A novel transcription factor OsMYB73 affects grain size and chalkiness by regulating endosperm storage substances' accumulation-mediated auxin biosynthesis signalling pathway in rice.

Enhanced grain yield and quality traits are everlasting breeding goals. It is therefore of great significance to uncover more genetic resources associated with these two important agronomic traits. Plant MYB family transcription factors play important regulatory roles in diverse biological processes.

Research Progress on the Trait of Stigma Exsertion in Rice.

As global food demand continues to grow, enhancing rice seed-setting rate and yield has emerged as a crucial research topic. The stigma exsertion rate in rice, a pivotal determinant of the outcrossing seed-setting rate in sterility lines, is essential for facilitating the propagation and efficient seed production of hybrid rice varieties. This article reviews the research progress on stigma exertion rate in rice, systematically analyzing the latest molecular biology and genetics findings to uncover the key genes and molecular mechanisms regulating stigma exertion.

Safer and efficient base editing and prime editing via ribonucleoproteins delivered through optimized lipid-nanoparticle formulations.

Delivering ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) for in vivo genome editing is safer than using viruses encoding for Cas9 and its respective guide RNA. However, transient RNP activity does not typically lead to optimal editing outcomes. Here we show that the efficiency of delivering RNPs can be enhanced by cell-penetrating peptides (covalently fused to the protein or as excipients) and that lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) encapsulating RNPs can be optimized for enhanced RNP stability, delivery efficiency and editing potency.

In vivo photoreceptor base editing ameliorates rhodopsin-E150K autosomal-recessive retinitis pigmentosa in mice.

Rhodopsin, the prototypical class-A G-protein coupled receptor, is a highly sensitive receptor for light that enables phototransduction in rod photoreceptors. Rhodopsin plays not only a sensory role but also a structural role as a major component of the rod outer segment disc, comprising over 90% of the protein content of the disc membrane. Mutations in which lead to structural or functional abnormalities, including the autosomal recessive E150K mutation, result in rod dysfunction and death.

Dual-channel discrimination of two lethal chemical warfare agents using an ESIPT-ICT-based fluorescent probe.

Among all kinds of chemical warfare agents, only cyanide and nerve agents can cause massive mortality at low concentrations. In this work, a dual-channel fluorescent probe CWAs-Thia capable of detecting cyanide and nerve agents is presented. The two reactive recognition units, pyridine and the thiazole-2-carbonyl group, of the probe for cyanide and nerve agents, respectively, produced red and blue fluorescent responses, respectively, which were attributed to excited-state intramolecular proton transfer and intramolecular charge transfer.

Evaluation of nematicides for management in sweetpotato.

Sweetpotato is an important crop whose roots are consumed by people worldwide. stands out as a highly deleterious variant among the species of root-knot nematode that causes significant damage in sweetpotato. In the present study, the activity of four nematicides against was assessed both and in growth cabinet experiments.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid - mediated Cellular Rejuvenation for Reversing Age-related Vision Decline.

The retina is uniquely enriched in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are primarily localized in cell membranes, where they govern membrane biophysical properties such as diffusion, permeability, domain formation, and curvature generation. During aging, alterations in lipid metabolism lead to reduced content of very long-chain PUFAs (VLC-PUFAs) in the retina, and this decline is associated with normal age-related visual decline and pathological age-related macular degeneration (AMD). (Elongation of very-long-chain fatty acids-like 2) encodes a transmembrane protein that produces precursors to docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and VLC-PUFAs, and methylation level of its promoter is currently the best predictor of chronological age.

Restoring retinal polyunsaturated fatty acid balance and retina function by targeting ceramide in AdipoR1-deficient mice.

Mutations in the adiponectin receptor 1 gene (AdipoR1) lead to retinitis pigmentosa and are associated with age-related macular degeneration. This study explores the effects of AdipoR1 gene deficiency in mice, revealing a striking decline in ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), an increase in ω6 fatty acids, and elevated ceramides in the retina. The AdipoR1 deficiency impairs peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α signaling, which is crucial for FA metabolism, particularly affecting proteins associated with FA transport and oxidation in the retina and retinal pigmented epithelium.

First Report of Sweet Potato Virus E(SPVE) Infecting Sweet Potato in China.

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam.) is a versatile crop, cultivated in the subtropical and tropical areas, as food, fodder, and industrial raw material crop.

Rice encodes a eukaryotic translation initiation factor and is essential for the development of grain and anther.

The eIF6 proteins are distributed extensively in eukaryotes and play diverse and essential roles. The bona fide eIF6 protein in , At-eIF6;1, is essential for embryogenesis. However, the role of eIF6 proteins in rice growth and development remains elusive and requires further investigation.

Development and Validation of a Machine Learning-Based Model Used for Predicting Hepatocellular Carcinoma Risk in Patients with Hepatitis B-Related Cirrhosis: A Retrospective Study.

Object: Our objective was to estimate the 5-year cumulative risk of HCC in patients with HBC by utilizing an artificial neural network (ANN).

