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Asexual development is the main propagation and transmission mode of Beauveria bassiana and the basis of its pathogenicity. The regulation mechanism of conidiation and the key gene resources for utilization are key links to improving the conidia yield and quality of Beauveria bassiana. Their clarification may promote the industrialization of fungal pesticides. Here, we compared the regulation of morphology, resistance to external stress, virulence, and nutrient utilization capacity between the upstream developmental regulatory gene fluG and the key genes brlA, abaA, and wetA in the central growth and development pathway. The results showed that the ΔbrlA and ΔabaA mutants completely lost the capacity to conidiate and that the ΔwetA mutant had seriously reduced conidiation capacity. Although the deletion of fluG did not reduce the conidiation ability as much as deletions of brlA, abaA, and wetA, it significantly reduced the fungal response to external stress, virulence, and nutrient utilization, while the deletion of the three other genes had little effect. Via transcriptome analysis and screening the yeast nuclear system library, we found that the differentially expressed genes in the ΔfluG mutants were concentrated in the signaling pathways of ABC transporters, propionate metabolism, tryptophan metabolism, DNA replication, mismatch repair, and fatty acid metabolism. FluG directly acted on 40 proteins that were involved in various signaling pathways such as metabolism, oxidative stress, and cell homeostasis. The analysis indicated that the regulatory function of fluG was mainly involved in DNA replication, cell homeostasis, fungal growth and metabolism, and the response to external stress. Our results revealed the biological function of fluG in asexual development and the responses to several environmental stresses as well as its influence on the asexual development regulatory network in B. bassiana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) are central components of the machinery mediating cell membrane fusion and intracellular vesicular trafficking in eukaryotic cells, and have been well-documented to play critical roles in growth, development, and pathogenesis in the filamentous fungal plant pathogens. However, little is known about the contributions of SNAREs to the physiology and biocontrol potential in entomopathogenic filamentous fungi. Here, a genome-wide analysis of SNARE genes was performed taking advantage of the available whole genome sequence of Beauveria bassiana, a classical entomopathogenic fungus. Based on the compared genomic method, 22 genes encoding putative SNAREs were identified from the whole genome of B. bassiana, and were classified into four groups (7 Qa-, 4 Qb-, 6 Qc-, and 5 R-SNAREs) according to the conserved structural features of their encoding proteins. An R-SNARE encoding gene BbSEC22 was further functionally characterized by gene disruption and complementation. The BbSEC22 null mutant showed a fluffy appearance in mycelial growth and an obvious lag in conidial germination. The null mutant also exhibited significantly increased sensitivity to oxidative stress and cell wall perturbing agents and reduced the yield of conidia production by 43.1% compared with the wild-type strain. Moreover, disruption of BbSEC22 caused a significant decrease in conidial virulence to Spodoptera litura larvae. Overall, our results provide an overview of vesicle trafficking in B. bassiana and revealed that BbSec22 was a multifunctional protein associated with mycelial growth, sporulation, conidial germination, stress tolerance, and insecticidal virulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The ectoparasitic wasp Habrobracon hebetor (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) can parasitize various species of lepidopteran pests. To maximize its potential for biological control, it is necessary to investigate its gene function through genome engineering. RESULTS: To test the effectiveness of genome engineering system in H. hebetor, we injected the mixture of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) ‐associated (Cas) 9 protein and single guide RNA(s) targeting gene white into embryos. The resulting mutants display a phenotype of eye pigment loss. The phenotype was caused by small indel and is heritable. Then, we compared some biological parameters between wildtype and mutant, and found there were no significant differences in other parameters except for the offspring female rate and adult longevity. In addition, cocoons could be used to extract genomic DNA for genotype during the gene editing process without causing unnecessary harm to H. hebetor. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that the CRISPR/Cas9 system can be used for H. hebetor genome editing and it does not adversely affect biological parameters of the parasitoid wasps. We also provide a feasible non‐invasive genotype detection method using genomic DNA extracted from cocoons. Our study introduces a novel tool and method for studying gene function in H. hebetor, and may contribute to better application of H. hebetor in biocontrol. