Publications by authors named "ZhiHua Xie"

Background: Flowering is a critical agronomic trait in fruit tree cultivation, essential for sexual reproduction and fruit yield. Circadian clock system, governing processes such as flowering, growth, and hormone signaling, plays a key role in plant adaptability. While some clock-related genes influencing pear flowering have been studied, the role of the PbELF4 (EARLY FLOWERING 4) family remains largely unexplored.

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Lignification of the cell wall in pear (Pyrus) fruit results in the formation of stone cells, which affects the texture and quality of the fruit. However, it is still unclear that how different transcription factors (TFs) work together to coordinate the synthesis and deposition of lignin. Here, we examined the transcriptome of pear varieties with different stone cell contents and found a key TF (PbAGL7) that can promote the increase of stone cell contents and secondary cell wall thicknesses.

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Autophagy is vital for plant defense against pathogens, with ATG6 being a key gene in this process. At present, little has been reported on the potential function and molecular mechanisms of ATG6 mediated pathogen resistance in pear. This study investigates the function of the pear homolog of ATG6 (PbrATG6) in resistance to Botryosphaeria dothidea.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how the hormone methyl jasmonate (MeJA) affects the metabolic pathways of 'Nanguo' pears during ripening, particularly in terms of carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism.
  • Using advanced mass spectrometry techniques, researchers analyzed changes in metabolites after MeJA treatment and identified key genes and regulatory networks involved in these metabolic processes.
  • The findings provide insights into the molecular mechanisms behind changes in fruit quality, offering a foundation for enhancing the internal quality of pears through targeted treatments.
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Preharvest fruit bagging is a safe and environmentally friendly production measure. Cuticular wax, as the first protective layer on the fruit surface, has important functions. However, the effects of preharvest bagging on cuticular wax synthesis in pears and the related molecular mechanisms are still unclear.

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Drought poses significant challenges to agricultural production, ecological stability and global food security. While wild pear trees exhibit strong drought resistance, cultivated varieties show weaker drought tolerance. This study aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying pear trees' response to drought stress.

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Background: PSEUDO RESPONSE REGULATOR (PRR) genes are essential components of circadian clock, playing vital roles in multiple processes including plant growth, flowering and stress response. Nonetheless, little is known about the evolution and function of PRR family in Rosaceae species.

Results: In this study, a total of 43 PRR genes in seven Rosaceae species were identified through comprehensive analysis.

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  • The study investigates salt stress tolerance in the pear species Pyrus ussuriensis using RNA-Seq analysis and mathematical modeling.
  • Researchers identified an important regulatory module (PbGBF3-PbAPL2-PbSDH1) that helps pears withstand salt stress, with PbGBF3 acting as a key transcription factor.
  • Findings indicate that enhancing the expression of PbGBF3 can improve salt tolerance in pears and related plants, leading to potential development of salt-resistant pear cultivars.
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Background: Sepsis is triggered by pathogenic microorganisms, resulting in a systemic inflammatory response. Liver cirrhosis and sepsis create a vicious cycle: cirrhosis weakens immune function, raising infection risk and hindering pathogen clearance. Optimal treatment outcomes depend on understanding liver cirrhosis patients' sepsis risk factors.

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Optical coherence elastography (OCE) is a functional extension of optical coherence tomography (OCT). It offers high-resolution elasticity assessment with nanoscale tissue displacement sensitivity and high quantification accuracy, promising to enhance diagnostic precision. However, endoscopic OCE imaging has not been demonstrated yet, which needs to overcome key challenges related to probe miniaturization, high excitation efficiency and speed.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hybrid crops show better yields and resilience, but the genes behind hybrid vigor (heterosis) are not well understood, making breeding predictions difficult.
  • Researchers created detailed genomes of two pear hybrids, 'Yuluxiang' and 'Hongxiangsu,' to study gene expression differences and develop a pangenome graph for pears.
  • They identified nearly 6000 genes with allele-specific expression related to fruit quality traits, highlighting the significance of certain genes like Ma1 in determining acid levels in fruit, offering insights into how these genes contribute to hybrid advantages.
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Background: LACS (long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase) genes are widespread in organisms and have multiple functions in plants, especially in lipid metabolism. However, the origin and evolutionary dynamics of the LACS gene family remain largely unknown.

