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The bHLH transcription factors play pivotal roles in plant growth and development, production of secondary metabolites and responses to various environmental stresses. Although the bHLH genes have been well studied in model plant species, a comprehensive investigation of the bHLH genes is required for tobacco with newly obtained high-quality genome. In the present study, a total of 309 NtbHLH genes were identified and can be divided into 23 subfamilies. The conserved amino acids which are essential for their function were predicted for the NtbHLH proteins. Moreover, the NtbHLH genes were conserved during evolution through analyzing the gene structures and conserved motifs. A total of 265 NtbHLH genes were localized in the 24 tobacco chromosomes while the remained 44 NtbHLH genes were mapped to the scaffolds due to the complexity of tobacco genome. Moreover, transcripts of NtbHLH genes were obviously tissue-specific expressed from the gene-chip data from 23 tobacco tissues, and expressions of 20 random selected NtbHLH genes were further confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR, indicating their potential functions in the plant growth and development. Importantly, overexpressed NtbHLH86 gene confers improve drought tolerance in tobacco indicating that it might be involved in the regulation of drought stress. Therefore, our findings here provide a valuable information on the characterization of NtbHLH genes and further investigation of their functions in tobacco.

This study examines the mechanism of adsorption–dispersion by superplasticisers with varying side chain density in cement paste. Acrylic acid was used to copolymerise with 2-methylprop-2-ene polyethylene glycol, using chain transfer agent to synthesise polycarboxylate ether superplasticisers (PCEs) with comparable main chain lengths and different side chain densities. Gel permeation chromatography, zeta potential, total organic carbon and fluidity tests were used to investigate the adsorption–dispersion of PCE samples in cement pastes with different amounts of tricalcium aluminate (C3A) additive. The results indicate: products with higher side chain densities also have correspondingly shorter main chains, which allows them to form conformations with comparable initial adsorption performance; with C3A added, samples with denser side chains performed better, and their resistance to adsorption became more prominent at higher C3A content.

Background Abscisic acid (ABA) is an important phytohormone for plant growth, development and responding to stresses such as drought, salinity, and pathogen infection. Pyrabactin Resistance 1 (PYR1)/PYR1-Like (PYL)/Regulatory Component of ABA Receptor (RCAR) (hereafter referred to as PYLs) has been identified as the ABA receptors. The PYL family members have been well studied in many plants. However, the members of PYL family have not been systematically identified at genome level in cultivated tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and its two ancestors. In this study, the phylogenic relationships, chromosomal distribution, gene structures, conserved motifs/regions, and expression profiles of NtPYLs were analyzed. Results We identified 29, 11, 16 PYLs in the genomes of allotetraploid N. tabacum, and its two diploid ancestors N. tomentosiformis and N. sylvestris, respectively. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that NtPYLs can be divided into three subfamilies, and each NtPYL has one counterpart in N. sylvestris or N. tomentosiformis. Based on microarray analysis of NtPYL transcripts, four NtPYLs (from subfamily II, III), and five NtPYLs (from subfamily I) are highlighted as potential candidates for further functional characterization in N. tabacum seed development, response to ABA, and germination, and resistance to abiotic stresses, respectively. Interestingly, the expression profiles of members in the same NtPYL subfamily showed somehow similar patterns in tissues at different developmental stages and in leaves of seedlings under drought stress, suggesting particular NtPYLs might have multiple functions in both plant development and drought stress response. Conclusions NtPYLs are highlighted for important functions in seed development, germination and response to ABA, and particular in drought tolerance. This work will not only shed light on the PYL family in tobacco, but also provides some valuable information for functional characterization of ABA receptors in N. tabacum. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-019-5839-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The switching behaviour of dihydroazulene/vinylheptafulvene molecule with different anchoring groups sandwiched between two zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) electrodes is investigated by applying nonequilibrium Green's function formalism combined with first-principles density functional theory. The calculated results show that the anchoring groups play a significant role in determining the electronic transport properties and switching behaviour of the molecular junctions. A higher current switching ratio without any oscillation can be obtained for the molecular junctions with carbon atom anchoring group, which suggests that this system has a broader application in future logic and memory devices.

