Genetically proxied PCSK9 inhibition is associated with reduced psoriatic arthritis risk.

BACKGROUND: Lipid pathways play a crucial role in psoriatic arthritis development, and some lipid-lowering drugs are believed to have therapeutic benefits due to their anti-inflammatory properties. Traditional observational studies face issues with confounding factors, complicating the interpretation of causality. This study seeks to determine the genetic link between these medications and the risk of psoriatic arthritis. METHODS: This drug target study utilized the Mendelian randomization strategy. We harnessed high-quality data from population-level genome-wide association studies sourced from the UK Biobank and FinnGen databases. The inverse variance-weighted method, complemented by robust pleiotropy methods, was employed. We examined the causal relationships between three lipid-lowering agents and psoriatic arthritis to unveil the underlying mechanisms. RESULTS: A significant association was observed between genetically represented proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibition and a decreased risk of psoriatic arthritis (odds ratio [OR]: 0.51; 95% CI 0.14-0.88; P < 0.01). This association was further corroborated in an independent dataset (OR 0.60; 95% CI 0.25-0.94; P = 0.03). Sensitivity analyses affirmed the absence of statistical evidence for pleiotropic or genetic confounding biases. However, no substantial associations were identified for either 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors or Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: This Mendelian randomization analysis underscores the pivotal role of PCSK9 in the etiology of psoriatic arthritis. Inhibition of PCSK9 is associated with reduced psoriatic arthritis risk, highlighting the potential therapeutic benefits of existing PCSK9 inhibitors.

A long noncoding RNA functions in pumpkin fruit development through S-adenosyl-L-methionine synthetase.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in various biological processes. However, the regulatory roles of lncRNAs underlying fruit development have not been extensively studied. The pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) is a preferred model for understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating fruit development because of its variable shape and size and large inferior ovary. Here, we performed strand-specific transcriptome sequencing on pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima "Rimu") fruits at 6 developmental stages and identified 5,425 reliably expressed lncRNAs. Among the 332 lncRNAs that were differentially expressed during fruit development, the lncRNA MSTRG.44863.1 was identified as a negative regulator of pumpkin fruit development. MSTRG.44863.1 showed a relatively high expression level and an obvious period-specific expression pattern. Transient overexpression and silencing of MSTRG.44863.1 significantly increased and decreased the content of 1-aminocyclopropane carboxylic acid (a precursor of ethylene) and ethylene production, respectively. RNA pull-down and microscale thermophoresis assays further revealed that MSTRG.44863.1 can interact with S-adenosyl-L-methionine synthetase (SAMS), an enzyme in the ethylene synthesis pathway. Considering that ethylene negatively regulates fruit development, these results indicate that MSTRG.44863.1 plays an important role in the regulation of pumpkin fruit development, possibly through interacting with SAMS and affecting ethylene synthesis. Overall, our findings provide a rich resource for further study of fruit-related lncRNAs while offering insights into the regulation of fruit development in plants.

Establishment of a novel classification system for alveolar morphology in infants with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate.

OBJECTIVES: Unilateral complete cleft lip and palate (UCCLP) is one of the most severe clinical subtypes among cleft lip and palate (CLP), making repair surgery and subsequent orthodontic treatment particularly challenging. Presurgical nasoalveolar molding (PNAM) has shown conflicting and heterogeneous results in the treatment of UCCLP patients, raising questions about whether the diversity in alveolar anatomical morphology among these patients plays a role in the effectiveness of PNAM treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected 90 digital maxillary models of infants with UCCLP and performed mathematical clustering analysis, including principal component analysis (PCA), decision tree modeling, and area under the ROC Curve (AUC) analysis, to classify alveolar morphology and identify key measurements. We also conducted clinical evaluations to assess the association between the alveolar morphology and CLP treatment outcomes. RESULTS: Using mathematical clustering analysis, we classified the alveolar morphology into three distinct types: average form, horizontal form, and longitudinal form. The decision tree model, AUC analysis, and comparison analysis revealed that four measurements (Trans ACG-ACL, ML length, MG length and Inc length) were essential for clustering the alveolar morphology of infants with UCCLP. Furthermore, the blinded clinical evaluation indicated that UCCLP patients with alveolar segments of horizontal form had the lowest treatment outcomes. CONCLUSION: Overall, our findings establish a novel quantitative classification system for the morphology of alveolar bone in infants with UCCLP and suggest that this classification may be associated with the outcomes of CLP treatment. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The multidisciplinary CLP team should thoroughly evaluate and classify the specific alveolar morphology when administering PNAM to infants with UCCLP.

