Detection of H2O2 and catalase on a paper-based flow sensor constructed with borate cross-linked PVA hydrogel.

The detections of H2O2 and catalase play an important role in daily life. This study introduces a paper-based flow sensor that is specifically designed to detect H2O2 and catalase. The sensor utilizes a hydrogel composed of cross-linked 4-carboxyphenylboronic acid and polyvinyl alcohol. When H2O2 is in contact with the hydrogel, the B-C bonds of the hydrogel undergo a reactive process, causing decomposition of the hydrogel. The pH indicator strip enables the visual monitoring of the viscosity change that occurs during the gel-sol transition. The quantification of H2O2 is accomplished by assessing the proportion of water coverage on the pH indicator strip. The sensor shows a detection limit of 0.077 wt% and is applicable for the quantitative measurement of H2O2 in routinely used disinfectants. Furthermore, the presence of catalase is effectively identified and the detection of catalase in milk is successfully fulfilled. In summary, this work proposes a simple, user-friendly, label-free, and cost-effective method for constructing a paper-based flow sensor using borate cross-linked polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel, showing great potential for detecting H2O2 and catalase in various practical scenarios.

Smart Free-Standing Bilayer Polyacrylamide/DNA Hybrid Hydrogel Film-Based Sensing System Using Changes in Bending Angles as a Visual Signal Readout.

Stimuli-responsive DNA hydrogels have shown great potential in sensing applications due to their attractive properties such as programmable target responsiveness, excellent biocompatibility, and biodegradability. In contrast to the extensively developed DNA hydrogel sensing systems based on the stimuli-responsive hydrogel-to-solution phase transition of the hydrogel matrix, the quantitative sensing application of DNA hydrogels exhibiting smart shape deformations has rarely been explored. Moreover, bulk DNA hydrogel-based sensing systems also suffer from high material cost and slow response. Herein, free-standing bilayer polyacrylamide/DNA hybrid hydrogel films with programmable responsive properties directed by the sequence of functional DNA units have been constructed. Compared with bulk DNA hydrogels, these DNA hydrogel films with a thickness at the micrometer scale not only greatly reduce the consumption of DNA materials but also facilitate the mass transfer of biomacromolecular substances within the hydrogel network, thus favoring their sensing applications. Therefore, a target-responsive smart DNA hydrogel film-based sensor system is further demonstrated based on the large amplitude macroscopic shape deformation of the film as a visual signal readout. As a proof of concept, Pb2+ or UO22+ ion-responsive DNA units were introduced into the active layer of the bilayer hydrogel films. In the presence of Pb2+ or UO22+ ions, the occurrence of a cleavage reaction within the DNA units leads to the release of DNA segments from the hydrogel film, inducing a dramatic shape deformation of the film, and thus sensing of Pb2+ or UO22+ ions with high specificity is achieved based on measuring the bending angle changes of these smart free-standing films. These smart DNA hydrogel film sensors with target-programmable responsiveness, simple operation, and ease of storage may hold promise for future rapid on-site testing applications.

Characterization of a novel γ-type carbonic anhydrase, Sjγ-CA2, in Saccharina japonica: Insights into carbon concentration mechanism in macroalgae.

Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a crucial component of CO2-concentrating mechanism (CCM) in macroalgae. In Saccharina japonica, an important brown seaweed, 11 CAs, including 5 α-, 3 ß-, and 3 γ-CAs, have been documented. Among them, one α-CA and one ß-CA were localized in the periplasmic space, one α-CA was found in the chloroplast, and one γ-CA was situated in mitochondria. Notably, the known γ-CAs have predominantly been identified in mitochondria. In this study, we identified a chloroplastic γ-type CA, Sjγ-CA2, in S. japonica. Based on the reported amino acid sequence of Sjγ-CA2, the epitope peptide for monoclonal antibody production was selected as 165 Pro-305. After purification and specificity identification, anti-SjγCA2 monoclonal antibody was employed in immunogold electron microscopy. The results illustrated that Sjγ-CA2 was localized in the chloroplasts of both gametophytes and sporophytes of S. japonica. Subsequently, immunoprecipitation coupled with LC-MS/MS analysis revealed that Sjγ-CA2 mainly interacted with photosynthesis-related proteins. Moreover, the first 65 amino acids at N-terminal of Sjγ-CA2 was identified as the chloroplast transit peptide by the transient expression of GFP-SjγCA2 fused protein in tabacco. Real-time PCR results demonstrated an up-regulation of the transcription of Sjγ-CA2 gene in response to high CO2 concentration. These findings implied that Sjγ-CA2 might contribute to minimizing the leakage of CO2 from chloroplasts and help maintaining a high concentration of CO2 around Rubisco.

