Colonization compatibility with Bacillus altitudinis confers soybean seed rot resistance.

The plant microbiome and plant-associated bacteria are known to support plant health, but there are limited studies on seed and seedling microbiome to reveal how seed-associated bacteria may confer disease resistance. In this study, the application of antibiotics on soybean seedlings indicated that seed-associated bacteria were involved in the seed rot resistance against a soil-borne pathogen Calonectria ilicicola, but this resistance cannot be carried to withstand root rot. Using PacBio 16S rRNA gene full-length sequencing and microbiome analyses, 14 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) including 2 ASVs matching to Bacillus altitudinis were found to be more abundant in the four most resistant varieties versus the four most susceptible varieties. Culture-dependent isolation obtained two B. altitudinis isolates that both exhibit antagonistic capability against six fungal pathogens. Application of B. altitudinis on the most resistant and susceptible soybean varieties revealed different colonization compatibility, and the seed rot resistance was restored in the five varieties showing higher bacterial colonization. Moreover, quantitative PCR confirmed the persistence of B. altitudinis on apical shoots till 21 days post-inoculation (dpi), but 9 dpi on roots of the resistant variety TN5. As for the susceptible variety HC, the persistence of B. altitudinis was only detected before 6 dpi on both shoots and roots. The short-term colonization of B. altitudinis on roots may explain the absence of root rot resistance. Collectively, this study advances the insight of B. altitudinis conferring soybean seed rot resistance and highlights the importance of considering bacterial compatibility with plant varieties and colonization persistence on plant tissues.

Unlocking the potential of phenolated kraft lignin as a versatile feed additive.

Lignin, a renewable natural antioxidant and bacteriostat, holds promise as a versatile, cost-effective feed additive. However, traditional industrial lignin faces limitations, including low reactivity, poor uniformity, and unstable properties, necessitating chemical modification. Complex modification methods pose economic and toxicity challenges, so this study adopted a relatively simple alkali-catalyzed phenolization approach, using phenol, catechol, and pyrogallol to modify kraft lignin, and characterized the resulting products using various techniques. Subsequently, their antioxidant, antibacterial, adsorption properties for heavy metal ions and mycotoxins, growth-promoting properties, and antiviral abilities were assessed. The phenolation process led to lignin depolymerization and a notable increase in phenolic hydroxyl content, particularly in pyrogallol-phenolated lignin (Py-L), rising from 3.08 to 4.68 mmol/g. These modified lignins exhibited enhanced antioxidant activity, with over 99 % inhibition against E. coli and S. aureus, and remarkable adsorption capacities for heavy metal ions and mycotoxins. Importantly, Py-L improved the growth performance of mice and reduced influenza mortality. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations elucidated the mechanism behind the enhanced antioxidant properties. This study presents a promising avenue for developing versatile feed additives to address challenges related to animal feed antioxidant supplementation, bacterial control, and growth promotion.

Effects of synthetic and environmentally friendly fungicides on powdery mildew management and the phyllosphere microbiome of cucumber.

Modern agricultural practices rely on synthetic fungicides to control plant disease, but the application of these fungicides has raised concerns regarding human and environmental health for many years. As a substitute, environmentally friendly fungicides have been increasingly introduced as alternatives to synthetic fungicides. However, the impact of these environmentally friendly fungicides on plant microbiomes has received limited attention. In this study, we used amplicon sequencing to compare the bacterial and fungal microbiomes in the leaves of powdery mildew-infected cucumber after the application of two environmentally friendly fungicides (neutralized phosphorous acid (NPA) and sulfur) and one synthetic fungicide (tebuconazole). The phyllosphere α-diversity of both the bacterial and fungal microbiomes showed no significant differences among the three fungicides. For phyllosphere ß-diversity, the bacterial composition exhibited no significant differences among the three fungicides, but fungal composition was altered by the synthetic fungicide tebuconazole. While all three fungicides significantly reduced disease severity and the incidence of powdery mildew, NPA and sulfur had minimal impacts on the phyllosphere fungal microbiome relative to the untreated control. Tebuconazole altered the phyllosphere fungal microbiome by reducing the abundance of fungal OTUs such as Dothideomycetes and Sordariomycetes, which included potentially beneficial endophytic fungi. These results indicated that treatments with the environmentally friendly fungicides NPA and sulfur have fewer impacts on the phyllosphere fungal microbiome while maintaining the same control efficacy as the synthetic fungicide tebuconazole.

