Mechanical and antibacterial properties of benzothiazole-based dental resin materials

<p>A synthesized benzothiazole containing mono-methacrylate monomer BTTMA was incorporated into Bis-GMA/TEGDMA dental resin system with a series of mass concentration from 5 to 30 wt.% as an antibacterial agent. The influence of BTTMA on physicochemical properties of dental resin system, such as double bond conversion (DC), volumetric shrinkage (VS), flexural strength (FS) and modulus (FM), water sorption (WS) and solubility (SL) were investigated. Direct contact testing and agar diffusion testing were used to evaluate the antibacterial activity of BTTMA containing dental resin. The results showed that BTTMA could endow dental resin with significant antibacterial activity when its concentration reached a certain amount (20 wt.%), and the antibacterial activity of BTTMA containing dental resin was mainly attributed to the immobilized BTTMA instead of the unreacted leachable BTTMA. BTTMA had no negative effect on physicochemical properties of dental resin, and even some BTTMA containing dental resins had advantages like higher DC, lower VS and WS when compared with control resin. Therefore, BTTMA could be considered as a suitable antibacterial agent in dental material, but much more researches concerned about biocompatibility should be done in future to prove whether it could be applied in clinic.</p

Genome-wide identification, structural and gene expression analysis of the bZIP transcription factor family in sweet potato wild relative Ipomoea trifida

Abstract Background The basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor is one of the most abundant and conserved transcription factor families. In addition to being involved in growth and development, bZIP transcription factors also play an important role in plant adaption to abiotic stresses. Results A total of 41 bZIP genes that encode 66 proteins were identified in Ipomoea trifida. They were distributed on 14 chromosomes of Ipomoea trifida. Segmental and tandem duplication analysis showed that segmental duplication played an important role in the ItfbZIP gene amplification. ItfbZIPs were divided into ten groups (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and S groups) according to their phylogenetic relationships with Solanum lycopersicum and Arabidopsis thaliana. The regularity of the exon/intron numbers and distributions is consistent with the group classification in evolutionary tree. Prediction of the cis-acting elements found that promoter regions of ItfbZIPs harbored several stress responsive cis-acting elements. Protein three-dimensional structural analysis indicated that ItfbZIP proteins mainly consisted of α-helices and random coils. The gene expression pattern from transcriptome data and qRT-PCR analysis showed that ItfbZIP genes expressed with a tissue-specific manner and differently expressed under various abiotic stresses, suggesting that the ItfbZIPs were involved in stress response and adaption in Ipomoea trifida. Conclusions Genome-wide identification, gene structure, phylogeny and expression analysis of bZIP gene in Ipomoea trifida supplied a solid theoretical foundation for the functional study of bZIP gene family and further facilitated the molecular breeding of sweet potato