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SUMMARY: The successful interaction between pollen and stigma is a critical process for plant sexual reproduction, involving a series of intricate molecular and physiological events. After self‐compatible pollination, a significant reduction in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production has been observed in stigmas, which is essential for pollen grain rehydration and subsequent pollen tube growth. Several scavenging enzymes tightly regulate ROS homeostasis. However, the potential role of these ROS‐scavenging enzymes in the pollen‐stigma interaction in Brassica napus remains unclear. Here, we showed that the activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), an enzyme that plays a crucial role in the detoxification of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), was modulated depending on the compatibility of pollination in B. napus. We then identified stigma‐expressed APX1s and generated pentuple mutants of APX1s using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. After compatible pollination, the BnaAPX1 pentuple mutants accumulated higher levels of H2O2 in the stigma, while the overexpression of BnaA09.APX1 resulted in lower levels of H2O2. Furthermore, the knockout of BnaAPX1 delayed the compatible response‐mediated pollen rehydration and germination, which was consistent with the effects of a specific APX inhibitor, ρ‐Aminophenol, on compatible pollination. In contrast, the overexpression of BnaA09.APX1 accelerated pollen rehydration and germination after both compatible and incompatible pollinations. However, delaying and promoting pollen rehydration and germination did not affect the seed set after compatible and incompatible pollination in APX1 pentuple mutants and overexpression lines, respectively. Our results demonstrate the fundamental role of BnaAPX1 in pollen rehydration and germination by regulating ROS homeostasis during the pollen‐stigma interaction in B. napus. Significance Statement: Our research found that self‐incompatibility in Brassica napus requires the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in the stigma. We identified the importance of BnaAPX1 in regulating ROS homeostasis, which is critical for pollen rehydration and germination in B. napus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a clinical syndrome characterized by pulmonary and systemic congestion resulting from left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and increased filling pressure. Currently, however, there is no evidence on effective pharmacotherapy for HFpEF. In this study, we aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of total xanthones extracted from Gentianella acuta (TXG) on HFpEF by establishing an high‐fat diet (HFD) + L‐NAME‐induced mouse model. Echocardiography was employed to assess the impact of TXG on the cardiac function in HFpEF mice. Haematoxylin and eosin staining, wheat germ agglutinin staining, and Masson's trichrome staining were utilized to observe the histopathological changes following TXG treatment. The results demonstrated that TXG alleviated HFpEF by reducing the expressions of genes associated with myocardial hypertrophy, fibrosis and apoptosis. Furthermore, TXG improved cardiomyocyte apoptosis by inhibiting the expression of apoptosis‐related proteins. Mechanistic investigations revealed that TXG could activate the inositol‐requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α)/X‐box‐binding protein 1 (Xbp1s) signalling pathway, but the knockdown of IRE1α using the IRE1α inhibitor STF083010 or siRNA‐IRE1α impaired the ability of TXG to ameliorate cardiac remodelling in HFpEF models. In conclusion, TXG alleviates myocardial hypertrophy, fibrosis and apoptosis through the activation of the IRE1α/Xbp1s signalling pathway, suggesting its potential beneficial effects on HFpEF patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brassica napus, commonly known as rapeseed or canola, is a major oil crop contributing over 13% to the stable supply of edible vegetable oil worldwide. Identification and understanding the gene functions in the B. napus genome is crucial for genomic breeding. A group of genes controlling agronomic traits have been successfully cloned through functional genomics studies in B. napus. In this review, we present an overview of the progress made in the functional genomics of B. napus, including the availability of germplasm resources, omics databases and cloned functional genes. Based on the current progress, we also highlight the main challenges and perspectives in this field. The advances in the functional genomics of B. napus contribute to a better understanding of the genetic basis underlying the complex agronomic traits in B. napus and will expedite the breeding of high quality, high resistance and high yield in B. napus varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Self‐incompatibility plays a vital role in angiosperms, by preventing inbreeding depression and maintaining