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Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-based thermosensitive hydrogels demonstrate great potential in biomedical applications. However, they have inherent drawbacks such as low mechanical strength, limited drug loading capacity and low biodegradability. Formulating PNIPAM with other functional components to form composited hydrogels is an effective strategy to make up for these deficiencies, which can greatly benefit their practical applications. This review seeks to provide a comprehensive observation about the PNIPAM-based composite hydrogels for biomedical applications so as to guide related research. It covers the general principles from the materials choice to the hybridization strategies as well as the performance improvement by focusing on several application areas including drug delivery, tissue engineering and wound dressing. The most effective strategies include incorporation of functional inorganic nanoparticles or self-assembled structures to give composite hydrogels and linking PNIPAM with other polymer blocks of unique properties to produce copolymeric hydrogels, which can improve the properties of the hydrogels by enhancing the mechanical strength, giving higher biocompatibility and biodegradability, introducing multi-stimuli responsibility, enabling higher drug loading capacity as well as controlled release. These aspects will be of great help for promoting the development of PNIPAM-based composite materials for biomedical applications.

Temperature excursions within a biological milieu can be effectively used to induce drug release from thermosensitive drug-encapsulating nanoparticles. Oncological hyperthermia is of particular interest, as it is proven to synergistically act to arrest tumor growth when combined with optimally-designed smart drug delivery systems (DDSs). Thermoresponsive DDSs aid in making the drugs more bioavailable, enhance the therapeutic index and pharmacokinetic trends, and provide the spatial placement and temporal delivery of the drug into localized anatomical sites. This paper reviews the fundamentals of thermosensitive polymers, with a particular focus on thermoresponsive liposomal-based drug delivery systems.

Summary Rice blast and bacterial blight represent two of major diseases having devastating impact on the yield of rice in most rice‐growing countries. Developments of resistant cultivars are the most economic and effective strategy to control these diseases. Here, we used CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated gene editing to rapidly install mutations in three known broad‐spectrum blast‐resistant genes, Bsr‐d1, Pi21 and ERF922, in an indica thermosensitive genic male sterile (TGMS) rice line Longke638S (LK638S). We obtained transgene‐free homozygous single or triple mutants in T1 generations. While all single and triple mutants showed increased resistance to rice blast compared with wild type, the erf922 mutants displayed the strongest blast resistance similar with triple mutants. Surprisingly, we found that Pi21 or ERF922 single mutants conferred enhanced resistance to most of tested bacterial blight. Both resistances in mutants were attribute to the up‐regulation of SA‐ and JA‐pathway associated genes. Moreover, phenotypic analysis of these single mutants in paddy fields revealed that there were no trade‐offs between resistances and main agricultural traits. Together, our study provides a rapid and effective way to generate rice varieties with resistance to both rice blast and bacterial blight.

Temperature sensing shapes behavior and cellular functions, yet the molecular basis of thermosensitivity in non-neuronal cells remains poorly defined. Microglia are resident immune cells of the central nervous system that help maintain brain homeostasis via immune surveillance and injury responses. We previously showed that microglial motility is temperature dependent and is largely mediated by the thermosensitive ion channel transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4), a thermosensitive ion channel. However, the contribution of transient receptor potential melastatin 4 (TRPM4) is unclear because suitable Trpm4 mutant mice were not available in our earlier work. Here, we generated functional Trpm4-knockout mice (TRPM4KO) using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing based on a published strategy. Time-lapse imaging of primary microglia across a range of temperatures revealed that Trpm4 deficiency did not alter temperature-dependent motility in vitro. These results indicate that TRPM4 is dispensable for temperature-dependent microglial motility.

