MicroRNA analysis reveals 2 modules that antagonistically regulate xylem tracheary element development in Arabidopsis.

Tracheary elements (TEs) are vital in the transport of various substances and contribute to plant growth. The differentiation of TEs is complex and regulated by a variety of microRNAs (miRNAs). However, the dynamic changes in miRNAs during each stage of TE differentiation remain unclear, and the miRNA regulatory network is not yet complete.

Ultra-small Metallic Nickel Nanoparticles on Dealuminated Zeolite for Active and Durable Catalytic Dehydrogenation.

Each step in the catalyst synthesis process plays an important role in tuning the catalyst structures. For zeolite-supported nickel catalysts, we found the conventional calcination-reduction method typically leads to the formation of large nickel particles, but a pre-aging in hydrogen or nitrogen at a low temperature prior to final reduction can result in ultra-small nickel nanoparticles in a metallic state. This pre-aging treatment facilitates the interaction between Ni cations and silanol nests on zeolite before the decomposition of the metal salt, leading to the formation of nanoparticles with an average diameter of ~1.

Joint Imbalance Adaptation for Radiology Report Generation.

Purpose: Radiology report generation, translating radiological images into precise and clinically relevant description, may face the data imbalance challenge - medical tokens appear less frequently than regular tokens; and normal entries are significantly more than abnormal ones. However, very few studies consider the imbalance issues, not even with conjugate imbalance factors.

Methods: In this study, we propose a oint balance daptation () model to promote task robustness by leveraging token and label imbalance.

Gibberellin promotes cambium reestablishment during secondary vascular tissue regeneration after girdling in an auxin-dependent manner in Populus.

Secondary vascular tissue (SVT) development and regeneration are regulated by phytohormones. In this study, we used an in vitro SVT regeneration system to demonstrate that gibberellin (GA) treatment significantly promotes auxin-induced cambium reestablishment. Altering GA content by overexpressing or knocking down ent-kaurene synthase (KS) affected secondary growth and SVT regeneration in poplar.

Type IV collagen α5 chain promotes luminal breast cancer progression through c-Myc-driven glycolysis.

Cancer cell metabolism reprogramming is one of the hallmarks of cancer. Cancer cells preferentially utilize aerobic glycolysis, which is regulated by activated oncogenes and the tumor microenvironment. Extracellular matrix (ECM) in the tumor microenvironment, including the basement membranes (BMs), is dynamically remodeled.

Developments in FRET- and BRET-Based Biosensors.

Resonance energy transfer technologies have achieved great success in the field of analysis. Particularly, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) provide strategies to design tools for sensing molecules and monitoring biological processes, which promote the development of biosensors. Here, we provide an overview of recent progress on FRET- and BRET-based biosensors and their roles in biomedicine, environmental applications, and synthetic biology.

IRF4 suppresses osteogenic differentiation of BM-MSCs by transcriptionally activating miR-636/DOCK9 axis.

Objectives: Osteoblasts are derived from Bone Marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BM-MSCs), which play an indispensable role in bone formation. In this study, the authors aim to investigate the role of IRF4 in the osteogenic differentiation of BM-MSCs and its potential molecular mechanism.

Methods: The authors used lentivirus infection to overexpress IRF4 in BM-MSCs.

Heterologous expression of bacterial cytochrome P450 from Microbacterium keratanolyticum ZY and its application in dichloromethane dechlorination.

Dichloromethane (DCM) is a volatile halogenated hydrocarbon with teratogenic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. Biodegradation is generally regarded as an effective and economical approach of pollutant disposal. In this study, a novel strain was isolated and its cytochrome P450 was heterologously expressed for DCM degradation.

Enhanced dechlorination of an enzyme-catalyzed electrolysis system by ionic liquids: Electron transfer, enzyme activity and dichloromethane diffusion.

Enzyme-catalyzed electrolysis system (EES) is a promising technique for the efficient dechlorination of pollutants. In this study, ionic liquids (ILs) was first introduced to enhance the dichloromethane dechlorination performance of an EES. An imidazole-based IL, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazole tetrafluoroborate ([EMIM][BF]), was chosen due to its excellent performance on dechlorination enhancement than other three ILs.

Dynamically remodeled hepatic extracellular matrix predicts prognosis of early-stage cirrhosis.

Liver cirrhosis remains major health problem. Despite the progress in diagnosis of asymptomatic early-stage cirrhosis, prognostic biomarkers are needed to identify cirrhotic patients at high risk developing advanced stage disease. Liver cirrhosis is the result of deregulated wound healing and is featured by aberrant extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling.

Celluar Folding Determinants and Conformational Plasticity of Native C-Reactive Protein.

C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute phase reactant secreted by hepatocytes as a pentamer. The structure formation of pentameric CRP has been demonstrated to proceed in a stepwise manner in live cells. Here, we further dissect the sequence determinants that underlie the key steps in cellular folding and assembly of CRP.

