Explore the vast range of titles available.

Background Cotton ( Gossypium spp.) is the most important fiber and oil crop in the world. With the emergence of huge -omics data sets, it is essential to have an integrated functional genomics database that allows worldwide users to quickly and easily fetch and visualize genomic information. Currently available cotton-related databases have some weakness in integrating multiple kinds of -omics data from multiple Gossypium species. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an integrated functional genomics database for cotton. Description We developed CottonFGD (Cotton Functional Genomic Database, https://cottonfgd.org ), an integrated database that includes genomic sequences, gene structural and functional annotations, genetic marker data, transcriptome data, and population genome resequencing data for all four of the sequenced Gossypium species. It consists of three interconnected modules: search, profile, and analysis. These modules make CottonFGD enable both single gene review and batch analysis with multiple kinds of -omics data and multiple species. CottonFGD also includes additional pages for data statistics, bulk data download, and a detailed user manual. Conclusion Equipped with specialized functional modules and modernized visualization tools, and populated with multiple kinds of -omics data, CottonFGD provides a quick and easy-to-use data analysis platform for cotton researchers worldwide.

As one of the most important growth-promoting hormones, auxin regulates many aspects of plant growth and development. Understanding auxin action has long been a challenging task because of the complexity of the hormone transport involved in auxin response. Despite tremendous progress made in Arabidopsis , auxin response and transport are poorly understood in crop plants, which impedes the application of hormone knowledge in agricultural improvement. This study not only identifies a novel positive regulator of plant growth in rice and demonstrates its significant role in improving seed size and grain yield, it also illustrates the specific involvement of the plasma membrane-associated protein in regulating auxin response and transport, thus illuminating a new strategy for enhancing crop productivity. Grain size is one of the key factors determining grain yield. However, it remains largely unknown how grain size is regulated by developmental signals. Here, we report the identification and characterization of a dominant mutant big grain1 ( Bg1-D ) that shows an extra-large grain phenotype from our rice T-DNA insertion population. Overexpression of BG1 leads to significantly increased grain size, and the severe lines exhibit obviously perturbed gravitropism. In addition, the mutant has increased sensitivities to both auxin and N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid, an auxin transport inhibitor, whereas knockdown of BG1 results in decreased sensitivities and smaller grains. Moreover, BG1 is specifically induced by auxin treatment, preferentially expresses in the vascular tissue of culms and young panicles, and encodes a novel membrane-localized protein, strongly suggesting its role in regulating auxin transport. Consistent with this finding, the mutant has increased auxin basipetal transport and altered auxin distribution, whereas the knockdown plants have decreased auxin transport. Manipulation of BG1 in both rice and Arabidopsis can enhance plant biomass, seed weight, and yield. Taking these data together, we identify a novel positive regulator of auxin response and transport in a crop plant and demonstrate its role in regulating grain size, thus illuminating a new strategy to improve plant productivity.

Due to the disconnection of surviving neural elements after spinal cord injury (SCI), such patients had to suffer irreversible loss of motor or sensory function, and thereafter enormous economic and emotional burdens were brought to society and family. Despite many strategies being dealing with SCI, there is still no effective regenerative therapy. To date, significant progress has been made in studies of SCI repair strategies, including gene regulation of neural regeneration, cell or cell-derived exosomes and growth factors transplantation, repair of biomaterials, and neural signal stimulation. The pathophysiology of SCI is complex and multifaceted, and its mechanisms and processes are incompletely understood. Thus, combinatorial therapies have been demonstrated to be more effective, and lead to better neural circuits reconstruction and functional recovery. Combinations of biomaterials, stem cells, growth factors, drugs, and exosomes have been widely developed. However, simply achieving axon regeneration will not spontaneously lead to meaningful functional recovery. Therefore, the formation and remodeling of functional neural circuits also depend on rehabilitation exercises, such as exercise training, electrical stimulation (ES) and Brain–Computer Interfaces (BCIs). In this review, we summarize the recent progress in biological and engineering strategies for reconstructing neural circuits and promoting functional recovery after SCI, and emphasize current challenges and future directions.

