Systemic Colonization of Xanthomonas fragariae Strain YL19 Causing Dry Cavity Rot of Strawberry Crown Tissue in China.

Xanthomonas fragariae usually causes angular leaf spot (ALS) of strawberry, a serious bacterial disease in many strawberry-producing regions worldwide. Recently, a new strain of X. fragariae (YL19) was isolated from strawberry in China and has been shown to cause dry cavity rot in strawberry crown. In this study, we constructed a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled Xf YL19 (YL19-GFP) to visualize the infection process and pathogen colonization in strawberries. Foliar inoculation of YL19-GFP resulted in the pathogen migrating from the leaves to the crown, whereas dip inoculation of wounded crowns or roots resulted in the migration of bacteria from the crowns or roots to the leaves. These two invasion types both resulted in the systematic spread of YL19-GFP, but inoculation of a wounded crown was more harmful to the strawberry plant than foliar inoculation. Results increased our understanding of the systemic invasion of X. fragariae, and the resultant crown cavity caused by Xf YL19.

Ferredoxin reductase regulates proliferation, differentiation, cell cycle and lipogenesis but not apoptosis in SZ95 sebocytes.

Ferredoxin reductase (FDXR), a mitochondrial membrane-associated flavoprotein, is essential for electron transfer and modulates p53-dependent apoptosis in cancer cells.FDXR may be implicated in epidermal and sebocytic differentiation, but its explicit function in sebocytes remains to be elucidated. In the present study, immunohistochemistry revealed that FDXR expression was increased in sebaceous cells of acne lesions. FDXR, PPARγ, LXRα/ß, SREBP1 and Sox9 expression was incremental during sebocyte differentiation. FDXR overexpression induced by Ad-GFP-FDXR infection enhanced differentiation, reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipogenesis and PPARγ expression, and consequnently inhibited proliferation in SZ95 sebocytes. Flow cytometry showed that FDXR overexpression induced significant blockade of G2/M phase but had no effect on sub-G1 (apoptotic) sebocytes. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)-induced FDXR and PPARγ expression and lipogenesis were abolished by pretreatment with PI3K inhibitor LY294002. These results suggest that FDXR overexpression might promote differentiation and lipogenesis via ROS production and suppress proliferation via G2/S blockade in SZ95 sebocytes. IGF-1 could facilitate differentiation and lipogenesis through PI3K/Akt/FDXR pathway. FDXR could serve as a potential marker of advanced sebaceous differentiation, and its overexpression may be involved in the development of acne lesions.

Identifying potential biomarkers of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease via genome-wide analysis of copy number variation.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing and emerging as a global health burden. In addition to environmental factors, numerous studies have shown that genetic factors play an important role in the development of NAFLD. Copy number variation (CNV) as a genetic variation plays an important role in the evaluation of disease susceptibility and genetic differences. The aim of the present study was to assess the contribution of CNV to the evaluation of NAFLD in a Chinese population. METHODS: Genome-wide analysis of CNV was performed using high-density comparative genomic hybridisation microarrays (ACGH). To validate the CNV regions, TaqMan real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) was utilized. RESULTS: A total of 441 CNVs were identified, including 381 autosomal CNVs and 60 sex chromosome CNVs. By merging overlapping CNVs, a genomic CNV map of NAFLD patients was constructed. A total of 338 autosomal CNVRs were identified, including 275 CNVRs with consistent trends (197 losses and 78 gains) and 63 CNVRs with inconsistent trends. The length of the 338 CNVRs ranged from 5.7 kb to 2.23 Mb, with an average size of 117.44 kb. These CNVRs spanned 39.70 Mb of the genome and accounted for ~ 1.32% of the genome sequence. Through Gene Ontology and genetic pathway analysis, we found evidence that CNVs involving nine genes may be associated with the pathogenesis of NAFLD progression. One of the genes (NLRP4 gene) was selected and verified by quantitative PCR (qPCR) method with large sample size. We found the copy number deletion of NLRP4 was related to the risk of NAFLD. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicate the copy number variation is associated with NAFLD. The copy number deletion of NLRP4 was related to the risk of NAFLD. These results could prove valuable for predicting patients at risk of developing NAFLD.

