A comprehensive insight into functional profiles of free-living microbial community responses to a toxic Akashiwo sanguinea bloom.

Phytoplankton blooms are a worldwide problem and can greatly affect ecological processes in aquatic systems, but its impacts on the functional potential of microbial communities are limited. In this study, a high-throughput microarray-based technology (GeoChip) was used to profile the functional potential of free-living microbes from the Xiamen Sea Area in response to a 2011 Akashiwo sanguinea bloom. The bloom altered the overall community functional structure. Genes that were significantly (p < 0.05) increased during the bloom included carbon degradation genes and genes involved in nitrogen (N) and/or phosphorus (P) limitation stress. Such significantly changed genes were well explained by chosen environmental factors (COD, nitrite-N, nitrate-N, dissolved inorganic phosphorus, chlorophyll-a and algal density). Overall results suggested that this bloom might enhance the microbial converting of nitrate to N2 and ammonia nitrogen, decrease P removal from seawater, activate the glyoxylate cycle, and reduce infection activity of bacteriophage. This study presents new information on the relationship of algae to other microbes in aquatic systems, and provides new insights into our understanding of ecological impacts of phytoplankton blooms

Privacy-preserving protocols for string matching

String matching is a basic problem of string operation, and privacy-preserving string matching, as a special case of secure multi-party computation, has broad applications in auction, bidding and some other commercial areas. In this paper, some protocols are proposed to solve this private matching problem, the security and correctness are analyzed respectively, and the actual efficiency is tested by experiment. A protocol is also designed based on the BMH algorithm which is more efficient and conceals more private information

In situ construction of yolk-shell zinc cobaltite with uniform carbon doping for high performance asymmetric supercapacitors

Zinc cobaltite (ZnCo 2 O 4 ) is a promising material for supercapacitors with appreciable theoretical capacitance. However, it suffers from poor electrical conductivity and large volume expansion during charge-discharge processes. In this work, a novel material, ZnCo 2 O 4 /C microspheres in a yolk-shell structure, is fabricated by a facile refluxing process in combination with a calcination treatment. Carbon is in situ formed via the pyrolysis of polyvinyl pyrrolidone and uniformly dispersed both in the core and the shell. Benefiting from the unique structure and the synergistic effect of the two components, this material exhibits remarkable electrochemical properties such as high specific capacitance (1821 F g -1 at 5 A g -1 ), excellent rate performance, and superior cycling stability (no capacitance loss over 9000 cycles). The assembled asymmetric supercapacitor coupled with an active carbon anode can deliver a high energy density of 45.9 W h kg -1 at a power density of 700 W kg -1 with an excellent cycling stability (i.e. a capacitance retention rate over 95% after 9000 cycles)

A smart cyto-compatible asymmetric polypyrrole membrane for salinity power generation

Inspired by biological channels that occur in nature, smart biomimetic nanofluidic systems have been built to enable salinity power harvesting. However, most of these smart membranes are composites containing two incompatible components that require sophisticated fabrication techniques, thus limiting practical applications. Here, a single component polypyrrole membrane has been developed via a simple self-assembly process. The membrane provides asymmetric wettability on either side, cytocompatibility and an electrochemically tuneable ionic conductance. The ability of this membrane to capture energy arising from a salinity gradient has been demonstrated. The system can provide a stable current density over 16 h using artificial seawater and river water to provide the salinity gradient, and an energy density of 1.4 Wh/m2was obtained. The cytocompatibility and ability to generate salinity power make this membrane a promising material for biomimetic applications

Selective Hydrogenation of Adiponitrile to 6-Aminocapronitrile over Ni/α-Al₂O₃ Catalysts Doped with K₂O and La₂O₃

A series of Ni/Al2O3, Ni/K2O-Al2O3 and Ni/La2O3-K2O-Al2O3 catalysts that possess high activities for partial hydrogenation of adiponitrile to 6-aminocapronitrile has been successfully synthesized by the impregnation method. The catalytic performance was investigated under atmospheric pressure and in the absence of ammonia and a significant enhancement in the activity after the introduction of potassium oxide and lanthana was observed. Aiming to study the influence of K2O and La2O3 promoters on the physicochemical properties, we characterized the catalysts by N2 adsorption/desorption, XRD, H2-TPR, H2-chemisorption, H2-TPD and TEM techniques. A combination of XRD, TEM and H2-chemisorption showed that Ni0 particles with a higher dispersion are obtained after the addition of La2O3. Compared with the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst, the Ni/La2O3-K2O-Al2O3 catalyst with an appropriate amount of promoter enjoys a more catalyst surface alkalescence, enhances the electronic density of nickel and higher dispersion of nickel and exhibits higher activity and 6-aminocapronitrile selectivity than Ni/α-Al2O3 during the hydrogenation of adiponitrile in the absence of ammonia, i.e., K2O and La2O3 improved the performance of the nickel-based catalyst

