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Plant detritus plays a crucial role in regulating belowground biogeochemical processes in forest ecosystems, particularly influencing labile carbon (C) dynamics and overall soil C storage. However, the specific mechanisms by which litter and roots affect soil organic carbon (SOC) and its components in plantations remain insufficiently understood. To investigate this, we conducted a detritus input and removal treatment (DIRT) experiment in a Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr plantation in the Taiyue Mountains, China, in July 2014. The experiment comprised three treatments: root and litter retention (CK), litter removal (LR), and root and litter removal (RLR). Soil samples were collected from depths of 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm during June, August, and October 2015 to evaluate changes in soil pH, water content (SW), SOC, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), readily oxidizable organic carbon (ROC), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC). The removal of litter and roots significantly increased soil pH (p < 0.05), with pH values being 8.84% and 8.55% higher in the LR and RLR treatments, respectively, compared to CK treatment. SOC levels were significantly reduced by 26.10% and 12.47% in the LR and RLR treatments, respectively (p < 0.05). Similarly, DOC and MBC concentrations decreased following litter and root removal, with DOC content in August being 2.5 times lower than in June. Across all treatments and sampling seasons, SOC content was consistently higher in the 0–10 cm depth, exhibiting increases of 35.15% to 39.44% compared to the 10–20 cm depth (p < 0.001). Significant negative correlations were observed between SOC and the ratios of ROC/SOC, pH, DOC/SOC, and MBC/SOC (R = −0.54 to −0.37; p < 0.05). Path analysis indicated that soil pH had a significant direct negative effect on SOC (p < 0.05), with a standardized path coefficient (β) of −0.36, while ROC had a significant direct positive effect on SOC (β = 0.66, p < 0.05). Additionally, pH indirectly affected SOC by significantly influencing ROC (β = −0.69), thereby impacting SOC indirectly. Random forest analysis also confirmed that the ROC/SOC ratio plays a critical role in SOC regulation. This study reveals the complex interactions between litter and root removal and soil C dynamics in larch plantations, identifying soil pH and ROC as crucial regulator of SOC content. However, the short-term duration and focus on shallow soil depths limit our understanding of long-term impacts and deeper soil C storage. Future research should explore these aspects and consider varying climate conditions to enhance the applicability of our findings. These insights provide a scientific foundation for developing effective forest management strategies and forecasting changes in soil C storage in the context of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B cell receptor-associated protein 31 (BAP31) is a transmembrane protein that is widely expressed and primarily located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). B cells play a crucial role in the immune system, and BAP31 significantly contributes to the functions of various immune cells. However, the specific role of BAP31 in B lymphocytes development remains unknown. In this study, we utilized a mouse model with BAP31 deleted from B cells to investigate its effects. Our findings reveal a block in early B cell development in the bone marrow and a significant decrease in the number of B cells in peripheral lymphoid organs taken from BAP31 B cell conditional knockout (BAP31-BCKO) mice. B cell receptor (BCR) signaling is crucial for the normal development and differentiation of B lymphocytes. BAP31, an endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein, directly regulates the BCR signaling pathway and was shown to be significantly positively correlated with B cell activation and proliferation. These findings establish BAP31 as a crucial regulator of early B cell development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differentiation of CD4+T cells is a crucial component of the immune response. The spleen and thymus, as immune organs, are closely associated with the differentiation and development of T cells. Previous studies have suggested that BAP31 may play a role in modulating T cell activation, but the specific impact of BAP31 on T cells through macrophages remains uncertain. In this study, we present evidence that BAP31 macrophage conditional knockout (BAP31-MCKO) mice display an enlarged spleen and thymus, accompanied by activated clustering and disrupted differentiation of CD4+T cells. In vitro co-culture studies were conducted to investigate the impact of BAP31-MCKO on the activation and differentiation of CD4+T cells. The examination of costimulatory molecule expression in BMDMs and RAW 264.7 cells, based on the endoplasmic reticulum function of BAP31, revealed an increase in the expression of antigen presenting molecules, particularly MHC-II molecule, in the absence of BAP31 in BMDMs or RAW264.7 cells. These findings suggest that BAP31 plays a role in the activation and differentiation of CD4+T cells by regulating the MHC class II molecule on macrophages. These results provide further support for the importance of BAP31 in developing interaction between macrophages and CD4+T cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tiny amounts of exogenous enzymes entering the plasma can exert important health-promoting functions. We propose that orally administered enzymes can potentially translocate across the gut barrier to combat reduced fitness and diseases concurrent with increased gut permeability. Engineering of the enzymes using two discussed