Structural Insights of a cis-Epoxysuccinate Hydrolase Facilitate the Development of Robust Biocatalysts for the Production of l-(+)-Tartrate.

l-(+)-Tartaric acid plays important roles in various industries, including pharmaceuticals, foods, and chemicals. cis-Epoxysuccinate hydrolases (CESHs) are crucial for converting cis-epoxysuccinate to l-(+)-tartrate in the industrial production process. There is, however, a lack of detailed structural and mechanistic information on CESHs, limiting the discovery and engineering of these industrially relevant enzymes. In this study, we report the crystal structures of RoCESH and KoCESH-l-(+)-tartrate complex. These structures reveal the key amino acids of the active pocket and the catalytic triad residues and elucidate a dynamic catalytic process involving conformational changes of the active site. Leveraging the structural insights, we identified a robust BmCESH (550 ± 20 U·mg-1) with sustained catalytic activity even at a 3 M substrate concentration. After six batches of transformation, immobilized cells with overexpressed BmCESH maintained 69% of their initial activity, affording an overall productivity of 200 g/L/h. These results provide valuable insights into the development of high-efficiency CESHs and the optimization of biotransformation processes for industrial uses.

Comparison and optimization of different CRISPR/Cas9 donor-adapting systems for gene editing.

Gene knock-in in mammalian cells usually uses homology-directed repair (HDR) mechanism to integrate exogenous DNA template into the target genome site. However, HDR efficiency is often low, and the co-localization of exogenous DNA template and target genome site is one of the key limiting factors. To improve the efficiency of HDR mediated by CRISPR/Cas9 system, our team and previous studies fused different adaptor proteins with SpCas9 protein and expressed them. By using their characteristics of binding to specific DNA sequences, many different CRISPR/SpCas9 donor adapter gene editing systems were constructed. In this study, we used them to knock-in eGFP gene at the 3'-end of the terminal exon of GAPDH and ACTB genes in HEK293T cells to facilitate a comparison and optimization of these systems. We utilized an optimized donor DNA template design method, validated the knock-in accuracy via PCR and Sanger sequencing, and assessed the efficiency using flow cytometry. The results showed that the fusion of yGal4BD, hGal4BD, hLacI, hTHAP11 as well as N57 and other adaptor proteins with the C-terminus of SpCas9 protein had no significant effect on its activity. At the GAPDH site, the donor adapter systems of SpCas9 fused with yGal4BD, hGal4BD, hLacI and hTHAP11 significantly improved the knock-in efficiency. At the ACTB site, SpCas9 fused with yGal4BD and hGal4BD significantly improved the knock-in efficiency. Furthermore, increasing the number of BS in the donor DNA template was beneficial to enhance the knock-in efficiency mediated by SpCas9-hTHAP11 system. In conclusion, this study compares and optimizes multiple CRISPR/Cas9 donor adapter gene editing systems, providing valuable insights for future gene editing applications.

Dilational Rheology of Extended Surfactants at the Air/Water and Oil/Water Interfaces: Effect of Propylene Oxide Group Numbers.

In this paper, the interfacial properties of extended surfactants with different oxypropylene (PO) groups were comprehensively investigated by using interfacial dilational rheology. The differences in molecular orientation, spatial configuration, and relaxation process were compared at the gas-water interface and oil-water interface. The influences of the PO groups on the interface viscoelasticity were analyzed, providing important theoretical support for the wide application of extended surfactants. Experimental results show that the lower number of PO groups in extended surfactants does not cause differences in their presence states on the interface; however, once it increases, the longer PO segment will spiral up in the direction perpendicular to the interface, forming a spatial configuration like a thin cylinder. Compared with air, the PO group has better solubility in the oil phase. The chain segment can still maintain a helical extension from the beginning to the end as a result. However, the upper layer of the thin cylinder will collapse to a certain extent at the surface. Moreover, the orientation of the hydrophobic side has a dynamic process of "tilting to upright" with the increase of adsorption amount or in response to interfacial dilation and compression. The increase of PO number or the insertion of oil molecules has little effect on dilational modulus, and the interfacial film strength is generally relatively low. That is to say, the better emulsifying and solubilizing ability of PO-containing extended surfactants may be more attributed to the matching steric effect at interface or better packing action in bulk phase than to higher film strength.

