PIF4 negatively modulates cold tolerance in tomato anthers via temperature-dependent regulation of tapetal cell death.

Extreme temperature conditions seriously impair male reproductive development in plants; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying the response of anthers to extreme temperatures remain poorly described. The transcription factor phytochrome-interacting factor4 (PIF4) acts as a hub that integrates multiple signaling pathways to regulate thermosensory growth and architectural adaptation in plants. Here, we report that SlPIF4 in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plays a pivotal role in regulating cold tolerance in anthers. CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-associated nuclease Cas9-generated SlPIF4 knockout mutants showed enhanced cold tolerance in pollen due to reduced temperature sensitivity of the tapetum, while overexpressing SlPIF4 conferred pollen abortion by delaying tapetal programmed cell death (PCD). SlPIF4 directly interacts with SlDYT1, a direct upstream regulator of SlTDF1, both of which (SlDYT1 and SlTDF1) play important roles in regulating tapetum development and tapetal PCD. Moderately low temperature (MLT) promotes the transcriptional activation of SlTDF1 by the SlPIF4-SlDYT1 complex, resulting in pollen abortion, while knocking out SlPIF4 blocked the MLT-induced activation of SlTDF1. Furthermore, SlPIF4 directly binds to the canonical E-box sequence in the SlDYT1 promoter. Collectively, these findings suggest that SlPIF4 negatively regulates cold tolerance in anthers by directly interacting with the tapetal regulatory module in a temperature-dependent manner. Our results shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying the adaptation of anthers to low temperatures.

White Matter Hyperintensity is Associated with Malignant Cerebral Edema in Ischemic Stroke Treated with Thrombectomy.

BACKGROUND: White matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden may lead to poor clinical outcomes after endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). But the relationship between WMH burden and cerebral edema (CED) is unclear. PURPOSE: To examine the association between WMH burden and CED and functional outcome in patients treated with EVT. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective. SUBJECT: 344 patients with acute anterior circulation large-vessel occlusion stroke who received EVT at two comprehensive stroke centers. Mean age was 62.6 ± 11.6 years and 100 patients (29.1%) were female. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3T, including diffusion-weighted imaging and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images. ASSESSMENT: The severity of WMH was evaluated using the Fazekas scale on a FLAIR sequence before EVT. The severity of CED was assessed using CED score (three for malignant cerebral edema [MCE]) and net water uptake (NWU)/time on post-EVT cranial CT. The impact of WMH burden on MCE, NWU/time, and 3-month poor outcome (modified Rankin scale >2) after EVT were assessed. STATISTICAL TESTS: Pearson's chi-squared test, Fisher exact test, 2-tailed t test, Mann-Whitney U test, multivariable logistic regression, multivariate regression analysis, Sobel test. A P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: WMH burden was not significantly associated with MCE and parenchymal hemorrhage (PH) in the whole population (P = 0.072; P = 0.714). WMH burden was significantly associated with an increased risk of MCE (OR, 1.550; 95% CI, 1.128-2.129), higher NWU/time (Coefficient, 0.132; 95% CI, 0.012-0.240), and increased risk of 3-month poor outcome (OR, 1.434; 95% CI, 1.110-1.853) in the subset of patients without PH. Moreover, the connection between WMH burden and poor outcome was partly mediated by CED in patients without PH (regression coefficient changed by 29.8%). DATA CONCLUSION: WMH burden is associated with CED, especially MCE, and poor outcome in acute ischemic stroke patients treated with EVT. The association between WMH burden and poor outcome may partly be attributed to postoperative CED. TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 5.

The effect of serum triglyceride levels and different lipid-lowering methods on the prognosis of hypertriglyceridemic acute pancreatitis: a single-center 12-year retrospective study by propensity score matching.

