Search

Silk of maize (Zea mays L.) contains diverse metabolites with complicated structures and functions, making it a great challenge to explore the mechanisms of metabolic regulation. Genome‐wide identification of silk‐preferential genes and investigation of their expression regulation provide an opportunity to reveal the regulatory networks of metabolism. Here, we applied the expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping on a maize natural population to explore the regulation of gene expression in unpollinated silk of maize. We obtained 3,985 silk‐preferential genes that were specifically or preferentially expressed in silk using our population. Silk‐preferential genes showed more obvious expression variations compared with broadly expressed genes that were ubiquitously expressed in most tissues. We found that trans‐eQTL regulation played a more important role for silk‐preferential genes compared to the broadly expressed genes. The relationship between 38 transcription factors and 85 target genes, including silk‐preferential genes, were detected. Finally, we constructed a transcriptional regulatory network around the silk‐preferential gene Bx10, which was proposed to be associated with response to abiotic stress and biotic stress. Taken together, this study deepened our understanding of transcriptome variation in maize silk and the expression regulation of silk‐preferential genes, enhancing the investigation of regulatory networks on metabolic pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), a new class of porous organic–organic hybrid materials controlled by self-assembly of metal atoms and organic pillars, are attracting considerable interest because of their specific properties. More recently, the advantages of different types of nanoscale metal–organic frameworks for the use of MOF nanoparticles in stomatology have been reported in the literature. This article covers the treatment of oral cancer, surface modification of implants, antibacterial dressings, and treatment of periodontitis and periodontal regeneration. It presents recent applications, future challenges, and prospects for MOFs in stomatology in four areas. It provides an overview of recent advances in the design and application of MOFs in stomatology from their intrinsic properties to different syntheses and their use as smart drug delivery systems or a combination of these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• All these patients even at 12 months after onset had IgG and IgM antibodies. • Multiple peptides identified were able to be recognized by most of the sera isolated from both AS and S patients, and three peptides located in RBD. • •Five epitopes exhibited strong discriminatory ability between the AS and s patients, and were identified to be associated with the clinical adverse events. We know little about the antigen bias in SARS-CoV-2 humoral response and the epitopes of spike recognized by the immune system in asymptomatic (AS) patients and symptomatic (S) patients. Here, we used a microarray to evaluate the humoral immune response in the sera collected from 33 COVID-19-recovered patients up to 1 year. We found that the levels of IgG and IgM induced by the 23 proteins differed significantly in the same patients, and were able to distinguish AS and S patients. The N- and S-specific antibodies were detected even at 12 months after onset. Five epitopes were identified to be associated with the clinical adverse events, and three peptides located in RBD. Overall, this study presents a systemic view of the SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG and IgM responses between AS and S recovered patients and provide insights to promote precise development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Periodontal ligament cells (PDLCs) are a major component of the periodontal ligament and have an important role in the regeneration of periodontal tissue and maintenance of homeostasis. High glucose can affect the activity and function of PDLCs in a variety of ways; therefore, it is particularly important to find ways to alleviate the effects of high glucose on PDLCs. Annexin A2 (ANXA2) is a calcium- and phospholipid-binding protein involved in a variety of cellular functions and processes, including cellular cytokinesis, cytophagy, migration, and proliferation., Aim: The aim of this study was to exploring whether ANXA2 attenuates the deleterious effects of high glucose on PDLCs and promotes osteogenic differentiation capacity., Methods and Results: Osteogenic differentiation potential, cellular senescence, oxidative stress, and cellular autophagy were detected. Culturing PDLCs with medium containing different glucose concentrations (CTRL, 8 mM, 10 mM, 25 mM, and 40 mM) revealed that high glucose decreased the protein expression of ANXA2 ( p  < 0.0001). In addition, high glucose decreased the osteogenic differentiation potential of PDLCs as evidenced by decreased calcium deposition ( p  = 0.0003), lowered ALP activity ( p  = 0.0010), and a decline in the expression of osteogenesis-related genes ( p  = 0.0008). Moreover, β-Galactosidase staining and expression of p16, p21 and p53 genes showed that it increased cellular senescence in PDLCs ( p  < 0.0001). Meanwhile high glucose increased oxidative stress in PDLCs as shown by ROS ( p  < 0.0001). However, these damages caused by high glucose were inhibited after the addition of 1 µM recombinant ANXA2 (rANXA2), and we found that rANXA2 enhanced autophagy in PDLCs under high glucose conditions., Conclusions and Discussion: Therefore, our present study demonstrates that alterations in ANXA2 under high glucose conditions may be a factor in the decreased osteogenic differentiation potential of PDLCs. Meanwhile, ANXA2 is associated with autophagy, oxidative stress, and cellular senescence under high glucose conditions., Competing Interests: The authors declare there are no competing interests., (©2024 Huang et al.)

Subterranean rodents could maintain their normal activities in hypoxic environments underground. Eospalax fontanierii , as one kind of subterranean rodent found in China can survive very low oxygen concentration in labs. It has been demonstrated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have important roles in gene expression regulations at different levels and some lncRNAs were found as hypoxia-regulated lncRNAs in cancers. We predicted thousands of lncRNAs in the liver and heart tissues by analyzing RNA-Seq data in Eospalax fontanierii . Those lncRNAs often have shorter lengths, lower expression levels, and lower GC contents than mRNAs. Majors of lncRNAs have expression peaks in hypoxia conditions. We found 1128 DE-lncRNAs (differential expressed lncRNAs) responding to hypoxia. To search the miRNA regulation network for lncRNAs, we predicted 471 and 92 DE-lncRNAs acting as potential miRNA target and target mimics, respectively. We also predicted the functions of DE-lncRNAs based on the co-expression networks of lncRNA-mRNA. The DE-lncRNAs participated in the functions of biological regulation, signaling, development, oxoacid metabolic process, lipid metabolic/biosynthetic process, and catalytic activity. As the first study of lncRNAs in Eospalax fontanierii , our results show that lncRNAs are popular in transcriptome widely and can participate in multiple biological processes in hypoxia responses.