Search Results (585)

Disease caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae severely disrupts cruciferous crops by altering root physiology and rhizosphere ecology. While pathogen-induced shifts in rhizosphere microbiomes are documented, the mechanisms linking root exudate reprogramming to microbial community remodeling remain poorly understood. Here, we integrated untargeted metabolomics and 16S rRNA sequencing to investigate how root exudates reshape the rhizosphere microbiome of tumorous stem mustard (Brassica juncea var. tumida) through P. brassicae infection. Metabolomic profiling identified 1718 root exudate metabolites, with flavones (e.g., apigenin 7-O-β-D-rutinoside, VIP > 1.5) and phenolic derivatives (e.g., gastrodin) being selectively enriched in infected plants. P. brassicae infection significantly increased rhizobacterial richness (ACE index, p < 0.05) and restructured the community composition, marked by enrichment of Paenibacillus (LDA score > 3.0). Procrustes analysis revealed tight coupling between microbial community shifts and metabolic reprogramming (M² = 0.446, p = 0.005), while Spearman correlations implicated pathogen-induced metabolites like geniposidic acid in recruiting beneficial Paenibacillus. Our results reveal that plant hosts dynamically secrete defense-related root metabolites to remodel the rhizosphere microbiome in response to P. brassicae infection. This dual-omics approach elucidates a chemical dialogue mediating plant–microbe–pathogen interactions, offering novel insights for engineering disease-suppressive microbiomes through root exudate manipulation. Full article

MicroRNA319 (miR319) and its targets TEOSINTE-BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PCF (TCP) transcription factors are well-characterized regulators of leaf and flower development, yet their role in root development remains elusive. Here, we demonstrated that overexpression of miR319a led to a decrease in the number and density of lateral roots in poplar, while repressing miR319a by short tandem target mimics (STTM) promoted lateral root (LR) development. The auxin signaling repressors IAA3.1 and IAA3.2 were upregulated in miR319a-OE plants but downregulated in miR319a-STTM plants. After exogenous applications of naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), which exhibited the characteristics and physiological functions of the endogenous auxin indole-3-acetic acid, the number and density of LR in WT increased by 30% and 44%, respectively. In miR319a-OE plants, the LR number increased by 23% and 48%, and the LR density increased by 10% and 26%. NAA treatment can partially compensate for the phenotype of inhibited LR development caused by the overexpression of miR319a. After N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA) treatment, which is a key inhibitor of the directional (polar) transport of the auxin hormone in plants, the LR number in WT decreased by 70%. In the overexpression plants, the number of lateral roots decreased by 85–87%, and in the STTM plants, the number of lateral roots decreased by about 83%. It was proved that NPA treatment could reverse the phenotype of increased LR number in miR319a-STTM plants. Expression analysis revealed that miR319a significantly inhibited the expression of the key auxin-regulated genes IAA3.1 and IAA3.2, suggesting that auxin signaling might mediate its effects on lateral root formation. Additionally, we compared the fluorescence signal in the reporter line with GFP expression driven by the auxin-responsive DR5 promoter within the genetic backgrounds of WT, miR319a-OE, and miR319a-STTM plants, which revealed that auxin signaling was stronger in the epidermal cells and elongation zone cells in the LR of miR319a-OE plants, whereas in LR of WT and miR319a-STTM plants, auxin signaling was more pronounced in the root tip meristematic cells. Furthermore, transactivation assays and expression analysis indicated that IAA3.2 was a downstream target of TCP19. Chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with quantitative PCR (ChIP-qPCR) confirmed that TCP19 directly bound to the promoter region of IAA3.2. These findings establish that miR319a targeted and cleaved TCP19, and TCP19 further directly and negatively regulates the expression of IAA3.2, thereby controlling LR development in Populus tomentosa (P. tomentosa). The formation of LR can expand the plant root system, which is of great significance for the vegetative propagation of plants and the in-vitro regeneration of explants. Moreover, the formation of LR is an important strategy for plants to cope with environmental stresses. This study provides a theoretical basis for breeding poplars more suitable for vegetative propagation. Full article

