关键词： Alternative splicing   Arabidopsis thaliana   cold acclimation   heat acclimation   splicing factor   temperature adaptation   temperature response  

摘要： Alternative splicing occurs in all eukaryotic organisms. Since the first description of multiexon genes and the splicing machinery, the field has expanded rapidly, especially in animals and yeast. However, our knowledge about splicing in plants is still quite fragmented. Though eukaryotes show some similarity in the composition and dynamics of their splicing machinery, observations of unique plant traits are only starting to emerge. For instance, plant alternative splicing is closely linked to their ability to perceive various environmental stimuli. Due to their sessile lifestyle, temperature is a central source of information, allowing plants to adjust their development to match current growth conditions. Hence, seasonal temperature fluctuations and day-night cycles can strongly influence plant morphology across developmental stages. Here we discuss available data on temperature-dependent alternative splicing in plants. Given its fragmented state, it is not always possible to fit specific observations into a coherent picture, yet it is sufficient to estimate the complexity of this field and the need for further research. Better understanding of alternative splicing as a part of plant temperature response and adaptation may also prove to be a powerful tool for both fundamental and applied sciences.

关键词： Mass spectrometry   Fossil fuels   Chromatography   Ionization   Pyrolysis  

摘要： Modern industry strongly relies on the molecular analysis of fossil petroleum and petroleum-derived materials. In the context of a circular economy and carbon neutrality, the chemical description of alternative feedstock materials, such as waste plastic and biomass pyrolysis oils, increases in importance. Moreover, online monitoring of the thermochemical and catalytic conversion processes has gained rising attention. In this framework, evolved gas analysis (EGA) concepts with soft photoionization mass spectrometry (PIMS) were successfully deployed for numerous challenges. On the one hand, photoionization is a highly versatile technique and allows for "soft" ionization of the analyte molecule, preserving the molecular information. On the other hand, multiple evolved gas analysis concepts exist with unique benefits, such as the mass loss information in thermogravimetry coupling, high-throughput in direct inlet probe concepts, or straightforward reactor monitoring, allowing for direct online insights into pyrolytic transformation processes. Hence, this review aims to summarize the recent work in the field of EGA-PIMS. After technical description of the multiple photoionization and thermal analysis concepts, applied studies are summarized, discussed, and evaluated. Besides fossil fuels, studies on alternatives from renewable materials, such as biomass pyrolysis, plastic pyrolysis oils, and recycling processes, are reviewed. Finally, future perspectives on this field are given, highlighting the importance of those soft ionization schemes together with state-of-the-art detection by high-resolution mass spectrometry in the field of energy and fuels research.

关键词： Active aspiration   butterfly needle   extrusion mode   suprachoroidal hemorrhage  

摘要： Purpose: To describe a novel surgical technique for external drainage of choroidal detachment/suprachoroidal hemorrhage with a butterfly needle. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective case series on six eyes with serous and/or hemorrhagic choroidal detachments due to previous intraocular surgery or perforating ocular trauma that underwent active external suprachoroidal fluid drainage procedure with butterfly needle. The primary outcome measures were perioperative controlled fluid discharge and presence of choroidal detachment at 1 week, 1 month, and 6 months postoperatively. Secondary outcome measures were postoperative visual acuity and intraocular pressure. Results: During drainage, controlled hemorrhage discharge was observed. Drainage resolved hemorrhagic choroidal detachments at 1 week postoperatively. Intraocular pressure significantly increased, and visual acuity improved in all eyes. No complications were noted. Conclusion: Management of hemorrhagic choroidal detachment is challenging, and external drainage can be complicated. Active aspiration of hemorrhagic material with a butterfly needle may help early resolution.

关键词： Degradation   Peptides and proteins   Monomers   Hydrophobicity   Conjugate acid-base pairs  

摘要： Carboranes 1 and 2 were designed and synthesized for hydrophobic tag (HyT)-induced degradation of HaloTag fusion proteins. The levels of the hemagglutinin (HA)-HaloTag2-green fluorescent protein (EGFP) stably expressed in Flp-In 293 cells were significantly reduced by HyT13, HyT55, and carboranes 1 and 2, with expression levels of 49, 79, 43, and 65%, respectively, indicating that carborane is an alternative novel hydrophobic tag (HyT) for protein degradation under an intracellular environment. To clarify the mechanism of HyT-induced proteolysis, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was chosen as an extracellular protein and modified with maleimide-conjugated m-carborane (MIC). The measurement of the zeta-potentials and the lysine residue modification with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) of BSA-MIC conjugates suggested that the conjugation of carborane induced the exposure of lysine residues on BSA, resulting in the degradation via ubiquitin E3 ligase-related proteasome pathways in the cell.