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic segmentation in indoor environments is a crucial task for artificial intelligence-driven visual robotics, enabling pixel-level classification results to facilitate robot path planning. Inspired by the success of multimodal models, we propose an end-to-end multimodal semantic segmentation model for image segmentation tasks in indoor scenes, which we call OIPNet. We design the OIP module to enhance the network's ability to extract global information and enable information interaction in different directions. We have validated on NYUv2 and Sun RGB-D datasets, and the experiments show the generality and effectiveness of the proposed model. Our code is available at https://github.com/Mantee0810/OIP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habrobracon hebetor is a parasitoid wasp capable of infesting many lepidopteran larvae. It uses venom proteins to immobilize host larvae and prevent host larval development, thus playing an important role in the biocontrol of lepidopteran pests. To identify and characterize its venom proteins, we developed a novel venom collection method using an artificial host (ACV), i.e., encapsulated amino acid solution in paraffin membrane, allowing parasitoid wasps to inject venom. We performed protein full mass spectrometry analysis of putative venom proteins collected from ACV and venom reservoirs (VRs) (control). To verify the accuracy of proteomic data, we also collected venom glands (VGs), Dufour's glands (DGs) and ovaries (OVs), and performed transcriptome analysis. In this paper, we identified 204 proteins in ACV via proteomic analysis; compared ACV putative venom proteins with those identified in VG, VR, and DG via proteome and transcriptome approaches; and verified a set of them using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Finally, 201 ACV proteins were identified as potential venom proteins. In addition, we screened 152 and 148 putative venom proteins identified in the VG transcriptome and the VR proteome against those in ACV, and found only 26 and 25 putative venom proteins, respectively, were overlapped with those in ACV. Altogether, our data suggest proteome analysis of ACV in combination with proteome–transcriptome analysis of other organs/tissues will provide the most comprehensive identification of true venom proteins in parasitoid wasps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bacteria pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) infects rice and causes the severe disease of rice bacteria blight. As the central regulator of the salic acid (SA) signaling pathway, NPR1 is responsible for sensing SA and inducing the expression of pathogen-related (PR) genes in plants. Overexpression of OsNPR1 significantly increases rice resistance to Xoo. Although some downstream rice genes were found to be regulated by OsNPR1, how OsNPR1 affects the interaction of rice-Xoo and alters Xoo gene expression remains unknown. In this study, we challenged the wild-type and OsNPR1-OE rice materials with Xoo and performed dual RNA-seq analyses for the rice and Xoo genomes simultaneously. In Xoo-infected OsNPR1-OE plants, rice genes involved in cell wall biosynthesis and SA signaling pathways, as well as PR genes and nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich repeat (NBS-LRR) genes, were significantly upregulated compared to rice variety TP309. On the other hand, Xoo genes involved in energy metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, biosynthesis of primary and secondary metabolism, and transportation were repressed. Many virulence genes of Xoo, including genes encoding components of type III and other secretion systems, were downregulated by OsNPR1 overexpression. Our results suggest that OsNPR1 enhances rice resistance to Xoo by bidirectionally regulating gene expression in rice and Xoo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Central nervous system (CNS) infectious diseases are common diseases in emergency rooms and neurology departments. CNS pathogen identification methods are time consuming and expensive and have low sensitivity and poor specificity. Some studies have shown that bacteria and viruses can produce specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The aim of this study is to find potential biomarkers by VOC analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in patients with bacterial and viral meningitis/encephalitis (ME). Methods: CSF samples from 16 patients with bacterial ME and 42 patients with viral ME were collected, and solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyze the metabolites in the CSF. Results: There are 2 substances (ethylene oxide and phenol) that were found to be different between the 2 groups. Ethylene oxide was significantly greater in the group of bacterial ME patients than in the viral ME group of patients (p < 0.05). In addition, phenol was remarkably increased in the group of ME patients compared with the bacterial ME patients (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Ethylene oxide and phenol may be potential biomarkers to distinguish bacterial ME and viral ME. VOC analysis of CSF may be used as a supporting tool for clinical diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Adult parasitic wasps take sugars to meet their energy needs and display different lifespans and fertility in response to different sugar sources. Pteromalus puparum is an endoparasitoid with a wide range of hosts, including many lepidopteran pests. As a potential natural enemy resource, the availability of sugar sources has profound effects for wasp applications and host populations dynamics. RESULTS: We assessed the effect of feeding sucrose and honey on the lifespan of P. puparum in the range 0–40% (w/v). The results indicated a statistically significant positive effect of sucrose and honey solutions on the lifespan of P. puparum female adults. Correlation analyses confirmed a strong positive correlation between high concentrations of