Identification of Cyprodinil + Fludioxonil to Manage Soybean Red Crown Rot Using the Microplate-Based High-Throughput Screening and Pot Assay.

Red crown rot (RCR), caused by the soilborne fungus Calonectria ilicicola, is an emerging soybean disease in Taiwan, and fungicide screening is desired to identify effective management for C. ilicicola. This study screened 11 fungicides, including azoxystrobin, boscalid, cyprodinil, cyprodinil + fludioxonil, difenoconazole, fluopyram, flutolanil, mancozeb, prochloraz, pyraclostrobin, and tebuconazole, for their inhibitory effects on the mycelial growth of 10 C. ilicicola field isolates. Subsequently, a microplate-based high-throughput screening (MHTS) method was established to measure the fungicide sensitivity in a population composed of 80 C. ilicicola isolates to three effective fungicides, cyprodinil + fludioxonil, fluopyram, and tebuconazole. The MHTS was optimized for multiple factors, including the optical scanning pattern, absorption wavelength, conidial concentration, and measurement timing based on the quality controls of Z' factor and the log-phase growth curve. The population mean EC50 estimated by MHTS were 0.14, 2.34, and 2.46 ppm to cyprodinil + fludioxonil, fluopyram, and tebuconazole, respectively. In addition to the in vitro assessment, fungicide efficacy was evaluated by coating cyprodinil + fludioxonil, fluopyram, or tebuconazole on soybean seeds in the pot assay. The results showed that cyprodinil + fludioxonil significantly reduced both postemergence damping-off and disease severity, while fluopyram and tebuconazole reduced only the postemergence damping-off but not disease severity. Based on the MHTS and the pot assay results, this study demonstrated cyprodinil + fludioxonil to be a potential fungicide to manage soybean RCR.

Tuning the Surface Characteristics and Mechanical Properties of Y2O3 Coatings on a Graphene Matrix via Laser Micro Melting.

The effects of laser parameters on the microstructure and properties of plasma-sprayed yttrium oxide coating on the graphite matrix were investigated. Tensile strength, porosity, roughness, and scratch meter tests were carried out to evaluate the critical load and mechanical properties of the coating after spraying and laser micro-melting. When the porosity and surface roughness of the coating are minimum, the critical load of the coating is 7.85 N higher than that of the spraying surface. After laser micromelting, the crystal phase of Y2O3 coating surface does not change, the crystallinity is improved, and fine grain strengthening occurs. When the laser power density is 75 W/mm2, the scanning speed is 30 mm/s, and the defocusing distance is 40 mm, the film base bonding performance and wear resistance of the material reach the maximum value. The failure of Y2O3 coating is mainly due to the degradation of mechanical properties such as film base bonding strength, surface porosity, and surface roughness, which leads to the local collapse of the material. The coating after laser micro-melting only presents particle disintegration at the end of the scratch area.

Effect of ERAS Combined with Comfortable Nursing on Quality of Life and Complications in Femoral Neck Fractures of the Aged People.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) combined with comfortable nursing on the quality of life and complications of elderly patients with femoral neck fracture (FNF). METHODS: From May 2019 to May 2020, 80 senile FNF patients who admitted to our hospital were treated by total hip arthroplasty (THA). All patients were randomly divided upon admission into a control group (CG) with usual care and a study group (RG) with ERAS combined with comfort care of 40 patients each. The postoperative efficacy was assessed by Harris score of hip joint function, and the psychology was evaluated by self-rating anxiety scale (SAS). The SF-36 score of quality of life, the time of catheter removal, the time of getting out of bed, the hospital stays, the satisfaction of nursing, and the Barthel score of self-care ability were compared between the two groups before and after nursing, and the incidence of postoperative complications was also evaluated. RESULTS: Compared with the CG, the SF-36 score of quality of life and Barthel score of self-care ability in the RG were dramatically higher, while the SAS score of anxiety was dramatically lower. Besides, the time of catheter removal, the time of getting out of bed, and the hospital stays in the RG were dramatically lower (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the nursing satisfaction and postoperative efficacy of patients in the RG were obviously higher (both P < 0.05), while the incidence of complications in the RG was obviously lower (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: ERAS combined with comfortable nursing can improve the hip joint function, quality of life, and self-care ability scores of senile FNF patients; relieve the anxiety in patients; and reduce the incidence of postoperative complications, which is valuable to be applied extensively.

