Qian Sun^1,2, Toshihiko Yamada³, Yulai Han^2,*, Tetsuo Takano^1,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.90, No.3, pp. 827-836, 2021, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2021.013805

Abstract The lignocellulosic crop Miscanthus spp. has been identified as a good candidate for biomass production. The responses of Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. to salinity were studied to satisfy the needs for high yields in marginal areas and to avoid competition with food production. The results indicated that the relative advantages of the tolerant accession over the sensitive one under saline conditions were associated with restricted Na⁺ accumulation in shoots. Seedlings of two accessions (salt-tolerant ‘JM0119’ and salt-sensitive ‘JM0099’) were subjected to 0 (control), 100, 200, and 300 mM NaCl stress to better understand the salt-induced biochemical responses of genes involved in… More >

Xiaohang He¹, Minjie Liu², Zhengwu Fang¹, Dongfang Ma^1,2,3,*, Yilin Zhou^1,3,*, Junliang Yin¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.90, No.3, pp. 971-986, 2021, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2021.012726

Abstract Plant AT-rich sequence and zinc-binding protein (PLATZ) is a plant transcription factor that has been studied in corn. PLATZ can non-specifically bind to sequences rich in A/T bases to induce transcriptional repression. It is involved in the regulation of dehydration tolerance in seeds. In this study, we performed bioinformatics analysis to identify and characterize wheat PLATZ(TaPLATZ)genes. We identified 49 wheat PLATZ genes by searching the wheat genome by using known PLATZ gene sequences from rice, Arabidopsis, and maize. Phylogenetic analysis on PLATZ gene sequences from different species was performed. We found that PLATZs could be divided into three groups. The… More >

Hongfei Niu^1,2, Fanyu Meng³, Huanfang Yue³, Lihong Yang⁴, Jing Dong^2,5, Xin Zhang^2,5,*

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.28, No.1, pp. 93-106, 2021, DOI:10.32604/iasc.2021.010131

Abstract Soil moisture is an important indicator for agricultural planting and agricultural water management. People have been trying to guide crop cultivation, formulate irrigation systems, and develop intelligent agriculture by knowing exactly what the soil moisture is in real time. This paper considers the impact of meteorological parameters on soil-moisture change and proposes a soil-moisture prediction method based on the Gene Expression Programming (GEP) algorithm. The prediction model is tested on datasets from Shunyi, Yanqing and Daxing agricultural farms, Beijing. The results show that the GEP model can predict soil moisture with a maximum correlation coefficient of 0.98, and the root-mean-square… More >

FANGLIAN HE¹, WEIQING DONG^1,*, SHAOLONG WEI^2,*, ZUYANG QIU³, JINGLI HUANG⁴, HUIPING JIANG¹, SHIYU HUANG¹, LILI LIU³

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.3, pp. 785-796, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014418

Abstract Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is an important crop in Africa, Southeast Asia, and subtropics and is used as a food and medicine. The purple color pigmentation is an appealing character in taro. We sampled taro corms of the cultivar ‘Lipu Taro’ at four developmental stages, including LPYS1 (without purple pigment, 50 days of development (DOD)), LPYS2 (very few purple pigments, 75 DOD), LPYS3 (moderate purple pigments, 115 DOD) and LPYS4 (high purple pigments, 205 DOD). The purpose of our study was to identify the key genes underpinning the purple pigmentation in taro based on RNA-sequencing. Through RNA-Seq, 6453 differentially… More >

Heyam H. Al-Baity^*, Nourah Al-Mutlaq

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.67, No.3, pp. 3089-3106, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.015291

Abstract Machine-learning algorithms have been widely used in breast cancer diagnosis to help pathologists and physicians in the decision-making process. However, the high dimensionality of genetic data makes the classification process a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a new optimized wrapper gene selection method that is based on a nature-inspired algorithm (simulated annealing (SA)), which will help select the most informative genes for breast cancer prediction. These optimal genes will then be used to train the classifier to improve its accuracy and efficiency. Three supervised machine-learning algorithms, namely, the support vector machine, the decision tree, and the random forest… More >

XIAOYU WANG^1,2,#,*, TAKESHI YAMAMOTO^2,#, MAKOTO KADOWAKI², YIFU YANG¹

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.2, pp. 395-415, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.012280