AIM: To investigate the impact of triglyceride on hypertriglyceridemic acute pancreatitis (HTG-AP) and different lipid-lowering methods on triglyceride-lowering efficiency and HTG-AP. METHODS: The patients with HTG-AP from January 2012 to December 2023 in Civil Aviation General Hospital were analyzed, retrospectively. Patients were divided and compared according to whether their triglycerides were below 5.56 mmol/L at 48 and 72 h of admission. The patients were divided into control group, insulin group, and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH)+bezafibrate group based on the different methods of lipid-lowering. Propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to balance the baseline characteristics. RESULTS: There was no correlation between the severity of HTG-AP and the triglyceride at admission. The incidence of severity, local complications, and persistent organ failure (POF) were significantly decreased in patients with 48-h and 72-h triglyceride attainment. Following PSM, the incidence of infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) (3.3% vs. 13.3%) was significantly reduced in insulin group compared with control group (p < .05). Compared with control group, LMWH + bezafibrate group had higher lipid reduction efficiency, and the incidence of IPN (0.9% vs. 10.1%) and POF (8.3% vs. 19.3%) was significantly decreased (p < .05). There was no significant difference in the efficiency of lipid-lowering, complications, and POF between LMWH + bezafibrate group and insulin group (p > .05). CONCLUSION: The severity of HTG-AP is not associated with the triglyceride levels at admission. However, rapid reduction of triglyceride levels can lower the incidence of local complications and respiratory failure. Compared with conservative treatment, insulin and LMWH + bezafibrate can both reduce the incidence of IPN in patients with HTG-AP.

Discovery of highly potent PARP7 inhibitors for cancer immunotherapy.

PARP7 has been proven to play an important role in immunity. Substantial upregulation of PARP7 is observed in numerous cancerous cell types, consequently resulting in the inhibition of type Ⅰ interferon signaling pathways. Therefore, inhibiting the activity of PARP7 can enhance type Ⅰ interferon signaling to exert an anti-tumor immune response. In this study, we reported the identification of a newly found PARP7 inhibitor (XLY-1) with higher inhibitory activity (IC50 = 0.6 nM) than that of RBN-2397 (IC50 = 6.0 nM). Additionally, XYL-1 displayed weak inhibitory activity on PARP1 (IC50 > 1.0 µM). Mechanism studies showed that XYL-1 could enhance the type Ⅰ interferon signaling in vitro. Pharmacodynamic experiments showed that 50 mg/kg XYL-1 could significantly inhibit tumor growth (TGI: 76.5 %) and related experiments showed that XYL-1 could restore type Ⅰ interferon signaling and promote T cell infiltration in tumor tissues. Taken together, XYL-1 shows promise as a potential candidate for developing cancer immunotherapy agents.

First Report of Black Leaf Spot Caused by Epicoccum latusicollum on Chinese Yam in China.

Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachya Turczaninow cv. Tiegun), which belongs to the family Dioscoreaceae, is widely cultivated throughout China due to its high economic and medicinal value. In June 2023, black leaf spots on Chinese yam (cv. Purple 1) were observed in Nanchang city (28.45° N, 115.49° E) of Jiangxi province, southeastern China. The incidence of the disease ranged between 70 and 85% of plants, and up to 30% of the leaves per plant were affected in the field over a 2-week period of study. Infected foliage displayed brown necrotic lesions, elliptical or irregular, with yellow halo at the edge of the lesion (0.5 to 3 cm diam.). To identify the causal agent, 32 symptomatic leaves of eight symptomatic plants were collected. Small pieces from the margin of necrotic leaf tissue (about 3 x 3 mm) were surface sterilized in 75% ethanol for 30 s followed in 0.1% HgCl2 for 1 min, and washed three times with ddH2O. Then, the pieces were transferred onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates and incubated at 26°C for 3 days with a 12-h light-dark cycle. From the 32 isolates, 21 exhibited similar morphology after hyphal tipping resulting in an isolation frequency of 65.6%. Colonies on PDA were initially white aerial hyphae but became grayish with age, and a reddish orange pigment on the underside. After 16 days of incubation, pycnidia were observed, which were dark, spherical or flat spherical, and 64.1 to 172.5 µm (n = 25) in diameter. Conidia were ellipsoidal, aseptate, hyaline, and 4.1 to 5.6 × 1.8 to 2.7 µm (n = 80). In addition, a blackish green discoloration was produced on malt extract agar (MEA) using the NaOH spot test. The isolates were tentatively identified as Epicoccum spp. based on morphological characteristics (Chen et al. 2017). Isolate AYZ-1 was randomly selected for identification and pathogenicity testing. Genomic DNA of the isolate (AYZ-1) was extracted and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using ITS1/ITS4 for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (White et al. 1990), Btub2Fd/Btub4Rd for the ß-tubulin (TUB) region (Woudenberg et al. 2009), LROR/LR7 for the large ribosomal RNA gene (LSU) region (Rehner and Samuels 1994), and RPB2-5F2/fRPB2-7cR for RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) region (Liu et al. 1999), respectively. The concatenated sequences (GenBank Accession No. OR574165, OR567827, OR574166, OR567828, respectively) shared 99.8 to 100% identity with Epicoccum latusicollum (OP788080, MN329871, OR428532, and OL422485, respectively). A neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree was generated based on the concatenated sequences in MEGA7, placed isolate (AYZ-1) within E. latusicollum. To fulfill Koch's postulates, healthy leaflets from three one-year-old Chinese yam (cv. Purple 1) were used as inoculation materials, using isolate AYZ-1. Two sites of each leaf were wounded with a sterile needle and covered with a piece of cotton drenched with 200 µL spore suspension (106 conidia/mL) on the left sides, while sterilized water served as the control on the right sides of leaves. All inoculated leaves were covered with clear polyethylene bags for 24 h. Plants were grown outdoors at a daily average temperature of 26°C with relative humidity over 45%. After 7 days of incubation, the leaves showed the same symptoms as the original diseased leaves. The E. latusicollum isolate was re-isolated from diseased leaves and confirmed by morphology and sequencing analysis, fulfilling Koch's postulates. E. latusicollum has been previously reported to cause black root on yam in China's south-western province of Sichuan (Han et al. 2019). Meanwhile, leaf spot have been reported on many plants by this genus, such as tobacco (Guo et al. 2020) and banana (Liu et al. 2023). According to our knowledge, this is the first report of E. latusicollum causing black leaf spot on Chinese yam in China. This finding will provide an important reference for understanding the biology of E. latusicollum and the distribution of the disease, but more research is needed to determine if management is warranted.

