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Wild rice ( Zizania spp.), an aquatic grass belonging to the subfamily Gramineae, has a high economic value. Zizania provides food (such as grains and vegetables), a habitat for wild animals, and paper-making pulps, possesses certain medicinal values, and helps control water eutrophication. Zizania is an ideal resource for expanding and enriching a rice breeding gene bank to naturally preserve valuable characteristics lost during domestication. With the Z. latifolia and Z. palustris genomes completely sequenced, fundamental achievements have been made toward understanding the origin and domestication, as well as the genetic basis of important agronomic traits of this genus, substantially accelerating the domestication of this wild plant. The present review summarizes the research results on the edible history, economic value, domestication, breeding, omics research, and important genes of Z. latifolia and Z. palustris over the past decades. These findings broaden the collective understanding of Zizania domestication and breeding, furthering human domestication, improvement, and long-term sustainability of wild plant cultivation.

The loss of seed shattering is an important event in crop domestication, and elucidating the genetic mechanisms underlying seed shattering can help reduce yield loss during crop production. This study is the first to systematically identify and analyse the BELL family of transcription factor-encoding genes in Chinese wild rice (Zizania latifolia). ZlqSH1a (Zla04G033720) and ZlqSH1b (Zla02G027130) were identified as key candidate genes involved in seed shattering in Z. latifolia. These genes were involved in regulating the development of the abscission layer (AL) and were located in the nucleus of the cell. Over-expression of ZlqSH1a and ZlqSH1b resulted in a complete AL between the grain and pedicel and significantly enhanced seed shattering after grain maturation in rice. Transcriptome sequencing revealed that 172 genes were differentially expressed between the wild type (WT) and the two transgenic (ZlqSH1a and ZlqSH1b over-expressing) plants. Three of the differentially expressed genes related to seed shattering were validated using qRT-PCR analysis. These results indicate that ZlqSH1a and ZlqSH1b are involved in AL development in rice grains, thereby regulating seed shattering. Our results could facilitate the genetic improvement of seed-shattering behaviour in Z. latifolia and other cereal crops.

The conversion of electromagnetic energy into heat by nanomagnets has the potential to be a powerful, non-invasive technique for cancer therapy by hyperthermia and hyperthermia-based drug release, while temperature controllability and targeted heating are challenges to developing applications of such magnetic inductive hyperthermia. This study was designed to control the hyperthermia position and area using a combination of alternating current （AC） and a static magnetic field. MnZn ferrite （MZF） nanoparticles which exhibited excellent hyperthermia properties were first prepared and characterized as an inductive heating mediator. We built model static magnetic fields simply using a pair of permanent magnets and studied the static magnetic field distributions by measurements and numerical simulations. The influence of the transverse static magnetic fields on hyperthermia properties was then investigated on MZF magnetic fluid, gel phantoms and SMMC-7721 cells in vitro. The results showed a static magnetic field can inhibit the temperature rise of MZF nanoparticles in an AC magnetic field. But in the uneven static magnetic field formed by a magnet pair with repelling poles face-to-face, the heating area can be restricted in a central low static field; meanwhile the side effects of hyperthermia can be reduced by a surrounding high static field. As a result we can position the hyperthermia area, protect the non-therapeutic area, and reduce the side effects lust by using a well-designed combination of AC and static field.

Objective: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a serious complication that may occur during the later stages of diabetes, and can be further exacerbated by podocyte damage. Piperazine ferulate (PF) has well-defined nephroprotective effects and is used clinically in the treatment of chronic nephritis and other kidney diseases. However, the renoprotective effects and mechanisms of PF on DN are not clear. This study aims to investigate the protective effect of PF on DN and its mechanism of action, to inform the clinical application of PF in DN treatment. Methods: Network pharmacology was performed to predict the mechanism of action of PF in DN. Male Sprague Dawley rats were intraperitoneally injected with STZ (60 mg/kg) to establish a DN model, and then assessed for renal injury after 12 weeks of administration. In vitro , rat podocytes were treated with 25 mmol/L glucose and cultured for 24 h, followed by an assessment of cell injury. Results: Our results showed that PF significantly improved renal function, reduced renal pathological changes, decreased inflammatory response, and alleviated podocyte damage in DN rats. PF also attenuated glucose-induced podocyte injury in vitro . Regarding molecular mechanisms, our study demonstrated that PF downregulated the expression of genes and proteins related to AGE-RAGE-mediated inflammatory signaling. Conclusion: In summary, PF exerts its renoprotective effects by decreasing inflammation and protecting against podocyte injury through the inhibition of the AGE/RAGE/NF-κB/NLRP3 pathway. Overall, these data support the clinical potential of PF as a renoprotective agent in DN.

