Synergistic Effects of Three-Species Symbiosis in Spiders.

A schematic illustration depicts the symbiotic relationships between arthropod predators, featuring a Cyrtophora host and its two guests: the orb-weaving Leucauge and the kleptoparasitic Argyrodes (Photo: Po Peng).

A prospective cohort study of multimetal exposure and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus.

The relationship between co-exposure to multiple metals and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. In this nested case-control study, 228 GDM cases and 456 matched controls were recruited, and biological samples were collected at 12-14 gestational weeks. The urinary concentrations of 10 metals and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) as well as the serum levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and advanced glycation end products (AGEs) were determined to assess the association of metals with GDM risk and the mediating effects of oxidative stress.

Male spiders avoid sexual cannibalism with a catapult mechanism.

In the animal world, numerous mechanisms have been described that allow for extremely fast actions or reactions via the slow storage of energy, typically in elastic structures, which is then nearly instantly released, similar to the operation of a catapult. Many of these mechanisms are employed for prey capture or for predator avoidance; however, such superfast actions have not yet been reported as a means to dodge sexual cannibalism. Here, we unveil a novel mechanism in a communal orb-weaving spider Philoponella prominens (Uloboridae) (Figure S1), whereby males undertake a split-second catapult action immediately after mating, thereby fleeing their partner (Video S1).

Male opportunistic mating increases with intensity of female sexual cannibalism in 3 web-building spiders.

Sexual conflict is common in animals, and female sexual cannibalism represents an extreme form of sexual conflict. Males in many species have evolved a variety of strategies to circumvent or decrease the risk of female sexual cannibalism. Opportunistic mating, by which a male mates with a female when she is disturbed or when she is feeding or undertaking moulting, is one of such kinds of strategies, and widely occurs in many animals, especially in spiders.

Construction of cadmium whole-cell biosensors and circuit amplification.

Owing to the prevalence of cadmium contamination and its serious hazards, it is important to establish an efficient and low-cost monitoring technique for the detection of the heavy metal cadmium. In this study, we first designed 30 cadmium whole-cell biosensors (WCBs) using different combinations of detection elements, reporting elements, and the host. The best performing WCB KT-5-R with Pseudomonas putida KT2440 as the host and composed of CadR and mCherry was selected for further analysis and engineering.

Directed evolution of a transcription factor PbrR to improve lead selectivity and reduce zinc interference through dual selection.

Directed evolution has been proven as a powerful tool for developing proteins and strains with novel or enhanced features. In this study, a dual selection system was designed to tune the binding specificity of a transcription factor to a particular ligand with the ampicillin resistance gene amp (ON selection) as the positive selection marker and the levansucrase gene sacB (OFF selection) as the negative selection marker. It was applied to the lead responsive transcription factor PbrR in a whole-cell lead biosensor previously constructed in our lab (Jia et al.

Contraction of weak polyelectrolyte multilayers in response to organic solvents.

Weak polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) prepared by the layer-by-layer assembly technique have recently been found to demonstrate a unique contraction upon exposure to organic solvents. This response is dependent upon which organic solvent is employed, and fundamental questions have not been clarified regarding the correlation of the magnitude of the film contraction with solvent type. In this work, we used solubility parameters to analyze the response of branched poly(ethylene imine)/poly(acrylic acid) (BPEI/PAA) multilayers when exposed to a variety of solvents.