First Report of Colletotrichum liriopes Causing Leaf Spot of Rohdea japonica in China.

Rohdea japonica, known as Japanese sacred lily, a perennial herb in the family Asparagaceae, is an important ornamental plant in China (Hinkley 2006). In May 2022, at the campus of Jiangxi Agricultural University (28o45'50″N, 115o50'2″E), Nanchang, China, leaf spots occurred on R. japonica with a disease incidence of 95% (285/300 plants). Disease severity ranged from 40-60% of the leaf area on each plant. Symptoms initially appeared as small water-soaked spots, usually at the edges of the leaves. Then, the spots enlarged rapidly and became yellow brown, circular or semicircular. Finally, the dead tissues fell out of the leaf, leaving ragged leaf edges. Small pieces (3×3 mm) cut from the margin of necrotic leaf tissue were surface disinfested in 75% ethanol for 10 s and 0.1% HgCl2 for 20 s. After being rinsed three times with sterile distilled water, tissue was placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates and incubated at 28℃ with a 12 h light-dark cycle. The growing fungal colonies were purified by subculturing hyphal tips, and 12 fungal isolates with similar morphology were obtained. Colonies were flat, smoke-grey with olivaceous green fan-shaped stripes. Conidia were single-celled, hyaline, slightly curved, both ends gradually tapering, measuring 14.9 - 25.3 µm long × 3.9 - 6.2 µm wide (n = 100). Appressoria were solitary, irregular, sometimes ellipsoidal, dark brown, measuring 6.5 - 17.6 µm long × 3.9 - 8.7 µm wide (n = 50). Morphological and cultural characteristics of the isolates matched the descriptions of Colletotrichum liriopes (Damm et al. 2009; Yang et al. 2020). To confirm the pathogens identity, genomic DNA of a representative isolate (WNQ1) was extracted, and the rDNA-ITS, TUB2 and CAL gene were amplified and sequenced using the primers ITS1/ITS4, T1/Bt2b, and CL1C/CL2C (White et al. 1990; Weir et al. 2012), respectively. The sequences were deposited in GenBank under accession number: ON514224 (rDNA-ITS), ON552548 (TUB2) and ON552549 (CAL). BLAST analyses showed 100%, 99.73% and 100% identity with 100% query coverage to the rDNA-ITS, TUB2 and CAL sequence of C. liriopes (MK644098, HM585414 and MN803417, respectively). Phylogenetic analysis using concatenated sequences of rDNA-ITS, TUB2 and CAL placed the isolate WNQ1 in a single clade with the reference strain of C. liriopes CORCK2. To confirm pathogenicity, a conidial suspension (1×106 conidia/ml) of isolate WNQ1 was sprayed on three leaves each of three healthy R. japonica plants wounded with a sterile needle, whereas control plants were wounded in the same way and sprayed with sterile distilled water. All treated plants were placed in a moist incubator at 28℃ with a 12 h photoperiod. Three days later symptoms, similar to those described above appeared. Symptoms did not develop on the control leaves. C. liriopes was recovered from the inoculated leaves, fulfilling Koch's postulates. Anthracnose caused by C. liriopes in R. japonica plants has been reported in the United States and Korea. To our knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose on R. japonica caused by C. liriopes in China. The disease seriously affected the ornamental value of R. japonica. The result provides the foundation to study the occurrence patterns and control measures of R. japonica anthracnose.

General Strategy for Bioluminescence Sensing of Peptidase Activity In Vivo Based on Tumor-Targeting Probiotic.

The abnormally expressed peptidases in human tissues are associated with many kinds of cancers. Monitoring of endogenous peptidase activity could allow us for pathophysiology elucidation and early clinical diagnosis. Herein, we developed a general strategy for bioluminescence (BL) sensing of peptidase activity in vivo based on tumor-targeting probiotics. The probiotic that harbored a luciferase-encoding plasmid was used to target and colonize tumor and provide luciferase for BL imaging. The peptide-based probes Lc and GPc were applied to track leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) and dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPPIV) activity, respectively, by simply adding l-leucine and Gly-Pro dipeptides at the N-terminus of d-cysteine, which were specifically controlled by peptidase cleavage and released free d-cysteine to conduct a subsequent click condensation reaction with 2-cyano-6-hydroxybenzothiazole (HCBT) to produce firefly luciferin in situ, giving rise to a strong BL signal. Neither gene modification of cells of interest nor complicated synthesis was required in this BL system. Encouraged by these advantages, we successfully used our probes to monitor LAP and DPPIV activities in vitro and in vivo, respectively. A good linearity between BL and peptidase was obtained in the concentration range of 2.5-40.0 mU/mL with a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.1 mU/mL (55 ng/mL) for LAP and 2.0-40.0 mU/mL with a LOD of 0.78 mU/mL (1.15 ng/mL) for DPPIV, respectively. Additionally, approximately 5-fold (LAP) and 10-fold (DPPIV) differences in the BL signal before and after treatment with a specific inhibitor were also obtained for in vivo BL imaging. All these results reflected the potential application value of our probes in BL sensing of peptidase activity. We envision that our strategy may be a useful approach for monitoring a wide range of peptidases in tumors, especially in primary tumors.

