Genetic dissection of maize (Zea maysL.) trace element traits using genome-wide association studies.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important food and feed crop worldwide and serves as a a vital source of biological trace elements, which are important breeding targets. In this study, 170 maize materials were used to detect QTNs related to the content of Mn, Fe and Mo in maize grains through two GWAS models, namely MLM_Q + K and MLM_PCA + K. The results identified 87 (Mn), 205 (Fe), and 310 (Mo) QTNs using both methods in the three environments. Considering comprehensive factors such as co-location across multiple environments, strict significance threshold, and phenotypic value in multiple environments, 8 QTNs related to Mn, 10 QTNs related to Fe, and 26 QTNs related to Mo were used to identify 44 superior alleles. Consequently, three cross combinations with higher Mn element, two combinations with higher Fe element, six combinations with higher Mo element, and two combinations with multiple element (Mn/Fe/Mo) were predicted to yield offspring with higher numbers of superior alleles, thereby increasing the likelihood of enriching the corresponding elements. Additionally, the candidate genes identified 100 kb downstream and upstream the QTNs featured function and pathways related to maize elemental transport and accumulation. These results are expected to facilitate the screening and development of high-quality maize varieties enriched with trace elements, establish an important theoretical foundation for molecular marker assisted breeding and contribute to a better understanding of the regulatory network governing trace elements in maize.

Influence of Zinc on Nonisothermal Gasification Kinetics of Coke in a Blast Furnace.

The effect of zinc on the kinetics of coke gasification was studied by a nonisothermal method. The results indicated that with the increase of zinc content, coke gasification tended to move to the low-temperature zone, it occurred earlier, and the reaction rate increased. The main curve fitting method was used to analyze the mechanism function of coke gasification before and after adding zinc. The modified shrinking core model was found to be the optimal mechanism function for coke gasification, with which the kinetic parameters obtained showed that the pre-exponential factor and apparent activation energy of coke gasification decreased significantly with the increase of zinc adsorption amount. Moreover, a kinetic compensation effect was found to exist in the effect of zinc on coke gasification. Combined with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the peak fitting technique, it was found that the difference in the catalytic effect of zinc on coke gasification was attributed to the carbon structure.

Liquid Phase Exfoliated Hexagonal Boron Nitride/Graphene Heterostructure Based Electrode Toward Asymmetric Supercapacitor Application.

In this paper, owing to the electrostatic interaction between graphene and h-BN, a facile liquid phase exfoliation method was carried out to fabricate h-BN/graphene based van der Waals heterostructure nanocomposites without additional chemical cross-linkers. The physicochemical properties of as-prepared composites were characterized by several electron microscopic and spectroscopic measurements. The h-BN/graphene heterostructure composites were employed to use as the anodes of asymmetric supercapacitor, and exhibited exceptional capacitive performance due to their synergistic effects. It is expected that the as-prepared h-BN/graphene materials can boost scalable heterostructure electrodes in supercapacitors, and our liquid phase exfoliation method can be used for the construction of the other energy storage and electronics.

4-Quinolone hybrids and their antibacterial activities.

The emergence and wide-spread of drug-resistant bacteria including multi-drug resistant and pan-drug resistant pathogens which are associated with considerable mortality, represent a significant global health threat. 4-Quinolones which are exemplified by fluoroquinolones are the second largest chemotherapy agents used in clinical practice for the treatment of various bacterial infections. However, the resistance of bacteria to 4-quinolones develops rapidly and spreads widely throughout the world due to the long-term, inappropriate use and even abuse. To overcome the resistance and improve the potency, several strategies have been developed. Amongst them, molecular hybridization, which is based on the incorporation of two or more pharmacophores into a single molecule with a flexible linker, is one of the most practical approaches. This review aims to summarize the recent advances made towards the discovery of 4-quinolone hybrids as potential antibacterial agents as well as their structure-activity relationship (SAR). The enriched SAR may pave the way for the further rational development of 4-quinolone hybrids with excellent potency against both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant bacteria.

Quinoline hybrids and their antiplasmodial and antimalarial activities.

Malaria, in particular infection with P. falciparum (the most lethal of the human malaria parasite species, responsible for nearly one million deaths every year), is one of the most devastating and common infectious disease throughout the world. Beginning with quinine, quinoline containing compounds have long been used in clinical treatment of malaria and remained the mainstays of chemotherapy against malaria. The emergence of P. falciparum strains resistant to almost all antimalarials prompted medicinal chemists and biologists to study their effective replacement with an alternative mechanism of action and new molecules. Combination with variety of quinolines and other active moieties may increase the antiplasmodial and antimalarial activities and reduce the side effects. Thus, hybridization is a very attractive strategy to develop novel antimalarials. This review aims to summarize the recent advances towards the discovery of antiplasmodial and antimalarial hybrids including quinoline skeleton to provide an insight for rational designs of more active and less toxic quinoline hybrids antimalarials.

Azide-alkyne cycloaddition towards 1H-1,2,3-triazole-tethered gatifloxacin and isatin conjugates: Design, synthesis and in vitro anti-mycobacterial evaluation.