Slippery Viscosity-Sensing Platform with Time Readout for the Detection of Hyaluronidase and Its Inhibitor.

Hyaluronidase (HAase) is a biomarker for cancer, and its detection is of great significance for early diagnosis. However, the requirement of sophisticated instruments, tedious operation procedures, and labeled molecules of conventional HAase biosensing methods hampers their widespread applications. Herein, we report a portable slippery viscosity-sensing platform with time readout for the first time and demonstrate HAase and tannic acid (TA, HAase inhibitor) detection as a model system. HAase specifically cleaves hyaluronic acid (HA) and decreases HA solution viscosity, thereby shortening the aqueous droplet's sliding time on a slippery surface. Thus, the HA solution viscosity alteration due to enzymatic hydrolysis is used to quantify the HAase concentration through the difference in the sliding time of the aqueous droplets on a slippery surface. The developed HAase sensing platform exhibits high sensitivity with a minimum detection limit of 0.23 U/mL and excellent specificity without the use of specialized instruments and labeled molecules. HAase detection in actual urine samples by a standard addition method is performed as well. Moreover, the quantitative detection of TA with an IC50 value of 37.68 ± 1.38 µg/mL is achieved. As an equipment-free, label-free, and high-portability sensing platform, this method holds promise in developing a user-friendly and inexpensive point-of-care testing (POCT) device for HAase detection, and its use can be extended to analyze other analytes with different stimuli-responsive polymers for great universality and expansibility in biosensing applications.

The development of a paper-based distance sensor for the detection of Pb2+ assisted with the target-responsive DNA hydrogel.

Due to the serious risks of lead pollution to human health, it plays a great role in constructing a simple, inexpensive, portable, and user-friendly strategy for Pb2+ detection in environmental samples. Herein, a paper-based distance sensor is developed to detect Pb2+ assisted with the target-responsive DNA hydrogel. Pb2+ can activate DNAzyme to cleave its substrate strand, which results in the hydrolysis of the DNA hydrogel. The released water molecules trapped in the hydrogel can flow along the patterned pH paper due to the capillary force. The water flow distance (WFD) is significantly influenced by the amount of water released from the collapsed DNA hydrogel triggered by the addition of various Pb2+ concentrations. In this way, Pb2+ can be quantitatively detected without using specialized instruments and labeled molecules, and the limit of detection (LOD) of Pb2+ is 3.0 nM. Additionally, the Pb2+ sensor works well in lake water and tap water. Overall, this simple, inexpensive, portable, and user-friendly method is very promising for quantitative and in-field detection of Pb2+ with excellent sensitivity and selectivity.

Nuclear-encoded CbbX located in chloroplast is essential for the activity of red-type Rubisco in Saccharina japonica.

Saccharina japonica (Laminariales, Phaeophyta) is a brown alga and the major component of algae beds on the northwest coast of the Pacific Ocean. Rubisco, the key enzyme of CO2 fixation in photosynthesis, is inhibited by nonproductive binding of its substrate RuBP and other sugar phosphates. The inhibited Rubisco in eukaryotic phytoplankton of the red plastid lineage was reactivated by CbbXs, the red-type Rubisco activases, through the process of ATP-hydrolysis-powered remodeling. As well documented, CbbXs had two types of subunits encoded by the plastid or nuclear genome respectively. In this study, both proteins of S. japonica (SjCbbX-n and SjCbbX-p) were localized in the chloroplast illustrated by immuno-electron microscopy technique. GST pull-down detection verified SjCbbX-n could interact with SjCbbX-p. Two-dimensional electrophoresis-based Western blot analysis illustrated that the endogenous SjCbbXs could form heterohexamer in the ratio of 1:1. Activase activity assays showed that although both the recombinant proteins of SjCbbXs were functional, SjCbbX-n illustrated the significantly higher activase activity than SjCbbX-p. Notably, when the two proteins were mixed, the highest specific efficiencies of Rubisco were obtained. These results implied SjCbbX-n may be essential for Rubisco activation. Molecular evolutionary analysis of cbbx genes revealed that cbbx-n originated from the duplication of cbbx-p and then evolved independently under the positive selection pressure. This is the first report about the functional relationship between the two types of CbbXs in macroalge with the red-type Rubisco and provides useful information for revealing the mechanism of high photosynthetic efficiency of this important kelp.