First Report of Leaf Spot Caused by Diaporthe tulliensis on Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) in Taiwan.

Starting from the May to August 2020 (average humidity 76.6% and temperature 25.2°C in Taipei), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) plants on the campus of National Taiwan University (25°01'05.4"N 121°32'36.6"E) exhibited leaf rusts caused by Phakopsora ampelopsidis (Tzean et al., 2019) and leaf spots caused by an unknown pathogen. The leaf spots appeared reddish to brown color and mostly irregular to round shape on the simple and trifoliate leaflets (Supplemental Figure 1A-C). The leaf spots were surface-disinfected with 1% NaOCl for 30 seconds, and the margin of healthy and infected tissues was cut and placed onto water agar, which were incubated at room temperature. Hyphae grown out from leaf spots were sub-cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA), and the majority of isolates exhibited white colony with black pycnidial conidiomata embedded in PDA. The pycnidial conidiomata of two-week-old has an average diameter of 463±193 µm (n=30) and the sizes of α-conidia were 5.71±0.49 µm in length and 2.42±0.32 µm in width (n=50) similar to the previous records (Crous et al. 2015). The α-conidium was one-celled, hyaline, and ovoid with two droplets (Supplemental Figure 1D-G). This putative pathogen was re-inoculated to confirm its pathogenicity on the leaves of Boston ivy plants. A PDA block with actively growing fungal edge was placed on the tiny needle-wounded leaves of detached branches (Supplemental Figure H-I) and the whole plants in pots (Supplemental Figure 1J-M) in a moist chamber at 28°C in dark. Reddish to brown leaf spots were observed by 2 days post-inoculation (dpi) and the leaf spots expanded by 5 dpi. To complete the Koch's postulates, the pathogen was re-isolated from inoculated leaves and the re-isolated pathogen exhibited identical morphology to the original isolate. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS), translational elongation factor subunit 1-α gene (EF1α), ß-tubulin (BT), and calmodulin (CAL) was amplified using the primers ITS1/ITS4 (Martin and Rygiewicz. 2005), EF1-728F/EF1-986R, Bt2a/Bt2b, and CAL-228F/CAL-737R, respectively (Manawasinghe et al. 2019). Using BLAST in the NCBI database, the ITS (MT974186), EF1α (MT982963), and ß-tubulin (MT982962) sequences showed 98.57% (NR_147574.1, 553 out of 561 bp), 98.04% (KR936133.1, 350 out of 357 bp), and 99.23% (KR936132.1, 518 out of 522 bp) identity to the Diaporthe tulliensis ex-type BRIP 62248a, respectively (Dissanayake et al. 2017). Phylogenetic analysis using concatenated sequences of ITS, EF1α, and ß-tubulin grouped the D. tulliensis isolated from Boston ivy leaf spots with the D. tulliensis ex-type (Supplemental Figure 1N). In summary, the morphological and molecular characterizations supported the causal pathogen of Boston ivy leaf spot as D. tulliensis. While Diaporthe ampelopsidis was reported to infect Parthenocissus quinquefolia and P. tricuspidata (Anonymous, 1960; Wehmeyer, 1933), there is no record for D. tulliensis infecting Boston ivy according to the USDA National Fungus Collections (Farr and Rossman. 2020). Because pathogens of Boston ivy such as P. ampelopsidis may also infect close-related crops like grape (Vitis vinifera L.) and D. tulliensis has been known to infect kiwifruits (Actinidia chinensis) and cocoa (Theobroma cacao) (Bai et al. 2016; Yang et al. 2018), the emergence of D. tulliensis should be aware to avoid potential damage to economic crops.

