Characterization of photosystem II in transgenic tobacco plants with decreased iron superoxide dismutase

AbstractIron superoxide dismutases (FeSODs) play an important role in preventing the oxidative damage associated with photosynthesis. To investigate the mechanisms of FeSOD in protection against photooxidative stress, we obtained transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants with severely decreased FeSOD by using a gene encoding tobacco chloroplastic FeSOD for the RNAi construct. Transgenic plants were highly sensitive to photooxidative stress and accumulated increased levels of O2•− under normal light conditions. Spectroscopic analysis and electron transport measurements showed that PSII activity was significantly reduced in transgenic plants. Flash-induced fluorescence relaxation and thermoluminescence measurements revealed that there was a slow electron transfer between QA and QB and decreased redox potential of QB in transgenic plants, whereas the donor side function of PSII was not affected. Immunoblot and blue native gel analyses showed that PSII protein accumulation was also decreased in transgenic plants. PSII photodamage and D1 protein degradation under high light treatment was increased in transgenic plants, whereas the PSII repair was not affected, indicating that the stability of the PSII complex was decreased in transgenic plants. The results in this study suggest that FeSOD plays an important role in maintaining PSII function by stabilizing PSII complexes in tobacco plants

Impact of Inorganically Bound Sulfur on Late Shale Gas Generation

Nonisothermal, confined pyrolysis was applied to a mature shale sample from the Ordovician Salgan Formation in Tarim Basin, northwest China. Experiments were conducted using gold-tubes with added water at a very slow heating rate (2 °C/h) and end temperatures between 336 and 600 °C. To investigate the influence of inorganically bound sulfur on the generation of gases and to consider the geological occurrence of sulfur-containing minerals, such as prevalent pyrite in shales, the experiments were carried out with and without admixtures of MgSO₄, CaSO₄, and pyrite. High amounts of methane along with lower amounts of wet gases were formed from highly mature shale without minerals added, demonstrating a huge late gas generation potential at post peak-oil window maturities. In the experiments with added sulfates and pyrite, all organic gases were consumed in varying proportions, resulting in different chemical and stable carbon isotopic compositions. Pyrite treatment affects wet gas (C₂–C₅) evolution directly, but it affects methane (C₁) evolution indirectly. In contrast, sulfate treatments affect C₁–C₅ evolution directly. The cumulative yield ratio of CO₂/H₂S indicates that pyrite impacts on the hydrocarbon gas generation through low valence sulfur such as S⁰ or others, which are associated with H₂S generation. In the pyrite series, the smooth increase in ethane yield at temperatures exceeding 504 °C, together with a concomitant stable carbon isotope reversal, demonstrates a new origin for ethane at high temperatures. The isotopic reversal may come from reactions between water and solid kerogen/coke/pyrobitumen. Isotopic reversal of ethane occurs only in the control and pyrite series but not in the sulfate treatments. This provides evidence that anoxic conditions are required. Thus, one can expect to encounter isotopic reversals in high maturity, unconventional gas shale environments in the presence of pyrite

Identification and characterization of chloroplast casein kinase II from Oryza sativa (rice)

Plastid casein kinase II is an important regulator of transcription, posttranscriptional processes, and, most likely, different metabolic functions in dicotyledonous species. Here we report the identification and characterization of pCKII from the monocotyledonous species Oryza sativa. OspCKII activity was enriched from isolated rice chloroplasts using heparin-Sepharose chromatography, in which it co-elutes with the transcriptionally active chromosome (TAC) and several ribosomal proteins. Inclusion mass scanning of the kinase-active fraction identified the gene model for OspCKII. Transient expression of GFP fused to the 184 N-terminal amino acids of the OspCKII sequence in rice confirmed the chloroplastic localization of the kinase. OspCKII activity shows the characteristic features of casein kinase II, such as the utilization of GTP as phosphate donor, inhibition by low concentrations of heparin and poly-lysine, and utilization of the canonical pCKII motif E-S-E-G-E in the model substrate RNP29. Phosphoproteome analysis of a protein extract from rice leaves combined with a meta-analysis with published phosphoproteomics data revealed differences in the target protein spectrum between rice and Arabidopsis. Consistently, several pCKII phosphorylation sites in dicotyledonous plants are not conserved in monocots and algae, suggesting that details of pCKII regulation in plastids have changed during evolutio

UFO2: A unified pre-training framework for online and offline speech recognition

In this paper, we propose a Unified pre-training Framework for Online and Offline (UFO2) Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), which 1) simplifies the two separate training workflows for online and offline modes into one process, and 2) improves the Word Error Rate (WER) performance with limited utterance annotating. Specifically, we extend the conventional offline-mode Self-Supervised Learning (SSL)-based ASR approach to a unified manner, where the model training is conditioned on both the full-context and dynamic-chunked inputs. To enhance the pre-trained representation model, stop-gradient operation is applied to decouple the online-mode objectives to the quantizer. Moreover, in both the pre-training and the downstream fine-tuning stages, joint losses are proposed to train the unified model with full-weight sharing for the two modes. Experimental results on the LibriSpeech dataset show that UFO2 outperforms the SSL-based baseline method by 29.7% and 18.2% relative WER reduction in offline and online modes, respectively.Comment: Accepted by ICASSP 202

Case Report: Minimally invasive repair of a traumatic abdominal wall hernia in a child with a fascial closure device

