Switching the yeast metabolism via manipulation of sugar phosphorylation.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae predominantly ferments sugar to ethanol, irrespective of the presence of oxygen, which is known as the Crabtree-effect. Traditional methods rely on static controls of glycolytic flux to make S. cerevisiae Crabtree-negative, which are not favorable for future biomanufacturing applications.

FABP5 regulates ROS-NLRP3 inflammasome in glutamate-induced retinal excitotoxic glaucomatous model.

Fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) are a class of small molecular mass intracellular lipid chaperone proteins that bind to hydrophobic ligands, such as long-chain fatty acids. FABP5 expression was significantly upregulated in the N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) model, the microbead-induced chronic glaucoma model, and the DBA/2J mice. Previous studies have demonstrated that FABP5 can mediate mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in ischemic neurons, but the role of FABP5 in oxidative stress and cell death in retina NMDA injury models is unclear.

Untargeted Metabolomics Reveals the Role of Lipocalin-2 in the Pathological Changes of Lens and Retina in Diabetic Mice.

Purpose: To identify the role of lipocalin-2 (LCN2) in diabetic cataract (DC) and diabetic retinopathy (DR), diabetes models were established in wild-type (WT) and LCN2 gene knockout (LCN2-/-) mice by streptozotocin (STZ), this study aimed to investigate the metabolic alterations and underlying pathways in the lens and retina.

Methods: Untargeted metabolomic analysis was performed on the lenses and retinas of WT and LCN2-/- diabetic mice, and relevant pathways were predicted through bioinformatics analysis.

Results: LCN2 was notably elevated in the anterior capsules of DC and the vitreous humor of DR.

Mefunidone Inhibits Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Lens Epithelial Cells.

Purpose: Inflammation, oxidative stress, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) play crucial roles in forming posterior capsular opacification (PCO), particularly in fibrotic PCO. Here we investigated the protective effects of mefunidone (MFD), a novel compound with potent antifibrotic properties, which could be useful in preventing PCO.

Methods: We utilized an extracapsular lens extraction (ECLE) surgery in mice to simulate the development of PCO in vivo.

A review of level-1 visual perspective-taking: potential relationship with the uncanny valley effect.

Calculating others' visual perspective automatically is a pivotal ability in human social communications. In the dot-perspective task, the ability is shown as a consistency effect: adults respond more slowly to judge the number of discs that they can see when a computer-generated avatar sees fewer discs. The implicit mentalizing account attributes the effect to relatively automatic tracking of others' visual perspective.

Single organic electrode for multi-system dual-ion symmetric batteries.

The large void space of organic electrodes endows themselves with the capability to store different counter ions without size concern. In this work, a small-molecule organic bipolar electrode called diquinoxalino[2,3-a:2',3'-c]phenazine-2,6,10-tris(phenoxazine) (DQPZ-3PXZ) is designed. Based on its robust solid structure by the π conjugation of diquinoxalino[2,3-a:2',3'-c]phenazine (DQPZ) and phenoxazine (PXZ), DQPZ-3PXZ can indiscriminately and stably host 5 counter ions with different charge and size (Li, Na, K, PF and FSI).

Development and validation of a mitotic catastrophe-related genes prognostic model for breast cancer.

Background: Breast cancer has become the most common malignant tumor in women worldwide. Mitotic catastrophe (MC) is a way of cell death that plays an important role in the development of tumors. However, the exact relationship between MC-related genes (MCRGs) and the development of breast cancer is still unclear, and further research is needed to elucidate this complexity.

Effects of thinning on structural complexity of plantation.

In this paper, we collected the individual tree point cloud data in the plots of plantations with different thinning intensities in Mengjiagang Forest Farm, applied the fractal analysis theory to extract box dimensions () on MATLAB platform, and characterized the structural complexity of . We assessed the effect of different thinning intensities and tree attributes on the structural complexity of . The results showed significant differences in between control (CK: 1.

VCAT: an integrated variant function annotation tools.

The development of sequencing technology has promoted discovery of variants in the human genome. Identifying functions of these variants is important for us to link genotype to phenotype, and to diagnose diseases. However, it usually requires researchers to visit multiple databases.

Emotional concepts shape the perceptual representation of body expressions.

Emotion perception interacts with how we think and speak, including our concept of emotions. Body expression is an important way of emotion communication, but it is unknown whether and how its perception is modulated by conceptual knowledge. In this study, we employed representational similarity analysis and conducted three experiments combining semantic similarity, mouse-tracking task, and one-back behavioral task with electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques, the results of which show that conceptual knowledge predicted the perceptual representation of body expressions.

The interplay between the proposer's role model and moral behavior modulates proposal processing in the Ultimatum Game: An ERP study.

Economic decision-making plays a paramount role in both individual and national interests. Individuals have fairness preferences in economic decision-making, but a proposer's moral-related information may affect fairness considerations. In prior ERP studies, researchers have suggested moral identity influences fairness preferences in the Ultimatum Game (UG), but there are discrepancies in the results.

Accurate identification of genes associated with brain disorders by integrating heterogeneous genomic data into a Bayesian framework.