Identification of key genes in spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage and prevention of disease damage: LASSO and SVM regression.

Prevention is more important than treatment, and the incidence of intracerebral hemorrhage can be effectively reduced by intervening on the risk factors of intracerebral hemorrhage. By studying the risk factors of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage, we can identify the risk factors to achieve the target of treatment and prevention. Through the use of the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and the Support Vector Machine (SVM), the two essential SICH-related genes, NUAK1 and ERO1L, were eliminated from consideration. A Venn analysis was performed, and based on the two important modules, it found that SICH was related with four critical genes: VCM1, CRNDE, COL6A2, and HSPB6. One gene (NUAK1) was dramatically downregulated in the illness group compared to the control group, whereas three essential genes (ERO1L, VCAM1, and COL6A2) were significantly upregulated in the disease group. In the end, the genes ERO1L, VCAM1, COL6A2, and NUAK1 were shown to be the most important ones for SICH. It is anticipated that these genes will become novel biomarkers as well as targets for the development of new pharmacotherapies for SICH.

Selection of oat (Avena sativa L.) drought-tolerant genotypes based on multiple yield-associated traits.

BACKGROUND: Most plant breeding and agricultural practices are based on selecting genotypes for yield. However, this is inadequate to screen crop varieties for specific attributes, such as drought tolerance. In this study, we quantified the response of oat (Avena sativa L.) plant physiological and morphological traits to drought stress and selected some key traits to establish a genotype by yield*trait (GYT)-based method for ranking 30 oat genotypes. The effectiveness of this method was also evaluated under drought conditions. RESULTS: Water-deficit treatment significantly reduced leaf chlorophyll, root morphological traits, groat yield and associated components, such as mean grain weight. We observed that the genotypes 'JUSTICE' and 'BOLINA' had the smallest and largest yield loss, respectively, after exposure to drought stress, but showed opposite trends in the biomass allocation of roots and grains. This indicated that drought tolerance was highly dependent on the distribution of photoassimilates. Our results also illustrated that the GYT method is a trade-off approach and more effective in selecting oat ideotypes under drought conditions than the yield-related index method because it combines yield, yield stability, and related agronomic traits in the calculation process. CONCLUSION: Drought-tolerant genotypes had more biomass allocated to roots and grains with higher chlorophyll content and better root structure, e.g. longer root lengths than drought-sensitive lines. By integrating yield and yield-related traits, the GYT approach is more practical than traditional single-trait selection methods when assessing drought tolerance. © 2023 His Majesty the King in Right of Canada. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Engineering the Substrate Specificity of a P450 Dimerase Enables the Collective Biosynthesis of Heterodimeric Tryptophan-Containing Diketopiperazines.

Heterodimeric tryptophan-containing diketopiperazines (HTDKPs) are an important class of bioactive secondary metabolites. Biosynthesis offers a practical opportunity to access their bioactive structural diversity, however, it is restricted by the limited substrate scopes of the HTDKPs-forming P450 dimerases. Herein, by genome mining and investigation of the sequence-product relationships, we unveiled three important residues (F387, F388 and E73) in these P450s that are pivotal for selecting different diketopiperazine (DKP) substrates in the upper binding pocket. Engineering these residues in NasF5053 significantly expanded its substrate specificity and enabled the collective biosynthesis, including 12 self-dimerized and at least 81 cross-dimerized HTDKPs. Structural and molecular dynamics analysis of F387G and E73S revealed that they control the substrate specificity via reducing steric hindrance and regulating substrate tunnels, respectively.

