The complete chloroplast genome sequence of (Araceae).

is native to North America and northern Asia, with significant potential for industrial wastewater remediation. The complete nucleotide sequence of the chloroplast genome (cpDNA) was determined. The cpDNA is a circular molecule of 166,606 bp and containing a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) measuting 31,663 bp each.

Molecular mechanisms underlying the signal perception and transduction during seed germination.

QuerySeed germination is a vital step in the life cycle of a plant, playing a significant role in seedling establishment and crop yield potential. It is also an important factor in the conservation of plant germplasm resources. This complex process is influenced by a myriad of factors, including environmental conditions, the genetic makeup of the seed, and endogenous hormones.

Discovery of a Fungal P450 with an Unusual Two-Step Mechanism for Constructing a Bicyclo[3.2.2]nonane Skeleton.

The successful biomimetic or chemoenzymatic synthesis of target natural products (NPs) and their derivatives relies on enzyme discovery. Herein, we discover a fungal P450 BTG5 that can catalyze the formation of a bicyclo[3.2.

Synthetic Biology-based Construction of Unnatural Perylenequinones with Improved Photodynamic Anticancer Activities.

The construction of structural complexity and diversity of natural products is crucial for drug discovery and development. To overcome high dark toxicity and poor photostability of natural photosensitizer perylenequinones (PQs) for photodynamic therapy, herein, we aim to introduce the structural complexity and diversity to biosynthesize the desired unnatural PQs in fungus Cercospora through synthetic biology-based strategy. Thus, we first elucidate the intricate biosynthetic pathways of class B PQs and reveal how the branching enzymes create their structural complexity and diversity from a common ancestor.

Designing a cercosporin-bioinspired bifunctional algicide with flocculation and photocatalysis for efficiently controlling harmful cyanobacterial blooms.

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs) are spreading in freshwater ecosystems worldwide, adversely affecting drinking water supplies, aquatic production, recreational and tourism activities. Therefore, the efficient and environmentally friendly method is still of interest to be developed to effectively control HCBs. Inspired by the excellent algicidal activity of cercosporin (CP), a novel metal-free algaecide SiO@EDU@CP (EDU, N-ethyl-N'-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)urea) with flocculation and photoremoval functions, was successfully designed and prepared in one-step to simultaneously introduce CP and EDU on SiO nanoparticles.

Enhanced production of aspochalasin D through genetic engineering of Aspergillus flavipes.

Aspochalasin D (AD) belongs to the polyketide-amino acid hybrid natural products with anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, and anti-fouling bioactivities. However, the low production limits its further application. In this study, AD was separated and identified from Aspergillus flavipes 3.

The lipoxygenase OsLOX10 affects seed longevity and resistance to saline-alkaline stress during rice seedlings.

Prolonged storage of rice seeds can lead to a decrease in seed vigor and seedling quality. The Lipoxygenase (LOX) gene family is widely distributed in plants, and LOX activity is closely related to seed viability and stress tolerance. In this study, the lipoxygenase OsLOX10 gene from the 9-lipoxygenase metabolic pathway was cloned from rice, and its roles in determining seed longevity and tolerance to saline-alkaline stress caused by NaCO in rice seedlings were mainly investigated.

Structural analysis of an anthrol reductase inspires enantioselective synthesis of enantiopure hydroxycycloketones and β-halohydrins.

Asymmetric reduction of prochiral ketones, particularly, reductive desymmetrization of 2,2-disubstituted prochiral 1,3-cyclodiketones to produce enantiopure chiral alcohols is challenging. Herein, an anthrol reductase CbAR with the ability to accommodate diverse bulky substrates, like emodin, for asymmetric reduction is identified. We firstly solve crystal structures of CbAR and CbAR-Emodin complex.

The natural product dehydrocurvularin induces apoptosis of gastric cancer cells by activating PARP-1 and caspase-3.

The natural product dehydrocurvularin (DSE2) is a fungal-derived macrolide with potent anticancer activity, but the mechanism is still unclear. We found that DSE2 effectively inhibited the growth of gastric cancer cells and induced the apoptosis by activating Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) and caspase-3. Pharmacological inhibition and genetic knockdown with PARP-1 or caspase-3 suppressed DSE2-induced apoptosis.

Biosynthetic Pathways of Dimeric Natural Products Containing Bisanthraquinone and Related Xanthones.

Many dimeric natural products containing bisanthraquinone and related xanthones with diverse structures and versatile bioactivities have been isolated over the years. However, the complicated biosynthetic pathways of such natural products, which have remained elusive until recently, negatively impact their mass bioproduction and biosynthetic structural modification for drug discovery. In this concept, we summarize the recent progress in gene cluster mining and biosynthetic pathway elucidation of natural products containing bisanthraquinone and related xanthones.

Stimulating fungal cell wall integrity by exogenous β-glucanase to improve the production of fungal natural products.

The low production of natural products (NPs) is still the critical restrictive factor in exploiting their potential large-scale applications and a barrier to isolating and identifying other meaningful products. Given that the stimulation of cell wall integrity (CWI) has become a novel strategy to modulate the production of microbial natural products, herein, exogenous β-glucanase treatment was developed as an external cell wall β-glucan stress to stimulate the fungal CWI, and then to improve the production of fungal NPs. It was found that the production of fungal NPs cercosporin and sophorolipids, biosynthesized by Cercospora sp.

Randomised controlled trial: effect of metformin add-on therapy on functional cure in entecavir-treated patients with chronic hepatitis B.

