Efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture for urinary retention: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Electroacupuncture (EA) is considered as an effective treatment for urinary retention (UR). METHODS: Up to April 7, 2023, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of EA for UR were extensively searched in 8 databases, including Pubmed, Cochrane, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese Journal Full-text Database, Wanfang Data, and VIP Full-text e-Journals Database. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) were utilized to evaluate the quality of all included RCTs. Meta-analysis was conducted using Stata 15.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 23 trials were included, and the meta-analysis results suggested that compared with the control group, EA can effectively treat various types of UR (risk ratio [RR] = 1.22, 95CI%: 1.14, 1.31) and promote bladder function recovery, with a significant reduce in residual urine volume (weighted mean differences [WMD] = -49.60, 95CI%: -64.10, -35.11), an increase in maximum bladder capacity (WMD = 47.00, 95CI%: 12.76, 81.24), a shorten in the first urination time (standardized mean difference [SMD] = -1.42, 95CI%: -2.08, -0.76), and less adverse reactions (RR = 0.21, 95CI%: 0.07, 0.65). CONCLUSION: EA has significant advantages in treating UR, but the efficacy and safety are still needed to be further verified through large-sample and high-quality RCTs.

Efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture for insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Electroacupuncture is often used to treat insomnia. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture for insomnia. SEARCH STRATEGY: Databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data and VIP Full-text e-Journals Database were searched up to January 15, 2023. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Randomized clinical trials were included if they compared the clinical efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture with sham acupuncture, no treatment or usual care (UC) and general acupuncture. DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS: The full texts of the studies were reviewed to remove ineligible literature. The extracted data included authors, publication year, diagnostic criteria, sample size, population characteristics, interventions and outcomes. The above steps were performed independently by two reviewers and the data were cross-checked. Stata15.0 software was used to analyze the extracted outcome data. For continuous data (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [PSQI] score and Insomnia Severity Index score), weighted mean difference (WMD) was calculated and 95% confidence interval (CI) was reported when the same scale was applied. For dichotomous variables (clinical response rate and adverse events), a meta-analysis was performed using risk ratio (RR) as the effect indicator. RESULTS: Thirty-one trials with 2226 subjects were included. The meta-analysis suggested that electroacupuncture was more effective in improving insomnia compared with the control group (sham acupuncture, no treatment, UC and general acupuncture) (RR = 1.21; 95% CI: [1.16, 1.27]), significantly reducing the PSQI score in insomnia patients after treatment and at follow-up (WMD = -3.23; 95% CI: [-4.29, -2.17]; P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse events between the EA and control groups (sham acupuncture and no treatment or UC. RR = 1.48; 95% CI: [0.91, 2.40]; P = 0.117). In addition, the regression results revealed that receiving electroacupuncture for seven to nine weeks provided the best efficacy (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Electroacupuncture can significantly promote better sleep quality in insomnia patients and is suitable for the treatment of various types of insomnia. However, the articles included were single-center trials with small sample sizes, and some articles were of poor quality. Therefore, further research is still needed to confirm these findings. Please cite this article as: Xu HY, Wu LN, Zhang Y, Ba T, Zhao XF. Efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture for insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Integr Med. 2024; Epub ahead of print.

A near-infrared lysosomal probe for dynamic sulfur dioxide monitoring in inflammation.

Inflammation is a complex physiological response involving various cellular and molecular events. Sulfur dioxide (SO2), recognized as both an endogenous signaling molecule and anti-inflammatory agent, plays a crucial role in modulating inflammation and maintaining cellular homeostasis. To gain deeper insights into the dynamics of inflammation-related processes, real-time monitoring of SO2 concentrations within cellular organelles is imperative. Here, we developed a near-infrared fluorescent probe, R2, equipped with lysosomal targeting features. R2 effectively monitors dynamic SO2 concentration changes during inflammation. The fluorescence intensity at 703 nm of R2 shows a strong linear correlation with the concentration of SO2, displaying a rapid response time to SO2 within 10 s and maintaining excellent photostability. The successful application of R2 in elucidating dynamic SO2 concentration changes in lysosomal during cellular and rat inflammatory processes underscores its significant potential as a tool for understanding the pathogenesis of inflammation-related diseases.