sugar and extended lifespan. The optimum concentration of sucrose solution for wasps was 20%, while 10% for honey. Then, we examined the expression patterns of 15 lifespan‐related genes. The results showed that the relative expression levels of 14 genes were significantly correlated with the mean lifespan of sucrose‐fed wasps, and six genes correlated with the mean lifespan of honey‐fed wasps. In addition, the models for lifespan prediction were constructed. CONCLUSION: We elaborated the quantitative effects of two sugar sources (sucrose and honey) on P. puparum lifespan, investigated the expression patterns of lifespan‐related genes when fed different sugar sources, and developed round lifespan prediction models accordingly. This study provides a novel tool for studying the longevity regulating mechanisms of parasitic wasps, and may be instructive for mass‐production of parasitoids as biological control agents. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuropeptides are a group of signal molecules that regulate many physiological and behavioral processes by binding to corresponding receptors, most of which are G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Using bioinformatic methods, we screened genomic and transcriptomic data of the ectoparasitoid wasp, Habrobracon hebetor , and annotated 34 neuropeptide candidate precursor genes and 44 neuropeptide receptor candidate genes. The candidate neuropeptide genes were found to encode all known insect neuropeptides except allatotropin, neuropeptide F, pigment dispersing factor, and CCHamides. When compared with the endoparasitic wasp Pteromalus puparum and the ectoparasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis , trissin and FMRFamide were found only in H. hebetor. A similar result held for the neuropeptide receptor genes, for the receptors were found in H. hebetor except the receptors of CCHamides and neuroparsin. Furthermore, we compared and analyzed the differences in neuropeptides in eight Braconidae wasps and identified natalisin in H. hebetor, Diachasma alloeum, Fopius arisanus and Microplitis demolitor , but not in the other wasps. We also analyzed the transcriptome data and qRT-PCR data from different developmental stages and tissues to reveal the expression patterns of the neuropeptides and their receptors. In this study, we revealed composition of neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptors in H. hebetor , which may contribute to future neurobiological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of immunonutrition vs standard nutrition in cancer patients treated with surgery. Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, MEDLINE, EBSCOhost, and Web of Science were searched. Sixty-one randomized controlled trials were included. Immunonutrition was associated with a significantly reduced risk of postoperative infectious complications (risk ratio [RR] 0.71 [95% CI, 0.64-0.79]), including a reduced risk of wound infection (RR 0.72 [95% CI, 0.60-0.87]), respiratory tract infection (RR 0.70 [95% CI, 0.59-0.84]), and urinary tract infection (RR 0.69 [95% CI, 0.51-0.94]) as well as a decreased risk of anastomotic leakage (RR 0.70 [95% CI, 0.53-0.91]) and a reduced hospital stay (MD -2.12 days [95% CI -2.72 to -1.52]). No differences were found between the 2 groups with regard to sepsis or all-cause mortality. Subgroup analyses revealed that receiving arginine + nucleotides + ω-3 fatty acids and receiving enteral immunonutrition reduced the rates of wound infection and respiratory tract infection. The application of immunonutrition at 25-30 kcal/kg/d for 5-7 days reduced the rate of respiratory tract infection. Perioperative immunonutrition reduced the rate of wound infection. For malnourished patients, immunonutrition shortened the hospitalization time. Therefore, immunonutrition reduces postoperative infection complications and shortens hospital stays but does not reduce all-cause mortality. Patients who are malnourished before surgery who receive arginine + nucleotides + ω-3 fatty acids (25-30 kcal/kg/d) via the gastrointestinal tract during the perioperative period (5-7 days) may show better clinical efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We conducted a systematic review to assess the effects of immunonutrition on chemoradiotherapy patients.Methods: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and the Web of Science. We assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Our primary outcomes were the incidence of oral mucositis and diarrhea. The secondary outcomes were the incidence of esophagitis, grade ≥3 oral mucositis, grade ≥3 diarrhea, grade ≥3 esophagitis, and body weight loss.Results: A total of 1478 patients and 27 studies were included. There were no significant differences in the incidence of oral mucositis (relative risk [RR] = 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.79-1.05), diarrhea (RR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.76-1.05), or esophagitis (RR = 0.55; 95% CI, 0.11-2.86) between the immunonutrition group and standard nutrition/placebo group. Nevertheless, immunonutrition significantly reduced the incidence of grade ≥3 oral mucositis (RR = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.22-0.92), grade ≥3 diarrhea (RR = 0.56; 95% CI, 0.35-0.88), grade ≥3 esophagitis (RR = 0.15; 95% CI, 0.04-0.54), and losing >5% body weight (RR = 0.34; 95% CI, 0.18-0.64).Conclusions: In this study, immunonutrition failed to reduce the incidence rates of oral mucositis, diarrhea, or esophagitis but was conducive to significantly improving the severity of