The tumor suppressor p53 is central to many cellular stress responses. Although numerous protein factors that control p53 have been identified, the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in regulating p53 remains unexplored. In a screen for miRNAs that modulate p53 activity, we find that miR-29 family members (miR-29a, miR-29b and miR-29c) upregulate p53 levels and induce apoptosis in a p53-dependent manner. We further find that miR-29 family members directly suppress p85 alpha (the regulatory subunit of PI3 kinase) and CDC42 (a Rho family GTPase), both of which negatively regulate p53. Our findings provide new insights into the role of miRNAs in the p53 pathway.

How body size is determined is a long-standing question in biology, yet its regulatory mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we find that a conserved microRNA miR-8 and its target, USH, regulate body size in Drosophila. miR-8 null flies are smaller in size and defective in insulin signaling in fat body that is the fly counterpart of liver and adipose tissue. Fat body-specific expression and clonal analyses reveal that miR-8 activates PI3K, thereby promoting fat cell growth cell-autonomously and enhancing organismal growth non-cell-autonomously. Comparative analyses identify USH and its human homolog, FOG2, as the targets of fly miR-8 and human miR-200, respectively. USH/FOG2 inhibits PI3K activity, suppressing cell growth in both flies and humans. FOG2 directly binds to p85alpha, the regulatory subunit of PI3K, and interferes with the formation of a PI3K complex. Our study identifies two novel regulators of insulin signaling, miR-8/miR-200 and USH/FOG2, and suggests their roles in adolescent growth, aging, and cancer.

The shift from terrestrial to aquatic life by whales was a substantial evolutionary event. Here we report the whole-genome sequencing and de novo assembly of the minke whale genome, as well as the whole-genome sequences of three minke whales, a fin whale, a bottlenose dolphin and a finless porpoise. Our comparative genomic analysis identified an expansion in the whale lineage of gene families associated with stress-responsive proteins and anaerobic metabolism, whereas gene families related to body hair and sensory receptors were contracted. Our analysis also identified whale-specific mutations in genes encoding antioxidants and enzymes controlling blood pressure and salt concentration. Overall the whale-genome sequences exhibited distinct features that are associated with the physiological and morphological changes needed for life in an aquatic environment, marked by resistance to physiological stresses caused by a lack of oxygen, increased amounts of reactive oxygen species and high salt levels.

Improving membrane durability associated with fouling and chlorine resistance remains one of the major challenges in desalination membrane technology. Here, we demonstrate that attractive features of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets such as high hydrophilicity, chemical robustness, and ultrafast water permeation can be harnessed for a dual-action barrier coating layer that enhances resistance to both fouling and chlorine-induced degradation of polyamide (PA) thin-film composite (TFC) membranes while preserving their separation performance. GO multilayers were coated on the PA-TFC membrane surfaces via layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition of oppositely charged GO nanosheets. Consequently, it was shown that the conformal GO coating layer can increase the surface hydrophilicity and reduce the surface roughness, leading to the significantly improved antifouling performance against a protein foulant. It was also demonstrated that the chemically inert nature of GO nanosheets enables the GO coating layer to act as a chlorine barrier for the underlying PA membrane, resulting in a profound suppression of the membrane degradation in salt rejection upon chlorine exposure.

MicroRNA (miRNA) is an important small RNA which regulates diverse gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. miRNAs are considered as important biomarkers since abnormal expression of specific miRNAs is associated with many diseases including cancer and diabetes. Therefore, it is important to develop biosensors to quantitatively detect miRNA expression levels. Here, we develop a nanosized graphene oxide (NGO) based miRNA sensor, which allows quantitative monitoring of target miRNA expression levels in living cells. The strategy is based on tight binding of NGO with peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes, resulting in fluorescence quenching of the dye that is conjugated to the PNA, and subsequent recovery of the fluorescence upon addition of target miRNA. PNA as a probe for miRNA sensing offers many advantages including high sequence specificity, high loading capacity on the NGO surface compared to DNA and resistance against nuclease-mediated degradation. The present miRNA sensor allowed the detection of specific target miRNAs with the detection limit as low as ~1 pM and the simultaneous monitoring of three different miRNAs in a living cell.

