| 1. |
- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(author)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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In: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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| 2. |
- Anderson, Cynthia M., et al.
(author)
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Permanent Genetic Resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 December 2009-31 January 2010
- 2010
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In: Molecular Ecology Resources. - : Wiley. - 1755-098X .- 1755-0998. ; 10:3, s. 576-579
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article documents the addition of 220 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Allanblackia floribunda, Amblyraja radiata, Bactrocera cucurbitae, Brachycaudus helichrysi, Calopogonium mucunoides, Dissodactylus primitivus, Elodea canadensis, Ephydatia fluviatilis, Galapaganus howdenae howdenae, Hoplostethus atlanticus, Ischnura elegans, Larimichthys polyactis, Opheodrys vernalis, Pelteobagrus fulvidraco, Phragmidium violaceum, Pistacia vera, and Thunnus thynnus. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Allanblackia gabonensis, Allanblackia stanerana, Neoceratitis cyanescens, Dacus ciliatus, Dacus demmerezi, Bactrocera zonata, Ceratitis capitata, Ceratitis rosa, Ceratits catoirii, Dacus punctatifrons, Ephydatia mulleri, Spongilla lacustris, Geodia cydonium, Axinella sp., Ischnura graellsii, Ischnura ramburii, Ischnura pumilio, Pistacia integerrima and Pistacia terebinthus.
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| 3. |
- Chen, Mei-Qin, et al.
(author)
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Arabidopsis NMD3 is required for nuclear export of 60S ribosomal subunits and affects secondary cell wall thickening
- 2012
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In: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:4, s. 35904-35904
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- NMD3 is required for nuclear export of the 60S ribosomal subunit in yeast and vertebrate cells, but no corresponding function of NMD3 has been reported in plants. Here we report that Arabidopsis thaliana NMD3 (AtNMD3) showed a similar function in the nuclear export of the 60S ribosomal subunit. Interference with AtNMD3 function by overexpressing a truncated dominant negative form of the protein lacking the nuclear export signal sequence caused retainment of the 60S ribosomal subunits in the nuclei. More interestingly, the transgenic Arabidopsis with dominant negative interference of AtNMD3 function showed a striking failure of secondary cell wall thickening, consistent with the altered expression of related genes and composition of cell wall components. Observation of a significant decrease of rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) in the differentiating interfascicular fiber cells of the transgenic plant stems suggested a link between the defective nuclear export of 60S ribosomal subunits and the abnormal formation of the secondary cell wall. These findings not only clarified the evolutionary conservation of NMD3 functions in the nuclear export of 60S ribosomal subunits in yeast, animals and plants, but also revealed a new facet of the regulatory mechanism underlying secondary cell wall thickening in Arabidopsis. This new facet is that the nuclear export of 60S ribosomal subunits and the formation of RER may play regulatory roles in coordinating protein synthesis in cytoplasm and transcription in nuclei.
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| 4. |
- Cong, Jiayan, et al.
(author)
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Nitro group as a new anchoring group for organic dyes in dye-sensitized solar cells
- 2012
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In: Chemical Communications. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1359-7345 .- 1364-548X. ; 48:53, s. 6663-6665
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An organic dye JY1 bearing a nitro group was designed, synthesized and applied in DSCs. An unusual colour change was observed when the voltage applied to the device was reversed which was accompanied by a five-fold increase in the cell efficiency. We propose that applying a bias enabled the attachment of nitro groups to the TiO2 surface.
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| 5. |
- Hu, Zhili, 1983, et al.
(author)
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Influence of substrate on electrical conductivity of isotropic conductive adhesive
- 2011
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In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Advanced Packaging Materials (APM), Xiamen, China, October 25-28, 2011. - 1550-5723. - 9781467301480 ; , s. 330 - 335
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Isotropic conductive adhesive (ICA) is widely used with different kinds of substrates in electronics packaging applications. Therefore it is necessary to understand the influence of electrical conductivity of ICA from substrate. In this work, we investigated the electrical resistivity of ICA on quartz, PCB and glass substrate. The experimental data showed that the in-plane electrical conductivity of ICA on PCB is almost twice that of the glass substrate, while the conductivity of ICA on quartz is also significantly greater than that of glass, under the same curing temperature and with the same bond line thickness (BLT) of ICA. This paper later concludes that thermal conductive adhesive (TCA) on substrate with higher thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) is likely to give better performance. Finally, Finite Element Modeling (FEM) and analysis shows that this phenomenon could be universal to ICA and TCA.
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| 6. |
- Hu, Zhili, 1983, et al.
