TGF-ß1/SMAD3 Regulates Programmed Cell Death 5 That Suppresses Cardiac Fibrosis Post-Myocardial Infarction by Inhibiting HDAC3.

BACKGROUND: Progressive cardiac fibrosis leads to ventricular wall stiffness, cardiac dysfunction, and eventually heart failure, but the underlying mechanism remains unexplored. PDCD5 (programmed cell death 5) ubiquitously expresses in tissues, including the heart; however, the role of PDCD5 in cardiac fibrosis is largely unknown. Therefore, this study aims at exploring the possible role and underlying mechanisms of PDCD5 in the pathogenesis of cardiac fibrosis. METHODS AND RESULTS: PDCD5 levels were found to be elevated in the serum obtained from patients with cardiac fibrosis, in fibrotic mice heart tissues after myocardial infarction, and in cardiac fibroblasts stimulated by Ang II (angiotensin II)- or TGF-ß1 (transforming growth factor-ß1). Overexpression of PDCD5 in cardiac fibroblasts or treatment with PDCD5 protein reduced the expression of profibrogenic proteins in response to TGF-ß1 stimulation, while knockdown of PDCD5 increased fibrotic responses. It has been demonstrated that SMAD3, a protein that is also known as mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 3, directly upregulated PDCD5 during cardiac fibrosis. Subsequently, the increased PDCD5 promoted HDAC3 (histone deacetylase 3) ubiquitination, thus, inhibiting HDAC3 to reduce fibrotic responses. Fibroblast-specific knock-in of PDCD5 in mice ameliorated cardiac fibrosis after myocardial infarction and enhanced cardiac function, and these protective effects were eliminated by AAV9-mediated HDAC3 overexpression. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study demonstrated that PDCD5 is upregulated by SMAD3 during cardiac fibrosis, which subsequently ameliorated progressive fibrosis and cardiac dysfunction through HDAC3 inhibition. Thus, this study suggests that PDCD5 functions as a negative feedback factor on fibrotic signaling pathways and might serve as a potential therapeutic target to suppress the progression of fibrotic responses.

Pectate lyase genes from Radopholus similis and their application in pathotype identification.

Radopholus similis is a destructive, migratory, and endophytoparasitic nematode. It has two morphologically indistinguishable pathotypes (or physiological races): banana and citrus pathotypes. At present, the only reliable method to differentiate the two pathotypes is testing the infestation and parasitism of nematodes on Citrus spp. via inoculation. However, differences in inoculation methods and conditions adopted by different researchers complicate obtaining consistent results. In this study, the parasitism and pathogenicity of 10 R. similis populations on rough lemon (Citrus limon) seedlings and the tropism and invasion of rough lemon roots were tested. It revealed that populations SWK, GJ, FZ, GZ, DBSR, and YJ were citrus pathotypes, which showed parasitism and pathogenicity on rough lemon and could invade rough lemon roots, whereas populations XIN, ML, HN6, and HL were banana pathotypes, having no parasitism and pathogenicity on rough lemon and they did not invade the rough lemon roots. Four pectate lyase genes (Rs-pel-2, Rs-pel-3, Rs-pel-4, and Rs-pel-5) belonging to the Class III family from these populations were amplified and analysed. The gene Rs-pel-3 could be amplified from six citrus pathotype populations and was stably expressed in the four developmental stages of the nematode, whereas it could not be amplified from the four banana pathotypes. Rs-pel-3 expression may be related to the parasitism and pathogenicity of R. similis on rough lemon. Hence, it can be used as a molecular marker to distinguish between banana and citrus pathotypes and as a target gene for the molecular identification of these two pathotypes. KEY POINTS: • Four pectate lyase genes (Rs-pels) from Radopholus similis were cloned and analysed. • The expression of Rs-pels is different in two pathotypes of Radopholus similis. • A molecular identification method for two pathotypes of Radopholus similis using pectate lyase gene Rs-pel-3 as the target gene was established.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Improves Diagnosis of Liver Cancer Compared to Liver Enhanced CT.

