Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy charged probes under inverted superhydrophobic platform for detection of agricultural chemicals residues in rice combined with lightweight deep learning network.

In this study, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) charged probes and an inverted superhydrophobic platform were used to develop a detection method for agricultural chemicals residues (ACRs) in rice combined with lightweight deep learning network. First, positively and negatively charged probes were prepared to adsorb ACRs molecules to SERS substrate. An inverted superhydrophobic platform was prepared to alleviate the coffee ring effect and induce tight self-assembly of nanoparticles for high sensitivity. Chlormequat chloride of 15.5-0.05 mg/L and acephate of 100.2-0.2 mg/L in rice were measured with the relative standard deviation of 4.15% and 6.25%. SqueezeNet were used to develop regression models for the analysis of chlormequat chloride and acephate. And the excellent performances were obtained with the coefficients of determination of prediction of 0.9836 and 0.9826 and root-mean-square errors of prediction of 0.49 and 4.08. Therefore, the proposed method can realize sensitive and accurate detection of ACRs in rice.

The endomembrane system: how does it contribute to plant secondary metabolism?

New organelle acquisition through neofunctionalization of the endomembrane system (ES) with respect to plant secondary metabolism is a key evolutionary strategy for plant adaptation, which is overlooked due to the complexity of angiosperms. Bryophytes produce a broad range of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs), and their simple cellular structures, including unique organelles, such as oil bodies (OBs), highlight them as suitable model to investigate the contribution of the ES to PSMs. In this opinion, we review latest findings on the contribution of the ES to PSM biosynthesis, with a specific focus on OBs, and propose that the ES provides organelles and trafficking routes for PSM biosynthesis, transportation, and storage. Therefore, future research on ES-derived organelles and trafficking routes will provide essential knowledge for synthetic applications.

Preparation of bio-jet fuels by a controllable integration process: Coupling of biomass fermentation and olefin polymerization.

This work demonstrated that bio-jet fuels can be directionally prepared from bagasse (a typical lignocellulose biomass) by integrating bio- and chemical catalysis reaction processes. This controllable transformation started with the preparation of acetone/butanol/ethanol (ABE) intermediates through the enzymolysis and fermentation of bagasse. Pretreatment of bagasse by deep eutectic solvent (DES) promoted the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation because it destroyed the structure of biomass and remove lignin in lignocellulose. Subsequently, the selective catalytic conversion of sugarcane derived ABE broth to jet range fuels was achieved through an integrated process: ABE dehydration to light olefins over the HSAPO-34 catalyst and olefin polymerization to bio-jet fuels over the Ni/HBET catalyst. The dual catalyst bed synthesis mode improved the selectively of bio-jet fuels. High selectivity of jet range fuels (83.0 %) and high conversion of ABE (95.3 %) were obtained by the integrated process.

Active metamaterials for realizing odd mass density.

Solids built out of active components have exhibited odd elastic stiffness tensors whose active moduli appear in the antisymmetric part and which give rise to non-Hermitian static and dynamic phenomena. Here, we present a class of active metamaterial featured with an odd mass density tensor whose asymmetric part arises from active and nonconservative forces. The odd mass density is realized using metamaterials with inner resonators connected by asymmetric and programmable feed-forward control on acceleration and active forces along the two perpendicular directions. The active forces produce unbalanced off-diagonal mass density coupling terms, leading to non-Hermiticity. The odd mass is then experimentally validated through a one-dimensional nonsymmetric wave coupling where propagating transverse waves are coupled with longitudinal ones whereas the reverse is forbidden. We reveal that the two-dimensional active metamaterials with the odd mass can perform in either energy-unbroken or energy-broken phases separated by exceptional points along principal directions of the mass density. The odd mass density contributes to the wave anisotropy in the energy-unbroken phase and directional wave energy gain in the energy-broken phase. We also numerically illustrate and experimentally demonstrate the two-dimensional wave propagation phenomena that arise from the odd mass in active solids. Finally, the existence of non-Hermitian skin effect is discussed in which boundaries host an extensive number of localized modes. It is our hope that the emergent concept of the odd mass can open up a new research platform for mechanical non-Hermitian system and pave the ways for developing next-generation wave steering devices.

Can Machine Learning Be Better than Biased Readers?

