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SUMMARY: Basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) proteins comprise one of the largest families of transcription factors in plants, which play roles in plant development, secondary metabolism, and the response to biotic/abiotic stresses. However, the roles of bHLH proteins in thermotolerance are largely unknown. Herein, we identified a heat‐inducible member of the bHLH family in lily (Lilium longiflorum), named LlbHLH87, which plays a role in thermotolerance. LlbHLH87 was rapidly induced by transient heat stress, and its encoded protein was localized to the nucleus, exhibiting transactivation activity in both yeast and plant cells. Overexpression of LlbHLH87 in Arabidopsis enhanced basal thermotolerance, while silencing of LlbHLH87 in lily reduced basal thermotolerance. Further analysis showed that LlbHLH87 bound to the promoters of HEAT STRESS TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR A2 (LlHSFA2) and ETHYLENE‐INSENSITIVE 3 (LlEIN3) to directly activate their expression. In addition, LlbHLH87 interacted with itself and with SPATULA (LlSPT) protein. LlSPT was activated by extended heat stress and its protein competed for the homologous interaction of LlbHLH87, which reduced the transactivation ability of LlbHLH87 for target genes. Compared with that observed under LlbHLH87 overexpression alone, co‐overexpression of LlbHLH87 and LlSPT reduced the basal thermotolerance of lily to sudden heat shock, but improved its thermosensitivity to prolonged heat stress treatment. Overall, our data demonstrated that LlbHLH87 regulates thermotolerance via activation of LlEIN3 and LlHSFA2, along with an antagonistic interaction with LlSPT. Significance Statement: LlbHLH87 promotes basal thermotolerance by directly activating the expression of LlHSFA2 and LlEIN3 in lily. Moreover, LlSPT interacts with LlbHLH87 to compete for its homologous interaction and antagonistically modulates its transactivation activity for target genes, which may facilitate the heat acclimation of lily under extended heat stress conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacteria are the primary cause of infectious diseases, making rapid and accurate identification crucial for timely pathogen diagnosis and disease control. However, traditional identification techniques such as polymerase chain reaction and loop‐mediated isothermal amplification are complex, time‐consuming, and pose infection risks. This study explores remote (~3 m) bacterial identification using laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) with a Cassegrain reflective telescope. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to reduce the dimensionality of the LIBS spectral data, and the accuracy of support vector machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) algorithms was compared. Multiple repeated experiments showed that the RF model achieved a classification accuracy, recall, precision, and F1‐score of 99.81%, 99.80%, 99.79%, and 0.9979, respectively, outperforming the SVM model and providing more accurate remote bacterial identification. The method based on laser‐induced plasma spectroscopy and machine learning has broad application prospects, supporting noncontact disease diagnosis, improving public health, and advancing medical research and technological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lily bulbils, advantageous axillary organs used for asexual reproduction, have an underexplored developmental mechanism. Gibberellins are known to participate in bulbil development, but the regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, exogenous gibberellin (GA3) significantly increased the bulbil length, width, and weight by raising the endogenous gibberellin levels and elongating the scale cells. Transcriptomic analysis identified LlGA20ox2, a key gibberellin biosynthesis gene, which was upregulated during bulbil development and significantly responsive to GA3 treatment. Given the similarities in bulbil and bulblet development, we determined the roles of LlGA20ox2 using a bulblet system. Silencing LlGA20ox2 in bulblets inhibited development by reducing the cell length, while overexpression increased the bulblet length and width. In the gibberellin signaling pathway, we identified two key genes, LlGID1C and LlCIGR2. Silencing these genes resulted in phenotypes similar to LlGA20ox2, inhibiting bulblet development. Further transcriptomic analysis revealed that gibberellin-responsive genes were enriched in the glucuronate pathway, pentose phosphate pathway and galactose metabolism pathways. Most of these differentially expressed genes responded to gibberellin and were highly expressed in later stages of bulbil development, suggesting their involvement in gibberellin-regulated bulbil growth. In conclusion, we preliminarily explored the mechanisms of gibberellin regulation in bulbil development, offering significant commercial potential for new lily reproductive organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing evidence indicates that non‐neuronal oligodendrocyte plays an important role in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases. In patient's brain, the impaired myelin structure is a pathological feature with the observation of TDP‐43 in cytoplasm of oligodendrocyte. However, the mechanism underlying the gain of function by TDP‐43 in oligodendrocytes, which are vital for the axonal integrity, remains unclear. Recently, we found that the primate‐specific cleavage of truncated TDP‐43 fragments occurred in cytoplasm of monkey neural cells. This finding opened up the avenue to investigate the myelin integrity affected by