Whole genome analysis of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens TA-1, a promising biocontrol agent against Cercospora arachidicola pathogen of early leaf spot in Arachis hypogaea L.

BACKGROUND: Early leaf spot disease, caused by Cercospora arachidicola, is a devastating peanut disease that has severely impacted peanut production and quality. Chemical fungicides pollute the environment; however, Bacillus bacteria can be used as an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical fungicides. To understand the novel bacterial strain and unravel its molecular mechanism, De novo whole-genome sequencing emerges as a rapid and efficient omics approach. RESULTS: In the current study, we identified an antagonistic strain, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens TA-1. In-vitro assay showed that the TA-1 strain was a strong antagonist against C. arachidicola, with an inhibition zone of 88.9 mm. In a greenhouse assay, results showed that the TA-1 strain had a significant biocontrol effect of 95% on peanut early leaf spot disease. De novo whole-genome sequencing analysis, shows that strain TA-1 has a single circular chromosome with 4172 protein-coding genes and a 45.91% guanine and cytosine (GC) content. Gene function was annotated using non-redundant proteins from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Swiss-Prot, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), clusters of orthologous groups of proteins, gene ontology, pathogen-host interactions, and carbohydrate-active enZYmes. antiSMASH analysis predicted that strain TA-1 can produce the secondary metabolites siderophore, tailcyclized peptide, myxochelin, bacillibactin, paenibactin, myxochelin, griseobactin, benarthin, tailcyclized, and samylocyclicin. CONCLUSION: The strain TA-1 had a significant biological control effect against peanut early leaf spot disease in-vitro and in greenhouse assays. Whole genome analysis revealed that, TA-1 strain belongs to B. amyloliquefaciens and could produce the antifungal secondary metabolites.

MPZL1 suppresses the cancer stem-like properties of lung cancer through ß-catenin/TCF4 signaling.

This study was designed to explore the influence of myelin protein zero-like protein 1 (MPZL1) on the stem-like properties of cancer cells and the underlying mechanism in lung adenocarcinoma. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was utilized to evaluate mRNA expression level. CCK8, wound healing, and transwell assays were applied to assess cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Tumorsphere-formation assay was utilized to assess cancer stem cell-like properties. LF3 was used to block the ß-catenin/Transcription factor 4 (TCF-4) signaling. Xenograft nude mouse model was conducted; tumor weight and volume were recorded. Western blot assay was utilized to detect the expression levels of CD44, CD133, ß-catenin, TCF-4, and MPZL1. Following MPZL1 knockdown, the mRNA expression levels of MPZL1, ß-catenin, and TCF-4 were inhibited, while the mRNA expression levels of the above genes were increased after the MPZL1 overexpression. MPZL1 knockdown suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, reduced the tumorsphere-formation capacity, and restrained the expression levels of CD44 and CD133. However, MPZL1 overexpression promoted the cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, enhanced the tumorsphere-formation capacity, and increased the expression levels of CD44 and CD133. Interestingly, LF3 treatment partially revised the effect of MPZL1 overexpression. These findings were further corroborated by in vivo experiments. We concluded that MPZL1 could suppress the lung adenocarcinoma cells' proliferation, migration, invasion, and lung cancer stem cells characteristics. The underlying mechanism is involved in the activation of ß-catenin/TCF-4 signaling.

Development of a fluorescent probe based on a tricyano structure for the detection of PhSH in environmental and biological samples.

In this study, a NIR fluorescent probe based on ICT principles was developed for the detection of phenylthiophenol. An excellent fluorescent mother nucleus is constructed with tricyano groups, and benzenesulfonate was introduced as a specific recognition site for thiophene, which can be used for rapid detection of thiophenol. The probe has a significant Stokes shift (220 nm). Meanwhile, it had rapid response to thiophene and high specificity. The fluorescence intensity of the probe at 700 nm showed a good linear relationship with thiophene concentration in the range of 0 to 100 µM, and the detection limit was as low as 45 nM. The probe had also been successfully applied to the detection of thiophene in real water samples. MTT assay showed low cytotoxicity and excellent fluorescence imaging in live cells.

