Jasmonate activates secondary cell wall biosynthesis through MYC2-MYB46 module.

Formation of secondary cell wall (SCW) is tightly regulated spatiotemporally by various developmental and environmental signals. Successful fine-tuning of the trade-off between SCW biosynthesis and stress responses requires a better understanding of how plant growth is regulated under environmental stress conditions. However, the current understanding of the interplay between environmental signaling and SCW formation is limited. The lipid-derived plant hormone jasmonate (JA) and its derivatives are important signaling components involved in various physiological processes including plant growth, development, and abiotic/biotic stress responses. Recent studies suggest that JA is involved in SCW formation but the signaling pathway has not been studied for how JA regulates SCW formation. We tested this hypothesis using the transcription factor MYB46, a master switch for SCW biosynthesis, and JA treatments. Both the transcript and protein levels of MYB46, a master switch for SCW formation, were significantly increased by JA treatment, resulting in the upregulation of SCW biosynthesis. We then show that this JA-induced upregulation of MYB46 is mediated by MYC2, a central regulator of JA signaling, which binds to the promoter of MYB46. We conclude that this MYC2-MYB46 module is a key component of the plant response to JA in SCW formation.

Global entangling gates on arbitrary ion qubits.

Quantum computers can efficiently solve classically intractable problems, such as the factorization of a large number1 and the simulation of quantum many-body systems2,3. Universal quantum computation can be simplified by decomposing circuits into single- and two-qubit entangling gates4, but such decomposition is not necessarily efficient. It has been suggested that polynomial or exponential speedups can be obtained with global N-qubit (N greater than two) entangling gates5-9. Such global gates involve all-to-all connectivity, which emerges among trapped-ion qubits when using laser-driven collective motional modes10-14, and have been implemented for a single motional mode15,16. However, the single-mode approach is difficult to scale up because isolating single modes becomes challenging as the number of ions increases in a single crystal, and multi-mode schemes are scalable17,18 but limited to pairwise gates19-23. Here we propose and implement a scalable scheme for realizing global entangling gates on multiple 171Yb+ ion qubits by coupling to multiple motional modes through modulated laser fields. Because such global gates require decoupling multiple modes and balancing all pairwise coupling strengths during the gate, we develop a system with fully independent control capability on each ion14. To demonstrate the usefulness and flexibility of these global gates, we generate a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state with up to four qubits using a single global operation. Our approach realizes global entangling gates as scalable building blocks for universal quantum computation, motivating future research in scalable global methods for quantum information processing.

Additive-Assisted Hydrothermal Growth Enabling Defect Passivation and Void Remedy in Antimony Selenosulfide Solar Cells.

Antimony selenosulfide (Sb2(S,Se)3) has recently emerged as a promising light-absorbing material, attributed to its tunable photovoltaic properties, low toxicity, and robust environmental stability. However, despite these advantages, the current record efficiency for Sb2(S,Se)3 solar cells significantly lags behind their Shockley-Queisser limit, especially when compared to other well-established chalcogenide-based thin-film solar cells, such as CdTe and Cu(In,Ga)Se2. This underperformance primarily arises from the formation of unfavorable defects, predominately located at deep energy levels, which act as recombination centers, thereby limiting the potential for performance enhancement in Sb2(S,Se)3 solar cells. Specifically, deep-level defects, such as sulfur vacancy (VS), have a lower formation energy, leading to severe non-radiative recombination and compromising device performance. To address this challenge, thioacetamide (TA), a sulfur-containing additive is introduced, into the precursor solution for the hydrothermal deposition of Sb2(S,Se)3. This results indicate that the incorporation of TA helps in passivating deep-level defects such as sulfur vacancies and in suppressing the formation of large voids within the Sb2(S,Se)3 absorber. Consequently, Sb2(S,Se)3 solar cells, with reduced carrier recombination and improved film quality, achieved a power conversion efficiency of 9.04%, with notable improvements in open-circuit voltage and fill factor. This work provides deeper insights into the passivation of deep-level donor-like VS defects through the incorporation of a sulfur-containing additive, highlighting pathways to enhance the photovoltaic performance of Sb2(S,Se)3 solar cells.

