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The extensive use of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) has raised concerns about their potentially harmful effects on the ecosystem. Despite previous reports of a variety of individual ENPs, the mutual effects of ENPs when used in combination were not well understood. In this study, we first investigated the effects of different sizes and concentrations of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) or multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the growth performance of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Then, two concentrations of ZnO NP (40 and 50 mg/L) with a diameter of 90 nm and MWCNTs (100 and 500 mg/L) with an outer diameter of 40–60 nm were used to evaluate their respective or simultaneous phytotoxicity to Arabidopsis. The results showed that seedlings exposed to either ZnO NPs or MWCNTs exhibited significant phytotoxic symptoms. ZnO NPs caused stronger inhibitory effects than MWCNTs on several plant growth indices, including reduced root length, chlorophyll content, and increased ROS concentration. When applied together, the concurrent effects of ZnO NPs and MWCNTs on Arabidopsis seedlings appeared to be more negative, as evidenced not only by the further deterioration of several growth indices but also by their synergistic or additive regulation of the activities of several antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione reductase (GR). Moreover, qRT-PCR analysis revealed that in the presence of ZnO NPs and MWCNTs, the expression of genes important for maintaining cellular ROS homeostasis was differentially regulated in shoots and roots of Arabidopsis seedlings. Overall, our data may provide new insights into how plants respond to more than one type of nanomaterial and help us better understand the associated environmental risks.

Our previous study was the first to confirm that the predominant conformation of mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequence of Salvia species contains two circular chromosomes. To further understand the organization, variation, and evolution of Salvia mitogenomes, we characterized the mitogenome of Salvia officinalis. The mitogenome of S. officinalis was sequenced using Illumina short reads and Nanopore long reads and assembled using a hybrid assembly strategy. We found that the predominant conformation of the S. officinalis mitogenome also had two circular chromosomes that were 268,341 bp (MC1) and 39,827 bp (MC2) in length. The S. officinalis mitogenome encoded an angiosperm-typical set of 24 core genes, 9 variable genes, 3 rRNA genes, and 16 tRNA genes. We found many rearrangements of the Salvia mitogenome through inter- and intra-specific comparisons. A phylogenetic analysis of the coding sequences (CDs) of 26 common protein-coding genes (PCGs) of 11 Lamiales species and 2 outgroup taxa strongly indicated that the S. officinalis was a sister taxon to S. miltiorrhiza, consistent with the results obtained using concatenated CDs of common plastid genes. The mapping of RNA-seq data to the CDs of PCGs led to the identification of 451 C-to-U RNA editing sites from 31 PCGs of the S. officinalis mitogenome. Using PCR amplification and Sanger sequencing methods, we successfully validated 113 of the 126 RNA editing sites from 11 PCGs. The results of this study suggest that the predominant conformation of the S. officinalis mitogenome are two circular chromosomes, and the stop gain of rpl5 was found through RNA editing events of the Salvia mitogenome.

In May 2023, characteristic symptoms of fire blight, suspected to be caused by Erwinia amylovora , were observed infected wild Cotoneaster plants in the secondary forest along the lower reaches of the Jilgilang River, Xinjiang, China. Symptomatic tissues were collected, and bacterial isolation and purification were performed. The bacterium was identified through morphological characterization of the colonies, pathogenicity assays, tobacco hypersensitivity tests, and specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, followed by sequence analysis. The isolated bacterium exhibited morphological features consistent with E. amylovora , and pathogenicity tests conducted under greenhouse conditions confirmed its pathogenicity, as evidenced by bacterial dissemination from the main leaf veins to surrounding tissues and the presence of bacterial exudates at the petioles. Furthermore, a pronounced hypersensitive response was observed in tobacco. PCR followed by sequencing revealed over 99.6% similarity with E. amylovora plasmid pEa29 repeat region. These findings confirm the E. amylovora is the causal agent of the fire blight disease in wild Cotoneaster plants. This is the first documented case of the fire blight affecting Cotoneaster plants in China. The detection of this pathogen has significant implications for the conservation of wild Rosaceae germplasm in the Tianshan Mountains wild fruit forests in Xinjiang.

Tetrahedral units can transport oxide anions via interstitial or vacancy defects owing to their great deformation and rotation flexibility. Compared with interstitial defects, vacancy-mediated oxide-ion conduction in tetrahedra-based structures is more difficult and occurs rarely. The isolated tetrahedral anion Scheelite structure has showed the advantage of conducting oxygen interstitials but oxygen vacancies can hardly be introduced into Scheelite to promote the oxide ion migration. Here we demonstrate that oxygen vacancies can be stabilized in the BiVO 4 Scheelite structure through Sr 2+ for Bi 3+ substitution, leading to corner-sharing V 2 O 7 tetrahedral dimers, and migrate via a cooperative mechanism involving V 2 O 7 -dimer breaking and reforming assisted by synergic rotation and deformation of neighboring VO 4 tetrahedra. This finding reveals the ability of Scheelite structure to transport oxide ion through vacancies or interstitials, emphasizing the possibility to develop oxide-ion conductors with parallel vacancy and interstitial doping strategies within the same tetrahedra-based structure type. Fast oxide ion conductors are the key materials for some technological devices. Here the authors report the creation and stabilization of oxygen vacancies in BiVO 4 Scheelite with isolated tetrahedral anion structures for improved ionic conducting performance and understanding of the conduction mechanism.

Cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) synthase (cGAS, a.k.a. MB21D1), a cytosolic DNA sensor, catalyzes formation of the second messenger 2'3'-cGAMP that activates the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) signaling. How the cGAS activity is modulated remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that sentrin/SUMO-specific protease 7 (SENP7) interacted with and potentiated cGAS activation. The small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) was conjugated onto the lysine residues 335, 372 and 382 of cGAS, which suppressed its DNA-binding, oligomerization and nucleotidyl-transferase activities. SENP7 reversed this inhibition via catalyzing the cGAS de-SUMOylation. Consistently, silencing of SENP7 markedly impaired the IRF3-responsive gene expression induced by cGAS-STING axis. SENP7-knockdown mice were more susceptible to herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection. SENP7 was significantly up-regulated in patients with SLE. Our study highlights the temporal modulation of the cGAS activity via dynamic SUMOylation, uncovering a novel mechanism for fine-tuning the STING signaling in innate immunity.

Background Alpinia species are widely used as medicinal herbs. To understand the taxonomic classification and plastome evolution of the medicinal Alpinia species and correctly identify medicinal products derived from Alpinia species, we systematically analyzed the plastome sequences from five Alpinia species. Four of the Alpinia species: Alpinia galanga (L.) Willd., Alpinia hainanensis K.Schum., Alpinia officinarum Hance, and Alpinia oxyphylla Miq., are listed in the Chinese pharmacopeia. The other one, Alpinia nigra (Gaertn.) Burtt, is well known for its medicinal values. Results The four Alpinia species: A. galanga , A. nigra , A. officinarum , and A. oxyphylla , were sequenced using the Next-generation sequencing technology. The plastomes were assembled using Novoplasty and annotated using CPGAVAS2. The sizes of the four plastomes range from 160,590 bp for A. galanga to 164,294 bp for A. nigra , and display a conserved quadripartite structure. Each of the plastomes encodes a total of 111 unique genes, including 79 protein-coding, 28 tRNA, and four rRNA genes. In addition, 293–296 SSRs were detected in the four plastomes, of which the majority are mononucleotides Adenine/Thymine and are found in the noncoding regions. The long repeat analysis shows all types of repeats are contained in the plastomes, of which palindromic repeats occur most frequently. The comparative genomic analyses revealed that the pair of the inverted repeats were less divergent than the single-copy region. Analysis of sequence divergence on protein-coding genes showed that two genes ( acc D and ycf 1) had undergone positive selection. Phylogenetic analysis based on coding sequence of 77 shared plastome genes resolves the molecular phylogeny of 20 species from Zingiberaceae. In particular, molecular phylogeny of four sequenced Alpinia species ( A. galanga , A. nigra , A. officinarum , and A. oxyphylla ) based on the plastome and nuclear sequences showed congruency. Furthermore, a comparison of the four newly sequenced Alpinia plastomes and one previously reported Alpinia plastomes (accession number: NC_048461) reveals 59 highly divergent intergenic spacer regions. We developed and validated two molecular markers Alpp and Alpr, based on two regions: pet N- psb M and psa J- rpl 33, respectively. The discrimination success rate was 100 % in validation experiments. Conclusions The results from this study will be invaluable for ensuring the effective and safe uses of Alpinia medicinal products and for the exploration of novel Alpinia species to improve human health.

Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) can be absorbed by plants, thereby affecting plant physiological activity, regulating gene expression, and altering metabolite content. However, the molecular mechanisms by which exogenous selenium affects Polygonatum kingianum coll.et Hemsl plant secondary metabolites remain unclear. In this study, we exposed P. kingianum plants to SeNPs at 0, 10, 25, and 50 mg/L concentrations. Joint physiological, metabolomic, and transcriptomic analyses were performed to reveal the response mechanisms of major secondary metabolites of P. kingianum to SeNPs. Our data shows that under the treatment of 25 mg/L, the photosynthetic electron transfer rate of plants significantly increases and the carbon-nitrogen ratio significantly decreases. In parallel, the main active components, polysaccharides and saponins, showed a significant increase in content, while flavonoid content decreased. SeNPs affect polysaccharide accumulation mainly through up-regulation of SPS, UGPase, AGPase, UTP, and SUS genes in starch and sucrose metabolic pathways. The accumulation of saponins was affected by upregulating genes in the sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis pathways, including PAD, ADH, PK, and GS. The accumulation of flavonoids was mainly regulated by metabolic pathways such as flavonoid biosynthesis, isoflavonoid biosynthesis, and the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids. In summary, this study reveals the key metabolic pathways affected by SeNPs in the main secondary metabolic products of P. kingianum .

