Publications by authors named "Wencheng Liu"

The plasma membrane (PM)-localized Na+/H+ antiporter Salt Overly Sensitive1 (SOS1) is essential for plant salt tolerance through facilitating Na+ efflux; however, how SOS1 localization and protein accumulation is regulated in plants remains elusive. Here, we report that Sorting Nexin 1 (SNX1) is required for plant salt stress tolerance through affecting endosomal trafficking of SOS1 in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Disruption of SNX1 caused salt hypersensitivity with increased Na+ accumulation and decreased Na+ efflux in Arabidopsis when challenged with high salinity stress.

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  • Zoonotic viruses have been a major health risk, and this study focuses on a new virus found in wild rice that threatens rice production, a critical food source.
  • Researchers identified a novel virus called Rice less tiller virus (RLTV) within wild rice, which can be transmitted to cultivated rice through aphids, causing disease symptoms.
  • The study highlights the global spread of RLTV and its related viruses, emphasizing the potential danger they pose to both wild and cultivated rice due to insect vectors.
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  • The delta opioid receptor (δOR) influences human sensation and emotion and is a promising target for drug development due to its lower risk of causing drug dependence compared to the Mu opioid receptor.
  • The study uses cryo-electron microscopy to analyze the δOR-G complex when interacting with the small-molecule agonist ADL5859, and investigates receptor-ligand interactions and signaling biases.
  • Findings reveal a connection between δOR’s β-arrestin recruitment and effects like analgesic tolerance and altered gastrointestinal motility, enhancing understanding of δOR's role in drug discovery.
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Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) H+-ATPase1 (AHA1), a plasma membrane (PM)-localized H+-ATPase, plays a key role in plant alkali stress tolerance by pumping protons from the cytoplasm to the apoplast. However, its molecular dynamics are poorly understood. We report that many C2-domain ABA-related (CAR) protein family members interact with AHA1 in Arabidopsis.

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Multifunctional therapeutics have emerged as a solution to the constraints imposed by drugs with singular or insufficient therapeutic effects. The primary challenge is to integrate diverse pharmacophores within a single-molecule framework. To address this, we introduced DeepSA, a novel edit-based generative framework that utilizes deep simulated annealing for the modification of articaine, a well-known local anesthetic.

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Multitarget strategies are essential in addressing complex diseases, yet developing multitarget-directed ligands (MTDLs) is particularly challenging when aiming to engage multiple therapeutic targets across different tissues. Here, we present a molecular transformer strategy, enhancing traditional MTDLs. By utilizing esterase-driven hydrolysis, this approach mimics the adaptive nature of transformers for enabling molecules to modify their pharmacological effects in response to the biological milieu.

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  • * A novel high-throughput screening method was established, combining virtual screening with cell membrane chromatography, to identify selective Nav1.8 inhibitors.
  • * The small molecule compound 6 was found to be a strong Nav1.8 inhibitor with lasting analgesic effects, outperforming the existing drug VX-150, and presents a promising new option for treating chronic pain.
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Climate change is resulting in more frequent and rapidly changing temperatures at both extremes that severely affect the growth and production of plants, particularly crops. Oxidative stress caused by high temperatures is one of the most damaging factors for plants. However, the role of hydrogen peroxide (HO) in modulating plant thermotolerance is largely unknown, and the regulation of photorespiration essential for C3 species remains to be fully clarified.

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Image-based gauging stations offer the potential for substantial enhancement in the monitoring networks of river water levels. Nonetheless, the majority of camera gauges fall short in delivering reliable and precise measurements because of the fluctuating appearance of water in the rivers over the course of the year. In this study, we introduce a method for measuring water levels in rivers using both the traditional continuous image subtraction (CIS) approach and a SegNet neural network based on deep learning computer vision.

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Phloem sieve elements (PSE), the primary conduits collaborating with neighboring phloem pole pericycle (PPP) cells to facilitate unloading in Arabidopsis roots, undergo a series of developmental stages before achieving maturation and functionality. However, the mechanism that maintains the proper progression of these differentiation stages remains largely unknown. We identified a gain-of-function mutant altered phloem pole pericycle 1 Dominant (app1D), producing a truncated, nuclear-localized active form of NAC with Transmembrane Motif 1-like (NTL9).

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Biocatalysis has emerged as a powerful alternative to traditional chemical methods, especially for asymmetric synthesis. As biocatalysts usually exhibit excellent chemical, regio- and enantioselectivity, they facilitate and simplify many chemical processes for the production of a broad range of products. Here, a new biocatalyst called, R-selective amine transaminases (R-ATAs), was obtained from Mycobacterium sp.

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The Na1.8 channel, mainly found in the peripheral nervous system, is recognized as one of the key factors in chronic pain. The molecule VX-150 was initially promising in targeting this channel, but the phase II trials of VX-150 did not show expected pain relief results.