Transcriptome and methylome changes in two contrasting mungbean genotypes in response to drought stress.

BACKGROUND: Due to drought stress, the growth, distribution, and production of mungbean is severely restricted. Previous study combining physiological and transcriptomic data indicated different genotypes of mungbean exhibited variable responses when exposed to drought stress. Aside from the genetic variation, the modifications of environmentally induced epigenetics alterations on mungbean drought-stress responses were still elusive. RESULTS: In this study, firstly, we compared the drought tolerance capacity at seedling stage by detecting physiological parameters in two contrasting genotypes wild mungbean 61 and cultivar 70 in response to drought stress. We found that wild mungbean 61 showed lower level of MDA and higher levels of POD and CAT, suggesting wild mungbean 61 exhibited stronger drought resistance. Transcriptomic analysis indicated totally 2859 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected when 70 compared with 61 (C70 vs C61), and the number increased to 3121 in the comparison of drought-treated 70 compared with drought-treated 61 (D70 vs D61). In addition, when drought-treated 61 and 70 were compared with their controls, the DEGs were 1117 and 185 respectively, with more down-regulated DEGs than up-regulated in D61 vs C61, which was opposite in D70 vs C70. Interestingly, corresponding to this, after drought stress, more hypermethylated differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in 61 were detected and more hypomethylated DMRs in 70 were detected. Further analysis suggested that the main variations between 61 and 70 existed in CHH methylation in promoter. Moreover, the preference of methylation status alterations in D61 vs C61 and D70 vs C70 also fell in CHH sequence context. Further analysis of the correlation between DMRs and DEGs indicated in both D61 vs C61 and D70 vs C70, the DMRs in gene body was significantly negatively correlated with DEGs. CONCLUSIONS: The physiological parameters in this research suggested that wild mungbean 61 was more resistant to drought stress, with more hypermethylated DMRs and less hypomethylated DMRs after drought stress, corresponding to more down-regulated DEGs than up-regulated DEGs. Among the three DNA methylation contexts CG, CHG, and CHH, asymmetric CHH contexts were more dynamic and prone to be altered by drought stress and genotypic variations.

Flavokawain B alleviates LPS-induced acute lung injury via targeting myeloid differentiation factor 2.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a sudden onset systemic inflammatory response. ALI causes severe morbidity and death and currently no effective pharmacological therapies exist. Natural products represent an excellent resource for discovering new drugs. Screening anti-inflammatory compounds from the natural product bank may offer viable candidates for molecular-based therapies for ALI. In this study, 165 natural compounds were screened for anti-inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged macrophages. Among the screened compounds, flavokawain B (FKB) significantly reduced LPS-induced pro-inflammatory IL-6 secretion in macrophages. FKB also reduced the formation of LPS/TLR4/MD2 complex by competitively binding to MD2, suppressing downstream MAPK and NF-κB signaling activation. Finally, FKB treatment of mice reduced LPS-induced lung injury, systemic and local inflammatory cytokine production, and macrophage infiltration in lungs. These protective activities manifested as increased survival in the ALI model, and reduced mortality upon bacterial infection. In summary, we demonstrate that the natural product FKB protects against LPS-induced lung injury and sepsis by interacting with MD2 and inhibiting inflammatory responses. FKB may potentially serve as a therapeutic option for the treatment of ALI.

Photoluminescence properties of anodic aluminium oxide films formed in a mixture of malonic acid and oxalic acid.