Results: Here, we identified 1785 LACS genes in the genomes of 166 diverse plant species and identified the clades (I, II, III, IV, V, VI) of six clades for the LACS gene family of green plants through phylogenetic analysis.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the homodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) transcription factor family in the Chinese white pear, which plays a crucial role in regulating developmental processes like lignification and affecting fruit quality.
  • A total of 67 PbHB genes were identified and categorized into four subgroups based on their genetic similarities, with analyses suggesting their involvement in hormone signaling and responses to environmental factors.
  • The research found that specific PbHB genes, particularly PbHB24, are influential in the formation of stone cells in pears, affecting the texture of the fruit.
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Pear ring rot, caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea, is the most serious disease of pear (Pyrus spp.) trees. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying pear resistance to B.

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The vacuolar H-ATPase (V-ATPase) is a multi-subunit membrane protein complex, which plays pivotal roles in building up an electrochemical H-gradient across tonoplast, energizing Na sequestration into the central vacuole, and enhancing salt stress tolerance in plants. In this study, a B subunit of V-ATPase gene, PbVHA-B1 was discovered and isolated from stress-induced P. betulaefolia combining with RT-PCR method.

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The stone cells in pear fruits cause rough flesh and low juice, seriously affecting the taste. Lignin has been demonstrated as the main component of stone cells. Auxin, one of the most important plant hormone, regulates most physiological processes in plants including lignification.

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Optical-resolution photoacoustic endoscopy (OR-PAE) has been proven to realize imaging on the vascular network in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract with high sensitivity and spatial resolution, providing morphological information. Various photoacoustic endoscopic catheters were developed to improve the resolution and adaptivity of imaging. However, this technology has not yet been validated on GI tumors, which generally feature angiogenesis.

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Photoacoustic molecular imaging technology has a wide range of applications in biomedical research. In practical scenarios, both the probes and blood generate signals, resulting in the saliency of the probes in the blood environment being diminished, impacting imaging quality. Although several methods have been proposed for saliency enhancement, they inevitably suffer from moderate generality and detection speed.

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The endometrium microvessel system, responsible for supplying oxygen and nutrients to the embryo, holds significant importance in evaluating endometrial receptivity (ER). Visualizing this system directly can significantly enhance ER evaluation. Currently, clinical methods like Narrow-band hysteroscopy and Color Doppler ultrasound are commonly used for uterine blood vessel examination, but they have limitations in depth or resolution.

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NAD and NADH play critical roles in energy metabolism, cell death, and gene expression. The NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase complex (Complex I) has been long known as a key enzyme in NAD and NADH metabolism. In the present study, we found and analyzed a new subunit of Complex I (NDH9), which was isolated from Pyrus ussuriensis combined with RT-PCR.

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The phytohormone ethylene plays an important role in climacteric fruit ripening. However, the knowledge on molecular regulation of ethylene biosynthesis remains limited in pear fruit. Herein, a new basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, PbbHLH164, was identified based on the transcriptome analysis of different developing and ripening fruits of two pear cultivars 'Sucui No.

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The auto-encoder (AE) based image fusion models have achieved encouraging performance on infrared and visible image fusion. However, the meaningful information loss in the encoding stage and simple unlearnable fusion strategy are two significant challenges for such models. To address these issues, this paper proposes an infrared and visible image fusion model based on interactive residual attention fusion strategy and contrastive learning in the frequency domain.

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Ring rot disease is one of the most common diseases in pear orchards. To better understand the physiology, biochemistry and autophagic changes of different pear varieties after Botryosphaeria dothidea (B.dothidea) infection, we evaluated eight different pear varieties for B.

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Pear ring rot, caused by the pathogenic fungi , seriously affects pear production. While the infection-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst of infected plants limits the proliferation of during the early infection stage, high ROS levels can also contribute to their growth during the later necrotrophic infection stage. Therefore, it is important to understand how plants balance ROS levels and resistance to pathogenic during the later stage.

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Article Synopsis
  • Stone cells are special cells in pears that help make them crunchy and are important for their quality and value.
  • Scientists studied a specific group of genes (PbPDCB) in pears that might affect how these stone cells develop and found 25 of them.
  • By changing the expression of one of these genes, PbPDCB16, they noticed that more of a substance called callose and less lignin (which makes cells stronger) resulted, affecting how the cells communicate with each other.
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