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ABI5 functions in ABA-mediated anthocyanin accumulation in plant response to low phosphate. Low phosphate (LP)-induced anthocyanin biosynthesis and accumulation play an important role in plant adaptive response to phosphate starvation conditions. However, whether and how the stress phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) participates in LP-induced anthocyanin accumulation remain elusive.

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Chronic pain is a serious problem that affects billions of people worldwide, but current analgesic drugs limit their use in chronic pain management due to their respective side effects. As a first-line clinical drug for chronic pain, COX-2 selective inhibitors can relieve mild to moderate pain, but they also have some problems. The most prominent one is that their analgesic intensity is not enough, and they cannot well meet the treatment needs of chronic pain.

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  • Over 300 million people worldwide suffer from chronic hepatitis B (CHB), leading to approximately one million deaths annually, despite existing antiviral treatments that primarily reduce HBV replication.
  • Current antivirals do not effectively eliminate the virus's covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), which is crucial for fully curing the infection; hence, new agents targeting cccDNA are urgently needed.
  • Recent research focuses on various methods to either silence or eliminate HBV cccDNA, including small molecules, epigenetic drugs, and gene-editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9, but as of now, no direct breakthroughs in targeting cccDNA have been achieved.
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Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced as undesirable by-products of metabolism in various cellular compartments, especially in response to unfavorable environmental conditions, throughout the life cycle of plants. Stress-induced ROS production disrupts normal cellular function and leads to oxidative damage. To cope with excessive ROS, plants are equipped with a sophisticated antioxidative defense system consisting of enzymatic and non-enzymatic components that scavenge ROS or inhibit their harmful effects on biomolecules.

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Phosphorus (P) is a crucial macronutrient for plant growth, development, and reproduction. The effects of low P (LP) stress on leaf senescence and the role of PHR1 in LP-induced leaf senescence are still unknown. Here, we report that PHR1 plays a crucial role in LP-induced leaf senescence, showing delayed leaf senescence in phr1 mutant and accelerated leaf senescence in 35S:PHR1 transgenic Arabidopsis under LP stress.

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Bifunctional ligands possessing both μOR agonism and σR antagonism have shown promise in producing strong analgesic effects with reduced opioid-related side effects. However, the μOR agonism activity of most dual ligands diminishes compared with classical opioids, raising concern about their effectiveness in managing nociceptive pain. In this study, a new class of dual μOR agonist/σR antagonist was reported.

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The inherent zero-band gap nature of graphene and its fast photocarrier recombination rate result in poor optical gain and responsivity when graphene is used as the light absorption medium in photodetectors. Here, semiconducting graphene nanoribbons with a direct bandgap of 1.8 eV are synthesized and employed to construct a vertical heterojunction photodetector.

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Rapid and accurate detection of rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in human blood still remains a challenge. We present a surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method based on aptamer-SERS bio-probe recognition coupled with micropore membrane filtration capture for the detection of CTCs at single cell level. The parylene micropore membrane with optimized micropore size installed on a filtration holder could capture bio-probe labeled CTCs by gravity in less than 10 s, and only with very less white blood cells (WBCs) residual.

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As the one of the most important protein of placental transport of environmental substances, the identification of ABCG2 transport molecules is the key step for assessing the risk of placental exposure to environmental chemicals. Here, residue interaction network (RIN) was used to explore the difference of ABCG2 binding conformations between transportable and non-transportable compounds. The RIN were treated as a kind of special quantitative data of protein conformation, which not only reflected the changes of single amino acid conformation in protein, but also indicated the changes of distance and action type between amino acids.

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Modeling fecal contamination in water bodies is of importance for microbiological risk assessment and management. This study investigated the transport of fecal coliform (e.g.

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Two-dimensional (2D) materials have sparked intense interest among the scientific community owing to their extraordinary mechanical, optical, electronic, and thermal properties. In particular, the outstanding electronic and optical properties of 2D materials make them show great application potential in high-performance photodetectors (PDs), which can be applied in many fields such as high-frequency communication, novel biomedical imaging, national security, and so on. Here, the recent research progress of PDs based on 2D materials including graphene, transition metal carbides, transition-metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, and hexagonal boron nitride is comprehensively and systematically reviewed.

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SALT OVERLY SENSITIVE1 (SOS1) is a key component of plant salt tolerance. However, how SOS1 transcription is dynamically regulated in plant response to different salinity conditions remains elusive. Here, we report that C-type Cyclin1;1 (CycC1;1) negatively regulates salt tolerance by interfering with WRKY75-mediated transcriptional activation of SOS1 in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana).

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This paper deals with the problems of finite-time boundedness (FTB) and H∞ FTB for time-delay Markovian jump systems with a partially unknown transition rate. First of all, sufficient conditions are provided, ensuring the FTB and H∞ FTB of systems given by linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). A new type of partially delay-dependent controller (PDDC) is designed so that the resulting closed-loop systems are finite-time bounded and satisfy a given H∞ disturbance attenuation level.

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