Investigation of acousto-optic interaction with momentum mismatching considering acoustic anisotropy in birefringent crystal.

In this work, the momentum mismatching based on which the acousto-optic (AO) transfer function and diffraction efficiency was acquired, was calculated considering the properties of AO crystals in AO interactions in acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). Transfer functions were obtained using a 4f optical system combined with AOTF and compared with theoretical calculations. It demonstrated the influence of acoustic energy shift on the AO interaction which should be considered in the design of AOTF.

Nonlinear shear characteristics of frozen loess-concrete interface.

Under the different temperature environment, the precast pile-soil interface characteristics has an important impact on the safety and long-term stability for pile foundation. A large precast pile-soil shear experimental device is used to carry out the direct shear test of concrete-loess interface with different moisture contents under different freezing temperatures. The variation laws of shear strength parameters are revealed with influencing factors, and the shear mechanism of interface is discussed. The stress-strain constitutive equation of interface is proposed, and the shear strength criterion is established with considering the effects of temperature and moisture content on cohesion and internal friction angle. The results show the curve of shear stress and shear displacement can be divided into three stages: elastic deformation stage, plastic deformation stage and sliding failure stage, which macroscopically reflects the shear failure mechanism of the frozen soil-concrete interface. The shear strength of the interface is affected by the test temperature, sample moisture content and normal stress. The lower the test temperature, the greater the shear strength of the interface; With the increase of normal stress, the shear strength of interface increases; With the increase of moisture content, the shear strength of the interface increases and then decreases. The relationship of shear stress and shear displacement of frozen soil-concrete interface can be well described by the piecewise combination of hyperbolic function and linear function.

PhyB-dependent phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade MKK2-MPK2 positively regulates red light-induced stomatal opening.

Red light induces stomatal opening by affecting photosynthesis, metabolism and triggering signal transductions in guard cells. Phytochrome B (phyB) plays a positive role in mediating red light-induced stomatal opening. However, phyB-mediated red light guard cell signalling is poorly understood. Here, we found that phyB-mediated sequential phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 2 (MAPKK2, MKK2) and MPK2 in guard cells is essential for red light-induced stomatal opening. Mutations in MKK2 and MPK2 led to reduced stomatal opening in response to white light, and these phenotypes could be observed under red light, not blue light. MKK2 interacted with MPK2 in vitro and in plants. MPK2 was directly phosphorylated by MKK2 in vitro. Red light triggered the phosphorylation of MKK2 in guard cells, and MKK2 phosphorylation was greatly reduced in phyB mutant. Simultaneously, red light-stimulated MPK2 phosphorylation in guard cells was inhibited in mkk2 mutant. Furthermore, mkk2 and mpk2 mutants exhibit significantly smaller stomatal apertures than that of wild type during the stomatal opening stage in the diurnal stomatal movements. Our results indicate that red light-promoted phyB-dependent phosphorylation of MKK2-MPK2 cascade in guard cells is essential for stomatal opening, which contributes to the fine-tuning of stomatal opening apertures under light.

Epidemiology of depressive disorders among youth during Gaokao to college in China: results from Hunan Normal University mental health survey.

