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Domesticated crops with high yield and quality are frequently susceptible to pathogen attack, whereas enhancement of disease resistance generally compromises crop yield. The underlying mechanisms of how plant development and disease resistance are coordinately programed remain elusive. Here, we showed that the basic Helix-Loop-Helix (bHLH) transcription factor Cucumis sativus Irregular Vasculature Patterning (CsIVP) was highly expressed in cucumber vascular tissues. Knockdown of CsIVP caused severe vasculature disorganization and abnormal organ morphogenesis. CsIVP directly binds to vascular-related regulators YABBY5 (CsYAB5), BREVIPEDICELLUS (CsBP), and AUXIN/INDOLEACETIC ACIDS4 (CsAUX4) and promotes their expression. Knockdown of CsYAB5 resulted in similar phenotypes as CsIVP-RNA interference (RNAi) plants, including disturbed vascular configuration and abnormal organ morphology. Meanwhile, CsIVP-RNAi plants were more resistant to downy mildew and accumulated more salicylic acid (SA). CsIVP physically interacts with NIM1-INTERACTING1 (CsNIMIN1), a negative regulator in the SA signaling pathway. Thus, CsIVP is a novel vasculature regulator functioning in CsYAB5-mediated organ morphogenesis and SA-mediated downy mildew resistance in cucumber.

In this article, a CRET-based chemiluminescent sensor was developed for ascorbic acid detection. Au/Pt@Cu2O/CuO NPs with peroxidase activity were prepared to catalyse the decomposition of H2O2 to produce free radicals, which led to the enhancement of the chemiluminescence (CL) signal, and the CRET between luminol and MnO2 NSs was able to take place and the CL signal was reduced; the presence of ascorbic acid would reduce MnO2 NSs, which was able to weaken the energy transfer between luminol and MnO2 NSs and restored the CL signal. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the detection range of ascorbic acid was 1–1000 μM, and the LOD was 0.35 μM. The method is sensitive and has a wide linear range, and is expected to be applied to the detection of ascorbic acid in more complex environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex chromosomes evolved from autosomes many times across the eukaryote phylogeny. Several models have been proposed to explain this transition, some involving male and female sterility mutations linked in a region of suppressed recombination between X and Y (or Z/W, U/V) chromosomes. Comparative and experimental analysis of a reference genome assembly for a double haploid YY male garden asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) individual implicates separate but linked genes as responsible for sex determination. Dioecy has evolved recently within Asparagus and sex chromosomes are cytogenetically identical with the Y, harboring a megabase segment that is missing from the X. We show that deletion of this entire region results in a male-to-female conversion, whereas loss of a single suppressor of female development drives male-to-hermaphrodite conversion. A single copy anther-specific gene with a male sterile Arabidopsis knockout phenotype is also in the Y-specific region, supporting a two-gene model for sex chromosome evolution.

To explore the degradation rule of anthocyanin subjected with different environmental factors and food matrices, the effects of different temperatures (4~100 °C), illumination conditions (avoiding light, sunlight, and ultraviolet), freeze-thaw cycles (5 times), sucrose additions (0 ~ 20%) and NaCl additions (0 ~ 5. 0%) on the anthocyanin retention were investigated, and their degradation kinetic models were further established. Results showed that, with the temperature increasing from 4 °C to 100 °C, anthocyanin retention of 10 h decreased significantly from 88. 19% to 28. 10%, and their half-life time (t1/ 2) decreased from 55. 0 h to 5. 9 h(P<0. 05). Com- pared with avoiding light, both anthocyanin retention of 10 h and t1/ 2 under ultraviolet were the lowest (84. 41% and 43. 0 h). After five freeze-thaw cycles, anthocyanin retention of 120 h was reduced to 85. 21% with the corresponding t1/ 2 of 612. 6 h. During 80 °C of stability acceleration experiment, both anthocyanin retention of 10 h and their t1/ 2 reached the highest value (60. 17% and 13. 7 h) with sucrose addition of 10%, and the above values also reached the highest value (54. 63% and 11. 3 h) with NaCl addition of 5%. The storage and processing of anthocyanins should avoid high temperature, ultraviolet and freeze-thaw cycles as much as possible, and appropriate amount of sucrose and NaCl could be added to enhance the stability of antholyanins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic nephropathy, primarily caused by advanced glycation end products (AGEs), is a serious complication resulting from type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Reportedly, theaflavins (TFs) can improve diabetic nephropathy; however, the underlying molecular mechanism is not fully clear. In this study, T2DM mice were treated with different concentrations of TFs by gavage for 10 weeks to investigate the effect of TFs on diabetic nephropathy and their potential molecular mechanism of action. Biochemical and pathological analysis showed that the TFs effectively improved blood glucose, insulin resistance, kidney function, and other symptoms in diabetic mice. The mechanism studies indicated that TFs inhibited the formation of AGEs, thereby inhibiting the activation of the MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway. Therefore, our study suggested that TFs improved diabetic nephropathy by inhibiting the formation of AGEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]