Unveiling the antibacterial mechanism of resveratrol against Aeromonas hydrophila through proteomics analysis.

This investigation delves into elucidating the mechanism by which resveratrol (Res), a natural polyterpenoid renowned for its antimicrobial properties, exerts its effects on Aeromonas hydrophila, a ubiquitous waterborne pathogen. Our findings underscore the dose-dependent manifestation of resveratrol in exhibiting antibacterial and antibiofilm formation activities against A. hydrophila. Employing a Data-independent acquisition (DIA) based quantitative proteomics methodology, we systematically compared differentially expressed proteins in A. hydrophila subjected to varying concentrations of Res. Subsequent bioinformatics analyses revealed key proteins and pathways pivotal in resveratrol's antimicrobial action, encompassing oxidative stress, energy metabolism, and cell membrane integrity. Validation of the proteomics outcomes was meticulously conducted using the qPCR method at the mRNA level. Dynamic trend analysis unveiled alterations in biological processes, notably the correlation between the cell division-related protein ZapC and resveratrol content. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy corroborated a significant elongation of A. hydrophila cells, affirming resveratrol's capability to inhibit cell division. In concert, resveratrol emerges as a participant in the cell membrane integrity pathway, biofilm formation, and potentially, the regulation of genes associated with cell division, resulting in morphological elongation. These revelations position resveratrol as a promising natural alternative to conventional antibiotics for treating A. hydrophila infections.

Autophagy-mediated degradation of integumentary tapetum is critical for embryo pattern formation.

Autophagy modulates the degradation and recycling of intracellular materials and contributes to male gametophyte development and male fertility in plants. However, whether autophagy participates in seed development remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that autophagy is crucial for timely programmed cell death (PCD) in the integumentary tapetum, the counterpart of anther tapetum, influencing embryo pattern formation and seed viability. Inhibition of autophagy resulted in delayed PCD of the integumentary tapetum and defects in embryo patterning. Cell-type-specific restoration of autophagic activities revealed that the integumentary tapetum plays a non-autonomous role in embryo patterning. Furthermore, high-throughput, comprehensive lipidomic analyzes uncovered an unexpected seed-developmental-stage-dependent role of autophagy in seed lipid metabolism: it contributes to triacylglycerol degradation before fertilization and to triacylglycerol biosynthesis after fertilization. This study highlights the critical role of autophagy in regulating timely integumentary tapetum PCD and reveals its significance in seed lipid metabolism and viability.

Acute Effects of Local High-Frequency Percussive Massage on Deep Fascial and Muscular Stiffness and Joint Range of Motion in Young Adult Men.

BACKGROUND: Local high-frequency percussive (HFP) massage has recently found widespread application in physical therapy. Although HFP massage reportedly improves range of motion (ROM), the mechanism underlying its action has not yet been proven. This study aimed to clarify whether a 5-minute percussive massage regimen affects muscular or connective tissues, such as the deep fascia and deep intermuscular fascia and the change in joint ROM. METHOD: The study sample was calculated using G*Power analysis program, and this study enrolled 15 healthy men who underwent 5-minute HFP massage to the medial gastrocnemius muscle. Shear-wave elastography was used to measure tissue stiffness in the deep fascia, muscle, and deep intermuscular fascia through shear-wave velocity as well as the ROM of the volunteers' ankle joint dorsiflexion before and after the HFP massage. A value of P < .05 was used to declare statistical significance, and post hoc was used to calculate the effect size using G*Power. RESULTS: Shear-wave velocity revealed a significant change in the deep fascia (P = .003; shear-wave velocity: -0.7 m/s) and significant increase in ROM of ankle dorsiflexion (P = .002; increase in ROM: 3.0°) after 5 minutes of HFP massage. However, the muscle and deep intermuscular fascia did not exhibit any significant changes. CONCLUSIONS: HFP massage for 5 minutes modified the stiffness of the deep fascia and concurrently improved the ankle joint-dorsiflexion ROM. This method can be used as an intervention to decrease stiffness of the deep fascia and increase the ROM efficiently.

Bi-Graph Reasoning for Masticatory Muscle Segmentation From Cone-Beam Computed Tomography.