Electrostatic adsorption and removal mechanism of ochratoxin A in wine via a positively charged nano-MgO microporous ceramic membrane.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a very important mycotoxin. However, there are few studies on the removal of OTA in wine because of the great influence on product quality and difficulty in practical application. A nano-MgO-modified diatomite ceramic membrane (MCM) with a high positive charge was prepared and applied to remove OTA in wine. The isotherm adsorption between the positively charged membrane and OTA was in accordance with the Langmuir model, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 806 ng/g at 25 °C. All of the changes in adsorption enthalpy (ΔH), adsorption free energy (ΔG) and adsorption entropy (ΔS) were negative, which indicated that the combination of nano-MgO MCM and OTA was a spontaneous exothermic and nonspecific physical adsorption process. The concentrations of OTA in adsorption-treated wines were lower than 2 µg/kg, and the removal rates exceeded 92%. After OTA removal, the composition of wines was preserved to some extent.

The distinct difference in azido sugar metabolic rate between neural stem cells and fibroblasts and its application for decontamination of chemically induced neural stem cells.

In our report, we found a distinct difference in azido sugar metabolic rate between neural stem cells and fibroblasts, which can be used for selective removal of fibroblasts from neural stem cell mixtures. Chemically induced neural stem cells (ciNSCs) serve as a highly valuable source of NSCs. Incompletely induced fibroblasts could interfere with ciNSC differentiation and become tumorigenic. Herein, we applied our method for the decontamination of ciNSCs and it exhibited excellent selectivity for ciNSCs. The results demonstrate that the ciNSC population can be efficiently purified to 98.1%. As far as we know, this is the highest purity obtained so far. We envision that, in the future, our method could be used as a safe, effective, and chemically-defined tool for decontaminating ciNSCs in both fundamental research and clinical stem cell therapy.

Eating on impulse: Implicit attitudes, self-regulatory resources, and trait self-control as determinants of food consumption.

Self-regulatory resources and trait self-control have been found to moderate the impulse-behavior relationship. The current study investigated whether the interaction of self-regulatory resources and trait self-control moderates the association between implicit attitudes and food consumption. One hundred twenty female participants were randomly assigned to either a depletion condition in which their self-regulatory resources were reduced or a no-depletion condition. Participants' implicit attitudes for chocolate were measured with the Single Category Implicit Association Test and self-report measures of trait self-control were collected. The dependent variable was chocolate consumption in an ostensible taste and rate task. Implicit attitudes predicted chocolate consumption in depleted participants but not in non-depleted participants. However, this predictive power of implicit attitudes on eating in depleted condition disappeared in participants with high trait self-control. Thus, trait self-control and self-regulatory resources interact to moderate the prediction of implicit attitude on eating behavior. Results suggest that high trait self-control buffers the effect of self-regulatory depletion on impulsive eating.

Increased expression of mineralocorticoid receptor and 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 in human atria during atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND: Atrialfibrillation (AF) is associated with the activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in the atria. It is not clear whether the expression of a mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), or 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11betaHSD2), conferring aldosterone specificity to the MR, in patients with AF is altered. HYPOTHESIS: Patients with AF may be associated with increased expression of MR and 11betaHSD2 in the atria. METHODS: Atrial tissue samples of 25 patients with rheumatic heart valve disease undergoing a valve replacement operation were examined. A total of 13 patients had chronic persistent AF (>6 mo) and 12 patients had no history of AF. The MR and 11betaHSD2 expression were analyzed at the mRNA and protein level. The localization of MR and 11betaHSD2 in atrial tissue was performed using specific immunohistochemistry staining. RESULTS: The results of real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) showed that AF groups, in comparison with sinus rhythm, had a higher mRNA expression level of MR or 11betaHSD2 (all P < 0.01). Both the MR and 11betaHSD2 protein expression level in atrial tissue were also significantly increased in patients with AF compared with patients with sinus rhythm (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). The immunohistochemical staining of MR or 11betaHSD2 demonstrated that MR and 11betaHSD2 predominately located in the cytoplasm of myocardial cells in the atrium and the intensity and density of immunostaining appeared to be increased in the atria of patients with AF compared to those without AF. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing expression of MR and 11betaHSD2 in the atria during AF is one of the molecular mechanisms for development of atrial interstitial fibrosis in patients with AF. These findings may have an important impact on the treatment of AF with aldosterone antagonists.

Oxidised cholesterol is more hypercholesterolaemic and atherogenic than non-oxidised cholesterol in hamsters.

The present study was to test the relative hypercholesterolaemic and atherogenic potency of oxidised cholesterol (OxC) and non-oxidised cholesterol in hamsters. An OxC mixture, prepared by heating pure cholesterol (100 g) at 160 degrees C in air for 72 h, contained 78 % cholesterol and 22 % OxC. Fifty Golden Syrian hamsters were randomly divided into five groups of ten animals and fed the control diet, a 0.05 % cholesterol diet (C-0.05), a 0.10 % cholesterol diet (C-0.1), a 0.05 % OxC mixture diet (OxC-0.05) or a 0.10 % OxC mixture diet (OxC-0.1), respectively. The OxC-0.05 and OxC-0.1 groups were more hypercholesterolaemic and had serum total cholesterol 22 and 12 % higher than the corresponding C-0.05 and C-0.1 hamsters (P < 0.05). The OxC-0.1 group demonstrated greater deposition of cholesterol and had a larger area of atherosclerotic plaque in the aorta than the corresponding C-0.1 hamsters (P < 0.05). Similarly, the aorta in the OxC-0.1 group showed greater inhibition on acetylcholine-induced relaxation compared with that in the C-0.1 hamsters. It was concluded that OxC was much more hypercholesterolaemic and atherogenic than cholesterol.