Cotton leaf diseases can lead to substantial yield losses and economic burdens. Traditional detection methods are challenged by low accuracy and high labor costs. This research presents the ACURS-YOLO network, an advanced cotton leaf disease detection architecture developed on the foundation of YOLOv11. By integrating a medical image segmentation model, it effectively tackles challenges including complex background interference, the missed detection of small targets, and restricted generalization ability. Specifically, the U-Net v2 module is embedded in the backbone network to boost the multi-scale feature extraction performance in YOLOv11. Meanwhile, the CBAM attention mechanism is integrated to emphasize critical disease-related features. To lower the computational complexity, the SPPF module is substituted with SimSPPF. The C3k2_RCM module is appended for long–range context modeling, and the ARelu activation function is employed to alleviate the vanishing gradient problem. A database comprising 3000 images covering six types of cotton leaf diseases was constructed, and data augmentation techniques were applied. The experimental results show that ACURS-YOLO attains impressive performance indicators, encompassing a mAP_0.5 value of 94.6%, a mAP_0.5:0.95 value of 83.4%, 95.5% accuracy, 89.3% recall, an F1 score of 92.3%, and a frame rate of 148 frames per second. It outperforms YOLOv11 and other conventional models with regard to both detection precision and overall functionality. Ablation tests additionally validate the efficacy of each component, affirming the framework’s advantage in addressing complex detection environments. This framework provides an efficient solution for the automated monitoring of cotton leaf diseases, advancing the development of smart sensors through improved detection accuracy and practical applicability.

Chitin deacetylase (CDA) is a chitin degradation enzyme that strictly catalyzes the deacetylation of chitin to form chitosan, which plays an important role in regulating growth and development, as well as the immune response. In this study, a chitin deacetylase 3 gene (CDA3) was identified with a complete open reading frame (ORF) of 1362 bp from the genome database of Diaphorina citri, encoding a protein of 453 amino acids. Spatiotemporal expression analysis suggested that D. citri CDA3 (DcCDA3) had the highest expression level in the integument and third-instar nymph stage. Furthermore, DcCDA3 expression level can be induced by 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E). Injection of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus induced the upregulation of DcCDA3 in the midgut, while DcCDA3 was downregulated in the fat body. After silencing DcCDA3 by RNA interference, there was no influence on the D. citri phenotype. In addition, bactericidal tests showed that recombinant DcCDA3 inhibited gram-positive bacteria, including S. aureus and Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis). In conclusion, our results suggest that DcCDA3 might play an important role in the immune response of D. citri.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in negative impacts on the economy, population health, and health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL).ObjectiveTo assess the impact of COVID-19 on US population HRQoL using the EQ-5D-5L.DesignWe surveyed respondents on physical and mental health, demographics, socioeconomics, brief medical history, current COVID-19 status, sleep, dietary, financial, and spending changes. Results were compared to online and face-to-face US population norms. Predictors of EQ-5D-5L utility were analyzed using both standard and post-lasso OLS regressions. Robustness of regression coefficients against unmeasured confounding was analyzed using the E-Value sensitivity analysis.SubjectsAmazon MTurk workers (n=2776) in the USA.Main MeasuresEQ-5D-5L utility and VAS scores by age group.Key ResultsWe received n=2746 responses. Subjects 18–24 years reported lower mean (SD) health utility (0.752 (0.281)) compared with both online (0.844 (0.184), p=0.001) and face-to-face norms (0.919 (0.127), p<0.001). Among ages 25–34, utility was worse compared to face-to-face norms only (0.825 (0.235) vs. 0.911 (0.111), p<0.001). For ages 35–64, utility was better during pandemic compared to online norms (0.845 (0.195) vs. 0.794 (0.247), p<0.001). At age 65+, utility values (0.827 (0.213)) were similar across all samples. VAS scores were worse for all age groups (p<0.005) except ages 45–54. Increasing age and income were correlated with increased utility, while being Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, married, living alone, having history of chronic illness or self-reported depression, experiencing COVID-19-like symptoms, having a family member diagnosed with COVID-19, fear of COVID-19, being underweight, and living in California were associated with worse utility scores. Results were robust to unmeasured confounding.ConclusionsHRQoL decreased during the pandemic compared to US population norms, especially for ages 18–24. The mental health impact of COVID-19 is significant and falls primarily on younger adults whose health outcomes may have been overlooked based on policy initiatives to date.