oral mucositis and diarrhea esophagitis and reducing the rate of body weight loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radical reactions have been widely applied in C−P bond‐forming strategies. Most of these strategies require initiators, transition metal catalysts, or organometallic reagents. Herein, a transition metal‐free C(sp3)−P bond formation to prepare α‐aminophosphine oxides via deprotonative radical coupling processes of 2‐azaallyls with chlorodiphenylphosphine oxides was presented. Deprotonation of N‐benzyl imines may generate super‐electron‐donor (SED) 2‐azaallyl anions that reduced chlorodiphenylphosphine oxides to phosphine oxide radicals. Single‐electron transfer (SET) process transformed the 2‐azaallyl anions into 2‐azaallyl radicals, which may couple with phosphine oxide radicals to construct C−P bonds. The deprotonative radical coupling approach enables the synthesis of α‐aminophosphine oxides bearing various functional groups under mild conditions and without precious transition metal catalysts or oxidants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel and simple fluorescence method for Hg2+ recognition and detection has been developed based on T‐Hg2+‐T complex and exonuclease III (Exo III) assisted cyclic signal amplification. Graphene oxide (GO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were used to quench the fluorescence FAM‐labelled single strand DNA (FAM‐ssDNA). The optimum conditions, including GO and CNTs concentrations, enzyme concentration and enzymatic hydrolysis time, were studied. The linear range, regression equation and metal ion selectivity were further studied and compared. The recovery rates of Hg2+ in tap water and urine were between 93.83–103.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a novel and scalable synthesis of electron rich 1,3‐dienes based on KOtBu mediated isomerization of propargylic ether derivatives was developed. This new process features easy handling reaction conditions, transition‐metal‐free isomerization, high isolated yields, and most of all, it could be used for modification of natural products at late stage functionalizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isochromenes are important pharmacophores present in biologically active molecules and natural products. Their synthesis is generally limited to cyclization of phenyl propargyl ether precursors under transition metal catalyzed conditions. Herein, we present a novel disconnection that rapidly constructs isochromene derivatives through a cascade radical cyclization strategy. Generation of aryl radicals by SET reduction of 2‐iodo benzyl allenyl ethers is followed by radical cyclization to construct the isochromene core with formation of an allylic radical. The allylic radical then undergoes coupling with the azaallyl radical to give products in good to excellent yields. The elaborated 2‐iodo phenyl propargyl ether precursors can be used to construct isochromenes bearing various functional groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • NiO, a new cataluminescence sensing material, was synthesized by a simple template-free hydrothermal method. • Camellia-like NiO with high specific surface area showed excellent sensing performance towards H 2 S. • The sensing mechanism was studied which proved the main emission peak is from SO 2 *. Abstract In this work, three different microstructures of NiO nanomaterials including tremella, camellia and hexagonal nanosheets were successfully synthesized by a simple template-free hydrothermal method. Among them, camellia-like NiO was reported and applied to cataluminescence (CTL) for the first time. SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, BET and BJH were employed to characterize the as-prepared samples. As sensing materials, these NiO with various morphologies showed different CTL capabilities to detect H 2 S, and the camellia-like NiO exhibited the best catalytic performance with high sensitivity and selectivity, which may be attributed to the synergistic effect of its high specific surface area, porous nanostructure, as well as the surface adsorption oxygen. After optimization, a good linear relationship was obtained in the range of 0.8–30.8 ppm and the detection limit (S/N = 3, LOD) was 0.3 ppm. Sixteen common volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as carbon disulfide, ethyl mercaptan and formaldehyde, were discussed as possible interferent components, and the sensing mechanism of the CTL sensing towards H 2 S was discussed in detail. Camellia-like NiO could be used as a new sensing material for H 2 S monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzofurans are among the most popular structural units in bioactive natural products, however, the synthesis of such structures by radical cyclization cascade reactions is rare. Herein, we report a mild and broadly applicable method for the construction of complex benzofurylethylamine derivatives through a unique radical cyclization cascade mechanism. Single‐electron transfer (SET) from 2‐azaallyl anions to 2‐iodo aryl allenyl ethers initiates a radical cyclization that is followed by intermolecular radical–radical coupling. This expedient approach enables the synthesis of a range of polycyclic benzofurans that would otherwise be difficult to prepare. Well behaved radicals: a mild and broadly applicable method for the construction of complex benzofurylethylamine derivatives through a unique radical cyclization cascade mechanism is presented. SET from 2‐azaallyl anions to 2‐iodo aryl allenyl ethers initiates a radical cyclization that is