Uniform and graded BCC lattice cylindrical shells were proposed, and the corresponding structural specimens were fabricated with 316L stainless steel material. Experimental testing and numerical simulations were both utilized to investigate the quasi-static and dynamic compression behavior of the uniform and graded BCC lattice cylindrical shells. Finite element results were compared with the experimental results. Parametric studies were conducted to study the effects of relative density, gradient distribution, and loading velocity on the mechanical properties and deformation features. When the relative density increased from 9% to 25%, a 175% increase in SEA could be seen. Graded BCC lattice cylindrical shells almost exhibited the same mechanical performance. When compared with the SEA value under low-speed loading conditions, a 26.95% maximum increase could be witnessed in the graded-5 specimen under high-speed loading. Testing results indicated that the proposed uniform and graded BCC lattice cylindrical shells exhibited fascinating quasi-static and dynamic mechanical behavior, which provided guidance for the design and application of next-generation lightweight materials with excellent protective properties. Full article

Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic nanofibrous or microfibrous membranes are regarded as ideal oil/water separation materials owing to their controllable porosity, superior separation efficiency, and ease of operation. However, developing efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly strategies for fabricating such membranes remains a significant challenge. In this study, isotactic polypropylene (iPP) fibrous membranes with morphologies ranging from ellipsoidal stacking to microfiber stacking were successfully fabricated via a multistage stretching extrusion and leaching process using in situ microfibrillar composites (MFCs). The results establish a significant relationship between microfiber morphology and membrane oil adsorption performance. Compared with membranes formed from high-aspect-ratio microfibers, those comprising short microfibers feature larger pores and a more open structure, which enhances their oil adsorption capacity. Among the fabricated membranes, the iPP membrane with an ellipsoidal stacking morphology exhibits optimal performance, achieving a porosity of 65% and demonstrating both hydrophobicity and superoleophilicity, with a silicone oil adsorption capacity of up to 312.5%. Furthermore, this membrane shows excellent reusability and stability over ten adsorption–desorption cycles using chloroform. This study presents a novel approach leveraging in situ microfibrillar composites to prepare high-performance oil/water separation membranes in this study, underscoring their considerable promise for practical use. Full article

Lung organoids play a crucial role in modeling drug responses in pulmonary diseases. However, their morphological analysis remains hindered by manual detection inefficiencies and the high computational cost of existing algorithms. To overcome these challenges, this study proposes Orga-Dete—a lightweight, high-precision detection model based on YOLOv11n—which first employs data augmentation to mitigate the small-scale dataset and class imbalance issues, then optimizes via a triple co-optimization strategy: a bi-directional feature pyramid network for enhanced multi-scale feature fusion, MPCA for stronger micro-organoid feature response, and EMASlideLoss to address class imbalance. Validated on a lung organoid microscopy dataset, Orga-Dete achieves 81.4% mAP@0.5 with only 2.25 M parameters and 6.3 GFLOPs, surpassing the baseline model YOLOv11n by 3.5%. Ablation experiments confirm the synergistic effects of these modules in enhancing morphological feature extraction. With its balance of precision and efficiency, Orga-Dete offers a scalable solution for high-throughput organoid analysis, underscoring its potential for personalized medicine and drug screening. Full article

In recent years, Co-based catalysts have attracted considerable attention in research on selective hydrogenation reactions because of their mild activities and favorable selectivities for producing intermediate products, especially in the selective hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes (UAL). However, the low activity of Co-based catalysts for activating hydrogen limits their application in industry, and the diversity of forms and electronic states of Co-based catalysts also leads to the development of complex products and hydrogenation mechanisms at Co active sites. This review provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of recent progress in the selective hydrogenation of UAL over Co-based catalysts, where the preparation methods, hydrogenation properties, and UAL hydrogenation mechanisms of Co-based catalysts are carefully discussed. The influences of nanosize effects, electronic effects, and coordination effects on Co metal and Co oxides are investigated. In addition, the different reaction mechanisms at Co active sites are compared, and their strengths and weaknesses for C=O hydrogenation are further proposed. Finally, the outlook and challenges for the future development of Co-based hydrogenation catalysts are highlighted. Full article

