Genome-Wide Analysis of UGT Genes in Petunia and Identification of <i>PhUGT51</i> Involved in the Regulation of Salt Resistance

UDP-glycosyltransferase (UGT) plays an essential role in regulating the synthesis of hormones and secondary metabolites in plants. In this study, 129 members of the Petunia UGT family were identified and classified into 16 groups (A–P) based on phylogenetic analysis. The same subgroups have conserved motif compositions and intron/exon arrangement. In the promoters of the Petunia UGT genes, several cis-elements associated with plant hormones, growth and development, and abiotic stress have been discovered. Their expression profiles in five tissues were revealed by tissue expression based on RNA-seq data. Subcellular localization analysis showed that PhUGT51 was located in the nucleus and cell membrane. Salt stress caused an increase in the expression level of PhUGT51, but the expression level remained stable with the growth over time. In addition, the overexpression of PhUGT51 caused a significant increase in salt resistance. Our study systematically analyses the UGT gene family in Petunia for the first time and provides some valuable clues for the further functional studies of UGT genes

Design and Engineering of Light‐Induced Base Editors Facilitating Genome Editing with Enhanced Fidelity

Abstract Base editors, which enable targeted locus nucleotide conversion in genomic DNA without double‐stranded breaks, have been engineered as powerful tools for biotechnological and clinical applications. However, the application of base editors is limited by their off‐target effects. Continuously expressed deaminases used for gene editing may lead to unwanted base alterations at unpredictable genomic locations. In the present study, blue‐light‐activated base editors (BLBEs) are engineered based on the distinct photoswitches magnets that can switch from a monomer to dimerization state in response to blue light. By fusing the N‐ and C‐termini of split DNA deaminases with photoswitches Magnets, efficient A‐to‐G and C‐to‐T base editing is achieved in response to blue light in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Furthermore, the results showed that BLBEs can realize precise blue light‐induced gene editing across broad genomic loci with low off‐target activity at the DNA‐ and RNA‐level. Collectively, these findings suggest that the optogenetic utilization of base editing and optical base editors may provide powerful tools to promote the development of optogenetic genome engineering

A Hybrid Machine Learning Model Coupling Double Exponential Smoothing and ELM to Predict Multi-Factor Landslide Displacement

The deformation of landslides is a non-linear dynamic and complex process due to the impacts of both inherent and external factors. Understanding the basis of landslide deformation is essential to prevent damage to properties and losses of life. To forecast the landslides displacement, a hybrid machine learning model is proposed, in which the Variational Modal Decomposition (VMD) is implemented to decompose the measured total surface displacement into the trend and periodic components. The Double Exponential Smoothing algorithm (DES) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) were adopted to predict the trend and the periodic displacement, respectively. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm was selected to obtain the optimal ELM model. The proposed method and implementation procedures were illustrated by a step-like landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. For comparison, Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM) and Convolutional Neutral Network&ndash;Gated Recurrent Unit (CNN&ndash;GRU) were also conducted with the same dataset to forecast the periodic component. The application results show that DES-PSO-ELM outperformed the other two methods in landslide displacement prediction, with RMSE, MAE, MAPE, and R2 values of 1.295mm, 0.998 mm, 0.008%, and 0.999, respectively

Tunable crystallographic grain orientation and Raman fingerprints of polycrystalline SnO thin films

In this study, (001) and (101)-orientated polycrystalline SnO films were respectively fabricated. The preferred orientation conversion was observed by modifying the stoichiometry of the SnO films. It was revealed that the O-rich and Sn-rich SnO films favor (001) and (101) grain orientations, respectively. Moreover, based on the Raman selection rule and our experimental results, the 110 cm(-1) Raman peak is assigned to the low-frequency E-g mode of SnO. The Raman intensity ratio between the 110 cm(-1) and 210 cm(-1) peak of SnO increases with the relative texture coefficient of the (101) grain orientation but decreases with that of the (001) one, demonstrating that the Raman characteristic information could be used as fingerprint recognition to mutually predict the crystallographic texture of SnO films

Determination of the basic optical parameters of ZnSnN2

Polycrystalline ZnSnN2 thin films were successfully prepared by DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature. Both the as-deposited and annealed films showed n-type conduction, with electron concentration varying between 1.6 x 10(18) and 2.3 x 10(17) cm(-3) and the maximummobility of 3.98 cm(2) V-1 s(-1). The basic optical parameters such as the refraction index, extinction coefficient, and absorption coefficient were precisely determined through the spectroscopic ellipsometry measurement and analysis. The optical bandgap of the ZnSnN2 films was calculated to around 1.9 eV, with the absorption coefficient greater than 104 cm(-1) at wavelengths less than 845 nm. The easy-fabricated ZnSnN2 possesses a sound absorption coefficient ranging from the ultraviolet through visible light and into the near-infrared, comparable to some typical photovoltaic materials such as GaAs, CdTe, and InP. (C) 2015 Optical Society of Americ

Insights into azalomycin F assembly-line contribute to evolution-guided polyketide synthase engineering and identification of intermodular recognition.

Modular polyketide synthase (PKS) is an ingenious core machine that catalyzes abundant polyketides in nature. Exploring interactions among modules in PKS is very important for understanding the overall biosynthetic process and for engineering PKS assembly-lines. Here, we show that intermodular recognition between the enoylreductase domain ER1/2 inside module 1/2 and the ketosynthase domain KS3 inside module 3 is required for the cross-module enoylreduction in azalomycin F (AZL) biosynthesis. We also show that KS4 of module 4 acts as a gatekeeper facilitating cross-module enoylreduction. Additionally, evidence is provided that module 3 and module 6 in the AZL PKS are evolutionarily homologous, which makes evolution-oriented PKS engineering possible. These results reveal intermodular recognition, furthering understanding of the mechanism of the PKS assembly-line, thus providing different insights into PKS engineering. This also reveals that gene duplication/conversion and subsequent combinations may be a neofunctionalization process in modular PKS assembly-lines, hence providing a different case for supporting the investigation of modular PKS evolution