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During the seed aging process, reactive oxygen species (ROS) can induce the carbonylation of proteins, which changes their functional properties and affects seed vigor. However, the impact and regulatory mechanisms of protein carbonylation on wheat seed vigor are still unclear. In this study, we investigated the changes in wheat seed vigor, carbonyl protein content, ROS content and embryo cell structure during an artificial aging process, and we analyzed the correlation between protein carbonylation and seed vigor. During the artificial wheat-seed aging process, the activity levels of antioxidant enzymes and the contents of non-enzyme antioxidants decreased, leading to the accumulation of ROS and an increase in the carbonyl protein content, which ultimately led to a decrease in seed vigor, and there was a significant negative correlation between seed vigor and carbonyl protein content. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy showed that the contents of protein bodies in the embryo cells decreased remarkably. We postulate that during the wheat seed aging process, an imbalance in ROS production and elimination in embryo cells leads to the carbonylation of proteins, which plays a negative role in wheat seed vigor.

In this paper, we develop a new extended Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (eKP) equation. We use the Painlevé analysis to confirm the integrability of the eKP equation. We derive the bilinear form, multiple soliton solutions and lump solutions via using the Hirota’s direct method. Moreover, the soliton, breather and lump interaction solutions for this model are also obtained as well. Graphs are drawn to illustrate the abundant dynamical behaviors of the obtained solutions.

We report the novel colliding dynamics of the rogue waves (RWs) for a three-component transient stimulated Raman scattering system arising from nonlinear optics. The N -order RW solutions are constructed by utilizing the generalized Darboux transformation scheme. Then, the dynamics of the RWs are analyzed. As N ≥ 2 , the multiple RWs collide towards a central point. During the collisions and interactions, the peaks and troughs increase greatly. It is also interesting and magical that all the RWs possess exquisite symmetrical structures.

Fitness cost is a common phenomenon in rice blast disease-resistance breeding. MiR396 is a highly conserved microRNA (miRNA) family targeting Growth Regulating Factor ( OsGRF ) genes. Mutation at the target site of miR396 in certain OsGRF gene or blocking miR396 expression leads to increased grain yield. Here we demonstrated that fitness cost can be trade-off in miR396- OsGRF s module via balancing growth and immunity against the blast fungus. The accumulation of miR396 isoforms was significantly increased in a susceptible accession, but fluctuated in a resistant accession upon infection of Magnaporthe oryzae . The transgenic lines over-expressing different miR396 isoforms were highly susceptible to M. oryzae . In contrast, overexpressing target mimicry of miR396 to block its function led to enhanced resistance to M. oryzae in addition to improved yield traits. Moreover, transgenic plants overexpressing OsGRF6 , OsGRF7 , OsGRF8 , and OsGRF9 exhibited enhanced resistance to M. oryzae , but showed different alteration of growth. While overexpression of OsGRF7 led to defects in growth, overexpression of OsGRF6 , OsGRF8 , and OsGRF9 resulted in better or no significant change of yield traits. Collectively, our results indicate that miR396 negatively regulates rice blast disease- resistance via suppressing multiple OsGRF s, which in turn differentially control growth and yield. Therefore, miR396- OsGRFs could be a potential module to demolish fitness cost in rice blast disease-resistance breeding.

The main attention of this study is focused on the interaction dynamics of breather, and hybrid solitons and breather for an extended generalization of Vakhnenko equation. The general form of the N -order auxiliary function is first derived by the Hirota bilinear method. Then, the N -order solutions can be obtained. When N ≥ 2 , the loop-like breather may emerge by taking the dispersion coefficients as conjugate complex number. The breather is like a magical spring with good elasticity, changeable period and thickness. Furthermore, novel interaction features between breathers, between soliton/solitons and breather/breathers, are observed by visualizing method. The results show that there are abundant dynamics during the interactions, such as elastic collision, phase shift, amplitude amplification, collapse and bulge effect.

Limited light absorption and rapid photo-generated carriers’ recombination pose significant challenges to the practical applications of photocatalysts. In this study, we employed an efficient approach by combining the slow-photon effect with Z-scheme charge transfer to enhance the photo-degradation performance of antibiotics. Specifically, we incorporated 0D ZnIn2S4 quantum dots (QDs) into a 3D hierarchical inverse opal (IO) TiO2 structure through a facile one-step process. This combination enhanced the visible light absorption and provided abundant active surfaces for efficient photo-degradation. Moreover, the ZnIn2S4 QDs formed an artificial Z-scheme system with IO-TiO2, facilitating the separation and migration of charge carriers. To achieve a better band alignment with IO-TiO2, we doped Ag into the ZnIn2S4 QDs (Ag: ZIS QDs) to adjust their energy levels. Through an investigation of the different Ag contents in the ZnIn2S4 QDs, we found that the optimal photo-degradation performance was achieved with Ag (2.0): ZIS QDs/IO-TiO2, exhibiting degradation rates 19.5 and 14.8 times higher than those of ZnIn2S4 QDs and IO-TiO2, respectively. This study provides significant insights for elevating the photocatalytic capabilities of IO-TiO2 and broadening its prospective applications.

