NADPH oxidase is encoded by a small gene family (Respiratory burst oxidase homologs, Rbohs) and plays an important role in regulating various biological processes. However, little information about this gene family is currently available for strawberry. In this study, a total of seven Rboh genes were identified from strawberry through genomewide analysis. Gene structure analysis showed the number of exons ranged from 10 to 23, implying that this variation occurred in FvRboh genes by the insertion and distribution of introns; the order and approximate size of exons were relatively conserved. FvRbohC was predicted to localize to the thylakoid membrane of the chloroplast, while other members were computed to localize to the plasma membrane, indicating different functions. Amino acid sequence alignment, conserved domain, and motif analysis showed that all identified FvRbohs had typical features of plant Rbohs. Phylogenetic analysis of Rbohs from strawberry, grape, Arabidopsis, and rice suggested that the FvRbohs could be divided into five subgroups and showed a closer relationship with those from grape and Arabidopsis than those from rice. The expression patterns of FvRboh genes in root, stem, leaf, flower, and fruit revealed robust tissue specificity. The expression levels of FvRbohA and FvRbohD were quickly induced by cold stress, followed by an increase in NADPH oxidase activity, leading to O2− accumulation and triggering the antioxidant reaction by the transient increases in SOD activity. This suggested these two genes may be involved in cold stress and defense responses in strawberry.

Antibiotic fitness and acquired resistance are the two critical factors when bacteria respond to antibiotics, and the correlations and mechanisms between these two factors remain largely unknown. In this study, a TMT-labeling-based quantitative proteomics method was used to compare the differential expression of proteins between the fitness and acquired resistance to chlortetracycline in Aeromonas hydrophila biofilm. Bioinformatics analysis showed that translation-related ribosomal proteins, such as 30s ribosome subunits, increased in both factors; fatty acid biosynthesis related proteins, such as FabB, FabD, FabG, AccA, and AccD, increased in biofilm fitness, and some pathways (including propanoate-metabolism-related protein, such as PrpB, AtoB, PflB, AcsA, PrpD, and GabT) displayed decreased abundance in acquired resistance biofilm. The varieties of selected proteins involved in fatty acid biosynthesis and propanoate metabolism were further validated by q-PCR assay or Western blotting. Furthermore, the antibiotic-resistance-function assays showed that fatty-acid biosynthesis should be a protective antibiotics-resistance mechanism and a cocktail of chlortetracycline and triclosan, a fatty-acid-biosynthesis inhibitor, exhibited more efficient antimicrobial capability than did each antibiotic individually on biofilm, specifically on chlortetracycline-sensitive biofilm. We therefore demonstrate that the up-regulation of fatty acid biosynthesis may play an important role in antibiotic resistance and suggest that a cocktail of chlortetracycline and triclosan may be a potential cocktail therapy for pathogenic infections in biofilm.

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In cellular networks, due to practical deployment issues, some areas have good wireless coverage while others may not. This results in significant throughput (service quality) difference between wireless carriers at some locations. Through extensive measurements, we have validated the existence of such service quality difference. Then, through peer to peer interfaces such as WiFi direct, a mobile device (node) with low service quality can offload its data traffic to nodes with better service quality, to save energy and reduce delay. To achieve this goal, we propose a Quality-Aware Traffic Offloading (QATO) framework to offload network tasks to neighboring nodes with better service quality. QATO can identify neighbors with better service quality and provide incentive mechanisms to motivate nodes to help each other. To validate our design, we have implemented QATO on Android platform and have developed a web browser and a photo uploader on top of it. Experimental results show that QATO can significantly reduce energy and delay for both data downloading and uploading. Through trace-driven simulations, we also show that all users can benefit from data offloading in the long run.

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