MPZL1 Promotes Lung Adenocarcinoma Progression by Enhancing Tumor Proliferation, Invasion, Migration, and Suppressing Immune Function via Transforming Growth Factor-ß1.

Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of death worldwide, and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common form of LC. The abnormally high expression of myelin protein zero-like 1 (MPZL1) promotes the malignant progression of various tumors. However, there is no relevant report on the functional role of MPZL1 in LUAU. In this study, we applied Illumina sequencing to screen differentially expressed genes. Subsequently, MPZL1 was selected as hub gene for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and CCK8 assay. The expression level of MPZL1 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, western blot, and qRT-PCR. After silencing or overexpressing MPZL1, CCK8, EDU, clone formation, scratch healing, invasion, and nude mouse tumor-bearing experiments were performed to detect the abilities of cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and tumorigenicity. Moreover, qRT-PCR, western blot, coimmunoprecipitation, and scratch healing assays were conducted to explore the transcriptional regulatory factors of MPZL1. Finally, the relationship between MPZL1 and immunotherapy was explored through public databases and validated in vivo. The results show that a total of 196 high-expressed genes and 496 low-expressed genes were screened. Differential genes are mainly enriched in cell proliferation and division, protein binding, and other pathways and functions. MPZL1 was selected as the hub gene and upregulated in LUAD tissues and cells. Silencing MPZL1 inhibited the cell proliferation and cloning formation, and the growth of tumor. Conversely, overexpression of MPZL1 has the opposite effect. In addition, MPZL1 combines with the transforming growth factor-ß1 to promote the progress of LUAD. Finally, we found that high expression of MPZL1 is negatively correlated with infiltration of CD8+ cells and may lead to immunotherapy resistance. In summary, this study revealed a new mechanism by which MPZL1 promotes LUAD progression by enhancing tumor proliferation, invasion, migration, and suppressing immune function.

Application and Comparison of Different Models for Quantifying the Aquatic Community in a Dam-Controlled River.

In order to develop a better model for quantifying aquatic community using environmental factors that are easy to get, we construct quantitative aquatic community models that utilize the different relationships between water environmental impact factors and aquatic biodiversity as follows: a multi-factor linear-based (MLE) model and a black box-based 'Genetic algorithm-BP artificial neural networks' (GA-BP) model. A comparison of the model efficiency and their outputs is conducted by applying the models to real-life cases, referring to the 49 groups of seasonal data observed over seven field sampling campaigns in Shaying River, China, and then performing model to reproduce the seasonal and inter-annual variation of the water ecological characteristics in the Huaidian (HD) site over 10 years. The results show that (1) the MLE and GA-BP models constructed in this paper are effective in quantifying aquatic communities in dam-controlled rivers; and (2) the performance of GA-BP models based on black-box relationships in predicting the aquatic community is better, more stable, and reliable; (3) reproducing the seasonal and inter-annual aquatic biodiversity in the HD site of Shaying River shows that the seasonal variation of species diversity for phytoplankton, zooplankton, and zoobenthos are inconsistent, and the inter-annual levels of diversity are low due to the negative impact of dam control. Our models can be used as a tool for aquatic community prediction and can become a contribution to showing how quantitative models in other dam-controlled rivers to assisting in dam management strategies.

Uniform self-rectifying resistive random-access memory based on an MXene-TiO2 Schottky junction.