Aim: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of enhanced CT scanning and MRI as diagnostic tools for the detection of carcinoma of the liver. Methods: The image diagnostic significance of the liver enhanced CT & MRI scans was examined after a retrospective examination of the imaging data of 51 individuals with liver cancer who were identified with postoperative pathology at the First People's Hospital of Lianyungang between May 2020 to May 2022. Results: The number of extrahepatic lesions as well as the rate of extrahepatic positive cases were not significantly different between liver contrast-enhanced CT and liver MRI (P > .05); however, the number of intrahepatic lesions and the rate of intrahepatic positive cases were considerably higher for liver MRI than for liver enhanced CT (P < .05). When identifying tumors with a diameter greater than 3 cm, there was no discernible difference between the detection rates of liver enhanced CT and liver MRI (P > .05); however, in the diagnosis of tumors less than 3 cm in diameter, liver MRI had a greater detection rate than liver contrast-enhanced CT (P < .05). Overall, liver MRI had a higher detection rate than liver contrast-enhanced CT (P < .05). Furthermore, when compared to liver contrast-enhanced CT, liver MRI had greater accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value (P < .05). Conclusion: When it comes to detecting liver cancer, liver MRI is more sensitive and specific than liver CT.

Advances in Migratory Plant Endoparasitic Nematode Effectors.

Unlike sedentary plant-parasitic nematodes, migratory plant endoparasitic nematodes (MPENs) are unable to establish permanent feeding sites, and all developmental stages (except eggs) can invade and feed on plant tissues and can be easily overlooked because of the unspecific symptoms. They cause numerous economic losses in agriculture, forestry, and horticulture. In order to understand the pathogenetic mechanism of MPENs, here we describe research on functions and host targets focused on currently identified effectors from six MPENs, namely Radopholus similis, Pratylenchus spp., Ditylenchus destructor, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, Aphelenchoides besseyi, and Hirschmanniella oryzae. This information will provide valuable insights into understanding MPEN effectors and for future fostering advancements in plant protection.

A key virulence effector from cyst nematodes targets host autophagy to promote nematode parasitism.

Autophagy, an intracellular degradation system conserved in eukaryotes, has been increasingly recognized as a key battlefield in plant-pathogen interactions. However, the role of plant autophagy in nematode parasitism is mostly unknown. We report here the identification of a novel and conserved effector, Nematode Manipulator of Autophagy System 1 (NMAS1), from plant-parasitic cyst nematodes (Heterodera and Globodera spp.). We used molecular and genetic analyses to demonstrate that NMAS1 is required for nematode parasitism. The NMAS1 effectors are potent suppressors of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by flg22 and cell death mediated by immune receptors in Nicotiana benthamiana, suggesting a key role of NMAS1 effectors in nematode virulence. Arabidopsis atg mutants defective in autophagy showed reduced susceptibility to nematode infection. The NMAS1 effectors contain predicted AuTophaGy-related protein 8 (ATG8)-interacting motif (AIM) sequences. In planta protein-protein interaction assays further demonstrated that NMAS1 effectors specifically interact with host plant ATG8 proteins. Interestingly, mutation in AIM2 of GrNMAS1 from the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis abolishes its interaction with potato StATG8 proteins and its activity in ROS suppression. Collectively, our results reveal for the first time that cyst nematodes employ a conserved AIM-containing virulence effector capable of targeting a key component of host autophagy to promote disease.

Morphological and Molecular Characterization, Including Parasitic and Pathogenic Studies of a New Spherical Cyst Nematode Species, Globodera vulgaris n. sp. (Nematoda: Heteroderidae), Associated with Potatoes in China.

In this study, a new spherical cyst nematode belonging to the genus Globodera, herein described as Globodera vulgaris n. sp., was extracted from the roots and rhizosphere soil of potato and circumjacent weeds belonging to different families in three provinces in southwest China. The new species was characterized by 8 to 24 ridges between the anus and fenestra and an average Granek's ratio of 2.8 to 3.8 in cysts, a head with three to four annules, a dorsal knob anteriorly projected, ventral knobs round or anteriorly projected in second stage juveniles, a head with three to five annules, a short spicule with an average length of less than 30.0 µm, and a developed velum in males. Pathogenicity tests showed that G. vulgaris n. sp. infected potato but did not damage or affect the potato yield compared with the control, and it parasitized tomato with a low reproduction rate (RF < 1) while it did not parasitize tobacco (RF = 0). The new species was closely related to G. rostochiensis, based on molecular diagnostic marker sequences and constructed phylogenetic analysis, based on internal transcribed spacers of ribosomal DNA, large-subunit rDNA, and small-subunit rDNA. However, the new species exhibited differences from G. rostochiensis in terms of morphological characteristics, a wide host preference, lack of damage to hosts, and an egg-hatching rate induced by hatching factors.