Towards core-shell engineering for efficient luminescence and temperature sensing.

Research on the core-shell design of rare earth-doped nanoparticles has recently gained significant attention, particularly in exploring the synergistic effects of combining active and inert shell layers. In this study, we successfully synthesized 8 types of spherical core-shell Na-based nanoparticles to enhance the efficiency of core-shell design in upconversion luminescence and temperature sensing through the strategic arrangement of inert and active layers. The most effective upconversion luminescence was observed under 980 nm and 808 nm laser excitation using NaYF4 inert shell NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+@ NaYF4 and NaYF4@ NaYF4:Yb3+, Nd3+ core-shell nanostructures. Moreover, the incorporation of the NaYbF4 active shell structure led to a significant increase in relative sensitivity in ratio luminescence thermometry. Notably, the NaYF4:Yb3+, Nd3+, Er3+@ NaYbF4 core-shell structure demonstrated the highest relative sensitivity of 1.12 %K-1. This research underscores the crucial role of inert shell layers in enhancing upconversion luminescence in core-shell structure design, while active layers play a key role in achieving high-sensitivity temperature detection capabilities.

The Art of Nanoparticle Design: Unconventional Morphologies for Advancing Luminescent Technologies.

The advanced design of rare-earth-doped (RE-doped) fluoride nanoparticles has expanded their applications ranging from anticounterfeiting luminescence and contactless temperature measurement to photodynamic therapy. Several recent studies have focused on developing rare morphologies of RE-doped nanoparticles. Distinct physical morphologies of RE-doped fluoride materials set them apart from contemporary nanoparticles. Every unusual structure holds the potential to dramatically improve the physical performance of nanoparticles, resulting in a remarkable revolution and a wide range of applications. This comprehensive review serves as a guide offering insights into various uniquely structured nanoparticles, including hollow, dumbbell-shaped, and peasecod-like forms. It aims to cater to both novices and experts interested in exploring the morphological transformations of nanoparticles. Discovering new energy transfer pathways and enhancing the optical application performance have been long-term challenges for which new solutions can be found in old papers. In the future, nanoparticle morphology design is expected to involve more refined microphysical methods and chemically-induced syntheses. Targeted modification of nanoparticle morphology and the aggregation of nanoparticles of various shapes can provide the advantages of different structures and enhance the universality of nanoparticles.

Improvement of surface stability of Zn anode by a cost-effective ErCl3 additive for realizing high-performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries.

Rechargeable aqueous-zinc ion batteries (AZIB) have notable benefits in terms of high safety and low cost. Nevertheless, the challenges, such as dendrite growth, zinc anode corrosion, and hydrogen evolution reaction, impede its practical implementation. Hence, this study proposes the introduction of an economical ErCl3 electrolyte additive to stabilize the Zn anode surface and address the aforementioned issues. The introduced Er3+ will cover the raised zinc dendrite surface and weaken the "tip effect" on the surface of the zinc anode via the "electrostatic shielding" effect. Simultaneously, the introduced Cl- can reduce the polarization of the zinc anode. Due to the synergistic effect of Er3+ and Cl-, the zinc anode corrosion, dendrite growth and hydrogen evolution have been efficiently inhibited. As a result, the Zn||Zn-symmetric battery using ErCl3 additive can stably cycle for 1100 h at 1 mA cm-2, 1 mAh cm-2, and exhibit a high average coulomb efficiency (99.2 %). Meanwhile, Zn||MnO2 full battery based on ErCl3-added electrolyte also demonstrates a high reversible capacity of 157.1 mAh/g after 500 cycles. Obviously, the capacity decay rate of the full battery is also improved, only 0.113 % per cycle. This study offers a straightforward and economically efficient method for stabilizing the zinc anode and realizing high-performance AZIBs.

