H3K18 lactylation accelerates liver fibrosis progression through facilitating SOX9 transcription.

Liver fibrosis is a significant health concern globally due to its association with severe liver conditions like cirrhosis and liver cancer. Histone lactylation has been implicated in the progression of hepatic fibrosis, but its specific role in liver fibrosis, particularly regarding H3K18 lactylation, remained unclear. To investigate this, we established in vivo and in vitro models of liver fibrosis using carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) injection in rats and stimulation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) with TGF-ß1, respectively. We found that histone lactylation, particularly H3K18 lactylation, was upregulated in both CCl4-induced rats and TGF-ß1-activated HSCs, indicating its potential involvement in liver fibrosis. Further experiments revealed that lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) knockdown inhibited H3K18 lactylation and had a beneficial effect on liver fibrosis by suppressing HSC proliferation, migration, and extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition. This suggests that H3K18 lactylation promotes liver fibrosis progression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that H3K18 lactylation facilitated the transcription of SOX9, a transcription factor associated with fibrosis. Importantly, overexpression of SOX9 counteracted the effects of LDHA silencing on activated HSCs, indicating that SOX9 is downstream of H3K18 lactylation in promoting liver fibrosis. In summary, this study uncovers a novel mechanism by which H3K18 lactylation contributes to liver fibrosis by activating SOX9 transcription. This finding opens avenues for exploring new therapeutic strategies for hepatic fibrosis targeting histone lactylation pathways.

Expansion and differentiation of human neural stem cells on synthesized integrin binding peptide surfaces.

The extracellular matrix plays a crucial role in the growth of human neural stem cells (hNSCs) by forming a stem cell niche, bothin vitroandin vivo. The demand for defined synthetic substrates has been increasing recently in stem cell research, reflecting the requirements for precise functions and safety concerns in potential clinical approaches. In this study, we tested the adhesion and expansion of one of the most representative hNSC lines, the ReNcell VM Human Neural Progenitor Cell Line, in a pure-synthesized short peptide-basedin vitroniche using a previously established integrin-binding peptide array. Spontaneous cell differentiation was then induced using two differentin vitroapproaches to further confirm the multipotent features of cells treated with the peptides. Twelve different integrin-binding peptides were capable of supporting hNSC adhesion and expansion at varied proliferation rates. In the ReNcell medium-based differentiation approach, cells detached in almost all peptide-based groups, except integrinα5ß1 binding peptide. In an altered differentiation process induced by retinoic acid containing neural differentiation medium, cell adhesion was retained in all 12 peptide groups. These peptides also appeared to have varied effects on the differentiation potential of hNSCs towards neurons and astrocytes. Our findings provide abundant options for the development ofin vitroneural stem cell niches and will help develop promising tools for disease modeling and future stem cell therapies for neurological diseases.

Inhibitory Effect of Puerarin on Lipopolysaccharide-triggered Inflammatory Responses of Bovine Kidney Cells.

Puerarin (Pue), a flavonoid compound, possesses cytoprotective effects and LPS has been reported to induce renal inflammatory injury in bovine. However, whether Pue inhibits lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory damage of bovine kidney cells remains unknown. Based on an in vitro model with Madin-Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) cell line, it has found that Pue attenuated LPS-induced damage of MDBK cells, as evidenced by cell viability and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) release rescued by Pue (P < 0.05). Additionally, the real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) showed that LPS elevated the levels of pro-inflammatory factors interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, which was reversed by pretreatment of Pue (P < 0.05). Besides, Pue reduced the expression of Toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) and phosphorylated nuclear factor kappa B (p-NF-κB) of LPS-exposed MDBK cells (P < 0.05). Collectively, these results showed that Pue suppresses LPS-evoked inflammatory damage of bovine kidney cells, suggesting Pue a potential compound for intervention of bovine inflammation.

Universal Approximation Abilities of a Modular Differentiable Neural Network.

