Inflammatory Proteins Mediate the Effect of Gut Microbiota on Graves' Ophthalmopathy: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

Purpose: This study investigates the causal relationship between gut microbiota (GM) and Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) and explores the mediating role of circulating inflammatory proteins (IPs) in this association.

Methods: A two-step, two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed using GM data from MiBioGen (N = 18,340), GO data from the FinnGen Research Project (691 cases, 411,490 controls), and IP data from a genome-wide association study (N = 14,824). The primary MR analysis utilized the inverse variance-weighted approach, supplemented by MR Egger, weighted median, maximum likelihood, and MR robust adjusted profile score methods.

FaPEx® Multipesticide Residues Extraction Kit for Minimizing Sample Preparation Time in Agricultural Produce.

The quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe method, generally applied to the determination of pesticide residues in food, has been recently modified and adopted for the analysis of pesticide residues worldwide, including Taiwan. The method still needs to be improved, particularly in efficiency and normalization, because the time costs 20-30 min for extraction and cleanup of multiple pesticides in every food. In this study, we present a highly efficient and simple sample preparation method that was developed for the determination of 380 pesticide residues in food, including mangoes, scallions, bok choy, apples, carrots, and pea seedlings.

Modified QuEChERS method for 24 plant growth regulators in grapes using LC-MS/MS.

A multiresidue analytical method was developed for grapes for the following 24 plant growth regulators: 1-naphthylacetamide, 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid, 2,4,5-T, 2-naphthoxyacetic acid, 3-indolylacetic acid, 4-(3-indolyl)-butyric acid, 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, 4-nitrophenol, 6-benzylaminopurine, N6-isopentenyladenine, butralin, chlormequat chloride, chlorphonim-Cl, cloprop, forchlorfenuron, gibberellic acid 3, gibberellic acid 4, gibberellic acid 7, inabenfide, mepiquat chloride, paclobutrazol, prohydrojasmon, thidiazuron and uniconizole-P. The compounds were extracted from grape samples using an extraction method modified from the Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe (QuEChERS) method. Liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry was used for the detection and quantification of the compounds.

Influence of high temperature during grain filling on the accumulation of storage proteins and grain quality in rice (Oryza sativa L.).

The present study was performed to understand the effects of high temperature (HT) during filling on the expression of storage proteins and the quality of rice grains. HT (35/30 °C day/night) reduced the weight, amylose content, and flour gel consistency of grains. It increased the accumulation of all classes of storage proteins at early filling stage but decreased the accumulation of prolamins at maturation.

Agrobacterium-produced and exogenous cytokinin-modulated Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a plant pathogenic bacterium that causes neoplastic growths, called 'crown gall', via the transfer and integration of transferred DNA (T-DNA) from the bacterium into the plant genome. We characterized an acetosyringone (AS)-induced tumour-inducing (Ti) plasmid gene, tzs (trans-zeatin synthesizing), that is responsible for the synthesis of the plant hormone cytokinin in nopaline-type A. tumefaciens strains.

Proteomic analysis of the expression of proteins related to rice quality during caryopsis development and the effect of high temperature on expression.

Proteins are essential to rice caryopsis development and quality formation. High temperature is an important environmental factor, which may decrease grain quality. In the present study rice caryopsis proteins were profiled by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and differentially expressed proteins were analyzed by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.