Whole-Genome Sequence Resource of Calonectria ilicicola, the Casual Pathogen of Soybean Red Crown Rot.

Calonectria ilicicola (anamorph: Cylindrocladium parasiticum) is a soilborne plant-pathogenic fungus with a broad host range, and it can cause red crown rot of soybean and Cylindrocladium black rot of peanut, which has become an emerging threat to crop production worldwide. Limited molecular studies have focused on Calonectria ilicicola and one of the possible difficulties is the lack of genomic resources. This study presents the first high quality and near-completed genome of C. ilicicola, using the Oxford Nanopore GridION sequencing platform. A total of 16 contigs were assembled and the genome of C. ilicicola isolate F018 was estimated to have 11 chromosomes. Currently, the C. ilicicola F018 genome represents the most contiguous assembly, which has the lowest contig number and the highest contig N50 among all Calonectria genome resources. Putative protein-coding sequences and secretory proteins were estimated to be 17,308 and 1,930 in the C. ilicicola F018 genome, respectively; and the prediction was close to other plant-pathogenic fungi, such as Fusarium species, within the Nectriaceae family. The availability of this high-quality genome resource is expected to facilitate research on fungal biology and genetics of C. ilicicola and to support advanced understanding of pathogen virulence and disease management.[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

The complete chloroplast genome of Phyllostachys heteroclada f. solida (Poaceae).

Phyllostachys heteroclada f. solida is a precious wood-use bamboo resource, with almost solid stem. The complete chloroplast genome of the Phyllostachys heteroclada f. solida was the first time to assemble from Illumina pair-end sequencing data in this work. The total genome size of Phyllostachys heteroclada f. solida was 156,559 bp in length, containing a large single-copy (LSC) region of 89,200 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 14,876 bp, and a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions of 23,798 bp. The overall GC content of the genome was 36.12%, and the corresponding values of the LSC, SSC, and IR regions were 36.98, 33.15, and 44.22%, respectively. A total of 136 genes were annotated, including 88 protein-coding genes, 40 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis results strongly supported that Phyllostachys heteroclada f. solida was closely related to Phyllostachys reticulate.

KIF11 promotes cell proliferation via ERBB2/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in gallbladder cancer.

Proliferation is one of the significant hallmarks of gallbladder cancer, which is a relatively rare but fatal malignance. Aim of this study was to examine the biological impact and molecular mechanism of the candidate hub-gene on the proliferation and tumorigenesis of gallbladder cancer. We analyzed the differentially expressed genes and the correlation between these genes with MKI67, and showed that KIF11 is one of the major upregulated regulators of proliferation in gallbladder cancer (GBC). The Gene Ontology, Gene Sets Enrichment Analysis and KEGG Pathway analysis indicated that KIF11 may promote GBC cell proliferation through the ERBB2/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function assay demonstrated that KIF11 regulated GBC cell cycle and cancer cell proliferation in vitro. GBC cells exhibited G2M phase cell cycle arrest, cell proliferation and clone formation ability reduction after treatment with Monastrol, a specific inhibitor of KIF11. Xenograft model showed that KIF11 promotes GBC growth in vivo. Rescue experiments showed that KIF11-induced GBC cell proliferation dependented on ERBB2/PI3K/AKT pathway. Moreover, we found that H3K27ac signals are enriched among the promoter region of KIF11 in the UCSC Genome Browser Database. Differentially expressed analysis showed that EP300, a major histone acetyltransferase modifying H3K27ac signal, is highly expressed in gallbladder cancer and correlation analysis illustrated that EP300 is positively related with KIF11 in almost all the cancer types. We further found that KIF11 was significantly downregulated in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner after histone acetylation inhibitor treatment. The present results highlight that high KIF11 expression promotes GBC cell proliferation through the ERBB2/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. The findings may help deepen our understanding of mechanism underlying GBC cancer development and development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic target.