In this work, porous anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) films were fabricated by anodization in an electrolyte mixture with various concentration ratios of malonic acid and oxalic acid at room temperature. The photoluminescence (PL) properties of the AAO films before and after annealing from 300°C to 650°C in air or vacuum conditions were investigated, showing a strong PL band in the range 300-550 nm. We observed a weak PL in the AAO film formed in the malonic acid electrolyte, whereas the films fabricated using an electrolyte mixture showed strong PL emissions, exhibiting a maximum. The broad PL band was decomposed into three Gaussian sub-bands, in which the first two sub-bands could be attributed to the luminescence centre oxygen vacancies (F+ and F defect centres), whereas the latter transformed from malonic impurities and oxalic impurities. More interestingly, the redshift of the PL bands occurred with increasing oxalic acid concentration, and the PL wavelength and intensity could be modulated by varying the concentration ratios in the malonic acid and oxalic acid electrolyte mixture.

Bottom-up redistribution of biomass optimizes energy allocation, water use and yield formation in dryland wheat improvement.

BACKGROUND: Modern wheat cultivars have been developed having distinct advantages in many aspects under drought stress, such as plasticity in biomass allocation and root system architecture. A better understanding of the biomass allocation mechanisms that enable modern wheat to achieve higher yields and yield-based water use efficiency (WUEg ) is essential for implementing best management strategies and identifying phenotypic traits for cultivar improvement. We systematically investigated the biomass allocation, morphological and physiological characteristics of three ploidy wheat genotypes under 80% and 50% field water-holding capacity (FC) conditions. Some crucial traits were also assessed in a complementary field experiment. RESULTS: The diploid and tetraploid genotypes were found to allocate more biomass to the root system, especially roots in the topsoil under drought stress. Our data illustrated that lower WUEg and yield of these old genotypes were due to excessive investment in the root system, which was associated with severely restricted canopy development. Modern hexaploid genotypes were found to allocate smaller biomass to roots and larger biomass to shoots. This not only ensured the necessary water uptake, but also allowed the plant to distribute more assimilates and limited water to the shoots. Therefore, the hexaploid genotypes have evolved a stable plant canopy structure to optimize WUEg and grain yield. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that the biomass shift from below ground to above ground or a more balanced root:shoot ratio tended to optimize water use and yield of the modern cultivars. This discovery provides potential guidance for future dryland wheat breeding and sustainable management strategies. © 2021 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

A CRISPR/Cas9-Gal4BD donor adapting system for enhancing homology-directed repair.

The fast-rising CRISPR-derived gene editing technologies has been widely used in the fields of life science and biomedicine, as well as plant and animal breeding. However, the efficiency of homology-directed repair (HDR), an important strategy for gene knock-in and base editing, remains to be improved. In this study, we came up with the term Donor Adapting System (DAS) to summarize those CRISPR/Cas9 systems modified with adaptor for driving aptamer-fused donor DNA. A set of CRISPR/Cas9-Gal4BD DAS was designed in our study. In this system, Gal4 DNA binding domain (Gal4BD) is used as adaptor to fuse with Cas9 protein, and Gal4 binding sequence (Gal4BS) is used as aptamer to bind to the double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) donor, in order to improve the HDR efficiency. Preliminary results from the HEK293T-HDR.GFP reporter cell line show that the HDR editing efficiency could be improved up to 2-4 times when donor homologous arms under certain length (100-60 bp). Further optimization results showed that the choice of fusion port and fusion linker would affect the expression and activity of Cas9, while the Cas9-Gal4BD fusion with a GGS5 linker was the prior choice. In addition, the HDR efficiency was likely dependent on the aptamer-dsDNA donor design, and single Gal4BD binding sequence (BS) addition to the 5'-end of intent dsDNA template was suggested. Finally, we achieved enhanced HDR editing on the endogenous AAVS1 and EMX1 sites by using the CRISPR/Gal4BD-Cas9 DAS, which we believe can be applied to facilitate animal molecular design breeding in the future.

