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Plants employ dynamic molecular networks to control development in response to environmental changes, yet the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Here we report the identification of two rice leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinases, Thermo-Sensitive Genic Male Sterile 10 (TMS10) and its close homolog TMS10-Like (TMS10L), which redundantly function in the maintenance of the tapetal cell layer and microspore/pollen viability under normal temperature conditions with TMS10 playing an essential role in higher temperatures (namely, 28 °C). tms10 displays male sterility under high temperatures but male fertility under low temperatures, and the tms10 tms10l double mutant shows complete male sterility under both high and low temperatures. Biochemical and genetic assays indicate that the kinase activity conferred by the intracellular domain of TMS10 is essential for tapetal degeneration and male fertility under high temperatures. Furthermore, indica or japonica rice varieties that contain mutations in TMS10, created by genetic crosses or genome editing, also exhibit thermo-sensitive genic male sterility. These findings demonstrate that TMS10 and TMS10L act as a key switch in postmeiotic tapetal development and pollen development by buffering environmental temperature changes, providing insights into the molecular mechanisms by which plants develop phenotypic plasticity via genotype–environment temperature interaction. TMS10 may be used as a genetic resource for the development of hybrid seed production systems in crops.

Monkeypox virus (MPXV), the pathogen responsible for the infectious disease monkeypox, causes lesions on the skin, lymphadenopathy, and fever. It has posed a global public health threat since May 2022. Highly sensitive and specific detection of MPXV is crucial for preventing the spread of the disease. Pyrococcus furiosus Argonaute (PfAgo) is an artificial DNA-guided restriction cleavage enzyme programmable with 5′-phosphorylated ssDNA sequences, which can be developed to specifically detect nucleic acids of pathogens. Here, a PfAgo-based system was established for the detection of MPXV-specific DNA targeting the F3L gene. A short amplicon of 79 bp could be obtained through a fast PCR procedure, which was completed within 45 min. Two 5′-phosphorylation guide DNAs were designed to guide PfAgo to cleave the amplicon to obtain an 18 bp 5′-phosphorylation sequence specific to MPXV, not to other orthopoxviruses (cowpox, variola, and vaccinia viruses). The 18 bp sequence guided PfAgo to cleave a designed probe specific to MPXV to emit fluorescence. With optimized conditions for the PfAgo-MPXV system, it could be completed in 60 min for the detection of the extracted MPXV DNA with the limit of detection (LOD) of 1.1 copies/reaction and did not depend on expensive instruments. Successful application of the PfAgo-MPXV system in sensitively detecting MPXV in simulated throat swabs, skin swabs, sera, and wastewater demonstrated the system’s good performance. The PfAgo platform, with high sensitivity and specificity established here, has the potential to prevent the spread of MPXV.

Background Bacteriophage lysins have high antimicrobial activities with many advantages as alternatives to antibiotics, however, lysins generally do not exhibit intracellular bactericidal capabilities due to a lack of cell-penetrating properties and/or reduced activity under the intracellular environment. To address this problem, p-ClyC, an engineered chimeric lysin with a lung cell-targeting peptide, was used to kill Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) in vitro and in vivo. Methods p-ClyC was constructed by fusing ClyC with a lung-directed peptide. Antimicrobial activities of the two lysins (ClyC, p-ClyC) against S. aureus were evaluated in vitro and in a murine lung infection model. The cell internalization of the lysins was explored using laser confocal imaging. The intracellular bactericidal efficacies of the lysins and gentamicin were evaluated using intracellular growth inhibition studies. The risk of generating antimicrobial resistance after the lysin or antibiotics treatment was investigated by deep sequencing, MIC and growth rate monitoring. Results The bactericidal activity against pulmonary intracellular S. aureus of p-ClyC was obviously promoted. The treatment with p-ClyC made the surviving intracellular bacteria generate less tendence to resistance in terms of growth rates and minor alleles in genomes than the treatment with gentamicin. In murine lung infection model, the survival rate for the group of p-ClyC was significantly improved, and more pulmonary bacteria were killed by the p-ClyC than those by the ClyC. Conclusions The lung-directed peptide-fused ClyC (p-ClyC) is a novel and effective lysin to be against intracellular S. aureus and a potential antimicrobial agent for therapeutics against the pulmonary infections by S. aureus.

The rapid spread and emergence of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and other pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria spurred scientists and clinicians to look for alternative therapeutic agents to conventional antibiotics. In the present study, an A. baumannii bacteriophage p54 was isolated and characterized. Morphological and genome analysis revealed that bacteriophage p54 belongs to Myoviridae family with a genome size of 165,813 bps. A novel endolysin, namely LysAB54, showing low similarity with other well-known related endolysins, was cloned, expressed, and characterized from the bacteriophage p54. LysAB54 showed significant bactericidal activity against multidrug-resistant A. baumannii and other Gram-negative bacteria, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Klebsiella pneumoniae , and Escherichia coli , in the absence of outer membrane permeabilizers. Based on all those observations, LysAB54 could represent a potential agent for the treatment of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative superbugs.

