关键词： DNA methylation   N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification   RNA pol II elongation   Spliceosome   Splicing factors   Transcription  

摘要： Alternative splicing (AS) plays a critical role in enhancing proteome complexity in higher eukaryotes. Almost all the multi intron-containing genes undergo AS in humans. Splicing mainly occurs co-transcriptionally, where RNA polymerase II (RNA pol II) plays a crucial role in coordinating transcription and pre-mRNA splicing. Aberrant AS leads to non-functional proteins causative in various pathophysiological conditions such as cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and muscular dystrophies. Transcription and pre-mRNA splicing are deeply interconnected and can influence each other?s functions. Several studies evinced that specific promoters employed by RNA pol II dictate the RNA processing decisions. Promoter-specific recruitment of certain transcriptional factors or transcriptional coactivators influences splicing, and the extent to which these factors affect splicing has not been discussed in detail. Here, in this review, various DNA-binding proteins and their influence on promoter-specific AS are extensively discussed. Besides, this review highlights how the promoter-specific epigenetic changes might regulate AS.

关键词： Dye-sensitized solar cells   Natural pigments   Sensitizers   Algae   Fungi   Bacteria  

摘要： Dye-sensitized solar cells have been of great interest in photovoltaic technology due to their capacity to convert energy at a low cost. The use of natural pigments means replacing expensive chemical synthesis processes by easily extractable pigments that are non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Although most of the pigments used for this purpose are obtained from higher plants, there are potential alternative sources that have been underexploited and have shown encouraging results, since pigments can also be obtained from organisms like bacteria, cyanobacteria, microalgae, yeast, and molds, which have the potential of being cultivated in bioreactors or optimized by biotechnological processes. The aforementioned organisms are sources of diverse sensitizers like photosynthetic pigments, accessory pigments, and secondary metabolites such as chlorophylls, bacteriochlorophylls, carotenoids, and phycobiliproteins. Moreover, retinal proteins, photosystems, and reaction centers from these organisms can also act as sensitizers. In this review, the use of natural sensitizers extracted from algae, cyanobacteria, bacteria, archaea, and fungi is assessed. The reported photoconversion efficiencies vary from 0.001 % to 4.6 % for sensitizers extracted from algae and microalgae, 0.004 to 1.67 % for bacterial sensitizers, 0.07-0.23 % for cyanobacteria, 0.09 to 0.049 % for archaea and 0.26-2.3 % for pigments from fungi.

关键词： Urban agriculture   Life cycle assessment   Alternative fertilization   Phosphorus recovery  

摘要： Urban agriculture, while being a promising solution to increase food sovereignty in cities, can lead to an unprecedented discharge of nutrient and fertilizer-related emissions into the urban environment. Especially relevant are nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), due to their contribution to marine and freshwater eutrophication. Therefore, alternative methods of fertilization need to be put into practice to avoid such impacts to the surrounding environment. Struvite, has been studied as a potential slow releasing fertilizer due to its high P content, while the bacteria rhizobium has been used to fix N directly from the atmosphere. Legumes, like the common bean are N-demanding crops capable of symbiosis with the bacteria rhizobium and have previously shown positive responses to fertilization with struvite. This study aims to analyze the environmental performance of plant production in hydroponic systems combining rhizobium inoculation and struvite (2 g, 5 g, 10 g, 20 g) irrigated with a N and P deficient nutrient solution, using life cycle analysis (LCA). The nutrient content of in- and out-going irrigation was analyzed as well as in plants and beans. The functional unit for the LCA was 1 kg of fresh beans. The results obtained indicate a yield reduction of 60% to 50% in comparison to the control which was irrigated with a full nutrient solution. The impacts from operational stage are less in all impact categories, where most significant reductions up to 69% and 59% are seen inmarine-eutrophication and global warming respectively. Although the infrastructure does not change between treatments, its impacts increase due to the lower yields. We determine that below a 10% of the control yield, the alternative systems have more impact than the use of conventional mineral fertilizers in almost all impact categories, thus pointing to the importance of infrastructure to truly reduce environmental impacts for urban agriculture. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

关键词： Upper limb kinematics   glenohumeral-joint center   videogrammetry   multi-segment optimization   scapular kinematics  

摘要： Videogrammetry is commonly used to record upper limb motions. However, it cannot track the glenohumeral joint center (GH). GH is required to reconstruct upper limb motions. Therefore, it is often estimated by separately measuring scapular motions using scapular kinematics measurements devices (SKMD). Applications of SKMD are neither straightforward nor always noninvasive. Therefore, this work investigates the feasibility of an alternative method to estimate GH from videogrammetry using a CT/MRI image of subject's glenohumeral joint and without requiring SKMD. In order to evaluate the method's accuracy, its GH estimations were compared to reference GH trajectories. The method was also applied to estimate scapular configurations and reconstruct an abduction motion measured by videogrammetry. The accuracy of GH estimations were within 5 mm, and the reconstructed motion was in good agreement with reportedin vivomeasurements.

