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Let $ C_{n} $ be an $ n $-dimensional cross-polytope and $ \Gamma_{p}(C_{n}) $ be the smallest positive number $ \gamma $ such that $ C_{n} $ can be covered by $ p $ translates of $ \gamma C_{n} $. We obtain better estimates of $ \Gamma_{2^n}(C_n) $ for small $ n $ and a universal upper bound of $ \Gamma_{2^n}(C_n) $ for all positive integers $ n $.

The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 is an attractive target in anti-COVID-19 therapy for its high conservation and major role in the virus life cycle. The covalent Mpro inhibitor nirmatrelvir (in combination with ritonavir, a pharmacokinetic enhancer) and the non-covalent inhibitor ensitrelvir have shown efficacy in clinical trials and have been approved for therapeutic use. Effective antiviral drugs are needed to fight the pandemic, while non-covalent Mpro inhibitors could be promising alternatives due to their high selectivity and favorable druggability. Numerous non-covalent Mpro inhibitors with desirable properties have been developed based on available crystal structures of Mpro. In this article, we describe medicinal chemistry strategies applied for the discovery and optimization of non-covalent Mpro inhibitors, followed by a general overview and critical analysis of the available information. Prospective viewpoints and insights into current strategies for the development of non-covalent Mpro inhibitors are also discussed.

Indolylarylsulfones (IASs) are classical HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) with a unique scaffold and possess potent antiviral activity. To address the high cytotoxicity and improve safety profiles of IASs, we introduced various sulfonamide groups linked by alkyl diamine chain to explore the entrance channel of non-nucleoside inhibitors binding pocket. 48 compounds were designed and synthesized to evaluate their anti-HIV-1 activities and reverse transcriptase inhibition activities. Especially, compound R10L4 was endowed with significant inhibitory activity towards wild-type HIV-1 (EC50(WT) = 0.007 μmol/L, SI = 30,930) as well as a panel of single-mutant strains exemplified by L100I (EC50 = 0.017 μmol/L, SI = 13,055), E138K (EC50 = 0.017 μmol/L, SI = 13,123) and Y181C (EC50 = 0.045 μmol/L, SI = 4753) which were superior to Nevirapine and Etravirine. Notably, R10L4 was characterized with significantly reduced cytotoxicity (CC50 = 216.51 μmol/L) and showed no remarkable in vivo toxic effects (acute and subacute toxicity). Moreover, the computer-based docking study was also employed to characterize the binding mode between R10L4 and HIV-1 RT. Additionally, R10L4 presented an acceptable pharmacokinetic profile. Collectively, these results deliver precious insights for next optimization and indicate that the sulfonamide IAS derivatives are promising NNRTIs for further development.

Forest soils play a vital role in purifying exogenous nitrogen ions and mitigating eutrophication in downstream water bodies. However, the heterogeneity of nitrogen ion removal efficiency in different forest soils and the underlying driving mechanisms remain not fully known. In our research, we selected soils from four typical forest stands, namely, Pinus massoniana-Quercus variabilis mixed forest (MF), Quercus variabilis forest (QF), Pinus massoniana forest (PF), and Citrus reticulata forest (CF), surrounding China’s second largest reservoir in the Yangtze River Basin. Using laboratory simulation experiments, we observed variations in concentration of ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) in soil leachate after addition of exogenous NH4+-N and NO3−-N solutions, along with the corresponding physical, chemical, and microbial factors. The results showed that on Day 21, all soils exhibited comparable removal rates of approximately 93% for NH4+-N and 70% for NO3−-N. On Day 4, 6–15, PF and QF demonstrated significantly higher removal efficiencies for NH4+-N and NO3−-N, respectively. Combining direct with indirect effects from Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM), NH4+-N removal efficiency was promoted by total organic carbon (TOC), soil NO3−-N and NO2−-N, while it was inhibited by soil water content (SWC), urease activity, soil NH4+-N, and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA). NO3−-N removal efficiency was facilitated by SWC, TOC, and urease, while it was restrained by soil NO3−-N and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). Notably, TOC was the only factor that had a comprehensive promoting effect on both NH4+-N and NO3−-N removal efficiency. Our study indicates that soil in coniferous forest excels in NH4+-N removal while broadleaf forest in NO3−-N, and the spatial layout of water source forests should consider water replenishment time, the form of nitrogen ion pollutants, and the nitrogen purification features of different forest types when the prime objective is to purity the water. Additionally, enhancing soil organic carbon could be an effective forest management approach to improve soil nitrogen ion purification and mitigate agricultural and nitrogen deposition pollution.

