In male reproductive development in plants, meristemoid precursor cells possessing transient, stem cell-like features undergo cell divisions and differentiation to produce the anther, the male reproductive organ. The anther contains centrally positioned microsporocytes surrounded by four distinct layers of wall: the epidermis, endothecium, middle layer, and tapetum. Here, we report that the rice (Oryza sativa) basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein TDR INTERACTING PROTEIN2 (TIP2) functions as a crucial switch in the meristemoid transition and differentiation during early anther development. The tip2 mutants display undifferentiated inner three anther wall layers and abort tapetal programmed cell death, causing complete male sterility. TIP2 has two paralogs in rice, TDR and EAT1, which are key regulators of tapetal programmed cell death. We revealed that TIP2 acts upstream of TDR and EAT1 and directly regulates the expression of TDR and EAT1. In addition, TIP2 can interact with TDR, indicating a role of TIP2 in later anther development. Our findings suggest that the bHLH proteins TIP2, TDR, and EAT1 play a central role in regulating differentiation, morphogenesis, and degradation of anther somatic cell layers, highlighting the role of paralogous bHLH proteins in regulating distinct steps of plant cell-type determination.

In this study, a straightforward coassembly strategy is demonstrated to synthesize Pt sensitized mesoporous WO 3 with crystalline framework through the simultaneous coassembly of amphiphilic poly(ethylene oxide)-b-polystyrene, hydrophobic platinum precursors, and hydrophilic tungsten precursors. The obtained WO 3 /Pt nanocomposites possess large pore size (≈13 nm), high surface area (128 m 2 g −1 ), large pore volume (0.32 cm 3 g −1 ), and Pt nanoparticles (≈4 nm) in situ homogeneously distributed in mesopores, and they exhibit excellent catalytic sensing response to CO of low concentration at low working temperature with good sensitivity, ultrashort response-recovery time (16 s/1 s), and high selectivity. In-depth study reveals that besides the contribution from the fast diffusion of gaseous molecules and rich interfaces in mesoporous WO 3 /Pt nanocomposites, the partially oxidized Pt nanoparticles that chemically and electronically sensitize the crystalline WO 3 matrix, dramatically enhance the sensitivity and selectivity.The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201705268. metal oxides (SMOs), such as WO 3 , [1] ZnO, [2] SnO 2 , [3] In 2 O 3 , [4] have attracted much attention for their wide applications in monitoring gas leakage, air quality, food safety, and medical diagnosis, [5][6][7][8][9] owing to their excellent properties including easy production, low-cost, long-term stability, and compact size. [10] A fast responserecovery dynamics, high sensitivity, and high selectivity are indispensable to highperformance gas sensors based on SMOs because some toxic and flammable gases (e.g., carbon monoxide), are colorless, odorless and tasteless, and extremely poisonous even at low concentrations. Considering that the gas-sensing process strongly relies on surface reactions between target gases and surface-chemisorbed oxygen species on the sensing layers, rational and controlled synthesis of nanomaterials with high surface areas, tailor-designed structure [11][12][13][14] combined with effective catalytic sensitization [15,16] is a promising approach to develop high-performance sensing sensors.SMO nanomaterials with mesoporous structures are promising candidates for gas sensing nanodevices due to their high specific surface area, highly depleted region in thin pore walls, and highly interconnected and adjustable ordered mesopores. [11,12] The high surface area favors the interaction between gas molecules and the solid porous oxide wall as well as the surface catalytic reaction. Moreover, the well-connected channels and a mesoscale (2−50 nm) pore size are advantageous to gas diffusion due to the facile penetration of gas molecules dominated by Knudsen diffusion. [12] To date, mesoporous SMOs can be synthesized through template-free method or templating method. The former includes sol-gel synthesis procedure, [17] spray pyrolysis, [18] and chemical vapor deposition, [3b] which usually lead to materials with ill-defined porous structur...

Core-shell magnetic mesoporous silica microspheres (Magn-MSMs) with tunable large mesopores in the shell are highly desired in biocatalysis, magnetic bioseparation, and enrichment. In this study, a shearing assisted interface coassembly in n-hexane/water biliquid systems is developed to synthesize uniform Magn-MSMs with magnetic core and mesoporous silica shell for an efficient size-selective biocatalysis. The synthesis features the rational control over the electrostatic interaction among cationic surfactant molecules, silicate oligomers, and Fe3O4@RF microspheres (RF: resorcinol formaldehyde) in the presence of shearing-regulated solubilization of n-hexane in surfactant micelles. Through this multicomponent interface coassembly, surfactant-silica mesostructured composite has been uniformly deposited on the Fe3O4@RF microspheres, and core-shell Magn-MSMs are obtained after removing the surfactant and n-hexane. The obtained Magn-MSMs possess excellent water dispersibility, uniform diameter (600 nm), large and tunable perpendicular mesopores (5.0-9.0 nm), high surface area (498-623 m(2)/g), large pore volume (0.91-0.98 cm(3)/g), and high magnetization (34.5-37.1 emu/g). By utilization of their large and open mesopores, Magn-MSMs with a pore size of about 9.0 nm have been demonstrated to be able to immobilize a large bioenzyme (trypsin with size of 4.0 nm) with a high loading capacity of ∼97 μg/mg via chemically binding. Magn-MSMs with immobilized trypsin exhibit an excellent convenient and size selective enzymolysis of low molecular proteins in the mixture of proteins of different sizes and a good recycling performance by using the magnetic separability of the microspheres.

