Positive regulation of ABA signaling by MdCPK4 interacting with and phosphorylating MdPYL2/12 in Arabidopsis.

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates plant growth and development and stress resistance through the ABA receptor PYLs. To date, no interaction between CPK and PYL has been reported, even in Arabidopsis and rice. In this study, we found that MdCPK4 from Malus domestica (Md for short) interacts with two MdPYLs, MdPYL2/12, in the nucleus and the cytoplasm in vivo and phosphorylates the latter in vitro as well. Compared with the wild type (WT), the MdCPK4- or MdPYL2/12-overexpressing Arabidopsis lines showed more sensitivity to ABA, and therefore stronger drought resistance. The ABA-related genes (ABF1, ABF2, ABF4, RD29A and SnRK2.2) were significantly upregulated in the overexpressing (OE) lines after ABA treatment. These results indicate that MdCPK4 and MdPYL2/12 act as positive regulators in response to ABA-mediated drought resistance in apple. Our results reveal the relationship between MdCPK4 and MdPYL2/12 in ABA signaling, which will further enrich the molecular mechanism of drought resistance in plants.

Catalytic Pyrolysis of Sawdust with Desulfurized Fly Ash for Pyrolysis Gas Upgrading.

In this study, the catalytic effects of desulfurized fly ash (DFA) on the gaseous products of sawdust (SD) pyrolysis were investigated in a tubular furnace. The results indicated that DFA catalyzed the process of SD decomposition to improve the hydrogen content and the calorific value of pyrolysis gas. As to its effect on pyrolysis products, DFA increased the non-oxide content of CH4, C3H4, and H2 in pyrolysis gas by 1.4-, 1.8-, and 2.3-fold, respectively. Meanwhile, the catalytic effect of DFA reduced the CO and CO2 yields during DFA/SD pyrolysis. Based on the model compound method, CaSO3 and Ca(OH)2 in DFA was proved to have quite different catalytic effects on pyrolysis gas components. Ca(OH)2 accelerated the formation of CH4 and H2 through the cracking of methoxyl during lignin and cellulose degradation, while CaSO3 favored the generation of CO and CO2 due to the carbonyl and carboxyl of lignin in SD. CaSO3 also catalyzed SD pyrolysis to promote the C3H4 yield in pyrolysis gas. Overall, the catalytic pyrolysis of SD with DFA yielded negative-carbon emission, which upgraded the quality of the pyrolysis gas.

Integrated High-Throughput Sequencing, Microarray Hybridization and Degradome Analysis Uncovers MicroRNA-Mediated Resistance Responses of Maize to Pathogen Curvularia lunata.

Curvularia lunata (Wakker) Boed, the causal agent of leaf spot in maize, is prone to mutation, making it difficult to control. RNAi technology has proven to be an important tool of genetic engineering and functional genomics aimed for crop improvement. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which act as post-transcriptional regulators, often cause translational repression and gene silencing. In this article, four small RNA (sRNA) libraries were generated from two maize genotypes inoculated by C. lunata; among these, ltR1 and ltR2 were from the susceptible variety Huangzao 4 (HZ), ltR3 and ltR4, from the resistant variety Luyuan (LY), and 2286, 2145, 1556 and 2504 reads were annotated as miRNA in these four sRNA libraries, respectively. Through the combined analysis of high-throughput sequencing, microarray hybridization and degradome, 48 miRNAs were identified as being related to maize resistance to C. lunata. Among these, PC-732 and PC-169, two new maize miRNAs discovered, were predicted to cleave mRNAs of metacaspase 1 (AMC1) and thioredoxin family protein (Trx), respectively, possibly playing crucial roles in the resistance of maize to C. lunata. To further confirm the role of PC-732 in the interaction of maize and C. lunata, the miRNA was silenced through STTM (short tandem target mimic) technology, and we found that knocking down PC-732 decreased the susceptibility of maize to C. lunata. Precisely speaking, the target gene of PC-732 might inhibit the expression of disease resistance-related genes during the interaction between maize and C. lunata. Overall, the findings of this study indicated the existence of miRNAs involved in the resistance of maize to C. lunata and will contribute to rapidly clarify the resistant mechanism of maize to C. lunata.

Distributed Multi-Antenna Positioning for Automatic-Guided Vehicle.

Radio-based positioning systems are typically utilized to provide high-precision position information for automatic-guided vehicles (AGVs). However, the presence of obstacles in harsh environments, as well as carried cargoes on the AGV, will degrade the localization performance, since they block the propagation of radio signals. In this paper, a distributed multi-antenna positioning system is proposed, where multiple synchronous antennas are equipped on corners of an AGV to improve the availability and accuracy of positioning. An estimator based on the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is introduced to solve the nonlinear pseudo-range equations. To obtain the global optimal solutions, we propose a coarse estimator that utilizes the displacement knowledge of the antennas to provide a rough initial guess. Simulation results show a better availability of our system compared with the single antenna positioning system. Decimeter accuracy can be obtained under a Gaussian measurement noise with a standard deviation of 0.2 m. The results also demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can achieve positioning accuracy close to the theoretical Cramer-Rao lower bound. Furthermore, given prior information of the yaw angle, the same level of accuracy can be obtained by the proposed algorithm without the coarse estimation step.

NDUFA4L2 is associated with clear cell renal cell carcinoma malignancy and is regulated by ELK1.

BACKGROUND: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common and lethal cancer of the adult kidney. However, its pathogenesis has not been fully understood till now, which hinders the therapeutic development of ccRCC. NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1 alpha subcomplex 4-like 2 (NDUFA4L2) was found to be upregulated and play an important role in ccRCC. We aimed to further investigate the underlying mechanisms by which NDUFA4L2 exerted function and its expression level was upregulated. METHODS: The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data were mined to verify the change of NDUFA4L2 expression level in ccRCC tissues. The correlation between expression level of NDUFA4L2 and cell proliferation/apoptosis was explored by Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of NDUFA4L2 was constructed. Biological process and involved pathways of NDUFA4L2 were analyzed by gene ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway. The transcription factors (TFs) which can induce the expression of NDUFA4L2 were explored in clinical samples by correlation analysis and its regulation on the expression of NDUFA4L2 was verified by knockdown experiment. RESULTS: NDUFA4L2 was verified to be overexpressed in ccRCC tissues and its expression level was increased accordingly as the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage progressed. A high NDUFA4L2 level predicted the poor prognosis of ccRCC patients and correlated with enhanced cell proliferation and anti-apoptosis. NDUFA4L2 may interact with 14 tumor-related proteins, participate in growth and death processes and be involved in ccRCC-related pathways, such as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR) and phosphoinositide 3 kinase serine/threonine protein kinase (PI3K/AKT). ETS domain-containing protein ELK1 level positively correlated with the level of NDUFA4L2 in ccRCC tissues and ELK1 could regulate the expression of NDUFA4L2 in ccRCC cells. DISCUSSION: NDUFA4L2 upregulation was associated with ccRCC malignancy. NDUFA4L2 expression was regulated by ELK1 in ccRCC cells. Our study provided potential mechanisms by which NDUFA4L2 affected ccRCC occurrence and progression.