Transgenic tomato plants overexpressing a vacuolar Na+/H+ antiport were able to grow, flower, and produce fruit in the presence of 200 mM sodium chloride. Although the leaves accumulated high sodium concentrations, the tomato fruit displayed very low sodium content. Contrary to the notion that multiple traits introduced by breeding into crop plants are needed to obtain salt-tolerant plants, the modification of a single trait significantly improved the salinity tolerance of this crop plant. These results demonstrate that with a combination of breeding and transgenic plants it could be possible to produce salt-tolerant crops with far fewer target traits than had been anticipated. The accumulation of sodium in the leaves and not in the fruit demonstrates the utility of such a modification in preserving the quality of the fruit.

The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), poses a grave threat to global public health and imposes a severe burden on the entire human society. Like other coronaviruses, the SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes spike (S) glycoproteins, which protrude from the surface of mature virions. The S glycoprotein plays essential roles in virus attachment, fusion and entry into the host cell. Surface location of the S glycoprotein renders it a direct target for host immune responses, making it the main target of neutralizing antibodies. In the light of its crucial roles in viral infection and adaptive immunity, the S protein is the focus of most vaccine strategies as well as therapeutic interventions. In this review, we highlight and describe the recent progress that has been made in the biosynthesis, structure, function, and antigenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein, aiming to provide valuable insights into the design and development of the S protein-based vaccines as well as therapeutics.

PurposeTo analyze Chinese consumers in purchasing pirated software; to establish and empirically validate a model for analyzing consumers in software piracy; and to help software companies understand the software piracy issue in China and design anti‐piracy strategies.Design/methodology/approachA research model was established by extending a model used by Ang et al. in studying Singaporeans' purchasing pirated CD. A survey was conducted. Hypotheses were tested through stepwise regressions. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out to analyze Chinese consumers' attitude toward software piracy.FindingsFour personal and social factors were found important in influencing Chinese consumers' attitude toward software piracy, including value consciousness, normality susceptibility, novelty seeking, and collectivism. Five attitude measures, which were important in influencing consumer purchase intention, were identified as reliability of pirated software, recognized social benefits of piracy, functionality of pirated software, risks of purchasing, and perceived legality of purchasing. An exploratory study identified three attitude attributes.Research limitations/implicationsAs student samples were used, caution needs to be exercised when generalizing findings from this study. Regressions were used to test construct relationships in the model, and the model was not tested as a whole.Practical implicationsThis research provides an in‐depth understanding on Chinese consumers, and the research findings are useful in designing anti‐piracy strategies in China.Originality/valueThis research is one of the first to examine the Chinese market, which is a focus of piracy problems for the software industries. This research contributes to theory development in developing and testing a model and important constructs, and to industrial practice in providing understanding on Chinese consumers to help design anti‐piracy strategies.

During microsporogenesis, the microsporocyte (or microspore) plasma membrane plays multiple roles in pollen wall development, including callose secretion, primexine deposition, and exine pattern determination. However, plasma membrane proteins that participate in these processes are still not well known. Here, we report that a new gene, RUPTURED POLLEN GRAIN1 (RPG1), encodes a plasma membrane protein and is required for exine pattern formation of microspores in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). The rpg1 mutant exhibits severely reduced male fertility with an otherwise normal phenotype, which is largely due to the postmeiotic abortion of microspores. Scanning electron microscopy examination showed that exine pattern formation in the mutant is impaired, as sporopollenin is randomly deposited on the pollen surface. Transmission electron microscopy examination further revealed that the primexine formation of mutant microspores is aberrant at the tetrad stage, which leads to defective sporopollenin deposition on microspores and the locule wall. In addition, microspore rupture and cytoplasmic leakage were evident in the rpg1 mutant, which indicates impaired cell integrity of the mutant microspores. RPG1 encodes an MtN3/saliva family protein that is integral to the plasma membrane. In situ hybridization analysis revealed that RPG1 is strongly expressed in microsporocyte (or microspores) and tapetum during male meiosis. The possible role of RPG1 in microsporogenesis is discussed.

Driven by increasingly stringent restrictions on long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), novel fluorinated compounds have emerged on the market. Here we report on the occurrences of several perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic and sulfonic acids (PFECAs and PFESAs), including hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer and trimer acids (HFPO-DA and HFPO-TA), ammonium 4,8-dioxa-3 H-perfluorononanoate (ADONA), chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonic acid (6:2 Cl-PFESA), and its hydrogen-substituted analogue (6:2 H-PFESA) in surface waters from China ( n = 106), the United States ( n = 12), the United Kingdom ( n = 6), Sweden ( n = 10), Germany ( n = 14), The Netherlands ( n = 6), and Korea ( n = 6). Results showed that HFPO-DA, HFPO-TA, and 6:2 Cl-PFESA (median = 0.95, 0.21, and 0.31 ng/L, respectively) were frequently detected in all countries, indicating ubiquitous dispersal and distribution in global surface waters. The presence of 6:2 H-PFESA was widely detected in China (detection rate > 95%) but not in any other country. Only trace levels of ADONA (0.013-1.5 ng/L) were detected in the Rhine River flowing through Germany. The estimated total riverine mass discharges of HFPO-DA, HFPO-TA, and ΣPFESAs reached 2.6, 6.0, and 4.3 ton/year in five of the major river systems in China. Our results indicated that novel PFECAs and PFESAs might become global contaminants, and future investigations are warranted.

