Acupuncture alleviates CUMS-induced depression-like behaviors of rats by regulating oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and ferroptosis.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of depression with acupuncture has been documented. The mechanism behind acupuncture's curative and preventative effects is still unknown. METHODS: The current study examined the effects of acupuncture on depression-like behaviors in a rat model of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS), while also exploring its potential mechanisms. A total of six groups of rats were randomly assigned: control, CUMS, acupuncture, fluoxetine, acupoint catgut embedding and sham acupoint catgut embedding. Fluoxetine (2.1 mg/kg) and acupoint catgut embedding were used for comparative research to acupuncture. The modelling evaluation is measured by body weight and behavior tests. Western blotting and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were used to detect the proteins and mRNA expression of Silent information regulator 1 (Sirt1)/ nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/ heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1)/ Glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) pathway in the hippocampus. The expression of oxidative stress (OS)-related proteins and inflammatory cytokines in the serum was detected with ELISA. Immunofluorescence showed microglia and astrocytes activity in the hippocampus. RESULTS: Acupuncture and fluoxetine could alleviate CUMS-induced depression-like behaviors. Acupuncture was also found to effectively reverse the levels of MDA, SOD, GSH, GSH-PX and T-AOC, IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNF-α in the serum of CUMS-induced rats. Rats with CUMS showed decreased levels of Sirt1, Nrf2, HO-1 and GPX4 in the hippocampus, while acupuncture treatment could partly reverse the diminished effects. In addition, acupuncture treatment significantly reduced the activation of hippocampal microglia and astrocytes in CUMS-induced rats. CONCLUSION: The study's findings indicate that acupuncture has the potential to mitigate depression-like behaviors in rats induced with CUMS by mitigating OS and reducing neuroinflammation.

Crucial Role of the Ca2+/CN Signaling Pathway in the Antifungal Activity of Seselin against Botrytis cinerea.

Botrytis cinerea causes gray mold in many fruit and vegetable crops. We previously found that Seselin (SL) displayed antifungal activity against B. cinerea (EC50 = 6.1 µg·mL-1), and this study investigated the effects of Ca2+ and the Ca2+/CN signaling pathway on its antifungal activity against B. cinerea. The results indicated that exogenous Ca2+, Cyclosporine A, and Verapamil reduced the sensitivity of SL against B. cinerea; SL significantly reduced the intracellular Ca2+ concentration in the hyphae; the sensitivity of strains ΔbcCCH1 and ΔbcMID1 to SL were significantly increased; and the expressions of CCH1, MID1, CNA, PMC1, and PMR1 genes of the Ca2+/CN signaling pathway were significantly downregulated by SL treatment. Hence, SL is a potential compound for developing fungicides against B. cinerea. SL dramatically reduces intracellular Ca2+ concentration and disturbs Ca2+ homeostasis, leading to cell death. The Ca2+/CN signaling pathway plays an important role in the antifungal activity of SL against B. cinerea.

Character strengths, meaning in life, personal goal, and career adaptability among impoverished college students: A chain-mediating model.

Background: Career adaptability is an important building block for career success. Research on the career adaptability of disadvantaged students is therefore essential. The study aimed to explores the impact mechanism of career adaptability among impoverished students. Methods: Using the Character Strengths Questionnaire, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Personal Goal Scale and the Career Adaptability Scale, 1119 impoverished college students were surveyed. Results: The results revealed that character strengths can not only positively predict career adaptability, but also indirectly affect career adaptability of impoverished students through the chain mediation meaning in life and personal goal. The results showed the mechanism of character strengths on the career adaptability among impoverished students. Conclusions: Our study found that meaning in life along with personal goal can enhance the positive impact of character strengths on career adaptability. These findings have implications for the practice of career counseling for impoverished college students.

Tobacco rattle virus-induced VcANS gene silencing in blueberry fruit.

Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.), a woody perennial bush in the genus Vaccinium, is an economically important and popular fruit crop worldwide. Development the superior cultivars, which including excellent fruit traits, not only means higher yielding and economic efficiency, but also produce fruit that to meet the preferences of different consumers. Excavating fruit quality-related genes, studying their functions, and using transgenic or molecular-assisted breeding are beneficial to the development of excellent blueberry varieties. Genetic transformation is an excellent way to study the function of genes in plants, however, it is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process to genetically transform many woody plants, including blueberry. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) provides an efficient approach to knock-down the expression of target genes for functional analysis. In this study, tobacco rattle virus induced genes silencing (TRV-VIGS) was established in blueberry fruits using the VcANS gene as a reporter. The silenced sector of the skin of blueberry fruits injected with pTRV2 (plasmid Tobacco Rattle Virus, TRV-RNA2)::VcANS remained green or white at 25 days after agroinfiltration. In agroinfiltrated materials, the VcANS transcript levels were much lower in fruits with phenotypic changes (delayed color change) than in those infiltrated with the pTRV2 empty vector. Silencing of VcANS also affected the expression of other genes involved in the anthocyanin synthesis pathway. The experimental results support that VcANS can be used as an effective marker gene for VIGS system. In addition, the TRV-VIGS system has been successfully established in blueberry fruits, which provided an effective verification method for functional identification of unknown genes in blueberry fruits.