Mitophagy-regulated mitochondrial health strongly protects the heart against cardiac dysfunction after acute myocardial infarction.

Autophagy including mitophagy serves as an important regulatory mechanism in the heart to maintain the cellular homeostasis and to protect against heart damages caused by myocardial infarction (MI). The current study aims to dissect roles of general autophagy and specific mitophagy in regulating cardiac function after MI. By using Beclin1+/- , Fundc1 knockout (KO) and Fundc1 transgenic (TG) mouse models, combined with starvation and MI models, we found that Fundc1 KO caused more severe mitochondrial and cardiac dysfunction damages than Beclin1+/- after MI. Interestingly, Beclin1+/- caused notable decrease of total autophagy without detectable change to mitophagy, and Fundc1 KO markedly suppressed mitophagy but did not change the total autophagy activity. In contrast, starvation increased total autophagy without changing mitophagy while Fundc1 TG elevated total autophagy and mitophagy in mouse hearts. As a result, Fundc1 TG provided much stronger protective effects than starvation after MI. Moreover, Beclin1+/- /Fundc1 TG showed increased total autophagy and mitophagy to a level comparable to Fundc1 TG per se, and completely reversed Beclin1+/- -caused aggravation of mitochondrial and cardiac injury after MI. Our results reveal that mitophagy but not general autophagy contributes predominantly to the cardiac protective effect through regulating mitochondrial function.

Aphelenchoides besseyi Ab-FAR-1 Interacts with Arabidopsis thaliana AtADF3 to Interfere with Actin Cytoskeleton, and Promotes Nematode Parasitism and Pathogenicity.

Fatty acid and retinol binding proteins (FAR) are unique proteins found in nematodes and are considered potential targets for controlling these parasites. However, their functions in nematode parasitism and pathogenicity and interaction with hosts are still unclear. In this study, we investigated the specific roles of rice white tip nematodes (RWTNs), Aphelenchoides besseyi, and a protein, Ab-FAR-1, to elucidate the parasitic and pathogenic processes of nematodes. The results showed that the expression level of Ab-far-1 was significantly up-regulated after A. besseyi infection of the plant. The immunofluorescence and subcellular localisation showed that Ab-FAR-1 was secreted into plant tissues mainly through the body wall of nematodes and might act in the nucleus and cytoplasm of plant cells. The pathogenicity of RWTNs was enhanced in Arabidopsis thaliana overexpressing Ab-FAR-1 and inhibited in Ab-far-1 RNAi A. thaliana. Yeast two-hybrid, Co-IP, BiFC, and nematode inoculation experiments showed that Ab-FAR-1 could interact with the A. thaliana actin-depolymerizing factor protein AtADF3, and the A. thaliana adf3 mutant was more susceptible to nematodes. An in vitro actin filament depolymerisation assay demonstrated that Ab-FAR-1 could inhibit AtADF3-mediated depolymerisation of actin filaments, and the turnover process of cellular actin filaments was also affected in A. thaliana overexpressing Ab-FAR-1. In addition, flg22-mediated host defence responses were suppressed in A. thaliana overexpressing Ab-FAR-1 and adf3 mutants. Therefore, this study confirmed that RWTNs can affect the turnover of actin filament remodelling mediated by AtADF3 through Ab-FAR-1 secretion and thus inhibit plant PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI), promoting the parasitism and pathogenicity of nematodes.

Miro2 Regulates Inter-Mitochondrial Communication in the Heart and Protects Against TAC-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction.