The accurate measurement of a crack width in concrete infrastructure is essential for structural safety assessment and maintenance. However, existing image-based methods either suffer from overestimation in complex geometries or are computationally inefficient. This paper proposes a novel hybrid approach combining a fast skeleton-pruning algorithm and a crack-width measurement technique called edge-OrthoBoundary (EOB). The skeleton-pruning algorithm prunes the skeleton, viewed as the longest branch in a tree structure, using a depth-first search (DFS) approach. Additionally, an intersection removal algorithm based on dilation replaces the midpoint circle algorithm to segment the crack skeleton into computable parts. The EOB method combines the OrthoBoundary and edge shortest distance (ESD) techniques, effectively correcting the propagation direction of the skeleton points while accounting for their width. The validation of real cracks shows the skeleton-pruning algorithm’s effectiveness, eliminating the need for a specified threshold and reducing time complexity. Experimental results with both actual and synthetic cracks demonstrate that the EOB method achieves the smallest RMS, MAE, and R values, confirming its accuracy and stability compared to the orthogonal projection (OP), OrthoBoundary, and ESD methods. Full article

Landslide susceptibility assessment (LSA) plays a crucial role in disaster prevention and mitigation. Traditional random selection of non-landslide samples (labeled as 0) suffers from poor representativeness and high randomness, which may include potential landslide areas and affect the accuracy of LSA. To address this issue, this study proposes a novel Landslide Susceptibility Index–based Semi-supervised Fuzzy C-Means (LSI-SFCM) sampling strategy combining membership degrees. It utilizes landslide and unlabeled samples to map landslide membership degree via Semi-supervised Fuzzy C-Means (SFCM). Non-landslide samples are selected from low-membership regions and assigned membership values as labels. This study developed three models for LSA—Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), U-Net, and Support Vector Machine (SVM), and compared three negative sample sampling strategies: Random Sampling (RS), SFCM (samples labeled 0), and LSI-SFCM. The results demonstrate that the LSI-SFCM effectively enhances the representativeness and diversity of negative samples, improving the predictive performance and classification reliability. Deep learning models using LSI-SFCM performed with superior predictive capability. The CNN model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 95.52% and a prediction rate curve value of 0.859. Furthermore, compared with the traditional unsupervised fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering, SFCM produced a more reasonable distribution of landslide membership degrees, better reflecting the distinction between landslides and non-landslides. This approach enhances the reliability of LSA and provides a scientific basis for disaster prevention and mitigation authorities. Full article

Monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs) exhibit diverse structures and pharmacological effects. Annotating MIAs in herbal medicines remains challenging when using liquid chromatography combined with high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). This study introduced a new annotation strategy employing LC-HRMS to efficiently identify MIAs in herbal medicines. Briefly, MS² spectra under multiple collision energies (MCEs/MS²) helped capture high-quality product ions across a range of mass-to-charge (m/z) values, revealing key MS² features such as diagnostic product ions (DPIs), characteristic cleavages (CCs), and neutral/radical losses (NLs/RLs). Next, feature-based molecular networking (FBMN) was created to map the structural relationships among MIAs across large MS datasets. Potential MIAs were then graded and annotated through systematic comparison with known biosynthetic pathways (BPs), derived skeletons, and their characteristic substituents. The MCEs/MS²-FBMN/BPs workflow was first applied to annotate MIAs in the alkaloids from the leaf of Alstonia scholaris (ALAS), a new botanical drug for respiratory diseases. A total of 229 MIAs were systematically annotated and classified, forming a solid basis for future clinical research on ALAS. This study offers an effective strategy that enhances the structural annotation of MIAs within complex herbal medicines. Full article