For filamentary resistive random-access memory (RRAM) devices, the switching behavior between different resistance states usually occurs abruptly, while the random formation of conductive filaments usually results in large fluctuations in resistance states, leading to poor uniformity. Schottky barrier modulation enables resistive switching through charge trapping/de-trapping at the top-electrode/oxide interface, which is effective for improving the uniformity of RRAM devices. Here, we report a uniform RRAM device based on a MXene-TiO2 Schottky junction. The defect traps within the MXene formed during its fabricating process can trap and release the charges at the MXene-TiO2 interface to modulate the Schottky barrier for the resistive switching behavior. Our devices exhibit excellent current on-off ratio uniformity, device-to-device reproducibility, long-term retention, and endurance reliability. Due to the different carrier-blocking abilities of the MXene-TiO2 and TiO2-Si interface barriers, a self-rectifying behavior can be obtained with a rectifying ratio of 103, which offers great potential for large-scale RRAM applications based on MXene materials.

The Preparation and Wear Behaviors of Phenol-Formaldehyde Resin/BN Composite Coatings.

Phenolic-matrix composites possess excellent synergistic effects on mechanical and tribological properties and can be used in the aerospace, medical, and automobile industries. In this work, a series of phenol-formaldehyde resin/hexagonal boron nitride nanocomposites (PF/BNs) were in situ synthesized using an easy method. PF/BN coatings (PF/BNCs) on 316L steels were prepared through a spin-casting method. The wear behaviors of these PF/BNCs were investigated by dry sliding with steel balls. The percentage of BN, the thickness of the coating, and the heat treatment temperature affected the coefficients of friction (COFs) and wear rates of these coatings. After heat treatment at 100 °C, the tribological properties of the PF/BNCs were remarkably improved, which might be attributed to both the transformation of carbon on the worn surfaces from C-O/C=O into C=N, carbide, and other chemical bonds and the cross-linking of the prepolymers.

Laminated three-dimensional carbon nanotube integrated circuits.

The fabrication procedure for each layer of the device in monolithic three-dimensional (3D) integration still follows the design philosophy of traditional planar silicon-based circuits, and such integrated circuits will ultimately be limited by the same scaling constraints that face silicon field-effect transistors. We report the direct formation of laminated 3D integrated circuits by the layer-by-layer stacking of each component through two different techniques. One is to use carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the channels of thin-film transistors because of their low-temperature fabrication and layer-to-layer transfer capabilities. The other is to use a suitable separator between every two layers to isolate them, because the separator is not only able to maintain the stability of the performance of each component after coating, but is also a good insulator that can prevent interlayer interactions. A 5-stage CNT ring oscillator laminated onto a single inverter is finally reported, which can reduce the device area by approximately 80%, and should be greatly helpful for the continuous improvement of device functionality and integration.

Outcomes of minimally invasive partial nephrectomy among very elderly patients: report from the RESURGE collaborative international database.

The aim of the study was to perform a comprehensive investigation of clinical outcomes of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) or laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) in elderly patients presenting with a renal mass. The REnal SURGery in Elderly (RESURGE) collaborative database was queried to identify patients aged 75 or older diagnosed with cT1-2 renal mass and treated with RAPN or LPN. Study outcomes were: overall complications (OC); warm ischemia time (WIT) and 6-month estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR); positive surgical margins (PSM), disease recurrence (REC), cancer-specific mortality (CSM) and other-cause mortality (OCM). Descriptive statistics, Kaplan-Meier, smoothed Poisson plots and logistic and linear regression models (MVA) were used. Overall, 216 patients were included in this analysis. OC rate was 34%, most of them being of low Clavien grade. Median WIT was 17 minutes and median 6-month eGFR was 54 ml/min/1.73 m2. PSM rate was 5%. After a median follow-up of 20 months, the 5-year rates of REC, CSM and OCM were 4, 4 and 5%, respectively. At MVA predicting perioperative morbidity, RAPN relative to LPN (odds ratio [OR] 0.33; p <0.0001) was associated with lower OC rate. At MVA predicting functional outcomes, RAPN relative to LPN was associated with shorter WIT (estimate [EST] -4.09; p <0.0001), and with higher 6-month eGFR (EST 6.03; p = 0.01). In appropriately selected patients with small renal masses, minimally-invasive PN is associated with acceptable perioperative outcomes. The use of a robotic approach over a standard laparoscopic approach can be advantageous with respect to clinically relevant outcomes, and it should be preferred when available.