LincRNA-Cox2 Regulates Smoke-induced Inflammation in Murine Macrophages.

Cigarette smoke (CS) exposure is a risk factor for many chronic diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but the mechanism by which smoke exposure can alter homeostasis and bring about chronic inflammation is poorly understood. Here, we showcase a novel role for smoke in regulating long noncoding RNAs, showing that it activates lincRNA-Cox2, which we previously characterized as functional in inflammatory regulation. Exposing lincRNA-Cox2 murine models to smoke in vivo confirmed lincRNA-Cox2 as a regulator of inflammatory gene expression in response to smoke both systemically and within the lung. We also report that lincRNA-Cox2 negatively regulates genes in smoked bone marrow-derived macrophages exposed to LPS stimulation. In addition to the effects on long noncoding RNAs, we also report dysregulated transcription and splicing of inflammatory protein-coding genes in the bone marrow niche after CS exposure in vivo. Collectively, this work provides insights into how innate immune signaling from gene expression to splicing is altered after in vivo exposure to CS and highlights an important new role for lincRNA-Cox2 in regulating immune genes after smoke exposure.

Exploring the Magnetic Properties of Individual Barcode Nanowires using Wide-Field Diamond Microscopy.

A barcode magnetic nanowire typically comprises a multilayer magnetic structure in a single body with more than one segment type. Interestingly, due to selective functionalization and novel interactions between the layers, it has attracted significant attention, particularly in bioengineering. However, analyzing the magnetic properties at the individual nanowire level remains challenging. Herein, the characterization of a single magnetic nanowire is investigated at room temperature under ambient conditions based on magnetic images obtained via wide-field quantum microscopy with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. Consequently, critical magnetic properties of a single nanowire can be extracted, such as saturation magnetization and coercivity, by comparing the experimental result with that of micromagnetic simulation. This study opens up the possibility for a versatile in situ characterization method suited to individual magnetic nanowires.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated AtGATA25 mutant represents a novel model for regulating hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis thaliana.

BACKGROUND: Plants have evolved to adapt to the ever-changing environments through various morphological changes. An organism anticipates and responds to changes in its environment via the circadian clock, an endogenous oscillator lasting approximately 24 h. The circadian clock regulates various physiological processes, such as hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Phytochrome interacting factor 4 (PIF4), a member of the bHLH protein family, plays a vital hub role in light signaling pathways and temperature-mediated growth response mechanisms. PIF4 is controlled by the circadian clock and interacts with several factors. However, the components that regulate PIF4 transcription and activity are not clearly understood. METHODS AND RESULTS: Here, we showed that the Arabidopsis thaliana GATA25 (AtGATA25) transcription factor plays a fundamental role in promoting hypocotyl elongation by positively regulating the expression of PIF4. This was confirmed to in the loss-of-function mutant of AtGATA25 via CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing, which inhibits hypocotyl elongation and decreases the expression of PIF4. In contrast, the overexpression of AtGATA25 in transgenic plants resulted in increased expression of PIF4 and enhanced hypocotyl elongation. To better understand AtGATA25-mediated PIF4 transcriptional regulation, we analyzed the promoter region of the target gene PIF4 and characterized the role of GATA25 through transcriptional activation analysis. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest a novel role of the AtGATA25 transcription factor in hypocotyl elongation.

FBI-1 inhibits epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, migration, and invasion in lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells by downregulating transforming growth factor-ß1 signaling pathway.