Introduction And Objectives: Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) clearance, indicating functional cure or resolved chronic hepatitis B (CHB), remains difficult to achieve via nucleos(t)ide analogue monotherapy. We investigated whether metformin add-on therapy could help achieve this goal in entecavir-treated patients with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative CHB.

Patients And Methods: Patients with HBeAg-negative CHB who met eligibility criteria (entecavir treatment for > 12 months, HBsAg < 1000 IU/mL) were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive 24 weeks of either metformin (1000 mg, oral, once a day) or placebo (oral, once a day) add-on therapy.

Discovery of the Biosynthetic Pathway of Beticolin 1 Reveals a Novel Non-Heme Iron-Dependent Oxygenase for Anthraquinone Ring Cleavage.

This study used light-mediated comparative transcriptomics to identify the biosynthetic gene cluster of beticolin 1 in Cercospora. It contains an anthraquinone moiety and an unusual halogenated xanthone moiety connected by a bicyclo[3.2.

SDR7-6, a short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase/reductase family protein, regulates light-dependent cell death and defence responses in rice.

Lesion mimic mutants resembling the hypersensitive response without pathogen attack are an ideal material to understand programmed cell death, the defence response, and the cross-talk between defence response and development in plants. In this study, mic, a lesion mimic mutant from cultivar Yunyin treated with ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS), was screened. By map-based cloning, a short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase/reductase with an atypical active site HxxxK was isolated and designated as SDR7-6.

PEPC of sugarcane regulated glutathione S-transferase and altered carbon-nitrogen metabolism under different N source concentrations in Oryza sativa.

Background: Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) plays an important role in the primary metabolism of higher plants. Several studies have revealed the critical importance of PEPC in the interaction of carbon and nitrogen metabolism. However, the function mechanism of PEPC in nitrogen metabolism is unclear and needs further investigation.

Anti-Tumor Activity and Underlying Mechanism of Phomoxanthone B in MCF7 Cells.

Background: Xanthones are a class of heterocyclic natural products, which are promising sources of anti-cancer leads. Phomoxanthone B (PXB) and Phomoxanthone A(PXA)are xanthone dimers. PXA is wellstudied as an anti-cancer agent, but PXB is not.

Identification of Phomoxanthone A and B as Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Inhibitors.

Phomoxanthone A and B (PXA and PXB) are xanthone dimers and isolated from the endophytic fungus sp. By254. The results demonstrated that PXB and PXA are noncompetitive inhibitors of SHP2 and PTP1B and competitive inhibitors of SHP1.

Brassinosteroid signaling may regulate the germination of axillary buds in ratoon rice.

Background: Rice ratooning has traditionally been an important component of the rice cropping system in China. However, compared with the rice of the first harvest, few studies on factors effecting ratoon rice yield have been conducted. Because ratoon rice is a one-season rice cultivated using axillary buds that germinate on rice stakes and generate panicles after the first crop's harvest, its production is mainly affected by the growth of axillary buds.

Origin of high thermoelectric performance with a wide range of compositions for BiSbTe single quintuple layers.

Composition regulation of semiconductors can engineer the band structures and hence optimize their properties for better applications. Herein, we report a BiSbTe (BST) single QL with high ZT values (∼1.2 to ∼1.

Thoracic aggressive vertebral hemangioma with neurologic deficit: A retrospective cohort study.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness in the treatment of thoracic aggressive vertebral hemangiomas (AVHs) with neurologic deficit by multiple surgical treatments.The clinical and radiographic data of 5 patients suffering from thoracic AVHs with neurologic deficit and treated by multiple surgical treatments, including percutaneous curved vertebroplasty (PCVP) combined with pedicle screw fixation and decompressive laminectomy, were reviewed and analyzed retrospectively.Five patients (3 women and 2 man, with a mean age of 57.

Yttrium-Doped SbTe: A Promising Material for Phase-Change Memory.

SbTe exhibits outstanding performance among the candidate materials for phase-change memory; nevertheless, its low electrical resistivity and thermal stability hinder its practical application. Hence, numerous studies have been carried out to search suitable dopants to improve the performance; however, the explored dopants always cause phase separation and thus drastically reduce the reliability of phase-change memory. In this work, on the basis of ab initio calculations, we have identified yttrium (Y) as an optimal dopant for SbTe, which overcomes the phase separation problem and significantly increases the resistivity of crystalline state by at least double that of SbTe.

Dislocation network with pair-coupling structure in {111} γ/γ' interface of Ni-based single crystal superalloy.

The γ/γ' interface dislocation network is reported to improve the high temperature creep resistance of single crystal superalloys and is usually found to deposit in {001} interface. In this work, a new type of dislocation network was found in {111} γ/γ' interface at a single crystal model superalloy crept at 1100 °C/100 MPa. The dislocations in the network are screw with Burgers vectors of 1/2 a<110> and most interestingly, they exhibit a pair-coupling structure.

The interferon-inducible protein p205 acts as an activator in osteoblast differentiation of mouse BMSCs.

p205, an interferon-inducible protein, is induced in the course of osteogenesis in mouse bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs). Knocking down p205 markedly impairs whereas overexpressing p205 enhances the osteoblast differentiation of BMSCs, as revealed by the altered expression of osteogenic genes, the change of ALP activity and the ARS-stained mineral nodules. The positive role of p205 in BMSC osteogenesis is probably due, at least in part, to the association of it with Id proteins.