Resveratrol, a natural product, has been revealed to exert antitumor effects in multiple types of tumors. However, the antitumor effects of resveratrol on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its potential underlying mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. The present study demonstrated that resveratrol inhibited viability, proliferation, invasion and migration of HCC cells significantly in a time‑ and dose‑dependent manner, indicating that resveratrol exerted antitumor effects in HCC. Furthermore, relative expression of autophagy‑related proteins Beclin1 and LC3 II/I ratio was increased while p62 expression was decreased by resveratrol treatment dose‑dependently. The LC3+ puncta formation, which represented autophagosome formation was also markedly dose‑dependently upregulated by resveratrol treatment, suggesting that resveratrol induced autophagy in HCC cells. In addition, treatment with autophagy inhibitor 3‑methyladenine (3‑MA) counteracted the inhibitory effect of resveratrol on HCC cell proliferation, invasion and migration, indicating that suppressing autophagy may hamper the antitumor effect of resveratrol in HCC. It was revealed that resveratrol upregulated the expression of p53 while decreasing the ratio of phosphorylated protein kinase B (p‑Akt)/Akt in HCC cells. Treatment with p53 inhibitor pifithrin‑α and Akt activator insulin‑like growth factor‑1 decreased the expression of Beclin1 while significantly promoting cell proliferation, invasion and migration compared with the resveratrol treatment group. Taken together, the results of the present study revealed that resveratrol inhibited the proliferation and mobility of HCC cells through inducing autophagy via activating p53 and inhibiting phosphoinositide 3‑kinase/Akt. Enhancing autophagy can augment the antitumor effects of resveratrol in HCC. Therefore, combining resveratrol with an autophagy inducer may be a viable option for treating HCC.

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Different densities have a great influence on the physiological process and growth of orchard plants. Exploring the molecular basis and revealing key candidate genes for different densities management of orchard has great significance for production capacity improvement. In this study, transcriptome sequencing of apple trees was carried out at three different sampling heights to determine gene expression patterns under high density (HD) and low density(LD) and the physiological indices were measured to determine the effect of density change on plants. As a result, physiological indexes showed that the content of Chlorophyll, ACC, RUBP and PEP in the LD was apparently higher than that in control group(high density, HD). While the content of PPO and AO in the LD was noticeably lower than that in the HD. There were 3808 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected between HD and LD, of which 1935, 2390 and 1108 DEGs were found in the three comparisons(middle-upper, lower-outer and lower-inner), respectively. 274 common differentially expressed genes (co-DEGs) were contained in all three comparisons. Functional enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis found these genes were involved in Carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms, Circadian rhythm, Photosynthesis − antenna proteins, Photosynthesis, chlorophyll metabolism, Porphyrin, sugar metabolism and so on. Among these genes, LHCB family participated in photosynthesis as parts of photosystem II. In addition, SPA1, rbcL, SNRK2, MYC2, BSK, SAUR and PP2C are involved in Circadian rhythm, the expression of genes related to glycometabolism and hormone signaling pathway is also changed. The results revealed that the decrease of plant density changed the photosynthetic efficiency of leaves and the expression of photosynthesis-related genes, which provide a theoretical basis for the actual production regulation of apples.

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