Continuous Strain Regulation of Palladium-Gold at the Atomic Level.

Revealing the effect of surface structure changes on the electrocatalytic performance is beneficial to the development of highly efficient catalysts. However, precise regulation of the catalyst surface at the atomic level remains challenging. Here, we present a continuous strain regulation of palladium (Pd) on gold (Au) via a mechanically controllable surface strain (MCSS) setup. It is found that the structural changes induced by the strain setup can accelerate electron transfer at the solid-liquid interface, thus achieving a significantly improved performance toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments further confirm that the enhanced activity is attributed to the increased interplanar spacing resulting from the applied strain. Theoretical calculations reveal that the tensile strain modulates the electronic structure of the Pd active sites and facilitates the desorption of the hydrogen intermediates. This work provides an effective approach for revealing the relationships between the electrocatalyst surface structure and catalytic activity.

Childhood Mycoplasma pneumoniae: epidemiology and manifestation in Northeast and Inner Mongolia, China.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) is commonly detected in children. However, the epidemiological trends of MP in Northeast (NE) China are unclear. This retrospective study aimed to investigate the prevalence of MP infections in this understudied region. The clinical manifestations and bronchoscopic findings observed in hospitalized patients with severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (SMPP) were collected from comprehensive data obtained from six tertiary hospitals in NE and Inner Mongolian (IM) China, from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2023. A total of 5,593,530 children who visited the outpatient and emergency departments, and 412,480 inpatient hospitalized children were included in the study. The positivity rate of MP immunoglobulin M (IgM) in the children who visited the outpatient and emergency departments varied from 7.80% to 10.12%, whereas that of MP infection in hospitalized children ranged from 27.18% to 30.10%. Children hospitalized for MP infection were mainly concentrated in the 1- to 4-year (41.39%) and 4- to 7-year (24.25%) age groups. Before 2020, the season with the highest incidence of MP was winter. After the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), the MP epidemic season changed, and the number of children with MP infections decreased; however, the proportion of MP infections in hospitalized children did not change significantly. Starting from August 2023, the MP infection rate in outpatient, emergency, and hospitalized children increased sharply, with SMPP and its complications (e.g., plastic bronchitis and pleural effusion) increasing significantly. MP is prevalent in NE and IM, China. When the NPIs ended, MP infection showed a delayed outbreak trend, and the number of children with severe infection increased significantly. IMPORTANCE: In Northeastern (NE) and Inner Mongolia (IM), the incidence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infections, including severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (SMPP), is high, posing health risks and imposing substantial economic burdens on the local population. Therefore, it is imperative to prioritize the study of MP prevalence and address the research gaps in MP epidemiology in these areas of China. We obtained a comprehensive collection of pediatric outpatient, emergency, and inpatient data from six public Grade III hospitals. We believe that our study makes a significant contribution to the literature because understanding regional variations in MP infections can help healthcare professionals tailor prevention and treatment strategies, and studying bronchoscopic manifestations can provide insights into the impact of the disease on the respiratory system, potentially leading to a more effective clinical management.

Pathogenicity Analyses of Rice Blast Fungus (Pyricularia oryzae) from Japonica Rice Area of Northeast China.

In order to understand the pathogenicity differentiation of rice blast fungus (Pyricularia oryzae Cavara), a total of 206 isolates of P. oryzae were collected from three Japonica rice regions in Jilin Province, northeast China. Pathogenicity test showed that the reaction pattern of 25 monogenic differential varieties (MDVs) of rice (Oryza sativa L.) demonstrated a wide pathogenic diversity among the isolates. Those MDVs harbor 23 resistance (R) genes with the susceptible variety Lijiangxintuanheigu (LTH) as control. Virulent isolates of MDVs harboring R genes Pish, Pit, Pia, Pii, Pik-s, Pik, Pita (two lines), and Pita-2 (two lines) had high frequencies ranging from 80 to 100%, to MDVs harboring R genes Pib, Pi5(t), Pik-m, Pi1, Pik-h, Pik-p, Pi7(t), Piz, Piz-5, and Piz-t showed intermediate frequencies ranging from 40 to 80%, and to MDVs with R genes Pi3, Pi9(t), Pi12(t), Pi19(t) and Pi20(t) presented low frequencies ranging only from 0 to 40%. The U-i-k-z-ta pattern of race-named criteria categorized the 206 isolates into 175 races. Sub-unit U73 for Pib, i7 for Pi3 and Pi5(t), k177 for Pik-m/Pik-h/Pik-p, z17 for Pi9(t), and ta332 for Pi20(t) were crucial on pathogenic differences in regions. Twenty-seven standard differential blast isolates (SDBIs) were selected to characterize resistance in rice accessions. This study could help to build a durable identification system against blast in the Japonica rice area of northeast China and enhance our understanding of the differentiation and diversity of blast races in the world.

