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The flowering time and plant architecture of Brassica napus were significantly associated with yield. In this study, we found that the BREVIPEDICELLUS / KNAT1 ( BP ) gene regulated the flowering time and plant architecture of B. napus . However, the precise regulatory mechanism remains unclear. We cloned two homologous BP genes, BnaBPA03 and BnaBPC03 , from B. napus Xiaoyun. The protein sequence analysis showed two proteins containing conserved domains KNOX I, KNOX II, ELK, and HOX of the KONX protein family. The CRISPR/Cas9 knockout lines exhibited early budding and flowering time, coupled with floral organ abscission earlier and a larger leaf angle. On the contrary, overexpression plants displayed a phenotype that was the inverse of these characteristics. Furthermore, we observed upregulation of gibberellin and ethylene biosynthesis genes, as well as floral integrator genes in knocked-out plants. The results revealed that BnaBPs play a role in flowering time, floral organ abscission, and leaf angle as well as germination processes mediated. Additionally, BnaBPs exerted an impact on the biosynthesis pathways of ethylene and GA., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024 The Author(s). Plant Direct published by American Society of Plant Biologists and the Society for Experimental Biology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Early pregnancy loss is a primary cause of low reproductive rates in dairy cows, posing severe economic losses to dairy farming. The accurate diagnosis of dairy cows with early pregnancy loss allows for oestrus synchronization, shortening day open, and increasing the overall conception rate of the herd. Several techniques are available for detecting early pregnancy loss in dairy cows, including rectal ultrasound, circulating blood progesterone, and pregnancy-associated glycoproteins (PAGs). Yet, there is a need to improve on existing techniques and develop novel strategies to identify cows with early pregnancy loss accurately. This manuscript reviews the applications of rectal ultrasound, circulating blood progesterone concentration, and PAGs in the diagnosis of pregnancy loss in dairy cows. The manuscript also discusses the recent progress of new technologies, including colour Doppler ultrasound (CDUS), interferon tau-induced genes (ISGs), and exosomal miRNA in diagnosing pregnancy loss in dairy cows. This study will provide an option for producers to re-breed cows with pregnancy loss, thereby reducing the calving interval and economic costs. Meanwhile, this manuscript might also act as a reference for exploring more economical and precise diagnostic technologies for early pregnancy loss in dairy cows., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Exosomes are a kind of extracellular vesicles that are produced and secreted by different mammalian cells. They serve as cargo proteins and can transfer different kinds of biomolecules, including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, which consequently act on target cells to exert different biological effects. Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the number of studies on exosomes due to the potential effects of exosomes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and immune disorders. Previous studies have demonstrated that exosomal contents, especially miRNAs, are implicated in numerous physiological processes such as reproduction, and are crucial regulators of mammalian reproduction and pregnancy-related diseases. Here, we describe the origin, composition, and intercellular communication of exosomes, and discuss their functions in follicular development, early embryonic development, embryonic implantation, male reproduction and development of pregnancy-related diseases in humans and animals. We believe this study will provide a foundation for revealing the mechanism of exosomes in regulating mammalian reproduction, and providing new approaches and ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of pregnancy-related diseases., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Guo, Ma, Ma, Dai, Wei, Chu and Dan.)

The structural evolutions and electronic properties of AulPtm (l + m ≤ 10) clusters are investigated by using the first-principles methods. We use the inverse design of materials using the multi-objective differential evolution (IM2ODE) package to globally search the equilibrium structures and investigate the evolving trend from a two-dimensional structure to a three-dimensional structure on horizontal extension and vertical extension for AulPtm (l + m ≤ 10) clusters. The three-dimensional stable geometry of Au8Pt and Au8Pt2 is discovered for the first time in our work. We also notice that the equilibrium structures of AulPtm (l + m = 10 and l ≤ 8) tend to form a tetrahedral geometry and can be obtained by replacing the Au atom in the most stable structure of Aul+1Ptm-1 with the Pt atom, where Pt atoms assemble together and occupy the center of clusters and Au atoms prefer to lie on the vertex or edge position. The average binding energy (Eb) is mostly decided by Pt-Pt bond numbers, namely the numbers of Pt atoms, followed by Au-Pt bond numbers. The second-order energy difference (Δ2Ev and Δ2Eh) and the nearest-neighbor energy difference (Δ4Enn) show that Au6Pt, Au4Pt2, Au3Pt3, Au2Pt4 and AuPt7 clusters exhibit high relative physical stability, so we suggest that these clusters could be defined as the magic number clusters for AulPtm (l + m ≤ 10) clusters. The HOMO-LUMO energy gap (Eg), adiabatic ionization potential (AIP) and the adiabatic electron affinity (AEA) are also investigated to elaborate the relative electronic stability of all the clusters.

The catalytic properties of the magic gold-platinum bimetallic clusters (Au 4 Pt 2 and Au 6 Pt) for the reduction of SO 2 by CO, without or with preadsorbing CO molecules, are firstly investigated using density functional theory calculations. We find that the catalytic activities improve effectively with the preadsorption of CO onto the catalysts and that the catalytic activities of Au 6 Pt(CO) n are better than those of Au 4 Pt 2 (CO) n as more CO molecules are adsorbed onto the catalysts. During the reaction process, the Au 4 Pt 2 (CO) n clusters always keep two-dimensional morphologies except for when n = 5 and the Au 6 Pt(CO) n clusters have three-dimensional geometries except for when n = 0. The most stable adsorption site for SO 2 molecules on the catalysts is the site of preadsorbing the next CO molecule on the corresponding catalysts. The largest activation energy (E) is related to the metal 5d (M-5d) band center and the charge transfer (C t ) as well as the bond length (R b ) between COS and the catalyst contribute to the desorption energy (E d ) of COS corporately. We propose that Au 6 Pt(CO) 6 is a cost-effective gold-platinum bimetallic catalyst for the reduction of SO 2 by CO.

Using density functional theory, we have investigated the catalytic properties of bimetallic complex catalysts PtlAum(CO)n (l + m = 2, n = 1-3) in the reduction of SO2 by CO. Due to the strong coupling between the C-2p and metal 5d orbitals, pre-adsorption of CO molecules on the PtlAum is found to be very effective in not only reducing the activation energy, but also preventing poisoning by sulfur. As result of the coupling, the metal 5d band is broadened and down-shifted, and charge is transferred from the CO molecules to the PtlAum. As SO2 is adsorbed on the catalyst, partial charge moves to the anti-σ bonding orbitals between S and O in SO2, weakening the S-O bond strength. This effect is enhanced by pre-adsorbing up to three CO molecules, therefore the S-O bonds become vulnerable. Our results revealed the mechanism of the excellent catalytic properties of the bimetallic complex catalysts.