TB-QUICK: CRISPR-Cas12b-assisted rapid and sensitive detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Objectives: Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the public health problems worldwide. Rapid, sensitive and cost-effective diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is critical for TB control.

The analysis of the impact of the Belt and Road initiative on the green development of participating countries.

China has emphasized the importance of implementing the concept of green development into the process of the Belt and Road initiative. Therefore, in the process of promoting the initiative, it is necessary to clarify its impact on the green development of the participating countries. Based on such consideration, this paper establishes Green Development Capability (GDC) index to measure the green development level, and uses the Spatial Durbin Model for empirical testing basing on relevant data on different cooperative patterns between China and participating countries.

Interleukin-22 secreted by ectopic endometrial stromal cells and natural killer cells promotes the recruitment of macrophages through promoting CCL2 secretion.

Problem: During endometriosis, there is an increase in the number of dysfunctional macrophages; however, the mechanisms underlying macrophage recruitment are not well understood. The aim of the present study was to determine the role of natural killer (NK) cell-mediated secretion of chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) from endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) in the recruitment of macrophages.

Method Of Study: Normal ESCs (nESC) and ectopic ESCs (eESCs) were separately co-cultured with NK cells for a macrophage chemotaxis assay, and the number of chemotactic macrophages was counted.

Erratum: Author Correction: CRISPR-Cas12a-assisted nucleic acid detection.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/s41421-018-0028-z.].

CXCL16/CXCR6 interaction promotes endometrial decidualization via the PI3K/AKT pathway.

Decidualization renders the endometrium transiently receptive to an implanting blastocyst although the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. The aim of this study was to determine the role of chemokine CXCL16 and its receptor CXCR6 in the decidualization during pregnancy. Here, the expression of CXCL16 was investigated in endometrial tissues, decidua and placenta in this study.

CADS: CRISPR/Cas12a-Assisted DNA Steganography for Securing the Storage and Transfer of DNA-Encoded Information.

Because DNA has the merit of high capacity and complexity, DNA steganography, which conceals DNA-encoded messages, is very promising in information storage. The classical DNA steganography method hides DNA with a "secret message" in a mount of junk DNA, and the message can be extracted by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using specific primers (key), followed by DNA sequencing and sequence decoding. As leakage of the primer information may result in message insecurity, new methods are needed to better secure the DNA information.

Protocols for C-Brick DNA Standard Assembly Using Cpf1.

CRISPR-associated protein Cpf1 cleaves double-stranded DNA under the guidance of CRISPR RNA (crRNA), generating sticky ends. Because of this characteristic, Cpf1 has been used for the establishment of a DNA assembly standard called C-Brick, which has the advantage of long recognition sites and short scars. On a standard C-Brick vector, there are four Cpf1 recognition sites - the prefix (T1 and T2 sites) and the suffix (T3 and T4 sites) - flanking biological DNA parts.

An efficient system for deletion of large DNA fragments in Escherichia coli via introduction of both Cas9 and the non-homologous end joining system from Mycobacterium smegmatis.

Accompanied with the internal non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) system, Cas9 can be used to easily inactivate a gene or delete a fragment through introduction of DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) in eukaryotic cells. While in most prokaryotes (e.g.

The CCTL (Cpf1-assisted Cutting and Taq DNA ligase-assisted Ligation) method for efficient editing of large DNA constructs in vitro.

As Cpf1 cleaves double-stranded DNA in a staggered way, it can be used in DNA assembly. However, the Cpf1 cleavage was found to be inaccurate, which may cause errors in DNA assembly. Here, the Cpf1 cleavage sites were precisely characterized, where the cleavage site on the target strand was around the 22nd base relative to the protospacer adjacent motif site, but the cleavage on the non-target strand was affected by the spacer length.

C-Brick: A New Standard for Assembly of Biological Parts Using Cpf1.

