Salt stress is a serious abiotic stressor impeding plant growth and crop production around the world. Plant glycosyltransferases are thought to serve important roles in dealing with stress conditions, however, the functional role of how UGTs cope with salt stress is not well understood. Carex rigescens (Franch.) V. Krecz, is a widely distributed species of turfgrass with strong salinity tolerance found in northern China. To investigate how the glycosyltransferase gene, CrUGT87A1, functions in C. rigescens, we performed analyses of cloning, transcriptional expression, subcellular localization, and overexpression. The full-length sequence of CrUGT87A1 is 1455 bp with a 1338 bp length ORF, which encodes 445 amino acids, while CrUGT87A1 was found to be a nuclear and plasmalemma-localized protein. We found that the transcriptional expression of CrUGT87A1 was up-regulated under ABA, heat, salt, and drought treatments in leaf tissues. CrUGT87A1 overexpression in Arabidopsis plants had a significantly higher germination rate, better growth and physiology, and a higher expression levels of transcripts related to salt stress-related genes under high-salinity conditions, suggesting that CrUGT87A1 is involved in salt tolerance. The transcriptional expression of genes related to flavonoid-synthesis related and the flavonoid content reflected higher accumulations of flavonoids in transgenic plants. Our study demonstrated that CrUGT87A1 could play an important role in resisting salt stress due to increased flavonoid accumulation, which can promote antioxidation when dealing with high-salinity conditions. This study advances our collective understanding of the functional role of UGTs and can be used to improve the salt tolerance and breeding of crops and plants.

To explore children’s experiences of mealtimes when living with a gastrostomy tube.

The study used a qualitative descriptive design framed within ecocultural theory. Seven children, three girls and four boys, aged 6-12years with long-term health conditions and a gastrostomy tube participated in individual interviews. The interviews were qualitatively analysed by means of systematic text condensation.

Four main categories comprised the findings of the children’s mealtimes experiences “Stable in form, open to variation,” “An individual, and a shared activity,” “An object that needs to be dealt with” and “A part of me.” A complex picture emerged, where the children experienced nutrition, whether through the gastrostomy tube or orally, as necessary for a healthy body, although this did not suffice to make the mealtime experience positive.

Regardless of the children’s amount of oral intake, everyday mealtimes were valued as opportunities for social interaction and experienced as a predictable, routine activity no different from the mealtimes of other families. The accounts illustrated that in many situations the children knew precisely what they needed and did not need, what they liked and disliked and why.

Healthcare professionals should take children’s knowledge into consideration to a greater extent when planning follow-up and intervention. The study illuminates that children can take an active part in their healthcare when offered flexible and carefully designed communication material, even in the presence of communicative and/or intellectual disability.

Healthcare professionals should take children’s knowledge into consideration to a greater extent when planning follow-up and intervention. The study illuminates that children can take an active part in their healthcare when offered flexible and carefully designed communication material, even in the presence of communicative and/or intellectual disability.DNA-SIP technology was used to detect active BaP-degraders involved in the biodegradation of benzo [a] pyrene (BaP) in two soils separately and in mixture. The lowest BaP removal was observed in red soil, and Ramlibacter (OTU830) belonging to the γ-Proteobacteria was labeled as BaP degrader with 13C-BaP. The highest diversity of degrading microorganisms occurred in the paddy soil with OTUs belonging to Nocardioids, Micromonospora, Saccharothrix, Lysobacter and Methylium present and a BaP removal efficiency of 29.5% after 14 d. BaP degraders in the mixed microbiome of the soil mixture were Burkholderia and Phenylobacterium, together with Nocardioides and Micromonospora as in the paddy soil. These results indicated that the active BaP-degraders in the mixed microbiome were identical to the active BaP-degraders in paddy soil (OTU356 and OTU328), but also unique in the mixed microbiome, such as OTU393 and OTU392. The functional genes of PAH-ring hydroxylating dioxygenases (PAH-RHDα) were expressed and were positively related to the removal of BaP, and the active BaP degrading bacteria included both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Saccharothrix, Phylobacterium, Micromonospora and Nocardioids are here reported as BaP degraders for the first time using DNA-SIP.In recent years, special attention has been devoted to biodemulsifiers as a new type of environment-friendly demulsifiers. A novel biodemulsifying oxalate decarboxylase (OxdC) secreted by Bacillus mojavensis XH1 is reported in the present study. A genome-wide comparison showed that strains with high demulsification efficiencies all possess alkane degradation genes. An analysis of the differentially expressed genes and proteins induced by different substrates showed that OxdC secreted by XH1 was an effective demulsifier. Moreover, the demulsification ability was verified by prokaryotic gene expression, knockout and complementation analyses. OxdC from XH1 exhibited a strong demulsification capacity and significantly outperformed the model protein Bacillus subtilis 168 OxdC (Yvrk), which shared a high amino acid similarity but showed limited demulsification ability. Based on a comparison of the structural characteristics, the hydrophobic amino acids on the surface of OxdC were identified as a key factor driving the favorable demulsification activity of XH1. FF-10101 cell line The metabolic pathways of XH1 used liquid paraffin and glucose as substrates, illustrating that hydrocarbons are necessary for biodemulsifier secretion. The present study provides new insight into the application of OxdC as an additional genetic resource in biodemulsification.