A Myb Transcription Factor of Phytophthora sojae, Regulated by MAP Kinase PsSAK1, Is Required for Zoospore Development

PsSAK1, a mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase from Phytophthora sojae, plays an important role in host infection and zoospore viability. However, the downstream mechanism of PsSAK1 remains unclear. In this study, the 3'-tag digital gene expression (DGE) profiling method was applied to sequence the global transcriptional sequence of PsSAK1-silenced mutants during the cysts stage and 1.5 h after inoculation onto susceptible soybean leaf tissues. Compared with the gene expression levels of the recipient P. sojae strain, several candidates of Myb family were differentially expressed (up or down) in response to the loss of PsSAK1, including of a R2R3-type Myb transcription factor, PsMYB1. qRT-PCR indicated that the transcriptional level of PsMYB1 decreased due to PsSAK1 silencing. The transcriptional level of PsMYB1 increased during sporulating hyphae, in germinated cysts, and early infection. Silencing of PsMYB1 results in three phenotypes: a) no cleavage of the cytoplasm into uninucleate zoospores or release of normal zoospores, b) direct germination of sporangia, and c) afunction in zoospore-mediated plant infection. Our data indicate that the PsMYB1 transcription factor functions downstream of MAP kinase PsSAK1 and is required for zoospore development of P. sojae

An Efficient Algorithm to Identify Minimal Failure-Causing Schemas from Exhaustive Test Suite

Abstract-Combinatorial testing is widely used to detect failures caused by interactions among parameters for its efficiency and effectiveness. Fault localization plays an important role in this testing technique. And minimal failure-causing schema is the root cause of failure. In this paper, an efficient algorithm, which identifies minimal failure-causing schemas from existing failed test cases and passed test cases, is proposed to replace the basic algorithm with worse time performance. Time complexity of basic and improved algorithms is calculated and compared. The result shows that the method that utilizes the differences between failed test cases and passed test cases is better than the method that only uses the sub-schemas of those test cases

The Impact of the Gain-Loss Frame on College Students' Willingness to Participate in the Individual Low-Carbon Behavior Rewarding System (ILBRS): The Mediating Role of Environmental Risk Perception

Since Chinese households account for more than half of the country&#39;s total carbon emissions, efforts focused on consumption will be key to reaching carbon reduction targets. The Individual Low-carbon Behavior Rewarding System (ILBRS) is an emerging mechanism in China that encourages the public to develop a low-carbon lifestyle and it is critical to look for various approaches to enhance the public&#39;s willingness to participate in it. The framing effect has been widely used to study pro-environmental behavior as a low-cost nudge. We used an online questionnaire (N = 320) to investigate how framing information (loss and gain framing) influenced people&#39;s willingness to participate in the ILBRS through the mediation of environmental risk perception. The results indicated that the public&#39;s willingness to participate in the ILBRS under the loss frame was significantly higher than the gain frame. Furthermore, environmental risk perception played a mediating role in the proceedings. Based on our findings, the designers and promoters of ILBRS systems could employ loss-frame information to promote the public&#39;s willingness to participate in the ILBRS and drive more people to live a low-carbon life in the process of mechanism construction, information communication, and operational promotion.</p

Interstitial fluid-based wearable biosensors for minimally invasive healthcare and biomedical applications

Abstract Interstitial fluid (ISF), a biological fluid rich in diverse biomarkers and analytes and similar to blood composition, has garnered significant attention as a valuable source of clinically relevant information. Consequently, ISF-based wearable biosensors are emerging as powerful tools for non-invasive and minimally invasive disease diagnosis, personalized medicine, and other healthcare and biomedical applications. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in ISF-based biosensors, with a particular focus on wearable ISF sensors. We first offer insights into ISF biomarkers and sampling techniques and discuss recent ISF sensing strategies that encompass materials, fabrication methods, and sensing mechanisms. Then, we present a comprehensive overview of their applications. Finally, we address the challenges faced in this field and offer a forward-looking perspective on promising future directions