BACKGROUND: Given the serious consequences of depression and the lack of information about it during the crucially developmental period from the National College Entrance Exam (CEE, i.e., Chinese gaokao) to college, this study aimed to estimate the cumulative incidence, prevalence, age of onset, correlates, and service use of depressive disorders (DDs) among youth who passed the CEE and were enrolled at Hunan Normal University in China. METHODS: A two-stage cross-sectional epidemiological survey of DDs was conducted from October to December, 2017 among 6,922 incoming college students (98.5% effective response, N = 6,818, 71.4% female, age range: 16-25 years, mean age = 18.6). Using a stratified sampling method based on the risk of depression, 926 participants (mean age = 18.5, 75.2% female) were selected and subsequently interviewed with the Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Present and lifetime version (K-SADS-PL). RESULTS: The sex-adjusted 9-month (i.e., 3 months pre-CEE, 3 months after CEE, and 3 months post-matriculation) incidence of new-onset DDs was 2.3% (standard error [S.E.] 0.3%), and the sex-adjusted 1-month, 6-month and lifetime prevalence were 0.7 (S.E. 0.3%), 1.7 (S.E. 0.2%) and 7.5% (S.E. 1.3%), respectively. The median age of onset was 17 (interquartile range: 16-18) years. Critically, over one-third (36.5%, S.E. 0.6) of depressed youth had their new onset during the 9-month period. The risk factors for depression included having mothers with higher education, experiencing major life events, being female, and experiencing parental divorce or death. The adjusted lifetime treatment rate was 8.7%. CONCLUSION: The 9-month incidence of new-onset depression from gaokao to college among the youth sample in China is similar to the global annual incidence (3.0%), but the 1-month and lifetime prevalence are significantly lower than the global point (7.2%) and lifetime prevalence (19%). These findings suggest a high proportion of new-onset depression during the CEE to college among the sample youth in China. The risk of depression is associated with familial and stress correlates. Low treatment is a serious concern. Emphasis on early prevention and available treatment for adolescent and young adult depression is a critical need in China.

A New Fast Control Strategy of Terminal Sliding Mode with Nonlinear Extended State Observer for Voltage Source Inverter.

To overcome the sensitivity of voltage source inverters (VSIs) to parameter perturbations and their susceptibility to load variations, a fast terminal sliding mode control (FTSMC) method is proposed as the core and combined with an improved nonlinear extended state observer (NLESO) to resist aggregate system perturbations. Firstly, a mathematical model of the dynamics of a single-phase voltage type inverter is constructed using a state-space averaging approach. Secondly, an NLESO is designed to estimate the lumped uncertainty using the saturation properties of hyperbolic tangent functions. Finally, a sliding mode control method with a fast terminal attractor is proposed to improve the dynamic tracking of the system. It is shown that the NLESO guarantees convergence of the estimation error and effectively preserves the initial derivative peak. The FTSMC enables the output voltage with high tracking accuracy and low total harmonic distortion and enhances the anti-disturbance ability.

Red light-upregulated MPK11 negatively regulates red light-induced stomatal opening in Arabidopsis.

Stomatal movements allow the uptake of CO2 for photosynthesis and water loss through transpiration, therefore play a crucial role in determining water use efficiency. Both red and blue lights induce stomatal opening, and the stomatal apertures under light are finetuned by both positive and negative regulators in guard cells. However, the molecular mechanisms for precisely adjusting stomatal apertures under light have not been completely understood. Here, we provided evidence supporting that Arabidopsis thaliana mitogen-activated protein kinase 11 (MPK11) plays a negative role in red light-induced stomatal opening. First, MPK11 was found to be highly expressed in guard cells, and MPK11-GFP signals were detected in both nuclear and cytoplasm of guard cells. The transcript levels of MPK11 in guard cells were upregulated by white light, and the stomata of mpk11 opened wider than that of wild type under white light. Consistent with the larger stomatal aperture, mpk11 mutant exhibited higher stomatal conductance and CO2 assimilation rate under white light. The transcript levels of the genes responsible for osmolytes increases were higher in guard cells of mpk11 than that of wild type, which may contribute to the larger stomatal aperture of mpk11 under white light. Furthermore, MPK11 transcript levels in guard cells were upregulated by red light, and mpk11 mutant showed a larger stomatal aperture under red light. Taken together, these results demonstrate that red light-upregulated MPK11 plays a negative role in stomatal opening, which finetuning the stomatal opening apertures and preventing excessive water loss by transpiration under light.

Comparison of the response of microbial communities to region and rootstock disease differences in tobacco soils of southwestern China.

