Pathological mutations reveal the key role of the cytosolic iRhom2 N-terminus for phosphorylation-independent 14-3-3 interaction and ADAM17 binding, stability, and activity.

The protease ADAM17 plays an important role in inflammation and cancer and is regulated by iRhom2. Mutations in the cytosolic N-terminus of human iRhom2 cause tylosis with oesophageal cancer (TOC). In mice, partial deletion of the N-terminus results in a curly hair phenotype (cub). These pathological consequences are consistent with our findings that iRhom2 is highly expressed in keratinocytes and in oesophageal cancer. Cub and TOC are associated with hyperactivation of ADAM17-dependent EGFR signalling. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not understood. We have identified a non-canonical, phosphorylation-independent 14-3-3 interaction site that encompasses all known TOC mutations. Disruption of this site dysregulates ADAM17 activity. The larger cub deletion also includes the TOC site and thus also dysregulated ADAM17 activity. The cub deletion, but not the TOC mutation, also causes severe reductions in stimulated shedding, binding, and stability of ADAM17, demonstrating the presence of additional regulatory sites in the N-terminus of iRhom2. Overall, this study contrasts the TOC and cub mutations, illustrates their different molecular consequences, and reveals important key functions of the iRhom2 N-terminus in regulating ADAM17.

Urea catalytic oxidation for energy and environmental applications.

Urea is one of the most essential reactive nitrogen species in the nitrogen cycle and plays an indispensable role in the water-energy-food nexus. However, untreated urea or urine wastewater causes severe environmental pollution and threatens human health. Electrocatalytic and photo(electro)catalytic urea oxidation technologies under mild conditions have become promising methods for energy recovery and environmental remediation. An in-depth understanding of the reaction mechanisms of the urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is important to design efficient electrocatalysts/photo(electro)catalysts for these technologies. This review provides a critical appraisal of the recent advances in the UOR by means of both electrocatalysis and photo(electro)catalysis, aiming to comprehensively assess this emerging field from fundamentals and materials, to practical applications. The emphasis of this review is on the design and development strategies for electrocatalysts/photo(electro)catalysts based on reaction pathways. Meanwhile, the UOR in natural urine is discussed, focusing on the influence of impurity ions. A particular emphasis is placed on the application of the UOR in energy and environmental fields, such as hydrogen production by urea electrolysis, urea fuel cells, and urea/urine wastewater remediation. Finally, future directions, prospects, and remaining challenges are discussed for this emerging research field. This critical review significantly increases the understanding of current progress in urea conversion and the development of a sustainable nitrogen economy.

Membrane-Free Water Electrolysis for Hydrogen Generation with Low Cost.

Conventional water electrolysis relies on expensive membrane-electrode assemblies and sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode. Here, we develop an innovative and efficient membrane-free water electrolysis system to overcome these two obstacles simultaneously. This system utilizes the thermodynamically more favorable urea oxidation reaction (UOR) to generate clean N2 over a new class of Cu-based catalyst (CuXO), fundamentally eliminating the explosion risk of H2 and O2 mixing while removing the need for membranes. Notably, this membrane-free electrolysis system exhibits the highest H2 Faradaic efficiency among reported membrane-free electrolysis work. In situ spectroscopic studies reveal that the new N2Hy intermediate-mediated UOR mechanism on the CuXO catalyst ensures its unique N2 selectivity and OER inertness. More importantly, an industrial-type membrane-free water electrolyser (MFE) based on this system successfully reduces electricity consumption to only 3.87 kWh Nm-3, significantly lower than the 5.17 kWh Nm-3 of commercial alkaline water electrolyzers (AWE). Comprehensive techno-economic analysis (TEA) suggests that the membrane-free design and reduced electricity input of the MFE plants reduce the green H2 production cost to US$1.81 kg-1, which is lower than those of grey H2 while meeting the technical target (US$2.00-2.50 kg-1) set by European Commission and United States Department of Energy.

