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To date, how the shape of nanomaterials influences their biological properties is poorly understood, due to the insufficient controllability of current preparative methods, especially in the shape and size of nanomaterials. In this paper, we achieved the precise syntheses of nanoscale unimolecular cylindrical polymer brushes (CPBs) and spherical polymer nanoparticles (SPNPs) with the same volume and surface chemistry, which ensured that shape was essentially the only variable when their biological performance was compared. Accurate shape effects were obtained. Impressively, the CPBs had remarkable advantage in tissue penetration over the SPNPs. The CPBs also exhibited higher cellular uptake and rapider body clearance than the SPNPs, whereas the SPNPs had longer blood circulation time, rapider tumor vascular extravasation, and higher tumor accumulation than the CPBs. Additionally, this work also provided a controllable synthesis strategy for nanoscale unimolecular SPNPs by integrating 21 CPBs to a β-cyclodextrin core, whose diameter in dry state could be up to 45 nm.

As a highly conserved protein, the translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) carries out vital roles in various life processes. In rubber tree, two TCTP genes, HbTCTP and HbTCTP1, were cloned, but only HbTCTP1 was studied in details. In this study, cis-acting regulatory elements, expression patterns, subcellular localization, interacting proteins, and antioxidant activity of HbTCTP were systematically analyzed. Besides the common cis-acting regulatory elements, HbTCTP promoter also harbored various known cis-elements that respond to hormone/stresses. Being consistent with the aforementioned results, HbTCTP was regulated by drought, low temperature, high salt, ethylene (ET), wounding, H2O2, and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatments. HbTCTP was expressed throughout different tissues and developmental stages of leaves. In addition, HbTCTP was associated with tapping panel dryness (TPD). HbTCTP was localized in the membrane, cytoplasm and the nucleus, and interacted with four proteins rubber elongation factor (REF), 17.5 kDa heat shock family protein, annexin, and REF-like stress related protein 1. Being similar to HbTCTP1, HbTCTP also indicated antioxidant activity in metal-catalyzed oxidation (MCO) system. Our results are useful for further understanding the molecular characterization and expression profiles of HbTCTP, but also lay a solid foundation for elucidating the function of HbTCTP in rubber tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which cloned a novel polyphenol oxidase (PPO) gene in rubber tree and further investigated the correlation between latex coagulation rate and PPO activity. Topics covered include the isolation of the genomic sequence of HbPPO through PCR amplification with gene-specific primers and a proposal that HbPPO may be associated with tapping panel dryness (TPD) and latex yield and is therefore worthy of being studied further in rubber tree.