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Background As an important cash crop, the yield of peanut is influenced by soil acidification and pathogen infection. Receptor-like protein kinases play important roles in plant growth, development and stress responses. However, little is known about the number, location, structure, molecular phylogeny, and expression of RLKs in peanut, and no comprehensive analysis of RLKs in the Al stress response in peanuts have been reported. Results A total of 1311 AhRLK s were identified from the peanut genome. The AhLRR-RLKs and AhLecRLKs were further divided into 24 and 35 subfamilies, respectively. The AhRLK s were randomly distributed across all 20 chromosomes in the peanut. Among these AhRLK s, 9.53% and 61.78% originated from tandem duplications and segmental duplications, respectively. The ka/ks ratios of 96.97% (96/99) of tandem duplication gene pairs and 98.78% (646/654) of segmental duplication gene pairs were less than 1. Among the tested tandem duplication clusters, there were 28 gene conversion events. Moreover, all total of 90 Al-responsive AhRLKs were identified by mining transcriptome data, and they were divided into 7 groups. Most of the Al-responsive AhRLKs that clustered together had similar motifs and evolutionarily conserved structures. The gene expression patterns of these genes in different tissues were further analysed, and tissue-specifically expressed genes, including 14 root-specific Al-responsive AhRLK s were found. In addition, all 90 Al-responsive AhRLK s which were distributed unevenly in the subfamilies of AhRLK s, showed different expression patterns between the two peanut varieties (Al-sensitive and Al-tolerant) under Al stress. Conclusions In this study, we analysed the RLK gene family in the peanut genome. Segmental duplication events were the main driving force for AhRLK evolution, and most AhRLK s subject to purifying selection. A total of 90 genes were identified as Al-responsive AhRLKs, and the classification, conserved motifs, structures, tissue expression patterns and predicted functions of Al-responsive AhRLK s were further analysed and discussed, revealing their putative roles. This study provides a better understanding of the structures and functions of AhRLK s and Al-responsive AhRLK s.

Our identification and analysis of evolutionary and biological relationships provide us with an unprecedented high-resolution view of the flexible and conserved roles of the AGC family in the topmost fungal pathogens that infect rice, wheat, barley, and millet. Guided by these insights, an AGC member, MoFpk1, was found to be indispensable for M. oryzae development. During eukaryotic evolution, the TOR-AGC kinase signaling module is involved in the coordinated regulation of cell growth and survival. However, the AGC kinases in plant-pathogenic fungi remain poorly understood. In this study, we have identified 20 members of the AGC family of protein kinases. Evolutionary and biological studies have revealed that AGC kinases are highly conserved and involved in the growth (8 genes), conidiation (13 genes), conidial germination (9 genes), appressorium formation (9 genes), and pathogenicity (5 genes) of Magnaporthe oryzae , in which a subfamily protein of the AGC kinases, MoFpk1, the activator of flippase, specifically exhibited diverse roles. Two kinase sites were screened and found to be critical for MoFpk1: 230K and 326D. Moreover, MoFpk1 is involved in cell wall integrity through the negative regulation of MoMps1 phosphorylation. The deletion of MoFpk1 resulted in defective phosphatidylacetamide (PE) and phosphatidylserine (PS) turnover and a series of lipid metabolism disorders. Under hyperosmotic stress, since the Δ Mofpk1 mutant is unable to maintain membrane asymmetry, MoYpk1 phosphorylation and MoTor activity were downregulated, thus enhancing autophagy. Our results provide insights into the evolutionary and biological relationships of AGC kinases and new insight into plasma membrane (PM) homeostasis, i.e., responses to membrane stress and autophagy through lipid asymmetry maintenance. IMPORTANCE Our identification and analysis of evolutionary and biological relationships provide us with an unprecedented high-resolution view of the flexible and conserved roles of the AGC family in the topmost fungal pathogens that infect rice, wheat, barley, and millet. Guided by these insights, an AGC member, MoFpk1, was found to be indispensable for M. oryzae development. Our study defined a novel mechanism of plasma membrane homeostasis, i.e., adaptation to stress through the asymmetric distribution of phospholipids. Furthermore, defects in the asymmetric distribution of phospholipids in the membrane enhanced autophagy under hyperosmotic stress. This study provides a new mechanism for the internal linkage between lipid metabolism and autophagy, which may help new fungicide target development for controlling this devastating disease.