Designing Cyclic-Constrained Peptides to Inhibit Human Phosphoglycerate Dehydrogenase.

Although loop epitopes at protein-protein binding interfaces often play key roles in mediating oligomer formation and interaction specificity, their binding sites are underexplored as drug targets owing to their high flexibility, relatively few hot spots, and solvent accessibility. Prior attempts to develop molecules that mimic loop epitopes to disrupt protein oligomers have had limited success. In this study, we used structure-based approaches to design and optimize cyclic-constrained peptides based on loop epitopes at the human phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) dimer interface, which is an obligate homo-dimer with activity strongly dependent on the oligomeric state. The experimental validations showed that these cyclic peptides inhibit PHGDH activity by directly binding to the dimer interface and disrupting the obligate homo-oligomer formation. Our results demonstrate that loop epitope derived cyclic peptides with rationally designed affinity-enhancing substitutions can modulate obligate protein homo-oligomers, which can be used to design peptide inhibitors for other seemingly intractable oligomeric proteins.

Optimization of deliquescence-proof perovskite-like Cs3ErF6 phosphor and dual-mode luminescent intensity ratio thermometry.

The susceptibility of Cs-based fluorides to deliquescence has led to the fact that lanthanide-doped Cs-based fluorides and their related applications have hardly been reported. Herein, the method to solve the deliquescence of Cs3ErF6 and its excellent temperature measurement performance were discussed in this work. Initially, the soaking experiment of Cs3ErF6 found that water had irreversible damage to the crystallinity of Cs3ErF6. Subsequently, the luminescent intensity was ensured by the successful isolation of Cs3ErF6 from the deliquescence of vapor by the silicon rubber sheet encapsulation at room temperature. In addition, we also removed moisture by heating samples to obtain temperature-dependent spectra. According to spectral results, two luminescent intensity ratio (LIR) temperature sensing modes were designed. The LIR mode which can quickly respond to temperature parameters by monitoring single band Stark level emission named as "rapid mode". The maximum sensitivity of 7.362%K-1 can be obtained in another "ultra-sensitive mode" thermometer based on the non-thermal coupling energy levels. This work will focus on the deliquescence effect of Cs3ErF6 and the feasibility of silicone rubber encapsulation. At the same time, a dual-mode LIR thermometer is designed for different situations.

Pinpointing Cancer Sub-Type Specific Metabolic Tasks Facilitates Identification of Anti-cancer Targets.

Metabolic reprogramming is one of the hallmarks of tumorigenesis. Understanding the metabolic changes in cancer cells may provide attractive therapeutic targets and new strategies for cancer therapy. The metabolic states are not the same in different cancer types or subtypes, even within the same sample of solid tumors. In order to understand the heterogeneity of cancer cells, we used the Pareto tasks inference method to analyze the metabolic tasks of different cancers, including breast cancer, lung cancer, digestive organ cancer, digestive tract cancer, and reproductive cancer. We found that cancer subtypes haves different propensities toward metabolic tasks, and the biological significance of these metabolic tasks also varies greatly. Normal cells treat metabolic tasks uniformly, while different cancer cells focus on different pathways. We then integrated the metabolic tasks into the multi-objective genome-scale metabolic network model, which shows higher accuracy in the in silico prediction of cell states after gene knockout than the conventional biomass maximization model. The predicted potential single drug targets could potentially turn into biomarkers or drug design targets. We further implemented the multi-objective genome-scale metabolic network model to predict synthetic lethal target pairs of the Basal and Luminal B subtypes of breast cancer. By analyzing the predicted synthetic lethal targets, we found that mitochondrial enzymes are potential targets for drug combinations. Our study quantitatively analyzes the metabolic tasks of cancer and establishes cancer type-specific metabolic models, which opens a new window for the development of specific anti-cancer drugs and provides promising treatment plans for specific cancer subtypes.