Physical activity intervention for non-diabetic patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently the most common cause of chronic liver disease nowadays. Changes in diet and lifestyle have led to a dramatic increase in the prevalence of NAFLD around the world. This meta-analysis is to investigate the efficacy of physical activity intervention on liver-specific endpoints in the population with NAFLD, including hepatic enzyme, serum lipid, glucose metabolism and intra-hepatic lipid. METHODS: PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were searched for randomized clinical trials of physical activity intervention on NAFLD patients through April 20th, 2019. Effect sizes were reported as standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Quality of included studies was assessed according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analyses were conducted using random-effect or fixed-effect models depending on the significance of heterogeneity. Subgroup analyses according to types and duration of physical activity were conducted to investigate clinical variability. RESULTS: Nine studies with a cumulative total of 951 participants met selection criteria. Physical activity was found associated with small reductions in hepatic enzyme parameters: ALT (SMD -0.17, 95% CI:-0.30 to - 0.05), AST (SMD -0.25, 95% CI: - 0.38, - 0.13) and GGT (SMD -0.22, 95% CI: - 0.36, - 0.08). Significant small improvements were also found in serum lipid parameters including TC (SMD = - 0.22, 95% CI: - 0.34, - 0.09), TG (SMD = - 0.18, 95% CI: - 0.31 to - 0.06) and LDL-C (SMD = - 0.26, 95% CI: - 0.39 to - 0.13). Significant improvement was also found in intra-hepatic lipid content (SMD = - 0.21, 95% CI: - 0.36 to - 0.06) There was no difference between physical intervention group and control group in HDL and three glucose metabolism parameters. Subgroup analysis suggested both aerobic exercise alone and resistance exercise alone can improve most liver function and longer period of exercise generally had better improvement effect. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that physical activity alone can only slightly improve hepatic enzyme levels, most serum lipid levels and intra-hepatic lipid content in non-diabetic patients with NAFLD.

Strain-Tunable Electronic Properties and Band Alignments in GaTe/C2N Heterostructure: a First-Principles Calculation.

Recently, GaTe and C2N monolayers have been successfully synthesized and show fascinating electronic and optical properties. Such hybrid of GaTe with C2N may induce new novel physical properties. In this work, we perform ab initio simulations on the structural, electronic, and optical properties of the GaTe/C2N van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure. Our calculations show that the GaTe/C2N vdW heterostructure is an indirect-gap semiconductor with type-II band alignment, facilitating an effective separation of photogenerated carriers. Intriguingly, it also presents enhanced visible-UV light absorption compared to its components and can be tailored to be a good photocatalyst for water splitting at certain pH by applying vertical strains. Further, we explore specifically the adsorption and decomposition of water molecules on the surface of C2N layer in the heterostructure and the subsequent formation of hydrogen, which reveals the mechanism of photocatalytic hydrogen production on the 2D GaTe/C2N heterostructure. Moreover, it is found that in-plane biaxial strains can induce indirect-direct-indirect, semiconductor-metal, and type II to type I or type III transitions. These interesting results make the GaTe/C2N vdW heterostructure a promising candidate for applications in next generation of multifunctional optoelectronic devices.

[Oxidation of Humic Acid Complexing As(â ¢) by As(â ¢)-Oxidizing Bacteria].

The interaction between soil arsenic and soil microorganisms has been identified as one of the important parts of the morphological transformation of soil arsenic. In order to investigate the interaction between Humic Acid complexing As(Ⅲ)[HA-As(Ⅲ)] and As(Ⅲ)-oxidizing bacteria (HN-2), the changes in arsenic speciation in the liquid phase and the solid phase, with different pH, were studied. The results indicated there was better As(Ⅲ) oxidation efficiency in the pH 7 reaction system. A part of As(Ⅲ) would be discharged from the HA-As(Ⅲ) solid phase during hours 0-10 in the reaction system, with or without HN-2, and meanwhile it was found that HN-2 oxidized As(Ⅲ) to As(Ⅴ) rapidly, while As(Ⅲ) was oxidized into As(Ⅴ) by HA gradually. As(Ⅲ) complexing HA can be transformed into free-As(Ⅲ), and then oxidized into free-As(Ⅴ) by HN-2 over hours 10-24 of the reaction. The system achieved the equilibrium state after 48 h. The results of the X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) further confirmed the conclusions above.