Smart DNA-gold nanoparticle hybrid hydrogel film based portable, cost-effective and storable biosensing system for the colorimetric detection of lead (II) and uranyl ions.

A portable, cost-effective and storable DNA-gold nanoparticle (AuNP) hybrid hydrogel film based biosensing system was developed, with AuNPs serving as both the crosslinking units of the film and the signaling units. Using a layer-by-layer assembly method, hydrogel film composed of three-dimensional hydrophilic network of densely packed AuNPs interconnected by responsive DNA structures was constructed onto a glass slide. By programming the sequence of DNA structures, target-responsive hybrid films were constructed. As a proof of concept, the sequence of a substrate DNA which can be identified and cleaved by Pb2+-dependent DNAzyme was encoded to construct Pb2+-responsive DNA-AuNP hybrid hydrogel film. The high-density packing of AuNPs as signal substances significantly improved the sensitivity of the ultrathin film biosensing system while reduced the cost of expensive DNA materials. A hydrogel film composed of 10 layers of assembled DNA-AuNP structures generated sufficient visual colorimetric signals for Pb2+ detection, with a detection limit of 2.6 nM. By introducing UO22+-dependent DNAzyme, the system could be further applied in the sensitive and selective detection of UO22+, with a detection limit of 10.3 nM. Compared with bulk-sized DNA hydrogel biosensing systems, the DNA-AuNP hydrogel film biosensing system exhibited faster response thanks to the sub-micrometer ultrathin film structures. Moreover, the protection of fragile non-covalently crosslinked DNA films with solid slides also facilitated the portable application and long-term storage of the resulting biosensing system, with 95% of the response signal retained after three months of storage. The DNA-AuNPs hydrogel film biosensing system is highly promising for future rapid on-site detection applications.

One-Step Biosynthesis of Vitamin C in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Vitamin C (VC) is comprehensively applied in foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and especially clinical medicine. Nowadays, the industrial production of VC mainly relies on the classic two-step fermentation route, and researchers have explored the way for one-step fermentation of VC in recent years. In this study, a VC biosynthesis pathway that directly produced VC from glucose was reconstructed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the protein engineering and metabolic engineering strategies were adopted to improve it. First, five exogenous modules from Arabidopsis were introduced into the chassis cells by synthetic biology approaches to obtain the strain YLAA harboring VC biosynthesis. In addition, L-galactose dehydrogenase (L-GalDH) and L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase (L-GLDH) were fused and expressed in S. cerevisiae cells for the first time, which increased the intracellular VC accumulation by 2.78-fold, reaching 9.97 ± 0.09 mg/L. Through copy number engineering, it was further confirmed that the last step catalyzed by L-GLDH is the rate-limiting step. GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (GPP) encoded by vtc2 is another rate-limiting enzyme confirmed by GAL1p overexpression results. Finally, by balancing gene expression and cell growth, the highest production strain with overexpressing vtc2 by multicopy plasmids was constructed. The VC accumulation reached 24.94 ± 1.16 mg/L, which was currently the highest production from glucose in S. cerevisiae. The production of the recombinant strain reached nearly 44 mg/L with the exogenous addition of L-galactose or glutathione. The results further emphasized the importance of the step catalyzed by GPP. The investigation provided experience for the efficient biosynthesis of VC and the determination of rate-limiting steps.

Identification and Characterization of a Periplasmic α-Carbonic Anhydrase (CA) in the Gametophytes of Saccharina japonica (Phaeophyceae).