A novel differential display material: K3LuSi2O7: Tb3+/Bi3+ phosphor with thermal response, time resolution and luminescence color for optical anti-counterfeiting.

Optical anti-counterfeiting and encryption have become a hotspot in information security. However, the advanced optical anti-counterfeiting technology still suffers from low security by single-luminescent mode. Herein, we present a novel multi-mode anti-counterfeiting strategy based on K3LuSi2O7: Tb3+/Bi3+ (KLSO: Tb3+/Bi3+) phosphors for the first time. KLSO not only provides various lattice sites for Bi3+ ions occupying to achieve tunable luminescence but can also be non-equivalently substituted by Tb3+ ions to produce persistent or thermo-luminescence. Furthermore, in the pattern "8888" constructed by the mixture of polyacrylic acid (PAA) with KLSO: Tb3+/Bi3+ phosphors, we selectively trigger the three luminescent modes of Bi3+ and Tb3+ ions to realize the design of differential display in the fields of thermal response, time resolution, and luminescence color for optical anti-counterfeiting. The differentiated display can only be presented under specific multi-stimuli response, which further improves the security of information. Our work provides a new insight for designing advanced materials and can be expected to inspire future studies to explore optical anti-counterfeiting technology.

Enhancing the Upconversion Luminescence and Sensitivity of Nanothermometry through Advanced Design of Dumbbell-Shaped Structured Nanoparticles.

The core-shell engineering of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles has captured considerable attention because it can safeguard the luminescence intensity of the core by reducing surface defects. However, the limited surface area of the traditional spherical core-shell structure hinders the further breakthrough of the brightness. Herein, a unique NaYF4:Yb3+/RE3+@NaYF4:Yb3+/RE3+@NaNdF4:Yb3+ (RE3+ = Ho3+ or Er3+) dumbbell-shaped multilayer nanoparticle featuring a high surface area is reported. Its upconversion luminescence intensity is higher than that of the conventional spherical core-shell structure. A thorough investigation is performed on the luminescence and thermometric mechanisms of Ho3+/Er3+ distributed in the core and the first shell. Remarkably, when Ho3+/Er3+ ions are distributed in the first shell, the relative sensitivity of the biological luminescence nanothermometer composed of downshifting near-infrared emissions is increased to 2.543% K-1 (328 K), which considerably exceeds most reported values. The increased value is attributed to the more thermal-sensitive phonon-assisted energy transfer. For potential biological applications, dumbbell-shaped nanoparticles (DSNPs) with hydrophilic modification show excellent thermometric performance and high tissue penetration depth. Overall, the insights provided by this work will broaden the scope of novel DSNPs in the fields of luminescence and nanothermometry.

The Charge Transfer Band as a Key to Study the Site Selection Preference of Eu3+ in Inorganic Crystals.

On account of the strong oxidizing property of the europium(III) ion, its charge transfer band (CTB) can be easily formed in many inorganic compounds. In this work, the Eu3+ ions were singly doped into the K3LuSi2O7 compound with a hexagonal structure, and two kinds of Eu3+-O2- CTBs were detected by monitoring at specific wavelengths. The qualitative analysis of Eu3+ ion site occupation was illuminated by combining Eu3+-O2- CTBs with the corresponding cell volume. Furthermore, the two kinds of Eu3+ sites are eventually assigned to the K(2) and Lu sites, which means that Eu3+ ions selectively occupy the site with a low coordination number, according to the calculated CT energy by the dielectric theory of complex crystals and the magnitude of CT energy in the excitation spectra. Meanwhile, at high temperatures, the CTB does not show the traditional thermal quenching like f-f transitions but demonstrates thermal enhancement; thus, by using this opposite variation in excitation spectra, a noninvasive optical thermometer is presented, and this opposite variation tendency is thought to be the difference of thermal stability of disparate excited energy states. When new luminescent phosphors are designed with interesting spectral properties, this work will give us an alternative approach to determine the site occupation preference of Eu3+, especially when there are more than two different sites in the compound.

