Carbon and nitrogen are essential components for plant growth. Although models of plant carbon and nitrogen metabolisms have long been established, certain gaps remain unfilled, such as how plants are able to maintain a flexible nocturnal starch turnover capacity over various light cycles, or how nitrogen remobilization is achieved during the reproductive growth stage. Recent advances in plant autophagy have shed light on such questions. Not only does autophagy contribute to starch degradation at night, but it participates in the degradation of chloroplast proteins and even chloroplasts after prolonged carbon starvation, thus help maintain the free amino acid pool and provide substrate for respiration. The induction of autophagy under these conditions may involve transcriptional regulation. Large-scale transcriptome analyses revealed that ATG8e belongs to a core carbon signaling response shared by Arabidopsis accessions, and the transcription of Arabidopsis ATG7 is tightly co-regulated with genes functioning in chlorophyll degradation and leaf senescence. In the reproductive phase, autophagy is essential for bulk degradation of leaf proteins, thus contributes to nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) both under normal and low-nitrogen conditions.

BackgroundThe relationship between oxidative balance score (OBS) and diabetes remains poorly understood and may be gender-specific. We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the complex association between OBS and diabetes among US adults.MethodsOverall, 5,233 participants were included in this cross-sectional study. The exposure variable was OBS, composed of scores for 20 dietary and lifestyle factors. Multivariable logistic regression, subgroup analysis, and restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression were applied to examine the relationship between OBS and diabetes.ResultsCompared to the lowest OBS quartile group (Q1), the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval (CI) for the highest OBS quartile group (Q4) was 0.602 (0.372–0.974) (p for trend = 0.007), and for the highest lifestyle, the OBS quartile group was 0.386 (0.223–0.667) (p for trend < 0.001). Moreover, gender effects were found between OBS and diabetes (p for interaction = 0.044). RCS showed an inverted-U relationship between OBS and diabetes in women (p for non-linear = 6e−04) and a linear relationship between OBS and diabetes in men.ConclusionsIn summary, high OBS was negatively associated with diabetes risk in a gender-dependent manner.

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Melamine is an important chemical raw material used in industries, which has potential health risks to animals and humans. Current research mainly focuses on the toxic effects of high‐dose melamine ingestion. However, there are few reports on whether melamine at the current limited standard dose has adverse effects on various tissues and organs, and whether there are sensitive target genes for risk evaluation. For this, 24 female Kunming mice were fed 0, 1.8‐, 3.6‐, and 7.2‐ mg/kg/d melamine via drinking water for consecutive 28 days, respectively. The morphological changes of the ovarian, hepatic, and renal tissues were firstly observed. The results demonstrated that the histopathology of ovary, liver, and especially in kidney had been altered by melamine intake in female. And then, the transcriptional levels of MAPK signaling genes including p38, ERK1, ERK2, JNK1, and JNK2 in kidneys were investigated by real‐time PCR. The data showed that ERK1 and p38 mRNAs expressions were up‐regulated significantly by melamine, suggesting that ERK1 and p38 transcriptional levels in the kidney might to be considered as candidate targets for lower‐dose melamine toxicity. This study not only provides potential targets for the diagnosis and prevention of melamine damage, but also helps to assess the health risks of the current minimum allowable levels of melamine in food and environment.

Four-stranded G-quadruplex (G4) structures formed by guanine-rich nucleic acids play a role in many essential physiological processes. To date, studies have focused almost exclusively on monomeric intramolecular G4s with three or more G-tetrads. Based on the analysis of Okazaki fragment syntheses and G4 probing, we report here a massive genome-wide formation of a hybrid type of G4s (hG4s), composed of G-tracts from both DNA and RNA, in the genome of live yeast cells. We found that hG4s can form with as few as one G-tract in DNA, increasing the total number of G4 sites from 38 to 127841. Furthermore, we also effectively detected hG4s of two G-tetrads, bringing the total number of G4 sites to a final of 587694, an increase of >15,000-fold. We even found that hG4s dominate in DNAs capable of forming the canonical intramolecular DNA G4s by themselves. Taken together, our results reveal a previously unrecognized rule governing G4 formation in eukaryotic genomes that makes hG4s the overwhelmingly dominant G4 species. They are present in all genes, with greater structural diversity and a wider dynamic range. More importantly, the involvement of RNA gives hG4s the ability to function in a transcription-dependent manner. These new findings thus emphasize a complete renewal and expansion of our current perspective on the existence and functional role of G4s in eukaryotic cells.