The plant circadian clock regulates autophagy rhythm through transcription factor LUX ARRHYTHMO.

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved degradation pathway in eukaryotes; it plays a critical role in nutritional stress tolerance. The circadian clock is an endogenous timekeeping system that generates biological rhythms to adapt to daily changes in the environment. Accumulating evidence indicates that the circadian clock and autophagy are intimately interwoven in animals. However, the role of the circadian clock in regulating autophagy has been poorly elucidated in plants. Here, we show that autophagy exhibits a robust circadian rhythm in both light/dark cycle (LD) and in constant light (LL) in Arabidopsis. However, autophagy rhythm showed a different pattern with a phase-advance shift and a lower amplitude in LL compared to LD. Moreover, mutation of the transcription factor LUX ARRHYTHMO (LUX) removed autophagy rhythm in LL and led to an enhanced amplitude in LD. LUX represses expression of the core autophagy genes ATG2, ATG8a, and ATG11 by directly binding to their promoters. Phenotypic analysis revealed that LUX is responsible for improved resistance of plants to carbon starvation, which is dependent on moderate autophagy activity. Comprehensive transcriptomic analysis revealed that the autophagy rhythm is ubiquitous in plants. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that the LUX-mediated circadian clock regulates plant autophagy rhythms.

Genome-wide analysis of autophagy-related genes in Medicago truncatula highlights their roles in seed development and response to drought stress.

Autophagy is a highly conserved process of degradation of cytoplasmic constituents in eukaryotes. It is involved in the growth and development of plants, as well as in biotic and abiotic stress response. Although autophagy-related (ATG) genes have been identified and characterized in many plant species, little is known about this process in Medicago truncatula. In this study, 39 ATGs were identified, and their gene structures and conserved domains were systematically characterized in M. truncatula. Many cis-elements, related to hormone and stress responsiveness, were identified in the promoters of MtATGs. Phylogenetic and interaction network analyses suggested that the function of MtATGs is evolutionarily conserved in Arabidopsis and M. truncatula. The expression of MtATGs, at varied levels, was detected in all examined tissues. In addition, most of the MtATGs were highly induced during seed development and drought stress, which indicates that autophagy plays an important role in seed development and responses to drought stress in M. truncatula. In conclusion, this study gives a comprehensive overview of MtATGs and provides important clues for further functional analysis of autophagy in M. truncatula.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of acupoint autohemotherapy and western medicine therapy in treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of acupoint autohemotherapy（AA）. METHODS: We collected Controlled Trials that are random of AA plus medicine of the west therapy vs western medicine therapy alone in treating COPD from PubMed, the Cochrane library, EMBASE, CNKI, CBM SinoMed, China Science, and Wanfang Data from database inception to July 1, 2019. Meta-analysis was performed using the RevMan 5.3. RESULTS: This meta-analysis identified that the combined treatment could enhance the total effective clinical rate, the forced expiratory volume in 1 s（FEV1）and forced vital capacity（FVC），increase the 6-min walking distance，and improve the self-assessment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease score（CAT）. CONCLUSION: The clinical effects of AA plus medicine of the west therapy are better than that of western medicine alone in treating COPD. However, due to the small number and poor quality of the included RCTs，this conclusion needs to be verified with larger samples and higher quality RCTs.

Efficacy and safety of acupoint autohemotherapy in treating stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a clinically common chronic disease with the characteristic of recurrent attacks, difficulty of cure and high morbidity, disability, death rates. COPD exerts a great burden on patients, families and society. Acupoint Autohemotherapy (AA) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment by taking the patient's own venous blood and injecting them at acupoints, combined with the continuous stimulation of blood and the specific efficacy of the acupoint itself. It has been proved to be useful in pulmonary treatment and rehabilitation of COPD patients. However, the efficacy of AA on COPD patients has not been fully statistically evaluated. In this study, we aim to systematically examine the efficacy and safety of AA for COPD patients. METHODS: Data from all English and Chinese databases, including Medline, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Wanfang Database, China Biomedical Literature Database and Chongqing VIP information, will be used to conduct a systematic and comprehensive literature search. The range of date is from inception to July 2019. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to AA and western medicine in the treatment of COPD will be included. Quality of included trials will be assessed according to the risk of bias tool of Cochrane Handbook 5.1.0. The GRADE approach will be used to rate the certainty of the evidence of estimates derived from meta-analysis. RevMan 5.3 will be used for data synthesis, sensitivity analysis, meta-regression analysis, subgroup analysis and risk of bias assessment. A funnel plot will be developed to evaluate reporting bias, and Begg and Egger tests will be used to assess funnel plot symmetries. Grading of recommendations assessment, development and evaluation system will be utilized to assess the quality of evidence. RESULTS: This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to summarize the direct and indirect outcomes for AA and western medicine on COPD patients and evaluate its efficacy and safety. The results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal once completed. CONCLUSION: The systematic review will provide evidence to assess the efficacy and safety of AA and western medicine in the treatment of COPD patients. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42019137189.