Periplasmic or external carbonic anhydrases (CAs) have been well accepted as playing a crucial role in the acquisition of dissolved inorganic carbon; however, no cytological evidence or molecular information on these enzymes has been reported in seaweeds to date. In this study, the full-length cDNA sequence coding for a putative periplasmic Sjα-CA2 was cloned from the gametophytes of Saccharina japonica, an industrial brown seaweed. It was 1,728 bp in length and included a 263-bp 5'-untranslated region (UTR), a 577-bp 3'-UTR, and an 888-bp open reading frame encoding a protein precursor consisting of 295 amino acids. The mature protein, after removal of a predicted 28-residue signal peptide, was composed of 267 amino acids with a relative molecular weight of 29.27 kDa. Multisequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that it was a member of the α-CA family. Enzyme activity assays showed that the recombinant Sjα-CA2 in Escherichia coli possessed CO2 hydration and esterase activities, thus identifying this gene Sjα-CA2 in function. Immunogold electron microscopic observations with the prepared anti-Sjα-CA2 polyclonal antibody illustrated that Sjα-CA2 was located in periplasmic space of the kelp gametophyte cells. Quantitative real-time PCR results revealed that the transcription of Sjα-CA2 was induced by elevated HCO3- levels, but it was little changed while the kelp gametophytes were subjected to elevated CO2 concentrations. This study suggests that the periplasmic Sjα-CA2 might play a role in adapting to elevated environmental levels of HCO3- by dehydration of HCO3- to generate CO2 , which could be readily taken up by S. japonica gametophytes.

Isolation and characterization of a γ-carbonic anhydrase localized in the mitochondria of Saccharina japonica.

Saccharina japonica is an ecologically and economically important seaweed that is dominant in the rocky shores of cold-temperate regions, forms the major component of productive beds, and affects marine environments. S. japonica exhibits a high photosynthetic efficiency in natural seawater with low dissolved CO2 concentration, thus suggesting the presence of its carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM). However, the genes, proteins, and pathways involved in the CCM of S. japonica have not been fully identified and characterized. Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a crucial component of CCM in macroalgae. In this study, the cloning, characterization, and subcellular localization of a specific CA were described. Multisequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that this CA belonged to the gamma (Sjγ-CA) class. This enzyme has a full-length cDAN of 1370 bp, encodes a protein with 246 amino acids (aa; ca. 25.7 kDa), and contains the mitochondrial transit peptide of 16 aa and LbH_gama_CA_like domain of 159 aa that defined the γ-CA region. The Sjγ-CA was successfully expressed in E. coli BL21 and purified as an active recombinant CA. Immunogold electron microscopy and fluorescence localization illustrated that this enzyme is localized in the mitochondria, and its transcription level is up-regulated by low CO2 concentration. These findings showed that Sjγ-CA is a possible component of the CCM in S. japonica. This work is the first to report about the mtCA of macroalgae and provides a basis for further analysis on seaweed CCM.

Smart Bilayer Polyacrylamide/DNA Hybrid Hydrogel Film Actuators Exhibiting Programmable Responsive and Reversible Macroscopic Shape Deformations.

As a crucial instinct for the survival of organisms, adaptive smart deformation has been well shown via profusely astounding examples within biological morphogenesis in nature, which inspired the construction of biomimetic shape-morphing materials with controlled actuating behaviors. Herein, the construction of nature-inspired bilayer hydrogel film actuators, composed of a polyacrylamide hydrogel passive layer and a polyacrylamide-DNA hybrid hydrogel active layer, which exhibited programmable stimuli-responsive and reversible macroscopic shape deformations directed by the sequence of DNA crosslinking units in the active layer, is reported. As a proof-of-concept, the introduction of DNA i-motif based crosslinking structures into the active layer, which can undergo pH-stimulated formation and dissociation of crosslinking between polymers and therefore change the crosslinking density of the active layer, lead to the redistribution of the internal stresses within the bilayer structure, and result in the pH-stimulated shape deformations. By programming the sequence of DNA units in the active layer, a Ag+ /Cysteamine-stimulated bilayer DNA hybrid hydrogel film actuator is further constructed and exhibits excellent actuation behaviors. Thanks to the micrometer-scale thickness of the films, these actuators exhibit a high degree of macroscopic and reversible shape deformations at high speed, which may find use in future smart biosensing and biomedical applications.

