tyrosine decarboxylase (LlTYDC) enzyme was identified and proposed to be involved in the Gal biosynthetic pathway. Metabolomics results demonstrated that the accumulation of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, and especially alkaloids in the Gal biosynthesis pathway, could be induced by MJ-75 treatment. Interestingly, metabolites in the JA synthesis pathway were also affected by MeJA treatment. Overall, this multi-omics study suggests that both the JA synthesis/JA signaling and Gal biosynthesis pathways were affected by exogenous MeJA treatment. This comprehensive study of gene expression and metabolite contents can help us better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying MeJA-mediated Gal biosynthesis in L. longituba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lycoris species have great ornamental and medicinal values; however, their low regeneration efficiency significantly restricts their commercial production. Exogenous hormone application is an effective way to promote bulblet development, but their effect on Lycoris radiata has not been verified to date. In the present study, we examined the effect of different exogenous hormones on bulblet development in L. radiata , and found that gibberellic acid (GA) significantly inhibited, whereas paclobutrazol (PBZ), abscisic acid (ABA), and ethrel promoted bulblet development, especially PBZ, a GA biosynthesis inhibitor. Furthermore, GA reduced endogenous cytokinin (CK) content, as well as the activities of carbohydrate metabolism enzymes, including sucrose synthase (SUS) and glucose-1-phosphate adenylyltransferase (AGPase), by downregulating the expression levels of LrSUS1 , LrSUS2 , and genes encoding AGPase large and small subunits. This resulted in the decrease in carbohydrate accumulation in the bulblets, thus hindering their development. PBZ had the opposite effect to GA on carbohydrate metabolism; it decreased endogenous GA15 and GA24, thereby promoting bulblet development. ABA promoted endogenous auxin content and the activities of starch synthesis enzymes, especially soluble starch synthase (SSS) and granule-bound SS (GBSS), through the up-regulation of the expression levels of LrSS1 , LrSS2 , and LrGBSS1 genes, which could also result in the accumulation of carbohydrates in the bulblets and promote their development. In addition, ethrel application partly promoted bulblet development by promoting endogenous CK content. Although the accumulation of carbohydrates and the activity of starch enzymes were increased by ethrel treatment, we hypothesized that the effect of ethrel on regulating carbohydrate metabolism may be indirect. Our results could provide a basis for improving the propagation efficiency of L. radiata for production, as well as propose some directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L ycoris longituba is a traditional medicinal plant containing the bioactive compound galanthamine (Gal), a type of Amaryllidaceae alkaloid and can be used to treat Alzheimer's disease. However, research on its genome or transcriptome and associated genes in the biosynthetic pathway is incomplete. In this study, we estimated the nuclear genome size of this species to be 29.33 Gb by flow cytometry. Then, RNA sequencing of the leaves, roots, and bulbs of L. longituba was carried out. After de novo assembly, 474,589 all-transcripts and 333,440 all-unigenes were finally generated. In addition, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and genes involved in the galanthamine metabolic pathway encoding tyrosine decarboxylase (TYDC), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H), p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H), norbelladine synthase (NBS), norbelladine 4'-O-methyltransferase (OMT), and noroxomaritidine synthase (CYP96T1) were detected and validated by real-time quantitative PCR analysis. One candidate gene, Lycoris longituba O-Methyltransferase (LlOMT), was identified in the proposed galanthamine biosynthetic pathway. Sequence analysis showed that LlOMT is a class I OMT. LlOMT is localized in the cytoplasm, and biochemical analysis indicated that the recombinant LlOMT catalyzes norbelladine to generate 4′-O-methylnorbelladine. The protoplast transformation result showed that the overexpression of LlOMT could increase the Gal content. Our results indicate that LlOMT may play a role in galanthamine biosynthesis in L. longituba. This work provides a useful resource for the metabolic engineering of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thrust allocation is one of the key technologies in dynamic positioning (DP) systems. Accurately allocating the thrust and angle of each thruster will achieve the desired force and moment of the ships, which is crucial for improving the positioning accuracy and positioning performance of marine ships. This paper develops an improved Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) to handle thrust allocation problem of dynamic positioning (DP) system in rough sea conditions. Firstly, the multi-objective optimisation model is built considering the thrust prohibited area, output angle, output thrust, angle change rate and thrust change rate as the constraints, and considering the power consumption, thrust error and thruster wear, and singular structure penalty term as the optimisation objectives simultaneously. Then, an improved NSGA-II algorithm is proposed to optimise the selection process of Pareto-optimal solution. Finally, multiple simulation results show that improved NSGA-II has better optimisation performance compared with basic NSGA-II. All of the comparisons could fully be conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed algorithm.Abbreviations: DP: Dynamic Positioning; NSGA-II: Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm; SQP: Sequential Quadratic Programming; GA: Genetic Algorithm; PSO: Particle Swarm Optimisation; ABC: Artificial Bee Colony; AHABC: Adaptive Hybrid Artificial Bee Colony [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low‐frequency oscillations of a power system can be greatly affected by the fast growth of wind power due to the converter controls. It will result in a hidden danger to the small signal stability of the overall system if the mechanisms behind are not well understood. Therefore, this article aims to reveal the influence of the nonlinear control effects (e.g. phase‐locked loop, PLL) of the wind turbine on the electromechanical oscillations of a nearby synchronous generator (SG). To better perform the mechanistic analysis, a three‐machine study system that can properly reflect the interactions among the wind turbine, the SG, and the infinite bus is established. Then, the