The influence of nanomaterials on the ecological environment is becoming an increasingly hot research field, and many researchers are exploring the mechanisms of nanomaterial toxicity on microorganisms. Herein, we studied the effect of two different sizes of nanosilver (10 nm and 50 nm) on the soil nitrogen fixation by the model bacteria Azotobacter vinelandii. Smaller size AgNPs correlated with higher toxicity, which was evident from reduced cell numbers. Flow cytometry analysis further confirmed this finding, which was carried out with the same concentration of 10 mg/L for 12 h, the apoptotic rates were20.23% and 3.14% for 10 nm and 50 nm AgNPs, respectively. Structural damage to cells were obvious under scanning electron microscopy. Nitrogenase activity and gene expression assays revealed that AgNPs could inhibit the nitrogen fixation of A. vinelandii. The presence of AgNPs caused intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and electron spin resonance further demonstrated that AgNPs generated hydroxyl radicals, and that AgNPs could cause oxidative damage to bacteria. A combination of Ag content distribution assays and transmission electron microscopy indicated that AgNPs were internalized in A. vinelandii cells. Overall, this study suggested that the toxicity of AgNPs was size and concentration dependent, and the mechanism of antibacterial effects was determined to involve damage to cell membranes and production of reactive oxygen species leading to enzyme inactivation, gene down-regulation and death by apoptosis.

‘Huaxin’ is a new high-yielding timber cultivar of Camellia oleifera of high economic value, and has been widely cultivated in the red soil hilly region of Hunan Province of the People´s Republic of China in recent years. However, its quality and production are severely affected by low temperatures during flowering. To find genes related to cold tolerance and further explore new candidategenes for chilling-tolerance, Illumina NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) technology was used to perform transcriptomic analyses of C. oleifera ‘Huaxin’ leaves under long-term cold stress. Nine cDNA libraries were sequenced, and 58.31 Gb high-quality clean reads were obtained with an average of 5.92 Gb reads for each sample. A total of 191,150 transcripts were obtained after assembly. Among them, 100,703 unigenes were generated, and 44,610 unigenes were annotated. In total, 1564 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified both in the A_B and A_C gene sets. In the current study, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed, andrevealed a group of cold-responsive genes related to hormone regulation, photosynthesis, membrane systems, and osmoregulation; these genes encoded many key proteins in plant biological processes, such as serine/threonine-protein kinase (STPK), transcription factors (TFs), fatty acid desaturase (FAD), lipid-transfer proteins (LTPs), soluble sugars synthetases, and flavonoid biosynthetic enzymes. Some physiological indicators of C. oleifera ‘Huaxin’ were determined under three temperature conditions, and the results were consistent with the molecular sequencing. In addition, the expression levels of 12 DEGs were verified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). In summary, the results of DEGs analysis together with qRT-PCR tests contribute to the understanding of cold tolerance and further exploring new candidate genes for chilling-tolerance in molecular breeding programs of C. oleifera ‘Huaxin’.

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Purpose: Melanosis coli (MC) is a disorder of pigmentation of the wall of the colon, often identified at the time of colonoscopy. The aim of the present study is to identify candidate biomarkers for MC. Methods: The transcriptome data for MC (GSE78933) with five MC tissues and five corresponding normal tissues is obtained from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. R/Bioconductor package limma was used to screen differently expressed genes (DEGs). ClueGO of cytoscape was applied for Gene Ontology (GO) functional and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment. Based on STRING V10 database, protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed. The pathological tissue and normal tissue from 23 MC patients and 23 controls were collected, respectively. The relative expression of hub nodes was detected by qRT-PCR and Western blot. For regulating the expression of these genes, overexpression vector was constructed or siRNA transfection was used. Finally, apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. Results: Total 1342 DEGs were screened, including 786 up-regulated and 556 down-regulated genes. These genes were mainly enriched in stimulatory C-type lectin receptor signaling pathway, polysaccharide biosynthetic process, intracellular, and oxidative phosphorylation. PPI network was then constructed with 426 DEGs and 895 interactions. Thereinto, G-protein subunit γ 5 (GNG5), lysophosphatidic acid receptor 3 (LPAR3), mitogen-activated protein kinase 8 (MAPK8), NHP2L1, proteasome 26S subunit, ATPase 6 (PSMC6), and phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit β (PIK3CB) were hub nodes with higher degree. RT-PCR and Western blot results showed that GNG5, LPAR3, MAPK8, and PSMC6 were differently expressed with significance. The expression of these screened genes is also related with cell apoptosis. Conclusion: GNG5, LPAR3, MAPK8, and PSMC6 might be candidate biomarkers associated with apoptosis in MC.

Camellia oleifera Abel. is one of four major woody oil plants in the world. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effect of different plant growth regulators (PGRs) and concentrations on direct organogenesis using cotyledonary nodes, hypocotyls, and radicle explants. High induction frequency of adventitious shoots were obtained from cotyledonary nodes, hypocotyls, and radicle explants (85.2%, 73.6%, and 41.0%, respectively) when cultured on half-strength Murashige and Skoog (1/2 MS) medium containing 2.0 mg·L−1 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) and 0.1 mg·L−1 indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Microshoots from cotyledonary nodes, hypocotyls, and radicle explants were then transferred to 1/2 MS medium containing 2.0 mg·L−1 BA and 0.05 mg·L−1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) for shoot multiplication, resulting in 6.9 shoots per explant. The shoots were transferred to Woody Plant Medium (WPM) supplemented with various α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and gibberellic acid (GA3) for shoot elongation. The mean length of shoots and the number of leaves per shoot were 3.7 and 6.6 cm, respectively, in WPM supplemented with 0.5 mg·L−1 NAA and 3.0 mg·L−1 GA3. The highest rooting of shoots (90.2%) or the number of roots per shoot (7.2) was obtained when elongated microshoots were transferred to 1/2 MS medium supplemented with 3.5% perlite, 1.0 mg·L−1 IBA and 2.0 mg·L−1 NAA. The rooted plantlets were successfully acclimatized in the greenhouse with a survival rate of 90.0%. The in vitro plant regeneration procedure described in this study is beneficial for mass propagation and improvement of C. oleifera through genetic engineering.