Introduction: Soil microorganisms are essential for crop growth and production as part of soil health. However, our current knowledge of microbial communities in tobacco soils and their impact factors is limited. Methods: In this study, we compared the characterization of bacterial and fungal communities in tobacco soils and their response to regional and rootstock disease differences. Results and discussion: The results showed that the diversity and composition of bacterial and fungal communities responded more strongly to regional differences than to rootstock diseases, while bacterial niche breadth was more sensitive than fungi to regional differences. Similarly, the core bacterial and fungal taxa shared by the three regions accounted for 21.73% and 20.62% of all OTUs, respectively, which was much lower than that shared by RD and NRD in each region, ranging from 44.87% to 62.14%. Meanwhile, the differences in topological characteristics, connectivity, and stability of microbial networks in different regions also verified the high responsiveness of microbial communities to regions. However, rootstock diseases had a more direct effect on fungal communities than regional differences. Conclusion: This provided insight into the interactions between microbial communities, regional differences, and rootstock diseases, with important implications for maintaining soil health and improving tobacco yield and quality.

GPX2 Gene Affects Feed Efficiency of Pigs by Inhibiting Fat Deposition and Promoting Muscle Development.

GPX2 has been recognized as a potential candidate gene for feed efficiency in pigs. This article aimed to elucidate polymorphism of GPX2 associated with feed efficiency and its related molecular mechanism. In this study, seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of GPX2 were found among 383 Duroc pigs. In addition, seven SNPs and ALGA0043483 (PorcineSNP60 BeadChip data in 600 Duroc pigs), which are near the GPX2 gene, were identified in one haplotypes block. Furthermore, associated studies showed that the genotype of GPX2 has significant association with weaning weight and 100 kg BF in Duroc pigs. In addition, the AG had no effect when the backfat became thinner, and the FCR and RFI traits had a tendency to decrease in the G3 + TT combination genotype, accompanied by an increase of GPX2 expression in backfat and muscle tissues. At the cellular level, the adipocyte proliferation and ability of adipogenic differentiation were reduced, and the lipid degradation increased in 3T3-L1 when there was overexpression of GPX2. In contrast, overexpression of the GPX2 gene can promote the muscle cell proliferation and myogenic differentiation in C2C12 cells. In other words, GPX2 has the effect of reducing fat deposition and promoting muscle development, and it is a candidate gene for backfat and feed efficiency.

An Efficient End-to-End Multitask Network Architecture for Defect Inspection.

Recently, computer vision-based methods have been successfully applied in many industrial fields. Nevertheless, automated detection of steel surface defects remains a challenge due to the complexity of surface defects. To solve this problem, many models have been proposed, but these models are not good enough to detect all defects. After analyzing the previous research, we believe that the single-task network cannot fully meet the actual detection needs owing to its own characteristics. To address this problem, an end-to-end multi-task network has been proposed. It consists of one encoder and two decoders. The encoder is used for feature extraction, and the two decoders are used for object detection and semantic segmentation, respectively. In an effort to deal with the challenge of changing defect scales, we propose the Depthwise Separable Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling module. This module can obtain dense multi-scale features at a very low computational cost. After that, Residually Connected Depthwise Separable Atrous Convolutional Blocks are used to extract spatial information under low computation for better segmentation prediction. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of training strategies on network performance. The performance of the network can be optimized by adopting the strategy of training the segmentation task first and using the deep supervision training method. At length, the advantages of object detection and semantic segmentation are tactfully combined. Our model achieves mIOU 79.37% and mAP@0.5 78.38% on the NEU dataset. Comparative experiments demonstrate that this method has apparent advantages over other models. Meanwhile, the speed of detection amount to 85.6 FPS on a single GPU, which is acceptable in the practical detection process.

[Research status and trends of acupuncture and moxibustion for cancer：a bibliometric analysis based on CiteSpace and VOSviewer].

To analyze the research status of acupuncture and moxibustion for cancer at home and abroad in the past 45 years by using bibliometric and scientific knowledge map methods，and explore the development trends in future. The literature of acupuncture and moxibustion for cancer was retrieved from CNKI and Web of Science (WOS) till December 31, 2020 since the database establishment, and CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to perform visual map analysis through cooperation network, keyword co-occurrence, keyword timeline, keyword emergence and other methods. Totally, 1 585 literature in CNKI and 1 564 literature in WOS were included, and the annual publication amount showed a fluctuating upward trend. Cooperation between countries was centered on China and the United States, and there was relatively little cooperation among different institutions. The analysis of keyword and cited literature showed that researches focused on the control of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy on cancer complications and adverse reactions of western medicine. The main research types in WOS were systematic review and randomized controlled trial (RCT), while in CNKI was review, depth studies on mechanism of acupuncture and moxibustion for cancer were rare. The concern about the quality of life of cancer patients may become research emphasis in the field of acupuncture and moxibustion for cancer in future, and the research scope tends to integrative and holistic oncology.