Complexity of type IV collagens: from network assembly to function.

Collagens form complex networks in the extracellular space that provide structural support and signaling cues to cells. Network-forming type IV collagens are the key structural components of basement membranes. In this review, we discuss how the complexity of type IV collagen networks is established, focusing on collagen α chain selection in type IV collagen protomer and network formation; covalent crosslinking in type IV collagen network stabilization; and the differences between solid-state type IV collagen in the extracellular matrix and soluble type IV collagen fragments.

Conformational folding and disulfide bonding drive distinct stages of protein structure formation.

The causal relationship between conformational folding and disulfide bonding in protein oxidative folding remains incompletely defined. Here we show a stage-dependent interplay between the two events in oxidative folding of C-reactive protein (CRP) in live cells. CRP is composed of five identical subunits, which first fold spontaneously to a near-native core with a correctly positioned C-terminal helix.

A deep boosting based approach for capturing the sequence binding preferences of RNA-binding proteins from high-throughput CLIP-seq data.

Characterizing the binding behaviors of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) is important for understanding their functional roles in gene expression regulation. However, current high-throughput experimental methods for identifying RBP targets, such as CLIP-seq and RNAcompete, usually suffer from the false negative issue. Here, we develop a deep boosting based machine learning approach, called DeBooster, to accurately model the binding sequence preferences and identify the corresponding binding targets of RBPs from CLIP-seq data.

Experimental Research on Differentiation-Inducing Growth of Nerve Lateral Bud by HUC-MSCs Chitosan Composite Conduit.

This study is intended to explore the role of human umbilical-cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HUC-MSCs) in nerve end-to-side anastomosis, as well as in the induction and promotion of growth of nerve lateral bud. The chitosan nerve conduit was prepared based on the biological characteristics of chitosan, and the nerve conduit was filled with HUC-MSCs, and was used to bridge the nerve end-to-side anastomotic stoma. The experimental animals were randomly assigned into three groups (10 in each group), and the nerve end-to-side anastomosis was conducted: (1) group A (control group): traditional tibial nerve-common peroneal nerve end-to-side anastomosis; (2) group B (experimental group 1): tibial nerve-common peroneal nerve end-to-side anastomotic stoma bridged with chitosan nerve conduit; (3) group C (experimental group 2): tibial nerve-common peroneal nerve end-to-side anastomotic stoma bridged by chitosan nerve conduit filled with HUC-MSCs.

Computational Protein Design Using AND/OR Branch-and-Bound Search.

The computation of the global minimum energy conformation (GMEC) is an important and challenging topic in structure-based computational protein design. In this article, we propose a new protein design algorithm based on the AND/OR branch-and-bound (AOBB) search, a variant of the traditional branch-and-bound search algorithm, to solve this combinatorial optimization problem. By integrating with a powerful heuristic function, AOBB is able to fully exploit the graph structure of the underlying residue interaction network of a backbone template to significantly accelerate the design process.

Inhibition of macrophage polarization prohibits growth of human osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma is the most malignant bone tumor characterized by high local aggressiveness and poor therapeutic outcome. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) have been shown to participate in the development and progress of many types of cancer cells. However, whether TAM may play a role in the pathogenesis of osteosarcoma is largely unknown.

Topological localization of monomeric C-reactive protein determines proinflammatory endothelial cell responses.

The activation of endothelial cells (ECs) by monomeric C-reactive protein (mCRP) has been implicated in contributing to atherogenesis. However, the potent proinflammatory actions of mCRP on ECs in vitro appear to be incompatible with the atheroprotective effects of mCRP in a mouse model. Because mCRP is primarily generated within inflamed tissues and is rapidly cleared from the circulation, we tested whether these discrepancies can be explained by topological differences in response to mCRP within blood vessels.

Selective inhibition of STAT1 reduces spinal cord injury in mice.

The signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) is associated with neuronal cell death after cerebral ischemia. However, the role of STAT1 in the spinal cord injury (SCI) remains unclear. Here, we examined whether STAT1 blockade reduces neural tissue damage and locomotor impairment after SCI in mice.

[Characteristics of biofilm phase during the long-term degradation of a toluene-contaminated gas stream using BTF].

This study analyzes the accumulation and distribution of biomass and changes in properties of biofilm in a long-term biotrickling filter (BTF) system in order to investigate the correlation between the biofilm phase properties and the performance. After a long-term operation of 130 days, the BTF showed a deterioration in degradation performance and an increase in pressure drop with a gradual increase of biofilm thickness and uneven distribution of biomass. Meanwhile, the porosity of the upper and lower layers decreased from 85% and 82% in the start-up period to 65% and 40%, respectively, as a result of the excessive accumulation of biomass and its non-uniform distribution.