The factor binding inducer of short transcripts-1 (FBI-1) is a POZ-domain Kruppel-like (POK) family of transcription factors and is known as a proto-oncogene or tumor suppressor in various carcinomas. However, the role of FBI-1 on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasiveness in lung cancer remains unknown. Preliminarily, clinical data such as tissue microarray, Kaplan-Meier, and Oncomine were analyzed to confirm the correlation between lung cancer metastasis and FBI-1. To investigate the function of FBI-1 in EMT in lung cancer, EMT was measured in FBI-1-deficient or FBI-1-overexpressing cells. FBI-1 showed decreased expression in tumors metastasized to lymph nodes than in the primary tumor. In addition, it was also associated with improved survival rates of lung cancer patients. FBI-1 knockdown improved E-to-N-cadherin switching, migration, and invasion in A549 cells, similar to the initiation of EMT stimulated by transforming growth factor- ß1 (TGF-ß1). In contrast, overexpression of FBI-1 inhibited the transcription and activation of Smad2, thereby interfering with EMT, despite stimulation by TGF-ß1. These results suggest that FBI-1 plays a negative role in EMT in lung cancer via the TGF-ß1 signaling pathway, implying its use as a new potential therapeutic target and diagnostic indicator for early stage of lung cancer metastasis.

Three-dimensional high-resolution T1 and T2 mapping of whole macaque brain at 9.4 T using magnetic resonance fingerprinting.

PURPOSE: Quantitative T1 and T2 mapping in non-human primates with whole-brain coverage is challenged by the requirement of sub-millimeter resolution and the inhomogeneity of the transmit magnetic field (B1+ ) covering a large field of view. The goal of the current study is to develop a magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) method for simultaneous T1 and T2 mapping of the entire macaque brain within feasible scan time. METHODS: A three-dimensional (3D) MRF sequence with both inversion- and T2 -preparation modules was developed and evaluated on a 9.4 T preclinical scanner. Data acquisition used a 3D stack-of-spirals trajectory, with undersampling along both the in-plane and the through-plane directions. The effect of B1+ inhomogeneity was accounted for by matching the acquired fingerprint to a dictionary simulated with the B1+ factors measured from a separate scan. In vitro and ex vivo studies were performed to evaluate the accuracy and the undersampling capacity of the MRF method. The application of the MRF method for in vivo, brain-wide T1 and T2 mapping was demonstrated on macaques at 4, 6, and 12 years of age. RESULTS: The MRF method enabled highly repeatable T1 and T2 mapping at high spatial resolution (0.35 × 0.35 × 1 mm3 ) with an acceleration factor of 24. In vivo studies showed significant age-related T2 reduction in deep gray nuclei including the globus pallidus, the putamen, and the caudate nucleus. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the first MRF study for brain-wide, multi-parametric quantification in non-human primates with sub-millimeter resolution.

AfSec1 is a signal peptidase and removes signal peptides of 1,3-ß-glucanosyltransferases in Aspergillus fumigatus.

To identify the infection mechanism of Aspergillus fumigatus, which is an opportunistic fungal pathogen, we analyzed the expression profile of the whole genome of A. fumigatus during the infection of murine macrophages. A previously reported RNA-seq data analysis showed that many genes involved in cell wall synthesis were upregulated during the infection process. Interestingly, AfSec1 (3g12840), which encodes a putative signal peptidase, was upregulated dramatically, and its putative target protein Gel1, which encodes a 1,3-ß-glucanosyltransferase, was also upregulated. Instead of the AfSec1 deletion strain, the AfSec1-ΔP strain was constructed, in which the promoter region of AfSec1 was deleted, and AfSec1 expression was not detected in the AfSec1-ΔP strain. The expression of AfSec1 was recovered by the introduction of the promoter region (the AfSec1-ΔP/P strain). The nonprocessed form of Gel1 was identified in the AfSec1-ΔP strain, which lacked the promoter, but mature forms of Gel1 were found in the wild-type and in AfSec1-ΔP/P, which was the promoter complementation strain. In the plate assay, the AfSec1-ΔP strain showed higher sensitivity against caspofungin than the wild-type. However, compared with the wild-type, the deletion strain showed no difference in the sensitivity to other antifungal drugs, such as amphotericin B and voriconazole, which inhibit different targets compared with caspofungin. The AfSec1-ΔP strain exhibited ∼20% lower levels of ß-glucan in the cell wall than the wild-type. Finally, the virulence decreased when the promoter region of AfSec1 was deleted, as observed in the murine infection test and conidia-killing assay using human macrophages and neutrophils. These results suggest that AfSec1 exerts signal peptidase activity on its target Gel1 and has an important role in fungal pathogenesis.

