Effect and Mechanism of Armillaria mellea 07-22 Fermentation on the Degradation of Zearalenone

This study used Armillaria mellea 07-22 as the experimental strain to degrade zearalenone (ZEN) by fungal biological fermentation. The degradation effects of Armillaria mellea on ZEN were studied, including the degradation effects of different concentrations of ZEN by the strain and the effects of different culture time, culture temperature, initial pH value and inoculation amount on the degradation of ZEN by the strain. Then the degradation mechanism was explored, the degradation effects of mycelium, fermentation supernatant and cell contents on ZEN were analyzed, and the effects of different fermentation time, pH values, and metal ions on degradation of ZEN by fermentation supernatant were studied, and the correlation between degradation effect and laccase production activity of the strain was illustrated. The results showed that Armillaria mellea 07-22 had a good degradation effect on ZEN. When the ZEN concentration was 5 μg/mL, the optimal degradation conditions were culture time of 8 days, culture temperature of 27 ℃, initial pH of 7.0, and inoculation amount of 10%. At this time, the degradation rate of ZEN was 78.72%. The degradation rates of ZEN by mycelium, fermentation supernatant and cell contents were 47.42%, 37.05% and 13.08% respectively. The extracellular enzymes secreted by Am-07-22 were the main way to degrade ZEN, and the mycelium cells also had a certain adsorption effect on ZEN. In addition, the correlation between the degradation rate of ZEN by fermentation supernatant and laccase activity was 0.973, and Cu2+ had the best promoting effect on the degradation of ZEN by fermentation supernatant

Cord blood-derived neuronal cells by ectopic expression of SOX2 and c-MYC

The finding that certain somatic cells can be directly converted into cells of other lineages by the delivery of specific sets of transcrip- tion factors paves the way to novel therapeutic applications. Here we show that human cord blood (CB) CD133+ cells lose their hematopoietic signature and are converted into CB-induced neu- ronal-like cells (CB-iNCs) by the ectopic expression of the transcrip- tion factor Sox2, a process that is further augmented by the combination of Sox2 and c-Myc. Gene-expression analysis, immu- nophenotyping, and electrophysiological analysis show that CB- iNCs acquire a distinct neuronal phenotype characterized by the expression of multiple neuronal markers. CB-iNCs show the ability to fire action potentials after in vitro maturation as well as after in vivo transplantation into the mouse hippocampus. This system highlights the potential of CB cells and offers an alternative means to the study of cellular plasticity, possibly in the context of drug screening research and of future cell-replacement therapies

Cell-Surface Marker Signatures for the Isolation of Neural Stem Cells, Glia and Neurons Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Neural induction of human pluripotent stem cells often yields heterogeneous cell populations that can hamper quantitative and comparative analyses. There is a need for improved differentiation and enrichment procedures that generate highly pure populations of neural stem cells (NSC), glia and neurons. One way to address this problem is to identify cell-surface signatures that enable the isolation of these cell types from heterogeneous cell populations by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS).We performed an unbiased FACS- and image-based immunophenotyping analysis using 190 antibodies to cell surface markers on naïve human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and cell derivatives from neural differentiation cultures. From this analysis we identified prospective cell surface signatures for the isolation of NSC, glia and neurons. We isolated a population of NSC that was CD184(+)/CD271(-)/CD44(-)/CD24(+) from neural induction cultures of hESC and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC). Sorted NSC could be propagated for many passages and could differentiate to mixed cultures of neurons and glia in vitro and in vivo. A population of neurons that was CD184(-)/CD44(-)/CD15(LOW)/CD24(+) and a population of glia that was CD184(+)/CD44(+) were subsequently purified from cultures of differentiating NSC. Purified neurons were viable, expressed mature and subtype-specific neuronal markers, and could fire action potentials. Purified glia were mitotic and could mature to GFAP-expressing astrocytes in vitro and in vivo.These findings illustrate the utility of immunophenotyping screens for the identification of cell surface signatures of neural cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells. These signatures can be used for isolating highly pure populations of viable NSC, glia and neurons by FACS. The methods described here will enable downstream studies that require consistent and defined neural cell populations

A Deep Learning Workflow for Mass-Forming Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Classification Based on MRI

Objective: Precise classification of mass-forming intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (MF-ICC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is crucial for personalized treatment strategy. The purpose of the present study was to differentiate MF-ICC from HCC applying a novel deep-learning-based workflow with stronger feature extraction ability and fusion capability to improve the classification performance of deep learning on small datasets. Methods: To retain more effective lesion features, we propose a preprocessing method called semi-segmented preprocessing (Semi-SP) to select the region of interest (ROI). Then, the ROIs were sent to the strided feature fusion residual network (SFFNet) for training and classification. The SFFNet model is composed of three parts: the multilayer feature fusion module (MFF) was proposed to extract discriminative features of MF-ICC/HCC and integrate features of different levels; a new stationary residual block (SRB) was proposed to solve the problem of information loss and network instability during training; the attention mechanism convolutional block attention module (CBAM) was adopted in the middle layer of the network to extract the correlation of multi-spatial feature information, so as to filter the irrelevant feature information in pixels. Results: The SFFNet model achieved an overall accuracy of 92.26% and an AUC of 0.9680, with high sensitivity (86.21%) and specificity (94.70%) for MF-ICC. Conclusion: In this paper, we proposed a specifically designed Semi-SP method and SFFNet model to differentiate MF-ICC from HCC. This workflow achieves good MF-ICC/HCC classification performance due to stronger feature extraction and fusion capabilities, which provide complementary information for personalized treatment strategy