Chengcai Chu and colleagues show that genetic variation in NRT1.1B / OsNPF6.5 contributes to nitrate-use divergence between two main subspecies of Asian cultivated rice. Their findings may help to improve nitrogen-use efficiency in plant production. Asian cultivated rice ( Oryza sativa L.) consists of two main subspecies, indica and japonica . Indica has higher nitrate-absorption activity than japonica , but the molecular mechanisms underlying that activity remain elusive. Here we show that variation in a nitrate-transporter gene, NRT1.1B ( OsNPF6.5 ), may contribute to this divergence in nitrate use. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that NRT1.1B diverges between indica and japonica . NRT1.1B - indica variation was associated with enhanced nitrate uptake and root-to-shoot transport and upregulated expression of nitrate-responsive genes. The selection signature of NRT1.1B - indica suggests that nitrate-use divergence occurred during rice domestication. Notably, field tests with near-isogenic and transgenic lines confirmed that the japonica variety carrying the NRT1.1B - indica allele had significantly improved grain yield and nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) compared to the variety without that allele. Our results show that variation in NRT1.1B largely explains nitrate-use divergence between indica and japonica and that NRT1.1B - indica can potentially improve the NUE of japonica .

PurposeMetagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is a new approach to identify the infecting organism in infectious diseases. Our aim was to evaluate the accuracy of mNGS in determining the etiology of spinal infection.MethodsIn this retrospective study, patients who had a suspected spinal infection and underwent mNGS for diagnosis in our hospital were eligible for inclusion. Samples for mNGS, culture, and histopathological tests were collected surgically or with a CT-guided needle biopsy. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for mNGS and culture test, using histopathological results as reference.ResultsA total of 31 mNGS tests in 30 cases were included. Twenty-six cases were classified as infected, and four cases were considered aseptic. mNGS achieved a specificity of 75.0% [95% confidence interval (CI), 21.9% to 98.7%], sensitivity was 70.3% (95% CI, 49.7% to 85.5%). mNGS was more sensitive than culture at 14.8% (95% CI, 4.9% to 34.6%, P < 0.0001). However, the specificities of mNGS and culture were statistically similar.ConclusionWe described here the power of mNGS in the etiological diagnosing of spinal infection. Our study opens the possibility for more extensive use of mNGS techniques in the identification of pathogens in patients with suspected spinal infection.

It has long been established that premature leaf senescence negatively impacts the yield stability of rice, but the underlying molecular mechanism driving this relationship remains largely unknown. Here, we identified a dominant premature leaf senescence mutant, prematurely senile 1 (ps1-D). PS1 encodes a plant-specific NAC (no apical meristem, Arabidopsis ATAF1/2, and cup-shaped cotyledon2) transcriptional activator, Oryza sativa NAC-like, activated by apetala3/pistillata (OsNAP). Overexpression of OsNAP significantly promoted senescence, whereas knockdown of OsNAP produced a marked delay of senescence, confirming the role of this gene in the development of rice senescence. OsNAP expression was tightly linked with the onset of leaf senescence in an age-dependent manner. Similarly, ChIP-PCR and yeast one-hybrid assays demonstrated that OsNAP positively regulates leaf senescence by directly targeting genes related to chlorophyll degradation and nutrient transport and other genes associated with senescence, suggesting that OsNAP is an ideal marker of senescence onset in rice. Further analysis determined that OsNAP is induced specifically by abscisic acid (ABA), whereas its expression is repressed in both aba1 and aba2 , two ABA biosynthetic mutants. Moreover, ABA content is reduced significantly in ps1-D mutants, indicating a feedback repression of OsNAP on ABA biosynthesis. Our data suggest that OsNAP serves as an important link between ABA and leaf senescence. Additionally, reduced OsNAP expression leads to delayed leaf senescence and an extended grain-filling period, resulting in a 6.3% and 10.3% increase in the grain yield of two independent representative RNAi lines, respectively. Thus, fine-tuning OsNAP expression should be a useful strategy for improving rice yield in the future.