MADS-box genes play a pivotal role in various processes, including floral and seed development, controlling flowering time, regulation of fruits ripening, and respond to abiotic and biotic stressors in planta. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) has been widely used as a model plant for analyzing the gene function, however, there has been less information on the regulation of flowering, and the associated genes. In the present study, a total of 168 NtMADS-box genes were identified from tobacco, and their phylogenetic relationship, chromosome locations, and gene structures were further analyzed. NtMADS-box genes can be clustered into four sub-families of M&alpha, M&gamma, MIKC*, and MIKCC. A total of 111 NtMADS-box genes were distributed on 20 chromosomes, and 57 NtMADS-box genes were located on the unanchored scaffolds due to the complex and incomplete assembly of the tobacco genome. Expression profiles of NtMADS-box genes by microarray from 23 different tissues indicated that members in different NtMADS-box gene subfamilies might play specific roles in the growth and flower development, and the transcript levels of 24 NtMADS-box genes were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR. Importantly, overexpressed NtSOC1/NtMADS133 could promote early flowering and dwarfism in transgenic tobacco plants. Therefore, our findings provide insights on the characterization of NtMADS-box genes to further study their functions in plant development.

Based on the nonequilibrium Green's function method and density functional theory calculations, we investigate the electronic transport properties of a single chiroptical molecular switch with two zigzag graphene nanoribbon electrodes. The molecule undergoing the switch can exhibit different chirality namely cis -isomer and trans -isomer by ultraviolet or visible irradiation. Theoretical results clearly reveal that these two isomers exhibit very different current – voltage characteristics, which can realize the switching behaviors when the molecule converts between cis -isomer and trans -isomer. Furthermore, the negative differential resistance behaviors also can be observed in these two isomers, suggesting potential applications of this type of junctions in future design of functional molecular devices.

We carry out an extensive study, within the infinite matrix product state algorithm, one-dimensional spin-1 Blume–Capel model on the spin-chain and subject to a changeable external magnetic field. The phase transition points are obtained by investigating the behavior of physical observable and as well as exacting the critical exponent from the scaling relationship. The final results are achieved for the physical observable-quantum entanglement entropy, local order parameter and its scaling: the scaling relationship between quantum entanglement entropy and truncation dimension, the scaling of Schmidt decomposition coefficient λ m a x and truncation dimension, the critical exponent of local order parameter near the phase transition point is extracted with the scaling behavior for the model with exchange coupling γ = 0 . 6 . These techniques are an easy way to exact the critical exponent for quantum phase transitions.

We investigated the quantum phase transition occurred in one-dimensional quantum Heisenberg XYZ model with Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction via the infinite matrix product state representation with the infinite time evolving block decimation method. Entanglement entropy and local order parameter in and near the transition point are given. Scaling relation plays crucial roles on identifying a quantum system with a physically different phase. The scaling relation of the entanglement entropy, local order parameter and finite correlation length with the truncation dimension are also obtained. All the interesting results give a theoretical justification for the high accuracy of infinite time evolved block decimation algorithm which works in the thermodynamical limit.

Based on the tensor network representations, we have developed an efficient scheme to calculate the global geometric entanglement as a multipartite entanglement measure for the three-leg spin tubes. From the geometric entanglement, the phase diagram of a spin-3 / 2 isosceles triangle spin tube has been investigated varying the base interaction α. Two Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transitions are estimated to be α c1 ≃ 0.68 and α c2 ≃ 3.85, respectively. Then, even though the spin tube is in gapless spin liquid phases for α < α c1 and α > α c2, the geometrical structure difference between the groundstate wavefunctions for the two regions is found to reflect the global geometric entanglement that contains bipartite and multipartite contributions. Further, the phase transition points from the von Neumann entropies and fidelity are consistent with that from the geometric entanglement. As a result, the global geometric entanglement can be used to explore a geometrical nature of quantum phases as well as an indicator for quantum phase transitions in many-body lattice systems.

The scaling behavior of physical observable in the phase transition point for one-dimensional quantum two-spin and three-spin model is investigated by employing the infinite matrix product state representation with the infinite time evolving block decimation method. The analytical results, which are checked numerically finding excellent agreement for the model with central charge c = 4/5 , demonstrate that the scaling behavior with finite truncation dimension $ \chi$ in local Hilbert space can be employed to characterize the one-dimensional quantum spin model. Meanwhile, the infinite time evolving block decimation algorithm by the infinite matrix product state representation can be a quite accurate method to obtain the critical properties at continuous phase transition point.