TIFY [TIF(F/Y)XG] proteins are a plant particular transcription factor family that regulates plant stress responses. Therefore, to fill this gap, we investigated CaTIFY genes in pepper. Gene structure and conserved motifs of the pepper TIFY gene family were systematically analyzed using sequence alignment analysis, Cis-acting element analysis, transcriptomic data, and RT-qPCR analysis, and their expression patterns were further analyzed using Virus-Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS) and cold stress reactive oxygen species (ROS) response. We identified 16 CaTIFY genes in pepper, which were dispersed among seven subgroups (JAZI, JAZII, JAZIII, PPD, TIFY, and ZIM/ZML). Several CaTIFY members had stress-related harmonic-responsive elements, and four (CaTIFY7, CaTIFY10b, CaTIFY1b, and CaTIFY6b) had low-temperature-responsive elements. Transcriptomic data and RT-qPCR analysis revealed that the TIFY genes in pepper displayed different expression patterns in the roots, stems, leaves, flower fruits, and seeds. In particular, CaTIFY7 was highly expressed in young leaves, and CaTIFY10b was highly expressed in roots. CaTIFYs participated in the regulation of several different abiotic stresses and CaTIFY7 and CaTIFY10b were significantly induced by cold stress. Additionally, Virus-Induced Gene Silencing (targeting CaTIFY7 and CaTIFY10b) resulted in plants that were sensitive to cold stress. Conversely, overexpression of CaTIFY7 and CaTIFY10b enhanced plant cold tolerance by promoting the expression of genes related to cold stress and the ROS response. CaTIFY7 and CaTIFY10b interacted with themselves and CaTIFY7 also interacted with CaTIFY10b in the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) system. Our data provide a basis for further analysis of the role of pepper TIFY genes in cold-stress responses in the future.

Bacterial spot (BS) is a severe bacterial disease induced by Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv), a pathogen that causes serious damage to pepper growth and yield. It is therefore important to study the mechanisms of pepper resistance to Xcv and to breed and promote Xcv-resistant pepper varieties. However, studies of the responses to Xcv infection in peppers at the protein level are limited. Here, we examined Xcv-induced proteomic changes in leaves of the BS susceptible bell pepper ECW and the resistant bell pepper VI037601 using the isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-based protein labeling technology. A total of 6,120 distinct proteins were identified, and there were 1,289 significantly differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) in ECW and VI037601 leaves after Xcv inoculation. Among these, 339 (250 up- and 89 down-regulated) and 479 (300 up- and 179 down-regulated) DAPs were specifically identified in ECW and VI037601, respectively, with 459 (364 up- and 95 down-regulated) similarly expressed DAPs being shared by ECW and VI037601. Based on bioinformatics analysis, many defense-associated proteins were identified as up-regulated in ECW and VI037601, especially the proteins involved in plant-pathogen interaction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, and MAPK signaling pathway - plant. Moreover, we evaluated transcript levels of six differentially expressed genes from the iTRAQ results by qRT-PCR. The analysis revealed transcriptional changes that were consistent with the changes at the protein level. This study will provide a valuable resource for understanding the molecular basis of pepper resistance to Xcv infection and for improving the disease resistance of pepper cultivars.

The rational design of PROTACs is difficult due to their obscure structure-activity relationship. Here the authors present a deep neural network model - DeepPROTACs - for predicting the degradation capacity of a proposed PROTAC molecule.

