Search

Titanium (Ti) and its alloys have been universally used as surgical implants, and the clinical need for modifying titanium surfaces to accelerate early stage osseointegration and prevent implant loosening is in huge demand. 3D printing technology is an accurate and controllable method to create titanium implants with complex nanostructures, which provide enough space to react and fit in the microenvironment of cells. Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have attracted attention in promoting osteogenesis. The vesicles derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSC-EVs) have been proved to pack osteogenic-relative RNAs thereby regulating the osteogenic differentiation and mineralization of the target BMSCs. Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-derived peptides are typical peptides used to improve cell attachment and proliferation in bone tissue engineering. A novel strategy is proposed to load RGD-derived peptides on EVs with a fusion peptide (EVs

BackgroundTrichomes are excellent model systems for the analysis of cell differentiation and play essential roles in plant protection. From cucumber inbred line ‘WD1’, we identified an EMS-induced trichome abnormally developing mutant,nps, which exhibited smaller, denser and no pyramid-shaped head trichomes.ResultsUsing F2and BC1populations constructed from a cross betweennpsand ‘9930’, the genetic analysis showed that thenpstrait is controlled by a single recessive nuclear gene. We identifiedCsNpsby map-based cloning with 576 individuals of the F2population generated from the cross ofnpsand inbred line ‘9930’. TheCsNpswas located at a 13.4-kb genomic region on chromosome 3, which region contains three predicted genes. Sequence analysis showed that only one single nucleotide mutation (C → T) between 9930 andnpswas found in the second exon ofCsa3G748220, a plant-specific class I HD-Zip gene. The result of allelism test also indicated thatnpsis a novel allelic mutant ofMict(Micro-trichome). Thus,npswas renamedmict-L130F. By comparing the transcriptome ofmict-L130Fvs WD1 and 06–2 (mict) vs 06–1 (wildtype, near-isogenic line of 06–2), several potential target genes that may be related to trichome development were identified.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate thatMict-L130Fis involved in the morphogenesis of trichomes. Map-based cloning of theMict-L130Fgene could promote the study of trichome development in cucumber.

Sex determination is a crucially important developmental event that is pervasive throughout nature and enhances the adaptation of species. Among plants, cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) can generate both unisexual and bisexual flowers, and the sex type is mainly controlled by several 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthases (CsACSs). However, the regulatory mechanism of these synthases remains elusive. Here, we used gene expression analysis, protein–DNA interaction assays, and transgenic plants to study the function of a gynoecium-specific gene, ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR31 (CsERF31), in female flower differentiation. We found that in a predetermined female flower, ethylene signaling activates CsERF31 by CsEIN3, and then CsERF31 stimulates CsACS2, which triggers a positive feedback loop to ensure female rather than bisexual flower development. A similar interplay is functionally conserved in melon (Cucumis melo L.). Knockdown of CsERF31 by RNAi causes defective bisexual flowers to replace female flowers. Ectopic expression of CsERF31 suppresses stamen development and promotes pistil development in male flowers, demonstrating that CsERF31 functions as a sex switch. Taken together, our data confirm that CsERF31 represents the molecular link between female–male determination and female–bisexual determination, and provide mechanistic insight into how ethylene promotes female flowers, rather than bisexual flowers, in cucumber sex determination.

An unusual flower and tendril (uft) mutant in cucumber was caused by a mutation in Csa1G056950 encoding an F-box protein. Flowers and tendrils are important agronomic and yield traits of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). In this study, we identified an unusual flower and tendril (uft) mutant from an ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis population. Genetic analysis revealed that the phenotype of the uft mutant was regulated by a single recessive nuclear gene. Map-based cloning and MutMap+ results demonstrated that Csa1G056950 (CsUFO), encoding an F-box protein, was the causal gene for the uft mutant phenotype of cucumber. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation (C to T) in the second exon of CsUFO resulted in premature translation termination. The expression level of CsUFO was significantly decreased in apical buds of the uft mutant compared with the wild-type (WT) WD1. Transcriptome analysis indicated that many genes for organ development were down-regulated in uft plants, suggesting CsUFO-associated networks that regulate flower and tendril development. These findings provide a new insight into understanding the molecular mechanisms of flower organogenesis in cucumber.