Genomic and functional characterization of the lect2 gene from Siniperca chuatsi.

Mandarin fish (Siniperca chuatsi) is an important economic fish in China. Viral and bacterial diseases seriously affect the artificial culture of S. chuatsi. As a carnivorous fish, artificial feed domestication is also an important means to improve the scale of S. chuatsi culture. Therefore, the study of immunology and digestive physiology is very important to the industrial development of S. chuatsi. In this work, we analyzed the expression and function of the S. chuatsi leukocyte cell-derived chemotaxin 2 (Sc-lect2) gene on a basis of next generation, single-molecule long-read sequencing. Sc-lect2 was mainly expressed in the liver but barely expressed in the gill, skin, muscle, kidney, head kidney, brain, stomach, and intestine. When the fish were infected with infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus and challenged with lipopolysaccharide and polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid, Sc-lect2 expression significantly increased by about 40, 17, and 7-fold, respectively, compared with unstimulated samples. We also found that Sc-lect2 increases by approximately 8-fold after the fish are fed an artificial diet. These results show that mandarin fish liver can not only digest food but also express specific immune genes. Changes in the diet can cause the differential expression of Sc-lect2 genes. Four Sc-lect2 interaction genes were differentially expressed in the skin or blood. Interestingly, miR-145-3p could inhibit Sc-lect2 gene expression by targeting its coding sequence region. One CpG island in the promoter region showed a high level of methylation, suggesting that high methylation does not affect Sc-lect2 gene expression in the liver.

Expression profile analyses of mettl8 in Oryzias latipes.

Methyltransferase-like 8 (mettl8) is a protein-coding gene that may demonstrate nucleic acid or protein methyltransferase activity. Although several members of the METTL protein family have been reported, the expression and function of this family are still poorly understood, especially in fish. Medaka (Oryzias latipes) is an important model organism with relatively complete genome information, and more and more genetic toolkits are available for this fish. The popularity of medaka among developmental biologists has led to important insights into vertebrate development. Here, we report the DNA sequence and expression of mettl8 in medaka. The full-length cDNA of medaka mettl8 is 1266 bp, and its predicted open reading frame codes for a protein with 393 amino acids. The predicted molecular mass was 45.8 kDa, and the theoretical isoelectric point was 8.61. It had a conserved methyltransferase domain in METTL8 proteins. Homology analysis revealed that medaka METTL8 clustered in close proximity with the METTL8 of Austrofundulus limnaeus and Nothobranchius furzeri within the Cyprinodontiformes branch, and the protein structure of METTL8 was highly conserved. During embryogenesis, the mettl8 transcript was highly expressed in early stages, while it persisted at a detectable level until the larvae stage. In adult fish, the RT-PCR result indicated that mettl8 mRNA was expressed in the brain, eye, skin, liver, intestine, ovary, and testis. Slice in situ hybridization analysis showed that mettl8 was highly expressed in the eye, intestine, ovary, and testis. The expression and distribution of mettl8 during embryogenesis were also demonstrated by whole mount in situ hybridization. The results indicated that the mettl8 is expressed significantly in the eye, somite, and otic vesicles. Immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses showed that METTL8 protein was present in both the nuclei and cytoplasm. This study lays a foundation for further research on the function of fish mettl8.

Detection of Biomarkers in Blood Using Liquid Crystals Assisted with Aptamer-Target Recognition Triggered in Situ Rolling Circle Amplification on Magnetic Beads.

Detection of biomarkers in body fluids is critical to both diagnosing the life-threatening diseases and optimizing therapeutic interventions. We herein report use of liquid crystals (LCs) to detect biomarkers in blood with high sensitivity and specificity by employing in situ rolling circle amplification (RCA) on magnetic beads (MBs). Specific recognition of cancer biomarkers, such as platelet derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) and adenosine, by aptamers leads to formation of a nucleic acid circle on MBs preassembled with ligation DNA, linear padlock DNA, and aptamers, thereby triggering in situ RCA. LCs change from dark to bright appearance after the in situ RCA products being transferred onto the LC interface decorated with octadecy trimethylammonium bromide (OTAB), which is particularly sensitive to the amplified DNA on MBs. Overall, this label-free approach takes advantages of high specificity of aptamer-based assay, efficient enrichment of signaling molecules on MBs, remarkable DNA elongation performance of the RCA reaction, and high sensitivity of LC-based assay. It successfully eliminates the matrix interference on the LC-based sensors and thus achieves at least 4 orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity for detection of biomarkers compared to other LC-based sensors. In addition, performance of the developed sensor is comparable to that of the commercial ones. Thus, this study provides a simple, powerful, and promising approach to facilitate highly sensitive, specific, and label-free detection of biomarkers in body fluids.