Sugars will eventually be exported transporters (SWEETs) are a novel class of sugar transport proteins that play a crucial role in plant growth, development, and response to stress. However, there is a lack of systematic research on SWEETs in Capsicum annuum L. In this study, 33 CaSWEET genes were identified through bioinformatics analysis. The Ka/Ks analysis indicated that SWEET genes are highly conserved not only among peppers but also among Solanaceae species and have experienced strong purifying selection during evolution. The Cis-elements analysis showed that the light-responsive element, abscisic-acid-responsive element, jasmonic-acid-responsive element, and anaerobic-induction-responsive element are widely distributed in the promoter regions of CaSWEETs. The expression pattern analysis revealed that CaSWEETs exhibit tissue specificity and are widely involved in pepper growth, development, and stress responses. The post-transcription regulation analysis revealed that 20 pepper miRNAs target and regulate 16 CaSWEETs through cleavage and translation inhibition mechanisms. The pathogen inoculation assay showed that CaSWEET16 and CaSWEET22 function as susceptibility genes, as the overexpression of these genes promotes the colonization of pathogens, whereas CaSWEET31 functions as a resistance gene. In conclusion, through systematic identification and characteristic analysis, a comprehensive understanding of CaSWEET was obtained, which lays the foundation for further studies on the biological functions of SWEET genes.

The purple color of unripe pepper fruit is attributed to the accumulation of anthocyanins. Only a few genes controlling the biosynthesis and regulation of anthocyanins have been cloned in Capsicum. In this study, we performed a bulked segregant analysis of the purple striped trait using an F2 population derived from a cross between the immature purple striped fruit line Chen12-4-1-1-1-1 and the normal green fruit line Zhongxian101-M-F9. We mapped the CaPs locus to an 841.39 kb region between markers M-CA690-Xba and MCA710-03 on chromosome 10. CA10g11690 encodes an R2R3-MYB transcription factor that is involved in the biosynthesis of anthocyanins as the best candidate gene. Overexpression and silencing in transformed tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) lines indicated that CA10g11690 is involved in the formation of purple stripes in the exocarp. A comparison of parental sequences identified an insertion fragment of 1,926 bp in the second intron region of Chen12-4, and eight SNPs were detected between the two parents. Additionally, there were 49 single nucleotide polymorphic variations, two sequence deletions, and four sequence insertions in the promoter region. We found that CA10g11690 undergoes alternative splicing and generates different transcripts. Thus, the functional transcript of CA10g11690 appeared to be primarily involved in the development of purple phenotype in the exocarp. Our data provide new insight into the mechanism of anthocyanin biosynthesis and a theoretical basis for the future breeding of purple striped pepper varieties.

Novel therapies are urgently needed to improve global treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Herein, we briefly provide a concise report on the medicinal chemistry strategies towards the development of effective SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors with representative examples in different strategies from the medicinal chemistry perspective.

Abstract Trichomes, specialized epidermal cells located in aerial parts of plants, play indispensable roles in resisting abiotic and biotic stresses. However, the regulatory genes essential for multicellular trichrome development in Capsicum annuum L. (pepper) remain unclear. In this study, the transcript profiles of peppers GZZY-23 (hairy) and PI246331 (hairless) were investigated to gain insights into the genes responsible for the formation of multicellular trichomes. A total of 40,079 genes, including 4743 novel genes and 13,568 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), were obtained. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the most noticeable pathways were transcription factor activity, sequence-specific DNA binding, and plant hormone signal transduction, which might be critical for multicellular trichome formation in hairy plants. We screened 11 DEGs related to trichome development; 151 DEGs involved in plant hormone signal transduction; 312 DEGs belonging to the MYB, bHLH, HD-Zip, and zinc finger transcription factor families; and 1629 DEGs predicted as plant resistance genes (PRGs). Most of these DEGs were highly expressed in GZZY-23 or trichomes. Several homologs of trichome regulators, such as SlCycB2, SlCycB3, and H, were considerably upregulated in GZZY-23, especially in the trichomes. The transcriptomic data generated in this study provide a basis for future characterization of trichome formation in pepper.