Neural habituation during acute stress signals a blunted endocrine response and poor resilience.

BACKGROUND: A blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to acute stress is associated with psychiatric symptoms. Although the prefrontal cortex and limbic areas are important regulators of the HPA axis, whether the neural habituation of these regions during stress signals both blunted HPA axis responses and psychiatric symptoms remains unclear. In this study, neural habituation during acute stress and its associations with the stress cortisol response, resilience, and depression were evaluated. METHODS: Seventy-seven participants (17-22 years old, 37 women) were recruited for a ScanSTRESS brain imaging study, and the activation changes between the first and last stress blocks were used as the neural habituation index. Meanwhile, participants' salivary cortisol during test was collected. Individual-level resilience and depression were measured using questionnaires. Correlation and moderation analyses were conducted to investigate the association between neural habituation and endocrine data and mental symptoms. Validated analyses were conducted using a Montreal Image Stress Test dataset in another independent sample (48 participants; 17-22 years old, 24 women). RESULTS: Neural habituation of the prefrontal cortex and limbic area was negatively correlated with cortisol responses in both datasets. In the ScanSTRESS paradigm, neural habituation was both positively correlated with depression and negatively correlated with resilience. Moreover, resilience moderated the relationship between neural habituation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and cortisol response. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that neural habituation of the prefrontal cortex and limbic area could reflect motivation dysregulation during repeated failures and negative feedback, which might further lead to maladaptive mental states.

Vanadium Diboride (VB2) for NO Electroreduction to NH3.

We report VB2 as an efficient electrocatalyst for NO-to-NH3 electroreduction (NORR), showing the highest NH3-Faradaic efficiency of 89.6% with the corresponding NH3 yield rate of 198.3 µmol h-1 cm-2 at -0.5 V vs RHE. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that B sites of VB2 act as the key active centers which can facilitate the NORR protonation energetics and inhibit the competitive hydrogen evolution, boosting both NORR activity and selectivity.