The discipline of automatic image captioning represents an integration of two pivotal branches of artificial intelligence, namely computer vision (CV) and natural language processing (NLP). The principal functionality of this technology lies in transmuting the extracted visual features into semantic information of a higher order. The bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) has garnered wide acceptance in executing image captioning tasks. Of late, scholarly attention has been focused on modifying suitable models for innovative and precise subtitle captions, although tuning the parameters of the model does not invariably yield optimal outcomes. Given this, the current research proposes a model that effectively employs the bidirectional LSTM and attention mechanism (Bi-LS-AttM) for image captioning endeavors. This model exploits the contextual comprehension from both anterior and posterior aspects of the input data, synergistically with the attention mechanism, thereby augmenting the precision of visual language interpretation. The distinctiveness of this research is embodied in its incorporation of Bi-LSTM and the attention mechanism to engender sentences that are both structurally innovative and accurately reflective of the image content. To enhance temporal efficiency and accuracy, this study substitutes convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with fast region-based convolutional networks (Fast RCNNs). Additionally, it refines the process of generation and evaluation of common space, thus fostering improved efficiency. Our model was tested for its performance on Flickr30k and MSCOCO datasets (80 object categories). Comparative analyses of performance metrics reveal that our model, leveraging the Bi-LS-AttM, surpasses unidirectional and Bi-LSTM models. When applied to caption generation and image-sentence retrieval tasks, our model manifests time economies of approximately 36.5% and 26.3% vis-a-vis the Bi-LSTM model and the deep Bi-LSTM model, respectively.

Background By encoding a group of small secretory peptides, the members of the CLAVATA3/EMBRYO-SURROUNDING REGION (CLE) family play important roles in cell-to-cell communication to control the balance between stem cell proliferation and differentiation in plant development. Despite recent identification and characterization of members of this gene family in several plant species, little is known about its functional role in plants with fleshy fruits. Results In total, fifteen CLE genes ( SlCLE1-15 ) were identified from tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum cv. ‘Heinz-1706’) genome and their multiple characters including phylogeny, gene structures, chromosome locations, conserved motifs and cis -elements in the promoter sequences, were analyzed. Real-time PCR analysis showed that 13 out of 15 identified SlCLE genes are transcribed and exhibit remarkably unique expression patterns among tissues and organs. In particular, SlCLE12 , the homologue of Arabidopsis CLE41/44 gene, appears to be the dominant CLE gene in most of tested tissues with its maximum expression found in vascular tissues. Meanwhile, SlCLE1, 10, 13 exhibit specific but distinct expression in flower bud, root and shoot apex, respectively. More notably, several SlCLEs are dramatically regulated in their transcriptional levels during fruit development and ripening, indicating significant role these genes may potentially play in the critical physiological process. Upon the treatment with synthetic peptides corresponding to the 12-aa CLE domains of SlCLE 10, 12 and 13, tomato seedlings exhibit a clear reduction in root length to varying degrees. Conclusions This study provides a comprehensive genomic analysis of CLE gene family in tomato, a crop species with fleshy fruit. Differential expression patterns of various SlCLEs provide important insights into the functional divergence of CLE signaling cascade in Solanaceae species, especially their potential involvements in the regulation of fruit development and ripening.

Background A hallmark of systemic lupus erythematosus is high titers of circulating autoantibodies. Recently, a novel CD11c + B-cell subset has been identified that is critical for the development of autoimmunity. However, the role of CD11c + B cells in the development of lupus is unclear. Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a lupus-like syndrome with high autoantibody production. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of CD11c + B cells in the pathogenesis of lupus in cGVHD mice. Methods cGVHD was induced by an intraperitoneal injection of 5 × 10 7 Bm12 splenocytes into B6 mice. Flow cytometry was used to analyze mice splenocytes and human samples. Magnetic beads were used to isolate mice B cells. Gene expression was determined by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect antibodies in serum and supernatants. Results The percentage and absolute number of CD11c + B cells was increased in cGVHD-induced lupus, with elevated levels of antichromatin immunoglobulin (Ig)G and IgG2a in sera. CD11c + plasma cells from cGVHD mice produced large amounts of antichromatin IgG2a upon stimulation. Depletion of CD11c + B cells reduced antichromatin IgG and IgG2a production. T-bet was upregulated in CD11c + B cells. Knockout of T-bet in B cells alleviated cGVHD-induced lupus. Importantly, the percentage of T-bet + CD11c + B cells increased in lupus patients and positively correlated with serum antichromatin levels. Conclusion T-bet + CD11c + B cells promoted high antichromatin IgG production in the lupus-like disease model cGVHD. In lupus patients, the percentage of T-bet + CD11c + B cells was elevated and positively correlated with antichromatin antibodies. The findings provide potential therapeutic insight into lupus disease treatment.