Autophagy can protect stressed cancer cell by degradation of damaged proteins and organelles. However, the regulatory mechanisms behind this cellular process remain incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate that RSK2 (p90 ribosomal S6 kinase 2) plays a critical role in ER stress-induced autophagy in breast cancer cells. We demonstrated that the promotive effect of RSK2 on autophagy resulted from directly binding of AMPKα2 in nucleus and phosphorylating it at Thr172 residue. IRE1α, an ER membrane-associated protein mediating unfolded protein response (UPR), is required for transducing the signal for activation of ERK1/2-RSK2 under ER stress. Suppression of autophagy by knockdown of RSK2 enhanced the sensitivity of breast cancer cells to ER stress both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we demonstrated that inhibition of RSK2-mediated autophagy rendered breast cancer cells more sensitive to paclitaxel, a chemotherapeutic agent that induces ER stress-mediated cell death. This study identifies RSK2 as a novel controller of autophagy in tumor cells and suggests that targeting RSK2 can be exploited as an approach to reinforce the efficacy of ER stress-inducing agents against cancer.

Magnaporthe oryzae is the causal agent of rice blast outbreaks. L-ascorbic acid (ASC) is a famous antioxidant found in nature. However, while ASC is rare or absent in fungi, a five-carbon analog, D-erythroascorbic acid (EASC), seems to appear to be a substitute for ASC. Although the antioxidant function of ASC has been widely described, the specific properties and physiological functions of EASC remain poorly understood. In this study, we identified a D-arabinono-1,4-lactone oxidase (ALO) domain-containing protein, MoAlo1, and found that MoAlo1 was localized to mitochondria. Disruption of MoALO1 (ΔMoalo1) exhibited defects in vegetative growth as well as conidiogenesis. The ΔMoalo1 mutant was found to be more sensitive to exogenous H2O2. Additionally, the pathogenicity of conidia in the ΔMoalo1 null mutant was reduced deeply in rice, and defective penetration of appressorium-like structures (ALS) formed by the hyphal tips was also observed in the ΔMoalo1 null mutant. When exogenous EASC was added to the conidial suspension, the defective pathogenicity of the ΔMoalo1 mutant was restored. Collectively, MoAlo1 is essential for growth, conidiogenesis, and pathogenicity in M. oryzae.

The microstructure evolution of secondary austenite in 2507 duplex stainless steel was investigated by means of optical metallography, scanning electron microscopy and confocal scanning laser microscopy. Four types of secondary austenite (γ 2 ) morphologies including partially transformed austenite, grain boundary austenite, Widmannstätten austenite (WA) and intragranular austenite could be formed during cooling after solution treatment. It was concluded that secondary austenite morphology was mainly dependent on cooling rates. Two mechanisms of WA formation were proposed. WA nucleated at grain boundary of ferrite or at the formed phase boundary. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis displayed that WA grew in parallel to the ferrite. The effects of Cr 2 N on secondary austenite precipitation were discussed in detail. Once Cr 2 N was involved, a mechanism was proposed that secondary austenite formed by element diffusion, leading to the migration of the austenite–ferrite interface. Cr 2 N acted as the nucleation sites for γ 2 and provided the nitrogen for the transformation; meanwhile, the precipitation of Cr 2 N during the rapid cooling was captured by TEM. A process of nucleation followed by diffusion was concluded to be the formation of secondary austenite with no Cr 2 N precipitated. The decomposition of secondary austenite was also studied, which was found to be a diffusion mechanism followed by displacement in connection with the element distribution.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma-associated gene 6 (NGX6) was shown to be a novel putative tumor suppressor gene in colon cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate its role in regulation of miRNA expression for in the hopes of translating this data into a novel strategy in control of colon cancer. In this study colon cancer HT-29 cells were stably transfected with NGX6 or vector-only plasmid and then subjected to miRNA array analysis, and Q-RT-PCR was then used to verify miRNA array data. Then bioinformatic analyses using Sanger, Target Scan, and MicroRNA software were performed to obtain data on the target genes of each miRNA and define their function. Our results showed that 14 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in NGX6-transfected cells compared to the control cells. In particular, miR-126, miR-142-3p, miR-155, miR-552, and miR-630 were all upregulated, whereas miR-146a, miR-152, miR-205, miR-365, miR-449, miR-518c, miR-584, miR-615, and miR-622 were downregulated after NGX6 transfection. Q-RT-PCR confirmed all of these miRNAs, and invalidated miR-552 and miR-630. Furthermore, bioinformatic analyses of these 12 miRNAs, among these miRNAs, target genes of miR-615 are unclear, another 11 miRNAs produced a total of 254 potential target genes and further study showed that these genes together formed a regulatory network that contributes to apoptosis, mobility/migration, hydrolysis activity, and molecular signaling through targeting JNK and Notch pathways. Taken together, these results have suggested that NGX6 plays an important role in regulation of apoptosis, mobility/migration, and hydrolase as well as activity of JNK and Notch pathways through NGX6-mediated miRNA expression. Further investigation will reveal the function of these differentially expressed miRNAs and verify expression of the miRNA-targeted genes for development of novel strategies for better control of colon cancer.