Emerging transcriptome high throughput screenings reveal the landscape and functions of RNAs, such as circular RNAs (circRNAs), in human cancer. In addition, the post-transcriptional internal modifications, especially N6-methyladenosine (m6A), greatly enrich the variety of RNAs metabolism. However, the m6A modification on circRNAs has yet to be addressed. Here, we report an epitranscriptome-wide mapping of m6A-modified circRNAs (m6A-circRNA) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Utilizing the data of MeRIP-seq and m6A-circRNAs epitranscriptomic microarray analysis, we found that m6A-circRNAs exhibited their particular modification style in OSCC, which was independent of m6A-mRNA. Besides, m6A modification on circRNAs frequently occurred on the long exons in the front part of the coding sequence (CDS), which was distinct from m6A-mRNA that in 3’-UTR or stop codon. In conclusion, our work preliminarily demonstrates the traits of m6A-circRNAs and probed into the association of m6A-circRNAs and m6A-mRNA, which may bring enlighten for the roles of m6A-circRNAs in OSCC.

The cement industry is one of the globe largest sources of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Thus, it is very urgent to develop new methods to reduce the CO2 emissions produced by the cement product...

Plants monitor environmental cues to balance growth by optimizing their inflorescence architecture. TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) and its orthologues regulate the inflorescence structure in cucumber, yet the mechanisms underlying their responses to environmental factors and the formation of terminal flowers remain elusive. Here, we performed map-based cloning to identify the gene that controls a season-dependent determinate growth phenotype and found that it was caused by the complete deletion of CsTFL1 in the genome of cucumber line WI1983Hde. In the CsTFL1 deletion plants (CsTFL1del ), determinate growth could be partially rescued by high-temperature and long-day conditions. The expressions of CsTFL1 and its orthologue CsTFL1d could be upregulated by long-day and high-temperature signals. Knockdown of CsTFL1d resulted in determinate growth and the formation of terminal flowers in WT. These results indicate that the induction of CsTFL1d expression by long-day and high- temperature might partially rescue determinate growth of CsTFL1del . Furthermore, biochemical analyses showed that CsTFL1d interacts directly with CsNOT2a, which indicated that CsTFL1d and CsTFL1 function via similar regulatory mechanism. Our data suggest that CsTFL1 and CsTFL1d co-contribute to inhibit determinate growth by responding to temperature and photoperiod signals. It provides mechanistic insights into how environmental cues sculpt the inflorescence architecture of cucumber. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Trichomes that cover the epidermis of aerial plant organs play multiple roles in plant protection. Compared with a unicellular trichome in model plants, the development mechanism of the multicellular trichome is largely unclear. Notably, variations in trichome development are often accompanied by defects in the biosynthesis of cuticle and secondary metabolites; however, major questions about the interactions between developmental differences in trichomes and defects in metabolic pathways remain unanswered. Here, we characterized the glabrous mutantmict/csgl1/cstbhvia combined metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses to extend our limited knowledge regarding multicellular trichome development and metabolism in cucumber.Mictwas found to be explicitly expressed within trichome cells. Transcriptomic analysis indicated that genes involved in flavonoid and cuticle metabolism are significantly downregulated inmictmutants. Further metabolomic analysis confirmed that flavonoids, lipids, and cuticle compositions are dramatically altered inmictmutants. Additional studies revealed thatMictregulates flavonoid, lipid, and cuticle biosynthesis by likely directly binding to downstream functional genes, such asCsTT4,CsFLS1,CsCER26, andCsMYB36. These findings suggest that specific metabolic pathways (e.g., flavonoids and cuticle components) are co-regulated byMictand provide insights into transcriptional regulation mechanisms of multicellular trichome development and its specific metabolism in cucumber.

Additional file 2 Figure S2 Phenotype of leaves on nps, mict and F1(nps×mict).

Additional file 5 File S1 Amino acid sequence alignment of Mict between 10 cucumber natural lines and mutant nps.

Additional file 1 Figure S1 Partical results of linkage analysis with dcaps-M demonstrating that this marker is co-segregated with the phenotype.

Additional file 3 Figure S3 qRT-PCR confirmation of differentially expressed genes identified by transcriptome analysis.

Additional file 4 Figure S4 Mict-L130F activates the expression of CsTT4, CsFLS1, CsCER26, and CsMYB36.

