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Sweet sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor Moench) seedling emergence and growth are significantly impeded by physical soil crusts (PSCs) in saline-alkaline soils. Abscisic acid (ABA) is a potent seed priming agent known for modulating plant physiological and metabolic responses under salinity stress. However, the influence of ABA priming on seedling emergence in PSCs remains unclear. This study conducted both pot and field experiment to examine the effects of ABA priming on enhancing seedling emergence under PSC conditions. ABA priming altered the balance of at least 24 endogenous phytohormones, including abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, gibberellins, ethylene, auxins, and cytokinins. Additionally, it reprogrammed starch and sucrose metabolism, resulting in the differential expression of genes encoding key enzymes such as AMY, BAM, and INV, which are crucial for converting complex sugars into readily available energy sources, thereby supporting seedling growth. Furthermore, 52 differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) of flavonoids were identified in germinating seedlings, including 15 anthocyanins, 3 flavones, 7 flavonols, 6 isoflavones, 7 flavanones, and 14 other flavonoids. Genetic and metabolic co-expression network analysis, along with flavonoid biosynthesis pathway exploration, revealed that the biosynthesis of 17 key DEMs—including liquiritigenin, apigenin, kaempferide, syringetin, phloretin, formononetin, dihydrokaempferol, and xanthohumol—was regulated by 10 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with flavonoid biosynthesis. These DEGs encoded 7 enzymes critical for this pathway, including chalcone synthase, shikimate O-hydroxycinnamoyltransferase, bifunctional dihydroflavonol 4-reductase, naringenin 7-O-methyltransferase, and anthocyanidin reductase. This regulation, along with reduced levels of superoxide anion (O 2 − ) and malondialdehyde and increased antioxidant enzyme activities, suggested that flavonoids played a vital role in mitigating oxidative stress. These findings demonstrate that ABA priming can effectively enhance sweet sorghum seedling emergence in PSCs by accelerating emergence and boosting stress resistance.

Main conclusionThe alpine meadow plants showed great intra- and inter-genera variations of chemical profiles of cuticular waxes.Developing an understanding of wax structure-function relationships that will help us tackle global climate change requires a detailed understanding of plant wax chemistry. The goal in this study was to provide a catalog of wax structures, abundances, and compositions on alpine meadow plants. Here, leaf waxes from 33 plant species belonging to 11 families were sampled from alpine meadows of the east side of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Across these species, total wax coverage varied from 2.30 μg cm−2 to 40.70 μg cm−2, showing variation both within as well as between genera and suggesting that wax variation is subject to both environmental and genetic effects. Across all wax samples, more than 140 wax compounds belonging to 13 wax compound classes were identified, including both ubiquitous wax compounds and lineage-specific compounds. Among the ubiquitous compounds (primary alcohols, alkyl esters, aldehydes, alkanes, and fatty acids), chain length profiles across a wide range of species point to key differences in the chain length specificity of alcohol and alkane formation machinery. The lineage-specific wax compound classes (diols, secondary alcohols, lactones, iso-alkanes, alkyl resorcinols, phenylethyl esters, cinnamate esters, alkyl benzoates, and triterpenoids) nearly all consisted of isomers with varying chain lengths or functional group positions, making the diversity of specialized wax compounds immense. The comparison of species relationships between chemical data and genetic data highlighted the importance of inferring phylogenetic relationships from data sets that contain a large number of variables that do not respond to environmental stimuli.

Soil salinization has become one of the major environmental issues in many parts of the world. However, how saline soils influence plant cuticular wax depositions and their contribution to soil organic carbon (SOC) is still not clear. Soil chemical properties, lipids and microbial diversity, leaf cuticular waxes and their degradation in soil, were compared between wetland meadow (WM, pH 8.75) and typical meadow (TM, pH8.02). Higher wax coverage was observed on plants located in TM than WM, which was mainly attributed to the higher water-soluble salts (WSS) in TM. The contents of soil organic carbon (SOC) were lower in WM than TM, whereas higher contents of soil lipids were observed in WM than TM at 10–20 cm and 20–30 cm soil layers, suggesting that the lipid transformation differed between the two soils. Plant wax degradation analysis indicated that wax degraded slower in WM than TM, and higher degradation rates were observed under lower pH than higher pH in vitro experiment, suggesting that higher lipid contents in WM might be attributed to low lipid degradation rate induced by high pH level. Structure equation module analysis further indicated that soil pH influenced the diversity and abundance of soil bacterial, which further altered the soil lipid transformation and SOC storage. Our results suggested that, in saline soils, WSS influenced more on plant wax deposition, whereas the soil pH was the principal factor influencing the soil microbe communities, which further influenced the lipid transformation, and ultimately SOC.