A common whole-genome paleotetraploidization in Cucurbitales.

Cucurbitales are an important order of flowering plants known for encompassing edible plants of economic and medicinal value and numerous ornamental plants of horticultural value. By reanalyzing the genomes of two representative families (Cucurbitaceae and Begoniaceae) in Cucurbitales, we found that the previously identified Cucurbitaceae common paleotetraploidization that occurred shortly after the core-eudicot-common hexaploidization event is shared by Cucurbitales, including Begoniaceae. We built a multigenome alignment framework for Cucurbitales by identifying orthologs and paralogs and systematically redating key evolutionary events in Cucurbitales. Notably, characterizing the gene retention levels and genomic fractionation patterns between subgenomes generated from different polyploidizations in Cucurbitales suggested the autopolyploid nature of the Begoniaceae common tetraploidization and the allopolyploid nature of the Cucurbitales common tetraploidization and the Cucurbita-specific tetraploidization. Moreover, we constructed the ancestral Cucurbitales karyotype comprising 17 proto-chromosomes, confirming that the most recent common ancestor of Cucurbitaceae contained 15 proto-chromosomes and rejecting the previous hypothesis for an ancestral Cucurbitaceae karyotype with 12 proto-chromosomes. In addition, we found that the polyploidization and tandem duplication events promoted the expansion of gene families involved in the cucurbitacin biosynthesis pathway; however, gene loss and chromosomal rearrangements likely limited the expansion of these gene families.

Effect of starch-derived organic acids on the removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in an aquaculture-sediment microbial fuel cell.

This study constructed sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) removal in contaminated aquaculture sediment. Starch, a waste deposited in aquaculture sediment, was employed as the co-substrate for electricity generation and PAHs removal, and the effect of starch-derived organic acids on SMFC performance was assessed. The results indicated that sufficient starch promoted PAHs removal (69.9% for naphthalene, 55.6% for acenaphthene, and 46.8% for pyrene) in dual-chamber SMFC, whereas excessive starch attenuated SMFC performance because the organic acids accumulation reduced anode pH, decreased species diversity, and changed the microbial communities. The electricity generation and PAHs removal were positively correlated (R > 0.96), and both of them were related to Macellibacteroides belonging to Bacteroidetes. However, a larger single-chamber SMFC device did not obtain enhanced PAHs removal owing to the restricted "effective range" of the anode. Hence, more challenges need to be addressed to realize the practical application of SMFC.

Diversity in the Mechanisms of Humin Formation during Composting with Different Materials.

Humins (HMs) play a very important role in various environmental processes and are crucial for regulating global carbon and nitrogen cycles in various ecosystems. Composting is a controlled decomposition process accompanied by the stabilization of organic solid waste materials. During composting, active fractions of organic substances can be transformed into HMs containing stable and complex macromolecules. However, the structural heterogeneity and formation mechanisms of HMs during composting with various substrates have not been clarified. Here, the structure and composition of HMs extracted from livestock manure (LM) and straw (SW) during composting were investigated by excitation-emission matrices spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that the stability and humification of LM-HM were lower than that of SW-HM. The parallel factor analysis components of the HM in LM composting contained the same fluorescent unit, and the intermediate of cellulose degradation affected the structure of the HM from SW composting. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that low-molecular-weight compounds were key factors in humification. On the basis of the structure and key factors impacting HM, we constructed two mechanisms for the formation of HM from different composting processes. The LM-HMs from different humification processes have multiple identical fluorescent structural units, and the high humification of SW is affected by its polysaccharide constituents, which contains a fluorescent component in their skeleton, providing a basis for studying HM in composting.

Diversity in mechanisms of natural humic acid enhanced current production in soil bioelectrochemical systems.