Prevalence and risk factors of bluetongue virus infection in sheep and goats in China: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Bluetongue is a viral disease transmitted by the bite of bloodsucking insects, which mainly occurs in sheep, goats, and cattle. Bluetongue is characterized by fever, leukopenia, and severe catarrhal inflammation of the oral and gastrointestinal mucosa. The present study aimed to evaluate and analyze the prevalence of bluetongue and its associated risk factors in sheep and goats in China. We collected 59 publications from 1988 to 2019 through searches at ScienceDirect, PubMed, the Chongqing VIP Chinese journal database, Wanfang database, and Chinese Web of knowledge. In these studies, a total of 123,982 sheep and goats across 7 regions of China were investigated, and the pooled prevalence of bluetongue in sheep and goats was 18.6%, as assessed using serological methods. The prevalence of bluetongue in Southern China was 30.3%, which was significantly higher than that in Northeastern China (4.7%). The prevalence of bluetongue between sheep (12.9%) and goats (28.1%) was significantly different (P < 0.05). Detection methods subgroup analysis showed that the prevalence of bluetongue was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the others group (43.8%) than in the agar immunodiffusion (15.9%) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay groups (20.5%). In addition, different geographical factors (latitude range, longitude range, altitude range, average precipitation, and average temperature) could affect the prevalence. Our results suggested that bluetongue is widespread in sheep and goats, and sheep and goats in contact with insect media, such as Culicoides, or in a warm and humid environment, could have an increased prevalence of bluetongue disease. Animal disease prevention and control departments should focus on continuous monitoring of the bluetongue epidemic in sheep and goats to prevent and control outbreaks.

Prevalence of bovine leukemia in 1983-2019 in China: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Bovine leukemia is a chronic, progressive, contagious tumor disease characterized by malignant lymphoid cell hyperplasia and systemic lymphadenopathy, and is caused by bovine leukemia virus (BLV). The disease affects almost all countries and regions where livestock are raised, and may even be a potential zoonotic disease. Monitoring and early prevention of bovine leukemia is very important. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis, the first of its type in the country, to estimate the prevalence of bovine leukemia in 1983-2019 in China. We included a total of 35 publications reported in 1983-2019 from the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Chinese Web of Knowledge (CNKI), VIP Chinese, and Wan Fang databases. In those articles, a total of 34,954 cattle had been tested, of which 4701 were positive for BLV infection. The estimated pooled BLV prevalence was 10.0% (4701/34,954). Subgroup analysis showed that there were significant differences for sampling years, detection methods, and age. BLV prevalence was highest in the following subgroups: sampled before 1985 (38.5%, 437/1134), age 3-5 years (22.5%, 231/1044), and detected by PCR (17.9%, 1228/5100). Regarding geographic factors, there were significant differences in the latitude and elevation subgroups. BLV prevalence was lowest in the subgroups of 20-30° latitude (3.3%, 255/5069) 200-1000 m altitude (2.2%, 560/11,990). We also analyzed other subgroups such as region, variety, breeding method, precipitation, humidity, and temperature, however, the differences were not significant. Our research indicated that the BLV was still prevalent in some of areas in China. We recommend strengthening the testing of cattle aged >1 year and using flexible testing methods such as PCR to control the prevalence of bovine leukemia and to prevent persistent infection.

[Advances in the Application of Hydroxyapatite Composite Materials in Bone Tissue Engineering].

Hydroxyapatite (HAp) is the main inorganic component of the bones and teeth, and it possesses bioactivity and biocompatibility. However, due to its poor mechanical performance, slow degradation speed, and lack of diversity in its function, it is difficult to apply HAp alone as a scaffold material for bone tissue engineering. By combining HAp with other types of materials, composite materials with specific properties can be prepared, and the scopes of HAp applications can be expanded. Firstly, we elaborated on the importance, and strengths and weaknesses of HAp for bone tissue engineering biomaterials and then reviewed the research status of HAp composite materials used in bone regeneration. Secondly, about hot research topics in the field of applying HAp composite materials in bone repair, we summarized the representative findings in the field, and discussions and analysis were made accordingly. Finally, we also examined the future development prospects of HAp composite bone repair materials.

[Meta-analysis of Danhong Injection in treatment of diabetes mellitus complicated with coronary heart disease].

