Overexpression of OsSTP1 increases grain yield via enhancing carbohydrate metabolism and transport in rice.

Overexpression of OsSTP1 enhances the non-structural carbohydrate remobilization in the source, starch accumulation in grains, and the transportation of carbohydrates from source to sink during the filling stage. The sugar transporter protein (STP) is the best-characterized subfamily of the monosaccharide transporter (MST) family and plays critical roles in regulating plant stress tolerance, growth, and development. However, the role of STPs in regulating rice yield is poorly understood.

Effect of pH on growth and Cd accumulation in different rice varieties under hydroponics.

Currently, applying lime to cadmium (Cd)-contaminated paddy fields to increase pH and reduce Cd availability is an effective method to control excessive Cd levels in rice grain. However, under hydroponic conditions, the impact of increased pH on Cd accumulation in different rice varieties remains unclear. This study employed three rice varieties (Yuzhenxiang, Shaoxiang 100, Xiangwanxian 12) with different Cd accumulation characteristics under different pH and long-term treatment with 1 μM CdCl, to study the effect of pH on growth and Cd accumulation in different rice varieties.

Recent Progress on the Involvement of Formaldehyde in the Methanol-to-Hydrocarbons Reaction.

The conversion of methanol-to-hydrocarbons (MTH) over zeolite catalysts has been the subject of intense research since its discovery. Great effort has been devoted to the investigation of four key topics: the initiation of C-C bonds, the establishment of hydrocarbon pool (HCP), the adjustment of product selectivity, and the deactivation process of catalysts. Despite 50 years of study, some mechanisms remain controversial.

Overexpression of vacuolar transporters OsVIT1 and OsVIT2 reduces cadmium accumulation in rice.

Excessive cadmium in rice grain in agricultural production is an important issue to be addressed in some southern regions of China. In this study, we constructed transgenic rice overexpressing OsVIT1 and OsVIT2 driven by 35S promoter in the cultivar ZH11. Compared with ZH11, OsVIT1 expression in leaves was significantly increased by 3-6.

Knockout of the sugar transporter OsSTP15 enhances grain yield by improving tiller number due to increased sugar content in the shoot base of rice (Oryza sativa L.).

Sugar transporter proteins (STPs) play critical roles in regulating plant stress tolerance, growth, and development. However, the role of STPs in regulating crop yield is poorly understood. This study elucidates the mechanism by which knockout of the sugar transporter OsSTP15 enhances grain yield via increasing the tiller number in rice.

CHLORIDE CHANNEL-b mediates vacuolar nitrate efflux to improve low nitrogen adaptation in Arabidopsis.

The vacuole is an important organelle for nitrate storage, and the reuse of vacuolar nitrate under nitrate starvation helps plants adapt to low-nitrate environments. CHLORIDE CHANNEL-b (CLC-b) in the vacuolar membrane is a nitrate transporter; however, its regulation and effects on nitrate efflux have not been established. Here, we evaluated CLC-b expression and its effects on physiological parameters under low nitrate conditions.

Illustrating the Fate of Methyl Radical in Photocatalytic Methane Oxidation over Ag-ZnO by in situ Synchrotron Radiation Photoionization Mass Spectrometry.

Photocatalysis has emerged as an ideal method for the direct activation and conversion of methane under mild conditions. In this reaction, methyl radical (⋅CH ) was deemed a key intermediate that affected the yields and selectivity of the products. However, direct observation of ⋅CH and other intermediates is still challenging.

Mechanistic Insights into Radical-Induced Selective Oxidation of Methane over Nonmetallic Boron Nitride Catalysts.

Boron-based nonmetallic materials (such as BO and BN) emerge as promising catalysts for selective oxidation of light alkanes by O to form value-added products, resulting from their unique advantage in suppressing CO formation. However, the site requirements and reaction mechanism of these boron-based catalysts are still in vigorous debate, especially for methane (the most stable and abundant alkane). Here, we show that hexagonal BN (-BN) exhibits high selectivities to formaldehyde and CO in catalyzing aerobic oxidation of methane, similar to AlO-supported BO catalysts, while -BN requires an extra induction period to reach a steady state.