T follicular helper (T FH ) cells are specialized effector CD4 + T cells critical to humoral immunity. Whether post-transcriptional regulation has a function in T FH cells is unknown. Here, we show conditional deletion of METTL3 (a methyltransferase catalyzing mRNA N 6 -methyladenosine (m 6 A) modification) in CD4 + T cells impairs T FH differentiation and germinal center responses in a cell-intrinsic manner in mice. METTL3 is necessary for expression of important T FH signature genes, including Tcf7 , Bcl6 , Icos and Cxcr5 and these effects depend on intact methyltransferase activity. m 6 A-miCLIP-seq shows the 3′ UTR of Tcf7 mRNA is subjected to METTL3-dependent m 6 A modification. Loss of METTL3 or mutation of the Tcf7 3′ UTR m 6 A site results in accelerated decay of Tcf7 transcripts. Importantly, ectopic expression of TCF-1 (encoded by Tcf7 ) rectifies T FH defects owing to METTL3 deficiency. Our findings indicate that METTL3 stabilizes Tcf7 transcripts via m 6 A modification to ensure activation of a T FH transcriptional program, indicating a pivotal function of post-transcriptional regulation in promoting T FH cell differentiation. T follicular helper (T FH ) cells are specialized effector CD4 + T cells that are critical in humoral immunity, but the function of post-transcriptional regulation is not clearly defined. Here, the authors demonstrate that RNA methylation is important for T FH effector differentiation and subsequent antibody formation through stabilization of Tcf7 transcripts.

Currently, various techniques are efficient in eliminating high quantities of fluoride from water, while the deep treatment of a low concentration of fluoridated water is inadequate. In this work, four metallic phosphates were synthesized, including YP, ZrP, CeP, and LaP, to enhance the elimination of fluoride. The X-ray diffractometer data demonstrated that ZrP was amorphous, while CeP, LaP, and YP were highly crystalline. YP had a strong fluoride removal ability in a neutral environment, and ZrP exhibited a superior fluoride adsorption effect in acidic media. The adsorption kinetic results suggested that YP, CeP, and LaP could achieve the adsorption equilibrium within 150 min, which was faster than ZrP. YP had the largest fluoride adsorption capacity fitted by Langmuir of 31.61 mg/g at 298 K, followed by ZrP, which was greater than those of CeP and LaP. All four metallic phosphates showed high selectivity in the interference of competing anions and organics, with YP and ZrP exhibiting superior selectivity than CeP and LaP. The adsorption mechanism was ligand exchange between metallic phosphate particles and fluoride, which was validated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The adsorption rate of metallic phosphates remained essentially stable in five consecutive adsorption–desorption cycles. Overall, metallic phosphates, especially YP and ZrP, have enormous potential in enhancing fluoride removal in the treatment of fluoridated water.

Breast cancer preferentially develops osteolytic bone metastasis, which makes patients suffer from pain, fractures and spinal cord compression. Accumulating evidences have shown that exosomes play an irreplaceable role in pre-metastatic niche formation as a communication messenger. However, the function of exosomes secreted by breast cancer cells remains incompletely understood in bone metastasis of breast cancer. Mouse xenograft models and intravenous injection of exosomes were applied for analyzing the role of breast cancer cell-derived exosomes . Effects of exosomes secreted by the mildly metastatic MDA231 and its subline SCP28 with highly metastatic ability on osteoclasts formation were confirmed by TRAP staining, ELISA, microcomputed tomography, histomorphometric analyses, and pit formation assay. The candidate exosomal miRNAs for promoting osteoclastogenesis were globally screened by RNA-seq. qRT-PCR, western blot, confocal microscopy, and RNA interfering were performed to validate the function of exosomal miRNA. Implantation of SCP28 tumor cells leads to increased osteoclast activity and reduced bone density, which contributes to the formation of pre-metastatic niche for tumor cells. We found SCP28 cells-secreted exosomes are critical factors in promoting osteoclast differentiation and activation, which consequently accelerates bone lesion to reconstruct microenvironment for bone metastasis. Mechanistically, exosomal miR-21 derived from SCP28 cells facilitates osteoclastogenesis through regulating PDCD4 protein levels. Moreover, miR-21 level in serum exosomes of breast cancer patients with bone metastasis is significantly higher than that in other subpopulations. Our results indicate that breast cancer cell-derived exosomes play an important role in promoting breast cancer bone metastasis, which is associated with the formation of pre-metastatic niche via transferring miR-21 to osteoclasts. The data from patient samples further reflect the significance of miR-21 as a potential target for clinical diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer bone metastasis.

