[A new monoterpene ester from Zingiberis Rhizoma Recens].

Five monoterpenoid compounds(1-5) were isolated and purified from the acetone fraction of the aqueous extract of Zingiberis Rhizoma Recens by MCI, Sephadex LH-20, silica gel, semi-preparative HPLC, and TLC. Their structures were identified with multiple spectroscopical methods including 1 D-NMR, 2 D-NMR, and MS. The five compounds were identified as(2E,6Z)-8-hydroxy-2,6-dimethylocta-2,6-dien-1-yl-(E)-3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl) acrylate(1),(2E,6E)-8-hydroxy-3,7-dimethylocta-2,6-die-noic acid(2),(E)-1,8-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-2-octenoic acid(3), linalyl-ß-D-glucopyranoside(4), and ß-D-glucopyranoside-(2E)-3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadien-1-yl(5), respectively.Compound 1 was a new monoterpene ester, and compounds 4-5 were isolated from this plant for the first time.

miRNAs expression profile in bast of ramie elongation phase and cell wall thickening and end wall dissolving phase.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are 20-24 nucleotide long non-coding RNAs that play critical regulatory roles during plant development, organ morphogenesis, and cell fate determination and differentiation. In this study, miRNA microarray chips were used to explore the expression profile of ramie miRNAs between the bast of fiber elongation phase and those of cell wall thickening and end wall dissolving phase. There are 150 and 148 credible miRNAs in the bast of fiber elongation phase and cell wall thickening and end wall dissolving phase, respectively. These miRNAs distributed in 27 species and mainly concentrated in nine species. Analysis showed that 51 miRNAs were differentially expressed: 27 up-regulated (miR166, miR172, miR396, miR482, miR894 and miR2911 families) and 24 down-regulated (miR156, miR159, miR164, miR319 and miR1450 families) in the bast of fiber elongation phase compared with the bast of cell wall thickening and end wall dissolving phase. To further confirm our results, we examined the expression of three miRNAs (zma-miR172b*, pvu-miR482 and vvi-172a) by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR. Our results will provide a molecular basis for future research miRNA function on ramie genetics and breeding.

Synthesis, Crystal Structures and Urease Inhibition of 4-Bromo-N'-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)benzohydrazide and Its Dinuclear Copper(II) Complex.

A new dinuclear copper(II) complex [Cu2(µ-Br)2L2]·0.5MeOH with the benzohydrazone ligand 4-bromo-N'-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)benzohydrazide (HL) has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic studies. Single crystal structures of the complex and the benzohydrazone compound were studied. The Cu atoms in the complex are coordinated by two benzohydrazone ligands and two Br bridging groups, forming square pyramidal coordination. The complex has good inhibitory activity on Jack bean urease, with IC50 value of 1.38 µmol·L-1.

A United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals perspective for sustainable textile and apparel supply chain management.

Motivated by United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the importance of sustainability, this study examines how the textile and apparel (TA) supply chains can comply with the SDGs. By examining the literature as well as industrial practices, we show that the current sustainable operations in TA industry are far away from realizing the goals of economic growth going hand-in-hand with the social and environmental sustainability. For instance, among the SDGs, the goals of "Responsible Consumption and Production", "Clean Water and Sanitation", and "Climate Action" receive a considerable amount of attention, while goals of "No Poverty", "Reduced Inequalities", "Life below Water" and "Life on Land" have the least attention. Balanced sustainable development actions from the stakeholders' perspective are proposed. Managerial implications and future studies are discussed.

Syntheses, Crystal Structures and Catalytic Property of Oxidovanadium(V) Complexes Derived from Tridentate Hydrazone Ligands.

Two new ethyl maltolato coordinated mononuclear oxidovanadium(V) complexes [VOLa(emt)]·DMF (1) and [VOLb(emt)] (2), where H2La = N'-(4-bromo-2-hydroxybenzylidene)-3-hydroxybenzohydrazide, H2Lb = N'-(4-bromo-2-hydroxybenzylidene)benzohydrazide, Hemt = ethyl maltol, have been synthesized and characterized on the basis of CHN elemental analysis, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy and powder XRD analysis. Structures of the complexes were further characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, which indicated that the V atoms in the complexes adopt octahedral coordination. The hydrazones behave as NOO tridentate ligands. The catalytic epoxidation properties on cyclooctene of the complexes were investigated.

