eIF4A, a target of siRNA derived from rice stripe virus, negatively regulates antiviral autophagy by interacting with ATG5 in Nicotiana benthamiana.

Autophagy is induced by viral infection and has antiviral functions in plants, but the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. We previously identified a viral small interfering RNA (vsiRNA) derived from rice stripe virus (RSV) RNA4 that contributes to the leaf-twisting and stunting symptoms caused by this virus by targeting the host eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A (eIF4A) mRNA for silencing. In addition, autophagy plays antiviral roles by degrading RSV p3 protein, a suppressor of RNA silencing. Here, we demonstrate that eIF4A acts as a negative regulator of autophagy in Nicotiana benthamiana. Silencing of NbeIF4A activated autophagy and inhibited RSV infection by facilitating autophagic degradation of p3. Further analysis showed that NbeIF4A interacts with NbATG5 and interferes with its interaction with ATG12. Overexpression of NbeIF4A suppressed NbATG5-activated autophagy. Moreover, expression of vsiRNA-4A, which targets NbeIF4A mRNA for cleavage, induced autophagy by silencing NbeIF4A. Finally, we demonstrate that eIF4A from rice, the natural host of RSV, also interacts with OsATG5 and suppresses OsATG5-activated autophagy, pointing to the conserved function of eIF4A as a negative regulator of antiviral autophagy. Taken together, these results reveal that eIF4A negatively regulates antiviral autophagy by interacting with ATG5 and that its mRNA is recognized by a virus-derived siRNA, resulting in its silencing, which induces autophagy against viral infection.

Iron Carbide Nanoparticles Encapsulated in Mesoporous Fe-N-Doped Graphene-Like Carbon Hybrids as Efficient Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts.

It is highly crucial and challenging to develop bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs) and oxygen evolution reactions (OERs) in rechargeable metal-air batteries and unitized regenerative fuel cells (URFCs). Herein, a facile and cost-effective strategy is developed to prepare mesoporous Fe-N-doped graphene-like carbon architectures with uniform Fe3C nanoparticles encapsulated in graphitic layers (Fe3C@NG) via a one-step solid-state thermal reaction. The optimized Fe3C@NG800-0.2 catalyst shows comparable ORR activity with the state-of-the-art Pt/C catalyst and OER activity with the benchmarking RuO2 catalyst. The oxygen electrode activity parameter ΔE (the criteria for judging the overall catalytic activity of bifunctional electrocatalysts) value for Fe3C@NG800-0.2 is 0.780 V, which surpasses those of Pt/C and RuO2 catalysts as well as those of most nonprecious metal catalysts. Significantly, excellent long-term catalytic durability holds great promise in fields of rechargeable metal-air batteries and URFCs.

Hollow mesoporous NiCo2O4 nanocages as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction.

The design and fabrication of efficient and inexpensive electrodes for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential for energy-conversion technologies. Herein, high OER activity is achieved using hollow mesoporous NiCo2O4 nanocages synthesized via a Cu2O-templated strategy combined with coordination reaction. The NiCo2O4 nanostructures with a hollow cavity, large roughness and high porosity show only a small overpotential of ∼0.34 V at the current density of 10 mA cm(-2) and a Tafel slope of 75 mV per decade, which is comparable with the performance of the best reported transition metal oxide based OER catalysts in the literature. Meanwhile, the positive impacts of the nanocage structure and the Ni incorporation on the electrocatalytic performance are also demonstrated by comparing the OER activities of NiCo2O4 nanocages with Co3O4 nanocages, NiCo2O4 nanoparticles and 20 wt% Pt/C. Moreover, the NiCo2O4 nanocages also manifest superior stability to other materials. All these merits indicate that the hollow mesoporous NiCo2O4 nanocages are promising electrocatalysts for water oxidation.

Photoluminescent carbon-nitrogen quantum dots as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction.

Here, we demonstrate novel carbon-nitrogen quantum dots (CNQDs) by the hydrothermal method using melamine and glutaraldehyde. CNQDs are uniformly dispersed with particle diameters of 3-8 nm. These prepared CNQDs show excellent luminescence properties and the photoluminescent quantum yields of CNQDs with 365 nm emission are up to 31%. Interestingly, CNQDs possess the co-existence of both p- and n-type conductivities from the Mott-Schottky relationship. Furthermore, the electrochemical measurements reveal that CNQDs exhibit catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the low electrical conductivity affects the ORR electrocatalytic activity. So the catalysis is conducted by chemical coupling of CNQDs on Ag nanoparticles (NPs), the resulting CNQD/Ag NP catalyst is demonstrated to possess superior electrocatalytic ability for the ORR in an alkaline medium.

Cobalt nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions.

Cobalt based catalysts are promising bifunctional electrocatalysts for both oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions (ORR and OER) in unitized regenerative fuel cells (URFCs) operating with alkaline electrolytes. Here we report a hybrid composite of cobalt nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon (Co/N-C) via a solvothermal carbonization strategy. With the synergistic effect arising from the N-doped carbon and cobalt nanoparticles in the composite, the Co/N-C hybrid catalyst exhibits highly efficient bifunctional catalytic activity and excellent stability toward both ORR and OER. The ΔE (oxygen electrode activity parameter for judging the overall electrocatalytic activity of a bifunctional electrocatalyst) value for Co/N-C is 0.859 V, which is smaller than those of Pt/C and most of the non-precious metal catalysts in previous studies. Furthermore, the Co/N-C composite also shows better bifunctional catalytic activity than its oxidative counterparts, which could be attributed to the high specific surface area and the efficient charge transfer ability of the composite, as well as the good synergistic effect between N-doped carbon and the Co nanoparticles in the Co/N-C composite.

Nitrogen and phosphorus dual-doped hierarchical porous carbon foams as efficient metal-free electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions.

Despite tremendous progress in developing doped carbocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), the ORR activity of current metal-free carbocatalysts is still inferior to that of conventional Pt/C catalysts, especially in acidic media and neutral solution. Moreover, it also remains a challenge to develop an effective and scalable method for the synthesis of metal-free carbocatalysts. Herein, we have developed nitrogen and phosphorus dual-doped hierarchical porous carbon foams (HP-NPCs) as efficient metal-free electrocatalysts for ORR. The HP-NPCs were prepared for the first time by copyrolyzing nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing precursors and poly(vinyl alcohol)/polystyrene (PVA/PS) hydrogel composites as in situ templates. Remarkably, the resulting HP-NPCs possess controllable nitrogen and phosphorus content, high surface area, and a hierarchical interconnected macro-/mesoporous structure. In studying the effects of the HP-NPCs on the ORR, we found that the as-prepared HP-NPC materials exhibited not only excellent catalytic activity for ORR in basic, neutral, and acidic media, but also much better tolerance for methanol oxidation and much higher stability than the commercial, state-of-the-art Pt/C catalysts. Because of all these outstanding features, it is expected that the HP-NPC material will be a very suitable catalyst for next-generation fuel cells and lithium-air batteries. In addition, the novel synthetic method described here might be extended to the preparation of many other kinds of hierarchical porous carbon materials or porous carbon that contains metal oxide for wide applications including energy storage, catalysis, and electrocatalysis.