The psc-CVM assessment system: A three-stage type system for CVM assessment based on deep learning.

BACKGROUND: Many scholars have proven cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) method can predict the growth and development and assist in choosing the best time for treatment. However, assessing CVM is a complex process. The experience and seniority of the clinicians have an enormous impact on judgment. This study aims to establish a fully automated, high-accuracy CVM assessment system called the psc-CVM assessment system, based on deep learning, to provide valuable reference information for the growth period determination. METHODS: This study used 10,200 lateral cephalograms as the data set (7111 in train set, 1544 in validation set and 1545 in test set) to train the system. The psc-CVM assessment system is designed as three parts with different roles, each operating in a specific order. 1) Position Network for locating the position of cervical vertebrae; 2) Shape Recognition Network for recognizing and extracting the shapes of cervical vertebrae; and 3) CVM Assessment Network for assessing CVM according to the shapes of cervical vertebrae. Statistical analysis was conducted to detect the performance of the system and the agreement of CVM assessment between the system and the expert panel. Heat maps were analyzed to understand better what the system had learned. The area of the third (C3), fourth (C4) cervical vertebrae and the lower edge of second (C2) cervical vertebrae were activated when the system was assessing the images. RESULTS: The system has achieved good performance for CVM assessment with an average AUC (the area under the curve) of 0.94 and total accuracy of 70.42%, as evaluated on the test set. The Cohen's Kappa between the system and the expert panel is 0.645. The weighted Kappa between the system and the expert panel is 0.844. The overall ICC between the psc-CVM assessment system and the expert panel was 0.946. The F1 score rank for the psc-CVM assessment system was: CVS (cervical vertebral maturation stage) 6 > CVS1 > CVS4 > CVS5 > CVS3 > CVS2. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the psc-CVM assessment system achieved high accuracy in CVM assessment. The system in this study was significantly consistent with expert panels in CVM assessment, indicating that the system can be used as an efficient, accurate, and stable diagnostic aid to provide a clinical aid for determining growth and developmental stages by CVM.

Effects of different allo-Treg/allo-NK ratios on graft-versus-host disease in transplanted mice.

To investigate the effects of allo-Treg cells, allo-NK cells, and their mixtures in different proportions on Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in bone marrow transplant mouse model. In this study, C57BL/6 mice were used as donors, and 6 Gy dose of 60Co γ was used as the receptor of BALB/c mice. The recipient mice were divided into NC (normal saline), CON (bone marrow cells), NK (bone marrow cells + NK cells), Treg (bone marrow cells + Treg cells), NK+ Treg (1:1) (bone marrow cells +1:1 ratio of Treg cells, NK cells), and NK+ Treg (6:1) (bone marrow cells +1:6 ratio of Treg cells, NK cells), according to the different injection mode through the tail vein. The differences of white blood cell (WBC), platelet (PLT), clinical manifestations, and GVHD score of target organs (liver, lung, small intestine) in each group after transplantation were observed, and the differences of chimerism rate and survival rate in each group at 28 days after transplantation were compared. The interaction between Treg cells and NK cells in different proportions (1:1, 1:2, 1:6, 1:12) was investigated in vitro in mouse erythroleukemia (MEL) cells of mouse erythroleukemia. The results showed that at the 28th day of transplantation, the clinical manifestations and GVHD scores of target organs of mice in NK+ Treg (1:1) group and NK+ Treg (6:1) group were significantly lower than other groups (P < 0.05); the WBC and PLT counts were significantly higher than other groups (P < 0.05), and the survival time was significantly longer than other groups (P < 0.05); the clinical manifestations and GVHD scores of each target organ in NK+ Treg (1:1) group were significantly lower than those in NK+ Treg (6:1) group (P < 0.05); the chimerism rate of each group was >90% on day 28 after transplantation. In vitro experiments showed that the inhibition of Treg cells on NK cell killing activity was dose-dependent, and the proportion of 1:6 and 1:12, killing activity of NK cell was significantly lower than that of groups 1:1 and 1:2 (P < 0.05), which showed that allo-NK and allo-Treg alone had a significant effect on the improvement of GVHD after transplantation, and Treg cells inhibited the killing activity of NK cells by direct contact and showed a dose-dependent effect.