genetic diversity within populations. Following polyploidization, many angiosperm species transition from self‐incompatibility to self‐compatibility.Here, we investigated the S‐locus in Brassicaceae and identified distinct origins for the sRNA loci, SMI and SMI2 (SCR Methylation Inducer 1 and 2), within the S‐locus. The SMI loci were found to be widespread in Cruciferae, whereas the SMI2 loci were exclusive to Brassica species.Additionally, we discovered four major S‐haplotypes (BnS‐1, BnS‐6, BnS‐7, and BnS‐1300) in rapeseed. Overexpression of BnSMI‐1 in self‐incompatible Brassica napus ('S‐70S1300S6') resulted in a significant increase in DNA methylation in the promoter regions of BnSCR‐6 and BnSCR‐1300, leading to self‐compatibility. Conversely, by overexpressing a point mutation of BnSmi‐1 in the 'S‐70S1300S6' line, we observed lower levels of DNA methylation in BnSCR‐6 and BnSCR‐1300 promoters. Furthermore, the overexpression of BnSMI2‐1300 in the 'SI‐326S7S6' line inhibited the expression of BnSCR‐7 through transcriptional repression of the Smi2 sRNA from the BnS‐1300 haplotype.Our study demonstrates that the self‐compatibility of rapeseed is determined by S‐locus sRNA‐mediated silencing of SCR after polyploidization, which helps to further breed self‐incompatible or self‐compatible rapeseed lines, thereby facilitating the utilization of heterosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Plant hormones are the intrinsic factors that control plant development. The integration of different phytohormone pathways in a complex network of synergistic, antagonistic and additive interactions has been elucidated in model plants. However, the systemic level of transcriptional responses to hormone crosstalk in Brassica napus is largely unknown. Here, we present an in‐depth temporal‐resolution study of the transcriptomes of the seven hormones in B. napus seedlings. Differentially expressed gene analysis revealed few common target genes that co‐regulated (up‐ and down‐regulated) by seven hormones; instead, different hormones appear to regulate distinct members of protein families. We then constructed the regulatory networks between the seven hormones side by side, which allowed us to identify key genes and transcription factors that regulate the hormone crosstalk in B. napus. Using this dataset, we uncovered a novel crosstalk between gibberellin and cytokinin in which cytokinin homeostasis was mediated by RGA‐related CKXs expression. Moreover, the modulation of gibberellin metabolism by the identified key transcription factors was confirmed in B. napus. Furthermore, all data were available online from http://yanglab.hzau.edu.cn/BnTIR/hormone. Our study reveals an integrated hormone crosstalk network in Brassica napus, which also provides a versatile resource for future hormone studies in plant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Canola (Brassica napus) is an important oil crop worldwide. The seed‐setting rate (SS) is a critical factor in determining its yield, and the development of pistils affects pollination and seed sets. However, research on seed‐setting defects has been limited owing to difficulties in the identification of phenotypes, mutations, and complex genetic mechanisms. In this study, we found a stigma defect (sd) mutant in B. napus, which had no nectary. The SS of sd mutants in the field was approximately 93.4% lower than that of the wild type. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy imaging of sd mutants showed a low density of stigma papillary cells and stigma papillary cell vacuoles that disappeared 16 h after flowering. Genetic analysis of segregated populations showed that two recessive nuclear genes are responsible for the mutant phenotype of sd. Based on re‐sequencing and map‐based cloning, we reduced the candidate sites on ChrA07 (BnaSSA07) and ChrC06 (BnaSSC06) to 30 and 67 kb, including six and eight predicted genes, respectively. Gene analyses showed that a pair of CRABS CLAW (CRC) homeologous genes at BnaSSA07 and BnaSSC06 were associated with the development of carpel and nectary. BnaSSA07.CRC and BnaSSC06.CRC candidate genes were found to be expressed in flower organs only, with significant differences in their expression in the pistils of the near‐isogenic lines. DNA sequencing showed transposon insertions in the upstream region and intron of the candidate gene BnaSSA07.crc. We also found that BnaSSC06.crc exists widely in the natural population and we give possible reasons for its widespread existence. Significance Statement: The BnaCRCs of domesticated preference are located at A07 and C06 within 30‐ and 67‐kb regions, respectively, as determined by re‐sequencing and map‐based cloning. They were positively correlated with the Brassica napus seed‐setting rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, several lines of evidence showed that the BnaMPK3s-BnaARF2s module is critical for the regulation of organ size and yield in I B. napus i . Keywords: Brassica napus; BnaMPK3; BnaARF2; organ size EN Brassica napus BnaMPK3 BnaARF2 organ size 899 901 3 04/19/23 20230501 NES 230501 The larger organs have potential economic value in I Brassica napus i improvement and bioenergy production. Brassica napus, BnaMPK3, BnaARF2, organ size. [Extracted from the article]