(author)
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The effect of modulus on the performance of thermal conductive adhesives
- 2010
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In: Proceedings - 2010 11th International Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology and High Density Packaging, ICEPT-HDP 2010; Xi'an; 16 August 2010 through 19 August 2010. - 9781424481422 ; :Article number 5582884, s. 648-651
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- By analyzing the effect of modulus of epoxy and modulus of filler particles on the thermal conductivity of thermal conductive adhesives (TCA), this paper concludes, in contrast to intuition, that the stiffer epoxy will generate a larger contact area, and the "soft" epoxy with modulus of 0.5GPa will create the largest contact area, hence the highest thermal conductivity. Therefore, it is advisable to adopt softer epoxy in TCA. On the other hand, this paper finds that if the shrinkage of epoxy is low, i.e. 1% linear shrinkage, fillers composed of a mixture of Ag flakes and certain high stiffness material will cause a higher thermal conductivity, i.e. 7% larger than that of pure Ag fillers. This suggests that with low shrinkage epoxy, it is advisable to mix Ag flakes with high stiffness particles, e.g. Diamond or SiC. However, when linear shrinkage of epoxy is high, i.e. 3%, the highest thermal conductivity is achieved by using pure Ag fillers. Therefore, in such cases it is not advisable to use Bi-model. © 2010 IEEE.
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| 7. |
- Li, Lanfen, et al.
(author)
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Structural genomics studies of human caries pathogen Streptococcus mutans
- 2014
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In: Journal of Structural and Functional Genomics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1345-711X .- 1570-0267. ; 15:3, s. 9-91
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus mutans is the primary causative agent of human dental caries. To better understand this pathogen at the atomic structure level and to establish potential drug and vaccine targets, we have carried out structural genomics research since 2005. To achieve the goal, we have developed various in-house automation systems including novel high-throughput crystallization equipment and methods, based on which a large-scale, high-efficiency and low-cost platform has been establish in our laboratory. From a total of 1,963 annotated open reading frames, 1,391 non-membrane targets were selected prioritized by protein sequence similarities to unknown structures, and clustered by restriction sites to allow for cost-effective high-throughput conventional cloning. Selected proteins were over-expressed in different strains of Escherichia coli. Clones expressed soluble proteins were selected, expanded, and expressed proteins were purified and subjected to crystallization trials. Finally, protein crystals were subjected to X-ray analysis and structures were determined by crystallographic methods. Using the previously established procedures, we have so far obtained more than 200 kinds of protein crystals and 100 kinds of crystal structures involved in different biological pathways. In this paper we demonstrate and review a possibility of performing structural genomics studies at moderate laboratory scale. Furthermore, the techniques and methods developed in our study can be widely applied to conventional structural biology research practice.
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| 8. |
- Liu, J., et al.
(author)
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Solvent-free ionic liquid electrolytes without elemental iodine for dye-sensitized solar cells
- 2012
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In: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 14:33, s. 11592-11595
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A new type of electrolyte with a sulfide/polysulfide redox couple and I - was prepared as a solvent-free ionic liquid for application in dye-sensitized solar cells, reaching efficiencies of 5.2-6.4% under AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm -2 light illumination, and 6.6% efficiency was obtained under 0.1 sun irradiation.
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| 9. |
- Piao, Shilong, et al.
(author)
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Evidence for a weakening relationship between interannual temperature variability and northern vegetation activity.
- 2014
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a proxy of vegetation productivity, is known to be correlated with temperature in northern ecosystems. This relationship, however, may change over time following alternations in other environmental factors. Here we show that above 30°N, the strength of the relationship between the interannual variability of growing season NDVI and temperature (partial correlation coefficient RNDVI-GT) declined substantially between 1982 and 2011. This decrease in RNDVI-GT is mainly observed in temperate and arctic ecosystems, and is also partly reproduced by process-based ecosystem model results. In the temperate ecosystem, the decrease in RNDVI-GT coincides with an increase in drought. In the arctic ecosystem, it may be related to a nonlinear response of photosynthesis to temperature, increase of hot extreme days and shrub expansion over grass-dominated tundra. Our results caution the use of results from interannual time scales to constrain the decadal response of plants to ongoing warming.
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| 10. |
- Tian, Haining, et al.
(author)
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Effect of different electron donating groups on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells.
- 2010
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In: Dyes and pigments. - : Elsevier BV. - 0143-7208 .- 1873-3743. ; 84:1, s. 62-68
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A series of org. sensitizers contg. identical π-spacers and electron acceptors but different, arom. amine electron-donating groups, were used in dye-sensitized solar cells to study the effect of the electron donating groups on device performance. The derived photophys. and photovoltaic properties, as well as d. functional theory calcns., revealed that the tetrahydroquinoline dye was prone to aggregate upon the surface of titanium dioxide owing to the dye's planar structure. A 45% improvement in efficiency of a tetrahydroquinoline dye based cell was achieved when chenodeoxycholic acid was employed as co-adsorbent. However, the airscrew type of triphenylamine unit and Y type structure of the substituted phenothiazine framework suppressed dye aggregation on titanium dioxide. The efficiency of a phenothiazine dye-based cell fabricated using satd. co-adsorbent in dichloromethane was only 15% greater than that achieved in the absence of co-adsorbent. Electrochem. Impedance Spectroscopy was used to det. the interfacial charge transfer process occurring in solar cells that employed different dyes in both the absence and presence of chenodeoxycholic acid as co-adsorbent. [on SciFinder(R)]
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