Remnant cholesterol, stronger than triglycerides, is associated with incident non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by excess accumulation of triglycerides within the liver. However, whether the circulating levels of triglycerides and cholesterol transported in triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (remnant cholesterol, remnant-C) are related to the occurrence of NAFLD has not yet been studied. This study aims to assess the association of triglycerides and remnant-C with NAFLD in a Chinese cohort of middle aged and elderly individuals. Methods: All subjects in the current study are from the 13,876 individuals who recruited in the Shandong cohort of the REACTION study. We included 6,634 participants who had more than one visit during the study period with an average follow-up time of 43.34 months. The association between lipid concentrations and incident NAFLD were evaluated by unadjusted and adjusted Cox proportional hazard models. The potential confounders were adjusted in the models including age, sex, hip circumference (HC), body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), diabetes status and cardiovascular disease (CVD) status. Results: In multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazard model analyses, triglycerides (hazard ratio[HR], 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.080,1.047-1.113;p<0.001), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (HR, 95% CI: 0.571,0.487-0.670; p<0.001), and remnant-C (HR, 95% CI: 1.143,1.052-1.242; p=0.002), but not total cholesterol (TC) or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), were associated with incident NAFLD. Atherogenic dyslipidemia (triglycerides>1.69 mmol/L, HDL-C<1.03 mmol/L in men or<1.29 mmol/L in women) was also associated with NAFLD (HR, 95% CI: 1.343,1.177-1.533; p<0.001). Remnant-C levels were higher in females than in males and increased with increasing BMI and in participants with diabetes and CVD compared with those without diabetes or CVD. After adjusting for other factors in the Cox regression models, we found that serum levels of TG and remnant-C, but not TC or LDL-C, were associated with NAFLD outcomes in women group, non-cardiovascular disease status, non-diabetes status and middle BMI categories (24 to 28 kg/m2). Discussion: In the middle aged and elderly subset of the Chinese population, especially those who were women, non-CVD status, non-diabetes status and middle BMI status (24 to 28 kg/m2), levels of triglycerides and remnant-C, but not TC or LDL-C, were associated with NAFLD outcomes independent of other risk factors.

GmYSL7 controls iron uptake, allocation, and cellular response of nodules in soybean.

Iron (Fe) is essential for DNA synthesis, photosynthesis and respiration of plants. The demand for Fe substantially increases during legumes-rhizobia symbiotic nitrogen fixation because of the synthesis of leghemoglobin in the host and Fe-containing proteins in bacteroids. However, the mechanism by which plant controls iron transport to nodules remains largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that GmYSL7 serves as a key regulator controlling Fe uptake from root to nodule and distribution in soybean nodules. GmYSL7 is Fe responsive and GmYSL7 transports iron across the membrane and into the infected cells of nodules. Alterations of GmYSL7 substantially affect iron distribution between root and nodule, resulting in defective growth of nodules and reduced nitrogenase activity. GmYSL7 knockout increases the expression of GmbHLH300, a transcription factor required for Fe response of nodules. Overexpression of GmbHLH300 decreases nodule number, nitrogenase activity and Fe content in nodules. Remarkably, GmbHLH300 directly binds to the promoters of ENOD93 and GmLbs, which regulate nodule number and nitrogenase activity, and represses their transcription. Our data reveal a new role of GmYSL7 in controlling Fe transport from host root to nodule and Fe distribution in nodule cells, and uncover a molecular mechanism by which Fe affects nodule number and nitrogenase activity.

