A MYB family transcription factor TdRCA1 from wild emmer wheat regulates anthocyanin biosynthesis in coleoptile.

As important secondary metabolites in plants, anthocyanins not only contribute to colored plants organs, but also provide protections against various biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, a MYB transcription factor gene TdRCA1 from wild emmer wheat regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis in wheat coleoptile was identified on the short arm of chromosome 7A in common wheat genetic background. The TdRCA1 overexpression lines showed colored callus, coleoptile, auricle and stem nodes, as well as up regulation of six anthocyanin-related structural genes. The expression of TdRCA1 was activated by light in a temporal manner. While coleoptile color of 48 and 60 h dark-grown seedlings changed from green to red after 24 h light treatment, those grown in dark for 72 and 96 h failed to develop red coleoptiles after light restoration. Interestingly, the over expression of TdRCA1 resulted in increased resistance to Fusarium crown rot, a chronic and severe fungal disease in many cereal growing regions in the world. Our results offer a better understanding of the molecular basis of coleoptile color in bread wheat.

Cadmium causes cerebral mitochondrial dysfunction through regulating mitochondrial HSF1.

Mitochondria, as the powerhouse of the cell, play a vital role in maintaining cellular energy homeostasis and are known to be a primary target of cadmium (Cd) toxicity. The improper targeting of proteins to mitochondria can compromise the normal functions of the mitochondria. However, the precise mechanism by which protein localization contributes to the development of mitochondrial dysfunction induced by Cd is still not fully understood. For this research, Hy-Line white variety chicks (1-day-old) were used and equally distributed into 4 groups: the Control group (fed with a basic diet), the Cd35 group (basic diet with 35 mg/kg CdCl2), the Cd70 group (basic diet with 70 mg/kg CdCl2) and the Cd140 group (basic diet with 140 mg/kg CdCl2), respectively for 90 days. It was found that Cd caused the accumulation of heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) in the mitochondria, and the overexpression of HSF1 in the mitochondria led to mitochondrial dysfunction and neuronal damage. This process is due to the mitochondrial HSF1 (mtHSF1), causing mitochondrial fission through the upregulation of dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) content, while inhibiting oligomer formation of single-stranded DNA-binding protein 1 (SSBP1), resulting in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletion. The findings unveil an unforeseen role of HSF1 in triggering mitochondrial dysfunction.

Preparation and characterization of starch carbamate modified natural sodium alginate composite hydrogel blend formulation and its application for slow-release fertilizer.

The exploration of environmentally friendly slow-release fertilizer (SRF) based on natural bio-polymers is of great importance in the development of modern agriculture and horticulture. Herein, a novel starch carbamate (SC) modified sodium alginate (SA) hydrogel (SC/SAH) was prepared utilizing as-synthesized SC and natural SA through the cationic ions crosslinking method and ultimately the corresponding slow-release fertilizer (SC/SAH-SRF) was successfully developed by immersing the dried SC/SAH matrix into saturated urea solution. Due to the low gelation temperature and high viscosity of the synthesized SC, the formed SC/SAH exhibits significantly enhanced properties including excellent water absorbency up to 8.02 g/g with considerable repeatability, abundant pore structure and high hydrophilicity compared with the neat SAH and natural starch based hydrogel (NS/SAH). Accordingly, the SC/SAH leads to higher urea loading amount âˆ¼ 1.28 g/g. Importantly, the resultant SC/SAH-SRF also shows superior slow-release performance, yielding a cumulative urea release of only 61.6 % within 10 h and almost completely release >16 h in water, what's more, only 58.5 % of the urea releases within 25 days and exceeding 50 days for complete release in soil column assays. The slow-release of urea from SC/SAH-SRF well complies for the first-order kinetics and accomplishes via a non-Fickian diffusion process. Moreover, the pot experiment demonstrates that the SC/SAH-SRF has higher growth promotion role for the maize seedlings than those of others. Consequently, this work provides a novel strategy for preparing environmentally friendly SRF by blending modified starch and hydrogel.

Cadmium causes spleen toxicity in chickens by regulating mitochondrial unfolded protein response and nuclear receptors response.