The quinoid component of humic acids (HAs) had been studied as exogenous electron mediators (EMs), but the redox-mediating abilities of other functional groups remained unclear. This study evaluated the effects of various HAs functional groups on cellular respiration and extracellular electron transfer. The three EMs increased the current density compared to the control. Current density increased significantly after adding ultraviolet-irradiated HAs (UV-HAs), suggesting that nitrogenous group-mediated redox reactions contributed to high-density current generation. Structural equation model (SEM) results indicated that the contribution of nitrogen-containing groups to electron transfer could exceed 20%. This study proposed a synergistic mechanism: in the soil microbial fuel cells (soil-MFCs), HAs accelerated their component evolution through irreversible redox reactions and promoted extracellular electron transfer. Additionally, HAs-induced high expression of c-Cyts could further enhance high-density current generation. This study demonstrates that humic acids enhance electron transfer and current in bioelectrochemical systems, aiding sustainable energy optimization.

Microbiota regulates the TET1-mediated DNA hydroxymethylation program in innate lymphoid cell differentiation.

Innate lymphoid cell precursors (ILCPs) develop into distinct subsets of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) with specific functions. The epigenetic program underlying the differentiation of ILCPs into ILC subsets remains poorly understood. Here, we reveal the genome-wide distribution and dynamics of the DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation in ILC subsets and their respective precursors. Additionally, we find that the DNA hydroxymethyltransferase TET1 suppresses ILC1 but not ILC2 or ILC3 differentiation. TET1 deficiency promotes ILC1 differentiation by inhibiting TGF-ß signaling. Throughout ILCP differentiation at postnatal stage, gut microbiota contributes to the downregulation of TET1 level. Microbiota decreases the level of cholic acid in the gut, impairs TET1 expression and suppresses DNA hydroxymethylation, ultimately resulting in an expansion of ILC1s. In adult mice, TET1 suppresses the hyperactivation of ILC1s to maintain intestinal homeostasis. Our findings provide insights into the microbiota-mediated epigenetic programming of ILCs, which links microbiota-DNA methylation crosstalk to ILC differentiation.

Boosting urea electrooxidation on oxyanion-engineered nickel sites via inhibited water oxidation.

Renewable energy-based electrocatalytic oxidation of organic nucleophiles (e.g.methanol, urea, and amine) are more thermodynamically favourable and, economically attractive to replace conventional pure water electrooxidation in electrolyser to produce hydrogen. However, it is challenging due to the competitive oxygen evolution reaction under a high current density (e.g., >300 mA cm-2), which reduces the anode electrocatalyst's activity and stability. Herein, taking lower energy cost urea electrooxidation reaction as the model reaction, we developed oxyanion-engineered Nickel catalysts to inhibit competing oxygen evolution reaction during urea oxidation reaction, achieving an ultrahigh 323.4 mA cm-2 current density at 1.65 V with 99.3 ± 0.4% selectivity of N-products. In situ spectra studies reveal that such in situ generated oxyanions not only inhibit OH- adsorption and guarantee high coverage of urea reactant on active sites to avoid oxygen evolution reaction, but also accelerate urea's C - N bond cleavage to form CNO - intermediates for facilitating urea oxidation reaction. Accordingly, a comprehensive mechanism for competitive adsorption behaviour between OH- and urea to boost urea electrooxidation and dynamic change of Ni active sites during urea oxidation reaction was proposed. This work presents a feasible route for high-efficiency urea electrooxidation reaction and even various electrooxidation reactions in practical applications.

FOXO1 orchestrates the intestinal homeostasis via neuronal signaling in group 3 innate lymphoid cells.

The neuro-immune regulation is associated with homeostasis of the intestine. Intestinal group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) are tissue-resident lymphocytes whose functions are affected by the intestine niche. However, how a gut neuronal signal coordinates the immune response of ILC3s is largely unknown. Here, we found that cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling exacerbated the inflammatory response and attenuated the expression level of the transcription factor forkhead box O1 (FOXO1) in ILC3s. Deficiency of FOXO1 drove the hyperactivation of ILC3s and resulted in gut inflammation independently of T cells. Mechanistically, FOXO1 promoted the transcription of neuropeptide receptor VIPR2 and inhibited the transcription of adrenoceptor ADRA2A in ILC3s. FOXO1-related regulation of VIPR2 and ADRA2A signaling balanced the activation of ILC3s under steady condition or during colitis. Moreover, chronic stress elevated cAMP level and downregulated FOXO1 level, exacerbating intestinal inflammation. Our findings reveal that FOXO1 balances the activation of ILC3s via VIP and adrenergic signaling and regulates intestinal homeostasis.