TCP proteins are plant-specific transcription factors widely implicated in leaf morphogenesis and senescence, flowering, lateral branching, hormone crosstalk, and stress responses. However, the relationship between the transcription pattern of TCPs and organ development in cucumber has not been systematically studied. In this study, we performed a genome-wide identification of putative TCP genes and analyzed their chromosomal location, gene structure, conserved motif, and transcript expression. A total of 27 putative TCP genes were identified and characterized in cucumber. All 27 putative CsTCP genes were classified into class I and class II. Class I comprised 12 CsTCPs and Class II contained 15 CsTCPs. The 27 putative CsTCP genes were randomly distributed in five of seven chromosomes in cucumber. Four putative CsTCP genes were found to contain putative miR319 target sites. Quantitative RT-PCR revealed that 27 putative CsTCP genes exhibited different expression patterns in cucumber tissues and floral organ development. Transcript expression and phenotype analysis showed that the putative CsTCP genes responded to temperature and photoperiod and were induced by gibberellin (GA)and ethylene treatment, which suggested that CsTCP genes may regulate the lateral branching by involving in multiple signal pathways. These results lay the foundation for studying the function of cucumber TCP genes in the future.

Trichomes and fruit spines are important traits that directly affect the appearance quality and commercial value of cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Tril (Trichome-less), encodes a HD-Zip IV transcription factor that plays a crucial role in the initiation of trichomes and fruit spines, but little is known about the details of the regulatory mechanisms involved. In this study, analysis of tissue expression patterns indicated that Tril is expressed and functions in the early stages of organ initiation and development. Expression of Tril under the control of its own promoter (the TrilPro::Tril-3*flag fragment) could partly rescue the mutant phenotypes of tril, csgl3 (cucumber glabrous 3, an allelic mutant of tril), and fs1 (few spines 1, a fragment substitution in the Tril promoter region), providing further evidence that Tril is responsible for the initiation of trichomes and fruit spines. In lines with dense spine, fs1-type lines, and transgenic lines of different backgrounds containing the TrilPro::Tril-3*flag foreign fragment, spine density increased in conjunction with increases in Tril expression, indicating that Tril has a gene dosage effect on fruit spine density in cucumber. Numerous Spines (NS) is a negative regulatory factor of fruit spine density. Characterization of the molecular and genetic interaction between Tril and NS/ns demonstrated that Tril functions upstream of NS with respect to spine initiation. Overall, our results reveal a novel regulatory mechanism governing the effect of Tril on fruit spine development, and provide a reference for future work on breeding for physical quality in cucumber.

Lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable resource capable of addressing the increasing worldwide demand for energy and the movement toward low carbon footprint, liquid transportation and aviation biofuels. Purposely grown energy crops (wood and grasses) and crop residues (corn stalks, sugarcane bagasse, and wheat straw) are available for conversion to biofuels if attractive process economics are achieved in hydrolyzing these lignocellulosic materials to sugars and converting the sugars to biofuels and bioproducts. Cellulase enzymes that hydrolyze cellulose to glucose currently contribute operating expenses of $0.15–$0.20 per liter of ethanol out of a total of $0.53. The goal is to decrease enzyme costs to 3–5 ¢/L. The high cost is in part due to the high loading of cellulases needed to make up activity losses when the enzymes bind to lignin rather than the cellulose substrate that is located in close proximity to the lignin. We address the concept of using liquid chromatography columns packed with biomass to efficiently probe partitioning of cellulases and other proteins on the surfaces of various forms of lignocellulose. The correlation of elution profiles to fundamental adsorption behavior provides a pathway to a deeper understanding of inhibition of cellulose hydrolysis due to interactions of proteins at heterogeneous lignocellulosic interfaces.

Fiber-based monoliths for use in liquid chromatographic separations are defined by columns packed with aligned fibers, woven matrices, or contiguous fiber structures capable of achieving rapid separations of proteins, macromolecules, and low molecular weight components. A common denominator and motivating driver for this approach, first initiated 25 years ago, was reducing the cost of bioseparations in a manner that also reduced residence time of retained components while achieving a high ratio of mass to momentum transfer. This type of medium, when packed into a liquid chromatography column, minimized the fraction of stagnant liquid and resulted in a constant plate height for non-adsorbing species. The uncoupling of dispersion from eluent flow rate enabled the surface chemistry of the stationary phase to be considered separately from fluid transport phenomena and pointed to new ways to apply chemistry for the engineering of rapid bioseparations. This paper addresses developments and current research on fiber-based monoliths and explains how the various forms of this type of chromatographic stationary phase have potential to provide new tools for analytical and preparative scale separations. The different stationary phases are discussed, and a model that captures the observed constant plate height as a function of mobile phase velocity is reviewed. Methods that enable hydrodynamically stable fiber columns to be packed and operated over a range of mobile phase flow rates, together with the development of new fiber chemistries, are shown to provide columns that extend the versatility of liquid chromatography using monoliths, particularly at the preparative scale. Graphical Abstract Schematic representation of a sample mixture being separated by a rolled-stationary phase column, resulting separated peaks shown in the chromatogram.