Approximation ability is one of the most important topics in the field of neural networks (NNs). Feedforward NNs, activated by rectified linear units and some of their specific smoothed versions, provide universal approximators to convex as well as continuous functions. However, most of these networks are investigated empirically, or their characteristics are analyzed based on specific operation rules. Moreover, an adequate level of interpretability of the networks is missing as well. In this work, we propose a class of new network architecture, built with reusable neural modules (functional blocks), to supply differentiable and interpretable approximators for convex and continuous target functions. Specifically, first, we introduce a concrete model construction mechanism with particular blocks based on differentiable programming and the composition essence of the max operator, extending the scope of existing activation functions. Moreover, explicit block diagrams are provided for a clear understanding of the external architecture and the internal processing mechanism. Subsequently, the approximation behavior of the proposed network to convex functions and continuous functions is rigorously proved as well, by virtue of mathematical induction. Finally, plenty of numerical experiments are conducted on a wide variety of problems, which exhibit the effectiveness and the superiority of the proposed model over some existing ones.

TiO2nanorod arrays/Ti3C2TxMXene nanosheet composites with efficient photocatalytic activity.

Semiconductor photocatalysis holds significant promise in addressing both environmental and energy challenges. However, a major hurdle in photocatalytic processes remains the efficient separation of photoinduced charge carriers. In this study, TiO2nanorod arrays were employed by glancing angle deposition technique, onto which Ti3C2TxMXene was deposited through a spin-coating process. This hybrid approach aims to amplify the photocatalytic efficacy of TiO2nanorod arrays. Through photocurrent efficiency characterization testing, an optimal loading of TiO2/Ti3C2Txcomposites is identified. Remarkably, this composite exhibits a 40% increase in photocurrent density in comparison to pristine TiO2. This enhancement is attributed to the exceptional electrical conductivity and expansive specific surface area inherent to Ti3C2TxMXene. These attributes facilitate swift transport of photoinduced electrons, consequently refining the separation and migration of electron-hole pairs. The synergistic TiO2/Ti3C2Txcomposite showcases its potential across various domains including photoelectrochemical water splitting and diverse photocatalytic devices. As such, this composite material stands as a novel and promising entity for advancing photocatalytic applications. This study can offer an innovative approach for designing simple and efficient photocatalytic materials composed of MXene co-catalysts and TiO2for efficient water electrolysis on semiconductors.

Auxin signaling module OsSK41-OsIAA10-OsARF regulates grain yield traits in rice.

Auxin is an important phytohormone in plants, and auxin signaling pathways in rice play key roles in regulating its growth, development, and productivity. To investigate how rice grain yield traits are regulated by auxin signaling pathways and to facilitate their application in rice improvement, we validated the functional relationships among regulatory genes such as OsIAA10, OsSK41, and OsARF21 that are involved in one of the auxin (OsIAA10) signaling pathways. We assessed the phenotypic effects of these genes on several grain yield traits across two environments using knockout and/or overexpression transgenic lines. Based on the results, we constructed a model that showed how grain yield traits were regulated by OsIAA10 and OsTIR1, OsAFB2, and OsSK41 and OsmiR393 in the OsSK41-OsIAA10-OsARF module and by OsARF21 in the transcriptional regulation of downstream auxin response genes in the OsSK41-OsIAA10-OsARF module. The population genomic analyses revealed rich genetic diversity and the presence of major functional alleles at most of these loci in rice populations. The strong differentiation of many major alleles between Xian/indica and Geng/japonica subspecies and/or among modern varieties and landraces suggested that they contributed to improved productivity during evolution and breeding. We identified several important aspects associated with the genetic and molecular bases of rice grain and yield traits that were regulated by auxin signaling pathways. We also suggested rice auxin response factor (OsARF) activators as candidate target genes for improving specific target traits by overexpression and/or editing subspecies-specific alleles and by searching and pyramiding the 'best' gene allelic combinations at multiple regulatory genes in auxin signaling pathways in rice breeding programs.

The kinase OsSK41/OsGSK5 negatively regulates amylose content in rice endosperm by affecting the interaction between OsEBP89 and OsBP5.