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is closely associated with several malignancies, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma. To investigate the EBV activity in tumor development, we tried to establish a malignant model of EBV-infected cells in nude mice. On the basis of the Maxi-EBV system, a human embryonic kidney epithelial cell line (293) with a low malignant potential was used for a stable EBV genome infection. The derived cell line, termed 293-EBV, exhibited obvious morphological transformation and significantly increased growth ability, with the cell cycle redistributed. The clonability and tumorigenicity were also substantially accelerated. In 293-EBV cells, the expression level of the transcription factor NF-κB and JNK2 were upregulated. The result suggested that latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) was an important viral protein responsible for the enhanced malignant potential. Matured and budding virus particles were observed in tumor tissues, confirming the spontaneous reactivation of EBV from latent genome to lytic cycle at the site of tumor development. Primary culture of tumor tissues showed two patterns about the EBV maintenance or not in newly grown cells, and this was dependent on the thickness of the planted tissues. Moreover, the tumor cells lost EBV genome easily when subcultured at low density. Our findings revealed the cell-to-cell contact mechanism, which was required for the EBV maintenance in the tumor cells during the expansion of EBV-infected cells. This mechanism might give an explanation to the phenomenon that EBV genome in epithelial tumor cells becomes easily lost during subculture in vitro. Our results provided further evidence of a function for EBV in the etiology of tumor development.

In this article, we introduced an artificial neural network (ANN) based computational model to predict the output power of three types of photovoltaic cells, mono-crystalline (mono-), multi-crystalline (multi-), and amorphous (amor-) crystalline. The prediction results are very close to the experimental data, and were also influenced by numbers of hidden neurons. The order of the solar generation power output influenced by the external conditions from smallest to biggest is: multi-, mono-, and amor- crystalline silicon cells. In addition, the dependences of power prediction on the number of hidden neurons were studied. For multi- and amorphous crystalline cell, three or four hidden layer units resulted in the high correlation coefficient and low MSEs. For mono-crystalline cell, the best results were achieved at the hidden layer unit of 8.

资源环境承载力是衡量一个地区人地关系协调发展程度的重要依据。基于资源环境承载力评价结果研究国土空间管制分区有利于优化国土空间开发格局，更充分地考虑土地适宜性，有利于土地合理利用和生态文明建设。采用层次分析法和GIS空间分析法，以罗定市为研究区域，计算得出罗定市适宜发展用地536.6 km2，限制发展用地1 445.5 km2，禁止发展用地352.8km2，在理想条件下土地资源所能承载的最大人口规模为466.6万，在耕地保护目标下最大承载人口规模为240.9万。基于资源环境系统承载力评价结果，结合罗定市土地利用现状和资源环境特点，将罗定市划分为生态环境安全控制区、生态涵养区、综合发展区和中心发展区4个类型区。基于资源环境承载力评价的国土空间管制分区可以为罗定市今后的国土空间开发格局优化提供科学参考。 Resources and environmental carrying capacity is an important basis for measuring the degree of coordinated development of human-land relations in a region. Based on the evaluation of resources and environmental carrying capacity, the study of space regionalization can help optimize patterns of national land and space development. In addition, it can fully account for the suitability of land and facilitate the rational use of land and the construction of ecological civilization. The present study used an analytic hierarchy process and GIS spatial analysis to evaluate the two dimensions of the resource environment constraint system and safeguard system using Luod

We present a sufficient and necessary condition for the subshift of finite type to be a measure-preserving transformation or to be a strong mixing measure-preserving transformation with respect to the Hausdorff measure. It is proved that a strong mixing subshift of finite type has a chaotic set with full Hausdorff measure.