关键词： isoform   transcript   expression   brain   cortex   mouse   human   adult   fetal   long-read sequencing   alternative splicing  

摘要： Alternative splicing is a post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism producing distinct mRNA molecules from a single pre-mRNA with a prominent role in the development and function of the central nervous system. We used long-read isoform sequencing to generate full-length transcript sequences in the human and mouse cortex. We identify novel transcripts not present in existing genome annotations, including transcripts mapping to putative novel (unannotated) genes and fusion transcripts incorporating exons from multiple genes. Global patterns of transcript diversity are similar between human and mouse cortex, although certain genes are characterized by striking differences between species. We also identify developmental changes in alternative splicing, with differential transcript usage between human fetal and adult cortex. Our data confirm the importance of alternative splicing in the cortex, dramatically increasing transcriptional diversity and representing an important mechanism underpinning gene regulation in the brain. We provide transcript-level data for human and mouse cortex as a resource to the scientific community.

关键词： Magnetic materials  

摘要： The search for molecule-based magnetic materials has stimulated over the years the development of extremely rich coordination chemistry. Various combinations of spin carriers have been investigated and illustrated by a plethora of hetero-spin complexes: 3d-nd, 3d-4f, 2p-3d, and 2p-4f. More recently, two other classes of hetero-spin complexes have grown rapidly: compounds containing three different paramagnetic metal ions, or one radical and two different paramagnetic metal ions (all within the same molecular entity). Such new classes of systems represent a challenge both from a synthetic and theoretical point of view. Indeed, the synthetic control and the understanding of the spin topology effect on the overall magnetic behavior from first-principles is a difficult problem to be solved. The presence of different spin carriers in a single molecule makes such compounds particularly interesting because they offer the possibility of developing new magnetic properties, different from those of hetero-bi-spin or homo-spin systems. A critical overview taking the case of 2p-3d-4f complexes is the focus of this perspective paper. An original organic picture of the state-of-art in this field and new hints about the main directions that should be pursued to achieve hetero-tri-spin systems with large anisotropy barriers, low quantum tunneling of magnetization and, possibly, large blocking temperatures are provided in this article through an analysis based on numerically revisiting already published data and a critical survey of the literature reported so far. The reasons for the limited success obtained for the largely used 3d-2p-4f topology are given along with the ones explaining the failure for the 2p-4f-3d case. The still never synthesized linear 2p-3d-4f spin topology seemed to be the most promising one based on the results obtained for the unique closed hetero-tri-spin closed triangular system synthesized so far.

关键词： colorectal cancer   microexon   PTBP1   RBFOX2   splicing  

摘要： The splicing of microexons (very small exons) is frequently dysregulated in the brain of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. However, little is known of the patterns, regulatory mechanisms and roles of microexon splicing in cancer. We here examined the transcriptome-wide profile of microexon splicing in matched colorectal cancer (CRC) and normal tissue specimens. Out of 1492 microexons comprising 3 to 15 nucleotides, 21 (1%) manifested differential splicing between CRC and normal tissue. The 21 genes harboring the differentially spliced microexons were enriched in gene ontology terms related to cell adhesion and migration. RNA interference-mediated knockdown experiments identified two splicing factors, RBFOX2 and PTBP1, as regulators of microexon splicing in CRC cells. RBFOX2 and PTBP1 were found to directly bind to microexon-containing pre-mRNAs and to control their splicing in such cells. Differential microexon splicing was shown to be due, at least in part, to altered expression of RBFOX2 and PTBP1 in CRC tissue compared to matched normal tissue. Finally, we found that changes in the pattern of microexon splicing were associated with CRC metastasis. Our data thus suggest that altered expression of RBFOX2 and PTBP1 might influence CRC metastasis through the regulation of microexon splicing.