Interploidy gene flow involving the sexual-asexual cycle facilitates the diversification of gynogenetic triploid Carassius fish.

Asexual vertebrates are rare and at risk of extinction due to their restricted adaptability through the loss of genetic recombination. We explore the mechanisms behind the generation and maintenance of genetic diversity in triploid asexual (gynogenetic) Carassius auratus fish, which is widespread in East Asian fresh waters and exhibits one of the most extensive distribution among asexual vertebrates despite its dependence on host sperm. Our analyses of genetic composition using dozens of genetic markers and genome-wide transcriptome sequencing uncover admixed genetic composition of Japanese asexual triploid Carassius consisting of both the diverged Japanese and Eurasian alleles, suggesting the involvement of Eurasian lineages in its origin. However, coexisting sexual diploid relatives and asexual triploids in Japan show regional genetic similarity in both mitochondrial and nuclear markers. These results are attributed to a unique unidirectional gene flow from diploids to sympatric triploids, with the involvement of occasional sexual reproduction. Additionally, the asexual triploid shows a weaker population structure than the sexual diploid, and multiple triploid lineages coexist in most Japanese rivers. The generated diversity via repeated interploidy gene flow as well as an increased establishment of immigrants is assumed to offset the cost of asexual reproduction and might contribute to the successful broad distribution of this asexual vertebrate.

Lenghu on the Tibetan Plateau as an astronomical observing site.

On Earth's surface, there are only a handful of high-quality astronomical sites that meet the requirements for very large next-generation facilities. In the context of scientific opportunities in time-domain astronomy, a good site on the Tibetan Plateau will bridge the longitudinal gap between the known best sites1,2 (all in the Western Hemisphere). The Tibetan Plateau is the highest plateau on Earth, with an average elevation of over 4,000 metres, and thus potentially provides very good opportunities for astronomy and particle astrophysics3-5. Here we report the results of three years of monitoring of testing an area at a local summit on Saishiteng Mountain near Lenghu Town in Qinghai Province. The altitudes of the potential locations are between 4,200 and 4,500 metres. An area of over 100,000 square kilometres surrounding Lenghu Town has a lower altitude of below 3,000 metres, with an extremely arid climate and unusually clear local sky (day and night)6. Of the nights at the site, 70 per cent have clear, photometric conditions, with a median seeing of 0.75 arcseconds. The median night temperature variation is only 2.4 degrees Celsius, indicating very stable local surface air. The precipitable water vapour is lower than 2 millimetres for 55 per cent of the night.

Antioral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Effects of Carvacrol via Inhibiting Inflammation, Proliferation, and Migration Related to Nrf2/Keap1 Pathway.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the therapeutic effect of Carvacrol on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and dissect underlying molecular mechanisms. METHODS: Keap1/Nrf2, NALP3, Vimentin, and E-cadherin expression was detected in OSCC and normal oral mucosa (NOM) tissues using immunofluorescence or western blot. When treated with Carvacrol or tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) that activates Nrf2, the expression of Keap1/Nrf2/HO-1, epithelial-mesenchymal transition- (EMT-) related proteins, and NALP3 was examined in OSCC cells. Nrf2 was silenced by treatment with sh-Nrf2 or ML385. After silencing Nrf2 or Carvacrol treatment, cell proliferation and migration were assessed by clone formation and scratch and transwell tests in OSCC cells. Moreover, the expression of Keap1/Nrf2/HO-1, EMT-related proteins, and NALP3 was detected. RESULTS: Keap1/Nrf2, NALP3, Vimentin, and E-cadherin proteins were all significantly upregulated in OSCC than NOM tissues. Carvacrol significantly suppressed Keap1/Nrf2/HO-1 activation. Carvacrol or silencing Nrf2 markedly inhibited the expression of Keap1/Nrf2/HO-1, EMT-related proteins, and NALP3 inflammasome in OSCC cells. Furthermore, clone formation and migration capacities were suppressed following treatment with Carvacrol or Nrf2 depletion. The opposite results were found when there is overexpression of Nrf2. However, Carvacrol distinctly improved the cancer-promoting effect induced by Nrf2 overexpression. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested that Carvacrol ameliorated inflammation, proliferation, and migration for OSCC, which was related to inhibition of the Nrf2/Keap1 pathway.

