Sr2BN2Cl:Eu2+-Based Narrow-Band Blue-Emitting Phosphor: A Potential Color Converter for Illumination and Displays.

Due to the wide range of uses for phosphors in lighting and displays, research on narrow-band luminescent phosphors has recently received significant interest. In this work, Eu2+-activated Sr2BN2Cl phosphor has been successfully synthesized. Sr2BN2Cl:Eu2+ shows a wide absorption band in the UV region and exhibits a narrow-band emission peaking at 450 nm with a full width at half-maximum of ∼60 nm. More significantly, excellent thermal stability was discovered, which showed it still retained 87.4 and 100% of room-temperature intensity at 150 and 250 °C, respectively. The rigid skeleton formed by the co-edge connection of Sr(N, Cl)6 octahedra and defects in the crystal are responsible for the excellent thermal stability of the phosphor. In addition, two types of white-led devices have been prepared to test this phosphor for illumination and display applications. The former shows low correlated color temperature (CCT = 3190 K) and a high color rendering index (CRI = 92.0). The latter shows that using Sr2BN2Cl:Eu2+, ß-sialon:Eu2+, and K2SiF6:Mn4+ together for backlit displays can cover 73.3% of the NTSC area, which is comparable to commercial BaMgAl10O17:Eu2+ phosphors. These findings suggest that the blue phosphor Sr2BN2Cl:Eu2+ will be a promising choice for lighting and backlight displays.

Broadband Yellow Phosphor Discovered by Single-Particle Analysis Based on Fluorescence Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Cathodoluminescence, and Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy.

The discovery of new, efficient, and stable inorganic phosphors excited by near-ultraviolet (n-UV) light is of great significance for the realization of high-performance healthy lighting and special lighting. The traditional methods to find new phosphors are usually time-consuming, laborious, and inefficient. Here, a simple and efficient method to find new phosphors using fluorescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cathodoluminescence (CL), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) is proposed. At the same time, a phosphor Ca5BaP4O16 (CBPO): Eu2+ found by this method is reported. Under 365 nm excitation, the optimal phosphor shows an ultrabroad yellow emission band with a peak at 573 nm and a full width at half-maximum of 164 nm. Compared with most phosphate phosphors, CBPO: Eu2+ shows good thermal stability. The emission intensity at 150 °C can maintain 61.4% of the initial value at room temperature. Importantly, the quantum efficiency of the optimal CBPO: Eu2+ sample is 66.2%. In addition, a WLED lamp was obtained by combining CBPO: Eu2+ and BAM: Eu2+ phosphors with a 365 nm n-UV chip, which generated high-performance white light with a correlated color temperature of 7115 K and a color rendering index of 89.4. It is certain that the new method is very effective and useful for the discovery of new phosphors.

Life history parameters of Ectropis grisescens (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) in different Wolbachia infection states.

Wolbachia, a prevalent intracellular symbiotic bacterium in insects, plays a significant role in insect biology. Ectropis grisescens (Warren; Lepidoptera: Geometridae) is a devastating chewing pest distributed in tea plantations throughout China. However, it is unclear how Wolbachia titers affect the fitness and reproduction of E. grisescens. In this study, the impacts of 3 different infection lines, naturally Wolbachia-infected, Wolbachia-uninfected, and Wolbachia transinfected, regarding the life history traits of E. grisescens, were evaluated using the age-stage, 2-sex life table. Wolbachia infection shortened preadult duration and preoviposition periods and increased the fecundity, net reproductive rate, and finite rate of increase. Meanwhile, population projection indicated that E. grisescens population size with Wolbachia infection can increase faster than without. These results indicate that Wolbachia plays a regulatory role in the fitness of E. grisescens. It is also noted that the life history parameters of E. grisescens may positively correlate with Wolbachia titers. These findings could aid in pest management in tea gardens.

miR-6216 regulates neural stem cell proliferation by targeting RAB6B.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are a class of self-renewing, multipotent and undifferentiated progenitor cells that retain the capacity to both glial and neuronal lineages. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play an important role in stem cell fate determination and self-renewal. Our previous RNA-seq data indicated that the expression of miR-6216 was decreased in denervated hippocampal exosomes compared with normal. However, whether miR-6216 participates in regulating NSC function remains to be elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated that miR-6216 negatively regulates RAB6B expression. Forced overexpression of miR-6216 inhibited NSC proliferation, and overexpression of RAB6B promoted NSC proliferation. These findings suggest that miR-6216 played an important role in regulating NSC proliferation via targeting RAB6B, and improve the understanding of the miRNA-mRNA regulatory network that affects NSC proliferation.

Altitude as a key environmental factor shaping microbial communities of tea green leafhoppers (Matsumurasca onukii).