Identification of Extracellular Actin As a Ligand for Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells-1 Signaling

Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) is a potent amplifier of pro-inflammatory innate immune reactions, and it is an essential mediator of death in sepsis. However, the ligand for TREM-1 has not been fully identified. Previous research identified a natural ligand of TREM-1 distributed on platelets that contributed to the development of sepsis. However, the exact signal for TREM-1 recognition remains to be identified. Here, we identified actin as a TREM-1-interacting protein on platelets and found that recombinant actin could interact with recombinant TREM-1 extracellular domain directly. Furthermore, actin co-localized with TREM-1 on the surface of activated mouse macrophage RAW264.7 cells interacting with platelets. In addition, recombinant actin could enhance the inflammatory response of macrophages from wt mice but not from trem1−/− mice, and the enhancement could be inhibited by LP17 (a TREM-1 inhibitor) in a dose-dependent manner. Importantly, extracellular actin showed co-localization with TREM-1 in lung tissue sections from septic mice, which suggested that TREM-1 recognized actin during activation in sepsis. Therefore, the present study identified actin as a new ligand for TREM-1 signaling, and it also provided a link between both essential regulators of death in sepsis

Genetically Encoding Quinoline Reverses Chromophore Charge and Enables Fluorescent Protein Brightening in Acidic Vesicles

Acidic vesicles and organelles play fundamental roles in a broad range of cellular events such as endocytosis, lysosomal degradation, synaptic transmission, pathogen fate, and drug delivery. Fluorescent reporters will be invaluable for studying these complex and multifunctional systems with spatiotemporal resolution, yet common fluorescent proteins are generally nonfluorescent at acidic conditions due to the decrease of anionic chromophores upon protonation, but are fluorescent at physiological pH, creating interfering fluorescence from nonvesicle regions. Here we developed a novel acid-brightening fluorescent protein (abFP) that fluoresces strongly at acidic pH but is nonfluorescent at or above neutral pH, boasting a pH profile opposite to that of common fluorescent proteins. Through expansion of the genetic code, we incorporated a quinoline-containing amino acid Qui into the chromophore of EGFP to reverse the chromophore charge. Protonation of Qui rendered a cationic chromophore, which resulted in unique fluorescence increase only at acidic pH in vitro, in E. coli cells, and on the mammalian cell surface. We further demonstrated that abFP-tagged δ opioid receptors were fluorescently imaged in lysosome showing distinct features and without background fluorescence from other cellular regions, whereas EGFP-tagged receptors were invisible in lysosome. This Qui-rendered cationic chromophore strategy may be generally applied to other fluorescent proteins to generate a palette of colors for acidic imaging with minimal background, and these abFPs should facilitate the study of molecules in association with various acidic vesicles and organelles in different cells and model organisms

Depletion of the N 6 -Methyladenosine (m6A) reader protein IGF2BP3 induces ferroptosis in glioma by modulating the expression of GPX4

Abstract Emerging evidence highlights the multifaceted contributions of m6A modifications to glioma. IGF2BP3, a m6A modification reader protein, plays a crucial role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Though several studies have identified IGF2BP3 as a poor prognostic marker in glioma, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that IGF2BP3 knockdown is detrimental to cell growth and survival in glioma cells. Notably, we discovered that IGF2BP3 regulated ferroptosis by modulating the protein expression level of GPX4 through direct binding to a specific motif on GPX4 mRNA. Strikingly, the m6A modification at this motif was found to be critical for GPX4 mRNA stability and translation. Furthermore, IGF2BP3 knockdown glioma cells were incapable of forming tumors in a mouse xenograft model and were more susceptible to phagocytosis by microglia. Our findings shed light on an unrecognized regulatory function of IGF2BP3 in ferroptosis. The identification of a critical m6A site within the GPX4 transcript elucidates the significance of post-transcriptional control in ferroptosis