Filamentation temperature-sensitive H (FtsH) is a proteolytic enzyme that plays an important role in plant photomorphogenesis and stress resistance. However, information regarding the FtsH family genes in pepper is limited. In our research, through genome-wide identification, 18 members of the pepper FtsH family (including five FtsHi members) were identified and renamed based on phylogenetic analysis. CaFtsH1 and CaFtsH8 were found to be essential for pepper chloroplast development and photosynthesis because FtsH5 and FtsH2 were lost in Solanaceae diploids. We found that the CaFtsH1 and CaFtsH8 proteins were located in the chloroplasts and specifically expressed in pepper green tissues. Meanwhile, CaFtsH1 and CaFtsH8-silenced plants created by virus-induced gene silencing exhibited albino leaf phenotypes. In addition, CaFtsH1-silenced plants were observed to contain very few dysplastic chloroplasts and lost the capacity for photoautotrophic growth. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the expression of chloroplast-related genes such as those coding the photosynthesis-antenna protein and structural proteins was downregulated in CaFtsH1-silenced plants, resulting in the inability to form normal chloroplasts. This study improves our understanding of pepper chloroplast formation and photosynthesis through the identification and functional study of CaFtsH genes.

Wetlands are the largest natural source of terrestrial CH4 emissions. Afforestation can enhance soil CH4 oxidation and decrease methanogenesis, yet the driving mechanisms leading to these effects remain unclear. We analyzed the structures of communities of methanogenic and methanotrophic microbes, quantification of mcrA and pmoA genes, the soil microbial metagenome, soil properties and CH4 fluxes in afforested and non-afforested areas in the marshland of the Yangtze River. Compared to the non-afforested land use types, net CH4 emission decreased from bare land, natural vegetation and 5-year forest plantation and transitioned to net CH4 sinks in the 10- and 20-year forest plantations. Both abundances of mcrA and pmoA genes decreased significantly with increasing plantation age. By combining random forest analysis and structural equation modeling, our results provide evidence for an important role of the abundance of functional genes related to methane production in explaining the net CH4 flux in this ecosystem. The structures of methanogenic and methanotrophic microbial communities were of lower importance as explanatory factors than functional genes in terms of in situ CH4 flux. We also found a substantial interaction between functional genes and soil properties in the control of CH4 flux, particularly soil particle size. Our study provides empirical evidence that microbial community function has more explanatory power than taxonomic microbial community structure with respect to in situ CH4 fluxes. This suggests that focusing on gene abundances obtained, e.g., through metagenomics or quantitative/digital PCR could be more effective than community profiling in predicting CH4 fluxes, and such data should be considered for ecosystem modeling.

This study presents proof of concept for designing a novel HIV-1 covalent inhibitor targeting the highly conserved Tyr318 in the HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors binding pocket to improve the drug resistance profiles. The target inhibitor ZA-2 with a fluorosulfate warhead in the structure was found to be a potent inhibitor (EC50 = 11–246 nM) against HIV-1 IIIB and a panel of NNRTIs-resistant strains, being far superior to those of NVP and EFV. Moreover, ZA-2 was demonstrated with lower cytotoxicity (CC50 = 125 µM). In the reverse transcriptase inhibitory assay, ZA-2 exhibited an IC50 value of 0.057 µM with the ELISA method, and the MALDI-TOF MS data demonstrated the covalent binding mode of ZA-2 with the enzyme. Additionally, the molecular simulations have also demonstrated that compounds can form covalent binding to the Tyr318.

