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Ditylenchus destructor and D. dipsaci are important nematodes that have a significant economic impact on agronomic and horticultural plants worldwide. Microscopic observation alone may not distinguish between D. destructor and D. dipsaci. Accurate and rapid identification of these two species is essential for effective pest management. In the present study, a species-specific PCR assay was developed to detect and differentiate D. destructor and D. dipsaci based on the rDNA-ITS sequences. The primers developed in this study can specifically amplify fragments of DNA from D. destructor and D. dipsaci in the target population, without amplifying DNA from other non-target nematodes within the genus Ditylenchus. The sensitivity test revealed that this procedure has the ability to detect single second-stage juveniles (J2) of D. dipsaci at a dilution of 1/128 and D. destructor at a dilution of 1/64. Additionally, it can detect genomic DNA (gDNA) at concentrations of 10 pg/µL for D. dipsaci and 1 ng/µL for D. destructor. These results align with previously reported results obtained through RPA and LAMP methods. Furthermore, the primers developed in this study for D. destructor not only were able to amplify six different haplotypes of nematodes but also successfully detected it in infested plant roots and soil samples, thereby shortening the time and reducing the number of steps required for detection. Thus, this assay, which does not necessitate taxonomic or morphological expertise, significantly enhances the diagnosis of D. destructor and D. dipsaci in infested fields. This advancement aids in the early control of these nematodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monocytes are highly plastic innate immune cells that display significant heterogeneity during homeostasis, inflammation, and tumorigenesis. Tumor-induced systemic and local microenvironmental changes influence the phenotype, differentiation, and distribution of monocytes. Meanwhile, monocytes and their related cell subsets perform an important regulatory role in the development of many cancers by affecting tumor growth or metastasis. Thanks to recent advances in single-cell technologies, the nature of monocyte heterogeneity and subset-specific functions have become increasingly clear, making it possible to systematically analyze subset-specific roles of monocytes in tumorigenesis. In this review, we discuss recent discoveries related to monocytes and tumorigenesis, and new strategies for tumor biomarker identification and anti-tumor immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abscisic acid (ABA)-responsive element binding protein/ABRE-binding factor (AREB/ABF) subfamily members are essential to ABA signaling pathways and plant adaptation to various environmental stresses. Nevertheless, there are no reports on AREB/ABF in jute (Corchorus L.). Here, eight AREB/ABF genes were identified in the C. olitorius genome and classified into four groups (A–D) based on their phylogenetic relationships. A cis-elements analysis showed that CoABFs were widely involved in hormone response elements, followed by light and stress responses. Furthermore, the ABRE response element was involved in four CoABFs, playing an essential role in the ABA reaction. A genetic evolutionary analysis indicated that clear purification selection affects jute CoABFs and demonstrated that the divergence time was more ancient in cotton than in cacao. A quantitative real-time PCR revealed that the expression levels of CoABFs were upregulated and downregulated under ABA treatment, indicating that CoABF3 and CoABF7 are positively correlated with ABA concentration. Moreover, CoABF3 and CoABF7 were significantly upregulated in response to salt and drought stress, especially with the application of exogenous ABA, which showed higher intensities. These findings provide a complete analysis of the jute AREB/ABF gene family, which could be valuable for creating novel jute germplasms with a high resistance to abiotic stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) is an annual herbaceous plant of the genus Hibiscus in family Malvaceae. Roselle calyxes are rich in anthocyanins, which play important roles in human health. However, limited information is available on anthocyanin biosynthesis in the roselle calyx. In this study, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses were performed to identify the key genes involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis in the roselle calyx. Three roselle cultivars with different calyx colors, including FZ-72 (red calyx, R), Baitao K (green calyx, G), and MG5 (stripped calyx, S), were used for metabolomic analyses with UPLC-Q-TOF/MS and RNA-seq. Forty-one compounds were quantified, including six flavonoids and 35 anthocyanins. The calyx of FZ-72 (red calyx) had the highest contents of anthocyanin derivatives such as delphinidin-3-O-sambubioside (955.11 μg/g) and cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside (531.37 μg/g), which were responsible for calyx color, followed by those in MG5 (stripped calyx) (851.97 and 330.06 μg/g, respectively). Baitao K (green calyx) had the lowest levels of these compounds. Furthermore, RNA-seq analysis revealed 114,415 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the calyxes at 30 days after flowering (DAF) for the corresponding cultivars FZ-72 (R), Baitao K (G), and MG5(S). The gene expression levels in the calyxes of the three cultivars were compared at different flowering stages, revealing 11,555, 11,949, and 7177 DEGs in R vs. G, R vs. S, and G vs. S, respectively. Phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways were found to be enriched. In the flavonoid pathway, 29, 28, and 27 genes were identified in