LncRNA SNHG14 Served as a Biomarker of Depression Disorder Patients and Regulated Depression-Like Behaviors via MiR-200a-3p.

Depression disorder has become a major mental disease and has attracted special attention globally. Identifying specific biomarkers for the diagnosis and severity of depression disorder would benefit its clinical management. This study focused on the significance of lncRNA SNHG14 in depression disorder and investigated its effect on depression-like behaviors, aiming to explore a potential biomarker for depression disorder occurrence and development. This study included 147 patients with depression disorder and 98 healthy individuals. The serum SNHG14 in all participants was analyzed by PCR, and its diagnostic value was evaluated by receiver operatorating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. The depression-like behaviors were induced via chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) and evaluated by sucrose preference, forced swimming, and open field tests. SNHG14 was significantly upregulated in depression disorder patients relative to healthy individuals, which discriminated depression disorder patients with a relatively high efficiency. Depression disorder patients with severe conditions showed higher serum SNHG14 levels, and a significantly positive correlation of SNHG14 with PHQ9 score was demonstrated. In CSDS mice, increasing SNHG14 and decreasing miR-200a-3p were observed. Silencing SNHG14 and overexpressing miR-200a-3p could alleviate reduced sucrose preference, increased swimming immobility time, decreased standing times, and decreased traveling distance induced by CSDS. The knockdown of SNHG14 promoted the expression of miR-200a-3p, and silencing miR-200a-3p could reverse the protective effect of SNHG14 silencing on depression-like behaviors. SNHG14 served as a biomarker for the occurrence and severity of depression disorder. Silencing SNHG14could alleviate depression-like behaviors via modulating miR-200a-3p.

A fungal transcription factor essential for starch degradation affects integration of carbon and nitrogen metabolism.

In Neurospora crassa, the transcription factor COL-26 functions as a regulator of glucose signaling and metabolism. Its loss leads to resistance to carbon catabolite repression. Here, we report that COL-26 is necessary for the expression of amylolytic genes in N. crassa and is required for the utilization of maltose and starch. Additionally, the Δcol-26 mutant shows growth defects on preferred carbon sources, such as glucose, an effect that was alleviated if glutamine replaced ammonium as the primary nitrogen source. This rescue did not occur when maltose was used as a sole carbon source. Transcriptome and metabolic analyses of the Δcol-26 mutant relative to its wild type parental strain revealed that amino acid and nitrogen metabolism, the TCA cycle and GABA shunt were adversely affected. Phylogenetic analysis showed a single col-26 homolog in Sordariales, Ophilostomatales, and the Magnaporthales, but an expanded number of col-26 homologs in other filamentous fungal species. Deletion of the closest homolog of col-26 in Trichoderma reesei, bglR, resulted in a mutant with similar preferred carbon source growth deficiency, and which was alleviated if glutamine was the sole nitrogen source, suggesting conservation of COL-26 and BglR function. Our finding provides novel insight into the role of COL-26 for utilization of starch and in integrating carbon and nitrogen metabolism for balanced metabolic activities for optimal carbon and nitrogen distribution.

3D-Printed Carbon-Based Conformal Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Module for Integrated Electronics.

Electromagnetic interference shielding (EMI SE) modules are the core component of modern electronics. However, the traditional metal-based SE modules always take up indispensable three-dimensional space inside electronics, posing a major obstacle to the integration of electronics. The innovation of integrating 3D-printed conformal shielding (c-SE) modules with packaging materials onto core electronics offers infinite possibilities to satisfy ideal SE function without occupying additional space. Herein, the 3D printable carbon-based inks with various proportions of graphene and carbon nanotube nanoparticles are well-formulated by manipulating their rheological peculiarity. Accordingly, the free-constructed architectures with arbitrarily-customized structure and multifunctionality are created via 3D printing. In particular, the SE performance of 3D-printed frame is up to 61.4 dB, simultaneously accompanied with an ultralight architecture of 0.076 g cm-3 and a superhigh specific shielding of 802.4 dB cm3 g-1. Moreover, as a proof-of-concept, the 3D-printed c-SE module is in situ integrated into core electronics, successfully replacing the traditional metal-based module to afford multiple functions for electromagnetic compatibility and thermal dissipation. Thus, this scientific innovation completely makes up the blank for assembling carbon-based c-SE modules and sheds a brilliant light on developing the next generation of high-performance shielding materials with arbitrarily-customized structure for integrated electronics.

3D printing of ultralight MWCNT@OCNF porous scaffolds for high-efficiency electromagnetic interference shielding.

Towards the difficulties of traditional processing technology in loading high-concentration functional fillers to realize the target electromagnetic interference shielding (EMI SE) performance, and constructing the arbitrary-designated architectures for serving advanced electronics, this work innovatively formulated a functional multi-walled carbon nanotubes@cellulose nanofibers (MWCNT@OCNF) ink for direct ink writing (DIW) 3D printing, which not only possessed high freedom on the proportion of functional particles, but also imparted to the ideal rheological performance for 3D printing. Based on the pre-programmed printing trajectories, a series of porous scaffolds featuring exceptional functionalities were architected. Particularly for the electromagnetic waves (EMWs) shielding behaviors, the optimized one with "full-mismatched" architecture posed the ultralight structure (0.11 g/cm3) and superior SE performance (43.5 dB) in the X-band frequency region. More encouragingly, the 3D-printed scaffold with hierarchical pores possessed the ideal electromagnetic compatibility on EMWs signal, where the radiation intensity generated by EMWs signal fluctuated in a step pattern in 0 and 1500 µT/cm2 as loading and unloading scaffolds. Overall, this study paved a novel path for the formulation of functional inks to print lightweight, multi-structure, and high-efficiency EMI SE scaffolds for the next-generation shielding elements.