frequency domain model of such a system is developed, where the dominant dynamics of the wind turbine controls within the electromechanical time scale are modeled in detail. As a result, an equivalent power‐angle‐like frequency domain model is derived, from which the control effects of the wind turbine on the damping characteristic of the nearby SG can be intuitively revealed. It is shown that the wind turbine with the PV control mode can contribute more damping to the nearby SG than that with the PQ control mode. Moreover, the damping contribution is reduced with increasing bandwidth of controllers and the impact of PLL bandwidth on the SG damping can be negligible. All the mechanistic analyses are verified using time domain simulations in power systems computer aided design/electro magnetic transient in DC system (PSCAD/EMTDC), where a detailed system model is built. © 2019 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lily mottle virus (LMoV; genus Potyvirus, family Potyviridae) infects plants of the genus Lilium, causing a reduction in flower and bulb quality. A rapid and sensitive loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay was developed to detect the coat protein gene of LMoV. This LAMP method was highly specific for LMoV, with no cross-reaction with other lily viruses. The sensitivity of LMoV using the LAMP assay was 100 times more sensitive than that using conventional polymerase chain reaction. A reverse transcription LAMP (RT-LAMP) was then successfully applied to detect LMoV RNA. The newly established LAMP and one-step RT-LAMP provide an alternative method for detecting LMoV in lily plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lily Symptomless Virus (LSV) is prevalent in lily, causing severe economic losses in Lily production. Therefore, it is quite necessary to develop an effective method for detecting LSV. This study aimed to develop a visual Reverse Transcription Loop–Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) method to detect LSV. The optimum condition was 60 min at 65 °C. The primers designed were highly specific to LSV and did not cross-react with other seven Lily viruses. The sensitivity of RT-LAMP assay for LSV was 0.0001 ng/ul. This RT-LAMP method was rapid, simple, highly specific, and sensitive and helped in the reliable visual detection of LSV in Lily plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to reduce the impact of the high penetration of wind power into the electricity supply for the purposes of the security and stability of the power grid. As such, the inertia capability of wind farms has become an observation index. The existing control modes cannot guarantee the wind turbine to respond to the frequency variation of the grid, hence, it may lead to frequency instability as the penetration of wind power gets much higher. For the stability of the power grid, a simple and applicable method is to realize inertia response by controlling wind farms based on a high-speed communication network. Thus, with the consideration of the inertia released by a wind turbine at its different operating points, the inertia control mechanism of a doubly-fed wind turbine is analyzed firstly in this paper. The optimal exit point of inertia control is discussed. Then, an active power control strategy for wind farms is proposed to reserve the maximum inertia under a given power output constraint. Furthermore, turbines in a wind farm are grouped depending on their inertia capabilities, and a wind farm inertia control strategy for reasonable extraction of inertia is then presented. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified by simulation on the RT-LAB (11.3.3, OPAL-RT TECHNOLOGIES, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) platform with detailed models of the wind farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact fault caused by ocean creatures poses a risk to the safe operation of tidal stream turbine blades. However, it is difficult to detect the weak impact fault directly because the collected signal is disturbed by the waves, turbulence, and continuously variable flow velocity. To solve this problem, a fusion method of feature sample screening and local outlier factor is proposed in this paper. This method consists of three main parts. First, the Teager–Kaiser energy operator and the sliding window technique are introduced to extract the envelope statistical features from the current signal. Second, a parameter optimized density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) algorithm is proposed to perform feature sample screening before detecting. Notably, the conventional DBSCAN algorithm is sensitive to the parameter selection and lacks the capability of adaptive screening, so this paper proposes an adaptive sand cat swarm optimization algorithm to optimize the parameters. Finally, the local outlier factor is utilized to detect faults based on the screened feature samples. The experimental results show that the proposed method stands out in reducing the false alarm rate compared with traditional methods. Specifically, within the flow velocity ranges of 1.0–1.3 m/s and 1.3–1.6 m/s, the false alarm rates can reach 0% and 0.17%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bulb starch of 13 Lycoris genotypes was characterized. • 13 lycoris starches had either C-type or C A -type crystallinity. • Lycoris starches had high amylose content and low gelatinization temperature. • The starch granular size varied widely among Lycoris genotypes. • Inter-relationships among 18 parameters of starch quality was analyzed. In this study, starch was isolated from 13 genotypes of 12 Lycoris species, and the morphology, granule size distribution and physicochemical properties, including apparent amylose content (AAC), Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA) pasting properties, textural properties, thermal and retrogradation properties were characterized. The majority of starch granules of the 13 Lycoris genotypes were oval in shape, and granule size followed a normal distribution with a mean diameter of 20–30 μm. Contrary to previously published findings, the XRD results revealed that lycoris starches had either C-type or C A -type crystallinity. All lycoris starches showed high AAC varying from 25.6% to 32.7%, and low gelatinization temperature (GT) ranging from 58.8 to 69.7 ℃. Inter-relationships among 18 starch quality traits were analyzed based on correlation analysis. The present study provides information on lycoris starch characteristics which should serve as a useful guide for later studies on lycoris starch utilization in food and non-food industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]