Background: Training machine learning (ML) models in medical imaging requires large amounts of labeled data. To minimize labeling workload, it is common to divide training data among multiple readers for separate annotation without consensus and then combine the labeled data for training a ML model. This can lead to a biased training dataset and poor ML algorithm prediction performance. The purpose of this study is to determine if ML algorithms can overcome biases caused by multiple readers' labeling without consensus. Methods: This study used a publicly available chest X-ray dataset of pediatric pneumonia. As an analogy to a practical dataset without labeling consensus among multiple readers, random and systematic errors were artificially added to the dataset to generate biased data for a binary-class classification task. The Resnet18-based convolutional neural network (CNN) was used as a baseline model. A Resnet18 model with a regularization term added as a loss function was utilized to examine for improvement in the baseline model. Results: The effects of false positive labels, false negative labels, and random errors (5-25%) resulted in a loss of AUC (0-14%) when training a binary CNN classifier. The model with a regularized loss function improved the AUC (75-84%) over that of the baseline model (65-79%). Conclusion: This study indicated that it is possible for ML algorithms to overcome individual readers' biases when consensus is not available. It is recommended to use regularized loss functions when allocating annotation tasks to multiple readers as they are easy to implement and effective in mitigating biased labels.

Stepwise changes in flavonoids in spores/pollen contributed to terrestrial adaptation of plants.

Protecting haploid pollen and spores against ultraviolet-B (UV-B) light and high temperature, two major stresses inherent to the terrestrial environment, is critical for plant reproduction and dispersal. Here, we show flavonoids play an indispensable role in this process. Firstly, we identified the flavanone naringenin, which serves to defend against UV-B damage, in the sporopollenin wall of all vascular plants tested. Secondly, we found that flavonols are present in the spore/pollen protoplasm of all euphyllophyte plants tested and that these flavonols scavenge ROS to protect against environmental stresses, particularly heat. Genetic and biochemical analyses showed that these flavonoids are sequentially synthesized in both the tapetum and microspores during pollen ontogeny in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). We show that stepwise increases in the complexity of flavonoids in spores/pollen during plant evolution mirrors their progressive adaptation to terrestrial environments. The close relationship between flavonoid complexity and phylogeny and its strong association with pollen survival phenotypes suggests that flavonoids played a central role in the progression of plants from aquatic environments into progressively dry land habitats.

Ultrasonic-assisted hypochlorite activation accelerated volatile fatty acids production during sewage sludge fermentation: Critical insights on solubilization/hydrolysis stages and microbial traits.

The effective disruption of extracellular polymeric substances using appropriate pretreatment is critical to achieving resource recovery from sewage sludge (SS) by anaerobic fermentation. This work proposed an ultrasonic-assisted hypochlorite activation strategy for enhanced production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) during SS fermentation. The results demonstrated that after individual ultrasonic and hypochlorite pretreatment, the maximum VFAs yield improved by 8 and 107% with that in control, respectively, while a combination of both techniques led to an improvement of 119%, indicating their synergistic effects on SS fermentation. This method enhanced the solubilization and hydrolysis efficiencies and contributed to the increased biodegradable substrates, which would be beneficial in enhancing microbial activity for VFAs production. The functional anaerobes, metabolic pathways, and gene expressions involved in VFAs biosynthesis were effectively improved. This work would bring a novel insight into the disposal of municipal solid waste for resource recovery.

Controllable spin-resolved photon emission enhanced by a slow-light mode in photonic crystal waveguides on a chip.

We report the slow-light enhanced spin-resolved in-plane emission from a single quantum dot (QD) in a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW). The slow light dispersions in PCWs are designed to match the emission wavelengths of single QDs. The resonance between two spin states emitted from a single QD and a slow light mode of a waveguide is investigated under a magnetic field with Faraday configuration. Two spin states of a single QD experience different degrees of enhancement as their emission wavelengths are shifted by combining diamagnetic and Zeeman effects with an optical excitation power control. A circular polarization degree up to 0.81 is achieved by changing the off-resonant excitation power. Strongly polarized photon emission enhanced by a slow light mode shows great potential to attain controllable spin-resolved photon sources for integrated optical quantum networks on chip.

Solid-State Quad-Nanopore Array for High-Resolution Single-Molecule Analysis and Discrimination.