Identification of a Non-Invasive Urinary Exosomal Biomarker for Diabetic Nephropathy Using Data-Independent Acquisition Proteomics.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN), as the one of most common complications of diabetes, is generally diagnosed based on a longstanding duration, albuminuria, and decreased kidney function. Some patients with the comorbidities of diabetes and other primary renal diseases have similar clinical features to DN, which is defined as non-diabetic renal disease (NDRD). It is necessary to distinguish between DN and NDRD, considering they differ in their pathological characteristics, treatment regimes, and prognosis. Renal biopsy provides a gold standard; however, it is difficult for this to be conducted in all patients. Therefore, it is necessary to discover non-invasive biomarkers that can distinguish between DN and NDRD. In this research, the urinary exosomes were isolated from the midstream morning urine based on ultracentrifugation combined with 0.22 µm membrane filtration. Data-independent acquisition-based quantitative proteomics were used to define the proteome profile of urinary exosomes from DN (n = 12) and NDRD (n = 15) patients diagnosed with renal biopsy and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients without renal damage (n = 9), as well as healthy people (n = 12). In each sample, 3372 ± 722.1 proteins were identified on average. We isolated 371 urinary exosome proteins that were significantly and differentially expressed between DN and NDRD patients, and bioinformatic analysis revealed them to be mainly enriched in the immune and metabolic pathways. The use of least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic regression further identified phytanoyl-CoA dioxygenase domain containing 1 (PHYHD1) as the differential diagnostic biomarker, the efficacy of which was verified with another cohort including eight DN patients, five NDRD patients, seven T2DM patients, and nine healthy people. Additionally, a concentration above 1.203 µg/L was established for DN based on the ELISA method. Furthermore, of the 19 significantly different expressed urinary exosome proteins selected by using the protein-protein interaction network and LASSO logistic regression, 13 of them were significantly related to clinical indicators that could reflect the level of renal function and hyperglycemic management.

Pathophysiological levels of GDF11 activate Smad2/Smad3 signaling and induce muscle atrophy in human iPSC-derived myocytes.

Skeletal muscle mass is negatively regulated by several TGF-ß superfamily members. Myostatin (MSTN) is the most prominent negative regulator of muscle mass. Recent studies show that in addition to MSTN, GDF11, which shares a high sequence identity with MSTN, induces muscle atrophy in vitro and in vivo at supraphysiological levels, whereas controversy regarding its roles exists. Furthermore, higher circulating GDF11 levels associate with frailty in humans. On the other hand, little is known about the effect of pathophysiological levels of GDF11 on muscle atrophy. Here we seek to determine whether pathophysiological levels of GDF11 are sufficient to activate Smad2/Smad3 signaling and induce muscle atrophy using human iPSC-derived myocytes (hiPSC myocytes). We first show that incubating hiPSC myocytes with pathophysiological concentrations of GDF11 significantly reduces myocyte diameters. We next demonstrate that pathophysiological levels of GDF11 are sufficient to activate Smad2/3 signaling. Finally, we show that pathophysiological levels of GDF11 are capable of inducing the expression of Atrogin-1, an atrophy-promoting E3 ubiquitin ligase and that FOXO1 blockage reverses the GDF11-induced Atrogin-1 expression and atrophic phenotype. Collectively, our results suggest that GDF11 induces skeletal muscle atrophy at the pathophysiological levels through the GDF11-FOXO1 axis.

Phytochrome interacting factor 3 regulates pollen mitotic division through auxin signalling and sugar metabolism pathways in tomato.

The development of viable pollen determines male fertility, and is crucial for reproduction in flowering plants. Phytochrome interacting factor 3 (PIF3) acts as a central regulator of plant growth and development, but its relationship with pollen development has not been determined. Through genetic, histological and transcriptomic analyses, we identified an essential role for SlPIF3 in regulating tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) pollen development. Knocking out SlPIF3 using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9 resulted in pollen mitosis I arrest, and a failure to form viable pollen. We further demonstrated that both glutamate synthase 1 (SlGLT1) and cell wall invertase 9 (SlCWIN9), involved in auxin and sugar homeostasis, respectively, colocalised with SlPIF3 in the anthers and were directly regulated by SlPIF3. Knockout of either SlGLT1 or SlCWIN9 phenocopied the pollen phenotype of SlPIF3 knockout (Slpif3) lines. Slpif3 fertility was partially restored by exogenous auxin indole-3-acetic acid in a dose-dependent manner. This study reveals a mechanism by which SlPIF3 regulates pollen development and highlights a new strategy for creating hormone-regulated genic male sterile lines for tomato hybrid seed production.

The Hippocampal-Ventral Medial Prefrontal Cortex Neurocircuitry Involvement in the Association of Daily Life Stress With Acute Perceived Stress and Cortisol Responses.