Shear sliding of rough-walled fracture surfaces under unloading normal stress

Through high-precision engraving, self-affine sandstone joint surfaces with various joint roughness coefficients (JRC = 3.21–12.16) were replicated and the shear sliding tests under unloading normal stress were conducted regarding various initial normal stresses (1–7 MPa) and numbers of shearing cycles (1–5). The peak shear stress of fractures decreased with shear cycles due to progressively smooth surface morphologies, while increased with both JRC and initial normal stress and could be verified using the nonlinear Barton-Bandis failure criterion. The joint friction angle of fractures exponentially increased by 62.22%–64.87% with JRC while decreased by 22.1%–24.85% with shearing cycles. After unloading normal stress, the sliding initiation time of fractures increased with both JRC and initial normal stress due to more tortuous fracture morphologies and enhanced shearing resistance capacity. The surface resistance index (SRI) of fractures decreased by 4.35%–32.02% with increasing shearing cycles due to a more significant reduction of sliding initiation shear stress than that for sliding initiation normal stress, but increased by a factor of 0.41–1.64 with JRC. After sliding initiation, the shear displacement of fractures showed an increase in power function. By defining a sliding rate threshold of 5 × 10−5 m/s, transition from “quasi-static” to “dynamic” sliding of fractures was identified, and the increase of sliding acceleration steepened with JRC while slowed down with shearing cycles. The normal displacement experienced a slight increase before shear sliding due to deformation recovery as the unloading stress was unloaded, and then enhanced shear dilation after sliding initiation due to climbing effects of surface asperities. Dilation was positively related to the shear sliding velocity of fractures. Wear characteristics of the fracture surfaces after shearing failure were evaluated using binary calculation, indicating an increasing shear area ratio by 45.24%–91.02% with normal stress

An Oomycete CRN Effector Reprograms Expression of Plant <i>HSP</i> Genes by Targeting their Promoters

<div><p>Oomycete pathogens produce a large number of CRN effectors to manipulate plant immune responses and promote infection. However, their functional mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we identified a <i>Phytophthora sojae</i> CRN effector PsCRN108 which contains a putative DNA-binding helix-hairpin-helix (HhH) motif and acts in the plant cell nucleus. Silencing of the <i>PsCRN108</i> gene reduced <i>P</i>. <i>sojae</i> virulence to soybean, while expression of the gene in <i>Nicotiana benthamiana</i> and <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> enhanced plant susceptibility to <i>P</i>. <i>capsici</i>. Moreover, PsCRN108 could inhibit expression of <i>HSP</i> genes in <i>A</i>. <i>thaliana</i>, <i>N</i>. <i>benthamiana</i> and soybean. Both the HhH motif and nuclear localization signal of this effector were required for its contribution to virulence and its suppression of <i>HSP</i> gene expression. Furthermore, we found that PsCRN108 targeted <i>HSP</i> promoters in an HSE- and HhH motif-dependent manner. PsCRN108 could inhibit the association of the HSE with the plant heat shock transcription factor AtHsfA1a, which initializes <i>HSP</i> gene expression in response to stress. Therefore, our data support a role for PsCRN108 as a nucleomodulin in down-regulating the expression of plant defense-related genes by directly targeting specific plant promoters.</p></div

Discovery of N‑Substituted Oseltamivir Derivatives as Potent and Selective Inhibitors of H5N1 Influenza Neuraminidase

To discover group-1-specific neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors that are especially involved in combating the H5N1 virus, two series of oseltamivir derivatives were designed and synthesized by targeting the 150-cavity. Among these, compound <b>20l</b> was the most potent N1-selective inhibitor, with IC₅₀ values of 0.0019, 0.0038, and 0.0067 μM against NAs from three H5N1 viruses. These values are better than those of oseltamivir carboxylate. Compound <b>32</b> was another potent N1-selective inhibitor that exhibited a 12-fold increase in activity against the H274Y mutant relative to oseltamivir carboxylate. Molecular docking studies revealed that the 150-cavity was an auxiliary binding site that may contribute to the high selectivity of these compounds. The present work is a significant breakthrough in the discovery of potent group-1-specific neuraminidase inhibitors, which may be further investigated for the treatment of infection by the H5N1 virus