Leaf traits of prickly ash and its correlation with ecological and geographical factors of origin.

The morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics of leaves result from the long-term adaptation of plants to their environment and are closely related to plant growth and development. In this study, 37 prickly ash germplasm resources from 18 production areas were utilized as the subjects of research. Logistic equations, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis were employed to comprehensively evaluate the leaf traits of prickly ash germplasm resources, with an analysis of their correlation with ecological and geographical factors in the production areas. The results showed that the leaf traits of prickly ash germplasms of different origins are substantially different and diverse. The coefficient of variation for the 14 leaf traits was greater than 10%. The coefficient of variation of the compound leaflet number was the highest among all the considered leaf traits, and the coefficient of variation of leaf thickness was the lowest, at 49.86% and 11.37%, respectively. The leaf traits of the prickly ash germplasm originating from Chongqing in Yongchuan, Chongqing in Rongchang, and Yunnan in Honghe ranked highest, whereas the leaf traits of the prickly ash germplasm from Henan in Jiaozuo, Gansu in Tianshui, and Shanxi in Yuncheng ranked lowest. The results of the correlation analysis showed that among the ecological and geographical factors of the origins, latitude had the strongest correlation with the leaf traits of the prickly ash germplasm. As latitude increased, the leaves of prickly ash gradually decreased in size, weight, and leaf shape index. The factor with the second strongest correlation was temperature. The leaves of the prickly ash germplasm originating from warmer climate areas were larger and heavier than those from areas with colder climates. Altitude and longitude did not significantly affect the leaf traits of the prickly ash germplasm, but at similar latitudes, the leaves of the prickly ash germplasm in high-altitude areas were smaller, and the leaves of the prickly ash germplasm in low-altitude areas were larger. These findings can provide valuable references for breeding and the sustainable utilization of new varieties of prickly ash resources.

Image Segmentation of Fiducial Marks with Complex Backgrounds Based on the mARU-Net.

Circuits on different layers in a printed circuit board (PCB) must be aligned according to high-precision fiducial mark images during exposure processing. However, processing quality depends on the detection accuracy of fiducial marks. Precise segmentation of fiducial marks from images can significantly improve detection accuracy. Due to the complex background of PCB images, there are significant challenges in the segmentation and detection of fiducial mark images. In this paper, the mARU-Net is proposed for the image segmentation of fiducial marks with complex backgrounds to improve detection accuracy. Compared with some typical segmentation methods in customized datasets of fiducial marks, the mARU-Net demonstrates good segmentation accuracy. Experimental research shows that, compared with the original U-Net, the segmentation accuracy of the mARU-Net is improved by 3.015%, while the number of parameters and training times are not increased significantly. Furthermore, the centroid method is used to detect circles in segmentation results, and the deviation is kept within 30 microns, with higher detection efficiency. The detection accuracy of fiducial mark images meets the accuracy requirements of PCB production.