MCU That Is Transcriptionally Regulated by Nrf2 Augments Malignant Biological Behaviors in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells.

OBJECTIVE: To clarify the role and molecular mechanism of mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) in the malignant biological behaviors of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells through clinical and cellular experiments. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR techniques were used to observe the expression of MCU, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), mitochondrial calcium uptake 1 (MICU1), and MICU2 in OSCC and normal tissues. After treatment with si-MCU, spermine, and/or sh-Nrf2, malignant biological behaviors of OSCC cells including proliferation, migration, and apoptosis were detected by clone formation, migration, and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) assays. Furthermore, MCU, MICU1, MICU2, Nrf2, and other proteins related to malignant biological behaviors were examined using western blot, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence assays. RESULTS: MCU, Nrf2, and MICU1 were strongly expressed in OSCC as compared to normal tissues, while MICU2 was relatively weakly expressed in OSCC tissues. Knockdown of MCU distinctly weakened proliferation and migration and lowered MMP level in CAL 27 cells. Conversely, its activation reinforced migrated capacity and increased MMP level in CAL 27 cells, which was reversed after cotransfection with sh-Nrf2. After treatment with si-MCU or spermine, Nrf2 expression was not affected in CAL 27 cells. However, MCU expression was distinctly suppressed in CAL 27 cells transfected with sh-Nrf2. Furthermore, knockdown of Nrf2 significantly reversed the increase in expression of MICU1 and MICU2 induced by MCU activation in CAL 27 cells. CONCLUSION: MCU, as a novel oncogene of OSCC, augments malignant biological behaviors of OSCC cells, which could be transcriptionally regulated by Nrf2.

SnRK2.6 interacts with phytochrome B and plays a negative role in red light-induced stomatal opening.

Light is an important environmental factor for plant growth and development. Phytochrome B (phyB), a classical red/far-red light receptor, plays vital role in controlling plant photomorphogenesis and light-induced stomatal opening. Phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) accumulates rapidly and triggers a series of physiological and molecular events during the responses to multiple abiotic stresses. Recent studies showed that phyB mutant synthesizes more ABA and exhibits improved tolerance to salt and cold stress, suggesting that a crosstalk exists between light and ABA signaling pathway. However, whether ABA signaling components mediate responses to light remains unclear. Here, we showed that SnRK2.6 (Sucrose Nonfermenting 1-Related Protein Kinase 2.6), a key regulator in ABA signaling, interacts with phyB and participates in light-induced stomatal opening. First, we checked the interaction between phyB and SnRK2s, and found that SnRK2.2/2.3/2.6 kinases physically interacted with phyB in yeast and in vitro. We also performed co-IP assay to support that SnRK2.6 interacts with phyB in plant. To investigate the role of SnRK2.6 in red light-induced stomatal opening, we obtained the snrk2.6 mutant and overexpression lines, and found that snrk2.6 mutant exhibited a significantly larger stomatal aperture under red light treatment, while the two independent overexpression lines showed significantly smaller stomatal aperture, indicative of a negative role for SnRK2.6 in red light-induced stomatal opening. The interaction of SnRK2.6 with red light receptor and the negative role of SnRK2.6 in red light-induced stomatal opening provide new evidence for the crosstalk between ABA and red light in guard cell signaling.