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal that pollutes the environment and threatens human and animal health via the food chain. The spleen is one of the target organs affected by Cd toxicity. However, the mechanism of Cd toxicity is not fully understood. In this study, 80 chicks were allocated into 4 groups (n = 20) and exposed to different doses of CdCl2 (0 mg/kg, 35 mg/kg, 70 mg/kg and 140 mg/kg) for 90 d. The pathological changes in the spleen, mitochondrial dynamics-related factors, cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzyme system contents, activities, transcription levels, nuclear receptors (NRs) response molecule levels, and mitochondrial unfolded protein-related factors were detected. The findings indicate that exposure to Cd significantly leads to spleen injury. In Cd groups, the total contents of CYP450 and cytochrome b5 (Cyt b5) increased, and the activities of the CYP450 enzyme system (APND, ERND, AH, and NCR) changed. The NRs response was induced, and the gene levels of AHR/CAR and corresponding CYP450 isoforms (CYP1B1, CYP1A5, CYP1A1, CYP2C18, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4) were found altered. The study found that Cd exposure altered the mRNA expression levels of mitochondrial dynamics-related factors, such as OPA1, Fis1, MFF, Mfn1, and Mfn2, breaking mitochondrial fusion and cleavage and ultimately leading to mitochondrial dysfunction. Changes were detected in the gene levels of several mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mtUPR)-related factors, namely (SIRT1, PGC-1α, NRF1, TFAM, SOD2, and HtrA2). Cd also altered the gene levels of mitochondrial function-related factors (VDAC1, Cyt-C, COA6, PRDX3, RAF and SIRT3). It is showed that Cd can initiate the NRs response, influence the homeostasis of the CPY450 enzyme system, trigger the mtUPR, impair mitochondrial function, and ultimately lead to Cd toxicity in the spleen of chickens.

[Enzyme metabolism and functions in vitamin biosynthesis pathways].

Vitamins, as indispensable organic compounds in life activities, demonstrate a complex and refined metabolic network in organisms. This network involves the coordination of multiple enzymes and the integration of various metabolic pathways. Despite the achievements in metabolic engineering and catalytic mechanism research, the lack of studies regarding detailed enzymatic properties for a large number of key enzymes limits the enhancement of vitamin production efficiency and hinders the in-depth understanding and optimization of vitamin synthesis mechanisms. Such limitations not only restrict the industrial application of vitamins but also impede the development of related bio-technologies. This study comprehensively reviews the research progress in the enzymes involved in vitamin biosynthesis and details the current status of research on the enzymes of 13 vitamin synthesis pathways, including their catalytic mechanisms, kinetic properties, and applications in biology. In addition, this study compares the properties of enzymes involved in vitamin metabolic pathways and the glycolysis pathway, and reveals the characteristics of catalytic efficiency and substrate affinity of enzymes in vitamin synthesis pathways. Furthermore, this study discusses the potential and prospects of applying deep learning methods to the research on properties of enzymes associated with vitamin biosynthesis, giving new insights into the production and optimization of vitamins.

Population pharmacokinetics and exposure-response analyses of SAF-189s in Chinese patients with ALK+/ROS1+ non-small cell lung cancer.

Objective: SAF-189s is a potent ALK/ROS1 inhibitor that is currently in clinical development for treating advanced ALK+/ROS1+ non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Comprehensive population pharmacokinetics (PopPK) and exposure-response models were developed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of SAF-189s by integrating data from two clinical studies. Methods: The PopPK model was developed using plasma concentration data collected from patients with ALK+/ROS1+ advanced NSCLC (n = 299) and healthy subjects (n = 24). The covariates (demographics, laboratory values, subject types, and concomitant medications) were evaluated to determine their potential influence on the between-patient variability in the pharmacokinetics of SAF-189s. Individual exposure values were then used to investigate the relationships with the efficacy endpoints (overall response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and duration of response (DOR)) and key safety endpoints (adverse events of interest). Results: The final PopPK model of SAF-189s was described by a one-compartment model with delayed first-order absorption and time-dependent elimination by allowing the clearance to decrease stepwise over time. Age was included as a covariate for apparent clearance (CL/F), while prior anti-cancer therapy in ALK+ patients (ALKPOT) was included for apparent volume of distribution (V/F). There were no apparent exposure-response relationships for any of the efficacy endpoints at doses of 80-210 mg. The relationship between exposure and safety suggested that a higher steady-state exposure was associated with more frequent incidences of hyperglycemia and proteinuria; the 210-mg dose group was also less tolerated than the other low-dose groups. Conclusion: PopPK and exposure-response models were developed for SAF-189s, and their results demonstrate that SAF-189s exposures are at the plateau of exposure-response for efficacy. The 210-mg dose group had a significantly higher safety risk, while the 160-mg dose group was well-tolerated. Thus, 160 mg of SAF-189s once daily was selected as the recommended phase III dose for the ALK+/ROS1+ or ROS1+ NSCLC patients.