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed many brain disorder-associated SNPs residing in the noncoding genome, rendering it a challenge to decipher the underlying pathogenic mechanisms.

Methods: Here, we present an unsupervised Bayesian framework to identify disease-associated genes by integrating risk SNPs with long-range chromatin interactions (iGOAT), including SNP-SNP interactions extracted from ∼500,000 patients and controls from the UK Biobank, and enhancer-promoter interactions derived from multiple brain cell types at different developmental stages.

Findings: The application of iGOAT to three psychiatric disorders and three neurodegenerative/neurological diseases predicted sets of high-risk (HRGs) and low-risk (LRGs) genes for each disorder.

Pregnancy conditions and outcomes of Chinese women with mild, moderate and severe pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Pregnancy is normally contraindicated in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Thanks to medical advances, the prognosis for pregnancy in patients with PAH has improved. The aim of our study was to investigate pregnancy conditions and outcomes in patients with mild, moderate and severe PAH.

The perceived controllability of negatively-valenced episodic future thinking modulates delay discounting.

Intertemporal decision-making is important for both economy and physical health. Nevertheless, in daily life, individuals tend to prefer immediate and smaller rewards to delayed and larger rewards, which is known as delay discounting (DD). Episodic future thinking (EFT) has been proven to influence DD.

Ensemble Coding of Crowd with Cross-Category Facial Expressions.

Ensemble coding allows observers to form an average to represent a set of elements. However, it is unclear whether observers can extract an average from a cross-category set. Previous investigations on this issue using low-level stimuli yielded contradictory results.

Meta-Analysis of 5-Fraction Preoperative Radiotherapy for Soft Tissue Sarcoma.

Objectives: Studies investigating preoperative 5-fraction radiation therapy (RT) for soft tissue sarcoma (STS) are limited. We performed a meta-analysis to determine the efficacy and safety of this treatment paradigm.

Methods: This study-level meta-analysis was conducted using Bayesian methods.

A fluorescent aptasensor for enzyme-free and sensitive detection of kanamycin based on entropy-driven strand displacement reaction.

Background: Kanamycin is an antibiotic that can easily cause adverse side effects if used improperly. Due to the extremely low concentrations of kanamycin in food, quantitative detection of kanamycin becomes a challenge. As one of the DNA self-assembly strategies, entropy-driven strand displacement reaction (EDSDR) does not require enzymes or hairpins to participate in the reaction, which greatly reduces the instability of detection results.

Brain Stimulation of Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortices Influences Impulsivity in Delay Discounting Choices.

Intertemporal decision-making is pivotal for human interests and health. Recently, studies instructed participants to make intertemporal choices for both themselves and others, but the specific mechanisms are still debated. To address the issue, in the current study, the cost-unneeded conditions (i.

Proposer's moral identity modulates fairness processing in the ultimatum game: Evidence from behavior and brain potentials.

Economic decision-making is pivotal to both human private interests and the national economy. People pursue fairness in economic decision-making, but a proposer's moral identity can influence fairness processing. Previous ERP studies have revealed that moral identity has an effect on fairness considerations in the Ultimatum Game (UG), but the findings are inconsistent.

Plumbagin inhibits fungal growth, HMGB1/LOX-1 pathway and inflammatory factors in keratitis.

To investigate the anti-inflammatory and antifungal effects of plumbagin (PL) in () keratitis, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), time-killing curve, spore adhesion, crystal violet staining, calcium fluoride white staining, and Propidium Iodide (PI) staining were employed to assess the antifungal activity of PL against . The cytotoxicity of PL was assessed using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8). The impact of PL on the expression of HMGB1, LOX-1, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10 and ROS in keratitis was investigated using RT-PCR, ELISA, Western blot, and Reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay.

Transcriptome exploration of ferroptosis-related genes in TGFβ- induced lens epithelial to mesenchymal transition during posterior capsular opacification development.

Background: Posterior capsular opacification (PCO) is the main reason affecting the long-term postoperative result of cataract patient, and it is well accepted that fibrotic PCO is driven by transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) signaling. Ferroptosis, closely related to various ocular diseases, but has not been explored in PCO.

Methods: RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed on both TGF-β2 treated and untreated primary lens epithelial cells (pLECs).

XBP1s activates METTL3/METTL14 for ER-phagy and paclitaxel sensitivity regulation in breast cancer.

Cancer cells employ the unfolded protein response (UPR) or induce autophagy, especially selective removal of certain ER domains via reticulophagy (termed ER-phagy), to mitigate endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress for ER homeostasis when encountering microenvironmental stress. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is one of the most abundant epitranscriptional modifications and plays important roles in various biological processes. However, the molecular mechanism of m6A modification in the ER stress response is poorly understood.

Copper-Induced In Vivo Gene Amplification in Budding Yeast.

In the biotechnological industry, multicopy gene integration represents an effective strategy to maintain a high-level production of recombinant proteins and to assemble multigene biochemical pathways. In this study, we developed copper-induced in vivo gene amplification in budding yeast for multicopy gene expressions. To make copper as an effective selection pressure, we first constructed a copper-sensitive yeast strain by deleting the gene encoding a small metallothionein-like protein for copper resistance.