Circ-HIPK3 regulates YAP1 expression by sponging miR-381-3p to promote oral squamous cell carcinoma development.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to play important roles in human cancers. Circular RNA homeodomain interacting protein kinase 3 (Circ-HIPK3) was investigated to be involved in tumorigenesis. However, the functions of circ-HIPK3 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remain vague. The expression of circ-HIPK3, microRNA (miR)-381-3p and Yes-associated protein1 (YAP1) was detected by qRT-PCR or western blot. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and migration were measured by MTT assay, flow cytometry, or transwell assay. The dual-luciferase reporter assay was employed to test the target correlations miR-381-3p and circ-HIPK3 or YAP1. Murine xenograft model was established to conduct in vivo assay. CircHIPK3 was elevated in OSCC tissues and cell lines, and decrease of circ-HIPK3 suppressed OSCC cell proliferation, invasion, migration and induced apoptosis in vitro as well as inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Rescue assay indicated circ-HIPK3 silence mediated OSCC progression inhibition by sponging miR-381-3p, which was a target of circ-HIPK3. Furthermore, miR-381-3p directly interacted with YAP1 and miR-381-3p inhibition could attenuate YAP1 deletion-induced suppression on cell malignant biological behavior in OSCC. Meanwhile, co-expression analysis showed circ-HIPK3 could regulate YAP1 expression by competing for miR-381-3p. Circ-HIPK3 contributed to OSCC growth and development through regulating YAP1 expression by sponging miR-381-3p, indicating a promising therapeutic strategy for OSCC.

Hsa_circ_0002162 has a critical role in malignant progression of tongue squamous cell carcinoma through targeting miR-33a-5p.

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of hsa_circ_0002162 on regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion, and investigate its potential target microRNA (miRNA) in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC). Hsa_circ_0002162 expression was detected in human TSCC cell lines and human oral keratinocytes (HOK) cell line. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and candidate target miRNA expressions were detected in hsa_circ_0002162 knockdown-treated CAL-27 cells and hsa_circ_0002162 overexpression-treated SCC-9 cells. In the rescue experiment, miR-33a-5p knockdown plasmid was transfected into hsa_circ_0002162 knockdown-treated CAL-27 cells, while miR-33a-5p overexpression plasmid was transfected into hsa_circ_0002162 overexpression-treated SCC-9 cells. Subsequently, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion were detected, and then luciferase reporter assay was performed. Hsa_circ_0002162 expression was increased in human TSCC cell lines SCC-9, CAL-27, HSC-4, and SCC-25 compared with HOK. In CAL-27 cells, hsa_circ_0002162 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and invasion and promoted apoptosis. In SCC-9 cells, hsa_circ_0002162 overexpression enhanced cell proliferation and invasion and suppressed apoptosis. Furthermore, a negative regulation of hsa_circ_0002162 on miR-33a-5p (but not miR-302b-5p and miR-545-5p) was observed. In the rescue experiment, miR-33a-5p knockdown increased cell proliferation and invasion, and decreased apoptosis in hsa_circ_0002162 knockdown-treated CAL-27 cells, whereas miR-33a-5p overexpression decreased cell proliferation and invasion, but increased apoptosis in hsa_circ_0002162 overexpression-treated SCC-9 cells. The luciferase reporter assay showed the direct binding of hsa_circ_0002162 to miR-33a-5p. In conclusion, hsa_circ_0002162 had an important role in malignant progression of TSCC through targeting miR-33a-5p.

RIC7 plays a negative role in ABA-induced stomatal closure by inhibiting H2O2 production.