Inhibition of the p62-Nrf2-GPX4 Pathway Confers Sensitivity to Butachlor-Induced Splenic Macrophage Ferroptosis.

Butachlor is widely used in agriculture around the world and therefore poses environmental and public health hazards due to persistent and poor biodegradability. Ferroptosis is a type of iron-mediated cell death controlled by glutathione (GSH) and GPX4 inhibition. P62 is an essential autophagy adaptor that regulates Keap1 to activate nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), which effectively suppresses lipid peroxidation, thereby relieving ferroptosis. Here, we found that butachlor caused changes in splenic macrophage structure, especially impaired mitochondrial morphology with disordered structure, which is suggestive of the occurrence of ferroptosis. This was further confirmed by the detection of iron metabolism, the GSH system, and lipid peroxidation. Mechanistically, butachlor suppressed the protein level of p62 and promoted Keap1-mediated degradation of Nrf2, which results in decreased GPX4 expression and accelerated splenic macrophage ferroptosis. These findings suggest that targeting the p62-Nrf2-GPX4 signaling axis may be a promising strategy for treating inflammatory diseases.

Comparative analysis of bioaerosol emissions: Seasonal dynamics and exposure risks in hospital vs. municipal wastewater treatment systems.

Hospital wastewater is known to contain various pathogenic microorganisms and harmful substances. During the hospital wastewater treatment process, the bioaerosols released may encapsulate these pathogens, leading to human infection. This study undertook an investigation to compare the dispersion characteristics and seasonal variations of bioaerosols from hospital and municipal sewage. The results indicated that the airborne bacterial concentration from hospital sewage (119 ± 118 CFU/m3) was higher than municipal sewage (46 ± 19 CFU/m3), with the highest concentration observed in summer. The dominant bacterial genera present in bioaerosols from both sewages were alike, with the proportions varied by sewage types and the structure mainly influenced by seasonal factors. Bacteroides, Escherichia-Shigella and Streptococcus were identified as the most prevalent pathogenic genera in spring, summer and winter bioaerosols, respectively, while Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter were abundant in autumn. Although the non-carcinogenic risk associated with bioaerosols was low (<1), the presence of pathogenic species and their potential synergistic interactions elevated the overall exposure risk. The diffusion modeling results demonstrated that bioaerosol emissions from the surface of hospital sewage can reach up to 10570 CFU/m3 in summer and can spread more than 300 m downwind. The potential pathogenicity of bioaerosols was also highest in summer, which may pose a health hazard to populations located downwind. Therefore, the management and control of bioaerosols from sewage should be strengthened, especially in summer.

Cobalt nanoparticles intercalation coupled with tellurium-doping MXene for efficient electrocatalytic water splitting.

Nowadays, the inherent re-stacking nature and weak d-p hybridization orbital interactions within MXene remains significant challenges in the field of electrocatalytic water splitting, leading to unsatisfactory electrocatalytic activity and cycling stability. Herein, this work aims to address these challenges and improve electrocatalytic performance by utilizing cobalt nanoparticles intercalation coupled with enhanced π-donation effect. Specifically, cobalt nanoparticles are integrated into V2C MXene nanosheets to mitigate the re-stacking issue. Meanwhile, a notable charge redistribution from cobalt to vanadium elevates orbital levels, reduces π*-antibonding orbital occupancy and alleviates Jahn-Teller distortion. Doping with tellurium induces localized electric field rearrangement resulting from the changes in electron cloud density. As a result, Co-V2C MXene-Te acquires desirable activity for hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction with the overpotential of 80.8 mV and 287.7 mV, respectively, at the current density of -10 mA cm-2 and 10 mA cm-2. The overall water splitting device achieves an impressive low cell voltage requirement of 1.51 V to obtain 10 mA cm-2. Overall, this work could offer a promising solution when facing the re-stacking issue and weak d-p hybridization orbital interactions of MXene, furnishing a high-performance electrocatalyst with favorable electrocatalytic activity and cycling stability.