To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of Danhong Injection combined with conventional therapy in improving diabetes mellitus complicated with coronary heart disease. Based on the online literature database(CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochran Library), the Chinese and English papers about the randomized controlled trial(RCT) of Danhong Injection in the treatment of diabetes mellitus complicated with coronary heart disease were searched comprehensively from the establishment of the databases to January 1, 2020. The papers were screened strictly according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Based on Jadad scale, the risk assessment of literature was carried out, and Meta-analysis was performed by STATA 12.0 software. Seventeen RCTs were included, involving 1 453 patients. The results of Meta-analysis showed that the combination of Danhong Injection and conventio-nal treatment could improve the clinical comprehensive effective rate(RR=1.47, 95%CI[1.38, 1.58], P<0.000 1), electrocardiogram(ECG) efficiency(RR=1.30, 95%CI[1.16, 1.46], P<0.000 1), efficiency of the angina pectoris(RR=1.41, 95%CI[1.25, 1.58], P<0.000 1), cholesterol level(SMD=-1.05, 95%CI[-1.95,-0.16], P=0.02), low-density lipoprotein(LDL) level(SMD=-0.50, 95%CI[-0.79,-0.21], P<0.000 1), coronary angina attack frequency(SMD=-3.71, 95%CI[-4.05,-3.36], P<0.000 1) and duration of angina pectoris(SMD=-2.96, 95%CI[-3.25,-2.66], P<0.000 1), with statistically significant differences. But the differences in fasting plasma glucose(FPG)(SMD=-0.19, 95%CI[-0.45, 0.08], P=0.16), plasma glucose of two hours after meal(2 hPG)(SMD=0.19, 95%CI[-0.11, 0.49], P=0.22), and high-density lipoprotein(HDL) level(SMD=0.10, 95%CI[-0.30, 0.49], P=0.62) after treatment were not statistically significant. Compared with the control group, there was no significant difference in adverse reactions(SMD=-2.96, 95%CI[-3.25,-2.66], P=0.75). The existing evidence shows that the combination of Western medicine and Danhong Injection can improve the clinical effect for diabetes mellitus complicated with coronary heart disease and has no obvious adverse reactions. However, due to the low level of overall literature evidence, high risk and some kind of publication bias, it still needs more high-quality randomized controlled trials and low-bias studies for further verification.

Prevalence of porcine circovirus 2 throughout China in 2015-2019: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) causes infectious diseases in pigs leading to considerable economic losses in the pig industry. To prevent and control PCV2 infections, is important to understand the prevalence and geographical distribution of the virus. We performed the first systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of PCV2 in China. From PubMed, ScienceDirect, Chinese Web of Knowledge, Wanfang, and VIP Chinese Journal, we extracted 53 studies published in China between 2015 and 2019. There were 29,051 samples, 14,230 of which were positive for PCV2. The pooled prevalence of PCV2 was 46.0%, with the highest in Northeastern China (58.1%). The highest prevalence was 86.3% in Xinjiang province. Nursery pigs had the highest prevalence of PCV2 (50.9%), and the serological test detected the highest number of cases (58.5%). PCV2 prevalence was 50.1% in intensive farms and 37.5% in extensive farms. Our findings showed that PCV2 is common throughout China. Effective control measures are necessary to reduce PCV2 infections.

Isolation and characterization of a glycosyltransferase with specific catalytic activity towards flavonoids from Tripterygium wilfordii.

Flavonoids are important secondary metabolites that exist in many medicinal plants. Flavonoid glycosyltransferases can transfer sugar moieties to their parent rings, producing various flavonoid glycosides with significant pharmacological activities. Here, we report the molecular cloning of the O-glycosyltransferase TwUGT2 from Tripterygium wilfordii and its catalytic activity was explored by heterologous expression in E. coli. The results showed that TwUGT2 has specific glycosyltransferase activity towards C-3 and 7 hydroxyl groups of flavonoids, thereby converting quercetin and pinocembrin into isoquercitrin and pinocembrin 7-O-beta-D-glucoside, respectively. The identification of TwUGT2 will provide a useful molecular tool for synthetic biology and contribute to drug discovery.[Formula: see text].

