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The developmental transcriptomes of Sarcomyxa edulis were assessed to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying lignocellulose degradation. Six stages were analyzed, spanning the entire developmental process: growth of mycelium until occupying half the bag (B1), mycelium under low-temperature stimulation after occupying the entire bag (B2), appearance of mycelium in primordia (B3), primordia (B4), mycelium at the harvest stage (B5), and mature fruiting body (B6). Samples from all six developmental stages were used for transcriptome sequencing, with three biological replicates for all experiments. A co-expression network of weighted genes associated with extracellular enzyme physiological traits was constructed using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). We obtained 19 gene co-expression modules significantly associated with lignocellulose degradation. In addition, 12 key genes and 8 kinds of TF families involved in lignocellulose degradation pathways were discovered from the four modules that exhibited the highest correlation with the target traits. These results provide new insights that advance our understanding of the molecular genetic mechanisms of lignocellulose degradation in S. edulis to facilitate its utilization by the edible mushroom industry.

Conservation tillage can improve soil physical structure and water storage, protect moisture, and increase crop yield. However, the long-term adoption of a single tillage method may have some adverse effects on soil and ecological environment, although crop yields have increased. Through informed allocation of soil tillage techniques, the combination and configuration of soil tillage measures, such as rotary tillage, subsoiling, and no tillage may reduce the shortcomings of traditional long-term farming. To explore the long-term production mode suitable for production of maize in the loess dryland area, a long-term experiment was conducted in Fuping County, Shaanxi Province, from 2013 to 2018. Six farming modes were used in the experiment: no tillage/subsoiling (N ↔ S), subsoiling/rotary tillage (S ↔ R), rotary tillage/no tillage (R ↔ N), continuous no tillage (N ↔ N), continuous subsoiling (S ↔ S), and continuous rotary tillage (R ↔ R). The changes in soil physical and chemical properties, soil water use patterns, soil water storage, conservation effects during the fallow and growth period, and the effects on farmland yield increase were analyzed. The results showed that rotary tillage can effectively improved soil structure and reduced soil bulk density, where N ↔ S treatment soil bulk density is low and in 0–60 cm soil layer averaged 1.31 g/cm3. Different tillage treatments could be used during the fallow period to store additional soil moisture: the N ↔ S treatment showed good water storage effect. Compared to traditional tillage, different tillage methods provided better soil moisture conditions for crops during the growth period, where N ↔ S treatment showed good soil moisture status during the growth period of spring maize. Among all the treatments, N ↔ S treatment effectively increased the organic carbon storage in the 0–60 cm soil layer, which was 54.3 t/hm2. Compared with traditional tillage, different tillage treatments effectively increased plant height and dry matter accumulation of spring maize, where N ↔ S treatment was found to be the best. Compared with the traditional rotary tillage model, the N ↔ S treatment significantly increased crop yield and water use efficiency (WUE) in continuous cropping fields of corn, the average yield of spring corn was 9340.2 kg/hm2, and the average WUE was 22.9 kg/(hm2·mm). In summary, for long-term sustainable development, the N ↔ S model is the best rotational tillage mode for continuous maize cropping in loess soil.

Preoperative assessment of the cervical lymph node status is important in therapeutic schedule and further evaluations of prognosis for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients. Our aim was to investigate the diagnostic values of conventional ultrasound (US), contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) features and the expression of MMP-9 of PTC in predicting the cervical lymph node metastases (LNM). In total, 156 patients with PTC confirmed by surgical pathology were included. Seventy-one patients had cervical LNM, while 85 patients had no LNM. The patients had cervical LNM (39.51 ± 13.29 years) were younger than those had no LNM (44.15 ± 10.94 years) (P = 0.02). Multivariate logistic regression results showed that tumor size ≥0.95 cm (OR = 13.47), ill-defined margin (OR = 4.31), internal heterogeneous low-enhancement (OR = 5.19) and ECE (OR = 25.25) were predictive for the presence of cervical LNM. The detection rate of ECE for the PTC with LNM by CEUS (81.48%, 44/54) was higher than by US (46.30%, 25/54). There was significant difference in MMP-9 intensity between PTC with and without cervical LNM (P = 0.000), and intense reactions (+++) were mainly found in the PTCs with LNM (80.95%, 17/21). In conclusion, the combination of conventional US, CEUS features and MMP-9 expression may serve as an effective tool for predicting the cervical LNM of PTC.

Implantable biomedical microdevices enable the restoration of body function and improvement of health condition. As the interface between artificial machines and natural tissue, various kinds of microelectrodes with high density and tiny size were developed to undertake precise and complex medical tasks through electrical stimulation and electrophysiological recording. However, if only the electrical interaction existed between electrodes and muscle or nerve tissue without nutrition factor delivery, it would eventually lead to a significant symptom of denervation-induced skeletal muscle atrophy. In this paper, we developed a novel flexible tubular microelectrode integrated with fluidic drug delivery channel for dynamic tissue implant. First, the whole microelectrode was made of biocompatible polymers, which could avoid the drawbacks of the stiff microelectrodes that are easy to be broken and damage tissue. Moreover, the microelectrode sites were circumferentially distributed on the surface of polymer microtube in three dimensions, which would be beneficial to the spatial selectivity. Finally, the in vivo results confirmed that our implantable tubular microelectrodes were suitable for dynamic electrophysiological recording and simultaneous fluidic drug delivery, and the electrode performance was further enhanced by the conducting polymer modification.

WRKY transcription factors belong to one of the largest transcription factor families. These factors possess functions in plant growth and development, signal transduction and stress response. Here, we identified 95 DcWRKY genes in carrot based on the carrot genomic and transcriptomic data and divided them into three groups. Phylogenetic analysis of WRKY proteins from carrot and Arabidopsis divided these proteins into seven subgroups. To elucidate the evolution and distribution of WRKY transcription factors in different species, we constructed a schematic of the phylogenetic tree and compared the WRKY family factors among 22 species, which including plants, slime mold and protozoan. An in-depth study was performed to clarify the homologous factor groups of nine divergent taxa in lower and higher plants. Based on the orthologous factors between carrot and Arabidopsis, 38 DcWRKY proteins were calculated to interact with other proteins in the carrot genome. Yeast two-hybrid assay showed that DcWRKY20 can interact with DcMAPK1 and DcMAPK4. The expression patterns of the selected DcWRKY genes based on transcriptome data and qRT-PCR suggested that those selected DcWRKY genes are involved in root development, biotic and abiotic stress response. This comprehensive analysis provides a basis for investigating the evolution and function of WRKY genes.