Search

King grass, a hybrid grass between pearl millet and elephant grass, has many excellent characteristics such as high biomass yield, great stress tolerance, and enormous economic and ecological value, which makes it ideal for development of phytoremediation. At present, the physiological and molecular response of king grass to cadmium (Cd) stress is poorly understood. Transcriptome analysis of early response (3 h and 24 h) of king grass leaves and roots to high level Cd (100 µM) has been investigated and has shed light on the molecular mechanism underlying Cd stress response in this hybrid grass. Our comparative transcriptome analysis demonstrated that in combat with Cd stress, king grass roots have activated the glutathione metabolism pathway by up-regulating glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) which are a multifunctional family of phase II enzymes that detoxify a variety of environmental chemicals, reactive intermediates, and secondary products of oxidative damages. In roots, early inductions of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and phenylalanine metabolism pathways were observed to be enriched in differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Meanwhile, oxidoreductase activities were significantly enriched in the first 3 h to bestow the plant cells with resistance to oxidative stress. We also found that transporter activities and jasmonic acid (JA)-signaling might be activated by Cd in king grass. Our study provided the first-hand information on genome-wide transcriptome profiling of king grass and novel insights on phytoremediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies and the major cause of cancer-related death in women. Although the importance of PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) in cancer has been increasingly recognized, few studies have been explored the functional mechanism of piRNAs in breast cancer development and progression. Methods: We examined the top 20 highly expressed piRNAs based on the analysis of TCGA breast cancer data in two patient cohorts to test the roles of piRNAs in breast cancer. The effects of piRNA-36,712 on the malignant phenotypes and chemosensitivity of breast cancer cells were detected in vitro and in vivo. MS2-RIP and reporter gene assays were conducted to identify the interaction and regulation among piRNA-36,712, miRNAs and SEPW1P. Kaplan-Meier estimate with log-rank test was used to compare patient survival by different piRNA-36,712 expression levels. Results: We found piRNA-36,712 level was significantly lower in breast cancer than in normal breast tissues and low level was correlated with poor clinical outcome in patients. Functional studies demonstrated that piRNA-36,712 interacts with RNAs produced by SEPW1P, a retroprocessed pseudogene of SEPW1, and subsequently inhibits SEPW1 expression through competition of SEPW1 mRNA with SEPW1P RNA for microRNA-7 and microRNA-324. We also found that higher SEPW1 expression due to downregulation of piRNA-36,712 in breast cancer may suppress P53, leading to the upregulated Slug but decreased P21 and E-cadherin levels, thus promoting cancer cell proliferation, invasion and migration. Furthermore, we found that piRNA-36,712 had synergistic anticancer effects with the paclitaxel and doxorubicin, two chemotherapeutic agents for breast cancer. Conclusions: These findings suggest that piRNA-36,712 is a novel tumor suppressor and may serve as a potential predictor for the prognosis of breast cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is expected to investigate the association of ATP/GTP binding protein-like 4 (AGBL4), LDL receptor related protein 8 (LRP8) and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) gene single nucleotide variants (SNVs) with lipid metabolism in 2,552 individuals (Jing, 1,272 and Han, 1,280). We identified 12 mutations in this motif. The genotype and allele frequencies of these variants were different between the two populations. Multiple-locus linkage disequilibrium (LD) elucidated the detected sites are not statistically independent. Possible integrative haplotypes and gene-by-gene (G × G) interactions, comprising mutations of the AGBL4, LRP8 and PCSK9 associated with total cholesterol (TC, AGBL4 G-G-A, PCSK9 C-G-A-A and G-G-A-A-C-A-T-T-T-G-G-A), triglyceride (TG, AGBL4 G-G-A, LRP8 G-A-G-C-C, PCSK9 C-A-A-G, A-A-G-G-A-G-C-C-C-A-A-G and A-A-G-G-A-G-C-C-C-G-A-A), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C, AGBL4 A-A-G and A-A-G-A-A-G-T-C-C-A-A-G) and the apolipoprotein(Apo)A1/ApoB ratio (A1/B, PCSK9 C-A-A-G) in Jing minority. However, in the Hans, with TG (AGBL4 G-G-A, LRP8 G-A-G-C-C, PCSK9 C-A-A-G, A-A-G-G-A-G-C-C-C-A-A-G and A-A-G-G-A-G-C-C-C-G-A-A), HDL-C (LRP8 A-A-G-T-C), LDL-C (LRP8 A-A-G-T-C and A-A-G-A-A-G-T-C-C-A-A-G) and A1/B (LRP8 A-C-A-T-T and PCSK9 C-A-A-G). Association analysis based on haplotype clusters and G × G interactions probably increased power over single-locus tests especially for TG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regioselective one-pot [3 + 2]-cycloaddition/iodocyclization cascade reaction of alkyne-tethered cinnamates/chalcones and toluenesulfonylmethyl isocyanide (TosMIC) shows a dedicated solvent dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents chemical equations related to the article "Transition-Metal-Free Synthesis of Fluorinated Nitriles and Diaryl Ketones Through a Selective C-F Bond Functionalization under Mild Conditions" by G.-H. Yang and others, published in "European Journal of Organic Chemistry" in 2015.

An abstract of the article "[3 + 3]-Cycloaddition Reactions of α-Acidic Isocyanides with 1,3-Dipolar Azomethine Imines" is presented.

The tandem [3 + 2] cycloaddition/intramolecular imidoyl anion trapping strategy is successfully applied for the synthesis of the title compounds from alkenoyl bis(ketene dithioacetals) and tosylmethyl isocyanide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The base-promoted reaction of cyclic enediones with isocyanides (II) leads to 7- and 8-membered-ring fused pyrroles (III) in moderate yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents chemical equations related to the article "Facile [7C + 1C] Annulation as an Efficient Route to Tricyclic Indolizidine Alkaloids" by X. Liu, L. Zhang, L. Pan and others, published in the "Angewandte Chemie International Edition" in 2013.

A novel strategy for the synthesis of title compounds (III)/(IV) and (VI)/(VII) from alkenoylacetamides (I) and (V) and isonitrile (II) is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Succinimide derivatives (II) are efficiently synthesized by the new method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]