Significance Inhibitors of BRAF protein kinase, such as Vemurafenib and Dabrafenib, have shown remarkable antitumor activity in patients with BRAF mutant melanoma. However, most of the patients developed drug resistance during the course of treatment, leading to resumed tumor growth. This drug resistance challenge underscores the need to improve on current BRAF-targeted therapy. In this study, we have shown that phenformin, a biguanide used for treating type 2 diabetes, enhances the antitumor activities of BRAF inhibitors in both cultured melanoma cells and a genetically engineered BRAF V600E -driven mouse model of melanoma. Our preclinical findings suggest that combining phenformin with a BRAF inhibitor may be a more effective treatment than a single-agent BRAF inhibitor for treating patients with melanoma whose tumor harbor BRAF mutations.

Although a common reaction in anaerobic environments, the conversion of formate and water to bicarbonate and H(2) (with a change in Gibbs free energy of ΔG° = +1.3 kJ mol(-1)) has not been considered energetic enough to support growth of microorganisms. Recently, experimental evidence for growth on formate was reported for syntrophic communities of Moorella sp. strain AMP and a hydrogen-consuming Methanothermobacter species and of Desulfovibrio sp. strain G11 and Methanobrevibacter arboriphilus strain AZ. The basis of the sustainable growth of the formate-users is explained by H(2) consumption by the methanogens, which lowers the H(2) partial pressure, thus making the pathway exergonic. However, it has not been shown that a single strain can grow on formate by catalysing its conversion to bicarbonate and H(2). Here we report that several hyperthermophilic archaea belonging to the Thermococcus genus are capable of formate-oxidizing, H(2)-producing growth. The actual ΔG values for the formate metabolism are calculated to range between -8 and -20 kJ mol(-1) under the physiological conditions where Thermococcus onnurineus strain NA1 are grown. Furthermore, we detected ATP synthesis in the presence of formate as a sole energy source. Gene expression profiling and disruption identified the gene cluster encoding formate hydrogen lyase, cation/proton antiporter and formate transporter, which were responsible for the growth of T. onnurineus NA1 on formate. This work shows formate-driven growth by a single microorganism with protons as the electron acceptor, and reports the biochemical basis of this ability.

V2O5 fuses with transition metals to create dozens of different metal vanadates, whose acidic/redox traits can be diverse yet optimized for selective catalytic NOX reduction (SCR) by changing the metals used or their metal:vanadium stoichiometry. However, no metal vanadate has been compared with its metal oxide composite analogue as an active phase for SCR, albeit a vanadate occasionally outperforms an oxide composite simulating a commercial catalyst (V2O5–WO3). Herein, Cu3V2O8 and CuO–VO2/V2O5 were rationally selected as model phases of metal vanadates and oxide composites and isolated using pH regulation of their synthetic mixture to ≤∼5 (pH1/pH5) and ∼11 (pH11), respectively. The pH1/pH5/pH11 samples were comparable with regard to morphological, textural, and compositional traits but not for crystallographic features. This thus provided the impetus to simulate the pH1/pH5/pH11 surfaces under a SO2-containing feed-gas stream, by which SOA 2–/HSOA – functionalities (A = 3–4) were anchored on their (defective) Lewis acidic metals and/or labile oxygens (Oα). This could result in the formation of pH1-S/pH5-S/pH11-S, whose major surface species were Brönsted acidic bonds (SOA 2–/HSOA –) and redox sites (Oα; mobile oxygen (OM); oxygen vacancy (OV)). pH1-S/pH5-S/pH11-S were similar in terms of NH3 binding energies and energy barriers in SCR yet escalated collision frequencies among the surface species involved in the sequence of pH11-S < pH5-S < pH1-S (via kinetic assessments), as was the case with the numbers of SOA 2–/HSOA – functionalities of the catalysts (via temperature-resolved Raman spectroscopy). These were coupled to elevate the efficiency of acidic cycling on the order of pH11-S < pH5-S < pH1-S. Meanwhile, the amounts of Oα and OV (or OM) innate to pH1-S/pH5-S were smaller than and comparable to those of pH11-S, respectively. Nonetheless, pH1-S/pH5-S provided greater OM mobility than pH11-S, thereby proceeding better with redox cycling than pH11-S (via 18O-labeling O2-on/off runs). Furthermore, pH1-S/pH5-S outperformed pH11-S in SCR under diffusion-limited domains, while enhancing the resistance to H2O, ammonium (bi)­sulfate poisons, or hydro-thermal aging over pH11-S by diversifying the selective N2 production pathway other than SCR.