Evaluation of a logistic regression model for predicting liver necroinflammation in hepatitis B e antigen-negative chronic hepatitis B patients with normal and minimally increased alanine aminotransferase levels.

Liver necroinflammation is the indicator for treating patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection. However, there is no suitable non-invasive index for diagnosing liver necroinflammation. This study aimed to create a non-invasive index to predict liver necroinflammation in patients who lack clear-cut clinical inflammation parameters. Patients who were hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative and underwent liver histological diagnosis, had a normal or minimally increased alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level were enrolled. Liver necroinflammation was defined as histological active index ≥4. A logistic regression model (LRM) was established based on the parameters independently associated with liver necroinflammation. Of all 550 patients, 36.73% had necroinflammation. In patients with an abnormal ALT level, the rate of necroinflammation was 52.49%. The area under the curve (AUC) of the ALT level for predicting necroinflammation was 0.655 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.609-0.702), and that of the HBV DNA level ≥2000 IU/mL combined with an abnormal ALT level was 0.618. By using the LRM, the AUC improved to 0.769 (95% CI, 0.723-0.815) with a Youden index of 0.519 and diagnostic accuracy of 75.3%. The cutoff value ≥0.7 in the LRM had a specificity of 97.4% and positive predictive value of 85.0% for predicting necroinflammation. By using the cutoff value <0.15 in the LRM, the presence of necroinflammation could be excluded with a negative predictive value of 90.8%. This study indicated that the LRM can be used to effectively diagnose liver necroinflammation in HBeAg-negative patients with CHB who have normal or minimally elevated ALT levels.

A novel circulating hsa_circ_0081001 act as a potential biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of osteosarcoma.

Chemo-resistance and lung metastasis have been the two obstacles in the osteosarcoma (OS) treatment, which is still lack of effective biomarkers for prediction, diagnosis and treatment. Circular RNA (circRNA) is a new type of endogenous noncoding RNA that could serve as ideal biomarkers in cancer because of its stable loop structure. However, little is known about the diagnostic value of circRNAs in OS as well as their associations with clinicopathologic characteristics of OS patients. In the current study, we identified a novel circRNA, hsa_circ_0081001, screened by the RNA sequencing in the three paired chemo-resistant and chemo-sensitive OS cell lines (MG63/DXR vs MG63, KHOS/DXR vs KHOS, U2OS/DXR vs U2OS), and found that hsa_circ_0081001 was significantly up-regulated in the OS cell lines, tissues and serums, associated with poor overall survival and cox multivariate analysis showed that hsa_circ_0081001 was a novel independent prognostic factor for OS patients. Then, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that hsa_circ_0081001 could act as a biomarker for the OS diagnosis and prognosis prediction, better than alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). In addition, we preliminarily found that hsa_circ_0081001 expression level may dynamically monitor and reflect the condition changes of OS patients in a small-scale prospective clinical pretest. In conclusion, our study suggested that circulating hsa_circ_0081001 could serve as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for OS patients.

Screening circular RNA related to chemotherapeutic resistance in osteosarcoma by RNA sequencing.

AIM: To identify circular RNAs (circRNAs) related to osteosarcoma (OS) chemoresistance. MATERIALS & METHODS: CircRNA expression profile was performed in three paired human chemoresistant and chemosensitive OS cell lines by next-generation sequencing. Quantitative real-time-PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to confirm next-generation sequencing data. Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to predict their functions. RESULTS: Eighty circRNAs were dysregulated in the chemoresistant OS cells compared with the control, after validated by qRT-PCR. Bioinformatics analysis showed that some pathways related to drug metabolism were significantly enriched. Additionally, hsa_circ_0004674 was distinctly increased in OS chemoresistant cells and tissues, related to poor prognosis. CircRNA-miRNA-mRNA pathways related to hsa_circ_0004674 were constructed by TargetScan and miRanda. CONCLUSION: CircRNAs may play a role in OS chemoresistance and hsa_circ_0004674 might be a candidate target.