Twelve novel 1H-1,2,3-triazole-tethered gatifloxacin (GTFX) isatin conjugates 5a-l with greater lipophilicity compared with GTFX were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro anti-mycobacterial activities against M. tuberculosis (MTB) H37Rv and MDR-TB as well as cytotoxicity. The preliminary results showed that all the targets (MIC: 0.10-8 µg/mL) exhibited excellent inhibitory activity against MTB H37Rv and MDR-TB, but eight of them (CC50: 7.8-62.5 µg/mL) were much more toxic than the parent GTFX (CC50: 125 µg/mL). Among them, 5g (MIC: 0.10 µg/mL) was 4-8 times more potent in vitro than the references GTFX (MIC: 0.78 µg/mL) and RIF (MIC: 0.39 µg/mL) against MTB H37Rv, but less active than INH (MIC: 0.05 µg/mL). The most potent 5g and 5h (MIC: 0.25 µg/mL) were 4->512 times more active than the three references (MIC: 1.0->128 µg/mL) against MDR-TB. Unfortunately, both of the two hybrids (CC50: 7.8 µg/mL) were much more cytotoxic than the other derivatives, need to be further optimized.

Recent developments of coumarin-containing derivatives and their anti-tubercular activity.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a lift-threatening chronic deadliest infectious disease caused predominantly by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) which affects primarily the lungs (pulmonary TB) apart from other vital organs. The emergence of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) and the recently cases of totally drug resistant (TDR) towards currently accessible standard drugs was increased up to alarming level in the recent decades. In pursuit of searching new anti-TB agents, numerous of derivatives have been synthesized and screened for their anti-TB activity. Coumarins are one of the most important classes of natural products that exhibited various biological activities, and their derivatives regarded as a new class of effective anti-TB candidates owing to their potential anti-TB activity. Thus, coumarin skeleton has attracted great interest in the development of new anti-TB agents. This review outlines the advances in the application of coumarin-containing derivatives as anti-TB agents and the critical aspects of design and structure-activity relationship of these derivatives.

Isoniazid derivatives and their anti-tubercular activity.

Tuberculosis (TB), which has been a scourge of humanity for thousands of years, is a worldwide pandemic disease caused mainly by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). The emergence of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) and totally drug-resistant TB (TDR-TB) increase the challenges to eliminate TB worldwide. Isoniazid (INH), a critical frontline anti-TB drug, is one of the most effective drugs used to treatment of TB infection for more than 60 years. Unfortunately, bacterial strains resistant to INH are becoming common which mainly due to the long-term widely use even abuse. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel anti-TB agents. Numerous efforts have been undertaken to develop new anti-TB agents, but no new drug has been introduced for more than 5 decades. It has been suggested that the incorporation of lipophilic moieties into the framework of INH can increase permeation of the drug into bacterial cells, thereby enhancing the anti-TB. Therefore, INH derivatives with greater lipophilicity are emerging as one of the most potential anti-TB agents. Indeed, the INH derivative LL-3858 is in initial stages of phase II clinical trial for the treatment of TB and may be approved to treat TB in the near future. This review aims to summarize the recent advances made towards the discovery anti-TB agents holding INH as a nucleus including INH hybrids and INH hydrazide-hydrazone derivatives.

Geographical influences on content of 10-hydroxy-trans-2-decenoic acid in royal jelly in China.

The content of 10-hydroxy-trans-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA), a marker compound in royal jelly (RJ), is the most important criterion in grading RJ for commercial trade and varies with its origin. To identify the effect of geographical origin on 10-HDA content in RJ, 138 samples were collected from 19 provinces of China (divided into three groups) produced by either Apis mellifera ligustica Spinola, 1806 or a hybrid of A. m. ligustica and Apis mellifera carnica Pollman, 1879 and analyzed for moisture, sugar, crude protein, ash, acid, and 10-HDA concentration. The results show that RJ from western China has a significantly higher 10-HDA level (2.01 +/- 0.05%) than those from northeastern (1.87 +/- 0.05%) and eastern (1.75 +/- 0.03%) China. RJ secreted by hybrid bees contained more 10-HDA (1.89 +/- 0.03%) than that secreted by A. m. ligustica (1.78 +/- 0.03%). The 10-HDA content of RJ produced during flowering of rape (Brassica campestris L.), lime (Tilia amurensis Ruprecht), and vitex (Vitex negundo L. variety heterophylla (Franch.) Rehder) was 1.92, 1.80, and 1.68%, respectively. The results would be helpful during the process of price determination of RJ by providing some basis of geographical, bee strain, and botanical information for commercial trade.

Bis{µ-2,2'-[ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilo-methyl-idyne)]diphenolato}dinickel(II).

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Ni(2)(C(16)H(14)N(2)O(2))(2)], contains an Ni(II) cation which is coordinated by two imine N atoms and by two phenolate O atoms of the salen ligand {salen = N,N'-bis-(salicyl-idene)ethane-1,2-diamine or 2,2'-[ethane-1,2-diyl-bis(nitrilo-methyl-idyne)]diphenol}, leading to a distorted square-planar conformation. When a secondary Ni-O inter-action > 2.41 Što the neighbouring phenolate O atom is considered, two mol-ecules are linked into a centrosymmetric dimer with an overall square-pyramidal coordination for the Ni(II) cation. Weak π-π inter-actions with a shortest interplanar distance of 3.704 Šhelp to stabilize the crystal structure.