Assessing the association between the circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines and the risk of tuberculosis: A bidirectional two-sample mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND: Numerous observational studies have previously reported an association between inflammatory cytokines and tuberculosis (TB). However, the causal relationship between these factors remains unclear. Consequently, we conducted two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to ascertain the causal link between levels of inflammatory cytokines and the risk of TB. METHODS: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) robustly associated with the cytokines, located in or close to their coding gene. SNP was obtained from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 8293 individuals of Finnish. TB data was obtained from the UK Biobank, which included 46,293 individuals of European ancestry (comprising 2277 TB cases and 46,056 controls). Two-sample, bi-directional MR analyses using inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method as the primary analysis. Followed by comprehensive sensitivity analyses to validate the robustness of results. RESULT: The study showed that the causal relationship between circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-7 and risk of TB (odds ratio [OR] = 1.001, 95% confidence intervals [CIs]: 1.000, 1.003. p = 0.047). No causal associations were observed between other influencing factors and the occurrence of TB. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that TB infection exhibited negative causal associations with macrophage inflammatory protein 1 alpha ([MIP-1α], OR = 0.007, 95% CI: 0.000, 0.192. p = 0.004), IL-2 (OR = 0.014, 95% CI: 0.010, 0.427. p = 0.014), interleukin-2 receptor alpha chain([IL-2rα], OR = 0.019, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.525. p = 0.019) and basic fibroblast growth factor ([bFGF], OR = 0.066, 95% CI: 0.006, 0.700. p = 0.024). CONCLUSION: The study has illuminated the causal link between inflammatory cytokines and TB, thereby enhancing our comprehension of the potential mechanisms underlying TB pathogenesis. This discovery offers promising avenues for the identification of novel therapeutic targets in TB treatment. These insights may ultimately pave the way for more effective treatment approaches, thereby improving patient outcomes.

Construction of pseudorabies virus variant attenuated vaccine: codon deoptimization of US3 and UL56 genes based on PRV gE/TK deletion strain.

Since 2011, pseudorabies based on the pseudorabies virus (PRV) variant has emerged as a serious health issue in pig farms in China. The PRV gE/TK or gE/gI/TK deletion strains protect against emerging PRV variants. However, these variants may cause lethal infections in newborn piglets without PRV antibodies. Previous studies have shown that codon deoptimization of a virulence gene causes virus attenuation. Accordingly, we deoptimized US3-S (US3 gene encoding a short isoform that represents approximately 95% of the total US3 transcription) and UL56 genes (first 10 or all codons) of PRV gE/TK deletion strain (PRVΔTK&gE-AH02) to generate six recombinant PRVs through bacterial artificial chromosome technology. In swine testicular cells, recombinant PRVs with all codon deoptimization of US3-S or UL56 genes were grown to lower titers than the parental virus. Notably, US3-S or UL56 with all codon deoptimization reduced mRNA and protein expressions. Subsequently, the safety and immunogenicity of recombinant PRVs with codon deoptimization of US3-S or UL56 are evaluated as vaccine candidates in mice and piglets. The mice inoculated with recombinant PRVs with codon deoptimization of US3-S or UL56 showed exceptional survival ability without severe clinical signs. All codons deoptimized (US3-S and UL56) significantly decreased virus load and attenuated pathological changes in the brains of the mice. Moreover, the protection efficiency offered by recombinant PRVs with codon deoptimization of US3-S or UL56 showed similar effects to PRVΔTK&gE-AH02. Remarkably, the 1-day-old PRV antibody-negative piglets inoculated with PRVΔTK&gE-US3-ST-CD (a recombinant PRV with all codon deoptimization of US3-S) presented no abnormal clinical symptoms, including fever. The piglets inoculated with PRVΔTK&gE-US3-ST-CD showed a high serum neutralization index against the PRV variant. In conclusion, these results suggest using codon deoptimization to generate innovative live attenuated PRV vaccine candidates.

Impact factors of Blastocystis hominis infection in persons living with human immunodeficiency virus: a large-scale, multi-center observational study from China.

BACKGROUND: Blastocystis hominis (Bh) is zoonotic parasitic pathogen with a high prevalent globally, causing opportunistic infections and diarrhea disease. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection disrupts the immune system by depleting CD4+ T lymphocyte (CD4+ T) cell counts, thereby increasing Bh infection risk among persons living with HIV (PLWH). However, the precise association between Bh infection risk and HIV-related biological markers and treatment processes remains poorly understood. Hence, the purpose of the study was to explore the association between Bh infection risk and CD4+ T cell counts, HIV viral load (VL), and duration of interruption in antiviral therapy among PLWH. METHODS: A large-scale multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted in China from June 2020 to December 2022. The genetic presence of Bh in fecal samples was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction, the CD4+ T cell counts in venous blood was measured using flowcytometry, and the HIV VL in serum was quantified using fluorescence-based instruments. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) was applied to assess the non-linear association between Bh infection risk and CD4+ T cell counts, HIV VL, and duration of interruption in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HARRT). RESULTS: A total of 1245 PLWH were enrolled in the study, the average age of PLWH was 43 years [interquartile range (IQR): 33, 52], with 452 (36.3%) being female, 50.4% (n = 628) had no immunosuppression (CD4+ T cell counts > 500 cells/µl), and 78.1% (n = 972) achieved full virological suppression (HIV VL < 50 copies/ml). Approximately 10.5% (n = 131) of PLWH had interruption. The prevalence of Bh was found to be 4.9% [95% confidence interval (CI): 3.8-6.4%] among PLWH. Significant nonlinear associations were observed between the Bh infection risk and CD4+ T cell counts (Pfor nonlinearity < 0.001, L-shaped), HIV VL (Pfor nonlinearity < 0.001, inverted U-shaped), and duration of interruption in HARRT (Pfor nonlinearity < 0.001, inverted U-shaped). CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed that VL was a better predictor of Bh infection than CD4+ T cell counts. It is crucial to consider the simultaneous surveillance of HIV VL and CD4+ T cell counts in PLWH in the regions with high level of socioeconomic development. The integrated approach can offer more comprehensive and accurate understanding in the aspects of Bh infection and other opportunistic infections, the efficacy of therapeutic drugs, and the assessment of preventive and control strategies.