Trimodal Ratiometric Luminescent Thermometer Covering Three Near-Infrared Transparency Windows.

Near-infrared (NIR) transparency windows have evoked considerable interest in biomedical thermal imaging owing to the superior tissue penetration and the high signal-to-noise ratio, allowing in vivo real-time temperature reading with nanometric spatial resolution. Here, we develop a multimode nonintrusive luminescent thermometer based on the Y3Al5O12 (YAG):Cr3+/Ln3+ (Ln = Ho, Er, Yb) phosphor, which covers three NIR biological transparency windows, enabling cross-checking readings with high sensitivity and a high penetration depth. Utilizing the energy transfer between lanthanide ions and transition-metal ions, the Cr3+/Ln3+-activated upconversion emissions provide ideal signals for ratiometric luminescent thermometry of the NIR-I mode. The phonon-assisted downshifting emissions of Er3+/Ho3+ are used to construct the NIR-III/II mode, and the NIR-III mode is based on the thermal coupling between stark levels of 4I13/2 (Er3+). Three independent modes show distinct thermometric performance in different NIR transparency windows and temperature ranges, and the combination of the three modes is conducive to obtain more accurate temperature readings in a broad temperature range, which paves the way toward versatile luminescent thermometers.

Investigation of high-concentration doping performance based on Er3+-ion-doped Ba6Gd2Ti4O17.

Recently, various strategies have been explored during research into the use of lanthanide-doped luminescent materials to mitigate energy loss at elevated dopant concentrations. Herein we report Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped Ba6Gd2Ti4O17 (BGTO) phosphors with a laminated lattice structure, which can allow the high-concentration doping of Er3+ ions into the oxide. Detailed investigations into the luminescence properties and crystal structures of Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped BGTO reveal that an increase in the dopant concentration is associated with the dimensional limitation of energy transfer in the crystal lattice. This finding may provide a novel avenue for the construction of high-dopant-concentration UC luminescent materials.

Dimerization of PHGDH via the catalytic unit is essential for its enzymatic function.

Human D-3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH), a key enzyme in de novo serine biosynthesis, is amplified in various cancers and serves as a potential target for anticancer drug development. To facilitate this process, more information is needed on the basic biochemistry of this enzyme. For example, PHGDH was found to form tetramers in solution and the structure of its catalytic unit (sPHGDH) was solved as a dimer. However, how the oligomeric states affect PHGDH enzyme activity remains elusive. We studied the dependence of PHGDH enzymatic activity on its oligomeric states. We found that sPHGDH forms a mixture of monomers and dimers in solution with a dimer dissociation constant of ∼0.58 µM, with the enzyme activity depending on the dimer content. We computationally identified hotspot residues at the sPHGDH dimer interface. Single-point mutants at these sites disrupt dimer formation and abolish enzyme activity. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that dimer formation facilitates substrate binding and maintains the correct conformation required for enzyme catalysis. We further showed that the full-length PHGDH exists as a dynamic mixture of monomers, dimers, and tetramers in solution with enzyme concentration-dependent activity. Mutations that can completely disrupt the sPHGDH dimer show different abilities to interrupt the full-length PHGDH tetramer. Among them, E108A and I121A can also disrupt the oligomeric structures of the full-length PHGDH and abolish its enzyme activity. Our study indicates that disrupting the oligomeric structure of PHGDH serves as a novel strategy for PHGDH drug design and the hotspot residues identified can guide the design process.

Functional assembly of root-associated microbial consortia improves nutrient efficiency and yield in soybean.