The ability to detect and distinguish biomolecules at the single-molecule level is at the forefront of today's biomedicine and analytical chemistry research. Increasing the dwell time of individual biomolecules in the sensing spot can greatly enhance the sensitivity of single-molecule methods. This is particularly important in solid-state nanopore sensing, where the detection of small molecules is often limited by the transit dwell time and insufficient temporal resolution. Here, a quad-nanopore is introduced, a square array of four nanopores (with a space interval of 30-50 nm) to improve the detection sensitivity through electric field manipulation in the access region. It is shown that dwell times of short DNA strands (200 bp) are prolonged in quad-nanopores as compared to single nanopores of the same diameter. The dependence of dwell times on the quad-pore spacing is investigated and it is found that the "retarding effect" increases with decreasing space intervals. Furthermore, ultra-short DNA (50 bp) detection is demonstrated using a 10 nm diameter quad-nanopore array, which is hardly detected by a single nanopore. Finally, the general utility of quad-nanopores has been verified by successful discrimination of two kinds of small molecules, metal-organic cage and bovine serum albumin (BSA).

Carbon mitigation potential afforded by rooftop photovoltaic in China.

Rooftop photovoltaics (RPVs) are crucial in achieving energy transition and climate goals, especially in cities with high building density and substantial energy consumption. Estimating RPV carbon mitigation potential at the city level of an entire large country is challenging given difficulties in assessing rooftop area. Here, using multi-source heterogeneous geospatial data and machine learning regression, we identify a total of 65,962 km2 rooftop area in 2020 for 354 Chinese cities, which represents 4 billion tons of carbon mitigation under ideal assumptions. Considering urban land expansion and power mix transformation, the potential remains at 3-4 billion tons in 2030, when China plans to reach its carbon peak. However, most cities have exploited less than 1% of their potential. We provide analysis of geographical endowment to better support future practice. Our study provides critical insights for targeted RPV development in China and can serve as a foundation for similar work in other countries.

Chemosensory Protein 2 of Male Athetis lepigone Is Involved in the Perception of Sex Pheromones and Maize Volatiles.

In moths, the interactions between chemosensory proteins (CSPs) and sex pheromones have yet to be comprehensively investigated. Here, we examined the function of AlepCSP2 in male Athetis lepigone based on protein expression, molecular docking, site-directed mutagenesis, fluorescence competitive binding analyses, and RNA interference (RNAi) experiments. We found that AlepCSP2 showed strong binding affinity for two sex pheromones and five maize volatiles and that binding was optimal under neutral conditions. Furthermore, we identified six amino acids as being key residues involved in the interaction between AlepCSP2 and multiple ligands. Further RNAi showed that siCSP2 males displayed consistently lower electroantennography responses to two sex pheromones and three maize volatiles at different dosages tested, and the mating rate also decreased significantly by 37.50%. These findings will contribute to characterizing the binding mechanisms of moth CSPs to sex pheromones and host volatiles and also identify unique targets for developing novel pest behavior disruptors.

Mutant p53 activates hnRNPA2B1-AGAP1-mediated exosome formation to promote esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression.

p53 mutations predispose cancer cell development, promote their survival and metastasis, and lead to ineffective therapeutic responses and unfavorable prognosis. No drug that abrogates the oncogenic functions of mutant p53 has been approved for cancer treatment. Here, we performed whole-genome sequencing of 663 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tumor tissues and paired normal tissues. The results indicated that ESCC samples from our cohort had a more dispersed distribution of TP53 mutants and a higher proportion of nonsense mutants than European and American ESCC samples in the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) database. The most frequent p53 mutations disrupt the inhibition of proliferation, migration, and invasion mediated by wild-type p53 in ESCC. Furthermore, p53 mutations alter its protein nucleoplasmic localization and protein stability. The p53 mutation G245S (p53-G245S) interacts with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2B1 (hnRNPA2B1) to increase protein translation of phosphatidylinositol-dependent Arf GAP (AGAP1) by promoting AGAP1 mRNA stability. AGAP1 promotes cancer cell proliferation and metastasis by enhancing exosome formation. Furthermore, we explored the combination of the HSP90 inhibitor HSP90i and the AGAP1 inhibitor QS11 could inhibit ESCC cell proliferation and metastasis. Thus, the p53-G245S/hnRNPA2B1/AGAP1 axis promotes ESCC progression by enhancing exosome formation, and the combination of an HSP90 inhibitor and an AGAP1 inhibitor may serve as a potential therapeutic strategy.