Drought is one of the most severe forms of abiotic stresses that threaten the survival of plants, including crops. In turn, plants dramatically change their physiology to increase drought tolerance, including reconfiguration of proteomes. Here, we studied drought-induced proteomic changes in leaves of cultivated tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), a solanaceous plant, using the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-based protein labeling technology. Of identified 5570 proteins totally, drought treatment increased and decreased abundance of 260 and 206 proteins, respectively, compared with control condition. Most of these differentially regulated proteins are involved in photosynthesis, metabolism, and stress and defense. Although abscisic acid (ABA) levels greatly increased in drought-treated tobacco leaves, abundance of detected ABA biosynthetic enzymes showed no obvious changes. In contrast, heat shock proteins (HSPs), thioredoxins, ascorbate-, glutathione-, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-related proteins were up- or down-regulated in drought-treated tobacco leaves, suggesting that chaperones and redox signaling are important for tobacco tolerance to drought, and it is likely that redox-induced posttranslational modifications play an important role in modulating protein activity. This study not only provides a comprehensive dataset on overall protein changes in drought-treated tobacco leaves, but also shed light on the mechanism by which solanaceous plants adapt to drought stress.

By applying first-principles method based on density functional theory combined with nonequilibrium Green’s function, we investigate the effect of torsion angle on the electronic transport properties in dipyrimidinyl–diphenyl co-oligomer molecular device with tailoring graphene nanoribbon electrodes. The results show that the torsion angle plays an important role on the electronic transport properties of the molecular device. When the torsion angle rotates from 0[Formula: see text] to 90[Formula: see text], the molecular devices exhibit very different current–voltage characteristics which can realize the on and off states of the molecular switch.

With the experimental advances in microscale fabrication technology, the designing of functional devices by using single molecules has become one of the most promising methods for the next generation of electronic devices. Molecular rectifier, as a basic component almost for any electronic device, has become a research hotspot in molecular electronics. Recently, one-dimensional graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) which cut off from the novel two-dimensional material-graphene were used as the electrodes for several molecular devices due to their unique electronic structures and transport characteristics. The GNRs have less serious contact problems than metallic electrode materials like gold. In this paper, we investigate the rectifying performances of oligo phenylene ethynylene molecular devices based on graphene electrodes by using the density-functional theory and the non-equilibrium Green's function method. The effect of functional group on the rectifying performances of molecular device is discussed. The results show that the functional group plays a significant role in determining the rectifying performances of oligo phenylene ethynylene molecular device. The rectifying ratio can be effectively tuned by the functional group: adding the donor group (NH2) can lead to the positive rectifying phenomenon, adding the acceptor group (NO2) can trigger the negative rectifying phenomenon, and simultaneously adding NH2 and NO2 groups can bring about an alternate phenomenon between positive and reverse rectifying . The physical mechanism of the rectifying behavior is explained based on the transmission spectra and molecular projected self-consistent Hamiltonian. The transmission spectra of four models (M1-M4) bias voltages in range from-1.0 V to 1.0 V are given. The main transmission peak of M1 for positive bias is similar to that for negative bias, resulting in a weak rectification ratio. However, for M2 and M3, the main transmission peaks for positive and negative bias are significantly different from each other, which shows obviously a rectifying behavior. For M4, the main transmission peak is higher for the bias of (0.44-0.83 V) and also for the bias (0.95-1.00 V), showing an alternate phenomenon between positive and reverse rectifying. The maximum rectification ratio reaches 2.71 by adding an acceptor group (NO2), which suggests that this system has attractive potential applications in future molecular circuit.

The quantum Gaussian phase transition is investigated for the infinite spin-1 bond-alternative Heisenberg model in one spatial dimension. By using a tensor network representation with an infinite matrix product state approach, the ground state energy, bipartite entanglement entropy, non-local string order, and fidelity per lattice site are calculated to characterize the phase transition. At the quantum phase transition point, the scaling behavior of various physical observables with respect to the finite truncation dimension are discussed for the ground state wavefunctions. In addition, the central charge is extracted from the finite entanglement entropies and the finite correlation lengths. Furthermore, the various critical exponents of the string order are calculated. The characteristic critical exponents and the central charge determine the universality class of the phase transition.