Heritability of functional gradients in the human subcortico-cortical connectivity.

The human subcortex plays a pivotal role in cognition and is widely implicated in the pathophysiology of many psychiatric disorders. However, the heritability of functional gradients based on subcortico-cortical functional connectivity remains elusive. Here, leveraging twin functional MRI (fMRI) data from both the Human Connectome Project (n = 1023) and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (n = 936) datasets, we construct large-scale subcortical functional gradients and delineate an increased principal functional gradient pattern from unimodal sensory/motor networks to transmodal association networks. We observed that this principal functional gradient is heritable, and the strength of heritability exhibits a heterogeneous pattern along a hierarchical unimodal-transmodal axis in subcortex for both young adults and children. Furthermore, employing a machine learning framework, we show that this heterogeneous pattern of the principal functional gradient in subcortex can accurately discern the relationship between monozygotic twin pairs and dizygotic twin pairs with an accuracy of 76.2% (P < 0.001). The heritability of functional gradients is associated with the anatomical myelin proxied by MRI-derived T1-weighted/T2-weighted (T1w/T2w) ratio mapping in subcortex. This study provides new insights into the biological basis of subcortical functional hierarchy by revealing the structural and genetic properties of the subcortical functional gradients.

AQP1 Deficiency Drives Phthalate-Induced Epithelial Barrier Disruption through Intestinal Inflammation.

Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is frequently used as a plasticizer to enhance the plasticity and durability of agricultural products, which pose adverse effects to human health and the environment. Aquaporin 1 (AQP1) is a main water transport channel protein and is involved in the maintenance of intestinal integrity. However, the impact of DEHP exposure on gut health and its potential mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we determined that DEHP exposure induced a compromised duodenum structure, which was concomitant with mitochondrial structural injury of epithelial cells. Importantly, DEHP exposure caused duodenum inflammatory epithelial cell damage and strong inflammatory response accompanied by activating the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway. Mechanistically, DEHP exposure directly inhibits the expression of AQP1 and thus leads to an inflammatory response, ultimately disrupting duodenum integrity and barrier function. Collectively, our findings uncover the role of AQP1 in phthalate-induced intestinal disorders, and AQP1 could be a promising therapeutic approach for treating patients with intestinal disorders or inflammatory diseases.

The GA and ABA signaling is required for hydrogen-mediated seed germination in wax gourd.

BACKGROUND: Hydrogen gas (H2), a novel and beneficial gaseous molecule, plays a significant role in plant growth and development processes. Hydrogen-rich water (HRW) is regarded as a safe and easily available way to study the physiological effects of H2 on plants. Several recent research has shown that HRW attenuates stress-induced seed germination inhibition; however, the underlying modes of HRW on seed germination remain obscure under non-stress condition. RESULTS: In this current study, we investigated the possible roles of gibberellin (GA) and abscisic acid (ABA) in HRW-regulated seed germination in wax gourd (Benincasa hispida) through pharmacological, physiological, and transcriptome approaches. The results showed that HRW application at an optimal dose (50% HRW) significantly promoted seed germination and shortened the average germination time (AGT). Subsequent results suggested that 50% HRW treatment stimulated GA production by regulating GA biosynthesis genes (BhiGA3ox, BhiGA2ox, and BhiKAO), whereas it had no effect on the content of ABA and the expression of its biosynthesis (BhiNCED6) and catabolism genes (BhiCYP707A2) but decreased the expression of ABA receptor gene (BhiPYL). In addition, inhibition of GA production by paclobutrazol (PAC) could block the HRW-mediated germination. Treatment with ABA could hinder HRW-mediated seed germination and the ABA biosynthesis inhibitor sodium tungstate (ST) could recover the function of HRW. Furthermore, RNA-seq analysis revealed that, in the presence of GA or ABA, an abundance of genes involved in GA, ABA, and ethylene signal sensing and transduction might involve in HRW-regulated germination. CONCLUSIONS: This study portrays insights into the mechanism of HRW-mediated seed germination, suggesting that HRW can regulate the balance between GA and ABA to mediate seed germination through ethylene signals in wax gourd.

