Publications by authors named "Zhonghua Ma"

Background: A full examination of gastrointestinal tract is an essential prerequisite for effectively detecting gastrointestinal lesions. However, there is a lack of efficient tools to analyze and recognize gastric anatomy locations, preventing the complete portrayal of entire stomach. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of artificial intelligence in identifying gastric anatomy sites by analyzing esophagogastroduodenoscopy images.

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Resident microbiota produces small molecules that influence the chemical microenvironments on leaves, but its signalling roles in pathogen defence are not yet well understood. Here we show that Aspergillus cvjetkovicii, enriched in rice leaf microbiota, subverts Rhizoctonia solani infections via small-molecule-mediated interspecies signalling. 2,4-Di-tert-butylphenol (2,4-DTBP), identified as a key signalling molecule within the Aspergillus-enriched microbiota, effectively neutralizes reactive oxygen species-dependent pathogenicity by switching off bZIP-activated AMT1 transcription in R.

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Article Synopsis
  • The buildup of intracellular disulfides in SLC7A11 cells occurs when there's a lack of glucose, leading to a specific type of cell death known as disulfidptosis.
  • Disulfidptosis has promising applications in diagnosing and treating tumors.
  • Understanding this process could open new avenues for cancer therapies and diagnostic methods.
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Background: Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum species complex (FGSG) remains a major challenge to cereal crops and resistance to key fungicides by the pathogen threatens control efficacy. Pydiflumetofen, a succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor, and phenamacril, a cyanoacrylate fungicide targeting myosin I, have been applied to combat this disease. Nonetheless, emergence of pydiflumetofen resistance in a subset of field isolates alongside laboratory-induced facile generation of phenamacril-resistant isolates signals a critical danger of resistance proliferation.

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Crop production currently relies on the widespread use of agrochemicals to ensure food security. This practice is considered unsustainable, yet has no viable alternative at present. The plant microbiota can fulfil various functions for its host, some of which could be the basis for developing sustainable protection and fertilization strategies for plants without relying on chemicals.

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Fusarium graminearum is an important fungal pathogen causing Fusarium head blight (FHB) in wheat and other cereal crops worldwide. Due to lack of resistant wheat cultivars, FHB control mainly relies on application of chemical fungicides. Both fludioxonil (a phenylpyrrole compound) and phenamacril (a cyanoacrylate fungicide) have been registered for controlling FHB in China, however, fludioxonil-resistant isolates of F.

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Background: Bromo-adjacent homology-plant homeodomain domain containing protein 1 (BP1) is a reader of histone post-translational modifications in fungi. BP1 recognizes trimethylation of lysine 27 in histone H3 (H3K27me3), an epigenetic hallmark of gene silencing. However, whether and how BP1 participates in transcriptional repression remains poorly understood.

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Eukaryotic genomes are spatially organized within the nucleus in a nonrandom manner. However, fungal genome arrangement and its function in development and adaptation remain largely unexplored. Here, we show that the high-order chromosome structure of Fusarium graminearum is sculpted by both H3K27me3 modification and ancient genome rearrangements.

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Eukaryotes have evolved sophisticated post-translational modifications to regulate protein function and numerous biological processes, including ubiquitination controlled by the coordinated action of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes and deubiquitinating enzymes (Dubs). However, the function of deubiquitination in pathogenic fungi is largely unknown. Here, the distribution of Dubs in the fungal kingdom was surveyed and their functions were systematically characterized using the phytopathogen Fusarium graminearum as the model species, which causes devastating diseases of all cereal species world-wide.

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Bivalent histone modifications, including functionally opposite H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 marks simultaneously on the same nucleosome, control various cellular processes by fine-tuning the gene expression in eukaryotes. However, the role of bivalent histone modifications in fungal virulence remains elusive. By mapping the genome-wide landscape of H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 dynamic modifications in Fusarium graminearum (Fg) during invasion, we identify the infection-related bivalent chromatin-marked genes (BCGs).

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Mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) produced by the Fusarium graminearum complex is highly toxic to animal and human health. During DON synthesis, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of F. graminearum is intensively reorganized, from thin reticular structure to thickened spherical and crescent structure, which was referred to as "DON toxisome".