As a key part of the forest ecosystem, soil microorganisms play extremely important roles in maintaining the ecological environment and the security of water quality in reservoir areas. However, it is not clear whether there are differences in the functional diversity of soil microorganisms in different types of water-conservation forests in reservoir areas, and which factors affect the functional diversity of soil microorganisms. In our study, the Biolog-Eco microplate technique was used to analyze the carbon source metabolic characteristics of soil microbial communities in three typical water-conservation forests and a non-forest land: Pinus massoniana-Quercus variabilis mixed forest (MF), Pinus massoniana forest (PF), Quercus variabilis forest (QF) and non-forest land (CK). The results showed that the average well color development (AWCD), the Shannon diversity index (SDI) and the richness index (S) of the three forest lands was significantly greater than that of the non-forest land (p < 0.05). The mean values of AWCD, SDI and S of the three forests had the same order (QF > PF > MF), but there was no significant difference among different types of forests. The microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) of QF and PF were higher than those of MF and CK, but the microbial biomass C/N ratio (MBC/MBN) was lower. The variance partitioning analysis (VPA) showed that 86.4% of the variation was explained by plant (community) diversity, soil physical and chemical properties and soil microbial biomass, which independently explained 10.0%, 28.9%, and 14.9% of the variation, respectively. The redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that total phosphorus (TP), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), total nitrogen (TN), number of plant species (Num) and alkali-hydro nitrogen (Wn) were the key factors affecting the functional diversity of soil microorganisms. This study confirmed that forest ecosystem is better than non-forest land in maintaining soil microbial function diversity. Moreover, Quercus variabilis forest may be a better stand type in maintaining the diversity of soil microbial functions in the study area.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and dengue fever (DF) pandemics both remain to be significant public health concerns in the foreseeable future. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs and vaccines are both indispensable to eliminate the epidemic situation. Here, two piperazine-based polyphenol derivatives DF-47 and DF-51 were identified as potential inhibitors directly blocking the active site of SARS-CoV-2 and DENV RdRp. Data through RdRp inhibition screening of an in-house library and in vitro antiviral study selected DF-47 and DF-51 as effective inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2/DENV polymerase. Moreover, in silico simulation revealed stable binding modes between the DF-47/DF-51 and SARS-CoV-2/DENV RdRp, respectively, including chelating with Mg2+ near polymerase active site. This work discovered the inhibitory effect of two polyphenols on distinct viral RdRp, which are expected to be developed into broad-spectrum, non-nucleoside RdRp inhibitors with new scaffold.

Abstract Background Chloroplast biogenesis, a complex process in higher plants, is the key to photoautotrophic growth in plants. White virescent (wv) mutants have been used to unfold the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of chloroplast development and chloroplast gene expression in plants. However, most of genes controlling white virescent phenotype still remain unknown. Results In this study, we identified a temperature- and light intensity-sensitive mutant, named as wv. The content of chlorophyll was dramatically decreased in the immature leaves of wv mutant under the conditions of low temperature and high-light intensity. TEM observation showed that the chloroplasts in the young leaves of wv mutant lacked an organized thylakoid membrane, whereas crescent-shaped chloroplasts with well-developed stromal and stacked grana thylakoids in the mature leaves were developed. Immunoblot analyses suggested that proteins of photosynthetic complexes were decreased substantially in wv mutants. Based on map-based cloning and transgenic analysis, we determined that the wv phenotype was caused by single base mutation in the first intron of WV gene, which encoded a thioredoxin protein with 365 amino acids. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression of WV gene was significantly down-regulated in wv mutant. In addition, knockdown of WV gene through RNAi also resulted in white virescent young leaves, suggesting that the mutation possibly blocks the differentiation of chloroplasts through inhibiting the expression of WV gene. Furthermore, the expression of WV peaked in apical buds and gradually decreased along with the developmental stage, which was consistent with the wv mutant phenotype. Expression analysis of chloroplast-encoded genes by qRT-PCR showed that the wv mutation affected the expression pattern of chloroplast-encoded PEP dependent genes. Conclusion Our results suggested that wv mutant was sensitive to low temperature and light intensity. WV gene was essential for chloroplast differentiation. A single base mutation in the first intron resulted in down-regulation of WV gene expression, which inhibited the expression of chloroplast-encoded genes, thereby blocking chloroplast formation and chlorophyll synthesis.