Tissue-resident Lachnospiraceae family bacteria protect against colorectal carcinogenesis by promoting tumor immune surveillance.

The intestinal microbiota plays an important role in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression. However, the effect of tissue-resident commensal bacteria on CRC immune surveillance remains poorly understood. Here, we analyzed the intratissue bacteria from CRC patient colon tissues. We found that the commensal bacteria belonging to the Lachnospiraceae family, including Ruminococcus gnavus (Rg), Blautia producta (Bp), and Dorea formicigenerans (Df), were enriched in normal tissues, while Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn) and Peptostreptococcus anaerobius (Pa) were abundant in tumor tissues. Tissue-resident Rg and Bp reduced colon tumor growth and promoted the activation of CD8+ T cells in immunocompetent mice. Mechanistically, intratissue Rg and Bp degraded lyso-glycerophospholipids that inhibited CD8+ T cell activity and maintained the immune surveillance function of CD8+ T cells. Lyso-glycerophospholipids alone promoted tumor growth that was abrogated with Rg and Bp injection. Collectively, intratissue Lachnospiraceae family bacteria facilitate the immune surveillance function of CD8+ T cells and control colorectal cancer progression.

Two-step model of paleohexaploidy, ancestral genome reshuffling and plasticity of heat shock response in Asteraceae.

An ancient hexaploidization event in the most but not all Asteraceae plants, may have been responsible for shaping the genomes of many horticultural, ornamental, and medicinal plants that promoting the prosperity of the largest angiosperm family on the earth. However, the duplication process of this hexaploidy, as well as the genomic and phenotypic diversity of extant Asteraceae plants caused by paleogenome reorganization, are still poorly understood. We analyzed 11 genomes from 10 genera in Asteraceae, and redated the Asteraceae common hexaploidization (ACH) event ~70.7-78.6 million years ago (Mya) and the Asteroideae specific tetraploidization (AST) event ~41.6-46.2 Mya. Moreover, we identified the genomic homologies generated from the ACH, AST and speciation events, and constructed a multiple genome alignment framework for Asteraceae. Subsequently, we revealed biased fractionations between the paleopolyploidization produced subgenomes, suggesting the ACH and AST both are allopolyplodization events. Interestingly, the paleochromosome reshuffling traces provided clear evidence for the two-step duplications of ACH event in Asteraceae. Furthermore, we reconstructed ancestral Asteraceae karyotype (AAK) that has 9 paleochromosomes, and revealed a highly flexible reshuffling of Asteraceae paleogenome. Of specific significance, we explored the genetic diversity of Heat Shock Transcription Factors (Hsfs) associated with recursive whole-genome polyploidizations, gene duplications, and paleogenome reshuffling, and revealed that the expansion of Hsfs gene families enable heat shock plasticity during the genome evolution of Asteraceae. Our study provides insights on polyploidy and paleogenome remodeling for the successful establishment of Asteraceae, and is helpful for further communication and exploration of the diversification of plant families and phenotypes.

A data-driven approach for on-line auto-tuning of minimum variance PID controller.

