Design and Numerical Modeling of Terahertz Metasurface with Dual Functions of Sensing and Filtering.

This study proposes a dual-functional terahertz device based on the Dirac semimetal, serving as both a sensing element and a band-pass filter. The device's operating mode can switch between these two functions by utilizing the phase transition property of vanadium dioxide (VO). When VO is in the insulating state, the device functions as a sensing element.

Cascade C-H Activation and Two C-C Bond Forming in Reaction of Azalutetacyclopentadiene with 2-Methylbenzonitriles.

Azametallacyclopentadienes are an important class of metallacycles as the key intermediates in metal-promoted or catalyzed carbon-carbon coupling reaction of nitriles and alkynes. Rare-earth azametallacyclopentadienes have shown various reactivity toward nitriles, depending on the substituents of nitriles. The reaction of azalutetacyclopentadienes toward 2-methylbenzonitriles has been investigated in this work, which selectively affords the fused 7-5-6-membered azalutetacycles as products.

Developing an efficient and visible prime editing system to restore tobacco 8-hydroxy-copalyl diphosphate gene for labdane diterpene Z-abienol biosynthesis.

Prime editing (PE) is a versatile CRISPR-Cas based precise genome-editing platform widely used to introduce a range of possible base conversions in various organisms. However, no PE systems have been shown to induce heritable mutations in tobacco, nor in any other dicot. In this study, we generated an efficient PE system in tobacco that not only introduced heritable mutations, but also enabled anthocyanin-based reporter selection of transgene-free T plants.

Association between Serum Total Testosterone Level and Bone Mineral Density in Middle-Aged Postmenopausal Women.

Background: Hormone status strongly affects women's health and quality of life. To date, studies investigating the association between total testosterone (T) level and bone mineral density (BMD) in women are limited and have yielded contradictory conclusions. The aim of our study was to examine the association between serum total T level and lumbar BMD in postmenopausal women aged 40-59 years.

The lncRNA39896-miR166b-HDZs module affects tomato resistance to Phytophthora infestans.

The yield and quality of tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) is seriously affected by Phytophthora infestans. The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) Sl-lncRNA39896 is induced after P. infestans infection and was previously predicted to act as an endogenous target mimic (eTM) for the microRNA Sl-miR166b, which function in stress responses.

A newly characterized allele of ZmR1 increases anthocyanin content in whole maize plant and the regulation mechanism of different ZmR1 alleles.

The novel ZmR1 allele for maize anthocyanin synthesis was identified, and the biological function and regulatory molecular mechanisms of three ZmR1 alleles were unveiled. Anthocyanins in maize are valuable to human health. The R1 gene family is one of the important regulatory genes for the tissue-specific distribution of anthocyanins.

A design optimized prime editor with expanded scope and capability in plants.

The ability to manipulate the genome in a programmable manner has illuminated biology and shown promise in plant breeding. Prime editing, a versatile gene-editing approach that directly writes new genetic information into a specified DNA site without requiring double-strand DNA breaks, suffers from low efficiency in plants. In this study, N-terminal reverse transcriptase-Cas9 nickase fusion performed better in rice than the commonly applied C-terminal fusion.

Genome Engineering in Plant Using an Efficient CRISPR-xCas9 Toolset With an Expanded PAM Compatibility.

The CRISPR-Cas9 system enables simple, rapid, and effective genome editing in many species. Nevertheless, the requirement of an NGG protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) for the widely used canonical Cas9 (SpCas9) limits the potential target sites. The xCas9, an engineered SpCas9 variant, was developed to broaden the PAM compatibility to NG, GAA, and GAT PAMs in human cells.

Association between Serum Testosterone Levels and Body Composition among Men 20-59 Years of Age.

Introduction: Sex hormones play an important role in the development and maintenance of bone and muscle mass. However, studies regarding serum testosterone levels, osteoporosis, and sarcopenia in men are relatively sparse and have led to contradictory conclusions. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between serum testosterone levels and body composition, including bone mineral density (BMD), appendicular lean mass index (ALMI), and appendicular fat mass index (AFMI), among men 20-59 years of age through a cross-sectional analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Molecular dissection of maize seedling salt tolerance using a genome-wide association analysis method.

Salt stress is a major devastating abiotic factor that affects the yield and quality of maize. However, knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of the responses to salt stress in maize is limited. To elucidate the genetic basis of salt tolerance traits, a genome-wide association study was performed on 348 maize inbred lines under normal and salt stress conditions using 557 894 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Phospholipase C-ε regulates bladder cancer cells via ATM/EXO1.