[Detection of some toxin genes related to pathogenicity in Bacillus cereus group strains].

Bacillus thuringiensis is a member of the B. cereus group, which also contains B. cereus, B. mycoides, B. pseudomycoides , B. anthracis and B. weihenstephanensis. Among them, B. thuringiensis and B. cereus share a high level chromosomal similarity and are phenotypically similar except that B. thuringiensis has insecticidal plasmid encoding crystal proteins. Twenty-six B. cereus group strains were surveyed in this study for the presence of enterotoxin genes and other toxin genes related to pathogenicity. PCR results showed that the pleiotropic virulence regulator plcR was presented in 17 B. cereus group strains. About 73% of the B. cereus group strains and 83% of the B. thuringiensis strains contained at least one of the three hbl genes and one of the three nhe genes, indicating that B. thuringiensis, including strains used commercially, had enterotoxin encoding genes. Additionally, B. cereus DBt248 was proved to be devoid of all three hbl genes, three nhe genes or plcR. Thus this strain might be a potential candidate as a host strain for expressing B. thuringiensis crystal toxins to construct safety insecticidal engineering strains without enterotoxic activity.

[The synergism between Mtx1 from Bacillus sphaericus and Cyt1 Aa from Bacillus thuringiensis to Culex quinquefasciatus].

Mosquitocidal toxin 1 (Mtx1) was synthesized during vegetative phase of Bacillus sphaericus and it had been proved to have higher activity to Aedes spp. larvae and Binary toxin (Bin) resistance Culex larvae. The truncated 97 kDa Mtx1 with a deletion of the signal peptide and the Cyt1 Aa crystal protein, a 27.3 kDa delta-endotoxin from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti), were purified from Escherichia coli and B. thuringiensis recombinant strains respectively. Both purified toxins had high toxicity against Culex quinquefasciatus larvae. Bioassay result revealed the purified Mtx1 toxin had high toxicity against the target mosquito larvae, with LCso of 45.2 ng/mL. However, the mixture of Mtx1 and Cytl Aa exhibited higher toxicity against the mosquito larvae, with a lowest LC50 value of 20.19 ng/mL at the ratio of 1:3. (Mtx1:Cyt1 Aa). The calculated synergistic factor of different mixtures suggested a strong synergistic effect between Cyt1 Aa toxin and Mtx1. Furthermore, the presence of Cyt1Aa in the mixture could induce early larval mortality, enhancing the activity of Mtx1 to the target mosquito larvae. The synergistic effect of Cyt1 Aa on mortality of Mtx1 to mosquito larvae might be caused by the damage of the larval midgut-hemocoel barrier induced by the activated CytlAa toxin, which enhanced the specific pathogenesis of Mtx1 on mosquito larvae. It is suggested that the co-application of Mtx1 and Cyt1 Aa in future will be integrated for mosquito management.

[Expression of mosquitocidal Cyt1Aa toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis in Asticcacaulis excentricus].

Asticcacaulis excentricus, who lives in upper-layer waters providing food resource to the mosquito larvae and has been proven to be a successful host to produce the mosquitocidal binary toxins or Cry11Aa toxin from Bacilli (Liu et al., 1996, Nat Biotech 14: 343; Armengol, et al. , 2005, Curr Microbiol 51: 430), was developed to express cyt1Aa gene from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti). Two A. excentricus transformants were constructed with the attempt of producing CytlAa alone and alongside with Cry11Aa, repectively. Detection of expressed Cry11Aa and CytlAa proteins by immunoblot in the recombinant A. excentricus clones showed that either cry11Aa or cyt1Aa was expressed well solely but not simultaneously although both restriction analyses of plasmid DNA and DNA sequencing showed that the transformed plasmid was identical to scheme. To investigate the reason why the recombinant A. excentricus harboring both genes and their ribosome binding site (RBS) sequences expressed only Cry11Aa, the total RNA of A. excentricus cells was extracted and revealed three-band pattern in which all RNA molecule weights are not greater than 16S RNA of Escherichia coli by formamide agarose gel electrophoresis, indicating that different RNA systems within these two Gram-negative strains required distinguishingly organised constructs to express multiple foreign genes. It is hypothesized that an extra promoter upstream of RBS sequence is required to express cyt1Aa in the cry11Aa-cyt1Aa tandom plasmid.