Natural Products with Potential Effects on Hemorrhoids: A Review.

Hemorrhoid disease is a common anorectal disorder affecting populations worldwide, with high prevalence, treatment difficulties, and considerable treatment costs. Compared to other treatment options, medical therapy for hemorrhoids offers minimal harm, more dignity to patients, and is more economical. Unfortunately, there are few chemical hemorrhoid medications available clinically, which makes the search for efficacious, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly new medication classes a focal point of research. In this context, searching for available natural products to improve hemorrhoids exhibits tremendous potential. These products are derived from nature, predominantly from plants, with a minor portion coming from animals, fungi, and algae. They have excellent coagulation pathway regulation, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and tissue regeneration activities. Therefore, we take the view that they are a class of potential hemorrhoid drugs, prevention products, and medication add-on ingredients. This article first reviews the factors contributing to the development of hemorrhoids, types, primary symptoms, and the mechanisms of natural products for hemorrhoids. Building on this foundation, we screened natural products with potential hemorrhoid improvement activity, including polyphenols and flavonoids, terpenes, polysaccharides, and other types.

Improved YOLOv8-Based Target Precision Detection Algorithm for Train Wheel Tread Defects.

Train wheels are crucial components for ensuring the safety of trains. The accurate and fast identification of wheel tread defects is necessary for the timely maintenance of wheels, which is essential for achieving the premise of conditional repair. Image-based detection methods are commonly used for detecting tread defects, but they still have issues with the misdetection of water stains and the leaking of small defects. In this paper, we address the challenges posed by the detection of wheel tread defects by proposing improvements to the YOLOv8 model. Firstly, the impact of water stains on tread defect detection is avoided by optimising the structure of the detection layer. Secondly, an improved SPPCSPC module is introduced to enhance the detection of small targets. Finally, the SIoU loss function is used to accelerate the convergence speed of the network, which ensures defect recognition accuracy with high operational efficiency. Validation was performed on the constructed tread defect dataset. The results demonstrate that the enhanced YOLOv8 model in this paper outperforms the original network and significantly improves the tread defect detection indexes. The average precision, accuracy, and recall reached 96.95%, 96.30%, and 95.31%.

Identification of a Diagnostic Multiomics-Based Biomarker Cluster in a Mouse Model of Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) stands as the second most prevalent infectious agent-related cause of death worldwide in 2022, trailing only COVID-19. With 1.13 million reported deaths, this figure is more than half of the mortality associated with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), which accounted for 0.63 million deaths. Diagnosing Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection remains a formidable challenge due to the inability to isolate and detect MTB in sputum and within the human body. The absence of universally reliable diagnostic criteria for MTB infection globally poses a significant obstacle to preventing the progression of tuberculosis from the MTB infection stage. METHODS: In this study, our objective was to formulate a diagnostic biomarker cluster capable of discerning the progression of MTB infection and disease. This was achieved through a comprehensive joint multiomics analysis, encompassing transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome, conducted on lung tissue samples obtained from both normal control mice and those infected with MTB. RESULTS: A total of 1690 differentially expressed genes and 94 differentially expressed proteins were systematically screened. From this pool, 10 core genes were singled out. Additionally, eight long non-coding ribonucleic acids and eight metabolites linked to these core genes were identified to establish a cohesive cluster of biomarkers. This multiomics-based biomarker cluster demonstrated its capability to differentiate uninfected samples from MTB-infected samples effectively in both principle component analysis and the construction of a random forest model. CONCLUSION: The outcomes of our study strongly suggest that the multiomics-based biomarker cluster holds significant potential for enhancing the diagnosis of MTB infection.

