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Background Autophagy represents an ancient cytoprotective program that sustains cell viability under metabolic or environmental stresses via targeted recycling of cellular components. However, the contribution of ATG18s in maize is ambiguous. Results This work aims to identify and characterize the maize ZmATG18 subfamily genes at the whole-genome level and a total of eight ZmATG18 subfamily genes were identified. Gene duplication analysis showed that segmental duplication events were involved in the ZmATG18 gene evolution process. Promoter analysis suggested that ZmATG18 genes contained numerous stress and hormone-related elements. The phylogenetic relationships, conserved motifs and gene structure analysis revealed that ZmATG18 subfamily members were highly comparable to their counterparts in Arabidopsis , rice and tomato. The expression profiles of ZmATG18 gene family during development revealed that ZmATG18 genes exhibited distinct tissue-specific expression patterns at different developmental stages in maize. Furthermore, the role of ZmATG18a was analyzed under drought stress. Subcellular localization showed that ZmATG18a was present in both the cytoplasm and nucleus. ZmATG18a plays a positive role in drought stress since the stop-of-gain EMS mutant of ZmATG18a was more sensitive to drought stress whereas the Mutator mutant which showed higher ATG18a expression was less sensitive to drought stress. Conclusions In this study, we identified the ZmATG18 subfamily members in B73 inbred line for their physicochemical properties, gene structures, conserved motifs, phylogenetic analysis, expression profile analysis. Finally, ZmATG18a was demonstrated to play a positive role in drought stress. This study provides insights into the diversity of ZmATG18 subfamily genes and their potential role in drought stress. More importantly, ZmATG18a was identified to be potential target for genetic engineering to improve drought stress tolerance of maize.

Biomarkers screening is a benefit approach for early diagnosis of major diseases. In this study, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been utilized as labels to establish a multi-line immunochromatography (MNP-MLIC) for simultaneous detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA 19–9), and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in a single serum sample. Under the optimal parameters, the three biomarkers can be rapidly and simultaneously qualitative screening within 15 min by naked eye. As for quantitative detection, the MNP-MLIC test strips were precisely positioned and captured by a smartphone, and signals on the test and control lines were extracted by ImageJ software. The signal ratio of test and control lines has been calculated and used to plot quantitative standard curves with the logarithmic concentration, of which the correlation coefficients are more than 0.99, and the limit of detection for CEA, CA 19–9, and AFP were 0.60 ng/mL, 1.21 U/mL, and 0.93 ng/mL, respectively. The recoveries of blank serum were 75.0 ~ 112.5% with the relative standard deviation ranging from 2.5 to 15.3%, and the specificity investigation demonstrated that the MNP-MLIC is highly specific to the three biomarkers. In conclusion, the developed MNP-MLIC offers a rapid, simple, accurate, and highly specific method for simultaneously detecting multiple biomarkers in serum samples, which provides an efficient and accurate approach for the early diagnosis of diseases.

Novel green-emitting fluorescent microspheres (GreFMPs) were assembled by loading highly luminescent gold nanoclusters (Arg/ATT/AuNCs) on dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DMSNs) via PEI-mediated electrostatic adsorption. The fluorescence microspheres  exhibit excellent monodispersion with average diameters about (254.5 ± 34.6 nm). Compared with free Arg/ATT/AuNCs, the GreFMPs have similar fluorescent properties and biocompatibility but superior environmental tolerance. Subsequently, an immunochromatographic assay based on GreFMPs (GreFMP-ICA) has been successfully developed, which is highly selective toward alpha fetoprotein (AFP) in human serum. Under the optimal parameters, there is a good linear range between 0.5 and 160.0 ng/mL, the limit of detection was found to be about 0.5 ng/mL, and the recovery and relative standard deviation are 81.0 ~ 100.6% and 3.5 ~ 16.6%, respectively. These results manifested that the GreFMPs are beneficial for the rational design of the ICA platform, and the proposed GreFMP-ICA has the potential to screen AFP in clinical applications. Graphical Abstract

As a plant-specific endoreplication regulator, the SIAMESE-RELATED (SMR) family (a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor) plays an important role in plant growth and development and resistance to stress. Although the genes of the maize (Zea mays) SMR family have been studied extensively, the ZmSMR10 (Zm00001eb231280) gene has not been reported. In this study, the function of this gene was characterized by overexpression and silencing. Compared with the control, the transgenic plants exhibited the phenotypes of early maturation, dwarfing, and drought resistance. Expression of the protein in prokaryotes demonstrates that ZmSMR10 is a small protein, and the results of subcellular localization suggest that it travels functionally in the nucleus. Unlike ZmSMR4, yeast two-hybrid experiments demonstrated that ZmSMR10 does not interact strongly with with some cell cycle protein-dependent protein kinase (CDK) family members ZmCDKA;1/ZmCDKA;3/ZmCDKB1;1. Instead, it interacts strongly with ZmPCNA2 and ZmCSN5B. Based on these results, we concluded that ZmSMR10 is involved in the regulation of endoreplication through the interaction of ZmPCNA2 and ZmCSN5B. These findings provide a theoretical basis to understand the mechanism of the regulation of endoreplication and improve the yield of maize through the use of molecular techniques.

As a plant-specific endoreplication regulator, the SIAMESE-RELATED (SMR) family (a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor) plays an important role in plant growth and development and resistance to stress. Although the genes of the maize (Zea mays) SMR family have been studied extensively, the ZmSMR10 (Zm00001eb231280) gene has not been reported. In this study, the function of this gene was characterized by overexpression and silencing. Compared with the control, the transgenic plants exhibited the phenotypes of early maturation, dwarfing, and drought resistance. Expression of the protein in prokaryotes demonstrates that ZmSMR10 is a small protein, and the results of subcellular localization suggest that it travels functionally in the nucleus. Unlike ZmSMR4, yeast two-hybrid experiments demonstrated that ZmSMR10 does not interact strongly with with some cell cycle protein-dependent protein kinase (CDK) family members ZmCDKA;1/ZmCDKA;3/ZmCDKB1;1. Instead, it interacts strongly with ZmPCNA2 and ZmCSN5B. Based on these results, we concluded that ZmSMR10 is involved in the regulation of endoreplication through the interaction of ZmPCNA2 and ZmCSN5B. These findings provide a theoretical basis to understand the mechanism of the regulation of endoreplication and improve the yield of maize through the use of molecular techniques.