Order–disorder transitions are widely explored in various vortex structures in condensed matter physics, that is, in the type‐II superconductors and Bose–Einstein condensates. In this study, the ordering of the polar vortex phase in [Pb(Zr0.4Ti0.6)O3]n/(SrTiO3)n (PZT/STO) superlattices is investigated through phase‐field simulations. With a large tensile substrate strain, an antiorder vortex state (where the rotation direction of the vortex arrays in the neighboring ferroelectric layers are flipped) is discovered for short‐period PZT/STO superlattice. The driving force is the induced in‐plane polarization in the STO layers due to the large tensile epitaxial strain. Increasing the periodicity leads to antiorder to disorder transition, resulting from the high energy of the head‐to‐head/tail‐to‐tail domain structure in the STO layer. On the other hand, when the periodicity is kept constant in short‐period superlattices, the order–disorder–antiorder transition can be engineered by mediating the substrate strain, due to the competition between the induction of out‐of‐plane (due to interfacial depolarization effect) and in‐plane (due to strain) polarization in the STO layer. The 3D ordering of such polar vortices is still a topic of significant current interest and it is envisioned that this study will spur further interest toward the understanding of order–disorder transitions in ferroelectric topological structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Seed oil content (SOC) and fatty acid (FA) composition determine the quality and economic value of rapeseed (Brassica napus). Little is known about the role of gibberellic acid (GA) in regulating FA biosynthesis in B. napus. Here, we discovered that four BnaRGAs (B. napus REPRESSOR OF GA), encoding negative regulators of GA signalling, were suppressed during seed development. Compared to the wild type, SOC was reduced in gain‐of‐function mutants bnaa6.rga‐D and ds‐3, which also showed reduced oleic acid and increased linoleic acid contents. By contrast, the loss‐of‐function quadruple mutant bnarga displayed higher SOC during early seed development than the wild type, with increased oleic acid and reduced linoleic acid contents. Notably, only BnaA6.RGA and BnaC7.RGA physically interacted with two BnaLEC1s, which function as essential transcription factors in FA biosynthesis. The FA composition did not significantly differ between bnarga bnalec1 sextuple mutants and bnalec1, suggesting that BnaLEC1s are epistatic to BnaRGAs in the regulation of FA composition. Furthermore, BnaLEC1‐induced activation of BnaABI3 expression was repressed by BnaA6.RGA, indicating that GA triggers the degradation of BnaRGAs to relieve their repression of BnaLEC1s, thus promoting the transcription of downstream genes to facilitate oil biosynthesis. Therefore, we uncovered a developmental stage‐specific role of GA in regulating oil biosynthesis via the GA‐BnaRGA‐BnaLEC1 signalling cascade, providing a novel mechanistic understanding of how phytohormones regulate FA biosynthesis in seeds. BnaRGAs represent promising targets for oil crop improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesenchymal stromal cell‐derived extracellular vesicles (MSC‐EVs) turn out to be a promising source of cell‐free therapy. Here, we investigated the biodistribution and effect of nebulized human adipose‐derived MSC‐EVs (haMSC‐EVs) in the preclinical lung injury model and explored the safety of nebulized haMSC‐EVs in healthy volunteers. DiR‐labelled haMSC‐EVs were used to explore the distribution of nebulized haMSC‐EVs in the murine model. Pseudomonas aeruginosa‐induced murine lung injury model was established, and survival rate, as well as WBC counts, histology, IL‐6, TNF‐α and IL‐10 levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were measured to explore the optimal therapeutic dose of haMSC‐EVs through the nebulized route. Twenty‐four healthy volunteers were involved and received the haMSC‐EVs once, ranging from 2 × 108 particles to 16 × 108 particles (MEXVT study, NCT04313647). Nebulizing haMSC‐EVs improved survival rate to 80% at 96 h in P. aeruginosa‐induced murine lung injury model by decreasing lung inflammation and histological severity. All volunteers tolerated the haMSC‐EVs nebulization well, and no serious adverse events were observed from starting nebulization to the 7th day after nebulization. These findings suggest that nebulized haMSC‐EVs could be a promising therapeutic strategy, offering preliminary evidence to promote the future clinical applications of nebulized haMSC‐EVs in lung injury diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the risk factors for, and outcomes of, preoperative asymptomatic pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients ≥60 years old following delayed operation for hip fracture. Methods: From March 2017 to December 2018, 90 patients aged ≥60 years with hip fracture who suffered a delay in surgery were recruited to this prospective study following admission to our hospital. Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) was used to detect preoperative asymptomatic PE and calculated its incidence. Time from injury to admission, baseline characteristics, medical comorbidities, and blood biomarker levels were evaluated as potential risk factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors. Mortality and major bleeding events were recorded and compared between individuals with PE and without. Data were analyzed by t‐test, Mann–Whitney U test, χ2 test, Fisher's exact test, and logistic regression analysis. Results: The incidence of preoperative asymptomatic PE was 18.9% (17/90 patients). In the univariate analysis, the risk factors for preoperative asymptomatic PE were male sex, hypertension, cerebrovascular accident, smoking, plasma D‐dimer level, potassium level, urea level, creatinine level, and cysteine level. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of preoperative asymptomatic PE was higher in patients with hypertension (odds ratio [OR] = 10.048; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.118–90.333), cerebrovascular accident (OR = 20.135; 95% CI, 1.875–216.164), smoking (OR = 48.741; 95% CI, 4.155–571.788), high plasma D‐dimer levels (OR = 1.200; 95% CI, 1.062–157.300), and high plasma potassium levels (OR = 12.928; 95% CI, 1.062–157.300). All patients were followed up for 21.0 months (range, 2 to 36 months). Mortality within the first year postoperatively was higher in patients with PE (29.41% vs 9.59%, P = 0.046). Conclusions: In view of the high incidence of preoperative asymptomatic PE and the inferior prognosis in individuals with PE, routine CTPA examination for preoperative asymptomatic PE could be useful for patients aged ≥60 years with hip fracture for whom surgery is delayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BnTIR: an online transcriptome platform for exploring RNA-seq libraries for oil crop Brassica napus Keywords: Brassica napus; transcriptome; Co-expression; database EN Brassica napus transcriptome Co-expression database 1895 1897 3 10/05/21 20211001 NES 211001 With the increasing availability of massive transcriptome data in plants, it is possible to construct a comprehensive database with multiple transcriptome data and online imputation tools. After entering the I Arabidopsis i gene ID, the phylogenetic tree and expression profile of I BAN i and their four I B. napus i homolog genes were generated in expression module, which were highly expressed at the beginning of the seed development and followed by decreasing expression (Figure 1l). [Extracted from the article]

Self‐incompatibility (SI) is a genetic mechanism that rejects self‐pollen and thus prevents inbreeding in some hermaphroditic angiosperms. In the Brassicaceae, SI involves a pollen‐stigma recognition system controlled by a single locus known as the S locus, which consists of two highly polymorphic genes that encode S‐locus cysteine‐rich protein (SCR) and S‐receptor kinase (SRK). When self‐pollen lands on the stigma, the S‐haplotype‐specific interaction between SCR and SRK triggers SI. Here, we show that the GATA transcription factor BnA5.ZML1 suppresses SI responses in Brassica napus and is induced after compatible pollination. The loss‐of‐function mutant bna5.zml1 displays reduced self‐compatibility. In contrast, overexpression of BnA5.ZML1 in self‐incompatible stigmas leads to a partial breakdown of SI responses, suggesting that BnA5.ZML1 is a stigmatic compatibility factor. Furthermore, the expression levels of SRK and ARC1 are up‐regulated in bna5.zml1 mutants, and they are down‐regulated in BnA5.ZML1 overexpressing lines. SRK affects the cellular localization of BnA5.ZML1 through direct protein–protein interaction. Overall, our findings highlight the fundamental role of BnA5.ZML1 in SI responses in B. napus, establishing a direct interaction between BnA5.ZML1 and SRK in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These results suggest that I BnS6-Smi2 i specifically suppresses I BnSCR7 i transcription and that the SI phenotype of SI-326 is caused by decreased DNA methylation in I BnSCR7 i promoter region. Brassica napus, self-incompatibility, BnS6-Smi2, BnSCR7, DNA methylation, CRISPR, Cas9 Keywords: Brassica napus; self-incompatibility; BnS6-Smi2; BnSCR7; DNA methylation; CRISPR; Cas9 EN Brassica napus self-incompatibility BnS6-Smi2 BnSCR7 DNA methylation CRISPR Cas9 875 877 3 05/20/21 20210501 NES 210501 Self-incompatibility (SI) is a genetic mechanism that prevents inbreeding in hermaphrodite angiosperms via the rejection of self-pollen. These results suggest that I BnSCR7 i might be suppressed by I BnS6-Smi2 i , and then knockout of I BnS6-Smi2 i in 326 might recover I BnSCR7 i expression and create SI I B. napus i . [Extracted from the article]