Automated segmentation of masticatory muscles is a challenging task considering ambiguous soft tissue attachments and image artifacts of low-radiation cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. In this paper, we propose a bi-graph reasoning model (BGR) for the simultaneous detection and segmentation of multi-category masticatory muscles from CBCTs. The BGR exploits the local and long-range interdependencies of regions of interest and category-specific prior knowledge of masticatory muscles by reasoning on the category graph and the region graph. The category graph of the learnable muscle prior knowledge handles high-level dependencies of muscle categories, enhancing the feature representation with noise-agnostic category knowledge. The region graph models both local and global dependencies of the candidate muscle regions of interest. The proposed BGR accommodates the high-level dependencies and enhances the region features in the presence of entangled soft tissue and image artifacts. We evaluated the proposed approach by segmenting masticatory muscles on clinically acquired CBCTs. Extensive experimental results show that the BGR effectively segments masticatory muscles with state-of-the-art accuracy.

Locking Effect in Metal@MOF with Superior Stability for Highly Chemoselective Catalysis.

Ultrasmall metal nanoparticles (NPs) show high catalytic activity in heterogeneous catalysis but are prone to reunion and loss during the catalytic process, resulting in low chemoselectivity and poor efficiency. Herein, a locking effect strategy is proposed to synthesize high-loading and ultrafine metal NPs in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for efficient chemoselective catalysis with high stability. Briefly, the MOF ZIF-90 with aldehyde groups cooperating with diamine chains via aldimine condensation was interlocked, which was employed to confine in situ formation of Au NPs, denoted as Au@L-ZIF-90. The optimized Au@La-ZIF-90 has highly dispersed Au NPs (2.60 ± 0.81 nm) with a loading amount around 22 wt % and shows a great performance toward 3-aminophenylacetylene (3-APA) from the selective hydrogenation of 3-nitrophenylacetylene (3-NPA) with a high yield (99%) and excellent durability (over 20 cycles), far superior to contrast catalysts without chains locking and other reported catalysts. In addition, experimental characterization and systematic density functional theory calculations further demonstrate that the locked MOF modulates the charge of Au nanoparticles, making them highly specific for nitro group hydrogenation to obtain 3-APA with high selectivity (99%). Furthermore, this locking effect strategy is also applicable to other metal nanoparticles confined in a variety of MOFs, and all of these catalysts locked with chains show great selectivity (≥90%) of 3-APA. The proposed strategy in this work provides a novel and universal method for precise control of the inherent activity of accessible metal nanoparticles with a programmable MOF microenvironment toward highly specific catalysis.

Transcriptome Analysis and HPLC Profiling of Flavonoid Biosynthesis in Citrus aurantium L. during Its Key Developmental Stages.

Citrus aurantium L. (sour orange) is a significant Chinese medicinal and fruit crop rich in flavonoids. However, the pathways and genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis at the key developmental stages of Citrus aurantium L. are not fully understood. This study found that the total flavonoid concentration gradually decreased as the fruit developed. Additionally, it showed that neohesperidin was the main flavonoid in the early stages of sour orange fruit development. However, as the development stage progressed, naringin content increased rapidly and emerged as the main flavonoid component. From 27 cDNA libraries, RNA sequencing yielded 16.64 billion clean bases, including 8989 differentially expressed genes. We identified 74 flavonoid related unigenes mapped to the phenylalanine, tyrosine, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathways. A total of 152 UDP-glucuronosyltransferase genes (UGTs) were identified from C. aurantium L. transcriptome database, in which 22 key flavonoid-correlated UGTs were divided into five main AtGT groups: E, G, I, L, M. We observed that the ethylene responsive factors (ERF) and myeloblastosis (MYB) family mainly regulated the key genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis. Overall, our study generated extensive and detailed transcriptome data on the development of C. aurantium L. and characterized the flavonoid biosynthesis pattern during its fruit developmental stages. These results will benefit genetic modification or selection to increase the flavonoid content in sour oranges.

Transcriptome Analysis and GC-MS Profiling of Key Fatty Acid Biosynthesis Genes in Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz Seeds.

Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz is an important Chinese medicinal and economic crop. Its seeds, which are rich in fatty acids, are usually discarded. As of now, A. trifoliata lipid biosynthesis pathways and genes have not been clearly described. In this work, we found that seed and fruit development of A. trifoliata were not synchronized, and that when the fruit was ripe, seed oil content was not at its highest. As seeds developed, linoleic and oleic acid content was found to decrease and increase, respectively. RNA sequencing yielded 108.45 GB of clean reads from 15 cDNA libraries, containing 8756 differentially expressed genes. We identified 65 unigenes associated with lipid biosynthesis, including fatty acid and triacylglycerol biosynthesis. The 65 unigenes were mapped to the A. trifoliata lipid synthesis pathway. There were 20 AtrFAD family members in A. trifoliata, which could be divided into four sub-groups with the highest number of AtrSADs. Our study revealed the dynamic changes in A. trifoliata seed oil content and composition during its growth period and provides large-scale and comprehensive transcriptome data of A. trifoliata seeds. These findings provide a basis for the improvement of A. trifoliata seed oil yield and quality.

Tailoring the Electronic Structure of an Atomically Dispersed Zinc Electrocatalyst: Coordination Environment Regulation for High Selectivity Oxygen Reduction.

Accurately regulating the selectivity of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is crucial to renewable energy storage and utilization, but challenging. A flexible alteration of ORR pathways on atomically dispersed Zn sites towards high selectivity ORR can be achieved by tailoring the coordination environment of the catalytic centers. The atomically dispersed Zn catalysts with unique O- and C-coordination structure (ZnO3 C) or N-coordination structure (ZnN4 ) can be prepared by varying the functional groups of corresponding MOF precursors. The coordination environment of as-prepared atomically dispersed Zn catalysts was confirmed by X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFs). Notably, the ZnN4 catalyst processes a 4 e- ORR pathway to generate H2 O. However, controllably tailoring the coordination environment of atomically dispersed Zn sites, ZnO3 C catalyst processes a 2 e- ORR pathway to generate H2 O2 with a near zero overpotential and high selectivity in 0.1 M KOH. Calculations reveal that decreased electron density around Zn in ZnO3 C lowers the d-band center of Zn, thus changing the intermediate adsorption and contributing to the high selectivity towards 2 e- ORR.

Step by Step Construction of Multifunctional Hollow Double Shell MNPs@MOF as a Powerful Tandem/Cascade Catalyst.

The development of efficient heterogeneous catalysts for one-pot tandem/cascade synthesis of imines remains meaningful and challenging. Herein, we constructed an Au/MOF catalyst featured hollow and double MOF shell nanostructure. Owing to its structural merits and acid-basic nature, the as-synthesized Void|(Au)ZIF-8|ZIF-8 catalyst exhibited an enhanced synergistically catalytic performance for tandem catalytic synthesis of imines from benzyl alcohol and aniline under air atmosphere and solvent-free condition. Its 170.16 h-1 of turnover frequency (TOF) was 2.5 times higher than that of the reported catalyst with the highest TOF value.

Physicochemical properties, content, composition and partial least squares models of A. trifoliata seeds oil.

Physicochemical properties, oil content, and fatty acids (FAs) composition are key for determining the value of oil crops. The aim of this study was to illustrate the potential of exploiting A. trifoliata as an edible oil crop, and establish a rapid measurement model for the A. trifoliata seeds oil (ASO) content and composition. In 130 A. trifoliata germplasms, the highest content of ASO was 51.27%, and unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) mainly accounted for 74-78% of ASO. The partial least squares (PLS) model based on GC-MS and near-infrared spectroscopy was well-suited for the determination of ASO and UFA content; however, the PLS model for oleic acid (OA) and linoleic acid (LA) was not effective. The acid values and peroxide values for ASO also conformed to the Chinese food safety standards. Our findings will provide new insights and guidance for the use of A. trifoliata as oil crops..

Genetic Diversity of a Natural Population of Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz and Extraction of a Core Collection Using Simple Sequence Repeat Markers.