Root-associated microbes are critical for plant growth and nutrient acquisition. However, scant information exists on optimizing communities of beneficial root-associated microbes or the mechanisms underlying their interactions with host plants. In this report, we demonstrate that root-associated microbes are critical influencers of host plant growth and nutrient acquisition. Three synthetic communities (SynComs) were constructed based on functional screening of 1,893 microbial strains isolated from root-associated compartments of soybean plants. Functional assemblage of SynComs promoted significant plant growth and nutrient acquisition under both N/P nutrient deficiency and sufficiency conditions. Field trials further revealed that application of SynComs stably and significantly promoted plant growth, facilitated N and P acquisition, and subsequently increased soybean yield. Among the tested communities, SynCom1 exhibited the greatest promotion effect, with yield increases of up to 36.1% observed in two field sites. Further RNA-seq implied that SynCom application systemically regulates N and P signaling networks at the transcriptional level, which leads to increased representation of important growth pathways, especially those related to auxin responses. Overall, this study details a promising strategy for constructing SynComs based on functional screening, which are capable of enhancing nutrient acquisition and crop yield through the activities of beneficial root-associated microbes.

miR169c-NFYA-C-ENOD40 modulates nitrogen inhibitory effects in soybean nodulation.

Legume crops contribute a great portion of clean nitrogen (N) to agro-ecosystems through symbiotic N2 fixation in the nodule; however, the nodulation is always inhibited by high N availability which is known as the N inhibitory effect through largely unknown mechanisms. We functionally investigated miR169c-GmNFYA-C-GmENOD40 under multiple N conditions in soybean (Glycine max) (ENOD, Early Nodulin; NFYA, Nuclear Factor-Y Subunit A). We elucidated their regulatory roles in soybean nodulation through analyzing expression patterns, micro-messenger RNA (miRNA-mRNA) interactions, phenotypes of transgenic soybean plants and genetic interactions. We found that miR169c expression was induced by high N, whereas its target GmNFYA-C was preferentially expressed in nodules and induced by rhizobium inoculation. Overexpression of miR169c inhibited nodulation through targeting 3'-UTR of GmNFYA-C, whereas knockout miR169c through CRISPR-cas9 promoted nodulation. However, overexpression of GmNFYA-C promoted soybean nodulation through facilitating rhizobium infection and increasing the expression of symbiotic signaling gene GmENOD40. Besides, GmNFYA-C directly induced the expression of GmENOD40. In addition, overexpression of GmNFYA-C without the target site of miR169c partially attenuated the inhibitory effect of high N on soybean nodulation. We discovered a new regulatory pathway involving the miR169c-NFYA-C-ENOD40 module that regulates soybean nodulation in response to N availability. This pathway provides substantial new insights into the mechanisms underlying the N inhibitory effect on nodulation.

What determines the performance of lanthanide-based ratiometric nanothermometers?

Luminescence intensity ratio (LIR) nanothermometers are ideally suited for noninvasive temperature detection of microelectronic devices and living cells, and the painstaking pursuit of new nanothermometers with higher absolute temperature sensitivity (Sa) or relative temperature sensitivity (Sr) has dominated recent research. However, whether higher Sa and Sr values can intrinsically improve the performance of LIR nanothermometers and what factors essentially determine their accuracy have rarely been considered; these considerations are instructive for their design and application while reducing time and costs. Here, we clarify that the accuracy of lanthanide-based LIR nanothermometers is essentially determined by Sr and the relative error of the luminescence intensity (σI/I) but not Sa based on lanthanide-doped NaYF4, YPO4, YVO4, CaF2, YF3, Y2O3, BaTiO3, LaAlO3 and Y3Al5O12 temperature sensors, meaning that our previous pursuit of higher Sa does not contribute to the accuracy of lanthanide-based LIR nanothermometers. Further research reveals that σI/I is primarily influenced by energy level splitting, which can deteriorate the temperature uncertainty. For actual temperature detection of biological tissues, in addition to the above intrinsic factors, we shed light on the effects of probe self-heating, excitation power density, emission intensity and penetration depth on temperature readouts via a polyethyleneimine-modified NaYF4:Er3+/Yb3+@NaYF4-PEI aqueous solution, implying that we will continue to optimize nanothermometers and calibrate readouts according to the local environment. This work unifies the metrics of lanthanide-based LIR nanothermometers, corrects the previous misunderstanding of Sa to mitigate invalid work, and provides careful guidance for their development.

