Synthesis of Ti3C2Tx nanosheets / ZnO nanowires composite material for NO2 gas sensing

NO2 is a toxic gas that poses a significant threat to the environment and human health. In this work, one-dimensional ZnO nanowires and two-dimensional layered titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx) have been prepared by hydrothermal and selective chemical etching methods, respectively. The Ti3C2Tx/ZnO composites are synthesized by electrostatic self-assembly method. The characterization results indicate that the ZnO nanowires are uniformly dispersed on the surface of layered Ti3C2Tx to form a heterostructure. Meanwhile, the gas sensitive performance of Ti3C2Tx/ZnO composite material is investigated and compared with that of pure Ti3C2Tx. The results reveal that the composite exhibits a high selectivity as well as sensitivity with a response value (S = Rg/Ra) of 18.66 to 100 ppm NO2 at 250 ℃, which is 4.3 times higher than that of pure Ti3C2Tx. This proves that the prepared composite material is an effective sensing material for detecting NO2 gas

In Vivo Production of HN Protein Increases the Protection Rates of a Minicircle DNA Vaccine against Genotype VII Newcastle Disease Virus

The Cre-recombinase mediated in vivo minicircle DNA vaccine platform (CRIM) provided a novel option to replace a traditional DNA vaccine. To further improve the immune response of our CRIM vaccine, we designed a dual promoter expression plasmid named pYL87 which could synthesize short HN protein under a prokaryotic in vivo promoter PpagC and full length HN protein of genotype VII Newcastle disease virus (NDV) under the previous eukaryotic CMV promoter at the same time. Making use of the self-lysed Salmonella strain as a delivery vesicle, chickens immunized with the pYL87 construction showed an increased serum haemagglutination inhibition antibody response, as well as an increased cell proliferation level and cellular IL-4 and IL-18 cytokines, compared with the previous CRIM vector pYL47. After the virus challenge, the pYL87 vector could provide 80% protection compared to 50% protection against genotype VII NDV in pYL47 immunized chickens, indicating a promising dual promoter strategy used in vaccine design

A nonS-locus F-box gene breaks self-incompatibility in diploid potatoes

Potato is the third most important staple food crop. To address challenges associated with global food security, a hybrid potato breeding system, aimed at converting potato from a tuber-propagated tetraploid crop into a seed-propagated diploid crop through crossing inbred lines, is under development. However, given that most diploid potatoes are self-incompatible, this represents a major obstacle which needs to be addressed in order to develop inbred lines. Here, we report on a self-compatible diploid potato, RH89-039-16 (RH), which can efficiently induce a mating transition from self-incompatibility to self-compatibility, when crossed to self-incompatible lines. We identify the S-locusinhibitor (Sli) gene in RH, capable of interacting with multiple allelic variants of the pistil-specific S-ribonucleases (S-RNases). Further, Sli gene functions like a general S-RNase inhibitor, to impart SC to RH and other self-incompatible potatoes. Discovery of Sli now offers a path forward for the diploid hybrid breeding program