Publications by authors named "Zihang He"

Background: The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) is a common technology to detect DNA-protein interactions. However, in most cases, the protein used in EMSA is obtained via prokaryotic expression, and rarely from plants. At the same time, the proteins expressed from prokaryotic systems usually cannot fold naturally and have no post translationally modification, which may affect the binding of proteins to DNA.

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The NAC transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in mediating abiotic stress tolerance; however, the mechanism is still not fully known. Here, an gene () from a gene regulatory network of (birch) that responded to drought was characterized. Overexpression and knockout of displayed increased and reduced drought tolerance, respectively, relative to wild-type (WT) birch.

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Article Synopsis
  • Soybean is a vital global oilseed crop due to its high unsaturated fatty acid content, which directly affects its economic value.
  • Genetic variation in soybean cultivars leads to significant differences in seed oil content, but the specific genes regulating this trait are not fully understood.
  • This study identified the GmFATA1B gene as a key regulator of seed oil content and composition, and manipulating this gene can potentially improve soybean oil characteristics.
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In this work, novel adsorbent polyaniline-modified halloysite nanotubes (HNT@PA-2) were synthesized successfully by polymerization to increase active adsorption sites. With the increase of the amount of aniline, the adsorption capacity of naproxen becomes higher. The optimal ratio of halloysite nanotubes to aniline was 1 : 2.

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DNA-protein interactions are critical to almost all cellular functions, and identification of the proteins that bind to an DNA site of interest (gene-centered approach) is an important investigation area. However, gene-centered methods are mainly based on DNA hybridization to isolate target proteins, which is complex and inefficient. Here, we built a gene-centered approach involving direct isolation of target DNA, termed protein capture based on biolistic transformation (PCaB).

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Introduction: Cadmium (Cd) stress is a significant threat to soybean production, and enhancing Cd tolerance in soybean is the focus of this study. The WRKY transcription factor family is associated with abiotic stress response processes. In this study, we aimed to identify a Cd-responsive WRKY transcription factor from soybean and investigate its potential for enhancing Cd tolerance in soybean.

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The gene family is a plant-specific family of transcription factors and play a vital role in many plant growth processes and abiotic stress responses. Nevertheless, the functions of the gene family in woody plants, especially in (birch), are hardly known. In this study, we performed a genome-wide analysis of 40 genes () and identified typical GRAS domains of most .

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DNA-protein interaction is one of the most crucial interactions in biological processes. However, the technologies available to study DNA-protein interactions are all based on DNA hybridization; however, DNA hybridization is not highly specific and is relatively low in efficiency. RNA-guided DNA recognition is highly specific and efficient.

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Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) UNFERTILIZED EMBRYO SAC 12 (AtUNE12) belongs to the basic helix-loop-helix DNA-binding superfamily of proteins. However, its function is not well known. Here, we found that AtUNE12 plays an important role in mediating salt tolerance.

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Determination of Cas9 cutting efficiency to the target sites is important for genome editing. However, this determination can only be made via an method, as the purification of Cas protein and synthesis of gRNA are necessary. Here, we developed an method, called transient CRISPR/Cas editing in plants (TCEP) to determine Cas9 cutting efficiency.

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The identification of genes conferring salt tolerance is important to reveal plant salt tolerance mechanisms. Here, we employed yeast expression system combined with high-throughput sequencing to identify genes conferring salt tolerance from Tamarix hispida Willd. A total of 1224 potential genes conferring salt tolerance were identified.

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Selecting appropriate reference genes is vital to normalize gene expression analysis in birch (Betula platyphylla) under different abiotic stress conditions using quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). In this study, 11 candidate birch reference genes (ACT, TUA, TUB, TEF, 18S rRNA, EF1α, GAPDH, UBC, YLS8, SAND, and CDPK) were selected to evaluate the stability of their expression in different tissues and under different abiotic stress conditions. Three statistical algorithms (GeNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper) were used to analyze the stability of the 11 candidate reference genes to identify the most appropriate one.

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Plant specific NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2 and CUC2) transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in response to abiotic stress. In this study, we identified and characterized a NAC protein, ThNAC7, from . is a nuclear localized protein and has transcriptional activation activity.

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A lightweight convolutional (deep) neural networks (CNNs) based modulation format identification (MFI) scheme in 2D Stokes planes for polarization domain multiplexing (PDM) fiber communication system is proposed and demonstrated. Influences of the learning rate of CNN is discussed. Experimental verifications are performed for the PDM system at a symbol rate of 28GBaud.

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We introduce a principled approach for (SMAC) for establishing consistent maps across heterogeneous object collections (e.g., 2D images or 3D shapes).

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