followed by intermolecular radical–radical coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic oxides are widely used as electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbers. To promote the absorption efficiency, tremendous efforts have been contributed to adjusting the composite, structure, and size of magnetic loss materials. Employing carbon materials (CNTs, CF, graphene, PANI) is an efficient way to improve the dielectric loss of the matrix. Anchoring the tiny‐monodispersed Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) onto the lightweight multi − walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) leads to improve dielectric loss and impedance matching characteristic. Magnetic Fe3O4 NPs along the one‐dimensional nanotubes direction play a good synergetic role with MWCNTs due to the interfacial strong chemical and structure bonding. The as‐synthesized Fe3O4/MWCNTs nanocomposites exhibit efficient EM wave absorption characteristics (RL av−10 dB) with a maximum reflection loss of −63.64 dB at 12.08 GHz and a diminutive thickness of only 1.6 mm. The magnetic Fe3O4 NPs show strong chemical and structure bonding with the one‐dimensional MWCNTs. This work may show a way to broaden the application of such kinds of lightweight high‐performance absorbing materials frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The SO-DLLME combined with MECC was developed for determination of fluoroquinolones. • Deep eutectic solvent (DES) was used as an extraction solvent combined with back extraction. • A detection limit less than 10 ng mL−1 for fluoroquinolones could be achieved. • The method was successfully applied to determination of fluoroquinolones in food and water samples. A simple and sensitive salting out-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method using deep eutectic solvent combined with back extraction and micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (SO-DLLME-DES-BE-MECC) was developed for the determination of fluoroquinolones in milk, honey and water samples. Several parameters affecting the extraction efficiency including DES volume, vortex time, centrifugation time, salt type and amount, sample pH and volume, etc. were investigated. Good linearity were obtained for fluoroquinolones in a range of 0.020–3.200 μg mL−1 and 0.030–4.800 μg mL−1 with LODs less than 0.010 μg mL−1. The recoveries were in the ranges of 95.0–104.9%, 90.1–110.2% and 87.8–114.1% for water, honey and milk samples, respectively. The relative standard deviations for reproducibility were all below 7.6%. Under the optimized conditions, the enrichment factors for analytes were achieved in the range from 531 to 858 folds. The presented method was successfully applied for the determination of fluoroquinolones in milk, honey and water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on personality trait development has mainly focused on influences of life experiences in one single life domain (e.g., work or family) separate from one another and has primarily examined personality development in early life stages. Thus, less attention has been devoted to influences from interplays across different life domains and personality development in middle and late adulthood. Synthesizing the literature on personality science and organizational research, we built a theoretical model and investigated what, how, and why the interplay between two central life domains—work and family—may be related to personality trait development of people at their middle and late life stages, and more important, change-related reciprocal relationships between personality traits and work–family experiences. Generally, convergent findings with data from two longitudinal studies (National Survey of Midlife in the United States, maximum N = 3,192, three waves; and Health and Retirement Study, maximum N = 1,133, three waves except anxiety) revealed that work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, work-to-family facilitation, and family-to-work facilitation mostly had lagged effects on changes of Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism, and the influences were generally channeled through changes of anxiety. Personality traits also had lagged influences on changes of work–family experiences, with some influences deteriorating over time. Change-related reciprocal relationships were recorded mainly between Neuroticism and Extraversion with work–family experiences. Some selection effects were larger than socialization effects. Our research contributes to the personality and the work–family literature and represents a useful example of cross-fertilization of research in different areas of psychology to advance personality research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer vision obtains object and environment information by simulating human visual senses and borrowing human sensory activity. As one of the main tasks of computer vision, image classification can be used not only for face recognition, traffic scene recognition, image retrieval, and automatic photo categorization but also as a theoretical basis for target detection and image segmentation. In this paper, we use the existing CNN architecture network-ConvNeXt. By adapting and modifying the residual connectivity and convolutional structure of the network, we achieve a balance between classification accuracy and inference speed. These modifications are able to reduce both computation and memory consumption while keeping accuracy largely unchanged, thus better facilitating network lightweighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide. To date, no non-invasive and specific biomarkers have been identified for the diagnosis of CRC. The analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is attracting increasing attention and provides the possibility of a non-invasive diagnosis. