Transforming smallholder farms is critical to global food security and environmental sustainability. The science and technology backyard (STB) platform has proved to be a viable approach in China. However, STB has traditionally focused on empowering smallholder farmers by transferring knowledge, and wide-scale adoption of more sustainable practices and technologies remains a challenge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQiDiTangShen granules (QDTS), a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, have been used in clinical practice for treating diabetic kidney disease for several years. In our previous study, we have demonstrated that QDTS displayed good efficacy on reducing proteinuria in mice with diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the exact mechanism by which QDTS exerts its reno-protection remains largely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo understand the early heat shock (HS)-regulated cellular responses that influence the tolerance of rice plant to high environmental temperatures, two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) is performed to explore the early HS-regulated proteome. Multiple proteins that show abundance changes after 1 and 5 min of HS treatment are identified. Of the early HS-regulated proteins identified, the abundance of a ubiquitin-specific protease, OsUBP21, and its Arabidopsis homolog, AtUBP13, is found to be upregulated by 5 min of HS treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a microvascular complication induced by diabetes mellitus (DM), which can affect life quality and long-term prognosis of patients with DM. Angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEI)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) are currently recommended for treating DN proteinuria, but patients receiving ACEI/ARB are at risk of elevated serum creatinine or potassium levels. Based on the "yin-yang" theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the present study explored the effect of QiDiTangShen (QDTS) granules on DN and the phosphorylation balance of tyrosine and serine residues of IRS-1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFROOT MERISTEM GROWTH FACTOR (RGF) 1 is an important peptide hormone that regulates root growth. Upon binding to its receptor, RGFR1, RGF1 regulates the expression of two transcription factors, 1 and 2 (), to influence root meristem development. Here, we show that the ubiquitin-specific proteases UBP12 and UBP13 are positive regulators of root meristem development and that UBP13 interacts directly with RGF1 receptor (RGFR1) and its close homolog RGFR2.
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