The protease Lon prolongs insect lifespan by responding to reactive oxygen species and degrading mitochondrial transcription factor A.

Diapause is a widespread adaptation of insects that enables them to survive during unfavorable seasons and is characterized by suppressed metabolism and increased lifespan. Previous works have demonstrated that high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) in the pupal brain of the moth Helicoverpa armigera induce diapause and extend lifespan by downregulating mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM). However, the molecular mechanisms of ROS-HIF-1α regulating metabolic activity to extend lifespan are still poorly understood. Here, we show that the mitochondrial abundance in diapause-type pupal brains is markedly lower than that in their nondiapause-type pupae, suggesting that ROS-HIF-1α signaling negatively regulates the number of mitochondria. The protease Lon, a major mitochondrial matrix protease, can respond to ROS signals. It is activated by transcription factor HIF-1α, which specifically binds the LON promoter to promote its expression. A high level of LON mediates the degradation of TFAM, which is a crucial factor in regulating mitochondrial abundance and metabolic activity. We believe this is the first report that a previously unrecognized regulatory pathway, ROS-HIF-1α-LON-TFAM, reduces mitochondrial activity to induce diapause, extending insect lifespan.

Mechanical Force-Induced Blue-Shifted and Enhanced Emission for AIEgens.

Mechanochromic (MC) luminescence of organic molecules has been emerging as a promising smart material for optical recording and memory devices. At the same time, pressure-induced blue-shifted and enhanced luminescence are rarely reported now. Herein, a series of cyanostilbene-based AIEgens with different substituents were synthesized to evaluate the influence of morphology transformation and push-pull electronic effect on the MC luminescence. Among these luminophores, compound 1 with one cyano group and diethylamino group was more susceptible to mechanical stimuli and obtained blue-shifted and enhanced fluorescence in response to anisotropic grinding. Powder X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that the MC behaviors were ascribed to the solid-state morphology transition from crystal-to-crystal. Analysis of crystal structures revealed that loose molecular packing is a key factor for high high-contrast MC luminescence. The smart molecular design, together with the excellent performance, verified that luminophores with twisted structures are ideal candidates for MC luminogens.

Copper-Catalyzed Enantioconvergent Cross-Coupling of Racemic Alkyl Bromides with Azole C(sp2 )-H Bonds.

The development of enantioconvergent cross-coupling of racemic alkyl halides directly with heteroarene C(sp2 )-H bonds has been impeded by the use of a base at elevated temperature that leads to racemization. We herein report a copper(I)/cinchona-alkaloid-derived N,N,P-ligand catalytic system that enables oxidative addition with racemic alkyl bromides under mild conditions. Thus, coupling with azole C(sp2 )-H bonds has been achieved in high enantioselectivity, affording a number of potentially useful α-chiral alkylated azoles, such as 1,3,4-oxadiazoles, oxazoles, and benzo[d]oxazoles as well as 1,3,4-triazoles, for drug discovery. Mechanistic experiments indicated facile deprotonation of an azole C(sp2 )-H bond and the involvement of alkyl radical species under the reaction conditions.

Observation and analysis of abnormal absorption signals in laser flash photolysis measurement.

In order to investigate a noise-like signal appearing in dynamic mode measurement during laser flash photolysis experiments, five compounds were chosen which show this abnormal phenomenon. The reproducibility of this phenomenon was done repeatedly, indicating that it originates from each molecular structural property. Also their two regulation pattern or features were found by our analysis. One is a U-shaped curve of main frequency intensity with time and it seems to be directly related to the concentration of the T(1) excited state. The other is a high damping oscillation curve of the frequency shift with time and this curve seems to be indicating an energy transportation process from light into chemical energy. Finally, a possible origin of hydrogen nuclear optical resonance was proposed for the abnormal signal.