We identified the novel signal peptidase AfSec1 from A. fumigatus. AfSec1 which removes the signal peptide of 1,3-ß-glucanosyltransferases, is a virulence factor and is a potential target for a new antifungal drug.

Hepcidin Is Essential for Alveolar Macrophage Function and Is Disrupted by Smoke in a Murine Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Model.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a debilitating lung disease associated with cigarette smoking. Alterations in local lung and systemic iron regulation are associated with disease progression and pathogenesis. Hepcidin, an iron regulatory peptide hormone, is altered in subjects with COPD; however, the molecular role of hepcidin in COPD pathogenesis remains to be determined. In this study, using a murine model of smoke-induced COPD, we demonstrate that lung and circulating hepcidin levels are inhibited by cigarette smoke. We show that cigarette smoke exposure increases erythropoietin and bone marrow-derived erythroferrone and leads to expanded but inefficient erythropoiesis in murine bone marrow and an increase in ferroportin on alveolar macrophages (AMs). AMs from smokers and subjects with COPD display increased expression of ferroportin as well as hepcidin. Notably, murine AMs exposed to smoke fail to increase hepcidin in response to Gram-negative or Gram-positive infection. Loss of hepcidin in vivo results in blunted functional responses of AMs and exaggerated responses to Streptococcus pneumoniae infection.

Dynamic oxygen-17 MRI with adaptive temporal resolution using golden-means-based 3D radial sampling.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to develop a high-resolution 3D oxygen-17 (17 O) MRI method to delineate the kinetics of 17 O-enriched water (H217 O) across the entire mouse brain after a bolus injection via the tail vein. METHODS: The dynamic 17 O signal was acquired with a golden-means-based 3D radial sampling scheme. To achieve adequate temporal resolution with preserved spatial resolution, a k-space-weighted view sharing strategy was used in image reconstruction with an adaptive window size tailored to the kinetics of the 17 O signal. Simulation studies were performed to determine the adequate image reconstruction parameters. The established method was applied to delineating the kinetics of intravenously injected H217 O in vivo in the post-stroke mouse brain. RESULTS: The proposed dynamic 17 O-MRI method achieved an isotropic resolution of 1.21 mm (0.77 mm nominal) in mouse brain at 9.4T, with the temporal resolution increased gradually from 3 s at the initial phase of rapid signal increase to 15 s at the steady-state. The high spatial resolution enabled the delineation of the heterogeneous H217 O uptake and washout kinetics in stroke-affected mouse brain. CONCLUSION: The current study demonstrated a 3D 17 O-MRI method for dynamic monitoring of 17 O signal changes with high spatial and temporal resolution. The method can be utilized to quantify physiological parameters such as cerebral blood flow and blood-brain barrier permeability by tracking injected H217 O. It can also be used to measure oxygen consumption rate in 17 O-oxygen inhalation studies.