Whole human genome microarray was performed to identify the potential molecular mechanisms associated with phospholipase C epsilon (PLCε). Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes, and Genomes pathway analysis revealed that differentially expressed genes were significantly enriched in DNA repair-related pathways. Gene expression of PLCε, exonuclease 1 (EXO1), and ATM serine/threonine kinase (ATM) was significantly higher in 72 bladder cancer (BCa) tissue samples than in 24 samples of adjacent nonneoplastic tissue.

CircHIPK3 Facilitates the G2/M Transition in Prostate Cancer Cells by Sponging miR-338-3p.

Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play a crucial role in gene expression regulation. CircHIPK3 is a circRNA derived from Exon 2 of HIPK3 gene and its role in prostate cancer (PCa) is still unclear.

Methods: CCK8 assays, flow cytometry and colony formation assays were performed to assess the effects of circHIPK3 in PCa cells.

Inhibitor 9 Combined With Androgen Deprivation Therapy or Chemotherapy Delays the Malignant Behavior of Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Through K-Ras/PLCε/PKCε Signaling Pathway.

Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is a progressed stage of prostate cancer, which requires better understanding of the mechanisms and remains an unmet clinical need. As a common oncogene, K-Ras is associated with malignant behavior in different types of tumors but its role in CRPC is unknown. The present study aims to find the mechanism of K-Ras in CRPC and whether it can be used as a crucial molecule for the treatment of CRPC.

PLCε knockdown prevents serine/glycine metabolism and proliferation of prostate cancer by suppressing YAP.

The metabolic reprogramming is an important basis for the development of many tumors, including prostate cancer (PCa). Metabolic changes in many amino acids consist of serine and glycine affect the biological behavior of them. Phospholipase C epsilon (PLCε) plays an important role as an oncogene.

Multiplex nucleotide editing by high-fidelity Cas9 variants with improved efficiency in rice.

Background: Application of the CRISPR/Cas9 system or its derived base editors enables targeted genome modification, thereby providing a programmable tool to exploit gene functions and to improve crop traits.

Results: We report that PmCDA1 is much more efficient than rAPOBEC1 when fused to CRISPR/Cas9 nickase for the conversion of cytosine (C) to thymine (T) in rice. Three high-fidelity SpCas9 variants, eSpCas9(1.

Discriminated sgRNAs-Based SurroGate System Greatly Enhances the Screening Efficiency of Plant Base-Edited Cells.

The development of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated base editing has made genomic modification more efficient. However, selection of genetically modified cells from millions of treated cells, especially plant cells, is still challenging. In this study, an efficient surrogate reporter system based on a defective hygromycin resistance gene was established in rice to enrich base-edited cells.

PLCε regulates prostate cancer mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and migration via upregulation of Twist1.

Background: Metabolic rewiring is a common feature of many cancer types, including prostate cancer (PCa). Alterations in master genes lead to mitochondrial metabolic rewiring and provide an appealing target to inhibit cancer progression and improve survival. Phospholipase C (PLC)ε is a regulator of tumor generation and progression.

Increasing Cytosine Base Editing Scope and Efficiency With Engineered Cas9-PmCDA1 Fusions and the Modified sgRNA in Rice.

Base editors that do not require double-stranded DNA cleavage or homology-directed repair enable higher efficiency and cleaner substitution of targeted single nucleotides in genomic DNA than conventional approaches. However, their broad applications are limited within the editing window of several base pairs from the canonical NGG protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) sequence. In this study, we fused the D10A nickase of several Cas9 (SpCas9) variants with cytidine deaminase 1 (PmCDA1) and uracil DNA glycosylase inhibitor (UGI) and developed two new effective PmCDA1-based cytosine base editors (pBEs), SpCas9 nickase (SpCas9n)-pBE and VQR nickase (VQRn)-pBE, which expanded the scope of genome targeting for cytosine-to-thymine (C-to-T) substitutions in rice.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing in plants.

The increasing burden of the world's population on agriculture necessitates the development of more robust crops. As the amount of information from sequenced crop genomes increases, technology can be used to investigate the function of genes in detail and to design improved crops at the molecular level. Recently, an RNA-programmed genome-editing system composed of a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-encoded guide RNA and the nuclease Cas9 has provided a powerful platform to achieve these goals.

Synthetic promoters consisting of defined cis-acting elements link multiple signaling pathways to probenazole-inducible system.

Probenazole (3-allyloxy-1,2-benzisothiazole-1,1-dioxide, PBZ), the active component of Oryzemate, could induce systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in plants through the induction of salicylic acid (SA) biosynthesis. As a widely used chemical inducer, PBZ is a good prospect for establishing a new chemical-inducible system. We first designed artificially synthetic promoters with tandem copies of a single type of cis-element (SARE, JERE, GCC, GST1, HSRE, and W-box) that could mediate the expression of the β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene in plants upon PBZ treatment.