Polyethylene oxide binder suppressing polyiodide shuttling via charge-transfer complexation for high-mass-loading aqueous zinc iodine batteries.

Aqueous zinc iodine batteries (AZIBs) offer significant advantages in safety and cost, making them promising candidates for large-scale energy storage. However, the polyiodide shuttle effect impedes their commercialization process, especially when facing high areal capacity conditions (>3 mAh cm). Designing advanced multifunctional binders emerges as an urgent and efficient tactic to address polyiodide shuttling and sustain the structural integrity and ionic conduction of thick electrodes simultaneously.

The gene regulates dimorphic sexual and aggressive behaviors in .

Most animal species display dimorphic sexual behaviors and male-biased aggressiveness. Current models have focused on the male-specific product from the () gene, which controls male courtship and male-specific aggression patterns in fruit flies, and describe a male-specific mechanism underlying sexually dimorphic behaviors. Here we show that the () gene, which expresses male-specific Dsx and female-specific Dsx transcription factors, functions in the nervous system to control both male and female sexual and aggressive behaviors.

A male-specific doublesex isoform reveals an evolutionary pathway of sexual development via distinct alternative splicing mechanisms.

The doublesex/mab-3 related transcription factor (Dmrt) genes regulate sexual development in metazoans. Studies of the doublesex (dsx) gene in insects, in particular Drosophila melanogaster, reveal that alternative splicing of dsx generates sex-specific Dsx isoforms underlying sexual differentiation. Such a splicing-based mechanism underlying sex-specific Dmrt function is thought to be evolved from a transcription-based mechanism used in non-insect species, but how such transition occurs during evolution is not known.

The sex determination gene doublesex regulates expression and secretion of the basement membrane protein Collagen IV.

The highly conserved doublesex (dsx) and doublesex/mab-3 related (Dmrt) genes control sexually dimorphic traits across animals. The dsx gene encodes sex-specific transcription factors, Dsx in males and Dsx in females, which function differentially and often oppositely to establish sexual dimorphism. Here, we report that mutations in dsx, or overexpression of dsx, result in abnormal distribution of the basement membrane (BM) protein Collagen IV in the fat body.

Gut microbiome modulates Drosophila aggression through octopamine signaling.

Gut microbiome profoundly affects many aspects of host physiology and behaviors. Here we report that gut microbiome modulates aggressive behaviors in Drosophila. We found that germ-free males showed substantial decrease in inter-male aggression, which could be rescued by microbial re-colonization.

Drosulfakinin signaling in fruitless circuitry antagonizes P1 neurons to regulate sexual arousal in Drosophila.

Animals perform or terminate particular behaviors by integrating external cues and internal states through neural circuits. Identifying neural substrates and their molecular modulators promoting or inhibiting animal behaviors are key steps to understand how neural circuits control behaviors. Here, we identify the Cholecystokinin-like peptide Drosulfakinin (DSK) that functions at single-neuron resolution to suppress male sexual behavior in Drosophila.

Genetic and neuronal mechanisms governing the sex-specific interaction between sleep and sexual behaviors in Drosophila.

Animals execute one particular behavior among many others in a context-dependent manner, yet the mechanisms underlying such behavioral choice remain poorly understood. Here we studied how two fundamental behaviors, sex and sleep, interact at genetic and neuronal levels in Drosophila. We show that an increased need for sleep inhibits male sexual behavior by decreasing the activity of the male-specific P1 neurons that coexpress the sex determination genes fru and dsx, but does not affect female sexual behavior.

[Diversity of uncultured actinomycetes in saline-alkali soil from Jiuquan area of Hexi Corridor].

In order to more accurately understand community structure and diversity of actinomycetes in saline-alkali soil from Jiuquan area of Hexi Corridor, the community structure and diversity from three kinds of soil samples (primary, secondary saline alkali soil and farmland soil) were analyzed using uncultured methods. The results showed that the 16S rDNA clone library of actinomycetales from the primary saline-alkali soil belonged to 19 OTUs, Micrococcineae, Propionibacterineae, Corynebacterineae, Frankineae, Pseudonocardineae and unknown groups of Actinomycetales; the 16S r DNA clone library of actinomycetales from the secondary saline-alkali soil belonged to 14 OTUs, Micrococcineae, Propionibacterineae, Corynebacterineae, Frankineae, Pseudonocardineae and unknown groups of Actinomycetales; the 16S rDNA clone library of farmland soil belonged to 7 OTUs, Micrococcineae, Propionibacterineae, Corynebacterineae, Frankineae, Pseudonocardineae and unknown groups of Actinomycetales; Micrococcineae was the common population in the three soils, and also was the dominant population in primary saline alkali soil and farmland soil. The diversity index and rarefaction curves analysis showed that actinomycetes species richness was in order of primary saline-alkali soil > secondary saline-alkali soil > farmland soil.