Nitrogen addition increases the contents of glomalin-related soil protein and soil organic carbon but retains aggregate stability in a Pinus tabulaeformis forest

Background: Glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) and soil organic carbon (SOC) contribute to the formation and stability of soil aggregates, but the mechanism by which global atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition changes soil aggregate stability by altering the distribution of GRSP and SOC in different aggregate fractions remains unknown. Methods: We used a gradient N addition (0-9 g N m(-2) y(-1) ) in Pinus tabulaeformis forest for two years in northeast China and then examined the changes in SOC contents, total GRSP (T-GRSP), and easily extractable GRSP (EE-GRSP) contents in three soil aggregate fractions (macro-aggregate: >250 mu m, micro-aggregate: 250-53 mu m, and fine material: <53 mu m) and their relationship with aggregate stability. Results: (1) The soil was dominated by macro-aggregates. Short term N addition had no significant effect on mean weight diameter (MWD) and geometric mean diameter (GMD). (2) GRSP varied among aggregate fractions, and N addition had different effects on the distribution of GRSP in aggregate fractions. The EE-GRSP content in the macro-aggregates increased initially and then decreased with increasing N addition levels, having a peak value of 0.480 mg g(-1) at 6 g N m(-2)y(-1) The micro-aggregates had the lowest EE-GRSP content (0.148 mg g(-1) ) at 6 g N m(-2)y(-1) . Furthermore, the T-GRSP content significantly increased in the aggregate fractions with the N addition levels. (3) The macro-aggregate had the highest SOC content, followed by the micro-aggregate and the fine material had the lowest SOC content. N addition significantly increased the SOC content in all the aggregate fractions. (4) GRSP and SOC contents were not significantly correlated with MWD. Conclusion: Glomalin-related soil protein and SOC contents increased by N addition, but this increase did not enhance aggregate stability in short term, and the improvement of stability might depend on binding agents and incubation time

The ratio of transpiration to evapotranspiration in a rainfed maize field on the Loess Plateau of China

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a major crop on the Loess Plateau, and calculating the ratio of transpiration to evapotranspiration (T/ET) of maize is important for estimating field water balance. In this study, the sap flow method was adopted to measure transpiration (T) characteristics of maize. In order to calibrate the sap flow gauge, the sap flow rate was compared to the leaf T determined by the weighing method. The sap flow value was measured per hour for 3 days and the mean of the hourly values for each day was taken as the daily value to avoid the influence of hydraulic capacitance. There was a significant linear relationship between leaf T and sap flow rate. The slope and intercept of linear regression were 0.764 and 4.944, with an R-2 of 0.97 (p < 0.01). We also analyzed the T and ET of maize under field conditions. The T/ET of maize was 63.3% from July to September 2012. The T/ET and leaf area index had a good linear relationship. Partitioning of ET into soil evaporation (E) and T may have important implications for analyzing crop water use efficiency, evaluating the crop production potential of precipitation and optimizing field water management

Soil Inorganic Carbon Sequestration Following Afforestation Is Probably Induced by Pedogenic Carbonate Formation in Northwest China

In arid and semiarid areas, the effects of afforestation on soil organic carbon (SOC) have received considerable attention. In these areas, in fact, soil inorganic carbon (SIC), rather than SOC, is the dominant form of carbon, with a reservoir approximately 2-10 times larger than that of SOC. A subtle fluctuation of SIC pool can strongly alter the regional carbon budget. However, few studies have focused on the variations in SIC, or have used stable soil carbon isotopes to analyze the reason for SIC variations following afforestation in degraded semiarid lands. In the Mu Us Desert, northwest China, we selected a shifting sand land (SL) and three nearby forestlands (Populus alba) with ages of 8 (P-8), 20 (P-20) and 30 (P-30) years, and measured SIC, SOC, soil organic and inorganic delta C-13 values (delta C-13-SOC and delta C-13-SIC) and other soil properties. The results showed that SIC stock at 0-100 cm in SL was 34.2 Mg ha(-1), and it increased significantly to 42.5, 49.2, and 68.3 Mg ha(-1) in P-8, P-20, and P-30 lands, respectively. Both delta C-13-SIC and delta C-13-SOC within the 0-100 cm soil layer in the three forestlands were more negative than those in SL, and gradually decreased with plantation age. Afforestation elevated soil fine particles only at a depth of 0-40 cm. The entire dataset (260 soil samples) exhibited a negative correlation between d13C-SIC and SIC content (R-2 = 0.71, P < 0.01), whereas it showed positive correlation between SOC content and SIC content (R-2 = 0.52, P < 0.01) and between delta C-13-SOC and delta C-13-SIC (R-2 = 0.63, P < 0.01). However, no correlation was observed between SIC content and soil fine particles. The results indicated that afforestation on shifting SL has a high potential to sequester SIC in degraded semiarid regions. The contribution of soil fine particle deposition by canopy to SIC sequestration is limited. The SIC sequestration following afforestation is very probably caused by pedogenic carbonate formation, which is closely related to SOC accumulation. Our findings suggest that SIC plays an important role in the carbon cycle in semiarid areas and that overlooking this carbon pool may substantially lead to underestimating carbon sequestration capacity following vegetation rehabilitation