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Ethylene‐MPK8‐ERF.C1‐PR module confers resistance against <i>Botrytis cinerea</i> in tomato fruit without compromising ripening
No full textSummary The plant hormone ethylene plays a critical role in fruit defense against Botrytis cinerea attack, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we showed that ethylene response factor SlERF.C1 acts as a key regulator to trigger the ethylene‐mediated defense against B. cinerea in tomato fruits without compromising ripening. Knockout of SlERF.C1 increased fruit susceptibility to B. cinerea with no effect on ripening process, while overexpression enhanced resistance. RNA‐Seq, transactivation assays, EMSA and ChIP‐qPCR results indicated that SlERF.C1 activated the transcription of PR genes by binding to their promoters. Moreover, SlERF.C1 interacted with the mitogen‐activated protein kinase SlMPK8 which allowed SlMPK8 to phosphorylate SlERF.C1 at the Ser174 residue and increases its transcriptional activity. Knocking out of SlMPK8 increased fruit susceptibility to B. cinerea, whereas overexpression enhanced resistance without affecting ripening. Furthermore, genetic crosses between SlMPK8‐KO and SlERF.C1‐OE lines reduced the resistance to B. cinerea attack in SlERF.C1‐OE fruits. In addition, B. cinerea infection induced ethylene production which in turn triggered SlMPK8 transcription and enhanced the phosphorylation of SlERF.C1. Overall, our findings reveal the regulatory mechanism of the ‘Ethylene‐MPK8‐ERF.C1‐PR’ module in resistance against B. cinerea and provide new insight into the manipulation of gray mold disease in fruits
A molecular toolkit of cross-feeding strains for engineering synthetic yeast communities
Get PDFEngineered microbial consortia often have enhanced system performance and robustness compared with single-strain biomanufacturing production platforms. However, few tools are available for generating co-cultures of the model and key industrial host Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we engineer auxotrophic and overexpression yeast strains that can be used to create co-cultures through exchange of essential metabolites. Using these strains as modules, we engineered two- and three-member consortia using different cross-feeding architectures. Through a combination of ensemble modelling and experimentation, we explored how cellular (for example, metabolite production strength) and environmental (for example, initial population ratio, population density and extracellular supplementation) factors govern population dynamics in these systems. We tested the use of the toolkit in a division of labour biomanufacturing case study and show that it enables enhanced and tuneable antioxidant resveratrol production. We expect this toolkit to become a useful resource for a variety of applications in synthetic ecology and biomanufacturing
Evolving security motifs, Olympic spectacle and urban planning legacy : from militarization to security-by-design
Get PDFEfficient inventory routing for Bike-Sharing Systems : a combinatorial reinforcement learning framework
No full textBike-sharing systems have become increasingly popular, providing a convenient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly transportation option for urban commuters on short trips. However, an efficient and sustainable bike-sharing system faces a key challenge to dynamically balancing the supply and demand of bicycles through efficient inventory routing. This paper introduces a comprehensive combinatorial framework that tackles the critical challenges in the bike-sharing system's inventory routing problem. Firstly, we present a novel mathematical model that considers multiple delivery vehicle types and incorporates important factors like dispatch cost, service time, and user satisfaction, all while ensuring fair scheduling. The comprehensiveness of our model makes it highly applicable to real-world scenarios, addressing practical concerns faced by bike-sharing companies. Secondly, we leverage reinforcement learning mechanisms to gather quantitative information on the spatial and temporal patterns of demand and supply. With this data, we construct an effective regression model that accurately predicts station demand. Additionally, we propose an efficient heuristic approach to generate service sequences for delivery vehicle dispatching. Our approach employs a far-sighted strategy-based local iterative search algorithm to construct solutions, coupled with an adaptive exploration algorithm to continually improve solution quality. The proposed solution method is an innovative integration of reinforcement learning, demand prediction, and heuristic-based dispatching, significantly enhancing solution quality and computational efficiency. By bridging the gap between academic research and real-world practice, our framework offers practical and effective solutions for bike-sharing systems. Finally, we validate our proposed framework with extensive experimental results using real-world datasets. Our approach outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms within a short computational time, demonstrating its superiority in terms of solution quality compared to prior literature. Our research opens a new, viable direction for industrial practice, providing valuable insights for decision-makers to optimize bicycle inventory management in a smarter and more efficient way
Social dynamics in interpersonal emotion regulation : a theoretical framework for understanding direct and indirect other-based processes
Get PDFInterpersonal emotion regulation involves having emotions changed in a social context. While some research has used the term to refer to instances where others are used to alter one’s own emotions (intrinsic), other research refers to goal-directed actions aimed at modifying others’ emotional responses (extrinsic). We argue that the self-other distinction should be applied not only to the target (who has their emotion regulated) but also to the means (whether the agent uses themselves or others to achieve the regulation). Based on this, we propose interpersonal emotion regulation can take place when an agent changes a target’s emotions by affecting a third party’s emotion who will shift the emotion of the target in turn (direct other-based interpersonal ER) or by impacting a third party’s emotion (indirect other-based interpersonal ER). We discuss these processes and the conditions that lead to their emergence reconciling findings from different fields and suggesting new research venues
The impact of mitotane therapy on serum-free proteins in patients with adrenocortical carcinoma
Get PDFIntroduction
Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignancy of the adrenal cortex. Whilst surgery is the preferred treatment, adjunctive therapy with mitotane may be offered post-surgically to minimise the risk of recurrence or, in the absence of surgery, to attenuate progression.