TCP proteins are plant-specific transcription factors widely implicated in leaf morphogenesis and senescence, flowering, lateral branching, hormone crosstalk, and stress responses. However, the relationship between the transcription pattern of TCPs and organ development in cucumber has not been systematically studied. In this study, we performed a genome-wide identification of putative TCP genes and analyzed their chromosomal location, gene structure, conserved motif, and transcript expression. A total of 27 putative TCP genes were identified and characterized in cucumber. All 27 putative CsTCP genes were classified into class I and class II. Class I comprised 12 CsTCPs and Class II contained 15 CsTCPs. The 27 putative CsTCP genes were randomly distributed in five of seven chromosomes in cucumber. Four putative CsTCP genes were found to contain putative miR319 target sites. Quantitative RT-PCR revealed that 27 putative CsTCP genes exhibited different expression patterns in cucumber tissues and floral organ development. Transcript expression and phenotype analysis showed that the putative CsTCP genes responded to temperature and photoperiod and were induced by gibberellin (GA)and ethylene treatment, which suggested that CsTCP genes may regulate the lateral branching by involving in multiple signal pathways. These results lay the foundation for studying the function of cucumber TCP genes in the future.

Figure S10. Alignment of promoter sequence of CsUP from WT and up. (PDF 108 kb)

Figure S8. Genomic DNA sequence alignment of Cs535790 from WT and up (PDF 67 kb)

Figure S5. Alignment of predicted protein sequences between WT and CGN19839. The amino acid highlighted in red is the acid alternation (Ile47 in WT to Val47 in CGN19839) caused by the SNP in the first exon of Csa1G535800. The amino acids highlighted in yellow are abnormal in CGN19839 and the amino acids highlighted in blue are missing in CGN19839. The DnaJ domain at the C-terminal is underlined (PDF 81 kb)

Figure S3. Pedicel orientation of B1 and CGN19839 indicating that both inbred lines have the upward-pedicel phenotype (PDF 271 kb)

Table S1. Primers used for mapping, cloning and qPCR. (PDF 186â kb) (PDF 185 kb)

Figure S7. Alignment of coding sequence of CsUP from WT and up with 19 other cucumber lines. The whole coding sequence length is 1404 bp. The 491–495 bp position of up and B1 is the 5-bp deletion highlighted in blue. The 139 bp position of CGN19839 that altered from A to G is highlighted in red, and the 1234–1237 bp position in CGN19839 is the 4-bp deletion in blue (PDF 451 kb)

Figure S2. Partial results of linkage analysis with indel-CsUp demonstrating that this marker is co-segregated with the upward-pedicel phenotype (PDF 91 kb)

Figure S4. Structure of Csa1G535800 and two mutation sites in CGN19839. a Structure of Csa1G535800. Boxes and lines indicate exons and introns, respectively. Two green boxes in Csa1G535800 indicate the 5′ UTR and the 3′ UTR. Sequencing results revealed that, compared to WT, CGN19839 has a SNP in the first exon and a 4-bp deletion in the sixth exon of Csa1G535800. The yellow box shows the deletion sequence in CGN19839. b The position of the SNP and the 4-bp deletion in the encoding sequence. Sequencing results revealed that there was a SNP (‘A’ in C-8-6 and ‘G’ in CGN19839) at 139 bp and a 4-bp deletion at 1234–1237 bp from the ATG start codon (PDF 188 kb)

Figure S6. Genomic DNA sequence alignment of CsUP from WT, up and CGN19839 (PDF 231 kb)

