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The WRKY transcription factor gene family is one of the unique gene families in plants. It plays an important role in response to abiotic stresses such as cold and drought, hormone signal transduction, regulation of biosynthesis, leaf senescence seed germination, etc. However, little information is available about WRKY transcription factors in Verbena bonariensis. In this study, 70 VbWRKY genes were identified from the whole genome. The phylogenetic analysis of the WRKY gene family in V. bonariensis and Arabidopsis shows that the WRKY genes in V. bonariensis can be divided into three groups: I, II, and III, which contain 13, 47, and 10 members, respectively. Group II can be further divided into five subclasses: IIa (5), IIb (10), IIc (18), IId (6), and IIe (8). Conservative motif analysis showed that 64 proteins encoded by the VbWRKY gene had conserved motifs 1, 2 and 3, and the same subclass motif elements were approximately the same. The collinearity analysis showed that there were 44 homologous gene pairs among the VbWRKYs , and these homologous gene pairs may have the same function. Promoter sequence analysis showed that the VbWRKY gene has multiple cis- acting elements, including not only cis -acting elements related to low-temperature and light responses, but also cis -acting elements related to hormone regulation, Among them, most VbWRKY genes contain response elements about low-temperature, and 30 VbWRKY genes contain low-temperature response elements (LTR), and 61 VbWRKY genes contain abscisic acid response elements (ABRE), indicating that VbWRKY plays a crucial role in plant growth and abiotic stress. According to the expression of VbWRKY in the cold stress and different tissues transcriptome, 70 VbWRKY genes played their respective roles in various tissues and stages to regulate plant growth, Also, some of them participated in the process of cold stress tolerance, 52 VbWRKYs showed significant differences in expression under cold stress, and 37 VbWRKY genes were up-regulated under cold stress. 9 VbWRKY genes were selected for quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis under low-temperature stress, and the results showed that all 9 genes were upregulated under low-temperature stress. Ultimately, the present study provides a comprehensive analysis of the predicted V. bonariensis WRKY genes family, which provided a theoretical basis for the study of low-temperature resistance and growth and development of V. bonariensis. Supplementary Material Supplementary Material File [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For an increasing implementation of the low-temperature transportation in oilfield, it is urgent priority initially to study the physical and chemical properties to provide the vital technical support for the low-temperature transport of the polymer flooding. In this paper, the rheological behavior of polymer-containing fluid produced from the Daqing polymer flood were first studied for an adaptation of transportation under the oil’s freezing point temperature. The experiments progressed with different temperature, shear rate, water content and polymer concentration which have great impacts on the viscosity of the fluids produced aiming to find the phase transportation point for the application of the low-temperature transportation. It was displayed that a significant discontinuity in the viscosity occurs at some range of water content. Before the phase transition point, presented in W/O (water-in-oil) emulsion, the viscosity was lifted with the increase of the water content while after the phase transition point, forming the O/W (oil-in-water) type emulsion, the viscosity was dropped with an increase of water content. The phase transition points strongly depend on the polymer concentration in the fluids Produced. It was demonstrated that the phase transition points of polymer-containing fluids were 65%, 70%, 50%, 50% and 50%, corresponding to the polymer concentrations of 315mg/L, 503mg/L, 708mg/L, 920mg/L and 1053mg/L, respectively. The characteristics are attributed to the viscous polymer. The fluidity of the fluid produced was decreased with the increase of polymer concentration.

In this study, we aimed to analyze the anti-cancer effects of β-elemene combined with paclitaxel for ovarian cancer. RT-qPCR, MTT assay, western blot, flow cytometry, and immunohistochemistry were used to analyze in vitro and in vivo anti-cancer effects of combined treatment of β-elemene and paclitaxel. The in vitro results showed that β-elemene+paclitaxel treatment markedly inhibited ovarian cancer cell growth, migration, and invasion compared to either paclitaxel or β-elemene treatment alone. Results demonstrated that β-elemene+paclitaxel induced apoptosis of SKOV3 cells, down-regulated anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl gene expression and up-regulated pro-apoptotic P53 and Apaf1 gene expression in SKOV3 cells. Administration of β-elemene+paclitaxel arrested SKOV3 cell cycle at S phase and down-regulated CDK1, cyclin-B1, and P27 gene expression and apoptotic-related resistant gene expression of MDR1, LRP, and TS in SKOV3 cells. In vivo experiments showed that treatment with β-elemene+paclitaxel significantly inhibited ovarian tumor growth and prolonged the overall survival of SKOV3-bearing mice. In addition, the treatment inhibited phosphorylated STAT3 and NF-κB expression in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, it inhibited migration and invasion through down-regulation of the STAT-NF-κB signaling pathway in SKOV3 cells. In conclusion, the data suggested that β-elemene+paclitaxel can inhibit ovarian cancer growth via down-regulation of the STAT3-NF-κB signaling pathway, which may be a potential therapeutic strategy for ovarian cancer therapy.