An electrostatically self-assembled film based on tungstophosphoric acid (PTA) and a binuclear Ru(II) complex RuL was prepared and characterized by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. A linear increase in the UV-vis absorbance with the number of deposited layers indicated that the film deposition was uniform and reproducible. The cyclic voltammogram demonstrated that PTA and the binuclear Ru(II) complex assembled in the film were redox active with surface confined characteristics. The photoelectrochemical properties and mechanism of photocurrent generation have also been studied. A five-layer (PTA/RuL)5 film on the ITO was found to exhibit a large cathodic photocurrent density of 5.32 microA/cm2 while irradiated with polychromatic light (730 nm > lambda > 325 nm) at an applied potential of -0.3 V versus saturated calomel electrode. The photocurrent action spectrum was in agreement with metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) band of RuL in the absorption spectrum, which indicated that the photocurrent was generated based on MLCT excitation of the RuL in the film. It is noteworthy that the incident monochromatic photon-to-current conversion efficiency was calculated to be 1.1% at a wavelength of 450 nm.
Argonaute (AGO) proteins are essential catalytic components of the RNA-induced silencing complex and play central roles in RNA interference. Using a combination of bioinformatics and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) methods, putative AGO subfamily members, ls-AGO1 and ls-AGO2, were cloned and characterized from the small brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus. The open reading frame (ORF) of ls-AGO1 is 2,820 bp long, encoding a putative protein of 939 amino acid residues, and ls-AGO2 contains an ORF of 2,490 bp, encoding 829 amino acid residues. The expected conserved PAZ and PIWI domains, and the conserved Asp-Asp-His (DDH) catalytic triad motif in the PIWI domain were observed in both ls-AGO1 and ls-AGO2. Reverse transcription-qPCR (RT-qPCR) results showed that both ls-AGO1 and ls-AGO2 were expressed in all developmental stages of L. striatellus with highest mRNA abundance in eggs. Expression of ls-AGO1 and ls-AGO2 was significantly decreased in adult insects in response to acquisition of rice black-streaked dwarf virus by second instar nymphs. mRNA expression of ls-AGO1 was significantly downregulated in response to low and high temperatures, but expression of ls-AGO2 was only affected by low temperature. ls-AGO1 and ls-AGO2 were initially downregulated when insects were transferred from rice to maize and to the wild grass Brachypodium distachyon, but expression showed partial or complete recovery 7 days after transfer. These results document that AGO subfamily members of L. striatellus are ubiquitously expressed at different developmental stages and respond to various stresses. Thus, AGO subfamily may act in regulating the stress-response of L. striatellus by controlling related gene expression.
A monolayer of a ferrocenyl hemicyanine was covalently self-assembled on an indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrate, and was characterized by UV/Vis absorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. The photoelectrochemical properties and mechanism of photocurrent generation have also been studied. This monolayer film was found to exhibit a large anodic photocurrent density of 0.13 microA/cm2 with the highest photoelectric yield of 3.32% under irradiation of white light (730 nm > lambda > 325 nm) at a bias potential of +0.4 V versus saturated calomel electrode.
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