Amylose content (AC) is the main factor determining the palatability, viscosity, transparency, and digestibility of rice (Oryza sativa) grains. AC in rice grains is mainly controlled by different alleles of the Waxy (Wx) gene. The AP2/EREBP transcription factor OsEBP89 interacts with the MYC-like protein OsBP5 to synergistically regulate the expression of Wx. Here, we determined that the GLYCOGEN SYNTHASE KINASE 5 (OsGSK5, also named SHAGGY-like kinase 41 [OsSK41]) inhibits the transcriptional activation activity of OsEBP89 in rice grains during amylose biosynthesis. The loss of OsSK41 function enhanced Wx expression and increased AC in rice grains. By contrast, the loss of function of OsEBP89 reduced Wx expression and decreased AC in rice grains. OsSK41 interacts with OsEBP89 and phosphorylates four of its sites (Thr-28, Thr-30, Ser-238, and Thr-257), which makes OsEBP89 unstable and attenuates its interaction with OsBP5. Wx promoter activity was relatively weak when regulated by the phosphomimic variant OsEBP89E -OsBP5 but relatively strong when regulated by the nonphosphorylatable variant OsEBP89A -OsBP5. Therefore, OsSK41-mediated phosphorylation of OsEBP89 represents an additional layer of complexity in the regulation of amylose biosynthesis during rice grain development. In addition, our findings provide four possible sites for regulating rice grain AC via precise gene editing.

Effects of Different Levels of Organic Trace Minerals on Oxidative Status and Intestinal Function in Weanling Piglets.

An experiment was conducted to compare the effects of replacing inorganic trace minerals (ITM) with different levels of complex organic trace minerals (OTM) on the growth performance, oxidative status, and intestinal function of piglets. Weanling piglets were assigned to five groups: a control group fed a basal diet supplemented with inorganic trace minerals and the other four groups fed basal diets supplemented with different levels of OTMs. The results showed that diets supplemented with 50 ppm Fe, 30 ppm Zn, 15 ppm Mn, and 0.2 ppm Se from OTM (L-OTM), or with 75 ppm Fe, 45 ppm Zn, 22.5 ppm Mn, and 0.3 ppm Se from OTM (M-OTM) significantly decreased the diarrhea ratio in the piglets compared with those supplemented with 100 ppm Fe, 90 ppm Zn, 40 ppm Mn, and 0.4 ppm Se from ITM. Compared with those in the ITM group, the piglets in the M-OTM group had significantly higher serum CuZnSOD, MnSOD, and GSH-Px levels. Moreover, piglets in the L-OTM and M-OTM groups had higher Sod and Gpx gene expression than those in the ITM group. Additionally, piglets in the L-OTM and M-OTM groups had significantly higher villus height than those in the ITM group, and the M-OTM group piglets had lower serum diamine oxidase content and higher ileal ZO-1 and occludin protein expression levels than those in the ITM group. These results indicate that replacing dietary ITMs with OTMs could decrease diarrhea occurrence and improve the oxidative status and intestinal barrier function in weanling piglets.

Spatial Distribution, Source Identification, and Potential Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal in Surface Sediments from River-Reservoir System in the Feiyun River Basin, China.

To investigate the pollution characteristics of the surface sediments of the river-reservoir system in the Feiyun River basin, a sediment heavy metal survey was conducted for the first time in the Feiyun River basin. Surface sediments from 21 sampling sites in the Feiyun River basin were collected, and the concentrations and spatial distribution characteristics of 15 heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Pb, Mn, V, Co, Mo, Sb, W, Fe, and Se) were analyzed. Three heavy metal ecological risk assessment methods were used to evaluate the potential risks of heavy metals in sediments, and the sources of major heavy metals were traced by correlation analysis and principal component analysis. The results show that (1) the average concentration of heavy metals (As) (212.64 mg/kg) and (Sb) (4.89 mg/kg) in Feiyun River Basin is 33.3 and 6.89 times the background value of Zhejiang Province; the overall spatial distribution of heavy metals is: the mainstream of Feiyun River > Zhaoshandu Reservoir > Shanxi Reservoir, thereby, the pollution is relatively significant; (2) by processing the geo-accumulation index and enrichment index methods, As and Sb are classified as 'severely polluted', 'moderately severely polluted' and 'severely polluted', 'very severe polluted' respectively; (3) the potential ecological index evaluates the surface sediments in the Feiyun River Basin as a very high risk level, the main environmental risk factors are As, Sb, Cd and Mo; (4) the principal component analysis results show that the heavy metals in the sediments of the Feiyun River Basin may be mainly affected by human activities such as sewage from domestic and agricultural activities, mining and smelting, and the others are affected by natural factors.