Genome and Transcriptome Identification of a Rice Germplasm with High Cadmium Uptake and Translocation.

The safe production of food on Cd-polluted land is an urgent problem to be solved in South China. Phytoremediation or cultivation of rice varieties with low Cd are the main strategies to solve this problem. Therefore, it is very important to clarify the regulatory mechanism of Cd accumulation in rice.

[Effect of VIT1/VIT2 overexpression on Fe and Cd accumulation in rice endosperm].

Iron (Fe) deficiency and excess cadmium (Cd) in rice grain are important problems to be solved in agricultural production. Previous studies have shown that OsVIT1 and OsVIT2 are vacuolar iron transporters. In this study, wild-type ZH11 was selected as the background material and and were overexpressed in endosperm by using endosperm specific promoter .

Bifunctional zeolites-silver catalyst enabled tandem oxidation of formaldehyde at low temperatures.

Bifunctional catalysts with tandem processes have achieved great success in a wide range of important catalytic processes, however, this concept has hardly been applied in the elimination of volatile organic compounds. Herein, we designed a tandem bifunctional Zeolites-Silver catalyst that enormously boosted formaldehyde oxidation at low temperatures, and formaldehyde conversion increased by 50 times (100% versus 2%) at 70 °C compared to that of monofunctional supported silver catalyst. This is enabled by designing a bifunctional catalyst composed of acidic ZSM-5 zeolite and silver component, which provides two types of active sites with complementary functions.

Repression of the expression of proinflammatory genes by mitochondrial transcription factor A is linked to its alternative splicing regulation in human lung epithelial cells.

Background: Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) is associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases and also with asthma. TFAM deficiency-induced mitochondrial DNA stress primes the antiviral innate immune response in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. However, the role of TFAM in asthma related inflammation remains obscure.

Enhances Adaptation to Low Nitrogen Levels and Cadmium Stress.

Environmental acclimation ability plays a key role in plant growth, although the mechanism remains unclear. Here, we determined the involvement of PLANT DEFENSIN 1 gene in the adaptation to low nitrogen (LN) levels and cadmium (Cd) stress. Histochemical analysis revealed that was mainly expressed in the nodes and carpopodium and was significantly induced in plants exposed to LN conditions and Cd stress.

Cell Wall Polysaccharide-Mediated Cadmium Tolerance Between Two Ecotypes.

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic metal element and the mechanism(s) underlying Cd tolerance in plants are still unclear. Increasingly more studies have been conducted on Cd binding to plant cell walls (CW) but most of them have focused on Cd fixation by CW pectin, and few studies have examined Cd binding to cellulose and hemicellulose. Here we found that Cd binding to CW pectin, cellulose, and hemicellulose was significantly higher in Tor-1, a Cd tolerant ecotype, than in Ph2-23, a sensitive ecotype, as were the concentrations of pectin, cellulose, and hemicellulose.

Overexpression of a Defensin-Like Gene Enhances Cadmium Accumulation in Plants.

Accumulation and detoxification of cadmium in rice shoots are of great importance for adaptation to grow in cadmium contaminated soils and for limiting the transport of Cd to grains. However, the molecular mechanisms behind the processes involved in this regulation remain largely unknown. Defensin proteins play important roles in heavy metal tolerance and accumulation in plants.

The plant defensin gene AtPDF2.1 mediates ammonium metabolism by regulating glutamine synthetase activity in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Background: In plants, ammonium metabolism is particularly important for converting absorbed nitrogen into amino acids. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this conversion remains largely unknown.

Results: Using wild type Arabidopsis thaliana (Col-0) and AtPDF2.

