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Cyclocarya paliurus, as a medicinal plant, grows widely in Karst ecosystem due to its great tolerance to high calcium levels. Previous studies suggested that Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are crucial for transmitting Ca2+ signal, and thus affecting the plant calcium tolerance. This mechanism has not yet been sufficiently examined for Cyclocarya paliurus (C. paliurus). In this study, 25 CpCDPKs genes were computationally examined and categorized as four groups (CDPK I, CDPK II, CDPK III, and CDPK IV) according to their gene structures, motif and phylogenetic relationships. Both EFhand and protein kinase domain were found in CpCDPK proteins. This work lays the groundwork for further investigation into the roles of CpCDPK in Cyclocarya paliurus.

The total energy the brain consumed and the intensities of information flows across different brain regions in an intellectual activity may help to explain an individual’s intelligence level. To verify this assumption, 43 students aged 18–25 were recruited as the research subjects. Their intelligence quotients (IQ) were scored by using Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), while their electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded simultaneously by using Neuroscan system. The total energy and distribution patterns of EEG signals were acquired in Curry 8.0. The intensities of information flow across different brain regions were measured by Phase Slope Index (PSI). 20 channels and 190 channel combinations were selected for data analysis. The results show that the IQ score negatively correlates to the EEG energy and positively correlates to the intensities of information flows at specific frequency bands in specific channel pairs, especially in some long distance (18–24[Formula: see text]cm) channel pairs.

Rosa roxbunghii Tratt belongs to the Rosaceae family, and the fruit is flavorful, economic, and highly nutritious, providing health benefits. MYB proteins play key roles in R. roxbunghii’ fruit development and quality. However, the available genomic and transcriptomic information are extremely deficient. Here, a normalized cDNA library was constructed using five tissues, stem, leaf, flower, young fruit, and mature fruit, with three repetitions, and sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. De novo assembly was performed, and 470.66 million clean reads were obtained. In total, 63,727 unigenes, with an average GC content of 42.08%, were determined and 59,358 were annotated. In addition, 9,354 unigenes were assigned the Gene Ontology category, and 20,202 unigenes were assigned to 25 Eukaryotic Ortholog Groups. Additionally, 19,507 unigenes were classified into 140 pathways of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database. Using the transcriptome, 18 candidate MYB genes that were significantly expressed in mature fruit, compared with other tissues, were obtained. Among them, 10 R2R3 MYB and 1 R1 MYB were identified. The expression levels of 12 MYB genes randomly selected for qRT-PCR analysis were consistent with the RNA-seq results. A total of 37,545 microsatellites were detected, with an average EST-–SSR frequency of 0.59 (37,545/63,727). This transcriptome data will be valuable for identifying genes of interest and studying their expression and evolution.

Rosa roxburghii Tratt (Rosaceae) has a fruit that is flavorful, economically valuable, and highly nutritious, providing numerous health benefits. Myeloblastosis (MYB) proteins play key roles in the development and fruit quality of R. roxburghii. However, there is little available genomic and transcriptomic information for R. roxburghii. Here, a normalized cDNA library was constructed from five tissues, including the stem, leaf, flower, young fruit, and mature fruit, using the Illumina HiSeq 3000 platform. De novo assembly was performed, and 470.66 million clean reads were obtained. In total, 63,727 unigenes, with an average GC content of 42.08%, were discovered, 60,406 of which were annotated. In addition, 9,354 unigenes were assigned to Gene Ontology categories, and 20,202 unigenes were assigned to 25 Eukaryotic Ortholog Groups. Additionally, 19,508 unigenes were classified into 140 pathways of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database. Based on the transcriptome, 163 unigenes associated with MYBs were detected. Among these genes, 75 genes were significantly expressed in the various tissues, including 10 R1 MYB, 42 R2R3 MYB, one R1R2R3 MYB, three R4 MYB and 19 atypical MYB-like proteins. The expression levels of the 12 MYB genes randomly selected for quantitative real-time PCR analysis corroborated the RNA sequencing results. A total of 37,545 microsatellites were detected, with an average expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat frequency of 0.59 (37,545/63,727). This transcriptome data improves our understanding of the role of MYB in R. roxburghii and will be valuable for identifying genes of interest.

Simple, inexpensive, portable sensing strategies for those clinically relevant molecules have attained a significant positive impact on the health care system. Herein, we have prepared a dual-emission ratiometric fluorescence probe with desired intensity ratio and demonstrated its efficiency for onsite naked eye determination of cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcy). The hybrid probe has been designed by hybridizing two differently sized CdTe quantum dots (QDs), in which the red-emitting CdTe QDs (rQDs) entrapped in the silica sphere acting as the reference signal, and the green-emitting CdTe QDs (gQDs) covalently attached on the silica surface serving as the response signal. When 1,10-phenanthroline with strong coordination ability to Cd atoms in gQDs was introduced, the fluorescence of the gQDs was effectively quenched, while the fluorescence of the rQDs stayed constant. Upon exposure to different contents of Cys or Hcy, the fluorescence of gQDs can be recovered gradually due to the displacement of the quencher. Based on the background signal of rQDs, the variations of the sensing system display continuous fluorescence color changes from red to green, which can be easily observed by the naked eye. The assay requires ∼20min and has a detection limit of 2.5 and 1.7μM for Cys and Hcy, respectively. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this sensing scheme can be fully integrated in a filter paper-based assay, thus enabling a potential point-of-care application featuring easy operation, low power consumption, and low fabrication costs.

Deproteinization is a technical bottleneck in the purification of viscous water-soluble polysaccharides. The aim of this work is to provide an appropriate approach to deproteinize crude gellan gum. Several methods of deproteinization were investigated, including Sevag method, alkaline protease, papain and neutral protease. The results revealed that Sevag method had high deproteinization efficiency (87.9%), but it showed dissatisfactory recovery efficiency of gellan gum (28.6%), which made it less advisable in industrial applications. The deproteinization by alkaline protease was demonstrated in this work for the first time, indicating alkaline protease was preferred in the deproteinization of crude gellan gum with high polysaccharide recovery (89.3%) and high deproteinization efficiency (86.4%).

Gellan gum production was carried out by Sphingomonas paucimobilis ATCC 31461 in a simplified medium with a short incubation time, and a kinetic model for understanding, controlling, and optimizing the fermentation process was proposed. The results revealed that glucose was the best carbon source and that the optimal concentration was 30 g liter −1 . As for the fermenting parameters, considerably large amounts of gellan gum were yielded by an 8-h-old culture and a 4% inoculum at 200 rpm on a rotary shaker. Under the optimized conditions, the maximum level of gellan gum (14.75 g liter −1 ) and the highest conversion efficiency (49.17%) were obtained in a 30-liter fermentor in batch fermentation. Logistic and Luedeking-Piret models were confirmed to provide a good description of gellan gum fermentation, which gave some support for the study of gellan gum fermentation kinetics. Additionally, this study is the first demonstration that gellan gum production is largely growth associated by analysis of kinetics in its batch fermentation process. Based on model prediction, higher gellan gum production (17.71 g liter −1 ) and higher conversion efficiency (57.12%) were obtained in fed-batch fermentation at the same total glucose concentration (30 g liter −1 ).