Chitin synthase is a critical enzyme that catalyzes N-acetylglucosamine to form chitin, which plays an important role in the growth and development of insects. In this study, we identified a chitin synthase gene (CHS) with a complete open reading frame (ORF) of 3180 bp from the genome database of Diaphorina citri, encoding a protein of 1059 amino acid residues with the appropriate signature motifs (EDR and QRRRW). Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis suggested that D. citri CHS (DcCHS) was expressed throughout all developmental stages and all tissues. DcCHS had the highest expression level in the integument and fifth-instar nymph stage. Furthermore, the effects of diflubenzuron (DFB) on D. citri mortality and DcCHS expression level were investigated using fifth-instar nymph through leaf dip bioassay, and the results revealed that the nymph exposed to DFB had the highest mortality compared with control group (Triton-100). Silencing of DcCHS by RNA interference resulted in malformed phenotypes and increased mortality with decreased molting rate. In addition, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) also revealed corresponding ultrastructural defects. Our results suggest that DcCHS might play an important role in the development of D. citri and can be used as a potential target for psyllid control.

Chitin is one the main components of the insect cuticle, and chitin synthase (CHS) is an important enzyme required for chitin formation. CHS has been characterized in various insect species, but the structure and biochemical properties in Spodoptera litura have not been determined. In this study, we identified two CHS genes, SlCHS1 and SlCHS2, which encode proteins with 1565 and 1520 amino acid residues, respectively. Transcriptional analysis suggested that SlCHS1 has a high expression level in the integument whereas SlCHS2 showed the highest expression level in the midgut. During S. litura growth and development, SlCHS1 and SlCHS2 were both predominantly expressed in the fourth-instar larval stage. In addition, the expression of SlCHS1 and SlCHS2 could be induced by 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E). Silencing of SlCHS1 by RNA interference significantly inhibited the pupation and molting of S. litura larvae (RNAi), while knockdown of SlCHS2 had no significant effects on the S. litura phenotype. These results may provide a new molecular target for control of S. litura.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition with limited therapeutic options. Although neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation shows regenerative potential, its efficacy is constrained by the hostile post-injury microenvironment. Here, we employed untargeted metabolomics to investigate metabolic reprogramming induced by NSC-loaded multichannel collagen scaffolds in a rat SCI model. NSC transplantation significantly enhanced functional recovery and structural remodelling, concomitant with elevated neurogenesis and attenuated gliosis. Metabolomic profiling identified lysophosphatidylcholine 18:0 (LPC18:0) as a key NSC-derived metabolite. Mechanistically, LPC18:0 promoted the differentiation of endogenous NSCs into neurons via the GPR55/AKT/GSK3β signalling axis, as validated by receptor-specific inhibition. In vivo administration of LPC18:0 improved motor function, axonal regeneration and recruitment of immature neurons. These findings reveal a novel metabolic mechanism underlying NSC-based therapy, positioning LPC18:0/GPR55/AKT/GSK3β signalling as a therapeutic target for SCI recovery.