Preparation and Photocatalytic Performance of Ti 3

Ti3C2/TiO2/CuO nanocomposites were synthesized via the decomposition of a mixture of Ti3C2 (a novel two-dimensional carbide) and cupric nitrate under an argon atmosphere. The morphology and structures of the obtained samples were characterized. X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive spectrometer analysis indicate that the sample is composed of Ti3C2, anatase-TiO2, and CuO. Scanning electron microscopy images show that CuO and TiO2 nanoparticles were evenly distributed on the surface of Ti3C2. The particles size increased with an increase in the cupric nitrate content. Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange shows that the Ti3C2/TiO2/CuO nanocomposite has good photocatalytic degradation efficiency. A possible photocatalytic mechanism of the Ti3C2/TiO2/CuO nanocomposites was proposed. The data indicated that CuO and Ti3C2 effectively promote the separation of photoelectrons from vacancies

The Steric Effect in Green Benzylation of Arenes with Benzyl Alcohol Catalyzed by Hierarchical H-beta Zeolite

For decades the steric effect was still ambiguously understood in catalytic benzylation reactions of arenes with benzyl alcohol, which limited the green synthesis of phenylmethane derivates in industrial scale. This research applies a series of silica–alumina beta zeolites to systematically evaluate factors like catalyst porosity, reactants molecule size, and reaction temperature on catalytic benzylation. First, a suitable hierarchical beta zeolite catalyst was screened out by X-ray powder diffraction, N2 adsorption−desorption, and probe benzylation with p-xylene. In the following substrates expanding study, for a typical benzylation of benzene, it showed extraordinary performance among literature reported ones that the conversion was 98% while selectivity was 90% at 353 K only after 10 min. The steric effect of aromatics with different molecular sizes on benzylation was observed. The reaction activities of four different aromatics followed the order: benzene > toluene > p-xylene > mesitylene. Combined with macroscopic kinetic analysis, this comprehensive study points out for the first time that the nature of this steric effect was dominated by the relative adsorption efficiency of different guest aromatic molecules on the host zeolite surface

Production of Oligopeptide from Soybean Protein by Lactococcus lactis Fermentation

In this study, foodborne microorganisms capable of fermenting and decomposing soy proteins were screened, and molecular weight analysis was performed for the peptides produced during decomposition. Subsequently, oligopeptides were obtained via isolation and purification, and their antioxidant activities were studied. The experiment results showed that a PZ1 strain was isolated from homemade kimchi and identified as Lactococcus lactis based on morphology and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Whole genome analysis showed that the PZ1 strain contained a variety of peptidases and protease genes that had the potential to decompose proteins. Soybean proteins were then fermented by PZ1, and the polypeptides produced during fermentation were analyzed via gel permeation chromatography, revealing that 85% of polypeptides had a molecular weight below 1000 Da. The oligopeptides with molecular weight 300～1000 Da were obtained via ultrafiltration purification, and their antioxidant activity was studied. The oligopeptides demonstrated a good scavenging effect on DPPH, hydroxyl (·OH), and superoxide anion (O2−·) radicals, at an oligopeptide concentration of 2 mg/mL, the clearance rates were 79.31%, 78.27%, and 84.62%, respectively. Therefore, L. lactis PZ1 could degrade soybean protein efficiently and could be used as a probiotic for developing functional soybean products

Analysis and Evaluation of the Flagellin Activity of <i>Bacillus amyloliquefaciens</i> Ba168 Antimicrobial Proteins against <i>Penicillium expansum</i>

Blue mold caused by Penicillium expansum is one of the most common apple diseases, and it is becoming a serious threat in apple production. The strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Ba168 showed high levels of antimicrobial activity in our previous study. To analyze the antimicrobial protein of Ba168, a high-resolution LC-MS/MS proteomic analysis was performed. A total of 1155 proteins were identified from 5233 unique peptides. A total of 16 potential antimicrobial-activity-related proteins were identified; 10 of these proteins have direct antimicrobial effects, while 6 of these proteins are associated with the formation of antimicrobial substances. Then, an antifungal protein of Ba168 was isolated and purified by the sequential chromatography of DEAE Bio-sep FF anion exchange and Sephadex G-75. The single protein, named BP8-2, showed antifungal activity towards Penicillium expansum. The peptide mass fingerprinting of the protein band of BP8-2 had a high similarity with the amino acid sequences of flagellin protein. The results showed that BP8-2 significantly inhibited the growth of P. expansum and slowed the spread of apple blue mold. The results indicated that flagellin is one of the important antimicrobial substances from Ba168

Cytosolic BolA Plays a Repressive Role in the Tolerance against Excess Iron and MV-Induced Oxidative Stress in Plants