Summary Heat stress induces misfolded protein accumulation in endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which initiates the unfolded protein response (UPR) in plants. Previous work has demonstrated the important role of a rice ER membrane‐associated transcription factor OsbZIP74 (also known as OsbZIP50) in UPR. However, how OsbZIP74 and other membrane‐associated transcription factors are involved in heat stress tolerance in rice is not reported. In the current study, we discovered that OsNTL3 is required for heat stress tolerance in rice. OsNTL3 is constitutively expressed and up‐regulated by heat and ER stresses. OsNTL3 encodes a NAC transcription factor with a predicted C‐terminal transmembrane domain. GFP‐OsNTL3 relocates from plasma membrane to nucleus in response to heat stress and ER stress inducers. Loss‐of‐function mutation of OsNTL3 confers heat sensitivity while inducible expression of the truncated form of OsNTL3 without the transmembrane domain increases heat tolerance in rice seedlings. RNA‐Seq analysis revealed that OsNTL3 regulates the expression of genes involved in ER protein folding and other processes. Interestingly, OsNTL3 directly binds to OsbZIP74 promoter and regulates its expression in response to heat stress. In turn, up‐regulation of OsNTL3 by heat stress is dependent on OsbZIP74. Thus, our work reveals the important role of OsNTL3 in thermotolerance, and a regulatory circuit mediated by OsbZIP74 and OsNTL3 in communications among ER, plasma membrane and nucleus under heat stress conditions.

Food wastage is a major issue impacting public health, the environment and the economy in the context of rising population and decreasing natural resources. Wastage occurs at all stages from harvesting to the consumer, calling for advanced techniques of food preservation. Wastage is mainly due to presence of moisture and microbial organisms present in food. Microbes can be killed or deactivated, and cross-contamination by microbes such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) should be avoided. Moisture removal may not be feasible in all cases. Preservation methods include thermal, electrical, chemical and radiation techniques. Here, we review the advanced food preservation techniques, with focus on fruits, vegetables, beverages and spices. We emphasize electrothermal, freezing and pulse electric field methods because they allow both pathogen reduction and improvement of nutritional and physicochemical properties. Ultrasound technology and ozone treatment are suitable to preserve heat sensitive foods. Finally, nanotechnology in food preservation is discussed.

• Heat stress is a major limiting factor for global wheat production and causes dramatic yield loss worldwide. The TaMBF1c gene is upregulated in response to heat stress in wheat. Understanding the molecular mechanisms associated with heat stress responses will pave the way to improve wheat thermotolerance. • Through CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing, polysome profiling coupled with RNA-sequencing analysis, and protein–protein interactions, we show that TaMBF1c conferred heat response via regulating a specific gene translation in wheat. • The results showed that TaMBF1c is evolutionarily conserved in diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid wheat species, and its knockdown and knockout lines show increased heat sensitivity. TaMBF1c is colocalized with the stress granule complex and interacts with TaG3BP. TaMBF1c affects the translation efficiency of a subset of heat responsive genes, which are significantly enriched in the ‘sequence-specific DNA binding’ term. Moreover, gene expression network analysis demonstrated that TaMBF1c is closely associated with the translation of heat shock proteins. • Our findings reveal a contribution of TaMBF1c in regulating the heat stress response via the translation process, and provide a new target for improving heat tolerance in wheat breeding programs.

The agro-food industries produce substantial waste that has an adverse effect on the ecosystem. Nevertheless, these byproducts have abundant polyphenols with various bioactivities. Although conventional extractions (CE) are used for extraction, they require a long extraction time and more solvents, affecting product quality. Hence, this article reviewed emerging thermal extraction technologies (subcritical water, supercritical fluid, microwave, high pressurized liquid extraction, etc.) and their combinative effects (for instance, integrated subcritical-microwave, integrated supercritical fluid-hot-pressurized liquid extraction) that have been applied to extract polyphenols from agro-byproducts in the last 5 years. The fundamental mechanisms, their applications, shortcomings, and future investigations on augmenting these technologies are presented. The review showed that integrating cutting-edge technology could facilitate the development of more polyphenol extraction from agro-byproducts as there are many benefits, including increased extractability, reduced impurities, preserved thermosensitive compounds, and consume low energy. Hence, it is proposed that the next 5 years should explore combined novel thermal extraction technologies. The techno-economic analysis must be considered to fully investigate the implementation of these technologies in the polyphenol extraction from byproducts. Finally, waste valorization can inspire creativity and agro-business creation, particularly when integrated with food industry 4.0.