Background Pedicel orientation can affect the female flower orientation and seed yield in cucumber. A spontaneous mutant possessing upward growth of pedicels was identified in the wild type inbred strain 9930 and named upward-pedicel (up). The morphological and genetic analyses of up were performed in this study. In order to clone the up gene, 933 F2 individuals and 524 BC1 individuals derived from C-8-6 (WT) and up were used for map-based cloning. Results up was mapped to a 35.2 kb physical interval on chromosome 1, which contains three predicted genes. Sequencing analysis revealed that a 5-bp deletion was found in the second exon of Csa1G535800, and it led to a frameshift mutation resulting in a premature stop codon. The candidate gene of CsUp (Csa1G535800) was further confirmed via genomic and cDNA sequencing in biparental and natural cucumber populations. Sequencing data showed that a 4-bp deletion was found in the sixth exon of Csa1G535800 in CGN19839, another inbred line, and there was also a mutation of an amino acid in Csa1G535800 that could contribute to the upward growth of pedicels in CGN19839. Moreover, it was found that Csa1G535800 exhibited strong expression in the pedicel of WT, suggesting its important role in development of pedicel orientation. Thus, Csa1G535800 was considered to be the candidate gene of CsUp. Conclusions CsUp encodes an Auxilin-like protein and controls pedicel orientation in cucumber. The identification of CsUp may help us to understand the mechanism of pedicel orientation development and allow for investigation of novel functions of Auxilin-like proteins in cucumber.

The online self-adjustment of parameters of diesel engines mechanical speed controller is achieved by a designed fuzzy PID controller, through establishing a mathematic model of diesel engine mechanical centrifugal speed controller and the application of the advantages of the conventional PID control and fuzzy control. The fuzzy PID diesel engine mechanical speed control system is simulated by Simulink of MATLAB. The digital electronic governor depends on controlling software to realize the function of regulation and control. It can automatically regulate the accelerograph of the diesel engine, gives the engine the right amount fuel oil, and lets the diesel engine work at the fixed rotational speed when the load is being changed. It also has solved the mechanical governor problems such as poor accuracy and large time consumption to achieve stable state, and it is versatile and possesses extensional ability. The simulation results suggest fine dynamic performance, strong robustness, and better adaptability, compared to the conventional PID control algorithm of fuzzy self-adjustment PID algorithm. The performance of diesel engine speed control system is thusly largely advanced. Keywords-Diesel Engine; Rotational Speed Regulation; Fuzzy PID Control Algorithm; Mathematic Model; Simulation of Control System

Removal of enzyme inhibitors released during lignocellulose pretreatment is essential for economically feasible biofuel production. We tested bio-abatement to mitigate enzyme inhibitor effects observed in corn stover liquors after pretreatment with either dilute acid or liquid hot water at 10% (w/v) solids. Bio-abatement of liquors was followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. To distinguish between inhibitor effects on enzymes and recalcitrance of the substrate, pretreated corn stover solids were removed and replaced with 1% (w/v) Solka Floc. Cellulose conversion in the presence of bio-abated liquors from dilute acid pretreatment was 8.6% (0.1x enzyme) and 16% (1x enzyme) higher than control (non-abated) samples. In the presence of bio-abated liquor from liquid hot water pretreated corn stover, 10% (0.1x enzyme) and 13% (1x enzyme) higher cellulose conversion was obtained compared to control. Bio-abatement yielded improved enzyme hydrolysis in the same range as that obtained using a chemical (overliming) method for mitigating inhibitors.

For cellular communication systems, CCI (Co-Channel Interference) and ACI (Adjacent Channel Interference) are becoming a capacity limitation. IRC(Interference Rejection Combining) is a technique used in an antenna diversity or virtual antenna diversity system to suppress CCI and ACI, by using the cross covariance between the noise in diversity channels or multi samples. Under interference scene, the IRC technique can obtain many gain compared to the convention receiver. However, under sensitivity scene, the IRC technique worsens the performance compared to the conventional receiver. In order to overcome this drawback of IRC technique, a scene detection algorithm is proposed. The simulation results show this scene detection algorithm, proposed in this paper, can keep the IRC performance in the interference scene and the conventional receiver performance in the sensitivity scene simultaneously

Higher speed will cause more serious Doppler spread, meanwhile change the character of the wireless channel, which breaks suppose that the channel impulse respond (CIR) is a constant during a time slot. In order to overcome this problem, this paper proposed an algorithm which is RS-MAP-PSP (adaptive reduced state maximum a posteriori equalizer based on per-survivor processing) in conjunction with DFE (decision feedback equalizer) for the EDGE system with 8PSK modulation. To reduce the state of the equalizer, a pre-filter is followed by the MAP-PSP to reshape CIR to have approximately a minimum phase property. Our simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the performance of the EDGE system, compared with general receiver algorithm especially for the high coding rate traffic and/or under the high speed environments.