strategies may further improve their translocation efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xylanase releases xylo-oligosaccharides from dietary xylan, which stimulate the growth of the gut bacteria lactobacilli. Many lactobacilli adhere to dietary fibers, which may facilitate the assimilation of xylo-oligosaccharides and help them gain competence in the gut, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Herein we report, from the highly abundant transcripts of Lactobacillus brevis cultured in wheat arabinoxylan supplemented with a xylanase, the identification of genes encoding four putative cell-surface WxL proteins (Lb630, Lb631, Lb632, and Lb635) and one S-layer protein (Lb1325) with either cellulose- or xylan-binding ability. The repetitively occurring WxL proteins were encoded by a gene cluster, among which Lb630 was chosen for further mutational studies. The analysis revealed three aromatic residues (F30, W61, and W156) that might be involved in the interaction of the protein with cellulose. A homology search in the genome of Enterococcus faecium identified three WxL proteins with conserved counterparts of these three aromatic residues, and they were also found to be able to bind cellulose and xylan. The findings suggested a role of the cell-surface WxL and S-layer proteins in assisting the cellular adhesion of L. brevis to plant cell wall polysaccharides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B-cell receptor-associated protein 31 (BAP31) has been shown to overexpress in a wide range type of cancers. The present study aims to investigate the role of BAP31 on migration in lung cancer. Results showed that the migration of BAP31 knockdown cells was weaken than the control cells. Applying TGFβ to treat BAP31 knockdown cells could reduce cell migration. The enhancement on proliferation by TGFβ treatment was downregulated after BAP31 knockdown. The cell death and G0/G1 phase arrest was increased in the cells with TGFβ and BAP31 siRNA treatment when compared with TGFβ treatment alone. Gene expression analysis showed that Bax/Bcl2, MLKL and LC3 was upregulated in the cells with combinatorial treatment of TGFβ and BAP31 siRNA. In addition, BAP31 was shown to regulate multiple signaling pathways, especially for Wnt signaling. It found that BAP31 knockdown cells treated with TGFβ decreased β-catenin cytosolic expression and nuclear localization. Wnt signaling activator BIO could restore the downregulation of proliferation by BAP31 knockdown. This finding suggested that BAP31 regulated cancer cell migration is possibly involved with cell death mechanisms and Wnt signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the repurposing of conventional and chemotherapeutic drugs is recognized as an alternative strategy for health care. The main purpose of this study is to strengthen the application of non‐oncological drug metformin on breast cancer treatment in the perspective of epigenetics. In the present study, metformin was found to inhibit cell proliferation, promote apoptosis and induce cell cycle arrest in breast cancer cells at a dose‐dependent manner. In addition, metformin treatment elevated acH3K9 abundance and decreased acH3K18 level. The expression of lncRNA MALAT1, HOTAIR, DICER1‐AS1, LINC01121 and TUG1 was up‐regulated by metformin treatment. In metformin‐treated cells, MALAT1 knock‐down increased the Bax/Bcl2 ratio and enhanced p21 but decreased cyclin B1 expression. The expression of Beclin1, VDAC1, LC3‐II, CHOP and Bip was promoted in the cells received combinatorial treatment of metformin and MALAT1 knock‐down. The reduced phosphorylation of c‐Myc was further decreased in the metformin‐treated cells in combination with MALAT1 knock‐down than metformin treatment alone. Taken together, these results provide a promising repurposed strategy for metformin on cancer treatment by modulating epigenetic modifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnesium, the second most predominant intracellular cation, plays a crucial role in many physiological functions; magnesium-based biomaterials have been widely used in clinical application. In a variety of cancer types, the high intracellular concentration of magnesium contributes to cancer initiation and progression. Therefore, we initiated this study to investigate the likelihood of confounding magnesium with cancer therapy. In this study, the anti-tumor activity of magnesium and underlying mechanisms were assessed in bladder cancer both in vitro and in vivo. The results indicated that the proliferation of bladder cancer cells was inhibited by treatment with a high concentration of MgCl2 or MgSO4. The apoptosis, G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, autophagy, and ER stress were promoted following treatment with MgCl2. However, the migratory ability of MgCl2 treated cells was similar to that of control cells, as revealed by the trans-well assay. Besides, no significant difference was observed in the proportion of CD44 or CD133 positive cells between the control and MgCl2 treated cells. Thus, to improve the therapeutic effect of magnesium, VPA was used to treat cancer cells in combination with MgCl2. As expected, combination treatment with MgCl2 and VPA could markedly reduce proliferation, migration, and in vivo tumorigenicity of UC3 cells. Moreover, the Wnt signaling was down-regulated, and ERK signaling was activated in the cells treated with combination treatment. In conclusion, the accurate utilization of MgCl2 in targeting autophagy might be beneficial in cancer therapy. Although further studies are warranted, the combination treatment of MgCl2 with VPA is an effective strategy to improve the outcome of chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peptide aptamers – artificial