关键词： alternative splicing   chromatin   dna   methylation   rna   rna splicing factors  

摘要： The well-established functions of UHRF1 converge to DNA biological processes, as exemplified by DNA methylation maintenance and DNA damage repair during cell cycles. However, the potential effect of UHRF1 on RNA metabolism is largely unexplored. Here, we revealed that UHRF1 serves as a novel alternative RNA splicing regulator. The protein interactome of UHRF1 identified various splicing factors. Among them, SF3B3 could interact with UHRF1 directly and participate in UHRF1-regulated alternative splicing events. Furthermore, we interrogated the RNA interactome of UHRF1, and surprisingly, we identified U snRNAs, the canonical spliceosome components, in the purified UHRF1 complex. Unexpectedly, we found H3R2 methylation status determines the binding preference of U snRNAs, especially U2 snRNAs. The involvement of U snRNAs in UHRF1-containing complex and their binding preference to specific chromatin configuration imply a finely orchestrated mechanism at play. Our results provided the resources and pinpointed the molecular basis of UHRF1-mediated alternative RNA splicing, which will help us better our understanding of the physiological and pathological roles of UHRF1 in disease development.

关键词： Biodegradability   Bioenergy   Enzymatic treatment   Life cycle assessment (LCA)   Starchy effluents   Wastewater treatment  

摘要： Enzymatic processes offer an option for the treatment of rich-starch effluents from the industrial processing of potatoes, which has been usually provided by means coagulation-flocculation units followed by settling, filtering or mechanical separation stages. Pre-treatment of these effluents with amylase enzymes increases the biodegradable-soluble COD fraction (bsCOD) by hydrolysis of starch and other complex molecules therein present. For this reason, it has been thought the coupling of an enzymatic pre-treatment with a combined biological process (anaerobic + aerobic) as an alternative treatment for these starchy liquid streams. This "enzymatic biological" concept would allow valuable biogas for its own operational needs and to reduce relevant environmental impacts regarding to the typical physicochemical processes, such as elevated consumption of energy and chemicals, as well the production of hardly biodegradable sludge. The apparent environmental advantages claimed by the enzymatic-biological treatment concept (alternative scenario) have been elucidated through a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) against a solely physicochemical-based treatment (baseline scenario). Inventory data for the enzymatic pre-treatment were obtained and fitted from lab-scale tests, whilst average operational data were assumed for the anaerobic and aerobic units, as well for the baseline scenario. Environmental benefits have been unfolded by evaluating three mid-point environmental categories prioritized in this study, namely, global power warming, eutrophication potential and non-renewable energy consumption. The LCA results suggest the possible replacement of the physicochemical-based approach to treat starchy streams by applying the alternative enzymatic-biological process proposed in this study.

关键词： Biological sludge   Alternative adsorbents   Circular economy   Tertiary treatment of effluents   Adsorption wastewater treatment   Waste-to-resource  

摘要： The purpose of this study was to investigate pulp mill by-products valorization through activated carbon (AC) production and its application in wastewater treatment. Bio-sludge is a known promising precursor for AC production. The mill's chemical recovery stage generates an effluent (electrostatic precipitator ash leachate - EPAL) with high levels of potassium and sodium, which motivate studies regarding its viability as a chemical source for carbon activation. Bio-sludge and EPAL are problematic by-products and this research line would allow their return to the productive chain, as an adsorbent for the wastewater treatment. Two carbonization heating rates (3.5, 15 degrees C/min), three activation agents (NaOH, KOH, EPAL) and two activator:bio-sludge ratios (1:1, 2:1) were used for AC production. The best ACs in terms of surface area were those produced at 3.5 degrees C/min, with KOH or EPAL in 2:1 proportion. ACs produced under these conditions and commercial activated carbon (CAC) were used in adsorption tests with industrial wastewater. For color removal, KOH-activated carbon presented the greatest efficiency (80.45 %), followed by CAC (76.74 %) and EPAL-activated carbon (70.13 %). For COD removal, EPAL-activated carbon presented greater efficiency (53.49 %), followed by CAC (40.84 %) and KOH-activated carbon (36.86 %). Freundlich's model best described the experimental adsorption data. The KOH results were expected to be satisfactory, since KOH is proven to be effective for carbon activation. The EPAL-activated carbon results were remarkable, especially for COD removal, showing that EPAL can be used as an activator and that the by-products have potential for valorization according to the circular economy principles.