Development of a flow cytometry-based plating-free system for strain engineering in industrial fungi.

Recent technical advances regarding filamentous fungi have accelerated the engineering of fungal-based production and benefited basic science. However, challenges still remain and limit the speed of fungal applications. For example, high-throughput technologies tailored to filamentous fungi are not yet commonly available for genetic modification.

Genetic Architecture Underlying Nascent Speciation-The Evolution of Eurasian Pigs under Domestication.

Speciation is a process whereby the evolution of reproductive barriers leads to isolated species. Although many studies have addressed large-effect genetic footprints in the advanced stages of speciation, the genetics of reproductive isolation in nascent stage of speciation remains unclear. Here, we show that pig domestication offers an interesting model for studying the early stages of speciation in great details.

Magnetotransport properties near the Dirac point of Dirac semimetal CdAs nanowires.

Three-dimensional (3D) Dirac semimetals are featured by 3D linear energy-momentum dispersion relation, which have been proposed to be a desirable system to study Dirac fermions in 3D space and Weyl fermions in solid-state materials. Significantly, to reveal exotic transport properties of Dirac semimetals, the Fermi level should be close to the Dirac point, around which the linear dispersion is retained. Here we report the magnetotransport properties near the Dirac point in CdAs nanowires, manifesting the evolution of band structure under magnetic field.

Genome-wide study refines the quantitative trait locus for number of ribs in a Large White × Minzhu intercross pig population and reveals a new candidate gene.

In China, sparerib is one of the most valuable parts of the pork carcass. As a result, candidate gene mining for number of ribs has become an interesting study focus. To examine the genetic basis for this major trait, we genotyped 596 individuals from an F2 Large White × Minzhu intercross pig population using the PorcineSNP60 Genotyping BeadChip.

Two-Carrier Transport Induced Hall Anomaly and Large Tunable Magnetoresistance in Dirac Semimetal Cd3As2 Nanoplates.

Cd3As2 is a model material of Dirac semimetal with a linear dispersion relation along all three directions in the momentum space. The unique band structure of Cd3As2 is made with both Dirac and topological properties. It can be driven into a Weyl semimetal by symmetry breaking or a topological insulator by enhancing the spin-orbit coupling.

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 nanowires.

Three-dimensional Dirac semimetals, three-dimensional analogues of graphene, are unusual quantum materials with massless Dirac fermions, which can be further converted to Weyl fermions by breaking time reversal or inversion symmetry. Topological surface states with Fermi arcs are predicted on the surface and have been observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments. Although the exotic transport properties of the bulk Dirac cones have been demonstrated, it is still a challenge to reveal the surface states via transport measurements due to the highly conductive bulk states.

Giant negative magnetoresistance induced by the chiral anomaly in individual Cd3As2 nanowires.

Dirac electronic materials beyond graphene and topological insulators have recently attracted considerable attention. Cd3As2 is a Dirac semimetal with linear dispersion along all three momentum directions and can be viewed as a three-dimensional analogue of graphene. By breaking of either time-reversal symmetry or spatial inversion symmetry, the Dirac semimetal is believed to transform into a Weyl semimetal with an exotic chiral anomaly effect, however the experimental evidence of the chiral anomaly is still missing in Cd3As2.

Mensenchymal stem cells can delay radiation-induced crypt death: impact on intestinal CD44(+) fragments.

Intestinal stem cells are primitive cells found within the intestinal epithelium that play a central role in maintaining epithelial homeostasis through self-renewal and commitment into functional epithelial cells. Several markers are available to identify intestinal stem cells, such as Lgr5, CD24 and EphB2, which can be used to sort intestinal stem cells from mammalian gut. Here, we identify and isolate intestinal stem cells from C57BL/6 mice by using a cell surface antigen, CD44.

DNA methylation signatures of long intergenic noncoding RNAs in porcine adipose and muscle tissues.

Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) are one of the major unexplored components of genomes. Here we re-analyzed a published methylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeDIP-seq) dataset to characterize the DNA methylation pattern of pig lincRNA genes in adipose and muscle tissues. Our study showed that the methylation level of lincRNA genes was higher than that of mRNA genes, with similar trends observed in comparisons of the promoter, exon or intron regions.

Zeeman effect on surface electron transport in topological insulator Bi2Se3 nanoribbons.

Topological insulators have exotic surface states that are massless Dirac fermions, manifesting special magnetotransport properties, such as the Aharonov-Bohm effect, Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, and weak antilocalization effects. In the surface Dirac cone, the band structures are typically closely related to the p-orbitals and possess helical orbital texture. Here we report on the tunability of the transport properties via the interaction between the magnetic field and the spin-orbital angular momentum of the surface states in individual Bi2Se3 nanoribbons.

A genome-wide association study of limb bone length using a Large White × Minzhu intercross population.

Background: In pig, limb bone length influences ham yield and body height to a great extent and has important economic implications for pig industry. In this study, an intercross population was constructed between the indigenous Chinese Minzhu pig breed and the western commercial Large White pig breed to examine the genetic basis for variation in limb bone length. The aim of this study was to detect potential genetic variants associated with porcine limb bone length.

Genome-wide SNP scan in a porcine Large White×Minzhu intercross population reveals a locus influencing muscle mass on chromosome 2.

