Design of Antimicrobial Peptides With a Special Charge Pattern and Their Application in Combating Plant Pathogens.

Plant diseases are important issues in agriculture, and the development of effective and environment-friendly means of disease control is crucial and highly desired. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are known as potential alternatives to chemical pesticides because of their potent broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and because they have no risk, or have only a low risk, of developing chemical-resistant pathogens. In this study, we designed a series of amphipathic helical peptides with different spatial distributions of positive charges and found that the peptides that had a special sequence pattern "BBHBBHHBBH" ("B" for basic residue and "H" for hydrophobic residue) displayed excellent bactericidal and fungicidal activities in a wide range of economically important plant pathogens.

Optogenetic Manipulation of Selective Neural Activity in Free-Moving Drosophila Adults.

Activating selected neurons elicits specific behaviors in Drosophila adults. By combining optogenetics and laser-tracking techniques, we have recently developed an automated laser-tracking and optogenetic manipulation system (ALTOMS) for studying how brain circuits orchestrate complex behaviors. The established ALTOMS can independently target three lasers (473-nm blue laser, 593.

Three-wavelength light control of freely moving Drosophila Melanogaster for less perturbation and efficient social-behavioral studies.

We developed a real-time automated laser-tracking system combined with continuous wave 1064-nm infrared or 473-nm blue lasers to provide punishment for studying memory in Drosophila Melanogaster. Combining optogenetic tools with laser properties, such as 473-nm and 593-nm lasers that activate light sensitive proteins in artificial transgenic flies, we can manipulate the specific neuron of an assigned fly among multiple flies to investigate neuron circuit relationships in social interactions. In restraining condition assay or optogenetic experiments, a ventral irradiated system would be more efficient due to higher ventral cuticle transmissions and neuron ganglia locations.

Optogenetic control of selective neural activity in multiple freely moving Drosophila adults.

We present an automated laser tracking and optogenetic manipulation system (ALTOMS) for studying social memory in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). ALTOMS comprises an intelligent central control module for high-speed fly behavior analysis and feedback laser scanning (∼40 frames per second) for targeting two lasers (a 473-nm blue laser and a 593.5-nm yellow laser) independently on any specified body parts of two freely moving Drosophila adults.