Two new limonoid glycosides from the seeds of Citrus Limon and their PDE4D inhibitory activities.

Two new limonoid glycosides, named limonosides A (1) and B (2), along with four known limonoids (3-6) were obtained from the seeds of Citrus limon. Their structures were deduced based on extensive spectroscopic analysis. Limonoside A (1) and nomilin (4) were found to possess moderate phosphodiesterase type 4D (PDE4D) inhibitory effect with values of 89.8 ± 2.4% and 98.9 ± 3.0% at 10 µM, respectively.

Effects of Different Cultivation Modes on Morphological Traits and Correlations between Traits and Body Mass of Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii).

In this study, juvenile crayfish hatched from the same population were cultured in different growing environments: pond (D1), paddy field (D2), and aquaculture barrel (D3), and fed for 60 days. Crayfishes were selected randomly, females and males, 50 tails each from six groups (D1-♀, D1-♂, D2-♀, D2-♂, D3-♀, D3-♂) to measure the following morphological traits: full length (X1), body length (X2), chelicerae length (X3), chelicerae weight (X4), cephalothorax length (X5), cephalothorax width (X6), cephalothorax height (X7), eye spacing (X8), caudal peduncle length (X9), and caudal peduncle weight (X10). We found that the coefficient of variation (CV) of X4 was the largest in each culture mode, and males (28.58%~38.67%) were larger than females (37.76%~66.74%). The CV of X4 of crayfish cultured in D1 and D2 was larger than that of D3. All traits except X8 were positively correlated with body weight (p < 0.05). After pathway analysis, we found that X4, X5, X7, and X10 were significantly correlated with the body weight of D1-♀; the equation was YD1-♀ = -29.803 + 1.249X4 + 0.505X5 + 0.701X7 + 1.483X10 (R2 = 0.947). However, X2, X4, and X6 were significantly correlated with the body weight of D1-♂; the equation was YD1-♂ = -40.881 + 0.39X2 + 0.845X4 + 1.142X6 (R2 = 0.927). In D2-♀, X1, X4, X5, and X10 were significantly correlated with body weight; the equation was YD2-♀ = -12.248 + 0.088X1 + 1.098X4 + 0.275X5 + 0.904X10 (R2 = 0.977). X4 and X5 played a major role in the body weight of D2-♂ with the equation: YD2-♂ = -24.871 + 1.177X4 + 0.902X5 (R2 = 0.973). X3 and X10 mainly contributed to the body weight of D3-♀ with the equation: YD3-♀ = -22.476 + 0.432X3 + 3.153X10 (R2 = 0.976). X1 and X4 mainly contributed to the body weight of D3-♂ with the equation: YD3-♂ = -34.434 + 0.363X1 + 0.669X4 (R2 = 0.918). Comparing the pathway analysis with the gray relation analysis, we could conclude that the traits most correlated with body weight in D1-♀ were X10 and X7; in D1-♂, X6; in D2-♀, X10, X1, and X5; in D2-♂, X5; in D3-♀, X10; and in D3-♂, X4 and X1.

TrG2P: A transfer-learning-based tool integrating multi-trait data for accurate prediction of crop yield.

Yield prediction is the primary goal of genomic selection (GS)-assisted crop breeding. Because yield is a complex quantitative trait, making predictions from genotypic data is challenging. Transfer learning can produce an effective model for a target task by leveraging knowledge from a different, but related, source domain and is considered a great potential method for improving yield prediction by integrating multi-trait data. However, it has not previously been applied to genotype-to-phenotype prediction owing to the lack of an efficient implementation framework. We therefore developed TrG2P, a transfer-learning-based framework. TrG2P first employs convolutional neural networks (CNN) to train models using non-yield-trait phenotypic and genotypic data, thus obtaining pre-trained models. Subsequently, the convolutional layer parameters from these pre-trained models are transferred to the yield prediction task, and the fully connected layers are retrained, thus obtaining fine-tuned models. Finally, the convolutional layer and the first fully connected layer of the fine-tuned models are fused, and the last fully connected layer is trained to enhance prediction performance. We applied TrG2P to five sets of genotypic and phenotypic data from maize (Zea mays), rice (Oryza sativa), and wheat (Triticum aestivum) and compared its model precision to that of seven other popular GS tools: ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction (rrBLUP), random forest, support vector regression, light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), CNN, DeepGS, and deep neural network for genomic prediction (DNNGP). TrG2P improved the accuracy of yield prediction by 39.9%, 6.8%, and 1.8% in rice, maize, and wheat, respectively, compared with predictions generated by the best-performing comparison model. Our work therefore demonstrates that transfer learning is an effective strategy for improving yield prediction by integrating information from non-yield-trait data. We attribute its enhanced prediction accuracy to the valuable information available from traits associated with yield and to training dataset augmentation. The Python implementation of TrG2P is available at https://github.com/lijinlong1991/TrG2P. The web-based tool is available at http://trg2p.ebreed.cn:81.