Transcription profiles of skin and head kidney from goldfish suffering hemorrhagic septicemia with an emphasis on the TLR signaling pathway.

Hemorrhagic septicemia is an acute, highly fatal disease that affects goldfish (Carassius auratus). To gain a better understanding of related immune genes, the transcriptomes of the skin and head kidney of goldfish suffering hemorrhagic septicemia were sequenced, assembled, and characterized. Based on functional annotation, an extensive and diverse catalog of expressed genes were identified in both the skin and head kidney. As two different organs, pair-wise comparison identified 122/77 unigenes up/down-regulated (two-fold change with P<0.05) in the skin and head kidney. Most genes of the immune pathways were expressed and isolated in both skin and head kidney, including interferon (IFN) transcription factors 1-10 and Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3), a key IFN transcription factor, was up-regulated at the transcriptional level by polyriboinosinic: polyribocytidylic acid (poly I:C) challenge and regulated the IFN response by increasing the activity of IFN-ß and IFN-stimulated response element (ISRE)-containing promoter. This study will benefit the identification and understanding of novel genes that play important roles in the immunological reactions of fish suffering from hemorrhagic septicemia.

Integrated proteomic and metabolomic analysis of a reconstructed three-species microbial consortium for one-step fermentation of 2-keto-L-gulonic acid, the precursor of vitamin C.

Microbial consortia, with the merits of strong stability, robustness, and multi-function, played critical roles in human health, bioenergy, and food manufacture, etc. On the basis of 'build a consortium to understand it', a novel microbial consortium consisted of Gluconobacter oxydans, Ketogulonicigenium vulgare and Bacillus endophyticus was reconstructed to produce 2-keto-L-gulonic acid (2-KGA), the precursor of vitamin C. With this synthetic consortium, 73.7 g/L 2-KGA was obtained within 30 h, which is comparable to the conventional industrial method. A combined time-series proteomic and metabolomic analysis of the fermentation process was conducted to further investigate the cell-cell interaction. The results suggested that the existence of B. endophyticus and G. oxydans together promoted the growth of K. vulgare by supplying additional nutrients, and promoted the 2-KGA production by supplying more substrate. Meanwhile, the growth of B. endophyticus and G. oxydans was compromised from the competition of the nutrients by K. vulgare, enabling the efficient production of 2-KGA. This study provides valuable guidance for further study of synthetic microbial consortia.

Transcriptional responses to low-salinity stress in the gills of adult female Portunus trituberculatus.

The swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus, Portunus) can tolerate low salinity, but the mechanism of its varied salinity adaptation at the molecular level remains unclear. In this study, we prepared four mRNA and microRNA (miRNA) libraries using the gills collected from four salinity groups and performed RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) to identify the genes related to the low salinity. We set 25 ppt as the control group. A total of 659 genes were differentially expressed in at least one of the six comparison groups (25 ppt vs. 20 ppt, 25 ppt vs. 15 ppt, 25 ppt vs. 10 ppt, 20 ppt vs. 15 ppt, 20 ppt vs. 10 ppt and 15 ppt vs. 10 ppt). A total of 15 and 9 unigenes were downregulated and upregulated under low salinity compared with that in 25 ppt, respectively. Six genes, namely, aminopeptidase, centromere protein, cytochrome b5 reductase, bone morphogenetic protein, and two carbonic anhydrases, were selected for verification through quantitative real-time PCR. The results were consistent with the RNA-Seq results. Furthermore, 95 conserved miRNAs and 16 novel miRNAs were differentially expressed in at least one of the six comparison groups. Analysis of the miRNA-mRNA interaction showed that miR-2 and miR-317 regulated >50 mRNA targets. In addition, let-7c was downregulated in all groups under low salinity compared with that in the control group. This study helped elucidate the adaptation mechanism of the swimming crab in low-saline environments.