Integrated analysis of transcriptome and metabolome reveals molecular mechanisms of salt tolerance in seedlings of upland rice landrace 17SM-19.

Salt stress is a major abiotic stress that threatens global rice production. It is particularly important to improve salt tolerance in upland rice because of its growth environment. Upland rice landrace 17SM-19 with high salt tolerance was obtained from a previous study. In this study, an integrated analysis of transcriptome and metabolome was performed to determine the responses of the rice seedling to salt stress. When treated with 100 mm NaCl, the rice seedling growth was significantly inhibited at 5 d, with inhibition first observed in shoot dry weight (SDW). Changes in potassium (K+) content were associated with changes in SDW. In omics analyses, 1,900 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 659 differentially abundant metabolites (DAMs) were identified at 3 d after salt stress (DAS), and 1,738 DEGs and 657 DAMs were identified at 5 DAS. Correlation analyses between DEGs and DAMs were also conducted. The results collectively indicate that salt tolerance of upland rice landrace 17SM-19 seedlings involves many molecular mechanisms, such as those involved with osmotic regulation, ion balance, and scavenging of reactive oxygen species.

A Practical Approach for Environmental Flow Calculation to Support Ecosystem Management in Wujiang River, China.

To promote ecosystem protection in the Wujiang River, this paper proposes a practical approach for calculating the environmental flow. The proposed approach combines the idea of the "guarantee rate" of the flow duration curve (FDC) method and the grading idea of the Tennant method. A daily flow series of the Wujiang River was compiled from 1956 to 2019 and used to compare the effect of the proposed approach versus the traditional approaches in four selected sections along the river. The results show that the environmental flow of the Wujiang River can be divided into five levels by the T-FDC method, with a level-by-level disparity, and all levels can capture the temporal and spatial variability of river flow. Additionally, the calculated basic environmental flow process ranges between the historical minimum and second minimum monthly average flow, and the threshold width of the optimal flow is more reasonable than the Tennant method. The T-FDC method can provide technical support for Wujiang River ecosystem management and sustainable development.

Fractional Approximation of Broad Learning System.

Approximation ability is of much importance for neural networks. The broad learning system (BLS) (Chen and Liu, 2018), widely used in the industry with good performance, has been proved to be a universal approximator from the aspect of density. This kind of approximation property is very important, which proves the existence of the desired network but does not provide a means of construction that is commonly implemented through complexity aspect. Thus, such an approach lacks the advantage of determining constructively the network architecture and its weights. To the best of our knowledge, for a BLS, there is a few theory providing a constructive approach to obtain the network structure along with weights ensuring the approximation properties. By virtue of the long-term memory and nonlocality properties, fractional calculus has observed many distinctive applications. The purpose of this article is to study the BLS approximation ability constructively, which is valid for fractional case as well. Specifically, first we introduce two simplified BLSs by means of extending functions. For each of the simplified BLSs, an upper bound of error is derived through the modulus of continuity of Caputo fractional derivatives. As a result, two types of fractional convergent behaviors of BLS, that is: 1) pointwise and 2) uniform convergence, have been rigorously proved as well. Finally, some numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the approximation capabilities of BLSs.

Circular RNA Sirtuin1 represses pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell proliferation, migration and autophagy to ameliorate pulmonary hypertension via targeting microRNA-145-5p/protein kinase-B3 axis.

Recently, several studies have been clarified that circular RNA (circRNA) was a vital regulatory gene of pulmonary hypertension (PH). Nevertheless, the action of circRNA in PH was not yet explored. This study was to figure out the biological function and potential molecular mechanism of circSirtuin1 (SIRT1) in PH. Construction of the PH rat model and hypoxia pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC) model was performed, and test of circSIRT1/microRNA (miR)-145-5p/protein kinase-B3 (Akt3) was conducted. The influence of the circSIRT1/miR-145-5p/Akt3 axis on the histopathology, hemodynamics with autophagy of the pulmonary artery in rats was examined. Additionally, the impact of circSIRT1/miR-145-5p/Akt3 on the proliferation, migration and apoptosis with autophagy of PASMC under hypoxic environment was also determined. The targeting of circSIRT1/miR-145-5p/Akt3 was testified. The results manifested that circSIRT1 and Akt3 were elevated in PH, while miR-145-5p was declined. Knockdown of circSIRT1 ameliorated rat PH, suppressed PASMC proliferation, migration with autophagy in hypoxic environment. CircSIRT1 competitively combined with miR-145-5p to mediate Akt3. To sum up, circSIRT1/miR-145-5p/Akt3 was supposed to perform as a prospective molecular target for the treatment of PH.