Quantification of creatine kinase reaction rate in mouse hindlimb using phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopic fingerprinting.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the accuracy, reproducibility, and efficiency of a 31 P magnetic resonance spectroscopic fingerprinting (31 P-MRSF) method for fast quantification of the forward rate constant of creatine kinase (CK) in mouse hindlimb. The 31 P-MRSF method acquired spectroscopic fingerprints using interleaved acquisition of phosphocreatine (PCr) and γATP with ramped flip angles and a saturation scheme sensitive to chemical exchange between PCr and γATP. Parameter estimation was performed by matching the acquired fingerprints to a dictionary of simulated fingerprints generated from the Bloch-McConnell model. The accuracy of 31 P-MRSF measurements was compared with the magnetization transfer (MT-MRS) method in mouse hindlimb at 9.4 T (n = 8). The reproducibility of 31 P-MRSF was also assessed by repeated measurements. Estimation of the CK rate constant using 31 P-MRSF (0.39 ± 0.03 s-1 ) showed a strong agreement with that using MT-MRS measurements (0.40 ± 0.05 s-1 ). Variations less than 10% were achieved with 2 min acquisition of 31 P-MRSF data. Application of the 31 P-MRSF method to mice subjected to an electrical stimulation protocol detected an increase in CK rate constant in response to stimulation-induced muscle contraction. These results demonstrated the potential of the 31 P-MRSF framework for rapid, accurate, and reproducible quantification of the chemical exchange rate of CK in vivo.

Double-Electromagnetically-Induced-Transparency Ground-State Cooling of Stationary Two-Dimensional Ion Crystals.

We theoretically and experimentally investigate double-electromagnetically-induced transparency (double-EIT) cooling of two-dimensional ion crystals confined in a Paul trap. The double-EIT ground-state cooling is observed for ^{171}Yb^{+} ions with a clock state, for which EIT cooling has not been realized like many other ions with a simple Λ scheme. A cooling rate of n[over ¯][over ˙]=34(±1.8) ms^{-1} and a cooling limit of n[over ¯]=0.06(±0.059) are observed for a single ion. The measured cooling rate and limit are consistent with theoretical predictions. We apply double-EIT cooling to the transverse modes of two-dimensional (2D) crystals with up to 12 ions. In our 2D crystals, the micromotion and the transverse mode directions are perpendicular, which makes them decoupled. Therefore, the cooling on transverse modes is not disturbed by micromotion, which is confirmed in our experiment. For the center of mass mode of a 12-ion crystal, we observe a cooling rate and a cooling limit that are consistent with those of a single ion, including heating rates proportional to the number of ions. This method can be extended to other hyperfine qubits, and near ground-state cooling of stationary 2D crystals with large numbers of ions may advance the field of quantum information sciences.

Secure and Efficient High Throughput Medium Access Control for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network.

The evolution of the internet has led to the growth of smart application requirements on the go in the vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). VANET enables vehicles to communicate smartly among themselves wirelessly. Increasing usage of wireless technology induces many security vulnerabilities. Therefore, effective security and authentication mechanism is needed to prevent an intruder. However, authentication may breach user privacy such as location or identity. Cryptography-based approach aids in preserving the privacy of the user. However, the existing security models incur communication and key management overhead since they are designed considering a third-party server. To overcome the research issue, this work presents an efficient security model namely secure performance enriched channel allocation (S-PECA) by using commutative RSA. This work further presents the commutative property of the proposed security scheme. Experiments conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed S-PECA over state-of-the-art models show significant improvement. The outcome shows that S-PECA minimizes collision and maximizes system throughput considering different radio propagation environments.

Revealing nonclassicality beyond Gaussian states via a single marginal distribution.