When plants encounter environmental stresses, phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) accumulates quickly and efficiently reduces water loss by inducing stomatal closure. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is an important regulator in ABA-induced stomatal closure, and ROS generation is modulated by multiple components in guard-cell ABA signaling. ROP interactive CRIB-containing protein 7 (RIC7) has been found to negatively regulate ABA-induced stomatal closure. However, the molecular details of the RIC7 function in this process are unclear. Here, by using two RIC7 overexpressing mutants, we confirmed the negative role of RIC7 in ABA-induced stomatal closure and found that guard cells of RIC7 overexpressing mutants generated less H2O2 than the wild type with ABA treatment, which were consistent with the reduced expression levels of ROS generation related NADPH oxidase genes AtRBOHD and AtRBOHF, and cytosolic polyamine oxidase genes PAO1 and PAO5 in the RIC7 overexpressing mutants. Furthermore, external applied H2O2 failed to rescue the defects of stomatal closure in RIC7 overexpressing mutants. These results suggest that RIC7 affects H2O2 generation in guard cells, and the function of H2O2 is dependent on RIC7 in ABA-induced stomatal closure, indicative of interdependency between RIC7 and H2O2 in ABA guard-cell signaling.

Phylogenetic analysis and expression differences of eye-related genes in cavefish genus Sinocyclocheilus.

The adaptive evolution of visual systems has been observed in many cavefish. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying these adaptations, which include regressive changes such as eye degeneration. Here, we analyzed phylogenetic and expression patterns of 6 eye-related genes (crx, foxg1b, opn1sw2, otx2, rho and sox2) in 12 Sinocyclocheilus species from China, including 8 stygobionts and 4 stygophiles, and examined photoreceptor cell morphology of these species. Those eye-degenerated species of Sinocyclocheilus were polyphyletic and showed different degrees of photoreceptor defects in responses to cave environments. The eye loss and degeneration are the result of convergent evolution. Although S. anophthalmus grouped with the eye-normal species, it displayed not only a high degree of eye degeneration but also significant expression differences in eye-related genes compared with the eye-normal species. The gene foxg1b, which was determined to be under positive selection, might play an important role in the process of eye degeneration in S. anophthalmus based on differential expression. Eye-related gene expression and selection may have contributed to the polyphyly of the cave species. We examined gene expression and duplication in 6 eye-related genes and revealed that these genes displayed considerable diversity in relative expression in Sinocyclocheilus fishes. Otx2 and sox2 were significantly up-regulated in individual cave species, while the other 4 genes (crx, foxg1b, opn1sw2 and rho) were significantly down-regulated. These findings provide a valuable resource for elucidating molecular mechanisms associated with visual system evolution in cavefish.

Hsa_circ_0002162 has a critical role in malignant progression of tongue squamous cell carcinoma through targeting miR-33a-5p

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of hsa_circ_0002162 on regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion, and investigate its potential target microRNA (miRNA) in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC). Hsa_circ_0002162 expression was detected in human TSCC cell lines and human oral keratinocytes (HOK) cell line. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and candidate target miRNA expressions were detected in hsa_circ_0002162 knockdown-treated CAL-27 cells and hsa_circ_0002162 overexpression-treated SCC-9 cells. In the rescue experiment, miR-33a-5p knockdown plasmid was transfected into hsa_circ_0002162 knockdown-treated CAL-27 cells, while miR-33a-5p overexpression plasmid was transfected into hsa_circ_0002162 overexpression-treated SCC-9 cells. Subsequently, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion were detected, and then luciferase reporter assay was performed. Hsa_circ_0002162 expression was increased in human TSCC cell lines SCC-9, CAL-27, HSC-4, and SCC-25 compared with HOK. In CAL-27 cells, hsa_circ_0002162 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and invasion and promoted apoptosis. In SCC-9 cells, hsa_circ_0002162 overexpression enhanced cell proliferation and invasion and suppressed apoptosis. Furthermore, a negative regulation of hsa_circ_0002162 on miR-33a-5p (but not miR-302b-5p and miR-545-5p) was observed. In the rescue experiment, miR-33a-5p knockdown increased cell proliferation and invasion, and decreased apoptosis in hsa_circ_0002162 knockdown-treated CAL-27 cells, whereas miR-33a-5p overexpression decreased cell proliferation and invasion, but increased apoptosis in hsa_circ_0002162 overexpression-treated SCC-9 cells. The luciferase reporter assay showed the direct binding of hsa_circ_0002162 to miR-33a-5p. In conclusion, hsa_circ_0002162 had an important role in malignant progression of TSCC through targeting miR-33a-5p.