Functional analysis of UDP-glycosyltransferase genes conferring indoxacarb resistance in Spodoptera litura.

UDP-glycosyltransferase (UGT) is the major detoxification enzymes of phase II involved in xenobiotics metabolism, which potentially mediates the formation of insect resistance. Previous transcriptome sequencing studies have found that several UGT genes were upregulated in indoxacarb resistant strains of Spodoptera litura, but whether these UGT genes were involved in indoxacarb resistance and their functions in resistance were unclear. In this study, the UGTs inhibitor, 5-nitrouracil, enhanced the toxicity of indoxacarb against S.

Semi-Supervised Medical Image Segmentation Guided by Bi-Directional Constrained Dual-Task Consistency.

Background: Medical image processing tasks represented by multi-object segmentation are of great significance for surgical planning, robot-assisted surgery, and surgical safety. However, the exceptionally low contrast among tissues and limited available annotated data makes developing an automatic segmentation algorithm for pelvic CT challenging.

Methods: A bi-direction constrained dual-task consistency model named PICT is proposed to improve segmentation quality by leveraging free unlabeled data.

Mycoviral gene integration converts a plant pathogenic fungus into a biocontrol agent.

Mycovirus-infected fungi can suffer from poor growth, attenuated pigmentation, and virulence. However, the molecular mechanisms of how mycoviruses confer these symptoms remain poorly understood. Here, we report a mycovirus Stemphylium lycopersici alternavirus 1 (SlAV1) isolated from a necrotrophic plant pathogen that causes altered colony pigmentation and hypovirulence by specifically interfering host biosynthesis of Altersolanol A, a polyketide phytotoxin.

Systematic identification and functional analysis of long noncoding RNAs involved in indoxacarb resistance in Spodoptera litura.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are noncoding transcripts that are more than 200 nucleotides long. They play essential roles in regulating a variety of biological processes in many species, including insects, and some lncRNAs have been found to be associated with insecticide resistance. However, the characteristics and biological functions of lncRNAs involved in indoxacarb resistance are unknown in Spodoptera litura.

Transcription factor CncC potentially regulates the expression of multiple detoxification genes that mediate indoxacarb resistance in Spodoptera litura.

The xenobiotic transcription factor cap 'n' collar isoform C (CncC) is considered the central regulator of antioxidant and detoxification genes. Previous research indicated that CncC regulates three-phase enzymes responsible for insecticide resistance. In this study, the SlituCncC gene from Spodoptera litura was obtained and characterized.

Electroantennogram and behavioral responses of the imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, to an alarm pheromone component and its analogues.

A characteristic behavior in ants is to move rapidly to emission sources of alarm pheromones. The addition of ant alarm pheromones to bait is expected to enhance its attractiveness. To search for candidate compounds for bait enhancement in fire ant control, 13 related alkylpyrazine analogues in addition to synthetic alarm pheromone component were evaluated for electroantennogram (EAG) and behavioral activities in Solenopsis invicta.

[Distribution and risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban soils: a review].

With rapid urbanization, the contamination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has become one of the major factors threatening urban soil quality and human health. This paper summarized the current studies on the PAHs in urban soils, with the focus on the anthropogenic and natural factors affecting the distribution of PAHs in urban soils, analytical methods on the pollution sources of PAHs, risk assessment of urban soil contamination by PAHs, and especially, applications of geo-statistics in the spatial analysis and risk assessment of PAHs. The potential issues and research trends about the PAHs contamination of urban soils were also discussed.

Detection of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae in seeds using a specific TaqMan probe.

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae is the pathogen that causes bacterial leaf blight in rice. Bacterial leaf blight is the main cause for severe rice underproduction in many countries.

[Ecological distributions of airborne fungi in outdoor environments in Beijing, China].

An investigation on fungal types, concentrations, and their dynamic variation in outdoor environments was carried out in three different functional areas around one year in Beijing. Results show that the fungal concentrations varied widely and the average was (1164.8 +/- 73.