Staying hungry: a roadmap to harnessing central regulators of symbiotic nitrogen fixation under fluctuating nitrogen availability.

Legumes have evolved specific inventions to enhance nitrogen (N) acquisition by establishing symbiotic interactions with N-fixing rhizobial bacteria. Because symbiotic N fixation is energetically costly, legumes have developed sophisticated mechanisms to ensure carbon-nitrogen balance, in a variable environment, both locally and at the whole plant level, by monitoring nodule number, nodule development, and nodular nitrogenase activity, as well as controlling nodule senescence. Studies of the autoregulation of nodulation and regulation of nodulation by nodule inception (NIN) and NIN-LIKE PROTEINs (NLPs) have provided great insights into the genetic mechanisms underlying the nitrate-induced regulation of root nodulation for adapting to N availability in the rhizosphere. However, many aspects of N-induced pleiotropic regulation remain to be fully explained, such as N-triggered senescence in mature nodules. Wang et al. determined that this process is governed by a transcriptional network regulated by NAC-type transcription factors. Characterization and dissection of these soybean nitrogen-associated NAPs (SNAPs) transcription factor-mastered networks have yielded a roadmap for exploring how legumes rewire nodule functions across a range of N levels, laying the foundation for enhancing the growth of N-deprived crops in agricultural settings.

Rotavirus-associated immune thrombocytopenic purpura in children: A retrospective study.

Certain studies have previously indicated that an association may exist between rotavirus infection and primary immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). The present retrospective study aimed to investigate whether rotavirus may cause ITP in children. Firstly, the incidence of ITP in children with or without rotavirus diarrhea was compared. A 14.58% incident rate was observed in children with rotavirus diarrhea compared with a 7.22% incident rate in children without rotavirus diarrhea. Subsequently, the clinical features of ITP children with or without rotavirus infection were compared. The results indicated that ITP children with rotavirus infection were significantly younger, showed significantly decreased mean platelet volume (MPV) levels and presented a significantly higher frequency of bleeding score of 3 against ITP children without rotavirus infection. In conclusion, these findings suggest that rotavirus serves a causative role in ITP.