We propose an end-to-end method for simultaneously detecting local junctions and global wireframe in man-made environment. Our pipeline consists of an anchor-free junction detection module, a distance map learning module, and a line segment proposing and verification module. A set of line segments are proposed from the predicted junctions with guidance of the learned distance map, and further verified by the proposal verification module. Experimental results show that our method outperforms the previous state-of-the-art wireframe parser by a descent margin. In terms of line segments detection, our method shows competitive performance on standard benchmarks. The proposed networks are end-to-end trainable and efficient.aaThe code will be released on github for reproduction of the results.

Bacterial spot (BS), incited by Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv), is one of the most serious diseases of pepper. For a comparative analysis of defense responses to Xcv infection, we performed a transcriptomic analysis of a susceptible cultivar, ECW, and a resistant cultivar, VI037601, using the HiSeqTM 2500 sequencing platform. Approximately 120.23 G clean bases were generated from 18 libraries. From the libraries generated, a total of 38,269 expressed genes containing 11,714 novel genes and 11,232 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the most noticeable pathways were plant-pathogen interaction, MAPK signaling pathway-plant, plant hormone signal transduction and secondary metabolisms. 1,599 potentially defense-related genes linked to pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), calcium signaling, and transcription factors may regulate pepper resistance to Xcv. Moreover, after Xcv inoculation, 364 DEGs differentially expressed only in VI037601 and 852 genes in both ECW and VI037601. Many of those genes were classified as NBS-LRR genes, oxidoreductase gene, WRKY and NAC transcription factors, and they were mainly involved in metabolic process, response to stimulus and biological regulation pathways. Quantitative RT-PCR of sixteen selected DEGs further validated the RNA-seq differential gene expression analysis. Our results will provide a valuable resource for understanding the molecular mechanisms of pepper resistance to Xcv infection and improving pepper resistance cultivars against Xcv.

Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is a prevalent virus affecting the quality and yield of pepper, resulting in yield losses of greater than 80% during severe local epidemics. Cultural practices and the heavy use of agrochemicals are the most common control measures for CMV. Sources of resistance provide a practical reference and a basis for breeding for CMV resistance. Genetic factors underlying CMV resistance have been studied and advanced breeding lines and cultivars with improved resistance have been developed by traditional breeding methods. Additionally, QTLs or genes for CMV resistance have been identified and can be utilized for marker-assisted resistance breeding. This review focuses on status and prospect of CMV against different virus strains, host resistance, and its applied genetics. With the advent of novel technologies, more useful markers and precise approaches can facilitate the progress for improving CMV resistance in Capsicum.

With the expansion of pure forest planting area and the increase in the number of rotations used, soil activity and plant productivity have significantly reduced. The functional diversity of soil microorganisms plays a vital role in forest health and the long-term maintenance of productivity. Though the optimization of forest cutting and regeneration methodologies is necessary to improve the functional diversity of soil microorganisms, the effects of harvest residual treatment on the functional diversity of soil microorganisms remain unclear. During the period 2018–2020, we designed four harvest residual treatments—reference (RF), residual burning (RB), crushing and mulching (MT), and no residuals (NR)—to determine soil physical and chemical properties. We also used microbial biomass (MB) to evaluate the diversity in carbon source metabolism of soil microorganisms through Biolog microplate technology, and discussed the response mechanism of microbial functional diversity to the different forest cutting and regeneration methodologies used in Chinese fir plantations. The results indicated that RB significantly increased the carbon metabolic capacity of the microbial community, the community richness, and its dominance compared to RF, MT, and NR; however, they also showed that it decreased the uniformity of the soil microbial community. NR showed a poor carbon utilization capacity for microorganisms compared to RF and MT, while MT significantly increased the utilization capacity of carbohydrate and amino acid carbon compared with RF. Soil nutrients were the main driving factors of soil microbial carbon metabolic activity, and the different responses of microbial functional diversity to various forest cutting and regeneration methodologies were mainly due to the variation in the nutrient inputs of harvest residues. This study provides a practical basis for enhancing the functional diversity of soil microorganisms in plantations through the management of harvest residues.