Architecture design of cucurbit crops for enhanced productivity by a natural allele.

Increasing production efficiency is a top priority in agriculture. Optimal plant architecture is the biological basis of dense planting, high crop yield and labour cost savings, and is thus critical for improving agricultural productivity. In cucurbit crops, most species have elongated internodes, but the path to architecture improvement is still not clear. Here we identified a pumpkin accession with a dominant bushy trait, and found that the associated Bush locus harbours a cucurbit-conserved cis-regulatory element in the 5' untranslated region of a transcription factor gene YABBY1. In cucurbit crops, various B-region deletions enhance the translation of YABBY1, with consequent proportional suppression of stem length in a dose-dependent manner. Depending on different cultivation patterns, the precise deployment of these alleles has significant effects on yield improvement or labour cost saving. Our findings demonstrate that the engineering of the YABBY1 B-region is an efficient strategy to customize plant architecture in cucurbit crops.

Effect of rapid rehabilitation nursing on inflammation and liver function after laparoscopic radical resection of primary liver cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of rapid rehabilitation nursing on inflammation and liver function in patients with primary liver cancer (PLC) after laparoscopic radical resection. METHODS: A total of 124 PLC patients who underwent laparoscopic radical surgery in the Zhuji People's Hospital of Zhejiang Province from April 2019 to July 2021 were enrolled in this retrospective study. Among them, 65 patients who received rapid rehabilitation nursing were assigned into the observation group (OG), and the other 59 with routine nursing were considered to be the control group (CG). The pain before operation (T0), 3 days after operation (T1) and 7 days after operation (T2) was evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS). The perioperative related indexes and nursing satisfaction were compared. The levels of liver function indexes alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBIL) and inflammatory factors C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were measured before operation, 1 day and 7 days after operation. Finally, the incidence of postoperative complications was counted, the 6-month survival rate of both groups of patients was compared. RESULTS: There was no obvious difference in VAS scores between the two groups at T0 (P>0.050), but the VAS scores at T1 and T2 in the OG were lower than those in the CG (P<0.001). There was no marked difference in the total operation time. Compared with the CG, the time to first exhaust, catheter indwelling and hospitalization in the OG were shorter (P<0.001) and the nursing satisfaction rate was higher (P<0.05). There was no obvious difference in ALT, AST and TBIL on the 1st day after operation (P>0.05); however, on the 7th day after operation, ALT and AST were lower while TBIL was higher in the OG (all P<0.05). There was no marked difference in CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α between the two groups on postoperative day 1 (P>0.05), but the levels were lower in the OG than those in the CG on postoperative day 7 (all P<0.05), and the total incidence of adverse reactions in the OG was lower (P<0.05). There was no statistical difference in the postoperative survival rate between both groups of patients (P>0.05). Age, number of lesions, tumor size, Child-Pugh grade, AST, TBIL, CRP, IL-6, TNF-α were associated with the survival rate of patients. CONCLUSION: Rapid rehabilitation nursing can effectively reduce adverse reactions after laparoscopic radical resection of PLC. Thus, it has a high application value in future clinical treatment.

Genome-Wide Identification of Powdery Mildew Responsive Long Non-Coding RNAs in Cucurbita pepo.

