Publications by authors named "SongYao Zhang"

N-methyladenosine (mA) is the most prevalent internal modification on messenger RNA. Although recent studies have shown mA effects on determining the fate of mRNA through modulating various aspects of plant mRNA metabolism, whether and how mA affects gene transcription in plants remains elusive. Here we show that NEEDED FOR RDR2-INDEPENDENT DNA METHYLATION (NERD), a plant-specific protein, is an essential component of the mA methyltransferase complex required for regulating the transcription of a central floral repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) in Arabidopsis.

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Significant culture and ethnic diversity play an important role in shaping brain structure and function. Many attempts have been undertaken to connect ethnic variations with brain function, which, however, fluctuates over time and is costly, limiting its utility to identify consistent brain markers as well as its application to a broad population. In contrast, brain anatomy is less altered during a short period of time, but it is not fully understood whether it could serve as the ethnicity-sensitive landmark, or its variation is associated with functional one.

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N-methyladenosine (mA) RNA modification and its effectors control various plant developmental processes, yet whether and how these effectors are transcriptionally controlled to confer functional specificity so far remain elusive. Herein, we show that a rice C2H2 zinc-finger protein, OsZAF, specifically activates the expression of OsFIP37 encoding a core component of the mA methyltransferase complex during microsporogenesis in rice anthers. OsFIP37, in turn, facilitates mA modification and stabilization of an auxin biosynthesis gene OsYUCCA3 to promote auxin biosynthesis in anthers.

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Orchids constitute one of the most diverse families of angiosperms, yet their genome evolution and diversity remain unclear. Here we construct and analyse chromosome-scale de novo assembled genomes of 17 representative accessions spanning 12 sections in Dendrobium, one of the largest orchid genera. These accessions represent a broad spectrum of phenotypes, lineages and geographical distributions.

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Article Synopsis
  • A new machine learning method, called SU-VAE, allows scientists to separate brain connectome data shared between humans and macaques from species-specific traits.
  • This method was validated by linking unique human features to cognitive abilities, while shared features aligned more with sensorimotor skills.
  • The results suggest that human-specific brain traits may make networks more efficient and are associated with certain genes related to axon guidance.
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Cortical folding is closely linked to brain functions, with gyri acting more like local functional "hubs" to integrate information than sulci do. However, understanding how anatomical constraints relate to complex functions remains fragmented. One possible reason is that the relationship is estimated on brain mosaics divided by brain functions and cortical folding patterns.

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Brain age (BA) is defined as a measure of brain maturity and could help characterize both the typical brain development and neuropsychiatric disorders in mammals. Various biological phenotypes have been successfully applied to predict BA of human using chronological age (CA) as label. However, whether the BA of macaque, one of the most important animal models, can also be reliably predicted is largely unknown.

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N-Methyladenosine (mA) prevalently occurs on cellular RNA across almost all kingdoms of life. It governs RNA fate and is essential for development and stress responses. However, the dynamic, context-dependent mA methylomes across tissues and in response to various stimuli remain largely unknown in multicellular organisms.

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Cortical folding is an important feature of primate brains that plays a crucial role in various cognitive and behavioral processes. Extensive research has revealed both similarities and differences in folding morphology and brain function among primates including macaque and human. The folding morphology is the basis of brain function, making cross-species studies on folding morphology important for understanding brain function and species evolution.

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The self-assembly behaviors of aromatic carboxylic acids are commonly investigated at the liquid/solid interfaces because of their rigid skeletons and both hydrogen-bond donors and receptors. However, self-assemblies of aromatic carboxylic acids with low symmetry and interactions between carboxylic acid and pyridine derivatives are worth exploring. In this work, the self-assembled structural transitions of a kind of low-symmetric aromatic carboxylic acid (HQDA) are regulated by the coadsorption of two pyridine derivatives (DPE and T4PT) with different symmetry, which are investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy under ambient conditions.

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N-methyladenosine (mA) is the most abundant internal modification in eukaryotic mRNAs, yet how plants recognize this chemical modification to swiftly adjust developmental plasticity under environmental stresses remains unclear. Here we show that mA mRNA modification and its reader protein EVOLUTIONARILY CONSERVED C-TERMINAL REGION 8 (ECT8) act together as a key checkpoint for negative feedback regulation of abscisic acid (ABA) signalling by sequestering the mA-modified ABA receptor gene PYRABACTIN RESISTANCE 1-LIKE 7 (PYL7) via phase-separated ECT8 condensates in stress granules in response to ABA. This partially depletes PYL7 mRNA from its translation in the cytoplasm, thus reducing PYL7 protein levels and compromising ABA perception.

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Self-assemblies of two fluorenone-based derivatives (FE and FEC) consisting of a central 2,7-diphenyl-9-fluorenone polar moiety but differing in the flexible terminal groups were investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at the 1-octanoic acid/HOPG interface under different concentrations and density functional theory calculation (DFT). STM results reveal a concentration-dependent polymorphic self-assembly behavior for FE, but without the presence of co-adsorbed solvents. As the concentration decreases, the dimer, bracket-like, and ribbon-like self-assembled structures were observed.

