Identification of Pns6, a putative movement protein of RRSV, as a silencing suppressor

RNA silencing is a potent antiviral response in plants. As a counterdefense, most plant and some animal viruses encode RNA silencing suppressors. In this study, we showed that Pns6, a putative movement protein of Rice ragged stunt virus (RRSV), exhibited silencing suppressor activity in coinfiltration assays with the reporter green fluorescent protein (GFP) in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana line 16c. Pns6 of RRSV suppressed local silencing induced by sense RNA but had no effect on that induced by dsRNA. Deletion of a region involved in RNA binding abolished the silencing suppressor activity of Pns6. Further, expression of Pns6 enhanced Potato virus × pathogenicity in N. benthamiana. Collectively, these results suggested that RRSV Pns6 functions as a virus suppressor of RNA silencing that targets an upstream step of the dsRNA formation in the RNA silencing pathway. This is the first silencing suppressor to be identified from the genus Oryzavirus

Infinitesimal sulfur fusion yields quasi-metallic bulk silicon for stable and fast energy storage

A fast-charging battery that supplies maximum energy is a key element for vehicle electrification. High-capacity silicon anodes offer a viable alternative to carbonaceous materials, but they are vulnerable to fracture due to large volumetric changes during charge???discharge cycles. The low ionic and electronic transport across the silicon particles limits the charging rate of batteries. Here, as a three-in-one solution for the above issues, we show that small amounts of sulfur doping (<1 at%) render quasi-metallic silicon microparticles by substitutional doping and increase lithium ion conductivity through the flexible and robust self-supporting channels as demonstrated by microscopy observation and theoretical calculations. Such unusual doping characters are enabled by the simultaneous bottom-up assembly of dopants and silicon at the seed level in molten salts medium. This sulfur-doped silicon anode shows highly stable battery cycling at a fast-charging rate with a high energy density beyond those of a commercial standard anode

Conserved genes and pathways in primary human fibroblast strains undergoing replicative and radiation induced senescence

Additional file 3: Figure S3. Regulation of genes of Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy pathway during senescence induction in HFF strains Genes of the “Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy” pathway which are significantly up- (green) and down- (red) regulated (log2 fold change >1) during irradiation induced senescence (120 h after 20 Gy irradiation) in HFF strains. Orange color signifies genes which are commonly up-regulated during both, irradiation induced and replicative senescence

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Phosphato, chromato, and perrhenato complexes of titanium(IV) and zirconium(IV) containing Klaui's tripodal ligand

Treatment of titanyl sulfate in dilute sulfuric acid with 1 equiv of NaLOEt (L-OEt(-) = [(eta(5) -C5H5)Co{P(O)(OEt)(2)}(3)](-)) in the presence of Na3PO4 and Na4P2O7 led to isolation of [(LOEtTi)(3)(mu-O)(3)(mu(3)-PO4)] (1) and [(LOEtTi)(2)(mu-O)(mu-P2O7)1 (2), respectively. The structure of 1 consists of a Ti3O3 core capped by mu(3)-phosphato group. In 2, the [P2O7](4-) ligands binds to the two Ti's in a U:172,171 fashion. Treatment of titanyl sulfate in dilute sulfuric acid with NaLOEt and 1.5 equiv of Na2Cr2O7 gave [(LOEtTi)(2)(mu-CrO4)(3)] (3) that contains two LOEtTi3+ fragments bridged by three mu-CrO42--O,O' ligands. Complex 3 can act as a 6-electron oxidant and oxidize benzyl alcohol to give ca. 3 equiv of benzaldehyde. Treatment of [LOEtTi(OTf)(3)] (OTf- = triflate) with [n-Bu4N][ReO4] afforded [{LOEtTi(ReO4)(2)}(2)(mu-O)] (4). Treatment of [LOEtMF3] (M = Ti and Zr) with 3 equiv of [ReO3(OSiMe3)] afforded [LOEtTi(ReO4)(3)] (5) and [LOEtZr(ReO4)(3)(H2O)] (6), respectively. Treatment of [LOEtMF3] with 2 equiv of [ReO3(OSiMe3)] afforded [LOEtTi(ReO4)(2) (ReO4)(2)F] (7) and [{LOEtZr(ReO4)(2)}(2)(mu-F)(2)] (8), respectively, which reacted with Me3SiOTf to give [LOEtM(ReO4)(2)(OTf)] (M = Ti (9), Zr (10)). Hydrolysis of [LOEtZr(OTf)(3)] (11) with Na(2)WO(4)center dot xH(2)O and wet CH2Cl2 afforded the hydroxo-bridged complexes [{LOEtZr(H2O)}(3)(mu-OH)(3)(mu(3)-O)][OTf](4) (12) and [{LOEtZr(H2O)(2)}(2)(mu-OH)(2)][OTf](4) (13), respectively. The solid-state structures of 1-3, 6, and 11-13 have been established by X-ray crystallography. The LOEtTiIv complexes can catalyze oxidation of methyl p-tolyl sulfide with tert-butyl hydroperoxide. The bimetallic TV Re complexes 5 and 9 were found to be more active catalysts for the sulfide oxidation than other Ti(IV) complexes presumably because Re alkylperoxo species are involved as the reactive intermediates