Cucurbita pepo L. is an essential economic vegetable crop worldwide, and its production is severely affected by powdery mildew (PM). However, our understanding of the molecular mechanism of PM resistance in C. pepo is very limited. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in regulating plant responses to biotic stress. Here, we systematically identified 2,363 reliably expressed lncRNAs from the leaves of PM-susceptible (PS) and PM-resistant (PR) C. pepo. The C. pepo lncRNAs are shorter in length and expressed at a lower level than the protein-coding transcripts. Among the 2,363 lncRNAs, a total of 113 and 146 PM-responsive lncRNAs were identified in PS and PR, respectively. Six PM-responsive lncRNAs were predicted as potential precursors of microRNAs (miRNAs). In addition, 58 PM-responsive lncRNAs were predicted as targets of miRNAs and one PM-responsive lncRNA was predicted as an endogenous target mimic (eTM). Furthermore, a total of 5,200 potential cis target genes and 5,625 potential trans target genes were predicted for PM-responsive lncRNAs. Functional enrichment analysis showed that these potential target genes are involved in different biological processes, such as the plant-pathogen interaction pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and plant hormone signal transduction pathway. Taken together, this study provides a comprehensive view of C. pepo lncRNAs and explores the putative functions of PM-responsive lncRNAs, thus laying the foundation for further study of the regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs responding to PM.

Automatic Classification for Sagittal Craniofacial Patterns Based on Different Convolutional Neural Networks.

(1) Background: The present study aims to evaluate and compare the model performances of different convolutional neural networks (CNNs) used for classifying sagittal skeletal patterns. (2) Methods: A total of 2432 lateral cephalometric radiographs were collected. They were labeled as Class I, Class II, and Class III patterns, according to their ANB angles and Wits values. The radiographs were randomly divided into the training, validation, and test sets in the ratio of 70%:15%:15%. Four different CNNs, namely VGG16, GoogLeNet, ResNet152, and DenseNet161, were trained, and their model performances were compared. (3) Results: The accuracy of the four CNNs was ranked as follows: DenseNet161 > ResNet152 > VGG16 > GoogLeNet. DenseNet161 had the highest accuracy, while GoogLeNet possessed the smallest model size and fastest inference speed. The CNNs showed better capabilities for identifying Class III patterns, followed by Classes II and I. Most of the samples that were misclassified by the CNNs were boundary cases. The activation area confirmed the CNNs without overfitting and indicated that artificial intelligence could recognize the compensatory dental features in the anterior region of the jaws and lips. (4) Conclusions: CNNs can quickly and effectively assist orthodontists in the diagnosis of sagittal skeletal classification patterns.

RNA-seq based elucidation of mechanism underlying Mesona chinensis Benth polysaccharide protected H2O2-induced oxidative damage in L02 cells.

The homeostasis of oxidative stress is vital to the physiological behavior of normal human or animal cells, and its underlying molecular mechanism is contributed to the exploitation of functional food used in chronic diseases. Thus, the mechanism of protective effect of Mesona chinensis Benth polysaccharides (MP) in H2O2-induced oxidative damage was investigated thoroughly. Results showed that MP significantly recovered cell viability and elevated activity of antioxidant enzymes. Based on RNA-seq analysis, we found that MP mainly exhibited protection effect thought regulation mitochondrial function and affect PI3K and MAPK signaling pathways. Furthermore, we found that MP affected mitochondrial function via improved mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), thereby elevating ATP biosynthesis. Moreover, western blot analysis verified that MP mitigated H2O2-induced oxidative damage via PI3K/Akt, MAPK, and mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis signaling pathway. These findings provided a possible mechanism for MP on preventing and treating chronic diseases involved in oxidative stress, which was a benefit for development of functional food.