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In recent decades, using circulating tumor cell (CTC), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating tumor RNA (ctRNA), exosomes and etc. as liquid biomarkers has received enormous attention in various tumors, including breast cancer (BC). To date, efforts in the area of liquid biopsy predominantly focus on the analysis of blood-based markers.

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Quantum correlations and nonprojective measurements underlie a plethora of information-theoretic tasks, otherwise impossible in the classical world. Existing schemes to certify such nonclassical resources in a device-independent manner require seed randomness-which is often costly and vulnerable to loopholes-for choosing the local measurements performed on different parts of a multipartite quantum system. In this Letter, we propose and experimentally implement a semi-device-independent certification technique for both quantum correlations and nonprojective measurements without seed randomness.

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The conserved Spt-Ada-Gcn5-Acetyltransferase (SAGA) complex controls eukaryotic transcription by modifying acetylation of histones. However, the mechanisms for this complex in regulating the transcription of target-specific genes remain largely unknown in phytopathogenic fungi. A filamentous fungal-specific transcription factor FgStuA was identified to interact with the SAGA complex physically.

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Plant pathogens are challenged by host-derived iron starvation or excess during infection, but the mechanism through which pathogens counteract iron stress is unclear. Here, we found that Fusarium graminearum encounters iron excess during the colonization of wheat heads. Deletion of heme activator protein X (FgHapX), siderophore transcription factor A (FgSreA) or both attenuated virulence.

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Maintaining cellular calcium (Ca) homeostasis is essential for many aspects of cellular life. The high-osmolarity glycerol (HOG) mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway responsible for signal integration and transduction plays crucial roles in environmental adaptation, especially in the response to osmotic stress. Hog1 is activated by transient Ca increase in yeast, but the functions of the HOG pathway in Ca homeostasis are largely unknown.

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The histone acetyltransferase general control non-depressible 5 (Gcn5) plays a critical role in the epigenetic landscape and chromatin modification for regulating a wide variety of biological events. However, the post-translational regulation of Gcn5 itself is poorly understood. Here, we found that Gcn5 was ubiquitinated and deubiquitinated by E3 ligase Tom1 and deubiquitinating enzyme Ubp14, respectively, in the important plant pathogenic fungus .

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This study was to determine the effects of dietary emodin (ED) on the intestinal mucosal barrier, nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) pathways, and gut microbial flora in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced piglets. Twenty-four weaned piglets were chosen and 4 treatments were created by randomly distributing piglets into CON, ED, LPS, and ED_LPS groups. Experiments were done in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement and maintained for 21 d.

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Objective: Optic nerve sheath(ONS) enhancement in idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) patients has been reported in recent years. In this retrospective observation, we analyzed the clinical characteristics of IIH patients with enhancement of ONS.

Methods: Eighty-two patients with clinically diagnosed IIH from January 2017 to December 2019 were under observation.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Researchers have identified a new neurodevelopmental disorder linked to mutations in the RBM42 gene, affecting a 2-year-old girl with severe neurological and physical issues, including heart defects and hearing loss.
  • - Genetic analysis revealed two harmful variants in the RBM42 gene that disrupt the protein's stability and its crucial functions in RNA splicing, which are vital for proper cell development and function.
  • - A mouse model with similar gene mutations exhibited serious developmental defects, underscoring the role of RBM42 in alternative splicing and its significance for normal embryonic growth and healthy neurological function.
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Striatin-interacting phosphatases and kinases (STRIPAKs) are evolutionarily conserved supramolecular complexes that control various important cellular processes such as signal transduction and development. However, the role of the STRIPAK complex in pathogenic fungi remains elusive. In this study, the components and function of the STRIPAK complex were investigated in Fusarium graminearum, an important plant-pathogenic fungus.

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Plants can be infected by multiple pathogens concurrently in natural systems. However, pathogen-pathogen interactions have rarely been studied. In addition to the oomycete Phytophthora sojae, fungi such as Fusarium spp.

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