A data-driven approach for on-line tuning of minimum variance (MV) PID controller is proposed in this paper for a linear system subject to stochastic disturbances, in which none of a prior knowledge or/and external excitation signals is required. The main procedure is that two different rough tuning controllers are employed and switched from one to another such that two sets of output data are collected under routine operating conditions. Subsequently, based on FCOR (Filtering and CORrelation analysis) algorithm, the corresponding linear MV controller is estimated on-line for the linear system. The parameters of MV-PID controller is tuned to approximate the estimated MV controller by means of solving an optimization problem subject to a constraint of the closed-loop stability, where the weighted penalty function is composed of the inverse of controller parameters and the difference between the proposed controller and the minimum variance controller. By using a different selection of the weighting coefficients in the penalty function, the final tuning parameters of MV-PID controllers are determined by the practical consideration of step disturbance attenuation or sometimes the trade-off between stochastic and step signal disturbance attenuation.

Enhanced photocatalytic activity of TiO2/UiO-67 under visible-light for aflatoxin B1 degradation.

TiO2 has great potential in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, but poor visible light response and low separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs limit its wide applications. In this study, we have successfully prepared TiO2/UiO-67 photocatalyst through an in situ solvothermal method. The degradation rate of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is 98.9% in only 80 min, which is superior to the commercial P25, commercial TiO2 and most of reported photocatalysts under visible light irradiation. In addition, the TiO2/UiO-67 photocatalyst showed excellent recyclability. We demonstrated that the enhanced photocatalytic mechanism was owing to the heterojunction between TiO2 and UiO-67, which enhanced effectively the separation photogenerated charge carriers and visible light response. The free radical trapping tests demonstrated that superoxide radicals (˙O2 -), holes (h+) and hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) were the main active species and then oxidized AFB1 to some small molecules.

Study on the performance and mechanism of bio-electrochemical system to mitigate membrane fouling in bioreactors.

To alleviate membrane fouling, a membrane of the membrane bioreactor was directly used as the anode of the bio-electrochemical system. On the 14th day, the control group had blocked, while the experimental group with a current of 0.44 mA, the increase in ΔTMP was only 2.2 kPa. The polysaccharide and protein concentrations in the open-circuit group were 4.2 and 2.9 times higher than those in the closed-circuit group, respectively. Three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy and gas chromatography mass spectrometry showed that most of the deposition in the control group contained high-molecular-weight compounds, especially long-chain ester derivatives, phenols, and complex hydrocarbons, whereas the experimental group was the opposite. Therefore, current (electrons) can change the composition of the cake layer. High-throughput sequencing indicated that a significantly higher abundance of electroactive microorganisms on the experimental than control group. Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy showed that electrons promote the degradation of polysaccharides, thereby alleviating membrane fouling.

Highly efficient hamburger-like nanostructure of a triadic Ag/Co3O4/BiVO4 photoanode for enhanced photoelectrochemical water oxidation.

The combination of a semiconductor heterojunction and oxygen evolution cocatalyst (OEC) is an important strategy to improve photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation. Herein, a novel hamburger-like nanostructure of a triadic photoanode composed of BiVO4 nanobulks, Co3O4 nanosheets and Ag nanoparticles (NPs), that is, Ag/Co3O4/BiVO4, was designed. In our study, an interlaced 2D ultrathin p-type Co3O4 OEC layer was introduced onto n-type BiVO4 to form a p-n Co3O4/BiVO4 heterojunction with an internal electric field (IEF) in order to facilitate charge transport. Then the modification with Ag NPs can significantly facilitate the separation and transport of photogenerated carriers through the surface plasma resonance (SPR) effect, inhibiting the electron-hole recombination. The resulting Ag/Co3O4/BiVO4 photoanodes exhibit largely enhanced PEC water oxidation performance: the photocurrent density of the ternary photoanode reaches up to 1.84 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE, which is 4.60 times higher than that of the pristine BiVO4 photoanode. The IPCE value is 2.83 times higher than that of the pristine BiVO4 at 400 nm and the onset potential has a significant cathodic shift of 550 mV for the ternary well-constructed photoanode.

Enhanced active oxidative species generation over Fe-doped defective TiO2 nanosheets for boosted photodegradation.