Obesity and lipid indices as predictors of depressive symptoms in middle-aged and elderly Chinese: insights from a nationwide cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms are one of the most common psychiatric disorders, with a high lifetime prevalence rate among middle-aged and elderly Chinese. Obesity may be one of the risk factors for depressive symptoms, but there is currently no consensus on this view. Therefore, we investigate the relationship and predictive ability of 13 obesity- and lipid-related indices with depressive symptoms among middle-aged and elderly Chinese. METHODS: The data were obtained from The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Our analysis includes individuals who did not have depressive symptoms at the baseline of the CHARLS Wave 2011 study and were successfully follow-up in 2013 and 2015. Finally, 3790 participants were included in the short-term (from 2011 to 2013), and 3660 participants were included in the long-term (from 2011 to 2015). The average age of participants in short-term and long-term was 58.47 years and 57.88 years. The anthropometric indicators used in this analysis included non-invasive [e.g. waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI), and a body mass index (ABSI)], and invasive anthropometric indicators [e.g. lipid accumulation product (LAP), triglyceride glucose index (TyG index), and its-related indices (e.g. TyG-BMI, and TyG-WC)]. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to examine the predictive ability of various indicators for depressive symptoms. The association of depressive symptoms with various indicators was calculated using binary logistic regression. RESULTS: The overall incidence of depressive symptoms was 20.79% in the short-term and 27.43% in the long-term. In males, WC [AUC = 0.452], LAP [AUC = 0.450], and TyG-WC [AUC = 0.451] were weak predictors of depressive symptoms during the short-term (P < 0.05). In females, BMI [AUC = 0.468], LAP [AUC = 0.468], and TyG index [AUC = 0.466] were weak predictors of depressive symptoms during the long-term (P < 0.05). However, ABSI cannot predict depressive symptoms in males and females during both periods (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The research indicates that in the middle-aged and elderly Chinese, most obesity- and lipid-related indices have statistical significance in predicting depressive symptoms, but the accuracy of these indicators in prediction is relatively low and may not be practical predictors.

Lycopene Protects against Atrazine-Induced Kidney STING-Dependent PANoptosis through Stabilizing mtDNA via Interaction with Sam50/PHB1.

Atrazine (ATR) is a widely used herbicide worldwide that can cause kidney damage in humans and animals by accumulation in water and soil. Lycopene (LYC), a carotenoid with numerous biological activities, plays an important role in kidney protection due to its potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. The current study sought to investigate the role of interactions between mtDNA and the cGAS-STING signaling pathway in LYC mitigating PANoptosis and inflammation in kidneys induced by ATR exposure. In our research, 350 mice were orally administered LYC (5 mg/kg BW/day) and ATR (50 or 200 mg/kg BW/day) for 21 days. Our results reveal that ATR exposure induces a decrease in mtDNA stability, resulting in the release of mtDNA into the cytoplasm through the mPTP pore and the BAX pore and the mobilization of the cGAS-STING pathway, thereby inducing renal PANoptosis and inflammation. LYC can inhibit the above changes caused by ATR. In conclusion, LYC inhibited ATR exposure-induced histopathological changes, renal PANoptosis, and inflammation by inhibiting the cGAS-STING pathway. Our results demonstrate the positive role of LYC in ATR-induced renal injury and provide a new therapeutic target for treating renal diseases in the clinic.