IMPORTANCE: Host-associated microbial communities play an important role in the fitness of insect hosts. However, the factors shaping microbial communities in wild populations, including environmental factors and interactions among microbial species, remain largely unknown. The tea green leafhopper has a wide geographical distribution and is highly adaptable, providing a suitable model for studying the effect of ecological drivers on microbiomes. This is the first large-scale culture-independent study investigating the microbial communities of M. onukii sampled from different locations. Altitude as a key environmental factor may have shaped microbial communities of M. onukii by affecting the relative abundance of endosymbionts, especially Wolbachia. The results of this study, therefore, offer not only an in-depth view of the microbial diversity of this species but also an insight into the influence of environmental factors.

Lama2 And Samsn1 Mediate the Effects of Brn4 on Hippocampal Neural Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation.

The transcription factor Brn4 exhibits vital roles in the embryonic development of the neural tube, inner ear, pancreas islet, and neural stem cell differentiation. Our previous studies have shown that Brn4 promotes neuronal differentiation of hippocampal neural stem cells (NSCs). However, its mechanism is still unclear. Here, starting from the overlapping genes between RNA-seq and ChIP-seq results, we explored the downstream target genes that mediate Brn4-induced hippocampal neurogenesis. There were 16 genes at the intersection of RNA-seq and ChIP-seq, among which the Lama2 and Samsn1 levels can be upregulated by Brn4, and the combination between their promoters and Brn4 was further determined using ChIP and dual luciferase reporter gene assays. EdU incorporation, cell cycle analysis, and CCK-8 assay indicated that Lama2 and Samsn1 mediated the inhibitory effect of Brn4 on the proliferation of hippocampal NSCs. Immunofluorescence staining, RT-qPCR, and Western blot suggested that Lama2 and Samsn1 mediated the promoting effect of Brn4 on the differentiation of hippocampal NSCs into neurons. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that Brn4 binds to the promoters of Lama2 and Samsn1, and they partially mediate the regulation of Brn4 on the proliferation inhibition and neuronal differentiation promotion of hippocampal NSCs.

P4HA2 promotes cell proliferation and migration in glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a primary malignant tumor characterized by high infiltration and angiogenesis in the brain parenchyma. Glioma stem cells (GSCs), a heterogeneous GBM cell type with the potential for self-renewal and differentiation to tumor cells, are responsible for the high malignancy of GBM. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the roles of significantly differentially expressed genes between GSCs and GBM cells in GBM progression. The gene profiles GSE74304 and GSE124145, containing 10 GSC samples and 12 GBM samples in total, were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The overlapping differentially expressed genes were identified with GEO2R tools and Venn software online. Subsequently, Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis was performed on the 41 upregulated and 142 downregulated differentially expressed genes in GSCs compared with in GBM cells via the DAVID website. Protein-protein interaction and module analyses in Cytoscape with the STRING database revealed 21 hub genes that were downregulated in GSCs compared with in GBM cells. Survival analysis conducted via the GEPIA2 website revealed that low expression levels of the hub genes prolyl 4-hydroxylase subunit α2 (P4HA2), TGF-ß induced, integrin subunit α3 and thrombospondin 1 were associated with significantly prolonged survival time in patients with GBM. Further experiments were performed focusing on P4HA2. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was used to detect P4HA2 gene expression. In agreement with the bioinformatics analysis, P4HA2 expression was higher in U87 cells than in GSCs. Cell Counting Kit-8, EdU incorporation, cell cycle analysis, wound healing and Transwell assays demonstrated that the cell proliferation and migration increased after P4HA2 overexpression and decreased after P4HA2-knockdown. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that low P4HA2 expression in GSCs promoted GBM cell proliferation and migration, suggesting that P4HA2 may act as a switch in the transition from GSCs to GBM cells.

Calcium-dependent protein kinase CPK31 interacts with arsenic transporter AtNIP1;1 and regulates arsenite uptake in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Although arsenite [As(III)] is non-essential and toxic for plants, it is effectively absorbed through various transporters into the roots. Here we identified a calcium-dependent protein kinase (CPK31) response for As(III) tolerance in Arabidopsis. We identified CPK31 as an interacting protein of a nodulin 26-like intrinsic protein (NIP1;1), an aquaporin involved in As(III) uptake. Similarly to the nip1;1 mutants, the loss-of-function mutants of CPK31 improved the tolerance against As(III) but not As(V), and accumulated less As(III) in roots than that of the wild-type plants. The promoter-ß-glucuronidase and quantitative Real-Time PCR analysis revealed that CPK31 displayed overlapping expression profiles with NIP1;1 in the roots, suggesting that they might function together in roots. Indeed, the cpk31 nip1;1 double mutants exhibited stronger As(III) tolerance than cpk31 mutants, but similar to nip1;1 mutants, supporting the idea that CPK31 might serve as an upstream regulator of NIP1;1. Furthermore, transient CPK31 overexpression induced by dexamethasone caused the decrease in As(III) tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis lines. These findings reveal that CPK31 is a key factor in As(III) response in plants.