Chromosome-level genome assembly of milk thistle (Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.).

Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn., commonly known as milk thistle, is a medicinal plant belonging to the Asteraceae family. This plant has been recognized for its medicinal properties for over 2,000 years. However, the genome of this plant remains largely undiscovered, having no reference genome at a chromosomal level. Here, we assembled the chromosome-level genome of S. marianum, allowing for the annotation of 53,552 genes and the identification of transposable elements comprising 58% of the genome. The genome assembly from this study showed 99.1% completeness as determined by BUSCO assessment, while the previous assembly (ASM154182v1) showed 36.7%. Functional annotation of the predicted genes showed 50,329 genes (94% of total genes) with known protein functions in public databases. Comparative genome analysis among Asteraceae plants revealed a striking conservation of collinearity between S. marianum and C. cardunculus. The genomic information generated from this study will be a valuable resource for milk thistle breeding and for use by the larger research community.

Novel hybrid visual stimuli incorporating periodic motions into conventional flickering or pattern-reversal visual stimuli for steady-state visual evoked potential-based brain-computer interfaces.

In this study, we proposed a new type of hybrid visual stimuli for steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which incorporate various periodic motions into conventional flickering stimuli (FS) or pattern reversal stimuli (PRS). Furthermore, we investigated optimal periodic motions for each FS and PRS to enhance the performance of SSVEP-based BCIs. Periodic motions were implemented by changing the size of the stimulus according to four different temporal functions denoted by none, square, triangular, and sine, yielding a total of eight hybrid visual stimuli. Additionally, we developed the extended version of filter bank canonical correlation analysis (FBCCA), which is a state-of-the-art training-free classification algorithm for SSVEP-based BCIs, to enhance the classification accuracy for PRS-based hybrid visual stimuli. Twenty healthy individuals participated in the SSVEP-based BCI experiment to discriminate four visual stimuli with different frequencies. An average classification accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) were evaluated to compare the performances of SSVEP-based BCIs for different hybrid visual stimuli. Additionally, the user's visual fatigue for each of the hybrid visual stimuli was also evaluated. As the result, for FS, the highest performances were reported when the periodic motion of the sine waveform was incorporated for all window sizes except for 3 s. For PRS, the periodic motion of the square waveform showed the highest classification accuracies for all tested window sizes. A significant statistical difference in the performance between the two best stimuli was not observed. The averaged fatigue scores were reported to be 5.3 ± 2.05 and 4.05 ± 1.28 for FS with sine-wave periodic motion and PRS with square-wave periodic motion, respectively. Consequently, our results demonstrated that FS with sine-wave periodic motion and PRS with square-wave periodic motion could effectively improve the BCI performances compared to conventional FS and PRS. In addition, thanks to its low visual fatigue, PRS with square-wave periodic motion can be regarded as the most appropriate visual stimulus for the long-term use of SSVEP-based BCIs, particularly for window sizes equal to or larger than 2 s.

Regulation of the expression of nine antimicrobial peptide genes by TmIMD confers resistance against Gram-negative bacteria.

Immune deficiency (IMD) is a death domain-containing protein that is essential for the IMD/NF-κB humoral and epithelial immune responses to Gram-negative bacteria and viruses in insects. In the immune signaling cascade, IMD is recruited together with FADD and the caspase DREDD after the mobilization of PGRP receptors. Activated IMD regulates the expression of effector antimicrobial peptides (AMP) that protect against invading microorganisms. To date, most studies of the IMD pathway, and the IMD gene in particular, have been restricted to Drosophila; few similar studies have been conducted in other model insects. Herein, we cloned and functionally characterized an IMD homolog from the mealworm beetle Tenebrio molitor (TmIMD) and studied its role in host survival in the context of pathogenic infections. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the conserved caspase cleavage site and inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP)-binding motif (IBM). TmIMD expression was high in the hemocytes and Malpighian tubules of Tenebrio late-instar larvae and adults. At 3 and 6 hours' post-infection with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, or Candida albicans, TmIMD expression significantly increased compared with mock-infected controls. Knockdown of the TmIMD transcript by RNAi significantly reduced host resistance to the Gram-negative bacterium E. coli and fungus C. albicans in a survival assay. Strikingly, the expression of nine T. molitor AMPs (TmTenecin1, TmTenecin2, TmTenecin4, TmDefensin2, TmColeoptericin1, TmColeoptericin2, TmAttacin1a, TmAttacin1b, and TmAttacin2) showed significant downregulation in TmIMD knockdown larvae challenged with E. coli. These results suggest that TmIMD is required to confer humoral immunity against the Gram-negative bacteria, E. coli by inducing the expression of critical transcripts that encode AMPs.

Solvent additive to achieve highly ordered nanostructural semicrystalline DPP copolymers: toward a high charge carrier mobility.

A facile spin-coating method in which a small percentage of the solvent additive, 1-chloronaphthalene (CN), is found to increase the drying time during film deposition, is reported. The field-effect mobility of a PDPPDBTE film cast from a chloroform-CN mixed solution is 0.46 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1). The addition of CN to the chloroform solution facilitates the formation of highly crystalline polymer structures.

Synthesis and transistor properties of asymmetric oligothiophenes: relationship between molecular structure and device performance.

A series of three thiophene-naphthalene-based asymmetric oligomers-5-decyl-2,2':5',2'':5'',2'''-quaterthiophene (DtT), 5-decyl-5''-(naphthalen-2-yl)-2,2':5',2''-terthiophene (D3TN), and 5-(4-decylphenyl)-5'-(naphthalen-2-yl)-2,2'-bithiophene (DP2TN)-was synthesized by Suzuki cross-coupling reactions. The long alkyl side chains improved both the solubility of the oligomers in solvents and their tendency to self-assemble. UV/Vis absorption measurements suggested that DtT, D3TN, and DP2TN form H-type aggregates with a face-to-face packing structure. In addition, the three oligomers were found to adopt vertically aligned crystalline structures in films deposited on substrates, as revealed by grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering. These oligomers were used as the active layers of p-type organic field-effect transistors, and the resulting devices showed field-effect mobilities of 3.3×10(-3)  cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) for DtT, 1.6×10(-2)  cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) for D3TN, and 3.7×10(-2)  cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) for DP2TN. The differences in transistor performances were attributed to the degree of π overlap and the morphological differences determined by the molecular structures.