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the most economically important crops worldwide. Heat stress (HS) can significantly reduce pepper yield and quality. However, changes at a molecular level in response to HS and the subsequent recovery are poorly understood. In this study, 17-03 and H1023 were identified as heat-tolerant and heat-sensitive varieties, respectively. Their leaves’ transcript abundance was quantified using RNA sequencing to elucidate the effect of HS and subsequent recovery on gene expression. A total of 11,633 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and the differential expression of 14 randomly selected DEGs was validated using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the most enriched pathways were metabolic processes under stress and photosynthesis and light harvesting during HS and after recovery from HS. The most significantly enriched pathways of 17-03 and H1023 were the same under HS, but differed during recovery. Furthermore, we identified 38 heat shock factors (Hsps), 17 HS transcription factors (Hsfs) and 38 NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2), and 35 WRKY proteins that were responsive to HS or recovery. These findings facilitate a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying HS and recovery in different pepper genotypes.

Inspired by the pioneering work of the information bottleneck (IB) principle for Deep Neural Networks’ (DNNs) analysis, we thoroughly study the relationship among the model accuracy, I ( X ; T ) and I ( T ; Y ) , where I ( X ; T ) and I ( T ; Y ) are the mutual information of DNN’s output T with input X and label Y. Then, we design an information plane-based framework to evaluate the capability of DNNs (including CNNs) for image classification. Instead of each hidden layer’s output, our framework focuses on the model output T. We successfully apply our framework to many application scenarios arising in deep learning and image classification problems, such as image classification with unbalanced data distribution, model selection, and transfer learning. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the information plane-based framework: Our framework may facilitate a quick model selection and determine the number of samples needed for each class in the unbalanced classification problem. Furthermore, the framework explains the efficiency of transfer learning in the deep learning area.

Twelve impurities (process-related and degradation) in lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX), a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant drug, were first separated and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and then identified by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The structures of the twelve impurities were further confirmed and characterized by IR, HRMS and NMR analyses. Based on the characterization data, two previously unknown impurities formed during the process development and forced degradation were proposed to be (2S)-2,6-di-(lysyl)-amino-N-[(1S)-1-methyl-2-phenyl ethyl]hexanamide (Imp-H) and (2S)-2,6-diamino-N-[(1S)-1-methyl-2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethyl] hexanamide (Imp-M). Furthermore, these two compounds are new. Probable mechanisms for the formation of the twelve impurities were discussed based on the synthesis route of LDX. Superior separation was achieved on a YMC-Pack ODS-AQ S5 120A silica column (250 × 4.6 mm × 5 μm) using a gradient of a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.1% aqueous methanesulfonic acid solution. The HPLC method was optimized in order to separate, selectively detect, and quantify all the impurities. The full identification and characterization of these impurities should prove useful for quality control in the manufacture of lisdexamfetamine dimesylate.

Trichomes, developing from the epidermis of nearly all terrestrial plants, provide good protection from environmental stress. Regulation of trichomes in Rosids has been well characterized. However, little is known about the cell proliferation molecular processes during multicellular trichome formation in Asterids. Ectopic expression of Wov in tobacco and potato induces much more trichome formation than wild type. To gain new insights into the underlying mechanisms during the processes of these trichomes formation, RNA-seq was employed for the young primary leaf tissues in Wov transgenic and wild-type tobacco. We identified differentially expressed genes which are related to various biological processes and molecular functions. Here, we provide details of experimental methods, RNA-seq data (available at Gene Expression Omnibus database under GSE72310). Our data provide new insight into the molecular processes controlling multicellular formation in tobacco.