short peptides with specific binding affinity for target molecules – can be used to interfere with protein functions and protein–protein interactions in plant cells. Therefore, peptide aptamers have emerged as a new, powerful tool with high efficiency and specificity and wide applications in functional genomics and plant biotechnology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acid mine drainage (AMD) from abandoned coal mines can lead to serious environmental problems due to its low pH and high concentrations of potentially toxic elements. In this study, soil pH, sulfur (S) content, and arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and mercury (Hg) concentrations were measured in 27 surface soil samples from areas in which coal-mining activities ceased nine years previously in Youyu Catchment, Guizhou Province, China. The soil was acidic, with a mean pH of 5.28. Cadmium was the only element with a mean concentration higher than the national soil quality standard. As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Zn, Mn, Cr, and Fe concentrations were all higher than the background values in Guizhou Province. This was especially true for the Cd, Cu, and Fe concentrations, which were 1.69, 1.95, and 12.18 times their respective background values. The geoaccumulation index of Cd and Fe was present at unpolluted to moderately polluted and heavily polluted levels, respectively, indicating higher pollution levels than for the other elements in the study area. Spatially, significantly high Fe and S concentrations, as well as extremely low pH values, were found in the soils of the AMD sites; however, sites where tributaries merged with the Youyu River (TM) had the highest Cd pollution level. Iron originated mainly from non-point sources (e.g., AMD and coal gangues), while AMD and agricultural activity were the predominant sources of Cd. The results of an eco-risk assessment indicated that Cd levels presented a moderate potential ecological risk, while the other elements all posed a low risk. For the TM sites, the highest eco-risk was for Cd, with levels that could be harmful for aquatic organisms in the wet season, and may endanger human health via the food chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overloaded energy cost has become the main concern of the now fast developing society, which make novel energy devices with high power density of critical importance to the sustainable development of human society. Herein, a dynamic Schottky diode based generator with ultrahigh power density of 1262.0 W m−2 for sliding Fe tip on rough p‐type silicon is reported. Intriguingly, the increased surface states after rough treatment lead to an extremely enhanced current density up to 2.7 × 105 A m−2, as the charged surface states can effectively accelerate the carriers through large atomic electric field, while the reflecting directions are regulated by the built‐in electric field of the Schottky barrier. This research provides an open avenue for utilizing the surface states in semiconductors in a subversive way, which can co‐utilize the atomic electric field and built‐in electric field to harvest energy from the mechanical movements, especially for achieving an ultrahigh current density power source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enzymatic treatment is an attractive method for mycotoxin detoxification, which ideally prefers the use of one or a few enzymes. However, this is challenged by the diverse structures and co-contamination of multiple mycotoxins in food and feed. Lignin-degrading fungi have been discovered to detoxify organics including mycotoxins. Manganese peroxidase (MnP) is a major enzyme responsible for lignin oxidative depolymerization in such fungi. Here, we demonstrate that eight MnPs from different lignocellulose-degrading fungi (five from Irpex lacteus, one from Phanerochaete chrysosporium, one from Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, and another from Nematoloma frowardii) could all degrade four major mycotoxins (aflatoxin B1, AFB1; zearalenone, ZEN; deoxynivalenol, DON; fumonisin B1, FB1) only in the presence of a dicarboxylic acid malonate, in which free radicals play an important role. The I. lacteus and C. subvermispora MnPs behaved similarly in mycotoxins transformation, outperforming the P. chrysosporium and N. frowardii MnPs. The large evolutionary diversity of these MnPs suggests that mycotoxin degradation tends to be a common feature shared by MnPs. MnP can, therefore, serve as a candidate enzyme for the degradation of multiple mycotoxins in food and feed if careful surveillance of the residual toxicity of degradation products is properly carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene with a series of neoteric electronic and optical properties is an intriguing building block for optoelectronic devices. Over the past decade, graphene‐based solar cells (SCs) and photodetectors (PDs) which can convert light signals to electrical signals have received burgeoning exploration. However, limited light absorption hampers the performance of these devices. Quantum dots (QDs) possess a strong confinement effect, a large exciton energy, and long exciton lifetime, enhancing the interaction between incident light and graphene. Especially, as the density of states near the Dirac point of graphene is ultralow, it is easy to modify the Fermi level of graphene by inserting quantum dots at the interface between graphene and light, thereby enhancing the performance of graphene‐based optoelectronic devices. The characteristics of QDs and crucial physical mechanisms of the interaction and energy transfer in QDs/graphene nanohybrids are systematically addressed. The factors influencing the efficiency of energy transfer are also analyzed