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Very‐long‐chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) regulate biophysical properties of cell membranes to determine growth and development of eukaryotes, such as the pathogenesis of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. The fatty acid elongase Elo1 regulates pathogenesis of M. oryzae by modulating VLCFA biosynthesis. However, it remains unknown whether and how Elo1 associates with other factors to regulate VLCFA biosynthesis in fungal pathogens. Here, we identified Ifa38, Phs1 and Tsc13 as interacting proteins of Elo1 by proximity labelling in M. oryzae. Elo1 associated with Ifa38, Phs1 and Tsc13 on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane to control VLCFA biosynthesis. Targeted gene deletion mutants Δifa38, Δphs1 and Δtsc13 were all similarly impaired as Δelo1 in vegetative growth, conidial morphology, stress responses in ER, cell wall and membrane. These deletion mutants also displayed severe damage in cell membrane integrity and failed to organize the septin ring that is essential for penetration peg formation and pathogenicity. Our study demonstrates that M. oryzae employs a fatty acid elongase complex to regulate VLCFAs for maintaining or remodelling cell membrane structure, which is important for septin‐mediated host penetration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous studies, narcissism has been found to relate to social media behaviors, such as how often one posts and how many friends or followers one has (McCain & Campbell, 2016; Singh, Farley, and Donahue, 2018). The present study attempted to create a model of social media use predicted by narcissism and self-consciousness. A sample of 397 adults with a mean age of 29 years was collected using MTurk. Participants completed a social media use survey, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Hall, 1979) and the Self-Consciousness Scale (Scheier & Carver, 1985). Results showed that while narcissism and self-consciousness were correlated, narcissism was not significantly related to social media use. Several explanations for the present study's findings are discussed. General Area of Psychology: Social Psychology Specific Area: Personality Psychology Keywords: narcissism, social media, self-consciousness, In recent years, the use of social media (SM) has become an increasingly popular daily activity worldwide (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011). Pew Research Center (2018) reported that 69% of people [...]

The doped SrTiO3 as a thermoelectric material has been extensively studied both experimentally and theoretically. Though theoretical studies have found the thermoelectric coefficients changing as functions of temperature, they are less useful to guide experiments because there is no direct comparison with the existing experimental results. Combining the latest experimental results, we investigate the lanthanum nanostructure doped SrTiO3 theoretically by applying the density functional theory and the Boltzmann transport theory. For most doping levels, we find that the new Fermi levels are above the conduction band minimum, making this larger bandgap oxide metallic. The electronic acoustic phonon scattering is less important, but polar phonon and vacancy scattering become dominant. For the SrTiO3, this points to a potential approach to adjust relaxation time to optimize the thermoelectric performance by selecting doping elements with different radii. The temperature-dependent Lorentz number shows the doped compound behaves half metallic and half semiconductor. The Hall factor is conventionally taken as unity, but the calculated ones are about 0.8, independent of temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese State Council honored Xia Yan, a film maker famous for his outstanding Chinese revolutionary films, with the title of Chinese Film Artist with Excellent Contributions, on his 95th birthday on Oct 30, 1994. In his 65-year film making career, Xia has made many artistic, ideological and realistic films, which positively influenced Chinese society.

Spermatogenesis is a highly complex developmental process that typically consists of mitosis, meiosis, and spermiogenesis. DNA/RNA helicase DHX36, a unique guanine-quadruplex (G4) resolvase, plays crucial roles in a variety of biological processes. We previously showed that DHX36 is highly expressed in male germ cells with the highest level in zygotene spermatocytes. Here, we deleted Dhx36 in advanced germ cells with Stra8-GFPCre and found that a Dhx36 deficiency in the differentiated spermatogonia leads to meiotic defects and abnormal spermiogenesis. These defects in late stages of spermatogenesis arise from dysregulated transcription of G4-harboring genes, which are required for meiosis. Thus, this study reveals that Dhx36 plays crucial roles in late stages of spermatogenesis., (© The Author(s) (2022). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, CEMCS, CAS.)