Soliton resonances and soliton molecules have become a hot topic in the field of nonlinear science and engineering in recent years due to their potential applications. This work presents a systematic study of the soliton interaction dynamics of the Maccari system. Using the bilinear method, explicit first- and second-order solutions of the system are derived for the system. With these solutions and carefully chosen parameters, we observe various soliton interaction phenomena, such as soliton resonances, soliton molecules, soliton oscillations, and heterotypic solitons, including the V- and Y-type soliton, for the two dependent variables under two coordinate systems: space and spatiotemporal coordinate systems, respectively. Notably, we find that soliton molecules and heterotypic solitons exhibit completely different features under the two coordinate systems. The constraint conditions for the existence of soliton molecules are more restrictive in the spatiotemporal coordinate, and the occurrence of V- and Y-type soliton patterns is relatively rare in this coordinate system.

In this study, we employ the bilinear method to construct N th-order solutions for a nonlinear (3+1)-dimensional shallow water equation. Subsequently, we delve into a comprehensive exploration of novel dynamical features within the equation, including soliton interactions, soliton bifurcations, soliton molecules, breather and soliton interactions, breather molecules, and breather-to-soliton transitions. Analytical expressions for the constraint conditions required to generate soliton bifurcations and soliton molecules are presented. Our study reveals that the newly obtained waves exhibit distinctive characteristics: they can form multi-layered step-like flat blocks, propagate with stable energies and shapes, thereby reflecting an intrinsic balance between nonlinearities and dispersions. We also verify that this equation has an infinite number of conservation laws. These intriguing findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamic behaviors exhibited by solitons, breathers, and their hybrid forms within the realm of shallow water waves characterized by nonlinear motions.

Background Little is known about the role of serine peptidase inhibitor Kazal type 4 (SPINK4) in colorectal cancer (CRC) and ferroptosis. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of SPINK4 on CRC pathogenesis and ferroptosis. Methods SPINK4 expression was analyzed in public datasets and examined using immunohistochemistry. The biological function of SPINK4 in CRC cell lines and its effect on ferroptosis were tested. An immunofluorescence assay was performed to determine the location of SPINK4 in cells, and mouse models were established to determine the effects of SPINK4 in vivo. Results CRC datasets and clinical samples analysis revealed that SPINK4 mRNA and protein levels were significantly reduced in CRC tissues compared to control tissues ( P  < 0.05). Two CRC cell lines (HCT116 and LoVo) were selected, and the in vitro and in vivo experiments showed that overexpression of SPINK4 greatly promotes the proliferation and metastasis of CRC cells and tumor growth ( P  < 0.05). The immunofluorescence assay indicated that SPINK4 is mainly located in the nucleoplasm and nucleus of CRC cells. Furthermore, SPINK4 expression was reduced after cell ferroptosis induced by Erastin, and overexpression of SPINK4 greatly inhibited ferroptosis in CRC cells. The results of mouse model further demonstrated that SPINK4 overexpression inhibited CRC cell ferroptosis and facilitated tumor growth. Conclusions SPINK4 was decreased in CRC tissues and promoted cell proliferation and metastasis; overexpression of SPINK4 inhibited CRC cell ferroptosis.

Blood metabolome is commonly used in human studies to explore the associations of gut microbiota-derived metabolites with cardiometabolic diseases. Here, in a cohort of 1007 middle-aged and elderly adults with matched fecal metagenomic (149 species and 214 pathways) and paired fecal and blood targeted metabolomics data (132 metabolites), we find disparate associations with taxonomic composition and microbial pathways when using fecal or blood metabolites. For example, we observe that fecal, but not blood butyric acid significantly associates with both gut microbiota and prevalent type 2 diabetes. These findings are replicated in an independent validation cohort involving 103 adults. Our results suggest that caution should be taken when inferring microbiome-cardiometabolic disease associations from either blood or fecal metabolome data. Here, analyzing paired fecal and blood metabolomics and metagenomics data in a large cohort, Deng et al . uncover disparate associations of the gut microbiota with cardiometabolic diseases when utilizing either fecal or blood metabolome data, suggesting that sampling criteria may be a relevant factor in metabolomics-based association studies.