Mystus guttatus, a second-class protected species in China, has undergone severe population decline due to anthropogenic and environmental pressures, yet conservation efforts are hindered by limited genomic resources and a lack of mechanistic insights into its stress response systems. Here, the first full-length transcriptome of M. guttatus was generated via SMRT sequencing. A total of 32,647 full-length transcripts were obtained, with an average length of 1783 bp. After structure and function annotation of full-length transcripts, 30,977 genes, 1670 transcription factors (TF), 918 alternative splicing (AS), and 11,830 simple sequence repeats (SSR) were identified. In order to further explore the stress resistance of M. guttatus, 93 genes belonging to the heat shock protein (HSP) family were identified and categorized into HSP70 and HSP90 subgroups. After phylogenetic analysis and selective stress analysis, it was discovered that the hsp family has suffered purifying selection and gene loss, potentially contributing to a decrease in the stress resilience and population of M. guttatus. Using protein interaction network and molecular docking tools, we observed the intricate interplay among HSPs and discovered HSP70-HOP-HSP90 interaction, which is an essential stress response mechanism. Our study sequenced the first full-length transcriptome of M. guttatus to enhance its genomic resources for its conservation and breeding and provide new insights into the future study of stress response mechanisms on M. guttatus. Full article

In regions where transportation and the economy are closely integrated, optimizing network structure and enhancing synergy are vital for regional integration. This paper constructs a dual-factor linkage network using enterprise investment and liner shipping data to analyze linkage strength and synergy effects among cities in the Greater Bay Area. The findings reveal that (1) a core-periphery structure exists, with core cities dominating resource flows while secondary cities remain weak. The logistics network is led by Hong Kong and Shenzhen, while the capital flow network showcases the dominance of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. (2) From 2016 to 2021, interactions between transportation and the economy deepened, showing strong correlations in logistics and capital flows among core cities and between core and edge cities, but weaker correlations with sub-core and edge cities. Core cities stabilize regional transportation and economy, fostering agglomeration, while sub-core cities are more reliant on them, indicating a need for better resource balance. (3) The spatio-temporal coupling analysis reveals significant heterogeneity in flows among cities, with many exhibiting antagonistic couplings outside core areas. This study enhances understanding of synergy mechanisms in transportation and economic networks, offering insights for optimizing layouts and improving capital flow efficiency. Full article

Insects and their endosymbionts have a close mutualistic relationship. However, the precise nature of the bacterial endosymbiont-mediated interaction between host plants and whitefly Bemisia tabaci MEAM1 is still unclear. In the present study, six populations of Bemisia tabaci MEAM1 sharing the same genetic background were established by rearing insects for ten generations on different host plants, including poinsettia, cabbage, cotton, tomato, and tobacco, and an additional population was reared on cotton and treated with antibiotics. The physiological and nutritional traits of the insects were found to be dependent on the host plant on which they had been reared. Systematic analysis was conducted on the endosymbiont titers, the amino acid molecules and contents, as well as developmental and oviposition changes in the MEAM1 populations reared on each host plant tested. The results indicate that B. tabaci contained the primary symbiont Portiera and the secondary symbionts Hamiltonella and Rickettsia. In addition, the titer of endosymbiotic bacteria in females is higher than that in males. Among the MEAM1 populations reared on each host plant, the variation pattern of Portiera titer generally corresponded with changes in biological characteristics (body length, weight and fecundity) and AA contents. This suggests that changes in the amino acid contents and biological characteristics of different B. tabaci populations may be due to changes in the Portiera content and the differences in the nutrition of the host plants themselves. Our findings were further confirmed by the reduction in Portiera with antibiotic treatment. The amino acids, body size, body weight, and fecundity of B. tabaci were all reduced with the decrease in the Portiera titer after antibiotic treatment. In summary, our research revealed that host plants can affect the content of symbiotic bacteria, particularly Portiera, and subsequently affect the nutrition (i.e., the essential amino acids content) of host insects, thus changing their biological characteristics. Full article

