Coordination Structure of Samarium Diiodide in a Tetrahydrofuran-Water Mixture.

Chemoselective reductive conversion of organic and inorganic compounds has been developed by the combination of samarium(II) diiodide (SmI2) and water. Despite the extensive previous studies to elucidate the role of water in the reactivity of SmI2, the direct structural data of the reactive Sm2+-water complexes, SmI2(H2O)n, in an organic solvent-water mixture have not been reported experimentally so far. Herein, we performed the structure analysis of the Sm2+-water complex in tetrahydrofuran (THF) in the presence of water by in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy using high-energy X-rays (Sm K-edge, 46.8 keV). The analysis revealed the dissociation of the Sm2+-I bonds in the presence of ≥ eight equivalents of water in the THF-water mixture. The origin of the peak shift in the UV/visible absorption spectra after the addition of water into SmI2/THF solution was proposed based on electron transitions simulated with time-dependent density-functional-theory calculations using optimized structures in THF or water. The obtained structural information provides the fundamental insights for elucidating the reactivity and chemoselectivity in the Sm2+-water complex system.

Eriocheir sinensis vesicle-associated membrane protein can enhance host cell phagocytosis to resist Spiroplasma eriocheiris infection.

Vesicle-associated membrane protein (VAMP) belongs to the receptor protein on the membrane of the secretory transport vesicle and involves in host immune function. The intracellular pathogen Spiroplasma eriocheiris could cause Eriocheir sinensis tremor disease. In a previous study, it was found E. sinensis VAMP (EsVAMP) was differently expressed in S. eriocheiris infection by proteomics analysis. This study mainly aims at the function of EsVAMP in the process of the S. eriocheiris infection. The length of EsVAMP gene was 1681 bp, which contained a 395 bp open reading frame, 90 bp 5'-non-coding region (UTR) and 1277 bp 3'-UTR. The results of qPCR showed that EsVAMP was expressed highly in hemocytes and nerves, followed by gills, intestines and hepatopancreas, and lowly expressed in heart and muscles. EsVAMP in hemocytes was up-regulated after S. eriocheiris infection. After EsVAMP over-expression and S. eriocheiris infection, the RAW264.7 cell morphology and cell viability of the experiment group were significantly better than the control group. Meanwhile, the copy number of S. eriocheiris in the experiment group was significantly lower than that in the control group. After EsVAMP and pCMV-Cre-mCherry were ligated and transfected into RAW264.7 cells, it was found that EsVAMP and lysosome co-localized. Meanwhile, the phagocytosed inactivated S. eriocheiris number and phagocytosed efficiency in RAW264.7 cells were increased significantly. The interference experiment was carried out by synthesizing EsVAMP dsRNA to verify that the EsVAMP transcriptions were successfully suppressed. The S. eriocheiris copy number and the mortality of crab increased significantly after EsVAMP RNAi and S. eriocheiris infection. Meanwhile, the phagocytosed inactivated S. eriocheiris number and phagocytosed efficiency in hemocytes decreased significantly after EsVAMP RNAi and S. eriocheiris infection. These results showed that VAMP was involved in the cell phagocytosis to resist pathogen infection.

First Report of Powdery Mildew Caused by Erysiphe berberidis on Berberis fortunei in China.

Berberis fortune (Lindl.) is commonly used in Chinese traditional medicine (Liu et al. 2020). In April 2020, white powdery colonies covering up to 100% of both upper leaf surfaces and calyces were observed on this species growing on Anhui Agricultural University campus (31°51'51″N; 117°15'31″E) in Hefei City, Anhui Province, China. Sporulating mycelia were white and effuse. Conidiophores were erect, with straight, cylindrical foot cells, 20 to 26 × 9 to 12 µm (average: 24 × 11 µm) (n = 30), followed by one to three shorter cells, and producing conidia in chains. Conidia were ellipsoid-ovoid, subcylindrical, and measured 27 to 36 × 12 to 16.5 µm (average: 32.4 × 14.1 µm) (n = 50). For accurate identification, DNA was extracted from the mycelia, which were collected by scraping symptomatic leaves. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) was amplified and sequenced using primers ITS1/ITS4. The 623-bp ITS (GenBank accession no. MT449013) showed 99% identity with those of Erysiphe berberidis LC010057 (Takamatsu et al. 2015), KY661153 and KY660920. Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, the powdery mildew fungus on B. fortunei was identified as E. berberidis (Glawe, D. A. 2003). Ten leaves on an asymptomatic B. fortunei were inoculated by gently pressing diseased leaves against the surface of healthy leaves. Ten non-inoculated plants served as controls. All plants were maintained in a greenhouse at 22 to 25°C and >80% relative humidity. Inoculated plants developed powdery mildew colonies after 14 days, whereas uninoculated plants remained healthy. Morphological and molecular characters of the powdery mildew fungus on artificially inoculated plants were identical to those on naturally infected B. fortune. Previously in Siberia, Russia, powdery mildew on woody plants has been reported to be caused by E. berberidis (Tomoshevich M. A. 2019). However, this is the first report of powdery mildew caused by E. berberidis on B. fortunei in China. Its identification will establish a foundation for controlling the disease in China.