Understand genetic diversity and genetic structure of germplasm is premise of germplasm conservation and utilization. And core collection can reduce the cost and difficulty of germplasm conservation. Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz is an important medicinal, fruit and oil crop, particularly in China. In this study, 28 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to assess the genetic diversity and genetic structure of 955 A. trifoliata germplasms, determine their molecular identity and extract a core collection. The genetic diversity of the 955 germplasms was moderately polymorphic. The average number of alleles (Na), observed heterozygosity (H O ), expected heterozygosity (H E ), Shannon's information index (I∗), and polymorphic information content (PIC) were 3.71, 0.24, 0.46, 0.81, and 0.41, respectively. Four subpopulations were identified, indicating a weak genetic structure. A 955 germplasms could be completely distinguished by the characters of s28, s25, s74, s89, s68, s30, s13, s100, s72, s77, and s3. And each germplasm's molecular identity was made up of eleven characters. The core collection was composed of 164 germplasms (17.2% of 955 total germplasms in the population) and diversity parameters differed significantly from those of a random core collection. These results have implications for germplasm conservation. At the same time, based on the results, the 955 germplasm could be better used and managed.

Chiral Yolk-Shell MOF as an Efficient Nanoreactor for Asymmetric Catalysis in Organic-Aqueous Two-Phase System.

It remains a great challenge to introduce large and efficient homogeneous asymmetric catalysts into MOFs and other microporous materials as well as retain their degrees of freedom. Herein, a new heterogeneous strategy of homogeneous chiral catalysts is proposed, that is, to construct a yolk-shell MOFs-confined, large-size, and highly efficient homogeneous chiral catalyst, which can be used as a nanoreactor for asymmetric catalytic reactions.

Comparative Analysis of Akebia trifoliata Fruit Softening at Different Flesh Ripening Stages Using Tandem Mass Tag Technology.

Owing to its medicinal and high nutritional values, Akebia trifoliata can be considered as a new type of medicinal and edible homologous resources, and it has begun to be widely cultivated in many areas of China. Over-softening of fruit would affect the sensorial quality, utilization rate, and consumer acceptance of the fruit postharvest. However, fruit softening has not been characterized and the molecular mechanism underlying A. trifoliata fruit softening during ripening remains unclear. A comparative proteomic analysis was performed on the fruit at three developmental stages using tandem mass tag technology. In total, 2,839 proteins and 302 differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) were identified. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that most DAPs were implicated in oxidoreductase activity, protein domain-specific binding and pyruvate metabolism. Moreover, 29 DAPs associated with cell wall metabolism, plant hormone, and stress and defense response pathways were validated using quantitative PCR. Notably, pectinesterase, pectate lyase, and ß-galactosidase, which are involved in cell wall degradation, as well as gibberellin regulated protein, cysteine protease, thaumatin-like protein and heat shock proteins which is involved in plant hormone, and stress and defense response, were significantly up-regulated in softening fruit compared with the levels in non-softening fruit. This indicated that they might play key roles in A. trifoliata fruit softening. Our findings will provide new insights into potential genes influencing fruit softening traits of A. trifoliata, which will help to develop strategies to improve fruit quality and reduce softening-related losses.

Integrative transcriptome and proteome analyses provide new insights into different stages of Akebia trifoliata fruit cracking during ripening.

BACKGROUND: Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz may have applications as a new potential source of biofuels owing to its high seed count, seed oil content, and in-field yields. However, the pericarp of A. trifoliata cracks longitudinally during fruit ripening, which increases the incidence of pests and diseases and can lead to fruit decay and deterioration, resulting in significant losses in yield. Few studies have evaluated the mechanisms underlying A. trifoliata fruit cracking. RESULTS: In this study, by observing the cell wall structure of the pericarp, we found that the cell wall became thinner and looser and showed substantial breakdown in the pericarp of cracking fruit compared with that in non-cracking fruit. Moreover, integrative analyses of transcriptome and proteome profiles at different stages of fruit ripening demonstrated changes in the expression of various genes and proteins after cracking. Furthermore, the mRNA levels of 20 differentially expressed genes were analyzed, and parallel reaction monitoring analysis of 20 differentially expressed proteins involved in cell wall metabolism was conducted. Among the molecular targets, pectate lyases and pectinesterase, which are involved in pentose and glucuronate interconversion, and ß-galactosidase 2, which is involved in galactose metabolism, were significantly upregulated in cracking fruits than in non-cracking fruits. This suggested that they might play crucial roles in A. trifoliata fruit cracking. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provided new insights into potential genes influencing the fruit cracking trait in A. trifoliata and established a basis for further research on the breeding of cracking-resistant varieties to increase seed yields for biorefineries.