Culture as perceived context: An exploration of the distinction between dignity, face and honor cultures / La cultura como contexto percibido: explorando la esencia de las culturas de honor, dignidad y autopresentación

Abstract: Researchers are making increasing use of the distinction between cultural logics emphasizing dignity, face, and honor. Students from eight nations including two from Latin America rated items tapping the extent to which they believed that most persons in their nation endorsed these types of mindset. Their ratings did not accord with prior beliefs as to which cultures exemplify dignity, face, and honor. However, the predictions that analytic cognition would be more prevalent in dignity cultures and contrasting types of holistic cognition would be more prevalent in face and honor cultures were supported. The belief that the logic of dignity was prevalent within one's nation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction.

Resumen: Las investigaciones se están centrando cada vez con mayor énfasis en el uso de la distinción entre lógicas culturales, haciendo más hincapié en la dignidad, el mantenimiento del status quo estructural de una sociedad (face) y el honor. Estudiantes de 8 países, incluyendo 2 de América Latina, clasificaron elementos sobre cuán importante para la aceptación social es la dignidad o el honor para la mayoría de las personas en su nación. Las calificaciones obtenidas no concuerdan con creencias previas en cuanto a cuáles culturas promueven más la dignidad y/o el honor como guías de su comportamiento. Sin embargo, las predicciones de que los patrones de cognición analítica serían más frecuentes en culturas que se centran en la dignidad, y que los patrones de cognición holística serían más frecuentes en culturas que se centran en la honra fueron apoyadas. Adicionalmente, la creencia de que la lógica de la dignidad era frecuente dentro de cada nación se asoció significativamente con una mayor satisfacción de vida.

Detecting Salient Objects via Color and Texture Compactness Hypotheses.

In recent years, the object-level saliency detection has attracted much research attention, due to its usefulness in many high-level tasks. Existing methods are mostly based on the contrast hypothesis, which regards the regions with high contrast in a certain context as salient objects. Although the contrast hypothesis is effective in many scenarios, it cannot handle some difficult cases. As a remedy to address the weakness of contrast hypothesis, we propose a novel compactness hypothesis, which assumes salient regions are more compact than background from the perspectives of both color layout and texture layout. Based on the compactness hypotheses, we implement an effective object-level saliency detection method. In the proposed method, we first construct a weak saliency map based on the compact hypotheses, then collect samples from the weak saliency map to train a dedicated classifier. This classifier is applied on each individual pixel of the input image to produce a confidence score. Finally, the confidence scores are used to form a saliency map. This process is carried out at different scales, and the corresponding results are integrated into the formation of the final saliency map. The proposed approach is evaluated on eight benchmark data sets, where it delivers the competitive performance compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

Innovative measurement of parallelism for parallel transparent plate based on optical scanning holography by using a random-phase pupil.

A potential method is proposed to measure the parallelism of parallel transparent plate with an advanced lower limit and a convenient process by optical scanning holography (OSH) using a random-phase pupil, which is largely distinct from traditional methods. As a new possible application of OSH, this promising method is demonstrated theoretically and numerical simulations are carried out on a 2 cm×2 cm parallel plate. Discussions are also made on the quality of reconstructed image as well as local mean square error (MSE), which are closely related with the parallelism of sample. These amounts may become the judgments of parallelism, while in most interference methods judgments are paces between two interference fringes. In addition, randomness of random-phase pupil also affects the quality of reconstructed image and local MSE. According to the simulation results, high parallelism usually brings about distinguishable reconstructed information and suppressed local MSE.

Surface transfer doping induced effective modulation on ambipolar characteristics of few-layer black phosphorus.

Black phosphorus, a fast emerging two-dimensional material, has been configured as field effect transistors, showing a hole-transport-dominated ambipolar characteristic. Here we report an effective modulation on ambipolar characteristics of few-layer black phosphorus transistors through in situ surface functionalization with caesium carbonate (Cs2CO3) and molybdenum trioxide (MoO3), respectively. Cs2CO3 is found to strongly electron dope black phosphorus. The electron mobility of black phosphorus is significantly enhanced to ~27 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) after 10 nm Cs2CO3 modification, indicating a greatly improved electron-transport behaviour. In contrast, MoO3 decoration demonstrates a giant hole-doping effect. In situ photoelectron spectroscopy characterization reveals significant surface charge transfer occurring at the dopants/black phosphorus interfaces. Moreover, the surface-doped black phosphorus devices exhibit a largely enhanced photodetection behaviour. Our findings coupled with the tunable nature of the surface transfer doping scheme ensure black phosphorus as a promising candidate for further complementary logic electronics.