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) have been used to analyze the VOCs released from the headspace gas of LS174T (Dukes' type B colorectal adenocarcinoma) cells, arsenic trioxide (ATO)-treated LS174T cells and the blood from tumor-bearing mice. The data were processed using principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), which showed that the levels of decanal, 2,4-dimethyl- heptane, and twelve other metabolites were significantly greater in the headspace gas of the LS174T cells and blood of tumor-bearing mice. Additionally, in vivo experiments indicated that formic acid, ethenyl ester and p-trimethylsilyloxyphenyl-(trimethylsilyloxy)trimethylsilylacrylate were consumed during tumor growth. In conclusion, VOCs such as 1-methoxy-hexane and 2,4-dimethyl-heptane could be useful diagnostic markers for CRC. Further research should focus on the potential metabolic pathways associated with these profiles. • SPME and GC-MS can be used to analyze the VOCs released from cell lines. • Decanal and 2,4-dimethyl-Heptane were significant higher in LS174T cells and blood of tumor bearing mice. • VOCs may be useful as diagnostic assays for CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insects are susceptible to elevated temperatures, resulting in impaired fertility, and shortened lifespan. This study investigated the genetic mechanisms underlying heat stress effects. We conducted RNA sequencing on Pteromalus puparum exposed to 25°C and 35°C, revealing transcriptional signatures. Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis uncovered heat stress-associated modules, forming a regulatory network of 113 genes. The network is naturally divided into two subgroups, one linked to acute heat stress, including heat shock proteins (HSPs), and the other to chronic heat stress, involving lipogenesis genes. We identified an Xap5 Heat Shock Regulator ( XHSR ) gene as a crucial network component, validated through RNA interference and quantitative PCR assays. XHSR knockdown reduced wasps' lifespan while directly inducing HSPs and mediating lipogenesis gene induction. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of the Drosophila XHSR homolog reduced mutants' survival, highlighting its conserved role. This research sheds light on thermal tolerance mechanisms, offering potential applications in pest control amid global warming., Competing Interests: Authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Insects utilize diverse food resources which can affect the evolution of their genomic repertoire, including leading to gene losses in different nutrient pathways. Here, we investigate gene loss in amino acid synthesis pathways, with special attention to hymenopterans and parasitoid wasps. Using comparative genomics, we find that synthesis capability for tryptophan, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and histidine was lost in holometabolous insects prior to hymenopteran divergence, while valine, leucine, and isoleucine were lost in the common ancestor of Hymenoptera. Subsequently, multiple loss events of lysine synthesis occurred independently in the Parasitoida and Aculeata. Experiments in the parasitoid Cotesia chilonis confirm that it has lost the ability to synthesize eight amino acids. Our findings provide insights into amino acid synthesis evolution, and specifically can be used to inform the design of parasitoid artificial diets for pest control., Competing Interests: XY, SX, ZT, YY, JW, KY, HW, YM, ZY, SC, CY, FW, HY, QF, QS, JW, GY, FL No competing interests declared, (© 2020, Ye et al.)

Benzofurans are among the most popular structural units in bioactive natural products, however, the synthesis of such structures by radical cyclization cascade reactions is rare. Herein, we report a mild and broadly applicable method for the construction of complex benzofurylethylamine derivatives through a unique radical cyclization cascade mechanism. Single-electron transfer (SET) from 2-azaallyl anions to 2-iodo aryl allenyl ethers initiates a radical cyclization that is followed by intermolecular radical-radical coupling. This expedient approach enables the synthesis of a range of polycyclic benzofurans that would otherwise be difficult to prepare., (© 2019 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Ce(3+)-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG:Ce) nanocrystals were successfully synthesized via a facile sol-gel method. Multiple characterization techniques were employed to study the structure, morphology, composition and photoluminescence properties of YAG:Ce nanophosphors. The YAG:Ce0.0055 sintered at 1030 °C exhibited a typical 5d(1)-4f(1) emission band with the maximum peak located at 525 nm, and owned a short fluorescence lifetime τ1 (~28 ns) and a long fluorescence lifetime τ2 (~94 ns). Calcination temperature and Ce(3+) doping concentration have significant effects on the photoluminescence properties of the YAG:Ce nanophosphors. The emission intensity was enhanced as the calcination temperature increased from 830 to 1030 °C, but decreased dramatically with the increase of Ce(3+) doping concentration from 0.55 to 5.50 at.% due to the concentration quenching. By optimizing the synthesized condition, the strongest photoluminescence emission intensity was achieved at 1030 °C with Ce(3+) concentration of 0.55 at.%.