Amino Acid-Capped Water-Soluble Near-Infrared Region CuInS2/ZnS Quantum Dots for Selective Cadmium Ion Determination and Multicolor Cell Imaging.

Although attractive for their low toxicity, CuInS2/ZnS core/shell quantum dots (CIS/ZnS QDs) still suffer from poor luminescence efficiency and poor water solubility. Herein, two amino acids (AAs), i.e., cysteine (Cys) and threonine (Thr), are used to tune the properties of CIS/ZnS QDs by capping them in both core and shell. It is found that Thr can regulate the density of Cys on the surface of QDs, thus causing a synergistic effect on the enhancement of photoluminescence (PL) intensity. Capping in the shell mainly leads to the enhancement of PL intensity, and capping in the core results in a red-shift of PL wavelength. Accordingly, a new kind of near-infrared region CIS/ZnS QDs with improved optical properties has been prepared. In addition, the Cys- and Thr-capped CIS/ZnS QDs possess outstanding water solubility and biocompatibility. In this work, the QDs are further employed in Cd2+ determination and multicolor imaging, indicating their potential applications. Relying on the enhancement of PL intensity via cation exchange, the Cys- and Thr-capped CIS/ZnS QDs can sense Cd2+ sensitively. Notably, because ZnS shells of the QDs will not be affected by Zn2+, the analytical method can discriminate Cd2+ from Zn2+ depending on the inherent characteristics of QDs. Moreover, intercellular Cd2+ can also be evaluated by the bright PL from the QDs, and the QDs can achieve multicolor imaging. Overall, this work demonstrates that various properties of QDs may be tuned by capping with AAs, and AA-capped QDs are of great value in advanced biosensing and bioimaging.

Rhizobium Inoculation Drives the Shifting of Rhizosphere Fungal Community in a Host Genotype Dependent Manner.

Rhizosphere microorganisms play important roles in plant health and nutrition, and interactions among plants and microorganisms are important for establishment of root microbiomes. As yet, plant-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere remain largely mysterious. In this study, rhizosphere fungal community structure was first studied in a field experiment with two soybean cultivars contrasting in nodulation grown in two rhizobium inoculation treatments. Following this, recombinant inbred lines (RILs) contrasting in markers across three QTLs for biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) were evaluated for effects of genotype and rhizobium inoculation to the rhizosphere fungal community as assessed using ITS1 amplicon sequencing. The soybean plants tested herein not only hosted rhizosphere fungal communities that were distinct from bulk soils, but also specifically recruited and enriched Cladosporium from bulk soils. The resulting rhizosphere fungal communities varied among soybean genotypes, as well as, between rhizobium inoculation treatments. Besides, Cladosporium were mostly enriched in the rhizospheres of soybean genotypes carrying two or three favorable BNF QTLs, suggesting a close association between soybean traits associated with nodulation and those affecting the rhizosphere fungal community. This inference was bolstered by the observation that introduction of exogenous rhizobia significantly altered rhizosphere fungal communities to the point that these communities could be distinguished based on the combination of soybean genotype and whether exogenous rhizobia was applied. Interestingly, grouping of host plants by BNF QTLs also distinguished fungal community responses to rhizobium inoculation. Taken together, these results reveal that complex cross-kingdom interactions exist among host plants, symbiotic N2 fixing bacteria and fungal communities in the soybean rhizosphere.