<div><p>The BolA-like protein is present in all eukaryotes, and it is able to form complex with monothiol glutaredoxin of the same subcellular compartments, suggesting that the BolA-like protein has essential function in eukaryotes, and that the function is associated with its partner glutaredoxin. Some studies have indicated a role for BolA proteins in Fe-S cluster synthesis or in redox homeostasis. However, the physiological function of BolA proteins remains to be elucidated. Here, we report the characterization of an insertion mutant of <i>BolA3</i> in Arabidopsis. Among the four AtBolA proteins found in Arabidopsis, the AtBolA3 was the only BolA located in the cytosol of plant cells. It was highly expressed in roots. AtBolA3 was able to interact with the cytosolic monothiol glutaredoxin, AtGRXS17. The <i>bola3</i> mutant did not show any notable phenotype under normal growth condition, but rather grew better than wild type under some stresses. The <i>bola3</i> mutant was more tolerant to excess iron and the MV-induced oxidative stress than wild type. It displayed no necrosis in leaves, developed longer roots, accumulated more iron and higher Fe-S protein activities in roots. In addition, the mutant possessed a more potent antioxidant defense to scavenge ROS species. Taken together, our data indicated that the cytosolic AtBolA3 has a suppressive role in the tolerance to excess iron and the MV-induced oxidative stress in plants. AtBolA3 seems to be a repressor under some stress conditions.</p></div

BiFC assay for the interaction of AtBolA3 and AtGRXS17 in Arabidopsis protoplasts.

<p>YFP panel is the fluorescence in the Arabidopsis protoplast transfected with BiFC constructs of <i>AtBolA3</i> and <i>AtGRXS17</i>. Chloroplast panel is the auto-fluorescence of chloroplasts in Arabidopsis protoplast. Merge panel is the merged view of YFP and chloroplast fluorescence.</p

Magnetically Actuated Biodegradable Nanorobots for Active Immunotherapy

Abstract An efficient and cost‐effective therapeutic vaccine is highly desirable for the prevention and treatment of cancer, which helps to strengthen the immune system and activate the T cell immune response. However, initiating such an adaptive immune response efficiently remains challenging, especially the deficient antigen presentation by dendritic cells (DCs) in the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Herein, an efficient and dynamic antigen delivery system based on the magnetically actuated OVA‐CaCO3‐SPIO robots (OCS‐robots) is rationally designed for active immunotherapy. Taking advantage of the unique dynamic features, the developed OCS‐robots achieve controllable motion capability under the rotating magnetic field. Specifically, with the active motion, the acid‐responsiveness of OCS‐robots is beneficial for the tumor acidity attenuating and lysosome escape as well as the subsequent antigen cross‐presentation of DCs. Furthermore, the dynamic OCS‐robots boost the crosstalk between the DCs and antigens, which displays prominent tumor immunotherapy effect on melanoma through cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). Such a strategy of dynamic vaccine delivery system enables the active activation of immune system based on the magnetically actuated OCS‐robots, which presents a plausible paradigm for incredibly efficient cancer immunotherapy by designing multifunctional and novel robot platforms in the future

Subcellular localization of four AtBolA proteins and tissue specific expression of <i>AtBolA3</i> in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>.

<p>(A) Subcellular localization of BolA1, BolA2, BolA3 and BolA4 in Arabidopsis protoplasts, which were transiently transformed with BolA-GFP constructs. CHL: chloroplast; BR: bright field; Merged: GFP and CHL overlay. (B) Spatial expression pattern of AtBolA3prom::GUS in one-week-old seedlings under normal growth condition. (C) Expression of <i>AtBolA3</i> detected by qRT-PCR in various tissues of <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> at the vegetative and reproductive stages. The relative expression was calculated as the ratio of the expression of <i>AtBolA3</i> to that of housekeeping gene, <i>AtUBQ11</i>, with four independent biological replicates. VL and VR: leaf and root in the vegetative stage; YL, OL, SL, R, F, P, and S stand for young leaf, rosette leaf, stem leaf, root, flower, pod, seed in the reproductive stage. DS: dry seed.</p

Identification of four BolA-like proteins in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>.

<p>(A) Multiple sequence alignment of amino acid sequences of AtBolA1, AtBolA2, AtBolA3, and AtBolA4. (B) Conserved domains of BolA-like proteins in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>. The conserved domain architecture was drawn using the tool in NCBI website (<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov" target="_blank">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov</a>).</p

Identification of the <i>bola3</i> insertion mutant.

<p>(A) Gene structure of <i>AtBolA3</i>. The positions of T-DNA insertion and primers used in RT-PCR were marked in the diagram. Black bar: UTR; White bar: exon. Bar = 100bp. (B) Analysis of <i>AtBolA3</i> gene expression in Col-0 and <i>bola3</i> mutant by semi-qRT-PCR. The housekeeping gene, <i>AtUBQ11</i>, was used as internal control. (C) Analysis of <i>AtBolA3</i> gene expression in the leaf and root of Col-0 and <i>bola3</i> mutant by qRT-PCR with four independent biological replicates.</p