Li Alginate-Based Artificial SEI Layer for Stable Lithium Metal Anodes.

Lithium metal anodes (LMAs) are critical for high-energy-density batteries such as Li-S and Li-O2 batteries. The spontaneously formed solid electrolyte interface on LMAs is fragile, which may not accommodate the cyclic Li plating/stripping. This usually will result in a low coulombic efficiency (CE), short cycle life, and potential safety hazards induced by the uncontrollable growth of lithium dendrites. In this study, we fabricate a Li alginate-based artificial SEI (ASEI) layer that is chemically stable and allows easy Li ion transport on the surface of LMAs, thus enabling the stable operation of lithium metal anodes. Compared to bare LMAs, the ASEI layer-protected LMAs exhibit a more stable Li plating/stripping behavior and present effective dendrite suppression. The symmetric Li∥Li cells with the ASEI layer-protected LMAs can stably run for 850 and 350 h at current densities of 0.5 and 1 mA cm-2, respectively. Additionally, the LiFePO4∥Li full cell with the ASEI layer-protected LMA exhibits a capacity retention of about 94.0% coupled with a CE of 99.6% after 1000 cycles at 4 C. We believe that this study of engineering an ASEI brings a new and promising approach to the stabilization of LMAs for high-performance lithium metal batteries.

Fabrication of Magnetic Pd/MOF Hollow Nanospheres with Double-Shell Structure: Toward Highly Efficient and Recyclable Nanocatalysts for Hydrogenation Reaction.

MNPs@MOF catalysts obtained by encapsulating metal nanoparticles (NPs) into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show fascinating performance in heterogeneous catalysis. The improvement of catalytic activity and reusability of MNPs@MOF catalysts has been a great challenge for a long time. Herein, we demonstrate well-designed Pd/MOFs, featuring hollow double-shell structure and magnetic property, exhibiting high reusability, efficient catalytic activity, and size selectivity for hydrogenation reaction. The as-synthesized Pd/MOF, denoted as Void nFe3O4@Pd/ZIF-8@ZIF-8, possesses diverse functional structural features. The hollow cavity can improve mass transfer; superparamagnetic Fe3O4 NPs embedded in the inner MOF shell can enhance the separation and recyclability; Pd NPs are highly dispersed in the matrix of the inner MOF shell, and the outer MOF shell acts as a protector to prevent the leaching of Pd NPs and a sieve to achieve size selectivity. As a proof of concept, the Void nFe3O4@Pd/ZIF-8@ZIF-8 catalyst exhibited excellent performance for the hydrogenation of styrene at room temperature. The activity only reduced 10% after 20 cycles for the higher conversions (>90%), and the lower conversion only decreased 3.6% (from 32.5 to 28.9% conversion) after twenty consecutive cycles, indicating the good and intrinsic reusability of the catalyst. The proposed structure in this work provides a strategy to effectively improve the reusability of MNPs@MOF catalysts, which would increase their practical applications.

Digital modeling technology for full dental crown tooth preparation.

A dental defect is one of the most common oral diseases, and it often requires a full crown restoration. In this clinical operation, the dentist must manually prepare the affected tooth for the full crown so that it has a convergence angle between 4° and 10°, no undercuts, and uniform and even shoulder widths and depths using a high speed diamond bur in the patient׳s mouth within one hour, which is a difficult task that requires visual-manual operation. The quality of the tooth preparation has an important effect on the success rate of the subsequent prosthodontic treatment. This study involved research into digital modeling technology for full dental crown tooth preparation. First, the margin line of the tooth preparation was designed using a semi-automatic interactive process. Second, the inserting direction was automatically computed. Then, the characteristic parameters and the constraints on the tooth preparation were defined for the model. Next, the shoulder and axial surface of the tooth preparation were formed using parametric modeling. Finally, the implicit surface of a radial basis function was used to construct the tooth preparation׳s occlusal surface. The experimental results verified that the method of digital modeling for full crown preparation proposed in this study can quickly and accurately implement personalized designs of various parameters, such as the shoulder width and the convergence angle; it provides a digital design tool for full crown preparation.