Rationale: The constrained mitochondria in cardiomyocytes communicate with each other, through mitochondrial kissing or nanotunneling, forming a dynamically continuous network to share content and transfer signals. However, the molecular mechanism of cardiac inter-mitochondrial communication is unclear. Objective: To determine the molecular mechanism underlying the robust inter-mitochondrial communication and its pathophysiological relevance in the heart. Methods and Results: By mitochondria-targeted expressing the photoactivatable green fluorescent protein, we revealed that most mitochondrial nanotubes bridge communicating mitochondrial pairs were associated with microtubules. Miro2 (mitochondrial Rho GTPase), the outer mitochondrial membrane protein which usually mediates mitochondrial transport within cells, accompanied with mitochondrial nanotubes along microtubules in adult cardiomyocytes. Adenovirus mediated expression of Miro2 in cardiomyocytes accelerated inter-mitochondrial communication through increasing mitochondrial nanotunneling and mitochondrial kissing between adjacent mitochondrial pairs. In transverse aortic constriction-induced hypertrophic mouse hearts Miro2 protein was declined, accompanied with decreased inter-mitochondrial communication. Miro2 transgenic mice showed ameliorated cardiac function, increased mitochondrial nanotube formation and inter-mitochondrial communication, and improved mitochondrial function after transverse aortic constriction. E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin was increased in transverse aortic constriction mouse hearts and phenylephrine stimulation-induced hypertrophic cardiomyocytes. Inhibition of proteasome blocked phenylephrine-induced decrease of Miro2, and Parkin overexpression led to the decrease of Miro2. Conclusions: Mitochondrial Miro2 expression levels regulate inter-mitochondrial communication along microtubules in adult cardiomyocytes, and degradation of Miro2 through Parkin-mediated ubiquitination contributes to impaired inter-mitochondrial communication and cardiac dysfunction during hypertrophic heart diseases.Visual Overview: An online visual overview is available for this article.

A new fungus-mediated RNAi method established and used to study the fatty acid and retinol binding protein function of the plant-parasitic nematode Aphelenchoides besseyi.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful tool for gene functional analysis of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs). RNAi involving soaking in a dsRNA solution and in planta methods is commonly applied in the study of gene function in PPNs. However, certain problems restrict the application of these methods. Therefore, more convenient and effective RNAi methods need to be established for different PPNs according to their biological characteristics. In this study, the fatty acid and retinoid binding protein genes (Ab-far-1, Ab-far-4, and combinatorial Ab-far-1 and Ab-far-4) of the rice white tip nematode (RWTN), Aphelenchoides besseyi, were used as target genes to construct a fungal RNAi vector, and the Ab-far-n dsRNA transgenic Botrytis cinerea (ARTBn) were generated using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation technology. After RWTN feeding on ARTBn, the expression of Ab-far-1 and Ab-far-4 in the nematodes was efficiently silenced, and the reproduction and pathogenicity of the nematodes were clearly inhibited. The Ab-far-1 and Ab-far-4 co-RNAi effects were better than the effects when each gene was individually targeted with RNAi. Additionally, the RNAi induced when RWTNs fed on ARTB1 were persistent and heritable. Thus, a new method of fungus-mediated RNAi was established for fungivorous PPNs and was verified as effective and applicable to the study of nematode gene function. This technique will remove the technological bottlenecks and provide a new method to studying the multiple genes with polygene co-RNAi in fungivorous PPNs. This study also provides a theoretical basis and new thought for further study of the gene function in PPNs.Abbreviations: FAR(Fatty acid and retinol-binding proteins); RWTN (The rice white tip nematode, Aphelenchoides besseyi); Ab-far-n (Fatty acid and retinol binding protein gene of A. besseyi); ARTB1 (Ab-far-1 hpRNA transgenic Botrytis cinerea); ARTB4 (Ab-far-4 hpRNA transgenic Botrytis cinerea); ARTB1/4 (combinatorial Ab-far-1 and Ab-far-4 hpRNA transgenic B. cinerea); EVTB (Empty vector transgenic B. cinerea); GRTB (eGFP hpRNA transgenic B. cinerea); WTB (Wild-type B. cinerea).

Development of a fluorescent probe for detecting Al3+ in cooked wheaten food based on phosphonic acid group functionalized polythiophene derivatives.

