An integrated plant glucose monitoring system based on microneedle-enabled electrochemical sensor.

Real-time monitoring of glucose concentration changes in plants and access to plant physiological information timely are of great significance to the development of precision agriculture. Here, we innovatively present an electrochemical sensing device that combines microneedle sensors and 3D printing technology to achieve real-time monitoring of glucose in plants in a minimally invasive manner. The device consists of two components: the inner part features a highly efficient sensing interface based on platinum wire (MPt-Au-Nafion-GOx-Pu), while the outer part consists of polymer microneedles formed by 3D printing. Additionally, the polymer hollow microneedle features a slender tip diameter of only 300 µm, minimizing plant damage during the detection procedure. The device shows good detection performance, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 33.3 µM and a detection sensitivity of 17 nA/µM·cm2. It can detect glucose concentrations in the range of 100 µM to 100 mM, providing a unique solution for timely agronomic management of crops tool. By performing 12 h real-time monitoring and salt stress treat on tomato and aloe vera, the results verified the feasibility of integrated device applied to real-time glucose detection in plants.

Identification of a Prognostic Gene Signature Based on Lipid Metabolism-Related Genes in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Background: Dysregulation of lipid metabolism is common in cancer. However, the molecular mechanism underlying lipid metabolism in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and its effect on patient prognosis are not well understood. The objective of our study was to construct a lipid metabolism-related prognostic model to improve prognosis prediction in ESCC. Methods: We downloaded the mRNA expression profiles and corresponding survival data of patients with ESCC from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. We performed differential expression analysis to identify differentially expressed lipid metabolism-related genes (DELMGs). We used Univariate Cox regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analyses to establish a risk model in the GEO cohort and used data of patients with ESCC from the TCGA cohort for validation. We also explored the relationship between the risk model and the immune microenvironment via infiltrated immune cells and immune checkpoints. Results: The result showed that 132 unique DELMGs distinguished patients with ESCC from the controls. We identified four genes (ACAA1, ACOT11, B4GALNT1, and DDHD1) as prognostic gene expression signatures to construct a risk model. Patients were classified into high- and low-risk groups as per the signature-based risk score. We used the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis to validate the predictive performance of the 4-gene signature in both the training and validation sets. Infiltrated immune cells and immune checkpoints indicated a difference in the immune status between the two risk groups. Conclusion: The results of our study indicated that a prognostic model based on the 4-gene signature related to lipid metabolism was useful for the prediction of prognosis in patients with ESCC.

Comparative Transcriptome Profiling Reveals Defense-Related Genes Against Ralstonia solanacearum Infection in Tobacco.

Bacterial wilt (BW) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (R. solanacearum), is a vascular disease affecting diverse solanaceous crops and causing tremendous damage to crop production. However, our knowledge of the mechanism underlying its resistance or susceptibility is very limited. In this study, we characterized the physiological differences and compared the defense-related transcriptomes of two tobacco varieties, 4411-3 (highly resistant, HR) and K326 (moderately resistant, MR), after R. solanacearum infection at 0, 10, and 17 days after inoculation (dpi). A total of 3967 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the HR and MR genotypes under mock condition at three time points, including1395 up-regulated genes in the HR genotype and 2640 up-regulated genes in the MR genotype. Also, 6,233 and 21,541 DEGs were induced in the HR and MR genotypes after R. solanacearum infection, respectively. Furthermore, GO and KEGG analyses revealed that DEGs in the HR genotype were related to the cell wall, starch and sucrose metabolism, glutathione metabolism, ABC transporters, endocytosis, glycerolipid metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. The defense-related genes generally showed genotype-specific regulation and expression differences after R. solanacearum infection. In addition, genes related to auxin and ABA were dramatically up-regulated in the HR genotype. The contents of auxin and ABA in the MR genotype were significantly higher than those in the HR genotype after R. solanacearum infection, providing insight into the defense mechanisms of tobacco. Altogether, these results clarify the physiological and transcriptional regulation of R. solanacearum resistance infection in tobacco, and improve our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the plant-pathogen interaction.

N, S-Codoped Activated Carbon Material with Ultra-High Surface Area for High-Performance Supercapacitors.

The recycling of macromolecular biowastes has been a problem for the agriculture industry. In this study, a novel N, S-codoped activated carbon material with an ultrahigh specific area was produced for the application of a supercapacitor electrode, using tobacco stalk biowastes as the carbon source, KOH as the activating agents and thiourea as the doping agent. Tobacco stalk is mainly composed of cellulose, but also contains many small molecules and inorganic salts. KOH activation resulted in many mesopores, giving the tobacco stem-activated carbon a large specific surface area and double-layer capacitance. The specific surface area of the samples reached up to 3733 m2·g-1, while the maximum specific capacitance of the samples obtained was up to 281.3 F·g-1 in the 3-electrode tests (1 A·g-1). The doping of N and S elements raised the specific capacitance significantly, which could be increased to a value as high as 422.5 F·g-1 at a current density of 1 A·g-1 in the 3-electrode tests, but N, S-codoping also led to instability. The results of this article prove that tobacco stalks could be efficiently reused in the field of supercapacitors.