Space-Confined Growth of CsCuBr Perovskite Nanodots in Mesoporous CeO for Photocatalytic CO Reduction: Structure Regulation and Built-in Electric Field Construction.

Halide perovskites have shown great promise in photocatalytic CO conversion. However, their practical application is seriously hindered by severe charge recombination and inadequate adsorption/activation toward CO molecules. Herein, the space-confined growth of lead-free CsCuBr perovskite nanodots in mesoporous CeO was realized by a facile impregnation approach.

Chloroplastic photoprotective strategies differ between bundle sheath and mesophyll cells in maize ( L.) Under drought.

Bundle sheath cells play a crucial role in photosynthesis in C4 plants, but the structure and function of photosystem II (PSII) in these cells is still controversial. Photoprotective roles of bundle sheath chloroplasts at the occurrence of environmental stresses have not been investigated so far. Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) of chlorophyll a fluorescence is the photoprotective mechanism that responds to a changing energy balance in chloroplasts.

Upconversion nanophosphor: an efficient phosphopeptides-recognizing matrix and luminescence resonance energy transfer donor for robust detection of protein kinase activity.

Protein kinases play important regulatory roles in intracellular signal transduction pathways. The aberrant activities of protein kinases are closely associated with the development of various diseases, which necessitates the development of practical and sensitive assays for monitoring protein kinase activities as well as for screening of potential kinase-targeted drugs. We demonstrate here a robust luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET)-based protein kinase assay by using NaYF4:Yb,Er, one of the most efficient upconversion nanophosphors (UCNPs), as an autofluorescence-free LRET donor and a tetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA)-labeled substrate peptide as the acceptor.

A conserved unusual posttranscriptional processing mediated by short, direct repeated (SDR) sequences in plants.

In several stress responsive gene loci of monocot cereal crops, we have previously identified an unusual posttranscriptional processing mediated by paired presence of short direct repeated (SDR) sequences at 5' and 3' splicing junctions that are distinct from conventional (U2/U12-type) splicing boundaries. By using the known SDR-containing sequences as probes, 24 plant candidate genes involved in diverse functional pathways from both monocots and dicots that potentially possess SDR-mediated posttranscriptional processing were predicted in the GenBank database. The SDRs-mediated posttranscriptional processing events including cis- and trans-actions were experimentally detected in majority of the predicted candidates.

Functional defect at the rice choline monooxygenase locus from an unusual post-transcriptional processing is associated with the sequence elements of short-direct repeats.

Glycine betaine (GB), a quaternary ammonium solute, plays a crucial role in developing osmotic tolerance. Rice contains a choline monooxygenase (CMO) and two betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase homologues that are required for GB synthesis, but usually no GB is accumulated in rice (Oryza sativa). To elucidate the molecular processes that underlie the GB deficiency in rice, an experiment involving rice and spinach (Spinacia oleracea) was conducted to analyze the products transcribed from CMO genes.