pathogenic TDP‐43 in oligodendrocytes. In current study, we demonstrated that the truncated TDP‐35 in oligodendrocytes specifically, could lead to the dysfunctional demyelination in corpus callosum of monkey. As a consequence of the interaction of myelin regulatory factor with the accumulated TDP‐35 in cytoplasm, the downstream myelin‐associated genes expression was downregulated at the transcriptional level. Our study aims to investigate the potential effect on myelin structure injury, affected by the truncated TDP‐43 in oligodendrocyte, which provided the additional clues on the gain of function during the progressive pathogenesis and symptoms in TDP‐43 related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial–temporal sampling errors arising from the differences in geographical locations and measurement times between co-located Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) and radiosonde (RS) data represent systematic errors in the three-cornered hat (3CH) method. In this study, we propose a novel spatial–temporal sampling correction method to mitigate the sampling errors associated with both RO–RS and RS–model pairs. We analyze the 3CH processing chain with this new correction method in comparison to traditional approaches, utilizing Fengyun-3E (FY-3E) GNSS Occultation Sounder II (GNOS II) RO data, atmospheric models, and RS datasets from the Hailar and Xisha stations. Overall, the results demonstrate that the improved 3CH method performs better in terms of spatial–temporal sampling errors and the variances of atmospheric parameters, including refractivity, temperature, and specific humidity. Subsequently, we assess the error variances of the FY-3E GNOS II RO, RS and model atmospheric parameters in China, in particular the northern China and southern China regions, based on large ensemble datasets using the improved 3CH data processing chain. The results indicate that the FY-3E GNOS II BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) RO and Global Positioning System (GPS) RO show good consistency, with the average error variances of refractivity, temperature, and specific humidity being less than 1.12%2, 0.13%2, and 700%2, respectively. A comparison of the datasets from northern and southern China reveals that the error variances for refractivity are smaller in northern China, while temperature and specific humidity exhibit smaller error variances in southern China, which is attributable to the differing climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonic thermal excitation can be regulated by coupling pressure conditions that indirectly influence the excitation effect. This study evaluated the effects of coupling pressure conditions on concrete microcracks detection through ultrasonic thermal excitation testing. Concrete microcracks were subjected to coupling tests, and two coupling pressure conditions were applied to the stimulation. A finite element simulation model was used to quantify the coupling pressure excitation, and the differences in temperature rises due to the coupling pressure conditions were analyzed. The study indicates the addition fluctuations in coupling pressure under the direct loading excitation could be neglected; while the coupling pressure increases by about 53% under the aluminum alloy sleeve loading excitation, and the fluctuation increases with the initial coupling pressure. The excitation effects of the tests are influenced by the coupling pressure condition, which will be weak if the perturbation of coupling pressure is great and changes drastically. Analysis suggests the drastically varying coupling pressure leads to substantial changes in the transducer's equivalent resistance and the output efficiency of the piezoelectric transducer decreases. It emphasizes the importance of controlling the perturbation of coupling pressure and provides research ideas to enhance the detection efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cow dung liquid mulch (CDLM), which uses cow dung as a raw material, has a good degradability and is a potential alternative to traditional plastic agricultural mulch, but there is a lack of research on the effects of CDLM on rhizosphere soil physicochemical properties, rhizosphere soil microbial functions, and crop yields. In this study, the link between maize yield, environmental factors, and functional genes as well as the responses of microbial community functions to CDLM and polyethylene mulch (PE) were studied using metagenomic sequencing. Functional annotation was also performed on clusters of orthologous groups of proteins, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, and carbohydrate-active enzyme sequencing data. The results showed that CDLM significantly increased maize yield by 30.9% compared to CK while maintaining lower soil microplastic levels. CDLM promotes the enrichment of beneficial microorganisms such as Mycolicibacterium and Pseudomonas. The relative abundance of functional genes related to microbial metabolism, soil element cycling pathways, and organic matter degradation was significantly higher in CDLM than in CK. Microbial functional genes were positively correlated with maize yield and environmental factors such as soil nutrients. These results suggested that CDLM can improve maize yield by enriching beneficial microorganisms, reducing rhizosphere soil environmental risks, and enhancing rhizosphere soil microbial function. Rhizosphere soil nutrients and microbial functional genes together mediated the positive response of maize yield to CDLM. This study can provide a scientific basis and data support for the safe use of mulch in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]