A20 inhibits the release of inflammatory cytokines by suppressing the activation of the nuclear factor-kappa B pathway in osteoarthritic fibroblast-like synoviocytes.

A growing number of studies suggest that synovitis plays an important role in the pathogenesis and progression of osteoarthritis (OA). As a negative mediator of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway, the zinc finger protein A20 has significant anti-inflammatory properties. In this study, the differential expression of A20 was investigated at the mRNA and protein levels in human normal OA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) and normal FLSs pretreated with TNF-α. We then measured the activation of the NF-κB pathway and expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the above three groups by western blotting, a human cytokine array and ELISA. We found that TNF-α activated the NF-κB pathway, increased the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8, and A20 expression in human normal FLSs. However, the role of A20 in FLSs was unclear. To clarify this, we investigated the effect of A20 overexpression in human normal FLSs. The results indicate that A20 inhibits the NF-κB signaling pathway activation and OA-associated pro-inflammatory cytokines release. The results of this study indicate that A20 has anti-inflammatory effects in FLSs, which makes it a potential target for OA synovitis treatment.

Membrane fluidity is involved in the regulation of heat stress induced secondary metabolism in Ganoderma lucidum.

Ganoderma lucidum has become a potential model system for evaluating how environmental factors regulate the secondary metabolism of basidiomycetes. Heat stress (HS) is one of the most important environmental factors. It was previously reported that HS could induce the biosynthesis of ganoderic acids (GA). In this study, we found that HS increased GA biosynthesis and also significantly increased cell membrane fluidity. Furthermore, our results showed that addition of the membrane rigidifier dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) could revert the increased GA biosynthesis elicited by HS. These results indicate that an increase in membrane fluidity is associated with HS-induced GA biosynthesis. Further evidence showed that the GA content was decreased in D9des-silenced strains and could be reverted to WT levels by addition of the membrane fluidizer benzyl alcohol (BA). In contrast, GA content was increased in D9des-overexpression strains and could be reverted to WT levels by the addition of DMSO. Furthermore, both membrane fluidity and GA biosynthesis induced by HS could be reverted by DMSO in WT and D9des-silenced strains. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating that membrane fluidity is involved in the regulation of heat stress induced secondary metabolism in filamentous fungi.

Morphological and physiological responses of different wheat genotypes to chilling stress: a cue to explain yield loss.

BACKGROUND: The eco-physiological mechanism of wheat yield loss resulting from chilling stress is a fundamental scientific issue. However, previous studies have focused on hexaploid wheats, and few studies on the morphological and physiological plasticity of wheat plants. Six different wheat genotypes were tested under chilling stress to investigate the physio-morphological parameters as well as the loss of grain yield in growth chambers. RESULTS: Chilling stress resulted in significant loss in grain yield in all genotypes. Under chilling stress, diploid wheats generated zero harvest, and tetraploid genotypes also suffered from a pronounced loss in grain yield, compared with the control group. In contrast, hexaploid genotypes acquired relatively high maintenance rate of grain yield among three species. CONCLUSIONS: Diploid and tetraploid wheat genotypes maintained relatively large leaf area and high photosynthetic rates, but they were subjected to significant declines in vascular bundle number and productive tillers as a consequence of the inhibition by sink growth under chilling stress. The hexaploid wheats were found to have relatively low leaf area and photosynthetic rates. These genotypes also stored more soluble carbohydrates and exhibited stronger sink enhancement, ensuring the translocation and redistribution of assimilates. Our findings provided a new theoretical understanding of yield stabilization in the domestication process of wheat genotypes under chilling stress. © 2017 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.