A Cross-Sectional Survey of Iodized Salt Usage in Dining Establishments - 13 PLADs, China, 2021-2022.

What is already known about this topic?: The National Iodine Deficiency Disease Surveillance system is exclusively focused on monitoring cooking salt used within households. Currently, there is a lack of nationally representative data on the use of iodized salt in dining establishments. What is added by this report?: This study evaluated 7,889 salt samples obtained from dining establishments located in 13 provincial-level administrative divisions across China. The findings indicated that coverage rate of iodized salt (CRIS) and the consumption rate of adequately iodized salt (CRAIS) were found to be 95.2% and 90.2%, respectively. Further, 880 samples were classified as iodized salt and 804 as adequately iodized salt. In coastal areas, the CRIS and CRAIS showed a significant decrease to 77.1% and 70.5%, respectively, when compared to the inland regions (P<0.01). What are the implications for public health practices?: The data compiled could potentially fill the void in the national data concerning the use of iodized salt in dining establishments throughout China. It is of the utmost importance to increase the awareness of restaurant operators, particularly those located in coastal areas, about the benefits of iodine supplementation. Moreover, they should be encouraged to use adequately iodized salt.

Synergistic Effects of Rotavirus and Co-Infecting Viral Enteric Pathogens on Diarrheal Disease - Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China, 2019.

What is already known about this topic?: Diarrhea represents a substantial public health issue, contributing globally to a high number of pediatric medical consultations, hospital admissions, and mortality rates. What is added by this report?: An increase in diarrheal frequency serves as a critical benchmark for evaluating severity. The predominant pathogens associated with pediatric diarrhea are rotavirus and norovirus, with co-infections exerting a notable compounding effect that leads to more severe diarrhea. What are the implications for public health practice?: Implementing sensitive diagnostic techniques and comprehensive monitoring is paramount in identifying co-infections. Such strategies can provide physicians with critical insights into disease progression, thus considerably reducing the burden of diarrhea.

A Novel Strategy of US3 Codon De-Optimization for Construction of an Attenuated Pseudorabies Virus against High Virulent Chinese Pseudorabies Virus Variant.

In this study, we applied bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) technology with PRVΔTK/gE/gI as the base material to replace the first, central, and terminal segments of the US3 gene with codon-deoptimized fragments via two-step Red-mediated recombination in E. coli GS1783 cells. The three constructed BACs were co-transfected with gI and part of gE fragments carrying homologous sequences (gI+gE'), respectively, in swine testicular cells. These three recombinant viruses with US3 codon de-optimization ((PRVΔTK&gE-US3deop-1, PRVΔTK&gE-US3deop-2, and PRVΔTK&gE-US3deop-3) were obtained and purified. These three recombinant viruses exhibited similar growth kinetics to the parental AH02LA strain, stably retained the deletion of TK and gE gene fragments, and stably inherited the recoded US3. Mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with the three recombinant viruses or control virus PRVΔTK&gEAH02 at a 107.0 TCID50 dose. Mice immunized with PRVΔTK&gE-US3deop-1 did not develop clinical signs and had a decreased virus load and attenuated pathological changes in the lungs and brain compared to the control group. Moreover, immunized mice were challenged with 100 LD50 of the AH02LA strain, and PRVΔTK&gE-US3deop-1 provided similar protection to that of the control virus PRVΔTK&gEAH02. Finally, PRVΔTK&gE-US3deop-1 was injected intramuscularly into 1-day-old PRV-negative piglets at a dose of 106.0 TCID50. Immunized piglets showed only slight temperature reactions and mild clinical signs. However, high levels of seroneutralizing antibody were produced at 14 and 21 days post-immunization. In addition, the immunization of PRVΔTK&gE-US3deop-1 at a dose of 105.0 TCID50 provided complete clinical protection and prevented virus shedding in piglets challenged by 106.5 TCID50 of the PRV AH02LA variant at 1 week post immunization. Together, these findings suggest that PRVΔTK&gE-US3deop-1 displays great potential as a vaccine candidate.

