Knowledge from Large-Scale Protein Contact Prediction Models Can Be Transferred to the Data-Scarce RNA Contact Prediction Task

RNA, whose functionality is largely determined by its structure, plays an important role in many biological activities. The prediction of pairwise structural proximity between each nucleotide of an RNA sequence can characterize the structural information of the RNA. Historically, this problem has been tackled by machine learning models using expert-engineered features and trained on scarce labeled datasets. Here, we find that the knowledge learned by a protein-coevolution Transformer-based deep neural network can be transferred to the RNA contact prediction task. As protein datasets are orders of magnitude larger than those for RNA contact prediction, our findings and the subsequent framework greatly reduce the data scarcity bottleneck. Experiments confirm that RNA contact prediction through transfer learning using a publicly available protein model is greatly improved. Our findings indicate that the learned structural patterns of proteins can be transferred to RNAs, opening up potential new avenues for research.Comment: Minor revision. The code is available at https://github.com/yiren-jian/CoT-RNA-Transfe

(2E,6E)-2,6-Bis(2-fluoro-5-meth­oxy­benzyl­idene)cyclo­hexan-1-one

The title compound, C22H20F2O3, a derivative of curcumin, crystallized with two independent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit. The mean planes of the two 2-fluoro-5-meth­oxy­phenyl groups are aligned at 24.88 (11)° in one mol­ecule and 24.19 (15)° in the other. The dihedral angles between the mean plane of the penta-1,4-dien-3-one group and those of the two 2-fluoro-5-meth­oxy­phenyl rings are 51.16 (11) and 49.16 (10)° in the first mol­ecule, and 45.69 (15) and 54.00 (14)° in the second. The mol­ecules adopt E configurations about the central olefinic bonds

11β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 1(11β-HSD1) mediates insulin resistance through JNK activation in adipocytes

Glucocorticoids are used to treat a number of human diseases but often lead to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) is a key enzyme that catalyzes the intracellular conversion of cortisone to physiologically active cortisol. Despite the known role of 11β-HSD1 and active glucocorticoid in causing insulin resistance, the molecular mechanisms by which insulin resistance is induced remain elusive. The aim of this study is to identify these mechanisms in high fat diet (HFD) experimental models. Mice on a HFD were treated with 11β-HSD1 inhibitor as well as a JNK inhibitor. We then treated 3T3-L1-derived adipocytes with prednisone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, and cells with 11β-HSD1 overexpression to study insulin resistance. Our results show that 11β-HSD1 and JNK inhibition mitigated insulin resistance in HFD mice. Prednisone stimulation or overexpression of 11β-HSD1 also caused JNK activation in cultured adipocytes. Inhibition of 11β-HSD1 blocked the activation of JNK in adipose tissue of HFD mice as well as in cultured adipocytes. Furthermore, prednisone significantly impaired the insulin signaling pathway, and these effects were reversed by 11β-HSD1 and JNK inhibition. Our study demonstrates that glucocorticoid-induced insulin resistance was dependent on 11β-HSD1, resulting in the critical activation of JNK signaling in adipocytes

Spin-glass ground state in a triangular-lattice compound YbZnGaO4_4

We report on comprehensive results identifying the ground state of a triangular-lattice structured YbZnGaO$_4$ to be spin glass, including no long-range magnetic order, prominent broad excitation continua, and absence of magnetic thermal conductivity. More crucially, from the ultralow-temperature a.c. susceptibility measurements, we unambiguously observe frequency-dependent peaks around 0.1 K, indicating the spin-glass ground state. We suggest this conclusion to hold also for its sister compound YbMgGaO$_4$, which is confirmed by the observation of spin freezing at low temperatures. We consider disorder and frustration to be the main driving force for the spin-glass phase.Comment: Version as accepted to PR

Exploration of an Actin Promoter-Based Transient Expression Vector to Trace the Cellular Localization of Nucleorhabdovirus Proteins in Leafhopper Cultured Cells

Continuously cultured cell lines derived from planthopper and leafhopper have greatly facilitated the investigation of rice viruses transmitted by these insects. However, the lack of a suitable transient expression vector has limited their utility. Here, by cloning and analyzing the promoter sequence of the gene encoding cytoplasmic actin from the leafhopper Nephotettix cincticeps, we successfully developed the first efficient transient expression vector for cultured leafhopper cells, which can also be used to express exogenous proteins in other insect culture cell lines, including those derived from Recilia dorsalis leafhopper and Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9). Furthermore, insertion of the Hr5 viral enhancer element and knockdown of the endogenous Dicer2 gene notably improved the vector’s expression efficiency in leafhopper cells. Using the optimized vector, we have for the first time traced the cellular localization of the proteins encoded by rice yellow stunt virus (RYSV) in cells of its insect vector and demonstrated that P6 protein is a component of the viroplasm