Background Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cells have displayed outstanding performance in the treatment of patients with hematological malignancies. However, their efficacy against solid tumors has been largely limited. Methods In this study, human osteosarcoma cell lines were prepared, flow cytometry using antibodies against CD166 was performed on different cell samples. CD166-specific T cells were obtained by viral gene transfer of corresponding DNA plasmids and selectively expanded using IL-2 and IL-15. The ability of CD166.BBζ CAR-T cells to kill CD166 + osteosarcoma cells was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Results CD166 was selectively expressed on four different human osteosarcoma cell lines, indicating its role as the novel target for CAR-T cell therapy. CD166.BBζ CAR-T cells killed osteosarcoma cell lines in vitro; the cytotoxicity correlated with the level of CD166 expression on the tumor cells. Intravenous injection of CD166.BBζ CAR-T cells into mice resulted in the regression of the tumor with no obvious toxicity. Conclusions Together, the data suggest that CD166.BBζ CAR-T cells may serve as a new therapeutic strategy in the future clinical practice for the treatment of osteosarcoma.

Low temperature is one of the key environmental stresses that impairs cotton growth and restricts fiber productivity. Dehydration responsive element binding (DREB) transcription factors play an important role in cold response in plants by modulating the transcription level of cold-responsive genes to protect the plants from low-temperature stress. Here, we showed that GhDREB1B, a copy number variant in the AiSheng98 (AS98) cotton mutant, significantly improved chilling tolerance in cotton seedlings, while silencing of GhDREB1B made transgenic cotton sensitive to chilling stress in AS98 cotton compared with control plants. Elevated GhDREB1B transcript level activated the expression of major cold-responsive genes. Genome-wide expression profiling by RNA sequencing revealed the upregulation of genes related to fatty acids, lipid proteins, osmoprotection, and anti-oxidative enzymes in AiSheng98. Excessive accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) and higher ion leakage rates occurred in wild-type LFH10 plants when compared to those of Aisheng98 during chilling stress, signifying lower chilling tolerance in the wild-type than in Aisheng98. Furthermore, the Aisheng98 mutant under chilling stress accumulated higher levels of free proline and soluble sugar than LFH10 accumulated. These results suggest that GhDREB1B is a positive regulator and its variant can alter the expression patterns of major low-temperature stress-related genes and enhance chilling tolerance in cotton.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a gram negative soil bacterium. This bacterium secretes various proteins during different growth phases with an insecticidal potential against many economically important crop pests. One of the important families of Bt proteins is vegetative insecticidal proteins (Vip), which are secreted into the growth medium during vegetative growth. There are three subfamilies of Vip proteins. Vip1 and Vip2 heterodimer toxins have an insecticidal activity against many Coleopteran and Hemipteran pests. Vip3, the most extensively studied family of Vip toxins, is effective against Lepidopteron. Vip proteins do not share homology in sequence and binding sites with Cry proteins, but share similarities at some points in their mechanism of action. Vip3 proteins are expressed as pyramids alongside Cry proteins in crops like maize and cotton, so as to control resistant pests and delay the evolution of resistance. Biotechnological- and in silico-based analyses are promising for the generation of mutant Vip proteins with an enhanced insecticidal activity and broader spectrum of target insects.

The biosynthesis of secondary metabolites like anthocyanins is often governed by metabolic gene clusters (MGCs) in the plant ancestral genome. However, the existence of gene clusters specifically regulating anthocyanin accumulation in certain organs is not well understood. In this study, we identify MGCs linked to the coloration of cotton reproductive organs, such as petals, spots, and fibers. Through genetic analysis and map-based cloning, we pinpointed key genes on chromosome A07, such as , which is involved in anthocyanin transport, and and , which are associated with the regulation of anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin biosynthesis. Our results demonstrate the coordinated control of anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin pathways, highlighting the evolutionary significance of MGCs in plant adaptation. The conservation of these clusters in cotton chromosome A07 across species underscores their importance in reproductive development and color variation. Our study sheds light on the complex biosynthesis and transport mechanisms for plant pigments, emphasizing the role of transcription factors and transport proteins in pigment accumulation. This research offers insights into the genetic basis of color variation in cotton reproductive organs and the potential of MGCs to enhance our comprehension of plant secondary metabolism.