FoxO1 enhances differentiation and apoptosis in human primary keratinocytes.

Forkhead box-O1 (FoxO1) is a key nutrient- and growth factor-dependent regulator of metabolism, but its functional role in human primary keratinocytes (HPKs) is less known. To investigate the role of FoxO1 in HPKs and effect of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and isotretinoin on FoxO1 expression, HPKs were treated with 1.2 mmol/L calcium chloride, 1-20 ng/mL IGF-1 and 0.1-10 µmol/L isotretinoin. Recombinant adenovirus expressing FoxO1 or FKHR shRNA lentivirus transfection was introduced to upregulate or silence FoxO1 expression. Epidermal FoxO1 immunostaining was lower in acne lesion than in normal skin. FoxO1 overexpression induced involucrin expression, G2/M arrest and apoptosis but suppressed proliferation, while FoxO1 silencing decreased involucrin expression but increased proliferation, S phase and viable cells in HPKs. IGF-1 downregulated FoxO1 and involucrin but upregulated p-Akt expression in HPKs, which was blocked by pretreatment with LY294002. Isotretinoin enhanced FoxO1, p53 and p21 but inhibited p-FoxO1 and involucrin expression in HPKs. These results demonstrate that FoxO1 promotes differentiation and apoptosis in HPKs. IGF-1 may reduce keratinocyte differentiation through PI3K/Akt/FoxO1 pathway, while isotretinoin can reinforce FoxO1 expression. FoxO1 may be involved in acne pathogenesis and could serve as a potential therapeutic target.

Differentiation Model Establishment and Differentiation-Related Protein Screening in Primary Cultured Human Sebocytes.

Sebocyte differentiation is a continuous process, but its potential molecular mechanism remains unclear. We aimed to establish a novel sebocyte differentiation model using human primary sebocytes and to identify the expression profiles of differentiation-associated proteins. Primary human sebocytes were cultured on Sebomed medium supplemented with 2% serum for 7 days. Flow cytometry showed that S phase cells were decreased time-dependently, while G1 and subG1 (apoptosis) phase cells increased under serum starvation. Transmission electron microscopy and Oil Red O staining revealed a gradual increase of intracellular lipid accumulation. Expression of proliferation marker was diminished, while expression of differentiation, apoptosis, and lipogenic markers elevated gradually during 7-day culture. iTRAQ analysis identified 3582 expressed proteins in this differentiation model. Compared with day 0, number of differentially expressed proteins was 132, 54, 321, and 96 at days 1, 3, 5, and 7, respectively. Two overexpressed proteins (S100 calcium binding protein P and ferredoxin reductase) and 2 downexpressed proteins (adenosine deaminase and keratin 10) were further confirmed by Western blot and immunohistochemistry.

[Effects of Human Gut Microbiota on Bioaccessibility of Soil Cd, Cr and Ni Using SHIME Model].

The influence of human gut micobiota on bioaccessibilities of soil Cd, Cr, and Ni were investigated in this study. Five soil samples were collected from some sites of China, and the bioaccessibilities of soil Cd, Cr, and Ni in the gastric, small intestinal, and colon phases were determined using the PBET method (physiologically based extraction test) combined with SHIME model (simulator of human intestinal microbial ecosystem). The results showed that the bioaccessibilities of Cd, Cr, and Ni in the gastric phase were 4.3%-94.0%, 6.4%-21.6%, and 11.3%-47.3%, respectively. In the small intestinal phase, the bioaccessibilities of Cr and Ni were either congruent or slightly increased, while for Cd, the values were reduced by 1.4-1.6 folds except for soil 2. In the gastric and small intestinal phases, the mean bioaccessibility of Cd was higher but that of Cr was lower. In the colon phase, the bioaccessibilities of Cr and Ni were 1.3-2.4 and 1.0-2.1 times higher than those in the small intestinal phase. Furthermore, the bioaccessibility of Cd also increased except for soil 3 and 4. Human gut micobiota could induce Cd, Cr, and Ni release from soils and increase their bioaccessibilities, which may result in high risk to human health.