OBJECTIVE: Daily life stressors include everyday irritants, hassles, and inconveniences, such as problems in traffic and unexpected work deadlines. A growing body of research has suggested higher daily stress is associated with blunted cortisol response to acute psychosocial stressors. However, so far, the neural mechanism underlying this association has not been elucidated. The current study aimed to examine the role of stress neurocircuitry between the hippocampus and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex in this relationship. METHODS: To this end, as an index of daily stress in 44 young healthy individuals (23 females; mean [standard deviation] age = 19.07 [1.11] years), the total stressful rating score of daily life stress events that occurred in a 24-hour period was quantified. Individuals were then administered a modified version of the Montreal Imaging Stress Task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, and their saliva samples were collected for assessment of the stress hormone cortisol. RESULTS: Results revealed that a higher level of daily stress was associated with lower salivary cortisol secretion (r = -0.39, p = .008) and lower activation of the left hippocampus (tpeak = -5.51) in response to the Montreal Imaging Stress Task. Furthermore, a higher level of daily stress was associated with stronger functional connectivity between the left hippocampus and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex/subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (tpeak = 4.91, R2= 0.365). CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the current study suggested a possible neurocircuitry of the hippocampus and ventral medial prefrontal cortex in the relationship between daily life stress and acute psychosocial stress.

Diaporthe Diversity and Pathogenicity Revealed from a Broad Survey of Soybean Stem Blight in China.

Many species in the fungal Diaporthe (anamorph Phomopsis) genus have become a group of the most important pathogens that cause seed decay, stem and pot blight, and stem canker in soybean production worldwide, resulting in significant yield loss. Due to increased disease prevalence but a lack of research, we performed an extensive field survey to isolate and identify the Diaporthe species associated with soybean stem blight in six provinces of China between 2019 and 2020. A total of 92 Diaporthe isolates were identified based on morphological and multilocus phylogenetic analysis and classified into six species: D. longicolla, D. unshiuensis, D. sojae, D. caulivora, D. tectonigena, and an unknown Diaporthe sp. The most frequently identified species was D. longicolla with 57 isolates. High genetic diversity was observed for the D. longicolla isolates, and haplotype network analysis revealed a mixed structure among the population in the six provinces. In comparative pathogenicity assays, different virulence levels were observed among the 92 Diaporthe isolates. The results of this study provide new insights into the Diaporthe spp. associated with soybean stem blight in China and can help in the development of effective management strategies.

Dynamic changes of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in brain-dead donors and delayed graft function in kidney transplant recipients.

OBJECTIVES: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a simple parameter implying the inflammatory status. We aimed to explore the association of brain-dead donor NLR change with delayed graft function (DGF) in kidney transplant recipients. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the data on 102 adult brain-dead donors and their corresponding 199 kidney transplant recipients (2018 - 2021). We calculated ΔNLR by subtracting the NLR before evaluating brain death from the preoperative NLR. Increasing donor NLR was defined as ΔNLR > 0. RESULTS: Forty-four (22%) recipients developed DGF after transplantation. Increasing donor NLR was significantly associated with the development of DGF in recipients (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.2 - 6.6; p = .018), and remained significant (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.0 - 6.4; p = .040) after adjustment of confounders including BMI, hypertension, diabetes, and the occurrence of cardiac arrest. When acute kidney injury (AKI) was included in the multivariable analysis, increasing donor NLR lost its independent correlation with DGF, while AKI remained an independent risk factor of recipient DGF (OR 4.5, 95% CI 2.7 - 7.6; p < .001). The area under the curve of combined increasing NLR and AKI in donors (0.873) for predicting DGF was superior to increasing donor NLR (0.625, p = .015) and AKI alone (0.859, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic changes of donor NLR are promising in predicting post-transplant DGF. It will assist clinicians in the early recognition and management of renal graft dysfunction. Validation of this new biomarker in a large study is needed.

