Identification of Auxin-Associated Genes in Wheat Through Comparative Transcriptome Analysis and Validation of the Candidate Receptor-like Kinase Gene in Arabidopsis.

Auxin (IAA), a key natural signaling molecule, plays a pivotal role in regulating plant growth, development, and stress responses. Understanding its signal transduction mechanisms is crucial for improving crop yields. In this study, we conducted a comparative transcriptome analysis of wheat leaf and root tissues treated with different concentrations of IAA (0, 1, and 50 μM).

Systematic identification of heat-responsive VQ genes and functional characterization of the TaVQ27-5A-TaWRKY51L-3A module in thermotolerance regulation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Valine-glutamine (VQ) proteins are plant-specific transcriptional cofactors that play crucial roles in plant growth, development, and stress responses. Heat stress (HS), one of the most detrimental abiotic stresses, severely impairs wheat growth, development, quality, and yield. Despite their importance in other plants, the role of VQ proteins in wheat's response to HS remains unexplored.

Neighboring State-Aware Policy for Deep Reinforcement Learning.

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) methods, which train a policy to obtain the sequence of actions required to complete a task, have achieved remarkable success across diverse applications. It is a long-standing open issue in the DRL community to make the trained policy gradually approach the theoretically globally optimal policy, and existing research has also explored several challenges, such as exploration-exploitation, to improve the quality of the obtained policy. However, most DRL methods rely solely on the current state for decision-making, leading to short-sightedness and suboptimal learning.

Magnesium-Free Assembly of Cationic Peptide/DNA Nanostructures with Defined Geometries for Anticancer Drug Delivery.

DNA nanostructures are extensively utilized in synthetic biology, biosensing, bioimaging, and therapeutic delivery because of their programmability and biocompatibility. Although DNA nanostructure-based drug delivery systems have shown significant potential, the clinical application of nucleic acid drugs has been hindered by their biological instability and low delivery efficiency. This study proposes utilizing a cationic targeting peptide by combining a cell-penetrating peptide (TAT) with a cancer cell-targeting peptide (RGD) instead of conventional magnesium ions to facilitate the self-assembly of defined DNA nanostructures.

A Two-Stage Selective Experience Replay for Double-Actor Deep Reinforcement Learning.

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has been widely applied to various applications, but improving the exploration and the accuracy of Q-value estimation remain key challenges. Recently, the double-actor architecture has emerged as a promising DRL framework that can enhance both exploration and Q-value estimation. Existing double-actor DRL methods sample from the replay buffer to update the two actors; however, the samples used to update each actor are generated by its previous versions and the other actor, resulting in a different data distribution compared with the current actor being updated, which can negatively impact the actor's update and lead to suboptimal policies.

The drought-responsive wheat AP2/ERF transcription factor TaRAP2-13L and its interacting protein TaWRKY10 enhance drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

AP2/ERF transcription factors (TFs) are one of the largest TF families involved in plant growth, development, and stress responses. Drought, a major abiotic stress, severely impacts wheat yield and quality. In this study, we identified a wheat AP2/ERF gene, TaRAP2-13L, which was significantly upregulated in response to drought stress.

Spatial genomics of AAV vectors reveals mechanism of transcriptional crosstalk that enables targeted delivery of large genetic cargo.

Cell-type-specific regulatory elements such as enhancers can direct expression of recombinant adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) to specific cell types, but this approach is limited by the relatively small packaging capacity of AAVs. In this study, we used spatial genomics to show that transcriptional crosstalk between individual AAV genomes provides a general method for cell-type-specific expression of large cargo by separating distally acting regulatory elements into a second AAV genome. We identified and profiled transcriptional crosstalk in AAV genomes carrying 11 different enhancers active in mouse brain.

A "turn-on" intracellular pH probe for the quantitative monitoring of lysosomal alkalization in living cells.

A slight elevation in lysosomal pH can lead to indigestion or nonspecific hydrolysis, thereby increasing the risk of various neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. Therefore, accurate monitoring of lysosomal pH changes in living cells is essential for the diagnosis and treatment of such diseases, despite the significant challenges involved. In this study, we synthesized a pH-dependent fluorescent probe, B26, which comprises 1,8-naphthalimide as the fluorescent chromophore, an N-(2-hydroxyethyl) piperazine group for lysosome targeting, and a hydroxyethyl group to increase solubility and regulate pKa.

A Novel Topology Adaptation Strategy for Dynamic Sparse Training in Deep Reinforcement Learning.

