Analysis of the UDP-Glucosyltransferase () Gene Family and Its Functional Involvement in Drought and Salt Stress Tolerance in .

Uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferases (UDP-GTs, UGTs), which are regulated by genes, play a crucial role in glycosylation. In vivo, the activity of genes can affect the availability of metabolites and the rate at which they can be eliminated from the body. genes can exert their regulatory effects through mechanisms such as post-transcriptional modification, substrate subtype specificity, and drug interactions.

Growth mechanism deconvolution of self-limiting supraparticles based on microfluidic system.

The synthesis of colloidal supraparticles (SPs) based on self-assembly of nanoscopic objects has attracted much attention in recent years. Here, we demonstrate the formation of self-limiting monodisperse gold SPs with core-shell morphology based on the building blocks of flexible nanoarms in one step. A flow-based microfluidic chip is utilized to slow down the assembly process of the intermediates, which surprisingly allows for observation of ultrathin gold nanoplates as first intermediates.

Conformation modulated optical activity enhancement in chiral cysteine and au nanorod assemblies.

Assemblies of chiral cysteine (CYS) and Au nanorods (GNRs) are constructed in two typical patterns, end-to-end and side-by-side. Impressively, side-by-side assembled GNRs with CYS show obviously stronger plasmonic circular dichrosim (CD) response compared with the end-to-end assemblies. The corresponding theoretical calculation elucidates the intrinsic relationship among geometric structure, electromagnetic interaction, and induced plasmonic CD of the assemblies.

DNA induced intense plasmonic circular dichroism of highly purified gold nanobipyramids.

We report a strong and reversible CD response through the assembly of helical DNA and Au nanobipyramids (Au NBPs). Compared with common spherical Au nanoparticles or anisotropic Au nanorods, highly purified Au NBPs possess a more intense electromagnetic field and improved surface plasmon resonance. Thus, the assembly of DNA and Au NBPs exhibits an obviously enhanced plasmonic CD response.

A peptide-based nanofibrous hydrogel as a promising DNA nanovector for optimizing the efficacy of HIV vaccine.

This report shows that a nanovector composed of peptide-based nanofibrous hydrogel can condense DNA to result in strong immune responses against HIV. This nanovector can strongly activate both humoral and cellular immune responses to a balanced level rarely reported in previous studies, which is crucial for HIV prevention and therapy. In addition, this nanovector shows good biosafety in vitro and in vivo.

Controllable optical activity of gold nanorod and chiral quantum dot assemblies.

The optical coupling between Au nanorods (Au NRs) and chiral quantum dots (QDs) in assemblies is investigated by both experiment and theoretical calculations. The coupled optical activity in the visible-light region can be manipulated by changing either the aspect ratio of Au NRs or the size of QDs (left).

The influence on cell cycle and cell division by various cadmium-containing quantum dots.

Quantum dots (QDs) have attracted great attention because of their favorable optical properties and have been widely applied in biomedical fields. However, in recent years, there have been an increasing number of reports about the cytotoxicity of QDs, especially cadmium-containing QDs, which may release cadmium ions to induce cytotoxicity. Importantly, the chemical composition and surface modifications of cadmium-based QDs determine the amount of Cd(2+) released inside the cell.

Gold nanorod@chiral mesoporous silica core-shell nanoparticles with unique optical properties.

The design and fabrication of chiral nanostructures is a promising approach to realize enantiomeric recognition and separation. In our work, gold nanorod@chiral mesoporous silica core-shell nanoparticles (GNR@CMS NPs) have been successfully synthesized. This novel material exhibits strong and tunable circular dichroism signals in the visible and near-infrared regions due to the optical coupling between the CMS shells and the GNR cores.

Investigation of the photocatalytic effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles in the presence of nitrite.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles are widely used in sunscreen products because of their chemical stability and capability of blocking harmful ultraviolet rays. However, zinc oxide nanoparticles can also generate reactive species under ultraviolet irradiation. Because nitrite can form reactive nitrogen species under oxidative stress and because it exists in perspiration and cosmetics, we studied the effects of nitrites on the photocatalytic damage of zinc oxide nanoparticles (50 nm and 90 nm) to bovine serum albumin and human keratinocyte cells under ultraviolet irradiation (365 nm and 254 nm).

Manipulation of collective optical activity in one-dimensional plasmonic assembly.

The manipulation of the chirality and corresponding optical activity in the visible-near-infrared (NIR) light region is significant to realize applications in the fields of chemical sensing, enantioselective separation, chiral nanocatalysis, and optical devices. We studied the plasmon-induced circular dichroism (CD) response by one-dimensional (1D) assembly of cysteine (CYS) and gold nanorods (GNRs). Typically, GNRs can form end-to-end assembly through the electrostatic attraction of CYS molecules preferentially attached on the ends of different GNRs.

Reversible plasmonic circular dichroism of Au nanorod and DNA assemblies.

Reversible plasmonic circular dichroism (CD) responses are realized for the first time based on temperature-dependent assembly and disassembly of Au nanorod (Au NR) and DNA hybrids. Compared with the conventional UV-vis absorption spectra, the changes in both intensity and line shape of plasmonic CD signals are much more pronounced, leading to a preliminary detection limit of DNA as low as 75 nM. The mechanism and influence factors of reversible plasmonic CD responses are explored.

Nano titanium dioxide photocatalytic protein tyrosine nitration: a potential hazard of TiO2 on skin.

Protein tyrosine nitration is a prevalent post-translational modification which occurs as a result of oxidative and nitrative stress, it may be directly involved in the onset and/or progression of diseases. Considering the existence of nano titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) in environment and sunscreen products along with the high content of nitrite in sweat, the UV-exposed skin may be a significant target for the photosensitized damage. In this paper, tyrosine nitration of bovine serum albumin (BSA) was initiated in the UV-irradiated reaction mixture containing 0.