Abstract: CO2‐EOR can serve as a method to jointly enhance oil production and reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. In a fractured reservoir, it is crucial to characterize the spatial and geometrical properties of fractures when designing a CO2‐enhanced oil recovery (EOR) strategy, since the existence of fractures may lead to the early CO2 breakthrough and can significantly impact the sweep efficiency. Compared with the traditional continuum model, discrete fracture model (DFM) can explicitly maintain the full geometrical properties of the individual fractures and accurately simulate the performance of a CO2‐EOR system. However, the spatial distribution of fractures should be reasonably understood to ensure the effectiveness of CO2‐EOR project. In this work, an approach combining ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with DFM is developed to estimate the fracture distribution by matching the history of production data. The spatial distribution of each fracture is characterized by the coordinates of endpoints, length, and orientation. These geometrical properties are treated as the adjustable model parameters during the history matching process. The difficulty to estimate such parameters lies in the non‐linear relationship between parameters and the observed production data. The EnKF method has been found to an effective method to resolve this issue. Here the available production data is assimilated sequentially to update the geometrical parameters of each fracture via the EnKF method, which has the capability to quantify the production dynamics under estimation uncertainty. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative splicing ( AS) is a key post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism, yet little information is known about its roles in fruit crops. Here, AS was globally analyzed in the wild strawberry Fragaria vesca genome with RNA-seq data derived from different stages of fruit development. The AS landscape was characterized and compared between the single-molecule, real-time ( SMRT) and Illumina RNA-seq platform. While SMRT has a lower sequencing depth, it identifies more genes undergoing AS (57.67% of detected multiexon genes) when it is compared with Illumina (33.48%), illustrating the efficacy of SMRT in AS identification. We investigated different modes of AS in the context of fruit development; the percentage of intron retention ( IR) is markedly reduced whereas that of alternative acceptor sites ( AA) is significantly increased post-fertilization when compared with pre-fertilization. When all the identified transcripts were combined, a total of 66.43% detected multiexon genes in strawberry undergo AS, some of which lead to a gain or loss of conserved domains in the gene products. The work demonstrates that SMRT sequencing is highly powerful in AS discovery and provides a rich data resource for later functional studies of different isoforms. Further, shifting AS modes may contribute to rapid changes of gene expression during fruit set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we propose an approach to selecting an appropriate surveillance operation in a geologic CO2 sequestration, through efficient data-worth analysis with the probabilistic collocation-based Kalman Filter (PCKF). A surrogate model with polynomial chaos expansion is constructed by performing a small number of flow simulations, based on which history-matching is implemented with the observations from the surveillance operations. The proposed approach is demonstrated numerically for selecting a surveillance operation and assessing the reduction of uncertainties in predicting CO2 leakage from abandoned wells during geologic CO2 sequestration. Our results reveal that the proposed approach of data-worth analysis can be utilized to select an appropriate surveillance operation in a geologic CO2 system, with a small computational effort.© 2015 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeobox transcription factors are involved in various aspects of plant development, including maintenance of the biosynthesis and signaling pathways of different hormones. However, few direct targets of homeobox proteins have been identified. We here show that overexpression of rice homeobox gene HOX1a resulted in enhanced gibberellin (GA) response, indicating a positive effect of HOX1a in GA signaling. HOX1a is induced by GA and encodes a homeobox transcription factor with transcription repression activity. In addition, HOX1a suppresses the transcription of early flowering1 ( EL1), a negative regulator of GA signaling, and further electrophoretic mobility shift assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that HOX1a directly bound to the promoter region of EL1 to suppress its expression and stimulate GA signaling. These results demonstrate that HOX1a functions as a positive regulator of GA signaling by suppressing EL1, providing informative hints on the study of GA signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]