Explore the vast range of titles available.

Orientation processing is one of the most fundamental functions in both visual and somatosensory perception. Converging findings suggest that orientation processing in both modalities is closely linked: somatosensory neurons share a similar orientation organisation as visual neurons, and the visual cortex has been found to be heavily involved in tactile orientation perception. Hence, we hypothesized that somatosensation would exhibit a similar orientation adaptation effect, and this adaptation effect would be transferable between the two modalities, considering the above-mentioned connection. The tilt aftereffect (TAE) is a demonstration of orientation adaptation and is used widely in behavioural experiments to investigate orientation mechanisms in vision. By testing the classic TAE paradigm in both tactile and crossmodal orientation tasks between vision and touch, we were able to show that tactile perception of orientation shows a very robust TAE, similar to its visual counterpart. We further show that orientation adaptation in touch transfers to produce a TAE when tested in vision, but not vice versa. Additionally, when examining the test sequence following adaptation for serial effects, we observed another asymmetry between the two conditions where the visual test sequence displayed a repulsive intramodal serial dependence effect while the tactile test sequence exhibited an attractive serial dependence. These findings provide concrete evidence that vision and touch engage a similar orientation processing mechanism. However, the asymmetry in the crossmodal transfer of TAE and serial dependence points to a non-reciprocal connection between the two modalities, providing further insights into the underlying processing mechanism.

From the perspective of agricultural industrialization, based on China's provincial data from 2006 to 2022, it studies the impact of financial inclusion on farmers' income. We have found that financial inclusion can effectively promote the growth of farmers' income, and this effect shows the heterogeneity of different income structures, income levels, and regional types. More importantly, agricultural industrialization is an important mechanism for financial inclusion to promote farmers' income growth. However, the interactive effect of financial inclusion and agricultural industrialization has not promoted the growth of farmers' income, indicating that there are certain structural problems in the current development of financial inclusion. We suggest that the development of financial inclusion should aim at the agricultural industrialization based on division of labor and cooperation. It can focus on supporting the development of local leading industries with regional comparative advantages, guide farmers to enter the agricultural industry chain, and improve farmers' opportunities to share economic results.

From the perspective of agricultural industrialization, based on China’s provincial data from 2006 to 2022, it studies the impact of financial inclusion on farmers’ income. We have found that financial inclusion can effectively promote the growth of farmers’ income, and this effect shows the heterogeneity of different income structures, income levels, and regional types. More importantly, agricultural industrialization is an important mechanism for financial inclusion to promote farmers’ income growth. However, the interactive effect of financial inclusion and agricultural industrialization has not promoted the growth of farmers’ income, indicating that there are certain structural problems in the current development of financial inclusion. We suggest that the development of financial inclusion should aim at the agricultural industrialization based on division of labor and cooperation. It can focus on supporting the development of local leading industries with regional comparative advantages, guide farmers to enter the agricultural industry chain, and improve farmers’ opportunities to share economic results.

The gut microbiota is a crucial modulator of Plasmodium infection in mosquitoes, including the production of anti- Plasmodium effector proteins. But how the commensal-derived effectors are translocated into Plasmodium parasites remains obscure. Here we show that a natural Plasmodium blocking symbiotic bacterium Serratia ureilytica Su_YN1 delivers the effector lipase AmLip to Plasmodium parasites via outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). After a blood meal, host serum strongly induces Su_YN1 to release OMVs and the antimalarial effector protein AmLip into the mosquito gut. AmLip is first secreted into the extracellular space via the T1SS and then preferentially loaded on the OMVs that selectively target the malaria parasite, leading to targeted killing of the parasites. Notably, these serum-induced OMVs incorporate certain serum-derived lipids, such as phosphatidylcholine, which is critical for OMV uptake by Plasmodium via the phosphatidylcholine scavenging pathway. These findings reveal that this gut symbiotic bacterium evolved to deliver secreted effector molecules in the form of extracellular vesicles to selectively attack parasites and render mosquitoes refractory to Plasmodium infection. The discovery of the role of gut commensal-derived OMVs as carriers in cross-kingdom communication between mosquito microbiota and Plasmodium parasites offers a potential innovative strategy for blocking malaria transmission. Here, Gao and colleagues show that the mosquito symbiotic bacterium Serratia ureilytica produces vesicles that deliver an anti- Plasmodium effector to the Plasmodium parasite and render mosquitoes resistant to the infection of malaria parasites.