Transgenic Brassica napus plants overexpressing AtNHX1, a vacuolar Na ؉ ͞H ؉ antiport from Arabidopsis thaliana, were able to grow, flower, and produce seeds in the presence of 200 mM sodium chloride. Although the transgenic plants grown in high salinity accumulated sodium up to 6% of their dry weight, growth of the these plants was only marginally affected by the high salt concentration. Moreover, seed yields and the seed oil quality were not affected by the high salinity of the soil. Our results demonstrate the potential use of these transgenic plants for agricultural use in saline soils. Our findings, showing that the modification of a single trait significantly improved the salinity tolerance of this crop plant, suggest that with a combination of breeding and transgenic plants it could be possible to produce salt-tolerant crops with far fewer target traits than had been anticipated.A gricultural productivity is severely affected by soil salinity, and the damaging effects of salt accumulation in agricultural soils have influenced ancient and modern civilizations. The detrimental effects of salt on plants are a consequence of both a water deficit that results from the relatively high solute concentrations in the soil and a Na ϩ -specific stress resulting from altered K ϩ ͞Na ϩ ratios and Na ϩ ion concentrations that are inimical to plants. The alteration of ion ratios in the plant is caused by the influx of Na ϩ through pathways that function in the acquisition of K ϩ (1).Wild plants that tolerate salt and grow in saline environments have high intracellular salt levels. A major component of the osmotic adjustment in these cells is accomplished by ion uptake. The utilization of inorganic ions for osmotic adjustment would suggest that salt-tolerant plants must be able to tolerate high levels of salts within their cells. However, enzymes extracted from these plants show high sensitivity to salt (2, 3), suggesting that these plants are able to keep Na ϩ away from the cytosol. Plants can use three strategies for the maintenance of a low Na ϩ concentration: sodium exclusion, sodium compartmentation, and sodium secretion. Sodium transport out of the cell can be accomplished by the operation of plasma membrane-bound Na ϩ ͞H ϩ antiports. Biochemical evidence for the operation of plasma membrane Na ϩ ͞H ϩ antiports (4) and the characterization of SOS1, a putative plasma membrane Na ϩ ͞H ϩ antiport from Arabidopsis thaliana (5), have been reported. Transport mechanisms can also actively move ions across the tonoplast into the vacuole, removing the potentially harmful ions from the cytosol. These ions, in turn, act as an osmoticum within the vacuole, which then maintain water flow into the cell (3). The presence of large, acidic-inside, tonoplast-bound vacuoles in plant cells allows the efficient compartmentation of sodium into the vacuole, through the operation of vacuolar Na ϩ ͞H ϩ antiports (6, 7).The overexpression of AtNHX1, a vacuolar Na ϩ ͞H ϩ antiport from A. thaliana, in Arabidopsis (7) and tomato (8) plants allo...

Here, we report on the occurrence of a novel perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acid, ammonium perfluoro-2-[(propoxy)propoxy]-1-propanoate (HFPO-TA), in surface water and common carp (Cyprinus carpio) collected from the Xiaoqing River and in residents residing near a fluoropolymer production plant in Huantai County, China. Compared with the levels upstream of the Xiaoqing River, HFPO-TA concentrations (5200-68500 ng/L) were approximately 120-1600-times higher downstream after receiving fluoropolymer plant effluent from a tributary. The riverine discharge of HFPO-TA was estimated to be 4.6 t/yr, accounting for 22% of total PFAS discharge. In the wild common carp collected downstream from the point source, HFPO-TA was detected in the blood (median: 1510 ng/mL), liver (587 ng/g ww), and muscle (118 ng/g ww). The log BCF of HFPO-TA (2.18) was significantly higher than that of PFOA (1.93). Detectable levels of HFPO-TA were also found in the sera of residents (median: 2.93 ng/mL). This is the first report on the environmental occurrence and bioaccumulation of this novel chemical. Our results indicate an emerging usage of HFPO-TA in the fluoropolymer manufacturing industry and raise concerns about the toxicity and potential health risks of HFPO-TA to aquatic organisms and humans.

Plant responses to developmental and environmental cues are often mediated by calcium (Ca 2+ ) signals that are transmitted by diverse calcium sensors. The calcineurin B-like (CBL) protein family represents calcium sensors that decode calcium signals through specific interactions with a group of CBL-interacting protein kinases. We report functional analysis of Arabidopsis CBL2 and CBL3, two closely related CBL members that are localized to the vacuolar membrane through the N-terminal tonoplast-targeting sequence. While cbl2 or cbl3 single mutant did not show any phenotypic difference from the wild type, the cbl2 cbl3 double mutant was stunted with leaf tip necrosis, underdeveloped roots, shorter siliques and fewer seeds. These defects were reminiscent of those in the vha-a2 vha-a3 double mutant deficient in vacuolar H + -ATPase (V-ATPase). Indeed, the V-ATPase activity was reduced in the cbl2 cbl3 double mutant, connecting tonoplast CBL-type calcium sensors to the regulation of V-ATPase. Furthermore, cbl2 cbl3 double mutant was compromised in ionic tolerance and micronutrient accumulation, consistent with the defect in V-ATPase activity that has been shown to function in ion compartmentalization. Our results suggest that calcium sensors CBL2 and CBL3 serve as molecular links between calcium signaling and V-ATPase, a central regulator of intracellular ion homeostasis.