Plant Microbiome-Based Genome-Wide Association Studies.

Plants form intimate associations with microorganisms, and these associations are directly impacted by the host genotype. However, identifying specific host genetic pathways that influence these microbial interactions has proved challenging. Genome-wide association-based approaches that use features of microbiome composition as a quantitative trait represent a novel and underutilized strategy to identify such pathways. Several recent studies have demonstrated the potential utility of plant microbiome-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In this chapter, we describe the process of implementing GWAS using the plant microbiome as the primary quantitative trait, considering experimental design, sample harvest, and processing, but with an emphasis on data filtering, data normalization, and statistical analyses.

Genome wide association study reveals plant loci controlling heritability of the rhizosphere microbiome.

Host genetics has recently been shown to be a driver of plant microbiome composition. However, identifying the underlying genetic loci controlling microbial selection remains challenging. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) represent a potentially powerful, unbiased method to identify microbes sensitive to the host genotype and to connect them with the genetic loci that influence their colonization. Here, we conducted a population-level microbiome analysis of the rhizospheres of 200 sorghum genotypes. Using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we identify rhizosphere-associated bacteria exhibiting heritable associations with plant genotype, and identify significant overlap between these lineages and heritable taxa recently identified in maize. Furthermore, we demonstrate that GWAS can identify host loci that correlate with the abundance of specific subsets of the rhizosphere microbiome. Finally, we demonstrate that these results can be used to predict rhizosphere microbiome structure for an independent panel of sorghum genotypes based solely on knowledge of host genotypic information.

Genome-resolved metagenomics reveals role of iron metabolism in drought-induced rhizosphere microbiome dynamics.

Recent studies have demonstrated that drought leads to dramatic, highly conserved shifts in the root microbiome. At present, the molecular mechanisms underlying these responses remain largely uncharacterized. Here we employ genome-resolved metagenomics and comparative genomics to demonstrate that carbohydrate and secondary metabolite transport functionalities are overrepresented within drought-enriched taxa. These data also reveal that bacterial iron transport and metabolism functionality is highly correlated with drought enrichment. Using time-series root RNA-Seq data, we demonstrate that iron homeostasis within the root is impacted by drought stress, and that loss of a plant phytosiderophore iron transporter impacts microbial community composition, leading to significant increases in the drought-enriched lineage, Actinobacteria. Finally, we show that exogenous application of iron disrupts the drought-induced enrichment of Actinobacteria, as well as their improvement in host phenotype during drought stress. Collectively, our findings implicate iron metabolism in the root microbiome's response to drought and may inform efforts to improve plant drought tolerance to increase food security.

A Plant Growth-Promoting Microbial Soil Amendment Dynamically Alters the Strawberry Root Bacterial Microbiome.

Despite growing interest in utilizing microbial-based methods for improving crop growth, much work still remains in elucidating how beneficial plant-microbe associations are established, and what role soil amendments play in shaping these interactions. Here, we describe a set of experiments that test the effect of a commercially available soil amendment, VESTA, on the soil and strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Monterey) root bacterial microbiome. The bacterial communities of the soil, rhizosphere, and root from amendment-treated and untreated fields were profiled at four time points across the strawberry growing season using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq platform. In all sample types, bacterial community composition and relative abundance were significantly altered with amendment application. Importantly, time point effects on composition are more pronounced in the root and rhizosphere, suggesting an interaction between plant development and treatment effect. Surprisingly, there was slight overlap between the taxa within the amendment and those enriched in plant and soil following treatment, suggesting that VESTA may act to rewire existing networks of organisms through an, as of yet, uncharacterized mechanism. These findings demonstrate that a commercial microbial soil amendment can impact the bacterial community structure of both roots and the surrounding environment.

Exploring the Root Microbiome: Extracting Bacterial Community Data from the Soil, Rhizosphere, and Root Endosphere.

The intimate interaction between plant host and associated microorganisms is crucial in determining plant fitness, and can foster improved tolerance to abiotic stresses and diseases. As the plant microbiome can be highly complex, low-cost, high-throughput methods such as amplicon-based sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene are often preferred for characterizing its microbial composition and diversity. However, the selection of appropriate methodology when conducting such experiments is critical for reducing biases that can make analysis and comparisons between samples and studies difficult. This protocol describes in detail a standardized methodology for the collection and extraction of DNA from soil, rhizosphere, and root samples. Additionally, we highlight a well-established 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing pipeline that allows for the exploration of the composition of bacterial communities in these samples, and can easily be adapted for other marker genes. This pipeline has been validated for a variety of plant species, including sorghum, maize, wheat, strawberry, and agave, and can help overcome issues associated with the contamination from plant organelles.