Ecotones linking open and forested habitats contain multiple microhabitats with varying vegetal structures and microclimatic regimes. Ecotones host many insect species whose development is intimately linked to the microclimatic conditions where they grow (e.g., the leaves of their host plants and the surrounding air). Yet microclimatic heterogeneity at these fine scales and its effects on insects remain poorly quantified for most species. Here we studied how interspecific differences in the use of microhabitats across ecotones lead to contrasting thermal exposure and survival costs between two closely-related butterflies (Pieris napi and P. rapae). We first assessed whether butterflies selected different microhabitats to oviposit and quantified the thermal conditions at the microhabitat and foliar scales. We also assessed concurrent changes in the quality and availability of host plants. Finally, we quantified larval time of death under different experimental temperatures (thermal death time [TDT] curves) to predict their thermal mortality considering both the intensity and the duration of the microclimatic heat challenges in the field. We identified six processes determining larval thermal exposure at fine scales associated with butterfly oviposition behavior, canopy shading, and heat and water fluxes at the soil and foliar levels. Leaves in open microhabitats could reach temperatures 3–10°C warmer than the surrounding air while more closed microhabitats presented more buffered and homogeneous temperatures. Interspecific differences in microhabitat use matched the TDT curves and the thermal mortality in the field. Open microhabitats posed acute heat challenges that were better withstood by the thermotolerant butterfly, P. rapae, where the species mainly laid their eggs. Despite being more thermosensitive, P. napi was predicted to present higher survivals than P. rapae due to the thermal buffering provided by their selected microhabitats. However, its offspring could be more vulnerable to host-plant scarcity during summer drought periods. Overall, the different interaction of the butterflies with microclimatic and host-plant variation emerging at fine scales and their different thermal sensitivity posed them contrasting heat and resource challenges. Our results contribute to setting a new framework that predicts insect vulnerability to climate change based on their thermal sensitivity and the intensity, duration, and accumulation of their heat exposure.

In this study, a thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-b-lauryl acrylate) (PNIPAAm-b-PLA) as a smart amphiphilic block copolymer was fabricated with tailored molecular weight through a controlled polymerization method, i.e., reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT). Initially, the homopolymer of NIPAAm was synthesized and applied in the role of macro-RAFT agent to copolymerize with LA monomer. The PNIPAAm-b-PLA nanosystem was self-assembled and organized stable nanomicelles with a low amount of critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 2.07 mg L−1 and small spherical dimensions. The anti-cancer therapeutic cargo, docetaxel (DTX) was encapsulated in a hydrophobic interior region of block copolymer (micelle core) via Van der Waals interactions with high loading efficiency. In vitro drug liberation profile from polymeric micelles demonstrated that DTX delivery was thermo-sensitive with a sustained drug release rate. The safety and anti-cancer effects of DTX and as-prepared micellar structures were investigated through an MTT assay on MCF-7 cells. The results exhibited that DTX loaded polymeric micelles revealed a comparable amount of toxicity to free drugs. It was concluded that this system emerges as a potentially favorable and powerful intracellular delivery of antitumor drug system in chemotherapy.Thermo-responsive PNIPAAm-b-PLA was fabricated through RAFT controlled method. The DTX was encapsulated in the self-assembled nanomicelles with high loading efficiency. In vitro drug liberation profile from polymeric micelles demonstrated that DTX delivery was thermo-sensitive with a sustained drug release rate. The results revealed that this system could be favorable delivery system to treat breast cancer.