The role of ACC deaminase in plant growth promotion by the endophytic bacterium Burkholderia phytofirmans PsJN

The endophytic bacterium Burkholderia phytofirmans PsJN has been previously shown to promote plant growth. This bacterium produces siderophores, indoleacetic acid (IAA) and the enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase, all of which have previously been implicated in the promotion of plant growth by bacteria. Following isolation of the ACC deaminase gene (acdS), AcdS deficient mutants of PsJN were generated. One mutant contains a tetracycline resistance gene inserted into acdS, and the other mutant contains a deletion in the acdS gene. Both of the mutants showed no detectable ACC deaminase activity, produced a decreased level of siderophores and an increased amount of IAA compared to the wild-type, and lost the ability to promote canola root elongation. In addition, the GFP-labeled acdS deletion mutant colonized plant interior surfaces somewhat less efficiently than the GFP-labeled wild-type strain

The effects of media on financial stability

My thesis investigates the topic regarding media effects and financial stability, which makes valuable contributions to the current literature and financial industry. Through the study of this thesis, it reveals that the media can indeed manipulate financial stability via controlling different aspects of media, including the type, concept, the post information, the sentiment etc. I believe the findings of thesis would be benefit for not only the policy makers but the individuals who desire to invest in financial market. Specifically, the findings of my thesis would help the policy makers aware of the media power to adjust their monitor level of media industry. At the same time, individual investors may seek opportunities via media platforms and information posted on Twitter. For those who intend to explore links between media and financial world, this thesis would help them establish a better view of current literature and research outcomes related to media and financial aspects. For indicating different aspects of media effects, this thesis focuses on three research questions, which are presented as separate chapters 1-3. In chapter 1, I focus on the effects of two media formats (traditional and modern media) and three media concepts (media freedom, concentration and ownership) on financial stability. For defining financial stability, I distinguish it into two specific aspects, which are banking stability and financial market stability. Multi types of regression models (OLS, 2SLS and GMM) are applied to analyse the relationship based on data analysis of OECD countries from 2002 to 2016. After the empirical analysis, I find that TV and the Internet both have significant negative effects on financial stability. For other media formats and factors such as Radio, Newspaper, and media freedom, the influence behaves differently depending on the financial environment (banking or financial market). Chapter 2 is related to social media and financial stability, which investigates how the volume of Tweets and sentiment of Tweets could affect financial stability, established by the banking stock market stability and trading volume. After using a sample including 73 listed banks selected from the NYSE and FTSE 100 index, the primary results indicate that both Tweets volume and Tweets sentiment have significant effects on banking stock market stability and stock trading volume., The novel finding is from the Tweets sentiment, as the number of sentiment Tweets show opposite effects on stock market stability compared with the number of Tweets. Specially, the Tweets volume show a significant positive effect on stock market stability, yet a significant negative effect of sentimental Tweets on stability. The results of this chapter indicate the importance of sentimental information and thus, we should pay attention to information with strong sentiment on a social media platform. As we know, in 2020, the global pandemic of COVID-19 came across as an unpredictable, unexpected and rare event to the world. The governments around the world announce and carry out strict regulations to control the spread of the COVID-19. For supporting the firms especially during the quarantine, the governments also inject funds into businesses and increase interest rates. Based on that, in Chapter 3, my purpose is to investigate and compare the media coverage and real factor effects of COVID-19 on financial stability from the bank liquidity and bank stability aspects, viewing from three different time waves based on weekly data from six countries with over 30,000 observations from 1st March 2020 to 1st March 2022. The results indicate that both media coverage and real factors of COVID-19 significantly affect bank liquidity and bank stability, and most of the real factors could be harmful to bank liquidity and stability, yet some evidence shows a benefit could exist such as the number of vaccinations. Based on the results, we should continue following the government’s suggestions and getting vaccination

Historical analysis of urban public transportation development in modern Tianjin (1902-1949)

Tianjin was the earliest city opening urban public transport lines in China. Urban public transportation had profound impacts on urban construction and on the formation of urban structure in Tianjin from 1902 to 1949. Based on the background of urban development, this paper firstly divides the evolution process of public transportation represented by tramways and buses into three periods from the perspectives of the distribution, quantity and operation status of public transportation lines. It then analyses the strong influence of public transportation on urban roads construction from the view of the increased municipal income, road widening, improvement of pavement quality, and bridges construction and maintenance. Finally, by using qualitative and quantitative analysis and superposing the related statistical data with the historical map, it analyses the relationship among public transportation line density, land value partition and basic urban structure, and certifies they were highly relative. In conclusion, the paper argues that Tianjin urban public transport network was based on trams and supplemented by buses, and not only planning ideas but also advanced municipal technologies from the West like public transportation system were also indispensable supports in the process of urban modernization in Chinese modern treaty ports

Enriching the endophytic bacterial microbiota of Ginkgo roots

Bacterial endophytes of Ginkgo roots take part in the secondary metabolic processes of the fossil tree and contribute to plant growth, nutrient uptake, and systemic resistance. However, the diversity of bacterial endophytes in Ginkgo roots is highly underestimated due to the lack of successful isolates and enrichment collections. The resulting culture collection contains 455 unique bacterial isolates representing 8 classes, 20 orders, 42 families, and 67 genera from five phyla: Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Deinococcus-Thermus, using simply modified media (a mixed medium without any additional carbon sources [MM)] and two other mixed media with separately added starch [GM] and supplemented glucose [MSM]). A series of plant growth-promoting endophytes had multiple representatives within the culture collection. Moreover, we investigated the impact of refilling carbon sources on enrichment outcomes. Approximately 77% of the natural community of root-associated endophytes were predicted to have successfully cultivated the possibility based on a comparison of the 16S rRNA gene sequences between the enrichment collections and the Ginkgo root endophyte community. The rare or recalcitrant taxa in the root endosphere were mainly associated with Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Blastocatellia, and Ktedonobacteria. By contrast, more operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (0.6% in the root endosphere) became significantly enriched in MM than in GM and MSM. We further found that the bacterial taxa of the root endosphere had strong metabolisms with the representative of aerobic chemoheterotrophy, while the functions of the enrichment collections were represented by the sulfur metabolism. In addition, the co-occurrence network analysis suggested that the substrate supplement could significantly impact bacterial interactions within the enrichment collections. Our results support the fact that it is better to use the enrichment to assess the cultivable potential and the interspecies interaction as well as to increase the detection/isolation of certain bacterial taxa. Taken together, this study will deepen our knowledge of the indoor endophytic culture and provide important insights into the substrate-driven enrichment

MANF stimulates autophagy and restores mitochondrial homeostasis to treat autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease in mice

Misfolded protein aggregates may cause toxic proteinopathy, including autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease due to uromodulin mutations (ADTKD-UMOD), a leading hereditary kidney disease. There are no targeted therapies. In our generated mouse model recapitulating human ADTKD-UMOD carrying a leading UMOD mutation, we show that autophagy/mitophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis are impaired, leading to cGAS-STING activation and tubular injury. Moreover, we demonstrate that inducible tubular overexpression of mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF), a secreted endoplasmic reticulum protein, after the onset of disease stimulates autophagy/mitophagy, clears mutant UMOD, and promotes mitochondrial biogenesis through p-AMPK enhancement, thus protecting kidney function in our ADTKD mouse model. Conversely, genetic ablation of MANF in the mutant thick ascending limb tubular cells worsens autophagy suppression and kidney fibrosis. Together, we have discovered MANF as a biotherapeutic protein and elucidated previously unknown mechanisms of MANF in the regulation of organelle homeostasis, which may have broad therapeutic applications to treat various proteinopathies