Clinical characteristics and management of hemodialysis patients with pre-dialysis hypertension: a multicenter observational study.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a leading preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease in hemodialysis patients. Pre-dialysis systolic blood pressure (SBP) more than 160 mmHg was thought to be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. The present study was performed to explore the clinical characteristics and management of hemodialysis patients with pre-dialysis SBP ≥ 160 mmHg. METHODS: A total of 1233 patients undergoing hemodialysis from nine hemodialysis centers were enrolled. Pre-dialysis and home BP were measured and clinical data were collected. The characteristics of patients with pre-dialysis SBP ≥ 160 mmHg were explored. Clinical parameters between hypertensive and non-hypertensive patients were compared. The partial correlation analyses performed to identify the associations between BP and clinical parameters. RESULTS: There were 24.6% of the hemodialysis patients had pre-dialysis SBP ≥ 160 mmHg and the average SBP was 173.8 ± 10.9 mmHg. Only 21.4% of the patients achieved dry weight after dialysis and up to 30.2% of patients were not given combination therapies of antihypertensive drugs. Compared to patients with pre-hemodialysis SBP < 160 mmHg, patients with pre-dialysis SBP ≥ 160 mmHg had lower target-reaching rate of Kt/v and higher incidences of intradialytic hypotension and muscle spasm. Most patients (96%) with pre-dialysis SBP ≥ 160 mmHg had home SBP≥ 135 mmHg. Patients with home SBP ≥ 160 mmHg had higher left ventricular weight index and lower hemoglobin levels when compared to their counterparts with home SBP <160 mmHg. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-dialysis SBP ≥ 160 mmHg is common in clinical practice and most of the patients could diagnosed to be hypertensive according to their home SBP. Patients with pre-dialysis SBP ≥ 160 mmHg are more likely to be subjected to dialysis insufficiency and intradialytic complications. Achieving dry weight and sufficient pharmacologic interventions should be strengthened to improve BP control in the hemodialysis population.

Genome Sequence Resource of Phomopsis longicolla YC2-1, a Fungal Pathogen Causing Phomopsis Stem Blight in Soybean.

Diaporthe-Phomopsis disease complex causes considerable yield losses in soybean production worldwide. As one of the major pathogens, Phomopsis longicolla T. W. Hobbs (syn. Diaporthe longicolla) is not only the primary agent of Phomopsis seed decay but is also one of the agents of Phomopsis pod and stem blight and Phomopsis stem canker. We performed both PacBio long-read sequencing and Illumina short-read sequencing and obtained a genome assembly for the strain P. longicolla YC2-1, which was isolated from soybean stem with Phomopsis stem blight disease. The 63.1 Mb genome assembly contains 87 scaffolds, with a minimum, maximum, and N50 scaffold length of 20 kb, 4.6 Mb, and 1.5 Mb respectively, and a total of 17,407 protein-coding genes. The high-quality data expand the genomic resource of P. longicolla species and will provide a solid foundation for a better understanding of their genetic diversity and pathogenic mechanisms.[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

First report of soybean stem blight caused by Diaporthe phaseolorum in Sichuan province, China.

In September 2020, a disease resembling stem blight on soybean was found in Chengdu city, Sichuan province, southwestern of China. Symptoms began as a brown lesion on the stems, usually at the nodes, then lesions expanded, darkened, and even girdled the stems, causing wilt of the above stems (Figure 1A). In three 0.33-ha fields, a total of 300 soybean plants (20 plants/site × 5 sites/filed × 3 fields) were investigated, and 3% of the plants showed the disease symptoms. The symptoms were consistent with those previously reported for stem canker and stem blight on soybean caused by Diaporthe complex (Cui et al. 2009; Mena et al. 2019; Santos et al. 2011). The tissues of symptomatic soybean stems were rinsed by water, disinfected by submerging them in 75% ethanol for 30 s and in 2% sodium hypochlorite solution for 2 min, then followed by washing with sterile distilled water. Small diseased tissue fragments were placed on selective potato dextrose agar (PDA) containing rifampicin and ampicillin (both 50 mg/µl). Plates were sealed and incubated at 26°C for two days. Developing mycelia of isolates were transferred to fresh PDA and purified by single hyphal tip. For the five obtained isolates (Figure 1B), five markers, including the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA, parts of the translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1), part of the histone H3 (HIS) gene, the calmodulin gene (CAL), and the beta-tubulin gene (TUB), were amplified using the established primers ITS4/ITS5 (White et al. 1990), EF1-728F/EF1-986R (Carbone and Kohn 1999), CYLH3F (Crous et al. 2006) and H3-1b (Glass and Donaldson 1995), CAL228F/CAL737R (Carbone and Kohn 1999), and Bt-2a/Bt-2b (Glass and Donaldson 1995), respectively, and sequenced (GenBank IDs: MW595761-MW595780 and MW624472-MW624476). Phylogenetic trees were constructed based on concatenated sequences of the five markers using the maximum-likelihood (ML) method in MEGA-5.2.2. Based the results of morphological (Figure 1C-E) and phylogenetic analysis (Figure 2), the five isolates were all identified as D. phaseolorum. Pathogenicity tests for the isolates were conducted on 7-day-old soybean seedlings (cv. Shangdou 1310) using a hypocotyl slit inoculation method. At the stem 2-cm below cotyledon, a 6-mm long slit was cut with a sterile scalpel, and placed inside with a 3 mm × 3 mm PDA plug with or without mycelia of pathogen. Ten plants were assayed for each treatment, and the plants were maintained in greenhouse at 26°C, with humidity higher than 90% for the first two days. The assay was repeated at least three times. Typical brown lesions on the stems were observed four days after inoculation (Figure 1F), even 20% treated plants died. The D. phaseolorum was reisolated from these stem lesions. No disease symptom was observed on control plants (Figure 1G). Thus D. phaseolorum was the pathogen causing the soybean stem blight in field. To our knowledge, this is the first report of D. phaseolorum causing this disease in Sichuan province, China. The result may provide useful information for soybean disease control in this region of China. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Funding: China Agriculture Research System (CARS-004-PS14).