Adequate lipid storage capacity is crucial for animal reproductive success, especially in female mosquitoes, which must accumulate sufficient lipid reserves to support egg production. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating lipid accumulation and the consequences of inadequate lipid stores remain poorly understood. Here, we show that stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 ( desat1 ) is indispensable for lipid reserve establishment and metabolic balance in female Anopheles and Aedes mosquitoes. Knockdown of desat1 of newly emerged females results in high mortality following a blood meal, whereas silencing desat1 of older mosquitoes does not affect survival. Moreover, desat1 activity of early-emerged females is essential for egg production and peritrophic matrix integrity. Lipidomic analyses reveal that silencing desat1 impairs the conversion of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) to unsaturated fatty acids (USFAs), disrupting triglyceride synthesis and leading to SFA accumulation. After blood feeding, accumulated SFAs induce lipotoxicity, characterized by elevated oxidative stress and apoptosis. We further find that blood meal-derived proteins stimulate the 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) signaling pathway, thereby exacerbating fatty acid β-oxidation, increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and inducing extensive apoptotic cell death in desat1 -silenced early-emerged females, ultimately leading to mortality. Our findings reveal Desat1 as a critical metabolic safeguard against hormone-induced lipotoxicity in blood-feeding insects, establishing a novel mechanistic link between classical lipid metabolism and steroid hormone signaling, and identifying desat1 as a promising target for vector control strategies. Sun et al . show that the gene stearoyl-CoA desaturase ( desat1 ) is vital for mosquito survival after a blood meal. Loss of desat1 function disrupts lipid homeostasis, and blood-meal-activated 20E signaling induces lethal lipotoxicity.

MicroRNAs are short, noncoding RNAs that play important roles in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Although many functions of microRNAs in plants and animals have been revealed in recent years, the transcriptional mechanism of microRNA genes is not well-understood. To elucidate the transcriptional regulation of microRNA genes, we study and characterize, in a genome scale, the promoters of intergenic microRNA genes in Caenorhabditis elegans, Homo sapiens, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Oryza sativa. We show that most known microRNA genes in these four species have the same type of promoters as protein-coding genes have. To further characterize the promoters of microRNA genes, we developed a novel promoter prediction method, called common query voting (CoVote), which is more effective than available promoter prediction methods. Using this new method, we identify putative core promoters of most known microRNA genes in the four model species. Moreover, we characterize the promoters of microRNA genes in these four species. We discover many significant, characteristic sequence motifs in these core promoters, several of which match or resemble the known cis-acting elements for transcription initiation. Among these motifs, some are conserved across different species while some are specific to microRNA genes of individual species.

The spatio-temporal evolution of land use/land cover (LULC) and habitat quality (HQ) is vital to maintaining ecological balance and realizing regional sustainable development. Using the InVEST and CA-Markov model, with the Kendall coefficient as the sensitivity value, LULC and HQ in Lu’an City from 2000 to 2030 are simulated and evaluated. Then, Spearman is used to analyze the correlation between HQ and driving factors. Finally, the influence of policy factors on HQ is discussed. The results show the following: (1) from 2000 to 2030, the LULC of Lu’an is mainly cropland (about 40%) and forest land (about 30%) which are transferred to construction land; (2) the kappa coefficient is 0.9097 (>0.75), indicating that the prediction results are valid; (3) the Spearman coefficient shows that DEM (0.706), SLOPE (0.600), TRI (0.681), and HFI (−0.687) are strongly correlated with HQ, while FVC (0.356) and GDP (−0.368) are weakly correlated with HQ; (4) the main reasons for the decrease in HQ are the increase in construction land area, the decrease in forest area, the vulnerability of artificial forests to threat factors, and their low biodiversity. This study outlines exploratory research from two perspectives of HQ factors and policy effects to provide policy suggestions for the sustainable development of Lu’an City.