Abdominal trauma is common in daily life, but a traumatic abdominal wall hernia (TAWH) in children is rare. A TAWH is caused by a huge external force that leads to subcutaneous muscle and fascia rupture, while the skin remains intact. As abdominal pressure increases, the abdominal contents protrude, forming a lump. A TAWH is highly susceptible to missed diagnosis because of other severe injuries. We report a case of a 2-year-old boy with a TAWH who developed a prominent subcutaneous mass on the right side of his abdomen after abdominal trauma; the size of the mass changed significantly with abdominal pressure and crying. In this case, we used a new approach of laparoscopic suture repair technique with the assistance of a fascial closure device and achieved good results. We found that this method offers the advantages of minimally invasive surgery, fast recovery, and no visible surgical incisions. There was no recurrence after 8 months of follow-up

P-bRS: A Physarum-Based Routing Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Routing in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is an extremely challenging issue due to the features of WSNs. Inspired by the large and single-celled amoeboid organism, slime mold Physarum polycephalum, we establish a novel selecting next hop model (SNH). Based on this model, we present a novel Physarum-based routing scheme (P-bRS) for WSNs to balance routing efficiency and energy equilibrium. In P-bRS, a sensor node can choose the proper next hop by using SNH which comprehensively considers the distance, energy residue, and location of the next hop. The simulation results show how P-bRS can achieve the effective trade-off between routing efficiency and energy equilibrium compared to two famous algorithms

Mutations of genes in synthesis of the carotenoid precursors of ABA lead to pre-harvest sprouting and photo-oxidation in rice

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) or vivipary in cereals is an important agronomic trait that results in significant economic loss. A considerable number of mutations that cause PHS have been identified in several species. However, relatively few viviparous mutants in rice (Oryza sativa L.) have been reported. To explore the mechanism of PHS in rice, we carried out an extensive genetic screening and identified 12 PHS mutants (phs). Based on their phenotypes, these phs mutants were classified into three groups. Here we characterize in detail one of these groups, which contains mutations in genes encoding major enzymes of the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway, including phytoene desaturase (OsPDS), ζ-carotene desaturase (OsZDS), carotenoid isomerase (OsCRTISO) and lycopene β-cyclase (β-OsLCY), which are essential for the biosynthesis of carotenoid precursors of ABA. As expected, the amount of ABA was reduced in all four phs mutants compared with that in the wild type. Chlorophyll fluorescence analysis revealed the occurrence of photoinhibition in the photosystem and decreased capacity for eliminating excess energy by thermal dissipation. The greatly increased activities of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging enzymes, and reduced photosystem (PS) II core proteins CP43, CP47 and D1 in leaves of the Oscrtiso/phs3-1 mutant and OsLCY RNAi transgenic rice indicated that photo-oxidative damage occurred in PS II, consistent with the accumulation of ROS in these plants. These results suggest that the impairment of carotenoid biosynthesis causes photo-oxidation and ABA-deficiency phenotypes, of which the latter is a major factor controlling the PHS trait in rice

Magnetic metal organic frameworks (MOFs) composite for removal of lead and malachite green in wastewater

We designed and synthesized a magnetic metal organic frameworks (MOFs) composite, Cu-MOFs/FeO as the adsorbent for removal of lead (Pb(II)) and malachite green (MG) in wastewater. This Cu-MOFs/FeO can be easily prepared by in-situ growth of Cu-MOFs with doping FeO nanoparticles. The prepared Cu-MOFs/FeO composite was well characterized by SEM, XRD, and FTIR spectra. The adsorption experiments found that Cu-MOFs/FeO can serve as adsorbent for removal of Pb(II) and MG simultaneously. The adsorption capacities were found to be 113.67 mg/g for MG and 219.00 mg/g for Pb, respectively, which are significantly higher than reported materials. Adsorption isotherm, kinetics and recyclability of Cu-MOFs/FeO for removal of Pb(II) and MG were then studied. Adsorption of Pb(II) and MG exhibited Freundlich adsorption isotherm model, with the adsorption kinetics of available second-order kinetic. Physical adsorption for MG and chemical adsorption for Pb(II) were confirmed by Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isothermal adsorption model. The adsorption of Pb(II) and MG in real water samples were then studied. The FeO/Cu-MOFs was found to be recyclable for removal of Pb(II) and MG, can be explored as the potential adsorbent for waste water treatment

Enhanced Sucrose Loading Improves Rice Yield by Increasing Grain Size

Yield in cereals is a function of grain number and size. Sucrose (Suc), the main carbohydrate product of photosynthesis in higher plants, is transported long distances from source leaves to sink organs such as seeds and roots. Here, we report that transgenic rice plants (Oryza sativa) expressing the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) phloem-specific Suc transporter (AtSUC2), which loads Suc into the phloem under control of the phloem protein2 promoter (pPP2), showed an increase in grain yield of up to 16% relative to wild-type plants in field trials. Compared with wild-type plants, pPP2::AtSUC2 plants had larger spikelet hulls and larger and heavier grains. Grain filling was accelerated in the transgenic plants, and more photoassimilate was transported from the leaves to the grain. In addition, microarray analyses revealed that carbohydrate, amino acid, and lipid metabolism was enhanced in the leaves and grain of pPP2::AtSUC2 plants. Thus, enhancing Suc loading represents a promising strategy to improve rice yield to feed the global population