Tumor suppressor XAF1 induces apoptosis, inhibits angiogenesis and inhibits tumor growth in hepatocellular carcinoma.

X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP)-associated factor 1 (XAF1), a XIAP-binding protein, is a tumor suppressor gene. XAF1 was silent or expressed lowly in most human malignant tumors. However, the role of XAF1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of XAF1 on tumor growth and angiogenesis in hepatocellular cancer cells. Our results showed that XAF1 expression was lower in HCC cell lines SMMC-7721, Hep G2 and BEL-7404 and liver cancer tissues than that in paired non-cancer liver tissues. Adenovirus-mediated XAF1 expression (Ad5/F35-XAF1) significantly inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in HCC cells in dose- and time- dependent manners. Infection of Ad5/F35-XAF1 induced cleavage of caspase -3, -8, -9 and PARP in HCC cells. Furthermore, Ad5/F35-XAF1 treatment significantly suppressed tumor growth in a xenograft model of liver cancer cells. Western Blot and immunohistochemistry staining showed that Ad5/F35-XAF1 treatment suppressed expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is associated with tumor angiogenesis, in cancer cells and xenograft tumor tissues. Moreover, Ad5/F35-XAF1 treatment prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. Our results demonstrate that XAF1 inhibits tumor growth by inducing apoptosis and inhibiting tumor angiogenesis. XAF1 may be a promising target for liver cancer treatment.

Essential oils, a new horizon in combating bacterial antibiotic resistance.

For many years, the battle between humans and the multitudes of infection and disease causing pathogens continues. Emerging at the battlefield as some of the most significant challenges to human health are bacterial resistance and its rapid rise. These have become a major concern in global public health invigorating the need for new antimicrobial compounds. A rational approach to deal with antibiotic resistance problems requires detailed knowledge of the different biological and non-biological factors that affect the rate and extent of resistance development. Combination therapy combining conventional antibiotics and essential oils is currently blooming and represents a potential area for future investigations. This new generation of phytopharmaceuticals may shed light on the development of new pharmacological regimes in combating antibiotic resistance. This review consolidated and described the observed synergistic outcome between essential oils and antibiotics, and highlighted the possibilities of essential oils as the potential resistance modifying agent.

Chemical profiles and anticancer effects of saponin fractions of different polarity from the leaves of Panax notoginseng.

AIM: To evaluate the chemical profiles and cytotoxic effects among the total saponin fraction (TSF), 25% ethanol fraction (25EF), 50% ethanol fraction (50EF), and 85% ethanol fraction (85EF) prepared by macroporous resin from the leaves of Panax notoginseng. METHOD: The simultaneous determination of thirteen main saponins, as well as the chemical profiles of saponin fractions of different polarity, was made by HPLC-DAD and LC-ESI-MS(n) analysis. The cytotoxic effects were determined against KP4 cells (human pancreatic cancer), NCI-H727 cells (human lung cancer), HepG2 cells (human hepatocellular cancer), and SGC-7901 cells (human gastric adenocarcinoma). RESULTS: Chemical analysis indicated that 85EF possessed the most abundant cytotoxic protopanaxadiol saponins, including the marker saponins F2, 20(R)-Rg3, 20(S)-Rg3, and Rh2. The MTT assay showed that 85EF also had the strongest cytotoxic effects among the four fractions. 25EF showed no anti-proliferative effects, while 50EF and TSF exhibited weak anti-proliferative activity. CONCLUSION: From the aspect of comprehensive utilization of resources, 85EF, enriched with low polarity PPD group saponins, is a new alternative source of anticancer saponins, and a promising botanical preparation for further anticancer studies.