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Genetic mechanisms have been hypothesized to be a major determinant in the formation of cortical folding. Although there is an increasing number of studies examining the heritability of cortical folding, most of them focus on sulcal pits rather than gyral peaks. Gyral peaks, which reflect the highest local foci on gyri and are consistent across individuals, remain unstudied in terms of heritability.

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The important mechanical parameters and their hierarchy in the growth and folding of the human brain have not been thoroughly understood. In this study, we developed a multiscale mechanical model to investigate how the interplay between initial geometrical undulations, differential tangential growth in the cortical plate, and axonal connectivity form and regulate the folding patterns of the human brain in a hierarchical order. To do so, different growth scenarios with bilayer spherical models that features initial undulations on the cortex and uniform or heterogeneous distribution of axonal fibers in the white matter were developed, statistically analyzed, and validated by the imaging observations.

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Cortical folding is an important feature of primate brains that plays a crucial role in various cognitive and behavioral processes. Extensive research has revealed both similarities and differences in folding morphology and brain function among primates including macaque and human. The folding morphology is the basis of brain function, making cross-species studies on folding morphology important for understanding brain function and species evolution.

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Angiosperms possess a life cycle with an alternation of sporophyte and gametophyte generations, which happens in plant organs like pistils. Rice pistils contain ovules and receive pollen for successful fertilization to produce grains. The cellular expression profile in rice pistils is largely unknown.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cortical folding patterns are linked to brain function and behavior, prompting research into specific landmarks like gyral peaks and sulcal pits that remain consistent across individuals and ages.
  • While previous studies focused on macaque brains, this research successfully identified 96 gyral peaks in human brains, demonstrating consistent spatial patterns across individuals.
  • The study found that these peaks differ structurally and functionally from other cortical areas and exhibit symmetrical distribution between brain hemispheres, which could enhance our understanding of brain functions and disorders.
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N 6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification on messenger RNAs (mRNAs) is deposited by evolutionarily conserved methyltransferases (writers). How individual m6A writers sculpt the overall landscape of the m6A methylome and the resulting biological impact in multicellular organisms remains unknown. Here, we systematically surveyed the quantitative m6A methylomes at single-nucleotide resolution and their corresponding transcriptomes in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) bearing respective impaired m6A writers.

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Fabricating tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-functionalized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with aggregation- induced emission on surfaces and understanding the growth mechanism have not yet been pursued. Herein, MOFs constructed via the Ullmann-type reaction of a -symmetry TPE derivative (-BrTBE) on Au(111) and Cu(111) surfaces were thoroughly investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy. On a Au(111) surface, -BrTBE molecules formed the self-assembled pattern at 298 K.

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Cerebral cortex development undergoes a variety of processes, which provide valuable information for the study of the developmental mechanism of cortical folding as well as its relationship to brain structural architectures and brain functions. Despite the variability in the anatomy-function relationship on the higher-order cortex, recent studies have succeeded in identifying typical cortical landmarks, such as sulcal pits, that bestow specific functional and cognitive patterns and remain invariant across subjects and ages with their invariance being related to a gene-mediated proto-map. Inspired by the success of these studies, we aim in this study at defining and identifying novel cortical landmarks, termed gyral peaks, which are the local highest foci on gyri.

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N-methyladenosine (mA) is the most abundant eukaryotic modification internal mRNA, which plays the crucial roles in the occurrence and development of cancer. However, current knowledge about mA-mediated functional circuit and key genes targeted by mA methylation in cancer is mostly elusive. Thus, here we proposed a novel network-based approach (called mAcancer-Net) to identify mA-mediated driver genes and their associated network in specific type of cancer, such as acute myeloid leukemia.

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N-methyladenosine (mA) is the most abundant form of mRNA modification and plays an important role in regulating gene expression. However, the mechanisms of mA regulated gene expression in cell or condition specific, are still poorly understood. Even though, some methods are able to predict mA regulated expression (mA-reg-exp) genes in specific context, they don't introduce the mA reader binding information, while this information can help to predict mA-reg-exp genes and more clearly to explain the mechanisms of mA-mediated gene expression process.

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Postnatal development of cerebral cortex is associated with a variety of neuronal processes and is thus critical to development of brain function and cognition. Longitudinal changes of cortical morphology and topology, such as postnatal cortical thinning and flattening have been widely studied. However, thorough and systematic investigation of such cortical change, including how to quantify it from multiple spatial directions and how to relate it to surface topology, is rarely found.

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N -methyladenosine (m A) mRNA modification represents the most widespread form of internal modifications in eukaryotic mRNAs. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, those known methyltransferases mainly deposit m A at their target transcripts near the stop codon or in the 3' untranslated region. Here, it is reported that FIONA1 (FIO1), a human METTL16 ortholog, acts as a hitherto unknown m A methyltransferase that determines m A modifications at over 2000 Arabidopsis transcripts predominantly in the coding region.

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N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant form of mRNA modification and controls many aspects of RNA metabolism including gene expression. However, the mechanisms by which m6A regulates cell- and condition-specific gene expression are still poorly understood, partly due to a lack of tools capable of identifying m6A sites that regulate gene expression under different conditions. Here we develop m6A-express, the first algorithm for predicting condition-specific m6A regulation of gene expression (m6A-reg-exp) from limited methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-seq) data.

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