Combined ultrasound and germination treatment on the fine structure of highland barley starch.

Highland barley is a grain crop grown in Tibet, China. This study investigated the structure of highland barley starch using ultrasound (40 kHz, 40 min, 165.5 W) and germination treatments (30℃ with 80% relative humidity). The macroscopic morphology and the barley's fine and molecular structure were evaluated. After sequential ultrasound pretreatment and germination, a significant difference in moisture content and surface roughness was noted between highland barley and the other groups. All test groups showed an increased particle size distribution range with increasing germination time. FTIR results also indicated that after sequential ultrasound pretreatment and germination, the absorption intensity of the intramolecular hydroxyl (-OH) group of starch increased, and hydrogen bonding was stronger compared to the untreated germinated sample. In addition, XRD analysis revealed that starch crystallinity increased following sequential ultrasound treatment and germination, but a-type of crystallinity remained after sonication. Further, the Mw of sequential ultrasound pretreatment and germination at any time is higher than that of sequential germination and ultrasound. As a result of sequential ultrasound pretreatment and germination, changes in the content of chain length of barley starch were consistent with germination alone. At the same time, the average degree of polymerisation (DP) fluctuated slightly. Lastly, the starch was modified during the sonication process, either prior to or following sonication. Pretreatment with ultrasound illustrated a more profound effect on barley starch than sequential germination and ultrasound treatment. In conclusion, these results indicate that sequential ultrasound pretreatment and germination improve the fine structure of highland barley starch.

Ultrabright blue-light-emitting cesium bromide quantum dots for white LEDs.

Novel lead-free non-perovskite blue-emitting cesium bromine (CsBr) QDs have been prepared using a ligand-assisted re-precipitation method. A high photoluminescence quantum yield of over 92.0% makes the CsBr QDs an efficient color-conversion candidate for fabricating white-light-emitting diodes.

Timosaponin AIII promotes non-small-cell lung cancer ferroptosis through targeting and facilitating HSP90 mediated GPX4 ubiquitination and degradation.

Timosaponin AIII (Tim-AIII), a steroid saponin, exhibits strong anticancer activity in a variety of cancers, especially breast cancer and liver cancer. However, the underlying mechanism of the effects of Tim-AIII-mediated anti-lung cancer effects remain obscure. In this study, we showed that Tim-AIII suppressed cell proliferation and migration, induced G2/M phase arrest and ultimately triggered cell death of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines accompanied by the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and iron accumulation, malondialdehyde (MDA) production, and glutathione (GSH) depletion. Interestingly, we found that Tim-AIII-mediated cell death was reversed by ferroptosis inhibitor ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1). Meanwhile, the heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) was predicted and verified as the direct binding target of Tim-AIII by SwissTargetPrediction (STP) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assay. Further study showed that Tim-AIII promoted HSP90 expression and Tim-AIII induced cell death was blocked by the HSP90 inhibitor tanespimycin, indicating that HSP90 was the main target of Tim-AIII to further trigger intracellular events. Mechanical analysis revealed that the Tim-AIII-HSP90 complex further targeted and degraded glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), and promoted the ubiquitination of GPX4, as shown by an immunoprecipitation, degradation and in vitro ubiquitination assay. In addition, Tim-AIII inhibited cell proliferation, induced cell death, led to ROS and iron accumulation, MDA production, GSH depletion, as well as GPX4 ubiquitination and degradation, were markedly abrogated when HSP90 was knockdown by HSP90-shRNA transfection. Importantly, Tim-AIII also showed a strong capacity of preventing tumor growth by promoting ferroptosis in a subcutaneous xenograft tumor model, whether C57BL/6J or BALB/c-nu/nu nude mice. Together, HSP90 was identified as a new target of Tim-AIII. Tim-AIII, by binding and forming a complex with HSP90, further targeted and degraded GPX4, ultimately induced ferroptosis in NSCLC. These findings provided solid evidence that Tim-AIII can serve as a potential candidate for NSCLC treatment.

Cross-regional analysis of the association between human mobility and COVID-19 infection in Southeast Asia during the transitional period of "living with COVID-19".