G vs. R, G vs. S, and S vs. R, respectively. In the anthocyanin synthesis pathway, two, two, and one differential genes were identified in the three combinations; these differential genes belonged to the UFGT gene family. After joint analysis of the anthocyanin content in roselle calyxes, nine key genes belonging to the CHS, CHI, UFGT, FLS, ANR, DFR, CCoAOMT, SAT, and HST gene families were identified as strongly related to anthocyanin synthesis. These nine genes were verified using qRT-PCR, and the results were consistent with the transcriptome data. Overall, this study presents the first report on anthocyanin biosynthesis in roselle, laying a foundation for breeding roselle cultivars with high anthocyanin content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyst nematodes are one of the most important pathogens worldwide. Most cyst nematode species have been reported recently in China. From 2016 to 2020, an extensive survey of cyst nematodes was conducted in the Bashang region of Hebei Province. A total of 158 soil samples were collected, and cyst-forming nematodes were isolated from five soil samples. Morphological and molecular characterization showed that four of the cyst-forming nematode populations were Heterodera glycines (SCN), named populations of ZM, KM, CB and FN, respectively. These SCN populations were collected from Zhangbei County, Kangbao County, Chabei Management Area of Zhangjiakou and Fengning Manchu Autonomous County of Chengde, respectively, where the corresponding cyst densities were 57, 41, 103 and 31 cysts/200 cc soil. Furthermore, the populations of ZM, KM and CB were identified as race 4, whereas the FN population was identified as race 3. The cyst-forming nematode population was collected from Zhangbei County of Zhangjiakou, which was confirmed to be Heterodera schachtii (SBCN), named population ZZ, and the cyst density was 94 cysts/200 cc soil. It is a new disease of Chinese cabbage caused by SBCN based on Koch's postulates. Fourteen cultivars from five plant families were evaluated as hosts for SBCN. Chinese cabbage (cv. Linglonghuang012) and cabbage (cv. Chunwang) were suitable hosts, while celery (cv. Yuhuang), potato (cv. Helan 15) and eggplant (cv. Junlang) were nonhosts. The obtained results regarding the occurrence, distribution, races of SCN and hosts of SBCN in the Bashang region in this study provide a reference for SCN and SBCN management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing image change detection (CD) is an important task in remote sensing image analysis and is essential for an accurate understanding of changes in the Earth's surface. The technology of deep learning (DL) is becoming increasingly popular in solving CD tasks for remote sensing images. Most existing CD methods based on DL tend to use ordinary convolutional blocks to extract and compare remote sensing image features, which cannot fully extract the rich features of high-resolution (HR) remote sensing images. In addition, most of the existing methods lack robustness to pseudochange information processing. To overcome the above problems, in this article, we propose a new method, namely MRA-SNet, for CD in remote sensing images. Utilizing the UNet network as the basic network, the method uses the Siamese network to extract the features of bitemporal images in the encoder separately and perform the difference connection to better generate difference maps. Meanwhile, we replace the ordinary convolution blocks with Multi-Res blocks to extract spatial and spectral features of different scales in remote sensing images. Residual connections are used to extract additional detailed features. To better highlight the change region features and suppress the irrelevant region features, we introduced the Attention Gates module before the skip connection between the encoder and the decoder. Experimental results on a public dataset of remote sensing image CD show that our proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art (SOTA) CD methods in terms of evaluation metrics and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypoxia is a complex microenvironmental condition known to regulate choline kinase α (CHKA) activity and choline transport through transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and, therefore, may confound the uptake of choline radiotracer [18F]fluoromethyl-[1,2-2H4]-choline ([18F]-D4-FCH). The aim of this study was to investigate how hypoxia affects the choline radiotracer dynamics. Three underlying mechanisms by which hypoxia could potentially alter the uptake of the choline radiotracer, [18F]-D4-FCH, were investigated: 18F-D4-FCH import, CHKA phosphorylation activity, and the efflux of [18F]-D4-FCH and its phosphorylated product [18F]-D4-FCHP. The effects of hypoxia on [18F]-D4-FCH uptake were studied in CHKA-overexpressing cell lines of prostate cancer, PC-3, and breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. The mechanisms of radiotracer efflux were assessed by the cell uptake and immunofluorescence in vitro and examined in vivo (n = 24). The mathematical modelling methodology was further developed to verify the efflux hypothesis using [18F]-D4-FCH dynamic PET scans from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (n = 17). We report a novel finding involving the export of phosphorylated [18F]-D4-FCH and [18F]-D4-FCHP via HIF-1α-responsive efflux transporters, including ABCB4, when the HIF-1α level is augmented. This is supported by a graphical analysis of human data with a compartmental model (M2T6k + k5) that accounts for the efflux. Hypoxia/HIF-1α increases the efflux of phosphorylated radiolabelled choline species, thus supporting the consideration of efflux in the modelling of radiotracer dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]