Identification of a New Giant Emrbryo Allele, and Integrated Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Analysis of Giant Embryo Development in Rice.

Rice embryos are rich in high-quality protein, lipid, vitamins and minerals, representing the most important nutritional part of brown rice. However, the molecular mechanism of rice embryo development is poorly understood. In this study, two rice cultivars with contrasting embryo size (the giant embryo cultivar Dapeimi and the normal embryo cultivar 187R) were used to explore excellent genes controlling embryo size, and the developed near-isogenic lines (NILs) (NIL-D, which has the giant embryo phenotype, and its matching line, NIL-X) were used to explore transcript and metabolic properties in the earlier maturation stage of giant embryo development under natural conditions. The map-based cloning results demonstrated that Dapeimi is a novel allelic mutant of the rice GIANT EMBRYO (GE) gene, and the functional mutation site is a single cytosine deletion in the exon1. A total of 285 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) and 677 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between NIL-D and NIL-X. The analysis of DAMs indicated that plants lacking GE mainly promoted energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and lipid metabolism pathways in the rice embryo. Pearson correlation coefficient showed that 300 pairs of gene-metabolites were highly correlated. Among them, OsZS_02G0528500 and OsZS_12G0013700 were considered to be key genes regulating L-Aspartic acid and L-Tryptophan content during rice giant embryo development, which are promising to be good candidate genes to improve rice nutrition. By analyzing rice embryo development through a combination of strategies, this research contributes to a greater understanding of the molecular mechanism of rice embryo development, and provides a theoretical foundation for breeding high-nutrition varieties.

LncRNA PVT1 Facilitates Proliferation, Migration and Invasion of NSCLC Cells via miR-551b/FGFR1 Axis.

BACKGROUND: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (PVT1) plays a crucial role in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Nonetheless, regulatory effects of PVT1 on functions of NSCLC cells remain blurry. METHODS: Relative expression levels of PVT1, miR-551b and FGFR1 mRNA in tumor tissues and cells were examined employing quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR); CCK-8 and BrdU assays were utilized for measuring cell viability and proliferation of H1299 and A549 cells; cell migration and invasion were detected deploying Transwell assay; dual-luciferase assay was used for the validation of binding sequence between PVT1 and miR-551b. FGFR1 expression in protein level was quantified employing Western blot. RESULTS: PVT1 was highly expressed in NSCLC tissues and cell lines, whereas miR-551b expression was down-regulated. Overexpression of PVT1 potentiated viability, proliferation, migration and invasion of NSCLC cells while miR-551b inhibited the biological behaviors mentioned above. MiR-551b was predicted and then confirmed as a direct downstream target of PVT1. Meanwhile, a negative correlation was observed between PVT1 expression and miR-551b expression in NSCLC tissues. Besides, PVT1 could increase FGFR1 expression by repressing miR-551b expression. CONCLUSION: PVT1 promotes the proliferation, migration and invasion of NSCLC cells by indirectly mediating FGFR1 via targeting miR-551b.

Tissue factor promotes airway pathological features through epithelial-mesenchymal transition of bronchial epithelial cells in mice with house dust mite-induced asthma.