Genome-wide chromatin accessibility analysis unveils open chromatin convergent evolution during polyploidization in cotton.

Allopolyploidization, resulting in divergent genomes in the same cell, is believed to trigger a "genome shock", leading to broad genetic and epigenetic changes. However, little is understood about chromatin and gene-expression dynamics as underlying driving forces during allopolyploidization. Here, we examined the genome-wide DNase I-hypersensitive site (DHS) and its variations in domesticated allotetraploid cotton (Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense, AADD) and its extant AA (Gossypium arboreum) and DD (Gossypium raimondii) progenitors. We observed distinct DHS distributions between G. arboreum and G. raimondii. In contrast, the DHSs of the two subgenomes of G. hirsutum and G. barbadense showed a convergent distribution. This convergent distribution of DHS was also present in the wild allotetraploids Gossypium darwinii and G. hirsutum var. yucatanense, but absent from a resynthesized hybrid of G. arboreum and G. raimondii, suggesting that it may be a common feature in polyploids, and not a consequence of domestication after polyploidization. We revealed that putative cis-regulatory elements (CREs) derived from polyploidization-related DHSs were dominated by several families, including Dof, ERF48, and BPC1. Strikingly, 56.6% of polyploidization-related DHSs were derived from transposable elements (TEs). Moreover, we observed positive correlations between DHS accessibility and the histone marks H3K4me3, H3K27me3, H3K36me3, H3K27ac, and H3K9ac, indicating that coordinated interplay among histone modifications, TEs, and CREs drives the DHS landscape dynamics under polyploidization. Collectively, these findings advance our understanding of the regulatory architecture in plants and underscore the complexity of regulome evolution during polyploidization.

Crucial role of Ca2+ /CN signalling pathway in the antifungal activity of disenecioyl-cis-khellactone against Botrytis cinerea.

BACKGROUND: Botrytis cinerea causes grey mould and is one of the most destructive fungal pathogens affecting important fruit and vegetable crops. In preliminary studies, we found that disenecioyl-cis-khellactone (DK) had strong antifungal activity against several fungi species including B. cinerea [half maximal effective concentration (EC50 ) = 11.0 µg mL-1 ]. In this study, we aimed to further evaluate the antifungal activity of DK against B. cinerea and determine the role of calcium ion/calcineurin (Ca2+ /CN) signalling pathway on its antifungal effect. RESULTS: DK was effective against B. cinerea in both in vitro and in vivo assays. Exogenous Ca2+ reduced the antifungal activity of DK. The combination of DK and cyclosporine A (CsA) did not exhibit an additive effect against B. cinerea. In contrast to CsA, DK reduced the intracellular Ca2+ concentration in B. cinerea. DK bound to calcineurin A (cnA) and up-regulated the expression of PMC1 and PMR1 genes. Moreover, DK sensitivity of △bccnA significantly decreased compared with that of Bc05.10 strain. CONCLUSION: DK is a promising lead compound for developing fungicides against B. cinerea. The Ca2+ /CN signalling pathway plays a crucial role in the DK antifungal activity, and cnA is one of the targets of DK against B. cinerea. DK directly reacts with cnA, which up-regulates the transcription of Ca2+ /CN-dependent target genes PMC1 and PMR1, decreasing the intracellular Ca2+ concentration and disturbing the intracellular Ca2+ balance, leading to cell death. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Systematic application of DNA fiber-FISH technique in cotton.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization on extended DNA (fiber-FISH) is a powerful tool in high-resolution physical mapping. To introduce this technique into cotton, we developed the technique and tested it by deliberately mapping of telomere and 5S rDNA. Results showed that telomere-length ranged from 0.80 kb to 37.86 kb in three species, G. hirsutum, G. herbaceum and G. arboreum. However, most of the telomeres (>91.0%) were below 10 kb. The length of 5S rDNA was revealed as 964 kb in G. herbaceum whereas, in G. arboreum, it was approximately three times longer (3.1 Mb). A fiber-FISH based immunofluorescence method was also described to assay the DNA methylation. Using this technique, we revealed that both telomere and 5S rDNA were methylated at different levels. In addition, we developed a BAC molecule-based fiber-FISH technique. Using this technique, we can precisely map BAC clones on each other and evaluated the size and location of overlapped regions. The development and application of fiber-FISH technique will facilitate high-resolution physical mapping and further directed sequencing projects for cotton.