quantitatively. Moreover, the experimental process of QD‐enhanced technologies for SCs, photoconductors, phototransistors, and photodiode PDs is reviewed. Eventually, a conclusion is given and the remaining challenges and future development for QDs/2D materials hybrid systems is discussed. Possible steps toward large‐scale commercial applications and integration into optoelectronic networks are suggested. Graphene‐based solar cells and photodetectors (PDs) have received burgeoning exploration. The Fermi level of graphene can be dynamically tuned by coating quantum dots (QDs), where optical absorption of graphene can also be decided by specified kind of QDs. The fundamental physical interaction between QDs and graphene is addressed and summarized. The applications of QDs/graphene‐based PDs and solar cells are highly expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the biofuel industry, cellulase plays an indispensable role in hydrolyzing cellulose into fermentable glucose. Trichoderma reesei is a popular filamentous fungus with prominent ability to produce cellulase. While classical mutagenesis and modern multiplex genome engineering are both effective ways to improve cellulase production, successful obtaining of strains with improved cellulase-producing ability requires screening a large number of strains, which is time-consuming and labor intensive. Results: Herein, we developed a versatile method coupling expression of the red fluorescence protein (DsRed) in T. reesei and fluorescence-assisted cell sorting (FACS) of germinated spores. This method was first established by expressing DsRed intracellularly under the control of the major cellulase cbh1 promoter in T. reesei, which allowed us to rapidly isolate cellulase hyperproducers from T. reesei progenies transformed with a dedicated transcriptional activator ace3 and from an atmospheric and room temperature plasma-created mutant T. reesei library. Since intracellularly expressed DsRed was expected to isolate mutations mainly affecting cellulase transcription, this method was further improved by displaying DsRed on the T. reesei cell surface, enabling isolation of strains with beneficial genetic alterations (overexpressing hac1 and bip1) affecting regulatory stages beyond transcription. Using this method, T. reesei cellulase hyperproducers were also successfully isolated from an Agrobacterium-mediated random insertional mutant library. Conclusions: The coupled DsRed-FACS high-throughput screening method proved to be an effective strategy for fast isolation of T. reesei cellulase hyperproducers and could also be applied in other industrially important filamentous fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What influences Chinese agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE)? Taking the underlying technology heterogeneity into account, we proposed an analytical framework which combines meta-frontier analysis and a non-separable hybrid model with undesirable output (Meta-Hybrid-U). The general aim of this study is to apply the proposed framework to measure the AEE in 30 provinces in China from 1997 to 2015 under the group-frontier and meta-frontier. The dimensions of management and technology were used for the deconstruction of the agricultural eco-inefficiency (AEI) of various provinces. The Dagum Gini coefficient method was used for decomposition of regional differences in the AEE in China. Three main results were found. First, the mean AEE of all Chinese provinces under the meta-frontier is low, and there is much room for improvement. Secondly, at the national level, the AEI is caused by both the management inefficiency (MI) and technology gap inefficiency (TGI). At the regional level, the AEI in eastern China is wholly caused by the MI, while the AEI in the central and western regions is caused by both the MI and TGI. Finally, during the studied period, there is an increasing trend for the overall Gini coefficient of the AEE in China. The regional differences in the AEE in China are mainly due to the inter-regional differences and the intensity of transvariation. The paper also includes some suggestions for policies to improve China's AEE and to reduce the inter-regional differences in China's AEE. • We employed Meta-Hybrid-U model to measure China's AEE. • We examined the source of China's AEE loss from the dimensions of management and technology. • The Dagum Gini coefficient was used for measurement and decomposition of regional differences in China's AEE. • The AEE under the meta-frontier was not greater than the AEE under the group-frontier. • There was an overall increasing trend for the overall Gini coefficient of the AEE in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overloaded energy cost has become the main concern of the now fast developing society, which make novel energy devices with high power density of critical importance to the sustainable development of human society. Herein, a dynamic Schottky diode based generator with ultrahigh power density of 1262.0 W m−2 for sliding Fe tip on rough p‐type silicon is reported. Intriguingly, the increased surface states after rough treatment lead to an extremely enhanced current density up to 2.7 × 105 A m−2, as the charged surface states can effectively accelerate the carriers through large atomic electric field, while the reflecting directions are regulated by the built‐in electric field of the Schottky barrier. This research provides an open avenue for utilizing the surface states in semiconductors in a subversive way, which can co‐utilize the atomic electric field and built‐in electric field to harvest energy from the mechanical movements, especially for achieving an ultrahigh current density power source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]