Collective self-esteem and perceived stress among the non-infected general public in China during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic: A multiple mediation model.

This study aimed to investigate the multiple mediating effects of perceived social support and anxiety between collective self-esteem and perceived stress during the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. From February 18 to 25, 2020, 1921 participants aged 18-68 were recruited to complete the questionnaire online. The results showed that collective self-esteem reduced the perceived stress by increasing perceived social support and decreasing anxiety, and their chain mediation path. Our findings identified the important factors in reducing perceived stress and their relationship, which can be used to develop interventions to improve the mental health of the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Change of serum levels of pentraxin-3 and syndecan-4 in children with chronic heart failure].

OBJECTIVE: To study the change and significance of serum pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) and syndecan-4 in children with chronic heart failure (CHF). METHODS: A total of 40 children with CHF who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were enrolled as the heart failure group, and 30 children who underwent physical examination in the outpatient service during the same period of time were enrolled as the control group. The serum levels of PTX-3, syndecan-4, and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The children with CHF had significant reductions in the serum levels of PTX-3, syndecan-4, and NT-proBNP after treatment. The levels of these markers in children with CHF were significantly higher than the control group before and after treatment (P < 0.05). The CHF children with grade II/III/IV cardiac function had significantly higher serum levels of PTX-3 and syndecan-4 than the control group (P < 0.05). The levels of PTX-3 and syndecan-4 were related to the severity of cardiac function. Compared with the grade II cardiac function group, the grade IV cardiac function group had significant increases in the serum levels of PTX-3 and syndecan-4 (P < 0.05). The serum level of PTX-3 was positively correlated with that of syndecan-4 in children with CHF (rs=0.999, P < 0.05); the serum level of PTX-3 was positively correlated with NT-proBNP, left ventricular mass index (LVMI), and cardiac function grade (rs=0.726, 0.736, and 0.934 respectively, P < 0.05) and was negatively correlated with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS) (rs=-0.852 and -0.767 respectively, P < 0.05); the serum level of syndecan-4 was positively correlated with NT-proBNP, LVMI, and cardiac function grade (rs=0.733, 0.743, and 0.934 respectively, P < 0.05) and was negatively correlated with LVEF and LVFS (rs=-0.856 and -0.771 respectively, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Serum PTX-3 and syndecan-4 may be involved in the development and progression of ventricular remodeling in children with CHF and may be used as markers for the diagnosis, cardiac function grading, and treatment outcome evaluation of children with heart failure.

[Clinical manifestations and gene mutation analysis of children with noncompaction of the ventricular myocardium: an analysis of 6 cases].

This article summarizes and analyzes the clinical features and gene mutation characteristics of children with noncompaction of the ventricular myocardium (NVM). For the 6 children with NVM (4 boys and 2 girls), the age of onset ranged from 3 months to 12 years. Of the 6 children, 5 had arrhythmia, 3 had cardiac insufficiency, 1 had poor mental state, and 1 had chest distress and sighing. NVM-related gene mutations were detected in 4 children, among whom 2 had MYH7 gene mutation, 1 had PRDM16 gene mutation, and 1 had mutations in the ACTN2 and TNNT2 genes. Four children had improvement in cardiac function. The two children with no significant improvement in cardiac function had a younger age of onset, a greater reduction in systolic function on echocardiography, and greater increases in myocardial enzyme and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide. It is concluded that for children with the initial symptoms of chest distress, sighing, arrhythmia, enlarged heart shadow, and increased myocardial enzyme, echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance are recommended for the diagnosis of NVM. NVM can have various genetic mutations.