Abstract Mast cells are the main effector cells in IgE-associated allergic disorders, and we have reported that mucosal mast cells (MMCs) play a more important role in the development of food allergy (FA). IgE with antigen or calcium ionophore stimulation can lead to the activation of MMCs via a calcium-dependent pathway. The purpose of the present study was to identify gene signatures with IgE/antigen (dinitrophenyl-bovine serum albumin, DNP-BSA) or calcium ionophore (A23187) on the activation of MMCs. Differentially expressed genes between the two types of samples were identified with microarray analysis. Gene ontology functional and pathway enrichment analyses of differentially expressed… More >

Hans Christian Correa-Aguado^1,3, Gloria Viviana Cerrillo-Rojas¹, Alejandro Rocha-Uribe², Ruth Elena Soria-Guerra², José Francisco Morales-Domínguez^1,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.90, No.2, pp. 515-531, 2021, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2021.013619

Abstract The need for renewable energy sources makes microalgae an essential feedstock for biofuels production. The molecular aspects and the response to nitrogen (N)-limited conditions with a phytohormone stimulus in microalgae have been slightly explored. In this work, Scenedesmus obliquus was used as a study model to analyze the effect of benzyl amino purine (BAP) and gibberellic acid (GA) coupled to nitrogen limitation on cell growth, biomass and fatty acids. The selected 10^-5 M BAP increased the biomass by 1.44-fold, and 10^-6 M GA by 1.35-fold. The total lipids also increased by 2.8 and 1.11-fold, respectively. The 10^-5 M BAP and… More >

YONG LIU^1,2,#, ZHIHUA JU^1,#, QIANG JIANG¹, WENHAO LIU¹, CHUNHONG YANG¹, YARAN ZHANG¹, XIUGE WANG¹, YAPING GAO¹, XIAOCHAO WEI¹, YAN SUN¹, JINPENG WANG¹, MINGHAI HOU¹, LING YANG², JINMING HUANG^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.1, pp. 79-87, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013583

Abstract F-box and WD-40 domain protein 11 (FBXW11) is an important component of the E3 ubiquitin-ligase enzyme that plays a key role in the ubiquitin-dependent regulation of spermatogenesis. In our previous research, the mRNA expression of FBXW11 in bull sperm with high motility is significantly higher than that with low motility. In the present study, the protein expression levels of FBXW11 in bull testicular tissues with low-performance sperm quality groups were significantly higher than those in normal performance groups. The immunohistochemistry result demonstrated that FBXW11 protein was located in the periphery of Leydig cells and seminiferous tubules. Three splice variants of… More >

BICHUN ZHAO¹, XUEQING WU^2,*, YITONG YUAN¹, YUANTAO GAO¹, XIAO LI², RUOCHEN DU¹, SUMING XU², RUXIN ZHANG¹, CHUNFANG WANG^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.4, pp. 487-499, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.011638

Abstract In vitro maturation (IVM), a promising assisted reproductive technology (ART), has been evolving in clinical trials and applications. There is a huge potential demand for IVM in clinical practice because it reduces the stimulation of gonadotropins to patients and provides evidence for the safety of neonatal birth. Unfortunately, the maturation rate of oocytes in vivo is not as high as it is in vivo due to a different microenvironment. Moreover, there are still controversies in predicting the developmental capability of oocytes in IVM. The granulosa cells (GCs) and cumulus cells (CCs), closely surrounding the oocytes, play a critical role in… More >

REN FANG^#, WEIXIONG HUANG^#, JINYAN YAO, XING LONG, JI ZHANG, SHUANGYUN ZHOU, BIAO DENG, WENZHONG TANG, ZHENYU AN^*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.4, pp. 737-750, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.012933

Abstract Annona squamosa is a multipurpose fruit tree employed in nutritional, medicinal, and industrial fields. Its fruit is significantly enriched in sugars, making it an excellent species to study sugar accumulation in fruit. However, the scarcity of genomic resources hinders genetic studies in this species. This study aimed at generating large-scale genomic resources in A. squamosa and deciphering the molecular basis of its high sugar content. Herein, we sequenced and characterized the full-length transcriptome of A. squamosa fruit using PacBio Iso-seq. In addition, we analyzed the changes in sugar content over five fruit growth and ripening stages, and we applied RNA-sequencing… More >