PLNlncRbase: A resource for experimentally identified lncRNAs in plants.

Accumulating published reports have confirmed the critical biological role (e.g., cell differentiation, gene regulation, stress response) for plant long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). However, a literature-derived database with the aim of lncRNA curation, data deposit and further distribution remains still absent for this particular lncRNA clade. PLNlncRbase has been designed as an easy-to-use resource to provide detailed information for experimentally identified plant lncRNAs. In the current version, PLNlncRbase has manually collected data from nearly 200 published literature, covering a total of 1187 plant lncRNAs in 43 plant species. The user can retrieve plant lncRNA entries from a well-organized interface through a keyword search by using the name of plant species or a lncRNA identifier. Each entry upon a query will be returned with detailed information for a specific plant lncRNA, including the species name, a lncRNA identifier, a brief description of the potential biological role, the lncRNA sequence, the lncRNA classification, an expression pattern of the lncRNA, the tissue/developmental stage/condition for lncRNA expression, the detection method for lncRNA expression, a reference literature, and the potential target gene(s) of the lncRNA extracted from the original reference. This database will be regularly updated to greatly facilitate future investigations of plant lncRNAs pertaining to their biological significance. The PLNlncRbase database is now freely available at http://bioinformatics.ahau.edu.cn/PLNlncRbase.

Inhibitive effect of IL-24 gene on CD133(+) laryngeal cancer cells.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the inhibitive and apoptosis inductive effect of IL-24 genes on CD133(+) laryngeal cancer cells in Hep-2 line. METHODS: Human peripheral blood monocytes were isolated. The total RNA was extracted by using Trizol method and reverse transcripted into cDNA using RT-PCR method. Primers P1 and P2 was designed for the amplification of human IL-24 genes. After confirmation of agarose gel electrophoresis tests, TA was cloned into pMD19-T simple vector. Nhe I and Xho I double digesting human IL-24 and pIRES2-ZsGreen1 and eukaryotic expression vector were used to establish the pIRES2-ZsGreen1-hIL-24 vector, and detected by enzyme digestion and gene sequencing methods. Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to isolate CD133(+) cells from Hep-2 cells. CD133(+) cells were transfected with pIRES2-ZsGreen1-hIL-24 through liposome 2000. After detection, MTT and FCM were used to observe the effect of IL-24 gene on CD133(+) laryngeal cancer Hep-2 cells. RESULTS: Lipotin mediated transfection of recombinant pIRES2-ZsGreen1-hIL-24 plasmid into CD133(+) Hep-2 could expressed IL-24 gene in cells stably. MTT results showed that IL-24 transfected group was significantly suppressed compared to empty vector group and control group (P<0.05); FCM results showed that the apoptosis rate of experimental group increased significantly compared to empty vector group and control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: IL-24 gene expressions can inhibit proliferation of CD133(+) laryngeal cells in Hep-2 line and promote their apoptosis.

TMDB: a literature-curated database for small molecular compounds found from tea.

BACKGROUND: Tea is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide. The healthy effects of tea are attributed to a wealthy of different chemical components from tea. Thousands of studies on the chemical constituents of tea had been reported. However, data from these individual reports have not been collected into a single database. The lack of a curated database of related information limits research in this field, and thus a cohesive database system should necessarily be constructed for data deposit and further application. DESCRIPTION: The Tea Metabolome database (TMDB), a manually curated and web-accessible database, was developed to provide detailed, searchable descriptions of small molecular compounds found in Camellia spp. esp. in the plant Camellia sinensis and compounds in its manufactured products (different kinds of tea infusion). TMDB is currently the most complete and comprehensive curated collection of tea compounds data in the world. It contains records for more than 1393 constituents found in tea with information gathered from 364 published books, journal articles, and electronic databases. It also contains experimental 1H NMR and 13C NMR data collected from the purified reference compounds or collected from other database resources such as HMDB. TMDB interface allows users to retrieve tea compounds entries by keyword search using compound name, formula, occurrence, and CAS register number. Each entry in the TMDB contains an average of 24 separate data fields including its original plant species, compound structure, formula, molecular weight, name, CAS registry number, compound types, compound uses including healthy benefits, reference literatures, NMR, MS data, and the corresponding ID from databases such as HMDB and Pubmed. Users can also contribute novel regulatory entries by using a web-based submission page. The TMDB database is freely accessible from the URL of http://pcsb.ahau.edu.cn:8080/TCDB/index.jsp. The TMDB is designed to address the broad needs of tea biochemists, natural products chemists, nutritionists, and members of tea related research community. CONCLUSION: The TMDB database provides a solid platform for collection, standardization, and searching of compounds information found in tea. As such this database will be a comprehensive repository for tea biochemistry and tea health research community.