Salicylic acid-mediated competitive regulation of xylem vessel formation and defense responses in Arabidopsis thaliana.

In vascular plants, xylem vessels transport water and contribute to structural integrity. As part of vessel formation, xylem cells deposit secondary cell walls (SCWs), which are composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin polymers. Under environmental challenges such as pathogen attack, a growth-defense trade-off limits xylem vessel development.

Machine learning-assisted design of the molecular structure of -phenylenediamine antioxidants.

This study employed machine learning to predict the solubility parameter () and bond dissociation energy (BDE) of antioxidant molecules, focusing on -phenylenediamine derivatives with varying carbon chain lengths, side group positions, and functional groups (-CH, -OH, and -NH). The multilayer perceptron (MLP) model, enhanced by data augmentation and genetic algorithms, was developed to correlate the "molecular structure-descriptor-target parameter" relationship. The model achieved high prediction accuracy (coefficient of determination >0.

Nicotiana benthamiana VASCULAR-RELATED NAC-DOMAIN7-2 (NbVND7-2) has a role in xylem formation during interfamily grafting.

VASCULAR-RELATED NAC-DOMAIN7 (VND7) is a transcription factor gene that plays a critical role in xylem differentiation. The ectopic expression of VND7 induces the formation of secondary cell walls with spiral patterns in multiple plant cell types. In the present study, we identified four homologs of VND7 in Nicotiana benthamiana and assigned them the names NbVND7-1 to NbVND7-4.

genes facilitate tracheary element formation in interfamily grafting.

Grafting is a plant propagation technique widely used in agriculture. A recent discovery of the capability of interfamily grafting in has expanded the potential combinations of grafting. In this study, we showed that xylem connection is essential for the achievement of interfamily grafting and investigated the molecular basis of xylem formation at the graft junction.

Interfamily grafting capacity of petunia.

In grafting, an agricultural technique for propagating flower species and fruit trees, two plants are combined to exploit their beneficial characteristics, such as rootstock disease tolerance and vigor. Grafting incompatibility has been observed, however, between distantly related plant combinations, which limits the availability of plant resources. A high grafting capacity has been found in Nicotiana, belonging to Solanaceae, but not in Ipomoea nil, a Convolvulaceae species.

Ethylcellulose-based drug nano depots fabricated using a modified triaxial electrospinning.

New strategies based on advanced technologies are highly desired for expanding the applications of biological macromolecules in the applied scientific fields. In the present study, a new kind of core-shell nano depots were designed, in which the shell section was a drug-polymer composite and the core section was a drug reservoir. With ethyl cellulose and ketoprofen as a filament-forming polymeric matrix and a model drug, respectively, a triaxial electrospinning apparatus was developed to conduct both coaxial and triaxial processes, by which monolithic nanofibers F1 and core-shell nano depots F2 were successfully prepared.