So far, several DNA assembly standards have been developed, enabling scientists to conveniently share and modify characterized DNA parts. However, a majority of the restriction endonucleases used in these standards bear short recognition sites (e.g.

[A Concept Design of Flat-Field Spectrograph for Wide Wavelength Range].

The radiation spectrum from the plasmas contains a large amount of information of plasmas. Thus, one of the most effective methods to detecting the plasma parameters is measure the plasma radiation spectrum. Until now, since the restriction of the Toshiba mechanically ruled aberration-corrected concave gratings, the measurable wavelength range of the incidence flat-field grazing spectrometer in the soft X-ray range are only from 5 to 40 nm.

GlnR-Mediated Regulation of ectABCD Transcription Expands the Role of the GlnR Regulon to Osmotic Stress Management.

Unlabelled: Ectoine and hydroxyectoine are excellent compatible solutes for bacteria to deal with environmental osmotic stress and temperature damages. The biosynthesis cluster of ectoine and hydroxyectoine is widespread among microorganisms, and its expression is activated by high salinity and temperature changes. So far, little is known about the mechanism of the regulation of the transcription of ect genes and only two MarR family regulators (EctR1 in methylobacteria and the EctR1-related regulator CosR in Vibrio cholerae) have been found to negatively regulate the expression of ect genes.

Phenolic glycosides from Ficus tikoua and their cytotoxic activities.

Four new phenolic glycosides, named 2-ethylene-3,5,6-trimethyl-4-phenol-1-O-β-d-xylopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-d-glucopyranoside (1), 3-methoxy-4-O-β-d-apiofuranosyl-(1→2)-β-d-glucopyranosylpropiophenone (2), 3-hydroxy-1-(4-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-3-methoxyphenyl)propan-1-one (3) and 4-hydroxy-3,5-bis(3'-methyl-2-butenyl)benzoic acid-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (4), were isolated from the ethanol extract of Ficus tikoua, together with six known compounds: 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenol-1-O-β-d-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-β-d-glucopyranoside (5), 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenol-1-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (6), 3-methoxy-4-O-β-d-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-β-d-glucopyranosylpropiophenone (7), baihuaqianhuoside (8), 3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxybenzoic acid-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (9) and 2-methoxy-4-allylphenyl-1-O-β-d-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-β-d-glucopyranoside (10). The structures of the four new compounds were elucidated by chemical methods and MS and IR, as well as 1D and 2D NMR analyses. The cytotoxicities of the 10 compounds against HeLa, K562, HL60 and HepG2 cell lines were assessed.

Enhancing isoprenoid production through systematically assembling and modulating efflux pumps in Escherichia coli.

Enhancement of the cellular exportation of heterologous compounds is an important aspect to improve the product yield in microbial cell factory. Efflux pumps can expel various intra- or extra-cellular substances out of microbial hosts and increase the cellular tolerance. Thus in this study, by using the hydrophobic sesquiterpene (amorphadiene) and diterpene (kaurene) as two model compounds, we attempted to improve isoprenoid production through systematically engineering the efflux pumps in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3).

Loss-of-function variation in the DPP6 gene is associated with autosomal dominant microcephaly and mental retardation.

The molecular basis of autosomal dominant microcephaly, a disorder associated with small head circumferences that results in variable mental retardation, is largely unknown. In the present study, we conducted a variation analysis of the DPP6 gene in patients with autosomal dominant microcephaly and variable mental retardation. The copy number variation analysis of DPP6 was performed on DNA samples from 22 patients with microcephaly using high-resolution, array-based genomic hybridization, and sequence analysis was performed to screen mutations in another 50 microcephalic patients.

Analysis of methylprednisolone-induced inhibition on the proliferation of neural progenitor cells in vitro by gene expression profiling.

Recently, it has been proved that methylprednisolone has inhibition effect on the proliferation of endogenous neural progenitor cells (NPCs) after spinal cord injury (SCI). Similar effect has also been found on NPCs cultured in vitro. However, the mechanism remains to be fully delineated.