Comparatively Evolution and Expression Analysis of GRF Transcription Factor Genes in Seven Plant Species.

Growth regulatory factors (GRF) are plant-specific transcription factors that play pivotal roles in growth and various abiotic stresses regulation. However, adaptive evolution of GRF gene family in land plants are still being elucidated. Here, we performed the evolutionary and expression analysis of GRF gene family from seven representative species. Extensive phylogenetic analyses and gene structure analysis revealed that the number of genes, QLQ domain and WRC domain identified in higher plants was significantly greater than those identified in lower plants. Besides, dispersed duplication and WGD/segmental duplication effectively promoted expansion of the GRF gene family. The expression patterns of GRF gene family and target genes were found in multiple floral organs and abundant in actively growing tissues. They were also found to be particularly expressed in response to various abiotic stresses, with stress-related elements in promoters, implying potential roles in floral development and abiotic stress. Our analysis in GRF gene family interaction network indicated the similar results that GRFs resist to abiotic stresses with the cooperation of other transcription factors like GIFs. This study provides insights into evolution in the GRF gene family, together with expression patterns valuable for future functional researches of plant abiotic stress biology.

Regulatory and functional divergence among members of Ibßfruct2, a sweet potato vacuolar invertase gene controlling starch and glucose content.

Sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] is an important food and industrial crop. Its storage root is rich in starch, which is present in the form of granules and represents the principal storage carbohydrate in plants. Starch content is an important trait of sweet potato controlling the quality and yield of industrial products. Vacuolar invertase encoding gene Ibßfruct2 was supposed to be a key regulator of starch content in sweet potato, but its function and regulation were unclear. In this study, three Ibßfruct2 gene members were detected. Their promoters displayed differences in sequence, activity, and cis-regulatory elements and might interact with different transcription factors, indicating that the three Ibßfruct2 family members are governed by different regulatory mechanisms at the transcription level. Among them, we found that only Ibßfruct2-1 show a high expression level and promoter activity, and encodes a protein with invertase activity, and the conserved domains and three conserved motifs NDPNG, RDP, and WEC are critical to this activity. Only two and six amino acid residue variations were detected in sequences of proteins encoded by Ibßfruct2-2 and Ibßfruct2-3, respectively, compared with Ibßfruct2-1; although not within key motifs, these variations affected protein structure and affinities for the catalytic substrate, resulting in functional deficiency and low activity. Heterologous expression of Ibßfruct2-1 in Arabidopsis decreased starch content but increased glucose content in leaves, indicating Ibßfruct2-1 was a negative regulator of starch content. These findings represent an important advance in understanding the regulatory and functional divergence among duplicated genes in sweet potato, and provide critical information for functional studies and utilization of these genes in genetic improvement.

IbInvInh2, a novel invertase inhibitor in sweet potato, regulates starch content through post-translational regulation of vacuolar invertase IbßFRUCT2.

