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Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) is a globally cultivated crop with great economic value. The exocarp determines the appearance of tomato fruit and protects it from various biotic and abiotic challenges at both pre-harvest and post-harvest stages. However, no tomato exocarp-specific promoter is currently available, which hinders exocarp-based genetic engineering. Here, we identified by RNA sequencing and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR analyses that the tomato gene SlPR10 ( PATHOGENESIS RELATED 10 ) was abundantly and predominantly expressed in the exocarp. A fluorescent reporter expressed by a 2087-bp SlPR10 promoter ( pSlPR10 ) was mainly detected in the exocarp of transgenic tomato plants of both Ailsa Craig and Micro-Tom cultivars. This promoter was further utilized for transgenic expression of SlANT1 and SlMYB31 in tomato, which are master regulators of anthocyanin and cuticular wax biosynthesis, respectively. pSlPR10 -driven SlANT1 expression resulted in anthocyanin accumulation in the exocarp, conferring gray mold resistance and extended shelf life to the fruit, while SlMYB31 expression led to waxy thickening in the fruit skin, delaying water loss and also extending fruit shelf life. Intriguingly, pSlPR10 and two other weaker tomato exocarp-preferential promoters exhibited coincided expression specificities in the gynophore of transgenic Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ) plants, providing not only an inkling of evolutionary homology between tomato exocarp and Arabidopsis gynophore but also useful promoters for studying gynophore biology in Arabidopsis . Collectively, this work reports a desirable promoter enabling targeted gene expression in tomato exocarp and Arabidopsis gynophore and demonstrates its usefulness in genetic improvement of tomato fruit quality., Competing Interests: Based on the data of the current research, a China invention patent (ZL202210684553.8) has been granted to the authors., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nanjing Agricultural University.)

Base editors (BEs) empower the efficient installation of beneficial or corrective point mutations in crop and human genomes. However, conventional BEs can induce unpredictable guide RNA (gRNA)-independent off-target edits in the genome and transcriptome due to spurious activities of BE-enclosing deaminases, and current improvements mostly rely on deaminase-specific mutagenesis or exogenous regulators. Here we developed a split deaminase for safe editing (SAFE) system applicable to BEs containing distinct cytidine or adenosine deaminases, with no need of external regulators. In SAFE, a BE was properly split at a deaminase domain embedded inside a Cas9 nickase, simultaneously fragmenting and deactivating both the deaminase and the Cas9 nickase. The gRNA-conditioned BE reassembly conferred robust on-target editing in plant, human and yeast cells, while minimizing both gRNA-independent and gRNA-dependent off-target DNA/RNA edits. SAFE also substantially increased product purity by eliminating indels. Altogether, SAFE provides a generalizable solution for BEs to suppress off-target editing and improve on-target performance., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Objective: To investigate the clinical features of children with chronic nonbacterial osteomyelitis (CNO), and raise awareness among clinicians. Methods: In this retrospective study, 18 patients with CNO who were diagnosed in Children's Hospital of Fudan University from January 2015 to December 2021 were included. Results: Eighteen children with CNO (12 males, 6 females) were identified. Their age at onset was 9 (5, 11) years, the delay in diagnosis was 2 (1, 6) months, and follow-up-was 17 (8, 34) months. The most common symptoms were fever in 14 children, as well as bone pain and (or) arthralgia in 14 children. In terms of laboratory results, normal white blood cell counts were observed at onset in 17 patients; increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in all patients; increased C reactive protein (CRP) over the normal value in 14 patients. Of the 18 patients, 2 had positive antinuclear antibodies, while none had positive human leukocyte antigen-B27 or rheumatoid factor. Imaging examination revealed that all the patients had symmetrical and multifocal skeletal lesions. The number of structural lesions detected by imaging investigation was 8 (6, 11). The most frequently affected bones were tibia in 18 patients and femur in 17 patients. Bone biopsy was conducted in 14 patients and acute or chronic osteomyelitis manifested with inflammatory cells infiltration were detected. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) found bone lesions in all the patients and bone scintigraphy were positive in 13 patients. All the patients were treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, among whom 10 cases also treated with oral glucocorticoids, 9 cases with traditional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, 8 cases with bisphosphonates and 6 cases with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors. The pediatric chronic nonbacterial osteomyelitis disease activity score, increased by 70% or more in 13 patients within the initial 6-month follow-up. Conclusions: The clinical manifestations of CNO are lack of specificity. The first symptom of CNO is fever, with or without bone pain and (or) arthralgia, with normal peripheral blood leukocytes, elevated CRP and (or) ESR. Whole body bone scanning combined with MRI can early detect osteomyelitis at subclinical sites, and improve the diagnostic rate of CNO.