Prenatal ethanol exposure increased the susceptibility of adult offspring rats to glomerulosclerosis.

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) on the susceptibility of offspring rats to glomerulosclerosis and to explore the mechanism. Pregnant Wistar rats were intragastrically administered ethanol (4g/kg·d) from gestational day (GD) 9 to GD 20, and the control group was given equal volume of normal saline. The offspring rats were all fed with high-fat diet after weaning, and were sacrificed at postnatal week 24 (PW24).

Proteomic changes in the xylem sap of Brassica napus under cadmium stress and functional validation.

Background: The xylem sap of vascular plants primarily transports water and mineral nutrients from the roots to the shoots and also transports heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd). Proteomic changes in xylem sap is an important mechanism for detoxifying Cd by plants. However, it is unclear how proteins in xylem sap respond to Cd.

Low Nitrogen Enhances Nitrogen Use Efficiency by Triggering NO Uptake and Its Long-Distance Translocation.

Nitrogen is essential for plant growth and crop productivity; however, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) decreases with increasing N supply, resulting in a waste of resources. Molecular mechanisms underlying low-nitrogen (LN)-mediated enhancement of NUE are not clear. We used high-NUE Brassica napus genotype H (Xiangyou 15), low-NUE B.

The Arabidopsis defensin gene AtPDF2.5 mediates cadmium tolerance and accumulation.

Although excess cadmium (Cd) accumulation is harmful to plants, the molecular mechanisms underlying Cd detoxification and accumulation in Arabidopsis thaliana remain largely undetermined. In this study, we demonstrated that the A. thaliana PLANT DEFENSIN 2 gene AtPDF2.

A non-secreted plant defensin AtPDF2.6 conferred cadmium tolerance via its chelation in Arabidopsis.

Plant defensin AtPDF2.6 is not secreted to the apoplast and localized in cytoplasm. AtPDF2.

A defensin-like protein drives cadmium efflux and allocation in rice.

Pollution by heavy metals limits the area of land available for cultivation of food crops. A potential solution to this problem might lie in the molecular breeding of food crops for phytoremediation that accumulate toxic metals in straw while producing safe and nutritious grains. Here, we identify a rice quantitative trait locus we name cadmium (Cd) accumulation in leaf 1 (CAL1), which encodes a defensin-like protein.

Near-Infrared to Visible Organic Upconversion Devices Based on Organic Light-Emitting Field Effect Transistors.

The near-infrared (NIR) to visible upconversion devices have attracted great attention because of their potential applications in the fields of night vision, medical imaging, and military security. Herein, a novel all-organic upconversion device architecture has been first proposed and developed by incorporating a NIR absorption layer between the carrier transport layer and the emission layer in heterostructured organic light-emitting field effect transistors (OLEFETs). The as-prepared devices show a typical photon-to-photon upconversion efficiency as high as 7% (maximum of 28.

Inverted structural quantum dot light-emitting diodes based on Al-doped ZnO electrode.

As an indium-free transparent conducting film, Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) was prepared by magnetron sputtering technique, exhibiting good electrical, optical and surface characteristics. UPS/XPS measurements show that AZO and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have matched energy level that can facilitate the electron injection from AZO to ZnO NPs. Inverted structural green quantum dot light-emitting diodes based on AZO cathode were fabricated, which exhibits a maximum luminance up to 178 000 cd m, and a maximum current efficiency of 10.

Cohesive-energy-resolved bandgap of nanoscale graphene derivatives.

With a size-dependent cohesive energy formula for two-dimensional coordinated materials, the bandgap variation in quantum dots and nanoribbons of graphene derivatives, such as graphane, fluorographene and graphene oxides, is investigated. The bandgap is found to increase substantially as the diameter or width of the nano-sized material decreases. The bandgap variation is attributed to the change in cohesive energy of edge carbon atoms, and is associated with the physicochemical nature and degree of edge saturation.