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has been widely adopted in various applications, yet it faces practical limitations due to high storage and computational demands. Dynamic sparse training (DST) has recently emerged as a prominent approach to reduce these demands during training and inference phases, but existing DST methods achieve high sparsity levels by sacrificing policy performance as they rely on the absolute magnitude of connections for pruning and randomly generating connections. Addressing this, our study presents a generic method that can be seamlessly integrated into existing DST methods in DRL to enhance their policy performance while preserving their sparsity levels.

Gradient-concentration RuCo electrocatalyst for efficient and stable electroreduction of nitrate into ammonia.

Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia holds great promise for developing green technologies for electrochemical ammonia energy conversion and storage. Considering that real nitrate resources often exhibit low concentrations, it is challenging to achieve high activity in low-concentration nitrate solutions due to the competing reaction of the hydrogen evolution reaction, let alone considering the catalyst lifetime. Herein, we present a high nitrate reduction performance electrocatalyst based on a Co nanosheet structure with a gradient dispersion of Ru, which yields a high NH Faraday efficiency of over 93% at an industrially relevant NH current density of 1.

The addition of Psathyrostachys Huashanica Keng 6Ns large segment chromosomes has positive impact on stripe rust resistance and plant spikelet number of common wheat.

Background: Developing novel germplasm by using wheat wild related species is an effective way to rebuild the wheat resource bank. The Psathyrostachys huashanica Keng (P. huashanica, 2n = 2x = 14, NsNs) is regarded as a superior species to improve wheat breeding because of its multi-resistance, early maturation and numerous tiller traits.

Policy Correction and State-Conditioned Action Evaluation for Few-Shot Lifelong Deep Reinforcement Learning.

Lifelong deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approaches are commonly employed to adapt continuously to new tasks without forgetting previously acquired knowledge. While current lifelong DRL methods have shown promising advancements in retaining acquired knowledge, they suffer from significant adaptation efforts (i.e.

NRT1.1B mediates rice plant growth and soil microbial diversity under different nitrogen conditions.

Interactions between microorganisms and plants can stimulate plant growth and promote nitrogen cycling. Nitrogen fertilizers are routinely used in agriculture to improve crop growth and yield; however, poor use efficiency impairs the optimal utilization of such fertilizers. Differences in the microbial diversity and plant growth of rice soil under different nitrogen application conditions and the expression of nitrogen-use efficiency-related genes have not been previously investigated.

TaVQ22 Interacts with TaWRKY19-2B to Negatively Regulate Wheat Resistance to Sheath Blight.

Wheat sheath blight caused by the necrotic fungal pathogen is responsible for severe damage to bread wheat. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are vital for stress resistance by plants and their homeostasis plays an important role in wheat resistance to sheath blight. Valine-glutamine (VQ) proteins play important roles in plant growth and development, and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Effects of different phosphorus fertilizers on cadmium absorption and accumulation in rice under low-phosphorus and rich-cadmium soil.

Rice is the main food crops with the higher capacity for cadmium (Cd) uptake, necessitating the urgent need for remediation measures to address Cd in paddy soil. Reasonable agronomic methods are convenient and favorable for fixing the issue. In this study, a pot experiment was employed to evaluate the effects of two foliar (NaHPO, SDP; KHPO, PDP) and two solid phosphate fertilizers (double-superphosphate, DSP; calcium-magnesium phosphate, CMP) on uptake and remobilization of Cd in rice plants under the low-P and rich-Cd soil.

Risk factors for death caused by early onset sepsis in neonates: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To evaluate the association between traditional laboratory findings and death, and to find risk factors for death in infants with early onset sepsis (EOS).

Study Design: This was a single-center, case-control, retrospective trial conducted between January 2020 and August 2021. Infants with EOS were enrolled and divided into two groups based on outcome before hospital discharge: non-survivors (Mortality group) and survivors (Survival group).

Adeno-associated viral vectors for functional intravenous gene transfer throughout the non-human primate brain.

Crossing the blood-brain barrier in primates is a major obstacle for gene delivery to the brain. Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) promise robust, non-invasive gene delivery from the bloodstream to the brain. However, unlike in rodents, few neurotropic AAVs efficiently cross the blood-brain barrier in non-human primates.

Functional gene delivery to and across brain vasculature of systemic AAVs with endothelial-specific tropism in rodents and broad tropism in primates.

Delivering genes to and across the brain vasculature efficiently and specifically across species remains a critical challenge for addressing neurological diseases. We have evolved adeno-associated virus (AAV9) capsids into vectors that transduce brain endothelial cells specifically and efficiently following systemic administration in wild-type mice with diverse genetic backgrounds, and in rats. These AAVs also exhibit superior transduction of the CNS across non-human primates (marmosets and rhesus macaques), and in ex vivo human brain slices, although the endothelial tropism is not conserved across species.