A standard method to obtain information on a quantum state is to measure marginal distributions along many different axes in phase space, which forms a basis of quantum-state tomography. We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a general framework to manifest nonclassicality by observing a single marginal distribution only, which provides a unique insight into nonclassicality and a practical applicability to various quantum systems. Our approach maps the 1D marginal distribution into a factorized 2D distribution by multiplying the measured distribution or the vacuum-state distribution along an orthogonal axis. The resulting fictitious Wigner function becomes unphysical only for a nonclassical state; thus the negativity of the corresponding density operator provides evidence of nonclassicality. Furthermore, the negativity measured this way yields a lower bound for entanglement potential-a measure of entanglement generated using a nonclassical state with a beam-splitter setting that is a prototypical model to produce continuous-variable (CV) entangled states. Our approach detects both Gaussian and non-Gaussian nonclassical states in a reliable and efficient manner. Remarkably, it works regardless of measurement axis for all non-Gaussian states in finite-dimensional Fock space of any size, also extending to infinite-dimensional states of experimental relevance for CV quantum informatics. We experimentally illustrate the power of our criterion for motional states of a trapped ion, confirming their nonclassicality in a measurement-axis-independent manner. We also address an extension of our approach combined with phase-shift operations, which leads to a stronger test of nonclassicality, that is, detection of genuine non-Gaussianity under a CV measurement.

NOON States of Nine Quantized Vibrations in Two Radial Modes of a Trapped Ion.

We develop a deterministic method to generate and verify arbitrarily high NOON states of quantized vibrations (phonons), through the coupling to the internal state. We experimentally create the entangled states up to N=9 phonons in two vibrational modes of a single trapped ^{171}Yb^{+} ion. We observe an increasing phase sensitivity of the generated NOON state as the number of phonons N increases and obtain the fidelity from the contrast of the phase interference and the population of the phonon states through the two-mode projective measurement, which are significantly above the classical bound. We also measure the quantum Fisher information of the generated state and observe Heisenberg scaling in the lower bounds of phase sensitivity as N increases. Our scheme is generic and applicable to other photonic or phononic systems such as circuit QED systems or nanomechanical oscillators, which have Jaynes-Cummings-type of interactions.

Universal Work Fluctuations During Shortcuts to Adiabaticity by Counterdiabatic Driving.

Counterdiabatic driving (CD) exploits auxiliary control fields to tailor the nonequilibrium dynamics of a quantum system, making possible the suppression of dissipated work in finite-time thermodynamics and the engineering of optimal thermal machines with no friction. We show that while the mean work done by the auxiliary controls vanishes, CD leads to a broadening of the work distribution. We derive a fundamental inequality that relates nonequilibrium work fluctuations to the operation time and quantifies the thermodynamic cost of CD in both critical and noncritical systems.

Corrigendum to: Gintonin facilitates catecholamine secretion from the perfused adrenal medulla.

[This corrects the article on p. 629 in vol. 20, PMID: 27847440.].

The Anion Gap is a Predictive Clinical Marker for Death in Patients with Acute Pesticide Intoxication.

Pesticide formulation includes solvents (methanol and xylene) and antifreeze (ethylene glycol) whose metabolites are anions such as formic acid, hippuric acid, and oxalate. However, the effect of the anion gap on clinical outcome in acute pesticide intoxication requires clarification. In this prospective study, we compared the anion gap and other parameters between surviving versus deceased patients with acute pesticide intoxication. The following parameters were assessed in 1,058 patients with acute pesticide intoxication: blood chemistry (blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, glucose, lactic acid, liver enzymes, albumin, globulin, and urate), urinalysis (ketone bodies), arterial blood gas analysis, electrolytes (Na(+), K(+), Cl(-) HCO3 (-), Ca(++)), pesticide field of use, class, and ingestion amount, clinical outcome (death rate, length of hospital stay, length of intensive care unit stay, and seriousness of toxic symptoms), and the calculated anion gap. Among the 481 patients with a high anion gap, 52.2% had a blood pH in the physiologic range, 35.8% had metabolic acidosis, and 12.1% had acidemia. Age, anion gap, pesticide field of use, pesticide class, seriousness of symptoms (all P < 0.001), and time lag after ingestion (P = 0.048) were significant risk factors for death in univariate analyses. Among these, age, anion gap, and pesticide class were significant risk factors for death in a multiple logistic regression analysis (P < 0.001). In conclusions, high anion gap is a significant risk factor for death, regardless of the accompanying acid-base balance status in patients with acute pesticide intoxication.