The induction of cuproptosis, a recently identified form of copper‐dependent immunogenic cell death, is a promising approach for antitumor therapy. However, sufficient accumulation of intracellular copper ions (Cu2+) in tumor cells is essential for inducing cuproptosis. Herein, an intelligent cuproptosis‐inducing nanosystem is constructed by encapsulating copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles with the copper ionophore elesclomol (ES). After uptake by tumor cells, ES@CuO is degraded to release Cu2+ and ES to synergistically trigger cuproptosis, thereby significantly inhibiting the tumor growth of murine B16 melanoma cells. Moreover, ES@CuO further promoted cuproptosis‐mediated immune responses and reprogrammed the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment by increasing the number of tumor‐infiltrating lymphocytes and secreted inflammatory cytokines. Additionally, combining ES@CuO with programmed cell death‐1 (PD‐1) immunotherapy substantially increased the antitumor efficacy in murine melanoma. Overall, the findings of this study can lead to the use of a novel strategy for cuproptosis‐mediated antitumor therapy, which may enhance the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. A copper oxide (CuO)‐based and copper ionophore elesclomol (ES)‐loaded nanoplatform (denoted ES@CuO) is designed to trigger immunogenic cell death via cuproptosis. Meanwhile, combined therapy with ES@CuO nanoparticles and PD‐1 synergistically remodels the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment to significantly inhibit the growth of murine melanoma.

The deep defluorination of water remains a significant environmental challenge. In this work, aluminum was loaded onto the bifunctional resin S957 containing a phosphoric-sulfonic acid difunctional group for efficient fluoride removal. Al-S957 demonstrated excellent fluoride removal performance across a broad pH range. When anions and organics coexisted, Al-S957 exhibited significantly better fluoride adsorption performance compared to aluminum-loaded monofunctional resins. The adsorption followed an endothermic chemisorption process on a monolayer surface. FTIR and XPS analyses further revealed that fluoride removal relied on a ligand exchange mechanism. Column adsorption conducted over five cycles highlighted the strong practical potential of Al-S957. The results suggested that Al-S957 exhibits significant potential for practical applications.

Compact and power-efficient plastic electronic synapses are of fundamental importance to overcoming the bottlenecks of developing a neuromorphic chip. Memristor is a strong contender among the various electronic synapses in existence today. However, the speeds of synaptic events are relatively slow in most attempts at emulating synapses due to the material-related mechanism. Here we revealed the intrinsic memristance of stoichiometric crystalline Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 that originates from the charge trapping and releasing by the defects. The device resistance states, representing synaptic weights, were precisely modulated by 30 ns potentiating/depressing electrical pulses. We demonstrated four spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) forms by applying programmed pre- and postsynaptic spiking pulse pairs in different time windows ranging from 50 ms down to 500 ns, the latter of which is 10 5  times faster than the speed of STDP in human brain. This study provides new opportunities for building ultrafast neuromorphic computing systems and surpassing Von Neumann architecture.

The kinase PDK1 is a crucial regulator for immune cell development by connecting PI3K to downstream AKT signaling. However, the roles of PDK1 in CD4 + T cell differentiation, especially in T follicular helper (Tfh) cell, remain obscure. Here we reported PDK1 intrinsically promotes the Tfh cell differentiation and germinal center responses upon acute infection by using conditional knockout mice. PDK1 deficiency in T cells caused severe defects in both early differentiation and late maintenance of Tfh cells. The expression of key Tfh regulators was remarkably downregulated in PDK1-deficient Tfh cells, including Tcf7 , Bcl6 , Icos , and Cxcr5 . Mechanistically, ablation of PDK1 led to impaired phosphorylation of AKT and defective activation of mTORC1, resulting in substantially reduced expression of Hif1α and p-STAT3. Meanwhile, decreased p-AKT also suppresses mTORC2-associated GSK3β activity in PDK1-deficient Tfh cells. These integrated effects contributed to the dramatical reduced expression of TCF1 and ultimately impaired the Tfh cell differentiation.