BACKGROUND: In response to COVID-19, Southeast Asian (SEA) countries had imposed stringent lockdowns and restrictions to mitigate the pandemic ever since 2019. Because of a gradually boosting vaccination rate along with a strong demand for economic recovery, many governments have shifted the intervention strategy from restrictions to "Living with COVID-19" where people gradually resumed their normal activities since the second half of the year 2021. Noticeably, timelines for enacting the loosened strategy varied across Southeast Asian countries, which resulted in different patterns of human mobility across space and time. This thus presents an opportunity to study the relationship between mobility and the number of infection cases across regions, which could provide support for ongoing interventions in terms of effectiveness. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the association between human mobility and COVID-19 infections across space and time during the transition period of shifting strategies from restrictions to normal living in Southeast Asia. Our research results have significant implications for evidence-based policymaking at the present of the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health issues. METHODS: We aggregated weekly average human mobility data derived from the Facebook origin and destination Movement dataset. and weekly average new cases of COVID-19 at the district level from 01-Jun-2021 to 26-Dec-2021 (a total of 30 weeks). We mapped the spatiotemporal dynamics of human mobility and COVID-19 cases across countries in SEA. We further adopted the Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression model to identify the spatiotemporal variations of the association between human mobility and COVID-19 infections over 30 weeks. Our model also controls for socioeconomic status, vaccination, and stringency of intervention to better identify the impact of human mobility on COVID-19 spread. RESULTS: The percentage of districts that presented a statistically significant association between human mobility and COVID-19 infections generally decreased from 96.15% in week 1 to 90.38% in week 30, indicating a gradual disconnection between human mobility and COVID-19 spread. Over the study period, the average coefficients in 7 SEA countries increased, decreased, and finally kept stable. The association between human mobility and COVID-19 spread also presents spatial heterogeneity where higher coefficients were mainly concentrated in districts of Indonesia from week 1 to week 10 (ranging from 0.336 to 0.826), while lower coefficients were mainly located in districts of Vietnam (ranging from 0.044 to 0.130). From week 10 to week 25, higher coefficients were mainly observed in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, north Indonesia, and several districts of the Philippines. Despite the association showing a general weakening trend over time, significant positive coefficients were observed in Singapore, Malaysia, western Indonesia, and the Philippines, with the relatively highest coefficients observed in the Philippines in week 30 (ranging from 0.101 to 0.139). CONCLUSIONS: The loosening interventions in response to COVID-19 in SEA countries during the second half of 2021 led to diverse changes in human mobility over time, which may result in the COVID-19 infection dynamics. This study investigated the association between mobility and infections at the regional level during the special transitional period. Our study has important implications for public policy interventions, especially at the later stage of a public health crisis.

Comparative Study on Growth Index and Nutritional Quality of Female Chinese Mitten Crab Eriocheir sinensis Selected at Different Growth Periods in Rice-Crab Culture Systems.

Research was conducted on the growth performance and nutritional quality of Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) during a 62-day growing period in a symbiotic coculture comprising rice and crab. Culture experiments were conducted in three rice fields of equal size (996 m2). On days 0 (July 15, D0), 15 (July 30, D15), 31 (August 15, D31), 46 (August 30, D46), and 62 (September 2, D62), tissue samples of 50 female E. sinensis were collected randomly from each rice field. The results showed that the serum growth hormone (GH) content and muscle ecdysone receptor (EcR) mRNA expression levels were higher in the D31 and D46 groups; the content of serum 20-hydroxyecdysone (20-HE) and the mRNA expression levels of retinoid X receptor (RXR), insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), and chitinase (CHI) reached the maximum in the D31 group. Muscle crude protein content gradually increased; hepatopancreas crude protein and crude lipid content began to decrease after reaching the maximum value in the D0 and D15 groups, respectively; the contents of crude protein and crude lipid in the ovary significantly increased in the D46 and D62 groups (P < 0.05). The content of muscle essential amino acids (EAA) reached the maximum in the D46 group; the hepatopancreas EAA content began to decrease significantly in the D31 group (P < 0.05); and the EAA content of the ovary decreased significantly after reaching the maximum value in the D46 group (P < 0.05). The muscle contents of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3PUFA) and the ratio of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids/n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n3/n6) decreased significantly in the D31 group (P < 0.05); the hepatopancreas contents of EPA, PUFA, n-3PUFA, and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-6PUFA) and the ratio of n3/n6 began to decrease after reaching the maximum value in the D31 group, ethyl behenate (21:0), tetracosanoic acid (24:0), DPA, and DHA contents were detected for the first time in the D31 group; the ovary PUFA, n-3PUFA contents, and n3/n6 ratio of the D46 and D62 groups were significantly lower than those of the D31 group (P < 0.05). During the experimental conditions described here, female E. sinensis raised in rice fields reached rapid growth from August 15 to August 30. Additionally, the nutritional quality of the female E. sinensis edible tissues (muscle, hepatopancreas, and ovary) began to decline after August 15, when sufficient nutrients such as protein, lipid, EAA, and PUFA should be provided to the female E. sinensis.