Convolutional neural network-based automatic cervical vertebral maturation classification method.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop a fully automated artificial intelligence-aided cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) classification method based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to provide an auxiliary diagnosis for orthodontists. METHODS: This study consisted of cephalometric images from patients aged between 5 and 18 years. After grouping them into six cervical stages (CSs) by orthodontists, a data set was constructed for analyzing CVM using CNNs. The data set was divided into training, validation, and test sets in the ratio of 70, 15, and 15%. Four CNN models namely, VGG16, GoogLeNet, DenseNet161, and ResNet152 were selected as the candidate models. After training and validation, the models were evaluated to determine which of them is most suitable for CVM analysis. Heat maps were analyzed for a deeper understanding of what the CNNs had learned. RESULTS: The final classification accuracy ranking was ResNet152>DenseNet161>GoogLeNet>VGG16, as evaluated on the test set. ResNet152 proved to be the best model among the four models for CVM classification with a weighted κ of 0.826, an average AUC of 0.933 and total accuracy of 67.06%. The F1 score rank for each subgroup was: CS6>CS1>CS4>CS5>CS3>CS2. The area of the third (C3) and fourth (C4) cervical vertebrae were activated when CNNs were assessing the images. CONCLUSION: CNN models proved to be a convenient, fast and reliable method for CVM analysis. CNN models have the potential to provide automatic auxiliary diagnostic tools in the future.

Quantitative changes of upper airway in class III patients undergoing bimaxillary surgery after one-year follow-up: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Bimaxillary surgery is often performed for class III malocclusion, and its complex influence on the upper airway has been well considered. The aim of this research was to provide a scaled formula between upper airway volume changes and bone movements in Class III patients after orthognathic surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using a retrospective study design, the investigators enrolled a total of 30 class III malocclusion patients who were undergoing bimaxillary surgery as the study subjects. The subjects included 15 males and 15 females, and their average age was 23.3 ± 3.4 years. CBCT (cone beam tomography) was performed both before and one year after the surgery for each patient. The changes in the soft palate, tongue and upper airway were measured by using CBCT data that was collected before and after surgery. 3D superimposition of CBCT was performed to calculate three-dimensional jaw movements. A multiple regression analysis was used to calculate the quantitative relationship between airway volume changes and jaw movements. RESULTS: The nasopharynx airway volume was observed to be increased by 1064.0 ± 1336.2 mm3, whereas the retropalatal and retroglossal airway volumes were observed to be decreased by 1399.0 ± 2881.6 mm3 and 1433.8 ± 3043.4 mm3, respectively, after the surgery. One millimetre forward and downward movements of the PNS resulted in increases of 626.90 mm3 and 392.18 mm3 in nasopharynx airway volume, respectively. Moreover, one millimetre retrogression of the B point caused decreases of 314.6 mm3 and 656.6 mm3 in the retropalatal and retroglossal airway volume, respectively. The changes in the soft palate contributed to the decrease in the retropalatal airway volume, whereas the tongue compensated for the decrease in the retroglossal airway volume. CONCLUSION: The movements of the PNS and B points could be used to predict upper airway volumetric changes in Class III patients after maxillary advancement and mandibular setback.

The vegetable SNP database: An integrated resource for plant breeders and scientists.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are widely used in genetic research and molecular breeding. To date, the genomes of many vegetable crops have been assembled, and hundreds of core germplasms for each vegetable have been sequenced. However, these data are not currently easily accessible because they are stored on different public databases. Therefore, a vegetable crop SNP database should be developed that hosts SNPs demonstrated to have a high success rate in genotyping for genetic research (herein, "alpha SNPs"). We constructed a database (VegSNPDB, http://www.vegsnpdb.cn/) containing the sequence data of 2032 germplasms from 16 vegetable crop species. VegSNPDB hosts 118,725,944 SNPs of which 4,877,305 were alpha SNPs. SNPs can be searched by chromosome number, position, SNP type, genetic population, or specific individuals, as well as the values of MAF, PIC, and heterozygosity. We hope that VegSNPDB will become an important SNP database for the vegetable research community.

Targeted creating new mutants with compact plant architecture using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing by an optimized genetic transformation procedure in cucurbit plants.

