Genetic Mechanisms and Adaptive Benefits of Anthocyanin Red Stigmas in a Wind-Pollinated Tree.

Anthocyanin accumulation in leaves or flowers mitigates photooxidation damage from reactive oxygen species (ROS) and functions in plant/animal interactions. Among the most conspicuously anthocyanin-accumulating tissues are stigmas, especially in wind-pollinated trees. In the walnut genus (Juglans), yellow stigmas are ancestral, but a few species have dark red stigmas.

Host insect specificity and interspecific competition drive parasitoid diversification in a plant-insect community.

Ecological interactions among plants, insect herbivores, and parasitoids are pervasive in nature and play important roles in community assembling, but the codiversification of tri-trophic interactions has received less attention. Here we compare pairwise codiversification patterns between a set of 22 fig species, their herbivorous pollinating and galling wasps, and their parasitoids. The parasitoid phylogeny showed significant congruence and more cospeciation events with host insects phylogeny than with host plants.

Short video users' personality traits and social sharing motivation.

Purpose/significance: Studying the correlation between short video users' personality traits and their sharing motivation can enrich the theoretical research on social sharing motivation and provide a reference for short-video content management and platform construction.

Methods/process: Based on uses and gratifications theory and personality traits theory, a structural model affecting short-video users' sharing motivations was proposed. A total of 579 valid questionnaires were collected from a social network, and the proposed hypotheses were tested using SPSS and Amos software.

ploidyfrost: Reference-free estimation of ploidy level from whole genome sequencing data based on de Bruijn graphs.

Polyploidy is ubiquitous and its consequences are complex and variable. A change of ploidy level generally influences genetic diversity and results in morphological, physiological and ecological differences between cells or organisms with different ploidy levels. To avoid cumbersome experiments and take advantage of the less biased information provided by the vast amounts of genome sequencing data, computational tools for ploidy estimation are urgently needed.

Impact of Ghost Introgression on Coalescent-Based Species Tree Inference and Estimation of Divergence Time.

The species studied in any evolutionary investigation generally constitute a small proportion of all the species currently existing or that have gone extinct. It is therefore likely that introgression, which is widespread across the tree of life, involves "ghosts," that is, unsampled, unknown, or extinct lineages. However, the impact of ghost introgression on estimations of species trees has rarely been studied and is poorly understood.

Habitat effects on reproductive phenotype, pollinator behavior, fecundity, and mating outcomes of a bumble bee-pollinated herb.

Premise: Fecundity and mating outcomes commonly differ among plant populations occupying contrasting environments. If self-pollination occurs primarily among flowers within plants, contrasting reproductive outcomes among populations must reflect environmental effects on plant-pollinator interactions. Specifically, local conditions could affect features of plant phenotypes that influence pollinator behavior, in turn modifying plant reproductive outcomes.

The rediscovery of (Juglandaceae) after 63 years reveals a new record from China.

Despite having been first published in 1941, (A.Chev.) J.

Dead-End Hybridization in Walnut Trees Revealed by Large-Scale Genomic Sequence Data.

Although hybridization plays a large role in speciation, some unknown fraction of hybrid individuals never reproduces, instead remaining as genetic dead-ends. We investigated a morphologically distinct and culturally important Chinese walnut, Juglans hopeiensis, suspected to have arisen from hybridization of Persian walnut (J. regia) with Asian butternuts (J.

Different rates of pollen and seed gene flow cause branch-length and geographic cytonuclear discordance within Asian butternuts.

Topological cytonuclear discordance is commonly observed in plant phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies, yet few studies have attempted to detect two other forms of cytonuclear discordance (branch length and geographical) and to uncover the causes of the discordance. We used the whole nuclear and chloroplast genome data from 80 individual Asian butternuts to reveal the pattern and processes of cytonuclear discordance. Our findings indicate that the chloroplast genome had substantially deeper divergence (branch-length discordance) and a steeper cline in the contact zone (geographic discordance) compared with the nuclear genome.

Mechanisms of cancer stem cell senescence: Current understanding and future perspectives.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a small population of heterogeneous tumor cells with the capacity of self-renewal and aberrant differentiation for immortality and divergent lineages of cancer cells. In contrast to bulky tumor cells, CSCs remain less differentiated and resistant to therapy even when targeted with tissue-specific antigenic markers. This makes CSCs responsible for not only tumor initiation, development, but also tumor recurrence.

Recent demographic histories of temperate deciduous trees inferred from microsatellite markers.

Background: Accurate inference of demographic histories for temperate tree species can aid our understanding of current climate change as a driver of evolution. Microsatellites are more suitable for inferring recent historical events due to their high mutation rates. However, most programs analyzing microsatellite data assume a strict stepwise mutation model (SMM), which could cause false detection of population shrinkage when microsatellite mutation does not follow SMM.

Reducing metal/graphene contact resistance via N, N-dimethylacetamide-assisted clean fabrication process.

Contact resistance () is of great importance for radio frequency (RF) applications of graphene, especially graphene field effect transistors (FETs) with short channel. FETs and transmission line model test structures based on chemical vapor deposition grown graphene are fabricated. The effects of employing traditional lithography solvent (Acetone) and strong solvents for photo resist, such as N, N-Dimethylacetamide (ZDMAC) and N-Methyl pyrrolidone (NMP), are systematically investigated.

19-(Benzyloxy)-19-oxojolkinolide B (19-BJB), an ent-abietane diterpene diepoxide, inhibits the growth of bladder cancer T24 cells through DNA damage.

Diterpenoids jolkinolide A and B, were first isolated from Euphorbia fischeriana. In our previous research, 19-(Benzyloxy)-19-oxojolkinolide B (19-BJB), a derivative of jolkinolides, was synthesized as a novel ent -abietane diterpene diepoxide. In this study, 19-BJB showed strong in vitro activity against bladder cancer cell lines.

Stable p-type chemical doping of graphene with reduced contact resistance by single-layer perfluorinated polymeric sulfonic acid.

Recently, graphene has led to unprecedented progress in device performance at the atom limit. A high performance of field-effect transistors requires a low graphene-metal contact resistance. However, the chemical doping methods used to tailor or improve the properties of graphene are sensitive to ambient conditions.