Methods: We conducted this study with 1589 patients hospitalized at Beijing Ditan Hospital of Capital Medical University and People's Liberation Army Fifth Medical Center. The training cohort consisted of 913 subjects from Beijing Ditan Hospital of Capital Medical University, while the validation cohort comprised 676 subjects from People's Liberation Army Fifth Medical Center.

Multi-molecular hyperspectral PRM-SRS microscopy.

Lipids play crucial roles in many biological processes. Mapping spatial distributions and examining the metabolic dynamics of different lipid subtypes in cells and tissues are critical to better understanding their roles in aging and diseases. Commonly used imaging methods (such as mass spectrometry-based, fluorescence labeling, conventional optical imaging) can disrupt the native environment of cells/tissues, have limited spatial or spectral resolution, or cannot distinguish different lipid subtypes.

Retinylidene chromophore hydrolysis from mammalian visual and non-visual opsins.

Rhodopsin (Rho) and cone opsins are essential for detection of light. They respond via photoisomerization, converting their Schiff-base-adducted 11-cis-retinylidene chromophores to the all-trans configuration, eliciting conformational changes to activate opsin signaling. Subsequent Schiff-base hydrolysis releases all-trans-retinal, initiating two important cycles that maintain continuous vision-the Rho photocycle and visual cycle pathway.

IbINV Positively Regulates Resistance to Black Rot Disease Caused by in Sweet Potato.

Black rot disease, caused by Ellis & Halsted, severely affects both plant growth and post-harvest storage of sweet potatoes. Invertase (INV) enzymes play essential roles in hydrolyzing sucrose into glucose and fructose and participate in the regulation of plant defense responses. However, little is known about the functions of INV in the growth and responses to black rot disease in sweet potato.

Deep MCDL: Deep Multi-Scale Multi-Modal Convolutional Dictionary Learning Network.

For multi-modal image processing, network interpretability is essential due to the complicated dependency across modalities. Recently, a promising research direction for interpretable network is to incorporate dictionary learning into deep learning through unfolding strategy. However, the existing multi-modal dictionary learning models are both single-layer and single-scale, which restricts the representation ability.

A novel quantification method for retinal pigment epithelium phagocytosis using a very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids-based strategy.

Introduction: The vertebrate retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) lies adjacent to the photoreceptors and is responsible for the engulfment and degradation of shed photoreceptor outer segment fragments (POS) through receptor-mediated phagocytosis. Phagocytosis of POS is critical for maintaining photoreceptor function and is a key indicator of RPE functionality. Popular established methods to assess RPE phagocytosis rely mainly on quantifying POS proteins, especially their most abundant protein rhodopsin, or on fluorescent dye conjugation of bulk, unspecified POS components.

First Report of Infecting in China.

Black nightshade () typically grows as a weed species, but it is also widely used as an herb to treat stomach ulcers and dermal infections in many countries (Jabamalairaj et al. 2019). In April 2023, extensive root galls similar to those associated with by root-knot nematodes (RKNs), spp.

Transcriptome Characterization and Gene Changes Induced by in Sweetpotato Roots.

Sweetpotato () is an important root crop that is infected by in both seedling and root stages, causing irregular black or brown disease spots and root rot and canker. This study aims to use RNA sequencing technology to investigate the dynamic changes in root transcriptome profiles between control check and roots at 6 h, 24 h, 3 days, and 5 days post-inoculation (hpi/dpi) with . The results showed that the defense reaction of sweetpotato could be divided into an early step (6 and 24 hpi) without symptoms and a late step to respond to infection (3 and 5 dpi).

Serum cytokine and chemokine profiles and disease prognosis in hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure.

Background: Hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) has significant morbidity and mortality and is associated with the induction of cytokines/chemokines, which might contribute to the pathogenesis of liver injury. This study aimed to explore the cytokine/chemokine profiles of patients with HBV-ACLF and develop a composite clinical prognostic model.

Methods: We prospectively collected blood samples and the clinical data of 107 patients with HBV-ACLF admitted to the Beijing Ditan Hospital.

Stress resilience-enhancing drugs preserve tissue structure and function in degenerating retina via phosphodiesterase inhibition.

Chronic, progressive retinal diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa, arise from genetic and environmental perturbations of cellular and tissue homeostasis. These disruptions accumulate with repeated exposures to stress over time, leading to progressive visual impairment and, in many cases, legal blindness. Despite decades of research, therapeutic options for the millions of patients suffering from these disorders remain severely limited, especially for treating earlier stages of pathogenesis when the opportunity to preserve the retinal structure and visual function is greatest.

Subchronic toxicity study of ferric oxide nanoparticles through intragastric administration: A 94-d, repeated dose study in Sprague Dawley rats.

In this study, the toxicity of ferric oxide nanoparticles (FeO NPs) administered through gavage to Sprague Dawley (SD) rats for 94 d, consecutively and the recovery after FeO NPs withdrawal for 30 d were evaluated. The vehicle control group, low-, medium-, and high-dose groups were administered with the vehicle (0.5% sodium carboxymethyl cellulose [CMC-Na]), 125, 250, and 500 mg/kg of FeO NPs, respectively, administered every morning for 94 d.