Fruits and vegetables in the Cucurbitaceae family contribute greatly to the human diet, for example, cucumber, melon, watermelon and squash. The widespread use of genome editing technologies has greatly accelerated the functional characterization of genes as well as crop improvement. However, most economically important cucurbit plants, including melon and squash, remain recalcitrant to standard Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation, which limits the effective use of genome editing technology. In this study, we describe the "optimal infiltration intensity" strategy to establish an efficient genetic transformation system for melon and squash. We harnessed the power of this method to target homologs of the ERECTA family of receptor kinase genes and created alleles resulting in a compact plant architecture with shorter internodes in melon, squash and cucumber. The optimized transformation method presented here allows stable CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis and will lay a solid foundation for functional gene manipulation in cucurbit crops.

Novel detection method for gallic acid: A water soluble boronic acid-based fluorescent sensor with double recognition sites.

As one of the widespread phenols in nature, gallic acid (GA) has attracted a subject of attention due to its extensive biological properties. It is very important and significant to develop a sensitive and selective gallic acid sensor. In recent years, owing to their reversible covalent binding with Lewis bases and polyols, boronic acid compounds have been widely reported as fluorescence sensors for the identification of carbohydrates, ions and hydrogen peroxide, etc. However, boronic acid sensors for specific recognition of gallic acid have not been reported. Herein, a novel water-soluble boronic acid sensor with double recognition sites is reported. When the concentration of gallic acid added was 1.1 × 10-4 M, the fluorescence intensity of sensor 9b decreased by 80%, followed by pyrogallic acid and dopamine. However, the fluorescence of the sensor 9b combined with other analytes such as ATP, sialic acid, and uridine was basically unchanged, indicating that the sensor 9b had no ability to recognize these analytes. Also, sensor 9b has a fast response time to gallic acid at room temperature, and has a high binding constant (12355.9 ± 156.89 M-1) and low LOD (7.30 × 10-7 M). Moreover, gallic acid content of real samples was also determined, and the results showed that this method has a higher recovery rate. Therefore, sensor 9b can be used as a potential tool for detecting biologically significant gallic acid in actual samples such as food, medicine, and environmental analysis samples.

Synthesis of polycyclic spiroindolines via the cascade reaction of 3-(2-isocyanoethyl)indoles.

Tandem reactions of the yttrium(iii) catalyzed ring-opening reaction of 2,2'-diester aziridines with 3-(2-isocyanoethyl)indoles and the subsequent Friedel-Crafts/Mannich/desulfonylation were reported. A series of polycyclic spiroindolines containing tetrahydro-ß-carbolines were obtained in moderate to excellent yields (56-92%) in one step under mild reaction conditions. A possible catalytic mechanism was also proposed.

Grafting Delays Watermel on Fruit Ripening by Altering Gene Expression of ABA Centric Phytohormone Signaling.

Grafting cultivation is implemented worldwide mainly to resist abiotic and biotic stresses and is an effective method to improve watermelon production. However, grafting may affect fruit development and quality. In our experiment, pumpkin-grafted (PG) watermelon fruits developed slower and the ripening period was extended compared to self-grafted (SG) fruits. We found that the concentrations of abscisic acid (ABA) among endogenous phytohormones were dramatically reduced by pumpkin grafting. In order to understand these changes at the gene expression level, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the fruit flesh transcriptomes between PG and SG during fruit development and ripening. A total of 1,675 and 4,102 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between PG and SG. Further functional enrichment analysis revealed that these DEGs were associated with carbohydrate biosynthesis, phytohormone signaling transmission, and cell wall metabolism categories. ABA centric phytohormone signaling and fruit quality-related genes including ABA receptor, PP2C proteins, AP2-EREBP transcription factors, sucrose transporter, and carotenoid isomerase were co-expressed with fruit ripening. These results provide the valuable resource for understanding the mechanism of pumpkin grafting effect on watermelon fruit ripening and quality development.