Partial versus radical nephrectomy in very elderly patients: a propensity score analysis of surgical, functional and oncologic outcomes (RESURGE project).

PURPOSE: To compare the outcomes of PN to those of RN in very elderly patients treated for clinically localized renal tumor. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A purpose-built multi-institutional international database (RESURGE project) was used for this retrospective analysis. Patients over 75 years old and surgically treated for a suspicious of localized renal with either PN or RN were included in this database. Surgical, renal function and oncological outcomes were analyzed. Propensity scores for the predicted probability to receive PN in each patient were estimated by logistic regression models. Cox proportional hazard models were estimated to determine the relative change in hazard associated with PN vs RN on overall mortality (OM), cancer-specific mortality (CSM) and other-cause mortality (OCM). RESULTS: A total of 613 patients who underwent RN were successfully matched with 613 controls who underwent PN. Higher overall complication rate was recorded in the PN group (33% vs 25%; p = 0.01). Median follow-up for the entire cohort was 35 months (interquartile range [IQR] 13-63 months). There was a significant difference between RN and PN in median decline of eGFR (39% vs 17%; p < 0.01). PN was not correlated with OM (HR = 0.71; p = 0.56), OCM (HR = 0.74; p = 0.5), and showed a protective trend for CSM (HR = 0.19; p = 0.05). PN was found to be a protective factor for surgical CKD (HR = 0.28; p < 0.01) and worsening of eGFR in patients with baseline CKD. Retrospective design represents a limitation of this analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Adoption of PN in very elderly patients with localized renal tumor does not compromise oncological outcomes, and it allows better functional preservation at mid-term (3-year) follow-up, relative to RN. Whether this functional benefit translates into a survival benefit remains to be determined.

Hexabromocyclododecane and tetrabromobisphenol A in tree bark from different functional areas of Shanghai, China: levels and spatial distributions.

The concentrations and spatial distributions of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) were measured in tree bark from different functional areas of Shanghai. ΣHBCDD (sum of α-, ß-, and γ-HBCDD) concentrations ranged from 1.2 × 102 to 6.6 × 103 ng g-1 lw (median 5.7 × 102 ng g-1 lw) and TBBPA concentrations ranged from 48 to 7.2 × 104 ng g-1 lw (median 2.8 × 102 ng g-1 lw). The concentrations of ΣHBCDD and TBBPA all followed the order of industrial areas > commercial areas > residential areas. The mean percentage of α-HBCDD in bark samples (44%) from Shanghai was higher than that in technical HBCDD products, but comparable with that in air. The concentrations of TBBPA and individual HBCDD diastereoisomers between industrial areas and commercial areas were correlated. Based on the concentrations of HBCDD in the bark, the corresponding atmospheric HBCDD concentrations were estimated. Compared with the published data for HBCDD in urban air, the estimated atmospheric HBCDD concentrations in Shanghai had a relatively high level, and more attention should be paid to the pollution status of HBCDD in Shanghai.

Highly Enantioselective Iron-Catalyzed cis-Dihydroxylation of Alkenes with Hydrogen Peroxide Oxidant via an Fe(III) -OOH Reactive Intermediate.

The development of environmentally benign catalysts for highly enantioselective asymmetric cis-dihydroxylation (AD) of alkenes with broad substrate scope remains a challenge. By employing [Fe(II) (L)(OTf)2 ] (L=N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-bis(2-methyl-8-quinolyl)-cyclohexane-1,2-diamine) as a catalyst, cis-diols in up to 99.8 % ee with 85 % isolated yield have been achieved in AD of alkenes with H2 O2 as an oxidant and alkenes in a limiting amount. This "[Fe(II) (L)(OTf)2 ]+H2 O2 " method is applicable to both (E)-alkenes and terminal alkenes (24 examples >80 % ee, up to 1 g scale). Mechanistic studies, including (18) O-labeling, UV/Vis, EPR, ESI-MS analyses, and DFT calculations lend evidence for the involvement of chiral Fe(III) -OOH active species in enantioselective formation of the two C-O bonds.