关键词： Acute kidney injury   Inflammasome  

摘要： NLRP3, a decisive role in inflammation regulation, is obviously upregulated by oxidative stress in kidney injury. The NLRP3 upregulation leads to unsolved inflammation and other pathological effects, contributing to aggravation of kidney injury and even transition to chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the mechanism for NLRP3 upregulation and further aggravation of kidney injury remains largely elusive. In this study, we found NLRP3 3 ' UTR was shortened in response to kidney injury in vivo and oxidative stress in vitro. Functionally, such NLRP3 3 ' UTR shortening upregulated NLRP3 expression and amplified inflammation, fibrogenesis, ROS production and apoptosis, depending on stabilizing NLRP3 mRNA. Mechanistically, FIP1 was found to bind to pPAS of NLRP3 mRNA via its arginine-rich domain and to induce NLRP3 3 ' UTR shortening. In addition, FIP1 was upregulated in CKD specimens and negatively associated with renal function of CKD patients. More importantly, we found FIP1 was upregulated by oxidative stress and required for oxidative stress-induced NLRP3 upregulation, inflammation activation, cell damage and apoptosis. Finally, we proved that FIP1 silencing attenuated the inflammation activation, fibrogenesis, ROS production and apoptosis induced by UUO or IRI. Taken together, our results demonstrated that oxidative stress-upregulated FIP1 amplified inflammation, fibrogenesis, ROS production and apoptosis via inducing 3 ' UTR shortening of NLRP3, highlighting the importance of crosstalk between oxidative stress and alternative polyadenylation in AKI-CKD transition, as well as the therapeutic potential of FIP1 in kidney injury treatment.

关键词： Catalysts   Amides   Hydration   Nitrogen compounds   Molecules  

摘要： The hexahydride OsH6((PPr3)-Pr-i)(2) competently catalyzes the hydration of aliphatic nitriles to amides. The main metal species under the catalytic conditions are the trihydride osmium(IV) amidate derivatives OsH3{kappa(2)-N,O-[HNC(O)R]}((PPr3)-Pr-i)(2), which have been isolated and fully characterized for R = Pr-i and Bu-t. The rate of hydration is proportional to the concentrations of the catalyst precursor, nitrile, and water. When these experimental findings and density functional theory calculations are combined, the mechanism of catalysis has been established. Complexes OsH3{kappa(2)-N,O-[HNC(O)R]}((PPr3)-Pr-i)(2) dissociate the carbonyl group of the chelate to afford kappa(1)-N-amidate derivatives, which coordinate the nitrile. The subsequent attack of an external water molecule to both the C(sp) atom of the nitrile and the N atom of the amidate affords the amide and regenerates the kappa(1)-N-amidate catalysts. The attack is concerted and takes place through a cyclic six-membered transition state, which involves C-nitrile center dot center dot center dot O-H center dot center dot center dot N-amidate interactions. Before the attack, the free carbonyl group of the kappa(1)-N-amidate ligand fixes the water molecule in the vicinity of the C(sp) atom of the nitrile.

关键词： ASAP-QTOF-MS   APGC-QTOF-M   Mineral oils   MOAH   r-PET   Markers  

摘要： The aim of this work was to select and identify the best markers of aromatic hydrocarbon mineral oil (MOAH) in food packaging. For this purpose, a series of mineral oils was initially analysed. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the alkylated isomers of Methylnaphthalene (MNS), Diisopropylnaphtalene (DIPNs), Dibenzothiophenes (DBTS), Methyldibenzothiophene (MDBTs), Dimethyldibenzothiophenes (DMDBTs) and Benzonaphthiophenes (BNTS) were then explored. Their presence was confirmed by direct analysis of several mineral oils by Atmospheric Solids Analysis Probe Quadrupole-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (ASAP-QTOF-MS). Atmospheric Pressure Gas Chromatography Quadrupole-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (APGC-QTOF-MS) was used to confirm the markers in different samples of oils, recycled PET (rPET), recycled cardboard and packaging of couscous and semolina to confirm the contamination. 27 markers were found in the mineral oil samples, 22 of them in rPET, 8 in recycled board and no MOAH were found in packaging of couscous and semolina.

关键词： Cytotoxicity   Ice cream   Textural properties   Rheological properties  

摘要： Acacia mearnsii gum is not commercially exploited, being characterized as residue from A. mearnsii cultivation. This work investigated the A. mearnsii gum polysaccharide composition, its cytotoxicity and the technological effect as a stabilizer in ice cream. A. mearnsii gum showed a similar chemical structure to commercial gum Arabic and did not decrease the viability and proliferation of fibroblast cells (Balb/3T3) and hepatocarcinoma (HepG2). Rheological tests showed that the ice cream stabilized by the A. mearnsii gum had a more structured system (more interactions between the mixture components) and the same melting characteristics as the ice cream samples made with commercial gum Arabic. The results showed that A. mearnsii gum, which is actually an agmindustrial residue from tannin production for industry, is a potential stabilizing gum for the food industry, contributing to the economic development of the exploitation chain of A. mearnsii products and by-products.

关键词： Plasmodium vivax   DARC   TfR1   parasite invasion   receptor blockade  

摘要： Plasmodium vivax has 2 invasion ligand/host receptor pathways (P. vivax Duffy-binding protein/Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines [DARC] and P. vivax reticulocyte binding protein 2b/transferrin receptor [TfR1]) that are promising targets for therapeutic intervention. We optimized invasion assays with isogenic cultured reticulocytes. Using a receptor blockade approach with multiple P. vivax isolates, we found that all strains utilized both DARC and TfR1, but with significant variation in receptor usage. This suggests that P. vivax, like Plasmodium falciparum, uses alternative invasion pathways, with implications for pathogenesis and vaccine development.

摘要： Motivation: We present flexible Modeling of Alternative PolyAdenylation (flexiMAP), a new beta-regression-based method implemented in R, for discovering differential alternative polyadenylation events in standard RNA-seq data. Results: We show, using both simulated and real data, that flexiMAP exhibits a good balance between specificity and sensitivity and compares favourably to existing methods, especially at low fold changes. In addition, the tests on simulated data reveal some hitherto unrecognized caveats of existing methods. Importantly, flexiMAP allows modeling of multiple known covariates that often confound the results of RNA-seq data analysis.