A high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array containing 62 163 markers was employed for a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify variants associated with lean meat in ham (LMH, %) and lean meat percentage (LMP, %) within a porcine Large White×Minzhu intercross population. For each individual, LMH and LMP were measured after slaughter at the age of 240±7 days. A total of 557 F2 animals were genotyped.

Photonic generation of arbitrarily phase-modulated microwave signals based on a single DDMZM.

We propose and demonstrate a compact and cost-effective photonic approach to generate arbitrarily phase-modulated microwave signals using a conventional dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DDMZM). One arm (arm1) of the DDMZM is driven by a sinusoidal microwave signal whose power is optimized to suppress the optical carrier, while the other arm (arm2) of the DDMZM is driven by a coding signal. In this way, the phase-modulated optical carrier from the arm2 and the sidebands from the arm1 are combined together at the output of the DDMZM.

Photonic generation of background-free millimeter-wave ultra-wideband pulses based on a single dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator.

We propose a novel photonic approach for generating a background-free millimeter-wave (MMW) ultra-wideband (UWB) signal based on a conventional dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DMZM). One arm of the DMZM is driven by a local oscillator (LO) signal. The LO power is optimized to realize optical carrier suppressed modulation.

Photonic-assisted microwave phase shifter using a DMZM and an optical bandpass filter.

We propose and demonstrate a photonic-assisted wideband 360° microwave phase shifter based on a conventional dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DMZM) and an optical bandpass filter (OBPF). The two arms of the DMZM are driven by the fundamental microwave signal to be phase shifted and its frequency doubled component, respectively. The OBPF followed after the DMZM is used to remove the optical carrier and the sidebands at either side of the optical carrier.

High-mobility Bi2Se3 nanoplates manifesting quantum oscillations of surface states in the sidewalls.

Magnetotransport measurements of topological insulators are very important to reveal the exotic topological surface states for spintronic applications. However, the novel properties related to the surface Dirac fermions are usually accompanied by a large linear magnetoresistance under perpendicular magnetic field, which makes the identification of the surface states obscure. Here, we report prominent Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations under an in-plane magnetic field, which are identified to originate from the surface states in the sidewalls of topological insulator Bi2Se3 nanoplates.

Widely tunable single-bandpass microwave photonic filter based on polarization processing of a nonsliced broadband optical source.

We propose a new scheme of microwave photonic filter (MPF) based on the polarization processing of a broadband optical source (BOS), which features single-bandpass response and a wide span of operation bandwidth. The BOS is orthogonally polarized by a polarization division multiplexing emulator (PDME) with a tunable time delay between the two polarization states and incident at ± 45° to one principle axis of a polarization modulator (PolM). The PDME cascades a PolM, and a polarizer realizes a microwave modulation making the phase of the carrier able to be tuned while ± 1st sidebands remain unchanged, which after propagating in a dispersive medium results in a tunable single-bandpass response in the RF domain.

LC3B-II deacetylation by histone deacetylase 6 is involved in serum-starvation-induced autophagic degradation.

Autophagy is a conserved mechanism for controlling the degradation of misfolded proteins and damaged organelles in eukaryotes and can be induced by nutrient withdrawal, including serum starvation. Although differential acetylation of autophagy-related proteins has been reported to be involved in autophagic flux, the regulation of acetylated microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) is incompletely understood. In this study, we found that the acetylation levels of phosphotidylethanolamine (PE)-conjugated LC3B (LC3B-II), which is a critical component of double-membrane autophagosome, were profoundly decreased in HeLa cells upon autophagy induction by serum starvation.

Photonic generation of widely tunable and background-free binary phase-coded radio-frequency pulses.

We present a novel photonic approach to generating widely tunable and background-free binary phase-coded radio-frequency (RF) pulses by cascading a polarization modulator (PolM) and a phase modulator (PM). The PolM is used to produce an optical carrier and two sidebands with orthogonal polarization states. The phase shift θ between the optical carrier and the sidebands is controlled by the electrical driving signal applied to the PM.

High-speed microwave photonic switch for millimeter-wave ultra-wideband signal generation.

We propose a scheme for generating millimeter-wave (MMW) ultra-wideband (UWB) signal that is free from low-frequency components and a residual local oscillator. The system consists of two cascaded polarization modulators and is equivalent to a high-speed microwave photonic switch, which truncates a sinusoidal MMW into short pulses. The polarity switchability of the generated MMW-UWB pulse is also demonstrated.

Generation of ultra-wideband triplet pulses based on four-wave mixing and phase-to-intensity modulation conversion.

We propose and demonstrate a novel scheme to generate ultra-wideband (UWB) triplet pulses based on four-wave mixing and phase-to-intensity modulation conversion. First a phase-modulated Gaussian doublet pulse is generated by four-wave mixing in a highly nonlinear fiber. Then an UWB triplet pulse is generated by generating the first-order derivative of the phase-modulated Gaussian doublet pulse using an optical filter serving as a frequency discriminator.

Brillouin-assisted microwave frequency measurement with adjustable measurement range and resolution.

We present a reconfigurable microwave frequency measurement technique with adjustable measurement range and resolution. The key novelty of the technique is the employment of stimulated Brillouin scattering, which results in a tunable amplitude comparison function, leading to an adjustable measurement range and resolution. The proposed technique is switchable between a wideband tunable narrow measurement range (~2 GHz) with high resolution (±0.