As an unnecessary trace element, the content of aluminium in biological systems should be strictly controlled. Therefore, it was necessary to develop a convenient method for detection of aluminium ions. In this study, a fluorescent probe based on polythiophene derivatives was developed and used to detect Al3+ in Chinese traditional pasta. The fluorescence of this probe showed a significant decrease in hexamethylenetetramine-HCl buffer solution (pH 5) when Al3+ was present. In addition, the probe exhibited good sensitivity and selectivity to Al3+ over other metal ions when EDTA was used as the masking agent. Fluorescence intensity had a good linear relationship with the Al3+ concentration in the range 0.1-10 µM and the limit of detection for Al3+ was 39 nM. Furthermore, the probe was successfully applied to detect Al3+ in food samples and the results were consistent with ICP-AES.

Novel Functions of the Fatty Acid and Retinol Binding Protein (FAR) Gene Family Revealed by Fungus-Mediated RNAi in the Parasitic Nematode, Aphelenchoides besseyi.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful tool for the analysis of gene function in nematodes. Fatty acid and retinol binding protein (FAR) is a protein that only exists in nematodes and plays an important role in their life activities. The rice white-tip nematode (RWTN), Aphelenchoides besseyi, is a migratory endoparasitic plant nematode that causes serious damage in agricultural production. In this study, the expression levels of eight RWTN genes were effectively decreased when RWTN was fed Ab-far-n (n: 1-8) hairpin RNA transgenic Botrytis cinerea (ARTBn). These functions of the far gene family were identified to be consistent and diverse through phenotypic changes after any gene was silenced. Such consistency indicates that the body lengths of the females were significantly shortened after silencing any of the eight Ab-far genes. The diversities were mainly manifested as follows: (1) Reproduction of nematodes was clearly inhibited after Ab-far-1 to Ab-far-4 were silenced. In addition, silencing Ab-far-2 could inhibit the pathogenicity of nematodes to Arabidopsis; (2) gonad length of female nematodes was significantly shortened after Ab-far-2 and Ab-far-4 were silenced; (3) proportion of male nematodes significantly increased in the adult population after Ab-far-1, Ab-far-3, and Ab-far-5 were silenced, whereas the proportion of adult nematodes significantly decreased in the nematode population after Ab-far-4 were silenced. (4) Fat storage of nematodes significantly decreased after Ab-far-3, Ab-far-4, and Ab-far-7 were silenced. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that Ab-far genes affect sex formation and lipid metabolism in nematodes, which provides valuable data for further study and control of RWTNs.

A Venom Allergen-Like Protein, RsVAP, the First Discovered Effector Protein of Radopholus similis That Inhibits Plant Defense and Facilitates Parasitism.

Radopholus similis is a migratory endoparasitic nematode that is extremely harmful to host plants. Venom allergen-like proteins (VAPs) are members of the cysteine-rich secretory protein family that are widely present in plants and animals. In this study, we cloned a VAP gene from R. similis, designated as RsVAP. RsVAP contains an open reading frame of 1089 bp encoding 362 amino acids. RsVAP is specifically expressed in the esophageal gland, and the expression levels of RsVAP are significantly higher in juveniles than in other life stages of R. similis. This expression pattern of RsVAP was consistent with the biological characteristics of juveniles of R. similis, which have the ability of infection and are the main infection stages of R. similis. The pathogenicity and reproduction rate of R. similis in tomato was significantly attenuated after RsVAP was silenced. In tobacco leaves transiently expressing RsVAP, the pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) induced by a bacterial flagellin fragment (flg22) was inhibited, while the cell death induced by two sets of immune elicitors (BAX and Gpa2/RBP-1) was repressed. The RsVAP-interacting, ras-related protein RABA1d (LeRabA1d) was identified in tomato hosts by yeast two-hybrid and co-immunoprecipitation assays. RsVAP may interact with LeRabA1d to affect the host defense response, which in turn facilitates nematode infection. This study provides the first evidence for the inhibition of plant defense response by a VAP from migratory plant-parasitic nematodes, and, for the first time, the target protein of R. similis in its host was identified.

RNA-Seq revealed that infection with white tip nematodes could downregulate rice photosynthetic genes.