Semiconductor photocatalysis is widely proposed for decomposing multiple pollutants via photo-generated oxidative species. However, the photocatalytic degradation performance in practical settings still remains unsatisfactory due to the limited production of active oxidative species (AOS). In this work, a defect engineering strategy was developed to explore the superiority of oxygen vacancies (Vo) and their structural regulation to enhance AOS production for boosting photodegradation. Taking anatase TiO2 as a model photocatalyst, ultrathin TiO2 nanosheets containing abundant Vo and appropriate Fe doping exhibited an unprecedented 134 times higher activity in the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) (rate as high as 0.3073 min-1) than bulk anatase and were superior to most reported photocatalysts. The defect-rich ultrathin TiO2 nanosheets could be further applied in high-efficiency degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl) with the degradation rate of 0.0423 min-1. The in situ electron paramagnetic resonance, advanced spectroscopic characterization and electrochemical measurement revealed the key role of Vo and Fe doping in facilitating the production of photo-generated holes and superoxide radicals (˙O2 -) that were identified to be effective to decompose both RhB and TC-HCl. This research provides insight into defect engineering promoting AOS generation and gives inspiration for the design of efficient photocatalysts for photooxidation applications.

Roles of different humin and heavy-metal resistant bacteria from composting on heavy metal removal.

This study aims to assess the roles of different humin and heavy-metal resistant bacterial community from composting on heavy metal removal. The results showed that the concentration of Cu2+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, Cr3+ and Cd2+ decreased with adding the compost-derived humin, but the removal rates were relatively low (<30% on average). The heavy metal resistant bacteria from composting have better metal binding capacities than humin, and the combined addition of humin and bacteria could further stimulate the biosorption of heavy metals with 60-80% removal of metals and improve the diversity and biomass of bacterial community. There was obviously increased synergy between the humin from maturity phase and bacteria for metal biosorption ("1 + 1 > 2"). Structural equation modeling showed that microbial biomass and humin humification are the key factors for the biosorption of heavy metals. Combining humin from maturity phase with heavy-metal resistant bacteria was suggested to control heavy metal pollution in composts.

Effect of semi-continuous replacements of compost materials after inoculation on the performance of heat preservation of low temperature composting.

Development of cold-adapted microbial agent is an efficient approach for composting in low temperature. The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of semi-continuous replacements of compost materials after inoculation (SRMI) on the heat preservation of low temperature composting derived from chicken manure. Results revealed that SRMI could significantly improve the heat preservation of the pile, although the time of start-up in two inoculation groups was approximately the same. Due to the increase in the number of replacements of materials led to the changes in microbial community structures and enzyme activity. Non-metric multidimensional and colorimetric methods indicated that microbial community structures and enzyme activity was completely different in SRMI. Structural equation model was constructed by key factors involved in diversity of the microbial community, enzyme activity, temperature and bio-heat generation. In summary, SRMI decidedly increase the heat preservation time of the pile and start-up efficiency of the low temperature composting.

Assessment of Multiorigin Humin Components Evolution and Influencing Factors During Composting.

Humin (HM) is a complex mixture of molecules produced in the different biological processes, and the structural evolution of HM in the agricultural wastes composting are not well-known. Elucidating and comparing the structural evolution during livestock manure (LMC) and straw wastes (SWC) composting can help one to better understand the fates, features, and environmental impacts of HM. This study exploits excitation emission matrix-parallel factor (EEM-PARAFAC), two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-CoS), hetero-2DCoS, and structural equation model (SEM) to compare the fate of the HM. We fit a three-component EEM-PARAFAC model to characterize HM extracted from LMC and SWC. The results show that the HM evolution has a significant difference between LMC and SWC. As a result, the opposite change tendency and different change order of HM fluorescent components determine the different synthesis formation and evolution mechanisms. The diverse organic matter composition and dominant microbes might be the reason for the different evolution mechanism. Based on these results, a comprehensive view of the component changes of HM in the composting process is obtained. Furthermore, the superior potential of such an integrated approach during investigating the complex evolution in the environment was also demonstrated.