Self-emulsifying solid nanodispersion technology is emerging as an attractive strategy to prepare new eco-friendly and efficient nano-formulations due to its simple, energy efficient and easy scale-up process. However, it is still unknown whether this technology can be employed to cope with the drawbacks of botanical insecticides including poor water solubility, rapid photodegradation and limited targeting efficiency. In this study, rotenone (Rot) was selected as a model of botanical insecticides, and its solid nanodispersion (Rot–SND) was prepared by a self-emulsifying method combined with parameter optimization. Our target nano-formulation, consisting of 5% Rot, 20% surfactant complexes of 8% Ethylan 992 and 12% EL–80, and 75% lactose, exhibited excellent storage stability and significantly improved the pseudo-solubility of Rot by at least 250 times. The average particle size and polydispersity index (PDI) of Rot–SND were determined to be 101.19 nm and 0.21, respectively. Rot–SND displayed smaller contact angles and greater retention on both cucumber and cabbage leaves than those of a commercial emulsifiable concentrates (ECs). Rot–SND was also more resistant to photodegradation, with a degradation rate reduced by 27.01% as compared with the ECs. In addition, the toxicity of Rot–SND towards Aphis gossypii was 3.01 times that of the ECs, with a median lethal concentration (LC₅₀) of 1.45 µg a.i./mL. Under the field conditions, Rot–SND showed a prolonged duration for A. gossypii control, with a significantly higher control efficacy (88.10%) on the 10th day than that of the ECs (77.02%). Moreover, a 2.34-fold decline in the toxicity towards nontarget mosquito larvae was observed for Rot–SND as compared with the EC. Overall, for the first time, our results indicate the role of Rot–SND as an eco-friendly and efficient way to improve the solubility, foliar affinity, photostability, bioactivity and eco-safety of Rot. This research also provided a feasible strategy to prepare more eco-friendly botanical pesticide formulations of high efficiency. Full article

Ubiquitination is a dynamic and reversible post-translational modification mediated by ubiquitination regulators (UBRs), which plays an essential role in protein stability, cell differentiation and immunity. Dysregulation of UBRs can lead to destabilization of biological processes and may induce serious human diseases, including cancer. Many UBRs, such as E3 ubiquitin ligases and deubiquitinases (DUBs), have been identified as potential drug targets for cancer therapy. However, the potential clinical value of UBRs in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remains to be elucidated. Here, we identified 17 hub UBRs from high-confidence protein–protein interaction networks of UBRs correlated with cancer hallmark-related pathways using four topological algorithms. The expression of hub UBRs is affected by copy number variation and post-transcriptional regulation, and their high expression is often detrimental to patient survival. Based on the expression profiles of hub UBRs, patients can be classified into two ubiquitination subtypes with different characteristics. These subtypes exhibit significant differences across multiple dimensions, including survival, expression level, mutation burden, female predominance, infiltration level, immune profile, and drug response. In addition, we established a scoring system for evaluating the ubiquitination status of individual LUAD patients, called the ubiquitination-related risk (UB_risk) score, and found that patients with low scores are more likely to gain advantages from immunotherapy. The results of this study emphasize the critical role of ubiquitination in the classification, tumor microenvironment and immunotherapy of LUAD. The construction of the UB_risk scoring system lays a research foundation for evaluating the ubiquitination status of individual LUAD patients and formulating precise treatment strategies from the ubiquitination level. Full article

This paper presents a three-dimensional robust spatiotemporal cooperative guidance law for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to track a dynamic target under jointly strongly connected topologies, even when some UAVs malfunction. To resolve the infinite gain challenge in existing prescribed-time cooperative guidance laws, a novel bounded-gain prescribed-time stability criterion was formulated. This criterion allows the convergence time of the guidance law to be prescribed arbitrarily without any convergence performance trade-off. Firstly, new prescribed-time disturbance observers are designed to achieve accurate estimations of the target acceleration within a prescribed time regardless of initial conditions. Then, by leveraging a distributed convex hull observer, a tangential acceleration command is proposed to drive arrival times toward a common convex combination within a prescribed time under jointly strongly connected topologies, remaining effective even when partial UAVs fail. Moreover, by utilizing a prescribed-time nonsingular sliding mode control method, normal acceleration commands are developed to guarantee that the line-of-sight angles constraints can be satisfied within a prescribed time. Finally, numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed guidance law. Full article