It has recently been shown that expression levels of tissue factor (TF) are high in the serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with asthma. However, whether TF impacts airway inflammation and remodelling in asthma remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of TF in asthma airway inflammation and remodelling using a house dust mite (HDM)-induced chronic asthma model and human bronchial epithelial (16HBE) cells. A chronic asthma model was constructed in BALB/c mice by the intranasal instillation of HDM. Mice were treated with short hairpin TF (shTF), and airway inflammation and remodelling features of asthma and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were assessed. 16HBE cells were induced by transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1) and HDM in the presence or absence of shTF; then, EMT markers and invasion and migration ability were determined. TF expression increased in the lung tissue and 16HBE cells when exposed to HDM. TF downregulation in the lung significantly reduced airway hyperresponsiveness, eosinophil inflammation, the EMT process, and levels of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, IL-13, and TGF-ß1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of asthmatic mice. Moreover, TF downregulation inhibited migration and incursion and decreased the expression levels of fibronectin 1 and TGF-ß1, but increased the expression of E-cadherin in HDM- and TGF-ß1-stimulated 16HBE cells. These results demonstrated that TF promoted airway pathological features by enhancing the EMT of bronchial epithelial cells both in vitro and in mice with house dust mite-induced asthma.

Initial predictors for short-term prognosis in anti-melanoma differentiation-associated protein-5 positive patients.

BACKGROUND: Anti-melanoma differentiation-associated protein-5 (anti-MDA5) positive patients are characterized by the high mortality rate caused by interstitial lung disease (ILD). We conducted a retrospective study to summarize the clinical features and identify the initial predictors for death in anti-MDA5 positive patients. METHODS: We designed a retrospective cohort of anti-MDA5 positive patients. The demographic and clinical data recorded on first admission, as well as the outcomes during the first six months follow-up, were collected. Predictors of rapidly progressive ILD (RPILD) and poor outcomes were calculated using logistic regression models and Cox proportional hazard regression models, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 90 anti-MDA5 positive patients were included in this study. Eighty-one (90%) patients presented ILD on admission and 35 (38.9%) patients developed RPILD subsequently. During the first six months of follow-up, 22 (24.4%) patients died of respiratory failure at an average time of 6.6 ± 5.9 weeks. Factors including disease duration < 2 months (OR 6.1, 95% CI 1.7-22.4, P = 0.007), serum ferritin ≥ 1500 ng/ml (OR 12.3, 95% CI 3.1-49.6, P < 0.001), CRP ≥ 13 mg/L (OR 4.6, 95% CI 1.3-16.9, P = 0.021) and total GGO score ≥ 4 (OR 6.3, 95% CI 1.8-21.9, P = 0.003), were identified as independent predictors for RPILD. Cox regression model showed that total CT GGO score ≥ 4 (HR 4.8, 95% CI 1.3-17.9, P = 0.020), KL-6 > 1600 U/ml (HR 3.7, 95% CI 1.5-9.1, P = 0.004) and CRP > 5.8 mg/L (HR 3.7, 95% CI 1.0-12.8, P = 0.044) were poor prognostic risk factors, however initial combined treatment (HR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-0.8, P = 0.019) predicted good prognosis in anti-MDA5 positive patients. CONCLUSION: Anti-MDA5 positive patients demonstrated a high prevalence of ILD on admission, leading to a high short-term mortality rate. Higher total GGO score, higher levels of initial KL-6 and CRP predict poor outcome in anti-MDA5 positive patients. However, initial intensive treatment may improve the prognosis.

Influence of starch fine structure and storage proteins on the eating quality of rice varieties with similar amylose contents.

BACKGROUND: Rice eating quality largely dictates consumer preference, and the demand for new rice varieties with excellent eating quality from farmers is increasing. Identification of factors contributing to eating quality is helpful for developing high-quality rice varieties. RESULTS: Two groups of rice with different apparent amylose content (AACs) were used in this study. One group contained four varieties with low AACs (8.8-9.4%), whereas the other contained four traditional varieties with medium AACs (17.2-17.5%). The physicochemical properties, starch fine structure and crystallinity and storage protein composition of the two groups were analyzed. We found that, in both groups, the rice varieties with high eating quality had more short-chain amylopectin, lower glutelin and prolamin content, and a higher albumin content. In addition, the low-AAC varieties produced opaque endosperms, which may result from an increased number of pores in the center of starch granules. CONCLUSIONS: Both the fine structure of starch and the storage protein composition were closely related to rice eating quality. In both groups, short branch-chain amylopectin, short-chain amylopectin [degree of polymerization (DP) 6-12], and albumin had positive effects on eating quality. By contrast, long branch-chain amylopectin, long-chain amylopectin (DP 35-60), glutelin and prolamin had adverse effects on eating quality of rice. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.