Identification and functional analysis of interferon regulatory factor 3 in Lateolabrax maculatus.

The interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) is a member of the IFN regulatory transcription factor family, which binds to the IFN-stimulated response element (ISRE) within the promoter of IFN genes and IFN-stimulated genes. In this study, the IRF3 cDNA of sea perch Lateolabrax maculatus (SpIRF3) was identified, which contained 1781 bp with an open reading frame of 1398 bp that coded a 465 amino acid protein. The SpIRF3 protein shared conserved characterizations with its homologues and displayed the conserved DNA-binding domain, IRF association domain, serine-rich C-terminal domain, and tryptophan residue cluster. Phylogenetic analysis illustrated that SpIRF3 belonged to the IRF3 subfamily. Subcellular localization analysis showed that SpIRF3 mainly resided in the cytoplasm without stimuli but translocated into nuclei in the presence of poly I:C. Real-time PCR data indicated that SpIRF3 was transcriptionally up-regulated by poly I:C stimulation in various organs. Moreover, reporter assay revealed that SpIRF3 functioned as a modulator in triggering the IFN response by inducing the activity of IFN and ISRE-containing promoter. These data revealed that SpIRF3 was a potential molecule in the IFN immune defense system against viral infection.

Complete mitochondrial genome of the brown alga Sargassum vachellianum (Sargassaceae, Phaeophyceae).

Sargassum vachellianum C. Agardh is endemic to China. It inhabits in rocky intertidal zones and plays an important role in maintaining the structure and function of littoral ecosystems. In this study, we present the complete mitochondrial genome of S. vachellianum. The circular S. vachellianum mitogenome is 34,877 bp in size and contains the same set of 65 genes as the reported Sargassum mtDNAs. The overall AT content of the genome is 63.79%, and the inter-genic spacers constitute only 4.67%. The genome organization including the gene order, overlapping regions between genes, and the total length of inter-genic spacers is conserved among the known Sargassum mitogenomes. High divergence is in inter-genic spacer regions. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that S. vachellianum combined tightly with Sargassum species with strong support values (NJ/ML, 100%).

Aggregation Behavior of Imidazolium-Based Surface-Active Ionic Liquids with Photoresponsive Cinnamate Counterions in the Aqueous Solution.

Two imidazolium-based surface active ionic liquids (SAILs) with photoresponsive cinnamate aromatic counterions, viz. 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium cinnamate ([C12mim][CA]) and 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium para-hydroxy-cinnamate ([C12mim][PCA]), were newly synthesized, and their self-assembly behaviors in aqueous solutions were systematically explored. Results of surface tension and conductivity measurements show that both [C12mim][CA] and [C12mim][PCA] display a superior surface activity in aqueous solutions compared to the common imidazolium-based SAIL, 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide (C12mimBr), which implies the incorporation of cinnamate aromatic counterions can promote the micellar formation. Furthermore, [C12mim][CA] shows higher surface activity due to the higher hydrophobicity of its counterion in comparison to [C12mim][PCA] that has a hydroxyl group. Both hexagonal liquid-crystalline phase (H1) and cubic liquid-crystalline phase (V2) were constructed in the [C12mim][CA] aqueous solutions. In contrast, the [C12mim][PCA]/H2O system only exhibits a single hexagonal liquid-crystalline phase (H1) in a broad concentration region. These lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) phases were comprehensively characterized by polarized optical microscopy (POM), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and rheometer. Investigation on the temperature-dependent self-assembly nanostructures demonstrates that the higher temperature leads to a looser arrangement. Under UV irradiation, trans-cis photoisomerization of the phenylalkene group results in inferior surface activity of the prepared SAILs in aqueous solution with higher cmc values. Moreover, UV light irradiation induces obvious change of the structural parameters without altering the LLC phases. This work is expected to enrich the investigations of phase behaviors formed in SAILs systems and receive particular attention due to their unique properties and potential applications in drug delivery, biochemistry, materials science, etc.