The use of entomopathogenic fungi to control mosquitoes is a promising tool for reducing vector-borne disease transmission. To better understand infection stratagems of insect pathogenic fungi, we analyzed the global gene expression profiling of Beauveria bassiana at 36, 60, 84 and 108 h after topical infection of Anopheles stephensi adult mosquitoes using RNA sequencing （RNA-Seq）. A total of 5,354 differentially expressed genes （DEGs） are identified over the course of fungal infection. When the fungus grows on the mosquito cuticle, up-regulated DEGs include adhesion-related genes involved in cuticle attachment, Pthl l-like GPCRs hypothesized to be involved in host recognition, and extracellular enzymes involved in the degradation and penetration of the mosquito cuticle. Once in the mosquito hemocoel, the fungus evades mosquito immune system probably through up-regulating expression of 13-1,3-glucan degrading enzymes and chitin synthesis enzymes for remodeling of cell walls. Moreover, six previous unknown SSCP （small secreted cysteine-rich proteins） are significantly up-regulated, which may serve as ＂effectors＂ to suppress host defense responses. B. bassiana also induces large amounts of antioxidant genes to mitigate host-generated exogenous oxidative stress. At late stage of infection, B. bassiana activates a broad spectrum of genes including nutrient degrading enzymes, some transporters and metabolism pathway components, to exploit mosquito tissues and hemolymph as a nutrient source for hyphal growth. These findings establish an important framework of knowledge for further comprehensive elucidation of fungal pathogenesis and molecular mechanism of Beauveria-mosquito interactions.

The leading cause of heart failure is cardiomyopathy and damage to the cardiomyocytes. Adult mammalian cardiomyocytes have the ability to regenerate, but this cannot wholly compensate for myocardial cell loss after myocardial injury. Studies have shown that exercise has a regulatory role in the activation and promotion of regeneration of healthy and injured adult cardiomyocytes. However, current research on the effects of aerobic exercise in myocardial regeneration is not comprehensive. This review discusses the relationships between aerobic exercise and the regeneration of cardiomyocytes with respect to complex molecular and cellular mechanisms, paracrine factors, transcriptional factors, signaling pathways, and microRNAs that induce cardiac regeneration. The topics discussed herein provide a knowledge base for physical activity-induced cardiomyocyte regeneration, in which exercise enhances overall heart function and improves the efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation.

To investigate the effect of high-intensity exhaustive exercise on body and the molecular mechanism of oxidative stress regulating apoptosis of cardiovascular endothelial cells (CVECs), 70 college students who took an aerobics course were recruited as the research subjects, all of which were divided into the high-intensity group (35 students) and the moderate-intensity group (35 students). The Internet of Things- (IoT-) based human exercise information monitoring system was employed to collect the electrocardiogram, serum indexes, and oxidative stress indexes of the two groups of subjects after exercise. Moreover, 30 clean male SD rats were divided into exhaustive exercise group (n=10), routine exercise group (n=10), and blank control group (n=10) using treadmill exercise as stress source, and various physiological indexes of the three groups were compared. In human experiments, the time-domain indexes of heart rate variability (HRV), 50 ms in the total number of sinus heartbeats (PNN50), the standard deviation of all NN intervals (SDNN), standard deviation of mean NN interval (SDANN), standard deviation of difference between adjacent NN intervals (SDSD), root mean square (RMSSD) in the high intensity group were lower than those in the moderate intensity group (P<0.05). The levels of T-sensitive troponin I (Tnl-ultra), cortisol (COR), high-sensitive troponin T (TnT-hs), high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and human heart-type fatty acid binding protein (HUMAN H-FABP) in high intensity group were higher than those in moderate intensity group (P<0.05). Experiments on animals found that SOD content and mRNA expression of fork-head box 03A (FOX03A) and silencing-information regulator 1 (Sirtl) in serum of rats in exhaustion exercise group were lower than those in the routine exercise group and blank control group, while lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents were opposite (P<0.05). In short, strenuous exercise made the body in the state of acute stress, leading to the disturbance of cardiac autonomic nervous function and sympathetic nervous function, and increasing the risk of malignant arrhythmia. Oxidative stress induced by exhaustive exercise may promote the apoptosis of CVECs by reducing the expression of Sirtl and FOX03A and locating FOX03A to the nucleus.