White-tip nematode, Aphelenchoides besseyi is a kind of widely distributed migratory parasitic nematode that can infect plant shoots. Transcriptome sequencing of plant parasitic nematodes and their host plants is helpful for understanding their interaction relationship. This study first reported expression patterns of defense-related genes in rice, and rice transcriptomes at different periods after infection with A. besseyi. The result showed that the defense response pathways of rice changed obviously in the early stage of A. besseyi infection, including upregulated salicylic acid and jasmonate pathways and a downregulated ethylene pathway. Transcriptome analysis results suggested that A. besseyi infection was associated with the downregulation of multiple genes related to photosynthesis with possible suppression of the photosynthetic activity. It suggested that the photosynthesis system of rice could be suppressed by infections of migratory nematodes, including A. besseyi and Hirschmanniella oryzae, but was stimulated by that of a sedentary nematode, Meloidogyne graminicola, by comparing our study with the reported transcriptome. OS09G0417800 (OsWRKY62) might play an important role in the interaction of migratory nematodes and rice. It also indicated that the infection strategy of both A. besseyi and the reported migratory nematode H. oryzae was similar to that of the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe grisea. These results provided an interesting starting point to elucidate the mechanism of the interaction between rice and A. besseyi, as well as the host and migratory plant nematodes.

Identification and validation of reference genes for real-time RT-PCR in Aphelenchoides besseyi.

Fragments of four candidate reference genes of Aphelenchoides besseyi, including actin, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), ubiquitin conjugating-3 enzyme (UBC) and alpha-tubulin (α-tubulin) were cloned from the transcriptome database of A. besseyi. The expression level of these four candidate reference genes and a commonly used reference gene of A. besseyi (18S rRNA) in three experimental conditions, including the four life stages (female, male, juvenile and egg) of two populations and the mixed-stage nematodes of four populations with different origins and hosts were analyzed by RT-qPCR. The expression stability of the five candidate reference genes under the three experimental conditions was analyzed by ΔCt, geNorm, NormFinder and RefFinder respectively. The analysis results of ΔCt, geNorm, NormFinder and RefFinder all indicated that UBC was the gene with the highest average ranking of stability. In conclusion, the expression stability of UBC was optimal under the three experimental conditions, indicating that UBC could be used as a suitable reference gene instead of 18S rRNA in the RT-qPCR analysis for A. besseyi.

Expression analysis of proteasome maturation protein (POMP) gene in Liaoning Cashmere goat.

Liaoning Cashmere goat is a precious genetic resource of China. To explore the relationship between POMP and cashmere growth, we analyzed the expression of POMP. POMP encodes a hudrophilic protein which is most closely related to bos. RT-PCR showed that POMP was expressed in skin, heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney tissues. Real-time PCR showed that the expression of POMP was more active in the secondary hair follicles than the primary hair follicles in anagen. In situ hybridization showed that POMP was obviously expressed in the Inner Root Sheath (IRS) but no expression in Outer Root. The treatment of fibroblasts with melatonin (MT), fibroblast growth factors 5 (FGF5) and insulin-like growth factors 1 (IGF-1) showed that MT/FGF5/IGF-1 much performance for inhibiting the expression of POMP; MT + FGF5 inhibited the expression of POMP; MT + IGF-1 promoted the expression of POMP. When Noggin expression is decreased by siRNA, the expression of POMP is inhibited. To sum up, POMP strongly expressed in the root sheath of hair follicles, related to the development of the primary and secondary hair follicle; In addition, by adding MT/FGF5/IGF-1 or interfering with the Noggin expression to regulate the expression of POMP, to control the growth of Liaoning Cashmere goat cashmere.

WiGAN: A WiFi Based Gesture Recognition System with GANs.

In recent years, a series of research experiments have been conducted on WiFi-based gesture recognition. However, current recognition systems are still facing the challenge of small samples and environmental dependence. To deal with the problem of performance degradation caused by these factors, we propose a WiFi-based gesture recognition system, WiGAN, which uses Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to extract and generate gesture features. With GAN, WiGAN expands the data capacity to reduce time cost and increase sample diversity. The proposed system extracts and fuses multiple convolutional layer feature maps as gesture features before gesture recognition. After fusing features, Support Vector Machine (SVM) is exploited for human activity classification because of its accuracy and convenience. The key insight of WiGAN is to generate samples and merge multi-grained feature maps in our designed GAN, which not only enhances the data but also allows the neural network to select different grained features for gesture recognition. According to the result of experiments conducted on two existing datasets, the average recognition accuracy of WiGAN reaches 98% and 95.6%, respectively, outperforming the existing system. Moreover, the recognition accuracy under different experimental environments and different users shows the robustness of WiGAN.