Foodborne pathogens like Listeria monocytogenes can cause various illnesses and pose a serious threat to public health. They produce species-specific microbial volatile organic compounds, i.e., the biomarkers, making it possible to indirectly measure microbial contamination in foodstuff. Herein, highly ordered mesoporous tungsten oxides with high surface areas and tunable pores have been synthesized and used as sensing materials to achieve an exceptionally sensitive and selective detection of trace Listeria monocytogenes. The mesoporous WO-based chemiresistive sensors exhibit a rapid response, superior sensitivity, and highly selective detection of 3-hydroxy-2-butanone. The chemical mechanism study reveals that acetic acid is the main product generated by the surface catalytic reaction of the biomarker molecule over mesoporous WO. Furthermore, by using the mesoporous WO-based sensors, a rapid bacteria detection was achieved, with a high sensitivity, a linear relationship in a broad range, and a high specificity for Listeria monocytogenes. Such a good gas sensing performance foresees the great potential application of mesoporous WO-based sensors for fast and effective detection of microbial contamination for the safety of food, water safety and public health.

Yolk-shell nanomaterials with a rattle-like structure have been considered ideal carriers and nanoreactors. Traditional methods to constructing yolk-shell nanostructures mainly rely on multistep sacrificial template strategy. In this study, a facile and effective plasmolysis-inspired nanoengineering strategy is developed to controllably fabricate yolk-shell magnetic mesoporous silica microspheres via the swelling-shrinkage of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) upon soaking in or removal of n-hexane. Using FeO@RF microspheres as seeds, surfactant-silica mesostructured composite is deposited on the swelled seeds through the multicomponent interface coassembly, followed by solvent extraction to remove surfactant and simultaneously induce shrinkage of RF shell. The obtained yolk-shell microspheres (FeO@RF@void@mSiO) possess a high magnetization of 40.3 emu/g, high surface area (439 m/g), radially aligned mesopores (5.4 nm) in the outer shell, tunable middle hollow space (472-638 nm in diameter), and a superparamagnetic core. This simple method allows a simultaneous encapsulation of Au nanoparticles into the hollow space during synthesis, and it leads to spherical FeO@RF@void-Au@mSiO magnetic nanocatalysts, which show excellent catalysis efficiency for hydrogenation of 4-nitrophenol by NaBH with a high conversion rate (98%) and magnetic recycling stability.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as attractive electrode materials for applications in energy storage and conversion, owing to their high porosity and surface area. In this communication, we report a hierarchically structured Co-MOF supported on nickel foam (Co-MOF/NF) serving as a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors. The as-obtained Co-MOF/NF exhibits an ultrahigh areal specific capacitance of 13.6 F cm-2 at 2 mA cm-2 in 2 M KOH, exceeding those of the previously reported MOF-based materials. It also shows an excellent rate performance of 79.4% at a current density of 20 mA cm-2. An asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) device employing Co-MOF/NF as the positive electrode and activated carbon (AC) as the negative electrode achieves a high energy density of 1.7 mW h cm-2 at a power density of 4.0 mW cm-2 with a capacitance retention of 69.7% after 2000 cycles.

A facile nonpolar solvent-assisted Stober method has been developed to synthesize ordered mesoporous silica materials with tunable pore size and diverse morphologies and mesostructures by using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the template and tetraethyl orthosilicate as silica precursor in a simple aqueous-phase synthesis system. By simply changing the amount of n-hexane and ammonia−water in the system, ordered mesoporous silica with pore sizes of 2.7−10.5 nm, various morphologies (nanocubes, truncated nanocubes, core−shell microspheres, and twisted nanorods), a high surface area up to 888 m 2 / g, and a large pore volume of 1.55 cm 3 /g are synthesized. Owing to their highly hydrophilic surface, large and accessible pores, and high surface area, the mesoporous silica materials exhibit an excellent performance in adsorption of dye molecules of large dimension (1.6 nm) with a maximum adsorption capacity of 106 mg/g in 10 min at 200 mg/L initial Rhodamine B concentration.

Template-directed synthesized Fe0.1-Ni-MOF nanoarray (Fe0.1-Ni-MOF/NF) behaves efficiently as an electrocatalyst for alkaline water oxidation with a strong electrochemical durability.