Occurrence of Hexabromocyclododecane in soil and road dust from mixed-land-use areas of Shanghai, China, and its implications for human exposure.

Herein, the occurrence of three Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) diastereoisomers in soil and road dust from the mixed-land-use areas in Shanghai was investigated. The total concentrations of HBCDDs (∑HBCDDs) in soil ranged from 0.30 to 249ngg(-1)dw, with a median level of 5.14ngg(-1)dw. For the road dust samples, the ΣHBCDD concentrations varied from 4.11 to 508ngg(-1)dw, with a median level of 23.4ngg(-1)dw. The levels of HBCDDs varied in different mixed-land-use areas. In soil, the levels of HBCDDs increased in the following sequence: residential area & agricultural area (R&A)

Extranodal sinonasal Rosai-Dorfman disease: a clinical study of 10 cases.

Sinonasal Rosai-Dorfman disease (S-RDD) is a rare form of RDD limited to the sinonasal cavity. Multipatient studies of Chinese S-RDD and documentation of its clinical spectrum are rare. This study aimed to identify the clinical profiles of Chinese S-RDD. Medical records of and tissue sections from 10 patients diagnosed with S-RDD between 2007 and 2014 were reviewed. Data on clinical presentations, endoscopy signs, imageological change, treatment and outcome were analyzed. The mean age of five male and five female patients at the first visit was 40.3 years and the mean follow-up period was 58.6 months. Based on the lesion sites, five cases were divided into an anterior sinonasal group, accompanied by symptoms of epistaxis, nasal obstruction and nasal dorsal deformity. Five other cases were divided into a posterior sinonasal group, accompanied by symptoms of hyposmia, epistaxis and nasal obstruction. Endoscopy signs and imageological changes in the anterior group showed diffuse infiltration of the RDD lesion under the septum mucosa, but in the posterior group the RDD lesions often showed as formations on polyps. At the end of follow-up, only one case spontaneously resolved without surgery; two cases in the anterior sinonasal group and three cases in the posterior sinonasal group recurred after endoscopic surgery, but surgery can result in short-term symptomatic control and restoration of function in all cases. S-RDD of the anterior and posterior sinonasal cavity may have different clinical characteristics; endoscopic surgery is effective for short-term symptomatic control and restoration of function for S-RDD.

Lambda genomic DNA quantification using ultrasonic treatment followed by liquid chromatography-isotope dilution mass spectrometry.

Quantification of genomic DNA that is traceable to the SI was performed successfully by measuring the individual nucleotides. Specifically, ultrasound was used to shear lambda genomic DNA into fragments of less than 200 base pairs, followed by deoxyribonuclease Ι and phosphodiesterase Ι digestion and liquid chromatography-isotope dilution mass spectrometry (LC-IDMS) quantification to estimate the mass fraction of the lambda DNA, based on the constituent deoxynucleotide monophosphates (dNMPs) within the molecule. Digital PCR (dPCR) was employed to quantify the same lambda DNA solution to provide independent data for comparing the performance of two quantitative methods. On the basis of the LC-IDMS measurement after ultrasonic treatment of the sample, the concentration of lambda DNA was 273.1 ± 9.8 µg/g (expanded uncertainty at the 95% confidence interval). This shows good agreement with the data from dPCR. Additionally, the result calculated on the basis of the sum of the concentrations of the four dNMPs is the same as that calculated on the basis of the sequence, which indicates that knowledge of the DNA sequence and length is unnecessary to measure the total DNA concentration when applying ultrasonic treatment-LC-IDMS.