Identification and function of FAR protein family genes from a transcriptome analysis of Aphelenchoides besseyi.

Motivation: The rice white tip nematode (RWTN) Aphelenchoides besseyi is a migratory plant parasitic nematode that infects the aboveground parts of plants. Fatty acid- and retinoid-binding (FAR) proteins are nematode-specific proteins that are involved in many important biological processes. Genes encoding FAR proteins have been identified in many species of nematodes, which indicated that nematodes may produce more than one type of FAR protein. The main goal of this study is to find new molecular targets including new far genes that will help control RWTN, and reduce the economic damage caused by RWTN. Results: Two RWTN populations with different levels of pathogenicity and reproduction were sequenced and analyzed with next-generation sequencing. 17 087 transcripts were annotated using six databases and 1696 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the two RWTN populations. Seven new Ab-far genes were identified from the transcriptome data of the two RWTN populations which is the first to identify multiple far genes in plant parasitic nematodes. This study is the first to identify far genes in the nervous system of nematodes and the first to report a transcriptome sequencing analysis of different RWTN populations. The results help elucidate the genes related to parasitism and pathogenicity and also contribute to the identification of new target genes and development of new methods to control RWTN. Availability and implementation: Our data are publicly available at Sequence Read Archive (SRA) database and GenBank database. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Great auricular nerve schwannoma in neck region: a case report with the risk of medical disputes.

BACKGROUND: Great auricular nerve schwannoma is extremely rare. Herein, we reported the first case of schwannoma arising from great auricular nerve trunk. CASE PRESENTATION: A 29 year-old female complained of a slowly-growing superfacial neck mass for 6 months. MRI revealed a high possibility of schwannoma. Although the patient underwent successfully surgical removal of the tumor, ipsilateral numbness of both auricle and peripheral skin developed due to traction of the nerve. Immunohistochemistry staining confirmed the diagnosis of schwannoma. And the patient has been followed regularly. CONCLUSION: For superficial cervical tumors, the cervical plexus cutaneous nerve should be considered if MRI and other imaging findings suggest neurogenic tumors.

Identification and Characterization of a Fatty Acid- and Retinoid-Binding Protein Gene (Ar-far-1) from the Chrysanthemum Foliar Nematode, Aphelenchoides ritzemabosi.

The chrysanthemum foliar nematode (CFN), Aphelenchoides ritzemabosi, is a migratory, plant-parasitic nematode that is widely distributed and infects the aboveground parts of many plants. The fatty acid- and retinoid-binding proteins (FAR) are nematode-specific proteins that are involved in the development, reproduction, and infection of nematodes and are secreted into the tissues to disrupt the plant defense reaction. In this study, we obtained the full-length sequence of the FAR gene (Ar-far-1) from CFN, which is 727 bp and includes a 546 bp ORF that encodes 181 amino acids. Ar-FAR-1 from CFN has the highest sequence similarity to Ab-FAR-1 from A. besseyi, and they are located within the same branch of the phylogenetic tree. Fluorescence-based ligand-binding analysis confirmed that recombinant Ar-FAR-1 was bound to fatty acids and retinol. Ar-far-1 mRNA was expressed in the muscle layer, intestine, female genital system, and egg of CFN, and more highly expressed in females than in males among the four developmental stages of CFN. We demonstrated that the reproduction number and infection capacity of CFN decreased significantly when Ar-far-1 was effectively silenced by in vitro RNAi. Ar-far-1 plays an important role in the development, reproduction, infectivity, and pathogenesis of CFN and may be used as an effective target gene for the control of CFN. The results provide meaningful data about the parasitic and pathogenic genes of CFN to study the interaction mechanism between plant-parasitic nematodes and hosts.