Phage stability is important for the successful application of bacteriophages as alternative antibacterial agents. Considering that temperature is a critical factor in phage stability, this study aimed to explore the possibility of improving long-term phage stability through adaptive evolution to elevated temperature. Evolution of three wild-type ancestral phages (Myoviridae phage Wc4 and Podoviridae phages CX5 and P-PSG-11) was induced by subjecting the phages to heat treatment at 60 °C for five cycles. The adapted phages showed better stability than the wild-type ancestral phages when subjected to heat treatment at 60 °C for 1 h and after 60 days of storage at 37 °C. However, the adapted phages could not withstand thermal treatment at 70 °C for 1 h. The infectivity and the lytic properties of the phages were not changed by the evolution process. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that single substitutions in the tail tubular proteins were the only changes observed in the genomes of the adapted phages. This study demonstrates that adaptive evolution could be used as a general method for enhancing the thermal stability of phages without affecting their lytic activity. Sequencing results showed that bacteriophages may exist as a population with minor heterogeneous mutants, which might be important to understand the ecology of phages in different environments.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the main causes of human mortality. Cytokines play crucial roles in the development of cardiovascular disease. Interleukin (IL)-6 family members are a series of cytokines, including IL-6, IL-11, IL-30, IL-31, OSM, LIF, CNTF, CT-1, CT-2, and CLC, that regulate multiple biological effects. Experimental and clinical evidence shows that IL-6 family members are closely related to cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, aortic dissection, cardiac fibrosis, and cardiomyopathy. This review mainly discusses the role of IL-6 family members in cardiovascular disease for the sake of identifying possible intervention targets for cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment.

Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is often referred to as “collaterals disease” in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and commonly includes ischemic and hemorrhagic CSVD. TCM has a long history of treating CSVD and has demonstrated unique efficacy. Buyang Huanwu Decoction (BHD) is a classical TCM formula that has been used for the prevention and treatment of stroke for hundreds of years. BHD exerts its therapeutic effects on CSVD through a variety of mechanisms. In this review, the clinical and animal studies on BHD and CSVD were systematically introduced. In addition, the pharmacological mechanisms, active components, and clinical applications of BHD in the treatment of CSVD were reviewed. We believe that an in-depth understanding of BHD, its pharmacological mechanism, disease-drug interaction, and other aspects will help in laying the foundation for its development as a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of CSVD.

China has committed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. However, this task is considerably difficult. To meet its carbon neutrality commitments, China will rely on a range of policies and laws. By analyzing policies and laws issued at the central and local levels in China from 2019 to the present, we assessed how the Chinese government will achieve its carbon neutrality targets by breaking them down. The results of this study showed that: 1) Carbon neutrality targets are translated into indicators such as energy consumption per unit of GDP, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP, non-fossil energy consumption ratio, forest cover, and forest stock; 2) The focus of policy and law-making is on the role of the government rather than the carbon market; 3) The central government tends to promote and guide low-carbon development through specific actions; 4) Local policy and law-making is less proactive and is influenced by localism; 5) Overall, China’s carbon neutrality policies and laws are characterized by comprehensive coverage, with emphasis on the rational use of executive power and the development of low-carbon-related technologies; and 6) The existing policies and laws remain unclear, with low levels of legislation and insufficient public participation. This paper puts forward some suggestions on the introduction of the climate change law, the promotion of citizen participation in policy-making and implementation, and the establishment of a public interest litigation system on climate change.

F-box proteins constitute a large superfamily in plants and play important roles in controlling many biological processes, but the roles of F-box proteins in male meiosis in plants remain unclear. Here, we identify the rice (Oryza sativa) F-box gene MEIOTIC F-BOX (MOF), which is essential for male meiotic progression. MOF belongs to the FBX subfamily and is predominantly active during leptotene to pachytene of prophase I. mof meiocytes display disrupted telomere bouquet formation, impaired pairing and synapsis of homologous chromosomes, and arrested meiocytes at late prophase I, followed by apoptosis. Although normal, programmed double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs) form in mof mutants, foci of the phosphorylated histone variant γH2AX, a marker for DSBs, persist in the mutant, indicating that many of the DSBs remained unrepaired. The recruitment of Completion of meiosis I (COM1) and Radiation sensitive51C (RAD51C) to DSBs is severely compromised in mutant meiocytes, indicating that MOF is crucial for DSB end-processing and repair. Further analyses showed that MOF could physically interact with the rice SKP1-like Protein1 (OSK1), indicating that MOF functions as a component of the SCF E3 ligase to regulate meiotic progression in rice. Thus, this study reveals the essential role of an F-box protein in plant meiosis and provides helpful information for elucidating the roles of the ubiquitin proteasome system in plant meiotic progression.

Diagnosis of dengue virus infections typically relies on RT-PCR-based methods, for which reliable positive controls are essential. Viral RNA is an ideal positive control, but its inherent instability poses a major challenge. Herein, we report a simple and effective method for stabilizing dengue virus RNA by immobilizing it onto silk fibroin films (RNA-SFFs). We evaluated various substrate surfaces for RNA-SFFs preparation and found that the inner surface of sealable bags is optimal for uniform film formation and easy harvesting. Screening different silk fibroin concentrations revealed that even low concentrations (2.8%) effectively preserved RNA well and kept Ct constant for up to 16 days at 25 °C, 37 °C, and even 45 °C (extreme weather for transportations). Due to its rapid film formation and ease of peeling, 7% silk fibroin was selected. Notably, the RNA-SFFs demonstrated robust resistance to UV irradiation, with no significant Ct value changes after 4 h of exposure. Long-term stability testing at −20 °C, 25 °C, and 37 °C showed that dengue serotype 1–4 RNA-SFFs remained stable for the entire duration of the study—up to 56 weeks (approximately 14 months)—at all tested temperatures. These results demonstrate that RNA-SFFs are highly stable, portable, and practical as positive controls for dengue diagnostics, with strong potential for use in on-site and resource-limited settings.