Aim
The objective was to evaluate the effects of mitotane treatment on serum protein concentrations in patients treated for ACC with mitotane therapy and compare this to patients with other adrenal neoplasms and a normal pregnant cohort.
Methods
Serum cortisol, thyroid function tests, adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH), cortisol-binding globulin (CBG), thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG), gonadotrophins and androgens were measured on plasma and serum samples. Thirty-five patients with ACC were included, and mitotane levels were noted to be sub-/supra-therapeutic. Data were tested for normality, reported as mean ± s.d., and compared to other two cohorts using paired-sample t-test with a 5% P-value for significance and a 95% CI.
Results
Patients on mitotane therapy had a higher mean serum CBG concentration compared to the adrenal neoplasm group (sub-therapeutic: 79.5 (95% CI: 33.6, 125.4 nmol/L), therapeutic: 85.3 (95% CI: 37.1–133.6 nmol/L), supra-therapeutic: 75.7 (95% CI: −19.3, 170.6 nmol/L) and adrenal neoplasm: 25.5 (95% CI: 17.5, 33.5 nmol/L). Negative correlations between serum cortisol and CBG concentration were demonstrated within the supra-therapeutic plasma mitotane and adrenal neoplasm groups.
Conclusion
Patients with ACC and therapeutic plasma mitotane concentrations had higher serum CBG concentrations compared to those with adrenal neoplasms or pregnant women, and higher serum cortisol. Whilst there was no direct correlation with cortisol and mitotane level, the negative correlation of cortisol with CBG may suggest that the direct effect of mitotane in increasing cortisol may also reflect that mitotane has a direct adrenolytic effect
How microbial communities shape peatland carbon dynamics : new insights and implications
No full textPeatlands are considered the most efficient ecosystem for long-term storage of atmospheric carbon (C). However, reasons for variations in C accumulation within peatlands remain largely unexplained. Using a comprehensive multi-level approach combining soil-atmosphere C exchanges, microbial extracellular enzyme activities, and genome-resolved cellular and viral metagenomics, we endeavored to decipher the microbial determinants and their role in C dynamics in the bog and fen of a European peatland. Overall, the bog exhibited a higher C content and dissolved organic carbon concentration. Despite contrasting geochemical conditions, these differences were not explained by environmental parameters nor the vegetation. Metagenomic analyses revealed varying microbial community composition, the bog being less diverse and dominated by Acidobacteriota and the fen comprising five predominant phyla (Crenarcheota, Chloroflexota, Proteobacteria, Desulfobacterota and Acidobacteriota). Both bog and fen microbial communities were stable between spring and summer. Yet, similar CO2 emissions were recorded in both bog and fen, along with similar organic matter (OM) decomposition microbial activities and potential. Ultimately, the bog harbored significantly more viruses than the fen. Most intriguingly, these viruses were predicted to target Acidobacteriota, the phyla displaying the highest OM-degrading capacity in the bog. By impairing the activity of the dominant players in OM degradation, viruses might have a significant role in C dynamics in the bog over time. In addition, we propose that low microbial diversity limited cross-feeding opportunities in the bog, further limiting C degradation. Taken together, this study deciphers the role of microbial communities driving C accumulation in peatlands and, consequently, peatland ecosystem functioning
Terms-of-Trade shocks are not all alike
Get PDFTerms of trade are an inaccurate empirical proxy for how fluctuations in international prices affect the economy. To capture the relevance of terms of trade fluctuations for the domestic business cycle, the role of export and import prices needs to be analyzed separately. Using a sample of developing economies, we find that the economy’s response
to a positive export price shock does not mirror the response to a negative import price shock. Taken together, export and import price shocks account for around 30 percent of output fluctuations, but export price shocks are more important than import price shocks
as drivers of output. Global demand and supply shocks, which simultaneously affect export and import prices, are largely undetected in the terms-of-trade measure but significantly affect domestic business cycles. We link our results to existing small open economy
models used to study the transmission of terms-of-trade shocks