As a key enzyme in the starch and sugar metabolic pathways in sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.), the vacuolar invertase (EC 3.2.1.26) IbßFRUCT2 is involved in partitioning and modulating the starch and sugar components of the storage root. However, the post-translational regulation of its invertase activity remains unclear. In this study, we identified three invertase inhibitors, IbInvInh1, IbInvInh2, and IbInvInh3, as potential interaction partners of IbßFRUCT2. All were found to act as vacuolar invertase inhibitors (VIFs) and belonged to the plant invertase/pectin methyl esterase inhibitor superfamily. Among the three VIFs, IbInvInh2 is a novel VIF in sweet potato and was confirmed to be an inhibitor of IbßFRUCT2. The N-terminal domain of IbßFRUCT2 and the Thr39 and Leu198 sites of IbInvInh2 were predicted to be engaged in their interactions. The transgenic expression of IbInvInh2 in Arabidopsis thaliana plants reduced the starch content of leaves, while its expression in the Ibßfruct2-expressing Arabidopsis plants increased the starch content of leaves, suggesting that the post-translational inhibition of IbßFRUCT2 activity by IbInvInh2 contributes to the regulation of the plant starch content. Taken together, our findings reveal a novel VIF in sweet potato and provide insights into the potential regulatory roles of the VIFs and invertase-VIF interaction in starch metabolism. These insights lay the foundation for using VIFs to improve the starch properties of crops.

Mining belt foreign body detection method based on YOLOv4_GECA model.

In the process of mining belt transportation, various foreign objects may appear, which will have a great impact on the crusher and belt, thus affecting production progress and causing serious safety accidents. Therefore, it is important to detect foreign objects in the early stages of intrusion in mining belt conveyor systems. To solve this problem, the YOLOv4_GECA method is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the GECA attention module is added to establish the YOLOv4_GECA foreign object detection model in the mineral belt to enhance the foreign object feature extraction capability. Secondly, based on this model, the learning rate decay of restart cosine annealing is used to improve the foreign object image detection performance of the model. Finally, we collected belt transport image information from the Pai Shan Lou gold mine site in Shenyang and established a belt foreign body detection dataset. The experimental results show that the average detection accuracy of the YOLOv4_GECA method proposed in this paper is 90.1%, the recall rate is 90.7%, and the average detection time is 30 ms, which meets the requirements for detection accuracy and real-time performance at the mine belt transportation site.

Dynamic Translational Landscape Revealed by Genome-Wide Ribosome Profiling under Drought and Heat Stress in Potato.

The yield and quality of potatoes, an important staple crop, are seriously threatened by high temperature and drought stress. In order to deal with this adverse environment, plants have evolved a series of response mechanisms. However, the molecular mechanism of potato's response to environmental changes at the translational level is still unclear. In this study, we performed transcriptome- and ribosome-profiling assays with potato seedlings growing under normal, drought, and high-temperature conditions to reveal the dynamic translational landscapes for the first time. The translational efficiency was significantly affected by drought and heat stress in potato. A relatively high correlation (0.88 and 0.82 for drought and heat stress, respectively) of the fold changes of gene expression was observed between the transcriptional level and translational level globally based on the ribosome-profiling and RNA-seq data. However, only 41.58% and 27.69% of the different expressed genes were shared by transcription and translation in drought and heat stress, respectively, suggesting that the transcription or translation process can be changed independently. In total, the translational efficiency of 151 (83 and 68 for drought and heat, respectively) genes was significantly changed. In addition, sequence features, including GC content, sequence length, and normalized minimal free energy, significantly affected the translational efficiencies of genes. In addition, 28,490 upstream open reading frames (uORFs) were detected on 6463 genes, with an average of 4.4 uORFs per gene and a median length of 100 bp. These uORFs significantly affected the translational efficiency of downstream major open reading frames (mORFs). These results provide new information and directions for analyzing the molecular regulatory network of potato seedlings in response to drought and heat stress.

Application of Grafting Method in Resistance Identification of Sweet Potato Virus Disease and Resistance Evaluation of Elite Sweet Potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] Varieties.

Sweet potato virus disease (SPVD) is one of the main virus diseases in sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] that seriously affects the yield of sweet potato. Therefore, the establishment of a simple, rapid and effective method to detect SPVD is of great significance for the early warning and prevention of this disease. In this study, the experiment was carried out in two years to compare the grafting method and side grafting method for three sweet potato varieties, and the optimal grafting method was selected. After grafting with seedlings infected with SPVD, the symptomatic diagnosis and serological detection were performed in 86 host varieties, and the differences in SPVD resistance were determined by fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and nitrocellulose membrane enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (NCM-ELISA). The results showed that the survival rate of grafting by insertion method was significantly higher than that by side grafting method, and the disease resistance of different varieties to sweet potato virus disease was tested. The detection method established in this study can provide theoretical basis for identification and screening of resistant sweet potato varieties.