All-Trans Retinoic Acid Promotes a Tumor Suppressive OTUD6B-ß-TrCP-SNAIL Axis in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Enhances Immunotherapy.

ß-TrCP is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that plays important roles in multiple human cancers including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Analysis of ESCC patient samples reveal that only protein level but not transcript level of ß-TrCP associated with patient prognosis, suggesting regulators of ß-TrCP protein stability play an essential role in ESCC progression and may be novel targets to develop ESCC therapies. Although ß-TrCP stability is known to be mediated by the ubiquitin-proteasome system, it is unclear which enzymes play a major role to determine ß-TrCP stability in the context of ESCC. In this study, OTUD6B is identified as a potent deubiquitinase of ß-TrCP that suppress ESCC progression through the OTUD6B-ß-TrCP-SNAIL axis. Low OTUD6B expression is associated with a poor prognosis of ESCC patients. Importantly, all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is found to promote OTUD6B translation and thus suppress ESCC tumor growth and enhance the response of ESCC tumors to anti-PD-1 immunotherapies. These findings demonstrate that OTUD6B is a crucial deubiquitinase of ß-TrCP in ESCC and suggest combination of ATRA and anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor may benefit a cohort of ESCC patients.

A systems biology-based approach to screen key splicing factors in hepatocellular carcinoma.

A splicing factor is as an important upstream regulator of the alternative splicing process. Hence, it is considered to be a therapeutic target for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues. In this study, a systems biology-based methodology was used to screen the essential splicing factors precisely and efficiently. A more comprehensive set of alternative splicing events, which were linked to patient survival, was constructed by performing the bivariate Cox regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. Then, the expression data was obtained from The Cancer Genome Altas (TCGA) data set and the three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. It was used to obtain the survival-related splicing factors, which showed a significantly differential expression in the tumor and normal tissues. Using the topological properties of the bipartite graph association network of the alternative splicing events and the splicing factors, we identified the five key splicing factors. Among them, four factors were found to play a prominent role in the development of HCC. The remaining factor was Survival Motor Neuron Domain Containing 1(SMNDC1), which showed a positive correlation with the immune cell infiltration, the biomarkers of immune cells, and the immune checkpoint genes. By performing quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses, we proved that SMNDC1 was overexpressed in tumor cells. Following the knockdown of its expression, the proliferation and the migration of HCC cells could be suppressed. These results confirmed that the screening method of this study was reliable and accurate. It provided new insights into the mechanism through which splicing factors elicit tumor development.

Phenotypic and genomic analysis of inulin consumption by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strains from Sichuan pickle.

AIMS: To investigate the capability, properties, and molecular mechanism of inulin fermentation by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from Sichuan pickle. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 79 LAB strains were purified from 30 aged Sichuan pickle brine samples, and only 21 Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strains (26.58%, 21/79) derived from 15 samples grew well through utilizing inulin as a carbon source. The fermentation tests through using long-chain inulin (lc-inulin) as a carbon source showed that only 6 L. plantarum strains grew well, while other 15 strains could only utilize short-chain oligofructose (FOS), and thin-layer chromatography analysis evidenced a strain specificity of inulin consumption patterns. Lactiplantibacillus plantarum YT041 is a vigorous inulin fermenter, and whole genome sequencing data revealed that sacPTS1 and fosRABCDXE operons might be associated with the fermentation of FOS and lc-inulin, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The phenotype of inulin consumption is commonly present in LAB from Sichuan pickle, which is strain-specific and largely depends on their specific ecological niche and degree of polymerization.